Serum

-Thirty-Three-

“You need to explain some things.” I whispered harshly to Conner. We were both in the bathroom with the door shut, a towel stuffed under the door to help muffle the noise. The younger vamps were trying to get some more sleep after another blood meal, probably the shock catching up to them. It had taken forever to get them calmed back down after Lana left. She’d scared them pretty badly. Heck, she’d scared me pretty badly. I thought she and Conner were going to try to kill each other. I would have thanked the three teens for interrupting when they did, if I didn’t think it would have scared them even more.

“I.. I know.” Conner ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know where to begin..”

“Rut, start there. What the Hell Conner? We’re people, not animals! Surely your sister was just being crude!” I hissed. Conner shot me a look that had me backing up, shaking my head.

“You know how we discussed the origins of vampires?” Conner asked. I shook my head again.

“Either I blocked it out, or you guys skipped it, or I just forgot with everything going on.” I protested. Conner blinked.

“Huh. Coulda sworn we covered that.” He ran a hand through his hair again, then waved at the toilet. “You might wanna sit down for this.” I took a seat on the toilet lid.

“Now say what?!” I cradled my head in my hand. “You’re trying to tell me.. That the neanderthal people, are your people, and they didn’t ‘die out’ like scientists think, but you guys altered history to hide your past after your kind took a different evolutionary course?!”

“Well.. that’s not all we edited..” Conner winced as I shouted angrily, then he shushed me, motioning at the door. I grimaced, I’d forgotten about the teens. “Ok, here’s the thing. We humanized the neanderthal a little more so that it would be easier for you, or humans, to accept. Removing the sharp edges of teeth, editing information that was released, acting like anyone who was on the right track was crazy, you know how it goes..” I sucked in a deep breath.

“Ok, so then.. What is the truth, as it pertains to vampires?” I questioned him. Conner crossed his arms and leaned a hip on the bathroom sink.

“Well, your species and ours did diverge at some point in the past. Our DNA was similar at one point, now Lana would have to tell you more about the similarities and differences, but obviously there’s enough base coding to switch you over to our side.” I shuddered at his words and he grimaced apologetically. “However, we eventually evolved to hunt humans as other food sources became more scarce. You guys basically created your own problem with that one. We were fine hunting animals until you ran them all off. Then we had to adjust, and so did you.” I looked at him with shock. Conner waved a hand.

“But that’s been happening for a long time now, so just ignore me. What was I saying? Oh.. I guess you could say we never lost a lot of our instincts and skills. The predator ones. You guys still think you’re the top dog on this planet, but you’re really not. You just don’t know what hunts you from the shadows because we keep it that way.” Conner grinned at me, baring his fangs, and I shivered.

“This doesn’t explain the Rut thing.” I murmured. Conner winced, running a hand through his hair.

“Yeah, that. Well, what it boils down to is this, you know how almost every other thing on this planet has a ‘season’ for reproduction. Plants, animals, whatever? Humans are the only ones who seem to just reproduce and reproduce and reproduce endlessly with nothing holding them back. Well, we didn’t get that lucky.. We have a ‘season’ also. Only we’re not necessarily confined to an actual, well.. ‘Season’, it’s just that we are confined to certain circumstances, and argh, I’m not making this any easier to understand, am I?” Conner scratched his scalp with both hands while I shook my head, bewildered.

“Ok. Damn. This is so embarrassing. So, what do you know about feline reproduction?” Conner asked. I raised a brow, mouth hanging open and spread my hands.

“Uhh what does that have to do with..”

“It’s a good starting place, trust me, you’ll see in a minute..” Conner spoke over me. “So, when mating season comes around, female cats ‘go into heat’ right?” Conner paused and I nodded with a shrug. “Ok, right. Well, what you probably didn’t know, is that in order for a female cat to even ovulate, she has to be mated with by the male.” I blinked, my head jerking back slightly. That, I didn’t know. Conner nodded, wiping his palms down his pants as if they were sweaty.

“So umm.. The male cat has barbs that sort of.. Stimulate her and that’s why she screams, and it’s what they think causes ovulation. BUT that first ejaculation usually doesn’t lead to pregnancy. They usually have to mate many, many times, before she’s fertilized, and her heat ends.” Conner was not looking at me now, but at the wall. He rubbed his hands up and down his pants legs again.

“I don’t follow..” I offered.

“That’s what Rut is like.” Conner blurted, finally meeting my gaze. “Only for us, for vampires, when we meet a potential mate that gives off that ‘interested’ scent, the male goes into Rut first. THEN he has to.. I mean he wants to.. Is driven to..”

“You want to have s*x with me.” I offered quietly.

“Yes.” The word burst out of Conner like he’d been holding onto it for weeks, then he blushed and looked away again. “But if I do, there are some things you need to know.”

“Do you have barbs on your p***s?” I joked.

“What? No..” Conner stuttered, looking taken aback, “But..”

“But what?” I asked, horrified.

“Ugh, but there is what we like to call a ‘Dart’ or ‘Hook’, and it functions much like the cat p***s, ok?” Conner shouted. “It’ll make you ovulate, and then you might get pregnant, which is what Lana was throwing a fit about, and worse, I don’t know if you want to do this or not with me because you could get stuck with me for life. Not that it would necessarily be exclusive, but because we already share a mental link, we could get Bonded, which is like the Vampire equivalent of finding your lifelong partner, and sometimes Vampires just lose all interest in other s****l partners after that!” The room rang with his voice for a short time, and I gaped.

“Keep it down in there, sheesh! Why don’t you just do it instead of discussing it!” Daniel’s voice rang out. I looked at the door, horrified, then back to Conner, who was blushing again, and burst out in hysterical giggles.