Bad Blood

Still heaving with breathy pants of resolution, Adam slowly withdrew his waning length from her luxurious heat.
Groaning with the satiated pleasure of feeling himself sensually slide from her exquisite body, the post-orgasmic euphoria still buzzed throughout his veins and his lean, muscular legs trembled as he moved in order to retrieve the discarded towel.

Immediately mourning the loss of their illicit closeness, Ava attempted to stand but her own shaky, putty-like legs failed her so instead she repositioned herself in order to survey him fully.
Her pulse jumped as her eyes traversed his magnificent physique, taking in the arc of his strapping chest and soft roll of his broad shoulders
A sheen of sweat still glistened upon his skin, making him look like an ethereal being, some sort of dark angel. And her lust-fogged mind spun with satisfaction, knowing she was now carnally acquainted with this sultry corrupter of innocence.

It had finally happened. The unimaginable. They had been sexually intimate. They had become one.

Neither of them spoke as their hampered breathing steadied, until he saw her hand absentmindedly reach up to the sore spot on her neck.
She winced as it came to rest on the two puncture wounds, and her childlike eyes rounded as she inspected the droplets of blood smeared across her fingertips.

His expression altered then, changing drastically from contentment to remorse, as an overwhelming sense of guilt chased away the lingering euphoria.

"Shit. Ava....I'm sorry."
He ran his hands through his tousled hair, and clutched his head in apparent despair.

"W-what?"
She managed, as her heart stilled in her chest.
His voice was filled with sadness and regret.

"That shouldn't have happened."

Her stomach dropped violently making her feel instantly nauseated.
She couldn't bear the thought of rejection now, not after what they had shared. Why was he regretting their actions?
She really ought to ask but wasn't sure she was emotionally equipped to cope with the answer he might supply.

A sob began to rise in her chest, which she desperately fought to hold back.
She wouldn't allow herself to fall apart in front of Adam again, pride and the irrational fear of being compared unfavourably to her brilliant sister prevented it.
Eve was always so calm and behaved sensibly, she would never be reduced to tears so easily.
Ordinarily Ava herself would not be so fragile, but where Adam was concerned all rationality ceased to exist.

Every heartache she had ever suffered had been at his hand, he alone was capable of bringing about an emotional landslide.
When he had thrown her out of his Detroit home his callous tone and cold, death-stare had cut far deeper than his words alone when he'd told her to go and 'rot' back in L.A.
In retaliation she'd expressed her hurt by unleashing a torrent of abuse, childishly cantered around telling him and Eve to go 'fuck each other'.

That was the nearest she'd come to showing her true feelings of envy and resentment, but once the door slammed shut she'd dissolved into tears as she walked the lonely road back to town.

Of course Adam would never know this.
Neither was he aware of the hot tears of rejection she had shed after he'd spurned her affections back in Paris all those many years ago.

Since then she had rather naively believed that she'd made herself stronger on the inside.
Playing the role of the irritating younger sister was almost like living in a second skin for Ava now, but her unrequited love for Adam was the chink in her armour.
Her pain may go unheard but it was undeniably real and he was the cause.
He caused her pain, but she would not allow him to know it.

As tears pricked her eyes now, she registered his look of bewilderment and reacted in the only way she knew how.

Using her supernatural speed she leapt from the sofa in a frenzied state of agitation, holding her torn dress together, and fled the room in the manner of an emotionally unbalanced adolescent.
She heard his voice call out to her but ignored it, driven on by an irrational panic that kept her legs moving onwards up the stairs in spite of their fragile condition.

"Ava?"
He called out again, his voice echoing through the chasm of the empty hallway and up the stairwell as if chasing and taunting her.

She reached the safety of her room and closed the door behind her, leaning back against the rough wood.

She sorely wanted to scream and cry into her pillow but instead resorted to pacing around her room aimlessly. The stocking feet of her ripped tights scuffing along the thick carpet whilst she attempted to draw in deep, calming breaths, not knowing what she was doing or where she was going, she tried to shake off the restless, nervous energy and upset that clung to her like an invisible widows veil.
She felt like she was in mourning, her world had crashed and burned around her.

She should've known better. She should've known that his present emotional state would be too unstable to form any real, romantic attachment.
Sex is all it was to him, and as glorious as it had been, that wasn't enough for her. It wasn't enough because she loved him.

She breathed Adam, he was the air.

He had her heart without even realising it, and she'd been a fool to engage in carnal activity with him when it was evident his heart still lay with Eve. He had left his heart behind in Tangier.
His life was tangled and she'd willingly become ensnared in his web of emotional turmoil by enticing him here in the first place with the use of a classic car and the promise of O Negative.

Yes she had wanted to take care of Adam, to be his saviour in his hour of need. She wanted to be the one to protect him, to comfort him, to offer some solace.
But it had been all too easy to get swept along, hijacked by hormones, and her incessant want for more had been impossible to ignore, resulting in her plotting and scheming to keep him there, and now she was reaping what she had sewn.

Competing for a love she would never receive, could only ever lead to disaster. Her love couldn't bind his heart.
And as dawn began to break, the morning echo of the grey slivers of light that filtered in through the gaps in her blinds which kept the room mostly cloaked in darkness, said she'd sinned.

She'd brazenly coveted and seduced her sister's husband, and now she was paying the price.
They'd both been victims of the night, succumbing to their primal urges, but she'd dared allow herself to hope that there lay a deeper meaning beyond the flesh.

Adam hastened up the staircase, his bare feet sliding on the cool wood as he took the stairs two at a time.

Ava was an irrational, unpredictable creature at the best of times, but her fleeing the room had taken him completely by surprise.

They'd just made love for Christ's sake....and he'd bitten her.

Had the realisation terrified her that much?
If so then he desperately needed to explain. Explain and beg for forgiveness for his rash actions.

Her eyes had betrayed her when she'd looked at him, they had been brimming with hurt.
The knowledge that he had caused her pain, either physical or emotional, weighed heavily now on his heart.

Pounding on the door with such impatient force that the wood appeared to yield and bend beneath his fist, Ava was prompted to respond in order to save it from splintering.

"Ava? Ava open the door."

"What do you want Adam?"

"What do I want?"
He replied incredulously.
"Just open the bloody door!"

A tense few moments passed until finally it unlocked with a click and creaked open just wide enough for Ava to peer around, her tear-swollen eyes hesitant.
Placing a large hand on the frame he drew forwards, compelling her to begrudgingly move aside and let him in.

"What the hell are you playing at?"
He demanded, his firm tone at odds with his concerned expression.
"Running away doesn't solve anything."

"It's nothing alright. For fucks sake Adam just leave me alone. It's getting light out and I'm tired."

Her face and neck was still flushed from their sexual exploits, and his gaze was so piercing it made her turn an even deeper shade of pink.
Then quite unexpectedly he grasped her firmly by the shoulders, holding her at arms length.

"Ow! Get off me, Adam!"

"What's wrong? Tell me."
Blatantly choosing to ignore her protests he pulled her towards him, enveloping her petite frame in his arms.

"Nothing, just let me go!"

She tried in vain to extricate herself from his clutches but the more she struggled against him like a wild, frantic bird caught in a trap, the tighter he held onto her, until at last she broke down crying and relented to his embrace.

"God Ava."
He spoke softly, running a hand gently through her tangled mane of hair. Surprising himself as well as her with his instinctive, tender reaction.
"I'm so sorry I fucking lost it, I never meant to hurt you. Is it still painful?"

"What?"
She sniffed distractedly, resting her hot face against the cool skin of his chest.
"Is what painful?"

"Well the bite of course. What do you think I'm talking about?"

"The bite?"
Her mind whirred and she pulled back a fraction so that she could look at him, and he her.
"No it doesn't hurt that much, it's totally weird actually 'cause at the time.....it felt sort of, right."

His dark brows drew together in a deeply forged frown.
"What do you mean, right?"

"I don't know, it's hard to describe. It just felt kind of natural you know? But anyway, why did you do it? You've already had loads to drink, surely you wasn't still hungry."

She sensed every muscle in his body go rigid at her words, and he looked suddenly quite embarrassed.

"I take it you've never heard of bloodlust?"

"Bloodlust? Well yeah, but isn't that just a myth? Like garlic and crucifixes being a repellent?"

His grip loosened, his hands falling away to hang awkwardly by his sides as he took a step backwards and fixed his eyes on the middle distance.
"No Ava, it's a real thing. Eve warned me about the dangers of it many times, but I've never experienced it personally.....until now."

He moved passed her absentmindedly and sank down onto the end of her bed.
"I'm ashamed of myself. I should have known better, I should have known that I'd lose my grip-"

"How? How could you know if it's never happened to you before?"

He grew silent. Pondering how to answer.

Bloodlust was the term used amongst their kind to describe the uncontainable urge to feed off one who evoked strong feelings of sexual desire.
He had tried to sate the forbidden temptation by gorging himself on her O negative but in the end it hadn't quelled the erotic hunger.
And the intensity of combining the sensations of consuming Ava's very life source whilst coupling with her, had lifted his body to the stars.

How was he supposed to put into words the lustful craving? The self-control that approached mania?
How could he explain that she alone brought out the beast in his animal soul? That he had always been terrified of the weakness he felt at the mention of her name, and how he found a deeper, different feeling in the grip of her caress, one that made him afraid to touch her yet equally afraid to not.

It was slavery in disguise.

"Because......because it's you Ava."
He faltered slightly, rubbing his face with his hands. His jangling nerves getting the better of him.
"Einstein once said that if you can't explain something simply, then you don't understand it well enough."

Unable to swallow the sudden thickness that clogged up her throat, all she could do was stand in stunned silence, listening to his deep, spell-binding influence of a voice.

"Well I've tried Ava, God knows I've tried to understand. But I don't."

She gazed at him in wonder, her eyes alive with brazen adoration, and in that instant he knew he must run with this even if it were the death of him. Like a wooden bullet through his heart.
Until his lifeline was severed and all his vessels died, he would be a slave to love. And for her he would willingly step into the grave smiling.

"But yet I felt thee near me, in every drop of blood. In helpless, trembling bondage my soul's weight lies on thee."

"Is...is that a poem?"
She croaked with great effort.

Eve would've recognised the lines he had quoted instantly and been able to recite the entire verse as well as supply the author and year it was penned with no difficulty.

But Ava was not Eve, and this made Adam smile.
For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, and it wasn't a smile of mockery or laughter, it was a genuine heart-stopping smile that reached all the way up to his fantastic aqua eyes.

Ava's innocence and naivety only made her more endearing to him.

"Yes it's a poem. It's called Servitude."

She felt her bottom lip quiver, as the gravity of his cryptic declaration began to sink in.
Dare she even hope that this could mean she meant something more to him? The possibility caused her stomach to turn a triple somersault, before proceeding to liquefy into a gooey heap.

He sensed his explanation wasn't articulate enough, but he felt he had succeeded in conveying to her what he'd never dared admit before.

She edged closer, desperate to hear more. Desperate for clarification, because she couldn't risk pouring her brittle heart out to him only to discover this was yet another misunderstanding.
Kit Marlowe had once told her that love involved a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.
It was only now she finally realised it was true.
At least on her part anyway.

"Love is a feeling you can't explain. I think the heart knows you're in love before you even realise you love someone."

He buried his face in his hands, hiding behind his long fingers.
"Your heart will bleed for a love that's dead like me."
He spoke ominously, his smile having faded along with his courage.
"Ava you've no idea, you really haven't. You don't really know me so you don't understand-"

"Oh for Gods sake Adam! I know I don't know your history but that doesn't mean I don't know you!"
She snapped impatiently, her hand flying to her hip.
"I mean, I know I'm not as pretty and intelligent as Eve, I don't have sophistication and I don't know the meaning of much.."
She paused as her voice threatened to crack with emotion, and he was staring at her now.

Her dark eyes were watery with emotion yet emblazoned with passion, making them even more mesmerising.
"Ava you're-"

"No! I know I'll never be as witty and knowledgable as her, she's everything I'm not, but that doesn't mean I don't have feelings or that I'm incapable of loving."

Her salty tears were now winding their way to her lips as they trailed down her grief-stricken face, and he was on his feet now, poised ready to move towards her.
Wanting desperately to hold her, and somehow make everything alright.

But he couldn't. He couldn't make his feet move, or his mind form the words of comfort he longed to speak.
Perhaps he was incapable of making everything right again.
All he could do was blink dumbly and let her continue.
Even though it was paining him more than his mortal death had.

"You are terrifying and strange, and beautiful Adam. Something that not everyone knows how to love....but I know..."

He held his breath as his eyes searched her face, hopeful and ever so slightly anxious.

"I know Adam....I love you!"

A choked gasp escaped his lips as his heart suddenly threatened to burst through his chest.
She blinked nervously as he closed the distance between them with one stride of his long legs.

"Fuck, Ava."
His large hands covered hers and clasped them to his chest, enabling her to feel the rapid thudding of his vampiric heart.

This was the woman who had turned his world upside down on more than one occasion. A woman who insisted on invading his peaceful solitude time and time again. She brought mayhem and uncertainty, but this was the woman who ironically and undeniably made him feel alive. The same woman who now claimed she loved him.

The words of one of his most favourite poems suddenly invaded his mind....

I admit I was afraid to love.
Not just love, but to love her.
For she was a stunning mystery.
She carried things deep inside her that no one has yet to understand and I, I was afraid to fail like the others.
She was the ocean, and I was just a boy who loved the waves but was completely terrified to swim.

Now it was time to swim. To take the plunge and be brutally honest about his feelings. The ones which he'd kept hidden for so long.

Closing his eyes tightly, Adam finally allowed himself to voice the words he'd written for her so many years ago after their first meeting, but hadn't been able to speak them for so many different reasons.

"I feel as if a link exists between your heart and mine. And should that link be broken either by distance or by time, then my heart would cease to beat and I would die."

Ava's uncanny ability of being able to recognise Adam's music, also extended to his poetry. She could tell immediately that his heartfelt proclamation was entirely that. His, and from the heart. His heart.

There was no more hesitation as their mouths found each other, feverishly. She laced her arms around his neck and strained upwards, returning his passion as he pulled her into him and kissed her deeply.
Willingly leaping into the flames once more.