Page 70 of Afflicted

I shake my head, smiling. This feels too nice.

We drive on in silence for a while, enjoying the open space and the fresh warm air that’s blowing in through the windows. We pass some small towns, abandoned gas stations. It’s eerily fascinating, as though the world outside simply stagnated, holding its breath until the world returned to normal.

Not that that will ever happen.

“Can I ask you something?” She asks after a while.

I nod, keeping my eyes on the road. “Sure.”

“And you don’t have to answer this, it’s none of my business. But… You said someone saved you once. Is that how you got clean? Is that what you meant?”

I exhale heavily, gripping the top of the steering wheel with one hand, letting the other drop to the seat beside me. “Well, that’s a bit of a story.”

“We have time.” I can see her looking at me from out of the corner of my eye. “Savannah’s still a ways off.”

“That’s true.”

“Only if you want to tell me.”

“I do.” I genuinely do want to tell her. I shift in my seat. She’s still looking at me, still waiting. “I told you, I was an addict. I used to break into big houses, when the owners were away on holidays. I was an expert at disarming alarm systems, so I was never caught. Made a fortune stealing shit, and it all went straight into my veins.” I glance over at her. “Sure you want to hear this?”

She nods. “Mhmm.”

“OK.” I look back at the road and take a deep breath. “So one day I broke into this house, on a huge property, surrounded by park land. Everything inside wasold. Like, antique old. The windows are all covered in heavy velvet drapes, and the whole house smelled like gardenias. It was dark, and absolutely silent. It freaked me out, but I needed money, so I kept going.” I exhale heavily. “And that’s how I met my maker. Quite literally.”

Juliet gasps a little. “Oh wow.”

“Yeah. Margot had heard me coming a mile away, was waiting in her bedroom for me. I nearly fucking died when I walked in and there’s this naked woman lying on the bed.”

“Naked?” Juliet asks, laughing nervously. “Why was she-” She breaks off as I grin over at her. “You mean she…”

“She liked the look of me. Said she saw potential. I couldn’t understand why this rich naked woman was coming on to me, when I’d literally broken into her house. Then I saw her fangs.”

Juliet squeaks out a tiny gasp. “Does… I mean, did it hurt?”

“Getting bitten?” I shake my head. “No, not at all. Quite the contrary.” I look over at her, and she bites her lip. “You’ve heard that it feels good, yeah?”

She nods slowly, clearing her throat as I move my gaze back to the road. “I’d heard that you can make it feel…”

“Pleasurable?” I don’t look at her, because this topic probably isn’t the one I should be broaching when I’m trying to not think about how close she is to me right now. “It’s… yeah. An orgasm basically.”

“But… how? I mean, it’s a bite. How does it not hurt?”

“Venom.” I gesture to my mouth with a wave of my hand. “It’s in all our, um, bodily fluids. Saliva, blood… All the other ones.”

She lets out a sweet, embarrassed giggle. “Oh god, OK.”

“We can control its release, make a bite hurt, and leave scars if we want to. But generally, it feels good for us to release the venom too. Andverygood for humans.”

She puffs out a breath. “So, uh, how do you then, like, how do you get turned? I’ve never really found out how it works.”

Change of subject, yes, that’s good.I flex my hands around the steering wheel and try to wet my throat. “A lot like what the movies show, you get drained to the point of death, and then drink your maker’s blood. A lot of it.”

“And that doesn’t hurt either?” She asks quietly.

“It’s like… You know when you’re going to sleep, and you have this really vivid dream while you’re half-awake still, and it feels real?”

“And then your leg does that weird kick thing and you wake up?”

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