Page 9 of Space Vampire
I nod, watching her.
“Then you should sleep wherever you want. Just point out the bed you want to claim and I promise to keep my dirty feet off it.” Dana tilts her head, studying me. “Unless you have other plans.”
“Other ... plans ... for a bed?” Why does that intrigue me?
“That one escape capsule left,” she says, flushing. Her scent rises with her blush. “I knew it was there. I thought about escaping, but humans are picked on and enslaved on this end of the universe, and I’m a sitting duck if I try to land that thing anywhere. But seeing as we’re friends ...?” She swings her foot and eyes me. “Well, seeing as we’re friends, I think we could go someplace together. Fresh start and all that.”
I cross my arms over my chest, contemplating her words. It’s not a bad idea, but there are definite flaws in this plan. “Where would we go?”
“Exactly why I came and found you instead of heading for the capsule.” Dana bites her lip and shrugs. “I know they’ll come back here for you soon enough, but I’m hoping that we can get the pod charged before they return. We can be gone and untraceable before they even realize what happened.”
“We.” Interesting that she’s decided that we should work together long term instead of just going our separate ways. Not that I mind this. I like the idea of staying at her side. She’s right that she’s fragile and needs someone to look out for her.I don’t mind doing that job, but I’m going to have a problem soon.
Because she smells better by the hour, and I grow hungrier.
As if she can hear my thoughts, Dana’s stomach growls. She claps a hand to her belly, grimacing.
My fangs pulse, responding to her hunger, and my mouth waters. The urge to feed is becoming harder to ignore.
“Sorry,” she tells me. “I’m starving and the doors to the cafeteria were closed, so I couldn’t get in. I was actually worried that I’d starve to death before the scientists return, but you opened that door to the lab like it was nothing. I don’t suppose you’d do a girl a favor and open another door for me?”
“I can,” I say slowly. “But you mention food, and I must be honest with you. The lab is out of blood, and it might not be safe for you to be around me much longer. I need to feed soon.”
I watch the realization move over her. I need blood, or my hunger will just grow worse.
Right now, the only blood on the station other than my own is hers ...
“Can you eat regular food?” Dana asks. “Have you tried? Maybe you’re not as vampiric as we thought. You look pretty normal to me. Other than the teeth and, well, the tail, and the really big muscles.” Her gaze flicks over my chest, and a new scent blooms in the air to pair with her blood scent.
It’s musky and makes my cock harden, and suddenly I’m full of wanting for more than just blood. I shift my weight on my feet, hoping she doesn’t notice the straining of my loincloth. “I haven’t tried. The scientists gave me nutritional drips in my veins.”
Dana brightens, her strange pale face creasing with a happy pink smile. She approaches me and grabs my hand. “Come on, then. You’re about to try some noodles. Alienslovenoodles.”
My body doesnotlove noodles.
We head for the cafeteria portion of the ship, and when I pry open the doors for Dana, she claps her hands in delight. I don’t go in until she adjusts the lighting. Then we turn on the food-generating machines, and Dana is in ecstasy as she fills bowl after bowl with a variety of foods, most of them the noodles she’d mentioned.
The scents turn my stomach. I try to eat, just in case my nose is betraying me, but the taste is bland, the texture worse, and it all comes back up immediately after I swallow it.
Dana offers me a glass of water as I retch over the closest trash receptacle. “Okay, so you must really be a vampire. Noodles aren’t cutting it. I’ll look for raw meat. Maybe that will help?”
I shrug, though the thought of putting dead flesh in my mouth seems equally as revolting as the noodles.
She flicks through the menus on the machines, exclaiming in frustration as each one is “vegetarian.” No meat. Finally, she turns back to me, her lips pursed and her expression thoughtful.
“How much blood?”
“What?”
“How much blood do you need? To fill you up?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Feeding is new to me.”
“But you drank all the blood bags in the lab, right?”
I had. Because I was starving. I’d been so ravenous with hunger that I couldn’t think straight. I’d existed in a frenziedfog where all I could think about was the hot pulse in the throat of each scientist that came near me. I’d been insane with the need for blood, and I tell her this. “I don’t feel the same wildness right now. Perhaps if I keep the hunger at bay, I won’t need large amounts. Just one bag. Maybe less.”
Dana nibbles on a chunk of dried noodles, studying me. “Well, if it hurts, we’re not going to do it again.”
