tired

I hate the time changes. I usually sleep so badly that when my sleep schedule gets messed up in the slightest, I really get messed up. I laid down to go to sleep at 11 pm last night and the last time I looked at the clock it was a few minutes after 4 am. Talk about suck!! I tried everything that I could think of short of sleep medicine (which usually does jack for me anyway). So anyway I am awfully tired today.

Anyway I really don't have much else to say today. I hope that when the pope died it was peacefully and without pain. I also hope that the next pope does as good a job as this last one did, and that there is not a huge controversy when he is named, since there is a lot of discussion on where he will come from.

Finally before I continue the story for today I guess I might as well get some legal stuff surrounding it out of the way. It is copyright to me, jen waller, I don't care if you copy and paste to print a more readable copy, I will probably even set up a web site with occasional updates that will allow just that. I don't even care if you spread it around, but please don't use it for any purposes that you will make money off of. Any other uses please ask. If you don't like those terms, too bad, that's the way it is.

So here continues the story.

[Untitled]
cont.

"Kyra, you must concentrate!"

"What do you want me to do, Julius? I've been focusing for over an hour now, and I still don't know what you want me to do."

"Exactly! Kyra, you need to be able to focus your energies in order to be able to anticipate the next move of your opponent. It's been two days and we have barely scratched the surface of what you will need to know and do. If you cannot use your energies to anticipate and then deliver a counter attack then you will never be able to defeat your opponent."

"Julius, you must admit that I have made some progress. I did figure out your name."

"Yes, Kyra. But that is not enough. We only have a little time to prepare you, then you fight to the death."

"How do we know that this fight will even happen? I mean you seem pretty confident that it will happen, but I see no outward signs of this impending war that you say this fight is the start of."

"If this battle was not impending, I would not be able to be here. Now, since you don't want to work on energy focus we need to move onto something else." Still dressed entirely in black, Julius reached inside of his shirt and removed a very ancient looking pendant. "Hold onto this and look into my eyes."

"What are we doing?"

"You have lived the life of a warrior before. I am going to try and bring forward some of the skills that you used in those past lives."

"Me? A warrior? You must be joking," she said, taking the pendant.

"No joke. Now sit still and look into my eyes. Good. Hold onto that pendant very tight, and listen to my voice."

Maureen felt herself getting lost in Julius's eyes. His voice was calming and she felt herself drifting away. She couldn't remember a time that she had felt so calm and protected. She knew that she would not be harmed while Julius was looking out for her. All too soon, however, it was over.

Content with the feelings that the hypnosis had brought on she allowed herself to drift slowly back to full awareness. However, once she opened her eyes she wished that she had forced herself to wake up more quickly.

She awoke to find Julius collapsed on the floor. Rushing to his side she noticed immediately that something was different. His skin was chalky and cool to the touch, and scars that she had never before noticed were suddenly prominent.

Realizing what was wrong Maureen headed for her refrigerator. She had set a steak to defrost the day before and had yet to cook it, she just hoped that it had bled enough. She poured the blood from the steak into a glass and took it back to the collapsed vampire. It was cold but it would have to do.

Maureen propped Julius against a chair and passed the glass under his nose. When she saw that he was reacting she pressed the glass into his hand and helped him raise the glass to his lips. The change in his color was immediate, but after he finished the glass he was still obviously weak.

"What happened?" Maureen demanded.

"I'm sorry, Kyra. I knew that I needed to feed, but I didn't want to scare you, or cause problems by doing so."

Maureen nearly slapped him. "You claim that you came here to help me. How can you help if you don’t maintain your own body? Where will I be if you die?!!”

Julius pushed himself off of the floor and sat down in the chair that he had been propped against. “You know very well that I cannot die.”

“I know no such thing. I enjoy a good vampire story as much as the next guy, but I don’t know what is myth and what is truth. All I do know is that you are not much help if you are passed out on the floor.”

“You are right Kyra. I am sorry.”

Maureen studied the vampire. “You still look like shit. You still need food don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“So to test another myth, do vampires eat anything besides blood?”

“Yes, we do. Blood is the fastest acting nutrient, but raw meats and proteins also are suitable foods.”

“There’s one myth dispelled. So how long will it take you to recover your strength if you only ate meats?”

“Two weeks maybe three.”

“Blood?”

“Minutes.”

“A combination?”

“Depends, most likely two or three days.”

“Then it’s settled. Feed a little off of me, then we’ll get you back to strength with meats and any other blood sources we can find.”

“Kyra, no! I will not do it; I will not feed off of you. We must find another way.”

“Do you have the energy to go hunt? And even if you did, would you be willing to deal with the problems that you were worried about causing in the first place?”

Julius allowed his silence to speak for him.

“Then it’s settled.” Maureen tossed her hair on her left side behind her shoulder, exposing one side of her neck. She put her arms around his neck and drew herself toward him.

Julius could feel her heartbeat through her skin. He could feel the heat of her blood coursing through her body. He tried to resist, but with the offering his hunger soon overcame him. Sinking his teeth deep into her neck he started to feed.

Maureen expected to feel pain as the teeth sank into her neck. Instead, it felt as though somebody was kissing her neck. A tingle went up her spine and she realized how easy it would be for somebody to give his or her life for this feeling. The pleasure of the feeling was so immense that if she didn’t know that her life was slowly being drained away she would never find out. Knowing that the chances of ever having this experience again was nearly impossible, she allowed herself to get lost in it.

As soon as her blood touched his tongue, Julius knew exactly how different Kyra was. Hers was an energy that he had never experienced before. He had never felt so much energy contained within one person before. Drinking deep, he was careful to pay close attention to how much energy she had left. Even still, he couldn’t deny himself the pleasure the vampire feels from the act of blood taking. Letting his mind temporarily become one with hers, he felt the pleasures and pains of her life. For a fleeting instant they were one person, then it was over. He felt her energy start to decline the tiniest amount, she probably wouldn’t even notice, but he knew that he must stop. He couldn’t afford to drain her too much. Pulling away ever so slightly he allowed the puncture marks to start to heal and the flow of blood to stop.

Julius tilted his head up slightly and opened his eyes, to see somebody looking in through the window. The person hadn’t noticed him see. Breaking the connection he brushed his mouth past Kyra’s ear. “Somebody is watching.”

“Hmm?” replied Maureen dreamily. Then as what he said sunk in she turned and noticed the old lady from down the street looking through the window.

The person at the window saw Maureen looking at her and ran off. “Nosy old gossip.”

“Will she cause problems, Kyra?”

“No. She will probably spread rumors of my having an affair with you, but no more.”

“Are you sure?”

“As much as I can be.”