Some hangover...

[julian]

In the distance, he heard a noise. A ringing? Or was that his head? The noise again. Oh how it hurt his head. Ring again. What the hell?! He opened his eyes. Where was he?

Suddenly it started coming back to him - he was home, sure. But he had a peculiar night. What had happened again? He cocked his head to the left, trying to crack his neck as he usually did when he woke up. A pain shot through the right side of his throat. He lifted his hand to his throat and felt the two small wounds. Ring again.

His eyes grew wide, he grabbed his cell phone, answering it with hardly more than a grumble.

"Where the hell are you, you missed a lecture this morning and you have another one in 15 minutes!" It was his TA yelling at him from the other end. The little sycophant had always had a complex about someone younger than he being a professor.

"Shut up, what are you saying?" He replied drying, his voice was hoarse.

"Julian, its 5:00PM! Where have you been?"

Julian's eyes shot to the clock on his night stand. Sure enough, 5:00PM! What happened? Why was he so sore, why did his head hurt so badlyl?

"Um... yeah, I'm not feeling very well." He coughed miserably over the phone. Fortuantely, he didn't have to lie about his condition. "I've been sleeping all day. You cover for me, I can't even move."

The young man on the other line perked up. "Me? Cover for you[/i}. Well, I suppose I could. I know the material pretty well..."

Julian stopped listening. "Yeah yeah... you got it. I'm going to rest." He hit the call end button before the young man finished. He sure despised that little jerk.

He saw a glass of water on the nightstand and picked it up, thankful for something to drink. Flashes of memory flicked through his mind. The library, books, the picture, the fear, the teeth... oh yes, it was all coming back to him.

He sat up slolwly, his head was pounding. Walking to the bathroom, he opened his medicine chest and held the Advil bottle as though it was as precious as gold. He downed four of them and another whole glass of water. He looked at himself in the mirror with a grimace.

"You look like hell" he muttered to himself. His hand touched the part on his forehead where he had hit his head the night before. It wasn't so bad, really, but it felt like a truck had plowed into him. His eyes then drifted lower, to his throat.

Sure enough, two small wounds were prominent. Zina. She was a... He couldn't even think of it. How was this even possible? How could all of this have happened? It was truly inconceiveable.

She was coming back tonight though. She said it. He looked again at the clock. He had another few hours before the sun went down. He considered his options.

He could run, leave New York and rid himself of vampires and other unsavory characters. Did he really just have that thought? Vampires? This was a regular part of his lexicon now? Maybe he should just have himself comitted...

He could run though, he had the means. His parents had left him a large sum of money that he couldn't burn thorugh even if he was some miserable wretch of a son (much like his brother had become). But then he thought again of the history, of the knowledge. He could run any morning, might as well stay and learn for an evening. Who knows, maybe it owuld be worth his while.

He downed another glass of water and went back to bed. His head was killing him. He needed a little more rest. Just fifteen minutes and he'd feel better.

As he lay down, he thought again about what had transpired last night. "She kept her word" he muttered as he drifted to sleep. Just a little nap, fifteen minutes.

His eyes shot open. Again, he was disoriented. The dreams were so horrible. But what did they mean. Only fifteen minutes asleep and he had such vivid thoughts.

He rolled over and looked at the clock. It was 7:30! He had overslept. He shot out of bed, his head in a dull pain now, and ran to the bathroom. More Advil, that will do the trick. He splashed some water on his face and took the medicine in.

But when would she arrive? He was nervous. Less than 24 hours ago he was food for an immortal. What would happen next? He downed another glass of water and looked in the mirror again. He looked better, but still desheveled. Then he heard a noise.

He peered around the corner of the bathroom. His heart was pounding again. This was too much excitement. It didn't matter if he was only 29, he was going to have a heart attack form all this stress!

"Hello?" He inquired. Maybe he was just being paranoid. Then he heard another noise. "Zina?"

[zinovia]

That evening as she rose she was filled with a nervous energy. She had hoped that Julian was alright, that she hadn't gotten so wrapped up in the event that she took too much. He seemed fine when she left him last night, she just hoped that he was still alright.

She came up on his apartment and easily entered. She was no fool, she pocketed his house key when she carried him home last night. No one in their right mind would have left the house in his condition. She figured it was a safe bet.

As she etnered, she heard water running in the restroom. She took the time to look around the apartment, an opportunity she had missed last night in her rush.

It was beautiful, a grand piano in the center, a view of central park, beautiful paintings, rugs... this was not the home of a professor. She knew his family came from money, but she was rather surprised at the affluence.

She moved to study a painting hanging in a corner. It was an ikon, very similar to the ones she had seen in more traditional Russian homes. How strange that he would keep one in his home. She looked closer to take in the detail and bumped into the table.

"Damn." She mumbled softly.

Then she heard his voice. After all he had been through, she couldn't find it in her heart to frighten him. Zina? he called out.

She started softly. "Its me Julian. I've returned as I promised."

She turned to face him in the main room.

"I see you are doing well. How is that head of yours?"

[julian]

And there she was, standing in his living room. She was beautiful, even he couldn't let that go. He even smiled as he saw her. In some ways, he was relieved. At this point, she was the one person who had the answers he needed to understand the events of the last 24 hours.

"Its getting better. Still a dull roar though."

He looked at her from across the room. Was this really the same creature as last night? She looked so composed. She looked so... human.

"I hope you had a nice, er, day, if you do have those." He was a little embarassed. What do you say to a vampire in general conversation? He had another thought, a rather darker thought.

"Um... I noticed that the sun went down not too long ago. I don't suppose you've, well, taken care of your dining requirements for the evening?"

He was nervous. He didn't care to be the main entree two nights in a row.

[zinovia]

She smiled widely at him. She rather enjoyed the way he spoke. He had a dry sort of sarcasm underlying his tone that she found provocative.

"To be truthful," she started, "I've not taken care of my 'dietary requirements' so to speak." The smile never left her lips.

"I was concerned so I hurried over as soon as I was able."

Her eyes traveled once again around the apartment, taking in the various decorative pieces.

"Did you select all of these yourself, or did you have someone do it for you?"

Her eyes settled back on him as she waited for hisanswer.

[julian]

He followed her eyes around the room and finally realized that she had asked him a question.

"Oh, uh, yeah..." he began, "All mine. I traveled a lot when I was younger and my dad was big into museums."

He walked over to a lovely piece, it was one of his favorites. It was a Renaissance piece with three women, engaged in conversation. It wasn't terribly big, but it was perfectly located in the apartment. He was proud of his collection.

"This one is my favorite. Note how the perspective is more an allusion to space than an illusion of space." He smiled at the ladies, ignoring his guest. "But the one you'll probably find most interesting is this one here."

As he spoke, he walked to the corner, to his ikon. "Its a Kievien piece, very old..."

[zinovia]

"Да, от Киев. Byzantine style, actually" she interrupted.

She loved the old pieces of art from her homeland. She had fawned over so many beautiful pieces back in Petersburg.

"In my time, artists stopped creating them. Lithographs could do the work of one hundred artists. It just wasn't fair. But this one that you have here, this one is quite a find."

She cocked her head to one side. When it came to art, she was thankful for her keen vision. It allowed her to see subtleties that few really had the chance to admire.

"You are lucky to have such a piece." She remembered late nights, starving, but nevertheless working tirelessly to hide Russia's treasures away. "Many of them were destroyed when Lenin came to power and Stalin did everything he could to finish the job."

She looked back at him, a smile wide on her face. "I'm honored to share in your treasures."

[julian]

He didn't look at the ikon once as she spoke. He was fascinated with her excitement and just stared at her face. He knew it was a lovely piece, but she could add a thousand different dimensions, no question.

"It is my pleasure to have such a trained eye offer an opinion." He smiled and turned to reference the chairs int he living room. As he did, the pain crept up into his neck again. The wounds, he had almost forgotten. She hadn't fed, she told him this. It made him nervous.

He looked back at her, barely concealing his grimace. "Do you care to... um, I mean, shall we have a seat?" His face was pale still, even the small amount of excitement so far was making him feel a bit weak.

[zinovia]

She saw the strain in his face and felt a touch of guilt. She hadn't wanted to harm him at all, but she could not help what she was and what she needed to live. Still, he didn't seem too concerned. He had stayed, after all. No matter how poorly he felt, he still could have fled in the daylight hours. She was pleased with her decision to let him live.

"Yes, of course." She said as she moved towards the couch, taking a seat and composing her skirt properly. She loved the feel of fine fabrics on her skin and had selected this very outfit for that reason. She always wanted to impress Julian. She learned long ago that women of all kinds, all shapes could frame themselves in such a way to become their own work of art. All it took was a little attention to detail, an honest look at one's assets and anyone could play the female body to their advantage.

She watched him sit down and get comfortable.

"Julian, I can see you are sore from last night's encounter. I am sorry that things had to come to pass in such a way. I have placed a lot of trust in you at this point. For all intents and purposes, I should have killed you to keep my secret safe. As I told you, I have no problems with taking life. Instead, I've chosen to trust you."

She paused for a moment, looking sternly at him. It was the only warning she ever intended to give him, so she had to make it firm.

"If you betray me, Julian, make no mistake. I can still kill you."

[julian]

Julian listened very carefully and again realized that the seemingly beautiful woman sitting across from him wasn't human. She would kill me, me![/b]

He was sure it would never come to that. How could he ever betray her? All he had to do was make sure he didn't tell anyone about her or what she was. He could do that, no problem. Besides, it wasn't like there were hundreds of these things running around New York. Wait. Were there? Now his mind was churning again.

He came to his senses. "Um, yes. Well. You sure have a compelling argument."

He sighed. "Listen, Zina. I don't want to cause you harm or inspire a witch hunt. I'll be blatantly honest with you. Thinking about last night, about what you are capable of... What you are terrifies me."

He looked down at his hands. He was wringing them. He really was quite nervous. He looked back up at her.

"But what you know, what you've seen far outweighs the fears I have for my life. I would love for us to spend hours into the night talking about the past."

He brought his hand to his throat. "If this is the price. If my blood is the price - I am willing to pay. If the price is my life? Well, then, I've horribly misjudged the situation."

He let his hand collapse in his lap. "You think you've placed your trust in me? Hardly. If I caused you any trouble, you could kill me. But me? I've done a lot of trusting. If you attack me, there is little I can do. If I run, I'm sure you could find me." He shook his head. "No, it is I who is trusting you."

He siged once again. Even with all the sleep he had gotten he was tired. He wiped his face and looked at her once again.

"So we have an arrangement then?"

[zinovia]

As he spoke, she had a realization. For a vampire, the most cherished thing tended to be the sanctity of their secret. As strong as the vampire was, it was vulnerable in the daylight. This coupled with an intense survival instinct made her kind ultimately sensistive to threats of any kind. But for the most part, she was immortal. Julian, on the other hand, had a whole different set of concerns.

How could she not think of his perspective? So what if he revealed her secret, he didn't know where she lived, he didn't know what could or could not kill her. So she would have the flee the city, a small price to pay. Julian, on the other hand, was risking his life being in this very room with her. She could have killed him last night in the height of a swoon. Truthfully, he was right. It was he who had put up the most trust in this arrangement.

The real kicker was that he accepted it. No doubt, he had a million questions for her, but ultimately he had accepted the threats and the complications. He did experience the danger first hand. Well, if he was willing to take the risks, then perhaps she, too, could indulge in a mortal confidant.

A smile played on her lips. "Alright, ,Julian. Its a deal."

She settled back in the chair. "I can spare some time yet tonight, but then I have, well, other business to tend to. Besides, you could use more rest."

She crossed her arms. "So, what's on your mind?"

[julian]

His nerves settled and for the first time since he saw her picture in that book, he felt comfortable around her. Still, a million questions flooded his thoughts. Where could he possibly begin? Where does one start when speaking to an immortal, a vampire...

"Well. You are Russian, this I gathered."

He smiled as he looked at her. She had very lovely features and her accent was one of the things he enjoyed most about her.

"Yet your English is flawless, save your accent."

He paused for a moment. He was obviously trying to think, to decide what question to ask her first. His head still hurt, but it was subsiding slowly. He was also very tired. He thought again about the wounds on his neck and shuttered.

"I have so many questions, I don't know where to begin. How long have you been a..." he still couldn't bring himself to say the word. "How long have you been like this? How did it happen? How does it, the vampire thing, you know, how does it work?"

He was cursing himself for being so inarticulate. He made a mental note that the next time he would be better prepared. He looked at her carefully as she replied.

[zinovia]

She waited patiently for him as he thought. She loved watching the thoughts play across mortal faces. There were so many subtleties that a vampire could observe when watching a human. While the limitations of the mind prevented her from peering into his very thoughts, she felt like his body said a thousand different things without speaking a word at all.

His question was typical - it was understandable to start at the beginning. Actually, this was a good sign. This showed genuine curiosity of genesis, a key trait when someone you are confiding in is required to buy in to a certain extent.

"Alright. I was born in 1917 in St. Petersburg. I was 26 when I met my sire. Unfortunately, it was a terrible time for my beloved city. Hitler's troops had advanced and we were all starving. Instead of watching malnutrition and consumption take me, the vampire turned me."

She paused, this time her face full of emotion. She had mixed feelings about what happened to her. She fought becoming a vampire down to her dying breath. Still, she wasn't angry about what she was. She never could reconcile that dilemma within her.

"To answer your more technical questions," she began, a smile had returned to her face, "the process is quite painful. A vampire drinks from you and feeds you their blood. Then you take three days to die. Trust me, it is the worst pain any being could possibly ever know." She shuttered to even think about it. "But then, you wake and you are hungry. You want to drink, but nothing fills you."

She was watching him closely. People reacted differently to hear about the darkest side of the vampire's existence.

"I was fortunate. My sire showed me how to hunt and feed. Without him, I could have harmed my loved ones without ever meaning to." She was recalling when she had turned. Her hunger was so fierce, she would have attacked anyone.

"You witnessed something similar last night. Our survival instincts are super - we need blood and we will do anything to get it. If deprived, we go into a frenzy and will feed from any living thing in sight."

She saw the light bulb go off in his eyes.

"And, yes, we can drink the blood of animals. But its just not the same and I've always refused to go down that route. Its hardly living."

She glanced at her watch. It was still early.

"You see, blood is a very powerful thing to a vampire. Even now, your blood is running through my veins, revitalizing me. I am forever linked to you."

A sinister smile was playing across her face. "I want to show you something, a gesture of our new 'arrangement' as you call it." She moved to sit next to him so quickly he couldn't have possibly seen her.

"Are you in?"

[julian]

Julian was fascinated. She was 90 years old. 90 years. Incredible. She explained how it came to pass but he still couldn't quite figure out how, scientifically, such creatures could exist. What is it that the blood could do for them that they stayed young and beautiful (and he did mean beautiful)? As he expected, answers only inspired more questions. He would have time to ask, though. At this point, anything was possible.

She talked about attacking her loved ones. Could the hunger really be so powerful? He couldn't imagine. For them, everything was about the blood.How many had she killed? So many questions...But he was especially interested in the blood. Could she really feel his blood in her veins?

The smile that came to her face made him nervous again. He knew she wouldn't kill him, or at least that is what he thought. Again, anything was possible. When she appeared at his side he went into a fit of terror. Not again, I can't suffer this again. She'll kill me if she bites me again!

He felt his chest pounding, but she just sat there calmly. He had to trust her - what choice did he have, really... He felt himself calming down and looked right into her beautiful eyes. He swallowed hard.

"I'm in."

[zinovia]

"Excellent." She was grinning.

"As I said - blood is very important to our kind." She moved closer to him so she was only inches away. It was an intimate stance, but she rather liked the idea of seducing him.

"If I drink yours, I receive sustinence."

She brought her hand to her lips, bit into her palm and pulled her mouth away. She took a moment to watch the blood roll slowly down past her wrist.

"If you drink a very small amount of mine, you can see some of my past." She turned her eyes from her bleeding hand to his face. She brought the hand to his cheek gently running it down the side of his face and ultimately rolling over his mouth, allowing a small amount of the blood to cover his lips.

She pulled away,she didn't want to have a little zombie running around, after all. The wound had already healed, but she was more curious to see what he would see and how he would react.

[julian]

Thunder. Roaring, deafening thunder. Silence. Terrifying and lonely silence. An assortment of smells filled his nostrils and he felt his body shiver all over. Then he started to see again.

A flash before his eyes, it was a lot like his dreams. Except this time he was in a wide open place with paintings everywhere. Sculptures of all kinds lined the thick walls and the whole environment was cold and dark. He saw a man and a woman standing together, arguing. He was angry at her for something, but he couldn't understand the language they used. As the man touched the woman's face, Julian realized it was Zina.

But oh how she looked dreadful. Her skin was taught and she looked so frail! How very different from the powerful creature he knew. The man grabbed her and she was too weak to fend him off. Julian watched in horror as the man's face changed. He had seen those very features last night when Zina attacked him. But this was different, there was a savagry in the man's eyes. To Julian, this looked more like rape.

He could only watch as Zina fought. This was the poor mortal woman, clearly starving fighting with every ounce of her being. She hit him and scratched him but nothing she did could make him stop draining her by her throat. Her flailing grew less severe. Her arms dropped to her side and Julian watched as her knees gave out.

The man pulled away and whispered something, but Julian couldn't hear. The man unbuttoned his shirt sleeve and bared down on his own wrist. He heard Zina moan "No" as the man brought his bleeding appendage to her lips. "Please, no," she whispered with labored breaths.

The blood had hit her lips and her body shot alive. As soon as Zina grabbed the wrist offered to her, the whole image disappeared. He was back in his apartment, on his sofa with a vampire.

He turned to look at her. He felt a shame having seen her like that under those circumstances. How horrible it must have been for her - to be taken like that. He felt such dreadful pain looking at her.

"I'm sorry." he whispered, barely audible. "Is that really what happened?"

He shivered all over and he shook his head. "I am so sorry."