“Yeah. It’s the link between a sire and his fledgling. Basically it’s a failsafe to keep the newbie safe. It’s almost impossible to break.”
“I don’t understand. Why not just kill the sire and get your life back?”
“That’s just it,” I explained. “You can’t. You don’t want to. Your blood tie to your sire is almost to the point of love. I’ve heard of some vampires that once they were released were so overcome with grief as if someone had died, they staked themselves.”
“And for you?”
“I have no sire, therefore no blood tie. When I turned twenty, my heart briefly stopped beating until I fed. And from a lifetime of having a beating heart it was a bit of a change.”
He sat up adjusting to look at me. “I don’t understand. I hear your heart beating all the time.”
I nodded. “Yeah because I keep myself fed. As long as I stay well fed, my heart will beat like normal.”
“Have you ever turned anyone?”
I shook my head. “No. There has never been anyone that I wanted to be bonded to like that, and in addition being half-human there’s a chance my blood wouldn’t be strong enough to force the transition. I could just end up killing the person instead.”
He seemed to be absorbing everything I said. “What about other half-humans? Have they successfully pulled off converting a human to a vampire?”
Again, I nodded. “I’ve met several and even half breeds who have successfully pulled off a conversion have tried again, only to fail.”
“So these other, half-breeds ?” I nodded at his correct use of term. “Are they just like you?”
I shook my head, my brow furrowing together, “No actually. Ninety-five percent could pass for vampires. They are somewhat weaker but have all the same characteristics of normal vampires. The others five percent are the worse. They have all the weaknesses of both classes. No sun, no silver, no strength. Need blood. But the age like humans.”
“Where do you fit in?” he asked, genuinely curious.
“I’m the only one like me. From what research the nest has done, I am the only day walker ever in existence.”
The topic ended as abruptly as it had begun and we didn’t revisit it again. We settled in for the day and just enjoyed our brief window of time before I was forced to leave.
***
A week and a half passed in a blink of an eye. I had been keeping myself extremely busy. I didn’t get to see Grayson the day before the opening, but we still found time to talk and text. He was working on a big buyout of a small software company. They had a certain program that his company was wanting. We had been seeing each other as often as possible. We had dinner dates, and less frequently some lunch dates where he would join Shawn and me. They both seemed to be getting along great. I also couldn’t seem to keep my hands off of Grayson. If sex was like this for the rest of the world, I have no idea how people got anything done.
My mother’s insistent attempts with Anton only got more and more obvious. On Friday, before the opening, Anton was going out hunting, which my mother is completely against. He doesn’t kill humans he just feeds and wipes their minds, a gift I hadn’t quite mastered, but was working on. She shoved me at him, saying, “You need to learn how a real vampire does it.” Then blurred away, giving me no one to argue with.
We went out and found a couple of college girls that had too much to drink. It wasn’t that I had never fed from a human before. I had. It was one of the lessons I had been taught when I was little. ‘How to feed without killing 101.’ I just didn’t enjoy it. Why do it when I had a blood bag back at the house that I didn’t have to find, force to cooperate or listen to scream in my ear? Anton, like my mother, wouldn’t take no for an answer. He compelled both girls to stay still. After he fed off of his girl, a young brunette with a form fitting dress, and wiped her
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