Vampire Thirst (13 page)

Slowly, her quivering receded, leaving behind just that delicious
hum
that seemed to always permeate her. When her light scent of peaches filled the air, he knew she was feeling better.

“Where are we?” she asked, pulling away.

“Broxbourne,” he replied, pointing at a sign carrying the words ‘Broxbourne Sports Centre, Hertfordshire’.

“What in Hiad are those razbians doing here? And what are they doing with those chairs?”

“My thoughts exactly. Wait here,” Hikuro commanded. “I’ll be right back.”

Hikuro darted across the park and hid behind a skip opposite where the truck was. After just a few seconds, Sam crouched beside him.

“I thought I told you to wait back there.”

“You thought wrong,” she replied with the cutest “I dare you” face.

Damned woman. And damned heart that thought
that
was cute.

Hikuro decided to let this one pass and turned his focus back to the building ahead. It looked like a manufacturing plant, with concrete walls, aluminum windows and heavy iron doors. The front gate was open, with the razbians’ truck hanging halfway out onto the sidewalk.

“Can you hear anything?”

“Yes, but nothing out of…”

“Look!” Sam interrupted him.

A black Rolls Royce turned the corner and stopped right next to the truck. A large man with mousy-brown hair, narrow shoulders and a thick neck stepped out.

“What the fuck is this doing out here?” the man yelled. Promptly, the two razbians emerged from inside of the building, apologizing profusely. Hikuro huffed. Razbians were such a pathetic little bunch.

“Oh, no. Oh, no, no…” Sam mumbled, as if she had seen a ghost.

“What’s wrong? Who is he?”

“Dr. Burvis,” she muttered. Then she clutched at his arm, wide eyed. “Get me out of here. Now.”

Chapter 20

The ice that had settled in the pit of her stomach quickly became an iceberg. Sam felt her energies go ballistic as soon as she spotted Dr. Burvis stepping out of the car. For once Hikuro didn’t argue with her and teleported them out. Thank the merciful Soartas.

She took a couple of deep breaths before opening her eyes. “Where are we?”

“In the gardens of my ryokan.”

Sam looked around and saw a vast, manicured garden with several cherry blossom trees, flower beds and a natural hot pool. Hikuro guided her to the small pond. It was probably ten feet across in diameter, with bulky limestones framing its edge. The fog that emerged from its surface, illuminated by the several candles that lit the narrow pathways, made the garden look magical.

With Hikuro’s help, Sam stepped into the pool, clothes and all, and let herself be engulfed by the hot water. Slowly, her heart stopped walloping, her muscles relaxed and her energies went back to their normal hum. But her mind still raced at a thousand miles per hour. By Apa Dobrý, her old psychiatrist was alive and in London?

“Feeling better?” Hikuro’s warm, concerned voice made her feel even worse.

She pulled away from his embrace and swam to the other side of the pool. For once, the stunning view of the city lights against the dark blue sky didn’t wow her.

“Apologies for not taking you back to your home, Sam. I just thought it wouldn’t be safe for...”

He didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have to. Sam knew all too well how dangerous it was for anyone to be near her. And he thought she was mad at him for being careful. Sam closed her eyes and shook her head. Mighty Soartas, she was tired of being the fucked-up kid.

“You must be fed up of my fits,” she breathed. “I don’t blame you. It must be a pain in the ass to have to put up with me losing the plot all the time.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. Great, she’d had a hissy fit, now she was going to break down in front of him as well. Way to go, Samantha.

Large hands encased her shoulders and slowly turned her around. Hikuro’s eyes were intense on hers. “Do you think you’re the only one who goes through crises in life?”

Sam didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Do you know how long it took me to develop my abilities?”

She shrugged. “A few years?”

He huffed, then rolled his eyes.
Hikuro rolled his eyes?
“Try a few decades.”

Sam couldn’t believe her ears. “There’s no way you, the well-bred, well-balanced, all-reasonable warrior, has ever been as messed up as I am, Hikuro. I know what you’re trying to do, but you don’t have to, OK? I’m not your problem.”

Sam saw his jaw clench. For a second, she thought he’d snap at her, but he shook his head instead, as if deciding whether to park the subject or not.

“Did you know that vampires are not immortals?” he finally asked.

She nodded. Where was he going with this?

“So you know that we do age, but infinitely slower than any other creature in this world. What takes a human five years to learn, takes us ten times longer. And in my case, twenty.”

“I don’t follow you.” She was really lost here.

“I come from a noble family in Japan and I was the first-born male, so there was a lot of pressure for me to be the best – at everything. I studied, worked and trained harder than any other kid because I was afraid of letting my family down. During practice, I was a champion, but as soon as I hit the official competitions, I crumbled. Every time, it was the same thing. I excelled in practice, but failed when it really mattered. For decades, my classmates called me Warabi.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s hard to translate, but it’s the fire produced by straw. It catches fast and furious but dies down as quickly.”

“Ouch. And I thought humans were mean.”

He chuckled. “No, I think malice is in the nature of all creatures.”

“So, what happened?” she asked. She couldn’t imagine anyone getting away with calling him a wimpy boy now.

“I’m glad you asked,” he replied with a bow. His official manners cracked her up sometimes. “It was in one of the official tournaments we used to have, like your Olympic Games, I’d say. I was representing my clan in the fighting competitions. For some reason, despite losing in the first ones, I managed to get through to the finals. And although I knew I could beat my adversary, I was shaking in terror.”

“But why?”

“Back then, I had no idea. I just thought I couldn’t break the curse of always losing. It was buried so deep in my mind, it had become part of who I was – the Warabi.” He took a deep breath. Sam realized how hard it was for him to relive those memories. It was never a walk in the park, was it?

“I went for a walk to try and calm my nerves. My master found me hours later, sitting under a cherry blossom tree. He was stunned when I told him I wasn’t going to fight.”

“Why didn’t you want to fight?”

“That’s exactly what he asked me. I was so scared of failing again that I had given up trying.”

“Did your master kick your sorry ass all the way to the tatami?”

“You have a very funny way of expressing yourself, Sam,” Hikuro replied with a small smile. Sam’s breath caught in her throat. He was handsome when serious, but when relaxed, Hikuro was simply irresistible. “No, he didn’t kick my ass. He did worse.”

Sam frowned. “What could possibly be worse than getting a flogging from your master?”

 “The truth,” he replied somberly.

“Right, he told you that your biggest adversary was yourself; that you didn’t win because you didn’t see yourself winning.” Sam had heard that so many times before – in every self-help book, business seminar, life coach, you name it. But it was so much easier said than done.

“No.”

“No?”

“Nope, he told me my problem was wasted focus.”

“Huh? You mean lack of focus?”

“No, it wasn’t a case of lacking focus. I was just
wasting
it worrying about what the others would think if I lost. I was focusing on the repercussions, not on the solution, not on what I really needed to do to win.”

Sam was so confused. What in Hiad was he talking about?

“Come. I’ll show you.”

Sam followed Hikuro out of the water and sat down on the edge of the pool. He took a candle from the pathway and sat on the stony ground a few feet in front of her. “Cross your legs and straighten your back.”

Yes, sir.
She did.

He placed the candle in front of himself and looked at it. It lit up out of nowhere.

“Wow, neat trick. Can all vampires do that?”

“No, very few. But that’s not what I want to show you.”

Oh.

He straightened up his own back, placed his hands on his knees and squared his shoulders. “I want you to use your powers to put it out.”

“What?” Sam cried out. “Are you insane?”

“No, I’m not insane. I believe you can do it.”

 “Ha! I’ll set your whole house on fire!”

“No, you won’t.”

“Hikuro, this is madness. I...”

In an instant, he was crouched just a few inches from her. Sam’s heart smacked against her chest with the sudden closeness, but when Hikuro’s hand brushed her cheeks, she melted like ice on a hot plate. His soft touch caressed her skin and ran along her hair, reminding her of how much it hurt not being able to be with him completely.

“All I want you to do is try,” he said softly. “Don’t worry, nothing will happen. And if it does, I’ll be right here.”

Sam sighed. Damn him and his powers of persuasion. “At least sit by the exit. That way you can bolt when I burn the trees down.”

“I’ll probably choose to teleport before bolting, but I don’t think it’ll be necessary.”

“Don’t joke, Hikuro. I can really hurt you.”

“I know, but you won’t.”

His unwavering faith brought back the lump in her throat. She had felt such trust only from Zoricah and Yara, no one else. So how could she deny him?

Sam nodded slightly in agreement and looked up. Oh Gods, his room was right above them. If she hit a power line, it would burst into flames in no time.

Hikuro took his position behind the candle.

“First, I want you to close your eyes,” he ordered.

She obeyed.

“Now, I want you to listen to everything around you.”

She did.

“What do you hear?”

“The hum of the electric bulbs, a bird somewhere nearby, you, my heart.”

“Good, that’s really good.”

Yay. Kudos from the teacher!

“Now I want you to ignore all that, and focus only on your heart.”

Huh?

“I don’t want you to listen to the bird anymore, to the hum, to anything. Just your heart.”

Sam took a deep breath and tried to do what he asked. It was hard but after a while, she managed to block out all the sounds around her and focus only on her heart.

“Now, open your eyes.”

Her gaze met his. The fierceness she often found in them was gone. Hikuro’s whole aura was of stillness, like a lake on a windless day. “I want you to ignore me too and only focus on the candle.”

She lowered her eyes and looked at the small object. It was dangerously close to Hikuro’s mid-section. By Apa Dobrý, if she missed her target, she would castrate him. So not good.

“Sam, you’re wasting your focus,” Hikuro said softly.

Sam blinked. How could he tell?

“Concentrate only on the candle, the white, translucent wax. Now, focus on the short wick, nothing else. The wick is your only concern, your only target.”

Sam took a deep breath and tried. After a minute or so of nothing, her vision went dark around the edges, like a camera effect, and the cord that held the tiny flame was framed in the middle.

A rasping sound somewhere above them startled her. Sam’s gaze darted to his bedroom’s enclosed balcony. The see-through glass turned into various shades of gray until it became completely black. Cool.

“Sam.”

“Right, OK, the wick, only the wick. I’m on it.” Mighty Soartas, he was such a bossy master. Sam settled herself more comfortably on the hard floor and went back to the task. The tunnel vision came to her faster this time around.

“Breathe in, breathe out,” Hikuro said slowly.

The dark night helped her concentrate. She focused on the top of the candle, how the cord was slightly bent to one side, how its very tip sparkled brighter than the rest.

“Now, extinguish it.”

Sam’s hand lifted at its own accord. The wick had become extremely large and long. It was such an easy target! Surely just a twinkle of electricity would do to extinguish the flame. She felt her power build in her core and hum along her arm. A tiny electric charge snaked out of her index finger, travelled through the air and touched the wick. The tiny flame went out instantly.

“Brilliant!”

Arrgh!
Sam jolted in place. “You startled me!”

“You did it,” he repeated, moving to her side.

Her gaze went back to the now-extinguished candle. “I did it.” Holy Apa Dobrý! She’d done it!

“And the candle base didn’t even move!”

“That was...so easy.” Sam couldn’t believe her own words, but it was true.

“Now you’re being cocky.” A crooked smile lifted Hikuro’s handsome features.

She laughed openly and he chuckled back.

She leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the mouth. “Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

She pulled away, but his hand cupped the back of her neck and brought her lips back to his. “I know a couple of ways you can repay me.”

Sam held her breath. A jam session was taking place in her chest.

Hikuro bent down and brushed his lips against hers. They felt soft and incredibly warm. His tongue slid inside her mouth, inviting hers for a delicious dance. She accepted the invitation, with pleasure. One of his hands massaged her scalp while the other caressed her thigh. The way he grabbed her hair and sucked on her tongue was simply mind-blowing. So, she returned his kiss with all she had, giving him everything she’d once thought of supressing. But she wanted more. She wrapped her arms around Hikuro’s neck and slid over onto his lap, straddling him. He let out a delicious moan when their bodies met. Yes, she wanted that, she wanted him so much. But was she really ready? Could she risk it?

“Don’t waste focus, my love,” he whispered, licking the skin along her throat. His voice was husky and dark. “I want you, Sam.”