Carry Me Home Tonight

We were flying back to Baltimore to head home. Kenzie was finally well enough to travel. Her hand though, was going to be out of commission for a while so it can heal. I felt so bad for her to be so limited on what she could do, but at least she was alive.
The flight was long. It felt like ages had passed. I was starved from giving Kenzie doses of my blood to help her hand heal. I was exhausted while we were flying, trying so hard to keep myself in control.

“Alex,” Kenzie whispered, “You need to feed. You won’t last through the flight.”

“I’ll be fine,” I told her, “I can wait until we land. I can get you to your uncle’s before I go hunt.”

“Alex,” she pulled me over so I had my head on her shoulder, “You need to feed. Take a little from me. I’ll stop you when you’ve had enough.”

“No,” I pulled away from her, “I won’t do it.”

“Alex,” she gritted her teeth, “You have to. You have no other option.”

“Just do it you big baby,” Jack turned around in his seat, “I’ll pry you off if she can’t get you off.”

I groaned and gave in. I drew my fangs and bit into her jugular. I was careful not to nick the artery, I didn’t want her to bleed out in a mess, making it where I’d have to sacrifice more blood to heal her. And she tasted divine. She was sweet but savory. It was a perfect balance and the best blood I had ever tasted. Maybe I could learn to control my urges by using Kenzie as a familiar.

No. That’s a bad idea. Why did I even think that? The instant I get a familiar, that’ll be the instant that Kenzie is in danger. Other vampires love to take familiars away from other vampires. I can’t afford to lose Kenzie.

“That’s enough, Alex,” Kenzie tapped my shoulder. Surprisingly, I let go without a fight. I did it. I conquered my bloodlust. I pricked my tongue and spread my blood onto the bite marks to get them to heal up quickly.

“Good job,” Jack praised me as I sat back in my seat, “Maybe we can trust you on blood bags now.”

“I don’t want to push it,” I told him, “I’ll stick to animals.”
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When we finally landed in Baltimore, I was happy to be off the plane and back home. What made it even better was to have Kenzie with us. She was getting better in the sense of her emotional turmoil. She was smiling and laughing more around me. Given it wasn’t because of me and more of Jack being funny. It was still nice to hear her laugh. I had almost forgotten what it sounded like to hear her laugh.

“I am starved from that flight,” Kenzie groaned lightly.

“I’ll cook you something to eat when we get to your uncle’s,” I told her, “Then we can get you unpacked and settled in.”

With that, we got our things from the luggage claim and made our way to my car. Jack took the back so Kenzie could ride shotgun. On the walk, Kenzie about fainted from her exhaustion, so Jack had to feed her a bit of his blood to help her get to the car. Hopefully we weren’t getting her addicted to our blood like so street drug.

When we got to the house, I fussed over making sure she was okay. But I stopped at the doorway to her uncle’s house. Just to pause for a moment. I wanted to wait, even though I had an invite. But the invite was compelled. I wanted a normal invitation.

“Alex come inside,” Jack urged, “You were already invited in.”

“But under compulsion,” I argued, “I want a real invitation. I feel like an intruder.”

“Alex,” Kenzie looked at me with a smirk, “Will you do me the honor of coming inside?”

“I would be honor,” I smirked and walked over the threshold. I went wide eyed for a second.

“What’s the matter,” Kenzie asked.

“I feel,” I searched my mind for a moment to get the right word out, “Happy. I feel happiness.”
I started to smile and laugh for real. It had been far too long since I felt happy. I reveled in the feelings. I pick Kenzie up and spun around in a circle with her, just smiling and laughing. I was so overjoyed by feeling happiness, it was unreal. I was getting better. But there was an emotion I had hoped would come with it, but it never came. I frowned and set Kenzie down as I realized it.

“It’s still not here,” I said sullenly.

“Love will come in time,” Kenzie rubbed my shoulder before pulling me into a warm hug and kissed my cheek a couple times, “You need to patient, okay.”

“But I can’t be patient,” I sighed heavily, “You love me, and I can’t feel love yet. I know that it’s what I have for you, feelings wise. But I don’t feel it.”

“Maybe if you channel lust,” Jack offered, “Maybe lust can bring it back.”

“What are you suggesting,” I asked him.

“He thinks if we have sex it’ll come back,” Kenzie clarified, “To me, having sex is the embodiment of love. Maybe if you felt lust, it’d wake love up in your emotions and everything will turn back on.”

“It seems risky,” I argued.

“I need to get laid,” Kenzie took hold of my hands, “And so do you. We’re going to do it once I have more strength, okay. We can see if thinking about it can trigger love to turn on.”

Kenzie had a good point. I was on a long dry spell in the sex department. I had wanted to have sex with her five years ago, but held off since I was her teacher at the time. Now that I was her boyfriend, I guess, I was allowed to have sex with her. Lust is something that doesn’t turn off. Desire is key to a vampire’s survival. The seven deadly sins are the only emotional centers that remain on when all the other emotions are off. Maybe lust can help me get everything back.

I want to turn all back on. I need it. I don’t want to lose Kenzie to my lack of emotion.

Notes