Bite Me If You Can Read online

Page 2


  Then the alternative whispered in my ear in the form of the professor’s voice, “To utilize your strength for good. To help rid the world of all dangerous creatures.”

  I stood up and called, “Elaine, I’m going for my coffee break. Watch my desk, please.”

  Whistling to prove I wasn’t afraid, I acknowledged with friendly hellos all the people I passed.

  In “The Best Brew” coffee shop, I sat in a booth overlooking English Bay, watching the lights of different boats blinking from the water. I held a coffee cup in my hand, thinking about when to call the professor and tell him the good news. He would be overjoyed.

  Sipping at my coffee, a breeze lifted my hair from my neck. A gentle breeze. A shiver ran up my spine.

  “Vance Rapier. I wish you would warn me when you were going to be joining me.”

  There was a gust of laughter on the other side of my table. Vance sat with a cup of coffee, his eyes shining with amusement. “You are a particularly entertaining adversary, my dear.”

  His laugh tingled through me. “Did I hear you correctly? Did you say adversary? Have I missed something?”

  My eyes adjusted to the dimly lit room, and I could see Vance’s jacket matched his hair. He wore a ring on his left hand that glittered bright yellow, like the boats on the water. A beacon in the dark in case I lost sight of his nocturnal figure.

  He slid his hands towards me across the table. “I was joking. You look puzzled. What is it you people say? A dinner for your thoughts.”

  “What?”

  “Have dinner with me, now, tonight.” He purred, and I almost said yes.

  Luckily, I remembered. “No, I can’t. Thanks anyway. I’m working tonight.”

  “Too bad. I presumed you would like dinner so I made a reservation in a nice restaurant.” He stared again. “I have the bad habit of presuming.”

  “I don’t think I would use the word presume to describe one of your personality traits. A better word would be – overwhelming.”

  His crash of laughter resounded in my ears.

  My stomach flip-flopped and turned over. I took a deep breath. “Does that mean I’m wrong?”

  He moved closer to me over the table, to take my hands back, and blew in my ear.

  I gasped. “Vance. You are presuming again. I don’t let any man get so familiar with me, especially when I hardly know him.”

  Powerless to remove my hands from his, my heart beating fast and my toes tingling, I tried to remember how I’d met this man. I shook my head in an attempt to clear my thoughts. But there was nothing I could do at this moment.

  His eyes gleamed with burning intensity and pulled me into their depth. I thought I might drown and fought as though to save my soul.

  “You seem reluctant to become better acquainted with me.” He stroked my cheek with a cool long finger. “I suppose I can be overwhelming at times.”

  I replied in a desperate whisper, once more caught in his eyes. “Why this interest in me? A man like you must know a lot of women.” I listened to what I had said and hoped my voice didn’t show any need to escape him. I wanted to get away and to have him stop touching me. My will power weakened each moment I spent with him.

  He flashed his teeth. In the dim lighting, I saw the image of longer teeth, similar to fangs flashed, only for a brief moment. “You do underestimate yourself. You have power, and some day you will be using it, hopefully not against me.”

  His words flattered me, but I suspected there was more to this game. His scent, voice, and touch spoke of promises of feelings I wanted to avoid.

  He sat back and shrugged his shoulders. “It would save a lot of time if you said you would go out for dinner with me, tomorrow night. I happen to know you have the evening off. You’ll enjoy yourself.”

  Taking my hand away from him, I sat back in my chair. That way I was out of his strong aura. I picked up my purse and made motions to leave the table. Patting my mouth with a napkin, pushing my coffee cup away, pulling my jacket tighter around me, I smirked at his self-assured attitude. “You flatter yourself ... , and how did you know I had tomorrow night off?”

  I blinked and saw he had moved behind me. Great, not only was he overwhelming my senses, he was a cat hunting a mouse.

  As I stood, he pulled the chair away, and with a hand on my elbow walked me out the door of the coffee shop.

  I admitted to myself his old world manners appealed to me. His personality and moods fascinated me. I wanted to know more about him.

  I learned my own capabilities from the experience of knowing him. My instincts told me to rise to the challenge and take the guy on. My feelings about him also included anger. He shouldn’t be allowed to rule the world and use human beings like toys and little pets. What exactly was he doing?

  The realization he might be so powerful that he could be more than human stopped me. Did that mean I wasn’t human either?

  “Ah, my little Ivy,” a deep sexy voice said in my ear. “You are beginning to understand the exciting life destiny has planned for you.”

  Helpless and unwilling to struggle against Vance, I walked arm in arm with him into the warm night. We were like characters in a classic movie.

  From nowhere, a funny-looking large raccoon stepped into our pathway. It hissed and ran into the bushes.

  Vance pulled me away. “Those damn were-raccoons. Where are they when you need a snack?”

  * * * *

  Later, sitting at my desk in the library, my thoughts lingered on the latest events of my life. I rose to consciousness in time to notice my fellow coworkers sneaking glances at me.

  I should have expected it. When I first arrived at the library that day, I decided I needed to move my desk and the large shelves with books on them to a different area. A woman my size undertaking such a job is unlikely. Within ten minutes, I had lifted and moved it all. It astonished my coworkers. I blamed preoccupation on my part. Kind of mind over matter.

  In the past few hours, somehow I had learned to read people’s minds. Some thoughts were little and terrifying. Another power I would have to mention to the professor.

  I had to think about more important things. I also liked to think about Vance, his mind, and, last but not least, his tall, lanky body and what he looked like without clothes. Not exactly the thoughts of a normal librarian, but I wasn’t normal. I liked the thought of exceeding in power and hoped to experience more.

  * * * *

  The next morning, I awoke early and remembered my dinner date with Vance Rapier. I couldn’t recall consenting to our dinner date. Another presumption on his part.

  After a workout at the gym, I came home for lunch and decided to have a nap. I was reading a new novel from the library called “Desire” and drifted off to sleep.

  The dark stranger kneaded her breasts, and she moaned for more, leaning her back against a wall, her hands clutching his shoulders. The flesh on his broad shoulders was warm and sizzling to her touch. He growled loud and hotly kissed her lips. He sucked and flicked his tongue on her nipples, driving her to heights of spasms of orgasms, one after the other, again and again.

  She whispered and begged, “More ... more ... touch me ... touch me everywhere.” His fingers slid down her belly as though she was made of silk. She quivered as he reached her center of contortions and entered his thumb inside her vagina. At the same time, another finger gently touched her clitoris. She cried out in paralyzed delight, a wave of pleasure surging through her body, until she arched her back, held in suspended ecstasy.

  He sucked at her breasts and drove her to think she had lost her mind, at the same time feeling his hands stroking all over her body. “Now you will be mine.” She saw his penis, large and pulsating between her legs, ready to enter her....”

  I struggled to wake up, stretching my body, lying in my bed with eyes wide open. A wave of frustration flushed over me. I remembered the dream. The dark stranger I knew was Vance. And I was the woman. He had slipped away out of my dream.

  My c
at, Calvin Klein, snuggled in the bed with me. He watched me, purring with the soothing attitude of a cat. As soon as I threw the blankets back and reached for my kimono, he ran out of the bedroom and, as usual, waited in the kitchen by his empty food dish.

  I loved my funny cat, so regimented in his habits, and yet so independent about what he wanted for himself.

  After I put food in his dish, he made a quick job of consuming it. I patted him while he ate. “You get your own way because you’re so handsome, my pet.”

  He looked up at me with large green eyes and licked the sides of his mouth, then returned to munch more sliced beef with gravy.

  “You remind me of someone, but his eyes aren’t green.”

  My happiness cheered up the grocery store clerks and the fitness instructor at the spa. He seemed to be confused. My cheerfulness was unusual in the mornings.

  No one knew what an exciting dream I’d had the night before.

  In the afternoon, I napped on my bed. At first, I lay there thinking about the events in my life in the past few weeks.

  Professor Shute would be pleased to learn that I had decided to take on the job of vampire hunting/slaying.

  I knew something was happening to me, but I still refused to full accept my new vocation. I needed a good shove in the right direction.

  My idea to take each day at a time seemed best. In the next moment, there was a knock on the door. The last person I expected stood on the threshold, books in hand.

  “Professor Shute.”

  He looked his usual rumpled self. “Excuse me. I hope I’m not disturbing you. I had to come and see that you’re all right.”

  “You’re not disturbing me at all. It’s great to see you.” I thought his remark ironic as I had enough troubles with one man disturbing me.

  I gestured behind me. “Please come in. I wanted to talk with you.”

  We sat on the sofa after I made some coffee for him. He gulped it down black and strong, put the empty cup carefully onto the saucer to clatter them down on the side table.

  He scrunched his eyes and took off his glasses to wipe them with a sadly yellow stained handkerchief. Whether his effort improved his vision was debatable. He still narrowed his eyes as he peered at me.

  “You need anything, Professor?”

  “Please call me Nevil. I feel old when you call me Professor.”

  “Nevil. Are you feeling all right?”

  His hands shook, and he had a problem hooking his glasses behind his ears. “It’s nice that you’re concerned about me. I’m managing fine. I sometimes wonder how ancient I’ll feel in ten years. Too many years involved in things in the past, archeology, anthropology, all antiquities have influenced me body and soul ... but never mind that. We have more important things on our mind today, don’t we?” He patted my arm, reminding me of my grandfather when I was a child.

  It hurt me to see a man not really old aging at such an unnatural speed. To my mind, the professor had delved into things I’m sure he wished he could forget.

  “Are you telepathic, Nevil?” I don’t now how I came to ask that question. I served him a cookie.

  He munched the cookie thoughtfully, examining it closely after one bite. “Mmm, good. Chocolate chip.” He looked at the cookie and then at me. “Yes. I am. You are getting better at your powers, aren’t you? There isn’t much I can help you with in that department, I’m afraid. But I had a dream that you had met a stranger, the same man more than once.”

  When I told Nevil about meeting Vance, he seemed to shake even more. I gave him a glass of water.

  “Coffee is sometimes bad for me.” He gulped down the water as he had the coffee. “Please, Ivy, be very careful with Vance Rapier. I sense he’s from a faraway land and is here to take something back with him. Something vital and important to our cause.”

  I fiddled with my napkin and munched on a cookie, biting hard and nearly swallowing without chewing. “I do have a dinner date with him tonight.”

  “Your feeling for him is strong. Be careful of his power.”

  “Yes, Nevil. Vance is a magnetic man, possibly a vampire, but I need to know exactly what he is. I feel it’s my destiny.”

  I avoided looking at the troubled look on Nevil’s face.

  “Oh my dear.” He took my hand. “How I wish things were different so that I didn’t have to leave all this responsibility to you.”

  “It’s okay, Nevil.” I didn’t tell Nevil that I thought I was falling for Vance. It ate at my heart that my relationship with Vance could turn into nothing but a nightmare rather than a dream come true.

  “I worry about letting you take this on with him.”

  “You forget that I have powers now, too. Each hour I discover some new strength I didn’t have before. I’ll be careful.”

  He stood up and brushed off his old jacket. “Well, since you’ve decided to investigate this Vance fellow, I expect this means you are pursuing your natural talents as a vampire trapper.”

  He went to the door and opened it. “And remember, I’ll always be available if you need advice and help.”

  I kissed him lightly on the cheek and thanked him. He blinked a few times to look at me, then turned to disappear down the walkway.

  After I closed the door, I flopped on the sofa to process through my mind the recent happenings in my life.

  Even a good analyst would have refused me as a client.

  * * * *

  “You take my breath away, my sweet butterfly.” Vance took off his dark glasses when I opened the door after hearing the sound of bells.

  I looked around the frame of the door. “Did I hear chimes?”

  “A little atmosphere music to begin our first date.” He opened his hand to me. “A gift for you.” It was the most gorgeous golden rose necklace. When I took it I saw it was a locket. I opened the locket. In it there was a minute red rose appliqué, the chimes played a piece of music I knew to be “You are my only one”.”

  “Oh Vance. It’s so beautiful. But you didn’t need to bring me a gift.”

  He smiled knowingly and gave me a gentle hug. “Of course, I did.”

  The smell that wafted from him filled my nostrils with dreams of woods and a soft patch of grass. Room enough for the two of us. Sun dappling through the tree branches. Perhaps a few birds chirping sweetly and those bells Vance had brought to help set the tone for our love nest. Then, the final touch with both of us in the altogether, a bottle of wine, and some grapes and cheese. Not that we needed anything except each other. But it was an exquisite idea.

  Vance lifted his head and sniffed. “Ah, my little Ivy smells delicious, like musk and Soya oil. My favorite salad dressing.”

  “You eat salad?” The man was amazing.

  He snorted. “Why yes, of course, what do you think I eat?”

  I knew I should be sweet but decided to be honest.

  I leaned against the door frame in my tight and revealing black dress. “Why blood, of course.” The glib tone in my voice caused him to look at me with a question on his face, rapidly changing to a wide grin. The roar of laughter from Vance would have raised the birds from the trees where they were chirping. Except it was late evening.

  “Ivy, Ivy, Ivy.” He took my hand and pulled me close to him, into the zone of danger radiating sensually from his body to mine. “You are so delightful and will be a lovely addition to my world.”

  Okay, I told myself. Best to let that remark settle in my mind for now.

  “Your world? Is your world different from my world?”

  “Stop asking so many questions. Come with me. I want to take you for a scrumptious dinner.”

  Uneasy as I was, I managed to ask levelly, “How exciting. By the way, what’s the name of the restaurant?” Maybe I should write it on a piece of paper to leave behind in case I disappeared.

  Vance helped me wrap a shawl around my shoulders. “I want it to be surprise.” Walking to his silver car, he held my arm in his. Somehow I didn’t expect his body to be so
warm against mine. My strong attraction to him made it difficult to remember the name of the restaurant where we were going to dinner, even if he did tell me.

  His nearness befuddled my brain, as usual. The professor would have to tell me how to put the brakes on such a thing ever happening again with any other man. My confusion about Vance had more to it than the sexual attraction. My telepathic talents picked up some feelings of a connection between he and I.

  * * * *

  “You’ve never tasted anything like the food at Ivan’s.” He drove his black/blue SUV through the busy streets, staring more at me then concentrating on the streets. He seemed in control of his driving and the traffic. Another feat for Mr. Vance Rapier.

  “You’re thinking about something, Ivy.” He slowed down, found a parking spot on the street.

  I spoke with an edge of hurt ego bruised under his casual observation. “It’s hard to believe, but I catch myself at it quite often.”

  He pulled my door open and, with his hand on my elbow, escorted me out of the car. “Are you referring to your brain? I do like your eyes when you’re angry. They spark green flashes the color of evergreens rippled with sunlight.”

  I detected a slight sigh and saw softness in his face and eyes. As I lost myself in his eyes, his arms wrapped around me, and he drew me close. The hardness of his body brought me to realizing how much I wanted him every minute I was awake and in every dream when I was sleeping. My reluctance to his sensuality was weakening. I could feel the hardness below his waist. particularly when he leaned in to kiss me gently on the lips. He turned me in his arms to guide me towards a small house in a lovely setting of trees. There were dim lights on the pathway and a small sign saying, “Ivan’s Restaurant”.

  Inside, the house lighting was so low it took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust. I found myself seated across a small candle lit table from Vance. More candle lit tables with couples interspersed through the room, most couples holding hands, lip kissing and whispering to each other, eyes deep with passion. One woman held her lover’s hand against her breast, delving under her low cut dress. He looked fascinated and a puppet to her wishes.