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Chapter Twenty One
The next morning she got up and carefully extracted herself from the still sleeping Austin. She climbed the stairs quickly and proceeded to take her long overdue hot shower.
When she was finished she dried off and stretched in front of the mirror noticing that her body looked different somehow. She did a closer inspection and realized she was not sporting an ounce of body fat. Of course she hadn’t eaten anything for days, but in that case she should have looked slightly emaciated. Instead she looked as if she’d been hitting the gym.
She stretched again and this time she noticed how incredibly good she felt. Energized was the best she could come up with, but it was more than that.
She tiptoed down the stairs and into the kitchen, peering around the door to the living room to peek at Austin. He was still breathing deeply so she decided now would be a good time to go experiment with a couple of things.
She walked out onto her back patio and looked around. She was fascinated by how much detail she could see, it was like trading a regular TV for one in HD...only more extreme. She could see every vein on every leaf of the large elm tree in the back corner of her yard. There was an opening in the trees to the back field and when she focused on it she could bring the field towards her and look right into the woods well over four hundred yards away.
She fiddled with the "volume" in her ears, and she heard Mrs. Kuwicky from down the street talking on the phone to her sister about a grape festival.
Yup, she thought with a sudden grin. I’m eavesdropper extraordinaire, all right.
She decided it was time to find out about some other things. Like whether or not she could leap on top of buildings. She turned to the garage and tilted her head, assessing how high the inclined metal roof was. Probably around ten feet at the lowest point she thought, then crouched and jumped…a whole five inches. She frowned and decided to try a running leap. No dice. Maybe this wasn't something she could do.
But...she narrowed her eyes and imagined she was being chased by someone. Concentrating everything she had on it, she ran and leapt. She hit the side of the metal incline off balance and pin wheeled her arms, managing to throw her body forward, and then she was sliding down the smooth surface and falling over the side. She landed rather less gracefully than she would've liked, although she did hit feet first, the momentum carried her backwards and she landed on her butt and elbows hard.
If she hadn't immediately looked at the latter, she wouldn't have seen the bloodied scrapes before they faded and were gone.
Oo-kay...she thought her eyes wide, what have I learned? I can leap high, just need some practice. And I can be hurt, but I heal wicked fast. She felt a smile growing on her face.
She heard the screen door open and grinned foolishly up at Austin who was regarding her warily.
"What are you doing?"
"Well," she said still grinning, "I was testing out my new abilities. I just leapt onto the roof! Granted it took a few tries and I fell off...but I did it! And I scraped myself," she held up her unmarked elbows and his brows came together.
"Yeah, I know, nothing there, I watched it heal! Austin I have super powers, I am like...Bat Woman!" She busted out laughing at the cliche then abruptly stopped. "Oh. I really hope that the whole bat thing is a myth, I don't like the idea of that." She wrinkled her nose and laughed again.
He smiled a little uncertainly. "That's...I don't know what to say. This whole thing, wow. I'm glad you're feeling better about it." He shook his head. "Leave it to you to find the bright side so quickly."
She nodded, still smiling, and got to her feet. “I don’t know Austin, I feel great! The whole undead thing is definitely not true…well obviously since I’m still breathing and my heart still beats…but what I mean is, I feel more alive than I ever have! The transition was horrible…no horrible is too mild, it was a fucking nightmare. But it's over and I have to go forward now. Do you know I can hear Mrs. Kuwicki on the phone down the street?"
She nodded as he raised his eyebrows. "And I can see into the woods in the back of the field as if I were standing right in front of it! I had to practice with that stuff on the plane, adjusting my sight like it was a pair of binoculars, my hearing like a volume control, and obviously I have to work on the physical stuff….God, it makes me think of that movie I used to love when I was a kid, you know the one about the teenage super hero academy?" She grinned.
''
He was finally smiling for real, her excitement infectious. He shook his head and chuckled. "Well super woman, what else do you got?" he quirked an eyebrow at her in challenge. '
She loved him so much in that moment. "Hmm. Come with me up to the field, I wanna check out my speed."
They walked up the patio steps and crossed the backyard and at the edge of the field she stopped. She put all of her focus at the tree line of the woods at the far side, and once again added the element of being chased as she leapt forward.
She started out at a normal speed but the more she concentrated the faster she went, the wind hitting her in the face, until she was standing right in front of a large elm. She looked behind her and watched Austin sprinting towards her. She realized she wasn't even out of breath, and judging by the look on his face she had definitely moved pretty quickly.
He put his hands on his thighs breathing hard, staring at her. "You would kick ass in the Olympics."
She threw her head back and laughed before responding. "How fast do you think I ran it?"
He shook his head. "I'd say twenty seconds. You ran four hundred yards in twenty seconds."
She grinned again. "I'm not even winded."
"I see that." He moved his hands to his hips and smiled at her shaking his head. After a moment he straightened up. "So what's next?"
She gave him a wicked smile and came towards him. Grabbing him around the middle she hoisted and he popped off his feet, falling forward over her tiny shoulder. His body was so large his feet only came a few inches off the ground in that position. She had to secure him there by holding tightly to his calves.
"Okay," he said in a voice filled with awe, "you can put me...
She lunged forward and ran with him back to her yard, putting him down when she got to the middle of it.
He staggered back a few feet, and when he regained his balance his eyes narrowed on her. "Don't do that again."
Her smile fractured. "Sorry."
He came forward and picked her up, wrapping her legs around his middle. "I carry you, not the other way around." He told her.
"I am man, hear me roar?" She teased.
He chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, I guess it is a little emasculating to be manhandled by a tiny elf."
The elf comment struck her sideways, bringing the Hobbit movie back to her mind. She leaned in and wrapped her arms around his shoulders hiding the change in her expression. Don't Anna, her inner voice warned, there's no point in dwelling on that kind of stuff right now. She mentally shook it off then kissed him lightly on the neck...which was a huge mistake. Her body immediately went into vampire mode and she stiffened against it.
He felt her do it and froze. "Anna?"
"It's okay, I got a handle on it."
He forced her to look at him and studied her for a minute. "It's something you need, isn't it?"
She sighed. "Yeah. In fact I might be able to go without regular food, but not that."
"You said it doesn't hurt, doesn't affect the other person?"
She shook her head. "Not in my limited experience, anyway."
He carried her inside the house and up to her room, sitting them on the bed. "Take it from me," he said quietly.
She started to shake her head and he stopped her. "I want you to. Please."
He pulled her up on his lap and she kissed him. His eager response excited her and she could feel her mouth changing. She pulled away and went straight to his neck, sinking her teeth in deep. He made a noise and she felt him harden between her thighs.
On impulse she slid her hand inside his pants and grabbed him, stroking as she sucked. He moaned loudly and she pulled harder and faster in both places. His breathing grew rapid and he gripped her hair.
“I’m gonna come,” he groaned in her ear and she felt him spilling all over her hand as he moaned.
She kept up the motion until he stopped jerking, then broke away from his neck and licked it clean watching the marks fade. When she turned back to his face he was staring at her strangely and seemed upset, so she jumped up worrying that she'd hurt him.
"I won't do it again, I'm sorry, I thought it would be okay…
"Anna stop, it's not that. It felt good, all the way around." He took a breath and she waited.
"That guy from the plane.....you did this with him."
His voice was a little flat, and she absorbed the fact that he was not upset about what they'd done, he was angry and hurt by what she'd done.
She picked up a shirt from the floor and cleaned her hand off then handed it to him before sinking down on her knees. She looked up at him, her eyes beseeching. "It wasn't the same thing. I would never have done it, but I was weak and sick and in pain. Every five minutes I was hiding my face in my lap forcing my features back to normal and it was getting harder. He was there, silently flirting with me, I went to the bathroom and he followed, and I just...I was overwhelmed with the need like a person starving on a deserted island. He had more in mind, Austin, I did the other to prevent worse from happening." Her eyes pleaded for his understanding.
He refused to look at her and she thought, of all the things he's had to accept about me in the last twenty-four hours he’s the most distraught over this. Men were funny creatures.
He finally looked at her, his eyes narrowed. "Never again. If you even feel the slightest urge for that, you come to me, I don't care what I'm doing at the time. I don't want you doing that with anyone else."
"Okay," she said in a small voice.
He pulled her up in his lap and stroked her hair. "Don't be upset, I know it's not your fault. Everything you've been through, you don't need a guilt trip from me. I just, I don't like to think about anyone near you in that way."
She cupped his cheeks and kissed him firmly. "I hated what I did. It made me feel cheap and dirty on top of everything else I was feeling."
"All right, let's drop it."
She spent the next several hours working on her physical skills in the backyard. Just like with anything else she got better with practice, and soon she was leaping onto the roof of the house and landing agilely, then jumping from there to the garage to a tree branch. It was absolutely exhilarating.
Austin coached her and cheered her on, watching in equal amazement as some of the injuries she sustained in the beginning faded before both of their eyes. He started calling her the Indestructible Fairy and they argued over her insistence on being called Bat Girl.
"You wear pastels and love the color pink, sorry but your Fairy Girl."
"That is too Disney, I want to be Marvel."
"You'll have to change your wardrobe…although I can't say the idea of you in black leather is unappealing."
She laughed and smacked him playfully.
The sun was going down when Jenna reached the limit of her patience and called. Anna told her to gather the girls and come over, then turned on the outside lights and paced around the patio nervously, letting Austin soothe her with positive thinking.
"They love you, maybe as much as I do, they'll accept you no matter what. They're loyal and trustworthy, you chose your friends well. Besides, I have a way of making people comfortable, and I'm here to help with the dealing."
She nodded but continued pacing.
When they pulled up her stomach instantly knotted. "I think I'm gonna be sick,” she said.
"Come on," he pulled her into his arms, "it'll be fine."
The girls climbed out of the vehicle and gathered around. She turned her face into Austin's chest.
"You tell them," she said, her voice muffled in his shirt.
"Okay, I'll start for you," he whispered.
She kept her head buried in his shirt and he spoke over her head.
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