Read Online The Guest & the Change by M. D. Bowden - Free Book Online

him?’
    ‘Does it have to be only one reason?’ Sebastian said, eyebrows raised .
    ‘How do you know this Daniel?’
    ‘I sired him, as I did you.’
    ‘But he’s no longer under your control.’   Jo said.
    ‘No, you could say that,’ answered Sebastian.
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Hmm, it’s complicated.   He retained too many feelings from his humanity.   You don’t need to worry about it.   Together we can avoid him, he won’t get in our way much.’
    ‘But he   was   in my way.   I wanted her.’
    ‘It was good he was in your way, I planned it like that.   Had you drank her blood, gloried in it, killed her, you would have regretted it later, when this new lust for blood has diluted in intensity.   But now you’ve seen her, you can start processing your feelings.   It won’t be such a shock next time you see her.   Should it be in public for instance. ’
    ‘What are your plans for me?’ asked Jo.
    ‘We’ll see.   We may just take over this little town, one victim at a time.’
    ***
    Sarah, freed from her fear now, pulled back from Daniel and looked into his dark eyes.
    ‘Now I’ve calmed down, will you tell me Daniel?’
    ‘Tell you what, specifically?’
    ‘What’s going on?   What has happened to Jo?   What are you?   Why are you here?’
    Daniel gripped her face between his hands, ‘I’m here because I want to protect you.   I feel for you.   You, you do something to me.   Jo is a vampire, a new vampire.   Someone has turned him.’ And intently he looked at her. ‘It was not me, I did not do it.   But I suspected something like this.   I am following someone, trying to stop things like this happening.   I am different.’
    ‘What are you Daniel?’
    ‘I, I am a vampire too.’
    As he said it he pulled away and leant back against the sofa.
    Sarah looked at Daniel.   She couldn’t take it all in - she trusted him, but it was all too much, and her attraction to him was obscuring logical thought.
    ‘What can we do?   Will he be after me, my family?
    ‘I don’t know.’
    They sat in silence for a long while.   Sarah kept seeing Jo, snarling, bloody and deranged.   It was like he was with them, in the living room.   She felt as though he was angry at her.   As though she deserved it for being with someone else.   For feeling for someone else.   Daniel.   A vampire.   She pushed all thoughts from her mind.   She couldn’t deal with any of it.   She pushed Jo away, refused to see him snarling again.   She pushed the notion of vampires away.   She would think about it later.   One more question first.  
    ‘Is the mythology true?   Do vampires have to be invited in?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Even to their home they used to live in?’
    ‘Yes.’
    Sarah watched his arms as he reached out for her.   She reached for his hair; it was smooth and silky beneath her fingers.   She felt reckless, it didn’t matter how she behaved now.   Everything was in ruins.
    She ran her fingers across his jaw, to his lips.   She stared into his dark eyes.   Her heart twisted, and once again she pushed out doubts, images.   Daniel was here, and he was in front of her.   They were here together.   Vampire?   She traced her hands down his neck, to his chest, and felt his heart beating.   He was real.   He was solid, full of life.   His eyes full of heat, desire.   Desire for her, or for her blood?
    He moved his hands back to her face and locked eyes, ‘It’s you, I will not hurt you.’   Sarah looked into his eyes as he leant in and kissed her on the lips, gently.   He pulled her body closer and their kiss deepened.   Her body ignited with tingles and flames.   She felt alive in his embrace.   As though this was where she was meant to be.   As though this was why she existed.   She swung her left leg over him to wrap her body as close as she could to his.   He ran his hands over her hair and kissed her cheekbones, her eyes, his kisses moving down to her neck.   With