On sunset of the next night Aidan awoke ravenously hungry. He hadn’t felt like this since he’d first become a vampire. He tried to push the sensation aside, but it stubbornly refused to go away. It wasn’t long before he heard Shauna’s footsteps coming closer. He closed his eyes against the lantern light, far too bright after the pitch darkness. She set down the lantern and asked her nightly question. “Well vampire, have you decided to tell me yet?”

Aidan gave her the same response. “I can’t tell you what I don’t know.” This is becoming a kind of weird ritual, he thought.

She sat down just a few feet from him, and Aidan was suddenly hyperaware of her. He could hear her heart beating. He could smell the scent of her blood; hear it rushing through her veins. He could hear every breath she took. His hunger surged to the front of his consciousness, and he pushed it back down with great difficulty. She seemed to be aware of the intensity of his gaze. Her blue-gray eyes locked onto his. “What are you staring at?”

He closed his eyes and turned his head aside. “Nothing,” he gritted through clenched teeth.

“What’s it like to be a vampire?” The question was sudden and unexpected. Aidan seized on the chance to distract his mind from his hunger.

“It isn’t really all that different, at least for me. I do most of the same things I did when I was alive.”

“But you don’t eat normal food anymore, do you?”

“No.”

“Do you miss it?”

He considered. “Sometimes I do, a little bit. But mostly I don’t.”

“What’s it like, drinking blood?”

This isn’t doing a very good job of keeping my mind off food, he thought. “It’s hard to describe. It isn’t really like anything else.”

Shauna leaned closer to Aidan. She reached out one hand and touched his cheek, softly. “You’re warm. That surprised me when I carried you here, you know. I expected a vampire to be cold, like a corpse.”

He closed his eyes and tried to ignore her bloodsmell. She was so close, too close. He was suddenly glad that he was tied up or he might have done something he would have regretted a great deal afterward. He managed to get a grip on himself and answered her. “Yes. That’s one of the legends that isn’t true. Not all of them are.”

“What about the legends that say…” She stopped and seemed to be embarrassed. “Well, they say that vampires are incredible lovers.”

Aidan blushed. That wasn’t what he’d expected her to ask about. “I, uh…” He didn’t know what to say. His eyes were still closed, but he heard her move closer. The bloodsmell grew even stronger. Then he felt her lips brush his and they were kissing. Her kiss was passionate and deep and for a moment another kind of hunger rose up. He almost gave into it, but the memory of Flame Song suddenly brought him to his senses.

Aidan turned his head aside violently, breaking off the kiss. “No!” He found himself panting, gasping for breath as if his lungs still needed air.

Shauna looked at him with shock written on her face. “No,” he repeated. “I can’t, I won’t.”

Shauna still looked at him with that expression of total surprise. He wondered if it was surprise because he’d stopped things, or because she’d started them. “What is it?” she asked. “Why? If you wanted to get free, you might actually have gotten me to do it.”

He found he was shaking. He took one more deep breath, trying to steady himself. “Two reasons: One, if you had freed me, starving as I am right now, I probably would have done something we both would regret very much. But more importantly, I simply can’t. I would be betraying my wife.”

Her eyes widened ever further. “Wife? You’re married?”

Aidan nodded.

“Why on earth would anybody marry a vampire?” Shauna burst out.

“Well, I wasn’t a vampire at the time, but I honestly think my Flame Song would have married me anyway. She’s dealt with the whole vampire business a lot better than I have, that’s for sure.”

Shauna scowled darkly. “And how do I know that you’re not lying again?” Her face was burning, and Aidan realized that she was humiliated by his rejection. Great, he thought, now she hates me personally, as well as for being a vampire. “You probably are lying.” Her eyes were blazing as she said it. “I can’t trust you at all. I’m not going to bring you any food, and I don’t even know if I’ll come back. Maybe I should just leave you here to rot!”

She grabbed the lantern and stormed out. That’s getting to be a habit, thought Aidan wryly. I always manage to make her storm off angry. Well now I guess that’s done it. It’s curtains for me for sure. I wonder how long it takes a vampire to die of starvation?