This excerpt is from chapter 10 of Obsidian:
“I suppose I should be glad your
eyes looked at the ring on the night stand and not the dagger on the dresser,”
he said. He practically spat the word dagger at her.
“I don’t want to kill you, Tom,”
Ava said, backing away towards the bathroom.
“I don’t want to kill you either,
Ava.”
“No, you just want to change me,
which is pretty much the same thing.”
“I only wanted to protect you.”
“Well, I can protect myself. Your
protection is not what I would consider convenient. Becoming a vampire is not
in my five year plan.”
“And becoming a fugitive is?” Tom
raised his voice a little. Ava backed up another step. “I’m sorry, I didn’t
mean to startle you. Go ahead and put your ring on if it will make you feel
better. I’m only here to talk; I wouldn’t try to change you on the boat. I
didn’t bring any blood with me and I’m sure you wouldn’t want your friends as a
snack. Oh, and you guys should tie your feather pennant a little tighter next
time,” he said.
Ava went for her ring. She thought
it would push him away from her, but it didn’t. He still stood only a few feet
away. She looked at him. He looked very calm.
“Why isn’t this ring pushing you
away?”
“I have to mean you harm or you
have to be afraid of me. I mean you no harm and you are a little afraid of me.
I can feel its force, but you must trust me a little because it’s not pushing
me through the window or anything.”
“What did you come to talk about?
I’m not coming with you. You can’t change my mind.”
“I came to tell you that Hiu has
been branded a slayer and as his accomplice you are in danger. The other two
are in danger as well. I can protect you if you just let me change you, Ava.”
“We’re fine, we have rings and
daggers. We’ll be fine.”
“You don’t understand, they will
send the drudges after you. Those rings only protect you from vampires, not
humans,” Tom said, raising his voice again.
“We can handle humans. I can’t
just leave them, Tom. They are my friends. They are my family,” Ava
corrected herself, “And I’m staying with them. I will not abandon them and if
you succeed in changing me someday I will not drink one drop of human blood. I
refuse to cause my kind harm.”
“If I change you, and you do not
drink blood you will die. You will have to drink human blood at first in order
to stay alive.”
“Then I guess I’ll die if you
change me. That’s all there is to it,” Ava said stubbornly.
“You will drink blood.
After a while you will get so weak that you won’t be able to think straight,
you will drink blood thinking its water. I’ve seen it happen.”
“No, I won’t do it. I’m very
strong willed and I’ll make sure of it. I’ll drive an obsidian blade through my
own heart before I would drink human blood.”
“I’m not going to argue with you
right now, Ava. I just wanted to tell you that they have yours and Hiu’s
picture and they’ve already sent it out to all Psytech employees. I don’t know
if the loners are aware of you yet, but they will be soon enough. Even the
rogues might want to kill you just to get on the Emperor’s good side.”
“I have no idea what you are
talking about,” Ava said. “This is all gibberish to me.”
“All you need to know is that all
vampires and their drudges are going to be after you. You must especially avoid
all Psytech buildings,” Tom warned.
“Vampires can’t hurt us, not with
these,” Ava said, gesturing to her ring.
“The human drudges can, and they
will. This is just the sort of thing that could get them accepted into the
guardianship.”
“What is that?”
“Drudges are humans that have had
the guts to seek out vampires in determination to become one. The vampires see
them as very brave and put them through a training period. If they pass the
training period they become our guardians.”
“Oh, so, killing one of us would
be like an initiation test.”
“Yes, I guess you could put it
that way,” Tom replied, shrugging.
“Well, I’m still not worried. We
can take care of ourselves.”
“Ava, I just want you to be safe.
Please, come with me,” his eyes were pleading and he was leaning towards her.
Her ring kept him from closing the short distance between them. Ava felt
herself ache for his touch, but she pushed past the feeling. She broke her gaze
on him and looked away.
“Why don’t you come with us? Leave
the other vampires. Be with me.” Ava could feel her ring let up on Tom a little.
He felt it too because he came even closer.
“I wish I could, but that would
make things even more dangerous for you and I would be hunted as well. We can’t
be together as long as you are human, Ava,” Tom’s voice was quiet. Ava’s heart
sunk. Their forbidden love was too much for her emotions. She let down her
guard completely and so did the ring. She now trusted him. She trusted him more
than she probably should, but she didn’t care, she wanted to touch him. She
wanted to be in his arms.
Tom opened his arms and she hugged
him. She started to cry and he held her tighter. Then she looked up at him. She
could tell that he was sad too. He was hurting. Ava wanted to take away his
pain. She kissed his lips. First she kissed them tentatively, making sure that
he wanted her kisses. Then, after she decided that he did, she kissed him more
passionately. He kissed her back and his hands moved down her body. They went
down to her lower back.
“This is our only night,” Ava said
between kisses. Then, she looked at his eyes. They were staring right back.
They wanted her. She wanted him. He pushed her down on the bed, gently but
playfully aggressive at the same time. Ava’s ring put out a short burst of
force field, but it ended and Tom kissed her again with a little chuckle. Ava
pulled off Tom’s shirt with a little help from him. Then her robe opened with a
little more help from him. She hadn’t put anything on underneath and Tom’s
excitement grew. His kisses were more and more urgent and one of his hands ran
down her ribcage.
