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Author's Chapter Notes:

Vela and Leo make their way into the mountains. This chapter is mostly focused on character development. It's very dialog heavy and gets into the growing relationship between Leo and Vela. 

Chapter Three: Traveling Light


At first, Leo was completely taken by the experience of blasting through the woods nestled in between Vela’s breasts. After a while of watching the blur of trees race past at flight speed, however, Leo began to feel a shiver from the constant, steady rush of wind blowing in his face. That said, Vela’s breasts actually seemed to have gotten warmer since Leo had last... encountered them, and it wasn’t just from being warmed by his own body heat. Vela seemed to be producing some of her own. He wriggled his hips a little in an effort to get deeper between the soft mounds.


As he accomplished his task, something that the strange man, Green, had said back at the cottage occurred to him. Vela’s breasts were soft; they were heavenly soft. Leo had enjoyed many soft touches from the hyper-capable, ‘killer’ vampire. But Green had commented on how hard her skin was to impacts. He complained about broken fingers, even. He had said something about it resembling striking an oak tree. Leo thought more about it and recalled that the man had drawn the conclusion that Vela must be very old from the hardness of her body. Leo looked up. Vela’s face was pointed straight ahead, but her pink eyes were darting every which way, taking in the precarious landscape she was bolting through like quicksilver.


“Vela?” Leo said barely below a shout.


“Hmm?” Vela replied. Her chest vibrated with the vocalization behind Leo’s back.


“Back there, at the cottage,” Leo began.


“No need to strain your voice, little bell, I can hear you ring.” Leo chuckled.


“Oh, alright. I just thought with the rushing wind.”


“I can filter that out. It’s white noise. Your voice is much more dynamic. What’s on your mind?”


“Ah. Well. That’s nice. I’d rather not travel in silence if we don’t have to.” Leo wasn’t usually a chatterbox, but he was very keen on learning more about his benefactor. “Back at the cottage, Green said you must be very old based on the hardness of your body.”


“And he was quite correct in his assessment. The man is very astute.”


“How would he know that?”


“From having hit me. I imagine it sent a shock through the handle of his wand.”


“No, I mean, how would he know your toughness was an indicator of age?”


“Oh, I don’t know. He was a fool to think he could fight me. Otherwise I’d say he had experience with my kind. Maybe he knew he’d lose and just liked the sport. Maybe he’s well read.” Leo realized she had misunderstood the question. He rephrased:


“That’s not what I mean. How can one tell—or approximate— the age of a vampire by the hardness of her body?”


“Ah-h-h. I understand,” she began. She appeared to ponder for a moment. “You thought vampires began as humans. Green seemed to know better. That would be the origin of your confusion, but I see that the correction of that ignorance has given birth to a new folly. I was never a human, but I was not always as I am now.” Leo was very interested to hear more. He realized he knew almost nothing about vampires. Who better to teach him?


“What’s the, um, lifecycle like, then?”


“Less of a cycle. More of a line. You’ll learn as we go. But I can share some now. We aren’t made but born.”


“Well I assumed that much seeming as you weren’t ‘turned.’”


“Good, true. We are born much like you. If you’re born much like humans.”


“We are born exactly like humans.”


“Then we are born much like you. When we are born, we are very much alive. All of our organ systems serve a purpose. We are warmer, softer. We can even tolerate sunlight for a few years.”


“Wow, really? I guess I assumed you’d never seen the sun.”


“No, I’ve seen it. I loved it. I miss it. We all miss the sun. We long to see him again,” she said with a hint of sadness.


“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to...” She placed a hand on her chest and caressed Leo against it before pulling it away again.


“It’s alright, little flame. This is a sadness not unlike all beings share in some way.” Leo wasn’t sure he understood what she meant. Maybe he would in time. She continued. “Once, I was a little girl. I was soft and warm and pink, like you! Little ones can take solid food, but we already thirst for blood. We need a lot of it to grow. Eventually, as we grow, our bodies become colder and harder. At a certain age, we experience a change. It’s different for all. I was nine thousand days old exactly. It was very lucky. My elders were thrilled.” Leo did some hasty math. He wasn’t good at math. Somewhere in her twenties?


“Once we change, we can no longer bear the sun. It begins to hurt us more and more for years before the change. After it occurs, it would kill us in seconds. Then we are vampires. We are of the night. But the change is only the beginning. We continue to cool. To harden. Our thirst abates. We need less blood. I can go many weeks without it. It’s much simpler than the needs of a young body.” She looked down at Leo briefly and smiled. “I like being old! But I’m glad I haven’t completely banished hunger, or I would have missed meeting you!”


“Wow. Yeah, I’m glad too!” Leo said. “I had no idea about all that. That you were so... complex.” His mind turned back to the cottage, and he could picture Green’s hand shaking after he’d sent Vela careening through the wall. “How... old are you? If you don’t mind my asking.”


“Not at all. I’m eighty thousand, nine hundred and ninety-seven days old.”


“That’s, um... in years?” Vela laughed.


“Almost two hundred twenty-two. My birthday is soon!” She exclaimed. Leo was shocked. He knew she had to be old, but he could never have imagined just how old this beautiful, seemingly youthful, exuberant woman could really be. He was in utter awe at her years. So many experiences.


“What about you? How old are you, Leo?”


“Just turned thirty-nine,” he said meekly.


“And you don’t look a day over twenty. But I’m only used to looking at humans these days.” Leo chuckled. He supposed it was all relative.


“Me too. And by their standards, you look about the same.” He thought in silence for a while, then asked. “Vela, why don’t you feel hard?”


“You’ve never tried hitting me,” was all she said. He wasn’t sure he understood. Perhaps the hardness was just under the skin. He pressed against her soft flesh. It was just as supple and forgiving as deep as he could manage to tell. He shrugged.


“Nope. Nor will I. You’re very warm tonight, but the way.” Vela made a strange face.


“Th- thank you, Leo.” She loved being called warm. She never felt warm as far as she was concerned. Not compared to him. It was like the sun complimenting the brightness of a lantern. “Even my body generates some heat while running for so long. And it helps that I’m full of human blood.” Leo looked around. They were in the mountains now. He could see some tufts of snow here and there. He had no idea how far his town lied from the mountains.


“Are we just going until we find another town?” He asked.


“We’ll go until we find the right town. That could be the next town. But I don’t know.”


“How far have we gone?” Vela slowed down to a jog and then stopped.


“One hundred seventeen thousand, eight hundred fifty-five steps.”


“Vela...”


“Miles?”


“Miles.”


“About... one hundred twenty-one and a half. We still have a few hours of night left. Are you tired?” Leo’s head spun. He’d never been out of town. And the town was only about thirty miles across if you counted the farmlands on the outskirts. He was probably further away now than he’d ever walked in total, and he didn’t think they’d been at it much longer than four hours.


“No. No, I’m not tired. I’ve just never traveled so far. Wanted to know, that’s all.” She pinched Leo by his sides and brought him up to her face.


“A little break then. You should eat!” She gave him a kiss. “Gotta keep your strength up. We’ll be deep in the mountains soon. It’ll be very cold. You’ll need the calories.”


She walked over to a tree and sat down with her back against it. Leo hopped out of her hand and unslung his satchel. He unpacked a few things and prepared himself a simple trail meal of meat, bread, and raspberry preserves. He wished he’d had some cheese, but he couldn’t complain. Vela watched him with careful appreciation. She didn’t get to observe other species doing simple things like eating very often. It made Leo a little self-conscious, so he started up some more idle chit chat.


“You want some?” He offered her jokingly.


“Not my idea of appetizing. And I couldn’t even think of eating right now. My body is very much nourished.” He realized she’d taken his offer seriously, and merely shrugged. “So, what’re borrowers like? Tell me about your people.” He considered for a bit.


“Well, we’re hardy. Don’t need to eat much. Live to the mid one hundreds. I don’t know. We love music and dancing. We breed like rabbits. Good thing, too, considering.”


“Considering what?” Leo swallowed a bite of bread and fished in his bag for a bottle. He could use a drop. He had water and barley wine. His hands found a bottle and he extracted it. He uncorked it, smelled the contents, was disappointed that his nostrils didn’t tingle, and settled for it due to laziness. He could save the booze.


“Considering we aren’t doing well.” Vela looked like she understood.


“I see. Vampires either. Though we don’t breed ‘like rabbits’ in the best of times.”


“It’s okay. I guess it doesn’t bother me on a personal level. It would have been nice to live in the age when we lived out in the open and in great numbers. But humans are seldom welcoming of us anymore, and those that are still tend to mistreat us. Living in secret tends to take its toll on the population. We don’t meet a lot of our own. I’ve only known a handful of other families. But it’s okay. And I guess I never put much thought into children.”


“Well that makes two of us,” Vela said with a laugh. “And I can relate to some of your other points. But it’s not surprising. Humans are establishing quite the little dominion over the land in the west. Their cities on the coast have become very industrious. They’re forgetting their other affiliations. They’re losing sight of their roots.”


“Maybe we should forsake them, too. Push east. Head into the deep ‘wildernest,’” Leo suggested jokingly. The so-called wildernest was how humans referred to the densely wooded area to the Far East that they declared uninhabitable due to its dense population of myriad magical creatures. The humans were actually in a bit of a Cold War with a few of them. Vela laughed.


“Not unless we can smuggle in a few humans with us. What am I supposed to do, feed off the fae?” Leo chuckled.


“Hey, you did alright with me for a day. Plenty more fae around my size besides borrowers. I’ll bet wings tickle going down.” Vela laughed.


“Now there’s a thought. Maybe you can help me talk some of them into it. We’ll have a little magic gathering in my belly.” Leo laughed with her.


“And there are non-fae wild animals in there too.”


“True. But I can only sustain myself on animals for a time. Eventually, I’ll need something human. Animals are just... starving myself much slower.”


“Oh well, I was only joking anyway. I’ve obviously never been that far to the East, and I think borrowers are adapted to live among humans, even if they’re reluctant to oblige.”


“Vampires, too. We’re stuck with them. For better or worse. How’s dinner?” Leo gulped down his last scrap of dried meat, took a swig of water, and corked the bottle.


“Dinner was sustaining. I wouldn’t say delicious. But I packed for vitality, not gourmet.” Suddenly their conversation was interrupted by a chilling “howl” somewhere in the distance.


“Huh, guess it would make sense that there would be wolves in the mountains,” Leo said. Vela looked off into the night with interest, her eyes wide from fascination, not fear. Why would she fear wolves? Leo wasn’t even afraid of wolves. He got the impression that he wasn’t on their menu.


“That’s not a wolf, Leo,” Vela said quietly, as if raising her voice would let the thing know she was talking about it.


“Sure sounded like a wolf.”


“I’m sure it did, but that was a woman.” Leo considered this for a moment, and then realization struck him.


“But I thought you said the full moon wasn’t for another day.”


“It isn’t, but it’s not contained to just the one night. It’s a gradient. This close to a full moon, there are still some cases of near-total transformation.” Leo looked out into the darkness where Vela had been, his eyes full of wonder.


“Wow... werewolves...” he whistled. Vela giggled at him, shaking her head.


“You are a little man without fear or prejudice. You’re right not to fear them. You are not a viable host for the disease.”


“Lycanthropy is a disease? I guess that makes sense. Humans talk about it like a curse, but I never heard of a curse that could only be spread through bites.”


“There are certainly creatures with cursed bites, and lycanthropy is a bit of a curse. But it’s one that manifests in the form of a symbiotic microorganism. Lycanthropes are of two minds; only one in control at a time. When the disease takes control, its primary goal is to spread. But it’s not a very elegant mechanism, and often results in killing the subject it wishes to infect. But it also doesn’t waste its time on hosts that it cannot spread into. Would-be hosts such as vampires and little borrowers.”


“Does it only affect humans?”


“There are a couple of susceptible species among the fae. But since most cases are relegated to humans, and humans and fae are very much divided these days, it’s an affliction the fae have all but forgotten.” Leo nodded understandingly.


“Seems like a tough break, being a werewolf. Cast out by humans. Nowhere to go.”


“Hence the curse. It’s a pitiable existence.” A second howl emanated from some distant, unknown location. He still couldn’t discern the difference in sound from normal wolf and human, nor that it was a woman rather than a man, but now that Vela mentioned it, the howl was different in some way. It sounded tragic to Leo. Pained. Alone.


“Is that anywhere near us?” Vela shook her head.


“Many miles away. And we won’t cross its path. Why, were you hoping to befriend her as well?” Leo chuckled.


“Hey. I’ve got a short list of friends. Not one to look a gift wolf in the mouth.” Vela gave a short, loud laugh.


“Oh, Leo. Your open-mindedness is charming to a fault. Don’t think I’ll share you with a human, though; pariah or otherwise.” For complicated reasons, this profession of Vela’s was music to Leo’s ears. Without warning, he hopped up onto her leg, ran up it, quickly bounded up her torso and onto her shoulder, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and then embraced her neck and jaw. Vela looked briefly stunned, smiled warmly, and then brought a hand up, pressing him against her cheek while she nuzzled him.


“Leo, Leo, Leo... what am I going to do with you, Leo?” It was a rhetorical question, but one that she didn’t have a definite answer for if she asked herself honestly. Did she plan to drop him off at a fitting human household and leave him to his devices in a new life? Would she be able to see him often? To these and other question marks in her mind, Vela had no definite answer. Time would tell.


“Well, whatever you like, I suppose. I’m super portable,” Leo said humorously.


“I wouldn’t give me total dominion in such matters, little flame. Not where you’re concerned,” she said, releasing him from her embrace. He hopped back to the ground and repacked his things, slinging his satchel back across his body.


“Well for now, then. Ready to move on?” She answered by retrieving the minuscule borrower and stuffing him gently back into her cleavage. “M-m-m, a guy could get used to this,” said Leo. Vela giggled at his expression of contentment and gave him a little squeeze by bringing her shoulders forward.


“Off we go! Please keep hands and feet tucked safely inside the bosom while the vampire is in sprint,” she said. Leo began to laugh but was cut off by her unexpected and jarring and explosive burst forward.


They chatted idly as Vela powered onwards into the mountains. It was getting very cold, so Leo had burrowed almost out of sight into Vela’s cleavage to avoid the biting winter wind. Leo was in awe that he had ‘traveled into winter,’ never thinking that he could experience two seasons in the same night. The cold didn’t bother him too much. Vela was warmer than usual, and his position was very insulating.


After an hour or so of travel, Leo drifted off to sleep nestled in his hiding place. Vela thought it remarkable that he could sleep in such a position, especially while being jostled so much, but Leo found the steady rhythm of her steps soothing, and soon was dreaming of unknown places and people. Vela felt far from lonely with him asleep. She understood that borrowers were not of the night, and he wouldn’t be able to healthily convert entirely to being nocturnal for her sake. She simply felt blessed that he was sleeping with her.


After a couple of hours, her sharp ears detected a familiar sound; the lycanthrope. It was much closer to them than she thought her path would take them. It must be on the move as well. She briefly wondered if it was following her, perhaps having picked up on the scent of her human attire, but she dismissed the thought. These clothes hadn’t been worn in years. If she couldn’t smell human on them while wearing them, there was no way she was leaving a strong enough trail to follow. It must be a coincidence. Still, she altered her course slightly, brushing through a few bushes deliberately, and then looped back to her original path. If it was following her, she would have at least thrown off the trail.


As she ran, she heard the lycanthrope again, but this time it wasn’t a howl, but a roar. She listened attentively, slowing her pace so as to hear more clearly. The roar was followed by more sounds of fury and struggle, and then was punctuated by a different kind of howl; one of extreme pain. Vela understood what she was hearing. The poor lycanthrope was being hunted, and her pursuers had inflicted her with a wound. There were slayers in these mountains.


Vela’s heart went out to the poor creature. She would have assumed it safe for one with her condition so far up in these mountains, but it appeared not to be the case. Perhaps she was chased here from a nearby village, and the hunting party wouldn’t let up until she was slain. Humans could be so vicious to hunt down one of their own like that just because they were cursed with such a damningly misunderstood disease. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts and her conscience of the matter. The proximity of the lycanthrope wouldn’t have bothered Vela even with the hunting party on her tail had it not been for the fact that dawn was quickly approaching. She would have to hide herself very carefully, lest she be vulnerable during the day.


Vela changed directions sharply and began to keep her eyes out for a particular kind of tree; one with big, exposed roots. When she found one she considered suitable, she made a note of its location. She then began looking for a sapling about ten feet in length and a couple inches in diameter. She located one without much trouble. She knelt down and held tightly onto it with one hand, and with the other, she chopped through it near the base. Leo stirred in between her breasts. His head poked out and he looked around.


“Wow, sorry. I guess I dozed off,” he said, blinking wearily. “What’s that you got there?”


“This,” Vela said, taking the sapling and running it through her hands, dragging her nails roughly on both sides causing it to split evenly in half, “will be a breathing tube.” Leo cocked and eyebrow. She explained. “We need to make camp, so to speak. We’ll be spending the day underground. Leo nodded appreciatively.


“Why underground? How long was I out anyway?”


“To your latter question; not long. We didn’t make it as far as I wanted to. But to your former; we need to hide. I’d rather be safe than travel another few dozen miles.”


“Hide from what?”


“I believe it’s a coincidence, but the lycanthrope is being chased in our direction. I want to get deep underground to avoid detection of what may be a sizable hunting party. I’m useless in the daylight. Vulnerable.”


“Poor woman,” Leo said. Vela nodded. “But why the air tube? There was plenty of air in your belly last time, surprisingly enough,” Vela giggled.


“Am I to believe you expected that to be your permanent sleeping arrangement during our travels?” Leo looked taken aback.


“N-no. I don’t mean... I just.” He was stumbling over his words and trailed off.


“So willing! It warms my heart that you’re so eager to warm my belly. But, as it happens, my belly is a little full at the moment. You may not enjoy that.” Leo considered this and decided that he would rather not sleep in a literal bloodbath.


“So, underground it is,” he said.


“Most assuredly.” Vela used her fingers to claw out the soft, young wood from both sides of the sapling and then pressed both ends back together. She then began plucking some of her hairs and tied them fast around the tube every foot or so until it was fastened securely back together.


“Your hairs are as strong as the rest of you, I take it?” Vela nodded. She made her way back to the tree she had found. The roots would make it difficult to dig. She was counting on that deterring anyone if they noticed the disturbed soil. That was something she wouldn’t be able to help, especially in the frozen clay. She stood there a moment, and then pinched Leo under his armpits and brought him up to her face.


“I’m not going to swallow you tonight, little candlelight. But unless you’d like to try and slide down this tube,” she said, brandishing the pole she had made, “I’m going to take you into my mouth while I dig.”


“Not going to dig a hole and then fill it in?”


“No, I’m going to dive into the earth and drag my way in deep.” Leo wished he could see that in action from the outside, but he didn’t mind her idea one bit. He figured it would be the best way to shield him from the earth until she was submerged. He nodded, unslinging his satchel and handing it to Vela who promptly stowed it away in a pocket of her trousers.


“Sounds like a plan. Try not to enjoy me too much,” he said jokingly. He did hope she enjoyed him very much. He thought he would enjoy being in that soft mouth again, anyway. She giggled.


“I cannot lie to you, Leo. I will not try.” With that, she gave Leo a kiss on his face, licked him playfully, and then slurped him into her mouth. She dropped her tongue so he wouldn’t be too crowded by being pressed to the roof of her mouth. “M-m-m,” she cooed, loving the warmth and flavor of her Leo. This was something she would not soon tire of doing, if ever. She really did wish she could just gulp him down. It would be a little simpler, and much more enjoyable. She looked forward to their next time doing that.


She took up the tube which she had left solid at one end and drove it carefully into the hard earth until only an inch of it was left exposed. Then, she knelt down nearby it, and quickly began to claw and tear her way headfirst into the ground. As she burrowed, she did her best to close the hole behind her with her feet. In a few minutes, she had writhed and squirmed her way into the ground with mole-like prowess. When she was sufficiently deep, she reached through the ground and her hand found the tube. She then rolled around, using her body and limbs to pack the much warmer subterranean clay into a smooth and stable pocket. When she was satisfied, she took hold of the solid end of the tube and snapped it off, exposing the point where it became hollow. A job well done. She got comfortable, and brought her hand up to her face, letting Leo slide off her tongue back into her palm.


Leo had done his best to remain still while she was working, but it was difficult when gravity kept seemingly changing directions. That, and his presence seemed to make her salivate excessively. He was a little worried for his clothes but was more concerned about his libido. Last time he had been inside her mouth, it had proven an extraordinarily sensual experience for Leo, and his body seemed to remember it more vividly as he smelled, tasted, and felt all the things unique to being held inside the beautiful vampire. He was bashful, and worried that if he became excited, she would take note and become distracted in her work. He told himself both not to think about how good her mouth felt, and that it didn’t matter if he did like it because she wouldn’t mind. The conflicting duality of thought left his body and mind feeling confused and a little frustrated.


He tried to think about something else, but the physical stimulation kept turning his mind back to similar subjects. He thought about how he had felt after being swallowed by her. The post-bliss comedown. His spiritual calm. Being surrounded by her body in every direction. Safe. Accepted. Cherished. Adored. Needed. His heart throbbed. He felt his emotions swell. This was a different sensation, though not completely unrelated to the excitement he had been trying to ignore. She stirred something up inside him, and the only reason he found it dreadful was because of how completely wonderful it was. But what if she never felt the same?


He hoped she finished digging soon, and also secretly wished she’d keep him in there and play with him in her mouth longer even if she did. More than that, he wanted to tell her how he had grown to feel in such a blindingly short time. But he also dreaded what could happen if he did. So, he was simultaneously relieved and disappointed when her mouth reopened, and he was sent sliding out into her waiting hand.


“Welcome back!” Vela exclaimed happily. She immediately noticed something a little ‘off’ about her little companion, however.


“Yeah, good to be back,” he said with a sigh that would have been hard for anyone to miss, even without luminescent, vampiric eyes that allowed one to see in perfect darkness. There wasn’t any ambient light, so Vela couldn’t see color, but she would guess that Leo was turning into a particularly characteristic shade of red that she was learning to associate with a specific kind of his moods. She knew that Leo had enjoyed himself more than a little the first time she had taken him entirely into her mouth. She had as well, but she had by no means anticipated that he would have so quickly taken to it in such a passionate manner, forming an erotic rather than utilitarian association with the act of oral entrapment regardless of context. She was about to tease him as was her reflex when she noticed that she was having this effect on him, but something stopped her. A little excitement wasn’t all that was eating the borrower. She bit her tongue.


Her emotions floated rather whimsically over the subject as she considered her companion’s current state. In the seconds since she had extracted him and noticed it, her mind had very quickly gone through myriad self-evaluations. First, it flattered her that he was aroused by simply being in her mouth. Second, she felt a twinge of guilt about having knowingly played with him on her tongue so recklessly whilst digging their little domicile, feeling that she was to blame for his situation. She knew on some level what the result would be, and selfishly relished the attention. Third, she realized there was no reason to feel guilty for inspiring a physical and emotional response which was ultimately positive and realized that the source of her shame was not having done it, but the realization that he felt foolish for his feelings towards her. He mistakenly judged himself as below her standards, alone in his feelings, or both. Fourth, if she was allowed to relish the kind of attention from Leo that she took so much delight in inspiring, she should be willing to let him share and delight in the same sort of attention. He should be allowed to know that she enjoyed his ‘moods.’ Finally, and most surprisingly, Vela realized, as she sorted through her feelings and made sense of them in such a quick manner that only a fast-thinking immortal with many years of experience in introspection could achieve, that she... reciprocated his feelings.


The discovery of this conclusion shocked her. She knew that she felt irrationally attached to the borrower. She felt possessive of him. She dreaded the idea of losing him. She didn’t know what she would do if their journey concluded with them parting ways. All of that had almost disturbed her because it was so different than anything she was used to feeling. It was immature. It was fleeting. It was impulsive. It was below her supposed wisdom. For all those reasons, she absolutely cherished Leo. All of these strange feelings were new. So little was new. But now... could she? Could he? Should they?


“Vela...” Leo said in a tone that was meant to get her attention. She didn’t think it had been very long in silence. But with how busy her mind was, she had forgotten to count the seconds. She was glad he was the one to break the tension though. She was getting lost in her mind and wasn’t sure she knew how to find her way back above water. Maybe Leo knew. In continued silence she raised him to eye level. He couldn’t see her, but she thought it was an attentive gesture. He continued to speak:


“Vela, I... need to get something off my chest. So just let me ramble for a minute. I can’t sort things like this out in my head, so I need to voice them, and since it kind of directly involves your opinions on the subject, I figure it’s best to voice it anyway.” Vela had been going in circles, so she was glad to just let Leo guide her thoughts for the moment. Perhaps his method would prove best. Maybe they were of the same mind. Maybe...


“Speak your heart, Leo.” She decided to clear her thoughts and focus on his.


“I’m... suffering something fierce. It’s silly. Okay, it’s not silly. It shouldn’t be silly. I’m afraid it’s silly? Never mind. Okay.” Leo took a deep breath to prepare himself for the plunge. Then, he let it out. “I discovered an undeniable truth last night when I was inside you. I said it then, but you were asleep. I’ve thought about it all day. And I think I need you to hear it.”


“You discovered... inside me... what?”


“I love you, Vela. Maybe it’s too soon to be appropriate. Maybe it’s too soon to tell you. But it’s true. I don’t know any way around it. I don’t know how that sounds or what it might mean to you, but I’m not going to just sit on it. If it’s foolish to love you, it would be ten times more foolish not to tell you that I do.”


“Oh... oh, Leo...” she began, but he cut her off in his rambling.


“I didn’t want to ruin our adventure or make things awkward. I don’t know a lot about vampires and their relationships. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same. It’s totally fine, I just...” Vela could see that he had gotten out the essential information. She silently thanked him for his immense bravery.


“Shh-h-h, Leo. Hush.”


“I’m sorry, I know that was a lot, Vela. I...”


“It was exactly enough.” She took a deep breath she didn’t need and let it out slowly.


“Well, okay... what do you... think?”


“I think you took the words right out of my mouth, fire of my soul...” they shared in another short silence. She decided a little light humor was appropriate. “Is that where you found them?”


“Wait, what?” Leo’s head was spinning. Did she... feel the same way?


“The words, silly. You found your love in my stomach. Did you find the words to express it in my mouth?” She giggled.


“Huh, I mean... I guess I did.” He chuckled half-heartedly. She realized her humor was flat and poorly timed. No matter.


“Leo, what I mean to say and continue to deflect with humor is that you voiced that which I was too afraid to utter. You asked what I think. I think we are in love. I was afraid, too. I didn’t want to bind you to me or impose my will. But I’m feeling rather bound to you. I’ll tell you the truth; if you broke from me at the end of this journey, I’d never break from you. I think I’d linger near you. I’d try my best to live in your little shadow. I’d follow your light like a moth drawn to a flame. Damn the consequences.” Leo was reeling. He felt like his heart might burst.


“You think... we’re in love.”


“Well I know that I am in love with you, and you say you’re in love with me.”


“It’s the truth.”


“And you found it inside me...” the conversation was causing something strange to happen to Vela. Something long dead was stirring deep inside of her. Leo was bringing it to life, and she was loathe to fight it. That wasn’t her way.


“I... I can’t believe it! Vela, a weight is lifted! I was so afraid, but I’m not alone! Our love is real!”


“I’m still afraid...” she admitted quietly.


“I understand... I mean... can a borrower and a vampire be in love?”


“Well we are. That isn’t my fear. My fear isn’t a bad thing, Leo.” Leo thought that made sense. He didn’t care in the slightest about their differences. Who would tell them they were wrong? Whose opinion mattered? But he was nervous. He was shaking, but it wasn’t an ugly fear. It was a beautiful sort of nervous, intense kind of energy. He had professed his love and she had requited it. He had been so uncertain, so afraid of being rejected, and now that they were on equal standing, he was hesitating for all new reasons.


“Well, what should we do?” Leo asked. Veal appreciated the question. It was an opening.


“Long term? We’ll figure it out. We have plenty of time. Mid-term? We travel until we find somewhere we’re both comfortable. Tonight?” She hesitated. Leo was hanging on her every word. What of tonight? What of now?


“Tonight,” she began. She was feeling... warm... like a little fire of her own was alighting. No. Not entirely her own. Leo lit it. He should tend to it. She should tend to his that she had lit. They should tend to each other— love each other. “Tonight, we should explore our love.”

Chapter End Notes:

Thank you to all who continue to stick with me and read this story! As always, I greatly appreciate any sort of feedback. It keeps me warm at night. 

Anyway, The next chapter's subject matter ought to be a little obvious at this point. I decided to isolate it into its own chapter so that folks who find sex scenes distracting can skip it without missing any plot development. For those of you like me who live for that trash, right this way, please! -->

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