I feel a twinge as his fangs break my skin, and then a pleasant warmth, almost a soothing sensation. And I feel cared for, and protected, and safe, and I know Jamie would never hurt me, he'd give anything and everything he had to not cause me pain. I feel myself falling into his mind, and it is amazing. I can think his thoughts, remember his memories, experience everything that makes him Jamie, but there are so many lifetimes in his head, it'd take me nearly as long to know it all as it took him to live it. I can feel Jamie holding himself back from my mind, and I smile at how well he knows me, without even having to ask, knowing I would want him to leave me the privacy of my own mind. I suddenly worry that maybe he didn't want me in his mind, but then I hear him say to me, without speaking, "It's fine Hel, it really is. I'm blocking the things I don't want to share yet. So, what do you think, are you glad you said yes?"

"I think, purr! As if you needed to ask. Yes, I'm very glad."

"You really are a fast learner. And you have a strong mental voice. I'm beginning to think you really are. "

"Think I am what?"

"Nothing." he thinks quickly, but I get more than what he meant me to. He thinks maybe I am a witch, and I just don't know it. I feel his surprise that I picked up on that, and then I feel that he's proud of me. Not for anything specific, just proud. Jamie takes his mouth off my neck. "Well of course I'm proud of you." he says. After the silence of speaking mentally, his voice sounds unnaturally loud. He bites his tongue and a few drops of blood fall on my neck. I feel the openings in my neck close. A moment later he licks my neck.

“What was that for?" I inquire.

"My blood was to heal the punctures, and I licked because there was some blood still on your neck," he says mentally.

"Why aren't we talking out loud?" I ask.

"I wanted to see if you could still hear me. "

"Oh. Well, obviously, I can. In fact, I can hear you a lot better than before."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I can almost hear what you aren't saying. "

"The word is broadcasting. You can hear what I'm not broadcasting."

"Almost. Let's see." I concentrate, and, "You're thinking... you're surprised. And..." I have trouble getting this, "You're thinking that I really must be a witch."

"Very good. I'm impressed. " Jamie says out loud.

"How could I be a witch? Almost nothing ever goes the way I want it to. Things usually go the exact opposite."

"I don't really know a lot about witches, especially young ones developing their powers. You'd do better to talk to Chris."

"Why?"

"He knows a lot more witches than I do. Some witches have a hang-up about made vampires having been human once."

“Made vampires? What do you mean?"

"Some vampires are born vampires, and some are changed, like I was. Born vampires can have kids, and they age until they reach the prime of their life. Made vampires can't have kids and they never get any older after they change."

"How can a vampire have kids?"

"There are vampire families, just like there are human families. There are old legends saying that some royal family a long time ago pissed off a very powerful witch, and she cursed them, but there is no proof. It is sort of like how humans don't really know how they came to be, if it was evolution or what. Oh, and if a pregnant woman is changed, if her baby survives, it will be a born vampire." Jamie finally finishes explaining.

"What if a born vampire grows up, and decides that they want to be human?” I question.

"They have to find an extremely powerful witch to change them into a human, and it doesn't always work right. If a human gets changed into a vamp, and doesn't want to be one, they can be changed back as long as they haven't ever fed on a human. If they've drunk any human blood, even a few drops, they're out of luck."

"How does one become a vampire?" I say quizzically.

"If a vampire wants to change someone, they take almost all of that person's blood, then open major veins in themselves and the person, and give the person their blood back, except that it's vampire blood now. Then the person who is being changed lapses into a coma as their body changes, stays in a coma for a few days. Their heart never stops, and they keep breathing and everything. Then they wake up, and they're a vampire. " Jamie explains.

"You said a few days. How many?" I say inquisitively.

"It depends. Anywhere from one day to six." Jamie answers in an explanatory tone.

"How long did it take you?" While we're talking, I turn back around so that I'm between Jamie's legs with my back against his chest. He wraps his arms around me and pulls me tight against his body.

"Four and a half days."

"Is that good or bad?"

"The longer it takes, the better. "

"Why is it better if it takes longer?" I ask.

"Now that question definitely gets a 'no comment'." Jamie says through a laugh.

"Funny. " I reply drolly.

"It's better because it means that the person's natural defenses are strong, and are fighting the change. That means the person will be a strong vampire."

"So are you a strong vampire?" I ask, teasingly.

"About average for my age." Jamie replies in the same tone.

"Well, what's average?"

“I'm as strong as ten humans my size. And that's when I haven't fed in a while. I've gotten stronger as I've aged."

“How old are you?" I ask curiously.

"I'm twenty three," Jamie responds playfully.

"No, really." I persist.

"I'm three thousand, two hundred fifty nine years old."

"Wow. You're really that old?"

"Yep. That old. You would love some of the stuff I've done and some of the people I've known."

"You're 3,259 years old. Is that young, old, or about average?"

"Ok. There are young vampires, 1 or 2 hundred years old. Right about then is when the ones who can't handle immortality die. It happens again at 1,000 years, and after that, if you are still alive, you will probably see 10,000, although many who are that old seem to have become lost inside their own minds. There aren't really many older than that, maybe 15 if you count all the ones that legend say are hibernating, but those 15 seem to be older than any known history."

"WOW. Wow squared. Wow cubed even."

"You really seem to be taking all of this well. You're not repressing or something, are you? You're not going to go screaming into the night are you?"

"You know me. Do I run screaming into the night?”

"No. I was just asking because most humans don't deal well with the truth."

"Well, I don't have any problems with it. And if I did I'd tell you, not freak out. Or, at least, say something on my way to freaking out." I inform him jokingly.

"Good. Um, about earlier." Jamie says awkwardly.

"Which earlier? There are a lot of different earliers you could be referring to. " Jamie doesn't answer me; he just turns my face up to his and kisses me forcefully. I kiss him back, and he turns my whole body around so that my feet are on the floor, and I'm facing him. He slides his hand up under my shirt and teases my breast with his fingertip.

"This earlier." he says as he gently pinches my nipple.

"Oh, this earlier. What about it?" I ask through a sigh.

"I want to apologize for stopping, and I want to make it up to you." Jamie responds as he puts his other hand under my chin and tilts my head up. He takes his hand out from under my shirt and brushes my hair off my neck.

"What are you doing?" I ask lazily.

"Checking to see if your neck is clear yet." he replies.

"Why?"

"Because the weaker your body is, the more susceptible you are to my blood, and the quicker it will have healed." Jamie explains patiently.

“Why does it matter how weak I am?" I ask.

"Because I want to try something, but I don't want you getting sick because of it."

"What do you want to try?" I respond curiously.

"A vamp I know told me about something fun I'd like to try. I make a small, shallow cut right here," he touches his shoulder blade, "Then I scratch your neck, and drink from it while you drink from me, and we have sex like that." he finishes then looks over at me to gage my reaction.

"Sweets, as much fun as that sounds, considering the fact that I'm still cherry, let's save that for another day." I suggest in a tone that leaves no room for argument.

"I keep forgetting that. Even now that I know, I still can't sense it."

"What do you mean, sense it? You mean read my mind and know?" I inquire.

"No. I mean that most vampires just know things about people they meet, one of those things being if they've slept with a lot of people, or a few, or none. But when I met you, I didn't know anything. I didn't notice it at the time, but that's strange. And when Chris met you, he didn't sense anything either, and he didn't notice that he didn't. That is very strange." Jamie stresses.

"I'll take your word for it. So what kinds of things do you sense?" I say curiously.

"Things like if they know that humans aren't the only sentient species, if they would be easy to hypnotize, if they had a non-human ancestor. Just weird facts." he answers dismissively.

"Why does it happen?"

"So we know if they know about us, how easy would it be to hypnotize them so we can feed, if the board should be told about them because they aren't human. It developed as a defense, but since no one believes in us anymore, it's just become a toy. Something it's nice to have, but no big deal."

"What is this board? You and Chris kept mentioning it, and it sounds ominous.”

"The board is a group of old and or well respected people who are in charge of a certain area. There are a proportionate number of representatives from each of what ever species happen to live in that area, and they decide everything supernatural for the area that they are in charge of."

"You are so good at explaining things. " I say distractedly.

"Are you trying to change the subject?" Jamie asks suspiciously.

"No. Why would I be? You just really explain things well, I know so many people who couldn't explain what blood was like if they were surrounded by it. They'd be going 'It's this stuff and it's inside you and you need it,' And the person they were trying to explain to would be going 'But what is it? There's a lot of stuff inside me I need.’ But you explain things well."

"Thank you, I guess. How would you explain blood?" Jamie questions.

"I can think of a few smart mouthed answers, but you can figure out what they are for yourself. Blood was a bad example, but I would explain it as the red liquid that comes out when you get a cut, and you can't live without it because it carries oxygen to your organs and muscles. Or I'd just say it's what that cute guy over there has for dinner, and point at you." I conclude teasingly.

Jamie holds on to me and quickly twists his body so that we're both lying along the seat, my back and legs against the backrest, his towards the front seat. He holds his body over mine, very carefully not on me, but over me, a little threateningly, but completely playfully. “Had to get that one in didn't you? Couldn't let it go, could ya? Always gotta be smart mouthed, donchya?" he teases, being very careful that I know he's teasing. With each question, he lowers his mouth to mine until finally, our lips meet. He kisses me demandingly, sliding his hand up my shirt. "Say 'No', and say it right now. This instant." he says under his breath.

“Yes." I respond in the same voice.

"I really mean it. If you don't say 'No' now, you probably aren't going to get another chance to. I don't want either one of us to regret this, for any reason, whether it's because..."

I pull his mouth back down to mine. "Either fuck or bite. Don't talk."

"Am I allowed to do both? I wasn’t aware I had that option." he teases as he licks my neck. I feel his fangs against my neck as he pulls my shirt off, but they're gone an instant later when he sits back to remove his shirt, shoes and socks.

Jamie laughs when I joke, "Ohh! Take it all off." but turns serious a second later when he says "I want to be sure that you can still say no if you change your mind, but once I take my pants off, my brain isn't going to be in control of my body. As long as I have my pants on, I still have some control, maybe not a lot, but enough that I can stop, even if I have to walk away."

"That's very sweet, and I really do appreciate it, but the only thing that could get me to even consider stopping would be a tornado, and that’s only if it had already picked the car up and was carrying us off to Oz. I made my choice, and I have no intention of changing my decision now."

"Fucking in a tornado. Sounds fun, but I think it would be just a little too violent for your first time. It would distract me though, so maybe it's not such a bad idea after all." Jamie says wryly.

“Why would it be good for you to be distracted?" I ask, confused.

"I told you I'm a lot stronger than any human, and if I get completely caught up in fucking you I might forget to be careful to keep my full strength in check. And if I used my full strength, I could really hurt you, I mean hospital, emergency, 911 hurt you, without even meaning to. Aw, bloody hell. We can't do this, not here and now.”

"What?! Ok, see, now, you keep getting me all worked up and then stopping. It's really driving me insane."

"Disregarding the other issues, I will not have your first time be in the backseat of my car because I couldn't keep my dick in my pants long enough to get you home and on a bed. And, oh yeah, there's the whole issue where right this moment I want to be inside you more than I want to breathe, I want nothing more than to fuck you into the seat of my car. And I can't let myself get that carried away, not this time. So, we go home, and I figure out a way for us both to enjoy ourselves without having to worry about my accidentally hurting you, and maybe we both exercise a little more rational thought and a little less hormones." Jamie says patiently.

"Fine, but I'm keeping your shirt!" And I do. I tuck my shirt under the back of the front passenger seat, put his shirt on, button the two buttons between my breasts, climb between the front seats, and sit down in the passenger seat.