Being Human - Mitchell and Susie

As his lips returned to my clitoris, my orgasm uncoiled itself inside me and flooded along my nerves. I twisted my fingers into the bed clothes, gripping them tightly as I moaned my release, my body undulating as emotions surged through it.

And then he kissed up my body, pausing at my breasts, before sliding slickly into me, pulsing very slowly, drawing gasps from me as I took pleasure in his languor, but willing him to increase the pace which he did deliciously slowly. I was clinging to him, holding him tightly in my arms, pressing his body against mine, savouring him. He nuzzled at my neck, nibbling the skin and I released a moan. His body was tensing, drawing me towards climax, upping the pace in time with my body's rhythm. As I came, I sank nails into his back and he thrust deeper and harder, pushing me up the bed against my resistance until I could bear the intensity no longer and, with a shuddering sigh, all the tension left my limbs and I whimpered with the emotional release.

He held me, stroking my hair, keeping me close against him as I drifted into sleep.

Over the next few weeks, we saw each other as often as we could. There was one weekend where he said he had plans with George, but other than that, we would snatch a few hours together, mainly in bed, between me finishing my early shift and him starting his night shift. He was becoming a part of my life. One that I hoped wouldn't disappear, despite his odd little foibles like always wearing sunglasses when we were out, and his inability to brush his hair. But I felt he was keeping something from me, and not just access to a mirror in his bedroom.

'John Mitchell, you've got to tell her!'

'How, Annie? It's not something you can just drop into conversation, is it?'

I sat on the stairs, my legs feeling suddenly wobbly. Tell me what? What was so important that he couldn't tell me?

'Mitchell, you can't not tell her!'

'I know.' There was a long pause. 'I know I have to. But that'll be it, won't it?'

'It wasn't for Nina.'

'It's different with George.'

'Well you've got two choices. You don't tell her and she finds out and that'll be it, or you tell her and give her the chance to make up her own mind.'

'About what?' I asked, entering the kitchen.

Annie gasped and Mitchell muttered 'Shit' under his breath.

I was shaking, holding onto the doorframe as I watched them both. Annie was frozen whereas Mitchell was shredding a piece of kitchen roll.

'Susie, we need to talk.'

'I'll make coffee,' Annie said, mobile once again.

I took a seat on the armchair and Mitchell sat on the sofa, turning towards me. 'I don't know how to tell you this,' he began, picking at his fingernails.

'You're married?'

'No. Nothing like that.' I waited, having no idea how this was going to progress. 'Susie, I'm sorry, I should never have kept this from you, but I didn't know I was going to feel this way about you.' I was shaking and he reached out his hand to take mine. 'Susie, I'm begging you to believe me. I'm . . . I'm a vampire.'

I laughed icily. 'Nice one. And I suppose Annie's a fairy and George is a . . . ninja turtle.'

'No, Annie's a ghost and George is a werewolf.'

'Oh, even better,' I said, grinning.

'I am,' Annie said, appearing with two cups of coffee. 'It's true.'

I shook my head. She was playing along. How convenient.

'Susie, look at me,' Mitchell said. And then his eyes turned black and he bared fanged teeth at me, hissing, before his face returned to the one I recognised.

My breath was coming in short gasps and I looked towards Annie for reassurance. She nodded at me. 'It's true.' And then she began to fade, shimmering in the daylight until she had almost disappeared, slowly returning to full visibility.

I stood, despite my legs wobbling, my gaze switching between the two of them. 'You're a vampire? I . . .' and then I could remember no more as the floor came hurtling towards me.

'She's coming round.' I could hear Annie, but it was Nina's face that I focused on. I tried to sit up, but nausea overcame me and I sank back onto the sofa.

'Susie, it's OK. You've just had a shock.'

'Nina? Are you . . .?'

She applied a fresh cold flannel to my forehead. 'I'm a nurse. That's the most important thing at the moment.'

'But you know about . . .?'

'George, and Annie, and Mitchell? Yes, I know.'

This couldn't be real. I must be dreaming. Or having a nightmare. Except my body was still aching from my lovemaking with Mitchell. I hadn't imagined that. But now . . .

'Mitchell?'

He'd been sitting behind me, but drew up his chair next to me looking worried. 'I'm sorry, Susie. I didn't mean you to find out like this. In fact, I never meant for "us" to happen at all.' At this point I burst into tears, but then his arms were around me and I was sobbing on his shoulder. And then he held me tighter and whispered, 'But I love you, Susie. I'm in love with you.'

It was a difficult day, the questions, the trying to understand. Looking in the bathroom mirror with Mitchell standing next to me in the "flesh" but a total absence of reflection. Talking to Annie and Nina, and then the long conversation with George, and finally back to Mitchell.

I couldn't leave until I was convinced one way or another. Either it was all an elaborate joke or he was telling the truth. But the truth was impossible. My head was hurting trying to understand it all, but Mitchell patiently explained how he had been turned, and how he now lived. And looking into those deep, sad eyes, I wanted to understand. I wanted to believe. I wanted to love him back.

In the early evening, we accompanied Annie to the pub, but it was so quiet, she sat with us. I nursed a brandy. 'So, Annie, you're a ghost because your fiancé pushed you down the stairs. But he's now with . . . Janey who's orange.'

'Yes,' Annie confirmed. 'Orange.' As though that was the most important piece of information in the summary.

'George, you're a werewolf. And you scratched Nina, so she's a werewolf too?' They both nodded. Mitchell was hunched next to me, looking tortured and pained. 'And you're a vampire.' He couldn't meet my eyes, simply nodded. 'But I'm not. You said I wasn't.'

'That's right,' Annie said. 'You need to be bitten by a vampire and then suck their blood. Isn't that right, Mitchell?' He nodded again.

'IF this is all real, and my head still feels like it's going to explode trying to take in any of this, well, what happens now?'

There was silence round the table. 'Obviously we'd rather you didn't tell anyone about what you know,' George said, quietly.

'I don't think that's likely. I don't want to be hauled off to the loony bin, thank you.'

'I suppose we should all be grateful for that,' George replied softly.

And then it dawned on me and I slammed the heel of my hand against my forehead. 'Of course! My job. How could I have not seen it before?'

'No!' Mitchell snapped. 'It doesn't work like that.'

'Oh, I suppose you needed to come up with a good excuse to get the first pint from me. Or maybe take you along to a blood donation session where you could help yourself when I wasn't looking. "Come this way, nice fresh donor. Welcome to the Blood Bank of Mitchell. Let me make a withdrawal." How could I have been so stupid?'

Mitchell glared ferociously at his tomato juice, a muscle twitching in his cheek.

'Mitchell?' He looked up at George. 'Aren't you going to say anything to Susie?'

He took a deep breath. 'I don't think anything I can say will make the slightest difference. Do you?'

'Well, that's that then,' and I stood to leave, picking up my bag. 'It's been . . . interesting.'

Part of me was hoping that Mitchell would come after me, part of me just wanting to get away to clear my head. I didn't go straight home. Instead I walked and walked in the darkness and, later, pouring rain. I was shivering, my hair plastered to my head, when I arrived home and started running a hot bath. Sinking into the bubbles with a glass of wine I started to laugh. Trust me to be the one to find a gorgeous and sexy bloke only for him to be a hundred year old vampire. How unlucky could I be? Except . . . except not only was he gorgeous and sexy, he was funny and vulnerable, brave and caring, kind and compassionate . . . and gorgeous and sexy.

This was ridiculous. Either he, and all his friends, were completely barking -- George and Nina literally - or they'd simply taken a stupid joke too far. But that didn't explain the lack of reflection in the mirror, unless that was some kind of magic trick. Where was Jonathan Creek when you needed him?

Even after the relaxing bath, I couldn't sleep, thoughts of Mitchell encroaching on my mind even though he was out of my life. Except that thought was too painful. Damn it. Damn him.

I dressed and waited at the bus stop for the last night bus heading in the direction of the hospital. In the early hours of a Sunday morning, the clientele were a mix of students who'd been out all night and early morning workers. I knew Mitchell finished at 8, but sometimes got away earlier if it was quiet. I bought a coffee from the machine, the cafe not yet open, and took a seat at a table where I could see the staff entrance and exit.

At 7.30, a familiar figure hunched his way out of the door, waving a fingerless-gloved hand at one of his colleagues. My drink long-since finished, I dropped the cup in the bin and trotted after him.

'Mitchell! Mitchell, wait.'

He turned and there was a fleeting look of hope on his face before his features closed and he looked at me warily.

'Did you leave some things at the house?' he asked.

I shrugged. 'Dunno. Maybe. Probably. But I wanted to see you.' He was squinting slightly in the morning light. 'Can we talk?' He nodded. 'Shall we go back to the house?'

We walked in silence although I was very aware of his presence. He opened the front door onto a seemingly empty house.

'Coffee?' he asked.

'No thanks. What the . . .?' Written, well, smeared on the living room wall in foot high letters was "MITCHELL IS A STUPID BASTRD". The first four and a half words were in red, the final three letters a kind of muddy brown. 'Who did that?'

'Annie. She was a bit annoyed with me.'

'Is that . . . blood?'

'Erm, no, ketchup. A whole squeezy bottle. When she ran out she resorted to brown sauce. George won't be happy.'

'But why did she write it?'

'Because of you.' I pulled an embarrassed face. 'She thought I should have come after you last night so she went all poltergeist on my ass. As they'd say in America. Stupid thing is, she was right.' He flung himself loose-limbed onto the sofa. 'Susie, I'm sorry.'

'For . . .?'

'For not being honest with you from the start.' He leaned forward, elbows on knees. 'But it's not exactly a good opening line, is it? Hi, I'm John Mitchell and I'm a vampire.'

'To be fair, it's not one I ever thought I'd hear. Mitchell, about last night. I'm sorry I walked out.'

'Understandable, under the circumstances.'

He pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. I desperately wanted to reach out and touch him, stroke away the tension.

'Have you had a human girlfriend before?' I asked.

He nodded. 'Josie. It was . . . 40 years ago now.'

'Did she become a . . . one of you?'

'No. She wouldn't.'

'What happened to her?'

'She . . . died.' His face was completely closed to me.

'I'm sorry.'

'It was what she wanted. Her choice. But I can't do this again. Not to you.'

I knelt on the floor in front of him. 'Mitchell, help me. Help me understand.'

He cupped my face with his hands, stroking his thumbs over my cheeks, looking directly into my eyes. 'You really want to know?'

'I need to understand. And if I can't . . . if I can't deal with it, then at least I'll have tried.'

We lay on his bed, curtains closed against the daylight.

'Mitchell, why me?'

'Why you what?'

'Why did you choose me? Good veins, right blood group?'

'Don't take the piss.'

'Sorry. But really, why me?'

'Because I know you saved a vampire.'

'I did? When? How?'

'Her name was Julia. She helped me when I first decided I wanted to give up blood because she'd done the same. Do you remember about a year ago? Something that happened outside a club?'

'Well, there was a girl . . . Was she called Julia? I not sure she even told me her name. I'd, er, been thrown out of the club because I gave a guy who was hassling my friend a bit of a mouthful. Unfortunately he was one of the bouncers and chucked me out the back door into an alley. There was a girl there trying to escape from a group of men. I got between her and them and, erm, well, I wasn't in a very good mood by then and I think I must have threatened them a bit. A lot. Of course, it was a stupid thing to do at the time, there were at least three of them, but I was having a very bad evening. So you're telling me they were vampires?'

'Oh yes.'

'But they could have . . . Shit!'

'You must have scared them.'

'Well, me and the group of guys who got thrown out just after me, perhaps. I checked to see if the girl was OK and when I turned back, they'd gone. I thought she'd been attacked. She was covered in blood and it was all over her face and in her hair. She wouldn't go to A&E so I took her home with me and gave her a bath. Strange thing was that I couldn't find any cuts.'

'It was Herrick's mob. They'd been trying to make her drink blood and she wouldn't. They were going to destroy her if they couldn't convert her back to killing.'

'Is she OK?'

'Yes, she's moved away somewhere safe. She was very grateful for what you did.'

'I didn't do much, just put her to bed on the sofa, but in the morning she'd gone. I was just glad she hadn't robbed me or murdered me in my bed.'

'She wouldn't have done that. She's one of the good vampires.'

'I didn't know that. I thought she was human!'

'Anyway, she came to me for a while and told me what had happened, although I never thought I'd ever meet you.'

'But how did you know it was me?'

'She left a mark on you.'

'She did? Where?'

'Oh, you won't be able to see it, it's not physical, more . . . spiritual. But it's there. I could feel it when . . . when you kissed my scars the night we met. There was a connection.'

'George said you couldn't get scarred, but . . .'

He rubbed at his wrist. 'I'd been without human blood for a long time, but a . . . friend needed feeding.'

'Did it hurt?'

'That time, yes.' He looked brooding. 'I thought then that I might be becoming human at last. But . . .' he sighed.

'So this mark Julia left, that was the only reason you chose me?'

'Hell no. You're gorgeous. And funny. And feisty. And yes, that is a good thing. But Julia's mark proved you were, well, different. That maybe you'd understand. And the mark is also a protection against vampires.'

'Except you.'

I sat up on the bed, looking at him, trying to imagine what life would be like with him. I'd get old, he wouldn't. No kids, no holidays in the sun, no normal, comfortable, stable life. Actually, the kids thing wasn't a problem. I had four nieces and nephews and was only too relieved to hand them back after a visit. I wasn't one of life's natural mothers. And holidays in the sun I could always take without him. But what about him? He'd see me getting older, less attractive, and eventually die. If he hadn't already disappeared with someone else. It hardly took being a vampire for that to happen.

'How long have we got together?' I asked him.

'Until what?'

'Until you leave me.'

'Until you die.'

He looked so serious, but still I laughed, even though it was rather hollow. 'I don't believe you.'

'I daresay you didn't believe in vampires, werewolves and ghosts this time last year.'

'True. But you'll move on when I'm old and wrinkled. Can I still eat garlic?'

'What?'

'Look, I'm basing my knowledge of vampires on reading Dracula and watching old horror movies. So far, you're not being very compliant. You go out in daylight, you don't drink blood, George's Star of David doesn't faze you, you don't sleep in a coffin, you don't wear a cape and you've not once turned into a bat.'

'Sorry.'

'What for? Being a dull vampire?'

He laughed. 'Yes. And yes, you can eat garlic.'

'Thank God. I'm quite prepared to give up kids and beaches, but there's no way I'm foregoing garlic bread and chicken Kiev.'

'Kids and beaches?' I blushed and he pulled me closer to him. 'Does that mean you're willing to give us a try? After all, you already saved one vampire. Perhaps you could try again with this one.'

'I could be Susie the Vampire Saver. It would be easy compared with what you, Annie and George have done.'

'It's just what any other vampire, ghost and werewolf would have done.'

I laughed, the tension dissipating from my body, and I relaxed against him, his arm protectively around my shoulder.

'OK?' he asked, softly stroking my skin. It felt so good.

'Getting there. It's still a bit . . . new.'

'Yeah, well, I suppose I've had a lot longer to get used to it. But we can get through this together.' He started to kiss me. Softly. Gently. Beautifully. I couldn't resist him. Maybe it wouldn't last, but at this precise moment there was nowhere else I wanted to be other than in his arms, his lips moulding against mine, the taste and smell of him at once familiar and erotic. His fingers tightened on my arms, holding me closer against him, drawing me tight against him so I could feel the strength of his muscles.

This time we really did take it slowly, because he deliberately stopped me upping the pace, building up my trust in him, getting to know him as John Mitchell, the vampire. My vampire. He delicately slipped my bra straps from my shoulders, kissing down my neck and along my collar bone before his fingers stroked over my breasts and my body arched up towards him. The gentle stroking of his fingers became firmer as he traversed the contours of my body, my nerves tingling with anticipation of his touch.

He started to caress my breasts and then his mouth followed his fingers and I could feel my breathing deepen. He stroked down my body, parting my legs with his fingers, finding my warmth, my wetness, drawing it from me and using it to rub across my clitoris. It felt heavenly as he stroked and strafed me, triggering the uncoiling of my orgasm which wound through my body causing me to cling to him as I moaned my release, pressing myself hard against his fingers. And then slowly, exquisitely slowly, he withdrew his fingers from me and entered me, pulsing to my rhythm as I began to up the pace, feeling him moving within me, triggering the start of my next orgasm. As he moved his body against mine, he whispered my name and it felt so right that I was there with him. I wrapped my arms tight around him as he held me and my orgasm flooded through me with the intensity of an ocean wave, making my body shudder with sheer ecstasy.

I was gasping his name, clinging to his lithe, firm body, wanting to feel his skin against mine. No heartbeat, I knew that, but perhaps for a moment, he shared my existence. He'd be alive a lot longer than me, but I wasn't scared of death, only of life without Mitchell. He needed me, needed human contact, needed love.

I warmed him with the heat of my body, love and lust flowing between us. Perhaps I could never be enough for him, but I would try.

'Mitchell,' I whispered as he held me close. 'I never realised it would be so tough.'

'What, Susie? Whatever it is, we can work it out together.'

'Just . . . being human.'