Blood and Sex

I am not so sure.

I think we still have the ability to sense something real. Perhaps not life force, but maybe something like a pheromone. And I think the rejection of George's blood was our body fighting off the vampirism, which had been fading through the lack of blood, while we were sustained by the sperms.

We both have a fine sense of life and death. I can tell if someone has truly gone, or could yet be resuscitated, and have more than once pushed aside a doctor saying "time of death..." and got a patient back. We are still surprisingly strong, though not as much as we were.

On the field our triage is quick and effective. I know when a patient can be saved with a procedure no matter how painful. I know when he cannot, and should be permitted to die quietly, in friendly company, with morphine and a nurse holding his hand. We can both quote the Koran and the Bible in several languages where that helps.

As a surgeon, Steven can tell the difference between living and dead tissue for quick and precise surgery, and would do very well as a consultant if we did not keep going off to be volunteers.

Where a couple is having difficulty conceiving, I know which one of them is infertile. I don't need to taste the ejaculate: I just know from spending time with them. I could do well in that area if I did not always go off with my husband.

In our case it is both. My eggs must be long dead. Steven can now ejaculate, but it is clear prostate fluid. We have looked with a microscope. Vampirism is not something which can be inherited.

Because we were both used to it, we did not appreciate how dead we had been, both emotionally and physically.

We are both delighted with sex as humans. With someone you love.

I had only had sex twice before I was converted. The first was painful, the second was short, both by the same young man in a hurry. It was nothing like the lovemaking I now have with Steven.

My clitoris had been as dead as his penis for hundreds of years. My sexual pleasure had just been the power I had over a man -- mental and a bit cruel. Now it was physical and natural.

It is a particular joy for both of us to pleasure the other orally. I don't think we are ever going to get true orgasms, but after hundreds of years of a lack of physical pleasure, it is absolutely amazing!

Most of all we can really feel love, both mentally and physically, and are happy to grow old together instead of the hollow life we had before.

We still don't like garlic.