Dawn Unleashed

"You got dressed up like this and you don't have a date?" Cole asked suspiciously. Maybe Maggie wanted him out of her way before her date arrived. Just as well, if he were here when the boy wonder in question knocked on the door, he'd beat the shit out of him for just thinking about Maggie as a girl. Cole knew guys. He was one. He knew how their dirty little minds worked. Prom nights were big business for the Trojan company. No way was some little prick putting his filthy hands on Maggie. No way!

"Bullshit. If you had another guy, why didn't you tell me? I could have handled it. You didn't have to lie. You didn't have to worry about sparing my feelings," Cole sputtered. " After all, I'm just a bloodsucking vampire. What the hell do I matter? Just take the stake and put it right there Maggie," he said, pounding his fist over his heart. Sure, he was being dramatic. Overly dramatic. He was projecting his hurt feelings and the feelings of anger out of him into his dramatic outburst. "Why didn't you ask me, Maggie? Not human enough for you after all?"

Maggie stared with Cole and blinked in disbelief. He sat straddling the piano bench glaring at her, pressing his hand over his heart like she'd actually taken a jab at him with a sharp, pointy, tip of a stake. A blush heated her cheeks and spilled down her neck. "I was embarrassed."

"To take me. Yeah, I gathered that. It's not like I could drink the punch is it? You were probably worried that instead of making small talk. I'd take a bite out of one of your friends. I don't know Maggie, would I even show up in the prom photo?"

Maggie rolled her eyes. For a guy, Cole was being overly sensitive. "Stop it, Cole. I didn't ask because I was too embarrassed to ask you. The guy is supposed to ask the girl, remember. I didn't want to admit to you that I was too ugly to get a date."

"Too ugly?" Cole asked in utter exasperation. "On what planet, Maggie? You are gorgeous. God, look at you." Girls, he rolled his eyes in utter exasperation. She had no clue how beautiful she was. Her beauty had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with her dress, her makeup, or her hair. She was beautiful without any of those things. With them though, she was amazing. But, she didn't need them. Her beauty had little to do with her outward appearance and more with what was inside of her.

He saw deep within her. Things she probably didn't even know she was even capable of thinking or feeling. Things he knew about through his link to her. People said the eyes were the windows to the soul. Eyes weren't, but blood was. There was nothing a person could hide from the very substance that permeated every cell and membrane. When he drank, no matter how slight the sip. He drank of more than her blood. He drank of her very essence.

"How could you think you were too ugly to get a date?" He took her chin gently in his palm and turned her face to the mirror. "What do you see?" Frown lines formed between her brows and the corners of her lips, painted pink as a china doll's, turned down in a frown. "Tell me."

Maggie's eyes flitted from her reflection to Cole's. He held her chin firmly, not so hard as to hurt or bruise her with his fingertips. He was capable of crushing her jaw with little more than a squeeze. His eyes burned with fierceness, almost with anger. He was perfect in every way. His sandy brownish hair was only a few shades darker than hers. The style brought out the sharp angles of his face, giving him a handsomeness that was hard to dispute. Outraged and emotionally charged as he was, his eyes glittered with flecks of gold. His brows tilted down in a scowl aimed at her. His lips, she knew, despite the harsh downward tilt of his frown, were full and soft, made for kissing and savoring. The teeth hidden behind his lips were white and straight, lending to a perfect, slightly crooked smile that shone with a hint of arrogance behind it. The effect was enough though, to make the smile endearing instead of cocky. What could she say? He was perfect. And she, well, wasn't. Not by a long shot could she compare her awkward attempt at beauty to what came so naturally to him.

"Maggie, don't look at me. Look at you," Cole said. Her stare unnerved him. Some guys might take the way her eyes roamed over his face, with longing and admiration, as if she thought he could walk on water, as a complement. He didn't. Sure, the outward packaging wasn't bad. He knew he was good looking. His face was a matter of simple genetics. What was inside the package wasn't always so nice or pure, nor nearly so attractive. He gave her chin a gentle shake. "Maggie."

Maggie drew her stare away from Cole and focused on her image. She was the ugly duckling that might never evolve into a swan. Lori was the beauty of the family. Not her. Sometimes, she swore she was the milkman's kid. While Lori had a perfect upward tilt to the end of her nose, she had a straight downhill slope to hers. Lori's hair had a pretty golden tint that gave it depth and definition. Hers was flat mouse brown. Her sister had wide green eyes and when she batted her lashes, guys noticed. Hers were dull and the color of moss, not quite green, not quite blue, but, not quite hazel either. No color of eye shadow accentuated the shade of hazel her eyes were but seemed to confuse the color even more. "I don't know what you want me to say Cole. I'm not pretty." She reached for a tissue to wipe the clown make up off her face. His fingers were gentle as they grabbed her wrist, stopping her.

"Don't. You don't need the makeup, but I don't want you to mess it up either. You are so not going to have an excuse not to go to the prom."

"Not having a date isn't excuse enough?" Maggie asked sarcastically. Nervously, her fingers fidgeted with the cheap rhinestone bracelet around her wrist. The stones glittered in the pale lamplight prettily. Against the dark of her dress the bracelet shone as if it were an expensive piece of jewelry instead of a sale find from the Super Center. That's how she felt that she looked next to Cole, cheap and ordinary on her own. But, next to him, only then could she hope to sparkle and glitter.

"For a smart girl, sometimes you are so dense," Cole groaned in exasperation. "I'm your date for the prom, if you want me that is." He pressed his fingers against hers, stilling them with his palm as she worried at the bracelet around her wrist.

Maggie sighed. Now she felt even worse. He was offering what she wanted. He'd asked her to the prom, sort of. She should be ecstatic. Instead, she was on the verge of tears. He'd only asked because he felt sorry for her. "I don't need a pity date, Cole."

"Pity date? Pity date! You think the only reason I want to go with you is that I feel sorry for you? I don't. I want to go. With you and only you. God Maggie, you really are clueless aren't you." Cole's exasperation with her stubborn refusal to believe how beautiful she was turned to sheer tooth grinding frustration.

There had to be a way to make Maggie see herself the way he saw her. Her mirror was but a fuzzy view of his reality. She didn't see things how he saw them. Her human eyes couldn't take in the plays of light and shadow and the brilliance of color, like his did. If she could borrow his vision, only for a few minutes, she might see the world as he saw it. She might see herself the way he saw her.

"Damn it, Maggie." Humans could borrow his gifts for a short time. His blood could heal the sick. Repair broken bones and failing organs. Healing was painful and took a lot of blood. Perhaps, to lend her his senses, for a few minutes, would only take just a drop or two.

Cole was hesitant. A drop or two would be all it took to bind them together. Maggie and he would be locked in a relationship more intimate than boyfriend and girlfriend. As blood friends, she would be the only source of his life force. From her, and her only, he'd draw his strength and sustenance. Their thoughts would mingle and meld as one. He didn't mind hearing Maggie's gentle whisper in his mind. But, he wasn't sure if she wanted to be able to hear his. At almost nineteen, Maggie saw tomorrow as a bright, shining possibility that stretched out beyond a distant horizon. Someday, she might want something different for her life and he'd have to let her go and break the bond.

A part of him wanted to link them together, to share minds through this minute offering of flesh and blood. His fingertip was in his mouth and a fang scraped across its calloused pad, drawing a drop of blood to the surface. Carefully, he nursed the crimson drop on the pad of his fingertip and held it to her lips. "See yourself as I see you, Maggie."

Maggie stared down at the perfect drop balanced on Cole's fingertip. Her job was to offer blood, not to take it. Cole, in that deep red drop was offering her more than a temporary loan of his gifts. One tiny taste would be enough to lock them together, for life, if they chose. She knew people who had bound themselves to a vampire. The bond was sacred, not easily taken nor easily broken. "Cole, I..." Nervously, she licked her lips and tasted the waxy flavor of her lipstick on the tip of her tongue. "Do you know what this means?"

"I understand," Cole said solemnly. "Are you scared?"

"No." They had to be careful. The sampling of blood on his fingertip would make them blood friends. A commitment that wasn't easily broken, but still breakable. She had thoughts about Cole that left her panting and flushed. Sex would only serve to strengthen the bond between them. Perhaps fuse them together to the point where the bond was more solid and unbendable than forged steel.

As embarrassing as it was, she had to admit, at least to herself, that she wanted to have sex with Cole, someday. Not today or tomorrow, she wasn't that kind of a girl. Maybe when she was older and wiser, more confident with herself and who she was. Her time away at college would weaken the blood bond between them. Reluctantly, she had to face the fact that the city would be too distant for her to keep him fed on a regular basis. The first time Cole fed off someone else. She reddened in jealousy at the thought. The bond would be broken. He'd have to be practical about this, they both would, or jealousy would eat her up from the inside out. Cole couldn't starve himself till she came back to town for a visit. "I'm going away to college this fall."

"I know." Cole got what Maggie was getting at. She wouldn't be around to feed him. The blood bond between them would be as temporary as a summer romance. Perhaps, that was all it ever would be, just a summer fling. Heated by the sun and filled with possibilities that neither one of them would see through to fruition.

Gingerly, Maggie wrapped her fingers around Cole's broad wrist. The tips of her fingers didn't close around his bulk. She drew the drop of blood to her lips and hesitated. "Cole, are you sure?"

"Yes. Are you?" Cole's heart was racing. In this one moment he felt more alive than he ever had, more human and more vulnerable. The drop of blood wobbled on the end of his finger as Maggie's breath skated across the shimmering surface. Neither one of them was asking for or offering forever, just today, tomorrow, and the fleeting days of summer than would all too quickly speed into autumn.

"Yes," Maggie answered breathily. His pulse pounded against her fingertips, fleeting and fragile. Gentle as a first kiss, wild and sweet, her tongue caressed the drop of blood on his finger. The taste was indescribable. She expected his blood to taste like hers, metallic, bitter, and coppery. It didn't. Cole's blood was decadent as chocolate, sweet as candy and good, so good, slick and cool as ice against the tip of her tongue. She shivered all the way down to her toes and wrapped her lips around the healing wound, coaxing more blood to the surface with the blunt surface of her teeth.

Cole sucked in his breath. The warm feel of Maggie's mouth around his finger, the velvet sensation of her tongue caressing the wound, the motion of her throat moving to swallow his blood set his body and soul on fire. He was feeding her and she was drinking him down, eagerly.

Something wild and instinctive roared to the surface of his very being. The feeling went beyond his desire to throw her on her back and pound into her with every inch of his body. This was deeper, more intimate than just sex. This was elemental and essential in a way that physical pleasure never could be. Sex was there, in his mind, of course. But it was as if she was drinking down the very essence of him and who he was. He was naked before her in a way that had nothing to do with physical nudity. Panting, Cole gripped the edge of the bench with his free hand and gave himself over to the working of her tongue against his skin and the trickling flow of blood from his finger.

Maggie wanted more. This tiny taste was not enough to fill her need. She worked Cole's finger with her mouth and tongue, worrying at the tiny hole made by the tip of his fang. Cold seeped through her limbs as her heart pumped his blood into her system. With every beat of her heart, the cold worked its way through her body, as if she'd been doused in a tub of ice water, drowning, and couldn't break the surface for air. Her lips parted in a gasp as his finger slid free from her mouth. Shivering and panting, she clutched the edges of the bench, white knuckled from the pain of the cold.

Cole wrapped his arms around Maggie tightly to still her trembling body. They leaned heavily against one another for support as if either one of them let go of the other, they'd both topple to the floor. Maggie clamped her lips together and fought the urge to scream against the frost creeping along her limbs. Her body was a war zone, cold battled with the heady heat of her desire for more of him. His hands rubbed circles along the skin of her back in an attempt to comfort her. His voice was soft and gentle to reassure her that her pain would go away soon. "Cole..."

"I know, Maggie, I know." He hated himself for coming up with the idea to give her so much as a taste of his blood. He would never forget the change. The pain. The raw agony of limbs seizing in spasms as his human body, for all intensive purposes and lack of better definition, died. He could live a thousand years and never forget one second of his birth into this world. She lay her head against his chest and panted, moaning softly to herself for what seemed an eternity to him and then, she stilled.

Maggie wiggled free from Cole's embrace. Sounds, the sound of everyday living, reverberated in her head. She could hear the evening newscaster droning away from the TV in her parent's living room. The smell of food cooking from several blocks away assaulted her nostrils. Every sense was hyper alert, clamoring for supremacy in a body not meant and a mind unable to sort through them all. She squeezed her eyes closed tightly too afraid to open them. Cole's world of smell and hearing was too much for her to bear. She didn't want to see herself, all the imperfections and flaws magnified, through his eyes.

"Maggie, open your eyes," Cole whispered. He knew what Maggie was experiencing. He understood the pain and wonder of a few stolen minutes in his world. He'd gotten used to all the smells, and sounds. The sights meant for him alone to see. He wanted to share them with her and give her just a glimpse of herself through his eyes. "Look at yourself as I see you."

Maggie forced her eyes to open. She didn't want to. She really didn't want to see the horror of herself through Cole's eyes. His coaxing voice and the gravity of the gift she'd borrowed from him was enough to make her try to see, for him. She stared at the reflection of a girl she both recognized and had never seen before in the mirror.

This girl had eyes of startling green framed by lush, thick lashes. Her skin was a flawless, glowing with health and life. Her lips, a small speck of red on their surface, were full and alluringly soft. Her hair shimmered with highlights of brilliant spun gold, rich russet red, and deep caramel brown. Each hair had a different tone, a different shade, and a life all its own. Her mouth formed a little O of amazement as the glimmer of the rhinestones on her dress caught the light, winking and sparkling like stars in a midnight sky. Timidly, she reached out an iridescent shell pink fingernail to trace the image staring back at her from the mirror's surface. "That's me?"

Cole smiled. Finally, Maggie got it. She understood. She saw what he saw, when he looked at her. "That's the you I see." Gently, he pressed a chaste kiss to her lips and stroked the softness of her cheek. Her eyes were dazed and wide with awe at her glimpse into his world. "The outward package isn't anything compared to the inside. Maggie, you are beautiful both inside and outside." He lowered his face to hers for another kiss. His mind and mouth open for her to explore.

Images of Cole's thoughts flooded Maggie's mind. What he thought about when he thought of her. How she affected him both on the inside and the outside. He'd opened himself up to her completely. She saw him, all of him, the good and the bad. The boy he'd been before they met, and the man she thought she knew. She didn't know half of who Cole was until now.

The kiss deepened and he opened wider, patiently allowing her to probe his psyche. Wander the complexities of the maze of his mind and savor like candy the essence of his thoughts. Her tongue delved deeper into his mouth than it ever had, running along his extended fangs, caressing them and feeling their sleekness against the surface of her tongue. Cole's thoughts were hot as the desert, deep and cool as the ocean, and as steep and rocky, rugged as the mountains. Maggie found herself lost and overwhelmed in the landscape of his mind.

Maggie was soft and warm in his arms. Her lips were hot and yielding, pliable beneath the press of his mouth. Sharing minds didn't deal in exact thoughts. The details such as what someone was planning to eat for supper, but rather in images and abstract concepts without any real basis in the physical plane. Nothing here was real in the sense that he could reach out and touch it. He could savor her mind. Revel in its wonder as it filtered through his head in return. Feel her urgency and need, as they worked to the surface, coaxed along by the kiss they shared.

"Maggie, we have to stop," Cole breathed against her lips. He didn't want to. She didn't want to. But, if they didn't, things were going to develop between them that neither of them had the force of will or the want to stop. Some of her passion was the effect of his blood in her system. John Mark had warned him about that. His blood was an aphrodisiac, in a way. His blood amplified what was already there on the surface. The attraction between them had been building for weeks. It came crashing down on them in a waterfall, threatening to beat down their resistance. "We're going to be late for the prom."

Maggie clamored for one more taste of Cole's lips. He gently held her at bay by her shoulders. "The prom?" She blinked. Her vision was back to normal. The only sound she heard was the ordinary white noise of everyday life and the pounding of her own heart. Her body was on fire with wants and needs she'd tasted but never fully explored. Heat flooded her cheeks. Cole was being a nice guy, a good guy. Dutifully, he reminded her that she was a good girl. At that moment, he could have gotten anything he wanted from her and she wouldn't say no. Not because he held her under some kind of thrall, but simply because she didn't want to.

"Yeah. I still want to take you to the prom." Maggie was even prettier with an embarrassed blush staining her cheeks. She was back to normal, her senses human again. But, she'd never be ordinary. Not to him.