First Death Pt. 08

Hiro smirked at me, "Like I said, it takes practice. Now, walk back at a normal pace and try again."

I started strolling back across the long room, about twenty regular paces, "You said you were a few centuries old—how many, exactly?"

"Things weren't really written down much back then," he replied. "I had been changed for a week when Lilithsan came and killed my benefactor, so maybe around five hundred?"

I stopped by the door, turning towards him, "Your benefactor—was he an original Death vampire?" I pictured myself standing next to him and in an instant I was there, but I wasn't prepared for the sudden stop and toppled over, narrowly missing a face plant into the wall.

Hiro motioned for me to repeat the exercise; he started talking again when I started walking, "Yes, he had been with the pack for a long time—he was one of the very first of Death's vampires. He had just started to teach me how to read blood memories; when I went to visit him in his home one night, all I found was dust."

This time I managed to skid ungracefully to a halt, but remained on my feet. I started walking back of my own accord, knowing he would direct me to do so, "You never learned to read the blood memories?" I paused, taking a breather while he talked.

"Not very well. I have pieces of my benefactor's experiences in my head, but I cannot pick and choose what I see, or search for something in particular. When I feed from a human I can get a jumbled, condensed version of their past week or so but nothing more than that. Lilithsan and her brother might be the last existing vampires who know how to control it."

I fleeted over to him a little easier this time, sticking the landing. He motioned with his hand and I walked back to my starting point, again, "That must be frustrating for a historian."

"You have no idea. I've pondered it for many years, tried to figure it out on my own, tried to research it but vampires generally aren't in the habit of recording their lives on paper. The last time that Lilithsan was here I almost had her convinced to teach me, but her fight with the Alpha destroyed any conviction she had in the Ōkami. I think the only wolf she ever truly trusted was Evansan."

Fleeting over to him, I stopped perfectly on a dime though it felt like my chest tightened with sorrow at the mention of his name. It was hard, knowing that he was gone, that he died protecting Lily and I. When Hiro noticed my stillness, he didn't ask but very tactfully started me on the next lesson. He found a roll of masking tape and taped off two lines across the floor, roughly ten paces apart, "I want you to do this." Hiro walked normally to the first line, fleeted to the second and then walked the rest of the way, back towards his desk.

It seemed silly, easy in fact but I screwed it up more times than simply fleeting all the way across the room. He made me practice it for hours; I was successful two out of three times, but I was feeling sluggish. Hiro noticed and motioned for me to sit down on a chair. He sent a quick text on his phone.

While we waited, I asked, "Are we going to be practicing this all week?"

"We will see how you do in the last few hours, but no. Fleeting your entire body is one thing, but you can also simply move parts faster, like a fleeting punch or kick. Tomorrow we will go to the sparring room and try that. I also need to show you how to influence a human and teach you how to feed properly, but for those we will have to venture to Dai Ni in the city, because there are no humans in this pack." He was cut short by a swift knock on the door. He called them to enter and an elderly lady shuffled in with a tray containing a white ceramic tea pot and two cups. She gathered the used cups off of Hiro's desk before leaving.

Hiro lifted the tea pot and poured thick red blood out into the two small cups, handing me one before sitting in the chair next to me. The instant I smelled its richness, my mouth started to water. I sipped it slowly, savoring the flavor. It was warm, decadent and sinful; I felt the frown grow on my face, "Where does the blood come from?"

He raised a brow at me, "The blood we get here is from the wolves. They offer it of their own choice."

I licked my lips, staring at the half empty cup, wondering which wolf it belonged to, "I'm not sure I'll be able to feed. It feels...wrong."

When he chuckled, I looked at him. He waved his hand, "I understand what you mean, Matthew. I think that every vampire who was a decent, moral human before has problems feeding after. First generations, like us, can use our abilities to ease the process for the human. It can be very enjoyable for both, in fact. Most further down the line get swept up in the hunger and end up killing, but this will not be an issue for you as long as you feed on a regular basis. Fresh blood every few days, at the very least once a week if you are supplementing it with something else. In a pinch, you can hunt animals and drain them though you will be so hungry you need to feed every day. The Ōkami are firm believers in honor—it is dishonorable to kill an innocent, dishonorable to steal their blood against their will. I suppose it is cheating to influence a human but it must be done to leave them without memoires; regardless, you must always ask for permission before biting one. If they say no, then find another."

I nodded; I knew, deep down, that I would have no choice and would eventually have to feed off of a living, breathing human. The way that the Ōkami vampires were taught offered me some semblance of comfort, though—they weren't ruthless killing machines, taking whatever they wanted and leaving behind them a path of destruction and dead bodies like Ian. They were civilized beings who, like the Ōkami, valued life and held respect for most things. I felt like this was a place I could live out my death and spend my immortal years just as Ameer did.

While we worked on finishing off the pot, Hiro asked, "The other vampire with you—do you know much about his abilities?"

I frowned, "No, I don't. Most of the time we've spent together has been sitting around and bullshitting."

Hiro laughed, "Well, I suppose we will know soon enough if he is any good at being a vampire." He poured me the last bit out of the pot.

"What do you mean by that?" I eyed him, knocking back my final cup.

"The she wolves," he said. The smile soon faded off of his face, "If he had refused the duty it would have fell upon me."

I didn't know how to respond to that—it was an odd conversation, I assumed that would be a perk to being the one male vampire among unmated she wolves, but the look he gave me made it seem more like an obligation than fun. I stood and got back to my practice. Within an hour, I was able to maneuver though the obstacle course he set up using chairs and stacks of books. By dawn we both felt confident in my abilities.

There was a swift knock on the door; Hiro opened it to reveal a tall, slender Japanese man who looked young. His black hair was closely cropped on the sides, the long top drifted forward to the left over his eyes and to his cheekbones. Hiro bowed as did the other man. When he stood, he looked me up and down before saying, "I am Beta Kaito. I was told you would run with us this morning." He looked at me skeptically.

When I glanced to Hiro, the old vampire was shocked, "The sunlight will be hard to avoid, even in the forest. Perhaps it was a mistake?"

I shook my head, "No mistake. Thank you, Hirosan, for the lesson. I will see you tomorrow evening."

I saw the doubt in his eyes while I walked out behind Kaito. I followed the Beta down the hallway and into what looked like a large changing room. Beyond one glass wall was a vast arena type area, the floor covered with thick mats and several different racks around it on the walls—I assumed this was the sparring room Hiro talked about.

Kaito pointed towards a small divided alcove, almost identical to the dozens of others with a bench wide enough to sit on, a shelf to stash shoes underneath and several hooks to hang clothes although this one had a neatly folded stack of sweat pants and a shirt and a pair of running shoe beneath.

"You will change," he said simply.

I glanced around for a bathroom or something to change my clothes but quickly realized that these wolves had no reservations about nakedness—for fuck's sake, the locker room had a glass window directly into the sparring arena. I got over my awkwardness and stripped down underneath the watchful eye of the Beta. It was nice to shed the dress clothes and slip into the soft gray sweats. While I was lacing up the shoes, Kaito frowned.

"I do not know how you plan on avoiding the sunlight but I don't think Alpha Takeo will be pleased if you turn to ash."

"I'll be fine," I mumbled, unsure how to tell him that sunlight wouldn't hurt me or why. Instead I stood up and followed him out of the room.

We quickly bounded up the stairs, ending up in the same area that opened up into the courtyard where I watched Lily get fucked by Takeo. Kaito walked outside into the fresh light of the new day and waited, with his arms crossed over his chest.

I have to admit, I was nervous—what if Ameer was pulling a fast one on me? None the less, I showed no fear and walked out to him, "How long of a run is it?"

He eyed me for a long time, waiting for me to burst into flames but when the sun shone on my paling skin and I looked mildly irritated, he huffed and started walking with me in tow, "We run ten miles every morning. It will take less than one hour. You will keep pace with me."

I got plenty of other odd looks from the rest of the wolves who waited near the edge of the open courtyard, though none of them asked me why I wasn't on fire or why I was there—they simply accepted that the command came from further up and they had no objections. The run itself was not what I expected; the first two miles I ran beside Kaito who led the pack—everyone was in human form.

Once we reached a cluster of large rocks, everyone started stripping. The folded their clothes neatly and left them on their shoes; I watched as one by one, naked human bodies melted down to the ground into the shapes of large wolves. It was a spectacular sight to watch and my mind was blown—I might have had my mouth open too. A larger, lanky brown wolf snapped its jaws at me and yipped; I jumped before I realized that it was Kaito. I followed him as he took off and darted into the trees. The second part of the run was difficult—if I were human, I would have been wheezing and probably lying on the ground by the time we had covered a mile. They ran hard, not using any visible path but communicating mentally to discern a direction as a unit. I kept pace with Kaito throughout it all, feeling my muscles stretch and burn, I found myself unconsciously breathing. The movement circulated my blood quickly—something I discovered by happen stance was the only way a vampire's blood flowed was through their movement, so if one were to lie down for years on end it was generally really hard and painful to get it flowing again.

Eventually we returned to the rocks; when they shifted back, every naked body was covered in sweat, some were dirty and all were panting. As they put on their clothes, I noted that most of the larger males had tattoos similar to Takeo's, a few of the females had smaller dainty ones on their backs or arms but all of them had a jagged bite mark on the back of their right shoulder; a few also donned a similar mark on in the crook of their necks, though they were generally smaller and less vicious looking.

When we began the last leg of the run at a slow jog back down the mountain, I idly wondered if Evan had ever marked Lily. That simple thought threw me into a memory before I knew what was happening.

I was sitting in a large copper bathtub in the middle of a huge bedroom; the tub was in front of the fire place, the warmth of it radiated onto my face, the scent of smoke mixing with the lavender soap that I rubbed against my skin. As I scrubbed my pale slender legs, I glanced over at Evan. He was watching me intently, his brown eyes reflected the flames, making them seem as if they were glowing. I looked away when I dipped my leg back into the water and stood up.

"I want you to be mine," he said, almost growled at me.

Daintily I stepped out of the tub onto the plush carpet, leaving a trail of water droplets behind me. I grabbed a towel off of a chair and rang my hair out, patting the soft cloth over my wet skin. "I don't belong to anyone," I replied, offhandedly, "least of all a half breed mutt."

I saw it coming before he even moved but I didn't try to get away—I liked it when he played rough; Evan leaped up from his seat and tackled me down onto the bearskin rug. He pinned me on my stomach, holding my wrists against the small of my back with one of his massive hands. He straddled my thighs and I could feel the movement of him unlacing his pants and pulling his cock out.

A wicked grin crossed my lips when I felt the hot head of his dick slide down the crack of my ass, blindly nudging its way around until he found my opening and rammed it all the way in. I shuddered at the feeling of it and he let go of my hands; he leaned over me, his fists pressed into the rug on either side of my breasts and he harshly started pounding into my body, each thrust pushing me into the rug, causing a grunt to escape my lips from the movement of his hips against my ass.

His pace increased until he was no longer crashing against me but grinding frantically into my flesh. His body laid across my back, pinning me down while he fucked me like an animal. His breath tickled my ear, his primal moans made me arch my ass up, giving him what he wanted, taking his cock like a good little slut. The way he penetrated me, the angle caused the tip of his dick to relentlessly jab the sweet spot in my cunt that began the start of my demise; my entire body tensed, every muscle strained, desperately holding onto nothing while the pleasure built up rapidly.

I knew he was close, his breathing was labored, I could feel the dampness of his sweat through his shirt; when a low growl grumbled out of his chest and throat and into my ear I shuddered, peaking underneath the predator that was my wolf. Right before the explosion hit me, I felt his teeth clamp down on the tender spot where my neck and shoulder meet. I jerked and yelled at him but within seconds I melted into the rug, writhing and twitching while he rutted into me before one last harsh thrust sent his cum spewing deep into my barren womb.

He nipped at my ear, his airy voice panting out, "You are mine now, Lily."

Somehow, I was laying on my back looking up at the bright blue sky through the dappled leaves. When I saw Kaito's mug hovering over me, his slightly amused yet confused smirk, I drew in a sharp breath. My face hurt. I reached up and felt wetness, discovering blood coming from my nose. I closed my eyes and shook my head which only made things worse. Sitting up, I wiped the blood off of my chin and onto the shirt, "What happened?"

"You ran right into a tree," he said; from the tone of his voice, I knew he found it hilarious and was trying not to laugh. Hell, I would have probably laughed at me too.

I rolled my eyes and got to my feet, "The tree darted out in front of me, I never saw it coming." He snorted before he could contain it; his grin was wide and for the first time I saw friendliness in his eyes. I couldn't help but chuckle and wave him away, "I'll live."

"No, you won't," he started laughing. Shaking his head he turned and continued jogging down the path.

I pushed through the pain and followed, catching up to him. Thankfully, we only had another mile before we were back in the courtyard. The wolves already started dispersing before Kaito and I reached the doors.

"We are going to get cleaned up and eat breakfast. You will meet me back in the sparring room in one hour," he said while walking away. "I had fresh clothes sent to your room."

My skin was warm from the exertion, my muscles tense but it was odd to have gone through such a work out without my lungs burning or my throat being hoarse. Combined with the fleeting from the night before and I could feel aches and pains in my body, something I never imagined a vampire would have. I suppose, though, that unless they kept up their exercise they'd get plump, kind of like Hiro. By the time I made it to the suite I felt tired—which was stupid, because I couldn't sleep. I knew somehow that Lily did what she called meditating; she would like in bed and close her eyes and breathe for hours on end, shutting her mind off and simply concentrating on nothing. Perhaps it was her way of attempting to be human by pretending to sleep or maybe it was the only reprieve she got from being awake all the time. Frankly, right now, it sounded like a good idea.

When I walked to the small bedroom, my eyes fell upon the bed; the sheets were rumpled, covers and pillows thrown awry from my romp with Lily. If I tried to lay down I doubt that I would be able to focus on anything other than the memory of fucking her, which if this morning was any indication, would lead to another random blood memory popping into my mind. I opted, instead, for a shower. When I got into the bathroom I was shocked—dried blood on my face, down my throat and all over my shirt I looked like I took a beating. With a frown I quickly striped out of the clothes and hopped in the shower, trying to ignore the thought of pinning Lily against the tiles or her hand wrapped around my cock.

Along with the clothes I had left in the changing room, I found the clothes that Kaito had sent up for me. Thankfully his taste was a bit less pretentious than Max's and Lily's; I pulled on a fresh pair of slim black sweats and a snug t-shirt. They fitted my form a bit too tight for my personal liking but whatever. I found an odd pair of soft cotton shoes, they looked kind of like socks but weren't. It was probably something that was lost on me, having never spent much time intentionally getting the shit kicked out of me in a sparring arena.

I flopped on the couch after glancing at the clock, I still had over half an hour to kill before going downstairs. It was weird, to be alone again—the last time I was, Lily was unconscious. I laid back on the couch and thought about closing my eyes until I saw Jinx dart out from Max's hallway. He stopped when he saw me and made an awful noise.

It was an odd sound for a cat to make, a soft of guttural whine, low and long. He looked at me expectantly—I shrugged—I had no fucking clue what he wanted, "Are you hungry?"

He huffed a little cat sigh and made the noise again. Great, my life had devolved to playing charades with a cat. Before I could ask him how many syllables, there was a swift knock at the door. Jinx hissed slightly before stalking off down the hallway—if I a cat could be frustrated, I imagined that's what it looked like.

I didn't know who to expect but it certainly wasn't the tiny female omega with a tray containing a large pitcher of fresh blood and two glasses. She bowed slightly before walking in—I wondered how she got tasked with the chore of tending to the vampires. I was about to strike up a conversation when I heard an uneven, limping gate coming down the hall; upon looking, I saw Max and he looked like shit.

"What the hell happened to you?" I gaped, not even noticing that the omega let herself out and shut the door behind her.

Max hobbled over to the couch and flopped down. He was beat to hell—he had a healing black eye, his usually neatly pulled back light brown hair was entirely disheveled, long strands clinging to his face, he had scratches all over his neck and arms, his shirt and pants were torn and he somehow misplaced his shoes. After rubbing his face, he held out his hand and waited until I poured him a glass of fresh blood. He downed it in one long swig before motioning for more, "I think my dick is going to fall off, Matthew."