Chapter 109) In Aeternum – Part 2

“Loving you feels like my commitment to eternity a long time ago”

Excelsior Grand Hotel
Downtown San Myshuno
-continuation of the last chapter-

“Well, duh! Yeah, bonded. You think I would keep putting up with the disaster that is the Cameron family, and particularly you if there weren’t something MUCH deeper behind it?! Hell no!” Scarlett said casually.

“Interesting. So what does that mean exactly? The bonding thing.” Blaine wanted to know.

“It means exactly what it sounds like. I don’t know how to properly describe it, that is a dad question. Life partners, soulmates of sorts, I guess. Bonded. Something very deep, special, real. Like what Riordan had with Anastasia. My dad is the expert on all things vampire, he could hold a lecture on all that with all the right answers and specifics. I could call him over, he could be teleported here into this room in seconds.” Scarlett giggled.

“Yeah, hard pass. I am not gonna ask your dad to explain our secret-ish relationship to me, especially not in a hotel room with my dick out after I just banged the brains out of his little girl. I am sure he’d rip off my meat flute, beat me bloody with it and then shove it into one of my crevices!”

“Don’t be silly. Daddy would never. He leaves the handling of the cruder things to Caelan, who enjoys that stuff. Ri and I call him ‘The Punisher’. Whenever a vamp broke the rules and was sentenced to punishment by dad and Ri, Caelan goes and does it. But don’t worry, he wouldn’t dare touch you, for he knows that I would have his hide. I am not afraid of that little shit, and he knows not to mess with me! My dad, mom, Ri and I may be the only ones not afraid of him … ” Scarlett said.

“Oh jeeze, your creepy brother. Say what you will, but that guy, seriously, he makes me shit bricks every time I see him! I swear he just loves to fuck with me. That douchebag keeps calling me his ‘sister’s mortal pet‘. That dude ain’t right in the noggin! Do I look like a fucking goldfish to anyone?!”

“Caelan is actually pretty normal for a vamp. He’s referring to the fact that throughout history some vampires actually did keep mortals for personal amusement, kinda like pets. He’s just teasing you, vampire style. My brother loves being what we are, fully embraces it and lives it. He doesn’t bother with trying to fit into the world of the mortals like I do. He and I already had serious heated discussions about that. Between both of you guys’ careless behavior potentially sabotaging my efforts to lay the groundwork to create peace and unity between the species, I have my work cut out for me. You both are lucky that I love you.”

“Well, I don’t get what’s so hard about getting this whole vampire business out there. It’s actually pretty straight forward. Vampires are vampires, they like the night, hate bright daylight, do creepy old rites, live on blood or those stinky purple whatever fruits and shit. Little kids know that. If you want unity, you have to show the mortals that you are all real, not fiction, let them simmer in it for a minute and DONE. It’s possible for mortals to handle it without freaking out. I have, and quite a few in my family have since some are even related to Riordan. So, no big deal.”

“Not everybody is so accepting of strange, inexplicable things, Blaine. I have to sell it differently. It’s human nature to condemn what they don’t understand, and there will always be plenty of that surrounding us vampires, so I will have to portray us like the vamps in literature everyone seems to adore. Those teen novels I mean, not Anne Rice and most definitely not the history books. I swear if I have to, I’ll strip the entire male population of vamps down, pour glitter all over them, then chase them naked through the fields, if that helps my case. Most of them are afraid of me anyway, because of daddy. Caelan obviously isn’t, that lil shit. Damn brothers!”

“I’ll take your word for it. Only child here. And knowing weirdo Caelan, he’d rub the glitter all over his naked self and just show his sparkly wanker to anyone anyway. Weird fuck! Thanks mom and dad for not having creepy brothers for me!”

“Hmm, right. Since we’re on topic: How many kids do you want Blaine?”

“Kids?! Are you preggers?!”

“Don’t be ridiculous! No, of course not! Can we not have one normal couple conversation? And even if I were, what about it? Takes two to get there, you moron! But relax, I am not, not gonna be for a long time! Never mind then.” she pulled away and began getting dressed.

“Okay, so we are a couple then, not just some deja vu version of a pump and dump. Ha, good to know, at least some good news. And chill, Scarlett, cut me some slack for being a bit jumpy when I hear you talking about kids. Everyone in my family and their parakeet seems to be pregnant or getting married these days and you have seen what havoc that can wreak on a relationship with Jamie and Averie. Plus honestly, I’m not the happy sappy family type, at least not right now, always thought I’d have a kid really late in life, in my fifties or something, contractually conceived by some nameless, faceless surrogate, good looking, of course, who’d disappear after being paid off after birth, when a nanny takes over. That way my genes can be out there in the world to carry on the family name and legacy without me being tied down to some ho-hum relationship I don’t want to be in.”

“Oh, how romantic. Isn’t that what every little boy and girl dreams of. So sweet, it would give me diabetes were I not a vampire. My favorite was the part of your rant where I didn’t even make the list at all. Feel so special now.”

“What do you want from me, Scarlett?! Every time I try get you to commit to me you lose a shoe running from that convo, after biting my fucking head off! I do want my legacy to continue, so I need my seed to sprout into a little Cameron heir at some point, and for that I need a female! Someone like me can’t just go out, find a nice girl to marry and have nice lil children with, nor does that sound like me at all. I don’t want that kinda life. And I didn’t know having a kid with you was even an option to be considered. Besides, my plan was still better than marrying some random celebrity chick just to make it look good on Insta and on magazine covers or to knock up some groupie. In the case of you and me procreating, my answer would be somewhere between one and football team, plus backup. That many.”

“Oh my God, can you not ever be normal?!” Scarlett couldn’t help but giggle.

“How many do you want then, woman? With me, I mean. Just making sure we’re on the same page and I am not setting myself up for getting dumped here. I could afford tons of kids and nannies to deal with the brood cos, no offense but I don’t think either one of us is the mother hen type, Scarlett. I can’t picture us reaching the height of ecstasy wiping noses and asses of some screaming pink thing we somehow manufactured together. But not to toot my own horn, I am easy on the eye, you’re hot, we’re tall, smart, rich, good features, whatever we output would be worth the effort, girl!” Blaine smirked.

“Oh man, I guess you cannot handle serious and THEORETICAL discussions. Out of the people in this hotel room, nobody’s getting pregnant, not for a very long while, at least that we can agree on. And yes, with you, whom else? Although, actually … there is this really cute, nerdy-hot staffer at the office …. or that breathtakingly handsome vampire that moved into the house next to my cousin’s, whitish blonde, long hair … sooooo tall… mysterious .. hmm hmmm!”

Blaine just grabbed her and tossed her onto the bed pinning her down while she laughed.

“THAT is not even funny, woman! You are mine. ALL mine!” he growled, smiling she held his stare.

“Oh, yeah? Is that so? Why do I have to share you then?” Scarlett’s tone and facial expression warned Blaine to tread lightly and he realized there wasn’t a continuation of their escapades in the nearest future, especially not if he said the wrong thing now.

“You don’t, not really, not where it counts. You know that. The rest is just sex, meaningless, with some nameless, faceless bitches who are more than willing to scratch an itch for me. I mean, who do I have to be loyal to, since you won’t commit to me?! Officially we are only friends. Maybe friends with benefits. I don’t have to be celibate for that! And you won’t give me anything to hold on to, while I have done nothing but try to throw myself at you for the taking! Still, all you ever gave me was the shaft! So, don’t go trying to lay some guilt trip on me, girl, without pointing fingers at yourself too.”

“Okay, fine. Then I’ll commit. I’ll be yours, all yours, only yours, IF …. and pay close attention to this part, Blaine, because it is important and I will only tell you this ONCE … IF you can keep your hands and other parts off and out of other women. Commitment on both sides. No exceptions. NO exceptions, not ever!” she pulled out from underneath him, tossing him his clothes, which he casually caught and started putting on without halting. The mood was gone anyway. Hay-roll time was over for the night. But at least it ended with potential good news.

“Really? But then you’ll be mine? I mean, the real deal. I would want to introduce you to my parents as my actual girlfriend and shit. You’d have to give me that.”

“Oh Blaine … Fine, I guess that’s only fair since I already introduced you to mine. Okay. Deal. I’ll meet the parents. But NOT in public.”

“I can totally do that, you could come visit me in Del Sol Valley, spend some time with me there, over a long weekend. And I don’t need other women, if I know I can really have you, they’ve just been a pasttime anyway. But I need to learn more about vampires, no more keeping me on the outside looking in. That just doesn’t feel good! And you have to make a real promise! A ring. Or a tattoo. Something serious.”

“I have something better. You like the vampire stuff so much, fine. There is a ceremony vampires do when they find someone very special to them, an ancient ritual which is similar to an engagement among you mortals, not exactly like it, but close. It’s called the blood bond. The blood bond is often followed by marriage, but does not have to be, it’s not a promise of marriage, but of a union, a promise of loyalty, exclusivity, and it is very serious. Blood bonds and weddings are very much independent from each other, even though you cannot have a wedding without having had the blood bond first. But it’s not for the faint of heart, as the name already implies and usually reserved only for vampires, not mixed couples.”

“I am in! Let’s do it. Right here, right now.”

“You don’t even know what it is.”

“Don’t care, say it, and I will do it.”

“Okaaaaay …, the first part would be that you have to go down to the small pond at San Myshuno Meadows Park and swim in it in the moonlight. But you have to walk there naked too. From here.”

“All right, then watch me go! I have nothing to hide. World, here I come to gain the favor of the fair Princess Vatore. No wait, you’d be a dark princess, right.”

Blaine pulled his clothing back off and headed for the door, bare as a newborn baby, after he was almost out in the hallway, Scarlett quickly pulled him back into the room, locked the door, folding over for laughter.

“Ah, I get it, you’re just fucking with me, and not in the good way.”

“OMG – I cannot believe you were really gonna do that! HA HA HA. I wish I had let you go and taped it! This would have been internet GOLD!” Scarlett was highly amused.

“So you lied to me. Very funny. I should have known that ritual talk was nothing but baloney.”

Blaine grabbed his clothing off the floor and put most of it back on.

“No, the blood bond part is true, but … obviously I had a little fun with the rules. You should have known though, Blaine, cos all our rites are ancient. When those originated there was no San Myshuno, let alone a park or a pond. And there is not even a full moon out tonight! You know I am not allowed to talk about our rituals and the blood bond is not really something for mortals. Your great-aunt Ana did it at her vampire wedding to Riordan, simply because they had not done it before, but it needed to happen before any wedding can be official. I never heard of any other mortals being part of that ceremony. Basically we’d have to drink each other’s blood, and I can’t ask that of you.”

“Why not? You think I am to weak to handle that? I’ll do it! I have been curious for a long time about anything vampire-related, but you never wanted to talk about it. I was always going to ask you to bite me … I mean, for real, just to see how it feels.”

“How it feels? How do you think it will feel? It will hurt, silly! It’s not magical or anything, it’s functional and basic. Plasma trees and blood banks haven’t been around for that long in the grand scheme of things and my ancestors had to survive somehow. Nothing special about it, just serves a purpose.”

“Scarlett, a vampire bite is 100% something special! And I can take it. At one time in my life I used to stick needles in my arm to get high. I can deal with a little love bite by a hot vampire. I want that ritual. So, what all do we need for that blood bond business? Black candles, crow’s feet and cat brains and shit like that or just us?”

“It’s not a freaking séance, you moron, nor am I a witch! But maybe the cat brain we could use for you! Thinking doesn’t seem to come so natural to you most of the time!”

They bickered a little more, Blaine insisted, and the ritual eventually commenced. Scarlett mumbled some odd sounding chants in a language Blaine didn’t understand, but it sounded ancient, so presumably some vampire stuff and part of the ceremony.
Then she carefully bit open his wrist, he flinched and let out the slightest groan of pain, then watched her drink from him just briefly, fighting a slight feeling of dizziness and weak knees.

Afterwards she opened her own wrist, offered it up to him while chanting more of the ancient lines, he sucked the blood out and felt the strangely cool, odd texture of her blood run down the inside of his throat as if in slow motion, trying to keep his expression as neutral as possible, while trying to suppress gagging.

Afterwards they kissed, a long, meaningful kiss.

When they parted he looked down at his wrist, there were bite marks and some staining from the blood, but no bleeding.

“It’s our saliva. It’s different. It can seal the wounds we create.” Scarlett explained.

“Wow. I have known you so long and this is literally the first vampire-y thing you have done with me.” Blaine said, hoping he’d look normal, while his knees were shaking still from all the strange tastes and sensations he just experienced.

“Well, Blaine, most of the things we vampires do that are specific to us, are very deliberate, very meaningful, you don’t just show them off like party tricks. That being said, you and I, we are now what my people call ‘conexus in aeternum“, eternal mates, forever bonded at least before the vampires. Translated into Blaine-brain that means simply if you even as much as touch another chick again, all those terrible things you think my brother capable of are child’s play to what I will do to you! Just something to keep in mind. Oh, and don’t test me on that. I don’t take kindly to competition and I don’t forgive easily, so please never make me choose between you and some random whore. It won’t end well for her, simply because you are my bonded, so I can’t kill you, but I know how to make bodies disappear. And also, now I can really say it: I love you, Blaine.”

“Love you too, you crazy ass vampire chick! Hey, but at least now you are MY crazy ass vamp chick.”

“Oh, you better run. I am going to skin you alive! I told you not to call me that!”

“Oh, I am not even afraid, you said it yourself, you can’t kill me. Oh, and also VAMPIRE CHICK!”

The chase ended in the shower cabin with a celebration of the new old union.