Decisions Ch. 05

"I was not!" I protested, a bit too loudly. Both Stasi and I winced, keeping our ear open in the hallway to make sure my parents didn't wake up. It was tradition that the night before Thanksgiving, we were allowed to sleepover at one another's house, as we'd have our Thanksgiving party at one of our house's anyways. We alternated every year, and now, it was my turn.

Satisfied that my parents were still sleeping like rocks, I repeated myself, more quietly and my face burning, despite the frigidness of the room. "I was not."

"Ok, maybe I was exaggerating on the snoring, lyubov. But, you did say my name a few times! It was milyy. Do you always say my name when you sleep?"

"How should I know what I say when I'm sleeping? I'm sleeping! Besides, you're one to talk about snoring." I whispered. Stasi snored, but it wasn't like Ricky, who snored like the chainsaw from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Her snoring was actually kind of cute. Very cute in fact.

"Guilty." Stasi replied, playfully. "I should really finish what I started..." She squeezed my cock once more, before scooting backwards a bit.

"You don't have to if you don't want to..." I muttered, not really sure why I was declining sex. It's probably because I didn't want to wake my parents up on accident... or the fact that my parents were just down the hall. We were pretty vocal when it came to sex. (Un-)Fortunately for the both of us, Stasi didn't seem to care.

"No, no. I don't want you to go to sleep with raging hormones. My family is always the one that says 'doskazav vy nach-...

-inayete." I finished. Finishing what you started. The mantra that Anton and Yulia drilled into the both of us when we were growing up.

"Exactly... now just relax. It's my 'I'm-Sorry-For-Waking-You-Up Gift."

With me laying on my bed and her body perpendicular to mines, she brought her head down to my cock. I shuddered in anticipation, simply watching the darkened silhouette of her head come ever close. At first, she warmed me up a bit, using her tongue and licking my balls, my cock, everything. Then, she softly kissed the head and coiled her tongue over the top of the shaft, making me moan. She placed her mouth over the head and started to suck, bobbing slowly up and down. She was amazing at this for one of many reasons: she loved making me feel good as much as I loved making her feel good. I was biting my tongue to avoid from crying out.

Then, she released my cock with a 'pop', licking her lips and fangs, and looking worriedly at me. "How am I doing?" She asked, self consciously.

"Perfect..." I gasped. "Absolutely perfect."

Her grin was dazzling. "Try not to make too much noise." She whispered, before climbing on top and straddling me. "It's still super early in the morning." She dipped down, locking her lips onto mine with passion. She moaned quietly into the kiss, running her cold hands through my close cropped brown hair. We were in perfect synchronization, a toned down dance of our tongues.

What happened next was a glorious lovemaking session. It wasn't as frenzied as how it usually was, rather, it was slow and gentle. We didn't need the fast and rapid pace. The darkness made up for everything. In the dark, every other sense except sight was magnified. Every touch sent electricity through our intertwined bodies. Every sound made the both of us shiver.

With small gasps, low moans, and muted giggling, the bed quietly creaking; with her on top nipping my neck with her fangs, me on top sucking on the hollow of her throat, then her on top nicking my neck again, it wasn't long before I realized something.

I was in love with her, hopeless love, and it felt like I still hadn't realized it. No other person knew me inside and out or had my back. With her, I was in absolute heaven. Screw the 'serene river' I was lazily floating down. I'd rather have this than that. When the both of us reached a mutually mind shattering climax, it only reinforced what I was thinking earlier.

"You've been saving that for a while... haven't you, lyubov?" She sighed, happily, climbing off and pushing my cock back into my boxers. She grabbed the top of the blanket, pulled it onto her and fell back to the bed so she was cuddling me, with the blanket providing a nice, warm atmosphere. I wrapped my arms around her cold body, which was slick with sweat, making her sigh in contentment. We stayed there for a moment, before I finally spoke once I was mentally cognizant.

"I love you, Anastasia Antonova Sokolov." I whispered.

She laughed lyrically, looking up at me with her wide crystal blue eyes that seemed to glow in the dark. "It can't quite possibly because we just had a mind blowing lovemaking session, could it? Well, regardless... I love you too, Christopher Robert Williams." She kissed my neck, right where she usually bit me when she fed. Also my ticklish spot. "We need to do that again, sometime." She mused. "That was fun how you were trying not to say anything and I was trying to get you to say something."

"You weren't scared of my parents hearing us?"

"If they sleep like you, they wouldn't hear a bomb going off in the next room." She said, confidently. "Besides, I'd have heard them waking up before they even heard me. Vampire hearing and all."

True that.

I closed my eyes and held onto her for the rest of the... night? Early morning? Whatever the proper terminology was, I simply clutched her in my arms, the sounds of our steady breathing providing a peaceful ambiance... and boredom. I was bored. I couldn't fall back to sleep now that I was awake and what was another hour of sleep going to do for me? We were supposed to get up early to prepare for Thanksgiving, anyways.

"Stasi..." I hissed. "Are you awake?"

All I could hear was Stasi's breathing and I thought that by some miracle, she had actually fallen asleep, until she stirred. "No, I'm not awake. I'm asleep." A moment of silence passed. "What's up?"

"I can't sleep." I admitted. "Even though I love laying with you on my bed, I'd rather be doing stuff like..." My voice trailed off.

"XBox?" She asked.

"XBox." I confirmed. Video games were our thing.

"I was hoping you'd say that. I couldn't sleep either." She said. "I'll get the lights." She rolled out from under the blanket and quickly skipped over to the light switch. Unlike the other lights in our house, this one had a specific control just for the brightness. Stasi didn't turn it up so high that our darkness-accustomed eyes didn't get seared off. Rather, she just turned it to the point where it was dim and we could make out where everything was. Stasi hopped back to the bed, diving under the covers. I welcomed her low temperature body with open arms.

"Turn up the heater, your room is freezing." She complained.

"I sleep better in the cold." I said defensively, fumbling around my nightstand for two controllers.

"Yes, I know that, but when I say freezing, I mean freezing. It's like I stepped into Siberia for a second."

"You're being a baby, my room isn't that cold. Aha!" I whispered in triumph, finding the two controllers among the cluttered mess on my nightstand. I really needed to clean my room.

"That's an understatement and a half. If your room wasn't so cold, then why'd you take all the blankets?"

I was trying to think of some kind of witty reply because she had me there.

"Because I didn't want to get cold." I laughed. I handed one of the controllers to Stasi, the white one. "Here's your controller. What'd you want to play?"

"Hm... let's start with... NHL 17?" She suggested.

"Sure." Like video games, hockey was our thing. Except football. Football was more my thing instead of Stasi's. I turned on the system by remote control, fiddled with the volume so it was as quiet as possible, loaded the game, and off we went with a game of one-on-one. Although I was as focused on the game as I could be, I couldn't help having my eyes wander every time the action on the screen as at a lull. Specifically having my eyes wander to Stasi just to drink in the sight of her. But, this time, I knew that something was off. She was practically glowing from the sex, but even in the dim light of the room, I could see that something was wrong with her.

Her crystal blue eyes were staring at the screen, but they were somewhat blank, as if she was heavily thinking of something. Not only that, but she looked tired and worn, with dark bruises under her eyes, and slightly sunken cheeks. She was still beautiful, but quite simply, she didn't look healthy. She hadn't looked healthy for the past few days, as a matter of fact. We both knew what the sole reason was.

"You ok?" I asked as the Joe Pavelski on screen zipped past Sidney Crosby to cross the blue line. She had a clear position to check him and absent mindedly let him pass.

"Hm? Me? Nyet. I mean, yes. Yes, I'm fine." She replied, stumbling over her words after I caught her zoned out. "Just a bit hungry and thirsty."

"Do you want me to get you a glass of water or some snacks from downstairs?" I offered, although I knew that it had nothing to do with water or the crackers I stocked in my pantry.

"It's not going to help that much." She mumbled quietly, so quietly in fact, that I almost missed it.

I knew it. She was undergoing the symptoms of vampiric blood withdrawal. Vampire fed on a strict regime, and if you went over it, you could go into withdrawals. Withdrawals were medically separated into stages. Stage One, which lasted a week to two weeks was your minor stuff. You get a little thirsty, a little hungry, maybe a bit tired and clammy skin, but nothing too major. An SBP could fix it right away. Stage Two was when the shakes and heavy stomach pains came in. Again, nothing an SBP (along with an extra dose) couldn't fix. Stage Three was the bloodlust phase, when the predatory instincts of a vampire took over and they chased after anything with a pulse. You needed a doctor for that one if they managed to sedate you.

I never found out what Stage Four was, Stasi never told me and I never looked it up but I never thought it'd be good.

"You're overdue for a feeding..." I breathed. "Aren't you?"

Stasi was quiet for so long that I thought she didn't hear me. "Yes." She finally whispered. "I am. I was supposed to feed a few days ago had I been on the SBPs, but with drinking human blood, your blood, it's hard to gauge. It can be two weeks until I need to feed again or it can be three. I just feel it when I have to feed now. I think I was supposed to feed on Tuesday, but we've been so busy that we haven't really found the alone time to do it, haven't we?"

"We haven't." I agreed. "Do you want to do it now and get it over with?"

Stasi shook her head. These days, she had come to terms with live feedings. She still didn't like them, but her instincts won out. "Now? No, super bad time to feed in the morning. I don't want you sleeping through the entirety of Thanksgiving because your blood level is low. I can probably last another week. If you want to feed later today, that's fine, but you still have an SBP in your fridge, right? Just in case?"

She was lying to me. You know how I knew she was lying to me? Because she was my best friend for my entire life and had a tell. Every time she lied, her voice caught. I knew damn well that she didn't want to last another week.

"Stasi..." I warned, pausing the game on screen."You're going to feed and not on an SBP."

"What? No, I'm not. You can't make me." She responded. She was as bull-headed as I was sometimes. "You're going to be exhausted and suffering from blood loss all day. I'm not ruining your Thanksgiving. I'll have an SBP if it gets too unbearable."

"No, you're not. I won't let you. You have had nothing but human blood for the past two or three months. Your body's just going to reject it. I looked it up. I'm not going to have your Thanksgiving ruined because you're undergoing blood withdrawal or because you chugged an SBP and threw it back up in the toilet."

Now even though I exaggerated a bit, it was still fact. Stasi wouldn't be a happy camper if she quit human blood cold turkey and went back to an SBP in one go. Anton and Yulia explained why when they told me to be cautious about live feedings. Vampires were biologically primed for human blood, not SBPs. Her still-technically-maturing body had gotten a taste of the real thing and didn't want the synthetics. She wouldn't vomit like I said she would, but she'd probably feel so bad that she'd want to vomit.

"Ew." She crinkled her nose at the mental image.

"Yes, I know. 'Ew'. Look, you don't even have to take that much blood. Just enough to sate your hunger for a few days."

"Chris.." She said, exasperated. "We both know that my self control isn't that good. If I wanted to take just a little bit, I'd just end up taking as much as I could once I bit you. I could actually hurt you and your parents will kill me."

"No, you won't. Not if you feed from this." I held up my finger. Not my best idea, but I was a slightly sleepy high school senior. What could one expect?

"You expect me to feed from your... finger? Are you crazy?" She asked, incredulously. "Zayka, I love you and all, but you say some dumb ideas sometimes."

"Sometimes! Sometimes, I have bad ideas. But trust me, right now, this is a good idea. Just hear me out. It's not like my neck where there's a huge vein in it. It's my finger and only has a small amount of arteries in it. It's like when you accidentally prick yourself or get a paper cut, you bleed, but not too much. But, enough blood will come out that it'll be just enough to sate you until... maybe a few more days, right? Then we'll be able to actually feed."

"Well yes technically, given the blood flow, but I-... I..." Stasi stammered, before throwing up her arms in frustration. "Why am I even debating this with you? This is a terrible idea."

"Stasi.." I was stubborn and adamant. I held up my finger in front of her and waggled it as if it were a treat. Stasi opened her mouth to say something, her fangs extended and exposed at the prospect of feeding. "It's a great idea and you know it."

"I... I..." Her bottom lip trembled as her eyes were transfixed on my finger. Conflict raged within her eyes. Reasoning against pure instinct. Stasi closed them, before pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingers.

Arguing with me on this topic was no use. I'd never change my mind. It was like an immovable object meeting a semi-unstoppable force when it came to Stasi's well being. Not only that, but she knew that no matter how ashamed she was of being a vampire, she still had to feed and I was offering myself on a metaphorical silver platter. "I can't believe I'm doing this. If I bite your finger off, you can't say I didn't try to get you out of it."

"Aye, aye, captain." I stuck out my index finger. Stasi tentatively took hold of my wrist and brought it closer to her mouth, her long fangs extended at the prospect of feeding. She always had longer fangs than the rest of her siblings and I wondered if that was a good thing.

"You know, feeding gets me in the mood.." She mused.

"You act like that's going to make me want to keep you from feeding." I laughed.

"You're right.. We just had sex, anyways." She giggled, the tension in the room making a quick exit. She examined my thumb in the dim light of the room with a critical eye. "Ok... now... let's just... tell me to stop if this hurts." Stasi said, guiltily. She licked her lips and brought her mouth to my thumb, and in one quick movement, brought her fang down and cut a small gash onto the skin of my thumb.

"Ouch!" I gasped, bringing my hand back. It didn't hurt that much. It equated in pain levels to getting a vaccination or a very, very large splinter. The quick movement of her head and my hand just startled me. I inspected my hand, particularly my goddamnit-that-kinda-hurt thumb. There was a neat cut on it, about a centimeter long. It wasn't particularly deep, but it still stung. A few drops of blood were already dripping out of the laceration and down my hand.

I looked up at Stasi, seeing her eyes glazed and transfixed on my hand, specifically the droplets of blood. When she saw me staring at her, her trance was cut short. "Y-...y... do you want me to stop?" She asked weakly, which surprised me again. Here was Anastasia Sokolov, one of the strongest girls I knew, her voice reduced to a fragile murmur, all because I could potentially back out from giving her the blood she needed. She probably could've kicked my butt and force me to give it to her if she wanted me to.

When I said she could kick my butt, she actually could. We took Sambo when we were younger and she caught on really quick. I was stronger and better with stand up fighting, but she was smart, patient, and calculating. A deadly combination. If she took things to the ground, seven times out of ten, I was going to be up a creek.

I shook my head. "The worst part's over, right?" I replied with a grin. "Just don't bite the rest of my thumb off."

She nodded and licked her lips. "I won't..." I held up my opened hand and Stasi brought her mouth down over my thumb, and began sucking, as if she were a toddler. She closed her eyes in bliss. I wondered how she felt being able to have some sustenance after being deprived of it for so long. Was it like how it felt when you were starving and were able to scarf down some food at the dinner table?

Stasi continued to siphon blood from my thumb, her eyes still screwed shut. Everytime I felt suction on my thumb, she let out a soft moan. This was different from how we normally fed. When Stasi bit from the neck, it was lightning quick and it felt... well... it felt good. It felt erotic. Here, it still felt alright, but it must've looked pretty bizarre. Here was my vampire girlfriend, sucking my thumb as if it were a lollipop, while I simply looked around the room awkwardly.

After a moment, Stasi finally tore herself away from my thumb and with one lick with her pink tongue, she sealed the wound. "There..." She opened her eyes. "That should tide me over for a few days. God, it tastes so good. So sweet... thank you, Chris." She murmured lovingly, kissing me on the mouth, chin, cheeks, forehead, pretty much everywhere. "Thanks for doing this for me, Chris. I love you."

"No problem." I replied. "No harm, no foul."

There were two ways a vampire could really feed. One way could be what the Sokolov Family did. They kept a regime of making sure to feed on their SBPs every two weeks. They took in a fairly large amount, enough to tide them over for the whole period, all at once. This was so they could be relatively 'normal' and do 'normal' things (like eat 'normal' food). Another way was to feed socially. A small amount every meal time to sate yourself. The latter was uncommon, but it wasn't unheard of.

"Yes, no harm, no foul indeed, lyubov." She laughed. "Want to resume NHL 17 or are you suffering from blood los-... sorry, hypovolemic shock."

"Sure, let's resume, biology girl." I chuckled, picking up the remote. "And no, I'm not suffering from hypovolemic shock. I'm not sure how much you took but it certainly wasn't a lot."

"I'm sure I didn't take that much. I just took enough to make me comfortable for a couple of days, zayka." She shot me a look. "That feeding from the finger thing actually worked. The blood flow was small enough that I didn't feel myself getting overwhelmed but it was enough that I didn't spend half the day sucking on your thumb. How'd you know that it'd work?"

I shrugged. "Lucky guess? Who knows. I just know that I'm smart."

"And modest." She quipped, laughing. Her ears perked up and she looked at the door, confused, before it opened, making me jump. My mom poked her head in, looking at the two of us.