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Description

-Ian's POV-

I sipped some of my hot blood that was disguised with half a cup of hot coffee. I tried to mix less coffee so I could enjoy the blood better, but then there wasn't enough of the aroma to make it work as camouflage. I sipped some more as I exited the elevator and then tried to walk straight to my desk as I was being distracted by all the things I was now aware of.

The smells that are everywhere and always there, but I wasn't conscious of before. The different color that some mundane things now gave off. Seeing and smelling heat was something more distracting than I thought something like that could be. I sipped my blood, AH! My coffee, to center myself and keep my new fangs buried.

“Hey, Ian. You feeling better?” Jen asked as I made it to my seat. I called in over a week ago and told them that I was taking my sick days. It took three days just to mostly block out the ringing that tried to split my skull open. Carl promised that in a few years I would all but forget that it was there.

“Mostly,” I told her as I tried to not smell her. She had sex today. She was still wet. I was revolted and drawn to it at the same time. I didn't understand why. I've never liked women and I've had more chances that I would want to admit to of being given the chance to sleep with one of them. Maybe Carl was right, I thought as I turned on my computer and tried to think of something I was suppose to do two weeks ago that would still be around for me to work on now. As the hard drive spun up and I watched the screen and the displayed Window's logo, I remembered too much. I remembered all the projects and their details. I remembered the feel of the paper as the report was placed in my hand. I remembered how cold and hot the room was during our evening briefs for four days before I was turned.

I saw the prompt for my password and I brought myself out of the memories and I gripped the desk slightly as everything around me hit me again as that bubble around my mind collapsed. I really should have stayed in the apartment, I admitted to myself. I took another swing from my cup before typing in my password. After my desktop popped up with icons and doing a slightly longer than normal anti-virus download and update, I was presented with my e-mail client. I didn't even try to sort out what was there, but I none the less scanned and read every subject and sender that was on my screen before I clicked on compose. I typed up an e-mail to send to Ralph, the head of my department, to let him know that I was back and to ask if there was a project to send my way to work on for the day. I was about to hit send when I questioned if it was really wise to come back to work this soon.

My coffee disguised blood was almost gone, but I wasn't worried. Carl said that he would be by in a few hours with some more so lunch was covered. I had to try. Saying I would fail without trying is worse than trying and failing. I sent off the quick e-mail. As I looked around, I realized that my desk had been cleaned of all projects and it was the first time in at least two years since I last saw portions of my desk's surface. As 'digital age' as the world was becoming, people still brought paper to me. On some level, I'll admit to still liking the feel of it, but if trees were going to hang around, we needed to stop. The thought of Carl and I living for years and years and perhaps long enough to find out if we had to buy air or got most of the forests back sent a cold chill down my already cold back.

“Sounds like you've been practicing,” Jen said from her side.

“Practicing?” I asked her as I trained myself to look at her face. Not her skin. To hear and understand her words, not drift into her warm breath. To reply and not crawl across the table find out what she tasted like.

“Your typing seems faster,” she elaborated.

“Thanks, but I didn't,” I told her before turning back to my computer as a ping alerted me to a new e-mail. It was from Ralph, kinda. It was really from the Foreign Affairs department. Our group was one of five in the department of research and fact checking. All the departments utilized us, but Ralph himself assigned the work to each of us. That way he knows the load is being evenly spread out. I quickly looked over the request before switching to the database interface to see what we had.

I would like to say that the work took over. That my new senses, ability and desires were suppressed by a slightly workaholic drive that saw me through the day. But that would only be mostly true. I was glued to the database until Carl came around with something for me to eat. While it may be true that vampires could go five days to a week without eating, my body was still adjusting to this change and needed more than what would become my normal. He mentally called to me as he sat next to the elevator. My name and his face broke my concentration, but I got the change in time and there was less pain as I took notice of what was going on around me. I didn't even try to communicate back to him that way.

Carl said that it was something he didn't do very often because it was so difficult and it was something most vampires were never able to do at all.

“I'm going for lunch,” I told Jen as I quickly scanned the last fifty entries to see if there was anything there that I needed to copy and paste into my report before locking my computer. There wasn't. So I stood from my desk and didn't bother to look in her direction to make sure she was still there considering I hadn't gotten a reply from her. I could still smell that she was.

“Are you eating in?” she finally asked. Now I had to look at her. Her long brown hair had made its way up into a bun on the top of her head.

“No, I'm eating out with my boyfriend,” I told her instead. I got that human excited feeling of telling anyone that I was now attached, but that was soon followed by my inhuman ability of exaggerated teeth growth from the thought of being near him soon. I closed my lips and gave her a toothless smile. She lowered her glasses and smiled back at me.

“An hour or an hour and a half?” she asked. I started to back away as I shrugged her an answer. “Hour and a half. Got it,” she said still smiling at me as she turned her attention back to her computer. I kept my lips sealed as I walked towards the elevator where I was suppose to find Carl. I looked up and down the hallway, then back at the seat, I had expected to find him sitting in. It was empty. I opened my mouth to call him, but quickly closed it as I remembered my fangs. I pulled out my phone to text him when I smelt him. I looked up once more and saw him walking towards me. I think he came from the kitchen. I stood there waiting for him as he walked at a human's pace. It didn't seem to take this long before.

He nodded his head towards the elevator and I moved to push the down arrow. As he got there the doors opened and we went down to the basement. Most of the basement was storage and half of what was left was where the air conditioning units, heaters and a host of plumbing could be found. But there were also small abandoned corners. Like the room we now found ourselves in. Once upon a time it might have held an early heater or something, but now it was the unused and out-of-the-way empty space where we wouldn't be disturbed and I could be myself.

“How was your first day?” Carl asked as I loosened the hold that I had on myself since I left the apartment this morning. I quickly acquired a table and two old chairs from different places without missing a word that he said.

“There was some adjusting,” I admitted. “A bit more than I thought,” I continued as I took a seat. Carl placed the bag on the table before he reached out and kissed me. Our lips met and I felt my fangs graze his tongue as he slipped it into my mouth. “So,” Carl started as he began to wane me off the kiss. “Will you be laying in bed with me tomorrow?” he asks two minutes later.

“Maybe,” I admitted to both of us. “I'll know for sure after work today,” I told him. He smiled for a moment before he moved away to take his seat. He reached for the bag and at the same time he placed a cup with steam coming out of a side vent in front of me. I reached for it and the metallic tang that coated my mouth beat out even the sweetest hot cocoa that I had as a child as the best thing this planet had for me to ingest. As I brought the cup back to the slightly dusty surface of the table, I saw another container there.

“There are some foods that we can tolerate right after we have been turned,” he explained. “I think you might enjoy this, as a treat for your accomplishment today,” he said with a grin that played with the look of amusement. I sat up a bit more and reached for the white clam of a container with both hands. I flipped it open and found a fat sausage link that looked black in color. I looked back up at Carl. “Blood pudding,” he explained. “The rice and other ingredients should be inconsequential.”

I looked back down at it. It didn't smell bad, but then food still smelled great to me. It's the tasting that's a shock to my system. I picked it up and bit into it to get it over with. I tasted the blood, as cooked down as it was and it did indeed hide the other ingredients enough for me to take another bite.

“Aren't you eating?” I asked Carl when I realized he was just sipping his blood as he watched me. Speaking of which. “By the way,” quickly added. “Where did the blood come from?” I asked him as he looked at my cup before taking another sip.

“I believe I'm drinking Carol. She was already in the kitchen when I entered. I think you are drinking Rick. He interrupted me and Carol,” he said as he looked at his own cup that he held up for inspection. “But I believe it worked out. Spreading the blood loss around is for the best,” he ended as he brought the cup back to his lips. I nudged the rest of the blood sausage in his general direction as I enjoyed the pure taste of what was in my cup.

“I'm not hungry for human food and I don't particularly like the taste of overcooked blood,” he explained. I reached out and took the last piece. “We are all individuals Ian. Not all of us like the same things or can, or do the same things,” Carl said as he raised his cup to his lips again.

“What were you doing this morning?” I asked Carl as if I believed he had to do anything at all.

“I had nowhere to be but here, so I slept in until it was time to meet up,” he simply answered. He seemed a bit bored and a little lonely. The same things I sensed about him when we first met even if they were hidden a layer or two deeper than they were now. Then he was smiling, he was looking for someone to save him from being alone all the time. That was one of the reasons why I agreed to be turned. That and I had fallen in love with him. I heard as my cup was slowly punctured. I watched his lips as they curved up at one exposed corner.

“I didn't think you would want your clothes … dirtied,” he ended as he left his cup on the table and I found him at my side.

“Are you saying it can't be done?” I asked as my hand landed on the back of his knee and slid its way up his thigh.

“Possibly, but it might take a while,” he explained before licking a line up from my chin, over my lips, to the top of my nose, along the bridge and between my eyes before planting a kiss on my forehead.

“I do,” I exhaled with my eyes closed. I shifted in the chair enough to place my other hand on the back of his other leg.

“More than an hour and a half?” he asked as his words ghosted across my lips. I kissed and nipped them so I could taste his blood. We kissed until he slipped his lower lip between the two of mine allowing me to suck on the nicks I made. He pressed his knee forward between my legs until I moaned into his flesh.

“Ah,” I moaned into the room as he pulled his lip free and rotated his kneecap in a warm and expanding place. I migrated my hands higher up his body until I found his waistband. I opened my eyes while I brought them forward, feeling each ridge in the uneven skin of his belt under my fingertips.

“Time's up,” Carl informed me before he once again ghosted his lips across the surface of mine. I felt him slipping from my fingers and the rotating pressure below my waist disappeared. I grabbed any part of him I could as his withdraw disturbed me and his words registered.

“What do you mean time's up?” I asked him. “We haven't been at for ten minutes yet,” I told him.

“Check the time,” he said as he combed his fingers through my hair. I didn't look away from his face as I fished my phone out of my pocket. But once I had it in my hand, I reluctantly glanced down as I pushed the side button. I stared at it as I fought to understand how it could be so late already. “We can quickly move through space and we can languid in time,” Carl said in way of explaining. I looked up and waited for him to continue. “I thought you would have noticed it by now. We've done it a few times already.” I tried to remember any of these times. I came back with a hand full of instances where I explained away the loss of time to due simply not paying attention.

“I hate to leave you,” I said as I leaned in and rested my face on his stomach.

“It's just for another four hours?” Carl asked as he scratched the back of my neck.

“Maybe,” I confirmed. I may have received another request and they would want that before I could leave for the day. Eight out of ten in their favor most days. I wrapped my arms around his waist and wished that we were still at home, or out in a park, or on a plane to somewhere new. “Maybe less,” I stated as I stood up and away from him. “Are you ok with catching a movie later?” I asked Carl as I once again looked into his breathtaking eyes.

“Text me when you are done with work and we will find something,” he told me through a smile. I leaned forward and tried not to play with time as I kissed him again.

===

I clicked the enter button and sent off the last of the two background check requests that I found waiting for me in my mail when I made it back to my desk. Jen left at least an hour earlier. I pulled up a clean compose page. I tapped my fingers on the keys without pressing down on anything. Was I sure? I sat up and planted my feet on the floor. I placed my wrists on the gel rest at the bottom of my keyboard. I hovered my fingers over the home keys before looking at the screen. I began to type out words onto my screen.

Description

-Ian's POV-

I sipped some of my hot blood that was disguised with half a cup of hot coffee. I tried to mix less coffee so I could enjoy the blood better, but then there wasn't enough of the aroma to make it work as camouflage. I sipped some more as I exited the elevator and then tried to walk straight to my desk as I was being distracted by all the things I was now aware of.

The smells that are everywhere and always there, but I wasn't conscious of before. The different color that some mundane things now gave off. Seeing and smelling heat was something more distracting than I thought something like that could be. I sipped my blood, AH! My coffee, to center myself and keep my new fangs buried.

“Hey, Ian. You feeling better?” Jen asked as I made it to my seat. I called in over a week ago and told them that I was taking my sick days. It took three days just to mostly block out the ringing that tried to split my skull open. Carl promised that in a few years I would all but forget that it was there.

“Mostly,” I told her as I tried to not smell her. She had sex today. She was still wet. I was revolted and drawn to it at the same time. I didn't understand why. I've never liked women and I've had more chances that I would want to admit to of being given the chance to sleep with one of them. Maybe Carl was right, I thought as I turned on my computer and tried to think of something I was suppose to do two weeks ago that would still be around for me to work on now. As the hard drive spun up and I watched the screen and the displayed Window's logo, I remembered too much. I remembered all the projects and their details. I remembered the feel of the paper as the report was placed in my hand. I remembered how cold and hot the room was during our evening briefs for four days before I was turned.

I saw the prompt for my password and I brought myself out of the memories and I gripped the desk slightly as everything around me hit me again as that bubble around my mind collapsed. I really should have stayed in the apartment, I admitted to myself. I took another swing from my cup before typing in my password. After my desktop popped up with icons and doing a slightly longer than normal anti-virus download and update, I was presented with my e-mail client. I didn't even try to sort out what was there, but I none the less scanned and read every subject and sender that was on my screen before I clicked on compose. I typed up an e-mail to send to Ralph, the head of my department, to let him know that I was back and to ask if there was a project to send my way to work on for the day. I was about to hit send when I questioned if it was really wise to come back to work this soon.

My coffee disguised blood was almost gone, but I wasn't worried. Carl said that he would be by in a few hours with some more so lunch was covered. I had to try. Saying I would fail without trying is worse than trying and failing. I sent off the quick e-mail. As I looked around, I realized that my desk had been cleaned of all projects and it was the first time in at least two years since I last saw portions of my desk's surface. As 'digital age' as the world was becoming, people still brought paper to me. On some level, I'll admit to still liking the feel of it, but if trees were going to hang around, we needed to stop. The thought of Carl and I living for years and years and perhaps long enough to find out if we had to buy air or got most of the forests back sent a cold chill down my already cold back.

“Sounds like you've been practicing,” Jen said from her side.

“Practicing?” I asked her as I trained myself to look at her face. Not her skin. To hear and understand her words, not drift into her warm breath. To reply and not crawl across the table find out what she tasted like.

“Your typing seems faster,” she elaborated.

“Thanks, but I didn't,” I told her before turning back to my computer as a ping alerted me to a new e-mail. It was from Ralph, kinda. It was really from the Foreign Affairs department. Our group was one of five in the department of research and fact checking. All the departments utilized us, but Ralph himself assigned the work to each of us. That way he knows the load is being evenly spread out. I quickly looked over the request before switching to the database interface to see what we had.

I would like to say that the work took over. That my new senses, ability and desires were suppressed by a slightly workaholic drive that saw me through the day. But that would only be mostly true. I was glued to the database until Carl came around with something for me to eat. While it may be true that vampires could go five days to a week without eating, my body was still adjusting to this change and needed more than what would become my normal. He mentally called to me as he sat next to the elevator. My name and his face broke my concentration, but I got the change in time and there was less pain as I took notice of what was going on around me. I didn't even try to communicate back to him that way.

Carl said that it was something he didn't do very often because it was so difficult and it was something most vampires were never able to do at all.

“I'm going for lunch,” I told Jen as I quickly scanned the last fifty entries to see if there was anything there that I needed to copy and paste into my report before locking my computer. There wasn't. So I stood from my desk and didn't bother to look in her direction to make sure she was still there considering I hadn't gotten a reply from her. I could still smell that she was.

“Are you eating in?” she finally asked. Now I had to look at her. Her long brown hair had made its way up into a bun on the top of her head.

“No, I'm eating out with my boyfriend,” I told her instead. I got that human excited feeling of telling anyone that I was now attached, but that was soon followed by my inhuman ability of exaggerated teeth growth from the thought of being near him soon. I closed my lips and gave her a toothless smile. She lowered her glasses and smiled back at me.

“An hour or an hour and a half?” she asked. I started to back away as I shrugged her an answer. “Hour and a half. Got it,” she said still smiling at me as she turned her attention back to her computer. I kept my lips sealed as I walked towards the elevator where I was suppose to find Carl. I looked up and down the hallway, then back at the seat, I had expected to find him sitting in. It was empty. I opened my mouth to call him, but quickly closed it as I remembered my fangs. I pulled out my phone to text him when I smelt him. I looked up once more and saw him walking towards me. I think he came from the kitchen. I stood there waiting for him as he walked at a human's pace. It didn't seem to take this long before.

He nodded his head towards the elevator and I moved to push the down arrow. As he got there the doors opened and we went down to the basement. Most of the basement was storage and half of what was left was where the air conditioning units, heaters and a host of plumbing could be found. But there were also small abandoned corners. Like the room we now found ourselves in. Once upon a time it might have held an early heater or something, but now it was the unused and out-of-the-way empty space where we wouldn't be disturbed and I could be myself.

“How was your first day?” Carl asked as I loosened the hold that I had on myself since I left the apartment this morning. I quickly acquired a table and two old chairs from different places without missing a word that he said.

“There was some adjusting,” I admitted. “A bit more than I thought,” I continued as I took a seat. Carl placed the bag on the table before he reached out and kissed me. Our lips met and I felt my fangs graze his tongue as he slipped it into my mouth. “So,” Carl started as he began to wane me off the kiss. “Will you be laying in bed with me tomorrow?” he asks two minutes later.

“Maybe,” I admitted to both of us. “I'll know for sure after work today,” I told him. He smiled for a moment before he moved away to take his seat. He reached for the bag and at the same time he placed a cup with steam coming out of a side vent in front of me. I reached for it and the metallic tang that coated my mouth beat out even the sweetest hot cocoa that I had as a child as the best thing this planet had for me to ingest. As I brought the cup back to the slightly dusty surface of the table, I saw another container there.

“There are some foods that we can tolerate right after we have been turned,” he explained. “I think you might enjoy this, as a treat for your accomplishment today,” he said with a grin that played with the look of amusement. I sat up a bit more and reached for the white clam of a container with both hands. I flipped it open and found a fat sausage link that looked black in color. I looked back up at Carl. “Blood pudding,” he explained. “The rice and other ingredients should be inconsequential.”

I looked back down at it. It didn't smell bad, but then food still smelled great to me. It's the tasting that's a shock to my system. I picked it up and bit into it to get it over with. I tasted the blood, as cooked down as it was and it did indeed hide the other ingredients enough for me to take another bite.

“Aren't you eating?” I asked Carl when I realized he was just sipping his blood as he watched me. Speaking of which. “By the way,” quickly added. “Where did the blood come from?” I asked him as he looked at my cup before taking another sip.

“I believe I'm drinking Carol. She was already in the kitchen when I entered. I think you are drinking Rick. He interrupted me and Carol,” he said as he looked at his own cup that he held up for inspection. “But I believe it worked out. Spreading the blood loss around is for the best,” he ended as he brought the cup back to his lips. I nudged the rest of the blood sausage in his general direction as I enjoyed the pure taste of what was in my cup.

“I'm not hungry for human food and I don't particularly like the taste of overcooked blood,” he explained. I reached out and took the last piece. “We are all individuals Ian. Not all of us like the same things or can, or do the same things,” Carl said as he raised his cup to his lips again.

“What were you doing this morning?” I asked Carl as if I believed he had to do anything at all.

“I had nowhere to be but here, so I slept in until it was time to meet up,” he simply answered. He seemed a bit bored and a little lonely. The same things I sensed about him when we first met even if they were hidden a layer or two deeper than they were now. Then he was smiling, he was looking for someone to save him from being alone all the time. That was one of the reasons why I agreed to be turned. That and I had fallen in love with him. I heard as my cup was slowly punctured. I watched his lips as they curved up at one exposed corner.

“I didn't think you would want your clothes … dirtied,” he ended as he left his cup on the table and I found him at my side.

“Are you saying it can't be done?” I asked as my hand landed on the back of his knee and slid its way up his thigh.

“Possibly, but it might take a while,” he explained before licking a line up from my chin, over my lips, to the top of my nose, along the bridge and between my eyes before planting a kiss on my forehead.

“I do,” I exhaled with my eyes closed. I shifted in the chair enough to place my other hand on the back of his other leg.

“More than an hour and a half?” he asked as his words ghosted across my lips. I kissed and nipped them so I could taste his blood. We kissed until he slipped his lower lip between the two of mine allowing me to suck on the nicks I made. He pressed his knee forward between my legs until I moaned into his flesh.

“Ah,” I moaned into the room as he pulled his lip free and rotated his kneecap in a warm and expanding place. I migrated my hands higher up his body until I found his waistband. I opened my eyes while I brought them forward, feeling each ridge in the uneven skin of his belt under my fingertips.

“Time's up,” Carl informed me before he once again ghosted his lips across the surface of mine. I felt him slipping from my fingers and the rotating pressure below my waist disappeared. I grabbed any part of him I could as his withdraw disturbed me and his words registered.

“What do you mean time's up?” I asked him. “We haven't been at for ten minutes yet,” I told him.

“Check the time,” he said as he combed his fingers through my hair. I didn't look away from his face as I fished my phone out of my pocket. But once I had it in my hand, I reluctantly glanced down as I pushed the side button. I stared at it as I fought to understand how it could be so late already. “We can quickly move through space and we can languid in time,” Carl said in way of explaining. I looked up and waited for him to continue. “I thought you would have noticed it by now. We've done it a few times already.” I tried to remember any of these times. I came back with a hand full of instances where I explained away the loss of time to due simply not paying attention.

“I hate to leave you,” I said as I leaned in and rested my face on his stomach.

“It's just for another four hours?” Carl asked as he scratched the back of my neck.

“Maybe,” I confirmed. I may have received another request and they would want that before I could leave for the day. Eight out of ten in their favor most days. I wrapped my arms around his waist and wished that we were still at home, or out in a park, or on a plane to somewhere new. “Maybe less,” I stated as I stood up and away from him. “Are you ok with catching a movie later?” I asked Carl as I once again looked into his breathtaking eyes.

“Text me when you are done with work and we will find something,” he told me through a smile. I leaned forward and tried not to play with time as I kissed him again.

===

I clicked the enter button and sent off the last of the two background check requests that I found waiting for me in my mail when I made it back to my desk. Jen left at least an hour earlier. I pulled up a clean compose page. I tapped my fingers on the keys without pressing down on anything. Was I sure? I sat up and planted my feet on the floor. I placed my wrists on the gel rest at the bottom of my keyboard. I hovered my fingers over the home keys before looking at the screen. I began to type out words onto my screen.