Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust by Jessica Dalton (book series for 10 year olds txt) 📕

“when was this picture taken?” he asked me.

“umm about two months ago. Why?”

“you have changed enormously since then.” he murmured while starring at the picture of me.

“what do you mean?” I asked not being able to keep the crack in my voice.

Dimitri’s head shot up and looked me in the eye. Looking at me with interest before saying almost distractedly, “in this picture you look alive and vibrant. Glowing even. But from the first moment I met you I noticed the pain in your eyes and a slight emptiness in your presence. It was one of the reasons why I chose you as the Enforcer. What happened?” he asked curiously.

I turned my back to him and looked out my living room window. I could see all the lights of the city of Toronto winking back at me. As I took in the view I concentrated on holding back the stupid tears that threatened to spill onto my cheeks.

“I‘m sorry for making you sad Phoenix, but one of these days you are going to tell me why.”

Crap. I turned back to him, my tear ducks momentarily dry. I had forgotten about his little talent of reading emotions. “I would rather you didn‘t read my emotions all the time if we are going to be working closely together.” I hadn’t meant for it to come out so harsh but I was trying to hide my embarrassment and pain.

“I didn‘t read your emotions. Trust me, I hardly ever do that unless it is necessary or the feeling is so strong it practically shouts at me. I could tell by the way you turned away from me, the way you stiffened, how your shoulders bunched together and the grinding of your teeth, all of those things would indicate either anger or someone trying to hold back tears. When a human is angry their heart starts to beat faster and the blood is pumped around the body twice as fast. I would have noticed that. So the only other answer was that you were trying to hold back tears and….”

“okay, okay already. I get it. Jeez working with you is going to be fun isn‘t it?”

Dimitri raised an eyebrow at me. “fun is the last thing us working together is going to be. The training is going to be hard and intense and most days you are going to beg me to let you have a break, but that isn‘t going to happen. Your whole body is going to be screaming in protest and I am only going to push you even further.”

I thought about the gruelling time ahead of me. Would I really be able to handle all the hard work that it entailed? Yes I could and I would.

“I was being sarcastic about the fun part, but you made your point. I accept the job as the Enforcer.”

Dimitri locked his gaze on mine. A chill ran up my spine and I felt the need to take a step back, but I held my ground and didn’t move a muscle. He shook his head and took a step towards me. Taking a knife out of a hidden holster under his long black trench coat, he brought his wrist up to the sharp edge of the blade, with only a hairs breath between them, he spoke. “if you are to be my Enforcer there is something we have to do first and you have to agree to it.”

I gulped and looked from the knife to his bare wrist and then back up to his eyes. “what do we have to do?”

“we have to exchange blood.”

“what?” I gasped in disbelief and only mild disgust.

“I will need to have full contact with you at all times - the blood exchange will give us a telepathic connection that only we will share. The blood exchange is also vital because it gives you some extra abilities, such as, inhuman speed and strength, all your senses will be heightened and you will have perfect night vision. We will have to repeat the process once a month for a year. By then your body will be so used to the vampire blood that we will not need to exchange blood again - unless there is an emergency.”

An emergency? I thought. Ah, as in I’m going to die and I need some supernatural blood to save me. Great my life was turning into a freak show.

“but this blood exchange, will it not turn me into a vampire?” I asked.

“No it won‘t. Again that theory is another of Hollywood‘s fabrications. You will stay completely human - except for your enhanced abilities - unless you die, in which case you will turn into a vampire.”

“so will you permit me to drink your blood, and then drink my blood Phoenix?”

I looked into his eyes as I thought over his question. Why did I trust this stranger, this vampire so much? I asked myself. I knew the answer I would give him. As soon as he had finished explaining what the blood exchange was.

“yes I will let you drink my blood.” I told him.

Dimitri’s eyes flashed red for a split second before turning back to their golden liquid colour.

“thank you.” he said as he slightly bowed his head and then proceeded to take off his jacket. Putting the knife back into its holster on his hip, he grabbed the edge of his sweater and pulled it over his head revealing a white wife beater against muscled arms and plastered against washboard abs.

“what are you doing?” I asked him as I tore my eyes away from his body and back up to his face.

“I am going to slit my wrist so you can drink from it. I need to get extra clothing out of the way. You need to do the same.” he told me as he walked out of the living room.

I followed him trying to work out what he meant. I found him standing in the hall way. He looked at the three doors leading off and picked one - my bedroom. He peered inside, looked pleased and then shot me a glance behind him.

“come on.” he said as he held his hand out for me. Without hesitating I calmly took it and allowed him to lead me over to my bed.

“why do I need to take my top off ?” I asked him as he sat on my bed and scooted back so that he was leaning against the headboard. He pulled me onto the bed and positioned me so that I was sitting between his legs with my back against his chest.

“because,” he said against my ear. “I need to drink from your neck and your top is in the way.”

I shivered slightly as his cool breath washed over the side of my face and danced across the corner of my lips. I felt him fiddle with something and then suddenly he had brought both hands around my waist so that I was in the middle of his strong arms that encircled my body without touching me and I could see that the knife was in one of his hands. I gulped again, thinking about what I was about to do - I was about to drink blood.

Without thinking too much more about it. I took a hold of the edge of my t-shirt and pulled it over my head so that I was now sitting in the embrace of a vampire with only my lacy black bra and jeans on.

“which side?” I asked Dimitri.

“Right.” he told me, immediately knowing what I had meant.

I reached up and gathered all of my hair in my hand, I swept it over my left shoulder and tilted my head so that more of the right side of my neck was exposed.

“once I bite you,” Dimitri told me. “you will see flashes of my life, and I will see flashes of yours. You will feel the sort of pleasure you have never felt before and you will be overwhelmed with the new powers and gifts that will pour into you. As a result your body will do the only thing it can to deal with this overload and you will fall into a deep sleep - only to awaken sometime tomorrow evening. I will sense when you have woken up and I will come over here with my men to help you pack up and move into my home - your new home. You will be safe. As soon as the blood exchange is completed I will clean your neck wound, tuck you into bed, leave and lock up behind me.”

I nodded my head in understanding.

“now lean back into me.” Dimitri told me.

I leant back into him. Resting my head against his left shoulder.

“are you ready?” he asked me.

I could only nod my head. Dimitri brought his arms up so that his left wrist was closer to my mouth. Before I could think anymore about what I was going to do, Dimitri had slit his wrist and had it pressed to my mouth. Instinctively I opened my mouth and let my tongue trail along the line of blood that was now starting to flow from his wrist.

Behind me I could feel Dimitri shiver and then I heard him sigh. He dropped the knife onto my bedside cabinet and then trailed his hand lightly up my side and then up my arm. Stopping at the top of my arm he let his fingers trace an imaginary line across my chest, his fingers lightly dancing over the lace of my bra, I felt his low chuckle when he heard me taking a shaky breath - causing me to breath in more of his blood. It was delicious. I had never tasted anything like it before. It was like a sweet elixir, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Dimitri’s hand came to a stop on my left arm, his arm was now resting on my breasts so that it seemed as though he was hugging me from behind. His hold tightened slightly and I realised that he wasn’t hugging me, he was holding me in place.

I was right, I felt his lips caress the skin covering my jugular, his kiss made my toes curl and my eyes to flutter shut. Then he sucked some of the skin there into his mouth as his fangs pierced my flesh. I gasped as he started to suck my blood. My left hand was gripping the wrist I was drinking from but my right hand gripped the nearest thing to it, which just happened to be Dimitris thigh. At that moment I couldn’t have cared less. The feelings that were now coursing through my body were better than anything I had ever felt, the pleasure I felt was so much better than sex that I found myself wondering for a moment whether I could ever had sex again and feel satisfied.

Suddenly visions like still pictures flickered through my mind. In every single one was Dimitri. Dressed in the clothing of each era. There was men - vampires - kneeling before him, guards standing around him - there where pictures of Dimitri sitting on a throne pointing at a vampire who was being held still by two guards. As well as