The Vampire & Her Witch

”Close your eyes, Lenny,” Zedya said as her amethyst eyes sparkled mischievously in the golden glow of the dining room’s crystal chandeliers. ”Do it for me,” she added as she placed a finger gently on his lips before he could protest. ”Trust me.”

”I always trust you,” Lennart protested, but he closed his eyes nonetheless. He’d trusted Zedya with his heart, his life, and more when he married her and became her first and only progeny. Whatever she was playing at, no matter how flat his ears pressed against the top of his head in embarrassment at the thought that Lady Nyrielle might be watching them, or anyone else at the table for that matter, he trusted her with his everything, and he did exactly as she asked.

”Good,” Zedya said with a smile on her lips as Lennart did as she asked. ”Now, I’m going to feed you a bite, so keep your eyes closed but open your mouth wide. When I give you a bite, you have to tell me what it tastes like and whether you think it’s the purple one or the red one.”

”Mmm, it’s cold,” Lennart said as soon as Zedya deposited a spoonful of the smooth, creamy sorbet on his tongue. Of course, his sense of taste went far beyond telling him that it was cold, but he struggled to find the words to describe everything he could taste as he rolled the slightly sweet, slightly tart sorbet around his mouth.

He was still within what Nyrielle called his ’Blossoming Period,’ and his senses were already much sharper than they’d been when he was alive, though unlike Ashlynn, he hadn’t made an effort to train his sense of taste. Instead, he’d focused on honing his vision in the darkness of the night, until even the faintest glimmer of light was enough for him to move about a room without bumping into the furnishings.

Already, Zedya was helping him to progress beyond that, teaching him how to fight in the darkness of the night and to use not only his enhanced sight, but his much keener hearing to his advantage as well.

But still, even without training his sense of taste, he noticed subtleties of flavor that he never would have before.

”It’s more sweet than tart,” Lennart said confidently, licking his lips as he sorted out the different flavors on his tongue. ”Because you added some of the honey, and the honey tastes sweet and earthy and floral, like... lavender,” he said confidently with a grin as he opened his eyes to meet her amethyst gaze.

”You thought you could trick me,” he said with a wide grin as he saw through her trick.

”You cheated,” Zedya replied with a light giggle. ”I didn’t tell you to find out if I added honey or not; I asked you to tell me if it was the red one or the purple one,” she pouted playfully. ”Now you’ve seen it, so you have to try again, and this time, tell me if it’s the same one, without the honey, or the other one,” she insisted.

”And close your eyes,” she added as she tapped him lightly on the nose with the back of the small spoon. ”No peeking this time until I tell you whether you’ve guessed right or not.”

This time, she took slightly longer to prepare Lennart’s bite of sorbet, sprinkling a liberal amount of the candied thyme over the bite along with something extra before she fed her husband a bite of the dark red, raspberry-flavored sorbet.

The instant she did, Lennart had to fight to keep his eyes closed as his heart began to race within his chest. The sweet herbal flavor of the candied thyme mingled with the semi-sweet, mostly tart flavor of the sorbet to produce an explosion of flavor on his tongue, but that flavor couldn’t mask the richer, sweeter, and slightly metallic taste of Zedya’s addition hidden within the sorbet.

”That’s cheating,” Lennart said, keeping his eyes closed as he reached out gently with the tips of his paws to stroke her long, chestnut locks. His voice was slightly rough and much lower than it had been before as a hint of hunger and desire blossomed within him that had nothing to do with the food itself, and everything to do with the taste that his body would never forget, even if a hundred years from now.

It was the taste of a single, tiny drop of blood, mingled with the raspberry sorbet... but not just any blood. It was her blood, the blood that had transformed him from an ordinary soldier into an undying vampire... The blood that flowed within his veins even now, giving him a new life after she’d drained every last drop of blood from within his body.

”It’s you,” Lennart whispered. ”It’s a different sorbet, but you hid a drop of your own blood in the sorbet, you.... Why?” Lennart asked as he opened his eyes, gazing down at his wife with a hunger and desire that was filled with both his body’s intense craving for her blood and his heart’s passionate yearning for the touch of her soft lips on his and the feeling of her body pressed close against his own.

”To remind you that you hunger for more than just blood,” she said sweetly, setting down the spoon in order to take his large paw in her hands and bringing it to her face. ”Because I want you to remember to savor not just the flavors of the food, but the people you share those flavors with, and to treasure the moments we make together...”

”It’s the memories that let us resist the call of the abyss, my love,” she whispered softly as she leaned into the soft, furry touch of his paw. ”The memories we make together at times like this. So hunger for me,” she said. ”And hunger for every detail of this night so that you can return to it again and again and again each day when we sleep.”

”That’s the hunger you need to discover,” she said as she reached out to place a hand on his stomach. ”Not the hunger of the body and the belly,” she said as she traced her hand gently up to his chest. ”But the hunger of the heart to remember every sight, every sound, and every taste,” she said playfully as she stretched up to bestow a chaste kiss on his lips. ”From now until the end of time...”