Cora gulped, then relaxed when she realized she had a death grip on her seatbelt. “Care to expand on that? Because I don’t really consider that an answer. An answer needs to make at least some kind of sense.”
Saiden let out an annoyed chuff as if giving her an actual explanation was more than he signed up for. “You know the story of Lilith, right?”
Cora racked her brain but only came up with characters from horror movies. “Wasn’t she a succubus or something?”
“Close, but not quite,” he corrected. “She was Adam’s first wife, originally created to be his equal. Problem was, Adam didn’t really want an equal. He wanted obedience and compliance. Since Lilith refused to be his little submissive pet, she was cast out of paradise, and Adam got a new wife, Eve. Needless to say, Lilith was pissed.”
“I can imagine,” Cora said, sinking back into her seat. The soft rumble of Saiden’s voice was practically hypnotizing. It was the first time he wasn’t tense or annoyed, and she could listen to him talk like this for hours.
“Consumed with rage,” Saiden continued, “she turned to the fallenangel, Samael, to help her get revenge. She wanted Adam and all his children to suffer for the rest of eternity for what he did to her. Since Samael had no love for the new human creatures walking the earth, he agreed. Bestowing some of his power unto Lilith, he helped her conceive the first vampire.
“Lilith gave birth to a daughter, Sura, who became a creature that would live forever, feeding on the blood of Adam’s kind. And because she wanted her daughter to be protected from any harm, Lilith used the power granted to her by Samael to gift her daughter the ability to see the future. Sura saw how vicious and hateful the humans would become, so she begged her mother to give any offspring she would have their own special abilities, ensuring they could always remain superior to Adam’s kin. Now, every new vampire is reborn with an ability that is unique to them. Something they need or crave to be successful in their new life as a vampire. We call it Lilith’s Gift.”
The muscles in Cora’s hand started spasming, and she drummed her fingers on the window to hide the small twitches while she mulled over the story. She quickly stopped when she remembered how Saiden reacted to her seemingly idle gesture earlier and just tucked the misbehaving appendage under her thigh.
The tale of Lilith was fascinating, regardless of whether or not she believed it. There was probably an inkling of truth in there somewhere, but few origin stories were completely accurate. It was a little fantastical for her tastes, but then again, so was the concept of real vampires. She’d always assumed that if vampires existed, then it was probably the result of a genetic mutation, not a biblical rivalry.
Cora gave him an appraising look, her brain attempting to wrap itself around the one thing in his story that didn’t make any sense. “So every vamp gets a super cool ability, and your Gift was precision driving?” she asked. “I gotta say, if other vampires were getting thingslike the ability to see the future, then it kind of sounds like you got screwed.”
“My Gift is not precision driving,” Saiden bit out, his hands tightening on the wheel. “My Gift is threat awareness. I get a feeling when something potentially fatal is about to happen. It lets me direct all my attention to my surroundings so I can discern the extent of the danger before it happens. It’s what makes me such a skilled rogue hunter.”
“Oh! You have spidey sense,” Cora blurted out.
Saiden cringed, and his eyes squeezed shut for a second. “I’d rather you didn’t compare my Gift to that of an insect-obsessed comic book human.”
Cora scoffed. “I mean, I thought it was a compliment. Spiderman’s a literal superhero. He saves lives.”
Saiden didn’t say anything for so long Cora thought he wasn’t going to respond.
Then he replied, so quietly that she almost missed it, “That’s not who I am.”
They both said nothing for a long moment, and Cora stared out the window, watching the freeway exits pass by in a blur. She didn’t mean to offend him. His Gift was fascinating, and she couldn’t deny that it did calm her fears about his driving.
“Thank you for letting me know,” she said, needing to break up the awkward silence. “I guess if I got a heads up about any potential crash with enough time to prevent it, then yeah, I’d also drive like a bat out of Hell.”
Realizing what she just said, Cora slapped her hand over her mouth and whipped her head to look at Saiden. She rushed to formulate an apology, but to her surprise he… laughed.
Saiden threw his head back and let out a full blown belly laugh. “You should see your face,” he choked out through guffaws.
She frowned. So much for apologizing. She thought her words had been insulting, but apparently not.
“In that case, for my second question I want to know about all the vampire mythologies that aren’t real. I’m guessing by your amusement that you don’t turn into a bat nor were you born in the bowels of Hell.”
“The bowels of Hell?” he repeated, giving her a patronizing look. “Where do you humans come up with this shit?”
“Movies and books, mostly. But spill. What else is made up?”
Saiden ran a hand through his messy dark hair, then absently rubbed at the shaved side. She wondered if that short bit of hair was soft or prickly. Not that she would be running her hands over his scalp anytime soon, but she could still imagine.
“Let’s see,” he said thoughtfully. “You already know about the no flying thing. Garlic is also not an issue. I happen to really like it on pizza. And yes, we do eat food. It doesn’t keep us alive in the way that blood does, and oftentimes I will go days without it if I’m busy. We enjoy the taste and the experience of dining with others, though.”
“So, you do drink blood then?”
“We do,” he confirmed, his voice lacking any evidence as to his thoughts about that. She must have visually tensed because he quickly added, “from blood bags, not people. If it can be avoided. Our bodies would not function without it, and we are incapable of making our own blood cells.”
“What happens if you go without?” she asked, realizing she hadn’t seen any blood bags in the McLaren.
“I think we are moving past your original question. Would you like that to be your third and final one?”
