The Donor to a Vampire (Donor #1)

Chapter 17: Effect of Affection

A week of sleeping next to a vampire that loves to snuggle was like a slow crucifixion. True to his word, Ly slept wherever he wished on the bed; on his side, my side, or me, it was no matter to Ly. It wasn't because I disliked Lys' cuddles that I felt like a Christian on the way up to the Colosseum to make a close and personal acquaintance with the lions. It was his teasing and declaration that when we sleep together, I will know of it that I couldn't get out of my mind.

The words haunted me each night.

Naturally, it didn't help that the subject that provoked my lustful impulses was only a few inches from me. But Ly slept like a log unbeknownst to the conundrum he created within me. That was when Ly slept, of course.

Of those seven days, Ly truly slept only three; on the other four, he sat by the fireplace reading or doing god knows what while I tried to keep up with him and stay awake. Most of the nights ended with me passing out cold, waking with the morning already in full swing.

On night number five, a constant clinking of the metal against metal jarred me from my sleep. As much as I tried to ignore it, with a pillow over my head, the consistent sound prevented me from falling back into the nothingness of sleep.

"This is the revenge for the rude awakening from last week, right? You are making that noise so that I die of sleep deprivation," My grumble was muffled by the pillow.

"Oh," Lys' voice was surprised, "I did not know I woke you."

Lifting the pillow, I squinted at the fire's orange light and waited a minute for my sight to recover. Ly did not raise his head from the object in his hands. Leaning towards the light of the fireplace, he tinkered with something in his palms, making the rhythmic clanking noise which woke me.

"What are you doing?"

The shadow and light bounced off Lys' face as he grinned mysteriously in my direction; however, his eyes were fixed on the objects he held, "Come and see if you wish to know."

I slowly dragged myself out of bed, cocooned in the toasty warmth of the comforter I adorned over my body as my cloak of warm darkness. Ly chuckled as I sleepily shuffled over to him. He made no comment about my humanoid bundle made out of white fluff that only had my face poking out. It took a moment for my groggy eyes to focus on the objects in his hands, and when I finally realized what they were, my gaze shifted from bewilderment to the person holding them.

"Lysander," I began reluctantly, "why are you teaching yourself to pick a lock?"

"I already know how; I am just enthusiastically trying to refresh my knowledge."

I was at a loss for words. Firstly, it was around three in the morning, and secondly, Ly continually surprised me; just when I thought I got to the core of his personality, he sprang up with more astounding characteristics.

"It drove my father crazy when I learned and mastered the art of unlocking." The memory of his father's fury made Ly snicker. "Nothing was left concealed behind the lock and key if I could reach it. When I burned all the documents he tried to hide from my mother on blood slave trading, the look on his face was priceless and unforgettable. It still puts me in a good mood." Ly laughed with glee as he skillfully opened the old lock using just two metal objects resembling chopsticks.

"Did not know you were the vampiric Nancy Drew."

He stared back at me in confusion. "Nancy Who?"

Grumbling, I turned and shuffled to bed, not bothering to answer.

He has all night; he can Google Nancy Drew.

However, picking locks was not Ly's only weird activity while I slept. Unfortunately, the week had only begun with that. While I needed to go to the bathroom one night, Ly scared me half to death as he successfully repaired an ancient Bavarian cuckoo clock. The noise I made as the cuckoo started to sound made G rush through the door in nothing but underwear, convinced that I was murdered in my sleep. I don't know who needed to recover from that incident more, me or G.