Meztli’s Bright Smile

I took her body back to my crypt, laying it lovingly on the marble top of the sarcophagi that I normally slept on top of. She looked so beautiful, the only thing wrong with the entire picture painted here was the ugly gash on her stomach and the fact that she was too perfectly still – lifeless. I don’t know how long I stood over her body, just staring at it and wishing with all that I was that I had told her how I felt in words, but the ponce inside me, the bloody poet William, terrified of rejection again had kept my mouth shut when I should have taken the time to reveal my feelings. Tears began to blind my vision again and I slumped down, my back resting against the sarcophagi.

“I should have told you pet, I should have taken you into my arms and told you how beautiful you were to me, how much I had come to love you in the short time you were here in my life, and now you’ve been taken just as suddenly as you came. I didn’t even know your secret, had I known I could have tried harder to help and save you love. Once again I’ve been left to mourn over the body of the woman I love with the knowledge inside me that I could have done more and they wouldn’t have died. Oh pet,” I cried as I lowered my head onto my knees and silently bemoaned for Ana.

“Yollotl…” a soft voice whispered behind me. I shot up off the ground and spun around in a sheer panic.

“Bloody hell, I’ve finally snapped.” I mumbled as I looked at Ana, a very much alive and breathing Ana, and she smiled at me. She had put on my duster and sat up straight, wincing a bit and tenderly touching her abdomen.

“You have not gone crazy.” She said smiling at me.

“Then I’m dreaming…” I mumbled as I walked towards her and reached out, caressing her face as she leaned into my hand closing her eyes. “But if this is a dream, don’t let me ever wake up from it.” She opened up her eyes. “You feel so real…”

“I am real Spike. You’re not dreaming. See?” and she opened up the jacket and I saw the deadly wound on her stomach slowly beginning to heal on its own accord.

“How? What?” I asked bewildered, she simply smiled at me as she drew me towards her.

“One down, eight to go.” And she softly kissed my lips. As we slowly drew apart I looked at her, she was real all right, but I was no less lost then I was before.

“Ana love, I think you need to tell me just what is going on.” I said as I stood her up and enveloped her into my arms, not wanting to let go for fear that it would still turn out to be a dream.

“First though, I must ask you is what I overheard true? Do you truly love me?” and she looked up into my eyes, vulnerable and pleading. I smiled.

“More than my un-life.” And I kissed her to qualm her doubts. “If I were the old me, I would have claimed you long ago, changing you into a vampire.” There was a brief quiet and she finally began speaking.

“I am what the natives in my land call Ocelotl, but most would consider me something akin to a werecat.”

“A werecat? Is that like a werewolf?”

“Hardly, whereas werewolves are actually common, like mutts, I am the only one of my kind in existence. I have been around as long as there has been an earth to walk upon. Once there were more of my kind, but they have been hunted and slaughtered until I am the only one left. We as a species choose mates very carefully, unlike the wolves that bite any and all and are not selective in whom they change. And unlike the werewolves, who once you kill with pure silver, they are dead, we have nine lives to live and each life can be as long as two or three millennia; we are hard to find and harder to dispose of. Tonight that tramp got a lucky stab while I was busy fending off other vampires.” I stared at her in disbelief and amazement.

“Ana love, I’ve never heard of such a creature as you and I’ve been around for quite a while, seen all the books the Watcher has in his bloody store, and have seen nothing.”

She laughed. “Nor would you, most of the stones and granite walls that spoke of us have long since been swallowed up by time and the jungles.”

“So werecats are nothing like the werewolves?” he asked.

“Well, there are two similarities…” and she paused briefly, “although we can change anytime at will, we are still subject to Meztli, the full moon, although if we concentrated hard enough we are able to fight the change for a while. Like now.” And she looked at me with a slight smile.

“And the other similarity?” I asked. She merely smiled at me and nuzzled my neck, softly suckling on it. My vampire and male desires flared to life as she did so, I closed my eyes and breathed her in. “Pet…” I began, but my fantasy was sharply interrupted as I felt sharp teeth rip into my neck nearest my shoulder. “Bloody hell!” I yelled as her fangs sunk in deeper and she held me against her body with her unimaginable strength. Soon though, she released her vise grip on me and a rough tongue gently lapped at my wound, I pushed her away and staggered backwards, clamping a hand to my bleeding neck.

“What the hell was that Ana?” I practically shouted in a mixture of disbelief, anger and pain. The wound was not healing, as it should have begun by now, it was still open and seeping borrowed blood.

“I have claimed you.” She stated as her face shifted back to that of a human.

“Claimed me?! What the bloody fuck does that mean?”

“It means that I have chosen you for my Mate, and in order to do that I must change you. Just like the werewolves, the only way to change another is to bite them on a night of the full moon.” She answered. “Soon, as the course of the night wears on, you will change Spike. My kind and I are far older than vampires and other demons that roam this earth; I am more powerful than the demon that resides within you and my essence will soon overpower it and expel it from inside your body.” I looked at her peculiarly, and slowly her words began to sink in. Although unorthodox and without asking, she had done what I had wanted to do, make her like me so that I could be with her forever, only she had taken charge and done it first. I laughed out loud.

“You’ve got some balls on you woman.” I said as I reached out for her and she smiled brightly as she came to me and we kissed.

“Drink some of my blood Spike, you’ve lost too much this night and you will need to be strong, my blood is powerful.” She said as she lowered the duster off her shoulder a bit and bared her neck to me. “Do it now before you can no longer do so.” My demon didn’t need to be told twice as I morphed and sank my fangs into her artery and feasted.

That night we slept in one another’s arms and when I awoke hours later to the sound of heartbeats, I laughed in childish happiness as I realized the second heartbeat was my own. I shook Ana awake.

“I have a heartbeat! I can hear it.” I said excitedly as she yawned and smiled at me.

“Of course you do my love, I told you my power would overcome that of your demon’s. You are just like me now, a living creature with a soul, nine lives to spare and all the gifts and pleasures that come with life. Now rest.” And she softly kissed my lips. I pulled her tight against me and nuzzled her neck, closing my eyes as my heart and soul sang with pure bliss. A sound built up in my chest then came out of my throat, and I opened my eyes in shock.

“What was that?” I asked alarmed, but Ana only laughed softly.

“It is what is called chuffing, and it’s a lot like purring; it’s a sound of happiness, contentment and love. Now let us rest.” And she nuzzled against me, she chuffed softly and soon we were both asleep.
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