Shadow Guardians: The Key
Chapter 15

Uriah woke from sleep later, after having eaten most of what was in the fridge, a freaky combination of ice cream, the whole tub, really rare steak leftovers, leftover roast chicken, leftover dinner, a gallon of milk and he couldn’t even remember what else. Oh, yeah there was that sinful combination of chocolate cake and pizza too... and a whole tray of bananas.

And then he sort of passed out in a food coma. With all the freaky cravings gone, he now had a clear head... that reminded him of Draven's advice. He willed the candles in his room to life. One glowing flame appeared after the other. That was rad.

Maaan...it was awkward though. What if he’s no good at this stuff? Or what if he’s not into it? What if he does it all wrong? Great. Now he was afraid of his own body. He brought his arm over his eyes and sniggered.

He didn’t know where he got the guts, but when D checked in on him earlier he asked him about it. He said there was no such thing as a virgin vampire - when it came to knowledge at least. So, he should technically just instinctively know what to do. If he could get himself to just jump over the bridge and do it already. He would eventually have to touch himself.

He swallowed hard. Still keeping his eyes closed with his forearm, he brought his hand to his chest, slowly swept it down to his abs, then to his hip. And there his hand stopped. He sighed. Maybe he had to actually think about it and not try to distract himself with, oh, the morning news?

Except, what would he think about? He’d never been with a female. Pleasuring himself, he supposed. But that was hard to think of too, because as a pre-transition vampire, he’d never had those kinds of cravings.

Back and forth, and when his hand finally landed home, he inhaled sharp as a whole world of sensation opened to him that hadn't been there before.

To hell with guilt. He’d been sick for weeks. It was blissful, especially when overload hit.

Recovering breath, the twinge of awkwardness came back to Uriah, but he brushed it away. He was entitled to some pleasure, wasn’t he? Maybe the awkwardness around it was just a stereotype of the human world.

After all the crap he went through, his brain really needed an all out shutdown. And this was perfect. No logic involved whatsoever, just biology as D would say. All emotion, no thinking.

A shower would put the cherry on the cake now. He got up, nearly stumbled over. Whoa, his depth perception was seriously off. The floor seemed really far down... He pulled sweaty sheets off, and with some weaving and stumbling managed to re-clothe the bed with fresh ones out of his armoire. Then he went into the bathroom.

He gazed in the mirror at his grownup face for the first time. He cocked a brow. Didn’t even look like his face, though his eyes were the same golden color. His hair was still a russet brown with streaks of darker brown. His jawline was chiseled, the nose straight, eyebrows more straight than curved. He supposed he saw remnants of his child self in there. Still he mouthed who are you? And yes, his reflection moved with him.

He turned on the shower and as he waited for hot water, and looked at his body in the mirror too. Tight golden skin over bulging muscles that were wrapped around a heavy bone structure. You’d think he’d taken lessons from Rocky, only he hadn’t done a single bicep curl to earn it.

He showered, clipped his nails when he was done, then went back into the bedroom to replace whatever the servants had stuffed in his dresser for him to wear. He dressed in Levi’s, and a XXXXL black t-shirt. What?! Then he donned the size fourteen Nikes that stretched all the way into Turkey. Jesus.

And then it dawned on him that it was the middle of daytime. And he was awake, all snoozed out. Hmm. What to do for six hours? He shrugged, and left his room to go to the gym.