We left early that morning after saying goodbye to Ann and Robbie who apparently waited because they didn’t want to leave us in the bar without backup. Robbie seems to think that we could have been in jeopardy from a bar full of shifters, but it was unlikely a pack of shifters and werewolves could frighten a vampire.
Vampires bring the darkness that many fear to tread in, but Sebastian had lost his darkness because of his love for a human, but Robbie feared he may have been one of the first vampire causalities at the hands of werewolves looking to make a name for themselves in the world outside of men.
Sebastian drove us home and at first there was silence between us. Then he glanced at me, “Do you think you can live with me the way we are now?”
“No,” I said. He furrowed his brow into three rows. I smiled and said, “No. I won’t live with you and without the benefit of marriage. If I’m going to be hunted by a multitude of vampires and a witch for the rest of my life, at least I should be married, and you said you were rich.” I winked at him and watched at his surprised expression. “If for some reason you should expire before I do, which I doubt, I should at least inherit that gold you brought from South America.”
He watched at me with narrow eyes until he realized I was kidding. “I wanted to ask you to marry me when you became twenty-one, but it seemed a little inappropriate, and I was afraid you would say no,” he said reaching and placing his hand over mine.
“Why didn’t you ask? Of course I would say no to a stranger.”
“At the time you were no stranger, but a child I had taken care of since you were five. It was when you were fifteen that you looked at me differently. I told you then that we weren’t natural brother and sister. And you asked me if you were adopted, and I answered you. You didn’t like the answer and you became angry at me. I calmed you and as we lived together because I was trying to protect you from Aare, and we developed a bond together. I felt it and I didn’t want to turn you and have you become my slave.”
“Why would I become your slave?”
“You wouldn’t be the Zoey I know. The sassy snarky Zoey with her own free will. You would be at my beck and call. Like a prisoner or slave is the best description. You would have to do as I wished.”
“And you didn’t want that? Most men would kill to have a woman like that. No more telling you no. I would have to do whatever you wanted sexually.” He smile and turned his eyes back to the road.
“That wasn’t you and I didn’t want that. I didn’t want a cold unfeeling child who had been turned too soon. I didn’t want that at all.”
Listening to his explanation, I knew now what he wanted. “You want a human lover.”
“No. I want a human wife and lover. But I was afraid of you.”
“A vampire afraid? Not likely.”
“It’s something you do to me that makes me unsure of myself when I’m around you. I worry about if I’m enough for you.”
“Oh you are more than enough for me.” I held his hand. “Why don’t you go to your father and tell him about you and me and that we want to go far away and never have to look over our shoulders?”
“That is wishful thinking on your part, Zoey. We exist in an outside world devoid of human feeling and desires. We use humans only as a food source and to bridge us with day and night. No vampire has ever lived with humans without him or her eventually turning them into the lifeless soulless monsters we’ve become.”
“Why do you refer to yourself as soulless? You’re not that. You will never be.” When I looked to Sebastian’s face, it was blank. No expression I could read.
Sebastian drove into the garage, parked, open my door, and helped me out of the car. He took my hand and said, “We will have to leave here soon. All your fanciful ideas are good, but my father would more likely kill me than listen to me. He will find us and therefore we have to leave and soon.”
“But I just discovered a new friend, well friends. I sort of liked Robbie. He’s a cool werewolf.” I tried to reason with Sebastian, but I got nowhere.
“When word gets out about David, the hunters, mostly humans who suspect that we exist, will be looking for me and you, and maybe Ann and Robert as well. His name is Robert and he’s a notorious fearless lone werewolf. Men have been tracking him for years. Calling him Robbie will not make him any less. My father put a bounty on my head and Robert’s. He was the only werewolf who wouldn’t try to bring me in. The forest is littered with a pack of them I killed before you came into that bar, and the members of their pack will look for me when they are found.”
I glanced at him as we entered the elevator. The door closed behind us.
“Can’t you reason with your father? After all you are his son. Make him understand that we’re in love.”
“In his world there can be no love between a human and a vampire.”
Looking at Sebastian with a confused look, I asked, “Can’t there be? We can be different. We are different.” I was trying hard to convince myself.
“I don’t know, but I want to try,” he said in a soft smooth voice.
The elevator opened and we stepped into the glass house which had been my jail, but now it’s more like my sanctuary. He held my hand until we walked up the stairs and then he stood looking at me. I had seen that look in his eyes before.
“Are you coming to my room? We have an hour before the sun rises,” I said.
“Go and prepare yourself for me. I’ll be there soon.” When he said prepare for him, he meant to mentally prepare for his body. But I didn’t need to prepare for what had been the best sex of my life.
After taking a shower, I walked out naked and lay in the bed, closed my eyes and thought about Sebastian, and what he had said to me about protecting me from Aare and when I was a child. Sebastian was my brother then, and now he’s my lover. The question is: can we have a future.
The answer came back “Of course not stupid. There’s no future with a vampire.” One day you can cut your finger and ask him to get a band aid, and the next thing he will be sucking the life out of you.
I didn’t want that kind of answer. I wanted my mind to lie to me. At least this once. I’m tired living in the real scary world where little girls can get kidnapped on their way to school, and big girls die at the hands of handsome men.
When Sebastian made love to me it was as if I had been floating weightless on clouds traveling around the universe and when we reached our orgasm it was like a blast from a dying star that gave out the most brilliant light before it faded. I felt completely engulfed by his love and devotion to me, his human.
My vampire.
Had I gone mad? Maybe. I had never been touched like that. His cool skin complemented mine. His cold body fell into the fever of my body. His immortality against my mortality raised an unnatural desire in me. Death and life together living with each other and loving every minute of it.
Opposites do attract.
He left our bed as I slept happy and relaxed. He left for his hiding place, and now I was free to roam around the house and go on a shopping spree. I knew what I wanted foremost and that was food for now.
What could be better than food after having sex?
Now Sebastian trusted me enough where he gave me a credit card to buy food and clothes for our journey to wherever he had in mind to take me. I had no choice but to follow him because of my love and devotion to him. Today I would make the best of my shopping experience. Before I never had enough money to buy the things I enjoyed. Jeans and boots and a nice leather jacket. And anything I wanted to eat.
Since Sebastian would be sleeping, I thought what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. I wanted to say goodbye to my father and we could pick up some food and clothes for me. He said to buy heavy coats with hoods.
Ann and I would make a day of it since we wouldn’t see each other again for a while. We would travel to Seattle, which made me happy. I promised Ann she could pick up a few things and I would pay for it, and we were going in the Land Rover. That brought a smile to her face because she must have been sick of ferrying me around in her jeep.
After a shower and dressing in my usual uniform of jeans, sweater, and leather jacket for cool rainy weather, I headed downstairs and stopped at a table and picked up a pencil and paper. “No. I’ll text him. He probably won’t see the note,” I murmured. I turned back. “Oh what the hell. Better to be safe.” So I scribbled him a note.
Gone shopping in Seattle, took the Land Rover. Get around like most vampires. You’re not human. Stop trying to be one. Stop driving cars. An SUV is for your wife. Love and Kisses, be back by sundown.
Zoey
Dashing out of the house, I wasn’t thinking about a thing when I started the car and drove up to Ann and Robbie’s small wood frame home. Ann was looking through the window when I parked the car in her driveway. By the big smile on her face, she liked the notion that I would be driving and in my car.
She rushed out and in the passenger side and exhaled. “This is some car. It looks like we’ll be traveling in style for a change. I’ve never been outside of this small town. Where are we going?”
“Seattle.” Ann started clapping her hands as if she was a child waiting for her mother to give her a favorite toy or her favorite food.
Then her smiling face changed. “Do you think we should?”
“Why not?” I knew there were so many reasons not to go, but I didn’t want to think about them now. Ann looked to me as if I knew something she didn’t know, and she gave me that same ready smile she had for everyone she met.
“I have my enhanced driver’s license even though I’ve never been to Seattle. Do you have everything, because if not, we can’t go.” Her smile faded as she glanced over at me.
“I have a passport. Will that do?” I said showing her.
“Of course that’s better than what I have,” Ann said sitting back and enjoying the scenery flashing by. It was nine am.
As I drove along I had never seen that part of the country in the day time because when Sebastian and I left Seattle it was at night. “We should be back home by eight tonight.”
“That’s perfect,” Ann said with another similar smile.
“Perfect for me too. I can stop to see my father.”
“You have a father?”
“Everyone has a father,” I said. And then a sad strange look came across Ann’s face.
“I guess so.” And then she brightened up and she began to tell me about how she and Robbie got together.
“I was running from an abusive husband when I went into that bar we were in the other night. I needed a drink. My husband had just beat me and left for his job or his girlfriend’s house.”
Looking at the pain on her face I said, “You don’t have to tell me. I can see this is a memory that caused you agony.”
“Only if I don’t tell someone about it,” she said. I nodded for her to continue. I was listening. I was a captive audience for a young woman to bear her soul and for some reason she chose me. Maybe she saw the same pain in my face that I saw in hers.