He shook his head, face serious. 'No funny business,' he promised.
'Could you put the fangs away?'
'I like the way you smell.'
'That is creepy,' I said and plucked at my bottom lip. 'You're creepy.'
His body kind of vibrated, and a strange grizzly sound came out of his mouth. I guess since vampires didn't use air to talk or breathe they sounded, moved and even laughed differently to normal beings. I jumped, but thankfully he was too preoccupied with laughing to notice, or to comment on noticing.
'No biting. I swear.'
I was having a hard time. Vampires were more often than not attractive in a scary, dead, don't look them straight in the eye, ripping throats out and wallowing in 'top yourself' amounts of despair, way. This vampire-boy was positively spritely. It was such a stark contrast to my preconceptions cultivated by years of Sect reports, I kept having mini flashes of the different ways he would grab me, and sink his fangs into my flesh.
'Can't get much crazier than I already am,' I said finally, and shuddered. Another flash of watching him drink me to death had me wishing I'd stayed my ass in bed.
The vampire picked me up and broke out into a ground-eating run. I noticed then that he was not breathing and wondered if that was by choice? It was strange to be so close to another person and not sense the normal rise and fall of the chest. There was no heartbeat either. No body heat. Just this animated body walking and talking and carrying me. People said vampires were soulless, and I did not agree. They had souls, dark ones. Here I must say I also believed there were different kinds of dark. There was a dark that was evil and cruel, and there was a dark that was solitary and simply absent of light. Maybe this boy was the clear dark.
I kept thinking nice fluffy thoughts of flames that didn't blister the skin because they looked pretty, and bolts of lightning that wouldn't kill you dead because they were a gift from the sky. Making bad things good helped me to not freak out, and start bawling in this demons embrace. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop the thought that really mattered. This vampire needed something from me. That was the reason I was still alive. And, I concluded he must be cunning. Breandan seemed a good tracker and he'd been fooled. I was sure he would not have left me if he'd thought there was a chance I'd be in danger.
Thinking of the fairy-boy had me thinking on a new problem I had created for myself. What did I do and say the next time I saw him? Did I tell him about the vampire-boy in the wardrobe? Breandan had said he'd come back, but not when so I figured he'd probably give me a few days to adjust. He'd seemed very conscious I accept what he'd told me, and he'd made an effort to ask how I was feeling and if I'd wanted to talk about it. The vampire could die for the day in my wardrobe, ask me his questions after sunset then go on his merry way. Problem solved, because then I would wake up.
I had decided right around the time I saw the green fairy-girl that I was dreaming.
We ended back on the Temple grounds in a few blinks of the eye. At first it looked like he was going to run through the brick wall that surrounded the Temple, and I squeezed my eyes shut. I felt a jolt. Air whistled past my head and other sounds drowned in a loud whoosh. The vampire-boy did a fast movement, another bigger jolt then the wind was blowing the hair back from my face again. It was hard to figure out the speed he ran at in the dark, but the wind on my face gave me a little thrill. If ever I needed to run away from him I'd be faster. Something struck me as a little odd. He seemed to know exactly where he was going.
I said, 'You've been here before.'
This was more evidence I was still sleeping safely in my bed.
'No. Your scent is distinctive.'
'Huh. The key is in my left butt pocket,' I said candidly.
'I see,' he said. We reached my room and he threw me over his shoulder. It was neat, and swift, and not a little bit uncomfortable. 'May I?'
'Uh, may you what? May you take the key, or may you drain me for dinner?'
'You have to invite me in.' He sounded strained. 'The hallways are public but your room is private. Invite me in.'
'Sorry, I forgot. I'm a little nervous with this whole thing. I'm still waiting for you to try and take a chunk out of me. Sure, go ahead. I invite- Wait. It will only let you in right? The invitation won't throw my room wide open to all vampires, I mean.'
'Only me. And I cannot extend the invitation to others. Are you satisfied? The night is over.'
'I invite you to enter my room,' I said and giggled. It sounded so formal.
There was a light brush against my butt then we were in my room, and he was placing me down on the bed.
'Ta,' I said and fell back, rubbed my face on my blanket. It smelled like trees, rain and sunlight. I blinked. It smelled like me, but it also reminded me of Breandan.
'This is your wardrobe?' My vampire-boy did not sound happy.
'It's small, but it will do the job.' He shot me a look that on a human face would have been long suffering. He was too strange looking to look anything other than intimidating. 'Give me a break, it's not like this was ever a scenario I'd ever have to prepare for.' I started pulling clothes out onto the floor until the space was empty. 'There,' I said with satisfaction. The space was big enough for two people. He was being prissy. I deliberated for a moment if you could catch anything from sharing with a vampire, but then gave myself a mental slap. I chucked my pillow and blanket in there and nodded. 'Best I can do.'
The vampire picked up my hand and bent over. My heart stuttered and I flinched. He paused and his shoulders shook with laughter again. 'No biting,' he repeated.
Keeping eye contact, he flipped my hand over and kissed my palm. The press of his skin to mine was almost beyond words. His lips were firm and the tip of his tongue wet. It was odd, cold and overly smooth, but not unpleasant. My mouth opened and I made a gasping, choking sound. I blushed from the soles of my feet right up to the tip of my ears. I tugged my hand away, hid it behind my back.
'Once you're in I'll close the doors, and no one will be the wiser.' I glanced out the window. 'You'd better tuck yourself in now. There's a storm, but I can see breaks in the cloud cover.'
He lacked the smooth and predatory movement of vampire as he staggered forward and collapsed into the space. We'd pushed our luck too far. He was visibly exhausted, which was fascinating to see on one of the most powerful demons in existence. Face shadowed he sighed, shifted a bit, and sat with his legs bent in font. He wasn't very tall. It must have just been his scary vampire presence and the pulsing darkness following him around that made him seem huge to me. In a very human move he propped the pillow to the side and leaned his head.
'At sunset we will talk.'
I nodded. Pushing the hair out of my eyes I smiled at him. 'Sure thing.' I went to close the door, but then stopped and yanked it open again. 'Oh wait, my name's Rae.'
His eyes were already half closed, and as he died for the day he said, 'Tomas.'
Chapter Three
The storm broke at dawn. I slipped into the surge of Disciples heading into Sanctuary block as the first raindrops hit the ground. Pounding the concrete entrance stairs, I wheeled through the other bodies to get to the Hall before the bell rung. I skidded to a stop. Sanctuary Hall had cracked black marble floors and scuffed ivory walls. Electricity was hard to generate so the radiators stayed off until winter, and the temperature was on the cool side, but I liked it.
Draped across the clunky furniture, and each other, in erratic clusters the Disciples of the Sect wore two colors, black and green. Boys tended to leave their chests bare under the green blazers, and the girls rocked them shorn at the elbow or tied around the waist to show off their tattoos. Nearly all humans were marked now days; protective sigils coerced from defeated wiccans. I myself avoided it. The idea of someone so close made me sweat, no matter how pretty the ink.
I wondered what would happen if I shouted out 'I'm a fairy and there's a vampire in my wardrobe.' It would be very dramatic.
