Promise

'Don't worry,' he murmured, his lips right against my ear. 'I like you right where you are.'

'You're really not a vampire?' I asked, still whispering.

'Absolutely not. I'm much more dangerous.' He lowered his mouth against my neck and sucked lightly. 'But I can pretend to be one, if you ever want me to.'

'Tristan…'

'Sorry. But you do taste quite delicious.' He sucked again.

' Tristan .' I squirmed out of his arms. 'You're distracting me.'

'Good.' He grinned. I rolled my eyes. 'Then what would you like to do while we wait for Sophia?'

I returned to making the coffee, filling the pot with water.

'Tell me more, what you can tell me. Are you really that… old ?'

The smile disappeared and he didn't answer for several moments. 'Yes, I am. But, like I said, I prefer not to think about it like that. You'll understand—I hope, anyway—by the time the night is over.'

I could tell there was something ominous coming later. I hated having to wait for it, but I wanted complete answers, which I wouldn't get without Mom.

'Okay, then…' I poured the water into the coffee maker and turned it on while trying to think of a different subject. 'So, uh…if you went to med school, how come you're not a doctor? Oh, wait. You probably are, aren't you?'

He shook his head. 'No, I could never complete the program, since I didn't age through it.'

I could actually understand that. 'Oh, yeah, right. Mom's had similar…problems.'

He looked at me for a long moment and then took my hands into his and gently pulled me closer to him. 'Alexis, you're going to find out some things about me…about my past…that you won't like. It may be enough to make you detest me and never want to see me again.'

I shook my head. 'I highly doubt that.'

'Don't decide yet. Hear it all out. But I need to tell you something, in case this is my last chance.' He cupped his hands on each side of my face, holding me there so he could gaze directly into my eyes. 'Alexis…you are my soul mate. I've loved you since the day you first sat next to me in that women's studies class. I didn't know it then, but I can't deny it now. Now that you're going to find out who I really am, you'll understand how incredibly amazing, but so unexpected this is. I didn't even know I could love anyone. But…I love you , ma lykita .'

I stared back into his eyes and, although I knew he wasn't who I thought he was—not normal , in other words—I still felt what I felt. So when he pressed his mouth against mine, I happily kissed him back. As he continued to kiss me, his hands slowly slid down my neck, over my shoulders and down my arms. I cringed as sharp pains shot through my forearms at his touch.

He abruptly pulled back and lifted my wrists in each of his hands, studying my arms.

'Ah, shit,' he muttered.

I looked down to see what caught his attention. Two bumps on my left forearm and three more on my right, bigger than large mosquito bites, swelled under my skin. 'What are they?'

'Glass. You healed with pieces of glass still in the wounds.'

'What?' I knew he spoke real words, but I couldn't grasp the meaning. It just wasn't registering.

'Alexis…your skin grew around them.'

I stared at my arms. That's a new one. I'd never thought of it being an issue before and now that I did— imagining the glass embedded under my skin—my stomach clenched.

' Ew ,' I breathed, totally incapable of saying anything else, not able to take my eyes off the lumps in my skin.

'Where does Sophia keep her medical kit?' Tristan asked. He started throwing open and banging closed the kitchen cabinet doors.

'Um…in her bathroom, I think. Why?'

He took my hand and pulled me toward the hallway and Mom's bedroom.

'I need to see if she has a scalpel in there.'

' What? ' I stopped as if I'd run into an invisible brick wall, yanking him to a halt.

'We need to get the glass out, while they're still close to the surface.'

I gulped.

'You have to cut them out?' I looked at the lumps on my arms, imagining the cutting and digging. My head became light and woozy as the blood drained to my feet.

'You're turning green,' he said, wrapping his arm around my waist. 'You okay?'

'Um… no !' Sweat beads popped out on my forehead.

Mom came through the front door just then, quickly shutting and locking it behind her. She gave us a strange look as we just stood there in the hallway.

'Honey, are you okay?' she asked, concern quickly filling her eyes. 'You're green.'

I lifted my arms for her to see. I could tell she knew immediately what was wrong—her whole body seemed to sink in defeat.

'Can this night get any worse?' she muttered.

'Tristan says we have to cut them out?' I made it a question, really hoping she had a better idea.

She quickly regained her composure and started barking orders. 'Tristan, get some old towels from the broom closet. I'll get my kit. You, Alexis, just sit and put your head between your legs. You really don't look so good.'

Within a few minutes, my desk lamp was set up on the kitchen table, the bright light glinting off a scalpel, tweezers, a needle and syringe and a small glass bottle. Mom sat down on my right side, taking my hand to stretch my arm across a folded towel for padding.

'Uh…maybe Tristan should do it,' I said apprehensively. 'I mean, he did go to medical school and all.'

Mom glanced up at Tristan, who still stood beside me.

'Yeah, there's been a lot that's come out already,' he admitted. 'But I think you'd better do this. Your hands are smaller.'

He gave her a quick run-down of what I already knew as he sat in the chair to my left and took my free hand into his.

'Don't worry, Alexis, I know what I'm doing, too,' Mom said. She slid the needle into the rubber top of the bottle and filled the syringe with a clear liquid. 'I used to be a nurse, after all.'

'Seriously?' I asked. 'I never knew that.'

'Actually, that's how I first met Tristan. During the Second World War—'

' The Second World War ?' I flinched more from surprise at what she said than from the needle she just stuck into my arm. 'That was, what, the nineteen-forties? But…you're only forty-three. You weren't even born yet!'

'Yes, well, that was easier for you to understand, when you did the math. But I'm actually…a-hundred-and- sixteen.'

' What? ' I stared at her in shock and a hysteric laugh burst out. They're both so old! 'But… how ? Will I be like that, too?'

'I can't answer the first one and yes to the second.' She stood up and poured us all a cup of coffee as I tried to absorb that, but I couldn't. I'm going to live that long…or longer ? I looked at Tristan and he squeezed my hand.

'Think your mom's a vampire, too? Or you, for that matter?' he asked with a small smile.

'Vampires? Ha! If it was so simple,' Mom said, bringing our coffee cups over to the table. She sat back down and we sipped our coffee for a few moments, waiting for the anesthetic to take effect. She pressed her fingers in several places along my forearm.

'Can you feel that?'

'No.' I really didn't know if it was from the anesthetic or if I numbed all over from renewed shock.

She picked up the scalpel and I must have turned green again.

'You probably shouldn't watch,' she said.

I lay my head against the table, looking away, toward Tristan. He brushed my hair back and stroked my cheek. I felt pressure on my arm, but no pain. I concentrated on Tristan's face, trying hard not to visualize what I felt.