Jace
Trystan scrambled back or at least tried to but his back was already against the wall.
"Trys... I...."
"You're bleeding." He took a tentative step towards me.
I reached up absently and wiped at my lip. I looked at my hand, my fingertips bloody.
I could taste him and suddenly there were images, memories; flashing through my mind, making my heart race. The first ones were simple hazy memories; parks and playgrounds, sandboxes and swings and slides and sharing graham crackers and juice, the sound the straw makes when the juice box is empty. The first time he spent the night and we played video games and built a tent with my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sheets, ate grilled cheese sandwiches my mother had made. And then we were ten and the images solidified until my imagination let me feel the branches in my hands as we climbed and feel the sunlight on my shoulders and hear the cracking branch as Trystan fell beyond my reach. And the first and only other time I had tasted him. Shivers rippled through me and I staggered back, the sensation triggering a hunger.
"Trys, I need to tell you something. And it's going to sound crazy. Just promise me you'll listen. Until I'm done."
Trystan nodded, taking another step closer to me, his trepidation, all but gone. A moment ago he was kissing me and then he was pressed against the wall pushing me away from him. I noticed his lips were red, noticed the stain of blood from when he kissed me.
"That girl, she's a vampire. "
"Wait." Trys absently rubbed his neck. Then he puffed out his chest with validation. "So she did bite me! I knew it. I told you!" He projected vindication.
"Trys. Would you shut up a minute and listen. Didn't you hear me? She's a vampire. She tried to make you one."
. "I told you." He muttered again.
"I know! She bit you! I knew all along. Even when you couldn't see the bite, I could see it. I know! If it wasn't for me, you'd be out there somewhere probably biting somebody else." I had stepped up to Trystan and pinned him against the wall. I don't know why I was yelling, except I did. Being this close to him was always difficult. The warmth from his body, his scent so potent and his taste still so fresh, I wanted nothing more than to kiss him. God knows why, but I fought the urge, which infuriated me.
He started to lean into me but then stopped. "Wait. You said she was a vampire?"
"Yes."
"A vampire?"
"Yes."
"You're joking, right?"
I shook my head.
"How can she be a vampire? Vampires aren't real."
"How do you know they're not real? Just because you haven't seen one? Well, I take that back, you have seen one. And she bit you. She tried to turn you into a one.
"Okay, let me get this straight. This chick tries to seduce me and bites me in the parking lot, in broad daylight I might add, cause she wants to turn me into a vampire."
"Yes."
I hated the look in his eyes, skeptical and angry, daring me to keep going with this ridiculous charade. "Do you know how crazy that sounds? I know. I know I said that I thought Mr. Garrow was a vampire, but I wasn't serious. And now you're telling me vampires are real."
"Yes."
I could see his frustration growing with each yes. I guess I'd be frustrated too if I were in his shoes.
"So how come I'm not a vampire? I mean. She bit me, right?"
"Well...normally, I guess you would be a vampire but you're protected."
"Protected? By who?"
I reached for him and took hold of his arm and turned it to reveal his scar. "By this." I ran a thumb across the scar.
Trys pulled his arm from my grasp. "By a scar?" He shook his head because he knew that that meant one thing. Me.
I shook my head at his expression and pushed forward with my explanation. "I didn't know what I was doing. You fell and you would have died. My dad told me I couldn't tell anyone. Not even you. I wanted to tell you. So many times we talked about it. How you fell. How all you got was that scar. When the truth was so much different." Everything came out in a rush of words and Trys just looked at me. His eyes doubting my sincerity. "I didn't do it on purpose. You weren't moving and there was so much blood and I..."
"What? Turned me into a vampire?" His words echoed in the empty room, his anger palpable. "That means... You're a vampire?"
"No. I mean yes." I wanted to yell with my own frustration. "I didn't turn you into a vampire. Obviously. I..."
His eyes rounded. "For how long? Who turned you into a vampire?"
"I was born this way." I thought, for just a moment, there was a smirk and I knew, just knew he was suddenly listening to Lady Gaga in his head. But then he shook his head.
"I don't get it. Vampires are supposed to be..."
I shook my head. I really haven't had to try and explain it to anyone. "It's all make-believe or... I don't know; it's hard to explain. I can take medicine for some stuff. Like I don't have to drink blood all the time to live. I take a pill that forces my body to make more red blood cells. I take another pill for porphyria, which counteracts my sensitivity to sunlight. Trys...I... "
"How come I'm not a vampire?" He looked at the scar on his arm. "Is this where you did it? Bit me?"
"I didn't bite you. I mean...I don't really know what I did. But I didn't bite you. Not like a vampire bite."
Trys was examining the scar. A scar he'd had for over 7 years and he examined it like it was the first time he'd ever seen it.
"My dad called it a bloodkiss."
At the word kiss, Trys paled. He seemed to have forgotten that just a moment ago he had kissed me.
He tentatively placed fingers to his own lips, touching them, his fingertips coming away red. His eyes rounded again at the sight of it. He made a sudden gagging sound and doubled over with dry heaves.
Trystan
I see it in your eyes. You think you love him, that you've always loved him. He stole your free will from you.
I had always loved him, for as long as I could remember. And now, if I believed her, it was because of what he did to me. It wasn't real. He made me love him. I don't know why I was suddenly furious, but I was. Our whole friendship was a lie, ever since the accident. Was I under a spell? I shook my head. That sounded stupid. I looked at Jace and felt it, the pull I felt whenever I was around him. I didn't feel it around anyone else.
"What did you do to me?"
Jace looked dumbfounded at the anger in my voice. "I... I saved you." His voice was a whisper. He tried to look me in the eye but ducked his head and looked at his hands. "If I hadn't done it; marked you, you would have died." He shrugged his shoulders and then looked back up at me, his eyes glistening as he fought back tears. "I saved you."