"You weren't hungry?"
I asked. He squinted up at me and I was shocked to see his eyes flash red, again. This time I was sure I had not imagined it. He shook his head, as if I had jolted him from deep thought, and his eyes zeroed in on me as they had earlier.
The pupils of his eyes flickered between red and green. I looked around to see if there were lights nearby that were being reflected in his eyes. Coming up blank, I looked back at his eyes but they were back to their normal honey-mint color so I shrugged and brushed away my thoughts.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
I asked. He leaned back in his chair and sipped on a thick syrupy liquid. "You puzzle me is all little one. I am trying to understand who and what you are." He said the last part softly, like he hadn't meant for me to hear it.
"What I am? You mean a girl?" As if a cloud had cleared from his face, Keith suddenly chuckled, "don't worry about it, my dear. Let's go back to the cabin and see how we can entertain ourselves."
Unfortunately for him, as soon as we got back and I sat down, I was out as quickly as if someone had flicked off a light. Exhaustion had finally caught up with me.
I didn't quite know what to think of Nikki but I found her intriguing. At first, I thought she was one of those humans who followed vampires around in a desperate attempt to have us turn them into one of us.
However, when she had looked up at me with apprehension filled eyes laced with fire and ready to fight, I immediately dismissed that assumption. She was a delight! Daring to give me attitude; something no one had done in centuries, simply because I was a part of the royal family.
My interest had risen another notch when I moved further into the compartment and discovered she had a subtle yet distinct scent of my kind. She should have recognized me but I sensed no change in her behavior.
Fellow vampires instinctively felt my power and immediately became submissive; but she didn't. Maybe someone in her life was a vampire and that's why she smelled like one; but I wasn't convinced.
I could smell the half-truths as we talked about her reasons for going to Chicago. It was clear that there was more to the story than just going to meet her parents.
Apart from being curious about her life, her scent still puzzled me.
In the time it had taken us to eat and come back to the cart, the vampire scent would have disappeared if it wasn't hers but it was still their muddled with something else that I couldn't figure out.
I had been around for almost five centuries. There were very few things I hadn't seen or experienced. Very few mysteries that I hadn't unraveled, but this slip of a girl completely confounded me. Listening to snoring softly, I smiled for real for the first time in decades. I needed to find out more about her.
There was a feeling I couldn't quite put into words yet it tugged at my heart whenever I looked at her. I grabbed my cellphone, dialed a number, and within a few minutes someone was looking into everything that had to do with Nikki; if that was even her real name.
As I hung up the call, I looked out the window and allowed my mind to wander.
It was sad, but this young girl had captivated me in ways that my bond-mate had never.
My mind drifted to all the things I had to do before we arrived in Chicago and then when I got to Texas. Annoyance swept through me building into a snarl that almost escaped my lips. It was interrupted by an almost inaudible whimper across from me.
Without even processing it my body had already moved to sit next to Nikki and was rubbing her back to soothe her. "Protect her!" The thought flowed through my mind as I looked down on the tiny girl. I was beginning to think she was connected to me somehow.