We continued to kiss, passionately, moving from our mouths to our cheeks to our ears as if drinking in each other's flesh. He gently stroked my hair, then nibbled my ear. I giggled as he sat on his comfy chair and pulled me onto his lap. I looked into his eyes, wondering how I could have breathed the last few days without him near me.
I ran my fingers through his messy, licorice-colored locks. He brushed my hair away from my neck and made his way up my shoulder with sexy kisses. I could feel his teeth, seductively sliding against the skin of my neck. Touching, toying, tingling, giving me playful nibbles. The nape of my neck hung tenderly in his mouth.
Suddenly Alexander pulled away, a look of terror in his eyes.
"I can't," he said shamefully, looking away.
"What's wrong?" I asked, surprised by his change in mood.
Alexander stood up, helping me to my feet. He anxiously drew his hand through his hair and paced the room.
"It's okay," I said, catching up to him by his easel.
"I thought I wasn't like Jagger," he said, and sat on the edge of his bed. "But...maybe I am."
"You are nothing like him," I said. "In fact, you are the opposite."
"I just want you to be safe. Always," he said, looking at me soulfully.
"I am, now that you are here," I said, stroking his hand.
"But don't you see?" he said seriously. "My world is not a safe one."
"Well, mine isn't either. Don't you watch the news?"
His sullen face turned bright, and he laughed. "I guess you're right."
"See? I'm more at risk going to school with Trevor than I am kissing a vampire."
"I've never met anyone like you," he said, turning toward me. "And I've never felt before the way I feel about you." "I'm so glad you came back for me." I hugged him around his waist.
"This won't happen again," he assured me.
"How can you be so sure? Jagger seems bent on getting even with you," I asked, sitting beside him.
"Because he couldn't get even."
"Wow, so you showed him who's boss? Like in a school yard brawl?"
"I guess...Only in our case it was a graveyard brawl."
"Is he gone?"
"His family is in Romania. There is nothing for him here now. He can go back and tell them he found me."
I fingered my necklace.
"What promise did you break?"
"I didn't break it. I never made it...But we don't have to worry about that anymore," he said wearily.
"What were all the candles in the cemetery for?" I asked.
"A vampire can take anyone at any time. But if he takes another at a cemetery or some other sacred ground, then she is his for eternity."
"Then I'm glad you showed up when you did!" I squeezed Alexander with all my might. "I'm sorry I led Jagger to you," I confessed.
"I should be the one apologizing to you. I couldn't imagine you'd come for me," he said, staring off into the moonlight. Then he turned back to me. "But I should have known. That's what I love about you." "Now tell me everything!" I exclaimed suddenly. "What's it like being a--?"
"What's it like being human?" he interrupted.
"Boring."
"How can you say that?" he asked, holding me close. "You can wake up in the daylight, go to school, and see your reflection."
"But I want to be like you."
"You already are," he said with a smile.
"Were you born a vampire?"
"Yes. Were you born a human?" he teased.
"Yes. Are there millions of vampires around?"
He nodded. "But we are a minority, so we like to stick together. Obviously there is safety in numbers. We can't reveal our identities or we'd be persecuted."
"It must be so hard to cover up who you really are inside."
"It's very lonely, feeling like an outcast. Like you are invited to a costume party, but you are the only one in a mask."
"Do you have a lot of vampire friends in Romania? I bet you miss them."
"My dad procures art for his galleries in several countries. So we traveled quite a bit. By the time I made a friend, it was time to leave."
"What about humans, like me?" I asked, curling up next to him.
"There is no one like you, vampire or not," he said with a warm smile. "It's hard making human friends when you don't attend school, and it's even harder keeping them when they're eating their evening dinner and you are just rolling out of bed."
"Are your parents upset that you have a human girlfriend?"
"No. If they met you, they would immediately fall in love with you, just like I did," he said, and stroked my hair.
"I'd love to travel and live in the nighttime and sleep during the day. Your world seems so romantic. Being bonded to one another for an eternity...Flying off into the night together. Thirsting for no one but each other."
"I feel that way about your world."
"The grass is always greener, I guess. Or, in our case, blacker."
"When I'm with you," he began, "I don't care which world we are in, just as long as we're in the same one together."