chapter 2
I unlocked the door and flipped on the light, gesturing for Peter to come in. My apartment wasn’t very large, but thanks to the open floor plan, it didn’t feel as cramped as it could have. The front door opened into the kitchen and dining area. That opened into a living room, with my bedroom and bathroom down a wide hall at the other end of the apartment. Taz met us in a wiggling flurry of happiness. He accepted Peter’s attentions without a qualm, and I smiled happily. I never had people over to my house, especially men, but Peter and I had been eating lunch together for a couple weeks now, and I felt comfortable with him. Animals are generally great at judging character. If Taz was okay with it, then so was I.
Peter set the plant in the center of my little table and took my walker, propping it against the wall just inside the door. I barely ever used the wheeled monstrosity, but I usually carried it with me to the library in case I needed to stand for a minute to see a higher shelf.
“Thanks again for helping me get home. The ladies will be glad I finally moved the plant.” It took up a lot of counter space. I stretched my arms and sighed. I had done a lot of re-shelving today and my arms and shoulders were sore.
“My pleasure.” He crossed to the kitchen in search of water for the drooping plant. I pointed at the lower cabinets. “Where I can reach them,” I explained, and he nodded. The upper cabinets were mostly empty.
He filled a cup with water and gave my dehydrated orchid a drink. “You have a very nice apartment,” he said, glancing around.
The boldness I had felt when I invited him here was fading, and I fought a wave of embarrassment as his gaze traveled over my sanctuary. I wheeled into the living room, and he followed. “The insurance company helped to make it accessible for me after my accident,” I said off hand.
He sank down on the couch, looking delicious. I smiled at him and went back to the kitchen, needing to move. “Do you want something to drink?” At his negative reply, I got myself a bottled water and set it on the counter. “Are you staying for dinner?” Hope warred with horror as I realized I had nothing to feed a guest. “I was going to have leftover spaghetti, but if you’re staying, we could order take out or something?”
I turned to find him standing right behind me. “Good lord, don’t sneak up on me like that!”
He smirked at my startled reaction. “Sorry.” Peter gestured to the fridge. “I’m not really hungry, so you just have whatever you want.” I hesitated, but I finally pulled out a Gladware container and handed it to him.
“Are you sure? You never eat.” We had been having lunch together almost every workday for a few weeks now. He usually ate whatever I did, but he never ate more than a few bites. I let my glance travel up the lean length of him. He had a graceful, athletic build- muscular but without that body builder look. He certainly wasn’t skinny. He had to eat sometime.
He just took the leftovers from me with a chuckle. “I’m on a diet.”
I rolled my eyes and watched him put the stuff in the microwave. He punched buttons hesitantly. Geez, maybe he really didn’t ever eat. Or maybe he was just used to eating something better than microwaved leftovers. Sometimes- no, most of the time- I felt way outclassed, but he never seemed to mind.
Peter sat at the table with me while I shoveled in the leftovers. I finally got him to agree to a glass of orange juice, but that was it. I swear I never saw him drink it. One moment it was full, the next it was empty. When I was done, he put my dishes in the dishwasher then stood looking around my kitchen. He didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave, and I cleared my throat awkwardly.
“Uh… since neither one of us has to work tomorrow, do you maybe want to stay and watch a movie?” I looked down, nervously picking at the seam of my pants, and tried not to hold my breath.
“That would be nice,” he said with what sounded like genuine happiness.
I made my way to the living room and Peter followed. I guiltily opened the door to my massive entertainment center, biting my lip when he burst out laughing at my D.V.D. collection. I had a lot of down time these days.
“This one?” He reached past me to snatch up my favorite Jackie Chan movie.
I grinned. “Absolutely.” He didn’t say a thing about the irony of the wheelchair-bound girl loving martial arts flicks. I put the movie in and transferred to the couch. Peter watched interestedly as I positioned my wheelchair perpendicular to the sofa, moved my leg rests aside, locked the brakes, and levered myself over.
“How long have you been this way?” He perched next to me on the couch and grabbed up the remote.
I looked down at my hands. Peter and I had never really talked about the accident. He didn’t ask me the usual questions about what had happened and how I managed to go about my life. I hadn’t realized it before. He treated me as if I was just… normal. Like there was nothing different about me.
“Ah…it was about five years ago,” I said slowly. “I was driving home from work and I got into a car accident.” I shrugged. “I was eighteen.”
He pressed his lips together. “So young,” he said, after a pause.
I nodded. “That’s what everyone says; that it’s terrible it happened to me so young.” Though, I wasn’t entirely sure why that should matter. It seemed like a terrible thing to go through no matter what your age.
He looked up from his perusal of the disk menu in surprise. “No, I meant you’re so young,” he gestured toward the chair, hidden in the kitchen, “to have so much wisdom and experience.”
I frowned. Well, I guess when you put it that way- I had lived through a lot in my twenty-three years. Sometimes I felt downright ancient. Peter kept his eyes on the disc menu as he surfed through the options. “Are you angry?” He wasn’t being rude. He was just curious. As if he were asking what my favorite color was.
I’d heard the question before, countless times. I had talked to my psychologist about it every week for years. “Yeah.” I looked into his beautiful eyes. “Sometimes I’m pissed.” I shrugged. “There isn’t anything I can do about it. The guy who hit me, he was drunk. He had a couple of bruises afterward, but I was in a coma for a month.”
I closed my eyes. “Sometimes I just want to find him and hurt him.” Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes to find Peter regarding me with a strange expression- as if he knew just what that felt like.
“But that wouldn’t change anything, would it?” His voice was even, not patronizing or lecturing.
I laughed bitterly. “I was going to start college that fall. Pre-med. I wanted to be a doctor.” He scooted closer and put his arm around me, pulling me against his side. I was shocked for a moment, not used to a lot of physical contact with others, but it was comfortable.
“I’m sorry.” He said simply. Then he started the movie. I let myself relax, feeling all the tension and anger leave me as I curled up against him and watched Asian men carry off insane stunts in an effort to rescue the damsel in distress. We didn’t talk until it was over.
When the movie ended, I stretched and sat up. It was getting late and I should get to bed or I would pay for it tomorrow. Sleep was really important when your brain was working so hard all the time just to do the simplest things.
Peter glanced over at me and smiled. “You’re tired. I’m sorry for keeping you up so late,” he said softly.
I shrugged. “Don’t apologize. It’s nice to have company.” I gestured around the apartment. “It gets lonely here.” Taz, curled up against the far wall with his long legs in the air, whimpered and kicked in some kind of doggy dream, as if he were protesting my statement. I wondered what he was chasing.
My mind began to wander and I was seized by a sudden thought. “Why were those men chasing you? You know, the first day we met?” Honestly, I had meant to ask before, but somehow I never got the chance. I tended to get a bit flustered whenever he was around.
Peter didn’t looked surprised. He turned to face me and took a deep breath. Taking my hands, he looked at me for a moment as if making up his mind about something. “I am going to tell you a secret Melody,” he said seriously.
I wrinkled my brow in concern. “You look worried,” I said slowly. “What’s wrong?”
He gave my hands a light squeeze and I tried to ignore the warm feeling inside me. He was just my friend. That was all- despite my raging hormones.
“I’m not like everyone else,” he said softly. “I’m not human.”
I shivered as a sudden chill danced up my spine. I’ve developed a certain talent for sensing when people are trying to take advantage of my gullibility. He wasn’t kidding. “What are you?” My voice was hushed.
His eyes never left mine, those sharp green eyes, always searching my face for a reaction.
“I’m… well, I’m a vampire…” he trailed off, still searching my face to gauge my acceptance.
I swallowed. “Uh….are you going to bite me?”
He laughed out loud in surprise, leaning back against the couch and releasing my hands. “That’s it?” He was still laughing, wheezing with it. Apparently, I was amusing.
“Well, what else am I supposed to say?” I asked, annoyed.
He sat up and got control of himself, though he still tended to grin uncontrollably from time to time. “I don’t know,” he said, puzzled. “I’ve never just told someone like that. How about asking if I’m crazy, or running screaming from the room?”
I shrugged. “If you’ve seen the things I’ve seen, you kind of cease to be surprised,” I said dryly.
He nodded. “I guess you’re right about that. You are very wise.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”
He shook his head. “You see- this is why you are so interesting. You have so much… spirit. You have been through so much suffering, but you are alive and vital, and you take everything in stride. It’s just amazing.”
I snorted. “Okay, so I’m amazing. Why were those guys chasing you?” I was proud of myself for not letting him derail me this time.
He looked down at his folded hands. “They are like me. My kind. I’m breaking a big rule, and they are trying to make me conform.”
I yawned hugely. Neurofatigue- mind numbing brain drain- was making my head fuzzy. “So they’re bullies. I knew it.”
He laughed again. “I suppose so.” He shifted forward, his green eyes tender. “You are so tired. Let me take you to bed?” I looked at him in wide-eyed surprise and he realized what he had just said. I mean, really, he had to be aware of all the romanticized vampire stories out there.
“I meant let me help you to get to your bed,” he said carefully. Then he rolled his eyes and just gave up on explaining. He stood and gracefully scooped me up off the couch as if I weighed nothing. Of course, he was a vampire now so he was probably super strong. I let my head drop against his shoulder. I should be asking him all kinds of questions. Or maybe screaming and running- although I couldn’t really run anywhere anyway. But I was just so damned tired.
He took me to my room and tucked me into bed- fully clothed. Then he turned out the light and disappeared. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
When I woke in the morning, my wheelchair was right by my bed and there was a glass of water on the nightstand. Who would’ve guessed a vampire would do such a good job taking care of a human? I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at my knees for a long time, thinking about the night before. I wasn’t exactly shocked- I didn’t know what to think. Mornings were typically difficult for me, and it took a while for me to clear my head. Had Peter really told me that he was a vampire?
My cell phone started ringing and I noticed that he had put that by my bed too. A thoughtful vampire. I snorted with laughter. Had he kissed me before he left the room last night? I rubbed my fingers over my lips at the sudden vague memory. Had I dreamed that?
The phone was still chirping away, and I scrambled to answer it before it went to voice mail. Crap. It was my mom. I had completely forgotten that I was supposed to have dinner with the family this week. And my day had started off so well too. I flipped the phone open.
“Hello,” I said cheerfully. “No Mom, I didn’t forget.” I rolled my eyes. She was so fussy it drove me crazy. Her and my father both thought I was still eighteen…or maybe two.
Taz pushed his big head under my hand and worried at the edge of the quilt. I stroked him absently as I listened to her with half an ear, still thinking about Peter. He and I were supposed to go to the museum tonight after I got out of work. But he was a vampire now, so maybe he wasn’t interested in museums? Or maybe he could tell me stories about the displays? I shook my head and tried to pay attention to my Mom’s frantic questions when she realized that I wasn’t listening to her.
“No Mom, I’m fine,” I said tiredly. “Look, I was just thinking of something else okay?” I took a deep breath. “Um… hey, Mom? Can I bring a friend to dinner? No, someone you don’t know. I met him on the subway last month.”
She almost had a stroke. “Ok then, Mom,” I said over her hysterics. “I’ll see you soon. I love you too.” I flipped the phone closed before she could say anything else. God, it wasn’t like I was in the habit of picking up stray men and performing kinky sex acts with them. I mean, Peter and I were just friends anyway. Weren’t we? I rubbed my lips again. Damn it.