It was wonderful being away from
the apartment. My element picked up on everything around us: the wild
party-goers; the happily drunk couples; the families leaving the movie in the
park, babbling excitedly; the varying conversations of people leaving the
visiting comedian; and so on. I was ecstatic to be surrounded and filled with the
sounds of life again, even more so now because I was fully aware of my
connection to the air element; we were far more intertwined than I had known
while alive.
“Are you pleased?”
“Very much so,” I said, unable
to stop smiling. Now that he had turned me, it didn’t matter who knew we were
together. Of course, we would eventually have to face the Vampire Council,
considering he wasn’t supposed to turn me in the first place, but I forsook
that train of thought. Right now, his hand was in mine, we were outside, and
that was all that mattered.
“How are you doing?” His eyes
scanned me nervously, as though afraid I would fall into a million pieces if the
breeze so much as shifted direction.
Nudging him with my shoulder, I
assured him I was fine. “I feel better than I have in a long time.”
Smiling and looking at me as though
I was the only person he could see, he said, “I am glad.”
It amazed me how much my element
was absorbing. I felt connected to Drei, to his every available thought and
motion, as well as to everyone else if I paid enough attention. How much I had
changed hadn’t occurred to me until then. Before I might have wanted to shut it
all out and just be with myself; but I had been with myself long enough and the
lively change was more than welcome.
“I love the night,” I said,
needing to express some of the happiness bubbling inside me.
“You used to love the day,” he said,
almost forlornly.
“I know;” I gazed up at him, my
free hand pushing some of his shaggy brown hair behind his ear. “But I can’t have
the day.”
“No, you cannot.”
“So I’ll love what I can have.”
“That is a good way to live.”
“Not always. Sometimes that’s
just settling.”
“This is true. But if you settle
for nothing, you lose a lot.”
“Now you’re just trying to sound
smart.”
“Perhaps.” He smiled down at me,
his pale amethyst eyes sparkling. I found myself kissing him in the middle of
the sidewalk. His arms pulled me closer to him for a moment before he seemed to
remember we were in public. Grinning, he pulled away from me. “This is not the
place,” he said gently.
“I couldn’t help myself.” I
honestly couldn’t. The other part of me—the vampiric essence now a part of my
being—had been tempted and had very little restraint.
“You will learn to control it,”
Drei said, slipping his hand into mine again as we continued on our promenade. “It
will take some time, though.”
“Everything takes time.” I was almost
sick of hearing the phrase and its variations. It seemed like all I had heard
the past six years. My patience was quickly, and understandably, wearing thin.
“The only person you are waiting
on anymore is you;” he glanced at me, and I knew I had been thinking too loudly
again. “So what plans are you making to start?”
Shrugging, I said, “I haven’t
been able to think much on it lately. I’ve been too distracted.”
“What by?”
“Being outside again;” I grinned
sheepishly. “But I think the first move to make is gathering those who are
going to help me the most.”
“Such as…”
“You know. Don’t pretend you
don’t.”
He smirked. “I do know.”
“So if I forget anyone, you’d
better tell me so.”
“Of course.”
We turned into the park in
silence. It was pleasant, and there were fewer people around so it felt almost
like an exciting secret. Kind of like we could hide each other from the world and
always be together. Especially since the sounds of the city fell away in the
park, replaced with the rustling of leaves, the sighing of flowers, and the
whistling of a warm spring breeze. The ambiance was soothing and seemed to
carry away even Drei’s worries. I couldn’t recall ever feeling him so relaxed;
it seemed he was always stressed by one thing or another.
When we returned to the
apartment, it seemed entirely too soon, like we had barely been away. Drei
explained the sun would be rising shortly when I raised the complaint. He
wouldn’t say if we could have stayed longer had it still been night for a few
more hours. Instead, he suggested I change for bed—arguing I had tired myself
out with excitement—and wouldn’t listen when I insisted I wasn’t at all tired.
After changing into one of the
long satin nightgowns Drei had bought for me recently—he had taken to showering
me with gifts, either out of remorse or in an attempt to placate me—I returned
to the living room. He sat, reading one of his magazines, completely engrossed.
“Are you joining me?” I asked,
curling up beside him and resting my chin on his shoulder.
Drei dog-eared his page and
dropped the magazine on the coffee table. He turned to face me and kissed my
nose. “If I sleep now, I will miss something very important.”
“Like what?”
His fingers brushed the hair out
of my face, tucking it behind an ear. “Such as the call I am supposed to
receive this morning.”
“From whom?”
“You will see soon enough,” he replied,
his hand traveling down my bare arm and stopping on my forearm. He lifted my
arm so he could examine it while attempting—and failing—to conceal his
amazement.
“What is it?”
“This is the arm you burned,
correct?”
“Yes,” I said slowly.
“When did you heal?”
Shrugging, I pulled my arm away
from him and crossed it over my chest. “I don’t know. Probably during our walk.”
“Are you hungry at all, before
you go to bed?”
I failed to see the connection
between the two but answered, “No.”
“Not in the least?”
“Not at all, Drei,” I said,
knowing it was weird as I used to feel hungry most of the time and just learned
to ignore it. But I felt completely sated. It was strange, but I wasn’t going
to pay it any mind. For the first time in almost a year, I wasn’t hungry; I
counted myself lucky.
“That is not at all like you,”
he said, regarding me carefully. “You are certain?”
“Yes. What does this have to
with my arm, though?”
“I cannot be sure,” he said,
though the set of his jaw revealed he was determined to find out. He didn’t
like mysteries any more than I did; the only difference being Drei was allowed
to know the answers and I had to find them myself.
Deciding the mystery wasn’t
worth it—I was healed, that couldn’t be a bad thing even if it was puzzling—I
stood, pulling gently on his hand. “If you won’t sleep yet, will you at least
lie next to me until I do?”
“You have become very demanding
lately,” Drei observed, standing and following me into his room—where I had
been sleeping since my awakening. We still hadn’t been together past kissing,
but we were both fine with that.
“Not really; I’ve only asked you
for two things.”
“And what message do I send if I
continue to give you everything for which you ask?”
“You love me;” I snuggled into
his embrace, my previous energy quickly slipping away.
“That I do.”
“And I love you,” I added,
yawning.
He kissed the top of my head,
tangling a hand comfortingly in my hair, the other pulling me closer to him. “I
know you do.”
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