He took a breath and spoke to the world outside, “Despite what you may believe, my girl, I am still human inside. And everything you’re thinking right now does hurt.”
I blinked, trying to make my mind go blank, but it wouldn’t; I just kept seeing the faces of people as they screamed, begged for their lives, while David towered over them and took it. “Have you always been able to read my mind?”
He nodded, not looking at me. I wanted to be mad, but the heat that rushed through me was boiling mortification, more than anger. I buried my face in my hand and groaned. Oh, so many thoughts I wouldn’t have wanted him to hear.
David chuckled. “That’s pretty much what everyone says.”
“God, I feel so violated.”
“I’m sorry, my love. I know it’s awful but, if it’s any consolation, I’m not usually listening. And I can only hear your immediate thoughts. For anything in the past, I actually have to go inside your head.”
I looked up at him. “But, you can get in there—you can find things?”
He nodded.
“That’s so freakin’ creepy.”
He became smaller. “Please don’t say things like that, Ara.”
“Well, what do you expect me to say?”
“Ah, it’s a vampire!” He waved his hands about like a girl.
“I kind of did say that.” I smiled. “But you muzzled me.”
He winced, letting a breath out. “I’m so sorry about that, Ara. I just couldn’t have you running down to tell your dad.”
I bit my lip, knowing full well that’s exactly what I was going to do. “So, I’m calm now. Am I free to go, or are you going to keep me hostage in here for the rest of my life?”
He turned back to face me. “Will you keep quiet?”
I nodded.
“Then you’re free to go.”
I felt better after a sigh of relief. Slowly, I got to my feet and opened my bedroom door. Dad’s voice lilted up the stairs, homely and warm; I listened for a second then looked back at David, who leaned on my desk, his arms folded. “Was that all—is this your only dark secret?”
He nodded.
“So you…” I lowered my voice. “You kill people?”
He nodded.
I stepped back in my room and shut my door, resting my head on it for a second. “Do you like killing them?”
“Yes.” His voice came smoothly across the room, making my shoulders lift around my ears.
“Do you…do you ever regret it?”
“I didn’t, no, not until I fell in love with you.”
I turned around then. “And what difference does that make?”
“Compassion. Vampires are nothing if not compassionate, but only for our own kind. When we fall for a human, that compassion, for some reason, extends out to their race as well.”
“Except, instead of loving thy neighbour, you eat him.”
“It isn’t like that. We don’t just walk around with a constant desire to munch on random humans. And never those in our local community. We eat only when we get hungry—like you do.”
“No, not like I do. I go to the shop—buy a packet of chips. Not walk into a dark alley and end the local milk man.”
David laughed. “Neither do I.”
“So, what about when you are hungry?” I threw my hands up. “Is it hard to live among us then? I mean, there’s no way I could live in a chocolate factory.”
“I just don’t let myself get that hungry.”
“How thoughtful of you.”
He cleared his throat.
“Does…” I looked past him to the grey day. “So, how did you fall in love with me if I’d look better on your plate?”
“I didn’t choose to fall for you, Ara. It just happened.”
“How, I mean, what’s a vampire even doing at our school?”
He laughed. “I’m on leave.”
“Leave?”
“Yes. I work for two years in the vampire community, then take two years to be human.”
“Human? There is nothing human about what you are,” I said with a mouthful of spite.
“We fall in love,” he offered, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “We can eat, sleep, walk in the day, as if we were still human. But—”
“But you’re not.”
“Actually, I was going to say but—” he tried to keep a light grin on his lips, but the hurt of my repulsion revealed itself within his eyes, “—everything is stronger; our bodies, our minds, all of our senses. We feel everything with an intensity I cannot describe; happiness, pain, heartache—” he cringed on the word, “—and love are so much stronger than you can possibly imagine.”
I softened a little—about five-percent. It was the way he said love. There was something so…vulnerable about it. “I don’t know.” I shrugged one shoulder. “I think I might be able to empathise with you on the feeling-things-more-strongly aspect.”
The sharp, crescent-moon dimple returned as he nodded. “You have a lot of heart, Ara. Perhaps that’s why I’m so drawn to you. You’re not like other humans.” His smile dropped away and he looked down at his shoes. “I am sorry that I’ve hurt you with my secrecy. More than you know.”
Apology not accepted…yet. I squared my shoulders. “Okay. So, you said you eat and sleep and everything else? Why be a vampire at all?”
“It’s not by choice,” he said calmly, like I was an infant. “You see, it’s like an alien, I guess. I thought about it once—how I could describe it to a human.” He pointed at me as he spoke, then touched his chin with thought. “It’s like an alien comes down and plants itself in you. You’re everything you were before, except that now, you have these incredible abilities, and your human side is driven by the desires of the alien’s first nature—blood.
“I’m still David, but I’m also this alien. I drink because I’m compelled to. If I don’t drink, I become weak and desperate, then I’d eventually turn into a monster.” He laughed lightly and added, “Much like you if you don’t have breakfast. Only, there’d be no stopping me. I would kill…uncontrollably.”
Great, so, I fell in love with an alien-operated vampire.
We stood in silence again for a minute.
“So, why humans? Why not squirrels? Or cats?” I subconsciously nodded toward my window, imagining Skittles on a plate.