David laughed. “It is vital to consume the blood of your own kind. I am human, in part. Without human blood, human energy, and human life force, I’m nothing. Animal blood, and I speak from experience, not only tastes like ash, but can’t satiate the thirst and it won’t nourish.”
“What if you just didn’t eat blood at all?”
“I’d end up back at square one—killing uncontrollably until my hunger was quenched; it’s much kinder to take a few lives than many.”
“Oh, God!” I nearly folded over and threw up. “How can there be any kindness in killing?”
“Live a few hundred years and you’ll find out.”
I looked at him with a pang of excitement. “So, are you immortal?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t die?”
He shook his head.
“At all?” I double-checked.
He shook his head again and stood taller. “No. We’re virtually indestructible.”
“Virtually?”
“We can’t die, but we can get hurt. Our bones are like cement—iron-coated cement. They do not break. Ever. And our flesh is extremely difficult to penetrate—not that it would do any good to cut a vampire, because we heal incredibly fast.”
“Well, so, like, there’re no stakes or holy water or silver or decapitation?”
“No. Immortal means immortal, Ara. There is no death. No peace. Only an endless eternity of mourning and solitude—watching everyone you love grow old and wither away—forever just a memory, leaving nothing but a fruitless hope of finding happiness again.”
“Sounds—” I studied his face, “—unbearable.”
“You have no idea,” he said through a breathy laugh as the tension in the room eased.
“I know you, David. I know you have a good heart, but, I mean, I’m struggling to understand how you can be so loving, yet so…dangerous. How…how do you live with the guilt? For killing people.”
David laughed lightly. “I don’t. I have no choice but to stay alive, but I hate myself for some of the things I’ve done. You just find a way to do it without leaving too many scars on the world—or your own heart. But there aren’t too many vampires with empathy for humans. It gets lost when we change. Mostly, you’re just food to us.” As he shrugged, he flashed an easy smile at me; I shuddered.
Food? “Don’t ever use that term around me again, David. I still care for humans, you know, since I’m one of them.”
“I’m sorry, Ara. We’re just from different worlds, you and I. I’ll be careful what I say around you, I promise.” He looked into my eyes, his gaze guarded. “Assuming you still want to see me.”
“I don’t know.”
He looked down at his feet. “Would you like me to leave?”
I bit my lip, tapping my fingertips on my leg. “Not yet.”
“May I sit?” he asked, motioning to the bed.
I nodded; he sat down.
“So, is it true that all vampires are totally hot and sexy?” I asked after a few minutes.
“Depends on your tastes, I’d say.” He sat back a little, smirking. “Get to the point.”
“I—” I shook my head. “I didn’t have a point.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Did not.”
“You forget,” he said, pushing my quilt away from his leg. “I can read your mind. What was your point?”
My shoulders sunk. “Why me? Why a plain, ordinary, scarred human, when you could be with a hot vampire chick?”
He moved his words around inside his mouth for a second. “You do things to me that no other girl, human or vampire, has ever done. It’s not optional for me to love you, Ara. I…when I’m with you—” He looked at me, breathing out before continuing. “I’m more human than monster. More heart-and-soul than vacant-shadowy-night.” He blinked softly and added, “Plus,” with a smile.
“Plus what?”
“Plus, I’m crazy in love with you.”
I looked down to hide my wide grin.
“It’s not enough for me just to love you, though,” he said. “I need to be with you—to see you, to touch you—be a part of you in a way no one else in the world ever could.”
My face fell into my hands, his words sending giggles through my chest. I couldn’t believe I’d managed to fall in love with a real, blood-sucking vampire. And my parents were afraid I’d start hanging with kids on drugs.
“Ara? Are…are you crying, ma jolie fille?” David’s hesitant embrace fell around me, and the fear I felt before edged in the centre of my stomach, while the weight of his arms on my body made my heart beat faster. But I closed my eyes and focused on the truth; this was David. Not some random murderer.
My David.
I looked up, and the vampire ran a cool fingertip under my eye—a kind of affection, kind of touch, that felt so normal to me now.
“Are you okay?” David asked, looking overly concerned.
“Relax, David. I haven’t lost it…yet.”
“Sorry.” He broke into a breathy smile. “It’s just that…when a guy tells a girl he’s a vampire, he doesn’t exactly expect to be laughed at.”
“In my defence, I screamed as well.”
He stiffened.
“Well, would you expect anything less than fear, David? You’re a dangerous creature—not a Cullen,” I added, with a wry smile.
He laughed, loud and full. The sound warmed the room with its grace. “I wish.” He rolled his head backward as the laugh dissipated to a smile. “Great books, though.”
“You read them?”
“Of course.” He breathed out, still smiling as he added, “Wouldn’t life be so much easier if it were really that way?”
“No, because then you’d be icy-cold…and pale. But I like your golden skin.”
“I know you do.”
My ears and cheeks flushed with heat. “So, you don’t, like, sparkle or anything, do you?”
“Ara. You’ve seen me in the sun,” he stated dryly. “Did I look like a lamp to you?”
Hmm. I remembered how lovely he looked in the sun; how he seemed to glow—an incandescent beauty with perfectly formed muscles. His skin was so soft and smooth, hairless, as far as I could see. But although the memory was bright and golden, making me forget how dark my room was getting, I was pretty sure he didn’t have moths buzzing around his head or anything. So, no, he didn’t look like a lamp. But boy, would I love to take his shirt off right now just to be sure it was all real.