A tiny smile tugged the corners of David’s lips, changing his whole expression.
“Stop it!” I scolded, holding my finger up to warn him against his invasive, mind-reading behaviour. Would there ever be any way to get used to him being constantly in my head?
David’s shoulders lifted with his short, breathy laugh.
Obviously not.
“Okay. So, those myths aside—” I wandered over and plonked on my floor, crossing my legs to get comfortable.
“Just to save you time, Ara, technically, everything you think you know is a myth.”
“Like what?”
“For one, despite ancient storytelling, vampires are not actually dead.” He sat on the edge of my bed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “And we’re not undead, either—we’re actually alive.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. And you know what else we’re not?” he hinted with a lopsided grin.
“Enlighten me,” I said playfully.
“We’re not evil demons or weirdoes with anaemia, but—” he pointed to the roof, “—we are, in fact, colder—which is where some of the stories come from, I guess.”
“But…why are you cold if you’re alive?”
“Why are you cold?” He grinned; I shrugged. “If we go for long periods without…nourishment, we get colder and a little pale.”
“So, you’re not so very different from me, then?” I grinned.
“Ha! Maybe you’re a vampire and you just don’t know it.” He pointed at me, his very cute, dimpled smile making me laugh.
It was nice to laugh with him again. “There’s just one thing I’m curious about, though. You said you’re not dead?”
He nodded.
Everything David and I ever did together, every moment I touched him since we met, I ran over in my mind. “I—I can’t remember ever hearing a heartbeat. Do you have a heart?”
His gaze fell on his clasped hands. “I don’t have a heartbeat, because I don’t need my heart to beat. You see, the energy—the life force I draw from a human—moves the blood through my arteries. It’s very powerful.”
“Like magic?”
“Kind of. And I don’t need my heart to pump blood to my lungs for oxygenation either, because I don’t make the blood. It comes to me with oxygen in it. See?” He held out his forearm and rolled up his sleeve to reveal clear veins, slightly protruding from his skin as if he were flexing his muscles. “They don’t contain blood. They carry the remaining life force—the energy that makes me immortal. The blood I drink runs through the arteries, which are deeper. That’s why my veins look skin-tone.”
“So…really? You don’t make your own blood?”
“Nope. When the blood I drink runs out of oxygen and nutrients, I simply drink more.”
“So, if you get a cut and bleed, it’s not your blood seeping out?”
“No, it is. My body coverts the blood I drink to use as its own.”
“Wow.” I stared at his arm.
“But,” he added, rolling his sleeve back down, “I do still have a heart.”
My head bounced and my lips pressed together into a thin smile. “I know.”
“Then you know I love you?” His hand flinched a little—like he was going to reach for me, but thought better of it.
“I know you do. The trouble is—I love you, too.”
“Why should that be a problem?”
“Because you’re a vampire, David. You—” My words were lost. What could I say? That I wasn’t sure how I felt about him now I knew he killed people? That’d be kinda shallow, wouldn’t it?
“It’s not shallow, Ara. This,” he said, motioning to himself, “is a lot for anyone to handle.”
I let my cheek lift my lip in the smile it forced. “Touché.”
He sat back again, rubbing his thumb over his chin. “I was human once, you know. And I do understand how you feel about the deaths.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
I nodded, thinking for a moment. “So, how long have you been a vampire?”
“Since nineteen-thirteen.”
“I knew it! I knew you weren’t an eighteen-year-old boy.” I shook my head in amazement. “It all makes so much sense now—especially how you keep appearing at my side all the time.” After that thought came another, but a more carefully considered question this time. “Are you…alone?”
He shook his head. “No. I live in a large community of vampires. Plus, I have my uncle and my brother, which is more than most vampires have.”
I nodded. “Wait, they’re vampires, too?”
“Yes.”
“What about girlfriends? Have you ever had one?” I probably didn’t really want to know, especially if she went out to dinner with him and ended up becoming the main course.
David laughed again. “I’m not that careless, but, yes, I have had girlfriends.”
“Was anyone special? I mean, you’re pretty old, right, so have you ever, like, loved anyone?”
“Loved?”
“Yeah—like you love me.”
“Like I love you?” He shook his head. “Never. But there were two other girls I’ve loved in my existence. Neither of them worked out.”
“Why?”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “Why do you want to know this?”
“Same reason you wonder about Mike.” I pointed at him. “And I know you do.”
David nodded. “So, you wanna know who the competition is.”
I shrugged.
“Okay. Fine. Well, let’s just say that for one of the girls—it turned out that we were really too different, and…” He took a breath, biting his lip, his eyes distant. “And the other was…just not meant to be.”
“Well, what happened to her?” I moved an inch closer, sensing his obvious distress.
“Perhaps this story is for another time.”
“Is that what happened two years ago?” I asked after dropping it for a whole three seconds. “Is she the reason you missed so much school—why you came to live here?”
“Ara, I don’t want to talk about it.”
“So, you can tell me that you kill people, but you won’t talk about ex-girlfriends?”
“Stop it.”
“Why? Why won’t you tell me?” Agitation wandered into my tone. “Was she human, like me? Did you love her as much as you love me?”