"Oh, that. Right...yeah, that is kind of weird. It's like...you know those fish in the deepest parts of the ocean that use light to attract their prey? Kind of the same idea." I could see his shoulders shrug in the dim light emitted...by him.
I blinked and shook my head a little, forcing myself to look away from those hypnotic eyes, remembering that, technically, I was his prey. "Oh...well, it's weird and a little...creepy."
"Sorry, I can't shut it off or anything. Luckily, it's barely noticeable unless it's completely dark. There's usually enough light pollution in the city that people don't see it." He laughed, the glow bouncing with him. "It does make for awkward conversations when I try and go camping in the countryside though."
I turned on the lamp sitting on his nightstand to bring his eyes back to normal. Blinking in the now too-bright light, I looked over at him again. "You...camp?" For some reason, the thought of a vampire camping struck me as the oddest thing he'd uttered all night.
He smiled and shrugged again. "Sure...who doesn't love camping?"
"You're so weird." I plopped myself back down onto his wonderfully masculine chest. A fresh burst of his light cologne hit my nose as I inhaled a deep, contented breath.
His amused chuckle vibrated beneath me as he brought his hands up to play with the long strands of my dark hair. "Would you stop saying that. I'm starting to get a complex."
I smiled as his hand sweeping the hair away from my bare shoulder gave me goose bumps. "Sorry, I'm trying to process this. I've never met a vampire before." I nestled further into his chest, relaxing into his capable hands.
"That's a very good thing." There was an oddness to his voice. I looked up to his beautiful, pale blue eyes, and there was an odd look in them as well. I wondered if I wanted to know what he meant by that.
Instead I asked, "How old are you?" I propped myself on my elbows on his chest again, suddenly very excited at an idea that had popped into my head. "Are you a couple hundred years old? Have you seen the civil war, or the first cars, or thin Elvis? What have you seen? I want to know everything." I rested my head in my hands and waited for his surely fascinating answer.
He cocked his head at me. "I'm twenty-five."
I frowned. "You're twenty-five because that's my cover story and I'm sticking to it, or you're twenty-five because you were birthed twenty-five years ago?"
He laughed. "The latter...I really am twenty-five. I've seen what you've seen." I sighed and slumped a little on his chest. "Does that disappoint you?" He asked, a grin on his face.
I sighed again. "Yes...actually, as far as vampires go, I find you a little disappointing."
I was abruptly flipped over onto my back. The move was so fast, my mind couldn't even comprehend it; one minute I was on my stomach and the next I was on my back. My breath increased as I tried to wrap my mind around this new position. Teren was hovering over me and his fangs were out again. My mouth dropped open watching him.
"Am I still disappointing to you?" he growled.
I couldn't even answer him. His presence, his undeniable power-it took my breath away. He leaned over me and very lightly dragged his teeth along my skin. It did wonderful things to my body, but I wasn't about to let him hurt me.
My speech came back to me in a pant. "If you bite me, it will be the last thing your vampire ass does."
He laughed and retracted his teeth. "I wasn't going to. Remember...I said I wouldn't, unless you asked. I was just proving a point." As I relaxed underneath him, I brought my hands up his chest and laced them around his neck. "How exactly were you planning on ending me anyway?" he asked.
I twisted my lips as I pulled him closer to me. "I would find a way...you just keep that in mind, buddy. I'm no snack."
Smiling, he gave me a gentle kiss. "You might like it..."
"Why would I like you piercing my skin? Does that sound like fun to you?" Realizing what I'd just said, and who I'd just said it to, I rolled my eyes at myself. "Wait...don't answer that..."
He laughed again and kissed me a bit deeper. I pulled away, slightly breathless. "Does anything else...glow...on you?"
He flashed me an impish grin. "Why don't you shut the light back off and find out?"
I laughed and did shut the light off. I searched pretty thoroughly, but didn't find any other glowing spots on him. And eventually his creepy, glowing orbs closed, and the room was blissfully and naturally dark.
The next day, I studiously watched him over breakfast. He made us bacon, eggs and toast, and he ate it all like any normal guy. I kept waiting for him to do something unreal, turn into mist and slip under the door or mentally call forth rodents or bats. I don't know-something creepy and mysterious. But he didn't. He made espressos.
He walked around his spacious kitchen with stainless steel appliances at normal, boring human speed. He got food from his fully stocked refrigerator. He put spices away in his fully stocked cupboards. He kissed me on the cheek and asked me what I wanted to do on this sunny Sunday morning. I was a little disappointed again with my very unvampire-like vampire. I had kind of been expecting him to secret away to a coffin last night, after our rousing second romp. But he hadn't, he'd fallen asleep right afterwards and he'd even snored. It was so commonplace that I was beginning to doubt the entire thing ever even happened.
We sat at his metal kitchen table, sipping our espressos after breakfast. I was wearing my "just in case clothes" and was happy for the fact that I had planned for that little eventuality. I was even happier that the scenario had finally happened, although the night hadn't mapped out quite like I'd expected. I watched him sip his coffee and read a magazine, wearing a pair of perfectly faded blue jeans and a casual looking t-shirt. He was the perfect sight to wake up to-dark hair, pale eyes, full lips, strong jaw, sexy as all get-out stubble. Delicious...and impossibly human. Last night must have been a vivid dream. One way to make sure, I suppose.
"Let me see again," I said after another couple minutes of comfortable silence.
He looked up at me, a little confused. "See what?"
I pointed to his mouth as I set down my coffee cup. "The fangs...whip 'em out."
He looked a little embarrassed, his eyes darting back down to the cup in his hand. "No."
"Come on. You don't have to be shy." I reached over to him and stroked his forearm with my fingers. "I've seen everything on you. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Show me." I smiled encouragingly.
He met my eyes again. "Why?"
I took my hand off his arm and gestured in the air. "Because I'm starting to think I imagined the whole thing last night." I gestured to the drink he was still holding. "I mean, you're drinking a cappuccino for God's sake."
He twisted his lips. "What's wrong with cappuccino?"
"Well, it's not blood for starters," I deadpanned.
He smiled wide, showing perfect, white, even teeth. "Well, I have some humans tied up in my underground lair, next to my coffin, being guarded by my hunchback assistant Igor." He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "Would you like me to have him bring one up so I can devour them in front of you?"
I smirked. "Funny." I sure hoped he was kidding about that.
He shook his head and went back to his coffee. Apparently, he wasn't caving to my request for a peep show. I tried a different approach. "You can bite me?"
Without looking up from the magazine he was reading (National Geographic, of all things), he calmly said, "No." He peeked up at me from under his eyebrows. "I thought that would bring about my end anyway."
Ignoring his one hundred percent accurate comment, I, as seductively as I could, said, "Oh, come on." I leaned my head to the side, exposing my vein, and stroked my neck with my finger. "It's a nice, juicy artery."
Teren smirked. Looking back down to his magazine, he pointed at himself. "Nearly all human remember? That isn't as much of a temptation as you seem to think."
Disappointed, I slumped back into my chair. "Fine, be all modest on me. I would have shown you mine," I muttered.
He exhaled loudly and looked at the ceiling for a moment. "God..." Making a fake growling noise like a five-year-old would, he looked over at me with his hands raised in the air like claws. Extending his fangs, he said, "I vant to suck your blood," in a horrible Dracula impersonation. Then he immediately retracted his teeth and went back to his magazine as if he hadn't done anything strange at all. "Satisfied?" he asked.
Laughing at his over-the-top display, I walked over and sat on his lap. He looked up at me with a semi-amused smile. "Yes...that was priceless. Thank you."
He shook his head. "However I can entertain the human."
I laughed some more and gave him a soft kiss. I was a little surprised at how well I was taking things. I never realized I was so...progressive. Well, good men are hard to come by, and I'd had more than my fair share of duds. If his only drawback was a pair of sharp teeth and a penchant for hemoglobin, well, I'd take it.
We decided to spend our Sunday afternoon doing the most vampire-like thing we could-we took his collie, Spike (as in stake-har har), to Golden Gate Park. Teren and I lived in beautiful, sunny San Francisco, which one would think would make it a natural deterrent for vampires, but Teren seemed perfectly happy and un-crispy, walking hand in hand with me as Spike ran ahead of us for a few feet, before coming back and then running forward again. We walked through the green grass and under a few large trees and I watched the sunlight filter through the leaves to speckle my honey in shadow and light, a fitting metaphor if I'd ever seen one.
When Spike got too far in front of us, Teren put a couple of fingers in his mouth and let out an ear-piercing whistle. Spike immediately turned around, his shaggy, multi-colored coat bristling in the breeze, and loped back to us with his tongue extending and retracting as he merrily panted. Teren reached down and ruffled his fur, earning him a lick on the cheek.
"So, you don't chow on dogs?" I asked with a small smile on my lips.
Teren looked up at me and grimaced. "No...do you?" I laughed and shook my head. He smiled and stood, coming to my side and pulling me close to him. "Good, I don't think I could keep seeing you if you ate dog. That's just gross."
I poked him in the ribs while he laughed and Spike ran around our feet. He brought me in for a tender kiss as Spike's attention was diverted by a squirrel running up a nearby tree trunk. I relaxed into the comfort of his kiss-a wonderful mix of soft lips and scratchy stubble. Abruptly, he pulled back from me and I frowned as my comfort was ripped away.
"Come to my parents' place with me."
I blinked at him, startled. "I'm sorry...what?"
He half-grinned at my stupefied face. "Now that you know everything...and seem to be perfectly fine with it, you should meet my parents."
"Today?" My voice came out a little strained, and I tried to relax my throat.
"No, I wasn't serious about that. I do need to go up there soon though. Maybe in a couple of weekends we could go?" His pale eyes sparkled in the sunlight, and I had the odd thought that they were charging in the sun for another glow session this evening. I shook my head to shake away the strange vision.