He cupped my face in his stone hands and kissed my forehead. He moaned as he pulled away. Staring into my eyes melting away all the fears I had. Apparently he didn’t want to talk about the subject of how he would save my life. But when his eyes moved away the cloud of despair came back over me and a tremor went down my spine as I thought of dying because of my destiny. Of what I was meant to be.

“Claire, you will always be safe with me.”

I thought about all the times he had hurt me emotionally and physically and stared into his red eyes confused. He did a half smile not showing his teeth and barely showing any sign of him actually being happy.

“Don’t smile unless you mean it.”

The corner of his mouth that was up went back in line. A hard line that couldn’t be moved. He held my hand careful not to disrupt the careful array of tubes and cords that kept me breathing. I tried to sit up but his cool hand gently pushed me back down on the pillow. I had a strange feeling in me. It was warm and comforting yet irritating and I wanted to get rid of it. Kai smiled at me pushing my hair back.

“Kai I have this weird feeling in me?”

“What is it?”

“Warm and irritating.”

“You are in love?”

“I’m already in love with you and I’ve never had this feeling.”

“Obviously you weren’t in love with me but just liked me because I’m appealing to you.”

“I like you for who you are.”

“A Bi-Polar sadistic vampire? The real reason is because I look hot, smell good, everything about me excites you. The pleasure of being in the heart of danger each time you are around me.”

“Maybe but I didn’t know it at the time. And since when did you find pleasure in being cruel to people?”

“Are you blind? I love torturing anyone around me. It’s the only thing to do during the night other than feel like an idiot watching your dreams. Your mind is not that creative.”

“Since when have you been talking from a different century? This is 2010 not whenever you were actually twenty one.”

“I know what year it is.”

“Doesn’t sound like it.”

He smiled- a full one that touched his eyes- and picked up my hand entwining it in his. It shocked me at first, the casual touch that I wasn’t expecting out of him. He lifted our hands to lightly brush my cheek. The warm feeling in the pit of my stomach came back. Though I have been in love with Kai for almost a year did I really just love him because I have a thirst for danger and excitement? Or did I always love him and only just now realized? Was it because he was being so casual? Talking from his century, allowing a conversation without letting it get out of hand, or was it how he was being more careful around me when he never really paid attention to that before?

“I love you Claire. It’s a poor excuse for everything I have ever put you through but I truly love you.”

He kissed my hand and I looked in his eyes not sure if I should bring up something that he mentioned earlier.

“How would you save me if I were to…” I didn’t finished but the word I didn’t say lingered in the silent air around us.

“I have a way.”

“But what exactly is that way?”

“Claire, you don’t need to know right now because you are not going to die right now. You are more likely to get mauled by a polar bear in the middle of Califronia than die of being a werewolf.”

“Polar bear?”

“That isn’t the main situation.”

“Than what is?”

“Let’s change the subject.” He sujested.

“You are about to be eighteen,” He stated. “what are you going to do about college?”

“What are you going to do?”

“You have never thought about college?”

“I have a couple of times but I thought that since I was a werewolf I didn’t have to go.”

“Werewolves aren’t immortal like we are. You will get older, get married, have children. Right now I’m basically just a crutch for you. Give you a boost on real life.”

“I was actually thinking that I want to get married to you.” I never thought that until just now but it seemed like a good thing to say at the moment.”

“That…that won’t be…possible for us, Claire.”

“Why not? It’s a danger for us to be together so much. Every second I’m putting you in danger. We are supposed to want to kill each other not love each other.”

“So because we are…different we can’t get married?”

“Yes.”

“That isn’t fair.”

“I know it isn’t but we are different. It may not matter to us but it does matter a great deal to everyone else.”

Then something sank in.

“Wait what do you mean by I’m not immortal?”

“You will age and eventually die.”

“I don’t want to get old! I want to live with you forever! I want to be a vampire not a werewolf.”

“You can’t join the other side of the war once decided.” He murmered just low enough that I had to strain to hear him.

We sat like that for a minute letting the silence overwhelm us. Kai played with my hand and eventually smiled up at me.

“What are your friends planning to do for college?”

Why is was he so obsessed about college? “I don’t know that doesn’t come up in the average teenage girl conversation. Plus I haven’t seen my friends in awhile since I’ve been going through changing into a werewolf.”

“You should spend more time with your friends. I’m sure they are worried sick about you right now. No doubt Logan told them that you are in the hospital.”

“Why don’t you just look into my future?”

“Why do that when we can just wait and see?”

“You don’t use your power much; why is that?”

“It’s very hard to talk to someone without answering a question in their mind or accidentaly talking about what will happen in their future. Possibly even bringing up a memory in their past. I might react right before they make their movement. Anything could happen.”

“So for those reasons you don’t use your third sense?”

“Yes.”

He glance at the door when the doctor came in. Dressed in a white doctor’s coat he looked like an angel entering the dim room. I only noticed now that it had gotten dark outside and I had to spend the noght here alone.

“Andrew.” He greeted him casualy as if he knew him all his life. For all I knew though he might have.

“Kai,” He greeted but more professional. “are you staying here with Claire or are you going back home?”

“I will be on my way out in a few moments.” Again he talked from an earlier century.

He kissed my hand that was still twined in his.

“Do me a favor and think about college.”

“Sure thing.” I mocked.

“I’m serious.”

He walked out the room and the lights flipped off after him. I sat in the still silence waiting for his return in the bleak night. Maybe, I thought, he’ll come through the window in the middle of the night to come see me. I thought that over for a moment knowing that there was more of a chance that that wouldn’t happen than that it will. Sleep came over me and I eventually passed out waking up with the doctor checking my hands.

“Glad you are awake, Claire.”

“Where’s Kai?”

“He isn’t here right now.”

“My head hurts.”

Glancing down at a clipboard in his hand he checked the machines and left being followed by Kai. I smiled, surprised when this action caused pain. He sat next to me setting his chin on the pillow and kissing my cheek while putting my hands in his.

“Good afternoon.” He teased

“Afternoon, what time is it?”

“One thirty in the afternoon.”

I glanced at the necklace dangling from his neck and peeked at the blazing sun through the small window.

“How was you day?” I asked, trying to move my mind away from his necklace.

“It was fine but I worried about you constantly. I would of came earlier but Dakota told me not to come. She thinks it’s unhealthy for me to feel this way because of what you are. It was fine when you were human but it’s bothering her now.”

“Another person to add to the list.”

“Some of my family loves you.”

“Some of them.” I whispered.

“Don’t get so upset about it.”

“I’ll try.”

“So did you think about college?”

“I don’t see why I have to go. You and your family won’t be going to college so why should I?”

He sighed and the cool, sweet aroma blew in my face made me light headed. “When you go off to college my family is leaving Pacifica.”

“You can’t leave!”

“We are going to have to get older. The younger we start out the longer we can stay, but we can only be in one place so long until it get’s noticeable. Dakota is only twenty eight and she’s trying to pass as thirty three. I wish we could stay here but we can’t.”

“Why can’t you go to college. You are twenty one after all. Clide is twenty five and in high school so I think he can go to college.”

“Logan is sixteen, Claire. People will notice if she doesn’t get any older.”

“Please don’t go.” I pleaded, I didn’t like the talk of leaving.

“I don’t have to go until next year. We still have one wonderful, glorious year together.”

“Until you have to leave forever.”

“Remember that you spent sixteen years of your life without me.”

“How many have you spent without me?”

“Many years. Hundreds of years.”

“When were you born?”

“That’s not important.”

“What if I died? I would die not knowing anything about my boyfriend or his family.”

“What do you want to know?”

“What about James? What was his life like?”

“He was a professor.”

“How did you meet Paige?”

“That’s not important.”

“What was her childhood like?”

“If I told you then you would use it against her.”

“Smart thinking.”

He kissed my cheek again and I barely fainted by the scent of his breath. It was the same sweet fragrance that came off his skin and that was in his blood. The lovely honey and mint combination that I had grown so used to but now shocked me each time I got a whiff.

“I want to learn a little about you.”

“What do you want to know?”

“What’s your favorite color?”

I glanced at his eyes for a moment hoping he didn’t see me. “Orange.”

“Favorite drink?”

“Jasmine tea.”

“Food?”

“California rolls.”

“Music group?”

“Paramore.”

“Favorite TV show?”

“America‘s Got Talent.”

“Top three favorite movies?”

“Alice in Wonderland, Twilight, and Karate Kid.”

“Top three favorite songs?”

“Brick by Boring Brick, Vanilla Twilight, and California Girls.”

“Favorite book?”

“Eclipse.”

“Favorie animal?”

“Red panda.”

It went on like that for a while. He didn’t stop but kept going one question after the another. I caught myself trying to use my hands to describe things like the swaying grass on the hills back in Kentucky. I felt like I had just met him and he occasionally looked shocked when I told him certain things like that I was terrified of wolves and water. He would ask me why and it brung on a whole new round of questions. I felt like I was on a game show were you said the first thing that came to your mind.

“Are you finished yet?”

“Just about.”

“What’s the next question?”

“If you could have one wish what would it be?”

“To have more than one wish.” I joked.

“If that couldn’t happen then what would it be?”

“To be human. To not be a werewolf so I could be around my friends without hurting them. If I was human than you could turn me into a vampire and I wouldn’t feel like an outsider in your family.”

He went back to the questions again but they weren’t continues like before. He waited for a moment before asking the next one finally he stopped and smiled.

“You get to go home tomorrow.”

“Oh yah.”

“I won’t be here tomorrow I have to go hunting.”

“Why have I never seen you hunt?”

“There are reasons.” Obviously nothing else would be said on that note.

“When will you be back?”

“About eleven tomorrow night.”

“Why don’t you hunt tonight?”

“People are asleep at night.”

I rethought what he was really saying and shuddered at the thought of someone coming into my house at night to suck all the blood clean out of me.

“How do you drink blood?”

“There are complications to that that are hard to explain.”

“How hard is it to do?”

“Not hard but not easy to catch on to.”

“Can you take venom out of someone?”

“I did that to you didn’t I?” He teased.

“But you didn’t bite me. Is the pain worst if you were to bite me to get it out?”

“Yes, extremely worse that’s why I didn’t like that option for you.”

“How long does it take to become a vampire?”

“It depends on how much vanom is in someone and how close it is to their heart.”

“What if you were to get bit right at your heart?”

“It would kill you. The venom would flow to fast and you would die.”

“Is it hard to change someone?”

“Once we taste blood we can’t stop a whole frenzy begins. It would be difficult to just walk away from it and leave all of the blood there. Most leaders of covens don’t tell others how to change someone either because they can’t explain it or it was never explained to them. That’s why there are many hybrids because the way of changing someone has been lost.”

“What else is venom used for?”

“It stuns our prey to where they can’t get away from us. It stops the blood from clotting so it’s easier to drink. We can also mark with it though it is rarely used since the person usually dies in the process.”

“What is marking?” I emphasized the word.

“It’s when we bite someone and we don’t drink their blood or purposely put venom into them. The venom will drop off of our teeth and into their bloodstream. We suck the venom out of them though before it reaches their heart and changes them.”

“Have you ever done that?”

“Never but I have seen Samantha do it before. She was always interested in the mechanics of things like this. She wanted to be the best of the best and be able to save thoughs that had been attacked by an…unnatural creature. She had almost perfected everything except for marking. Each time she tried it always ended up in the victim dying because her venom ran through the bloodstream to quickly. In result to this we had to move often to keep from decrease the population in a certain area. She occasional worked on doing these things so she could practice trying to inoculate mortals from turning into vampires. I could tell that she was unhappy about what she was since she already made sure no one would be a vampire. She didn’t like the idea of changing me and was ashamed when she did.”

“Where did vampires come from? I mean the whole creation of them?”

“Where did humans come from?”

“God created them.”

“Then the Devil created us. We are just the darker half of humans. It was believed that we came from when people got to lost in the dark side of them and it possessed their bodies.”

“What else were vampires known for?”

“One story is that vampires would take on the appearance of children to get into women’s homes and kill them.”

“Did you ever do that?”

“It’s just an old story, Claire, it’s impossible.”

“Tell me another story.”

“Later.”

“Well tell me some about vampires.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Why do you glimmer whenever your skin touches the sunlight?”

“I honestly don’t know the answer to that-I’m not a girl.” He laughed.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Whatever would you want to know that I have not told you already?” Again the freaky language picked up in an earlier era.

“Why don’t you have fangs?”

He flashed a glimmering smile and blew in my face again.

“I never said I didn’t.”

Gasping I turned to face him and again he flashed his smile. I examined his teeth closely noticing for the fist time how they weren’t exactly flat but more sharpened like razors. They weren’t sharp enough to be noticeable unless you were as close to him as I was but since my neck was so close I don’t think he would allow that with anyone else. I glanced at the side of his mouth where fangs should be but it only look like regular teeth.

“I don’t see any fangs.”

“I don’t usually grow them out.”

“What are you supposed to do with them?”

“My family usually files ours so that we can blend in with mortals. Humans used to hunt vampires for our fangs since it was believed that you can have ever lasting wishes if you were to be able to separate it from the rest of the teeth without bleeding.”

“Would that be hard to do?”

“Extremely.”

“Has anyone ever been able to do that?”

“Very few but they tried many people died because they were accused of being vampires. There was a lot of grave robbing for corpse during that time period.”

The doctor walked in- shocked to see Kai so close to me-and checked something looking at some charts before turning to us.

“Claire, I’m afraid you might have gotten worse we will have to keep you here another day.” Then away from me. “Kai are you staying?”

“Yes sir.” He said it in a monotone focusing on something farther away. The doctor left and he broke out of the trance.