And if I Die Before I Wake...

I stood near the door, gazing at it as if somehow the wood were invisible. I supposed I looked quite thoughtful, though where anyone would get the idea is dreadfully mistaken.

"Morgan..." I mumbled, daring a glance at her, but tearing my eyes away before she noticed. "Did you know humans were created in pairs?"

She shrugged. "Does this have something to do with me?"

I nodded. "Get your head out of the gutter, this does not mean we were meant to be together. Quite the opposite actually." I chuckled and met her gaze, showing my set of fine pearly-whites that should have been on toothpaste commercials. "Ironic that you are the only one who could have killed me while human."

She glared at me, eyes burning like fire. "And why is that?" she asked, her tone of voice surprisingly civilized and not matching her expression at all.

"Because, dear Morgan, I was born much too early and you were born much too late. We were meant to kill each other, which we would have, had we been born in the same time period. I would have been completely human, had you not been born late. Techniquely..." I smirked at her. This would piss. Her. Off. "You're the reason I am a vampire."

"Liar!" she screamed at me. She jumped up and tried to move towards me, but nearly collapsed from the head rush. "B-bride... does not mean... enemy..." she mumbled, lying back down.

I shrugged. "Maybe to a human. You seem to forget that I am not human, Morgan. To us," I paused. I hated to lump myself in with other vampires. "It is simply the way to survive. Keep your enemies closer and all that. To be blunt Morgan, a bride is simply a possession."

She scoffed at me. "You have a sick sense of humor."

"Sticks and stones. It's not like I can do anything about it, can I?" Her mouth opened, as if to retort, but I stopped her. "The answer is no. I can't."

It was silent for a long moment, though one could swear something was screaming at me that I didn't keep her simply so she couldn't kill me. I ignored it. My heart had long since stopped beating one hundred years of being a murderer usually took a toll on one's sympathy.

"You said you chose a bride. You also state that we were made a pair. This means...?"

I lowered myself into an armchair in the corner. "I chose not to kill you."

She looked at me apprehensively. She was confused.

"The reason a vampire goes up in rank when they have a bride is because all but a fair few can control themselves enough not to kill their partner. Either that or the bride/groom has already been turned and the pair has killed each other. Either one really."

“You know the sad thing is that makes a bit of sense.”

“Why wouldn’t it?” I smiled. ”Would I lie to you?”

She rolled her eyes. “Never.” She replied, sarcasm all but dripping from her words.

It was quiet for another moment until something dawned on me. “Are you hungry?”

She looked surprised, but thought about it for a moment. “A little, yeah.”

I nodded at her and grabbed the cell phone from my desk. Yes, vampires have cells phones. I quickly flipped through the phonebook and found a pizza parlor. We Deliver! it read in obnoxious block letters. I dialed the number and ordered two small pizzas, one with no cheese and extra meat, the other plain pepperoni.

The delivery guy came to the door but refused to enter the house. He inquired if there was a dead animal anywhere nearby, but when people around the block started to stare at him he gave it up and quickly escaped. He told me not to pay simply because he didn’t want to be alone while I went to get the money. I smirked at him before he left and brought the extremely unappetizing pizzas up to her.

When I entered she was sitting upright against the backboard to the bed. She nearly inhaled the pizza when I brought it to her.

“Oh you’re not hungry at all…” I muttered and smiled at her, opening the box to my modified pizza.

She chuckled at me. “Taking a chance are you? Is it good?”

I took an apprehensive bite. No. No it wasn’t. “Tolerable.” I said at last. This may have filled my stomach, but I needed more blood in my system, lest I start decaying.