Stockholm Syndrome: Be Mine

I lowered my head and spoke quietly. "You're crazy, that's what you are. There's no such thing as vampires."

"Oh, is there not?" His voiced had raised, and he gave me an incredulous look. "Then, answer me this, Angel. Why were you in the hospital?"

Silence.

"Well, here it is. I bit you, like the idiot I am, and, well, a few complications arose. And I couldn't just take you to the hospital like you were, so I - well, you should probably just take those bandages off your arms. You have to see to believe, right?" His voice was practically dripping with a nasty mixture of hate, sarcasm, and condescension. The last bit hurt particularly bad, it's almost as if he knew I struggled with my faith.

My head was spinning. I carefully lifted one of my arms up. It was bandaged from the bottom of my palm to my forearm. I had my suspicions, of course, but my mind would never think to consider the truth.

Gingerly, I started removing the tissue. My stomach was threatening to explode by the time it was gone. Because covering my arm was a 6 inch slice, with stitches in it that made it seem as if they had been done in a hurry.

Gerard was looking at my arm just as I was, his eyes trained on the once innocent skin that surrounded it.

Coward, I thought. Look at me.

"And the other one?" I asked.

He nodded once.

I closed my eyes and fell back down on the pillows, silently sobbing.

"You'll ruin my pillows with your tears. They're silk."

"Shut up! I hate you! I HATE YOU!" I screamed, now sitting up and crying furiously. "Why did you do this!? WHY AM I HERE! Why didn't you kill me! I'd rather be DEAD!" And with that, I spit right in the middle of his perfect face.

His strange eyes immediately darkened. I couldn't pretend I wasn't terrified. For reasons unknown, he left me half-alive and bleeding. But I wonder if he couldn't just leave me half-alive again.

"Please," I whispered."Please just tell me what's going on."

"You want the truth? Fine. You're better off not knowing."

I shivered, but told him to continue.

"Okay. So, I guess you caught on that I've been stalking you for awhile," He said it so bluntly, that I wondered if he did it a lot. "And after a few days of your, well, "smell", I decided you would be safe to have."

"What's that mean?" I asked, sniffling.

He sighed, like this was the part he had been dreading. "It means you're not a virgin."

Blood rushed to my face immediately. I wondered if he could tell, or if it bothered him. It bothered Edward in Twilight.

"Um, why would you.. Why would you think that?" Of course I was a virgin! I was a kid!

"It's not how you acted or the way you look, it's your smell." He must have noticed the agast look on my face, because he quickly added, "No, it's not like that. Virgins just have a much stronger and sweeter smell then others."

"What? What's wrong with my smell?"

"Nothing. It's just not as potent. Your taste is, though. That's how I knew to stop." I blushed again.

"Um.. Why can you not, like, bite.. Virgins?"

"Because it's vampiric law. It's a way to try and preserve innocence. If you get caught killing an innocent, you'll be executed."

"So people can do it if they don't get caught?"

His eyebrow creased,"Well, technically speaking, but it's more complex than that. If you were to continually kill children, it would wear down on your humanity. At least the only humanity we have."

"Oh." My mind was buzzing. "Please go on."

"Right. So, after I bite you, I had to get get you to a hospital because you'd lost a lot of blood.. And because my venom was going to kill you."

"What? So now you have venom?"

"Yes, it's how new vampires are made." He spoke slowly, like I was two.

"I know that!" I snapped."Why was it going to kill me?"

He exhaled."Erin, you don't want to know."

"Like hell I don't!" I hardly ever used profanities, so you could tell I was serious.

"Vampire venom is poison to other vampires." He said it simply, with no sort of inflection.

I wasn't a vampire. That was crazy. It was obvious. I mean, I'd know if I was a vampire!

"I'm not a vampire." I said, raising my eyebrows.

"You're right," he said."You're a half-breed."

Impossible.

Unlikely.

I realized in that moment how much I wouldn't mind if it were true.
I loved vampires, that never changed. Sure, I hated this particular vampire, but I loved vampires in general.

"Explain." I said.

"Your father mated with your mother when she was a human. After she gave birth, he bit her and had her do the same to him. She changed. It's not that uncommon, but usually the parents will at least tell the child, if not change them."

"But if they changed a baby, wouldn't it stay a baby forever?" Again, I was reverting to Twilight.

"No, vampires age, but once they reach adulthood, the pretty much remain the same. They only way you'll be able to see a vampire physically aging is if they aren't active anymore."

"So, then why did you cut my wrists?"

"Two reasons. One, I had to have a reasonable explanation for significant blood loss, and two, I had to get the venom out. It was killing you."

"So when she said you found me.."

"She meant I found you trying to kill yourself."

I cast my eyes downward.

"Something still doesn't make sense, though."

"What?" He was angry again, I could tell by his curt tone.

"If my parents are vampires, how do they get blood?"

"Sweeheart," he said mockingly,"Where do your parents work?"

That's when I vomited.