Taste

"Before you shut the door on my face and condemn me to an eternity in the underworld... I must point out, I did it because I didn't want to see you get hurt."

Throwing a quick glance over my shoulder, I stepped out. I didn't hesitate to think he would try latching onto me again, so I gripped the cross on my necklace.

He looked like he was about to roll his eyes, until they connected with mine.

"If it weren't for me, you'd be dead in a ditch somewhere. I was protecting you."

"By almost physically draining me? Excuse me while I try to find the logic in that."

He pocketed his hands in the same long red trench coat as he'd worn that night I saw him outside my window. I take that it was a favourite.

I could see why; it highlighted his every pale feature, while making his amber eyes pop.

"I know those other vampires. They're messy and ruthless. I..." He exhaled, staring at the porch. "I'm sorry for what I did, it wasn't my intention. And if you go to the authorities, then that's okay, I know the consequences."

I stopped. The day I hallucinated him and punched Holly, didn't I tell myself I'd forgive him if he gave reason? If he was truly repentant, then I wouldn't turn him in.

He said so himself; he didn't mean to cause me harm. It just so happened that I'm human and being so close to me, it was natural.

Now, I'm not blaming myself, but I couldn't blame Arden, either. He was an animal, following his primal instincts.

He's best getting a better hold over them, though.

I sighed.

"I won't. I haven't told anybody."

Face lighting up, it turned down only a little when the sirens rang. As if it was the sky's way of protesting, heavy rain began, splashing the land in its crystal droplets of despair.

Under any other normal circumstance, I would have invited him inside and warmed him up with a delicately well-made hot chocolate.

That was the thing though: nothing about our predicament was normal.

"I'll protect you this time, I swear."

"My sister is alone, she'll know I'm–"

I couldn't finish, as I ventured further into those wonderful eyes of seeping amber. They burned through me, begging and pleading that I stay.

As strange as it sounds, despite what he'd done to me and his fiendish nature – I felt a connection to Arden I didn't anyone else. Nobody read into me the way he did, almost as if nobody else had tried. Till Arden, I didn't see myself as a person worth anyone's time.

"Emmy." When he blinked softly, I tried for a positive, and therefore softer, expression. "My name is Emmy."

Grinning, he showed me that the fangs weren't always, in fact, present.

"That's good to know... Emmy."

Hearing my name being uttered from his lips was nothing short of remarkable. A being so dark, so enigmatic and otherworldly; there was no right way to react.

So, I locked the door behind me and we sat down together on the porch bench. He was close, the smallest fraction of space keeping us apart. And I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.

I clasped the base under my thighs, although my knuckles were still somewhat sore from punching Holly. Oddly, I hadn't thought of that since it happened.

I turned to him, not for the first time seeing just how serene he appeared.

"When you bite someone," His eyes flickered down to mine, steady. "Is it normal for them to go through... I don't know. Flashbacks, I guess?"

He nibbled his lower lips as he breathed through his nose. In the crisp air, I saw it. A small puff that traveled through the atmosphere, never knowing where it was going.

"If it's particularly traumatic, yes." He shuffled, so that his body was more angled towards me. "I'm never going to stop trying to make that up to you."

I shrugged. There wasn't that could be done about it now. It had closed over already, but the scar would remain. It couldn't ever be erased.

So, if I ever felt the yearning to show some skin, I'd have to be careful. If the wrong people saw it, then they'd demand a meeting with the government, get the information from me or those vampires in the woods that night... and he'd be killed. In the most goriest way possible, or the most ruthless, depending on his past.

The parliament could be evil when it came to crime and punishment. Whenever a vampire was found guilty, they'd find a way to make both humans and creatures pay. Sometimes, the lasting effects lingered for a long time. Like two thousand years under the water.

In an instinctive act of betrayal, my hand shot up to my neck and rubbed the mark he made.

It fell away, when his hand raised and tucked my hair back, revealing to him the puncture. I shuddered as his cool fingers traced the lines, reliving it with me.

"At times like these, I wish True Blood was closer to the truth."

We connected eyes again, briefly, before the both of us burst out laughing. I dropped my gaze to my legs, crossing as they hovered above the wood.

"It was an... angry puppy." I suggested.

Smiling again, he leaned back.

It was odd to think that, filled with the contempt I have for his kind, I was comfortable with him being relaxed around me. I guess we thought alike.

For the next hour or so, I stayed on that bench, talking about vampires and random facts. We never delved too deep. I never was permitted to see anymore than I needed to, and I remained guarded with him, too. Not out of fear, or hate, or any negative reason, really... just more like, because.

At the end of the day, he was still a vampire. A predator. I was his prey. Any one of these days, he might return to a bloodthirsty fiend.

However, as I laughed and grinned at stupid conversations with him, I realised something.

Gradually, but still amazingly and confoundingly, we were becoming friends.