Status: Slowly Active.

I Hope They Taste of Me Forever

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“It’s just… I don’t know… Can’t you feel it? Their relationship is so… weird.”

“Weirder than ours?” Pete raised his eyebrow at me skeptically.

“Shut up,” I rolled my eyes. “It’s just interesting.”

“I’m pretty sure you find it more than just interesting,” he snorted. “You’ve been going on about it for half an hour now.”

“Whatever,” I said irritably. “It’s fascinating, then.”

Pete didn’t bother to reply, shifting a little where we lay. His arm curled around the expanse of skin between my pants and top that was slowly riding up. His skin felt cold on mine, but I restrained from shivering. Instead I turned around in his arms, pressing my face against his shoulder and breathing in his delectable scent. I suppressed a chuckle as this thought crossed my mind. Delectable? I think I was spending too much time around vampires.

“How can you just not care?” I mumbled. “Don’t you find it the least bit unusual?”

“I’m a vampire, darling. I’ve given up on perceptions of unusual.”

I decided not to reply directly.

“Well I think it’s remarkable.”

“I noticed,” he chuckled, before his tone darkened slightly. “But the word ‘remarkable’ has positive connotations.”

“So?”

“So there’s nothing positive about Beckett’s relationship.”

“Oh come on,” I scoffed. “Even evil villains must need someone to… satisfy their sexual needs, if nothing else.”

“But you said it yourself earlier; their relationship isn’t just that. He loves her. The really sickening concept to grasp is that she loves him too.”

“Why is that so sickening?” I asked, throwing myself into the conversation that he’d finally begun to participate in.

“Because she never used to be like that,” he said quietly. “He’s turned her bad. He’s changed her whole personality, without even meaning to. She was… is… so in love with him that she changed everything about herself. And I bet neither of them ever even realized.”

“Come on, Pete,” I reasoned. “That happens in people and couples all the time. This is just particularly drastic because of the whole vampirism thing. It’s not sickening.”

“Well why do you love it so much?” he shot back. “Why are you acting like this is all lovely, like you’d love to plan their wedding?”

I gave him an incredulous look and he grimaced at his previous words, but he didn’t bother to take them back.

“Well just so you know I’m a terrible events organizer considering I haven’t really had a life since I was fourteen, so I wouldn’t pass on any recommendations…” I went on as he sneered. “And they’re happy together, aren’t they? They’re actually happy. The way they look at each other… it’s as if the whole world will just wait for them to be complete. It’s amazing. And she even has some kind of… restraint over him. Some kind of hold over him. With just a few words, she could change his mind entirely.”

“They’re vampires,” he concluded tensely. “That whole poetic gazing into each other’s eyes thing or whatever you described, it’s just because they’re vampires. Feelings are a lot more… intense, I guess. Physical senses are heightened, and so are emotional ones.”

“Bullshit. You don’t look at me like that.”

I immediately wished I hadn’t said it. I was sure I knew what was going through his mind. That’s because I’m not in love with you. I could almost hear it in the suddenly silent space between us. We’d both tensed up, and the atmosphere felt about ten times thicker than usual. After a few moments, I opened my mouth to swallow back my words, but Pete spoke before I could figure out how to counteract myself.

“I… I am required to have some restraint when I’m around you,” he spoke quietly, his voice softer than I think I’d ever heard it. “I have a lot of qualities that you don’t have, and I can’t forget that. If it weren’t for those precautions, I’d look like that every time I saw your face.”

I blinked for a second, trying to gain control of myself and refuse the heat creeping into my cheeks. It was probably the cheesiest thing I’d ever heard, but somehow it just felt sweet when it was said to me like that. This was one of the topics we didn’t talk about or think about. The difference between us. He wasn’t human. It was surprisingly easy to forget that sometimes. Our relationship was… well, unstable, I suppose. If I was being completely honest with myself, I did feel strongly for him. He brought about a passion in me that no one else could, even if it was in an infuriating way. Being with him in any context made me feel on top of the world. But where was it all going? What was going to happen a few years down the track? He was immortal, forever twenty-one or however old he was. I was constantly growing older, every breath one closer to death. I didn’t want to change that. Did he? Did he want to turn me into…? Well, that was my point. We didn’t talk about it, so we didn’t know how the other felt. We didn’t have any plans. We just took everything as it came. But things had changed. It wasn’t just fun anymore. So how on earth was this going to work?

“Who would’ve guessed you were such a sap?” I teased, ignoring my thoughts and shifting into him closer, feeling his smirk against my head.

Quiet content ensued for the next however long, just lying there and trying to rid myself completely of the deep and complex thoughts that had ambushed my mind before. I tried to block my mind as best I could, although I had no way of knowing if it was to any effect. I didn’t want Pete to find the questions in my mind. I didn’t want to talk about it. I preferred not to think of it at all. After a while, Pete leant down spontaneously and kissed me quickly before pulling way with a cheeky grin.

“What was that you were saying earlier about evil villains needing to satisfy their sexual needs?”

I leaned my head back and laughed. Of course he’d remember such a mundane statement. He puckered his lips for a kiss, but I placed my hand there instead.

“Unfortunately for you, you’re not an evil villain,” I smirked, pushing away from him and sitting up, swinging my legs over the side of my small grey bed.

I began prancing across the room, but as I knew he would Pete reached me before I could reach the door, his arms winding around my torso from behind. I could feel his grin as he kissed the nape of my neck, and I was almost certain that I was unintentionally mimicking the action with my own lips.

“That’s what you think,” he murmured in my ear, before he dragged us both back to the bed we so frequently occupied.

***

The next morning, my entire body was buzzing contentedly as a rare block of sunlight streamed onto my face and shoulder from the locked window. I awoke with a smile on my face; something that had become decreasingly uncommon as of late. I couldn’t feel the cool waves radiating off his body next to me, so I concluded that Pete must be up already. What was the time, anyway?

Not bothering to find a clock just yet, I got dressed as quickly as I could and made myself look mildly presentable before wandering beyond my room and out into the main living area.

“Hey Elle,” Hunter greeted me with a smile, looking up from the book he was reading.

“Hey,” I replied, rubbing my eyes blearily forgetting that I was probably smudging my eyeliner.

I glanced around, expecting to see Patrick at work in the kitchen or Joe turning on the dead television, but neither was where I expected them to be. My brow furrowed slightly as I sat down beside Hunter, who dog-eared his page and put his book down.

“Where is everyone?”

“Out for supplies. You were too peaceful to wake, and they wouldn’t let me go because of this stupid injury,” he scowled, looking down at his leg. “They said they needed some exposure to sunlight, anyway.”

“Pete certainly doesn’t. Where’d he go?”

“Not sure,” Hunter answered. “I asked why he was going, but he just said he had some stuff he needed to do. He was all bundled up in layers of clothes and such, but to be honest I don’t really know how the whole sunlight thing works. Patrick seemed perfectly willing to let him go, so I just trusted his judgement.”

“Okay,” I nodded, feeling slightly better as I tossed him a lazy smile. “How’re you going?”

“Not too bad,” he replied, with a slightly bitter undertone. “I just wish I could get out of here for a while, go hunting again. I can’t stand being cooped up in here much longer.”

“Patrick said it’s looking better though, right?”

“Yeah. Hopefully I just need to wait another week.”

“Well there you go,” I smiled. “It’ll be nice having you hunting with us again.”

He smiled back, but looked down to his lap as he fiddled with his hands. There was an odd sort of expression on his face. He looked sad, somehow. The dimples from his smile indented his smooth skin, but his brown eyes seemed overcast.

“Hunter?” His eyes slowly rose to meet mine. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” he responded mechanically, averting his gaze once more.

“No it’s not,” I persisted, leaning closer to force him to look at me. “Tell me.”

His eyes snapped up to meet mine, and I had a split second to realize how close we were before I felt our lips contacting and the slight pressure his applied. I was frozen. I couldn’t move, unable to comprehend what was happening as one of his soft, gentle hands brushed my cheek and cupped my jaw lightly. He was tender, careful, but I could feel a sense of want and desperation. And I couldn’t even manage to react.

It only lasted a few seconds before my limbs managed to defy their immobilization. My hands flew to his chest and I pushed him off me, standing up. I looked with mild terror, my fingertips ghosting over my shocked lips, at the way he sat back on the couch, his breathing labored and the inevitable darkness of rejection and defeat shadowing his handsome features.

“I…uh…” I began stuttering hopelessly, furious with myself for being unable to even create a functional sentence. He looked up at me, and I couldn’t read the emotion that flitted like lightening across his face but I wasn’t sure I wanted to. “I have to get out of here.”

He didn’t try to stop me as I ran for the exit, struggling to slip on some shoes as I did.

***

“Thanks,” I muttered to a girl about my age as she walked away after lighting me up one of her smokes.

I planted the nicotine stick between my index and middle fingers, slowly taking a drag and coughing violently as the smoke hit the back of my throat, drying it on impact. I’d never smoked before. I don’t know why I did it then. Stupid, really. I’d heard that it relieves stress. I was bloody well stressed. And for once, it wasn’t about vampires. It was about a friend. A friend who had kissed me. A friend who had kissed me when he knew I was involved with someone else. A friend who, if I was being honest with myself, I’d expected had been thinking about that kiss for a long time.

The sun was setting, illuminating the cityscape and painting the horizon beyond it a brilliant golden orange, streaks of pink thrown in almost as an afterthought. I hadn’t yet gone back to the warehouse. The others had more than likely returned, but what was I to say? I couldn’t face Hunter, not yet. How would he react? We both needed some space, and time to think about what had happened and where it was going to put us now.

Things had been going so smoothly, so well. I was happy with Pete, I’d accepted the past, and I was actually settled with my circumstances. And now one of my closest – if not the closest – friendship I had was potentially going up in smoke faster than the burning tobacco between my fingers. I didn’t need this. I didn’t need another friendship to be ruined. Not again.

Carefully, I closed my lips around the cigarette once more. I inhaled grey waves again, and my eyes watered as I forced myself to refrain from spluttering. No need to look like a complete imbecile. Unhappy with the outcome of this supposed ‘stress relief’, I tossed it to the ground and stomped it out with the toe of my black boot, crushing the remains into the cement beneath my feet. A chilly wave of wind blew my hair over my face, the ends of the scarf around my neck dancing hopelessly in the wind. It was getting late. I should be going home. Pete, at least, would be furious with me for being gone for so long without an explanation. I certainly doubt that Hunter would have told anyone anything.

I picked up my feet and slowly began dragging myself back to the nearest subway entrance. The sun was disappearing quickly, a deep purple taking reign over the skies. Vampires would be emerging soon. I hadn’t expected to be gone this long. I didn’t even have a vial of holy water on me. But I couldn’t think about getting attacked. I was almost at the subway, and as soon as I was there I could take the second hidden tunnel back to the warehouse. Thinking about escape routes yet would just bring about unnecessary paranoia.

Well, I wasn’t attacked, but I found it difficult to breathe nevertheless. I’d almost reached the subway, but I had to keep an eye out for anyone who might be following me. And as I turned around, checking for any potential stalkers, my blood ran cold at the familiar faces further up the backstreet. My heart was still pounding, even when I realized that they hadn’t seen me. They weren’t after me. There were plenty of people still out about the city, after all. The sun had only just set. They couldn’t so anything in front of all these people. And I was incredibly surprised to discover that I was the furthest thing from their intentions.

William Beckett had one arm leaning on the brick wall, and Lena was smiling prettily up at him as her back leaned against the wall. They were dressed more appropriately, more modernly than I would have ever imagined, and still they glowed surreally as if they were fallen stars from the depths of space. Their eyes were locked together, infatuated smiles devouring each of their faces. William tucked some strands of her hair behind her ear gently, and they simultaneously leaned in to share a kiss so perfect that the idea of them being two separate beings seemed astonishingly bizarre. Even with the backdrop of a green dumpster, chipping green paint, and the stingy debris of a syringe or two on the dirty ground, they looked like they’d stepped right out of a fairy tale.

I shook my head and turned away as fast as I could from my frozen position. I shuddered, remembering who they were and what they’d done. They were not from a fairy tale. They were horror film villains. They killed the innocent, they fucked with your mind, they had no morals.

She was no princess.

He was no Prince Charming.
♠ ♠ ♠
This chapter took a while to write. I'm not sure why, I just kept stopping and starting. So I hope it turned out alright.

Also, I've recently written a different kind of oneshot to the kind of thing I usually write.
I'm not sure how many of you might be interested, but I'd like to think that writing it has improved some of my writing skills. The best judges for that are my readers. So if you're interested, I'd really appreciate it if you could let me know what you think of it. Your opinions mean everything to me.
Azkaban.