I slammed my left foot down pushing the clutch to the floor at the same time I pulled with my right hand. Alice's yellow Porsche growled satisfyingly as it shifted down a gear. It took hardly any effort at all to gracefully steer the car through the turns of the highway this evening. It was as if the machine and I had become one, like it was just an extension of myself, responding as quickly to my touch as I responded to the road. There was a good reason why everyone in my family was obsessed with driving, it was just so fun. Driving impossibly well and amazingly fast brought the world up to our speed.
I came of age as a vampire at the same time cars did. I was in my feral infancy as cars sputtered along dusty roads. By the time cars began to enter what is now referred to as their "golden" age in the early 1950's I found my way out of my bloodlust and into the driver's seat. I can still remember the first time I drove. It was the twenty-first of May, 1946 at 8:32 pm. I'd ridden in cars before then of course but I had never been the one in control. It was as if I'd been made to drive. It took me a little bit to get the hang of how hard to push the gas and how to gently come to a halt. A little bit meaning about three blocks. Then I was off like a shot heading straight out of town. I drove all night long keeping my speed as fast as the car would go which was around 60 miles per hour, and I saw at least two cop cars try to follow me but, of course, I escaped them easily.
As cars have matured and become faster and better, I have too. By now the leaps and bounds in the technology of cars has come to a plateau since humans can only go so fast before losing control. My life however has become infinitely better in the past year, better than I ever thought I could possibly be. It was all because of one little girl. The same little girl who sat just a foot away from me to my right.
Unbeknownst to Bella, I shot a glance her way to find her staring wide-eyed forward, intently watching the road. She had her left hand gripping her seatbelt across her lap and her right hand grasping the handhold on the door. She had time and again assured me that she trusted my ability to drive and knew that I'd never let anything happen to her. Although she never did go as far as to use the word "enjoy" when she referred to riding in the car.
Bella had absolutely no idea how much I loved having her in the car with me. Between maneuvering the winding mountain roads of the Northwest and her intoxicating, well, everything, I was in ecstasy. Every time I pushed the car to go faster or took a curve quickly enough to feel the horizontal gravity pull us to one side or another I could hear her heart skip beats and pound in her chest. Her breathing rate would increase, she would gasp, and she'd perspire just a bit, driving me wild. She'd hold her breath once in a while and suddenly let it all out at once, filling the car with her glorious scent. I couldn't help but steal looks at her while I was driving, but, really, how could I not? She responded to every movement and sound the car made. Everything that I did to the car she responded to, it was almost overwhelming.
She would get her way tonight however, even if it was just going to be for a few minutes, because I needed to stop and fill up the gas tank. Bella loved watching the sunset over the ocean so I had decided to drive down the 101 highway. We hadn't been driving for too long, only about an hour and a half, but we had just crossed the Colombia River and were technically in extreme northern Oregon. I must have been going slightly faster than I had believed, no wonder Bella was white-knuckled while she sat there.
It was just after dusk as I pulled into a lone gas station on an otherwise deserted stretch of highway. The attendant just stood there for a few seconds, probably not having seen a car so amazing in a long time. I killed the motor and cracked the deeply tinted driver side window which seemed so snap the old man out of his daze. He walked over from the little station taking a large, arcing path around the car, his eyes never leaving its bright yellow body gleaming magnificently in the overhead fluorescent lights.
"Nice car you got there," he said stooping slightly to talk to me. I smiled a smile that said 'don't I know it' and nodded my head to him. I could feel his attitude grow slightly colder toward me, both because of my apparent young age and, more likely, because of the fact that my eyes were probably a brilliant gold color, nearly glowing at him out of the darkness of the car.
"Fill it up with the best please," I said coolly to him, still smiling. I glanced in the rearview mirror and watched him as he crossed behind the car. I caught my own eyes in the mirror and saw that my suspicions were indeed correct; my eyes were an incredible light gold. Of course they are, I thought, I've been going over 90 miles an hour and Bella has been making me crazy the whole time.
I turned to Bella and took her hand, which had finally released its grip of her door. I lifted her hand toward me and lowered my eyes to it. It was slightly damp from her fear which made it delightfully alluring and made me want it even closer to me.
"How are you my dear?" I asked sweetly, raising my eyes to meet hers for a split second then back down to her arm. I heard her sharply take in a breath making me grin. I slowly turned over her hand and delicately laid a kiss on the palm of her hand, then the meat of her thumb, then the inside of her wrist, feeling her pulse below my lips. Grinning still, I looked again up to her face and felt her shudder.
"I think you know," she stammered as a rush of blood glowed hot from her exquisite face. She seemed to notice it too and she looked down, suddenly a bit bashful. These were the moments when I loved her the most, she was so sweet and young, reacting even to my slightest smile with overblown emotions. As much as it made me ache to have more of her, it made me far more thankful that I am a very patient man because drawing out moments like these was absolutely worth it.
I was just about to give Bella's petite hand another kiss when the attendant made a slightly obvious "ahem" to get my attention. He had somehow finished filling the car and walked all the way around back to my window without my noticing. I guess I had been a bit distracted.
"How much is it?" I asked him, not showing my surprise in the slightest.
"Sixty-seven dollars and fourteen cents," he replied, eyeing me slightly and trying to see past me through the darkness to Bella.
"Keep the change," I told him as I shoved four twenty's into his hand and started the car all at the same time. My undetectable movements and the car suddenly purring to life must have startled him because he jumped back away from the car, still staring. I looked him in the eye, smirked slightly, and with a furious roar of the motor sped off into the night.