My eyes fluttered open, and the first thing I saw was a white light overhead. My head was pounding as I tried to get up from a...metal table? Where am I?
"She's awake!" I heard a familiar voice call out next to my ear. I groaned.
"Alright everyone, please be quiet, I'm sure Max has a headache," I heard mom say.
"Where...where am I?" I mumbled, still trying to get up. Two pair of hands helped me sit up. I blinked several times, and my eyes focused. I looked around and saw I was in mom's office.
"What the hell am I doing in mom's veterinary office?" I grumbled.
"Well she seems fine..." I heard Iggy from my right. I looked at him and stuck my tongue out at him.
"Max you're here because Fang brought you home, bleeding heavily, and told us you hit your head badly when you tripped down the stairs of the mansion, when you were running down. So we brought you here to stitch you up," explained mom. I reached up and touched my scalp. I felt a couple of stitches.
"You can't even see them Maxie-poo," crooned Iggy. I nodded and went over last night's events. Riley, Fang, something about revenge...
"Honey we were so worried about you!" said dad and brought me in for a hug. I smiled and hugged him tighter.
"So how are you feeling?"
"Good...just have a headache...I have a question," I said.
"Where's Fang?"
"He's outside, in the hall," responded Iggy. I nodded and smiled. He's back!
"I'll call him in. We'll give you two some privacy," said mom and everyone got out. My heart was racing. My hands were trembling and I clenched them in my lap. Then the door opened and in he came. Our eyes met and he rushed towards me.
"Max...My Max..." breathed Fang as he crushed me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face into his chest.
"I missed you. So much," I mumbled against him. He kissed my forehead and pulled back slightly.
"When exactly did...that happen?" I asked. He sighed and looked down.
"A couple hours ago...you have no idea how afraid I was of something really bad happening to you," he whispered. I took his hands in mine and gave them a squeeze. I slid my hands up his arms and gripped his collar, pulling him in. His lips met mine in a sweet, soft, passionate kiss.
We continued to kiss, passionately, moving from our mouths to our cheeks to our ears as if drinking in each other's flesh. He gently stroked my hair, then nibbled my ear. I pulled him closer by gripping his belt hoops and looked into his eyes, wondering how I could have breathed the last few days without him near me.
I ran my fingers through his messy, jet-black locks. He brushed my hair away from my neck and made his way up my shoulder with kisses. I could feel his teeth, seductively sliding against the skin of my neck. Touching, toying, tingling, giving me playful nibbles. The nape of my neck hung tenderly in his mouth.
Suddenly Fang pulled away, a look of terror in his eyes.
"I can't," he said shamefully, looking away.
"What's wrong?" I asked, surprised by his change in mood.
Fang helped me to my feet. He anxiously drew his hand through his hair and paced the room.
"It's okay," I said.
"I thought I wasn't like Riley," he said, and sat on the edge of the table I'd been sitting on a few moments ago. "But...maybe I am."
"You are nothing like him," I said. "In fact, you are the opposite."
"I just want you to be safe. Always," he said, looking at me soulfully.
"I am, now that you are here," I said, stroking his hand.
"But don't you see?" he said seriously. "My world is not a safe one."
"Well, mine isn't either. Don't you watch the news?"
His sullen face turned bright, and he laughed. "I guess you're right."
"See? I'm more at risk going to school with Dylan than I am kissing a vampire."
"I've never met anyone like you," he said, turning toward me. "And I've never felt before the way I feel about you."
"I'm so glad you came back." I hugged him around his waist.
"This won't happen again," he assured me.
"How can you be so sure? Riley seems bent on getting even with you," I asked, sitting beside him.
"Because he couldn't get even."
"Wow, so you showed him who's boss? Like in a school yard brawl?"
"I guess...Only in our case it was an alley brawl."
"Is he gone?"
"His family is in Romania. There is nothing for him here now. He can go back and tell them he found me."
I fingered my sleeve.
"What promise did you break?"
"I didn't break it. I never made it...But we don't have to worry about that anymore," he said wearily.
"I'm sorry I led Riley to you," I confessed.
"I should be the one apologizing to you. I couldn't imagine you'd come for me," he said, looking outside the window to his right. Then he turned back to me. "But I should have known," he said, stroking my cheek. I blushed and smiled.
"Now tell me everything," I said suddenly. "What's it like being a-?"
"What's it like being human?" he interrupted.
"Boring."
"How can you say that?" he asked, holding me close. "You can wake up in the daylight, go to school, and see your reflection."
"But I want to be like you," I confessed. It was something I'd thought about for a while.
"You already are," he said with a smile.
"Were you born a vampire?"
"Yes. Were you born a human?" he teased.
"Yes. Are there millions of vampires around?"
He nodded. "But we are a minority, so we like to stick together. Obviously there is safety in numbers. We can't reveal our identities or we'd be persecuted."
"It must be so hard to cover up who you really are inside."
"It's very lonely, feeling like an outcast. Like you are invited to a costume party, but you are the only one in a mask."
"Do you have a lot of vampire friends in Romania? I bet you miss them."
"My dad procures art for his galleries in several countries. So we traveled quite a bit. By the time I made a friend, it was time to leave."
"What about humans, like me?" I asked.
"There is no one like you, vampire or not," he said with a warm smile. "It's hard making human friends when you don't attend school, and it's even harder keeping them when they're eating their evening dinner and you are just rolling out of bed."
"Are your parents upset that you have a human girlfriend?"
"No. If they met you, they would immediately like you," he said, and stroked my hair.
"When I'm with you," he began, "I don't care which world we are in, just as long as we're in the same one together."
I looked into his eyes and kissed him once more and hugged him, blushing several shade of red.
