kinda short... ENJOY :) and it any of you haven't checked out my profile, make sure you go and look at my "models" for Eric and Natalie :D

Chapter 10:

I woke up on the couch and immediately reached for my throat. I was breathing in short panicky breaths, but nothing was wrong. My neck was perfectly intact. No bite marks. It was a dream; I must have fallen asleep on the couch.

I laughed at myself then wiped my sweaty forehead with the back of my hand when I heard Eric toss and turn. Great, now I'm having déjà vu. I thought and quietly I crawled over to the side of the couch where Eric was laying and pushed his black hair off of his face.

"Your hands are so warm." He said, startling me a little.

"Yeah? Well, maybe you're just really cold." I said. He laughed as much as he could without making himself cough and opened his eyes. His browneyes.

Eric immediately noticed the tube that was connected to his arm. He seemed a little confused and inspected it. Instinctively, I took his arms and pushed them down at his side. "Don't do that." I said, trying not to have my dream become reality.

"Why? What happened?"

"You don't remember?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Not really, it's all a blur." He paused for a long time. "It was bad wasn't it?"

"Yeah, all I know is that my parents did this to you,and somehow they knew they had to use wolfs bane on you. They cut you, and tortured you so they could get information about some people."

"They wanted to know about the other vamps, like me, right?" he squinted as he thought, like it was hard for him to remember.

"I think so."

"What did I tell them?"

"Some address, but it doesn't matter because you can zap all of this from their brains, right?"

"Not right now. Not while I'm in this condition." He gestured at the blood that was being fed into his arm.

"Well hurry up and get better because I don't want them knowing anything; about you, about the others… I just don't want them involved anymore."

"You care about them, don't you?"

"Of course, they're my parents, but they almost killed you, which makes me question my loyalty to them."

"You care about me?" he asked softly.

"Yeah." I told him and suddenly, with out warning, I felt a warm tear fall down my cheek. "I thought you were gone. I-I just never thought it was possible you would leave, and when you almost did—"

"Hey it's okay." He wiped the tear away with his abnormally, even for him, cold hands. "I'm still here. Like I said, I'm hard to kill." He smiled. His face reminded me of every reason why I like him so much. He was so human, yet so vampire, all at the same time, not to mention extremely cute.

He leaned over on the couch was inches away from my face. Then he shifted and fell away, so instead, I gripped his neck and pulled him to my lips. Once again, the heat from my lips contrasted with his cold ones but this time he was the one to pull away.

"But you're also hard to please." I said, breaking the awkward silence. I immediately regretted saying it because the second I looked at Eric I saw the huge cocky grin that was now plastered on his face.

He chuckled. "What?"

"That's not what I mean!" I pleaded.

"Sure." He said, totally guy-like.

"NO! What I mean is: I was talking with Anthony the other day, he told me about what you need that's different from him…"

"To kill." He said, finishing my sentence.

"Yeah." I said sheepishly.

"It's true, unfortunately… but I'm getting better at it!" he gushed like a kid that just learned how to ride his bike. I laughed.

"Yeah he told me about the animals in place of humans." I fiddled with my thumbs. He laughed a little.

"They are definitely not as tasty as humans." He said. I bubble of panic boiled over when he said that. Then he burst out in laughter. "You should have seen the look on your face!" he started to sit up and he gave my shoulder a playful punch when Anthony walked through the door.

"Looks like you feel better." He smiled.

"Yeah, I'm still rough around the edges though."

"Hopefully this will help." Anthony threw a canvas sack on Eric's lap that was now full of blood bags.

"Finally! This stupid transfusion is just not cutting it." Eric ripped one of the bags open.

"Natalie, may I talk to you for a second?" Anthony asked.

"Sure!" I got up and walked into a different room. Anthony walked around me and shut the door behind me.

"Natalie you have to go home. I will take care of Eric until he needs to go up north, but until then, I don't know how safe it will be for you here."

"But he's fine. I was just with him, and he was fine."

"He may seem like that but inside his hunger is burning up his throat, and he may not resist the urge to have fresh blood, because he was hurt so badly." He finished.

I thought about when Eric tried to kiss me; he wanted to, that I could tell, but something inside of him made it difficult for him to be close to me.

"Okay, I understand. When can I come back?"

"I'll give you a call when we get back from hunting." He winked.

"Okay." I repeated. Honestly, I was starting to feel a little left out. It seemed like no one wanted me to be around them; not my parents, not the vamps. 'It's too dangerous.' they all say, well it's starting to get on my nerves. Whether they want me to stay away or not, it's about time I should start making a change, but what could I do? Either way I would be risking my life, or risking my relationship with my parents, which isn't that great in the first place.

I decided to head home and deal with my unconscious parents, wait until they wake up, and lie to their faces over and over again. No matter what I tell them, they would never understand my predicament.

I grabbed my coat and took one last look at Eric, who was sucking down a blood bag like a juice box. I smiled.

"See ya' later." And I waved goodbye.

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