SO sorry...I forgot all about posting a chapter last weekend, and have been busy all week. To make up for that I shall try to add another chapter tomorrow (Sunday)
Until then, hope you enjoy this fluffy little chapter!!
Chapter Twenty
"Carnival"
I woke suddenly, with a ravenous hunger and a strange sensation of being pinned to the bed. I tried to roll over, but couldn't budge an inch as my eyes adjusted to the light from the lamp by the bedroom door that Henry always kept on for me since his windows were completely sealed off to all sunlight.
Twisting my head around on the pillow, I realised the reason for feeling restrained on the bed - Henry's arm was thrust haphazardly across my back as he spooned against me. I tried to lift his arm from myself - but it wouldn't shift. After a few moments, I managed to wriggle out from under it - heavy, solid and rigid in his vampire sleep and I slipped off the bed onto the floor in the process.
"Oomph," I complained as my backside hit the cold wooden floorboards. Pulling myself to my feet I stumbled through to the bathroom and then needed to find food and to discover the time - in that order. Two minutes later found me sat on the worktop in his kitchen, since he had no tables or chairs in there, munching on a bowl of cereal as I thought to the reason why I was so hungry. I hadn't eaten much before we went out last night, in case he'd been taking me to dinner. He hadn't, and then I'd only had the few snacks from the buffet at the gallery. We'd been otherwise….occupied when we got back and I hadn't eaten - my stomach protested again loudly, demanding the food to be delivered quicker, and I was thankful no one was around to hear it.
Having finished, I dumped the bowl in the sink and chugged a mouthful of milk from the carton - I was the only one going to be drinking it, so it didn't matter. And then with a yawn and the realisation that it was still only a little after nine in the morning, I wandered back to bed and climbed back under the sheets with Henry, snuggling into his cool body and drifting back to sleep.
A few hours later and I sauntered into the Nelson Investigations' reception area, where Coreen sat waiting anxiously to hear about my 'date'.
"So? How was it?" she asked, a big grin on her darkly made up face.
"Erm…interesting," I pressed my lips together to stop the smirk that would have followed.
"Where did he take you?" she asked eagerly.
I had to laugh at her - anyone would think it had been her date. "You remember Maya?" I asked.
"Pretentious madam?" Vicki called through from her office. "Yeah, I remember her."
"Well," I spoke up so as Vicki could hear too. "She's just opened a new art gallery, it's a memorial to her Mother. She's apparently the co-owner…Henry didn't say as much but I'm pretty sure he's the other part of the co-ownership and most likely the benefactor behind it all." I rambled.
"So…he took you to the opening?" Coreen looked almost disappointed.
"Uh huh," I nodded. "And…it was an interesting night."
"You found the artsy stuck up people interesting?" Vicki asked, sounding amused as she wandered through with a file she handed to Coreen.
"No…I found our own entertainment interesting." I grinned to myself
"Okay, I don't want to hear anymore," she held her hand up and walked away back to her office, just as I sneezed suddenly. "You alright?" she paused as I searched in my bag for a tissue.
"Fine," I muttered, wiping my nose. "Vicki," I protested when I saw her glaring at me. "I sneezed…probably the dust in here. No need to go calling an ambulance," I rolled my eyes. "So, anything I can help with?" I wondered. Changing the subject and following her through.
"You could ask your boyfriend to stop by later." I could hear the derisive tone in her voice on the word. "I could use his advice on something," she mentioned.
"Sure…I'll tell him." I checked my watch, working out how long until sunset.
"You only just left him," she snorted.
"I know," I chuckled, which turned into a light cough.
Vicki eyed me warily again as she picked up the phone to make a call. I poked my tongue out at her whilst taking my cell phone from my bag and calling Henry to leave him a message - asking him to meet me here when he woke since Vicki wanted to speak with him and then we could go off and do something when she was done.
As it turned out, Vicki needed Henry for most of the night. Someone or something was killing the homeless people down on the rec again - and they went to stake out the place and hopefully discover who…or what, was causing the deaths. I suspected it was a way for Vicki to get Henry alone and lecture him about treating me right and I cringed as they took off together, after promises from Henry that he would make it up to me the following night.
I was asleep in his bed before he got back - I had been waiting at his place for him, hoping for at least a few minutes together - I'd barely even had a proper kiss tonight. Vaguely, I felt him snuggle up to me under the sheets, gently rousing me from sleep. Before he succumbed to the dawn and all was silent once more
****
"Leave your shoes on." Henry 's voice from across the room startled me as I let myself into his apartment. I jumped as I let go of the door and it slammed behind me. He chuckled when I looked up to find him sat at his drafting table. He had prevented my usual habit of kicking my shoes off at the door. I knew I had slightly misjudged the sunset tonight and I was late, having been busy helping out Coreen shred old files back at the office - but I didn't realise I was this late. Henry was up and dressed already - working on his novels by the looks of things.
"Erm…okay," I frowned at his instruction, wondering why.
"We're going out," he answered my unspoken question, already at my side as he brushed his lips against my temple.
"We are?" I was still bemused as I closed my eyes and inhaled his scent.
He nodded. "I said I would make things up to you, right?" He smiled and leaned in to kiss my lips firmly.
"Oh, yeah…" I blushed. When he'd promised to make things up to me, I kind of thought he'd meant the making up usually done between the sheets…or sometimes the bathroom…or - I glanced at the table we'd made love on the other night - anywhere really in our case.
Henry chuckled and opened his front door, waving me outside. "We'll still have time for that later," he whispered as I stepped past him and then winked at me as he closed the door behind him and playfully chased me into the lift, making me giggle.
We'd been driving for some time and I still didn't know where we were going. I huffed as I fiddled with his stereo, trying to find a decent song somewhere. Finally settling on something I sat back in my seat and glared at him. He merely smiled back at me before turning his attention back to the road. I knew that was a ruse - the vampire had such good senses he barely needed to watch the road when he drove.
"So…did you find what was causing the disappearance of the homeless people?" I asked, deciding it was useless to ask him once more where we were going. He wasn't going to tell me and I was bored playing his silly games, so a change of subject was in order.
He nodded. "It was a wolf," he replied absently.
"A wolf?" I asked startled. "Around the city?"
"Yes. It wasn't very old, must have been separated from her pack, doing what she could to survive. She had two young with her as well." He sounded almost compassionate about the animal as he explained it to me.
"So, it was just a normal wolf? Not a…werewolf or a shape shifter or something?" I asked warily - when he and Vicki got involved you never could be sure.
He chuckled, that beautiful, deep, velvet smooth laugh of his. "I know the supernatural is becoming the norm for you - after all, you are in love with a vampire," he turned and ginned his full smile at me. "But, no, just your average, run of the mill, fury smelly wolf. It didn't mean to kill humans, - you're not a natural food source for the animal. It just needed food for her young - was only acting on instinct," he grimaced.
And then I realised the reason for his compassion - he identified himself with the wolf. A lone beast acting on instinct, doing what it needed to survive, preying on human beings.
"So…what did you do about it? Call in animal control?" I wondered - they couldn't very well leave a wolf wandering so close to the city feasting upon humans.
"No, they'd kill it!" his voice raised and startled me. "Vicki was all ready for shooting it - claiming the act of preying on humans was a good enough reason. Until I reminded her that I did the same thing. Plus, they're an endangered species, we can't kill them - they're beautiful animals," he almost gushed.
I smiled, I'd never taken Henry for an animal lover. But then, he had been around almost 500 years - he must have paid witness to many changes in this world brought about by the unsavoury actions of humans - and various animals species becoming extinct was only one of the evils that were man made disasters.
"So…is it still out there?" I wondered, making a mental note not to go wandering about alone near any forest areas from now on.
"No," he smiled. "I led it away." And when he looked back and saw my raised eyebrow at that revelation, he grinned and continued. "I…enticed it to challenge me so it would follow and I managed to lead her far out into the forest. Out there, I picked up the scent of her pack, and hopefully she and her cubs are back with them by now. That was why I only just made it home before dawn - I was…pretty far out of the city."
"Oh…" I trailed off, trying to imagine him out in the forest leading a wolf back to it's family. There was something endearing about the way he cared so much, it made him seem much more…human.
"Anyway, we're here," he announced and put the car into park before turning the engine off.
I hadn't even noticed him pulling in anywhere or stopping the car. "Where is here?" I asked, gazing out of the window at the flashing lights and loud music seemingly coming from the middle of nowhere through gaps in the tree's.
"It's a carnival," he grinned, pulling his keys out and climbing from the car already. "Just visiting for a few days, I thought you might enjoy it."
He was at my door already, holding it open for me. I would never get used to the way he did that. Not his chivalry - even though that was a rare trait in men these days. But the fact that he could be somewhere else in the blink of an eye. It made things even more interesting in the bedroom sometimes!
"I thought it would be fun for you, sorry…we can go." He was about to close my door again, assuming I wasn't impressed when I didn't move.
"No, wait," I put my hand on the door to stop him. "I'm sure it will be fun," I smiled up at him and allowed him to help me from the car." Come on," I urged, pulling on his hand and heading for the bright lights and loud music.
He was right - I was enjoying the carnival. It had been so long since I'd felt so free - like a child again, running around with a silly grin on my face and not caring what people thought, eagerly pulling him here and there to look at this and that. He took it all in his stride, seemingly enjoying my reaction to everything, smiling at me fondly, laughing unreservedly - enthralled by my childlike enthusiasm with everything.
He bought me any junk food I wanted - popcorn, pizza, cotton candy, fries, ice cream - knowing I would suffer later for eating all this crap, but not caring! I'd convinced him to go on the antique carousel with me - where he sat behind me on the horse with his arms around me and nuzzled my neck. He laughed loudly at me as I played hook a duck against all the small children and won a gaudy trinket for my effort - a beautiful necklace of multi coloured plastic beads, which I made him wear - telling him he looked gorgeous as I placed it over his head.
And then he went on the ghost train with me - in near hysterics when the ride finished and we climbed off. If he'd needed air to survive I might have worried he was going to pass out, he was laughing that hard. I was annoyed that I was the butt of his amusement, though at the same time I loved to hear him laugh - I'd never heard him sound so…carefree.
"It was not funny!" I stomped my foot and turned to storm away.
"Oh, but it was," he gently grabbed my hand and pulled me back.
I pouted at him.
"Did you seriously scream and jump away from a fake ghost? And leap into the arms of a real vampire? How ironic"
"It just…it startled me, alright," I insisted sulkily - I had never taken too lightly to being teased.
"But it was so funny. It was only some wispy strands of wool, a mask and a lame sound effect. And you screamed so loud…it was…"
"Henry…shut up before I offer your services to them." I turned and made to move away from him.
He gave in and let go of my hand, following after me with a wry shake of the head, thankfully shutting up about it. But out of the corner of my eye I noticed his mouth set into a firm line, trying very hard not to laugh again. I sighed - it really hadn't been that funny!
In way of an apology, Henry offered to win me a prize by having a go on the strong man machine - the one where you had to hit a lever with a mallet and try to send the marker up to ring the bell on the top. I don't think the little man knew what he'd let himself in for when he gladly took Henry's money and handed him the wooden mallet. I held my breath, knowing he would more than likely break the damn thing - never mind get it to the top - given his preternatural strength. As the mallet slammed back down, I winced and screwed my eyes shut waiting for the sound of splintering wood. And then the bell rang and the attendant yelled with enthusiasm.
"We have a winner!" And he handed Henry the largest stuffed toy animal I had ever seen. "Congratulations!" he added, patting Henry on the back - obviously impressed with his talent.
Henry laughed as he handed the stuffed toy to me. "Appropriate," he muttered. "Thank you," he turned to the little guy and gave him a slight wave as he led me away from him.
"I shall name him Jacob," I murmured, looking at the toy wolf in my arms - it was actually quite soft and cute.
"Jacob?" Henry lifted an eyebrow. "Not…Henry?"
I laughed at him and shook my head - he actually looked a little put out by that. "He's a wolf, not a vampire - so he's a Jacob."
"Okay…" Henry frowned, not understanding what I was on about at all.
"It's a Twilight thing," I added, just to confuse him all the more. "Ooh! Look! A Zoltar machine!" I suddenly shrieked with over the top exuberance and practically skipped across towards it, pulling a bemused Henry along behind me.
"No more sugar for you. You're not making any sense you know." He shook his head - I really was amusing him running around like a child, he seemed to find it quite charming.
I rolled my eyes at him. "You've never seen the movie 'Big'?" I asked. He still looked confused. "You know, Tom Hanks, an 80's classic?" He appeared none the wise and was just gazing at me with that smile of his that caused a shiver to ripple down my spine as he stroked the back of his fingers across my cheek.
I stuffed the wolf into his hands abruptly and searched my pockets for a coin. "In the movie, this kid makes a wish on a machine just like this one, he wants to be big - hence the title of the movie." I explained to him, now rummaging in my bag. "And in the morning, his wish has been granted….and he's not a 12 year old kid anymore - at least not in size. It's really quite funny and sweet…and…oh, thanks," I grinned up at him as Henry handed me the coin I had been searching for.
"Go ahead then, make a wish," he suggested, nodding towards the machine.
Taking a deep breath, making the whole thing out to be much more serious than it was, I pushed the coin into the slot. The machine lit up and the little genie/fortune teller figure inside the glass case began to move, and then words flashed up telling me to make my wish now.
Henry looked at me, wondering what my wish was going to be, I just pulled a face, closed my eyes and thought the wish in my head. 'I wish I could be with Henry forever,"I mentally requested.
The machine began moving again and I had to line a little ramp up with the dummy's opening and closing mouth - pressed a button and the coin rolled easily into his mouth. Next moment a card popped out under the glass case, claiming my wish had been granted.
I grinned as I took the card and placed it safely in my bag.
"So, what did you wish for?" Henry asked curiously as he took my hand again.
"I'm not telling you!" I yelped.
He gazed back at me with a frown.
"Everyone knows if you say a wish out loud, it won't come true," I smiled at him.
He laughed at me and rolled his eyes, before leaning over and brushing his lips against mine. "You're so cute tonight," he whispered. "I haven't had much to do with children…being a creature of the night, you don't find many awake when I am. But…I feel like I'm getting a total insight into their behaviour tonight," he chuckled, plucking a piece of cotton candy from my hair that must have got caught up.
I poked my tongue out at him, about to say something back, when I was distracted by another stall selling funnel cakes* and dragged him across.
A funnel cake, a couple of sodas and another slice of pizza later and I was feeling decidedly nauseas.
"Whoa there," Henry caught me, noticing that I was going dizzy. He looked around frantically and spying a deserted bench a few metres away, he effortlessly picked me up and carried me over. "Let's sit for a minute," he suggested, keeping an eye on me.
"I'm fine," I protested, but I didn't feel it. "Think I just ate too much junk," I confessed.
Henry chuckled quietly beside me as I dropped my head between my knees and willed the dizzy feeling to go. Only then I could barely breathe. I raised my head again and began to suck in some air.
"What's wrong?" he asked, stroking my hair back, more concerned now.
"I can't….breathe," I whispered between pants. And then I took a large gulp of air, causing me to begin a coughing fit.
Henry patted my back and held me close to his chest, feeling helpless and not knowing what to do for the best. "I think I'd best take you home." he murmured, his lips close to my hair.
"No…" I gasped. "I'll be fine in a….minute."
He sighed and held me, rubbing his hand up and down my back as people passed us by oblivious. "Do you want some water or something?" he asked.
I shook my head and coughed again. "I'm fine…it's getting…better," I told him, wiping my hands down my own jeans.
"Okay?" he asked again after a few minutes.
I nodded, and it was easier - I could catch my breath again, my chest just felt a bit tight, and I had been left with a stupid annoying cough.
"I still think I should take you home," he muttered, peering into my face and tucking a stray strand of hair back.
"Just a little longer, please?" I asked raising my eyes to meet his - I was having fun and didn't want tonight to end.
"Just a little longer then," he agreed. He stood then and held out his hand. I took it gladly and we walked slowly back through the crowds as Henry flung his arm around my shoulder, holding me close, and his other arm curled around my cuddly wolf for me.
A short while later I escaped to the ladies room and managed to compose myself - denying the obvious fact that it seemed I was coming down with something yet again, convinced still that I was cured. It was just binging on all the junk food and being a little hyper all night, that's all, I managed to delude myself.
Henry was waiting outside the ladies room for me, leaning against the wall, with one leg bent at the knee, balancing against it and hugging my wolf to his chest. I bit my lip as I made my way across to him, realising I would never get used to the magnificent beauty of him, never become complacent to the fact that he wanted me, he desired me, he loved me - it was enough to make me feel dizzy again.
His smile lit up his face when he saw me returning to him as he up nodded at me. I returned the smile just as enthusiastically as he pulled me close towards him and kissed my lips lightly before wrapping his arms around me and pushing away from the toilet walls.
The crowds were thinning out now and some of the stalls closing up - the rides giving people their last turns for the night.
"Do you hear that?" I asked him.
"I hear many things," he reminded me.
"That music," I clarified.
He listened, distinguishing between all the sounds he could hear, and then nodded. "It's over there," he pointed with his free hand towards where the sound was coming from and we made our way towards it.
In the middle of the park was a small dance floor with a live band, playing a musical version of one of my favourite songs. "Dance with me?" I requested shyly, stepping out of his embrace and taking hold of his hand, toying with the ring on his little finger. "Please?" I looked up at him through my lashes.
He smiled that smile that left me weak - displaying dimples and making his whole face beam. "Okay," he acceded as he led me towards the dance floor. Juggling with the toy wolf in his hands for a moment, he managed to find a comfortable position as he wrapped his arms around me. I lay my head on his chest and enclosed my arms around his back and sighed deeply. This, right now, was perfect.
We swayed close together on the dance floor for some time, Henry humming along to the music against my ear, the thumb of his hand against my back softly brushing up and down - the touch was both soothing and arousing at the same time. I held him tighter, his cool body never once alarming me as it would so many others - that only meant it was Henry.
Eventually Henry looked up and a short chuckle escaped his throat.
"What?" I asked, lifting my head and following his gaze. We were the only people left, the band had begun to pack away and the music had stopped - we hadn't even noticed. I laughed too before he lowered his head and pressed his lips firmly against mine. The kiss deepened as his tongue made an entrance, teasing my own and I moaned against him.
"Lets go home," he whispered, backing off slightly, before brushing his lips to mine briefly once more. "I believe I promised something else for later?"
I grinned, knowing what he meant. "Let's go home," I agreed and grabbed his hand, eagerly heading back to his car.
Out of sight of others, I squealed in glee as Henry suddenly swooped me up into his arms and ran at vampire speed back to his car - I realised then that someone was just a little all to willing to fulfil his other promise.
* In case you don't know, a funnel cake is (or at least how I have eaten them in America) a donut like batter which is piped into hot oil in a spider web type design and fried, then covered liberally in icing sugar. And it's yummy!!!