AN: Another one for you all! A tiny bit of some mature stuff here, but no lemons. Thank you for the follows and favorites!

Chapter 9

Is There Somewhere-Halsey

White Sheets, bright lights, crooked teeth and the night life

You told me this is right where it begins

But your lips hang heavy underneath me

And I promised myself I wouldn't let you complete me

I'm trying not to let it show, that I don't wanna let this go

Is there somewhere you can meet me?

'Cause I clutched your arms like stairway railings

And you clutched my brain and eased my ailing

Elain spent almost the rest of the day in bed, sleeping on and off. She would sleep for a few hours, then wake to drink some water and end up musing over Cass. Eventually her thoughts concerning him would lull her back to sleep.

Elain was lying down on her bed, her head resting on Cassidy's bare chest and one of her arms draped over his skinny waist. Warm, 'he was so warm', she thought as she snuggled further into his embrace. He had one of his arms around her, holding her to him. His other arm moved to pull her on top of him so she was straddling him. She giggled at the sudden change and bent down to kiss him firmly on the lips, her entire body humming with satisfaction as she felt his erection grow beneath her. When she pulled away her eyes went wide. There was blood on Cass' mouth that hadn't been there before. She reached up and wiped her mouth with shaking fingers and when she pulled them away, there was blood on them as well. She looked back to Cass to see him smiling, fangs protruding, and his eyes darkened, looking like an animal that had its prey right where it wanted.

Elain's eyes snapped open and it took her a moment to wake up. She sat up, seeing the sun was beginning to go down through her window. She'd sweated profusely due to the dream so she got up and grabbed some clean clothes and went to take a shower.

Cassidy, like Elain, spent most of the day asleep. Laying on his makeshift mattress in the attic he ended up mulling over what happened. The way Elain had taken a step back from him, how she'd been afraid to even utter the word vampire. The negative thoughts were coming at him from all directions, but finally, exhausted, he managed to fall asleep.

~O.O~

Jesse checked in on Elain that afternoon before he went to his appointment. When he got back she was in the bathroom and he knocked on the door, forgetting about the chain around his ankle, thanks to Tulip, for a minute.

"Are you all right?" he asked through the door.

"Yeah," she hollered back. "Fine."

"You eat anythin'?"

He stepped back when she opened the door, steam from her shower billowing into the hallway. "I'm about to heat up some soup."

"Soup? You feelin' nauseous? You need a nausea pill?"

"I…" she paused, unsure of what to say. She didn't want to lie to him, but she couldn't tell him about what happened last night with Cassidy. That she'd spent so long mulling everything over in the shower her stomach was in knots and soup was probably all she could stomach. "I'm fine." Her gaze went to the floor where she spotted the chain around his ankle. "What is that?" she asked, slightly horrified.

"Tulip."

At that Elain understood and her mouth became a thin line before she busted into laughter.

"It's not funny. She wants me to go after Carlos with her," Jesse said, unamused.

She reigned in her laughter. "Sorry. Are you?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Cause I'm not that kind of person anymore. And I don't wanna' leave you."

"Well you'll be back and it won't take you long right?" Normally she would be worried at the thought of Jesse leaving again, but this time was different. He'd be back. He'd promised he'd never leave her like that again. She knew how much getting revenge on Carlos meant to Tulip, especially since she'd come by a few days ago and talked to her about it. Tulip had then tried to convince Elain to go to Toadvine with her so they could clean up. When Elain and Tulip got together to play cards, they always went home winners. They had their own language and Tulip had taught Elain how to use her innocent personality to their advantage, distracting the guys with shy little smiles and glances and well-placed lip biting. Jesse had witnessed it once and had been furious afterwards. She hadn't played a game since.

"I'll be fine," she assured him. "You can have Emily check in on me if it'll make you feel better."

He shook his head and turned away, and that was that.

She sat at the kitchen table across from Jesse, slowly eating her soup. When he'd been about to light a cigarette out of frustration she raised a brow at him and pointed at herself, reminding him he wasn't supposed to smoke inside anymore. She was watching him saw away at the chain when Eugene came in. "Hey Eugene," she greeted him.

"Uh, hey Elain. How are you?" he asked, his words muffled as always.

"Okay. You?"

"Same. I actually came to talk to Preacher."

"I'll leave you alone then," she said, getting up and taking her food to her room.

When she came back both Jesse and Eugene were gone. She placed her empty bowl in the sink and a movement caught her eye.

As she neared the figure she'd seen in the window she realized that it was Cassidy, shoveling dirt. And she quickly realized, her face going red, that he was shirtless. She watched as the muscles in his back rippled with his movements.

He turned to face her, having sensed her as soon she opened the door. "Hey there. Just buryin' those fellas from last night."

She nodded and was content to watch as he finished filling in the hole. She caught herself biting her lip and looked away. Even though he hadn't seen it a blush still crept across her cheeks.

Cassidy was well aware she was watching his every movement and couldn't help the smile on his face as he turned to her again, dropping the shovel and walking closer to her.

He had a big smudge of dirt on his left shoulder and Elain reached up to wipe it off. Her stomach flipping as she touched his warm skin. Warm, just like her dream. Instead of backing away though, she stepped closer and Cass went still as she looked up at him. Her hand was still on his shoulder, sending a shiver through him at how gentle her touch was.

She took him by surprise when she stood on her toes and tentatively pressed her lips to his. When she pulled back a bit of fear went through her as she was reminded of her dream, but she breathed a sigh of relief to see his lips weren't bloody.

Cassidy stared at her, waiting for her to decide what to do. He was rather pleased when she kissed him again, the arm she'd had on his shoulder now reaching up to the nape of his neck as she pressed closer to him. Her other hand clutched his forearm as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her flush against him. When she parted her lips Cassidy slipped his tongue past, deepening the kiss. She whimpered and his stomach did a little flip at the sound. Her lips were soft and gentle against his and when her nails scraped deliciously against the skin at the nape of his neck he let out a growl.

Elain jolted back at the animalistic sound, surprising them both.

"I…" she stammered, her eyes wide. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that."

"No," he held his hands out in front of him. "It's fine. I was enjoying it, really."

She reached up and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm so stupid," she said to herself.

"What? Why would you say something like that?"

"We can't…I can't do this. We can't be anything. We can't-I'm sorry."

He could see tears forming in her eyes before she turned away and ran back to the house.

"I didn't think I was that bad of a kisser," he told himself, trying not to feel rejected and failing. She'd just made herself perfectly clear. She'd had a taste and didn't want him. She must have remembered in the middle of making out with him what he was. That she was kissing a monster. Now, with the taste of her mint lip balm still on his lips, he cursed and kicked the dirt. As he let out a yell of frustration Cassidy hated who he was, what he was, more fiercely than he had in quite some time.

Elain heard a faint yell as she paced in her room. She knew it was Cassidy. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have just lost control and kissed him like that? She groaned in frustration and wiped her eyes, moving to sit on the edge of her bed. She grabbed a stuffed animal cow she'd had since she was little, a present from Jesse, and hugged it to her chest. She could still taste Cassidy on her lips, in her mouth. He'd been surprisingly gentle, letting her set the pace and keeping his arms wrapped around her waist. He hadn't moved them to touch her anywhere except for his thumbs rubbing circles into her skin at the small of her back as he held her against him.

She flopped back on the bed. "Why now?" she whispered to herself. Because if she wasn't sick, she couldn't say for sure that she wouldn't have invited him to her bedroom, especially with the wetness that had pooled between her thighs during that kiss. She would have been nervous about the fact that she was still a virgin, but she wasn't totally innocent. There was a guy that she'd gone to second base with, but it had ended when he proved himself to be a total ass. She decided to take her mind off of what had just happened so she took out her iPod and placed it on its dock, setting it to a playlist titled "Misfit" and cranking up the volume loud enough to drown out her thoughts.