Okay, guys, here is Chapter 27! I am so sorry about the wait, I haven't been home for a while. Thank you so much for the reviews, follows, and favorites! I appreciate them all so much! Keep them coming! :) I hope you guys like the chapter

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I finally had to tear my lips away from him when I felt like my lungs were going to burst. We stared at each other for a while, locked in the other's gazes. His beautiful red eyes gleamed in the sunlight, like light reflecting off a red lake. I could have stood there forever had he not spoken.

"I thought you said you didn't like me," he said with a victorious smirk on his face, like he had just won a race someone told him he was going to lose at.

"I have a right to change my mind every now and again," I replied.

"I suppose so."

"So…does this mean we're a thing now?" I asked, unsure of what our situation was going to be.

Blake grinned. "If you want it to be."

I grinned back. "I definitely want it to be a thing."

He grabbed my hand and we continued down the trail.

"What are you going to tell your parents?" I asked after a while.

"The truth. There isn't a problem with vampires and humans being together, so they should be completely fine with it. We can go over to their house tomorrow if you want. You've already met them at the ball, but you can get to know them," he suggested.

"Um, sure, I guess." He wants me to talk to his parent's already!? We haven't even been together for twenty minutes!

"Just so you know, you're not a pet anymore. You are officially my equal," Blake said.

"Oh, that's great! I always hated not being your equal," I replied, relieved at not being a pet anymore. That term was so demeaning.

We reached the meadow. That day, I never had the chance to realize how beautiful it was. It was a small patch of wild flowers, all different colors. It was surrounded by tall evergreen trees, birds flying in and out of them. There was a slight breeze, making the flowers and trees dance in tune with its song.

"It's beautiful," I muttered in astonishment.

"I know," Blake said with a small smile, staring at me. I started walking out in the meadow, wallowing in the beauty that such a small meadow could create. I lied down in the center of the meadow, and Blake lied down next to me.

He looked at me. "It's almost as beautiful as you."

I blushed uncharacteristically. I wasn't usually one to take compliments. "Oh, Blake, quite it."

"I'm serious. You are the most beautiful creature I have ever laid my eyes on," he told me.

"Well, you're pretty handsome yourself," I giggled.

"Really? I wasn't sure how you felt about the snakebites, the eyeliner, and the black nails," he said.

"I find them very attractive," I replied.

He smiled, and rolled over so he was sitting atop my hips. He leaned down and whispered in my ear, "I'm glad I am finally able to show how much I love you."

Blake kissed my ear, and trailed his lips down my neck and stopped at the top of my bathing suit bottoms. His kisses did not repulse me like Jareth's did, and Blake was the first person I have ever kissed willingly. He continued trailing his kisses back up to my mouth, and kissed me lustfully. I opened my mouth for his tongue, allowing him entrance. His tongue explored my mouth, while mine did the same in his.

I tangled my hands in his hair, surprised by how soft it was. I relished in its touch, allowing the black strands to fall through my fingers like silk. All the while, Blake had his hands traveling along the length of my body, from my arms down to my thighs. His touch sent shivers of pleasure down my spine. I removed my hands from his hair, and relocated them to the lean six-pack that made up his lower abdomen. I traced my fingers around the small curves of each muscle, delighted by its touch.

Just then, Blake moved his hand up to clutch my breast. I froze, and he noticed.

He broke the kiss, and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I'm just not ready for that yet. I'm not ready for super sexual stuff," I said, which was completely true. Jareth was the reason I didn't want to get into sex yet. Kissing was fine, but nothing farther than that.

Blake smiled understandingly, and nodded. "Okay, I get it. That's fine." He rolled off of me and on to the ground. I sat up next to him, waiting for him to say something. After about five minutes, he did.

"You ready to go back?" he asked.

"Sure," I said, getting up and taking one last look around.

On the way back to the house, I realized that I knew absolutely nothing about Blake, yet we were a couple. So I decided to confront that problem.

"Tell me something about you," I told him.

"What?" He seemed to be caught off guard by the question.

"Well, I know nothing about you, and that cannot continue on if we are a couple now," I replied.

"Okay, like what?" he asked.

"Um, your past, your favorites, things like that."

"All right. So you want to know about my past?"

I nodded.

"So, I was born in London on May 15th, 1414 during The Hundreds' Year War. My father was killed during the war before I was born, so I never knew him. I grew up with my mother and older sister in poverty. We were extremely poor, only eating meals every now and again. My mother Beatrice was a laundress, trying her best to make some money so she could feed us. My sister's name was Emma, and she was only two years older than me. My mother and I looked exactly alike; we both had black hair and blue eyes. I had blue eyes before I was a vampire. Anyway, my mother always told us that Emma looked my father, whose name was Vincent.

"One day when I was six, we all went out to buy some food with the money my mother had just gotten from a recent laundering job. We had almost made it to the market when a man driving a carriage lost control of the horses. We were hit by the carriage, and my mother and sister died immediately."

At this, I let out a small gasp. Blake continued.

"I was laying there in the street, dying. I remember seeing a man and woman with red eyes hovering over me just before I fell unconscious. I woke up in a large, comfortable bed in a huge room with lavish furnishings. A few minutes after I woke, the man and woman walked in. They told me that their names were Phillip and Carol, and that they had saved my life. I found out later that they had given me their blood to heal me. They also said that they were adopting me, for they needed a son. So I grew up with them, very, very comfortably. They were tremendously rich.

"They waited until I was eighteen to turn me. The transformation was an…interesting experience. It wasn't exceptionally painful, just awfully cold. It felt like all the heat was leaving my body. I woke up a few days later, with red eyes and an extreme thirst burning in my throat. Ever since, I lived a life of luxury and ease," he finished.

"Wow," I breathed. I had no idea he was an orphan.

He smiled. "Yeah. Wow is one way to describe it, I guess."

"I'm sorry you never really knew your real family," I said.

"It's okay. I had six years with Emma and my mother, and I'm always thankful for those. I never actually knew my father, so I can't say I miss him,' he replied.

At that point, we had reached the house. We collected our things from the pool, and went back inside. I announced that I was going to go take a shower, so I headed up to my room. I grabbed a set of pajamas, not caring that it was only five o'clock, and headed into the shower. I emerged thirty minutes later with a huge problem. I had a massive knot in my hair that I couldn't untangle, and I desperately needed Blake's assistance.

"Blake!" I yelled. "I need your help!"

A few seconds later, Blake came into my room, another worried expression conquering his features. "What? What is it? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but my hair is not," I replied.

His face relaxed. "What's wrong with it?"

I turned around and silently pointed to the back of my head.

"Wow, that is a huge knot. You want me to help you untangle it?"

"Yes," I replied, my back still facing Blake. A moment later, I felt his hands gently grip the knot, and begin the daunting work of trying to detangle my hair. He tried his best not to hurt me, but failed anyway.

"Ow!" I cried out.

"Sorry!" Blake said frantically. "This is a really bad knot. How did this even happen?"

"Who knows?!"

Finally, after ten minutes of pain, Blake said he had managed to get the knot out of my hair.

"Thank Amun-Ra! That was painful!" I exclaimed.

"Amun-Ra? Not God?" Blake asked, amused.

"Yeah, I'm an ancient Egyptian nerd," I explained.

He nodded. "So are you hungry?"

"Famished," I replied.

Blake had cooked us fettuccine alfredo, which tasted better than Olive Garden's (I know, it's hard to believe). We were sitting down in the dining room, eating our better-than-Olive Garden-pasta, and talking about Blake.

His favorite color was black; he loved movies, rock and classical music, and reading. He was the only vampire created by Carol and Phillip, and as a result he received the love and affection that was taken away from him by his parents' deaths. He watched anime, just like me, but he watched it in far greater amounts. He was obsessed with Harry Potter and had read the books many times over.

With each word that came out of his mouth, I fell in love with him a little bit more until I felt like my heart was going to burst.

I hadn't realized I was staring at him until he said something about it. "Misery, why are you staring at me?"

I blinked, and snapped out of my little trance. "Oh, sorry, I was so enticed by the words coming out of your mouth," I told him, my lips turned up into a smirk.

He smirked back. "Now you know how I feel every time you speak."

I looked down at my pasta, and didn't say anything in reply. I twirled the pasta around my fork, feeling Blake's eyes on me. "Now you're the one staring," I said, still looking at my pasta.

He laughed and said, "I guess I am."

After waking up from another nightmare about Jareth, crying because of it, telling myself to get over it, showering, eating breakfast with Blake, and making myself look presentable, Blake and I got into his black Porsche to go to his parent's house.

I had put on a nice black summer dress, nylons, and a pair of black ballet flats (I would have worn my combat boots, but the asshole threw them out) to try to look nice for Blake's parents. I had even gone so far as curling my hair and putting on make-up. Blake had insisted that none of this was necessary, for they didn't care about looks. I ignored him.

We drove out of his garage and onto a forest road like the one outside of Jareth's house. I was twiddling my thumbs, the habit I did when I was nervous. I had already met Blake's parents, but this time was going to be different. This time we were actually going to talk besides the usually formalities. I was scared what they would actually think of me. What if they didn't approve of Blake and I being together? What if they said we had to break up? What if Blake had to get back into that arranged marriage with Megan? What if what if what if?

"Why are you so nervous?" Blake asked, looking over at me.

"What? I'm not nervous," I lied.

"Yes you are. You're twiddling your thumbs," he said.

"Why are you looking at my thumbs and not the road? You're going to get us killed," I responded, half-jokingly.

"One: I'm not going to get us killed. Two: I can't die in a car accident, and I wouldn't let you die. So why are you nervous?" he repeated.

I sighed. "I'm just afraid of what your parents are going to think of me," I told him, this time telling the truth.

"Oh, please. They'll love you. I promise," he said, smiling at me reassuringly.

I nodded.

We had now left the winding forest road, and got onto a desolate highway with forest on either side of us. Blake turned off the A.C., rolled down the windows and put the convertible top down, and put in a CD into his CD player. A second later, the sweet sound of Marilyn Manson began playing from his speakers.

"Do you like Marilyn Manson?" he asked me.

"God, yes. He is amazing!" I exclaimed excitedly.

Blake smiled, and turned up the volume. I had my left hand resting loosely on my leg, no longer twiddling my thumbs. I saw Blake look at my hand out of the corner of his eye, and he hesitated a moment before lacing my fingers with his. I leaned my head against the headrest and closed my eyes, content.

We stayed like that for a while; in comfortable silence and holding each other's hands.

All of a sudden, Blake slammed on the brakes. My eyes flew open as my body was thrown against the seatbelt. I felt my heart sink into my stomach at the sight my eyes were presented. There were two men standing on the road, and one of them was Jareth.