This is a short chapter, but there seemed a natural break at the end of it. I hope you continue to enjoy it.

Here you go:

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Evening found me on the banks of a river, washing deliciously in its gentle waters. Small pebbles crunched under my feet and birds cooed softly from their nighttime perches atop the trees that framed the river. Yet I was troubled, amidst this beauty. And as I watched the golden summer sun sink below the horizon I only saw the face of the girl I had killed.

I ran my hand through my hair and pressed my knuckles against my eyes. I needed to stop this. It was pathetic— the humans were there for us to drink from. I wasn't supposed to feel sorry for them. I pulled myself towards the riverbank, my coat sloshing and dragging behind me. Then I jumped from the river, shook my hair out, and made my way through the bracken and ivy towards the road.

The packed dirt track, which formed the road, was empty of people. The first motorcars were tentatively being manufactured in the big cities, but there was nothing of that sort here. People here, deep in the country, didn't travel much, or if they did, horses were their motorcars. Technology didn't permeate this deeply into the musky countryside.

I listened to the lulling sound of my boots hitting the packed dirt of the road, and watched the horizon. I could have run all the way to Houston, but where would joy have come from then? I resented being a vampire sometimes. If only I could have been human... been free to work in the fields, to feel the sun beating onto my well-browned back, to marry and love and produce so many children that the house was filled with laughter and shouts. I wondered why I was feeling this sort of paternal longing now; for hundreds of years I had been perfectly contented with my lot. Maybe I was missing Maria.

I had to hide in the shade to once the sun was high the next day, but I enjoyed watching the men working in the fields, dragging the plough, and the women bringing them tall glasses of homemade lemonade. And the dog, the only animal tame enough to come anywhere near me, barked around my feet. I scratched him generously behind the ears as he bounded around the tree I was sitting under, and when he rolled onto his stomach I tickled him until he yapped and ran away.

I set off again later, running this time, until I heard a horse's hooves on the road and had to slow to human speed. The horse and cart pulled into view from a dip in the road and pulled to a stop when they noticed me.

It was a young couple in the cart, the man with the whip and the girl in a yellow cotton dress and sunhat. She beamed at me sweetly, and her companion tipped his cap to me. They either didn't notice or chose not to comment on my strange army clothing.

"Where you headed?" she called softly, tucking a curl of golden hair behind her ear.

"Houston," I replied, surprised by how my voice sounded. I hadn't spoken aloud since being dismissed by Maria. My voice was still as fluid and velvet bass as ever.

A look of surprise came onto her face. "We're headed that way too!" She turned to her companion, and with a pleading look on her face begged him to let me ride along. Evidently he agreed, because she was jumping from the cart, her skirts flying, and springing forward to me in a second. I was surprised by her eagerness, but put it down to either good South country spirit or attraction to me because I was a vampire. I didn't want to disrupt their travel, but for some reason I longed for company, especially from one as lively as her. I took a breath for the first time since I had spotted the cart, and was assaulted by her smell. I had just fed, but she was particularly sweet... really, I shouldn't... but I wanted so much to be in the presence of someone other than myself. I took another breath to be sure, and she was so delicious... but I was standing here, wasn't I, and she was still alive. That was proof of my control.

"So, would you like a ride?" she murmured, looking up at me from under her lashes. I didn't doubt she loved her partner in the truck, but she was looking at me with such sweet childish demand that I agreed. She smiled brightly and told me her name was Sally, and that the man in the cart was her new husband, Jack.

Once we were seated in the back of the cart, our feet hanging over the back, she confided to me that they were heading home after their honeymoon in the country. Apparently she was rich, and from the city, and he was a farmer, born and bred; they had fallen in love over the summer when she came on a day trip to enjoy the sun. She kept looking back at him with such joy in her eyes that I immediately ignored my first assumption that she only wanted me to ride with them because of my physical appeal. And he wasn't worried either; he greeted me with the same warmth and friendliness as her.

He was young— perhaps nineteen— his body hard and brown, displaying his life of labour. She was even younger yet, her small body smooth and white and supple, and her hands unmarked in their lacy gloves. Despite their differences, they had something glorious between them, which I marvelled at. She always asked his opinion, he stared at her unabashedly, and she laughed when he was being funny.

"So, where do you come from?" she asked about an hour into the ride, "Only, you're so pale."

I froze and my body knitted with tension. She couldn't know what I was... no, it was just an innocent question. I forced myself to relax and told her some lie about having a skin condition that meant I couldn't be out in the sun. Her husband joked that I should borrow her sun hat and she slapped the back of his head and giggled.

"Are you hungry?" she asked later, offering me some dried meat from the pouch her husband had been nibbling on.

I smiled despite myself and simply shook my head. Oh, well for her that I wasn't hungry! I thought.

"You sure?" she pushed.

"If he don't want some, he don't want some darlin'," her husband chuckled at her.

"Okay, Jack, okay," she grinned, "No need for that. I was just asking."

"What's that coat you got on?" he asked, looking back from his seat holding the horse's reins.

"An antique," I replied, not elaborating. He could think of it what he wanted.

The girl spent the next hour recounting scenes from her childhood. She stopped in the middle of one about her pony and teased, "You don't talk much, do you?"

"You could say that," I replied, my tone bitter. I was used to deferring to Maria, and it had become habit now.

She was surprised at my tone, and fell silent. She looked across at me out of the corner of her eye, curious. She studied my face for a while, and then looked puzzled at something.

"I didn't notice before, but your eyes..." she murmured, quietened for once. "They're a funny colour."

A feeling of déjà vu fell over me: this always happened when I got too close to humans.

I didn't reply to her comment, failing to come up with a reason why my eyes would be so violently burgundy. Her friendliness had made me forget the close barriers I had kept around my self for safety. I cursed my stupidity— how could I have ever thought that I could be around humans? It was absurd.

She had roused the attention of her husband, he looked back at me and then worried lines drew his eyebrows together. Her emotions were spiralling towards fear, his towards protectiveness and suspicion. Evidently they had only just noticed what they should have done hours ago: I was dangerous.

"Look here—" he began in an attempt at bravery, and she backed away from me, shuffling back until she was close to her husband.

I fiercely battled against their emotions, instilling tranquillity and serenity, but I was so distracted at my own stupidity that I was only half-successful. I had to leave them once they reached the main road, and then I was alone again, half way to Houston. There was no point in denying my vampire self, I concluded, and began to run at vampire speed towards the city.

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Author's Note:

So, would you call that progress? I'd say he started to progress but then it went downhill...

Please review, it's my birthday tomorrow and it would be an awesome present!

CullenLove xx