A/N Note: If anyone's wondering why I'm adding so fast, this is pretyped. I only have a limited amount of time to get this online.
I stayed still for a moment. Luckily our playful banter had given me a little time to adjust so I didn't have panic attack in front of everyone.
"A vampire," I repeated breathlessly. He just stared scrutinizing my reactions. I nodded slowly. Then I forced an uneasy laugh. Alec leaned forward, folding his hands on the surface of the table.
"The books are true," he said. My laugh gave out short. He looked away. "I don't know if the characters are. But the facts. The abilities. They are true." When his eyes met mine they were nothing less than sincere. He waited for my reaction. I had none to give.
Then he sighed impatiently and exasperated.
"You need proof," he muttered angrily. In an instant his faux empathy returned. I just stared at him. He looked at the plastic table and then smiled happily. He easily moved the books and my sandwich to an empty on the floor. He placed his hands on either side of the table.
"Put your hands over your ears," he said. My hands were shaking as I obeyed. His hands clenched onto the table. One swift jerk, that was all it took to snap the table in half with an ear splitting crack. One half fell noisily to the floor. I stared at it in shock. Heads turned and stared at us.
To my horror and embarrassment, I started to cry. Alec's face twisted in confusion. Then I couldn't stop myself. I moved my hands from over my ears to my eyes. The fear caught up with me, making sobs wrack through my body. I covered my mouth and held my breath. Alec didn't know how to react, which was more or less amusing looking back on it. He had no idea what to do with a hysterical human.
You'd think that's where vampires would specialize.
He gave me a minute waiting for my sobs to turn into hiccups. Then we both noticed the cafe worker, a girl I knew coming over to see the broken table. Alec apologized and she told him over and over that it was no problem. She tossed me a worried glance, but we didn't know each other well enough for us to say anything to one another.
I smiled at her, trying to assure her I was alright. But I don't think I was very convincing. We moved tables as she went to get the cafe manager. Alec and I were alone again at a more secluded table. When everything was cleaned up and the workers left me alone Alec leaned over the table.
"I'm not going to harm you, Jay," he said. I hiccupped in response. He started to look truly concerned. He waited a moment then whispered, "You're causing a scene."
"Sorry," I said. I checked the time. It was five minutes past the time to go back to work. I couldn't move though. Alec watched me. He suddenly stood up and extended his hand to me. I stared at it through blurry eyes. The indescribably pale hand beckoning me was haunting. Something I had only seen in my imagination.
"Come on. You're taking a sick day," he said gently. Once again I was not moving on my own. My hand lifted into his cold one. He took me and towed me onto the store floor. He easily found my manager. I stood like an idiot standing in front of the man who signed my paychecks while holding a vampire's hand.
"Jaylin," my manager said shocked. I was still crying soundlessly. The tears just kept pouring and I kept sniffling, taking spasms of deep breaths. I couldn't speak. Luckily Alec had no problem taking control of the situation.
"Hello sir. I'm sorry to bother you, but there's been a death in the family. We need Jaylin immediately," Alec lied. I was putting on a very good show of a distraught family member. My manager nodded quickly. Suddenly my muscles loosened. I had control of my body again. "For the rest of the week as well. We have to travel out of state."
"Of course. I'm so sorry for your loss," my manager said quickly. I acknowledged his condolences with a nod. Alec led me quickly to the break room. Without speaking we went to the break room. I picked up my purse, just waiting for my mind to start working again. My brain couldn't process a single thought. I was just moving.
It was raining today which was nothing surprising. How could Alec have gotten here without cloud cover?
This is real.
That moment something snapped, awakening me. The gears in my mind started to turn again. The tears stopped. I reached into my purse and scrambled around for my keys. When I found them, they mysteriously slipped from my hand into Alec's with such a smooth action that I barely even noticed it. I took him to my car.
He stopped to stare at it. His nose wrinkled in disgust. I paused too. Of course I'm not going to tell you what kind of car it is. That information is a bit too specific considering the events that were soon to follow. However, I will tell you that the car is almost as old as me. He was about as pleased with my car as any vampire from Twilight would be.
However, he was still being sensitive, so he opened my door and got on the driver's side. I got in and sat down. Alec turned the key in the ignition. Music came to life, blaring through the speakers at a volume that was deafening to me. It must have been like having a amplifier in Alec's head to him. I reached over to turn the volume down for him.
He looked at me for a moment and then pulled the gear shift to reverse. I immediately switched my gaze toward the windshield watching the water run down the glass. My thoughts were spinning wildly now. I tried to pull together everything I wanted to know in order from what I wanted to know most, from the things I was simply curious about.
Halfway home we got caught in traffic. Alec was annoyed. It's kind of funny to see him annoyed about something as stupid as traffic. Living life as fast as his kind made him impatient. He noticed my staring. He shot a look back at me with his beautiful face.
"What?" he asked. "Are you ready to speak now?"
"Yes," I responded. "I'm sorry for making a big deal back there." He gripped the steering wheel and looked straight ahead.
"I suppose I should have seen it coming. This is my first time too," he said. My brow furrowed.
"First time what?"
"Dealing with one of you. Like this," he said. By one of me I assumed he meant human. "I guess I couldn't have expected it to go exactly by the book. If the book is completely true, Bella had plenty of suspicions before she knew. She had lots of time to adjust to the truth." My heart hammered as he spoke as Bella as a real person. It was strange. I sat back against the seat and thought.
"Okay," I said readying myself. "Assuming this is all true, then why did you track me down? There's a lot of Twilight fans." Alec snorted.
"I didn't seek you out because you're a Twilight fan," he said. "That was just a huge bonus." His eyes scanned the traffic desperate for an opening so he could change lanes. He looked distracted as he spoke. "I came to you because I want to win the Game." I don't know why, but the way he said it made me think it had to be capitalized.
"What game?"
"The Game is something vampires play. Its an age old sport that I was surprised wasn't mentioned in the books. Though I have a theory that Alice, assuming she is real, was once a victim of the Game. It's where a mediator assigns a victim, a human. For that human there are two vampires. A protector and a predator. The Game ends when the victim is dead. If it is of natural causes, the protector wins, if the predator kills them, then they win," he explained.
I fell silent as I tried to digest this whole new barrage of information. He glanced at me for an instant as if to make certain I wasn't relapsing into hysteria.
"Do you understand?" Alec asked. I nodded.
"Yeah," I said. "I'm the victim?"
"Very good," he said.
"And you're the protector," I clarified. He lifted his eyebrows with a grin.
"Lucky for you." Lucky me.
The rain slowed to a light drizzle. We were quiet again. Traffic picked up and Alec wasted no time trying to get in front of every car on the entire road. I felt oddly safe though. I'd been in plenty of speeding cars before and somehow it comforted me to be going faster than everyone else. Alec was easy to trust, maybe because I knew the likeliness of a vampire getting into an accident was microscopic.
"Are there any rules to this Game?" I asked tentatively. Alec smiled.
"You're a smart one," he said pleased. I was glad he couldn't see how proud I was with myself for impressing a mythical monster. "Yes. Rule number one, you cannot change the human. Rule number two, you cannot tell the human. Rule number three, you cannot threaten anyone the human is affiliated with." I waited for more.
"That's it?" I asked. He nodded. "You broke rule two," I pointed out.
"I did," Alec admitted. I thought on that for a moment.
"Why?"
"Just to change things up a bit. The mediator who assigned you is dead so now is the perfect time to cheat. I'm very experienced at this game," Alec said easing as he was suddenly more comfortable in the car. He frequently looked behind him in the mirror.
"Next question," he said.
"If Twilight is real how could the vampires let it be published?" I asked. "How does the author know all of this? Was it written by a vampire?"
"I don't know for sure. You know we vampires are nomads. The closest we have to a government is the Volturi. Either they don't mind, or for some reason they can't track whoever is behind the book. With Bella's fabled gift of 'immunity' it might be possible," he said thoughtfully. Then he chewed his lip in thought. "Or..."
"There's a third option?" I asked.
"Or maybe there are vampires who want to come out of hiding," Alec said with a shrug. I stared at him. Vampires come out of hiding? Showing the world they were anything, but fiction?
"That would be stupid," I said. Alec shot me a quick side glance.
"Why is it stupid?" he asked almost defensively.
"Because humans out number you. One on one you guys completely have the upper hand. But there's billions of us," I said thinking it over. Alec barked out a laugh so loud that it startled me. He didn't stop laughing for about two minutes according to the clock on my dashboard. I impatiently waited for him to explain himself.
"Think about it, Jaylin," he chuckled. "One army of... countless humans against one vampire. Well trained soldiers with M16 rifles or whatever guns they're using nowadays. Bullets will barely penetrate us, they could barely even catch us. Tanks are slow and clumsy. We could rip through them like paper. We are self healing, nearly indestructible. Humans are mortal. Who's more likely to win?"
Damn, he was right.
"What about werewolves?" I brought up smugly. His smile fell and then rose again.
"I've never met one. I've never met anyone who has," he said.
"Maybe no one has ever encountered one and lived?" I suggested.
"The Cullens have."
"Assuming they're real," I pointed out. He grinned.
"Assuming they're real," he admitted. I was feeling a little smug in my seat. Maybe it was just pathetic that I understood all that I did about Twilight. I've read the books cover to cover. I was bouncing in my seat waiting for the movie whenever it comes out. I had already preordered Breaking Dawn.
"You really don't believe in werewolves?" I asked Alec.
"Or fairies or ghosts," he said. I smiled. "Next question."
"Do you have any special abilities? Like Edward's mind reading?" I prayed to every deity I've ever heard of that he did not have mind reading powers. Alec shrugged.
"Sort of. It's not so special though. Do you remember how Bella mentioned dazzling in the book?" I nodded. "All vampires have a strong sense of persuasion. There are many vampires, like myself, who have an extreme sense of persuasion. It's called suggestion. We suggest it and somehow your brain performs the task of obliging that suggestion. It works on vampires as well if they don't know how to fight it." I remembered how he'd somehow convinced me to have lunch with him. How sometimes it seemed I wasn't in control of my body.
"Yes, I used it on you," he answered my unspoken thought without shame. Suddenly I was a little mad. How invasive is that? Less invasive than tuning into your thoughts, but invasive none the less.
"That's terrible. You make people do what they don't want to do?" I questioned. He raised a finger quickly to interrupt me.
"No. I make them want to do what I want to do. It's about changing the will," he said. I'm sure there was something philosophical about that power. I wasn't about to bring it up though. "Think about it. The jedi do it in Star Wars." I thought about that. Had this vampire just compared himself to a jedi?
Before I could thoughtlessly stray away from the situation with the mental picture of Alec watching Star Wars with a bunch of sci-fi fans, he interrupted me.
"Next question," he said. Of course, there was the question I'd been avoiding.
"Why am I a victim in this Game?" I asked almost shyly. I was nervous for the answer. Alec treated it like any other question I had.
"You have the least amount of people who would miss you," he said. It was true. My parents were dead. My dad had died when I was five and my mom followed when I was eighteen leaving my sister with only enough money to cover our family's debts. My sister was god-knows-where having gotten into some hardcore drugs in her later teens.
Last I heard she was living in a car halfway across the continent. We didn't try to get in touch with each other. I had a grand total of one friend who wasn't in town this week. He lived downstairs from me in my apartment...
This is harder to write than I thought it would be. I'm kind of overwhelmed. I think that's all I'll write for today...