I waited a few more minutes said good bye to my sister-like-friends and headed out the door and to my black and chrome avalanche with red neon lights in the windows. Even it matched my outfit. I drove around on the back streets listening to my car-Ipod, trying to figure out where he lived in Dayton. I found his street a little after five, searching for his house number. I came to know that his was the biggest and fanciest place on the street let alone the city or maybe even the state. I pulled up to the iron-gate, immediately hearing an over-com asking who I was. "I'm Feroscha Granden; I'm here to meet Darius Eryns for tonight." I spoke loudly to prevent repeating myself. The gate swung open and I drove up the long curving driveway only to pull up to a Victorian style mansion complete with a columned porch and huge grounds, there were six cars in the front of the huge estate. An Avalanche like mine but in solid black, a Jeep Rubicon, two Porche 911 turbos one in black and one all silver and chrome, a red Hummer original and finally a 2008 Vanquish in black. Darius stood leaning slightly on the Vanquish. He had some how known what colors I would be wearing because he now wore a black Versace suit, a red silk button up shirt and a white satin tie to finish the ensemble off.

He leaned forward to greet me and as he did I tripped over my own feet and fell… or I was going to fall; he had caught me… great reflexes on this guy, kind of scary in a cool way. "Thanks Darius, I could have sworn I was gonna fall. I would have had to go home and change that would have screwed up everything, huh?" He smirked again and Goddess, help me if it didn't make my knees want to go weak, it was impish and sexy. "Well, that would have put a bump in the plans, but it would have worked out eventually. Ready?" I smiled as he released me to open the door on my side and even offer a hand to help me in the car. I smirked with him this time and answered, "As I'll ever be. What are we doing though? I've been wondering since I called you." He climbed in to his side, easily slid the car in to drive and sped off toward the gate that opened just as if he'd pressed a button, but he hadn't; I don't think at least. "It's a surprise Feroscha; you know that, I wouldn't want to spoil it for you." He winked and continued to drive at break-neck-speeds that I loved because I love to show off the speed of my own car too. He merged into the next lane as I turned on the radio and turned up the Kittie song 'Spit'.

Only when I leaned up again did I see that he had merged into the turn lane to get on the highway. Without slowing down. I immediately swung around to reach for my belt, once it was fastened I proceeded to grab the 'oh shit!' bar and grip the armrest on the other side. Darius looked over at me with confusion but I began screaming at him before he could question me about what I was doing. "Watch the FUCKING ROAD!!!! And SLOW DOWN lets NOT crash tonight. HOW ABOUT THAT????" He slowed considerably and didn't look at me again until we had pulled to the off-ramp red light. "Would you mind telling me what that was about? Are you okay, Feroscha?" I waited for my breathing to slow and even out before I dared to answer him. "I was in several car crashes on the highway when I was little… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you like that, but it's just… I haven't gotten over it." Yeah how do you get over your mom trying to kill you five times in car crashes? He picked up speed again, not as much this time and when he spoke again he made a serious effort to keep his eyes on the road in front of his car. "Oh I shouldn't have done my show boating then, huh? It's just I like to drive fast, really fast." I turned down the stereo and sighed before I responded. "No. I should have told you, I should have known we would have been getting on the highway. The fear only shows it's self when I get on the highway, I try to stay on the back roads as much as possible but when its not, I'm like a granny who can't see over the steering wheel. That's sad 'cause I'm usually a speeder."

I smiled and Darius smirked back and parked in an unfamiliar parking lot. He got out and walked to the other side to let me out. "We're here. Turn around." I did as he said and he put a scarf over my eyes, took my hand and led me to wherever we were going. The walk was at least five minutes long and we hit stairs soon after the two-minute mark. I walked slowly up the stairs. "Can I take it off yet, Darius?" He just chuckled and continued to lead me. When we stopped he slid the silk off my face and down my neck to untie it. His fingertips and knuckles swept across my skin giving me the chills. It took all I had to suppress the moan in my throat. He must have noticed my sudden tenseness because he leaned away and turned me around to face him. "You okay?" I shrugged it off. "Yes." I responded through a now dry throat, and swallowed. "Where are we?" He smiled down at me. "The Cincinnati Museum. I thought given the survey answers that you gave, you would like to see the 'Bodies' exhibit here." My eyes lit up and I practically jumped up and down when I realized that we were standing in a queue line for our tickets. I was so excited I could barely keep it in. We moved slowly in the line and I couldn't stand it I hate to wait, just like Katoura.

Once he paid for the tickets we walked into to exhibit doors and looked at the first display; whole male and female bodies with a sign next to them describing the differences in muscles and sinew, looked so cool I ooh'd and aww'd the whole time we stood there. He stood close to me and unfortunately all I could pay attention to was him he smelled of cocoa spice and masculinity. I watched his muscles instead of the displays'; his moved and were flexing as he shifted his weight around. We moved on to a woman holding a baby that both had different colored eyeballs. The caption below the display was that the baby had died of brain trauma and the young woman who held her died in ICU after a car wreck. It also explained that the luminescent blue eyeballs of each body were blind. Darius looked as if he would touch the baby. In effort to stop him, lest we get kicked out, I took his hand in mine. He stared at our hands, fingers intertwined, and then looked down into my eyes, and it made me shiver and gave me cold chills all over again. How could he do that? Trying to keep my mind off what he had done to me, I noticed that he must have been every bit of 6' 4" because getting enough height on my 5'10" to look down at me was a feat in and of itself.

I was forced to look away first; the aids were asking us to move because the people behind us were getting impatient about seeing the display we were at. We moved on to the next glass box in the room which were foot and hand muscles, it was interesting enough but not enough to keep us for very long, we exited this first room and walked in to the next. This was the respiratory system room there were lungs and air pockets, and the mouth, nose and some veins. There was a solid wall devoted to cancer of the lung, mouth, nose, and throat. The best thing I saw there was a deposit box for anyone who was turned off smoking by the look of these certain cancerous body parts. I watched Darius pull out his Marlboros red soft pack and rip the pack in half and drop them in. "Darius, you smoke?" I couldn't stop myself from saying it. He shook his head no. "Not any more." I nodded and once again couldn't keep my mouth shut. "You don't smell like it." I stepped closer and tilted my head up to smell him better. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, doing so practically made my head spin with his scent. The next thing I know; Darius' lips met mine in a tentative, short kiss.

His lips were soft and warm; they yielded and almost opened. I pulled away milliseconds before they could, an aftershock of who-knows-what and a taste of heaven ripped through me. "I-I um… …uh… " I stuttered and mumbled before he wrapped a rippling arm around my shoulders and led me to the next case. His grip was firm and protective. "Feroscha? You're kinda quiet, now." He sounded concerned like he'd done something wrong. I smirked and laughed whole-heartedly. "Yeah I'm fine it was just… a surprise, is all." His body relaxed considerably when I said this, and he moved his arm off my shoulders and put his hand back in mine. We stopped every few displays and sat down to rest our feet and talk a bit. We never mentioned it, but the kiss wasn't far from the tips of our tongues. He asked why I had so many piercings but only a few tattoos. I asked him the same thing. Our answers were similar as well; neither of us had many things we wanted that would still mean as much as it did the day that we got it; years later. Darius asked about how I got into music in general, and metal in particular. I wanted to know how he decided to go into the family business. When we'd walked through the entire exhibit and headed towards the public café area to eat. Darius had a slice of pizza and a black coffee, while I had a chicken Panini and an Irish cream cappuccino. We continued to make slightly awkward small talk as people edged around us as if we were a deadly disease to be avoided at all costs. I didn't mind it much since I've gotten the reaction for years. Darius looked at me, and his arm flexed on the table as if suddenly angered. "We can leave if they're bothering you, Darius." I smiled lightly at him but his face looked confused. "We don't have to. I thought they were bothering you." He looked at me again and his eyes softened considerably.

"No, I'm used to the weird looks by now, had 'em for years." I grinned and stood to throw away my trash when I'd finished and he stood too. "Are you ready?" I nodded but held up a hand to stop him. "Hold on, I've got to use the ladies room. Wait here." I walked away but against my will I looked back at him more than I wanted to, and by the last time I did, he wasn't where I left him, but over close to a door where a few women were coming in. I went and 'freshened up' then came back out to see that he'd left. I walked out the large entrance doors to see that he'd pulled the car up and stopped directly in front of me. I climbed in and buckled the seat belt. If it was possible he looked less pale than he did when I'd last saw him, but the natural lighting was different. "Thanks Darius. Um, could we take back roads as much as possible, please; I don't feel like freaking out on you… again." He smirked and nodded as he turned the radio on searched through the stations then turned it off again, for lack of good music on. I searched for my Ipod that was always on me, found it and plugged it into the mp3 port. "What do you want to listen to?" He looked at me with determination and said boldly. "You. Sing to me Feroscha. Please?" We dove out of the parking lot and headed down a back street I didn't know. My eyes widened so much I thought they'd fall out of the sockets. "What do you want me to sing?" He smirked at me side ways. "Anything just sing."

I thought about what I wanted to sing and before I had made a conscious choice I had started to sing my favorite non-metal song ever, "Crushcrushcrush" by Paramore. I started to sing and he drove and paid as much attention to me as he could. "I got a lot to say to you. Yeah I got a lot to say. I notice your eyes are always glued to me. Keeping them here and it makes no sense at all. They taped over your mouth scribbled out the truth with their lies your little spies. They taped over your mouth scribbled out the truth with their lies your little spies. Crush crush crush crush crush 1234! Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone. Just the one to all of us is counting on. That never happened; I guess I'm dreaming again. Let's be more than… this. If you wanna play well come on come on lets play cause I'd rather waste my time pretending then have to forget you for whole minute. They taped over your mouth scribbled out the truth with their lies your little spies. They taped over your mouth scribbled out the truth with their lies your little spies. Crush crush crush crush crush 1234! Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone. Just the one to all of us is counting on. That never happened; I guess I'm dreaming again. Lets be more than this now. Rock and roll baby, don't you know that we're all alone now I need something to sing about. Rock and roll hey don't you know baby we're all alone now I need something to sing about. Rock and roll hey don't you know baby we're all alone now give me something to sing about. Nothing compares to a quiet evening alone. Just the one to all of us is counting on. That never happened; I guess I'm dreaming again. Lets be more than no-oo-o nothing compares to a quiet evening alone. Just the one to all of us is counting on. That never happened; I guess I'm dreaming again. Lets be more than…more than this oh-oh oooh." I finished the song and sat waiting for his reaction afterwards. I noticed that he was staring at me incredulously and that we were pulled over on the side of the road in a patch of gravel that led to an off road and a footbridge over the river. It's getting late why would we come here? I sat back still waiting for his response, when he released his seatbelt and leaned toward me, looking me in the eye, while doing so. His stare set chills along my skin again and I leaned in too. "What did you think?" I couldn't help but ask. It was bothering me that he was so quiet and I had just inadvertently told him how I felt, by singing to him. If he didn't get the lyrics in the song I strategically/ subconsciously chose, he had to have gotten the vocal infliction I used.