Ch.2 Come Next Morning, My Love, We Will Be Home

As I ran, I marveled at how she knew how unbreakable I was. She had me in a chokehold, and her legs were wrapped tightly around my torso. After about a half hour of full out running, her hold on me began to weaken, and she began to gasp for breath.

"Almost there." I promised her, shirting my weight as I ran, ready to catch her if she fell.

I stopped in a wide clearing, and set Corinne near a stream.

"Drink. Come next morning, my love, we will be home."

---

That night, I brought Corrine to a nearby cave and watched her sleep now comfortably in my arms. I left at dawn for an hour to steal supplies from the city, things to build a wood house, blankets and cooking materials, knives and other such things like candles and extra clothes, and, of course, food. On my way back I passed a stable, and decided that I would give Corinne the choice to either walk, run with me or ride. I took three of them, a work horse to pull a small carriage I had stolen earlier, filled with all my stolen goods, and now horse tack and supplies, and two tall horses for Corrine, one a deep roan, and one dark grey with a flaxen mane and tail.

It took until nightfall for the house to be finished. Corinne liked to watch me move at inhuman speed. When she got bored of watching me, she tacked up the dark horse and trotted and cantered in a wide circle around the cabin. I stopped midday to catch her some small animals so she could make a stew.

Quitting on the house for a couple hours, I made a large lean-to for the three horses, complete with a tack room and loft. Corinne settled in the loft by nightfall as I continued to work on the cabin, finishing the final touches of doors, windows, a fireplace and a large four poster bed.

In the morning, I woke Corinne and carried her into the cabin, placing her in her new bed. Of course, when she realized the house was complete, she was too excited to go back to sleep.

She pranced around the house like a playful filly, looking around at every little detail I can carved into the walls, the kitchen table and the fireplace, which currently beheld a large crackling fire.

"Jasper?" Corrine whispered, kneeling by the fireplace with her arms stretched towards the fire.

"Yes, Doll?" I shifted awkwardly, feeling her mood shift to discomfort.

"Why me? I know what you are, I just…I thought you would have killed me by now. I don't know a lot about your kind but…" Her voice trailed off and the room began to feel stuffy. I concentrated on her mood, she felt like the room was closing in on her, and she felt unhappy.

"Why are you sad, Corinne?" I stepped toward her and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"Just tell me Jasper." She pulled her shoulder away from my hand and turned and looked up at me.

"Your scent. I was looking for someone to…feed on. And then you, I smelt you and I had to have you. I wanted to kill, I wanted to taste you. And then you spoke, you knew what I was and you didn't scream and you weren't frightened. You just knew. You felt…content."

Corinne lifted herself off the floor and stared at me. "How, how do you know what I was thinking?"

I grabbed her shoulders and lifted her up off the floor.

"I am a VAMPIRE. I am a KILLER. I KILL innocent people. I can feel others' moods! Human or vampire, I can tell. I am a lethal weapon, and you look at me and swoon! You look at me and you see a misunderstood animal. Is that what I am to you? Your little pet, your stupid FUCKING-"

Her fear and anguish stopped me mid sentence. "You're hurting me." she choked.

I put her down and backed away from her, watching tears well up in her eyes.

"No," she said, walking towards me, "Not that….you. Your words are hurting me. You think I think you are just an experiment. I don't think you are a pet. I thought…I thought you were coming to save me. I thought you were an angel, answering my prayers. But I'm nothing more than a piece of meat to you. I'M the experiment." She turned on her heel and ran out the door. I made no attempt to stop her. I heard her sobbing as she tacked up a horse. I listened to her click her tongue, to the dull thud of her heels against the horse's sides, then the thunder of it's hooves as it galloped away.

I ran outside and screamed. I charged into a tree and knocked it right out of the ground. I ripped it open and screamed again, looking around wildly. "WHAT AM I?!" I screamed at the sky. "WHAT THE FUCKING HELL AM I?!"

---

I was finally calmed an hour later. I was frantic now, I had to get her back. I tore into the woods, following her almost-gone scent. I sped across the ground, looking around at the scattered hoof prints. Her scent began to get stronger, and the hoof prints, now spaced out as if the horse was walking, were getting fresher.

I was relaxing a bit more when I finally caught her scent, warm and sweet. But when I got close enough to feel her mood, I grew worried.

She was frightened, and confused and sad.

"I'm so sorry." I whispered, entering the clearing where Corinne sat on the horse in a standstill. Her head whipped around at the sounds of my voice, her eyes shimmering.

"You came back!" I could feel the attachment she felt towards me immediately…I felt ashamed. I decided then that I would give this a try, one more time.

---Week later

Her laugh filled my chest as we raced through the trees, a blur of black and roan. Corinne's horse, Ebony, Eb for short, was in the lead, ahead of Red, my horse, by a nose and a half. Every time her horse would accelerate, she let out a short cry of excitement.

"I can RUN faster than this old thing!" I shouted, watching Corinne's steed slowly creep farther and farther ahead of me.

"Prove it!" She screamed behind her, laughing again.

I slipped off Red and took off, leaving the horse behind me.

"HA!" I cried out, passing Corinne, moving so I was a tauntingly 4 feet ahead of Eb. I heard the sound of creaking leather behind me, so I turned my head to see what was going on.

Three things happened at the same time. Ebony neighed loudly and stopped, Corinne was standing on the saddle one second, then flying through the air the next, then I was caught by surprise and knocked right off my feet.

We rolled across the ground at breakneck speed, I wrapped my body protectively around hers so that she didn't get hurt. When we finally stopped, both panting and muddy from head to toe, Corinne lifted herself from on top of my chest and straddled me, sitting on my chest.

I watched her dirty face light up as she began to laugh a full wholesome carefree laugh that shook her body. I joined in, and we both sat there in the grass, laughing and shaking, muddy and excited.

I leaned towards her and pulled a small twig from her windswept red hair, letting my fingertip run down the length of her chin.

Her eyes suddenly turned serious, boring into mine.

"Why are they red?" She asked me, touching the skin under my eyes.

"I the human blood I guess. It must mean I'm evil…" I shrugged, looking around at our surroundings.

"Oh," she murmured in a tiny voice. "Umm…we should go get the horses." She said, becoming worried.

"I'll get them, Doll. Just as soon as you are home."

I didn't run too fast this time, savoring the warm feeling of her body pressed against mine.

---

After I brought the horse home and groomed them, I followed Corinne's scent to the river. Her clothes were laying in a heap on the edge of the water, smelling strongly of her. Her red hair was dark under the water as she swam around. When she came up for air, she spotted me standing on the river's edge. I could see her blushing even in the dim light. She motioned for me to come in with a one fingered gesture.

I waded into the river, still fully clothed, and swam easily to her. We swam around until she got tired, then she climbed into my waiting arms. We held onto each other and watched the stars come out until her teeth started to chatter. I laughed at her, and carried her out of the water. I picked up her clothes while holding onto her one-handedly and brought her into the house, setting her naked body in a chair. I grabbed a blanket from our bed and wrapped her tired body in it, cradling her in front of the fireplace.

It began to feel like tradition, Corinne falling asleep in my arms almost every night. I would calm her and feel her lose consciousness and go through different emotions in her slumber. Sometimes she would feel fear, and I would casually adjust the way I was sitting or laying down, enough to wake her long enough for her nightmares to leave. I could hear her breathing me in and sighing in contentment.

Nights were hard for me, sometimes almost unbearable. The burning in my throat sometimes hurt so badly I had to close my eyes and pretend I was somewhere else.

--- October

Her chest rose and fell softly, her heart beat in a difficult simple rhythm. I hated to love and loved to hate myself. I tried to keep her occupied during the day, and every night I tried to think of good simple reasons why I should leave her. I could bring her back to the city, leave her in the park where I found her. Bring back the horses, burn down the house, disappear forever.

Looking back now…I wish I did.