Bitter Sweet (10 page)

              "You know, you’ve gotten to taste my blood, but I never got to taste yours." He placed his hand on my cheek and lowered his face to mine. "There was the slightest hint on my tooth last night but not enough for me to really experience it." I was frozen; even my heart seemed to stand still. Was he going to bite me with Sam walking up the path to the door? He took a look into my eyes over his glasses and then lightly pressed his lips to my cheek and stood back. "Hmm…" he said, licking his lips. "I missed out, it seems." He opened the door and Sam's knock missed the door and landed on his chest. "Hi," he said with a smile.

              "Uh... hi," she said, shocked and not realizing she hadn’t moved her hand, and then she flinched away with a “Sorry.”

              “It's okay." I moved the door. I will see you later, Vanessa," he said, turning to me. Sam and I stood there until his car was out of sight, then Sam turned to me.

              "Tell me everything, now!" For some reason, I couldn’t help but smile.

Alyon Alik

Chapter 11.0

             
“YES!”

Vanessa Stanton

Chapter 12.0

             
I couldn't tell Sam what was really going on because I didn’t really know myself. What I told myself was that I was keeping Alik's secret, but I lied to myself all the time. I settled her curiosity with a stupid story about Alik calling me and asking if I wanted to go get dinner. She made me thank her for passing out at Masteria and letting Alik get my number.

              “So did you invite him over here as well?” was her reply.

              “No, but he remembered my address from my ID.”

              "Did he just show up?"

              "No, he kind of helped me get out of a carjacking the other day after Eugene ran off." Her eyes exploded in her head.

              "That stupid son of a... What happened?" In my head, I saw all of this in the mindset of someone watching a mildly entertaining drama, so that’s how I explained it to Sam. There was a carjacking and I was a part of it. Alik saved me by killing the carjackers.... Knocking out the carjackers. I had to edit for Sam. Then he brought me home safely, and personally checked up on me this morning, this as he thought phone calls were too impersonal. She made an ‘awww’ at that and now here we are. “Wow, he must have seen something special in you,” she said after a moment of silence and I was glad she took that train of thought.

              Sam insisted on helping me pick an outfit. A thin low cut gray dress with black leggings, black flats and a black beret she found while digging through my closet. She then refused to leave, stating “YOU ARE NOT going to skip a detail. So I will be waiting here. Your mom is still determined to teach me how to cook, since my mom gave up years ago. So I will help her make dinner."

              "But I will have eaten by the time I get back."

              "The world isn’t all about you, we need to eat, too." I glared at her, and she laughed.

              Alik said he would be back at seven; I had been hoping he would come earlier as to avoid my parents. My mother was really intrusive in matters like boys, so when Alik rang the doorbell at seven, she beat me to the door, almost running. I'm glad he wasn't in his normal black suit, black tie, and black shirt with blacked out glasses. Instead, he looked more like a teenager, but respectable in the same sense. He had on a pair of dark black jeans, a nice black dress shirt, untucked, with gold and white lines crossing through it, and a pair of simple white shoes. His cotton jacket was also white with a small black rose on the pocket; three droplets of red... water... fell off the rose’s stem, at least I hoped that was water. I was too frantic to notice this morning, but when his eyes flickered to me under his lightly tinted glasses this time, there wasn’t that same sense of longing I once felt. I was like I knew what I was missing even without finding it. It wasn’t the most comforting thought, but it was an improvement from before.

              "Hello, you must be Alik," my mom said with a warm smile.

              "Hello, Mrs. Stanton."

              "Please, come in." She more or less pulled him through the door; she then examined him under the light from the hall. She placed one hand on his cheek and looked at his face. “I think you need a bigger jacket dear; you’re freezing,” she said.

              “It is a bit cold out for a June night is all.” He smiled at me

              “Also, a bit more sun… you’re as pale as a ghost,” she stated, looking him up and down, even making a loop around him once to see every angle.

              “Occupational hazard of working nights,” was all he said.

              “Well, come sit down; we should talk for a moment.” She took his hand and led him into the living room where my father was sitting, watching the News. As she passed me, she mouthed “Wow” and I couldn’t help but grin a little.

              "Hello, Mr. Stanton," Alik said, shaking hands with my father. It felt like a seventies sitcom. My father turned off the TV and then looked Alik in the eye.

              "You’re taking my daughter to dinner tonight?" he asked with more authority than was really needed for this situation.

              "Yes sir."

              "May I ask where?"

              "You could, and I would be happy to tell you, but it would ruin the surprise."

              "Fair enough; I wouldn’t want to do that. What was that I heard you drive here in?"

              "An Aston Martin DBS; I just got it a few weeks ago."

              He gave a clichéd whistle, impressed at something. "That’s a nice bit of kit, for a…?" he trailed off to leave room for Alik to fill in the unknown information.

              “For a nineteen year old; yeah I’d agree.”

              “How’d you come across the money to get that? I would assume you were in college now. With how things are going in the economy, that’s a lot of money to spend on a car,” he asked, now interested.

              "I’m not in college, but I have gone for economics; I graduated a year ago. I work for my mom now; I handle the financial side of her business.”

              “What kind of business?”

              “She owns jazz clubs and lounges in a few independent hotels throughout New York and a few other states. We are looking to expand into owning a few more of the hotels themselves very soon.” He then looked to my mother as if he was embarrassed to ask my mom a question. “Can I ask... Are you the Mariee Stanton?” he asked my mom.

              “Yes, I am,” my mother said, blushing. From an inside jacket pocket, Alik pulled out a CD that had a picture of my mother in a little black dress taken almost twenty five years ago at her debut. It was used as the cover jacket for her first cassette; a CD of my mom’s hits was released recently and this was it.

              “Could I get your autograph; my mother is a big fan of yours,” he asked and my mother hastily found a sharpie and signed the CD.

              Throughout the entire conversation, my dad was suspicious, interested, confused, lost, and tactless. Alik, on the other hand, kept the same relaxed, calm, and cool tone the entire time. Nothing seemed as if it could bother him. My mother clearly adored him.

              "Well, you dress nicely, have a nice car, and seem to know your stuff; my daughter seems to be in good hands," my father stated, standing up and holding his hand out after the nearly fifteen minute interrogation. Alik shook once more, but my father didn’t let go. "Just make sure she comes home at a reasonable time, got it?"

              "Understood sir," Alik replied with a polite smile.

              I was still standing at the doorway to the living room watching this whole scene unfold with my arms folded as Sam tried not to laugh next to me. Both my parents walked us to the door as Sam bounced in the background. My father took a moment to hug me. "Keep this one, Ness, I like him," he whispered in my ear.

              We walked out to the car with my parents watching from the windows and Sam on the couch in the living room, peeking out through a blind. Alik opened my door and closed it for me. He then walked around slowly, got in the car, started it, and drove off slowly as well. He seemed to be putting on the gentleman's act for everyone, as they didn’t hide the fact that they wanted a show. It was about five minutes until he finally said anything.

              "So, are you going to keep me?" he asked, falsely interested.

              “I figured you would have heard that."

              "That wasn’t an answer." This time the interest seemed more genuine.

              "I have no intention of dating a vampire."

              "Glad to see you understand what I am finally." His voice returned to its normal tone.

              “Are you going to bring me home alive?” He was silent for a moment, and that moment grew into seconds. “Well?!” I said, raising my voice a little.

              A grin broke out across his face and then he laughed. “I guess, although I am passing up a meal.”

              “That’s not funny.” I glared over at him. It was silent for a moment longer. "I have a question."

              "I thought you might have a few."

              "What did you do to me?”

              “I didn’t explain enough?”

              “No, not about the blood stuff; I mean that first night I met you as the door boy... man. I felt… some pull to you.”

              “Oh, that... Well have you ever heard of the expression, 'The eyes are the gateway to the human soul' or someone say 'Look me in the eyes and say that'? There is a reason for that; looking into another's eyes can give away a lot, and while it might not be what you experienced, the few who have felt it are somewhat infamous within the vampire.”

              “I still don’t get it.”

              “Well, it’s not something just anyone can learn to do with another. Among vampire, it’s considered a rather… intimate aspect of a relationship.”

              “We don’t have a relationship; you’re just some guy who happened to be a vampire I met as a door guy.”

              “Well yes, I know that, but you asked me to explain; I did so in general.” There was another tone change in his voice, maybe disappointment?

              “You haven’t told me what this is still.”

              “It’s a feeling you get when I’m lying or you might get a flash of emotion that’s not your own if you look into my eyes and vice versa. Basically, we cannot keep secrets from each other.”

              “Is that why it’s gone now, the feeling? Because you told me what you are?”

              “Possibly, I didn’t want you to know what I was unless absolutely necessary, so in a way I made it a secret. Now that you know, it’s not anymore.”

              “So if I were to ask you something and you lied about it, all it would take is for me to look into your eyes to know whether or not you're lying?”

              “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’d have to tell you anything. You would just know I was hiding something.”

              “That sounds like it would be awfully annoying if everyone knew when you were lying.”

              “I told you, it’s not everyone; it’s just you. No vampire has ever found more than one other they share this connection with; it’s even more rare when that other is a human.”

              “What are you getting at?”

              “Nothing…” he sighed. “It’s just that you asked for an explanation.” There was something in his tone that made me think there was more, but he kept his eyes locked on the road so I couldn’t see them. “Can I ask you something?”

              “Me?”

              “You’re the only person in the car.”

“You don’t have to be mean, it’s just: what would I know that you would want to know?”

              “Well, how did it feel…”  he trailed off for a moment.

              “I don’t really know.” I said. For some reason, I was embarrassed so I looked at my feet as I went on. “It was like I had to be near you, but I didn’t know why, or maybe it was just that I wanted to be but couldn’t explain it to myself why.”

              “It’s because if you had gotten closer, I would have told you anything you wanted," he said in a low voice.

              “What did you feel?" I was ignoring what he said. "I thought I had imagined it, but when you told me your name, it felt like you didn’t really want to.”