"No funny business. I'll scream and dead or not, it will hurt your ears."
He shook his head, face serious. "No funny business," he promised.
"Could you put the fangs away?"
"I like the way you smell."
"That is creepy," I said and plucked at my bottom lip. "You're creepy."
His body kind of vibrated, and a strange grizzly sound came out of his mouth. I guess since vampires didn't use air to talk or breathe they sounded, moved and even laughed differently to normal beings. I jumped, but thankfully he was too preoccupied with laughing to notice, or to comment on noticing.
"No biting. I swear."
I was having a hard time. Vampires were more often than not attractive in a scary, dead, don't look them straight in the eye, ripping throats out and wallowing in 'top yourself' amounts of despair, way. This vampire-boy was positively spritely. It was such a stark contrast to my preconceptions cultivated by years of Sect reports, I kept having mini flashes of the different ways he would grab me, and sink his fangs into my flesh.
"Can't get much crazier than I already am," I said finally, and shuddered. Another flash of watching him drink me to death had me wishing I'd stayed my ass in bed.
The vampire picked me up and broke out into a ground-eating run. I noticed then that he was not breathing and wondered if that was by choice? It was strange to be so close to another person and not sense the normal rise and fall of the chest. There was no heartbeat either. No body heat. Just this animated body walking and talking and carrying me. People said vampires were soulless, and I did not agree. They had souls, dark ones. Here I must say I also believed there were different kinds of dark. There was a dark that was evil and cruel, and there was a dark that was solitary and simply absent of light. Maybe this boy was the clear dark.
I kept thinking nice fluffy thoughts of flames that didn't blister the skin because they looked pretty, and bolts of lightning that wouldn't kill you dead because they were a gift from the sky. Making bad things good helped me to not freak out, and start bawling in this demons embrace. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop the thought that really mattered. This vampire needed something from me. That was the reason I was still alive. And, I concluded he must be cunning. Breandan seemed a good tracker and he'd been fooled. I was sure he would not have left me if he'd thought there was a chance I'd be in danger.
Thinking of the fairy-boy had me thinking on a new problem I had created for myself. What did I do and say the next time I saw him? Did I tell him about the vampire-boy in the wardrobe? Breandan had said he'd come back, but not when so I figured he'd probably give me a few days to adjust. He'd seemed very conscious I accept what he'd told me, and he'd made an effort to ask how I was feeling and if I'd wanted to talk about it. The vampire could die for the day in my wardrobe, ask me his questions after sunset then go on his merry way. Problem solved, because then I would wake up.
I had decided right around the time I saw the green fairy-girl that I was dreaming.
We ended back on the Temple grounds in a few blinks of the eye. At first it looked like he was going to run through the brick wall that surrounded the Temple, and I squeezed my eyes shut. I felt a jolt. Air whistled past my head and other sounds drowned in a loud whoosh. The vampire-boy did a fast movement, another bigger jolt then the wind was blowing the hair back from my face again. It was hard to figure out the speed he ran at in the dark, but the wind on my face gave me a little thrill. If ever I needed to run away from him I'd be faster. Something struck me as a little odd. He seemed to know exactly where he was going.
I said, "You've been here before."
This was more evidence I was still sleeping safely in my bed.
"No. Your scent is distinctive."
"Huh. The key is in my left butt pocket," I said candidly.
"I see," he said. We reached my room and he threw me over his shoulder. It was neat, and swift, and not a little bit uncomfortable. "May I?"
"Uh, may you what? May you take the key, or may you drain me for dinner?"
"You have to invite me in." He sounded strained. "The hallways are public but your room is private. Invite me in."
