• CHAPTER 4
    I sat down on a tree stump, where I had my jacket to cushen the seat. I had never even met that man, never before yesterday. Last night, I had gotten back here, made a bed, and fallen asleep thinking about him. I didn’t even know his name, but he knew mine. And, I just realized, I think he also knew that I actually lived miles from here.

    No. No he couldn’t know that, just like he couldn’t know my name. I imagined him. Yeah, that’s it, I imagined him. I got up, and started planning what I was going to do next. My stomach rumbled, and I stared at it, confused. I was hungry… I got up and walked over to my blood supply, drank some, but my stomach rumbled on, and I realized that I was hungry for… food.

    I walked out of the forest and up the street. I breathed in, trying to find the scent of some food I liked. I smelled greasey fries and burgers, yum… I headed in the direction of the smell, and it brought me to a fast food place. But then I remembered, I have no money. No money equaled no food or anything else. I sighed and walked in anyway.

    I got in, and immideatly was overwhelmed by the smell of grease and blood mixed together. I rinkled up my nose, but walked forward. I just sat down at one of the booths, and just listened.

    I heard children playing in the next room over, where the play area was. I watched as well. Little boys and girls having innocent fun, playing tag or hide and seek. There laughter was enchanting, and I smiled to myself and closed my eyes. Then I heard the parents laughing with the kids, just having fun. There were also the arguing ones, and I shut them out. I listened farther, and I could hear the burgers sizzeling on the fryers, and the drinks being poured.

    I heard the little jingle as someone walked in to buy themselves lunch. Feet slapping, heels clip-cloping, and the soft pitter-pat of little kids running in their socks. Then I heard shoes walking toward where I was sitting, and I expected them to walk on bye, because this sound brought the smell of burgers and fry’s and soft drinks. I breathed in, and sighed.

    SLAP! Someone’s tray was placed on the table I was sitting. I frowned but didn’t open my eyes, maybe the person would go away if I just sat and ignored them. The person cleared his throat, and then I heard the scrape as the tray they had was pushed toward me. I peeked at the tray, and saw that there were two helpings of everything on it.

    Then I looked at the person who was going to feed me, and I scowled, to hide my surprise. Mystery man has made a reaperance. He nudged the tray again, but that’s all he needed to do, I dug in. The flavors all danced on my tung as I gorged the food, but it didn’t taste like it did when I was human. The taste was intensified. Mmmm….

    “You looked hungry, just sitting here all alone” he stated. I looked up, whipped my mouth and then spoke.

    “Thanks, I was, surprisingly” I said. And then I shut my mouth. Why would it be surprising that I was hungry? I had to watch my mouth around humans. “Er… I mean… um… I didn’t realize I was hungry” damn, I had to be a better liar. He smiled a bit, and I knew that he knew I was lying. Today he was wearing a deep blue button up shirt with some jeans and tennis shoes.

    He chuckled. “Really” he said sarcastically, and I put down my burger. There wasn’t really much left of it anyway. “You are SUCH a bad liar, Shelby!” he threw is hands up in the air. What the hell was he talking about?!

    “EXCUSE-me?” I growled at him. Whoops! That was a real growl. I cut it off, and sat back, frowning. Jeez, I wasn’t behaving well. His expression didn’t change even when I had growled like no human should be able to. He was still smirking. I growled again, unthinking and leaned forward, teeth bared. Some reaction was taking over, telling me to fight, I held it back as best as I could.

    He reached over and touched one of my two sharpest teeth, which happened to be my fangs. “Ahhh… there they are! Pretty little pearly whites” he said and then took his hand away because I had snapped at it. I froze, my growl cutting off. What the hell?

    I licked my lips and sat back again. “I… uh just went to the dentist” I lied. Poorly. He smiled a sweet little smile and reached out his hand again toward my mouth. An instinct took over and I snapped at his hand.

    “Right… and I suppose the dentist sharpened those teeth of yours?” he chuckled, like this was a joke. I felt the fangs retract, leaving them normal teeth again. I smiled, intent on making him think he was crazy.

    “What are you talking about?” I asked innocently. “Take a look, and I’m sure the only thing about that tooth is that it’s a little sharper then the others, all canines are” I said and smiled wider. His eyes tightened with suspicion.

    “Vampire” he blurted. Then covered his mouth with his hand but he was smiling at my shocked expression. How… what… I sat there, squirming, while he sat there staring at me smugly. I got up and strode away, motioning him to follow.

    I walked outside and up to his car, it was right out front. I heard and smelled him coming so I was holding my breath when he finally unlocked the car door and let me in. He had brought the rest of the food. I sat there, steaming.

    “So” he said with a mouth full of food. “Lets go to the dentist, I want to talk to him to see if he will do mine, yours are so white!” he exclaimed, trying to make me angry. It didn’t work. It just made me worried.

    “Ah… no. I was the last person he was seeing today, he had to…. Um golf” yeah, lots of dentist did that, right? I controlled my expression, leaving it blank for the moment. He glanced over and frowned, because there was no way to tell if I was lying or not. He turned off the street and headed toward the dentist. My heart sped up, as I realized that he was going to force this out of me.

    “Well, I want you to go get checked out again” he said stiffly. I turned toward him, eyes wide.

    “But I already went today! You said yourself, they are white!” I cried. This was horrible! Maybe I could talk myself out of going…

    “No, no. I was wrong, they could be cleaned a little more” he was tense. He parked, cut the engion, and got out. I stood where I was, smug, because he had no chance against my strength. He opened my door for me, and when I just sat there, not even looking his way, he reached in and grabbed me, one arm under my thighs and one behind my back. I grabbed the seat, knowing he couldn’t do it.

    He tugged and I came loose. I gasped, because I had been holding on as tight as I could, you could even see the dents I had left on his seat. He then proceeded to carry me into the dentist office. He carried me in and surprised everyone in the waiting room. The receptionist looked up and gasped a little, but then nodded.

    “Good morning, Dr. Anderson” she said. She eyed me, as I was looking at him, shocked. He was the dentist?! s**t! That’s why my story hadn’t worked before! “Ah…” she trailed off.

    “This is a patient, she’s a little scared off the dentist” and he winked at her. The lady laughed and then motioned us to go on in. I started struggling against him but it did no good. I shoved but I tried not to hurt him. Then I just when limp, making all of my body weight go against his arms. Nothing. He placed me gently on a bed with crackly paper.

    “Well, Shelby, lets take a look at those teeth” he said while pulling on his gloves. He snapped them, which irritated me. I started to get up when his hand pressed on my shoulder, keeping me horizontle.

    “What the hell” I spit at him. “Don’t you even dare stick anything in my mouth!” I said. Or I’ll bite your hand off, I wanted to say, but I didn’t. He laughed and then picked up the little mirror and brought it up to my mouth. I felt my fangs come out and sharpen, so I sealed my lips shut. He pressed it to my seeled lips, and my mouth atomaticaly opened, then he stuck something in that made it impossible to shut my mouth. Dammit.

    “Hmmm”, he murmured as he touched my left fang. I tried to bite down, but I couldn’t. I was going to kill him in a second. “Your teeth look very healthy… hmm… I’d guess you are about 3 days old, am I right?” he asked me, but then seemed to remember that I was incapapble of talking at the moment. I stared at him murderously. His face was kind though, and that’s what was so confusing! He reached out and, real quickly, took out whatever had been stopping me from closing my mouth. It snapped shut with an audible snap.

    He looked at me expectingly. “Well?” he asked. I decided to tell him, since he seemed to be oh so clued in.

    “Yeah, that’s about right” I growled. “How do you know about this” I said, eyeing him. His face looked old right then, older then he had looked a moment ago.

    “Oh, I’ve been abound a long time” he said. “I’m half vampire, and half human, though mostly human” he sighed. I blinked. I was shocked.

    “How is that?” I asked and I struggled into a sitting position. He put his hands out in case I slumped backwards, but why would I need it? “How are you half?”

    “The vampire who bit me, didn’t finish, didn’t put enough venom in me, so I became both human and vampire. Which, as a matter of fact, is almost exactly what happened to you” he finished quietly. I just stared at him.

    “But I’m a vampire” I stated. He smiled a little and shook his head.

    “Nope, not entirely. You are a vampire more then I am, and that’s why I don’t have fangs. I wasn’t sure you were a half-y like me, but when I saw you in Burger King, and then watched you eat human food, I was sure” he laughed. I still wasn’t sold on this.

    “But why do I growl? Why do I have fangs? Why do I crave blood?” I rattled off the questions, without expecting any answers.

    “Because, like I told you, you are vampire, just not fully. You can walk around with humans, which wouldn’t be true if you were a full. Also, you eat human food and blood” he said. He opened his mouth to show me his teeth. “I have tiny fangs, but they are sharp, like yours are” and then he reached out. This time I just opened my mouth without trying to take his hand off. He touched my fang, and it sharpened again, out to a point.

    “I drink blood two, but not much, and I don’t age” he stated. “You won’t either”.

    I already knew that, but now that I knew that I was part human, I couldn’t understand, but I decided to drop it. This was all too much, and I had another question that was more important to me.

    “How do you know who I am?” I asked intently. His eyes flashed up to meet mine, but then dropped to the floor. “How?” I insisted.

    “You… are a special girl” he said quietly, still looking down. “I was expecting you, the daughter of Gaven Chrisler, you have been watched by my kind since you turned 16” he whispered. I reached out to turn his face so that he had to look me in the eyes.

    “I’ve been…watched?” I asked, eyes wide. He nodded, and then took a deep breath, taking my hand away from his face, but keeping eye contact.

    “Yes, many thought that you would make a great vampire, but had decided to wait until you were over 18 because you would never age. I don’t know what is so special about you, but I do know that lots of our kind will be after you once they hear the news that you have been changed” then his expression changed. Mine didn’t, it was stuck in horror. I wasn’t even capable of thinking at this point.

    “Where is the vampire that created you?” he asked. I blushed and then looked down. I didn’t want to admit to this.

    “He… er… um…” I tried to say it, but it wouldn’t come out. I sucked in a deap breath and blurted it out. “I killed him” and then I spun around to face the wall. I heard a gasp, and then he was walking over to me. Tears were spilling over and running freely down my face. I looked up, and his face was sympathedic. He reached out and pulled me into a hug and just held me while I cried.

    I didn’t cry for long, but it was nice to be held, and the feeling of his hand pressing my head to his shoulder was comforting. I held on to him and cried for the loss of two lives, but only mourned for one of them, for the little girl. When I was done, I sat back down, and he sat next to me, keeping his arms looped around me.

    “Why…?”, he trailed off, not wanting to upset me. I shrugged and spoke without infliction.

    “He killed an innocent little girl to feed himself, and didn’t even think of it as bad” I said flatly. I felt him squeeze me tighter.

    “Oh, sweetie, most vampires are like that” he said softly. I leaned into him, sighing because I didn’t want the truth of what is. I was glad that somebody understood, though. That someone could help me. Someone…