“Human relationships don’t go down well with Luke” he said through his teeth.

 “Luke?” I asked.

 “The vampire that I have traveled with since my…change” He said his tone taking on a sad hint. I felt guilty for being the reason I was tearing the two apart.

“I’m sorry” I whispered, feeling useless.

“Sorry?” his tone was flat with anger. “Don’t you ever be sorry for Luke, he doesn’t deserve to hear you at all let alone take your sorrys.” He hissed. I flinched from the dangerous anger in his voice. His face smoothed, and his eyes softened.  

“I’m the one that’s sorry” He said then mumbled something so low I couldn’t make out. It made me so mad when he did that. Again, he saw my thoughts and smirked a little. Funny how petty things like this annoyed me when our lives were apparently in danger. I shivered picturing Luke and his ferocious eyes.

            “You’re not in danger” he said inching towards me, a statue coming to life. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought that I was the one who could bring him to life. I looked up quickly to see if he’d caught that…he had said he only saw images and I hadn’t pictured anything but still…There was no smirk or flash of knowledge in his eyes and I let out a breath. Our fingers interlaced again.

“How can you be near me when…I’m human? Aren’t you thirsty?” He winced as the last word came out of my mouth. I pulled away by way of an apology.

“It is strange, you’re right” he said ignoring my retraction. “I just…don’t want to kill you so I never even have the thought cross my mind…I suppose it’d be different if I was extremely thirsty. But actually I just fed. That’s the only thing that saved your life when you were lying there, your blood flowing” he cut off abruptly and sucked in a big breath. “I don’t advise bleeding much around me” he said in a tightly controlled voice. I pictured the way that scene would play out and winced, shaking my head

 “Didn’t plan on it” I said. He raised his head, his eyes pleading.

 “I will try,” he said. I was confused by the sudden change…what was he talking about? “Our conversation before the…err interruption? I will try my best to feed that way.” He said in a hard voice “And I lied before, I am doing it for you and nothing else” he said so quiet, looking away. Should it really be so hard for him to admit this? Weren’t we lovers now? The thought made me smile remembering his words that night. But we’re in love, isn’t that supposed to make everything better? He smiled too, and in that moment I felt happy. Because I knew he would try. And he would make it through. Impossibly we would make it through. There was no other way. My optimism scared me though. I thought I’d never felt this way before, when I’d told him that in love was the only way to describe how I felt, I wasn’t lying. It felt different from all those other guys, my head whirled through their faces and names. Simon, Jack, Neil, John the hippie…. This was so different. The way my heart had thumped just at the first sight of him at the bar, even though I hid it, and lied to myself that the feeling wasn’t there. The way I’d run from the scene in Alexis Manger’s bedroom not wanting to believe or think, when if it had been someone else I would have ran forward and demanded an explanation while dialing 911. All these things, feelings, felt so incredibly stronger than the weak relationships in comparison I’d once thought were love. So many times I’d thought I was in love, so many times I’d thought my heart had been broken. My heart was fine. Whole now. I pictured it, not scratched and bruised as I’d once thought, but…new. Different. Eric watched while I sifted my thoughts. Probably watching the images my sifting caused too.