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I was unable to resist and slowly met his eyes, my cheeks hot under his piercing gaze. He was beautiful, his face perfectly symmetrical, all angles and straight planes, his jaw square, his nose strong and straight. Dark brows arched over large blue eyes fringed by thick dark lashes.
His black hair fell around his face and down to graze his shoulders.
"What are you?" I managed, despite being immobilized. “Are you using magic on me to keep me from talking about you?”
"Not magic,” he said, a slight quirk of a smile on his mouth. “I'm someone who needs refuge for a few days," he said, his voice was soft, and not at all impatient. "That's all you need to know. To tell you more would put you in danger." He stepped closer and brushed my hair back from my cheek. "I've been imprisoned, held captive against my will and have a need for safety and secrecy until the danger I face passes."
"I saw you disappear into thin air," I said, wanting to know more about him. "If I'm letting you stay, I think it's only fair that you tell me what you are."
He smiled. "Letting me stay?"
I frowned at that. Of course, I wasn't letting him do anything. At that moment, I had the sense he was letting me live.
"As to what I am?" He exhaled and considered for a moment. "You wouldn't understand."
"Try me," I said, unwilling to give up so easily. "I'm going to study engineering next year in college. I'm majoring in bioengineering. I think I can understand most things. How is it that you can dematerialize?"
He said nothing for a moment and then sat down, his feet propped up on the coffee table, one arm thrown over the back of the sofa.
"I can't tell you," he said simply. "It would put me in a great deal of danger. It would put you in even more. Just know that I won't hurt you."
I said nothing, not satisfied with his non-answer, but I couldn't exactly force him to tell me anything.
“Are you a vampire?” I said point-blank.
There was that smile again. Coy. “What do you think, beautiful Calla?”
I shook my head. It was ridiculous to suggest he was a vampire, but I had seen him materialize out of the flock of bats.
"I have to go," I said and pointed back to the cottage.
"Come back later." He rose from the sofa and came to my side. "We need to talk." Once more, he touched my face, his skin cool on my cheek.
"About what?" I managed, my voice barely audible.
"Things. Just come back once Chelsea's asleep."
I wanted to say no, but found I could say nothing. Finally, he let his hand drop and I was free to move.
I opened the door, crossing the threshold, a sense of relief flooding through me that he was letting me go.
"Remember, come back later."
I glanced at him one last time where he stood a few feet from the doorway, almost naked, his pale skin glowing in the light from the lamp, the scars already healing.
When I arrived back in the cottage, Chelsea was in her pajamas and was in the kitchen heating up some water for tea.
"Where the hell were you?" she said, frowning.
I was in the guesthouse with a nearly naked man who came out of the sky and apparently can dematerialize at will. As crazy as it sounds, I think he’s a vampire.
That was what I wanted to say.
"In the guest house looking for a book."
"What book?” she said, her face softening. “Did you find it?"
I shook my head. “Dracula, by Bram Stoker,” I said, saying the first title that came to mind.
