How can I love you? (arranged marriage vampire/human)

How can I love you?

Chapter 16

"Are you excited? I'm excited!" Rachel beamed at me. I opened my mouth to answer but didn't quite get there. "What do you wanna do first?" she asked enthusiastically before I had the chance to speak. "Uh..." I began-. "Oh! We could go see a movie, or go shopping or..." I zoned out after that, letting her rant on about what we'd do. I was busy debating what I was going to say to Steven when we arrived home. I bit my lip all the way there. By the time I finished debating, Rachel had finished talking and the radio was on, with her humming along to it. I looked out the window to see it pouring rain. I frowned and squinted out my window. It was hard to see. When did it start raining? I was suprised to see it bucketing down. I looked at Rachel and she had stopped humming, eyes intent on the road. I looked out the windshield again and could see nothing but rain and wippers. It looked a little dark out and was quite dull because the grey clouds were covering the sky. Well at least that's what I was guessing, seeing as though I couldn't actually see out the window.

"How can you even see where you're-" "Shh!" she answered, squinting her eyes and moving her face closer to the windscreen. She held onto the steering wheel tightly. I looked out again. There was no way I could see anything. How was she even driving? I thought. I looked at her again, unsure that it was a good idea to keep going. I knew her senses were better than mine but she did look like she was struggling. "Maybe you should pull over?" I asked slowly. She didn't answer. "Rachel?" She frowned, which was weird because I've hardly ever seen her scowling. She sighed loudly. "Georgia can you just be quiet for a minute?" she looked slightly to the left outside inquisitivly before turning the inicator on to turn right. "We'll be here soon... I think," she said, unsure. I felt very uneasy. "Rachel! You think?! What if-" "No! Shh, don't," she scolded. I widened my eyes. "But we-" She shook her head vigorously. "No Georgia! I told you to shut up so you better shut up! I need to concentrate!" Her words rang with an air of finality. I sighed and closed my eyes, burying my face in my hands. Fine, but if I died, she'd be the one to blame, I thought.

No later than five minutes later, the car came to a stop and I heard a sigh. I looked to see we had stopped. "Oh good, you finally got some sense, I commented, glad that she decided to pull over. She snorted and gave me a patronising look. "No, I got us here," she smiled a smug smile. I squinted out the window and could make out some lights. My eyes widened. "We're here?!" I asked disbelievingly. She nodded. "Now, we can either wait here for who knows how long for the rain to stop or we can run for it and then just buy some new clothes when we get in there." I grimaced and weighed up both options. "I vote for the latter," I said. She laughed. "Oh I'm so glad I didn't have to do any persuading there." I laughed too. "Okay... on three," she said, grabbing onto the door handle. "You ready?" she asked. I nodded, taking hold of my door handle. "One... two... three... GO!" My door swung open and I hopped out into what looked like monsoon rain. I screamed and slammed my door. I felt a hand grab mine and pull me towards the lights of the mall. We both screamed and laughed. I felt a cold sting on my face and I could already feel my clothes sticking to me. As I ran, I felt my shoes fill up with water. The noise of our laughter, the rain pouring and our splashing footsteps through the puddles were the only sounds I could here. I could hardly see where we were even going. The sky was much darker than it should have been at that time.

By the time we reached the mall, we must have looked lik a pair of drowned rats. Everybody was staring at us, and yet I couldn't stop laughing. I had to move my wet hair off my face and I was freezing because I had no jacket with me. My teeth chattered and Rachel pulled me towards her favourite shop. We bought the first things we picked up and changed into them right away. The other clothes went the bin, which I didn't really approve of, but what could we really do with them? They were soaking wet. Rachel wanted to go to the hair salon but I decided against it. It would take far too long and I was eager to talk to Steven, not that I told her that. We shopped for a bit and went to see a movie. It was some girly chick flick that had just been released, so the cinema was pretty packed. I could hardly sit still for the entire movie, I just wanted to get home so I could apologize to Steven. I couldn't really concentrate in the film and maybe it was my imagination but I felt like somebody was watching me or something. I kept looking over my shoulder throughout the movie.

When we were leaving, we had to stop to buy umberellas because it was still raining pretty heavily, but not as bad as before. We were on the way out the door when Rachel stopped me by grabbing my arm. "Shoot, I forgot to get the parking lot card stamped. Could you wait here for a second while I just run over to the machine?" I looked over to where she pointed. It was in a general store and there was a machine with a big queue of people behind it. "Yeah sure," I nodded at her. "I won't be a minute." She went over and joined the queue and I turned around to look through a shop window. I was standing near a corner and I felt something grab me. They pulled at me and stopped me, facing in the diection of where Rachel was. I was about to shout but it stuck in my throat when a voice spoke. "Ahh Georgia... finally. You're just as beautiful a they say." I gasped and tried to turn to look at whoever had a hold of me, but they couldn't let me turn. It was definately a vampire, I could tell by the strength. "Don't scream or I'll kill you," the voice threatened. I winced and forced myself to speak. "Let me go! What do you want?" There was a quiet laugh and I stared around frantically. I couldn't believe nobody was noticing this! "Oh, don't worry, I'll let you go. If I took you know, it'd spoil my whole plan. Then again... it is tempting." I shivered and tried again, in vain to pull myself away. He just held me tighter. "I want you to do something for me Georgia. There is an up-coming ball at the kingdom. I want you to fake an illness so that you don't have to go. You musn't attend, do you hear me? I will know about it if you don't do as I say... trust me. And if you don't... then you an be sure that your family will suffer the consequences." I took in a sharp, unsteady breath and couldn't help the whimper that escaped my lips. "No! Don't... my family," I felt my eyes tear up. "Do as I say and they shall remain unharmed. You are not to breath a word to anyone, you hear? Not a soul. Now go my lovely Georgia."

I was thrust forwards and I stumbled a few steps. I whirled around to look at him but he was gone. Nowhere to be seen. I looked around hoping I'd see him but couldn't. I saw Rachel coming back and I quickly wipped at my eyes and looked down. "Alright, you ready?" I nodded and we left.

I was very on edge all the way home and hardly spoke. Rachel asked many times what was wrong with me but I had to lie and say I was just tired. I had no other choice. If I told, I'd be putting my family in danger. I wondered if he had them hostage. I kept going over and over it in my mind, replaying every moment of what happened in the mall. I was terribly frighteneda dn didn't even feel hungry enough for dinner when the time came around. I just stayed in my room.

I heard a knock on the door and looked up to see Philip entering. He frowned at me and had a concerned expression on his face. "Rachel told me you guys made up and went out?" he questioned. I nodded in response and turned around to face the window. "How come you weren't at dinner. I was away on business all day and I come back in tie for dinner, excited to see you and you weren't even there," he complained. I didn't turn but shrugged my shoulders. "I guess I'm just feeling a little tired," I lied again. "You guess?" and I could picture his raised eyebrow. In a flash, he was in front of me, kneeling down to face me and holding my shoulders as I sat in a chair. "Have you been crying?" he asked after searching my eyes intently. I frowned at him. "No," I was sure I sounded believable. "Are you sure that's all that was wrong?" he questioned. I nodded again. He pulled away and went over to sit on the bed. "Did you hear? There's going to be a ball." My heart accelorated. "A ball?" I asked, my mouth drying. "Mm hmm, so that gives you three days to prepare," he sounded enthusiastic. "A ball for what?" I asked shakily. He shrugged. "It's to celebrate the reign of my father and mother. They've ruled the kingdom for quite a while now and it's tradition to host a ball before you resign as king or queen. Our wedding is in two weeks and then in three weeks, it'll be our corination." He smiled and sood up, walking over to me again. "To think that you will be my queen, my sweet Georgia." He kissed both my hands, one at a time and then pulled me up. He turned me around to face the window, standing behind me kissing my neck. "I'm so happy to have you to share it with." I was too worried to share his happiness right now. I pulled away and got into bed.

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So? What do you think? Yay plot! lol