Enlightenment

part 4

She sounded reassured,"Night." I heard no sounds indicating she was coming to check, so I released David who stumbled back against the desk breathing hard.

"What- what are you doing here?" I grinned apologetically

"I heard you talking to Anna." 

He paled."You better leave her alone; she doesn't believe any of this you know."

"I know, but why did you tell her?" he was slowly inching towards a draw in his desk, I pretended I didn't notice. 

He answered "I thought she might believe me with all those books she reads..."

I glared at him again."See there is the problem. I don't want you telling people, especially people who might believe you." He began fumbling behind him in the drawer, coming out with a crudely made wooden stake, pointing it towards me. I admired his courage, it was only quivering slightly. I smiled, he had no chance of hurting me, and I was much stronger than him. He looked alarmed by my expression.

"You should stay back" I ignored him,

"The important question is how do you know?" 

He seemed reluctant to answer, he said it almost to himself."I used to have a brother, he was older than me, I was only seven, he was 12... one night, I woke up, I had a bad dream, and I went to his room. There was a guy there, he sort of jumped back when I opened the door. He had been leaning over the bed, then he- he hissed... his teeth were long and sharp, and his eyes..." 

I knew what he was remembering, vampire eyes, when we are hunting, the pupils would be long slits, like an animal, the irises silver. 

He continued, "then he was gone, and Jake was dead. The doctors said there was almost no blood left in his body, they couldn't understand why... nobody believed me of course." Abruptly his eyes returned to the present, although he didn't seem to be able to stop talking now that he had started, "I didn't even believe myself, not really... and then you came. I couldn't work out what was bothering me at first... but I watched you, the way you do things, you do them differently to other people, you act different. I did some research; the thing that most sources seem to agree on is that if I shove this," he flicked his eyes down to the stake, "through your heart, you'll die." I saw the resolve settle in his face, he lunged towards me. It was simple for me to step to the side and grab the stake from his hands; I did it so fast he wouldn't have even realized exactly what I had done. He staggered back again, looking confused and wary.

I looked him in the eye. "What you didn't take into account was that it is much harder than you thought to hurt me, I am much stronger and faster than you. However, lucky for you, I don't want to hurt you." I tossed the stake into a bin under his desk, "I just want to talk to you." I strode over and sat sideways in the desk chair, he backed away from me but his shoulders relaxed slightly after a moment, he frowned.

"You want to... talk?"

"Isn't that what I just said?"

"Yes but why?"

"You know I a vampire, we need to come to a solution for that." he flinched at the word.

"I still didn't really believe it until tonight" he muttered darkly. I could try to erase his memory, but that would be tricky. Days of suspicions, hours of thinking about it, it was too dangerous. I might accidentally erase something important, or break his mind, leaving him a babbling idiot. I would have to think of a better solution, 

I looked at him."What if you just don't tell anyone else?" 

He looked startled "What?"

"Well if you didn't tell anyone else, the problem would be solved, nobody gets hurt."

"And why should I agree to that? People are in danger! They should be warned."

"What people?"

"You know, those people where- where your food comes from, they're not... fridges you know!" 

I blinked. "I don't hurt anybody." 

His face showed his disbelief. "Of course you do! When you... bite people" his nose wrinkled in disgust.

"I don't do that! I actually do have blood in the fridge, in my house, in bags, like in the hospital. I live off that." 

It was his turn to blink, then his brows creased again. "But where does the blood come from?"

"I have contacts at hospitals, I buy it from them, it comes from people who donate it I suppose, I donate substantial amounts of money to the charities, I also have people doing research for me, they are trying to find a way of... cloning the blood, so I don't have to get it from people, but they haven't been able to come up with an effective way yet." Not that they know what they are really working for. I put my hands up defensively, "it's the best I can do." He seemed to hear the honesty in my voice.

"Oh" he crossed the room to sit on the edge of his bed, "this is a mess" I could sense the deep-rooted confusion in him. 

My voice came out gentler then usual."Just because one vampire did something terrible, it doesn't mean that we are all like that, If a human had done it, would you hate all humans?" 

He seemed reluctant to answer. "No" 

I gave him a small smile."Exactly, it's not my fault what others have done." 

He looked me in the eye."I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault" I had new respect for him, its not often people have the courage to admit when they are wrong. I didn't speak for a while, giving him time to digest the new information. I stood up."I should go." He looked up and met my eyes.

"I... I won't tell anyone."

"I appreciate that, thank you" the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

"Goodbye" I nodded to him, and walked over to the window, opening it.

"Jade" I looked back, "you do know, we have a door." 

"Doors are overrated" I grinned as I jumped through the opening, and was gone before he made it to the window to look out.