Secret Desire

chapter 2: follow

“Only if I get caught.” He muttered facing the road.

“Can you see through that?” I asked curiously, maybe even a little concerned. He nodded.

“It's thin enough to see perfectly fine.” He assured.

“Well...O.K...” I murmured. I looked out the window watching the scenery go by. Well, I watched what I could see anyways. Eventually we pulled up to what looked like a deserted park.

“It's out first night out and you take me to a park?” I teased. He shrugged.

“Maybe on our next date i'll take you out to dinner.”

“A date? Oh, is that what this is?” I continued to tease. He laughed turning off the truck.

“Dante said fresh air. This is fresh air.” He got out, I followed, as always.

We climbed the hill up to the swing set. As we reached the top I understood what he meant by fresh air. It was nice to finally be outside again after so long. I took in a deep breath, soaking it all in and went over to the swing set where Kale was already sitting.

“This is nice.” I sighed, sitting down on the swing next to him.

I looked at him as he nodded. I secretly hoped that his hood would knock his hood back. It stayed put over his face. He turned to me, I realized I was staring so I looked away. My legs helped me move the swing back and fourth gently.

“Have you figured out what i'm doing here?” I asked almost out of nowhere. He didn't answer right away. Not until I looked at him again. He sighed now.

“I've been trying. Dante is very good at keeping secrets.”

“What was the “preparation” thing he talked about that first day?” I never thought to ask that, probably because I figured he wouldn't tell me at the risk of Dante or someone showing up.

“That had nothing to do with you.” He muttered. “We have sort of a, gathering every year. He was referring to that.” He continued.

“Oh...” I looked down at the sand beneath us. “Well, what about your hoods? Why do you guys wear them?” I looked back at him. He seemed to be waiting before answering.

“We're like...a secret society.” He seemed to be choosing his words carefully all of a sudden. “When we go out in public we wear them. We always wear them around--” He stopped as if not wanting to finish.

“Around humans?” I asked . He didn't say anything. “You guys are vampires, aren't you?” My heart began to drum as the question came out of my mouth.

He turned to me now. His mouth was open, his face probably shock. But since I couldn't see his face, I just guessed by reading his mouth.

“How did you...?” He stumbled over his words and changed his sentence. “When did you...?” His voice trailed off completely. I shrugged.

“I just kind of assumed, I mean the way Dante looks and all. You guys are really strong and fast, your skin is so cold.” I reached over touching his hard hand. “I've known for awhile now.” I pulled away.

“And you're not afraid?” He sounded amazed.

“Of you and Dante, no. Especially not you. But of the others, just a little.” I said softly.

He must have been looking at me for awhile before he finally continued what he was talking about.

“That's why everyone was so shocked when Dante showed you his face. We just don't do that.” He looked like he something just came to his mind. “Why were you surprised?”