Biting Temptation

23: Dealing

"I'm not upset with you." He turned to me briefly before shrugging on a t-shirt.

I had to be patient with him. I had to let him come to me. If he ever did. I started out toward the door when I started to realised I wasn't going to get much out of him today.

"I'm angry."

I paused and settled my gaze onto him. "At me?"

"At Ana. For giving up this easily." He said with a stiff shrug.

"Ana isn't giving up, Michael." I said softly.

"No?" He shocked me by raising his voice. "She's lived this long. She's practically the same age as me. And now all of a sudden she's... she..."

Slowly, as if approaching a wild animal, I approached him. I took his hand thankful he didn't pull away from me and held it to my chest. "What's happening right now with Florence is the most amount of power she's ever had to use; that woman is not giving up. I can't tell you I know exactly how you feel because truthfully I only have twenty-one years to compare to your century. And I haven't known Ana as long as you have but when her soul leaves us I'll be just as distraught as you and her family. When it happens we'll all be in exactly the same boat without a paddle. We'll all need each other when it happens. I know you're upset she told me instead of you," I pressed my lips to knuckles. "I can accept that. I've had longer to process it sure but it doesn't mean it hurts any less to know that-" My voice cracked. "-it's going to happen."

I exhaled a large shaky breath when he pulled me into his chest. His arm engulfed me into a hug and I buried my face into his chest. "You give me strength when I need it, Evie."

"Good." I murmured inhaling the homely scent of him.

"I'm selfish enough to take it."

"It's not selfish if I'm giving it to you, Michael. I love you so much and it hurts me to see you this way."

"I love you too." He pulled away and gave me a small smile. "It's almost twelve, are you ready to see Amy?"

I nodded, allowing the change of conversation. "I'm ready. Not as excited as I wish I was but..."

"I know. Will you tell her?"

"John said it'd be best if I did it." I frowned a little as we made our way downstairs and out to the car.

The drive to John and Amy's was comfortably quiet. Every few stop lights and take a peak at Michael and thankfully I didn't see any signs of him thinking about Ana, he seemed not happy but not entirely sad either. It would take a long while for Michael to get through the grieving process but it was absolutely fine with me.

For once, there was only one other car parked outside of John's wonderful home and for that I was grateful. I knew Celia was probably around doing what she could to help them.

I stepped quickly toward the front door and walked right in with Michael hot on my heels. I glanced back at him as we made our way upstairs to the living room and finally saw a genuine smile on his face.

"Why are you smiling?"

"Because I can't wait to see your face when you see her. Remember she's just over a week old though." He grinned.

Seeing Michael this happy made me perk up a little with excitement. I was going to see my best friend as a vampire. The first thing I saw when I walked into the living room was Celia and John in the living room. Jonas was happily sitting on Celia's lap whilst John was cradling Amelia and trying his hardest to keep his eyes open.

"Have I walked into a nursery?" I said and they both turned to me with a smile.

John's eyes opened a little wider as they settled onto me and he gave me a lazy smile. "My wonderful bachelor pad has turned into a home for babies, babysitters and baby's mothers."