Dark Eyes

Chapter Seventeen: Feeding Off Innocent Fans?

We finally made it back to the bus after what seemed like a lifetime. We walked in to find Emerson sitting in the kitchen area drawing something in his sketchbook.

"Hey Em, where's Sebastian?" Remington asked.

"He went out with Daniel. Probably at some bar. I stayed here to work on some more architecture." He lifted the book to show a small city by the sea, with people roaming its cobblestone streets.

"That's beautiful Em." I told him.

"Thanks, I call it Calypso." He smiled and went back to work.

"Do you want to go somewhere and talk?" Rem asked.

"Sure." I replied. He took my hand in his and led me to the bathroom at the back of the bus.

"The bathroom?" I asked.

"It's the place that's furthest away from Emerson. I don't really want anyone overhearing." He spoke very quietly.

"Do your brothers not know about you?" I ask.

"No. No one knows except you." He answered. He looked up at me through his lashes. I put the lid down on the toilet, and sat down. Rem sat on the floor, at my feet. He was fiddling with his rings.

"Harper, I know you must have a million questions. I'm going to tell you anything you want to know, but you can not repeat it. No one can know about me, or they will come after me.."

"Who will come after you?"I asked.

"There are others like me, but not many. They are all a group. They go everywhere together, they feed together. If they knew about me, they would want me with to join them. They are bad people. Well I guess I'm no better than they are.. I'm a bad person too. But I would never join them." He was still looking at his hands.

"Hey..." I reached down and grabbed his hands. He looked up at me. "You are not a bad person. I refuse to believe that. Your diet is.. questionable. But that's a part of you that you can't control. Your soul is good. I know it."I placed my hand on his chest, over his heart. "Your heart is good." I smiled at him.

He scoffed. "Soul? Heart? I don't have those things Harper. You should be terrified and running for the hills."

"You were right, if you were planning on killing me, you would have done so already." He smiled a very small smile. He placed his hand on my cheek.

"I love you Harper. I know that you can't return those feelings. I don't expect you to ever feel the same way. You can't love a monster. But I just want you to know that. I love you." He slowly leaned in, so he wouldn't scare me, and placed a gentle kiss on my lips. I smiled at him.

"So, you have some questions to answer." I dropped my hand from his chest, he looked disappointed at my reaction to his words and his kiss.

"Right, ask away." He said.

"How did you become this?" I asked.

"I didn't choose it for myself. I don't really remember much from the night that I was changed, except the pain. The transformation is extremely painful. I was walking home one night when we lived in Vegas. I was attacked from behind by someone. There was a sharp pain on my left shoulder, and everything went black. I woke up a little while later in my bed. Then the pain happened. Sebastian and Emerson just thought I was sick with a bad case of the flu or something. The transformation happened over the course of a couple days. And once it was complete, I was so thirsty. I had no idea what was going on, but I was so thirsty. No amount of water could cure it. The next night, we had a show at a small club in Vegas. There was a pretty young blonde in the crowd.. she was drunk and she fell, hitting her head in the process. No one seemed to be helping her, so I helped her. I led her to the back room where I noticed her head was bleeding..." his sentence trailed off there and I could piece the rest together.

"So you've been feeding off of innocent fans?" I asked him, a little disgusted.

"Don't make it sound like that.. it's who I am Harper..." his face looked so sad, and he looked back down at his hands.

"Well there has to be another way around it.." she whispered.

There was a banging on the door.

"What the hell are you guys doing in there? Making out? I've gotta take a piss." It was Sebastian. We both stood up. I went for the door handle but Rem grabbed my wrist.

"I will never hurt you Harper. You can count on that."

"I know, Rem."

I opened the door.