Strangers

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

   ‘What the hell does he think he’s playing at?!’ Mike shouted. We were now up in our room, and as much as I wanted to hold him and rest him, there was no way I could get anywhere near him in this mood. Pressing myself into the corner, I watched, scared that he might hurt himself. ‘Uh! Tif, I was stupid to send you out to him. I’m sorry, and as soon as you were out of my hearing range, I had to at least watch from the window to make sure he wasn’t going to hurt you. Can you forgive me?’ When he looked over at me, I was shocked right down to my bones to see tears in his eyes. ‘Tif, say something?’ he choked.

   ‘I... I... don’t know what to say,’ I stuttered. ‘I’m not mad at you for watching. But you should trust me enough to know nothing will happen when I’m alone with him.’ My body instinctively made its way over to him, my arms rose of their own accord to rest on his shoulders, and my eyes rolled up to stare softly into his. ‘Mike, I’m with you. Yes, he and I had a thing not so long ago but that means nothing to me now. I was lonely and wanted to feel accepted in my new town. But then we met up again and I knew where I belonged straight away, and that’s where my natural self is meant to be. Maybe not my insane, out of control self, but the me that’s talking now. The me that you seem to love so much, why you feel that way I doubt I’ll ever know but I am still a bit unsure about a lot of things right now, and well, I just need you to be there and trust me. Mike, I’m just...’ He stopped me; all I felt so strongly was his arms, his lips, even his tongue as he pulled me hard against his body and caressed my smile with his.

   ‘Tif,’ he said between kisses. ‘You’re right, and I do know what you’re going through. Maybe not totally one hundred per cent but I can empathise with you to a certain extent. So, you haven’t really answered my question. Do you forgive me for sneaking up like that?’ His smile appeared for a few seconds; but when I didn’t answer for some time; his sadness resonated to his facial features.

   Before I spoke, I touched my palm to his cheek to settle him and waited until he opened his eyes to look into mine. ‘Of course I do, how can I ever be mad at you for long? I love you, Mike; you’ve been there for me when no one else has been.’ It was a shock to me that I even uttered those three words just then.

   ‘You really mean that, baby?’ he asked softly into my ear, as we still hugged. ‘I don’t want you to say it because you think that’s what I want to hear. I only want you to say it if you mean it, and I mean really mean it.’ His eyes looked longingly into mine, my chest loosened as I felt the warmth of his body enter mine.

   Giggling slightly uncontrollably, my smile widened as far as it could. ‘Mike, of course I mean it. I very ever rarely say anything I don’t mean. I’m just scared to, if anything that could happen, you know, to do with... her. I’m scared I’m gonna hurt you and I’ll completely regret it and I’ll forever hate myself and wouldn’t want to see you again in case it repeats itself all over.’ As I spoke, my lungs compressed tighter and tighter around my heart, and by the end of my small rant I barely heard my choked words over my heavy breathing.

   ‘I know what you mean, Tif, and I’m trying to keep it to as little as I can. It’s the only way I can think to help you get through these early stages. Unless you have a better idea then I just don’t know. I just don’t know.’ He shook his head, eyes closed tight with what seemed to be self-pity and despair.

    ‘I do in fact have another idea. Maybe it would be better if we fed a little bit every three days or so. Then we won’t be waiting for the hunger to grow so strong after about two weeks and we just lose all our sanity for an hour or so and go completely crazy and lust for nothing else but the taste of blood.’ I let the idea linger in the air for awhile and he put his thinking, wondering face on again. Tapping his nose, my giggly smile on again, I let him go and flopped onto the bed. ‘You look so tired, you do know that right?’ I poised. ‘Maybe you should try to get some sleep.’

   Stripping his top off slowly, humming a little, he wondered over. ‘Unlike you, I can’t sleep, at all. No matter how hard I try it will never work and that’s only because what I am doesn’t allow it rather than I don’t want to.’ He clambered onto the bed next to me and leant over a little as I lay on my back. ‘Besides, it’s very relaxing watching you at night. It’s, shall I say, adorable how you mumble and shuffle around.’ He smirked at me as I pouted at him in a huff, with folded arms, and he smoothly ran his fingertips over my cheek and neck. ‘But, your little theory of an idea seems to be the right one. In fact, I never even thought about that option at all. Though now you mention it, it seems much much better and fitting to us.’ His smirk transformed into the most subtle smile I’d ever seen him show before.

   Walking my fingers slowly up his chest to his neck, I stared back longingly into his eyes as he did to me; sliding my tongue along my teeth behind my closed lips, I felt the sharpness of my canines as they protruded out further than my incisors. The rest of the room became a haze, and all I saw was his beautiful flawless face as he leant across to me as slow as a snail. My breathing once again sharpened and I pressed down hard into the pillow beneath my head. The smell of his breath hit my nose, and as I breathed in I smelt the foulness of his blood, the true form that he was in revealed itself to me and my guard went up a notch. His hand gripped my upper arm, and the cautiousness that suddenly filled his eyes told me he could sense my nervousness. Our eyes closed together as his face became an inch away from mine.

   ‘Trust me, Tiffany,’ he whispered almost breathlessly. His lips brushed mine so softly that only a tinge of his taste touched my tongue that lapped the inside of my lower lip.

   Breathing in to give myself enough air to speak, I gulped. ‘I do, Michael, more than you’ll know.’ My breaths were paused by his lips hard onto mine; parting them, he pushed his teeth down into my lip and I felt the blades of his canines press deep into my flesh and my vital fluid seep out over my lips into his mouth. The sweetness of his tongue lapped up any drips of my own blood as he kissed me; and although he was leaning over me, I, in no way, felt overpowered or forced into this situation; he was delicate and gentle with every move he made. Yet there was one small detail that I could not remember how it came to be, but we somehow were naked together, him lying on top of me but keeping his back arched so his chest wasn’t on mine, his lips and teeth still as they were before and his legs between mine.

   Rubbing his chest as we kissed, our bloods coating both our chins (I had bitten into his lower lip only five minutes ago) and it smelled more delicious than I thought it ever might have done; this sent a sheet of confusion through my head – what was I smelling that smelt so sweet? My eyes opened wearily, and I looked up at his eyes, they were closed and I still kissed him back, tasting the mix of our bloods as a sweet and sour cocktail, then I realised it must be my own blood I was smelling; only I was certain that not one of us could smell our own blood. Just then he pressed down on me and I could see past his shoulder. I gasped in horror as I saw him stood in the doorway. My mouth shot open with the shock and my body snapped rigid, stuck in place.