Breaking Order

Chapter 2: "Acoustic"

Mercifully, as Carbry and I made our way to his penthouse, we encountered neither humans nor vampires. Our greeting at the airport had indicated to me that our relationship was something of a spectacle in the vampire community, and I didn't know if I was ready to handle the attention we would garner right now. I was tired and hungry and just wanted to be with Car.

Was that too much to ask? Probably.

Whether the lack of an audience was a coincidence or somehow orchestrated by Car, I don't know. Regardless, I was thankful for the relative privacy as I followed King Vampire down the familiar corridors I hadn't traversed in over a year.

When we reached the apartment, Car pulled out a card key and scanned it. That done, he then placed his palm on a bio metric scanner, which beeped after a moment, and finally entered an entry code into a panel set into the wall.

"Is this Fort Knox or something?" I asked.

He held the door open for me as he responded, "I upped the security since you last visited."

"Dare I ask why?"

His expression grew grim. "On the off chance you said yes to my proposition that you and I become an item, I felt it necessary to implement these safety measures considering how...controversial our relationship might be."

The door closed behind us, and I jumped when I heard heavy bolts automatically sliding into place. Car smiled before saying ominously, "Now, no one can hear you scream."

I knew he was teasing me, but the joke was on him. In response, I winked and stood on my tip toes so that I could throw my arms around his neck, taking him by surprise as I said, "Oooh, kinky."

A heartbeat later, he rolled his eyes, but wrapped his arms around me all the same. "I still can't believe you said yes to being with me."

I frowned, "Car, I would have been on board with this a year ago. You're just so set in your goddamn old man ways you didn't see it."

When he didn't say anything, I pulled back and shrugged while looking at his face. "I guess it only makes sense that I caught onto this before you. I am the smart one in this relationship."

He laughed genuinely, and I was glad to see he was already in a better mood than he had been in the car. "Yeah right."

I smiled, breaking away from his grasp, "Just generic sarcasm? Your humor skills are slipping, old man. What happened to you this past year?"

The question was rhetorical, and I felt his gaze on me as I turned and started walking toward the guest room, suddenly struck by an odd sense of déjà vu. "Gods, I never thought I'd be back here."

"Where are you going, mo shíorghrá?" He asked after me. I turned to look at him as moved to his bedroom door and held the door open for me, "Our room is this way."

"Our room?" I asked incredulously as I started walking into the space, "I mean..." Looking around, I saw that virtually nothing had changed, but I smiled when I saw my giant stuffed Hello Kitty sitting happily on the bed next to his stuffed vampire.

"So? What do you think?" His question interrupted my musing.

"Of you?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Of the room, Mer."

I put my hand to my mouth, mimicking being deep in thought. "I noticed this last time. There's a lot of black."

He frowned. "I thought you liked black."

"I do." I smirked.

"So, it's your style?"

"It's our style."