Chapter 28 : How To Feel When You're Connected
I was the first to wake up, as always. We were a tangled, sleepy mess. Our legs were knotted together, and Warren's arm was flung over me. His hair was sticking to his forehead again, and his mouth was ajar slightly. He always looked so peaceful when he slept. He looked ordinary and normal; not a vampire who had been through hell and back.
Warren has been through so much in his life and he deserved so much more than what he was getting. It wasn't fair, but then again, nothing ever was. Warren was just stuck having a shitty, psychotic best friend. He didn't know any of this was going to happen and there was no way for him to stop it.
Warren jerked awake next to me. He yawned and when he saw me awake, he smiled sleepily at me. "Good morning, my little whipped cream."
"Morning, Corneliu."
The smile on his face dropped entirely. "You're really not going to let that go, are you?"
I started to cackle, grinning widely. "I can't help it. I'm in love with your name."
"Yeah?" He said, stretching his arm up. "I thought you said love didn't exist?"
"I - " I did say that. And I did believe that it wasn't real. But then again, I was living in a world in which mermaids and werewolves were real things. Things, that if you asked me a year ago if they were real, I would say absolutely not. But I had proof that they were truly real. "Maybe I was wrong."
"Wrong?" He echoed. "That wouldn't surprise me." I slapped him on his bare stomach, at which he laughed at. He grabbed my waist and brought me closer to him. I laughed too, breathing in the smell of his neck. He sighed, obviously content with our position. "Sometimes I wish I was human again."
I kept my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. "Why?"
"Because I'd be able to do things like this everyday," I heard him say quietly. "I'd be able to have a real, home cooked dinner and not worry about drinking blood to survive. I'd be able to just be normal. I think it's what I've always wanted."
"Really?" I purred.
"No," He said after a minute. "You know what I've always wanted?"
"A brain?"
I was ignored. "A family."
I picked my head up to look into his eyes. "A family?"
He looked down at me and moved some hair pieces away from my eyes. "Yeah. A family. With tons and tons of kids running around everywhere." I wasn't about to admit it, but that's kind of what I've always wanted, too. And doing that with Warren kind of made my heart race. Warren suddenly grinned down at me. "You kind of did just admit it, sweetheart."
"Shit," I swore, clunking my head to his vibrating-with-laughter chest. "Well, yeah," I sighed. "I never had any siblings growing up, and I had no father-figure. None of my aunts or uncles were ever happy with their lives, always getting divorced and whatnot. I've always had this little piece of hope inside me. That just maybe I would be able to have a family. Maybe I would be able to keep mine together and not end up like everyone else."
Warren was playing with a piece of my hair. He hummed out a breath. "Just maybe," He muttered. "Just maybe." His hand stopped playing with my hair and he sighed loudly. "I left something out last night. About my life."
"What is it?"
"Every creature - you know, vampires, mermaids all of them - they can connect better than the average human or animal. They connect, usually, really good with someone from their range of people. Like, mermaids to mermaids, and werewolves to werewolves. When they turn to the age of 18, they're able to find this person they usually connect really well with, because of the enhanced senses. It reaches full capacity.
"When you're near the person, you'll be able to smell them out. It'll be the strongest scent in the entire room, if you're that close. But you can't quite tell if it's that person you can connect to. You can usually tell through a kiss or something. It sounds like a shitty romance story, but this is all true, I swear."
Warren swallowed as he continued. "Vampires usually connect with other vampires. In some cases, creatures like us can connect with a human. It's rare, but it can happen. Humans emotions aren't raised like ours, so they have a tough time finding their connected half."
"I'm confused," I said. "What do you mean by 'connect'?"
"It pretty much just means true love," He said blankly. "They find their true love. Well, in all my 300 years of living, I never found mine. Thought she died in some freak accident, or something. That was really pleasant, considering all the shit I've been through. I was really looking forward to having one. But then one night, I was in a club, at a bar. And I got a whiff of a strong vanilla scent. I thought it was a perfume or something, so I ignored it and went onto the dance floor."
I heard him swallow again. "Then you showed up, with your oversized glasses and messy curly hair. The vanilla scent filled the entire room and you started dancing with me. It didn't hit me on what was happening at all. I completely forgot about everything. And then," His throat clogged up for a second, "when I kissed you...at...at your mother's house - "
You belong to me.
"Stop," I breathed out. My brain ran cold and my heart felt like it stopped. I sat up, off his chest. He was staring at me like a lost child. There were so many emotions running through me. The biggest one, though, was betrayal. If this was real...and I was his 'connected' or whatever it was called...he betrayed me. He deliberately went out and partied with Jennifer. In front of me.
Warren was listening to my thoughts because his whole face dropped and he sat up, going to touch my arm. "Alexa, no - "
"Don't touch me," I seethed, kicking away from him. I got out of bed, holding a hand to my head. I didn't know what to do, what to think. All I knew was that he was keeping this from me and I didn't like it. "I - I need to step outside," I breathed, feeling dizzy. "Stay here. Don't follow me."
"Alexa - "
I headed for the door. We were on the first floor, so getting to the exit was easy. I was in shorts and a tank top, so I was semi-dressed to go out in public. I wanted to be alone, without any people near me. So I took a back-exit and found a bench.
I sat on it and breathed in deeply for a couple of seconds, eyes closed. Warren knew ever since we kissed on his birthday. It was confirmed that I belonged to him. I guess it worked the other way around, but then again, I wasn't entirely sure how it worked. I left before he could explain it all.
I wasn't sure I wanted to hear the rest of it. I lived my whole live, questioning about love. Would I ever come across it? I was so headstrong in believing it wasn't real I never gave it a chance. And now I practically just got hit over the head with it and I wasn't sure what to do with it now.
I opened my eyes and got off the bench. I had to go back to Warren. I took my first step back to the room, but that's the farthest I ever got. Someone behind me scooped me up and hoisted me over their back. I shrieked bloody murder and started kicking and screaming. I pounded on the guy's back and in the far away distance, I heard gun shots going off.
Warren.
"WARREN!" I shrieked at the top of my lungs. "WARREN, HELP!"
"ALEXA!" His voice was roaring over the parking lot, which was where the guy was taking me. Warren came into my view. There were about fifteen guys surrounding him. But they weren't attacking him. They were keeping him in place. When his eyes met mine, I saw the fire break in his eyes. "ALEXA! ALEXA! PUT HER DOWN, TAKE ME! YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH, LEAVE HER ALONE!" Warren was clawing his way over to me. He was doing all he could. Someone had taken his gun away from him. He was knocking out as many people as possible to come and get me. He was livid; there was fire consuming him as he tried to work his way towards me.
There were tears in my eyes as I struggled with all my might to be free from the guy's hold. I put up a fight, scratching and clawing the entire time. I was crying and gagging, but I didn't give up. "WARREN!"
A black car entered my vision. The guy tossed me into the back, where there was another person waiting. That person cuffed me and forced me to stay seated. The car took off and I started banging on the windows. Warren saw me as the car sped away. He was yelling and he tried to run after it, but the vampires were holding him back.
It was too late. We were already gone.
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I'm sorry I know this chapter was shitty it's because I wrote it a while back ago and I sucked and I still suck and I just want a toasted almond bar ice cream.