by Alexis Davie
“Josie, your great-great-grandmother,” Noah said, “gave him a scar from a silver bullet she fired at him, and he lost an important ability he had because of it.”
“Silver bullet?” Sophia asked. “I thought silver bullets killed werewolves.”
“They do. They can also do a lot of damage to vampires, although silver bullets can’t actually kill them.”
“You said Evan lost an ability. What ability?”
“Mind-control.”
Sophia held back a snort. “Seriously?”
“Yes,” Noah assured her. “He still has the speed, the strength, and the agility, but he can’t compel anyone to do anything.”
“I wish I had that,” Sophia muttered. “So, how is killing me going to help him get his ability back?”
“When he kills you, he’ll…” Noah didn’t finish his sentence. He cringed and looked at her.
“What?” she demanded. “Is it horrible? Is he going to eat me? Or rip off my limbs and replace the skin where he was shot with mine?”
Noah raised an eyebrow at her. “What? What made you think of that? That’s just gruesome.”
“Tell me, then!”
He took a deep breath and then exhaled. “He’ll drain your blood and bathe in it.”
Hearing him say it made Sophia cringe herself, shivers running down her arms. “Ew. I didn’t know my blood could fill a bathtub.” Noah shrugged, and Sophia looked at him with a frown. “How is that less gruesome than him replacing his skin with mine? You know what? Never mind. This is just too weird.”
“It’s a lot to take in, I know,” he said. “Believe me; I felt exactly the same.”
“I still don’t understand what you have to do with this,” Sophia told him. Noah grabbed the book and thrust it into her hands.
“Keep this.”
“Why?”
“It might make you understand better.”
She looked at him, studied him for a few seconds, then took the book from him. “Fine. I’ll read it when I get the chance. I have to go to class.”
Before she could walk away from him, Noah called out to her. “Can we meet up somewhere?”
“Like where?” she asked. “My dorm room?”
“No. What about the diner up the road?”
“Sure,” Sophia agreed. “At seven?”
“I’ll see you then.”
“Okay,” Sophia said, lingering for another second before she turned around, clutching the book to her chest. She walked away, and strangely enough, a smile ran across her lips.
* * *
“Can you believe those people?” Sophia scoffed as she entered her dorm room, with Noah closely behind her. “They were just rude chasing us away like that!”
“Well, we weren’t eating anything,” Noah pointed out as he closed the door behind him.
“Yes, we were!”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “A chocolate shake does not count as a food order.”
“It was an order nonetheless,” Sophia giggled.
“I don’t know how you can drink that stuff,” Noah said, rolling his eyes.
“Right, because chocolate shakes are disgusting.”
“It tastes like dirt!”
“You’re a weirdo,” she said, sitting down on her bed. “Chocolate shakes are the best.”
“If you say so.”
Neither of them said anything for a moment. Then Sophia looked at him. “Can I be honest with you?” she asked him.
“Sure.”
“I didn't think that it’d be so easy talking to you,” she admitted, inwardly cringing at her blatant honesty.
Noah seemed equally taken aback by her words. “What do you mean?”
“You’re a really good-looking guy,” she said, “and sometimes people are intimidated by that.”
“You’re intimidated by me?” he asked, and she could hear the teasing in his voice.
“No,” she scoffed, looking at him as he stepped towards her. “Well, maybe a little.”
“Why?”
Sophia shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I’m socially awkward. I get nervous around people who are more attractive than I am.”
Noah sat down on the bed beside her. “Why?”
“Do you always ask so many questions?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” she asked, giving him a taste of his own medicine.
“Because I like to know things,” he said flatly.
“You can’t know everything all the time, though. A little mystery is always good. It keeps things interesting, don’t you think?” she asked with raised eyebrows.
“Maybe,” Noah said. He leaned forward, placing his hands on his knees. It seemed to Sophia like that conversation had run its course, and so she began another one.
“Thanks for tonight,” she mumbled. “It was fun.”
“Yeah, it was,” Noah agreed with a smile. “I had fun, too.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You look so surprised.”
Noah chuckled nervously. “Yeah. I guess. It’s not you, though. I never go anywhere with anyone.”
“Why is that?”
“I’ve always kept to myself, really,” he answered with a shrug. “People come and go, I guess, and I’m not a very sentimental person.”
“Okay,” Sophia said. “So you have no friends, you hang out in the library a lot, and you save pathetic damsels in distress from vampires.”
“You’re not pathetic, first of all.”
“Now you’re just lying.”
“No, I don’t lie,” he said with a frown. Then he glanced at the book on her desk. “You still haven't read it, have you?”
Sophia sighed. “No. I wanted to, but it’s all too weird for me right now. I never thought I would question my own sanity and beliefs. I always knew what was real and what wasn't. That book just makes me doubt everything.”
“You shouldn't doubt yourself.”
“I know, but after everything you told me, it’s kind of impossible not to, you know?”
“I do know,” Noah said. “I know what it feels like to know all this stuff and not be able to tell people about it. It makes me feel like it’s all in my head… like none of it is real.”
Sophia leaned closer to him. “Are you a hunter, too?”
“What?” he asked, glancing at her, as if he had been lost in his thoughts.
“You must be, to know all this stuff.”
He shook his head. “Like I said, I like to know things.”
Sophia nodded slowly and looked at him. Noah’s gray eyes were bright and almost translucent, yet she saw a fire inside them that started to burn under her skin. It was a strange feeling, but it urged her on. She wouldn’t be able to accurately describe the feelings inside her, but when Noah leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers, that fire erupted inside her, overwhelming her completely.
Noah placed his arms around her, pulling her even closer, and Sophia simply succumbed to him.
She wasn’t exactly sure what made her feel everything so intensely, and she didn’t even stop him as he peeled off her clothes, and she didn’t even think as she did the same to his. Noah’s skin was cold against hers, which was surprising, but she figured she was on the verge of combusting into flames at any given moment and burn down the entire campus.
Noah’s lips against her neck and sent waves of pleasure down Sophia’s spine. His ragged breathing in her ear made her want him even more.
Noah gently guided Sophia down onto her back. Noah leaned down and locked his lips with hers. Her velvety soft lips happily returned the kiss as her hands explored his pecks and abs.
His hands found her chest and he playfully rubbed a nipple between his thumb and index finger. Sophia caught his lip with her teeth playfully, letting out mewls of pleasure.
Noah’s tongue trailed to her neck, sucking at sensitive areas. His hand slowly made its way between her legs and gently massaged her sensitive pink bud with his thumb as he moved a fing
er in and out of her.
He nibbled on his lip, taking a moment to let his eyes rake over her body, while his free hand glided up and down her side. “Oh Noah,” she moaned as she felt her core fill with anticipation.
His eyes brightened more, “Say my name again,” he requested, squeezing her ass.
“Take me, Noah,” she sighed, not wanting to wait another minute to feel him inside her.
With a growl coming from deep in his chest, Noah positioned himself between her thighs and filled her with one powerful thrust.
Sophia easily started to ascend to orgasm, as he moved in and out of her. Her hips bucked up to meet his in rhythmic motions, keeping her on the precipice of climax.
With one more movement, her orgasm hit her like a train with waves of pleasure reaching every inch of her body. Noah continued to plunge into her, rolling his torso with every couple of thrusts as if he were dancing. He never lost his pace, making her quickly build back up to another orgasm. His grip tightened on her as he brought them both to orgasm. His pelvis immediately slowed, only pumping into her very lightly then as they came down from the high.
Once he had a moment to catch his breath, Noah withdrew himself from her sex. He then rolled onto his back and pulled Sophia onto his chest. “That was even better than a dream,” he grinned.
“What is that?” she panted. “That feeling?”
“What feeling?” Noah asked her.
Sophia didn’t know how to explain it. She sat up and grabbed a pillow to cover herself.
“Why are you covering up? You have a beautiful body,” Noah pointed out.
Sophia shrugged her shoulders, looking away from him. After she still hadn’t been able to give him an answer, Noah spoke again.
“You… you make me feel things, Sophia.”
Sophia snorted. “I’m guessing that’s a good thing, right?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I don’t… normally feel things like that, and I…” His pause made Sophia look back at him.
“What?”
“It felt like I lost control for a bit.”
“In a good way, though,” she said, smiling and reaching for his hand,
“Yeah,” Noah said with a nod, and he gently touched her chin. “I like you, Sophia.”
“What a relief,” she joked, but her expression grew serious after a second. “I like you too, Noah.”
“Do I still intimidate you?”
“A little, but we can work on that,” she laughed.
Noah chuckled and reached for his clothes, scattered across the floor with hers. “I have to go.”
“What?” Sophia asked, suddenly worried. “Why?”
“It’s after midnight.”
“Do you have a curfew or something?”
“Something like that,” he said with a wink.
“Do I get to see you tomorrow?”
“It’s already tomorrow.”
She rolled her eyes and asked, “So, I’ll see you later today?”
“You will,” Noah assured her. “I have an assignment due, so I’ll be in the library all day.”
“Good. I’ll see you then,” she said.
“Okay.”
“Wait,” she called out to him before he could leave, and he turned to her. She tapped her finger against her lips and said, “Say goodbye like a gentleman.”
Noah grinned, walked over to her, and kissed her on the lips.
After he had left, and after she had dressed again, Sophia suddenly felt lonely and cold, and she grabbed the wool blanket that lay on the floor beside the bed. Her eye caught the leather-bound book that still rested on the desk, and she reached for it. She paged through the book until she reached the place where she had stopped reading before and decided she’d give it one more chance.
Several hours later, Sophia was about to stop for the night when she came across a page where her great-great-grandmother Josie wrote about a vampire with bright gray eyes and dark brown hair. Josie had not mentioned a name, but the description was too precise to be wrong.
“No,” Sophia whispered to herself. “It can’t be…”
She carried on reading until the sun came up, not feeling tired at all. She needed to know the truth, no matter how crazy it was.
5
Sophia stepped into the library, feeling angered and outraged, but also equally nervous and confused. She scanned the empty library and walked along the aisle. She had finished Josie’s journal, and now she had even more questions for Noah.
As she neared the back of the library, she saw him hunched over the table, surrounded by chemistry books. Sophia walked up to him, but he turned around in his seat, and she stopped in her tracks.
“Good morning,” he greeted her with a smile, but it faded almost immediately when he saw the serious expression on her face.
“Can I talk to you?”
“Sure.”
When he didn’t move, Sophia specified, “Somewhere else?”
“Why?” Noah asked. “What’s going on?”
“I have questions,” she said simply, and she took the book out of her backpack.
“You read the whole thing?”
“I did, and I have a lot of questions.”
“Fire away.”
“Here?”
“Here is as good a place as any,” Noah shrugged.
“Fine,” she scoffed. “Josie wrote about a guy in her journal. A guy with gray eyes and dark brown hair. Now, I’m not a biologist majoring in DNA and all that stuff, but I know that gray eyes are not that common, so it must be either one in a million chance of getting it, or it’s hereditary.”
Noah’s eyes widened with every word she spoke. “Sophia—”
“No, Noah,” she said, holding her hand in the air., causing Noah to purse his lips and look at her wordlessly. “I just need to think for a second, okay? Can I do that?”
“Sure.”
Sophia paced around the sectioned off part of the library where Noah sat perfectly still, trying to organize the muddle inside her mind. The questions were piling up, and she felt like she was on the verge of exploding. “Josie described someone who looked like you, and the only explanation I can think of is that she talked about your great-great-grandfather, or whatever, and that is why you have the journal. Because it was given to you by someone in your family. Right?”
“Soph,” Noah said. He slowly stood up from his seat.
“Tell me I’m right. It’s the only explanation.”
“No,” he told her, “it’s not.”
“It’s the only logical explanation,” she argued, and she started to back away as Noah approached her, his eyes iridescent. She felt the bookcase against her back, and she knew she had nowhere to go.
“Sophia...”
Sophia shook her head, and a tear ran down her cheek. “No.”
“It was me,” Noah said, his voice pained. “The guy Josie talked about was me.”
“No!” she repeated. “That’s impossible!”
“I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just… going to show you something. Okay?”
Sophia nodded wordlessly, and she looked into Noah’s eyes as the gray in his eyes started to swirl, like smoke from a flame. It was equally terrifying and mesmerizing. His lips parted, and her heart pounded as two perfect white fangs slid gracefully onto his bottom lip.
“You’re a vampire,” she gasped.
Noah nodded his head. “I am.”
Sophia’s breathing was ragged, and terror filled every inch of her, regardless of Noah’s assurance that he would not hurt her.
“I… I have to go,” she panted.
He seemed to want to say something else—in the end, he said nothing and turned his back to her.
Sophia rushed to the front of the library without looking back and came to a standstill at the front desk. Shivers ran down her spine, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not shake the feeling that she was being watched. She turned around, but Noah still stood with his back to her, in the s
ame position as when she left. She didn’t see anyone else in the library.
Much to her own surprise, she walked back to Noah, and he seemed as surprised as she was.
“You knew Josie?” Sophia asked before he could say anything.
“I did.”
“But she didn’t kill you.”
“She didn’t know.”
“Surely she saw that you didn’t age,” Sophia said.
“I told her a few times,” Noah agreed, “watched her freak out like you did, but every time I promised myself I’d leave, I just… made her forget me instead.”
Sophia’s eyes widened. “You can do that?”
“Yes.”
“Can you do that to me?” she asked without stopping to think about her words first. “Make me forget all this?”
Noah brow furrowed. “Why would you want to?”
“I don’t know. I’m just freaking out a little, and I wonder if it would be better if I didn't know all this.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why?”
“You’re too important.”
“Because I’m related to Josie or because I’m too important to you?”
Noah grinned slightly and dug his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Both.”
A small smile ran across Sophia’s lips, only for a second before it faded away. “How did you and Josie know each other?”
“I despise those of my kind who kill without reason, or just for fun,” he answered.
“So you helped her kill them?”
“Yeah.”
She looked at him and narrowed her eyes. “So how old are you exactly?”
Noah placed a hand on his neck and avoided her gaze. “Um… two hundred and sixty-two.”
“Holy crap!” Sophia gasped. “Will you… I mean, can I ask…” She struggled with the right words to say. “Will you tell me? About…”
“What, how I was turned?”
She nodded nervously, wondering if maybe she’d pushed him too hard. Noah simply sighed.
“I was in Norfolk, and ships from the harbor started shelling the town. Landing parties came ashore from ships and burnt the town to the ground. I was trapped in a collapsed building, and the smoke made me pass out. It was suffocating. I woke up somewhere dark, feeling like my skin was on fire. I thought it was the flames, but there was nothing,” he said before he paused for a moment. “The burning came from the inside. I was bitten, and…” Noah shrugged his shoulders. “Here I am.”