We drove north, passing through town. I watched the towns people scurry along running their errands and hurrying to work. Hoping I didn’t see anyone I knew, even though the tinted windows on Evan’s car would hide me from view. Evan drove the speed limit the whole way, when I finally saw a street sign I saw we were on Ecola Park Road. When he stopped the car he looked at me “Don’t get out.” He said as he got out and then made his way over to my side of the car. When he opened the car door for me he reached his hand out to me. I took it and he helped me out of the car. We walked through the old growth rainforest that took us to the spectacular viewpoint that overlooked Crescent Beach, Birds Rock and Cannon Beach, although at the time I didn’t know what I was looking at, Evan pointed each one out to me. It was beautiful. I really had to admit that Astoria was beautiful in its own way. The way the sun was setting over the ocean was beautiful against the crashing of the waves. Even though it was a cold morning I didn’t feel cold at all. Evan asked several times if I was warm enough or if I wanted his jacket, I declined every time. I was nervous, which was making me sweat. Evan still had hold of my hand since we had gotten out of the car. He held a tight grip on it as if he was afraid I would fall from the overlook. I was afraid of falling, but not off the cliff. He took off his jacket and laid it on the ground and pointed at it for me to sit on it. I smiled at him as he helped me to the ground. He sat on the cold ground beside me. Both staring ahead at the beautiful scene in front of us, when finally we both spoke at once “Why” I said as he said “I’m” we both let out a small chuckle before he said “You go first.” I tried to swallow, but I was so nervous my mouth was dry. Then finally my words fumbled out. “Why did you stand me up?” I asked as I stared at my hands I had twisted in my lap. He was staring ahead at the ocean. It seemed to take him forever to speak. Then his hand cupped my chin to raise my head so I was looking at him in the eyes. “Emma, it killed me that I had to stand you up.” He said as his thumb rubbed my chin. “Then why did you?” I asked as I broke my chin free from his hand.
“Because your… people… doesn’t like my kind.” He said as he reached his hands to my face again and turned it so I would look at him again.
“What does that mean?” I asked. Now I was staring him straight in the eye, my heart was racing and my mouth was dry. I didn’t know why he made me so nervous.
“What do you know about me and my family?” he asked. I stared at him confused by his question. How could I possibly know anything about him, or his family? I just moved here.
“I don’t think I understand the question?” I told him as I shook my head. “I just moved here, how could I possibly know anything about you or your family.”
“I mean, what have your people told you about us?” he asked. And now I was beginning to understand where this was going, he must be talking about the legends of our tribe. I let out a little chuckle as I shook my head “Evan, those are just silly legends that the elders tell the little kids to scare them, they don’t even know you, or your family. You can’t let that bother you.” I said as I took his hand in mine. “I don’t believe it, so that’s all that should matter. If you like me-”
“EMMA, I am trying to tell you that it is true, they are right. I am a Vampire” He said as he pulled his hand out of mine and stood up and turned his back towards me. I stood up slowly and walked up beside him. I touch him on his back and he jerked away from me. I moved my hand slowly away as I turned my back to him. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes and my body stiffened as the tears started to stream down my face. I didn’t know if I was crying from the rejection or from hearing this nonsense, Evan, was a Vampire. That was impossible. Vampires do not exist. “Emma” he said as he put his hands around my waist.
“What.” I snapped as I wiped the tears of my cheek.
“Please don’t cry. I would never hurt you.”
“Are you really going to make up a lie as silly as that so you don’t have to be friends with me?” I yelled as I pulled myself free from his grasp.
“I am telling you the truth.” He said as he tried to reach for me again. I pulled away from his reach and started walking back through the forest towards the car. I could hear Evan behind me, and then suddenly I felt his hands reach around my waist again and he halted me to a stop and turned me around to look at him. He took both hands to my cheeks and leaned in to kiss me. I turned my head slowly and whispered “Don’t”. I don’t know why, I wanted to kiss him, but I didn’t want to keep this silly charade up.
“Emma, I am telling you the truth.” He whispered. “You have to believe me.” He said as he held my face in his hands. Something went through me and I was getting angrier and before I knew it I was yelling “A Vampire? And you really think I am that stupid that you couldn’t come up with something better than that?” I yelled as the tears streamed down my face. I hated when I was angry because I cried. And crying just made me even madder. I looked at Evan standing in front of me and I then the next he was gone. I franticly looked around “Evan” I called out to him and then I heard his voice “I’m up here.” He said. I started looking up towards the tall trees. I didn’t see him. “Look higher.” He said. I could tell he must be high because his voice was off in a distance. Looking high in the trees I caught a glimpse of his white thermal shirt. High in a seaside spruce tree, Evan sat every bit of 200 feet in the tree on a thin limb. I stood there staring at him in amazement. I looked the old tree over to see if there was any limb close enough to the ground that he could of used to climb up from the ground. There wasn’t, the closest had to have been 100 feet off the ground. “Back up. I’m jumping down” He yelled down at me. Backing up I kept my eyes on him, I watched him jump down from the large tree and hit the ground with grace. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I stood there in astonishment. Evan didn’t move. He stood in front of me, never speaking, letting me take in what I was seeing. I was trying to wrap my head around what I just had seen. No human being could make a jump like that out of a tree that high without breaking both legs. I started shaking my head slowly as I began to speak “How did you-”
“What else do I need to do to prove to you I am a vampire?” he said as he ran over to a large rock that was every bit of two hundred pounds and picked it up and threw it across the forest with ease. “I’m stronger than any human alive.” He said. “You could never out run me.” he said before he took off and was out of sight, he moved in a blur. I searched around the forest for him where I stood and jumped when he landed at my side within seconds. “My family is different from others of our kind, we don’t hunt humans, only animals.” He said as he moved in closer to where I stood. Wrapping his hands around my waist again he continued to talk “I want you Emma.” He said as his hand ran down my cheek “I’ve never wanted anyone as much as I want you.” My body stiffened, his words frighten me. Did he want to kill me? I didn’t know, but I didn’t want to stay around to find out. I started to try to walk away from him slowly and that’s when he said it “I love you Emma. I know I just meet you, but I love you.” I stopped and turned to look at him. His face was soft, and his eyes told me he was just as scared as I was. Although our fear was different, mine was for my life, and his I could tell was for his heart. I walked back towards him “You don’t even know me.” I said. “How could you possibly love me?”
“I’ve loved you since the first day I saw you.” He said.
“You mean since the first day you ran out of the classroom.” I smirked at him.
“That’s only because you are-” his sentence fell off. “Emma, I don’t care anymore about what your people on the Reservation think, I have to be with you. You are everything to me. I’ve never felt like this before.” I finally started to relax some. I found a clear spot on the ground to sit since my legs felt like they were going to give out on me at any moment. Evan sat beside me as he started to tell the story of him and his family. I couldn’t tell you why I didn’t run for my life. But instead I sat and listen to him as he told his story.
&nbs
p; “My father Neville has been a vampire since the eighteen hundreds. He was turned one night on his way home to his family. He didn’t see who had bitten him. He crawled in an old abandon building while the change happened. After he was turned, he never did return home out of fear he might kill his wife and three small children. Neville didn’t want to hurt any human so he started a way of life most Vampires don’t live, by living off the blood off animals. He met my mother Grace in nineteen seventeen. My father worked at the same hospital as my mother did, She was human of course and had no clue my father was a Vampire until my father fell in love with her, then like I just did with you he confessed his secret to her. She accepted him as he was and they soon got married and moved away from her family with the intent on her becoming like my father, my father didn’t want this life for her of course, but she wanted to be with him forever. My father protested against it and done everything possible that he could think of to talk her out of becoming like him, that was before she found out she was pregnant with me and my sister. They didn’t even know it was possible for a human to become pregnant with a Vampire’s child. The pregnancy was hard on her and almost killed her. Since there isn’t a documented case on a human giving birth to a Vampire hybrid in our legends my father didn’t think she would survive. On the night we were born my father had to change her to save her life. It was close, but he changed her just in time. We were born in nineteen eighteen I am only half Human half Vampire.” He said as he now was looking straight ahead and not at me.
“So how is that different, than a full Vampire?” I asked.
“Well, I can survive on human food or blood. Animal blood, of course” he said as he nudged me on the arm with his shoulder. “I sleep. I have blood running through my veins. As where my mother and father doesn’t sleep and they don’t have any blood-” I cut him off there to ask my question “Does the sun burn them?”
“Uh, no, that’s only in the movies.” He said with a giggle. “When a Vampire is exposed to the sun it causes them to grow weak. Depending on the duration of time they spend in the sunlight it could cause them to grow weaker and weaker. Eventually they will never be able to fully restore their strength back to normal, which will cause their demise. That is why we moved here to Astoria, since it is always so cloudy. So we can come out during the daytime. As long as we don’t come in direct contact with the sunrays we can be outside without it affecting us. And even if the sunrays came out while we were outside, we have at least an hour before any real damage is done.”
“What about your other brother and sister?”
“Of course Payton is my twin, she is like me. So is Everett. We are half Human half Vampire.” He said.
“What about Cameron?”
“Cameron is like my parents. Full Vampire, he was bitten. Everett was found by my mother in Rome about twelve years ago. His mother had just died giving birth to him and he wouldn’t had survived long if my mother hadn’t have found him.”
“Wait, you said she found him twelve years ago? How is that possible? He is like seventeen.” I said as a statement not a question.
“Us… Vampire hybrids grow very… fast.” He said with almost a laugh. “We are full grown at the age of ten. The major difference between hybrids and full Vampires is,.. us hybrids are not as strong as full Vampires. We are of course stronger than any human alive. But not stronger than a full bred Vampire, they could destroy a hybrid like me in a second.” A chill went down my spine at the thought of someone hurting him.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
I shook my head “I don’t really know what I am thinking. It’s going to take time to absorb all of this.” I said. He stared at me for awhile as if he was trying to read my mind. I had so many questions for him before but now my mind just drew a blank. Finally the one big question I always wanted to know came to light. “Why did you hate me so much when you first met me?” I asked, wanting to know the question, but afraid to hear the answer. He paused for a long moment before he answered.
“When you sat down beside me that first morning, something inside me stirred-” I interrupted him before he could finish.
“Did you want to suck my blood?” I said with all seriousness. And to my surprise he busted out in laughter.
“No, no. It wasn’t anything like that, Emma. When you sat down beside me, something inside me…changed. I couldn’t explain it at that moment. And I couldn’t explain it for a long time. I fought my feelings for you for a long time. And now sitting here with you I can only explain that feeling as… love.”
“What made you give in?” I asked.
“I was tired of fighting my dreams.” He said with a small grin as if he was remembering.
“I’m lost.” I said with a confused look on my face.
“Oh right.” He said laughing. “When I dream, which I hardly ever do, it involves what is going to happen in the near future. Sometimes the events happen the next day, sometimes it is months, but eventually they do happen” He said as he looked at me with wide eyes.
“So what are you saying? You can tell the future?” I asked in an unbelievable tone.
“My dreams only show me what is going to impact the ones I care the most about. I don’t just dream about some random person. Usually it is something that will impact my life or my loved ones life for the better or for the worse.”
“So am I for the better or the worst?” I asked in a jokingly tone, but I was in all honestly being serious.
“The better of course, but Emma, this has to stay between us, if anyone knew we-”
“I would never tell anyone.” I promised. And I wouldn’t. It was hard for me to believe, no one else would believe me if I told them. They would throw me in a white padded room and throw away the key. “So do you have any other special powers?” I asked.
“No. Only what you have seen. I’m extremely strong and fast compared to a human.”
“That’s how you stopped the sign.” I added.
“Yes. I thought you knew then what I was.”
“How would I have known that?” I asked him. No one in a million years would ever guess someone was a Vampire. That is absurd. “Did you dream about the sign, and that guy attacking me, the hiking trip?” I asked in one breath of air.
“Yes. I tried to follow you closely after dreaming since I have no idea when or where these events I dream about will take place. You are tough to keep up with.” He said laughing.
“When you touched me that day you stopped the sign.” I paused for a moment trying to figure out how to ask the question without sounding crazy. “It was like I could see what you saw, but it was of the sign crushing me?”
“Yeah, I still am not sure how you were able to see what I had dreamt.” He said.
“So that was like a vision from your dream?” I asked.
“Yes. But I can’t explain how you saw what I dreamt. I’ve never been able to pass along a vision like that to anyone before.” He said as he shook his head like he was still shocked I was able to see what his vision of the future held for me.
“Does anyone else in your family have special powers?”
“Cameron can start fires with a single glare. And my father, he can do things.” He said. Now he was standing still. “He can erase a person’s mind. And give them new memories with a single touch.”
“Wow!” I said in amazement. “I’ll make sure to avoid him then.” I said jokingly. I stared down at my hands as I started to twist them in knots, afraid of the answer to my next question. “Where does this leave…us?” I said cautiously.
“I want to be with you Emma. I’ve never wanted to be with anyone more in my ninety four years than I want to be with you now.” he said as he moved closer to me. I smiled at him shyly as I looked away. “Emma.” he whispered.
“Yes.” I whispered back as I looked up at him
“Can I keep you forever?” when he said that I leaned in and kissed him. And then I whispered “Yes.”
Chapter 10
/> The rest of the morning flew by. Evan wanted to know more about me and my family and what brought me to Astoria. “Why did you move to Astoria?” he asked. I didn’t speak for a long moment. I didn’t want share this with him and risk crying in front of him, so I tried to keep it short. “My parents were in a car wreck and died so I had to move here with my grandmother.” I said as I looked down at a leaf I was rolling around in my fingers the whole time.
“Why didn’t you live here before? With your parent I mean? He asked questionably.
“I’ve often asked myself that same question.” I said as I shook my head. “My parents moved away from Astoria when I was little. I visited some during the summer breaks until I was about twelve and then the visits just…stopped.” I said as I shrugged my shoulders.
“You didn’t like coming here or..”
“No, that wasn’t it. Um, I’m not really sure. My mother just decided one summer that my grandmother needed to start visiting me in Los Angeles. She never really ever told me why. I asked once and my mother got defensive so I didn’t push the issue.” As I was telling my story Evan leaned in closer to me. As he did my heart pumped faster and my palms got sweaty. I pulled away from him and stood to get some distance between us.
“I make you nervous.” He said. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.” I said as I looked to the ground. I felt the wind move around me, although I never heard him move, and then he was behind me. He held my waist in that way that made my heart fluttered. His hands were warm, but slightly cool on my skin. His breathe was cool on my neck, the smell was sweet. I closed my eyes trying to get my breathing under control. “Emma, I will never hurt you. You know that right?” he said as he slowly turned me to look at him.
“Yes.” I said looking into his eyes.
“I will protect you.” He said with a firm tone to his voice.
I knew Evan was a Vampire, and I knew he was dangerous. But I also knew he would not hurt me. I didn’t know why I knew this, or how. But since he had saved my life more than once, I had to believe I was safe with him. So why was I afraid? It wasn’t for my safety, it was for my heart.
Astoria: Secrets, Lies and Vampires Page 8