Last Teardrop (The Chronicles of Amber Harris)

by Elle A. Rose

  ***

  “That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”

  Lance said that so calmly, while rubbing my hand in a lost effort to sooth me. I grimaced at Lance as if he was the one that just confessed to being the hideous monster. It took me a few minutes to have a clear enough head to speak. We were still sitting on the park bench, and I had just finished telling him I was a dangerous monster and all he could say was it ‘wasn’t that bad’! I tried to keep my voice at a normal pitch as the words tumbled out of my mouth. “What do you mean it isn’t that bad? I just told you that I’m a hunter! That I feed off of the blood of others! How…why…what do you mean it isn’t that bad?” However, keeping a steady voice did not work so well. I could see by the look on his face that the pitch of my voice was starting to worry him. That was a good thing. Maybe in some part of his mind-the part that still worked-he could finally see the true danger. But just as his face started to show fear, he masked it again.

  “Amber, how can you see yourself as a monster? Would a monster have thought twice about saving me or helping my mother? Would a monster be worried about fitting in with others so well? No, you’re not a monster, and I’m not afraid of you. I trust you. I have feelings for you and like I said before, I can handle it.”

  What was I to say? I had told him everything that happened to me. There were more than enough reasons for him to go running, but instead, he sat there holding my hand telling me it was all going to work out. He wanted to be with a monster. I shook my head in disbelief before asking my next question. “So now what?”

  I watched his lips pull into a smile that touched his cheeks.

  “We go on another date, and I get to see the real you.”

  I reached with my free hand and lightly rubbed my thumb across his bottom lip. As my thumb glided across his soft flesh, I leaned forward to engulf myself in his scent. Lance mistook my movement as me coming closer to kiss him. My eyes were so focused on the base of his neck that I did not realize he was going to kiss me, until his neck disappeared and his lips replaced the space. My reflexes were all off. I was not able to move out the way fast enough before our lips connected. Lance did not allow me to hold back with this kiss and neither did he.

  I still did not fully trust myself, so I broke away first. This time Lance understood.

  “I guess I should be heading home to check on my mother. I’m sure the outing this morning took a lot out of her.”

  I took a deep breath. I was glad that part was over. I cannot say it was the hardest part, but I was sure that was to still come. “Yes, I’m sure your mother is looking for you. I have had you out much longer than we expected.” Still holding hands, we stood and walked out of the park. As we climbed into the car and proceeded to head back toward his house, I asked one more time if he needed to make any stops.

  “Do you need to stop and pick up anything before we go back to your house?”

  “I don’t think so. We are having leftovers for dinner, so I won’t need anything from the store. But I do have a question.”

  “Sure.”

  “Well, I was going to ask you to stay for dinner, but then I thought about it. Do you eat? I mean, do you eat people food? And if you don’t, how did you make that hamburger disappear on our first date?”

  I had hoped he would not pick up on that. I was a little worried that he would be upset about me not eating, but when I turned to answer his question, he had that smirk on his face. That smirk seemed to show up when he knew he had something figured out about me. “Umm, that was three questions. I can eat very small amounts of human food, but it has no taste for me and anything more than a bite or two will be enough to disagree with me. Only blood can sustain me.”

  “What about dinner the other night?”

  “As I was saying before, I have the ability to show people what I want them to see. After taking a real bite out of the burger I knew there was no way I would be able to do anymore than that. So I gave the illusion that I was eating.”

  “So you lied to me?”

  I could tell that he was becoming upset. Although his face showed no changes, it was the tone in his voice that gave it away. “No I didn’t lie. What was I supposed to do, attempt to ingest all of that food?”

  Lance sighed, “I guess not. I would appreciate it if you didn’t hide things like that from me anymore. I understand you need to keep things from the general public, but that’s as far as it goes.”

  My eyes never left the road but I knew he heard me take a deep breath. I felt it was best if I did not respond. I was not use to giving into humans’ demands, but I think the silence that lapsed between us was our understanding. As I pulled the car to the front of his house, I saw that he was watching me again. “Yes, Lance?”

  “Why do you think it is…why do you think your kind only craves blood?”

  This was a question that I think crossed all vampires’ minds. Why blood? Isaac and I have talked about it a few times and we have also had the discussion with others, but everyone has their own opinion on the matter.

  “I think it’s because, and this is just my personal feeling, a body needs blood to survive. It keeps the heart pumping and the mind thinking. All organs need it to operate. When the plague hit and the transformation occurred, something in the bodies of those who first became vampires changed. They no longer needed as much blood pumping through their bodies to make them function; however, they exchanged one need for another. Blood was now needed to sustain them. I guess what I’m trying to say is, the role of blood was too important for the body to ignore. If it was no longer needed to move throughout the body, then it would fulfill its need by making the body crave it in other ways.”

  “That makes sense. Do you need to drink blood often?”

  I understood this was all new to him, but it was not a good time to sit and talk about all of this, in front of his house, in the middle of the day. “I think you should go check on your mother. I understand you have a lot of questions, but we have plenty of time to discuss everything.”

  “Yes, I guess you’re right. Will I see you later today? If you like, you can come in the house now. I won’t be long with mother, and then you and I can go out and sit in the backyard.”

  I could see worry and hope in his eyes. He worried if I would return or if this was all a dream. And he hoped I would be willing to spend more time with him, in addition to possibly making this relationship work. To this day, I cannot comprehend why he could have been drawn to either one of those ideas. I think he was a lot better than me. Given the choice of saving my family by giving my life would not have changed, but having to live a life that consisted of walking the planet forever is the one thing I would still want to run and hide from. And here he was ready to throw it all in the wind, to take a gamble with his life, with his loved ones lives, just to be with me.

  “I may come back later. Give me a ring after you and your mother are settled. I need to go talk to my father while you do.” The focus of his eyes changed again, and I knew another question was coming. I held up my hand to stop the next set of questions. “Whatever it is you are going to say, don’t. We can talk later, that is, unless you don’t get out of this car right now.” I gave him what I hoped would be a scary look, and then I wrapped my mind around the door handle of the car and opened it for him. I watched his eyes dilate as he processed what I just did, without moving a finger. Lance looked from the door back to me. I gave him a rueful smile, “Go tend to your mother.”

  Lance sighed for the umpteenth time before saying, “I was only going to ask you, if Isaac is not your real father, why do you always call him that? Then I figured since you can read minds and all, you already knew what I was going to ask.”

  A smirk followed his last statement. I knew he was trying to push my buttons, so I did not respond. Without another word, Lance turned and exited the car.

  Before closing the door, he leaned forward and spoke. “I’ll call you in a little w
hile.”

  As I watched him walk up the stairs into the house, his mother opened the door to greet him. I knew she was watching our interaction the whole time. I may have promised myself that I would not read Lance’s thoughts, but that promise only bound me from his head. She was very excited and wanted to hear all about our walk in the park.