“Well, I’m glad I could make you smile. It makes you more beautiful.”
Helina blushed again, her face feeling like it had been set on fire. Clearing her throat, she glanced at the creek. “So, um, what about you?”
“You want to know about me?”
She nodded and looked back at him, smiling when she saw his big grin.
“Well, you know my name and my title. Let’s see.” He tapped his chin with his finger, as if he were thinking really hard about her question.
Helina couldn’t help the smile that seemed to stay on her face, or the small laugh that came out when he gave her a devilish grin, fangs showing and all. Her face sobered at the sight and he didn’t miss the fact.
“I’m sorry. Do they bother you?”
“A little.” She wasn’t going to lie, and she wasn’t going to tell him that she had already seen a set before, a pair that dripped with her sister’s blood.
“I’d take them away if I could, but you see, they’re kind of attached to me.”
It took her a minute to realize he was making a joke, and when she finally did, her mouth broke into a smile.
“Let’s see, where to start. Well, I am fairly old, but still young at heart. My kind comes from a country that humans have no knowledge of. In regards to my fangs, well I am sure you know why I have those.”
“You drink blood then?”
“It is a necessity, I’m afraid. Although my kind does enjoy ‘normal’ food, we don’t need it to survive.”
“How old are you?”
“Don’t you know you’re never supposed to ask a person’s age?”
She smiled at his sense of humor, but his joking nature didn’t deter her from her questions. “Then again, you really aren’t a person, are you?”
He was quiet for some time as he stared at her.
“I guess I’m not, at least not in the sense that you are. In regards to your earlier question, I am over three thousand years old.”
Her mouth fell open in surprise and she felt her eyes grow wide. She couldn’t speak for several minutes, shock resonating within her. “Huh.” She really couldn’t say any more than that, her mind not grasping the idea that she was speaking with a creature that old. “You must have seen a lot.”
“Oh, most definitely. Some things were good, other horrendous. Maybe one of these days you would like to hear about it? The memorable ones, that is.” He smiled down at her and went down on his haunches so that he was eye level with her. “How old are you, Helina?”
“Not as old as you.” She smiled at him, her sense of humor seeming out of place at the moment. She still didn’t know if he was playing with her, just biding his time until he could rip out her throat and drink her blood. Although the thought was foremost in her mind, she knew the odds of that actually happening were unlikely. For one thing, he could have done that countless times already and besides, he seemed genuinely interested in her. Not interested in mauling her and lapping at her blood, but interested in the person she was. Maybe she was just hoping for a positive light in a world that had gone dark.
“Twenty-two.”
He smiled at her, his gaze skimming over her body with hooded lids. “So young. Maybe one of these days I can tell you a tale or two. Would you like that?”
Nodding, Helina was actually intrigued by what this vampire had to say. She needed to remind herself that he was a blood-drinking creature, the same kind of monster that took from her someone very special. Her stomach picked that moment to growl so loudly that her face heated with embarrassment and she wrapped her arms around her middle. “Sorry,” she mumbled as she looked at the ground.
“You are hungry?”
He stood up so fast that she gasped and pressed herself more firmly against the tree. He held his hand out to her and she looked at it for a moment before slipping her much smaller one into it. He led her back to the cave, stopping and turning toward her with a small smile on his face.
“I will bring you nourishment. Please stay in the cave until I come back. It isn’t safe for you to be out alone. Do you promise you will stay inside until I return?”
Helina was surprised by the look of concern that crossed his face and nodded as she let him help her into the opening. She didn’t know why she was listening to him, but in her heart she felt like it was the right thing to do. As she crawled through, Helina could feel his gaze on her but didn’t look back. Moving toward the darkest corner of the cave, his words replayed in her mind about “it isn’t safe for you to be out alone.” She knew as much, but hearing him say it made her involuntarily shiver with fear.