She didn’t wait for an explanation. Jumping off the couch, Willow practically ran across the room.
“You bit me! I’m not sure I want to be involved in something that kinky.” Feeling slightly more comfortable now that there was a significant amount of space between them, she took a good look at him. Did his teeth appear longer, sharper than they had earlier? She allowed her hand to return to her neck. “What are you?” Her voice sounded higher than usual, even to her own ears as her hand remained protectively on the spot he’d just suckled.
“I can explain…”
“Explain what? You bit me! You—you bit me and I just wiped some of my blood off your mouth. Oh my God! What are you? Are you into blood games, because I don’t remember any of this happening all week.” She needed to calm down. She could feel herself becoming hysterical. She’d always thought that was more of an exaggeration, that people didn’t still react that erratically in this day and age.
“Willow, please, calm down. I promise there is nothing to be afraid of. Please, come sit down and I promise we’ll discuss this like mature adults.”
“Like hell there isn’t! There is no way I’m sitting back down beside you. I want some answers. Why did you bite me? Were—were you drinking my blood?”
One word was flashing across her mind.
Vampire.
Seth is a vampire. Or at least he thinks he is. It makes sense, part of her reasoned. “Oh my God. You’re a…you’re a vampire,” she stuttered, her hand lowering from her neck. “But vampires aren’t real.” In her anxiety, she started wringing her hands. She looked down when she felt something sticky on them. Her fear grew as she saw traces of blood on both her hands thanks to her nervous habit. It looked like much more now that it was smeared over both of her them. Oh my God, this guy thinks he’s a vampire!
“I don’t think I’m a vampire, Willow, I have always been one.”
Willow almost swayed as Seth threw her own thoughts back at her. “It all makes sense now,” she said, her voice low, as she spoke her thoughts aloud. She was talking to herself more than she was to him. “Why you never ate, why you said those things about vampires after that movie. Why you stay up all night, and sleep all day…” Her voice rose as her panic increased. “God, no wonder you were willing to do anything for me. What was I—an all-you-can-drink buffet?”
“Willow, sweetheart, it wasn’t like that. I was going to tell you …”
“When? When you had almost drained me? Or when you’d decided whether or not to change me? I can not believe I am having this conversation. I’d really like to wake up now, please.” Closing her eyes she gave a humorless chuckle. “You know, if you’d asked me a week ago what I thought I would be standing in a room arguing with a guy about, I can pretty much guarantee that it wouldn’t have ever included anything about a conversation about fictional creatures. Of all the things I thought I had to worry about with you, I never once even considered the possibility that you would kill me by draining my blood. I trusted you.”
“Sweetheart, I’m not fiction. I am the figment of no one’s imagination.” He slowly stood and approached her. Looking into her eyes, Seth reached his hand out toward her. “And if I wanted to drain you of your blood, I could have easily done so the first night you slept in my home. Sweetheart, please, just calm down.”
“Don’t do that. You don’t get to do that anymore. You don’t get to try to make me melt with your voice—or touch me anymore.” She could feel her fear growing. “This wasn’t the first time, was it? That you drank my blood, I mean.”
He shook his head no.
“Tell me,” she demanded, only barely resisting the urge to stomp her foot.
“I don’t see how…”
“Tell me,” she screamed.
“The first morning you were here I drank from you.” He didn’t look very happy with the confession.
“That’s why I slept all day, isn’t it?” Her panic increased as he nodded. “When else? When you ‘kissed’ my finger?” He nodded again. “Any other times?”
Seth shifted his gaze to her thigh. Her hand automatically followed his gaze.
“That’s why I was so sore?” She lifted her hand to cover her eyes, but the sight of her blood had her quickly lowering it again. “This can’t be happening to me. I’m a good person,” she said to herself. “I—I have to go.”