Illusion(50)

"Don’t you dare put this on me! You need to answer me, Josie. Is he a va-vampire?" Georgia stuttered. She looked at Stefan with apprehension. He folded his arms across his broad chest and leaned against the wall, unashamedly naked. He was watching both of us intently.

He sent his thoughts to me. "If Georgia does not accept the truth I will have no choice to either kill her or force my will on her, erasing this part of her memory. It will be dangerous to remove so much, vackra."

"Georgia, I need you to listen and I need you to stay calm," I said softly to her as I crouched down beside her. "Yes, Stefan is a vampire."

She swallowed hard and a tear ran crookedly down her cheek. "Are you one too?"

I offered her an uneasy smile. "Only part,” I corrected. "I found out about my parents during our impromptu trip."

"Why can't I move?"

I put down my hands and concentrated, focusing on releasing her. I felt my shield retract within me, the tension disappearing. "I was doing it. You can move now."

She moved one if her hands first, flexing and unflexing them, her eyes narrowing as she gazed at me suspiciously. She then bent her arm and shook her legs, making sure they still worked.

"How long have you known that he's a vampire?"

I reached across to smooth her long dark hair away from her frightened face. "Since the first night I met him."

"I just don’t understand any of this, Josie. Did he do this to you?” Her southern accent became more evident and she jerked her chin towards Stefan. “What the hell does all this mean?"

I glanced over my shoulder at Stefan. He hadn't moved and was as still as a statue, his thoughts closed to me, giving me the control in what I chose to tell Georgia.

"No, Stefan didn’t do this to me. I was born this way. When we were in New York I met my father. He’s a vampire.” I took a deep breath and continued. “My mother was human. Basically, I'm a mixture of both. Maybe it would be easier to think of me as a more durable version of the Josie you know."

"You won't get older? Or die?"

"We can both die, Georgia. Though we are much more difficult to kill," Stefan replied, his deep voice breaking into the conversation. "Now that you know, you now have three options."

Georgia crossed her legs and puckered her lips. "And what pray tell are my choices?"

"Option one is that I kill you. I would prefer not to do that since it would be upsetting to Josephine. Option two is that I can force my will on you and make you forget, which is potentially dangerous. Option three is that you can keep our secret and act like nothing has changed.” Stefan ran his long fingers through his messy hair. “The choice is yours."

Stefan may be almost a thousand years old but he lacked the art of subtlety in situations like this. I rolled my eyes and grabbed her hand and squeezed it to get her attention. Her blue eyes were wary as she met mine.

"I'm still Josie, Georgia."

Georgia glared over my shoulder at the still very naked Stefan. If looks could kill and Stefan wasn’t already dead, he would be now. Her mouth twisted into a sneer and when she looked back at me, her eyes were filled with contempt.

“Georgia…”

"No, Josie. It’s my ass on the line and I need information. How old is he? How is he able to be out during the day? How does all of this work?” She was relentless, the questions coming out in rapid fire bursts.

"I am 33," Stefan answered. "Most of the things you read or hear about our kind are myths. Such as our supposed aversion to sunlight."

"Huh," Georgia said, considering his words for a moment. "Exactly how old are you in vampire years?"

Georgia made it sound like Stefan was a dog and vampires counted their ages my multiplying them by seven. She was an intelligent woman, but there were times I questioned her thought process. Of course, I’d been in her shoes recently. I could sympathize with her confusion and curiosity.

He chuckled as he read my thoughts and answered her. "I am 975 years old. We still count years the same way as humans do."

“I knew there was something different about you. I just never thought of he was a vampire.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Josie, you could’ve told me what was going on.”

“I’m sorry, Georgia. I hoped you’d never find this out.” I closed my eyes, focusing on her future. I saw her decision and looked at Stefan and nodded.

"We can trust her, Stefan. She won't tell anyone."

"How did you know what I was going to say?" Georgia asked, her voice raising an octave.

Yet another revelation to dump on her. I could tell she'd almost hit her breaking point so I chose to just make it as simple as possible. "I'm a psychic. I can see the future.”