Dark DNA: A Paranormal Romance (Vampire and Werewolf) (3 page)

A week later they did meet again in the coffee shop. They talked on the phone several times throughout the week too and even exchanged a few texts. As time passed on their relationship eventually became much more intimate. Having always been such a book worm, Asher was Gabby’s first real boyfriend. He was also the first person that she rushed to call whenever she made a new discovery, a good grade or got an honorable mention in school, etc. – and he was always eager to listen to her open up about herself. He divulged information to her too whenever he faced any difficult circumstances at work, or just needed an escape from the regular day to day stuff.

As time went by, months passed and Gabby began to trust Asher more and more. They met at the coffee house several times a week and sometimes did other things. She began to wonder if there was something much more happening between the two of them. Oftentimes Asher would softly caress her cheek, or hold her hand, indicating that he was interested in her too.

Over the course of her short life Gabby had been so completely focused on her invention, research and career that it was difficult for her to now be completely confident that anyone could be serious about her. But when she did finally begin to understand that, yes, he did want more from her than just friendship, she was nervous about where that could lead. She valued their friendship and companionship so much that she didn’t want anything to do anything that would mess up what they had right now.

Chapter 5

Then sometime later, one day, it was the afternoon actually, there was a knock on Gabby’s door. And when she opened it up, not really thinking who it might be, she saw to her surprise that it was Asher.

“Asher!” she exclaimed in surprise and hugged him enthusiastically. “Hey, what are you doing here – shouldn’t you be at school right now?” she asked, her arms still wrapped around his neck.

He walked right on into her apartment, still holding her in a big bear hug as he embraced her in return – basically carrying her back into her apartment. Once he shut the door with his foot and sat her back down on the ground his strong hands grabbed her forearms and he gently pushed her away from him and toward her desk chair as he immediately sat down on her bed.

That was when Gabby noticed how serious and kind of strange Asher was acting. It stopped her jabbering instantly and she frowned as she realized something was really bothering him. And the fact he came to see her during his regular work hours – suddenly that realization worried her even more than anything.

“Asher, has something happened? Is something wrong?” she asked carefully, studying his eyes and expression as he sat on her bed, visibly bothered by something. He wasn’t even making eye contact with her.

“No… there’s nothing… wrong,” he said quietly as he sat on the bed just across from her. Then he did look up at her and make a feeble attempt at eye contact. “Sorry about showing up without calling first… but I do think I need to tell you something. Something important… but something that can’t be shared with anyone else,” he said to Gabby almost in a whisper as his voice got quieter and quieter.

“I have been thinking about this for weeks now… but didn’t know exactly how to say it… You have to promise me, Gabby,” he went on, “not to tell anyone though. And I mean anyone – not your family or friends… or anybody! I’m serious, because it could mean the end of life as we both know it.” He held her gaze just then, wanting to be sure that she understood just how severe this situation really was.

Gabby was really confused and a little bit spooked by the whole chain of events unfolding in front of her – the intensity of his tone and the strange way he was behaving, very unlike him, had completely shaken her. She pushed her chair back slightly and gestured for him to go on.

“Please, Gabby,” he patted the bed right next to him, “please, come over here and sit next to me,” he begged. She did as he asked – slowly.

As soon as they were sitting right beside each other on her bed she looked over at him and said, “Asher, I don’t know what’s wrong… or what has happened… but you know you can tell me anything, don’t you?”

He first looked at the floor, smiled faintly and then stared hard at his hands which were now propped against his knees – his right foot was moving like a nervous Mexican jumping bean under his hands. He was obviously pretty messed up about something.

Gabby reached over and slowly put her hand on his jumpy knee hoping to stop it from moving. “You know you can tell me anything – right?” she asked him in a slightly trembling tone. She really didn’t know what to expect – a thousand different things were running through her mind. She knew that something bad was wrong – but what could it be? She moved her hands over and grasped his sweaty hands gently in hers.

“Seriously. Anything. You can tell me anything… You know that – right?” she insisted as she bent down to try and make eye contact with him.

Asher, still looking anywhere but at her, hesitated a few seconds – almost as if he were processing what she had just said to him. Then he began to talk – his words flying past her, as if he thought he might not be able to say them if he talked slowly.

“Gabby, I don’t know any way to say this… other than just coming out and saying it. I’ve… I have been keeping a secret from you for the past several weeks,” he began, drawing her interest. “I know that it is best to keep this a secret from you, but when I hear how hard you are working, and how you run into these walls when it comes to your research, when I hear you doubting yourself, I just don’t think it’s fair of me to keep this to myself.”

To say Gabby was confused would have been an understatement, but she kept silent anyway. She wanted him to have the freedom to tell her exactly what he needed to – plus she didn’t really know what to say to him in his current state anyway. This type of grown-up drama was completely new to her.

“You have to realize, Gabby… that if I do tell you this,” and at just that second he tightened his grip on her hands and looked up to make eye contact with her. “You have to promise me that you will never, ever at any time, tell anyone else what I am about to tell you.”

He hesitated, waiting to go on until he got some sort of sign from her that she understood what he was saying. After a second she realized what the silence meant and she nodded her head.

“Gabby, you will be the only one that knows this… the only person I have ever told this to… You’ll hold my life in your hands, if I share this with you. Do you understand what I am saying?” Another silence, then another head shake.

He went on, “If I tell you this, then I will be completely exposed. But if you don’t want me to tell you… so you won’t have to keep my secret – just tell me and I will leave right now. I don’t want to burden you with anything that you’re not ready for.”

“Asher, just tell me already… What is it?” Gabby choked out, her pulse racing as her heart pounded in her chest. If he didn’t tell her soon she was going to pop! Even with all the time they had spent together she had never seen Asher appear to be so frightened, even the first night they met when she mugged him out on the street – he was always so collected and even a little brassy.

Chapter 6

“Gabby… you were exactly right about me all along. I am exactly what you thought I was the first night we met… I am a supernatural creature… I am… a vampire,” he conceded to her in one quick but quiet outburst.

Gabby sat there for a second digesting what he had just admitted to her. She sat there, looked at him, then looked around the room, narrowed her eyes and tried to pull her hands free of his grip. “Are you trying to prank me because that’s not funny Asher. You know all about my work. Why would say something like that? Why would you tease me like that? I don’t understand… ” she said to him with obvious irritation in her voice.

She stood up and walked a few steps away from where he was seated – putting a little distance between them. She suddenly felt very betrayed by her friend and almost as if he was just trying to make fun of her somehow including her life’s work. He, of all people, knew exactly how important all of that was to her.

“I’m not trying to be funny, Gabby… and this isn’t a prank either,” he said firmly as he stood up and walked closer to her, afraid she might run away before he had the chance to explain his wild revelation to her. “I’m not crazy… and I’m not lying to you either. I promise. But you need to understand that I don’t have fangs… and I am quite comfortable existing in daylight.”

Gabby looked at Asher the same way a chained animal might look at its captor. Instinctively, she backed away from him and moved slowly toward her apartment door though trying not to draw any attention to her.

“Asher… you can’t be serious? No way! You’re not pranking me are you?” Then silence… Gabby’s eyes widened as realization sank in amidst the speech he just gave her. “My invention… that night we first met… when I jumped on you… it was really working… really… right?”

Asher continued to look directly at her hoping she would return his gaze. “Yes,” he nodded slowly giving his words time to sink in. “I’ve wanted to tell you almost since that night. But for so long, well, to be honest… I didn’t know how you would react actually finding what you had been looking for for so long. So I lied to you that night. I mean, can you blame me?” he asked her with a little tremble in his tone.

“Plus… this isn’t the kind of thing you just tell every Tom, Dick and Harry on the streets you know? I needed to be able to thoroughly trust you before I could even begin to think about telling you my secret… So, can I trust you Gabby?” he asked her hopefully. It was clear to her that he was having second thoughts now – wondering if he might have made a mistake in telling her his secret.

Gabby just stood there, silent. Then she began. “I…” Gabby tried to continue but couldn’t think what to say next. Her mind raced as she thought how her whole life, she had spent hunting creatures just like him. She hunted them to prove how dangerous and real they were. Her mind filled with images of vampires and werewolves attacking young women and children in the middle of the night.

Then her focus changed a bit and she began to think about all those years of research… and all the time she had spent working on her scanner… and all the teasing, and jokes and laughing behind her back! All at her expense! She was actually starting to get a little pissed off with this conversation – fear was quickly being replaced with anger.

Finally, Gabby asked him one question. “So, how do you survive?”

Chapter 7

He stood there not wanting to go on… he cringed slightly but he knew that question would be coming. “Well… first of all you need to believe me when I tell you that I don’t kill people,” he murmured.

Over the weeks they had been hanging out he had heard her theories on vampires on more than one occasion and knew they were not exactly flattering. “But I do drink blood, that’s true,” he admitted.

“But only from animals – I buy it from my butcher. It comes in bottles and jugs. But I don’t drink directly from the animal either – I’m not a killer!” he said, as he looked over at her, wondering if that would be how she saw him now, as a cold blooded killer.

“Okaaaaayyyy,” she said, slowly drawing out that one word, not knowing how to respond to his confession. “But… the way you eat… or drink, whatever. Why do you do it like that?” she was a bit bolder now, eyeing him suspiciously as she talked. “Do you do that because you are afraid to get caught? Or do you do that… because you prefer to live like that? I mean, is that normal for a vampire? Do all vampires do that?”

Asher could tell from her line of questioning that he was probably going to be here for a while – good thing he came so early after all. “So – you want to know if I’d prefer to murder people and be a serial killer?” he asked, obviously a little more than tense now.

Obviously Gabby had hurt his feelings with that line of questioning, but as a scientist she felt it was important for her to completely understand what he was saying to her. In all of the studies and research she had done about vampires, they all described vampires as possessing a relentless bloodlust, one that in fact made it almost impossible for a vampire not to drink directly from a human being. Blood compelled them to kill and was the one thing above all others that they desired.

“No, I’m not a killer,” he said to her, steadfast in his conviction. “I have never killed a person… you have to believe me. And I do not enjoy the bloody aspects of being a vampire. From the beginning of my existence in this state, I have always refused to comply with that kind of act. You know, just because I am a vampire, it doesn’t mean that I agree with the taking of any human lives. I may be a monster… but I do have scruples. I really do have a conscience.”

It was evident that Gabby was getting more interested in the conversation – the scientist in her, her curiosity, it was all starting to come out. Just like on the first night they met. She sighed with relief, moved away from the door, sat back in her desk chair and then asked him, “So… what else can you tell me? I want to know everything!” She wanted to know everything about him… about his ways… about his life.

“Well, not all vampires can do this, but since you asked… and we are doing so well here…” he said a bit sarcastically, then continued, “I can read minds,” came out as a whisper.

“No way! OMG!” Gabby exclaimed, suddenly really flushed – and deeply embarrassed too, because she had fantasized about Asher on more than one occasion – and probably some times even when they were together.

“No, Gabby, noooo,” he replied quickly. “No, I don’t read your mind. I’ve never read your mind,” and then the old Asher emerged as he offered her a sly smile and wink as soon as he noticed her flushed cheeks. “Although… maybe I should do that from now on out. Seriously, I hold your trust in utter respect and I would never do that without your permission first.”

He went on, “Personally, I think it’s highly disrespectful to look into the mind of someone that you trust without their knowledge and understanding first. Kind of like reading someone’s mail without asking. But I want you to know… that I do trust you Gabby. 100%! I hope I’m not wrong to do that. Please don’t prove me wrong.”