Survivor (3 page)

 He sank down on the couch, looking delicious.  I
smiled at him and went back to the kitchen, needing to move.  “Do you want
something to drink?”  At his negative reply, I got myself a bottled water and
set it on the counter.  “Are you staying for dinner?”  Hope warred with horror
as I realized I had nothing to feed a guest.  “I was going to have leftover
spaghetti, but if you’re staying, we could order take out or something?”

I turned to find him standing right behind me.  “Good
lord, don’t sneak up on me like that!”

He smirked at my startled reaction.  “Sorry.”  Peter
gestured to the fridge.  “I’m not really hungry, so you just have whatever you
want.”  I hesitated, but I finally pulled out a Gladware container and handed
it to him.

“Are you sure?  You never eat.”  We had been having
lunch together almost every workday for a few weeks now.  He usually ate
whatever I did, but he never ate more than a few bites.  I let my glance travel
up the lean length of him.  He had a graceful, athletic build- muscular but without
that body builder look.  He certainly wasn’t skinny.  He had to eat sometime.

He just took the leftovers from me with a chuckle.  “I’m
on a diet.”

I rolled my eyes and watched him put the stuff in
the microwave.  He punched buttons hesitantly.  Geez, maybe he really didn’t
ever eat.  Or maybe he was just used to eating something better than microwaved
leftovers.  Sometimes- no, most of the time- I felt way outclassed, but he
never seemed to mind. 

Peter sat at the table with me while I shoveled in
the leftovers.  I finally got him to agree to a glass of orange juice, but that
was it.  I swear I never saw him drink it.  One moment it was full, the next it
was empty.  When I was done, he put my dishes in the dishwasher then stood
looking around my kitchen.  He didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave, and I
cleared my throat awkwardly.

“Uh… since neither one of us has to work tomorrow,
do you maybe want to stay and watch a movie?”  I looked down, nervously picking
at the seam of my pants, and tried not to hold my breath.

“That would be nice,” he said with what sounded like
genuine happiness.

I made my way to the living room and Peter followed. 
I guiltily opened the door to my massive entertainment center, biting my lip
when he burst out laughing at my D.V.D. collection.  I had a lot of down time
these days.

“This one?”  He reached past me to snatch up my
favorite Jackie Chan movie.

I grinned.  “Absolutely.”  He didn’t say a thing
about the irony of the wheelchair-bound girl loving martial arts flicks. I put
the movie in and transferred to the couch.  Peter watched interestedly as I
positioned my wheelchair perpendicular to the sofa, moved my leg rests aside, locked
the brakes, and levered myself over.

“How long have you been this way?”  He perched next
to me on the couch and grabbed up the remote.

 I looked down at my hands.  Peter and I had never
really talked about the accident.  He didn’t ask me the usual questions about
what had happened and how I managed to go about my life.  I hadn’t realized it
before.  He treated me as if I was just… normal.  Like there was nothing
different about me.

“Ah…it was about five years ago,” I said slowly.  “I
was driving home from work and I got into a car accident.”  I shrugged.  “I was
eighteen.”

He pressed his lips together.  “So young,” he said,
after a pause.

I nodded.  “That’s what everyone says; that it’s
terrible it happened to me so young.”  Though, I wasn’t entirely sure why that
should matter.  It seemed like a terrible thing to go through no matter what
your age.

He looked up from his perusal of the disk menu in
surprise.  “No, I meant you’re so young,” he gestured toward the chair, hidden
in the kitchen, “to have so much wisdom and experience.”

I frowned.  Well, I guess when you put it that way-
I
had
lived through a lot in my twenty-three years.  Sometimes I felt
downright ancient.  Peter kept his eyes on the disc menu as he surfed through
the options.  “Are you angry?”  He wasn’t being rude.  He was just curious.  As
if he were asking what my favorite color was.

I’d heard the question before, countless times.  I
had talked to my psychologist about it every week for years.  “Yeah.”  I looked
into his beautiful eyes.  “Sometimes I’m pissed.”  I shrugged.  “There isn’t
anything I can do about it.  The guy who hit me, he was drunk.  He had a couple
of bruises afterward, but I was in a coma for a month.”

I closed my eyes.  “Sometimes I just want to find
him and hurt him.”  Taking a deep breath, I opened my eyes to find Peter
regarding me with a strange expression- as if he knew just what that felt like.

“But that wouldn’t change anything, would it?”  His
voice was even, not patronizing or lecturing.

I laughed bitterly.  “I was going to start college
that fall.  Pre-med.  I wanted to be a doctor.”  He scooted closer and put his
arm around me, pulling me against his side.  I was shocked for a moment, not
used to a lot of physical contact with others, but it was comfortable.

“I’m sorry.”  He said simply.  Then he started the
movie.  I let myself relax, feeling all the tension and anger leave me as I
curled up against him and watched Asian men carry off insane stunts in an
effort to rescue the damsel in distress.  We didn’t talk until it was over. 

When the movie ended, I stretched and sat up.  It
was getting late and I should get to bed or I would pay for it tomorrow.  Sleep
was really important when your brain was working so hard all the time just to
do the simplest things.

Peter glanced over at me and smiled.  “You’re tired.
 I’m sorry for keeping you up so late,” he said softly.

 I shrugged.  “Don’t apologize.  It’s nice to have
company.”  I gestured around the apartment.  “It gets lonely here.”  Taz,
curled up against the far wall with his long legs in the air, whimpered and
kicked in some kind of doggy dream, as if he were protesting my statement.  I
wondered what he was chasing.

My mind began to wander and I was seized by a sudden
thought.  “Why were those men chasing you?  You know, the first day we met?”  Honestly,
I had meant to ask before, but somehow I never got the chance.  I tended to get
a bit flustered whenever he was around.

Peter didn’t looked surprised.  He turned to face me
and took a deep breath.  Taking my hands, he looked at me for a moment as if
making up his mind about something.  “I am going to tell you a secret Melody,”
he said seriously.

I wrinkled my brow in concern.  “You look worried,”
I said slowly.  “What’s wrong?”

He gave my hands a light squeeze and I tried to
ignore the warm feeling inside me.  He was just my friend.  That was all- despite
my raging hormones.

“I’m not like everyone else,” he said softly.  “I’m
not human.”

I shivered as a sudden chill danced up my spine.  I’ve
developed a certain talent for sensing when people are trying to take advantage
of my gullibility.  He wasn’t kidding.  “What are you?”  My voice was hushed.  

His eyes never left mine, those sharp green eyes,
always searching my face for a reaction.

“I’m… well, I’m a vampire…” he trailed off, still
searching my face to gauge my acceptance.

I swallowed.  “Uh….are you going to bite me?”

He laughed out loud in surprise, leaning back
against the couch and releasing my hands.  “That’s it?”  He was still laughing,
wheezing with it.  Apparently, I was amusing.

“Well, what else am I supposed to say?”  I asked,
annoyed.

He sat up and got control of himself, though he
still tended to grin uncontrollably from time to time.  “I don’t know,” he
said, puzzled.  “I’ve never just
told
someone like that.  How about asking
if I’m crazy, or running screaming from the room?”

I shrugged.  “If you’ve seen the things I’ve seen,
you kind of cease to be surprised,” I said dryly.

He nodded.  “I guess you’re right about that.  You
are very wise.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Whatever.”

He shook his head.  “You see- this is why you are so
interesting.  You have so much… spirit.  You have been through so much
suffering, but you are alive and vital, and you take everything in stride.  It’s
just amazing.”

I snorted.  “Okay, so I’m amazing.  Why were those
guys chasing you?”  I was proud of myself for not letting him derail me this
time.

He looked down at his folded hands.  “They are like
me.  My kind.  I’m breaking a big rule, and they are trying to make me
conform.”

I yawned hugely.  Neurofatigue- mind numbing brain
drain- was making my head fuzzy.  “So they’re bullies.  I knew it.”

He laughed again.  “I suppose so.”  He shifted
forward, his green eyes tender.  “You are so tired.  Let me take you to bed?”  I
looked at him in wide-eyed surprise and he realized what he had just said.  I
mean, really, he had to be aware of all the romanticized vampire stories out
there.

“I
meant
let me help you to get to your bed,”
he said carefully.  Then he rolled his eyes and just gave up on explaining.  He
stood and gracefully scooped me up off the couch as if I weighed nothing.  Of
course, he was a vampire now so he was probably super strong.  I let my head
drop against his shoulder.  I should be asking him all kinds of questions.  Or
maybe screaming and running- although I couldn’t really
run
anywhere
anyway.  But I was just so damned tired.

He took me to my room and tucked me into bed- fully
clothed.  Then he turned out the light and disappeared.  I was asleep before my
head hit the pillow.

When I woke in the morning, my wheelchair was right
by my bed and there was a glass of water on the nightstand.  Who would’ve guessed
a vampire would do such a good job taking care of a human?  I sat on the edge
of the bed and stared at my knees for a long time, thinking about the night
before.  I wasn’t exactly shocked- I didn’t know what to think.  Mornings were
typically difficult for me, and it took a while for me to clear my head.  Had
Peter really told me that he was a vampire?

My cell phone started ringing and I noticed that he
had put that by my bed too.  A thoughtful vampire.  I snorted with laughter.  Had
he kissed me before he left the room last night?  I rubbed my fingers over my
lips at the sudden vague memory.  Had I dreamed that?

The phone was still chirping away, and I scrambled
to answer it before it went to voice mail. 
Crap.
 It was my mom.  I had
completely forgotten that I was supposed to have dinner with the family this
week.  And my day had started off so well too.  I flipped the phone open.

“Hello,” I said cheerfully.  “No Mom, I didn’t
forget.”  I rolled my eyes.  She was so fussy it drove me crazy.  Her and my
father both thought I was still eighteen…or maybe two.

Taz pushed his big head under my hand and worried at
the edge of the quilt.  I stroked him absently as I listened to her with half an
ear, still thinking about Peter.  He and I were supposed to go to the museum
tonight after I got out of work.  But he was a vampire now, so maybe he wasn’t
interested in museums?  Or maybe he could tell me stories about the displays?  I
shook my head and tried to pay attention to my Mom’s frantic questions when she
realized that I wasn’t listening to her.

“No Mom, I’m fine,” I said tiredly.  “Look, I was
just thinking of something else okay?”  I took a deep breath.  “Um… hey, Mom?  Can
I bring a friend to dinner?  No, someone you don’t know.  I met him on the
subway last month.”

She almost had a stroke.  “Ok then, Mom,” I said
over her hysterics.  “I’ll see you soon.  I love you too.”  I flipped the phone
closed before she could say anything else.
 God
, it wasn’t like I was in
the habit of picking up stray men and performing kinky sex acts with them.  I
mean, Peter and I were just friends anyway.  Weren’t we?  I rubbed my lips
again. 
Damn it.

I
grabbed my purse and keys and started
for the door.  Just then, someone rang the bell.  I was thrilled when I opened
the door and found Peter on my doorstep.  I smiled a welcome and moved into the
hall, making sure the door was locked before I pulled it shut behind me.

“I’m sorry,” he said, disappointed.  “I didn’t know
you were going out.”

I waved a hand in a dismissive gesture.  “I’m just
going for coffee with a friend.  You’re welcome to join us if you want.”

He considered for a moment before nodding
affirmative and we set off toward the elevators.  “You’re sure I won’t be
intruding?”

I laughed.  “No, I’ve told Tom about you.”  I
blushed faintly at the admission.  “I’m sure he would like to meet you.”

He was silent for a minute.  When we reached the
elevators, I glanced up at him to see a slight scowl on his face.  “Um…you
don’t have to go if you don’t want to…”  I said, puzzled.  He was usually so
easy-going.

He turned to me with a quick, agitated movement.  “This
Tom is your boyfriend?”

I gaped at him for a few seconds.  Was he…jealous? 
I grinned, and his frown deepened.  I laughed aloud.  I just couldn’t help
being more than a little happy.