The door creaked open and there Lucas stood shrouded in light. A hush fell across the bar as took his normal seat. 'Hi' was the only thing I could say as it was taking all the strength I had not to faint.
“Good evening” Lucas smiled wearing down my resolve to stay on my feet “how have you been? You look tired,”
“I haven't been sleeping very well.” I replied trying to keep my voice even.
“I could do with a drink. A scotch would be lovely.” Lucas replied. Still trying to remain composed I fetched him his drink. The night continued quietly, there was the odd hushed conversation and quiet joke but the atmosphere had changed the moment Lucas walked in bar. Eventually as the night wore on my costumers left and it was just me and Lucas left sat nursing drinks in a silent bar. Just as we had done on that first night, the night we met.
“Are you okay my love?” Lucas asked after we had been sat in silence for 15 minutes.
“Yes I'm fine and I don't think you have the right to call me love any more.” I smiled tightly because I was realising that I was so happy and relieved to see him and I couldn't dream of being without again him but at the same time he scared me. I was so scared by what he was and what I knew about him, but more so I was scared by what I didn't know about him.
“I scare you' he sighed 'I knew this would happen I should not have returned.”
“Is that another one of your vampire senses then? ESP?” I asked in a harsher voice than I had expected. Lucas simply laughed and said “no Comfort that is love, I can see it in your eyes. There has always been an element of fear there although in the beginning you didn't know why I scared you so and I think there always will be fear there. But now it is much clearer and has replaced the laughter I normally see.'”
“Well what do you expect from me Lucas? You tell me you are a bounty hunter and I accepted that, we get attacked but I believed you will protect me so I tried to forget my fear and then you drop on me that you are a vampire and disappear leaving a pathetic, cowardly note and now your surprised I'm scared,” I sighed with tears in my eyes “Our whole lives we are taught that things that come out of the darkness are bad and we should fear them. But here I am, completely and utterly crazy about a someone who all the sense in the world says is straight out of a nightmare and that person seems to want to tell me as little as possible about themselves. You see now that scares me more than anything. It makes me wonder what is so horrifying that you need to protect me from it no matter what that means to me!” I exclaimed the tears streaming down my face giving away more than I wanted to. Lucas just stood there and watched me for a few minutes before he stepped forward and took me in his arms. We stood like that for about 10 minutes in silence hearing only each others breathing and heartbeat before Lucas sighed and said “Okay, what do you want to know? I will answer all your questions honestly and truthfully. As I have always found that relationships work best without any big secrets.”
I sighed again 'Okay then, who are you?'
'Well I am a man who loves you and would do anything to protect you.' he replied fixing me with those intoxicating eyes.
The butterflies started fluttering in my stomach, as they do when you are about to say something you know you probably shouldn't 'There are two things wrong with that, first of all your not a man and second that's not an answer.' Lucas let out a low growl turning away to pour some drinks. Swallowing his in one and fixing me with that stare again he said 'fine, you right I am not a man, I am vampire but not a monster as your tone was implying. Nothing has changed other than my perceived biology.'
I almost choked on my drink 'Nothing has changed, are you kidding? Maybe nothing has changed for you but the world has change for me. Before I met you I lived in a nice cosy simple world where vampires were myths and legends, only seen in movies or read about in books. But no, your here stood in front of me, a real live vampire, who apparently believes nothing has changed.' Lucas never responded to that, just turned and straight out of the door. I stood there slightly dumb struck by his reaction, when I finally gather my senses I rushed outside to try and stop him. As it turned out he was just crouched against the wall next to the door smoking.
'Don't leave.' I panted when I saw him. He laughed again and pulled me down on to his knee,
'Don't be silly woman I'm not leaving, I simply needed to calm down a bit.'
'Well good, I almost lost my mind over these last few months' tears tumbling from my eyes again.
'Oh dear stop this,' Lucas responded wiping the tears away 'I promise you I will not leave you again.' with that he picked me up as if I weighed nothing at all and took me inside.
'What would you like to drink? More whiskey or something different? then we can get back to the questions.' Lucas asked as he placed me carefully back on the chair,
'I'll have a gin and tonic please, and my next question is what's why wouldn't you go to the hospital?' I asked,
'What do you mean?' Lucas asked with a slightly bemused tone.
'When bailey attacked us and you were hurt, you freaked out when I suggested the hospital.'
Lucas laughed 'Oh that, well you were a nurse what would you have said if a vampire walked in to casualty? Also I hadn't ... fed in a while at that time so I am not sure how well I would have controlled myself with the smell of blood in hospitals.' My stomach jarred at the word fed, it had been the theme of my nightmares and not a topic I wanted to visit, but this forced my hand a little.
'So when was the last time you' my stomach flipped as I said it '...fed recently?'
'About 3 weeks back, this is an uncomfortable topic for you isn't it? I can understand why, with all the Hollywood myths out there. But if it puts your mind at ease I a not a killer.' Lucas responded, it didn't really put my mind at ease but I was not sure that my stomach could have take this topic so I dropped it. Even then I knew I would have to re-visit it soon but I hoped that I would be feeling stronger when I did.
'Come now, it's time for bed. We will continue this in the morning if you wish but I think for now that is enough' Lucas said taking my hand and leading me to bed.
*******
Weeks flew by and I learnt more and more about Lucas, what it meant to be a vampire and what it meant to be in love with a vampire. However no matter how much I learnt, things still surprised me and made him laugh.
One afternoon we were just waking up, I had discovered that my life quite suited dating a vampire because like him I slept most of the day and worked at night. On this afternoon we were in bed and I was dozing on his chest
‘mmm’ I murmured
‘Are you okay?’ Lucas asked sleepily
‘Yeah I’m fine, just being silly’ I laughed in response
‘Why what silly thoughts were you having this time?’ he replied, this was not the first time I had let my imagination and Hollywood myths get the better of me.
‘Don’t laugh’ I said shifting my position so I was I had my chin on his chest and I could see into his eyes ‘it was just that your heart is beating.’
Obviously stifling a laugh he said ‘that is what hearts do my love. Even vampires hearts, contrary to popular belief vampires are not the living dead and still need to have blood pumped around their bodies.’ I sighed ‘However you seem to be disappointed at me not being dead’
‘No, not disappointed just confused, your skin is…erm… icy and so pale I just always assumed this was because there was no blood in your system’ This time he did laugh
‘It is not my circulation that causes that my skin to be like this, it is my skin’ he explained ‘vampire skin is incredibly thick and tough this means the heat from my blood can not radiate out leaving my skin very cold and pale. The living dead myth was started many centuries ago by religious leaders who believed us dangerous and unnatural, they knew best way to turn people against us is to turn vampires into monsters. The walking dead and as you have told me before things that go bump in the night are a nightmare for many people especially those days where many people believed in all sorts of dark magic’
‘Mmm’ I murmured again
‘Mmm? You have that look on your face again, what are you thinking?’ he asked
‘Nothing, it’s just that the way you talk is like you remember, which is obviously impossible’ I laughed
Lucas smiled a tender faraway smile ‘I am an old man but not that old, I just remember my mother telling me about the golden age’ suddenly he shook himself and smiled at me but there was something wrong with this smile it didn’t seem reach his eyes ‘anyway we cannot just lay here all night, come on’ with that he jump out of the bed and dragged me with him, leaving me with no chance to ask any more questions.
The night dragged on more than usual, Lucas looked troubled it was the same look as the night he told me he was a vampire and it worried me. I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to him during the night, it was unusually busy and when I did get the chance to talk to him he would just give me that fake smile and brush aside my questions. Finally the last customer left around 2am as I went to lock the door behind him Lucas suddenly stood up and strode across the room to the door,
‘Where are you going?’ I asked slightly alarmed
‘Nowhere I just need to run an errand’ he replied defensively without turning to look at me.
‘What errand is so important it must be done at two in the morning?’ I asked, it was more harsh than I had wanted to sound
‘Well a vampire cannot go out in the day now can he’ he retorted turning and looking at me with a darkness in his eyes I didn’t like,
‘No I guess not, what is it you are going to do? I seem to remember you telling me that relationships work best when there are no secrets’ I was getting annoyed at his attitude now.
‘Actually I said no big secrets and this is neither big nor a secret’ unlike mine his voice was perfectly calm and level, which just served to annoy me further.
‘Then why won’t you tell me where you’re going then?’ I asked ‘Is this about Bailey? Are you going to fight him again?’ I was shouting now. Lucas stiffened at the mention of Bailey’s name and had come across the room so he was in front of me with his hands on my shoulders.
‘This has nothing to do with him’ he replied through gritted teeth ‘I must, feed that is all, it took all the control I have not to do anything stupid whilst the bar was open tonight, however I fear that if I leave it much longer I will hurt someone you know or worse I will hurt you. So you must let me go now’ he sighed and looked at the floor
‘Yes, yeah.. Go’ I said quietly ‘Oh wait one thing before you go’
‘Yes my love?’
'Its been annoying me all night, how old are you?' I asked,
'Oh I am a mere babe in arms really just a hundred and nine.' He replied and was gone out the door.
