A.SPECKHART | Book One

AFTERMATH 9.2

The pillow beneath my head wasn't as coarse as the sofa's cushion against my cheek. Before I opened my eyes, I knew I was in Cole's bed—I could feel the duvet covering me. I nuzzled into the cotton, filling my nose with his distinctive scent. Despite myself, I took a deep breath and groaned, thinking shameless thoughts while I could still use being half-asleep as an excuse. It made me ache to touch him, to have him touch me. 

Blinking into wakefulness, I adjusted to darkness; only slithers of daylight made it past the blackout blinds, casting the room into perpetual twilight. Swinging my legs from the bed, I found that I still had all my clothes on. Only my boots were missing, but they sat by the side of the nightstand. While my eyes focused in that direction, the four flashing digital figures on the alarm clock told me it was almost two in the afternoon. This time, I didn't need an excuse to make a speedy exit—it was Sunday—I wasn't missing any lectures or prior plans. I'd gotten more sleep that night than I had during the last three strung together; if only I could've slept this safe and sound more regularly. 

The apartment beyond the door sounded silent. My first thought was to find Cole. Peering around, I hadn't far to look. He was fast asleep on the sofa, dressed down to his pyjama bottoms. With his head lulled to one side, his hair had fallen over his eyes; it was tempting to brush it away, but I fought the urge that twitched in my fingers. One of his arms rested over his bare stomach while the other curled upward and behind his head, showing off his bicep. I swallowed hard at the sight of him. He looked stunningly handsome even in his sleep, and his peacefulness made me smile. A random pondering cocked my brow; was he actually asleep? Did Vampire's sleep? The thought came and went, and I was back to admiring him; God forbid he 'woke up' and discovered my ogling.

Deciding to leave him to 'sleep', I peeped into two of the apartment's rooms before discovering the bathroom. It was cheeky to assume I could use the facilities, but it was a better distraction and less creepy than sitting and watching my host sleep. In the shower there was nothing in the way of feminine bath products, but I made do with what I could find— convinced 'head and shoulders' was unisex. I let my head tip back into the rainfall of the shower and washed away any traces of sleep from my face. With my toes scrunched into the bathmat, I looked around for a towel, but when I couldn't find an unused one, I had no choice but to grab Cole's black towelling dressing gown off the back of the door. It was that or venture out into the living room naked. Though the robe swamped me, I exited the bathroom with my clothes hung over my arm.

Cole was awake. Sat up on the sofa, he glanced over his shoulder at me exiting his bathroom. Naturally, he did a double-take at what I was wearing. The faint smile that pulled at one side of his lips let me know that he didn't mind the state he found me in. I returned the smile; it didn't seem like there would be any awkwardness between us, which pleased me. I had been about to greet him when I saw he had his mobile held to his ear. While he chattered to the voice on the other end of the line, wrapping up their conversation out of politeness for my presence, he didn't take his eyes off me, so no sooner had I imagined away any awkwardness I was stood there fumbling with my fingers while he gawped at me.

"Sorry, I borrowed this. There wasn't a towel..." I muttered mousily once he'd hung up. "Oh, I had a shower as well."

"That's fine. Did you sleep well?" He smiled again and turned to place his mobile down on the coffee table. That was when I noticed his 'breakfast' sat there in the form of one of the thermal canisters from the evening before. The unsettling reality that I was standing in the house of a real-life, blood-drinking Vampire shook me. My resolve wavered momentarily, and I struggled to string my words together and answer his 'good morning, how'd you sleep' small talk. 

Cole's eyes followed mine. Clued into what was suddenly wrong with me, he let out a defeated sigh that guttered me. I wanted to apologise, but I wasn't sure that any amount of that would fix the rift that appeared between us. We were worlds apart, not only in age but species, too. Whether friendly, sexual, romantic, or otherwise, any relationship seemed implausible now that the morning's sunlight had brought me some clarity.

"I'll get dressed and take you home," he said as if we had no unfinished business—as if whatever we could've been was a lost cause and beyond retrieval. His acceptance of that made me feel rejected—that hurt.

Desperate to claw whatever hope of a future I could back had me throw all caution to the wind. "I slept better than I have in months," I exclaimed, a little too quickly to appear composed. "I- I haven't been able to sleep. Living alone and frightened don't mix." I said, to continue the conversation. It was my cowardly way of insisting I wouldn't just walk away even if I had momentarily felt uneasy about his nature. 

For a moment, he didn't look like he was going to fall for my ploy, but then what I said registered with him, and he blurted, "Your parents let you live alone? In this city?" 

I shrugged. It didn't really matter what explanation I gave because as morbid as it would've been to mention it, they were dead, and he knew that. 

"Hmm, living alone isn't very safe." He mumbled, obviously disappointed. "Still, better there, alone and safe than here with the likes of me, right?" 

"Cole, I don't feel unsafe here with you." 

"Thanks for saying that." 

"No, I mean it. I just haven't wrapped my head around everything yet. I had a wobble. But my gut still tells me that you're safe, and I believe you are." 

With a shake of his head, he stood from the sofa and approached me. Unable to read the moment, I momentarily fantasised about our bodies crashing together, being consumed by untamed passion like before while allowing our confusing reality to fade away into insignificance. Of course, that didn't happen. Instead, he suddenly excused himself and passed me on the way to his bedroom. He wasn't gone more than a few seconds, and when he returned, he was pulling a T-shirt over his head. "Would you like a cuppa tea?"

"Yeah, that'd be nice, thanks." I smiled and nodded. "Milk an' two sugars, please." I requested as I laid my clothes over the sofa's arm and made myself comfortable amidst the cushions. Now I could relax a little, relieved that he hadn't insisted I go home yet. 

Cole found me cosied up with my curled legs at my side when he presented me with my tea. I'd kept the robe tight around me, still snuggled up in the towelling as my hair dried. It was only when I went to tuck my hair behind my ear that it dawned on me that I washed the enchanted salve that disguised the pointed tips off in the shower. I noticed Cole, notice my ear. His eyes and smile were warm and accepting, so I figured that, seeing as he'd been honest about who he was, he deserved to see my authentic self, too. Confidently, I tucked my black hair behind my ear and, for the first time, proudly displayed the part of me that gave away my true self—I was a half-Elf and had the ears to prove it. The irony that the safest place for me to be my true self was in the company of someone who should've been dangerous wasn't lost on me.