Naked Came the Vampire (Hypernaturals 1)

Reveal

There is no way Jessica could know that. Danny could not have told her. He is the only one who knows. I tried to not be suspicious, but suddenly I had this feeling she knew way more about me than I currently did. All the weird physical changes. All the things I ignored to focus on finding her.

Done with my pulse, Jessica intertwined her fingers with mine. An intimate gesture of affection that made me forget her question for a moment. Her cool fingers laced in mine made my heart dare to hope. So loving and intimate. I stroked the side of her finger with my thumb, very lightly.

"Yes." I finally answered. Her finger's skin is so smooth.

She gave a slight shiver. "Stronger as in more than you can even understand? At the gym, you can do more and more weights? You work out, and all it makes you is hungry? Red meat is something you crave?"

"Yes." I flushed. Like admitting this change in me is embarrassing. A secret out that needed to stay hidden. A bridge had just been crossed and then blown up behind me.

Her eyes raked over me quickly. "You look like you lost weight, but you haven't? Maybe even gaining weight?"

Her questions unnerved and distracted me from how her fingers feel woven with mine. "Jeez, Jessica! How do you know all that?!?"

She rolled her lower lip under her upper teeth and bit lightly and heaved her shoulders ever so slightly.

She brought my hand to her lips and kissed my fingers lightly, closing her eyes. Then she opened them and met my eyes. "I have bad news and good news. You know how I said that my life is complicated and that we couldn't be together?"

I nodded. I dared not hope, but I did.

Another shoulder roll. "Well, turns out in light of new facts, it would probably be better if we are together, at least for a while. A couple of years at the very least." She seemed so emotionally down about delivering to me the news I wanted to hear.

"So, that is the good news... two years. Two centuries. However long you'll agree to. I would have married you on our first night. No lie." I ventured.

If she noticed my comment she gave no sign, wrapped up in her worries. "It comes with a very heavy price, Adrian. Extremely heavy." She looked down at the wooden floor, then back at me. "You may have those centuries though because you are not human anymore."

She waited. I waited.

I could literally hear a clock ticking someplace.

I broke the pregnant pause first and asked a question without any joking. Not joking is hard for me, but I am not going to mess up being with her even if she is a little crazy. "What am I?"

"You are a newly turned Vampire". Not even a slight twitch of her lips. Serious as a heart attack.

Jessica waited. I waited. I went first last time and got that for an answer. It is her turn.

"So... you seem to be taking it well..." she said tentatively.

If it meant I can be with her, I would accept having to have a 3rd eye inserted in the middle of my forehead. "I am waiting to hear why you have reached this conclusion. I admit suddenly being far stronger without doing anything to get that way has me confused. Can a human even bench press seven or eight hundred pounds? I don't know. I can."

I continued "Then there is the question of why I did not die after that beating. I pondered that in the odd moments when I was not just being happy about finding you again or moaning quietly... Arnold thought I should be dead."

"Or moaning not so quietly sometimes..." Jessica contributed.

"Not so quietly when you are inspiring me. Still, all of these weird things: All something I wondered about. I just did not care, because I found you."