Sanguine Malediction

Chapter 16

The next morning, I had woken on Leo's chest. I slept on his chest all night; my hair was tucked behind my ear. I wasn't used to waking up to such a romantic scene, my heart rate instantly picked up. I propped myself up on one hand and looked at him.

"I'm sorry." I said. "You could have left if you wanted to."

"I know." He said smiling.

I smiled back. Leo had known he could have moved but he didn't. I felt warm knowing that he had chosen to stay with me all night instead of leaving. I got off the bed and walked to the other side of it, to my bag. I took out my pullover hoodie and put it on.

"Awe, you are not going to stay in bed any longer?" Leo joked with a smirk.

Leo got off from the bed and followed me downstairs. I had a full English breakfast again. I had wondered about how they were paying for the breakfasts, but I felt rude to ask about their funding. Once I had finished the breakfast, I headed into the living room where everyone was. Elias was reading an old newspaper, I didn't know why ; whilst Josephine sat on the chaise lounge reading a book, Leo sat next to her doing nothing. Estelle as sitting on Jay's lap in the corner again.

"You're still alive then?" Jay asked. "Leo didn't kill you during all the time he spent with you last night?'

"No, Jay." Leo answered with a low voice, shaking his head.

I stood by the chaise lounge that Elias sat on. "May I?" I asked, looking at the empty space next to him.

"Of course." Elias replied, closing the newspaper and setting it down on the table.

I remembered that I had kissed Leo last night and that he had pulled away from me, respecting that I had consumed half a bottle of vodka. I found myself thinking about Leo's chest as he let me lay on it all night without moving. I remembered about the words he had spoken to me after I had told him about my dream.

In that moment, I realised I was attracted to him in ways I couldn't explain. I looked at him sitting next to Josephine in silence. He caught me looking at him, I quickly looked down in embarrassment. There was no way that I was telling him I was attracted to him, it would sound pathetic - a human attracted to a vampire. Leo probably preferred a woman who was a vampire because they were better than me in every way, better at everything. Plus, he would probably use me as some sort of human sexual object, like he had been doing with other human girls. I wanted to have some time to myself, outside the mansion to clear my head from all I needed to process.

"Do you mind if I go into Harbour Cove?" I asked.

"Where?" Josephine asked back, with a slightly worried voice and looking up at me from her book.

"The harbour." I replied.

"Sure, you will have to return before dark though." She said, looking back down at her book.

I felt like I was ten years old again, with my parents telling me before I went outside with friends to be back before dark. Other parents told their kids to be home before dark, but my parents told me to be home as the sky started to change colour from the sunset. I put on a blue t shirt with dark blue jeans and my converse shoes. I slipped on my jacket. I sat in front of the dressing table mirror, brushing my hair. I would have a bath later on, I needed to use the daylight as an advantage to escape this unrealistic reality for some time. I was excited to go down the harbour, to smell the coastline air and hear the crashing waves against the rocks. I put my purse and phone into my pockets and went back downstairs, peeking my head around the door into the living room.

"I'll be back later." I told them nervously.

"Before dark." Josephine warned me, her eyes fixated on the book in her hands.