Midnight Beauty

Chapter 2

ELLIOT

2

 February 2005

Dear Journal,

These last couple of days have been busy: moving to Alaska over the weekend, unpacking, and to top it off, I had to work on Monday morning. At least I had my mother to help me most of the time.

The only time I get to relax is in the early mornings and late afternoons when I sit reading in the forest, which brings me to the woman I met today. I have never seen such beauty. And it wasn't just her immortality. It was as if there was a connection between us, an understanding without using any words.

I knew she felt overwhelmed when I was near her and when I touched her. When I gazed into her eyes, I wanted to know so much more about her. It hurts to think I know absolutely nothing about her, yet I feel like I know her so well. I want to touch her soft milky skin again, feel her. See her and hear her beautiful, honeyed voice. There is nothing I want more in the world than to know she is mine.

There was something that drew me to her like a magnet, something so... extreme. This is the first time in my life I have become so obsessive about someone. Every thought in my mind is of her. Her face, so pale yet so perfect, joyful, and lovable... and her lips, so full, sweet, and kissable...

I closed my journal and rested the back of my head against my dark wooden headboard. My bedroom wasn't that big. The walls were plain white, the floor a dark shade of wood, and my single covered bed stood against the righthand wall, with a wooden bedside table on the left side. There was a window opposite the door that gave me a perfect view of the stars. My wooden desk stood against the left-hand wall opposite my bed, piled with books and a few papers.

A sigh left my lips as my eyes fell shut. Placing my journal on my bedside table, I got underneath my bedcovers and switched off the light.

It felt as if an hour had flown by when I realized I couldn't sleep, even when I counted the stars outside the window in the dark.

I couldn't stop thinking... thinking about her.

What was she doing now? Hunting? Sleeping? Dreaming of me, perhaps?

Really, is that the best you can do? I thought to myself with dissatisfaction. Hoping she is thinking of me too?

I sighed miserably, infuriated with myself for thinking so unwisely of Julia.

Her kind did sleep, but not as long as other immortals since she was fully inhuman. Wolves, although immortal as well, were still half-human, and we needed our rest as any human would. Like vampires, we were fast and strong, with senses stronger and sharper than any human.

Now that I thought about it, maybe wolves and vampires weren't that different.

Still, we could never be together. I gripped my sheets and bit back a snarling growl as I imagined us as a couple—and our parents discovered us. Why did our families have to be enemies?

My pulse quickened with sudden fury, my blood boiling. Did our parents' hatred mean we should hate each other too?

We were different species, one hot and one cold, and we might never have a normal life together. But if what I felt in my heart was true—that I needed her—why couldn't we try?

It was my choice if I wanted to be with her, but also a risk to be with someone of her kind—especially a Monroe. Surely if she had been a vampire but not a Monroe, things could have been easier for both of us.