I look up, expecting to see the full moon, and instead seeing a figure outlined by moonlight. A gleam draws my attention to the silver knife in his hand. He brings it down, aiming for my heart. In the blink of an eye, I am out of bed, and have him pinned to the floor by his neck.
"You would kill me?"
"You would have killed me. I'm simply returning the favor. Besides, I'm thirsty and could use the nourishment." I bare my fangs and begin to lower my mouth to his throat.
"So the rumors are true about a vampire haunting the manor."
I pause, irritated.
"I am not a vampire."
"Aren't you?"
"I am not!"
"Then what's with the fangs? And the fact that you're about to drink my blood?"
I shouldn't be having this conversation. I should just drink his blood and be done with it. But something is holding me back. I sigh, and sit up, keeping him pinned to the floor.
"I'm not a vampire. I'm a creature of the darkness, but I'm not a vampire."
"What's the difference?"
"Blood."
"What? You all drink it, don't you?"
"No, not- that's not what I meant. Vampires are the purebloods, the true creatures of the night. I'm a half-bood."
"Half-blood?"
"Half vampire, half human. And honestly, I should never have developed a taste for blood. I was supposed to remain ignorantly human. But that damned party."
"Huh? And as much as I enjoy having you on top of me, would you mind letting me up? It's a bit awkward trying to have a conversation when you're constricting my air intake."
"We are not having a conversation. I am simply informing you of your own ignorance, and then I'm going to kill you."
"Yes, I figured that would happen. But aren't you afraid someone will walk in on us? I mean, with you straddling my body, and all..."
"There is no one in this house but me." And then I realize the implication of what he is saying, and I begin to blush. "If I let you up, it is with the understanding that I have no intention of letting you go. If you make another attempt on my life, if you even so much as stretch in a way that I find threatening, I will not hesitate to rip your heart out and satisfy my growing thirst with your blood. Your knife lies on the other side of the room, and I can move faster than you can think. This is a fight you will not be able to win."
"Understood."
I get off of him and sit on my bed. He slowly sits up, wary of setting me off.
"So you were never supposed to know about your vampire side?"
"That's right. My mother was a vampire, but she died when I was young. I don't remember her. I was raised by my father, a human. He never told me about my mother other than she was beautiful, and was killed by those who disagreed with her policies for peace. I never knew she was a vampire. And except for my abnormal paleness, I was, well, human. Vampires were just the things of stories. Although, I never thought of them as evil. My father always taught me that just because someone else's ways are strange to you, it doesn't make their ways wrong."
"But they drink blood."
"Yes, and humans eat animals. In some places in the world there are humans who eat other humans. Besides, vampires don't really have a choice. They have to drink blood, or they'll die. Human blood tastes better, but most vampires try to avoid biting humans."
