Exception [discontinued]

22. Marking

(Nico)
When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was daylight. It was startling. Even before I ended up here, I slept through the day. After all, vampires were most active in the night.

I lifted my head slightly and looked down to see Will's sleeping face. I felt the way his chest moved up and down under me. Oddly enough, I didn't mind being on top of him like this. It felt more like I was supposed to be there; he was so warm, his breathing so soothing, I eventually drifted back to sleep.

"Nico," Will's voice startled me awake, "Hey, are you awake?"

I rubbed my eyes, mumbling a quiet "Yeah." I looked down at him for a moment, which I thought was odd because I could have sworn he was at least a foot taller than me. Then I realized the position we were in and promptly froze, my face burning. "Will, what is the meaning of this?"

Will laughed. It sounded musical. "Sorry, I can't help that we fell asleep like this," he continued chortling as he sat up so I was straddling his lap. "Better?"

"NO, THIS IS WORSE! WHAT THE HELL?" I yelled. Then I realized that I'd just yelled at a vampire that could very easily snap my neck. "Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to–" Will put his hand over my mouth.

"Don't worry about that, silly, haven't you realized yet that I'm not going to hurt you?" He seemed perfectly genuine, but I couldn't help but notice that edge in his voice.

"Will? Is there something wrong?"

His smile dropped. "How much do you remember from last night, Nico?"

I looked down. "I went for a walk, and I remember going through an alleyway," I lifted my head, "why do you ask?"

Will eyed me carefully. "So you remember nothing of the two vampires that attacked you?"

His words may have well been bullets. Of course I remembered them. How could I forget? "Yeah, I remember them too," I said guiltily, "the second one bit me, then someone, Lou Ellen, I think, yelled something, and they ran off. Lou was fussing over me... And then nothing. What happened?"

He sighed warily. "Lou brought you here, and I healed you. Tell me, how long did this go on before last night?"

I sighed. May as well come clean; he already knew anyway. "When I cut hand, and I went for that walk. That was the first time. I didn't tell you because she threatened to kill you if I did."

"Why would you do something like that? I though you despised all vampires, so why try to protect me?"

My fist clenched. "I don't know! And for your information, I don't despise vampires, not anymore anyway."

Will's eyebrows met in the middle. "What do you mean you don't know? Motives are everything. How can you do anything without knowing why?" He didn't yell. In fact, his voice was closer to a whisper. Why was it so much scarier like that?

"Well, why do you care so much? What could you possibly gain from protecting me?"

That caught him off guard. "I-I never though of it that way. I just like having you around is all..."

And that caught me off guard. "Will...."

He shook his head, as if to clear it. "So, anyway, I have something I need to talk to you about."

"Okay? Go right ahead then."

"Where to start..." He sighed, his eyes downcast, "When a vampire marks a human, it's like a seal of protection. It basically means 'keep your hands off this, it's mine.' It was pretty common in the Dark Ages when vampires had blood slaves."