The Greatest Obsession

Chapter Fourteen: Haydn

It took many minutes of sitting in the chair for Elijah to gather his thoughts. He knew he'd made up his mind, but fear and doubt kept him from speaking. The vampire had left his spot, deciding to keep the silence by studying Elijah's room. He walked to the vanity and sat in the chair, staring at his dim reflection. He lifted a hand to his cheek, applying pressure into the curvature hollow beneath his cheekbone. He sighed, unable to stop himself from being attracted to the reflection. The vampire did, still, despite this, wish that he was not as thin as he was. He longed to be in his tunic, to be more comfortable. He missed the freedom of the breeze flowing through the holes. The shoes were foreign on his feet. All he wanted to do was take them off.

Elijah, with his head placed atop his arms, glanced at the vampire. He saw him touching his face as if he hadn't seen it in years. He did not like the vampire, but he felt a strange sympathy watching him so rigidly admire his own reflection as if it were forced. White-blue eyes caught his own in the mirror and they had carried a hot heat to them that did not match the coldness of his touch. Elijah froze, again, and he turned away. The vampire cleared the lump in his throat. He broke the silence, and it was hoarse, awkward against the nightly crickets and the still heat.

"What do you think of me? Would you look at me in the street and think me a monster?" he asked, daring Elijah to lie and speak well of him for once, or be truthful and let his opinion be blinded by past experience.

"Why does it matter to you?"

The vampire hadn't expected that response. He looked down at his hands. His hands had always been long, and they had always been boney. Now, with years of immortality, his hands were veiny, so white in some spots they were almost purple, as was most of him. The vampire did retain a bit of pink just after a feed, but it had been three hours since then, near midnight. He smiled at his lap, for just a moment. He then tossed back his head and closed his eyes. "Might I remove my coat?" He heard the pounding of Elijah's heart, but the young man waited until the vampire had caught him in the mirror again.

Elijah nodded. The vampire stood and removed the frock. He swung the heavy article of clothing around the writing chair Elijah was currently in. The man literally shoved his body as far away as possible, which told the vampire he did not appreciate the closeness after half-choking him earlier. The vampire sat on the bed again.

Elijah was not used to seeing the vampire in modern clothes, white clothes especially. He rolled the white sleeves to his elbows to evade the fact that Elijah was staring again. "Tell me about myself," the vampire said. "What do you see? What do you think? And please, enlighten me by speaking more than of hatred because I already know of your hatred. I cannot control that."

Elijah kissed his teeth and hummed thoughtfully. He didn't want to talk about what he liked and disliked about the vampire, whose name he did not know, yet he knew him more than he knew many. He did not like being put on the spot. Elijah's leg shook while he thought of what to say. He would glance at the waiting supernatural man every other second. The vampire was oddly patient, but he was persistent in what he wanted to know and what he wanted to have.

Elijah thought of the situation. He sat in his nightgown after being denied a sexual release by his fiancée, which had thankfully died off on its own, with the man of his nightmares, his fear, and his confusion. "What is there for me to say?" he almost chuckled. "I've never seen you outside of your bloodlust. When I see you I am angered, and then I am intimidated and frightened. I see you often because I know you were spying on me and my fiancée's family. Your presence is an annoyance, but it is familiar. Had I seen you on the street without having the bias of your want of me, I might have said hello and smiled for in this outfit and this calm manner you are approachable. You carry an eerie charisma that rivals anyone I know. I wish it wasn't me that called to you, otherwise, I would have been inclined to know you."