The Perfect Half

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Sunday afternoon, I was sitting on the couch with a book in my hand. My mom just went to work as a bank teller. I had the house to myself. Just as I was getting into the book, the doorbell rang. I reluctantly went to answer it. When I got there, Kendall was standing at the threshold. He was wearing a black hoodie and a dark wash pair of jeans. His light brown hair was combed out of his eyes. I stood in front of him and realized he was almost a whole head taller than me.

"Hey Viv, is this a bad time?" He studied my face searching for emotion. I gave nothing away.

"It's fine." I mumbled. “How’s your head?" I was referring to Friday night at the movie theatre. He shrugged.

"It feels better than it did then." He grinned down at me. "Do you want to go for a walk? Have you explored the forest behind your house?" I actually hadn't. I was caught up in everything else.

"No, I haven't. A walk sounds great." He took my hand and led me towards the forest. A month ago, if you told me I was walking to a forest with a vampire, I would have been scared out of my mind. But I felt safe with Kendall. I knew he would never hurt me. We walked into the forest, hands intertwined. I could feel a smile appear on my face. Half-vampire or not, I liked spending time with him. He made me more than happy. I loved the way he was caring but strong. I think I could end up really liking him. A second later, I snapped back to myself. How can you like him, he's a vampire? Do you really think something out of this? I scolded myself for the ridiculous thought.

"Viv?" Kendall called my name. My head shot up.

"What?"

"I wanted to ask you something. The other day, what you did to Vincent, will you show me? I'm not mad, just curious." He watched me hopefully.

"Um, sure I guess." I stared at him, trying to decide what to make him see. After a minute, I got an idea. Closing my eyes, I put an image in his head. I decided to see how far this would go. I pictured a beach with seashells and water. Blue skies entered my vision and the sun was shining bright. We both smiled. I never knew I could do something that big. "Amazing." I heard Kendall whisper. He was right it really was. I brought us back to reality. The beach turned into grass and the water into trees. Kendall looked around, clearly impressed.

"Are there any others I should be aware of?" He asked. I smiled at him.

"I can fly really fast." I pointed out.

"Can you fly faster than vampires can run?" He challenged me. An amused expression appeared on his face.

"Let's race." I said and extended my wings. I leaped into the air and he took off running. We stayed pretty close together for most of it. I felt adrenaline pump through me and heat rose to my face. I saw a lake up ahead. I quickly stopped but Kendall kept going. One minute he was on land the next he was just.... gone. I scanned the water. "Kendall?" I shouted. "Where are you?" A second later, I felt a hand grab my ankle. I screamed and then I was in the water. Kendall's head popped up and he was laughing. I glared at him and then I grinned, deviously. This made him stop laughing. I raised my hands and started splashing him. He retaliated and splashed me back. A few minutes later we were retreating back to the forest. I started shaking water out of my wings. Kendall stiffened behind me. I spun around to see what was wrong. He was staring at my wings as if he was a man who had never seen the light of day before experience his first sunrise.

"Have you never seen wings before?" I asked. He shook his head and started to raise his hand then pulled back.

"It's okay." I said. He lifted his hand to my wings. He smiled and ran his fingers through them.

"Amazing." He repeated. I turned to face him. We stared at each other for a second. Then our lips met and we were kissing. We stayed like that for a long time. I wished it would last forever.

Vincent crashed his fist into the tree. He couldn't believe what he just saw. How could they be so stupid? He thought. Did they know what they just did? Everything could be ruined. He knew there was one person who could fix this, one person who could save them. He took off sprinting. He went to find this person.

The person was Vivian's mom, Cynthia Donaldson.