The Hunger - Only Lovers Left Alive

Chapter Seven

It was two days later when he finally arrived.

The night was still early, thanks to the winter hours, so I decided that it was a good enough night for both me and Adam to get out for a while and get some fresh air.

The walk itself was uneventful, too quiet with barely anyone around due to the reported drop in temperature, but it was nice to get out and about, wandering around with company as we spoke about small nothings.

It was a pleasant and slow wander down the backstreets, the conversation friendly and humorous as we continued to warm up to each other, though I still couldn't help but wonder if Adam's fledgling status was still all that made him wish to be near me.

Necessity, rather than affection.

Those thoughts were ones I'd always try to push away, I felt true affection towards Adam and didn't want to stick to our closeness being purely the relationship that he was forced into.

I wanted to believe that we would have gotten along despite our predicament and though sometimes it seemed it was becoming a more natural closeness, part of my still held onto the notion that it was purely the fledgling affection for their master and nothing more.

Then would have been an apt time to ask, but I also feared that it would halt the flow of our conversation and I didn't wish to dampen the mood, it wasn't as if we had ever divulged in anything too personal before and the boundary still seemed tightly in place.

We'd been walking for an hour and a half before deciding to turn around and head back, both of us starting to feel the bubble of hunger begin to rumble in our stomachs.

Anything that would stop us from going too far if the hunger took a sudden spike.

The walk hold was no more eventful than our initial trip, though I did take pause to watch a few foxes who crossed our paths, too skinny for me to not feel a tad upset by their diminished physiques, though it was no surprise with wild foxes at this time of year.

"Maybe I should leave some food out for the animals," I murmured to myself.

"Have you ever wanted a pet?"

I looked at Adam, who was giving me a look of curiosity, telling me that he genuinely wished to know.

"I have," I nodded with a faint smile, "I'd love to have a dog."

"But let me guess, being practically immortal makes it hard for you?"

"Correct, I'd see too many animals come and go in my life, I couldn't live with more than I have already experienced before I was turned."

"Did you have many pets?"

"A few," I smiled at him, turning away from the foxes to continue our walk, "some hamsters, mice, guinea pigs, gerbils, about three cats, some fish and four dogs."

"And that's a few?"

Adam's small laugh caused me to smile wider and I shrugged.

"They were all at different times in my life, me and my brothers had a variety of pets over the course of our years."

"What happened to them?"

"The pets or my brothers?"

"Your brothers."

"They lived long and happy lives, even when turned I made sure that I was around for them."

"How long ago was this?"

"Man, I don't even remember," I laughed, "a long, long time ago, times were very different."

"And was it Vincent that turned you?"

There was a strange edge to his words, the way he asked the question seemed to have dark undertones that you could only pick up on if you knew Adam well enough.

"It was, but it was consensual, I wanted to spend my life with him."

"And what better life if there than a vampire one?"

"Hey," I laughed, gently smacking his chest with the back of my hand, "less of the cheek."

By the time our laughter had died down we had reached home.

Stepping up to the door, I pulled out the keys to the door, fumbling with the numerous amount of keychains attached to it that the key was lost in.

I had just been successful in locating it when the door slowly swung open, behind me I felt Adam step closer to place a protective hand on my shoulder, his fingers tightly gripping through the fabric of my jacket.

The breath I would have been holding had I needed to breath would have been let out in a long sigh of relief, replaced by an excited gasp and squeal of excitement as a tall figure with long, layered red hair took up space in the doorway.

His grin lopsided and showing off his fangs as his eyes roamed me over.

"It's been far too long, I was worried that you had moved without me."