The Daylighter Chronicles

Chapter Seven: Mild Stalking

Eerie

It was one of those rare sunny days when spring decided to make an appearance in the middle of fall becoming winter, so I was taking advantage of it by lying on the grass on campus with my earbuds in and my music turned up. I took a deep breath as I looked up at the bright blue sky, I loved days like this. Suddenly I was distracted from the sky by the sound of footsteps, but not any footsteps, they were Ethan's. Everyone's footsteps sounded different, and as I've become more accustomed to my vampire abilities I've begun to notice the little things about people, like their footsteps. Kai's are always slow and steady, Baen's are pretty much nonexistent because since he was older than dirt and had that unnatural immortal stillness, Ash sounds like a herd of elephants in a stampede, and Ethan's are soft like he's used to sneaking up on people. I smiled to myself as I closed my eyes and let him think that he was sneaking up on me as well. He then surprised me by lying next to me and pulling one of my earbuds out of my ear. My eyes snapped open as I turned to face him, only to see that he was already looking at me with those two different colored eyes that intrigued me so much as he asked,

"Do you nap out here often?" I smiled and shook my head as I stretched my arms over my head,

"Only when it's really sunny out." He scoffed at me as he put my earbud in his ear and said,

"You're like a cat." I just nodded as I tried to get more comfortable, but that was becoming difficult with his lying there next to me. With his shoulder touching mine, I thought it might burn a hole right through my shirt. I wondered, not for the first time, why touching him always felt like fire, and I wondered why I didn't feel this the first time we met. I sighed inside my head as I wondered if it was a weird vampire thing and if I should ask Baen or Kai, but I didn't want to bother Baen if it was nothing, and I really didn't want to give Kai any ammunition he could use at a later date, which I knew he would. His eyes then widened as he smiled and asked, "What is this?" My lips curled as I said,

"Ninja baby death kill. You like it?" He nodded and laid his head back on the grass as if being this close to me didn't bother him at all, where here I was burning alive. Just then he grabbed my hand and laced his fingers with mine and said,

"Stop fidgeting." I felt my body go still at the sound of his voice, and I kept my hand in his as we looked up at the sky. At some point, I must have actually fallen asleep because the next thing I knew I felt something warm brush across my face and that voice of his say, "Wake up sleepy head, we're late for class." My eyes snapped open and met his as I asked with a calm that I didn't feel because my heart was in my stomach,

"How late?" He shrugged and laid beside me,

"It ended twenty minutes ago." I groaned as I covered my face with my hands and said,

"The professor is going to kill me." Ethan chuckled,

"That professor worships the ground you walk on." I rolled my eyes as I turned on my side so that I could face him.

"What are you talking about? He tolerates me." It was his turn to roll his eyes as he faced me as well,

"He is jealous of the insane amount of talent that you possess. Even if he lived and worked until he was a hundred he wouldn't be able to capture the emotion that you do right now as a student." My eyes went wide. This was the most that Ethan had ever said, and it was a compliment to me so I did the only thing that I could possibly think to do at that moment. I brought my lips to his and kissed him. It wasn't red hot and passionate; it was sweet and experimental, but before it could go any farther I heard Kai's voice as he yelled,

"Jeez, that didn't take long." The two of us leaped apart and tried not to look guilty which we both failed at miserably. Kai then sat beside Ethan as he said, "So I'm taking it that you like my sister here." Ethan arched his eyebrow as he asked,