Vampire Boys Of Summer (Completed!)

Episode 51: Ryo's Conquests

We had just gotten dressed when mom came home. I was relieved. For one, we didn't go to church on a regular basis, so we didn't have a lot of close friends there. I don't know why, but I was afraid something had happened to her on the way home. I'm not one for premonitions, but things were going so wonderful for me, I was waiting for the bottom to drop out. In my experience, there always seemed to be a balance. If something good happened, the bad wasn't far behind. I told Haru this, and he told me to stop worrying. I guess he was right, but after all the excitement and pleasure, I felt there was a mood of impending doom on the horizon.

I forgot all about that when he confessed that what he wanted to show me no other girl had ever seen. This made me feel special, and he reassured me I was, as we left the house and crossed the yard to his place. On the way however, I dared a glance across the street to Mrs. Winston's house. Perhaps it was really Ryo's now, for he was the one who dominated the place, and that in itself made me wonder about Angela.

"Uh, Haru?"

"Yeah, love?"

"Would you mind doing me a favor later?"

He stopped walking and looked at me. "Sure. What is it?"

"Would you check with Ryo and see if Angela is okay. I'm worried about her."

A puzzled look came over his face. "Yeah, okay. But why would Ryo know anything about Angela?"

"We got in a fight last night. She was going to go see Ryo and I just wanted her to be on guard. I think he wants to turn her."

He raised both eyebrows. "Turn her? What makes you think that?"

"Because he told me that's what he was going to do." I didn't want to confess the second part of that; Ryo letting me know I could save her if I stayed the night with him instead.

A smirk crossed Haru's face. "I don't think you have to worry about that too much."

"Why not?"

"If he turns her, she'll be hung around his neck the rest of his life. He'll be the master to her slave. Kind of like the brides in Dracula."

"I'll be hung around your neck the rest of your life."

He smiled. "Not the same thing." He took me in his arms and gave me a quick kiss. "I want you in my life, Nora. You are not something to own. Neither are you a slave, or bound to me without a mind of your own. You have free will, and can walk away at any time. I just have to trust and believe that you won't."

"I won't," I replied, kissing him back.

We began walking again. "Ryo doesn't want the same things I do. Well maybe he does, but for different reasons. He loves to play with people, manipulate them, toy with their emotions. While I want you to love me, Ryo just wants to control everything and everyone around him. I'm not saying that makes him bad or unredeemable, it just makes him different than me."

We reached his back porch and he took my hand. "I'm sure your friend is okay. It's possible he may want to sleep with her, but turning her is not on his list."

I stopped. "But, he turned the others."

"What others?"

"My history teacher, Miss Lazenby. And Mrs. Winston. The other day I saw a boy I didn't recognize dazed out in the driveway. He's turned them all on his whim."

"That's not entirely true. Mrs. Winston was nearly dead when he found her. She'd had a stroke. He was needing a house separate from the rest of us. He saw the one across the street, no lights on, looked empty. So he went in and found her dying on the floor. He saved her by turning her. Hard to say whether she appreciates that or not, but that's what happened." He glanced over at the Winston House. "As for your History teacher, someone else got her first."

"What do you mean?"

"Someone, another vampire, she doesn't remember who, bit her and left her to die. They drank just enough blood to satisfy themselves, and then let her bleed out instead of turning her. Ryo was on the hunt and came across her. He could have found someone else to drink from, a new victim, because he knew if he drank from someone dying, they would turn. But again, he saved a life instead of destroying it."

"And the strange boy in the driveway?"

"I'm not sure about that one. But I do know this. Ryo won't turn someone for no reason. No matter how manipulative he can be, or how he likes to toy with a girl's emotions, he is an enemy of death and will not allow anyone to suffer and die. And if he runs across someone who enjoys bringing suffering and death, he will meet it upon them with a vengeance."

He walked us up the porch steps and beckoned me to sit with him in the lawn chairs. Instead of having me sit across from him, he sat down first and pulled me ever so gentle onto his lap.

"Now enough talk about death and turning and Ryo. Let's talk about you and me."

His tone made me nervous. "What do you mean?"

"I have something very important to ask you now that I have you on my lap."

I didn't say anything, but waited for his question. I had no idea what it could be and was worried about what was coming.

He looked at me very serious, then he grinned. "Are you ticklish?"

In a matter of moments, he found out his answer, and I squealed and squirmed trying to get away from him. We fell out of the lawn chair and onto the deck, and once again I found his face hovering over mine. He stopped tickling my sides. "You know, I guess a person doesn't really know unless you tell them. Actions speak loudly, but until you hear it spoken out loud, you can't know for sure." His face leaned closer and I closed my eyes. I felt his lips touch my closed eyelids. "I love you beyond anything, Nora." His lips hovered just above mine, close enough that I could feel his breath on them. "I may not be able to turn you, my love. But, you have turned me."

The afternoon melted away with his kiss...