Vampire Bride

Chapter Eight - Part One

Charlie

The early morning sunrise wakes me up sooner than I'd like. Entry after entry from that journal kept me awake after arriving home last night. No matter how awful that book makes him sound, I still can't help thinking about him. No matter how much I want to force him away, part of me doesn't want him to go.

Jesus Charlie, get ahold of yourself.

I get dressed as fast as possible, throwing the book in my purse. Hell-bent on a confrontation on my terms, I decide to head over to the hotel Maxwell is staying at. The cockiness that radiates off my body disappears once I enter the building. Since I kept that extra room key, I don't have to enter through the front door and humiliate myself again.

I hover outside room 218. He claims he's not some movie vampire, but I only see him at night. Stereotypes are all I'm left with and the best-case scenario is that he's here asleep, cowering from the sun. I insert the key card and wait for the blinking green light allowing me to enter. I find myself creeping in like some weirdo.

The pitch black of the room puts my nerves on edge. My heart pounds against my rib cage as I approach the open doorway. With squinting eyes, I barely make out his sleeping body under a blanket. Creeping across the floor to the large window, I grab a hold of the dark curtains. Sucking one deep breath in, I tear them apart, not fully thinking through my actions.

"Good morning, love!" I yell, fully aware that once the curtains are open and I make my voice known there's no going back.

I hear him grunt as he crashes to the ground. The bed keeps him in the shadows, away from the sunlight that now fills most of the room. I adjust one curtain to give him more shade so he can stand up and face me.

"You said you weren't a cinema vampire, but I see you're scared of a little sunlight. Are you okay?" I say as if I were talking to a child. My tone degrading and most likely making him very angry, but I find power standing in front of the open window, a power he needs to know I have.

"Charlie? What are you doing here?" Anger distorts his voice.

It takes me a few minutes to collect my thoughts. I wasn't expecting him to jump out of bed in his underwear. I can't help but to gawk at his near naked body. I envisioned his body in a dream, but seeing it while I'm awake makes me react unwillingly. The fact that I'm beyond speechless and can't stop my eyes from wandering takes all the power I once had away.

A quick clear of my throat forces my thoughts elsewhere. "I wanted to surprise you like you surprise me, because how you feel right now with the sun threatening to beat down on you is how I feel every time you sneak up on me. Plus, you can only say good night and I really wanted to say good morning. Oh, and not to mention this." My hand plunges into the depths of my purse, searching for the leather journal. Once my fingers wrap around it, I wave it in the air like a white flag.

Disappointment plays on his face. He knows very well what's written in here and now he knows I know more about him than he wants me to. A side of him that he wished to remain unknown. The side of him that leaks through his cool demaner every once in awhile and scares that crap out of me.

Kinda like now.

"When I questioned you being in my house it was more of an honest statement, because I saw you...snooping. Then, I followed you. I was forced to bribe the man at the desk downstairs to give me a room key, which he did, obviously." The rush of euphoria from me successfully startling him makes me feel almost lightweight under his heavy stare.

His laugh that fills the room, however, putting me in my place. He's more relaxed under my stare than I'll ever be under his, clothed or not. "That book describes the worst of me. I know you'll take this the wrong way, but we're more alike than I thought. You'll make a great vampire, Charlie, you'll make a great bride."