The Count's Princess (Completed)

Arguing Vampires

I gave Carmichael a confused look. He rubbed his knees with his hands and acted nervous.

"I don't know how to tell you this—this is really not how I planned for this to go down." He scooted closer and not only to me but the edge of the couch. He grabbed my hands in his cold ones and went to speak. He stopped himself and glanced down at the ground. There was a ray of sunlight shining through and thoughts that I didn't want inside my head entered in. The pale man let go of one of my hands and hung one of his own in the light. For a second nothing happened, that was until I watched as his skin began to turn red and small wisps of smoke began to filter out of the pores. He moved it around in the light and for once his whiteness made sense. All of it did. Why he wore jackets and hats and umbrellas made sense. Why he and Antonio waited for the sun to go down made sense. Why he had curtains drawn every time in a room made sense. I looked up at his face. His face made sense: pointy ears, purple eyes, clear skin, pale lips. I glanced down at his hands. They made sense too as I realized how much they mirrored the hands of the thing who had attacked me.

I didn't want to say "You're a vampire!" That was too cliche. I glanced back up at him and realized he hadn't averted his eyes from me. I reached up and caressed his lips with my thumb. I then pushed his upper lip upward and revealed the white fangs that I had guessed were there all along.

"This week has officially been my craziest," I said. Carmichael grabbed my hand and leaned in.

"Maggy, I meant to tell you, but—"

"Last night, you didn't want to go any further with me, you said that you wished we knew each other better. Is this what you meant?"

"Yes and no," I gave him a confused look once again. He stood up and paced the floor. "That was you, wasn't it? That night, you spoke in another language and Antonio ... Antonio is also a vampire! How--how could I have missed this? How could Debby have missed this? You know, there were a lot of suspicions of you being a vampire at the school. I mean, I understand why you'd want to keep it a secret and all and why you'd keep it from me but my biggest question for you is why me?" The vampire knelt down in front of me and placed his hand over my mouth. Questions of what I was to him burst through my brain. Why did I have to fall in love with a freackin vampire?

"I love it when you talk but I need to explain myself. I just ... don't know how." He paused with his hand still on my mouth and I wondered if he liked it there because it was my mouth. "I need Octavian. I'll be back. In a second I found not one but two vampires standing before me.

"So, she remembers then?" Carmichael hit his friend in the chest. Octavian was Antonio.

"Antonio?" I asked.

"Oh, she doesn't remember," Carmichael hit him again.

"The name is Octavian." It felt like déjà-vu was taking over my mind. I had asked Debby if her boyfriend's name was Octavian when she explained him to me. My assumptions were correct. But where I knew the man from was a mystery.

"What do I not remember?" I asked dumbfounded.

"Look what you did," Carmichael accused him.

"Just give it straight to her, Alex!" Alex! That name! No ... andru ... Alexandru.

"What are you two talking about?"

"I'm not just gonna lay it on her!"

"Why not!?"

My vision was filling up with events that seemed impossible. There were werewolves, libraries, fires, pain, destruction, piano, graves, snow, rain.

"She's not ready!"

"You're being a baby about the whole thing!"

"I'm the baby? Who had to go and disrupt an entire clan!?"

"Well it got you back with Maggy,"

"Not in the way I wanted!"

"But she already knows."

"But Tavian!" They both stopped. "I don't know how to give her her memories back." I blacked out.