Bright Lights and Dark Blood (On Hold)

Chapter 13

♪Gravity by Sara Bereilles♪

They were halfway through a serving of shellfish and talked for a long time before Ella has noticed the ghastly state of her dress because she was having a lot of fun. FUN?  She was having fun with Nicholas as he hinted that she visit their set or his subtle proposal to go to somewhere and so she wanted to bang her head on the table. hmmm. . .Bang on the table. She shook her head violently which made Nicholas jerk his head from a crabclaw. She smiled and their eyes meet again.

“So how’s your fantasy holding up Nick?” she said flatly and out of the blue as she sipped her drink. A trace of confusion played on Nicholas’ face. Ella has seen his bookshelves; a complete Anne Rice bookset, vampire adaptations of William Shakespeare classics and even that teenage vampire saga that made her wince. “I know a vampire-obsessed person when I see one, Nicholas” her eyes were hard on his blank ones. “It’s not what it looks like” he defended himself “You are not pursuing me because of what I am and you simply and genuinely like me?” she raised an eyebrow. Nicholas opened his mouth to speak but when he couldn’t find words he shut them back up. “As I thought” there was a wrenching in her chest she didn’t expect when he didn’t say anything.

He looked at the smug smile but past that, he saw hurt in her green eyes. “Yes, I did. To know that the things you’ve heard from stories are true and that there is something more to this life other than the mundane is just fascinating” he leans closer to Ella “and the the most exquisite example to all that is sitting in front of me. ” Nicholas hoped for a reaction. “Please Nicholas, I’ve heard my fair share of flattering words through my existence” her face was harsh, annoyed and angered. Of course, Nicholas thought. She must’ve been swayed by Noblemen and Kings to no avail.

“But I need to ask you something” Nicholas waited for her eyes to meet his, hoping that the deadlock gaze would save him “Tell me Ella Matthews, that you don’t feel”— hepointed at both of them—“This. That this feels right?”. She looks up and he sees her soul through her deep forest eyes. The breeze blows her hair and with it, all pretenses. Ella knows what he means; the snobby photographer saw it and it was obvious enough in how they look at each other that it drove Henry away in one glance. She can’t argue nor can she deny her gravitation towards this human.

“It doesn’t matter how it feels, Nicholas.” her chest puffed and she looked away. “Then you feel it too?” he refuses to be shot down. “Yes, I do. It feels so right for some weird reason and that’s coming from me. For some reason I feel like I’m with. . . nevermind.”  She feels like she’s with Phillip, like he was staring in his eyes, his soul. The way Nicholas smiles and purse his lips. There was silence in the breeze, a stillness despite the cold breeze. He stands up and covers her with his blazer. Ella felt his warm touch on her collarbone and her stomach did a cartwheel. The wall that she was trying hard to build crumbled in his mere touch. Before she can catch herself, her hand grabbed his. They stayed like that for a few seconds but it felt like it was longer. For a moment, she felt weak and her heart would fail her but of course it won’t; its dead. Her heart is dead, it died when Phillip did but there she is. A smile spreads to her face.

Snap. Snap. Snap

Ella stood up alarmed. “Photographers” she whispers to Nicholas. She can see them under bushes across the street. “I don’t mind them” he pulls her forearm so she can face him “But I do, I can hear their cameras, Nicholas. It’s annoying” she pouts then smiles. She hears more snaps.

Her green eyes seared through him. Nicholas senses the end of the evening and calls the bill, paid and they leave. He wasn’t sure if the evening went well and if he could get another one but he hoped he managed to get to her. They reached her house and he helped her get out.

Ella pushed him against the car; her eyes went red and black. She has to erase everything like she told herself to do, for Henry, for her memories of Phillip and probably for her sanity but then again . . . Her eyes came back. “Thank you” and kisses him. With a step back, she disappeared leaving a dumbfounded Nicholas on the driveway.

The curtains waved their familiar dance as Ella lay on her bed. She has been staring the ceiling for some time now. It would be crazy for her to admit it. That she, a vampire, felt too human under his stare. He even said it out loud, that they felt right like somehow something is pulling them towards each other and it was not all in her head. How their soul bears themselves in a glance. Its feels too foreign for Ella.  This is just ridiculous.  How it seems that she feels scared in feeling too human, too vulnerable when it was all she wanted. Humanity, emotions, love. Love? no, its too soon. Ella admits she wants to fall in love, even once before his father suddenly decides to step down. But with a human? she knows the REAL stories too well.

Vampires can’t turn humans and marry them.  A Maker and his Made would be incest and even if they do find a vampire to turn the human, you have to kill a vampire to add another. She has heard of success stories though but they are only half-lived fairytale endings. Forever is still fictitious even for them. People change their mind, even their kind. It might be because the newborns found the ‘lifestyle’ too much for what they bargained for.

She mentally shook herself back to the present and turned to face the window, whirling in her white sheets. Those eyes, those dimples and that sweet smile suddenly filled her thoughts. A smile crept to Ella’s face. “ You’re overthinking” she tells herself out loud. What can Nicholas possibly do that can harm her?

The clock ticks its steady pace and Ella closes her eyes with her mind made up.

Tick Tock Tick Tock.

Its no use, he can’t sleep. By now Nicholas has tossed his body through every inch of the bed. He has been assessing his sanity since he got home. All of his life he regarded himself as a rational man, other than his obsession with supernatural literature, but after Ella showed her monstrous face and whispered ‘thank you’ to him and he smiled—smiled—that he seriously doubted his sanity. Any other person would have screamed and run for their lives but he didn’t. This isn’t normal and yet a bloodsucking immortal isn’t too. Nicholas should be worried about how Ella will probably hunt him and wipe his mind but no, he’s worried she won’t call in the morning.

He is now convinced that he is losing his marbles. Ella Matthews did this to him. Those words will be etched in his tombstone for generations to see. The way she tilts her head, scrunches her nose and her deep green eyes will be the death of him. There is this connection that tugs him in and feels so much bigger than what they are and it feels like things has just begun.