To Be...

Chapter 18

I saw his face, and the world turned brighter in shade, in hue, in multicolor magnificence. I couldn't find my heart beat, and I didn't care.

Leon was here, I didn't need a heartbeat, or air.

I wondered what he would first say to me.

Would he be angry? Happy I was alive? Sad I looked so rough?

What did he think?

"Leon!"

Dillon sighed and trumped out of the room. The door slammed in a head aching clamor.

Harwin grinned in a sad way. I think he was jealous, but knew he couldn't change the past.

Leon looked a million times better than when he left. He gleamed with a shining brilliance that no one could ever amount to. I was eager for his voice, shaking for his touch, pulsing for some movement, and sighing for some significant gesture of affection. My heart beat, breathing sped, and it was an automatic signal for me to stop and think. But his face wouldn't allow me to think beyond 'beautiful', 'ethereal', 'magic'. Not a word of my previous mind existed. I felt like two people. One who was infatuated, the current personality. And the one who hates love, my average personality.

Harwin noticed my pause in adoration.

"Is something the matter?"

"Nope."

He smiled weakly.

"Want time alone?"

I turned to him and nodded. He was very gentle as he brushed a strand of hair from my cheek. My heart purred, but it was not the rapid manic uprising it had been with Leon.

After Harwin's departure the silence lasted a while longer. Leon didn't appear excited to see me. I frowned.

"Leon," I was being bold. I nearly escaped death. "I missed you, a lot."

He groaned. "It didn't seem that way only a few moments ago."

"Few? M-moment-" and the obvious sharp pain reminded me. A flood of voices rang in my head. They seemed vague, and dreamlike. They could have been since Snow White was part of the words. I had never read that story, so I didn't know if it was real or fake.

Cecile. Cecile.

Oh. Crap.

I did that. I hit Leon, and it somehow hurt him. But I was still human, my heart was still beating. My skin was still hot- fevered.

He was still very much vampire.

Cold skin, pale skin, perfect appearance, but he should have been impenetrable. I had accepted that so long ago, or was it long ago? Time seemed to vanish.

"Sorry. But you weren't supposed to feel that."

"For what reason, might I ask, would I not feel a strike against me?"

"Do you know who I am?"

He laughed.

"Of course, Cecile. You are my wife."

Wife?! Whoa, what a development! We never even dated.

Slow down. 'Cecile', remember? 'Cecile. Not 'Brianna'.

"No, no. No...no. I'm Brianna. Not 'Cecile'. Cecile has, um, blonde hair."

A guess.

"Tainted with earthly color, I suppose. Cecile, my darling, have they convinced you that you are this other being who you are not?"