Vampires, Eh?

Chapter 8

 Anna laid on the bed with the pillow over her face for what felt like hours, but she assumed that only minutes had passed. She heard the footsteps downstairs as they walked into the house. The stairs creaked as someone came upstairs. She did not take the pillow off of her face until she heard the door click shut.

Rhys was leaning against the wall. His arms were crossed and he was chewing on his bottom lip.

"You want to explain what happened outside?" he asked.

"Alright," Anna said. "You brought some psycho chick over here to try and kill me with a knife."

"Any other girl would have at least gotten their face cut open by Alice," he said. "You're the first person I have seen win in a fight against her."

Anna shot up so that she was sitting on the bed.

"You should have never made me fight anyone!" she said.

"I had to," he said. "I am going to try to, but I can't keep my eyes on you 24/7. I don't want to turn my back for one second and have you staked by a hunter."

"And why do you have to watch me?"

"Because I turned you. I hold a certain responsibility for your existence."

"And that's why you're making me sleep in your room? In your bed? That's kind of creepy."

Rhys's jaw hardened. Anna raised an eyebrow. The simple gesture pissed Rhys. She assumed he was not used to people questioning him.

"I have seen new vampires not be able to contain themselves in the night," Rhys said. "The last thing I need is you running into town and going on a feeding frenzy."

Rhys uncrossed his arms and walked toward her. He grabbed her bag and threw it onto the floor. He sat next to Anna. She pushed herself down the bed to create more space between them.

"You need to feed tomorrow night," he said.

"I don't want to," she said.

Rhys ran his fingers through his dark hair.

"This isn't up for discussion," he said. "I'm not giving you any more of my blood. You need to start feeding."

"I can't kill anyone," she said. "Can't I feed off of animal blood?"

"Have you been reading Twilight? Vegetarian vampires do not exist. You get a mouthful of animal blood and you'll probably spit it out. It's the vilest thing I have ever tasted."

"What happens if I don't feed?"

"Remember the pain you were in earlier?"

Anna nodded. It seemed like days ago that she was consumed by that horrific pain, but it was just over an hour ago. She did not want to go through that again.

"You have to feed to keep the pain away," Rhys said.

"I don't want to kill anyone," Anna said. "I can't do it."

"It gets easier with time."

Anna leaned forward and buried her head in her hands. Time was something she had a lot of now. She was never going to grow old. She was going to stay twenty-four forever.

"Are you hungry?" Rhys asked. "Drew is probably making dinner."

Anna raised her head and arched an eyebrow.

"You guys eat human food?" she asked.

"With enough blood in our system, we can do pretty much anything that humans can do," he said.