I went over to my room and put on another of my new outfits mechanically. I quickly dried my hair with my towel. I looked at my watch. It read: 8:17. I would have plenty of time to straighten my hair.
Before I left my room I walked over to the fireplace to make sure that no evidence remained of the note. It was completely gone just a pile of ashes. How ironic? That seemed to feel like the way my life is now. Just a pile of ashes, useless and dried up.
I walked out into the hallway. I glanced around and saw no one. I went down the steps, my footsteps sounded so loud, every one echoed in my ears like a sonic boom. I felt like there were eyes boring into me. Unseen and deadly. My heartbeat quickened. I glanced over my shoulder at the slight sounds of shuffling.
A person stood behind me at the top of the stairs. A hoarse scream sounded from my throat. I stumbled forward. Falling. The stairs loomed before me. Surely, the fall would kill me.
Strong arms wrapped around my waist before my head could hit the stairs. I fought against the solid, ice cold, marble arms with all my might but it was useless. I got ready to scream again.
“Kylie? What’s wrong?” said the angel voice of Jonathon. I instantly relaxed. It wasn’t the intruder.
“No- no- nothing,” I stuttered trying to restart my heart. He flew me down the steps and laid me on the couch.
“What’s wrong?” He demanded again. His voice was so angry and frightened. I decided to go somewhat with the truth. By somewhat I meant leaving out the note and intruder part. He looked so concerned. My eyes probably showed so much fear.
“You scared me. I- I- I couldn’t hear anybody so when I turned around and saw you standing there it- it- scared me-me” “Is that all?” He asked taking my shoulders. “What else would it be?” I asked in turn. “Nothing. Nothing at all.” He said his eyes distant.
I took several deep breaths trying to further quiet my heart. My stomach rumbled.
Jonathon stood up and extended his hand for me to take. I did gladly reassured by his presence.
“Where are the others?” I asked.
“Out,” He said simply. I was confused by his short answer.
Jonathon towed me into the kitchen.
I made a cheese omelet. I sat across from Jonathon at the table. He looked at the table, refusing to look at me or else deep in thought. I poked carelessly at my sandwich. There was no way I could tell him about the intruder. I had to deal with this problem on my own. That was a scary thought but I was used to handling things on my own.
“Aren’t you hungry?” he asked.
I startled at his voice. I looked down at my untouched food. I wasn’t hungry any more but if I didn’t eat he would become suspicious so I said, “Oh, yeah. I just got distracted.”
“Mhmm,” was his reply.
“Are we still going to the race track today?”
“That’s the plan,” He said as I took a bite of food. It didn’t taste like anything.
“Are we all going?”
“Amelia’s is staying with your mom. She doesn’t enjoy racing as much as the rest of us,” He said looking away out the back door. His posture frightened me. It was like he was ready to pounce at any moment.
He had that distracted look back in his eyes. Could he know? What if he’d read my mind? Oh, what the crap was I going to do if he knew? I took a deep breath. Maybe he didn’t know. He couldn’t possibly know. C’mon what would be his reason for reading my mind? Oh, who am I kidding he probably knows. But if that was the case wouldn’t he have confronted me last night or this morning instead of giving me the cold shoulder. He must not know. Oh, gosh I hope so. I was comforted by that scenario.
I took another bite of omelet and stared at Jonathon. I looked at his pale arms and how the thick muscle stood out in his white shirt. He was too good looking, it was almost blinding, his beauty. His muscles looked larger than the average eighteen year old boys but not like they could lift a ton without breaking a sweat. Which I was sure he could with ease.
“What are you looking at?” He asked interrupting my trance.
I blushed a deep red I’m sure. “Nothing,” I said quickly.
“Tell me,” He said with an adorable grin.
“Looking at you,” I whispered looking down at my almost empty plate.
I felt his hand stroking my face, cooling the redness and heat of my blush. “Will you let me paint you?”
“What?” I choked out.
“May I paint you?”
“But – but you already have.”
“That I have. But never with your permission. And I didn’t know who it was.”
“That’s true.” I said sounding incoherent, I was so overwhelmed by his silver eyes, lighter today.
“So, may I?”
“May you what?” I asked still overwhelmed by his beautiful eyes. A small growl escaped his lips at my incoherence. “Sorry,” I said, “Please tell me what you wanted me to do.” I was overcome by his dazzling appearance and could not form a coherent thought.
“Don’t apologize. I want to paint you.”
“Oh, that’s right. Of course you can.”
He smiled like the sun setting over the sky. I smiled too. “Great.” He said enthusiastically. “Finish your breakfast.” He ordered jokingly.
“Okay.” I said.
I finished my breakfast without really tasting it.
“I’m done,” I said.
“I can see that,” He said smirking. He was practically jumping out of his seat he was so excited. I couldn’t help but be pleased by his enthusiasm. Jonathon’s smile was infectious.
“Let’s go,” He said.
“Hold on speedy monster. I have to clean my plate first. Remember, I’m the only human staying here and I want to do my part. I don’t think Amelia would appreciate my leaving dirty dishes around.”
“Ugh hurry,” he growled pacing.
“Jonathon I’m surprised. I would have thought that living for hundreds of years would have taught you patience. Apparently not,” I said.
“Ha, ha, ha. Now can you please speed up this process?”
“Yeah but could you please just sit still. You’re kind of freaking me out.”
“I’ll try.” He said gruffly. I laughed.
I went over to the sink and cleaned my plate. Jonathon watched probably assessing how much longer I would be.
“I’m ready,” I said.
“About time,” He muttered.
“Excuse me? Not all of us are vampires and can do everything in super speed,” I said offended.
“I’m sorry if I offended you,” he said seeming to read my mind which he probably was, “I was only joking.”
“Well why don’t we get going so I don’t hear any more about my slowness.”
“Alright.” He said turning to leave the kitchen. I followed closely behind him so as not to be called slow.
He went up the steps and turned right, the way we went to Diana’s room. He opened a door on the right side. I expected it to enter into a bed room but it didn’t. Instead it lead to set of a narrow spiral staircase. Lights led the way up. I could see a stain glass window half way up the stair case. I can’t tell what it is supposed to be from here.
I started up the stairs behind Jonathon taking in all my surroundings. The walls here were painted a light airy green. The color picked up on the stain glass window. The color made the small confined space seem bigger. But I realized it wasn’t a wall per say, but solid wood, painted. I imagined without the light paint this small stairway probably seemed dark, depressing, and most likely closed in.
I got to the stain glass window and stopped. The design was a peacock. So, beautiful it almost looked real. No detail had been left out. I felt that if I touched the feathers I would be able to feel the actual texture of them. Jonathon noticed that I had stopped and turned around to look at me.
“Do you like it?” He asked nodding towards the window.
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
>
“I’m glad you like it,” He said shyly.
“Did you do this?” I asked pointing to the glass an incredulous smile on my face.
“I did that in the sixteen hundreds I believe. But when you live forever time begins to run together so I may be wrong,” He said looking down. Every time he mentioned anything related to his age he became suddenly embarrassed and . . . maybe even scared?
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said matter of fact.
“What?” He asked truly stumped. A furrow had dug its way into his smooth marble forehead.
“Your age doesn’t scare me.”
“It should,” He said turning his back on me so I couldn’t see his face.
“Well, it doesn’t. We belong together. We’re soul mates Jonathon nothing is ever going to change that. Not my age nor yours.”
“So it doesn’t bother you that I’m six hundred plus years older than you? That doesn’t bother you for one second?” He said angrily. Holding up his fingers and showing me a small amount.
“No,” I whispered but I knew he’d hear me. A growl rumbled through his chest. What was his problem? Where did these sudden bad moods come from? Was there such a thing as a bipolar vampire?
Suddenly his face was inches from mine, “You mean to tell me that it doesn’t bother you that I have lived through history? That I’ve killed people? That I drink blood?”
“What’s your problem?” I asked getting mad. I was not going to put up with these mood swings.
“I’m sorry,” he said ashamed, backing away from me, “This is all new to me. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. I’m so sorry. I’m not a genius on this whole being in love soul mate thing, okay? I’m . . . scared. It just seems like in a relationship the two people involved should be around the same age. And well, they should both be human,” He said all traces of his bad mood gone, replaced by a sad expression. Instantly my heart melted.
I went up the next few stairs to close the distance between us. “Neither am I Jonathon. I’ve never been in love. But now I’ve met you! My soul mate! This kind of story only exists in fairytales! But it’s real Jonathon! It’s real! And I’m scared too. Not of loving you but of losing you! So, scared you have no idea. Your age is the last thing on my mind,” I said tears starting to fall. He put his arms around me and pulled me to his hard ice cold chest.
“You’re not going to lose me. Where would I go? I love you. I’m yours forever and I’ll never stop loving you. Never!” He said. I felt comforted by his words.
I followed Jonathon up the rest of the narrow spiral staircase his hand lightly holding mine.
He opened the ancient door. It creaked slightly.
Jonathon turned and looked at me. He grinned sheepishly then opened the door the whole way and walked inside, signaling me to follow.
“This is my room,” He said shyly with a wave of his arm.
The ancient floor was splattered with droplets of paint, dried long ago in smears. It gave the room even more character.
The walls were all a dark rich blue. The wall that the bed was against was covered in ancient brick.
The bed was simple. The headboard done in a golden fabric that looked beautiful against the dark blue walls. The bedspread was a rich deep red color with hints of orange, gold, and blue woven throughout. An ancient looking chaise sat in a corner by a fireplace. The chaise was done in a rich purple and was so plush that if you sat on it I was sure you would disappear and never be found again.
Blank canvas’ littered the room.
An ancient looking trunk resided at the foot of the bed. A mahogany wardrobe and dresser stood between two large windows, that overlooked the back yard. A desk was on the other side of fireplace from the chaise. The painting that was hung above the fireplace was beautiful. Jonathon must have painted it. It carried his signature strokes. Old wooden beams crossed the ceiling adding to the old simplicity of the house.
Studying the painting closer I could see that it was of Jonathon’s family. Patrick, Baron, Katherine, Diana, Joseph, and Jonathon himself. Amelia, Danny, and Mason must not have joined the family yet when Jonathon painted this particular painting.
Katherine was beautiful. She had long flowing wavy blond hair. It matched Diana’s almost exactly, except Diana’s was somewhat darker. Katherine’s smile was sweet and shy; it reminded me of the way Jonathon smiles a lot of the time. Baron was tall especially for the time period he was born in. He had a goofy smile and his eyes twinkled with humor. He reminded me of Seph. He had dark curly hair, with a tint of red, which fell messily across his forehead, just the way Jonathon’s hair falls. Baron and Patrick looked a lot alike only I could tell Baron was more of a jokester where as Patrick was more serious. Patrick’s hair was a darker brown than Baron’s and his smile was more studious.
“I wish I could’ve met them,” I whispered.
“Me too. They would’ve loved you. Well, they would’ve loved anyone I loved even if she had bug eyes and buck teeth. But they would have really liked you. Especially my dad, you would’ve humored him with all his dumb jokes. Gosh, I miss them so much.”
“I’m sure you do miss them.” I said putting my hand on his arm to comfort him.
It seemed like we always came back to the subject of our parents. We were both so pained by the loss.
“I keep hoping one day I’ll be able to bring them back. But, I know that’s impossible as much as I want it to be true.”
“It’s okay to hope,” I said.
“Yes, but what’s the point in hoping when you’re hoping for the impossible?” He asked.
“I don’t know.” I said shaking my head.
His question caught me off guard. It seemed to relate to me significantly. I kept hoping my dad would change his mind about my mom and me, decide he didn’t want Kelly and wanted us back. I was hoping for the impossible as well.
I’d never have my old dad back and this new dad I didn’t want. He destroyed my mom. How many times had I hoped to have her go back to normal? And now she’s a vampire. She’ll never be normal again. Both my parents are gone. Not in Jonathon’s sense off his parents being gone but in another sense of the word. Physically they’re here but mentally and emotionally they’re gone. I’m just hoping for the impossible. But I still can’t bring myself to stop hoping.
I ran my hand across the trunk still deep in thought. I tried to break into reality.
“So, where do you want to paint me?” I asked hesitantly. I was so nervous. I was no model.
“Outside I think.”
“Okay, that sounds great.” I could use the fresh air.
Jonathon grabbed a paint brush set and a paint palette off the top of the dresser. He walked over to the wall that had a bunch of blank canvas’ leaning against it. He contemplated for a moment and chose several large canvases.
“Should I carry something?” I asked. He flashed me a brilliant smile.
“No, that’s okay, I’ve got it,” Jonathon said. I smiled. He could always make me smile.
I felt like the Pulmer’s were the only people that could make me smile anymore. With my brothers away at college, my dad off chasing younger women, my mom acting like a zombie, and not having any friends, I hadn’t smiled in a long time. Now I feel like I smile all the time.
But now I have the line ‘I’m watching’ etched in my head and I’m scared that the smiles will leave again. I don’t want to stop smiling now that I am again.
Jonathon gathered his art supplies and disappeared. I quickly looked around but he was gone. Just as suddenly he reappeared.
I jumped and said, “Where did you go?”
“To set everything up,”
“That quick?” I asked.
“Yeah. Vampire remember,” he said tapping me on the nose.
“That was awesome,” I said. To move that fast would be amazing, exhilarating, freeing.
“I usually don’t go as fast as I can, like I did just now. Joseph, Danny, and Mason would never stop talking
about it.”
“Why wouldn’t they stop talking about it?” I asked confused. So, what if he could run fast? What difference could it possibly make to them.
“They just wouldn’t like the fact that when I don’t hold back I can run faster than they can. Most of the time I just let them have their fun,” he said.
“That sounds like guys. That’s how Adam and Aiden are when they talk about cars. Intent and excited. Nothing can distract them. They go on and on and lots of times I don’t know what’s so exciting. It must be speed,” I smiled again thinking about them. I really missed my brothers.
“When you talk about your brothers there’s a light in your eyes I rarely see. You really care about them,” he stated.
“Well, they’ve always been there for me. Even though they’re thousands of miles away I feel like they care even more now. They don’t really know how hard the divorce was on me but they’ve tried to make me feel better which is something neither my mom nor my dad did. My mom was to intent on her own heart break and my dad was too busy chasing his new girlfriend Kelly. But my brothers called everyday; soothing me when I was hysterical and comforting me when I cried. I can always count on them no matter what.”
“Were you close to your dad?”
“Yeah, that made everything so much worse. I was a daddy’s girl, not in the whiny sense of the word, and then he just stopped being there for me and it was ‘Kelly this’ and ‘Kelly that’ and ‘Did you know Kelly could do this’ blah blah blah.”
“That had to be tough,” He said putting his arms around me.
“Unbearable. But like I said the only two people I had were my brothers and they were halfway across the country. If I didn’t have them I don’t know what I would’ve done.”
“You would’ve managed,” He said with a grin.
“Yeah, I guess,” I said remembering the day in the garden when I’d said the same line to him. Gosh, could it be only days ago? It feels like years.
“Are you ready to be painted?” He asked.
“Yeah,” I said nervously.
“Why are you nervous?” He asked.
“What if I’m not a good model?”
“You’ll be great,” He said smiling, looking like an angel. My own personal angel. Could he really be all mine?
Fallen (Fallen Series Book 1) Page 15
