“But what if I’m not?” I asked looking down afraid to meet his eyes.
“Hmm,” He began thoughtfully, like he was trying to figure out a difficult math problem. “I guess I’ll have to find a new muse and girlfriend then.”
My head snapped up and my eyes bugged out. A small, astonished gasp escaped my lips.
Jonathon laughed so hard he was bent over clutching his stomach.
“Stop! This isn’t funny! Stop laughing at me!” I yelped ashamed. What had I done?
“I was just kidding Kylie. You should’ve seen your face. You’re my soul mate I don’t want anyone else. How could you ever think that?” He managed to get out in between hysterical laughs.
“Sorry, I have abandonment issues,” I said clutching my chest.
“Alright let’s go,” He said swinging me onto his back in one lithe lightening fast movement. We flew out of his room so fast it didn’t seem possible. I felt like I was on a roller coaster. A very scary, very fast one.
I closed my eyes for fear of getting motion sickness. I counted in my head to keep myself calm.
One, two, three─
“Kylie.” Jonathon said slightly touching my hand.
I manage to unclench my strangle hold from around his neck.
“Humph.” I exclaimed as I fell to the ground, hitting it hard.
Jonathon burst out laughing.
I stood up wiping grass from my jeans.
“I’m glad I can be of such splendid entertainment. I could have walked you know? I do have legs,” I said sarcastically.
“Oh don’t be like that.”
“I’ll be however I want to be. Where do you want to paint me before I change my mind?”
“Right over there,” He said pointing to the grass in front of his canvases.
I noticed there wasn’t just one canvas but several. It looked like three but there may have been more.
“You can just sit on the grass,” He said simply with a motion of his hand. I could tell he was focusing on his paints already in the zone.
“Okay,” I said moving to the area he had pointed out.
I sat down and pulled my knees up to my chest, resting my chin on my knees.
“Is this okay?” I asked.
“That’s perfect.” He said smiling, pulling out a paint brush.
The sun beat down on my face but I stayed cool with the soft breeze.
I closed my eyes and hummed quietly to myself, to calm my nerves. Nothing I had ever done in my entire life had been as nerve racking as having Jonathon paint me. Every flawed detail exposed to his watchful eyes. It was like he could see down into my soul.
* * *
I had felt like we were outside for five hours but it must have been no more than three.
Jonathon was a fast painter what with his vampire speed. When he was done with the first painting he had me sit Indian style for the second. I had picked absentmindedly at the grass. We didn’t talk much and I enjoyed the silence. Not really thinking about anything, just listening to nature, the brush strokes it was all very relaxing. The one thing I did think about was Jonathon and how lucky I was to have him in my life.
For the third painting I laid on my side with my head resting in my right hand.
This time I had watched Jonathon paint. He would bite his bottom lip in concentration, when a golden blond curl would fall in his eyes he’d blow it away, not ever taking his eyes away from me.
I felt so nervous and insecure as his eyes swept over my body. I found myself blushing constantly, which then made me feel stupid, so then I’d blush some more.
“Done,” He’d said with a pleased smile.
“Can I see them?” I’d asked nervously standing and stretching.
He grinned. “Sure,” He said with a wave of his hand towards the painting all lined up in a row.
The paintings were beautiful like all of Jonathon’s paintings were. I wish I could paint like that.
“Wow,” I gasped. The paintings were perfect.
“You like it?” He asked shyly and if he could’ve blushed I think he would have then.
“I love it, I love all of your paintings, and more importantly I love you,” I said.
He grabbed me around my waist. He kissed me on both cheeks before kissing my lips. “I love you too,” He said to me.
In all the paintings I was the focus. The background and foreground done in dull, subdued colors while, I, the middle ground, was done in bold, bright, eccentric colors, in order to stand out. Once again, a light seemed to form around me, it wasn’t too obvious, but I noticed it.
“What’s with the light around me?” I had asked.
“You’re my soul mate, my other half, when I look at you it’s as if you are glowing.” He had said. I just nodded still looking at the paintings mesmerized.
We went back inside and Jonathon flew through the house, an invisible blur, to put his paintings in his room.
I now stood in the kitchen. I heard Jonathon come back in with the last painting closing the door behind him.
Before I could turn around he was gone.
I opened the refrigerator to get a water bottle, there were none.
Resigned I began looking for a glass. I finally found one in the third cabinet I opened. I grabbed a glass and stuck it under the built in ice maker in the refrigerator.
The ice clanged loudly against the glass. I moved to the sink and added water to the glass.
The cold water tasted heavenly, I hadn’t realized I was this thirsty.
“I should’ve realized you’d get thirsty,” sounded Jonathon’s velvety voice, “You’ll have to forgive me. I haven’t operated on a human schedule in centuries so I’m a little rusty.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed startled, dropping the half full glass of water. I hadn’t heard him approach and his silent ascent had startled me. “Oh, crap!” I exclaimed again. I looked around frantically for a towel to wipe up the mess.
“I’ll pick up the glass; it won’t cut me like it would you,” He said, already on the floor with a palm full of shards of glass, even the small ones I would have missed with my human eyes.
“Rags are under the sink,” He said.
I grabbed one and began wiping up the water.
A big booming laugh sounded in the kitchen. I looked up and saw Joseph standing over Jonathon and me.
“Did I miss the fight? Did you finally get mad at Jonathon, Kylie? Decide to throw a glass of water at him? Don’t you know it takes a lot more than that to hurt a vampire?” He asked still chuckling.
“It was an accident,” I mumbled.
“Oh, he knows, he just likes to make everything into a joke,” said Jonathon.
“Don’t spoil my mood Jonathon You can be such a kill joy. I can’t wait to go racing, and you’re not going to ruin the fun,” Seph said.
I finished wiping up the last of the water and rang it out in the sink.
I could be such a klutz. Hopefully I wouldn’t crash any Ferrari’s. That would be a shame and I wouldn’t be able to clean up that mess as easily as I had the water.
“When are we going?” I asked standing up.
“As soon as you’re ready,” said Jonathon.
“I’m ready now,” I said noticing that Jonathon had paint on his clothes and hands. There was even a small smear of green paint on his cheek. On anyone else it would have looked silly but on Jonathon it made him even more perfect.
“Let’s go,” said Joseph enthusiastically.
Chapter Seventeen: Racing
“How far away is this place?” I asked Jonathon referring to the race track.
“About three hours. If I drive fast I can be there in under an hour.”
I had no doubt we’d be there in under an hour. Jonathon was already going one hundred and thirty miles an hour, with the speed increasing.
Joseph’s dark blue corvette was blurring in front of us. Danny and Mason behind us in a BMW Z4 Roadster and Patrick behind them in a Mercedes SL65 AMG.
“This track isn’t open to humans’ only vampires.”
“Will they let me in?” I asked, I didn’t want an angry vampire after me but apparently one already was.
“You’re with me of course they’ll let you in. Any human associated with a vampire is cool.”
“I can’t believe vampires have their own race track.” I muttered. He laughed, a sound I loved.
“We vampires are all about speed.” He said.
“I can tell.” I said with a chuckle.
“So do vampires have other places that are just for them?” I asked.
He chuckled. “Yeah we do. They’re always disguised as something else, so humans won’t come near. We have our own of everything. We even have our own hospital for our soul mates. It has the latest in vampire technology.”
“Oh,” was all I said.
Danny and Mason pulled up next to us, on my side, Mason at the wheel.
He rolled down the window. Jonathon rolled down mine before I could.
“What do you want?” Jonathon asked in a normal voice, Mason and Danny would hear even over the roar of the wind. I didn’t worry about Jonathon not looking at the road, that’s what vampire senses were for but I still couldn’t help but clench my teeth.
“Smell my exhaust, fire boy.” Mason said. He rolled up the window and pulled in front of us.
I laughed at his license plate, it read: TEMPTER.
Jonathon growled.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Fine. But I wish he wouldn’t do this stuff all the time.”
“Why does he do it?” I asked, although with two brothers I already had a good guess what the answer would be but I thought it would be better if he talked it out to calm himself.
“One: to make me mad and two: because he doesn’t really believe I can use fire.”
“Why would he think that?” I asked confused.
“Because I’ve never shown anyone.”
“Why haven’t you shown anyone?” I asked, persistent.
He shrugged. “I guess I’m scared. I don’t know how it works. I don’t want to hurt anyone because I don’t know how to control my power.”
“That makes sense. But you should still know how to control your power.”
“You’re probably right,” He mumbled. I smiled.
“I’m always right.” That got a grin on his face.
I looked out my window at the different scenes flying by. There wasn’t much to see. Everything was a blur with the speed. Cars looked like they had come to a stop.
Jonathon’s cool hand grabbed mine ever so gently.
“What are you thinking about, principessa?” He asked.
“Can’t you just read my mind and know what I’m thinking?” I asked looking down at our entwined fingers. He chuckled.
“Yeah, I could. But I won’t do that. It doesn’t seem right to prod in on your private thoughts. If you don’t want to tell me what you’re thinking it’s fine. I won’t be mad. Your thoughts are private I won’t pry but you looked like you were ready to laugh.”
It was my turn to laugh and I did. But I felt relieved that he wouldn’t read my mind, he didn’t need to know about the note.
“I was just thinking about kicking Mason’s butt at the track,” I said enthusiastically.
Jonathon smiled.
“I hope we can too, he wins every time,” Jonathon said with a groan.
I smiled, “Not anymore, he does.” He laughed.
“Do we get to race together or against each other,” I asked fiddling with my fingers.
“Scusa?”
“I guess I should have phrased that differently. Will we race in teams? You know, like will you and I be a team or will we race separately?” I said hoping I made some sort of sense this time.
“Oh, yeah. You and I will race against the team of Danny and Mason and the team of Joseph and Patrick.”
“That’s great.” I said, truly happy I wouldn’t have to race against Jonathon.
Gradually I could begin to feel the car slow beneath me.
“Almost there.” I said breathing out a sigh of relief.
“Almost,” he said turning down an unmarked road. Mason, Danny, and Joseph were all ahead of us. I could see Patrick still behind us; he drove slower than the rest of them.
I could see Joseph park his car up ahead of us. Then Mason and Danny in the BMW.
Jonathon slowed the Mustang even further and came to a jerking stop. I nearly slammed into the dash board before the seatbelt stopped me.
“Where’s the track?” I asked looking around at the barren landscape.
“You’ll see.” He said as way of an explanation.
I continued looking around thinking I’d missed something but I couldn’t see anything resembling a track. Or for that matter any beautiful Ferrari F430’s. All there was was grass and trees. And a little dirt.
I couldn’t wait to get behind the wheel of one of those Ferrari’s. I guess I had my brothers’ to thank for my love of cars.
Jonathon opened my door for me offering me his hand. His cold hand was rock hard and sturdy. I could always depend on him. As Jonathon closed the car door, still holding onto my hand, Patrick finally pulled in next to us.
I felt like I was missing out on some inside joke. Seph, Danny, Mason, and Jonathon all had the same smug grin on their faces. I resisted the urge to stamp my foot in frustration.
I looked around yet again just in case I had missed something, a building, an odd formation in the dirt, maybe? But no, there was no sign of activity, a building, anything, and definitely not of a race track.
Jonathon gave my hand a light squeeze.
“Are you ready to run?” He asked.
“Run?” I said questioningly.
“Well, we’ll be running and I’ll be carrying you.”
“Oh,” was all I said. He meant we’d be running at vampire speed. My stomach did a little flip flop. I was normally so adventurous and all about thrill. Hell, I’ve raced in drag races before but the thought of holding onto Jonathon and running at that speed made me queasy. I took a deep breath. I can do this. C’mon Kylie get a grip of yourself.
Jonathon picked me up as if I weighed nothing and slung me onto his back without my consent. Oh, well.
“Hold on tight,” He said and I did. My chokehold on him would’ve cut off the airways of a normal human eighteen year old boy. But not Jonathon, he didn’t even notice.
He smiled that adorable grin at me and with one last look at my horror stricken face we were flying.
His running was smooth and effortless. His breathing even. I was surprised he could breathe through my hold on him.
On his back, it didn’t feel like he was running. I wasn’t rocking back and forth, in fact I wasn’t moving or bouncing in any way. He could’ve been a stone I was clinging to. Well, he was cold and hard like one but I couldn’t imagine a stone looking like Jonathon. Danny or Mason, I wasn’t not sure which, was side by side with Jonathon.. The others behind.
In that instant it seemed to become a race. I could feel Jonathon speeding up. I clung tighter to his back scared I’d fall.
We seemed to be descending. It got darker until the sun was completely gone.
I wanted to ask Jonathon where we were, and where we were going but I couldn’t open my mouth. Then we were plunged into complete darkness.
Small lights began to light the way. However they weren’t close enough together for me to be able to see anything. I felt so blind, and claustrophobic. Deep breaths Kylie, deep breaths.
I heard someone laugh and more voices up ahead echoing around a large space. Jonathon slowed to a mere jog for him. For a human it still would’ve been a very fast run.
“Almost there,” He said.
A few minutes later light flooded over us. I resisted the urge to cover my eyes. I had been in the dark so long that the bright light blinded me.
Jonathon began walking. Slowly, I loosened my grip on him. He stoppe
d walking.
“Can you walk now?”
“I think so.” I replied in a whisper. Joseph, Patrick, Danny, and Mason stopped with us.
Jonathon took my hand to help me down. As my feet hit the ground a wave of dizziness overcame me.
“Whoa,” I said putting my hand to my head.
“Are you okay?” asked Jonathon his cold arm suddenly around my waist.
“Mhmm, fine.” I said, standing up straight and waving away his concern with a swish of my hand.
I looked around for like millionth time that day. My neck was going to ache tonight. We were definitely underground. I heard the buzzing sound of cars racing by. I reached for Jonathon’s hand and took a deep breath.
We all began moving towards the commotion again. I had to admit I was frightened being underground with a lot of vampires with probably no way to escape if something bad happened. I knew Jonathon and his family wouldn’t let any harm come to me but I was still scared. C’mon I’m only human.
Jonathon gave my hand yet another reassuring squeeze. He must have sensed how tense I was.
Suddenly the small, confined hallway opened up into a large, brightly lit, room. Some people, I mean vampires, milled around the large room. Some entered and exited corridors leading off from the large room. Jonathon and the rest continued walking straight, heading to one of the open corridors. We kept going straight the floor dipping down. I looked up at Jonathon hoping to receive some sort of comment as to where we were going. Obviously we were heading into pitch blackness again.
His silver gray eyes met my forest green ones.
“We own this track, no one else is allowed down to this one. He said in reply to my confused eyes.
So this place had more than one track. I didn’t even want to think about how big this place was.
Up ahead the light completely faded. Great. I held on tighter to his hand.
After about three seconds of pitch blackness someone turned the lights on.
For a moment I was blinded by the whiteness. But once my eyes adjusted I could see the track. And man was it a track.
It was better than any track I had ever seen and to think it was underground made it seem even cooler and even bigger.
Fallen (Fallen Series Book 1) Page 16
