I was woken up to someone placing feather light kisses on my cheek,
and then on my nose.
I could feel the ice cool breath breathing on my face.
Slowly turning my head, Nathaniel was looking at me with a cheeky
smile on his face. I groaned and tried to smother my face with the pil-
low. He chuckled and leaned closer to me, making me almost fall out of
bed.
“Why did you have to wake me up for?” I asked with my voice muf-
fled.
“It is nine in the morning Brianna, and I wanted to show you the rest
of the house before I take you for your surprise as I didn’t have a chance
to do that yesterday,” he said and moved the pillow from my face.
I squinted and hissed to myself when the bright light hit my face. I
could feel a headache starting to form from the brightness. Why did he
have to live in a naturally light house where sunlight was a given? Right
now, I think I would have preferred that he lived in a spooky looking
castle that would fit a vampire and have hardly any light.
“Can I just wake up a bit more first?” I asked, struggling to keep my
eyes open as I was still half asleep. “Or did you want me to walk around
like a sleep deprived zombie for the rest of the day?”
“Of course, Brianna; we couldn’t want that happening,” he replied
and got out of bed. “I will be in the kitchen if you need me,” he added
and kissed me on the forehead then left the room.
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I wanted to go back to sleep, but I knew if I did, Nathaniel would
soon be up here, waking me up again in an unknown sort of way that
only he could think of. Crawling out of bed, I slipped on my shoes and
made my way into the lounge room, and cringed when I saw the sun
shining through the large lounge room window.
The front door opened and I looked over that way, seeing Bethany
hanging her thin coat for the summer up on the hooks. She picked up
the bags that she placed on the ground and turned around, looking to
where I was.
“Good morning Brianna,” Bethany said when she saw me standing
there and walked down the entrance way hall with a few shopping bags
in her hands. “Nathaniel, I have got the fresh bread you requested from
the store and a few extras that I thought might help you in your quest
for perfection and what you don’t use please put them in the pantry for
a spare day.”
He walked into the lounge room and took the stuff out of her hands
and went back into the kitchen, not saying a word to me. I turned to
Bethany and saw that she was trying to hold back laughter and so far
was winning.
“What does he want with fresh bread? What is my vampire trying to
do?” I asked.
“Attempting to make you breakfast, but I don’t know how it will go
as he has never cooked for anyone before. I do all the cooking in this
house hold since no one else can cook. Nathaniel wants to be the per-
fect boyfriend, but it is hard as his diet consists of mostly blood that we
have in storage and a bit of human food that we can stomach.”
“I thought it was strange that you could eat solid food and yet, you
are forever immortal.”
“It plays to our advantage if there are humans around, and that way,
we don’t have to lie about being on some sort of a diet. Dakota and Am-
ylia only eat the same amount that you do, but the boys keep the econ-
omy alive as they are just like every other teenage boy out there. I’m
always buying food for them.”
“What are you talking about?” Nathaniel asked, walking into the
room with a plate in his hand.
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“You mean you couldn’t hear us talking from the kitchen?” Bethany
asked.
“I was busy trying not to burn the house down mother dear as I
know for a fact that you would have my head,” he said and handed me
the plate. “Eat, as I have a lot planned for you today.”
I looked at what he made me, and it seemed to be something that
looked like it was from out of space. When I had another look, I realised
that it was cremated toast. Bethany laughed and walked into the kitch-
en, saying something about making me something more editable.
After I finished the toast with Vegemite on it, I made my way back to
Nathaniel’s room and planned on getting dressed into something that
would fit the elements of a humid town. Nathaniel had his bedroom
window open, letting all the hot and steamy weather come through.
Nathaniel came out of the bathroom dressed in black shorts and a
navy blue singlet top. I decided to keep what I was wearing on for the
day, as I couldn’t find it in me to change since I had started to feel lazy.
“You have seen most of the house, but I feel that you need to see
the rest of it,” Nathaniel said, walking over to me. “After all, you will be
spending a lot more time here.”
“How do you know that?” I asked, even though he was right. I would
be spending more time here if his family liked it or not.
I just wanted to make him question himself for once in his life as I
had no idea if he has ever done that before.
“Because I can sense it; now, let me show you everything,” he an-
nounced and took my hand.
He led me down the hall, pointing out everyone’s bedrooms along
the way, and stopped at a closed door. “This is one room Amylia would
love to hold you hostage in,” Nathaniel said and opened the door, re-
vealing a beauty room.
“Oh no,” I muttered.
Along the walls were hair colours, make-up of a different variety,
clips and headbands, hair products and a lot more that I couldn’t place.
There were chairs in the room that you would see in hair salons and a
full length mirror glued onto the wall.
“Amylia had to beg Bethany to let her make this into a beauty room
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and then she had to beg James to help build it for her.”
“She better not think about using this stuff on me as I like looking
natural and not like a Barbie doll.”
“Amylia will try and get you to let her have some fun with all of this.
Now, to the next room,” he said, leading me out.
“Nathaniel, I am sure that this can wait a bit longer,” I said, feeling
shaken from the beauty room and the thought that Amylia would force
me into letting her give me some sort of a makeover. That thought
made my blood run cold.
“What is the fun in that?” he asked and kept on walking.
He pulled me into the study, and I almost fell over backwards when I
saw the collection of books around the room, with a whole pile of them
stacked on a desk next to a laptop and countless other things. It seemed
to be a study and library all in one.
Nathaniel led me outside and I stopped frozen in my spot. Over to
my left was an in ground swimming pool, and over to the right was a
tennis court.
“This is what we do when we are suffering from boredom or not in
the games room.”
“You weren’t lying about having money,” I whispered.
“Did you think I was lying about something as huge like that? We
could buy this town and still have change to spend; over one hundred
diamond necklaces, and four top of the range Mercedes to be exact.”
“Can you please take me for my surprise now? All of this is getting to
my head and I don’t know how to process it all.”
Nathaniel nodded and took my hand before leading me over to-
wards the trees. I looked at him confused over why he was taking me
this way. He lifted up the wired fence and moved under through it,
wanting me to do the same. I crawled through, and almost lost my foot-
ing, but Nathaniel caught me before I could face plant the ground.
“Why did you take me this way for?” I asked.
“Because this way is the quickest; if I took you by road, we would be
getting there later. Now, wrap your arms around my neck, and hold on,”
he said, coming to stand in front of me.
“Nathaniel, what do you plan on doing?” I asked, unsure of what he
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planned on doing. I could only hope it wasn’t something too bad and
that I could handle it.
“Watch and learn,” he said and made sure I had a tight grip on him
before taking off like a bullet.
I soon realised that he had a vampiric power that he was displaying
to me and tried my hardest not to scream. I looked around me, and
tried to take in the scenery, but at the speed he was currently doing, it
was hard. Everything just looked like green and brown mush cluttered
together in a small space.
“Can you please slow down?” I asked, feeling not quiet myself. In
fact, I felt like I was about to die but I wasn’t going to tell Nathaniel that,
he would come to the worse conclusion about my health if I revealed
that.
“Does this speed scare you?” he asked, concern lacing his voice.
“I am just not feeling human, and it feels like all the blood has rushed
out of my body and gone somewhere that I don’t even want to know
about.”
That was true. It felt like everything inside of me had fallen out. My
head was starting to spin and my stomach started to churn.
“Brianna, if that was the case; you’d be a mangled corpse by now,
drained bone dry from a creature of my kind.”
“That does not make me feel any better Nate.”
“We are almost there. Can you wait another five minutes of not feel-
ing human?”
“That’s if I don’t be sick first,” I muttered.
Nathaniel slowed down to walking pace, and loosened my grip
around his neck. I knew that he slowed down because of my comments,
but I was also hoping that he wouldn’t have some sort of pent up anger
because of it. After all, I just did stop him from travelling the way he
prefers due to my stupid human nature.
“Are you mad at me?” I asked in a small voice.
“Why would I be mad at you for?” he asked, sounding confused.
“Because I couldn’t handle the way you get around; like a vampire,” I
whispered.
“That is my fault Brianna. I should have asked you first and not just
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assume that you would be alright with me running that fast.”
“I have never got motion sickness before, so that is a first.”
But at the speed Nathaniel was travelling would have been enough to
make anyone sick.
“We will just walk and take our time there. I don’t want you getting
sick on me.”
“I will be fine,” I said and walked in front of him.
He took my hand and decided to lead the way, which was good as I
had no idea where the surprise was. The sun was shining on what ap-
peared to be water up ahead in the distance. Was that what Nathaniel
planned on showing me?
“We are almost there,” he said and kissed my hair.
“Are you taking me to what appears to be water? What do you plan
on doing Nathaniel? Do you plan on throwing me in there and watch me
struggle with rocks and whatever else that is sharp underneath the sur-
face?”
“Do you think I would be that cruel?”
“Well, you are a vampire after all. Shouldn’t you be cold, harsh and
cruel to everything and everyone that passes you because of who you
are?”
“No, that is Dakota that treats everyone like that. She is only nice to
you because I asked her to be in the first place, but if I didn’t, she would
show you the real Dakota.”
“Is she bitter about something?”
“She is bitter about a lot of things, but that isn’t my story to tell. If
you grow close enough to her, she might tell you what haunts her but I
highly doubt that will happen.”
She isn’t the only one that has things to haunt her every single day of
her life, I thought to myself. “So if she didn’t have...issues, she would be
nice?” I asked.
Nathaniel laughed before replying. “I wouldn’t say she would be
nice, but Dakota and I have never been close, and I think that what
could be her problem also. It doesn’t help that I have decided to date a
human when everyone in the family tried to set me up with vampires,
but I never held any interest in them.”
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“So you picked the weakest kind out there?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t call you weak,” Nathaniel said and slung his arm
around my shoulder. “You have guts and know how to fight back when
you have to, and you don’t let people tell you what to do.”
“You better not get any ideas in your head Nathaniel. I wouldn’t hes-
itate to yell and scream at you if you tried running my life.” I would have
included hitting as well but I didn’t feel like having a few broken bones
from the hardness of his immortal body.
He chuckled and pulled a few tough branches that I would never be
able to get through out of my way with his bare hands, throwing them
off into the distance. Some of this stuff was starting to scare me. But, I
guess that he was starting to feel comfortable in his vampire skin
around me to do these sorts of things.
“Close your eyes,” he said suddenly and stood in front of me.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want this to be ruined,” was his reply.
I shrugged but did what he asked of me. He made sure that his grip
on my hand was tight before he started walking in what I hoped to be a
straight direction, as I didn’t really want to trip over tree roots. He
stopped walking suddenly and stood behind me, wrapping his arms
around my waist.
“Open your eyes,” Nathaniel whispered into my ear.
When I did, I gasped when I saw what Nathaniel had taken me. The
water was crystal clear and sparkled from the sun shining down onto it.
It had the greenest grass that I had never seen and was surrounded by
the Otway Ranges. It appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, and yet,
it breathtaking. There were wild flowers that were growing in the grass
and around the bed of water.
“How did you find this place?” I asked.
“It is a hidden treasure that I found when I went for a walk to clear
my head just after I met you,” he explained.
“My arrival had benefits,” I joked.
“If you didn’t arrive into town, I would still be suffering from my se-
vere depression that you are starting to clearing up.”
“Is that why you are having mood changes?”
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“That is one reason why,” he said, his voice vague and distant.
I didn’t press the issue as I knew Nathaniel would tell me in due time,
but I was hoping today was the day he told me everything, as he said
today yesterday. I was hoping that he didn’t go back on his word.
“Are you telling me everything today?” I asked.
“Only if you tell me more about your father,” he challenged.
The look on his face told me he was dead serious about this. I have
no choice but to tell him everything if I wanted to know about his past
in return. “Fine,” I relented.
He walked over to a bush and pulled out what looked like a beach
bag. I looked at him confused until he met my eyes and explained what
he had planned. Since the water was a warm temperature, he decided
that we could go swimming. But there was something Nathaniel didn’t
know. I couldn’t swim, as I never wanted to learn.
Nathaniel changed into his board shorts behind a bush and got into
the water, waiting for me to do the same. I sat at the edge in the red
one piece that was in the bag and placed my legs in the water, as the
lake seemed like a swimming pool.
“Are you coming in?” he asked.
“I’m happy sitting here.”
Nathaniel swam over to the edge and gently pulled me into the wa-
ter, but I grabbed a hold to the edge before I could go under. Nathaniel
then grabbed a hold of my waist and pulled me deeper into the water,
leaving me to choice but to try and hide my fear of dying by drowning.
But I knew Nathaniel would never let that happen.
“Nathaniel, what are you doing?” I asked, sounding scared.
“Well, I want to swim with my girlfriend,” he said and let me go in the
middle of the water.
I almost went under the water, but saved myself from a certain
death.
“Nate, I can’t swim!” I screamed, grabbing onto his arm to stop me
from a certain death.
He grabbed me in a flash and kept a tight grip on me. “You can’t
swim?” he asked, sounding shocked.
“I never learned because I didn’t feel the need to do so. Now I should
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have gone through with it,” I admitted.
Nathaniel seemed even more shocked when I told him that. He took
a breath and looked straight at me. “Then I guess I will have to teach
you, which I am looking forward to doing.”
“That is why I was happy sitting on the edge, watching you,” I admit-
ted.
“Come on,” Nathaniel said and swam back to the edge with me in his
arm.
“What are we doing?” I asked.
“The storm clouds are starting to form in the distance, but nothing
for us to worry about, so I thought that we could watch them gather.”
“You like the weather?”
“It is very interesting and complex to learn.”
“Learn?” I asked.
“Yeah, but I have no intension of learning everything about it. I mean,
I don’t age, so that wouldn’t look good around everyone that does, and I
don’t. They will get suspicious about me and look up something that will
reveal that I am a vampire. And we don’t want that happening as it will
ruin our lives.”
I pulled myself out of the water and walked over to grab a towel. I
glanced up towards the sun and felt my skin. It still was early in the
morning and yet, my skin felt like it was on fire. I hope whoever packed
the bag remembered sunscreen for me. I looked around in the bag, but
couldn’t find what I wanted.
“What are you looking for?” Nathaniel asked, walking over to where I
was.
“Sunscreen,” I muttered.
“There isn’t any,” Nathaniel informed me.
I froze and stopped looking and turned around so I could look at Na-
thaniel. “There is no sunscreen?” I asked, disbelieving what I was hear-
ing. Haven’t they heard of a thing called Cancer on the skin?
“Yeah, Amylia thought that you wouldn’t need it, so I wouldn’t go
looking for any.”
“So I can blame her when I start looking like a red rose from sun
burn? Or if I get a Melanoma on me somewhere?” I asked.
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“Why would that happen? Melanoma only forms on moles or freckles
and I don’t see any of them on your skin.”
Sighing, I turned around and grabbed my hair, pulling it to the side
and pointed to the freckle that my hair always hid or that I made sure
was covered up from the dangerous beam from the sun. Nathaniel
came up behind me and placed his hand over it. I shivered from the skin
to skin contact and let my hair go, feeling it brush Nathaniel’s hand.
“I didn’t see this at the dance though.”
“My dress covered it out of view from everyone. It was like Amylia
known about it, but she didn’t have a clue.”
Nathaniel moved away from me and walked over to the beach bag
and looked through it for something. He came up empty handed
though.
“How about we just watch the clouds brew and then later on, we can
talk about all of our troubles?” Nathaniel suggested.
“What happens if we get caught in the storm though?” I asked.
“I can use one of my many vampire powers to get us back in a hurry,
but the feel of summer rain on your overheated skin is soothing.”
I sat down on the soft grass and looked up at Nathaniel. He sat next
to me and looked straight with a blank look on his face. I placed my
hand on his shoulder, but didn’t get a response out of him. It was like
Nathaniel was in his own world and nothing could pull him out of it.
“Hey, what is wrong?” I asked.
Nathaniel shook his head as if it was to clear his thoughts and looked
over to me with a blank look in his eyes. “I’m just thinking about some-
thing.”
“Do you wish to tell me?” I asked.
“I want to tell you right now, but I don’t know how you will take eve-
rything that I am bottling up on the inside,” he said, his voice laced with
an edge.
“How do you know that? I have most of my feelings bottled up so I
don’t have to deal with everything that I have been put through in my
life.”
“I don’t think it would be as bad as my story would be, but I am still
trying to figure out how to break everything to you. My life hasn’t been
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easy, and the same goes for your life also. And I believe after today, we
will come out even stronger in our relationship.”
I hoped that he was right, and once everything came out into the
open about his past and mine, that it wouldn’t drive a wedge between
us. I didn’t want that happening. I didn’t want my relationship with Na-
thaniel to fall apart before it really even started.
“What happens if it doesn’t Nathaniel? What happens if we end up
growing apart from everything that might happen?” I asked.
“We won’t grow apart Brianna,” Nathaniel said, trying to reassure
me, but it wasn’t working.
“How do you know that though? It’s not like you can predict the fu-
ture or anything Nathaniel. You and I have no idea what will end up
happening in this relationship in the future.”
“That is true, but I have been on this planet long enough to know
when I am right over something and I know for a fact that I am right
over this. ”
I laughed to myself and looked back at the clouds that were still
brewing in the distance. They were starting to turn into the vivid blue
that was the sign that something would happen. The wind picked up,
blowing my hair straight into my mouth. I gagged and removed it while
hearing Nathaniel snicker next to me.
“Shut it,” I said and looked at him.
“I didn’t do anything,” he said, looking straight ahead but was still
trying not to laugh.
I just looked at him but didn’t say anything in response. We did
enough fighting yesterday over crazy things, and I didn’t feel like start-
ing another one.
“I shouldn’t have laughed to myself, but that doesn’t happen to Da-
kota or Amylia and it is funny when it happens to someone else.”
“That’s because they use hair products and I don’t, as you can tell,” I
said, wrapping my hair around my finger.
“You don’t even wear make-up and because of that, that makes you
even more beautiful in my eyes as you embrace your natural beauty.
You have seen the way Augusta and everyone else besides Hudson look
on a daily basis. Everyone thinks if they make themselves look like a mil-
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lion dollars and act the way that they do, they will end up getting my
heart, but that has been taken by someone else.”
“Who stole it?”
“You stole my heart Brianna. I-I love you so much that it makes my
frozen, dead heart feel like it is in pain and most times, I can’t even feel
like I can even breathe as my feelings are that strong for you,” he whis-
pered quietly and looked down. “I’ve put my heart on the line but I just
don’t know how you feel about me.”
I gasped in shock and placed my hands on his face, lifting it up so he
had no choice but to look at me. I kissed him as hard as I possibly could
be human. He responded and pulled me in tighter, making my lips hurt