She looked right into my eyes, into my heart, into my soul.
"You were afraid of me," she stated, " but you're not afraid now, are you?"
"No..." I whispered softly.
"Only two of my kind know I have a heart, but even without knowing this, they still deny my existence as one of them. Today..."
She let go of me, and for the first time, Lily looked defeated and somewhat weak.
"I wanted...to prove something, but I lost."
"You—"
She shook her head, stopping my words.
"I've confirmed it, I'm not one of them. I can die."
Death. A lot of people feared death, and it intrigued me. For Lily...she didn't seem afraid to say that. She was accepting her reality.
"This started some years ago..."
"The heart?"
"No, the warmth. I started to get warm five years ago, and it frightened me, but I came to accept it as myself. IT didn't harm me, and no one knew, so I was safe."
She grabbed my hand again.
"The warmth has been spreading."
She passed my hand over her skin, and I felt the warmth that had reached other parts of her body. She let me feel it to the boundaries of her coldness, the parts where the warmth had yet to reach.
Without those parts, she felt human, soft, and fragile.
"Three years ago, my heartbeat became a reality, and I hid it as well. But my father found out."
She climbed onto the bed, straddling me. Her hair drooped down, and the scent it gave off was strange. I have no words to describe it, but it made my stomach tighten.
"I had to be punished for hiding such a thing, and I still have the marks from then."
Thinking about Taylor punishing her caused a shiver to run down my spine. I didn't want to know, yet I wanted to know.
My heart raced, and she calmly looked at me.
"I'll show you, then I'll ask you."
She slowly took off her shirt, but I didn't see anything like the beauty of a girl, but the victim of unspeakable secrets or torment.
I didn't feel them when my fingers moved across the skin, and as I looked at them, my face twisted into an ugly expression.
I was afraid.
The marks crossed her skin like a cruel net, marring her beauty permanently. They didn't look like normal scars. Her skin was naturally white, but the marks...they were ghostly white, unnaturally shining as if they would give out light in the dark.
"Chains..." I muttered.
Yes, the marks weren't straight lines made from cuts, but branded chain links. They disfigured her.
"If I were human, death would have been the end of me then, and if I were like them, these marks wouldn't be there."
What is she?
"There is one more thing that happened the day we met."
Lily leaned in closer till she was resting on top of me. Her breath was next to my ear, and it was cold.
"Your presence did something to the warmth."
She directed my hand to her back, and it was cold, but...
"The warmth now flows through my spine."
I retracted my fingers as if I touched fire.
"I need you to feel the warmth, so don't pull back."
I relaxed my fingers, feeling the warmth on her back. My hand felt a chill, but my fingers felt warmth. From the nape of her neck, reaching down to her lower back, the warmth flowed like a snake.
She raised her head, and we locked eyes once again. We breathed the same air, breathed the same secrets, and breathed the same doubts.
"He told me only your kind will accept me, but it's supposed to be only your kind who should accept me. But how many of your kind will accept me?"
Her words were sad, but she wasn't. Her question hung heavily between us.
"I will...accept you..."
For the first time, I saw a full smile on her face, and it made me glimpse her fangs, which I hadn't noticed before.
Her smile...it was the most beautiful smile I'd seen in a while, but it wasn't a smile of joy, but of sarcasm.
"You're right, you will accept me, but the list ends there."
I felt the urge to assure her. "We can—"
"Acceptance isn't what I'm looking for anymore."
She looked at my neck.
"I want to know something else."
...
"I want to know what you taste like."
She leaned closer to my neck, and it was then that I understood the meaning of the word taste.
I felt her breath as her lips parted, then a sharp pain shot through my neck. It was only for a second, and she stopped.
"I'll taste that after..."
She breathed heavily, and I knew she was resisting the urge.
For the first time, I felt a passion burning within me. I wasn't a fool, and I knew what that meant, but I was holding back, just like she was.
I carefully placed my hands on her back, feeling the chill of her through my fingers.
I pulled her closer to be sure whether I could continue.
I wanted to know which permissions I had and what I didn't have.
She didn't resist.
She chose me.
That was the thought running through my mind as she leaned in.
Her lips pressed against mine, soft, cold, warm. This passion burned me, and it was a gentle kiss...only for a second.
It was as if a button had been pressed, and she became the creature she wasn't sure of. Her tongue assaulted mine, and I assaulted hers as well. I pulled her closer, almost as if I wanted to merge with her.
I wanted her, and as I was slowly losing my breath, I understood why I felt that attraction. She wanted somewhere to belong, and so she chose me. I wanted to be needed, and she did.
The kiss grew more passionate, and it didn't taste sweet or bitter. It was cold. In the midst of losing ourselves, my hands climbed her skin, and I grabbed her head, separating us for a moment.
As I took in a breath, I forced the words out. "I'll stay."
She leaned in, not for a kiss this time. Her fangs sank into my neck, and this time, she didn't hold back.