“KYAAAAAAAA!!” Delia’s scream echoed inside the narrow coffin, bouncing from one wooden wall to another.
The man beside her, whatever creature he was, grinned while pressing his palm against his left ear.
“Noisy!” His voice was deep, baritone, and sounded like someone who had just been disturbed from their nap.
“Be quiet…” “Y-Y-you…” Delia couldn’t manage to finish any sentence.
Her brain refused to work.
“Demon?!
What creature…” “Heh!” A pair of blood-red eyes shifted sharply toward Delia.
“How dare you speak so carelessly.
I am a majestic creature!” “A-ghost?” The man didn’t answer.
He just stared in a way that made Delia feel like she was being ‘read’ or ‘examined’.
Not rushed.
Not feeling the need to explain himself to a girl who had suddenly barged into his bed.
Then, without warning…
Bam!
With just one hand movement.
The coffin lid that had just been closed flew off, landing on the warehouse floor with a loud thud that shook dust from every corner of the room.
Delia was stunned.
The man rose.
Not in a human way, not by propping himself up on his elbows, not by shifting his feet.
His body moved vertically, like a plank being raised by invisible hands, then floated out of the coffin and landed gracefully on the floor.
His feet stepped and touched the ground without a sound.
“Get out of my bed.” The command came out flat, without excessive emotion, but somehow that’s exactly what made Delia move.
She floundered, crawling out of the coffin in a completely inelegant way, nearly stumbling twice before her feet touched the floor.
“Okay…
I’m out.
Now run!” Delia thought.
Delia’s foot had only taken one step when cold fingers gripped her upper arm.
Then Delia’s world spun…
The roof of the old warehouse seemed to pass right through them, or maybe they passed through it, Delia was not sure because her eyes were shut and the wind was hitting her face at incredible speed.
Cold.
Dark.
High…
Her mouth opened wide.
Very wide.
But no sound came out because the wind swallowed her courage before the girl could scream.
“Close your mouth.” That baritone voice sounded right in her ear, and Delia just realized she was being held, but not in a romantic way, it is more like someone carrying a rather troublesome load.
“…Or do you want to catch a cold?” scolded the blood-red-eyed man again.
Delia fumbled to close her mouth.
Hugged back.
Tightly.
Because the other option was falling, and from this height, that option was not at all appealing.
Her hand accidentally touched the skin below the man’s jaw as she gripped tighter.
Smooth.
Pale.
And cold like marble that had never seen sunlight.
“W-where are we going?” Delia’s voice was nearly swallowed by the wind.
“Somewhere high.” Woooooosh!
Their speed doubled.
Delia buried her face in the man’s shoulder and decided not to look down, not now, not ever!
“I’m freeeeee!!” That shout exploded right next to Delia’s ear.
Full of joy, like a prisoner just released from jail after years.
Startled, Delia let go of her grip.
At that moment, gravity immediately claimed its right.
“Hwaaaaa!!!” Delia fell.
Free fall.
Sky and ground swapped places.
The wind shrieked around her, her hair covered her entire face, and Delia’s brain only had time to process one sentence.
“I have not graduated yet…
oh, I have!
But I have not gotten married!!” Hup!
Something cold and strong caught her from below, a maneuver too smooth to be done in a panic, and Delia found herself back in the same embrace, this time in a safer position even if no more dignified.
“That was close,” the man muttered.
“P-please…” Delia felt her tears flowing without permission.
“I have not gotten married…
hueee…” A very long sigh was heard.
They landed on the branch of a large tree in the city park, a branch wide enough to sit on, high enough that Delia did not dare move too much.
The man sat her there, then stepped back.
Stared at her.
Tilted his head.
Delia was still sobbing softly when those cold fingers touched her cheek.
A gentle touch, cold, not forceful.
Just…
wiping.
Delia gasped.
Not out of fear.
But because she did not expect it.
“I am Alexander,” the man said.
His blood-red eyes continued to observe, but his tone shifted, more neutral.
More…
human-like, even if that might not be the right word.
“You can call me Alex.” Delia blinked.
“I-I’m Delia.” Alexander nodded, as if he already knew that name.
Maybe he did.
“Delia.” He repeated the name softly, as if weighing its taste.
“Thank you.
You have freed me.” “Freed…?” A thin smile curved on his lips, and for the first time, Delia saw the tips of fangs slightly protruding from the corner of that smile.
Not long.
Not looking fake like in movies.
Just enough to remind her that this man was not human.
“Your blood,” said Alexander.
“The one that awakened me from my long sleep.” Three seconds of silence.
“VAMPIRE?!” Delia nearly slipped off the branch.
Alexander’s hand gripped her shoulder before the laws of physics could prove the stupidity of her reaction with a ridiculous fall downward.
“Exactly!” Alexander released his hand once Delia was stable.
“My age…” he paused, considering.
“…is irrelevant for now.” “Irrelevant?!
No way!” Delia grabbed her own neck reflexively.
Then her eyes widened as she remembered something.
“Wait!
Wait a minute!!!
You…
earlier…
my finger was cut by that red ruby stone, and you…” “Your blood touched my ruby.” Alexander pointed to his chest, and Delia just noticed that the red stone that had decorated the coffin earlier was now embedded there, glowing faintly under the moonlight.
“This stone is the source of my power.
I did not choose this, Delia.
But the contract has been formed.” “Contract?
What…” “You who awakened me.” Alexander’s eyes stared straight at her.
“Then you will be the source of my breakfast, every full moon.” Cricket…
Cricket…
Cricket…
“Breakfast…” Delia repeated the word in a very flat tone.
“Me?
Your breakfast?” “Bingo!” “So I’m going to become a vampire too?” Alexander furrowed his brow, an offended expression crossing his face.
“How presumptuous!
Do you think a vampire bite is like a contagious virus?” “But in all the movies…” “This is not a movie.” Alexander’s eyes flashed sharply.
“And we are not in a movie world.
We are in a novel world, written by a handsome author who unfortunately is still single, despite his pitiable love life, but our author knows how to tell a story well enough.” Delia opened her mouth.
Then closed it again.
Confused about what to say.
“Okay, but…” Delia gathered the fragments of her logic.
“How old are you, actually?” Those fangs appeared again in a grin that now felt more self-satisfied.
“Almost a thousand years.” One second.
Two seconds.
Three…
“WHAAAAAT?!” Delia’s voice woke at least three birds from the branches above them.
Alexander rubbed his ear for the third time tonight, his face wearing an exaggeratedly suffering expression for a creature who had lived nearly a millennium.
On the branch of an old tree in the middle of the city park, a newly graduated anthropology student sat side by side with a nearly thousand-year-old vampire, who had just made her his monthly breakfast without asking permission first.
“Best vacation ever!” Delia thought while staring at the night sky with an empty expression.
“This is definitely the best vacation of my life.
Amazing!”