Alina Mrs. Stayton was, just like all the other vampires I’ve had the pleasure of seeing, utterly gorgeous.With her long blonde hair in perfect curls that reached to her lower back, neat facial structures, and an hourglass figure, she could easily give Hollywood actresses a run for their money. However, she preferred to stay out of the limelight. She wore a sky blue knee-length designer dress embroidered with real silver threads and paired it up with a silver hat. Erick didn’t have that much in common with his mother in terms of looks, except for their ice-blue eyes. She had a more delicate build and a heart-shaped face while Erick was all hard angles and sharp features.“Nice to see you again, Mrs. Stayton. How have you been?” I greeted politely. She was, after all, a very powerful vampire of over three hundred years. Unlike popular belief, vampires weren’t immortal in the true sense

Alina “Alina?”“Alina, say something.”“Alina!”“Huh?” I was startled back into reality as Erick’s face faded away and Ryan’s face appeared in front of me.“What’s wrong? You’ve been spaced out this whole morning,” Ryan asked as he sat himself down on one of the chairs in front of my desk.“Nothing. I’m just stressed, I guess,” I answered, putting my pen down on top of a bundle of papers and running my hands down my faceThe article that we worked on in the restaurant was going to go on air today, and I had to write the speech that our Editor-in-Chief will be broadcasting since I was the one who took down the notes. Ryan had, thankfully, kept all the equipment on my desk yesterday and covered for me when our boss noticed my absence. All that hard work would be for nothing if I wouldn’t be able to w

Alina “You know,” Erick stated. “You could at least pretend to be happy. Your dad’s gonna think I’m slowly torturing you to death, and that won’t be healthy for him.”“You know,” I deadpanned, “you could at least pretend to shut up sometimes. It’s really healthy for you.”“Ha ha.” Erick glared. “You’re not funny.”I glared back at him.Kendrick, Erick’s chauffeur, cleared his throat to get our attention.“What?” we asked in unison and turned to resume our glaring crescendo.“Master, ma’am, we’ve reached the hospital,” Kendrick said, all cool and professional as if he hadn’t just tolerated our bickering for the past twenty minutes.That was when we noticed that we were sitting in the parking lot of the city hospital.Erick was

Alina “... na... Al... Alina...”I groaned as the pounding in my head increased. Who on Earth was calling me? Couldn’t they see that I was sleeping? What was this feeling... like something wet was hitting my face?“Ugh!” I covered my eyes with my hands even though they were closed. Why was there so much light? Where was I?“Alright, Cinderella, get up!” someone snapped near my ears, startling me into opening my eyes. I closed them again, a groan escaping my mouth.It took me some time to adjust my eyes to the bright light in the room. When my vision cleared, I saw that I was back in Erick’s beach house in the same blue room. This time, thankfully, I still had my own clothes on, and it was still daytime. Erick sat on the same chair next to the bed as he did the first time he brought me here two days ago.“Hmmm... I’m thinking Faintasia.

Alina Erick kept his promise. He hasn’t called or visited since the day he spilled his guts out about everything that had me confused. Even though he didn’t say it out loud, I have a pretty good idea about what exactly happened four years ago. The only question was, why?In spite of everything he said, I couldn’t help but feel restless. If he were here, I would have felt more at ease. I had no idea how and when this started, though. This feeling I get whenever I was with him was unmistakable one of safety. It was something I had missed for a long time. Even when we were young and he started feeding on me, I had this feeling deep in my heart that none of his death threats were real. I was just too scared to see past the fact that he was a vampire, a predator that could kill me in a blink of an eye.However, those things weren’t important right now because, at this instant, I was making a deci