Stories under the Velvet Sky

Chapter Eighteen: A Taste of Something New

There was something contradictory about the way Adrian held me to him compared to the expression gracing his face. While his face was contorted in a chill-inducing murderous and awe-inspiring fury, the feel of the arm around my waist suggested only a very comfortable happy feeling. Though it had me wondering about what I had said to make him make that unpleasant expression.

That was not the only question dwelling in the depths of my mind. How exactly had he figured out I was suffering from nightmares? From what I could tell, it had to do with what went on when he drank my blood, but what about drinking it had informed him of my sleep issues? Was it a chemical imbalance, or something more than that?

He seemed to have realized that his anger was making me uncomfortable, and relaxed; swapping raw fury out for a more natural looking scowl, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he murmured quietly, his voice sounding strained, like he was fighting for control, “Are you all right, Kathryne?”

I blinked, the change in him too fast for my brain to process properly, “Ah, yeah. I’m fine….” I replied shakily, not entirely sure what to make of the sudden difference in his behavior. Unable to figure it out, I opted to ask about what’d been bugging me, “Hey, how’d you know to ask about the nightmares again?” I asked him curiously, shifting my eyes away so I wouldn’t have to look at his face. I was still incredibly unnerved.

Adrian sighed as if he had been anticipating my question. Tightening his hold on me, he shifted my weight over on to his right leg and then moved so he was leaning back against the armrest, treating it like a makeshift back pillow, pulling me along with him so that I ended up resting on his chest. “When a vampire, living or undead, imbibes the blood of a willing individual, there is a temporary connection formed between them that permits the vampire to gain a glimpse into the mind or memory of the person,” he explained reluctantly, his head turning away from me, “most vampires can only pick up on things associated with a specific emotion, but the more powerful ones are able to sense more than one emotion at a time.”

That made sense, “So which are you?” I wanted to know at least a little more about him. He never talked about himself or his family at all. Oh, he’d mention something here and there, but it was never anything specific. In fact, the only things I knew about him so far, were his name, his approximate age, and his race. Sure, I knew what he was like, but that told me absolutely nothing about his past.

“I’d rather keep that to myself,” he chuckled, patting me on the head a few times, “but I will tell you that your stress made it stand out quite a bit. I was also taking an educated guess. Again, not many people change their sleeping patterns on such short notice.” Well, at least he was sure of himself.

He worries about me that much huh? It was a nice change of pace I supposed. My Uncle never really bothered to check on me. I’d thought I’d been fine with that, but apparently not if I was so pleased by the knowledge that he’d noticed my strange behavior.

Though I wished he would tell me more, I wouldn’t push the matter. I hadn’t told him anything about my past, but he probably already knew about it from my nosy Uncle. Maybe it wasn’t a matter of trust for him. I knew I wasn’t ready to share my darkest secrets with him, so I figured it was the same way for him too.

Mmm, his chest is a comfy pillow. Nice and toasty. I could fall asleep on that chest. “May I ask another question?” If he was as comfortable as I was, I would just want things to be peaceful and quiet. I wouldn’t have said anything actually, had my mind not been buzzing with curiosity.

His head turned back to me, “I’m guessing you want to know why I looked so angry earlier, huh?” He’d hit the nail right on the head with that one.