There she was: there she stood, waiting for him, like she always did every single night. It had been at least a year since her parents found out that she'd been coming to meet him every night for the last two years before, and forbidden her from coming to meet him again. But nonetheless, at midnight each night, whatever the weather was like; she'd come to the same alleyway between the filthy buildings and meet him there, where they were able to wander wherever they pleased.

Her ebony tresses gleamed with the moonlight that decorated the already beauteous sight. Her gray eyes never held a dull touch, as it lit up with the sands of the sky that twinkled billions of miles away. Her slim body was sheltered from the wind that played with her hair by a thin- layered black jacket over a plain black shirt, which remained unscathed by fancy designs or embroidery. She voided the short skirts and shorts from her attire, and replaced the usual /uniform/ of the everyday high school senior with a simple pair of dark blue jeans. Even with the simple-looking apparel, she held a mysterious loveliness that made people stop, even if it was a short span of an interval. Her face lit up in a way the moonlight couldn't even compare with a smile that held more power than the inhuman strength in his fists.

"Rhodes," he whispered her name in the same seducing tone he used every night, creeping up from the behind and wrapping his arms around her waist. Pressing his nose into her sweet magnolied scented hair, he held her tightly, bringing her closer and closer to him every second.

"Tobias," she traced a finger gently down his cheek while slightly turning her head to face his burning amber eyes.

He gently placed a kiss on her cheek and released his hold on her so she could turn around completely towards him. Of course, the interval of the release lasted only until she could turn around, and he immediately pulled her in, wrapping his arms around her. "You know that I love you," he grinned widely, his snow-white fangs glittering luminously.

"Of course I do," she snorted. "Damn, can't you be a bit more gentle? You're too damn strong and you seem to be enjoying the fact that they're no way I can overpower you."

"Gentle? You never seemed to complain about that before." He flashed another fanged grin and then pressed his lips against hers. She quickly wrapped her arms around the one she loved and returned a sweet passionate kiss.

She was beautiful to him; she always had been, even years ago when she was only 14. No one else seemed to cherish the beauty she possessed as he did, as he learned from the beginning, but it didn't matter. There was something about Rhodes that enchanted him when they met, and when she had easily accepted the fact that he was a vampire without a look of fear or hatred on her visage and expression. She was his, as he was hers, and he never felt so strongly about anyone in his life, which had been at least two hundred years long as of 2005, which would be in three years.

Tobias lifted his lips from hers, but they remained less than an inch away from her face. "Shall we run?"

Rhodes grimaced. "So you can show off in what else you're better than me in? You know, being with you is not healthy for an ego's self- confidence," but she kept a jocular tone with no offense intended.

"I bet it is, but you still love me anyway," he flared his fangs, and planted a quick kiss on the side of her neck.

"Agh," she swiped his hand through his silky auburn and lightly hit his head. "You completely enjoy that fact, and enjoy using that fact as much as possible, don't you?"

"Why wouldn't I? I know that you do anyway," he looked away into the distance, where the horrid displays of architecture were no longer in view. "Let's go to the beach," he finally concluded, looking back into her eyes.
"That sounds cool," she replied with a small smile. "Which one?"

"Hawaii."

She chuckled quietly. "Maybe some other time, but for now, let's go to our own small, less lovely beach and settle for that, eh?"

"Anywhere with you, m'dear," he dramatically replied with a usual playful grin. He gently let go of her while she dropped her arms that held him to her.

She rolled her eyes, but he took her hand and squeezed it gently, for him (his "gentle" wasn't so gentle). She squeezed his hand in response, as he kissed her on the cheek lightly. With their hands in a loving grasp, they walked out of the dark and sullied alleyway, leaving it to be in the deserted state it had previously taken. The night was completely there for the taking, with the dim light provided by the speckled glitter. The lunar spectacle was a breathtaking wonder that held her place in the night for the entire world to marvel. One peaceful night that was perfectly set for the two unusual lovers..One /last/ peaceful night.

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Tobias cherished every moment Rhodes spent laying in his arms. It was the closest he could ever be to heaven, when heaven hated him anyway. He was a creature of the night, to be forever damned by light and once before, he remembered thinking he was to be forever damned by ecstasy. He knew the truth now: the truth was Rhodes. His ecstasy was Rhodes. His life was Rhodes. Nothing would ever change that, and he held her closer to his chest as he let out a breath of relief, smiling at the beautiful girl who lay in his arms. It was pure bliss.

She still wouldn't let him take her to Hawaii that night; she was too afraid of flying overseas; but they had flown up the Atlantic Coast and all the way to Florida, where the beaches were comparably beautiful to those of the Caribbean. While one hand stroked her hair as she rested her head on his chest, the other hand ran its fingers through the soft grainy sand. The spectrum of stars illuminated the night in a twinkling feast of brightness. It was a calm night, and perfect for the question he was about to ask.

He had been planning it for awhile. He didn't know what to say to her at first, but then he realized that it might not even really matter. All he had to do was express to her his love, the utmost truth, and ask her to be with him for the rest of eternity.

"Rhodes?" He whispered her name into her ear gently.

"Uh huh?" She murmured, still closing her eyes.

"You know that I love you, and I always will, right?"

She opened her eyes. "Of course I do."

"Do you love me?" He asked, holding her to closer to him.

She looked surprised as she turned her head to look him in the eye. "Of course I do, and I'll love you always," she clung to him tighter than before.

"Be with me then," he pleaded. "Forever. Join me, Rhodes, and we'll be together for eternity, and we don't have to live our love in secret."

Her complexion showed an even deeper surprise, which was not what he expected from her. "You want me to become a vampire with you?" The tone of her voice was quiet and unsteady with hesitation. "Tobias.I.." She paused, looking away. "I was afraid of when I might have to tell you it's now or never."

"Tell me what?"

"You have to understand, Tobias, that I love you. I always have, and I always will," she stopped again, her voice trembling with every passing word. "But.I don't want to be immortal. I want to grow up, go to college, and do everything else life has to offer," she put her hand to her face and sat up. "God, I shouldn't have kept this , I have to leave I have to leave you now. I can't hurt you anymore than what I did just now.I couldn't bare it. I have to let you find someone else who isn't afraid like I am. I have to let you find someone much better than I am."

He was speechless as she spoke these words of horror. This wasn't supposed to happen. They were supposed to be words of happiness, words of acceptance, saying that yes, she would be with him forever. It wasn't supposed to be this.

" can't leave me." he could barely push out the words as his voice cracked.

"I'm hurting you now," she cried. "And I would hurt you even more. I wish I hadn't kept you for so long; I shouldn't have lifted you so high, and dropped you I needed you, Tobias. You're a huge part of my life, and I felt that if I let you go, the holes in my heart could never be filled. I shouldn't have been so selfish!" she slammed her fists into the sand. "I'm ..so. sorry, and I know that there's nothing I could say to make it up to that is why the best thing for me to to leave you."

"Come on, let's go home," he said quietly, picking her up in flight. They didn't talk for the rest of the long trip as they soared across the air. He knew that he could hypnotize her, he could force her to stay, or he could even bite her now, making her become a vampire anyway, but he didn't have the heart to do it. He wanted her to choose to stay with him. And so he dropped her off by the window of her house, and she crawled inside her room.

"Goodbye, Tobias," she whispered with tears glistening around her eyes and she closed the window softly.

But Tobias wasn't ready for goodbye.

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He watched her in the shadows now, following her every move, just like a stalker. He'd follow her to school in a transformed state of mist, and waited for her to leave school, following her to wherever she would go. He would find some way to get her back, somehow. He wasn't ready to let her go. He wouldn't let her go, he would /never/ let her go, and he would make some way for her to come back to him, no matter what. Tobias thought he had his chance when he saw her crying as she walked home from school. "This is it," he thought to himself. "I can go in, put my arms around her, make it all better, and she'll remember that we were meant to be together always."

But all of a sudden, a sun colored hair boy began running up to her, and Tobias watched her talk to him. Talk gently to her, and then put /his/ arm around her. Then to his horror, Rhodes began crying hysterically, thrusting her arms around him, and he held her close to him with sad eyes. She let this boy comfort her and have one arm around her as they walked to a house, in which Tobias assumed was the boy's home. He clenched his fists in rage and extreme jealousy, his eyes igniting with a fiery passion, as he glared at the boy with blonde hair and hazel colored eyes. She told Tobias that she would love him always, and why had she given in so easily to the affection of this boy?

Well if Tobias couldn't have her, nobody could. And he began immediately plotting the death of the boy who had taken the place of Tobias.

And so the after studying the habits of his parents, and when they were out, he found the perfect night where the boy would be all alone in his house. That night, he scratched himself, smeared blood and tore his clothes, even bruised himself so badly that he looked like he had been mugged by gangsters. He crawled and dragged himself to the door of the boy's house, knowing that his parents would not be the one to open the door. He would ask to use the boy to let him in, to let him be hidden in here from the gangsters searching for him, use the phone to call his "parents", and when the boy least expected it, he would suffocate him with pillows and blankets, being careful not to make any physical marks on the boy, so the whole way of murder would be questionable. Then he would dump him in the river, first, making the marks on the ground to look like he tripped and hit his head (he would hit the corpse's head against a rock), to make it looked like he drowned, so no one would be blamed for this homicide. Tobias planned to bite him, and suck all the blood from his body, but he knew that Rhodes would instantly know who the culprit was, and he couldn't let her know of this plan.

The boy answered the door and was horrified to see the beaten teenager at the foot of the door. "Damn, are you okay?" He dropped to his knees, trying to help Tobias to his feet. "Come inside, let me help you," he helped Tobias walk inside and rest on the couch. Tobias would have smiled, if he hadn't been playing his part. "What happened?"

"S-Some guys mugged me," Tobias stammered with inflected fear. "Please don't let me go back out there."

"You can stay in here, don't worry," he reassured him, after running into the kitchen and bringing him water and a slice of pizza, and then glanced at Tobias's self wounds. "Let me go get the first aid kit, too."

"That's okay, it's not that bad."

"But look at those cuts!" His eyes widened. "Did they pull a knife on you?"

"One of them might have," Tobias stuttered, still trying to play the weak part, even though he knew that his wounds would heal by themselves in a quick amount of time.

"I'll clean it up and bandage it," he concluded, and in a sprint, brought back a box of medical items. "So, do you live around here?" He asked while unraveling the long bandages.

"No, I'm visiting my relatives for a few days," he lied. "They live a few blocks away from here. I was just taking a walk when five guys surprised me from behind and knocked me to the ground."

He shook his head. "That's terrible, and I bet I know those guys from school," he sighed and then looked towards Tobias as he finished wrapping the bandage around his leg. "So, what's your name?"

"My name is Mark, what's yours?" Tobias desperately wanted to know the name of his victim.

"Calvin," he replied in an amicable tone, but Tobias barely heard him for he had glimpsed a picture that immediately caught his eye. There, on a table, was a wooden frame with a picture of Calvin, and a black haired girl beside him, their arms around each other with big wide smiles across their faces. It was Rhodes. His Rhodes.

"Who's that girl?" Tobias pointed to the picture, with a caution in his voice, trying not to burst out into wrath, but he could feel the contempt rising from the back of his throat. "Your girlfriend?" He questioned.

"Oh no," he blushed immediately, turning a bright shade of scarlet. "She's my best friend, Rhodes."

"Best friend?"

"Yeah, we've known each other since first grade."

"Do you like her?" the question popped out of Tobias's mouth.

He turned an even brighter color, much to Tobias's displeasure. "Well.I couldn't call us anything more than yeah, I've liked her for awhile."

"'t you ask her out?" He could barely force the question out without gritting his teeth.

"Well," he hesitated. "I haven't asked her before, because I knew she had a boyfriend already, one whom she liked very I never met him. last week, or the week before.I broke up with , she's very upset, and I don't want to ask her out right now, cause it will look like I'm trying to take advantage of is the last thing I want to do," he stopped. " really liked him a lot, loved him, he was her world, from what I know. She couldn't tell me exactly why, but she had to break up with him when she didn't want to in the least bit. She said there were reasons she couldn't tell me, and that's about all I know."

Tobias was quiet for a few moments, and Calvin continued on. "She still loves him, I can tell, even before she told me she did before. She's so I can't bear to see her like that.I try not to hate her boyfriend, because I know he never did anything to hurt her, and I know that he must have cared about her a lot even if the pain she's feeling came from herself, I really wish I could help her."

"You love her then, don't you? For a long time," Tobias winced.

"I guess you could say that, and for a long time too, I guess. Maybe it was a friendship love before, but now, I guess it's something deeper, and something hopeless."

Picking up the picture on the table, he looked at it carefully. "She's a pretty girl."

"She's beautiful," Calvin nodded and sighed.

Tobias could feel tears coming to his eyes, but he quickly pushed them back and set them on the table. He knew what he had to do. "Calvin, do yourself a favor, and do her a favor. Ask her out. From what I've heard, she needs someone who really cares about her the way you do."

Calvin looked surprised at his comment and couldn't find the right words to reply, but Tobias stood up and started for the door. "Thank you for letting me stay. I'm sure the muggers are gone by now, so I'm gonna walk back. Thank you, once again."

"Are you sure? You're welcome to stay here to rest a bit if you want."

Tobias shook his head and stepped outside. "I have to go now, but Calvin," he swallowed hard. "Take care of Rhodes. I bet she really needs it."

"I will," he nodded and Tobias shut the door behind him.

Rhodes loved him, and she never lied when she told him she always would. Of course, it was probably a different kind of love, but it was still love, and that's all Tobias wanted anyway. That, and for Rhodes to be happy in her life, and if that meant that she would be with someone else, so be it. He had to let go of her now. They had separated paths, but he knew that he would be her heart, and she would be in his forever.

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**Finished! Pretty short, may fix it later, but for now, it's satisfying. ^,^**

**Please review!**

**Kree**