Trevor #10 All We Need is Some Ice Cream & a Hug 8.17.2007

I think Chaine and Trevor are starting to get suspicious. I've been going to the fight club a lot lately, and they think I'm up to something else. Which I am, but that's not the point. Honing my skills is all I've been doing, really. It's just that... now I have a sparring partner who really kicks my ass.

I kissed them both good-bye and wrapped up in my leather jacket, making my way through town to the old parking garage.

Amaranth keeps making appearances while I'm there, always waiting until I've been shadow-boxing for so long that I'm sweating and breathing hard like a normal human. I still don't understand why I can't stop doing those things... those unneccessary human habits like breathing and sweating. I mean, I was born a vampire so I never did those things... why does my body go through motions it shouldn't even know?

Most nights, he just watches. But now and then he'll toss his jacket onto one of the dirty old steel chairs, roll up his sleeves, and hop into the ring with me. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, bare-knuckle boxing isn't a leisure sport for the faint of heart or wimpy of limb. No face shots ever, but I swear he's almost broken ribs on me before. But then he kisses it and makes it all better... Wait, that sounded more idiotic than I thought it would. He can actually heal with his kiss. Seriously. I don't know how he does it, or why he can, but it's... very strange.

I can always tell when he wants to spar because he comes with that gorgeously long charcoal hair of his in a high ponytail, his bangs falling fetchingly down to frame his face. I goad him into more serious fights when I tell him that it makes him look like a girl with his hair done up all pretty like that. That was the first time he almost seriously hurt me. Cracked ribs are as close to broken as you can get, you know.

I sighed aloud as I slowly lowered myself into a split in the middle of the ring, raising my arms high and letting my head drop back. I gazed up at the ceiling silently for a moment, my eyes not really focused on anything. I was starting to become worried by the way he seemed to always be in my thoughts. Half the time I wondered if he was purposely messing with my brain from afar. I mean, if he could heal with his kiss, who knew what other things he was capable of? I leaned back farther, the back of my head touching my outstretched leg. I folded my arms behind my neck, enjoying the stretch.

The almost imperceptible rustle of cloth outside the ring brought me from my near-meditative state. Without moving my body, I let my head loll to the side and I looked over at him with a small smile. If I hadn't been a mere two inches away from it, it would have been much more impressive when my jaw hit the floor. Amaranth climbed into the ring, barefoot and shirtless with his hair up. Clothed he was beautiful, but shirtless and not hidden behind his hair... he looked dangerous. Much like a sword, awe-inspiring when sheathed and frightening and deadly when bared. His feet and hands were wrapped in tape like mine. I got to my feet cautiously, never taking my eyes off him as I stood. He must have had a super shitty day to be this ready to fight.

He was usually all soft smiles and teasing laughter, but something was different today. He was so serious looking... What the hell was going on?!

His eyes were dark as he looked at me, no sparkle of merriment in them like there usually was.

8.20.2007

I was frozen, rooted in place. Was this what humans saw when they looked at us? When they saw a vampire? Like trying to stare down a starving panther, he was so beautiful and lithe and his eyes were lit with purple fire...

"Amaranth..." I said his name softly, my voice trembling more than I thought it would. I silently cursed myself for sounding so vulnerable. He was... I was a predator. Seeming like prey, especially to something that's hungry, was always the worst possible thing you could do. The low rumbling growl that emanated from his chest was proof that I'd made the wrong move.

I remembered one of the things that Chaine had taught me... If something's bigger and badder than you, try to psych it out. I rolled my lips back and bared my fangs, snarling in response. It gave him pause for a second and he looked confused, his violet eyes blinking rapidly. He lowered his gaze and shook his head like he was trying to clear it. That teeny window of opportunity was all I needed. I charged him with my shoulder aimed low, hitting him with the force of a wrecking ball that took us both to the mat hard enough to break all four of the posts supporting the ring like they were toothpicks. The metal squealed in protest as the ring crashed down with a resonating boom loud enough to make the ceiling above us quiver. It drove the wind from my lungs and shocked the hell out of both of us.

I half-wondered if I'd broken his spine. I hadn't known I could hit that hard, and Amaranth sure as hell wasn't expecting it. Sudden pain shot through the arm I'd speared him with and I looked down to see my arm bent away from my shoulder at an angle that just wasn't meant to be seen anywhere in nature, not even in supernature. It was dislocated... I swallowed hard, preparing to set it back into place, but then I didn't have to. Amaranth rolled us over so quickly that my shoulder popped back into place when he slammed my back against the mat. It tore a scream from my lips as the bone grated back into place; I couldn't help it... It fucking hurt.

Amaranth's cool fingers slid over my shoulder and down my arm, like he was trying to soothe the ache away with his touch. The extreme chill of his skin against mine was definintely helping. But, by the same token... I turned my face away from his, wishing my hair was down to hide the fact that my cheeks burned a deep scarlet from embarrassment. He sat so comfortably on top of me, like... like... Oh, you know what I mean!

He laughed then, one of those smug little man chuckles that says they know they've got you right where they want you. I felt his fingers brush my bangs aside, completely revealing the utter redness of my face, but my eyes were squinched shut. I didn't want to look up at him, I didn't want to physically take in the fact that we were so very close to the places my brain had been running off to while I slept. I heard and felt him lean down, his breath hot on my ear as he said softly, "You really are just an innocent little thing, aren't you?"

His long tresses slipped over his shoulder and brushed against my bare stomach, the contact with the silken strands causing me to tighten all of my muscles against the sensation. I couldn't resist the temptation and opened my eyes, turning back to face him. Our faces were an inch apart and, gazing into his eyes from this short distance away, I could see in those fiery violet orbs that his thoughts had been dancing off to the same place mine had been. He smiled at me then, and Amaranth looked like himself again. Wordlessly, he reached up and pulled the tie from his hair and that heavy charcoal mass spilled around us like an ashen river. "Go on," he said softly, urging me as I stared at his hair in wonder. "Touch it, Dachi... You know you want to."

I reached up slowly, hesitantly, my hands shaking ever so slightly. I paused a moment, almost rethinking it, and then deciding that I shouldn't be trying to make it so awkward. I slowly slid my fingers into his thick silver locks, feeling the heaviness of it as it feel away from and around my hand. His hair was softer than I had imagined, softer than his silk shirt, than his smooth skin, softer than the petals of a rose, softer than...

Amaranth's lips met mine and I couldn't remember what I was thinking anymore. When he finally let me up for air, which I kept trying to tell myself I didn't need, he smirked a little and the hungry fire in his eyes was gone. "Do you always think so poetically of me, Daciana?"

"Most of the..." I did stop breathing. "Wait." This could NOT be happening... His smirk widened into a fang-filled grin and my jaw dropped. "You can read my thoughts?!" I shrilled. He merely nodded again.

I covered my face with my hands, wondering if my face was actually glowing this time with how red I must be. "Ohmigod... I wanna crawl under a rock and die..." I murmured into my palms, shaking my head back and forth in denial.

He covered my hands with his and gently pulled them away from my face. "Come now, Dachi..." That masculine chuckle again. "I've seen much worse in the minds of men."

I almost swallowed my tongue. "Jesus! Why do you SAY things like that?!" My face must have resembled a tomato at that point, but I discovered a distraction. "Amaranth..."

"Hmm?" he asked, idly toying with one of my long black ringlets.

"You're not hungry anymore, but you didn't drink any blood. How is that possible?"

He smiled, looking very young to me then. "We don't all need blood to survive, Dachi. Blood is... dangerous, tenuous, hard to obtain sometimes. It's not always in abundance. Some of us feed on emotions. Fear, anger, loathing, hatred, love, lust... These are all much safer to draw from people, and much less noticeable than pouncing on someone and biting a hole in their throat."

I was stunned into silence. "Which do you feed on?" I asked after a moment of processing that information.

He laughed and lightly gripped my chin in his fingers, turning my head to the side and covering my throat with expert kisses that set my nerve endings on fire. "What fun would it be if I told you that?" he murmured against my skin.

A few hours later I stumbled home, careful to be quiet as I made my way to my room. I didn't even bother to change out of my workout clothes, so exhausted that I just flopped onto the bed and managed to half-assedly pull a blanket over me before sinking into the dead sleep of the daytime.