New chapter and new...things. And a short note! Read on, good reviewers, read on. Nevermore.

The phone rang, a shrill noise that made me jump with its sudden alarm.

"Who could possibly be calling?" I wondered out loud. Adam, who still held me, looked down at me with a mixture of contempt and annoyance, neither of which were directed towards me.

"Guess."

He got up quickly, leaving me to fall onto the couch. I glared at him.

"You know, I don't even know Lucille and she's starting to annoy me," I said. He laughed coldly. A shiver ran down my spine. It was so similar to his laughter earlier today. Or yesterday, actually...

"Hello?" he asked the reciever. I could clearly hear the female voice on the other line.

"Hello, Adam," Lucille purred through the phone. I recognized it from my visions. The only difference was that this time, she was calm. There was no anger or fear in her voice. "How are you?"

"Peachy keen," he grumbled. I frowned, but kept silent. I didn't like how mad she made him.

"Dear, sarcasm will get you nowhere in life," she laughed. It was a breathy laugh, like she was trying to be sexy or something. I rolled my eyes.

"I thought I told you that I wasn't your 'dear' anything," he snapped. She just laughed again. Fortunately, though, it was a relatively normal laugh. Still, I was on my guard in case she made him really angry. I knew how he'd react to talking to her; I could only assume that it'd be a little worse than the day of that first stupid vision.

"Whatever," she snapped, suddenly just as annoyed as he was. He sighed.

"Is there anything in particular that you called to bother me with?" he finally asked. It was silent on the other end.

"I just wanted to see how you were is all," she muttered, irritated with his cool tones. "It's always been that reason, and you know that, Adam." Her voice took on a pleading quality.

"I'm fine. Goodbye now, Lucille."

"Wait — wait, don't hang up yet. I want to know her name," she blurted.

I froze. Who was she talking about? Me?

"Whose name?"

"The girl in the background. Oh, I know there's someone there. I can feel her. Now — what is her name?"

She could feel me? What did that mean? Was that her gift or something?

"Her name is Ret. Goodbye, Lucille."

She sighed at his dismissal.

"Goodbye, Adam." There was a click, and she was gone.

"What did she mean when she said that she could feel me?" I asked once he was back on the couch. His jaw was clenched, and his eyes were tight.

"She can just feel a person's presence without actually seeing them, you know?" he snapped.

"Yeah, I guess," I mumbled. I didn't really know at all.

He looked over at me and smiled, lightly punching me on the arm. It was a happy, playful gesture.

"Aw, come on. Don't be upset. I'm not mad at you, of course. It was all Lucille's fault, as it always is. I'm sorry that I'm so upset, okay?" And, as if to prove this, he just kissed me, out of freaking nowhere.

I tried not to focus on the kiss, but that was impossible. It was ice mixing with fire in a stunningly beautiful sort of alchemy. When I pulled away, it was like wrenching half of myself away from the other half and throwing it out the window.

"That was much better than the first kiss," I joked weakly, actually touching my lips like they did in movies. It was like I had to see if they were altered in any way from the magic. They weren't.

He grinned at me and touched the tip of my nose with one finger.

"This time, you were a lot more receptive," he teased. I rolled my eyes, but kept smiling.

It was weird to tease each other this way. Like we were a couple or something. Were we a couple though? We'd kissed twice, but that didn't mean anything, right? But then, we were living together. Surely that meant something.

"Adam, what are we?" I finally asked. He smiled and shrugged.

"We're whatever we want to be. We could be a couple, or just a couple of friends. We could just be roommates or whatever we want," he answered quietly. The playfulness was gone from his voice, like this was the most important subject in the world.

"Thanks," I murmured, leaning against him again.

"Any time."

We watched the rest of Pride and Prejudice like that and still sat there in silence for at least another hour. That was one of the better parts of vampirism; you could sit like this with a guy and not have to move for hours.

Somehow, the pros began to outweigh the cons. I was curious to see how long that would last.

He nudged me. "What are you thinking about so hard?"

I shook my head quickly.

"I'm just wondering how long the good will outweigh the bad," I admitted. To my surprise, he laughed.

"Now who's the acerbic one?" he chuckled. I frowned and wriggled out of his hold. His arms twined securely around my waist. I wasn't sure if it annoyed or pleased me, so I just relaxed against his side.

"It's still you," I grumbled. He laughed again.

"You're right," he agreed. "But you have to admit: Sarcasm agrees with me."

I rolled my eyes at the egotistical words. But, you know, I was lucky to have such an entertaining vampire to live with.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I laughed. "Hey, do you mind if I go change? God, I was wearing this when you...well, you know." I gestured to my creased clothes. His eyes tightened slightly.

"Oh, go ahead. Um, you can borrow something of mine if you like. We really should go shopping, huh?" He looked vaguely uncomfortable from the mention of the night he'd killed me.

"Yeah. So, I'll be right back." I jumped up and ducked into his room, not bothering to look around. All I was interested in was the wardrobe across from the mirror. I grabbed some sweats and stole into my own room, shutting the door behind me.