Chapter-16

-Previously in DiR-

"Sleep?"

"Yes, I can put him in great slumber and this slumber will keep him alive. His body will not be hurt. It will be preserved. And when he wakes up, you can feed him my daughter or son's blood as you wish." She said. "But there is a danger."

"What is it?"

"I don't know how much time the sleep will take."

"You mean you cannot decide the time when he wakes up?"

I took my last breath.

"Yes," I heard the voice before I went into a never ending hole of darkness.

***

"We don't remember days, we remember moments." —Cesare Pavese

Chapter-16

-Karen-

I was unwrapping the Christmas present.

"Why don't you open it after the Santa Claus goes?" Mom asked from behind.

"I can't wait." I said. "And I know Santa is dad."

"How long have you known that?"

"Since last year," I shrugged. "Jon told me he saw my dad purchase a Santa Claus dress from the shop."

Mom exhaled loudly. A sign of how tired she was.

"What if he is lying to you?"

"He won't." I crossed my arms on my chest. "He never does."

Apparently, the six year old me, believed more in my best friend than in a Santa Claus.

"Go on then, open your present." Mom said.

I opened the present and I hugged it close to my heart. It was the same teddy bear I had seen some ago in a stuffed toys shop. It was so fluffy and I had my eyes on it since then. I thought I would never get it but here it was. Wrapped in the red gift and in my hands eventually.

It was really cute of Jon to say that he would buy this for me when he would grow up.

"Thank you so much, mom." I hugged mom.

"Say thanks to your personal Santa." She returned the hug.

***

"I'm pretty sure that guy is hitting on you." Jon gestured with his eyes.

I looked in the direction where he was referring to.

Cute.

The guy I saw was cute. He was wearing the coffee shop's staff dress and had a red cap which had a coffee bean with a smiley face on it. He had long blonde hair touching the nape of his shirt's collar. He was lean and smiled often. He smiled brightly when any customer came. That made me put him in my extra-cute list, as if I had any. And plus he had lots of freckles on his red cheeks.

Jon and I were sitting on the table which was right in front of the counter.

"Jon, drop it." I gave him a look. "He is so not hitting on me. He's not even staring at me."

The moment I said it the cutie looked at me and addressed me with one of his smiles.

Wow! Excellent.

"Come again?" Jon burst out laughing.

"It was just a glance not a stare." I said. "There's much difference, you know."

"Nerd. I don't know where you're taking the whole matter but I know one thing and that's he is still looking at you with that...smile." Jon kicked my leg under the table.

"Ouch! Get the damn choco latte." I kicked him harder. "Or I'm going home."

"Why don't you get it?" He asked mocking me. "I mean go and get the latte."

I looked at the guy who handed a customer his order and then turned to look at me with his smile. Now this was turning really creepy. I ignored him.

"What?" Jon was totally enjoying this. "Are you going or not? Or are you gonna prove me right?"

I had two choices: a) staying here and asking Jon to go, which would be equal to making fool of me. b) Going there and facing that guy, which would prove me brave.

I chose the second one and got up from the chair.

"That's like my girl." Jon winked.

My girl. How easily he could say that. Without any emotions. Why my heart fluttered when he said things like those to me?

Considering my option, I walked towards the counter.

"Two choco lattes, please."

I met his light blue eyes. The guy seemed surprised to see me for some unknown reason. He got out of his trance and nodded.

After waiting for five minutes, he came back with two cups.

"Here is your order, mam." He had a nice voice. "Thank you. Visit us again."

Muttering a soft thank you, I took the cups from him. I paid him the money and smelled the fresh aroma of the choco in my hands. I walked beaming towards Jon. Ha! Ha! I regretted that we didn't have a bet. I could have won a fortune from him.

"Take it, loser." I said, giving him a cup.

"Uh...whatever," He made a face.

We drank our latte's and were about to go when Jon started laughing like a hyena. He had the empty paper cup in his hand and he wouldn't stop laughing.

"What?" I asked. "Saw a picture of yourself on the cup?"

"Take a look, sexy."

Confused and flushed, I snatched the cup from him and read what was written on it in a messy handwriting. There was a six digit phone number along with some words.

Call me, sexy –Brian.

I glanced at the coffee guy. He smiled and winked at me. What the hell...

"Told you. He was hitting on you," Jon smirked.

***

I woke up with lot of sadness. I was having those dreams which you have when you are isolated for too long from your loved ones. The memories I had with Jon were unforgettable and all they brought now was sadness. I wanted to be with Jon badly. I wanted to know how he was. I was afraid if he a forgotten me.

I wouldn't care if he was dating some hot girl in the school. I wouldn't be jealous. I just wanted to see him now. Everything I felt for him was beyond explanation. We had been together so much long time that I didn't even know if my crush was real or what I felt for him was just a feeling that I had because we had been so close to each other forever.

I wondered what he would have told mom and dad about the missing case of mine. Could he make convincible reasons to avoid getting the country cops involved? Or was I considered as the girl-who-went-missing months ago? I didn't have any idea how my parents were. My mom would still be crying and dad would have lost his dimpled smile because I was missing.

I had no clue given when I was returning to my world. From what conditions Nate and his brother were having here, I was sure about one thing; I was not returning soon. I don't know how much time it would take but this waiting was killing me. Really.

And well, while I was thinking and talking about these things to myself, Lady Adeline had returned from some trip of her own. I mean I had not seen her for many days and I had not missed her. Why would I?

Lady Adeline wasn't the most exciting person to meet. She was very business-like. Whenever she talked it seemed like she was talking about some business and profit. The way she talked to her boys was strange too. She was so soft when it came to Nate and really rude when it came to Victor. I wouldn't blame her. Victor was the one to whom everyone talked rudely, excluding the servants.

From the information I had from Nate, I got to know that blood from many girls were tried to wake him up just because they couldn't keep track of the Valerie's magical bloodline because to protect her generation from this world she had sent her children to the other side. This had made the hunt more difficult for his family. And by family he meant his mother, as his monster brother had no intentions of waking him up.

Talking of Victor...

There was a soft knock on my door. I saw Victor standing there with his grey eyes watching me intensely.

"You really don't want to talk to me?"

I sighed dramatically. And stood up from my comfortable bed.

"Why don't you give me some nickname like you gave Nathan?" He asked.

Silence.

"Talk to me, Karen." He ordered.

"At this hour of day? Seriously?" I sighed again.

"What's wrong with this time?" He asked tilting his head to one side.

"I just woke up."

"Not my problem that you're a sleepy head."

"Don't do that." I said frustrated.

"Do what?"

"Speaking like you're not from this old-fashioned world," I said, "As if you belong to mine."

He smirked and next moment he was so near to me that I had to move a step back. His super-sonic speed was irritating me to the end. He didn't have to show off so much. Nate never showed off his qualities. But this guy was opposite of what his brother was.

Victor's fangs came out. See, I was right.

"Are you now threatening me to talk to you?" I asked bored. "If you're, then I don't care."

He chuckled and clicked his tongue.

"You're not afraid of me, are you?" He asked.

"No, should I be?"

"The theory of vampires says a human should be terrified of them. But as you have been technically living between vampires in this mansion, it makes you different from other people." He continued. "You must be terrified of me, Karen."

"Ooh, bad vampire. Are you gonna kill me if I'm not?" I joked.

His grey eyes shined as he moved closer to me. We were just some inches apart. I couldn't remember if I had been this close in this way to a boy ever in my life, apart from Jon.

"And you stop doing that." He whispered leaning to my ear.

"Doing what?" I asked confused.

"Biting your lip," His eyes were fixed on my lips. He continued when I looked at him questioningly. "Because it might draw some blood,"

I stopped biting my lip and gritted my teeth in anger.

"This makes me want to..." He started.

"Kill me?" I finished for him.

"No." He said. "Try this."

He suddenly leaned down and kissed me.

Kissed me in real. His soft lips moved on my mine like his was thirsty. I tried to push him but Victor was too strong for me, like every vampire was. His arms came around me and he pulled me to the bed. His fangs connected with my lips and I felt fear fill my heart suddenly. He broke the kiss.

"Victor," I said, trying to breathe. "I'm not other girls who you can charm."

He drew back his fangs and licked his lips.

"Really?" He looked in my eyes and asked before crashing his lips to mine again.

This time I felt my body and mind both fighting to get the control, they were engaged in a forceful debate. I didn't have any feelings for him then why there was some part of me made me kiss him back? Yes, I did kiss him back. I didn't want to but somehow and anyhow I did. I knew I was going to regret the decision later on but I couldn't stop from kissing him. He growled and moved away.

As soon as he moved away, I slapped him as hard as I could.

"How dare you to use compulsion on me?" I screamed.

I could feel the compulsion slipping now. The trance I was in for a while was broken and I could think straight now. My mind was becoming clearer now.

"I needed to." He simply answered. "You weren't kissing me back."

This guy was hell bent on killing me some days ago and now see how much he was eager to kiss me and get my kisses back. Unbelievable.

"A forceful kiss is not a real kiss, Victor." I blurted out. "You can't take love from somebody forcefully. This isn't a thing. You can't have everything you want by hypnotizing people. You have to gain love. But then again, you'll never know what love is. 'cause you're not capable of loving nobody."

He got up from the bed with his pale face looking paler.

"I wasn't here to bicker." His jaw moved.

"You started it." I said. I wanted to kill him so badly. "You were the first to kiss me."

"You did." He said. "You wanted to kiss me."

"Huh! AS IF!" I sneered.

"Stop the blame game and face it, Karen. You have feelings for me." He said.

"Yeah, I do." I fluttered my eyelashes. "I have ill feelings for you. Your face makes me want to puke."

He chuckled.

"You'll have to admit someday." He said before disappearing.

"That day will never come, Victor." I said to the thin air because I knew he could still hear me somewhere.

A/N What do you think? Is Victor in love with Karen or is this some kind of game he's playing?

Suggestion box is always open. You can suggest me what you need to read in upcoming chapters.

Comment/vote/share

Select one:

a) Team Jon

b) Team Nate

c) Team Victor

Of course, we all are team Karen already. So it's time to choose one more team. ;)

PS: We crossed 5k! Thank you for the great support. I adore you all.

PPS: Most of people are team Jon, 'cause they find him hot and interesting character. And his fans are waiting for him to appear in the story. Sorry for keeping him away :( but I promise he'll be back soon (not in the way you're expecting though).

Take care, lovely world!

-M_m