7: Dangerous curiosity

HAYDON

I stopped and looked at her. Her hair shone a lighter brown in the sunlight and her eyes became orbs of shimmering gold. She carefully placed her hand on her hip and pursed her lips. She looked as though she were analysing me and for a while, and her eyes proceeded to gaze at my skin.

" Seems like vampires are getting more immune to the sunlight?" it came out more like a question as she then stopped her analysis and returned her eyes to mine where they stayed fixed into a deep glare.

I smiled at her, it seemed as though her mother was really sheltering her from the supernatural world. Almost all vampire hunters knew of our newfound vampire tricks.

" Tablets, injections, potions and even witch's spells can fix that problem.” I then stopped and proceeded to tease her. “Looks like mommy and daddy are keeping their little girl all innocent and away from the world of drugs”

She seemed offended and soon I felt her hands around my throat. I found myself leaning down into her face as she had used her strength to pull me down with her hands. I could almost feel her sweet breath against my skin and, although her actions had caught me by total surprise, I was utterly enjoying this situation and adrenaline pumped through my veins. Her hands were cold, but that just made it all the more thrilling.

“Looks like you’re a feisty little one, aren’t you?” I breathed gently.

“Watch your tongue you filthy, vile creature. I won’t hesitate to kill you,” she hissed out.

Her grip around my neck tightened, making me instinctively wrap my hands around hers. It was then that I felt the tiny sparks I had chosen to ignore earlier. Being so close to her was intoxicating. It was, however, an intoxicating feeling I had never felt before.

“I didn’t come here to fight.” I then loosened her fingers with my own and eventually managed to pry her hands off of my neck and they fell limply to her sides. She seemed shocked at my strength but quickly recovered and asked, “So what did you come here for? And why did you ask for me earlier on?”

I gulped down and quickly looked down to the ground. What was going on with me? Females never made me nervous, but Katerina had my palms all sweaty and my throat dry. I didn’t know Katerina that well. In fact, the only thing I was certain of was her deep hatred for vampires, and her equally deep hatred for me. However, the more I hung around her, the more I realised that there was still something about her that pulled me towards her. She was a magnet and I was a piece of weak, scrap metal, always managing to gravitate towards her. That was why I needed to end it here. My growing curiosity regarding her was a recipe for disaster. Ever since I had met her there had been a growing part of me which hated the idea of Katerina ever being hurt. It was an emotional part of myself foreign to me, but it had become too strong to ignore, and it was, unfortunately, what had led me to the next pitiful display of weakness.

"Look…” It came out louder than I thought it would’ve and so I cleared my throat and took the opportunity to look back up at her. “I just wanted to warn you in advance. The Haydon that you met earlier on today is not the real Haydon. I don’t want you getting close to me at all, it spells only death for you, got it?”

I stood there probably red in the face, and totally disgusted at my blatant “I like you so stay away from me” confession. Thankfully Katerina just seemed confused and eventually interpreted my words in a different way.

“Is that a threat or something? I don’t take lightly to threats Haydon. You said you did not come here to fight, but what you just said proves the contrary.”

I smirked in relief as I realised how oblivious she really was. I decided that this would be a good way to make Katerina hate me even more than she already did, in the hopes that her blatant hatred of me would destroy the magnetic affect she had on me. I just needed something solid enough to get me to stop being so disturbingly obsessed with her. Even this encounter was, admittedly, a product of my obsession, of me wanting to understand what it was about her that had me so curiously inquisitive.

“Yes, Katerina, it is a threat. Stay away from me, or else things will get really bad for you and your family. I’m warning you.”

Katerina and I stared at each other in silence for a moment, and then suddenly I felt a strong stinging sensation on my left cheek. I immediately placed my cool fingers on my hot skin and realised that Katerina had slapped me across the face. I looked up at her in disbelief while she stared back, huffing in red hot anger.

“Don’t ever threaten me or my family again, you filthy bloodsucking pest.” And with that, she stomped away and slammed the front doors behind her.

I stared at the door for a moment, still clutching my cheek which now felt slightly swollen. Was she holding back earlier when she had tried to strangle me?

Slowly I shook my head and chuckled, still unable to grasp what had happened. What I had just witnessed was the complete opposite of the goodey-two-shoes I assumed Katerina was. She was so much more, and it was then that I realised that instead of succeeding at trying to get myself to despise Katerina, I had done the exact opposite. The fire in her eyes had me bound in a cage. I, however planned to stay there silently, never wanting to draw her into the fire cage, never wanting her to burn with me. Katerina and I were born into this world as enemies, and I intended to keep it that way between us.