Julian or Mike?
My eyes zero in on the knife as it presses to his neck. All I have to do is jerk my hand, one quick movement and it’s done. I did it so easily before. Why can’t I do it now? I look up to Julian’s eyes. Hunger, desperation, devotion, it’s all there in his eyes. This man, whatever he is, needs me. Desperately.
“Maris.”
No, not a man. He’s not a man, Maris. He’s…he’s…I don’t know what he fucking is but it isn’t human.
“What are you?” I whisper.
The doorbell rings and I scream. I drop the knife and it nicks his throat on the way down. Bright red blood blooms against his skin. I watch it as the knife clatters to the floor. Julian pins me in against the counter, a hand on each side of me.
“It’s the food,” he says softly. He looks into my eyes and I swear to god I feel like he’s staring into my soul when all he did was tell me our delivery is here.
“If we don’t answer, they’ll keep ringing the doorbell.”
“Then we should get it.”
I nod. The blood has already stopped flowing, the wound on his neck is completely healed, like it was never there. Only a thin line of blood from the cut remains on his neck and chest. My fingers itch to touch him again but I keep my hands where they are, pinned at my sides by Julian’s.
“If we go get the food are you going to stay?” Julian asks me. Not are you going to scream, not are you going to decide yes, you want me dead but are you going to stay.
“If I stay, will you tell me what you are?”
“I will.”
“Then I’ll stay.”
Julian’s smile is instant. Bright and beautiful, it’s dazzling. Like a movie star smile that you see at the Oscar’s or splashed across a magazine cover but it’s not. Julian’s smile is just for me. Something starts to pull apart in me with that smile. The fear, the anxiety, it starts to pick itself apart. He reaches down and snags the knife from the floor before he puts it down on the counter. I watch grab the kitchen towel by the sink and wipe the blood from his neck. When he’s clean he grabs my hand, leading us to the door like I didn’t just have a knife to his neck or finding out that he isn’t human.
I follow him like a zombie on wooden legs. I look down at my hand. It fits perfectly in his. An easy thing when Julian has suchnice hands. They’re large, capable, strong, the kind of hands that you’d expect to find on someone who builds things, or takes them apart. Taking them apart fits more with Julian. His hands are not the hands you expect from a doctor.
The doorbell rings again and I jump. It’s a double ring from the delivery person. A second later they start knocking and that irritates me slightly. “Hello? Is anyone home?” They call. Nosy fucker is tenacious.
I sigh and take the lead to the door. “Come on. Let’s get this over with. They’ll be calling fucking Sheriff Dayton if we take any longer.”
“They take their job very seriously,” Julian muses when we leave the hall and come into sight of the doorway. The porch light is off, but the foyer light is on so we’re able to perfectly see the delivery person’s face pressed up against the glass as they look around for us.
“No, they take gossip seriously. This is Vesper Point. Gossip is the only thing they care about,” I tell Julian. I stop and pat my pockets. “Shoot, I don’t have my wallet, I have to run upstairs and get it.” I turn to go up the stairs but Julian stops me with a firm tug on my hand.
“You’re not paying. What the fuck?”
“But-”
“You’re never paying for anything ever again.”
I make a face at him. “I have money too. A lot of money.”
“I don’t care. You can haveall the money, you can have my money, I don’t give a fuck. My mate does not pay for things. I’m dead, not dickless.”
My mouth drops open at the casual drop of ‘dead’. “What do you meandead?”
“You’ll find out soon enough, wife.”
I feel like the ground is tilting. It’s tilting isn’t it? The whole room is coming apart around me. I stumble after him on the wayto the door. The delivery driver looks like they’ve been treated to a Christmas gift now that they see us. Oh my god. They’ll be calling back to the restaurant the second they’re off my porch.
“Wife?” I whisper. “I’m not wife material.”
Julian isn’t deterred by my declaration. “You are now,” he says and whatever the dead thing he is, he keeps walking towards the door. I dig my heels in and it doesn’t slow him down. He just wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me against him. My feet don’t even touch the floor the last few steps.
