Falling From Eternity (A Paranormal Love Story) (10 page)

“
Are you always this…” she
poked her head out around the canvas, raising her eyebrows as she
surveyed me, “uncomfortable?”

“
I’m not uncomfortable,” I
lied, bringing my gaze up to meet her stunning face. I was
incredibly uncomfortable. She unnerved me.

“
Could have fooled me.”
She ducked her head back behind the canvas. I listened quietly to
the sound of her paintbrush sweeping against the fabric as she
continued her work. I had prepared an entire speech on my drive
here, but now I couldn’t remember a single word of it.

“
She used to volunteer at
my church,” Autumn said, suddenly.

“
Who?”

“
Hazel. That’s how I know
her.”

“
Oh.” I opened my mouth to
speak again, but it was too dry. I licked my lips, and swallowed
hard before gathering up all my courage that had apparently tried
to leave my body. “Listen, I’m really sorr…”

“
It’s okay,” she said,
interrupting me. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you like
that.”

“
I shouldn’t have either.”
I was the guilty party here. I didn’t want her thinking she needed
to apologize.

“
No, I understand where
you were coming from. I’m glad that she had someone like you
looking after her. There are definitely people out there who try to
take advantage of situations like hers...” Her voice trailed off,
as if she had wanted to say more.

“
Did you know her a long
time?” I asked.

“
Since I was thirteen. She
used to volunteer at my church a lot, and when my parents were
gone, or busy, she would look after me.” I smiled, remembering
Hazel telling me how much she had wanted a child. “A few years ago,
my parents and I moved away and I hadn’t seen her
until…”

“
Until the funeral,” I
finished for her.

“
I saw the obituary in the
paper, and I had to come. I had to say goodbye.”

“
If I had known, I would
have called you,” I said, suddenly feeling even worse about how I’d
treated her. I hadn’t given her the benefit of the doubt. I always
thought the worst of people before getting to know the
truth.

She didn’t speak again for a long
while, just continued working on her painting, and I was happy to
just sit there with her. My mind wandered through a thousand
different thoughts. I knew I shouldn’t be sitting here with her,
but I couldn’t tear myself away. What was I doing? Was I just
clinging to her because she had been close to Hazel and I missed my
friend terribly, or was there something more?

“
It was you in my room
that night; wasn’t it?”

“
I’m sorry?” I knew
exactly what she’d said, but I pretended I hadn’t heard her. I
couldn’t tell her the truth, could I? Something told me she’d know
I was lying, but admitting I was hovering over her bed seething
with rage wouldn’t go over too smoothly.

She dropped her paintbrush into the
cup of water, sloshing it around to clean it off before sitting
back against her chair. She was far enough back now that we could
see each other clearly. Her eyes searched my face; the shadow of a
smile lingering on her small lips.

“
Yep, it was
you.”

“
I…I…” I stammered,
surprised by her accusation.

“
Calm down, William.
You’re acting like I just accused you of murder,” she said, as a
small laugh escaped her. If she’d known the truth of her words, she
wouldn’t be laughing. I had entertained the idea of killing her
that night, but something stopped me.

“
I was just making my
rounds,” I finally said, regaining my composure.

She gave me a smirk; giving me the
feeling she didn’t believe me. I’d always thought I was a good
liar, but around Autumn I wasn’t so sure.

“
Where did you move to?” I
asked my curiosity overflowing.

“
New York,” she answered,
settling into her chair as she pulled the paintbrush out of her
bun, letting her curly locks cascade down her shoulders. I blinked
hard to keep from staring. “I hated it there,” she
admitted.

“
I never liked it there
much either,” I confessed. “It smells like piss and the people are
rude,” I blurted out without even thinking. Damn my lack of a
verbal filter.

“
Oh, you lived there,
too?” she giggled.

“
Yeah, for a few years
but…it just wasn’t for me.” I wasn’t lying, but I wasn’t telling
the truth either. It hadn’t been for me because the vampire
population in New York was ridiculously high.

“
Me neither. I’m more of a
Paris kind of girl,” she declared, laughing at herself.

“
Have you been?” I loved
everything about that city. The sights, the smells, the people, the
culture and even the history.

“
I wish! I’ve always
wanted to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.” Her eyes took on a
dreamy look, as she fantasized about her dream vacation.

“
Why don’t you go? What’s
stopping you?”

“
Life,” she said flatly,
all the dreaminess gone from her voice. At that, she lifted a bag
from the ground by her feet and began dropping the little bottles
of paint inside. A twinge of panic twisted my heart. Had I said
something wrong?

“
I’m an excellent tour
guide. I could tell you all the best places to visit.”

She regarded me for a long moment,
before dropping her brushes into the bag and pouring her cup of
multi-colored water into a nearby bush.

“
What’s a world traveled
guy like you doing in a tiny town like Denton?”

“
I just needed a change of
scenery.” I sat up straighter, trying to hide how nervous she made
me. I felt exposed, like she could see everything I was hiding,
like one wrong move and she’d know everything about me.

“
Now, that, I can
understand. I would have liked to have had better reasons to leave
New York, but I’m happy to be away from there all the same.” She
sat back down, resting the bag on the ground beside her.

“
I’m sure you’ll miss it
after a while. Everyone gets homesick eventually.”

“
Not me.” She began
twisting her hair around her fingers, her knees bouncing up and
down. Something told me she was uncomfortable with the direction
this conversation was going.

“
I’m sure your parents
will miss you,” I said, getting the feeling she was running away
from something.

She expelled a breath of disbelief. “I
doubt they even know I left,” she replied, lifting up her bag and
hefting it over her shoulder. Leaning over the table she grabbed
her painting, and turned on her heel to leave. After only two steps
she stumbled, and without even thinking I flashed to her side,
grasping her in my arms.

Her eyes grew twice their size as
shock ignited her face, but she didn’t say a word, and she didn’t
pull from my grasp. I stood there, holding her body against mine,
the rapid pulse of her veins vibrating through my fingers to every
inch of my body. A hunger was growing inside me, not to bite her,
but…to kiss her. She was so small beside me, so innocent and
fragile and I wanted her to be mine.

“
Let me carry those for
you,” I said, flustered, hoping by changing the subject I could
hide the fact that I’d moved to her side faster than humanly
possible. I was such an idiot! That was twice now that she’d seen
me do things she shouldn’t have seen.

Her head nodded slightly, so I lifted
her bag and placed the strap on my shoulder while tucking the
painting under my arm. Her lips parted as a breath of relief
escaped her. I might have been stronger than any human, but I could
easily tell that her bag shouldn’t have been too heavy for her to
carry.

“
Are you okay?” I was
surprised by the concern in my voice.

“
Yeah, I think I’m just
tired.” She sighed again, and the smell of her fruity lip gloss
filled my senses. Her arm was still latched around mine, and her
eyes settled on her own fingers that were grasping my forearm. I
loved how it felt, how soft and warm her flesh was against mine.
Bringing her beautiful eyes back to me, she looked up, squeezing
her fingers tighter around me. “Would you walk me back to my
room?”

“
Of course!” I said, more
than eager to spend as many moments with her as I could. We made
our way back slowly, and more than once she squeezed tighter onto
my arm relying on my strength to aide her walk down the hall. What
had made her so tired?

We made small talk along the way, she
shared more of her love of art and I told her how Hazel had
introduced me to music. I even dared mention how her ringtone had
surprised me the first night I saw her. She laughed heartily,
saying she’d thought I looked like a deer caught in headlights that
night.

“
It’s a remix of Vivaldi,”
she said, with a yawn.

“
I’ve never heard anything
like it.”

“
Not many people have,”
she giggled, leaning against me as her laughter overtook her. I
wanted to wrap my arm around her, pulling her even closer toward me
but I didn’t. “I’m weird like that.”

“
I guess I’m weird too
then, ’cause I liked it,” I said with the biggest smile I ever
remembered having.

When we made it to her door, we just
stood there; staring at it like opening it meant having to jump off
a cliff without a parachute.

“
Maryann told me you’re
leaving soon,” Autumn said, still staring at her door.

I completely forgot I was leaving. I
ran my fingers through my hair, and for the first time, I didn’t
want to leave. “Yeah, I guess I felt another change of scenery was
in order.” I tried to play it cool, but I didn’t feel cool at
all.

Autumn pulled away from me, latching
onto the door handle and pushing it open. She stepped into the
room, signaling me to set her things on the floor by the door. I
placed her bag and painting on the floor, a sudden sadness
wrenching at my heart. Was this going to be the last time I ever
saw her?

I stepped back out into the hallway,
sticking my hands awkwardly in my pockets. I fought the urge to
look at her, not wanting to reveal the truth. The truth of how
badly I wanted her. She had a power over me, and no matter how much
I tried to be strong, something inside forced me to lift my
gaze.

She was leaning against the door
frame, watching me. Dark circles had formed under her striking
green eyes, and her coloring had grown pale. Was she sick? Maybe
being out in the cold had given her the flu.

“
Don’t go,” her voice was
a whisper, but I heard the longing in each word. The same longing
that I had felt since the moment our eyes first met. She looked at
me expectantly; her eyes brightening with emotion, the emerald hue
making them glow like jewels catching sunlight.

I did the only thing I could do. The
only thing that felt right to me in that very moment. I scooped her
into my arms, holding her close to me as if some invisible force
were threatening to take her away. She squeezed back, burying her
head in my chest and I never wanted to let her go.

~

7

Beauty And The
Beast

The weeks that followed were the best
of my entire existence. I spent every moment I could with Autumn;
watching her paint and talking, always talking. We shared every
detail about ourselves, although I knew there was something she was
hiding. There was something I was hiding too. I spent many nights
lying awake in bed, wondering if I should tell her the truth. I
couldn’t, of course, but a tiny voice inside me kept begging me to.
It kept telling me that maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t scream in
horror; that she wouldn’t look at me with disgust and call me a
monster.

Ours was the tale of beauty and the
beast.

The more I learned about her the more
I realized I was now embracing my immortality. Instead of searching
to find if my existence held any meaning; I was content with
everything as it was. I could spend an eternity watching the way
her lips twitched when she was painting; her concentration entirely
focused on her work, the way her face lit up when she laughed, and
even the smell of her hair that I caught faint wisps of when we
would walk together. Her laugh was magical; tinkling in the air
like a musical instrument. It was hearty, coming deep from within
her soul, flying out of her with no restraint. I wanted to be the
one to make her laugh every day. I had lived many lifetimes, but I
had never felt lonely until now. Our friendship was only beginning,
but I couldn’t imagine a world without her in it. I refused to
admit to myself that that day would come to pass.

It had been more than three weeks
since she had asked me to stay, and she still hadn’t told me why
she did. I was too afraid to ask. It didn’t really matter to me why
she wanted me here, I was simply happy that she did, which was
utterly out of character for me. No, I was a bitter, old vampire
who had long ago seen the world for what it was, yet, here I was,
absolutely enthralled with this beautiful creature. If history
revealed anything of the secrets for the future, then she and I
should be enemies.