Devils Roses 01 - Cursed

stood holding a hand out for me to take.
    I reached for it, letting him pull me off the bed. My legs wanted to buckle. I could tell from his worried expression, he was thinking about taking me back to the hospital. I knew all I needed was more sleep, so I stood my ground and walked out of my room. My dad wasn’t downstairs.
    “ Do you get hungry?” I asked as I walked slowly down the stairs.
    “ Yes and no, I am an immortal now. I’m not like an angel in that I can make myself vanish and become air. I have a sort of magic now. I can cloak myself around people who haven’t been to the in-between obviously. Even cloaked, you’ve seen me so you’re not a normal person anymore. I need food and drink to live, but I won’t die without it. I will get tired and weak after a long time.”
    I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a frying pan. “Like omelets?”
    He nodded and sat at the bar.
    “ So you are a flesh and blood human with a beating heart?”
    He nodded, not answering. I could see I was wearing on his last nerve and stopped asking questions. I was stewing on safe questions while I beat the eggs and chopped the vegetables.
    “ Are vampires real?” It only made sense to me that if the wolves were real, so were the vamps.
    He didn’t answer but when I looked at him, I got my answer. His face was grim.
    “ Are you a vampire?” I asked.
    He had said he was an immortal, maybe he was a nice vampire.
    Again he didn’t look amused. “No, for God sake. I’m sorry I said you could ask questions. You’re the most inquisitive person alive. I am not a vampire. Yes, they’re real. I think that in your world, you will find things have changed now that your second sight has—”
    I interrupted, “Second sight?”
    He nodded impatiently and pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment. “Your ability to see me, will make other things easier to see as well.”
    I couldn’t stop my brain now. “Do vampires become vampires from a bite?”
    He slumped at the bar and groaned. “No, Hollywood is not the place to look for facts. Like lycanthropes, vampires have to be turned a special way. If a vampire bit you, he would drink your blood and heal your wounds, before you would even realize it had happened. They’re very charming.” He almost growled at me as I passed him the plate of toast and omelets.
    I sat beside him at the bar with my orange juice and steaming plate of food and blinked. “So they drink blood?”
    He nodded blowing on his fork full of eggs. “Yeah, unfortunately they do. They aren’t all bad, but they need human blood.”
    “ Could they drink yours?”
    He sighed. “This is the last question for a while, okay? No they cannot. I am an immortal, my blood would mean death or sickness, depending on how old the vampire was. Me and Angels. They can’t eat either of us. Yes, Angels are bloody real and no, I don’t want to discuss it further.”
    I rolled my eyes, eating my eggs. I was stuck in all the empty knowledge that led nowhere and the millions of questions I couldn’t ask.
    I turned and watched him eat. I distracted myself with his jaw flexing and his juicy lips.
    He frowned at me with a mouth full of hot eggs and peppers, as he tried to suck in cold air and talk. “Eat, you’re weak and watching me eat isn’t gong to make you feel better.”
    I took a bite of the eggs on my fork and chewed, barely tasting the food. My stomach seemed to turn at the thought of food. I ate to make him happy and tried to seem like I could move on. But I didn’t. My mind was brewing.
    Having nothing to say and sitting in silence proved to be quite a challenge. I waited for him to talk about anything he wanted to talk about. He seemed content in the silence, which was really annoying. We finished breakfast and I started cleaning up the dishes, and I realized I had a whole line of questioning, I hadn’t even touched on.
    He saw the gleam in my eye and moaned. I ignored him and moved in for the kill. “Do you know who the rapist is?”
    He sat perfectly still and then nodded slowly, not making any noise.
    I frowned. “You have to tell the police.”
    He shook his head. "I can't."
    I leaned against the kitchen counter. “Are you telling me that you know who is raping and attacking girls, including me, who you say you love, but you won't tell me or the authorities who he is?”
    He nodded still sitting tight-lipped. "What kind of proof do I have beyond seeing him running through the woods? What kind of