Fallen (Fallen 1)

“Jonathon I’m surprised. I would have thought that living for hundreds of years would have taught you patience. Apparently not,” I said.

“Ha, ha, ha. Now can you please speed up this process?”

“Yeah but could you please just sit still. You’re kind of freaking me out.”

“I’ll try.” He said gruffly. I laughed.

I went over to the sink and cleaned my plate. Jonathon watched probably assessing how much longer I would be.

“I’m ready,” I said.

“About time,” He muttered.

“Excuse me? Not all of us are vampires and can do everything in super speed,” I said offended.

“I’m sorry if I offended you,” he said seeming to read my mind which he probably was, “I was only joking.”

“Well why don’t we get going so I don’t hear any more about my slowness.”

“Alright.” He said turning to leave the kitchen. I followed closely behind him so as not to be called slow.

He went up the steps and turned right, the way we went to Diana’s room. He opened a door on the right side. I expected it to enter into a bed room but it didn’t. Instead it lead to set of a narrow spiral staircase. Lights led the way up. I could see a stain glass window half way up the stair case. I can’t tell what it is supposed to be from here.

I started up the stairs behind Jonathon taking in all my surroundings. The walls here were painted a light airy green. The color picked up on the stain glass window. The color made the small confined space seem bigger. But I realized it wasn’t a wall per say, but solid wood, painted. I imagined without the light paint this small stairway probably seemed dark, depressing, and most likely closed in.

I got to the stain glass window and stopped. The design was a peacock. So, beautiful it almost looked real. No detail had been left out. I felt that if I touched the feathers I would be able to feel the actual texture of them. Jonathon noticed that I had stopped and turned around to look at me.

“Do you like it?” He asked nodding towards the window.

“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

>

“I’m glad you like it,” He said shyly.

“Did you do this?” I asked pointing to the glass an incredulous smile on my face.

“I did that in the sixteen hundreds I believe. But when you live forever time begins to run together so I may be wrong,” He said looking down. Every time he mentioned anything related to his age he became suddenly embarrassed and . . . maybe even scared?

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said matter of fact.

“What?” He asked truly stumped. A furrow had dug its way into his smooth marble forehead.

“Your age doesn’t scare me.”

“It should,” He said turning his back on me so I couldn’t see his face.

“Well, it doesn’t. We belong together. We’re soul mates Jonathon nothing is ever going to change that. Not my age nor yours.”

“So it doesn’t bother you that I’m six hundred plus years older than you? That doesn’t bother you for one second?” He said angrily. Holding up his fingers and showing me a small amount.

“No,” I whispered but I knew he’d hear me. A growl rumbled through his chest. What was his problem? Where did these sudden bad moods come from? Was there such a thing as a bipolar vampire?

Suddenly his face was inches from mine, “You mean to tell me that it doesn’t bother you that I have lived through history? That I’ve killed people? That I drink blood?”

“What’s your problem?” I asked getting mad. I was not going to put up with these mood swings.

“I’m sorry,” he said ashamed, backing away from me, “This is all new to me. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. I’m so sorry. I’m not a genius on this whole being in love soul mate thing, okay? I’m . . . scared. It just seems like in a relationship the two people involved should be around the same age. And well, they should both be human,” He said all traces of his bad mood gone, replaced by a sad expression. Instantly my heart melted.