Bitten
Chapter 24

Calm.

Calmness.

Become as calm as a river.

Even a river has its sharp turns.

My body slows as I reach my apartment.

If my heart were still beating it would be hammering away at my chest.

I can’t help but pace a bit in front of my building. Mason’s scent is there but I’m not sure if he is coming or going. I’m not so attuned vampire yet or maybe it’s my nervousness creeping into my body making me lose my senses.

With a deep breath, I run up the couple steps.

I open up the two glass doors and head inside. I take the stairs at normal speed and finally make it to my floor.

What if he’s not there?

Then I’m going to have to live as I did before all alone.

I walk to my door as the imaginary thundering of my heart plays in my ears.

Can vampires go insane? Because it sure feels like I am.

My hand grips the door handle and I pull it open.

“Abigail!”

A pale Mason comes into my view and he runs to me his arms wrapping around me. His body hits me with a solid thump. My body takes a deep breath of relief, “Wow you’re much harder than I thought.”

He pulls away and looks over me as if looking for any signs that I’m hurt.

“What are you doing here?” I ask as my mind wraps around the thought of him being here.

“You told me to come to the apartment.” He steps away from me and for the first time, I see the silver bat in his hand.

“What were you going to do with that?” I point to the bat.

“I don’t have anything else to protect myself with.” I roll my eyes and I chuckle releasing some of my stress.

“That isn’t going to help you I’m sorry.” He frowns and throws the bat to the couch. “I can protect you.”

“You can’t be everywhere at once Abigail. I need to protect my daughter.”

He doesn’t even worry about himself just his little girl, he’s a good dad.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.” He sighs and looks over me again.

“Are you okay?”

I don’t look okay?

I nod and nod to him asking him about himself.

“I’m fine. Sorry about my reaction earlier. I owe everything to you, my daughter loves you, and I don’t know what came over me.”

“Mason! I’m a vampire your reaction is more than justified. If it were the other way around I probably would have reacted the same way.”

“Vampire,” the word sounds weird coming out of his mouth. “How did this happen?”

I gesture for him to sit down and he does. I tell him about the day I was turned, Wes, Vincent, Chris, and everything in between.

His face is painfully pale as he realizes that my humanity was practically ripped out of my hands.

“That fucker,” his face turns into a light pink color once I am done, “I let him in. He was close to my daughter after what he did to you.”

His body trembles as his anger rise.

“Mason,” I grab his shoulders and forced him to look at me, “if he dared touch Hannah I will rip his head off he knows that.”

Mason relaxes under my gaze and then sinks further into the couch.

“Abigail this is too much for me to digest.”

“Take small bites,” I smirk at him trying to lighten the tension.

“Can I tell you something?”

“Sure.”

“As I ran back here I wish that you would have beaten me back. That when I open up the door you would be there waiting for us. When I saw it was not like that my mind started playing all these scenarios.”

He presses his lips into a firm line.

“I’m here. My head was doing the same thing but I was mentally preparing myself for your disappearance.”

“You were?”

“Yeah, that’s what a sane person would do. Run far away as possible. Is Hannah asleep?”

“She’s out cold.”

My body and mind are happy that he is still here but now Chris has us on his bad side and I know that he will be seeking us out.

“Mason, you should head to bed I have a lot to do.” Mason’s tired eyes go to me.

“Are you leaving?”

The panic that seeps into his eyes and I still haven’t answered him.

“I’m not sure. I need to replace and talk to Wes we need to plan our next move on Chris.”

My brain rummages through the thoughts as if it were a grocery list.

“Chris,” he hisses and frowns at the name.

“I’ll be right—,” He cuts me off.

“Stay with me tonight,” he whispers and I stare at him unsurely.

“Why?”

“I want to know that when I am unconscious that you are safe here with me.”

He cares about me.

“Here on the couch?”

He chuckles silently and shakes his head.

“Well, we don’t have any other option.”

I stand up and Mason grabs the bat and rolls it under the couch. He lays on the couch scooting back as far as he possibly can and pats the space in front of him.

My eyes soften at the sight before me and I don’t fight him on it I sit on the seat and then lay down in front of him my back pressing against him.

His arm wraps around me, “so you don’t fall off.”

I roll my eyes but don’t say anything. He presses me closer to him and sighs.

“So you’re a different breed of vampire.”

“I guess so.”

“Stronger?”

“I don’t know. Doesn’t seem like it.”

“I bet everything I have that you are but you don’t know your strength yet.” I shrug, “So you can’t suck my blood?”

“I can but like I said human blood only gets me into trouble.”

He mumbles something but his heartbeat is the only thing I listen to.

He isn’t scared of me.

“Is that why you fainted when Hannah cut herself?”

“I was fighting myself so hard. I didn’t want to hurt her and my body just shut down I guess.”

“Do you crave it? Human blood I mean.”

“Crave no, need blood in general yes. My body prefers vampire blood but I have survived off of blood bags Wes brings me.”

“Human blood bags?”

“I haven’t thought about that I need to talk to Wes about that.”

We stay there in silence if it weren’t for his heartbeat I would have thought he fell asleep.

“I’m sorry about your friend,” he whispers and I stiffen.

“Thank you.”

I can feel his face close to my hair as he sighs. “Night Abigail.”

“Night Mason,” it doesn’t take long for him to fall asleep.

I take in his warmth and suddenly I’m filled with sadness.

“Oh Mason how I wish I would have met you before all of this,” I whisper to no one and his breath brushes against my neck, well at least I got to meet you.

My body relaxes into him and the sleepiness leaks into me.

My eyes grow heavy and my mind falls into the darkness but my vampire senses stay on high alert knowing that Chris is out there somewhere.

For the moment I let myself be happy in his arms as sleep consumes me and images of how life would have been if I met Mason in my human form plays behind my eyelids.