“Are you happy now?” I asked, slumped in Derek’s arms. The snow fall had increased, and the temperature had dropped even more. But somehow, I was still warm in his arms. My face was wet with tears, along with his jacket.
“Happier than I was…” he sighed. “I’m sorry.” He whispered in my ear, his lips tickling me. “I didn’t know it was like that.”
“What if you had… would you still have put me through all this?” I pulled away and watched him.
“Never.” He stared at me with his big brown eyes.
“Okay.” I breathed. He stepped over to me.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“I don’t know…” I mumbled, feeling the burn in my eyes once again. I let the tears fall without hesitation and allowed him to wrap his arms around me. Suddenly a car came around the corner. It stopped a few feet away from us.
“Emily?” someone called. I turned in Derek’s arms, surprised to see Jennae.
“Jennae?” my voice cracked. She looked confused, and for a moment, angry.
“What’s going on?” her voice turned serious. “What did he do?” she came closer.
“Nothing Jennae… really.”
“Then why are you crying?”
“I… he…” I glanced up at Derek. “Can you tell her?” I pleaded.
He looked at Jennae, “She told me about Conner.” The name still made my heart sore, even after a half hour of crying.
“Oh…” Her eyes grew wide as she studied me. “Everything’s okay though, right?” I nodded, trying to smile. “Okay, so do you want a ride home?”
“Well I…”
“We’re not done yet… but I’ll get her home, don’t worry.” He winked at Jennae and she grinned.
“’Kay, so I’ll see you later.”
“’Kay, bye.”
“Bye.” Jennae climbed back into her dad’s car and drove off.
“We’re not done?”
“I’m not done.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was hoping you’d have figured it out already…”
“Just tell me…” I sighed.
He gave a mischievous grin, “Come closer…” he whispered. I moved my ear closer to his mouth. “Closer…” he said again. This time I could feel his breath in my ear. “Closer…” He slipped his hand under my jaw and brought my mouth to his. I gasped and pulled away.
“Derek.” I closed my eyes, breathing quickly. “I can’t go through with this…”
“But…”
“But no, I… I don’t feel like I can trust you yet…”
“Why not? I’m not the one who left you; I’m not the one who hurt you. I barely even know you.”
“He was forced to leave me…” I started.
“Just give me a chance. I was hoping that you’d figured out what I was trying to say before. I care about you more than anything… and I had to know what was wrong because… I need to make it better. I wouldn’t be able to go on knowing that you weren’t okay. And I won’t be able to go on until I make everything better. What I’m trying to say is… I love you.”
I froze, staring at him. I couldn’t speak.
“I love you.” He said again, pulling me into his arms.
“No…” the tears started up again.
“Please… you don’t have to be scared of me anymore… you don’t have to be scared of those words…” he stroked my cheek with his thumb. “You can’t keep blaming me for everything… I haven’t done anything. I’m here to be with you… so please… let me in… I want to be with you… I want to love you… I’m nothing like him… I’m better…”
“Stop it.” My voice shook and I pushed on his chest, moving away from him.
“I’ll be here for you always… I can prove to you that you’re not making a mistake.  So please… stop fighting it…” I watched him, only a few feet away. “You know I’m right… you know I can help you. There are so many things I can do for you… but you just have to let me…” I felt my heart beating against my chest. “I’m not your enemy.”
I didn’t move. I couldn’t move. I just stared at him, confused… frightened…
“Let me prove myself.” He murmured.
“Fine…” I cried, running towards him with my arms outstretched. He gripped me tightly as our mouths combined. I pulled at his neck, gasping between kisses. Suddenly we stopped and just stood there, hugging each other. “I love you too…” I could hardly understand myself, but I knew he could understand me.
“My god… finally…” For a moment I thought he was crying too. He took my jaw once again and smothered me with kisses. “Finally…” he said over and over as the snow blew around us. It felt so unreal being able to look into his dark eyes and know that he felt what I felt. It almost seemed like a dream… only it was too real. Relief rushed into me as the seconds ticked by.
The best part about all this was finding out that I had been right. He loved me… and I loved him.

“I need to go home.” I eventually managed to say.
“You’re right…” he sighed. “I’ll take you.”
“’Kay…”
“Hop on.” He said, crouching in front of me.
“Huh?”
“Get on my back.”
“Oh…”he helped me up and held my legs.
“Hold on.” He warned. I gripped his neck tightly and closed my eyes. I felt a sudden rush of wind. “Okay, it’s over.”
“I forgot that you…” I mumbled as I slid off his back onto my empty driveway.
“Were a vampire… yeah, I thought so.” He laughed, kissing my forehead.
“Derek…”
“Yes?” he smiled.
“One last thing before you go?”
“What?”
“Say it again…” I whispered and traced his mouth with my tongue.
He grabbed my arms and said, “I love you…” kissing me. “I love you… I love you”
“I love you too…” I smiled as we kissed once more.
“Alright, I’ll go then…” he released my arms and stepped back.
“’Kay.” I gave him a little wave as his disappeared from sight.
As I stepped inside my warm house, I heard the phone ring. I hurried to get it.
“Hello?”
“Get over here now!” Jennae squealed into the phone. Then there was a click. I sighed, laughing. Right then I realized that was happy… I was very happy.
I was too happy.

“And then we…”
“Oh my god!” she giggled, bouncing up and down on the floor.
“I didn’t even say…”
“I can read your mind, remember?”
“Oh yeah…”
“Wow.”
“I just can’t believe it…”
“Neither can I… I honestly didn’t see that coming. I mean, when I drove up, you were in his arms and… I just thought that maybe…”
“I just… I don’t know how to feel right now.” I sighed, falling back onto Jennae’s bed.
“I wish I could say ‘I know what you mean’.” She shrugged and stared at the floor.
“Is something up?”
“No… I mean… I’ve just been thinking… are you sure you can trust him?”
“Yes… of course I can.”
“No, I mean him being a vampire… do you trust that he won’t kill you? Or turn you into a vampire?”
“Yes… maybe… I don’t know.” I stared at the ceiling. “I guess I’ll have to talk to him about that…”
“You know another person you’re going to have to tell?”
“My parents?”
“Well, other than them…” I shrugged. “Zane… he’s going to want to know, and by the looks of how he’s been treating Derek… things aren’t going to go so well.”
“Oh gosh… you’re right. Shoot…” I slammed my fist on her mattress.
“Em, I want you to remember this…”
“’Kay.”
“I’ll always be here for you, and I’ll protect you. So if he tries anything… if anyone tries anything, then they’ll be dead.” My eyes grew wide.
“Jennae, I never told you…” I whispered.
“Never told me what?”
“Well… so you remember that party? You know, on Halloween?”
“Yeah? Derek didn’t go because of Zane and Sam went with Jayce and…” she spoke quickly.
“Yeah, that one… anyway, I told you that Casey hung out with me… right?”
“I think so…” she shrugged. “Why?”
“Well… that night… Casey… he tried to…” Jennae shot up, alarmed. “…rape me…”
“What?” she growled.
“He didn’t get… all the way, thanks to Derek… and that’s how I found out he was a vampire… he told me.”
“Oh my god. Casey is going die tomorrow…” she hissed.
“Jennae, no!” I sat up, staring at her. “Don’t do that. Please.”
“You know I wouldn’t actually kill him…”
“I… well it sure sounded like you were going to…” I glared at her.
“What ever.” We sat in silence for a moment.
“You know… if you think about it… Derek could have easily killed me then…. But he didn’t…”
“Huh… good point.”
“Do you still think he would though?”
“I don’t know… if he does then he’ll be dead, that’s for sure.” She mumbled. I raised an eyebrow. “Sorry…”
“Come on, he told me he loves me… I think that means more to him than killing me.”
“Well… you can’t always be sure with vampires.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sometimes, vampires tell humans they love them, and do special things just to get them close, and then kill them.”
“Derek… he wouldn’t do that…”
“Well… all I’m trying to say is, don’t get to wound up in this just yet. He needs to prove to you, me and Zane that he truly loves you before we’re going to back off.”
“Fine...” I sighed, staring out the window.