Serum

-Fifteen-

As we walked away from the clothing department, I thought back on Conner’s reaction when we entered the building.

“Why did you look at me so funny?” I blurted.

“I’m sorry, you just lost me.” Conner responded jovially. He had grabbed my hand again and swung it lightly, not really looking at me, but somehow still paying attention nonetheless.

“When we first entered the store, and I made that joke, about being hungry. You looked at me funny.” I replied, watching him carefully.  He blinked and then met my gaze.

“I just wouldn’t have expected you to say anything like that, is all…” Conner explained, but got no further.

“Conner! Hey Conner!” A voice shouted above the hubbub of the store. Conner slowly turned, tense, upper lip beginning to pull up away from his teeth. His fighting stance made me want to drop everything and do the same. It was an automatic reaction, a gut instinct, and it surprised me that I would just follow his lead that way. Suddenly Conner jerked in recognition and straightened.

“Daniel! Hi!” Conner responded.

“Where have you been? We have been looking all over for you, I mean, we all knew you moved, but you just took off and never told us nothin’.” Daniel grumbled, reaching out to slap Conner’s shoulder. Daniel then turned to me.

“Hi, cutie, you must be new here.” Daniel winked. “I’m Daniel, and this disappearing sneak you’re with is my cousin.”  I couldn’t really see a family resemblance, other than obvious good looks.  Daniel had this ‘boy next door’ charm.  Cute freckles, sandy hair, bright blue eyes, tall and lanky build.

“Let me introduce you to Adrian.” Conner jumped in as Daniel extended a hand for me to shake. “She is new around the area, just moved in. I’m letting her stay at my place. Adrian this is Daniel, he’s actually more like a fifth cousin seven times removed or something stupid, but we all got tired of trying to keep track of it.” Daniel laughed at that.

“Yeah, so we just shortened it to cousin, let the old ones try to keep it straight.” Daniel supplied. “If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to talk to my eighth cousin four times removed in private.” He then gripped Conner and pulled him a short distance off.

“What happened to you?” Daniel hissed “We heard your parents kicked you out, and that your sister had zeroed in on you for the kill. The next thing we know you’ve up and disappeared and nobody can locate you no matter how hard we try. Are you gonna tell us where you’ve been? Where are you staying?” As Daniel’s relentless questions kept coming, Conner’s eyes slid in my direction.

“It’s because of her ain’t it?” Daniel asked keenly, giving Conner a small shake. Conner didn’t answer. “Fine, keep your secrets, but if you need any help you know you can always get ahold of us, and we’ll gladly help you out.” Conner nodded mutely, attention returning to Daniel, then clasped his forearm.

“Thank you. But I don’t want to get you into any more trouble than what you already manage yourself. Now where’s the rest of the gang?” Conner murmured.

“Oh, they’re around here someplace.” Daniel replied as they started back towards me.  I tried to pretend that I hadn’t heard their conversation, acting like I was browsing a nearby aisle instead.

“Well let’s find them, I’d really like Adrian to meet them all.” Conner said with a grin.  He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me to him, Daniel raised a brow but didn’t say anything. There followed a quick march around the store, with Conner and Daniel chattering away as we searched for Daniel’s group of friends.

“There they are, hanging out in the food section, as usual.” Daniel announced, flinging an arm in the general direction of a group of teenagers. Well, at least teen-age look-alikes, I thought wryly as I carefully listened in on their heart and breathing rates. It was relatively easy as the food section didn’t have that many people, the few that were there left quickly. It was just too uncomfortable for a human to stick around the open-air coolers, with the slight chill to the air. For a vampire, I noted, the chill was almost imperceptible. A couple of wolfish grins and whistles preceded our arrival. Most of the teenagers yelled greetings to Conner, and I noted a few of the guys giving me once-over as I approached. The thought made me uncomfortable, but the vampiric part of me took care of that, quickly sizing up each of them with a cool and calculating gaze. Conner’s arm tightened around my shoulders, and I reached up to twine my fingers with his.

“Who’s the chick?” A relatively skinny vampire boy asked.

“This is Adrian,” Daniel put in quickly, before anybody else could answer. “She’s fine guys, just moved here. She’s staying with Conner for a while, we thought it might be nice to introduce her to you all.” Most of the young vampires relaxed visibly. It occurred to me that I must look pretty suspicious. The way Lana had acted, vampires were scarce. A chorus of hellos sounded and I smiled sweetly and nodded my head. Conner’s thumb brushed my cheek. A stream of emotion rushed through my mind, making me flinch. I was certain the thoughts had bled over from him. In the background I noted Daniel’s voice naming off his companions. Jokes were traded, and much ribbing, and then questions about all the clothes. Conner began to make up an excuse about me not being able to bring much with me when I cut in.

“Don’t let him lie to you, he just likes playing dress-up.” I said. A hushed silence had fallen when I started speaking, but after I finished my statement, the group erupted. A “for sure” sounded somewhere in the background of all the laughter, and after that none of the vampiric teens acted uncomfortable around me. Stories were soon being swapped, and questions about what had been going on while everyone had been kept out of Conner’s life. The entire group was made up of jokers, they seemed to be in constant trouble because of tricks they played, and other things they did. I could understand why that may have caused them to be even more wary of me upon first meeting me. After all, who knew how I would react.

The group of us were soon getting nasty looks from people trying to do their grocery shopping, so we began to head towards the exit. At the cash registers, the group of teens split off from us chorusing good-byes as Conner and I went to pay for the purchases. As the cashier totaled the purchases, Conner pulled out a wallet from his back pocket. I tried to object, but Conner merely shook his head and paid for all the clothing. I noticed a fluffy scarf made it into one of the bags of clothing, and laughed silently to myself.

On the way home, Conner insisted upon carrying most of the shopping bags, with his free hand he grabbed one of mine and swung it as we walked down the street. His good mood bubbled over across the link of our hands, and caught me off guard, making me giggle.

“I have a question for you,” I told Conner.

“Ok, what is it?” He asked with a laugh in his voice.

“How come I can still sense your emotions when you touch my skin, despite the fact that I haven’t, how did you put it… “opened my mind” to you?” I murmured. Conner stopped moving.

“Hmm…” A tentacle of emotion reached me as Conner grew still.

“Well, I guess I should have warned you. Sometimes, and it happens only occasionally, but sometimes when thoughts or memories are shared a bond is formed. After that, it’s very easy for the bonded to sense each other's emotions or share memories without having to prepare the mind.” Conner answered solemnly.

“So what does that mean?” I prodded.

“It either means that you are an incredibly strong vampire.” By Conner’s emotions I could feel that he believed this was true, “Or you and I just made up one of the few anomalies that happen among vampires.”

“Of course there is one other alternative…” Conner suggested.

“Which is?” I inquired.

“That you and I share very strong feelings for each other, and if that’s the case, well you’ll just have to marry me, ‘cause I won’t be sharing none of your dirty thoughts about me without being married first.” With this Conner gave a laugh and ran from me down the street while I chased after him with a shout.