The Vampires Pet

Chapter 4: Warming up to him

When we were home, Amdis checked every room again and told me it was clear.

“Why do you check my home if vampires can’t come in? You’re the only vampire I’ve given permission to,” I said.

He turned to face me and replied, “I do my job thoroughly, vampires like Zedric can be very cunning, if he can’t come inside himself, he can very easily find someone who will, whether that be a human or another supernatural.”

“Oh,” I replied, that made sense, I hadn’t even thought of that, how stupid of me.

I headed towards the kitchen to make myself a drink and turned to ask Amdis if he would like one. I yelped when I saw him standing close behind me and stumbled backwards, tripping over the leg of a kitchen chair and falling on my butt.

He rose one eyebrow as he looked at me sprawled across the floor, and then he held his hand out to me. “My apologies, I did not mean to scare you.”

I looked at his hand fearfully and in that cold emotionless tone he said, “I will not harm you, take my hand.”

It took me a few more seconds before I very gently placed my hand in his and allowed him to help me to my feet.

He stepped back, giving me space after and said, “you should find yourself a therapist.”

“What?” I asked, my voice sounding panicked.

“You need therapy, miss Hansley, it would help you.”

“You don’t know that,” I snapped, I didn’t mean to become angry, really I was just afraid.

“You cannot go on like this, it is not healthy to be jumping at every noise or shadow, nor screaming from night terrors.”

“It’s only been one night, I can’t get over it that quickly!” I yelled. I felt like I was being backed in to a corner, and I took a step back from him.

His cold, unreadable face never changed nor did his tone. “I understand that, but I have helped many people in my line of work and I have always found the sooner they get help the sooner they can heal, there is nothing wrong nor anything to be ashamed about for asking for help.”

“Why do you care?”

“I care about your safety, it is my job.”

“What does that have to do with my mental state?”

“In my line of work, most of the guards hired care only for your physical safety, I however, like to take my job very seriously, I care for every aspect of your safety, mind, body and spirit, it would be in your best interests to seek therapy.”

“No, I don’t want to.” It sounded childish when I said it out loud, but I was just too scared and embarrassed.

It was the first time I had seen him show any sign of emotion, he sighed in frustration and replied, “you will not seek help for yourself?”

“No,” I snapped defensively, I wasn’t sure why it was making me so angry, but I decided anger felt better than fear.

“Perhaps you are not ready yet.”

“I’m not going to therapy ever!”

He did grow annoyed with me then and though he didn’t snap back at me, his voice did hold annoyance when he answered, “you are going to be insufferable, fine, do not seek help, and keep suffering if you wish.” He walked away from me and stood by the living room window looking outside.

I stormed off towards the kitchen and made myself a drink, not bothering to ask him. I had always been very stubborn, and I didn’t like feeling forced in to doing things, even simple things, it had driven Zedric almost insane, and he had been so happy when he had finally broken me and bent me to his will.

I was very childlike too in a lot of ways, my mother used to tease me and call me Peter Pan, the girl who never grew up, so it was no surprise that I stomped up the stairs like a child having a tantrum, I slammed the door too and flopped face first on to my bed.

I spent most of my time going through my phone watching YouTube videos, I was ironically enjoying watching woman doing their makeup while talking about crime cases. When night fell, I was so hungry, I was so used to not eating for days at a time that I had forgotten to eat anything all day.

Climbing off my bed, I opened my door and ran down the stairs, jumping the last few. Amdis was still standing by the window and looked at me with raised eyebrows.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing, Miss Hansley.” He turned his back on me to look outside again.

“Don’t you find it boring just standing around all day doing nothing in someone’s home?” I asked.

“No, and I am not doing nothing, I am making sure you are safe and there are no threats close by.”

“You don’t want to watch tv or read or something?”

“No, I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I were distracted.”

“You are very serious for a vampire.”

He turned to look at me with that unnaturally beautiful face and asked, “have you met many vampires who are not serious?”

I shrugged and then asked, “can vampires sleep?”

“You seem in a more jovial mood,” he observed.

I didn’t want to tell him I had been enjoying my day relaxing and watching crime videos, he would think I was mad. “Don’t change the subject.”

“We can sleep, yes.”

“Can? What does that mean?”

“It means if I were to not feed and have the blood flowing in my body to make everything work, then I would not need sleep, I would not need to eat real food or drink, if I have recently fed, then I can enjoy the feeling of being sleepy and sleep, I can enjoy food and feeling more human.”

“So you are like a truly dead body when you haven’t fed?”

“Yes.”

Wow, I hadn’t known that, I was still nervous, but I stepped towards him and gently touched his arm, his very muscular arm, it felt warm to the touch.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Sorry, you feel warm, does that mean you’ve fed recently?”

“Yes.”

“And when you don’t, you’re cold to the touch?”

“Yes.”

His one worded answers were frustrating.

I was curious, so I asked, “when you don’t feed does that mean you can’t, uh, you know..” I trailed off, blushing hotly.

“No, I don’t know,” he replied.

“You can’t, uh, you know, you can’t get hard.”

He frowned at me for a moment, and then he understood what I meant, and he looked slightly flustered before growing unreadable.

“No, I cannot, only if I have fed recently.”

I nodded and then asked, “the more blood you drink, can it make it grow bigger?”

He kept his face cold and unreadable as a statue and said, “I think that’s enough questions now.”

“But—”

“But nothing, miss Hansley, no more questions.” He turned his back on me, making it obvious he was no longer willing to talk.

I made my way in to the kitchen and tried to look for food, I was going through the fridge, but it was empty, then I started looking in all the freezer drawers making enough noise that Amdis came in to the kitchen and asked, “what are you looking for?”

I was bent over, looking in the bottom drawer and turned my head to face him. “Food, but I don’t have any, I’ll have to look for a job tomorrow and buy some food when I have money.”

He looked surprised and asked, “you are going to starve until you find a job and get paid?”

I shrugged, what else was I supposed to do.

“You will not survive that long, order some takeout food, and we will go food shopping tomorrow.”

“I can’t do that, I don’t have any money.”

“I do, I will pay for your food.”

“Michelle gave you that money to protect me, isn’t you wasting it on me, basically giving some of that money back?”

“It is not a waste on you miss Hansley, like I explained, I protect my client at all costs, I can’t very well have you dying from starvation. Order your food.”

“Right, I guess you don’t want bad reviews over a client dying from hunger,” I laughed.

He looked at me curiously and said, “is it so hard to believe that I could care about your life genuinely and not just for some good reviews?”

“Well, I mean you are paid to protect your clients, surely it’s all very professional and no real genuine care there?”

“I care very much for my clients, Miss Hansley and that includes you, now eat.”

I ordered a pizza, still feeling awkward and guilty about him paying. When the food turned up, I went to answer the door but Amdis pulled me behind him and answered it instead.

He paid the man and basically slammed the door in his face after.

“That was a bit mean,” I said.

“My job is to keep you safe, not be friendly.”

I sat down at the kitchen table and asked, “are you eating with me?”

“No, I do not need to eat to survive.”

Sighing, I opened the pizza box up and started to eat while Amdis went back to stand at the window. He reminded me of an AI robot.

My living room was painted in olive green and cream, my sofa was a simple cream one with a faux fur throw thrown over it, the whole house had wood lino flooring and I had a brown rug in front of the sofa. The tv was mounted up on the wall in front of it.

My kitchen was small but gave cottage vibes, the cupboards were a navy blue, the walls painted a blue so pale it looked almost white in certain lighting, the kitchen had a stone backdrop too.

My bedroom was the place that showed my personality, It was painted in baby blue, the curtains were baby pink, my bed covers had little kittens on them and the end of my bed had about forty stuffed animals. I had so many Disney movies and Disney ornaments.

When I finished the pizza, Amdis standing there so eerily still at the window was freaking me out so I asked, “will you watch a movie with me?”

He looked at me with a hint of surprise on his face, but he gave a nod. “Sure.”

I put on fox and the hound, I could have put a horror movie on, but I wasn’t ready to deal with him giving me more lectures, he would probably say I shouldn’t be watching such things in my fragile state, so I put on the Disney cartoon. He frowned when he saw it come up on screen, and then he looked at me. “You still watch cartoons?”

“Is that a problem?” I asked defensively but also kind of embarrassed.

“Not at all,” he simply replied and sat beside me on the sofa but kept enough space so we weren’t touching. I appreciated him being thoughtful of my personal space, but I found myself kind of wanting to have some sort of contact with him.

I couldn’t believe he actually watched the whole silly cartoon with me, as always, I cried at the end of the movie and while he looked cold and emotionless as usual, he did turn to look at me with concern. “Are you alright, miss Hansley?”

“I’m fine,” I laughed and tried hiding my tears.

He leaned towards me and gently wiped my tears with his thumb. “Why are you crying?”

“I’m just sad he couldn’t stay friends with cooper, and it’s sad he didn’t get to stay with his owner either.”

The corner of his lip tilted up slightly hinting at a smile and wiping more of my tears away, he replied, “I am sure he will be fine and have lots of new friends.”

I nodded and answered, “he does in number two.”

I could almost hear the eye roll in his voice when replied, “there’s a number two? Of course there is, you want me to watch that with you too?”

“Yes please,” I answered shyly.

He sat back against the sofa and watched the second one with me too, it was so cute, and I found myself liking him more and fearing him a little less.