His Beloved

It had been nearly 3 weeks since I lost my grandfather. My grandfather raised me from the time that I was 5 years old until now, at 28. We were all each other had. I was cherished by my grandfather simply because I was the first girl born into the Darling family in almost 200 years. I had sold off most of everything except a few things of mine and my grandfather's before moving to a small town in Northern Colorado. After finally settling down in my new apartment, the weight of everything life had given me came to fruition. I had never been alone before. I didn't know how to do this life all by myself. A sudden rumble in my stomach brought me out of my self-loathing. "Guess I need food," I thought, shaking my head after passing a sign that read 'Welcome to Snowy Peaks.' "I'm supposing we don't have a Walmart." I sighed driving around more than half an hour before pulling into a small grocery store. "Welcome to Bargain Grocery!" A cashier greeted me a little too enthusiastically. I smiled before walking down a few aisles grabbing what I thought I needed for a week. It was not until I got to aisle 7, the bathroom aisle, that goosebumps struck me. A man standing above 6 feet tall grabbed a body wash off of the top shelf and locked eyes with me almost the instant I rounded the corner. He had gorgeous, well-kept chocolate brown hair, parted in the middle and just loose enough to be swept back atop of his head. Bright blue eyes that showed a hint of gold from the lighted fixture. He wore a navy blue suit that hugged his toned physique magnificently. The scar above his right eyebrow gave him a more bad boy look to his professional business attire. For what seemed like forever, in all actuality, it was less than 10 seconds when our eyes locked without any signs of separation. I physically could not move or breathe, for that matter. A slight smirk was raised on the left side of his beautifully round lips before briefly looking away. Thus giving me enough time to regain my composure. Without delay, I swiftly pushed my shopping basket to the opposite end of the aisle in search of my body wash. Upon embarrassingly loudly plopping my coconut and Shea butter body wash in the basket, I quickly turned to the next aisle. "What the hell was that?" I thought to myself. I had never had that feeling before just by looking at someone. I just shook my head for the time being and made my last rounds on my way to the checkout lane. I stacked my groceries neatly on the belt when I heard a soft yet strong voice from behind me. "You'll drive yourself mad if you keep fighting with your thoughts." His voice sent shivers down my spine as I'd never felt before. "Jesus." I clutched my chest at his sudden presence. "Nope, Jasper Everly." He suavely introduced himself. "Lucille." Like some love-struck school girl, I uttered my name but I don't imagine it was audible. "Lucille" He barely whispered my name back to himself before responding further. "Well, Lucille, I've never seen you here before, so I'm only going to assume you're new. Welcome." "How sweet of you, thank you. I just got into town today. I'm looking forward to meeting new faces." I probably offered more information than he wanted to know. "$89.48 ma'am." The cashier spoke, suddenly nervous to see Jasper in his line. "Oh Mr. Everly sir, I didn't see you there. Good afternoon." "Hello, Andrew." He responded almost humbly, not taking his gaze from mine. "You the Mayor or something?" I joked, placing my remaining bags in the shopping cart. "No, my family has just been around here for a very long time. We all know each other, don't we, Andrew?" This time making direct eye contact with the teenage boy behind the counter. Come to think of it, he seemed to tense up when Jasper looked his way. You could almost see little beads of perspiration on his brow. "Oh yes sir! Here's your receipt, ma'am. Have a nice day." His crooked smile turned to me, handing over the last of my purchase. "Thank you, you too." I returned a similar smile. "Well, see you around Jasper Everly." I waved, walking out of the store. *Jasper's p.o.v* "Back to work Andrew," I ordered, a smile disappearing from his face to a more serious look. "Ye-yes, sir." Andrew nervously spoke before rushing off to stock more to the front. I stalked my way out of the store eyeing which vehicle Lucille had gotten in. The baby blue Nissan Altima graciously drove off eastbound. The 23-degree weather still smelled of her. I took another dramatic inhale to savor her fragrance. After all, her scent was something I had never encountered before. "Good afternoon Mr. Everly." Another nervous townsperson greeted me once I was face to face with him. "Nathanial! So good to see you. I need something from you." The very thought of this woman was driving me crazy. I had to find out more about her. "Of course sir, anything." Answering without hesitation. "There's a new woman in town, approximately early to mid-twenties. 5 feet 6 inches, 134 pounds, scarlet red hair, and emerald green eyes. I want to know everything about her immediately." "Oh, ok. Uhm, do you happen to know where she lives?" The audacity of this moron. "This is what I'm asking you for. I've given you a description of her, find her and follow her. If she sees me hanging around watching her she'll know I'm looking for her. You, I'm almost positive she hasn't seen you yet. Don't make me ask twice. Now go." I ordered. "Yes sir." Nathanial quickly agreed before scattering away. I was a very powerful man. I partnered with my best friend Alex many years ago to take ownership of the country's largest blood bank chain. We were two of the eldest vampires in the Western region with an army of about 1000 scattered all around town. Alex was well over 200 years old by now, while I was right at 199. The humans that still inhabited this town knew they lived amongst our kind, but weren't too concerned about us. Our specific pack of vampires has a long-standing peace agreement with the humans guaranteeing their safety from not only us but other impending dangers that may arise from rogues. Our army was filled with a lot of younger members, maybe no older than 50. Some of them were stupid and went rogue and got themselves killed by wolf packs. Vampires have evolved through the years and have been able to adapt to human food, but indulging in human blood was something we needed to accelerate our strength. Herein lies the genius of running our blood bank. Once a month, there would be a payment arrangement for their generous donations. The first of the month was when we'd get more patrons to donate to feed our race's appetite. That was probably why there wasn't any crime in our small town. We looked after our own, but there were still those who were intimidated by what I was. I had arrived back at my home, which rested on the mountains just overlooking the town. The weather always stays colder up here. Mostly below zero with constant snow flurries from the mountain peaks. "Jasper?" Alex's questionable tone sounded through the foyer just as I had shut the door. I walked the length of the hallway down to Alex's office, the faint crackling of his fireplace was the only audible sound. He sat behind his mahogany desk in his brown-studded leather computer chair gazing at the contents in his glass. "Good afternoon, Alex." I nodded from the doorway. Cocking an eyebrow up at my appearance, he spoke. " Something is on your mind old friend, come sit." He motioned for me to take a seat across from him. I obliged, sitting down at his request. "Please." He sat up straight, adjusting his jacket to give his full attention. "I met a woman earlier, and I'm not sure what happened to me. It took every bit of strength I could muster to tear my gaze away from her. I spoke to her, it was as if her voice enchanted me somehow. And her scent, it was tantalizing." I spoke, reminiscing about her every feature. "Let me see," Alex asked, motioning for my hand. Inobliged allowing him to review my memory from just a half-hour prior at the store. Alex refocused his gaze from my thoughts back to reality before letting my hand go. "You aren't sure what happened to you?" A smile formed on his pale face. "No, I smelled her before she came down the aisle and when she did I was instantly pulled into her and couldn't back out. You saw she was the same way." "This woman maybe your beloved mate. Very tricky, considering she is human. Most of our kind do not get paired with anything outside of our race. But of course, it isn't unheard of. What beautiful eyes she has." He expressed, leaning against his desk adjacent to me. "How do I tell her what I am? I mean she's going to figure out something is different is off with me." I questioned, feeling a bit overwhelmed. "You tell her nothing. When the time comes, she'll know and she'll understand." I nodded a gratuitous smile and retreated to my room. That evening, I paced my room, growing angry that Nathanial hadn't gotten back to me yet about who Lucille was. "Nathanial wake up," I ordered, having teleported right into his bedroom. "Boss!" He shrieked, sitting up quickly and placing his glasses on. "Have you done what I've asked you to do?" I impatiently asked, gazing upon his distasteful bedroom decorations. "There wasn't much for me to find. She lives in the center of town in the Winter Place apartments. She's not been hired anywhere and she seems to live alone." "Good boy." I grinned before vanishing. I found myself outside of the townhouse apartments Nathanial mentioned Lucille lived in. Tracking her scent, I found her window to be the end of the complex. Having never been invited into her home, I was unable to just appear inside. Lucille was asleep on her couch with the TV still on. She had pink and blue striped pajama pants with a white camisole. She had her thick red locks pulled into a bun atop her head. Her reading glasses were smudged on her face while her book rested on her chest. With a small glimpse inside of her window, I could see numerous boxes stacked neatly in the corner waiting to be unpacked. "I'm supposed to be destined for this?" I almost couldn't believe how women had evolved since I was mortal. After a few more minutes of watching her chest rise and fall, I finally took my leave. I hadn't courted a woman in so long. I wasn't sure how to do it being a Vampire. Most everyone here knew what I was except for her, and I didn't intend on her knowing just yet. Back at home, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling not able to shake my mind from this woman. Why was this happening? I had never been the type to seek out my beloved. To be honest, I didn't care to have one. I know Alex had lost his human wife many years ago and didn't like discussing the details of that matter with anyone. But I could always see it was something he longed to have once more. It was more fun to have my s****l escapades with fellow female vampires from time to time for my own release. I've watched in disgust at times at how engrossed mates can be with one another. I just couldn't see myself as someone who would gush and drool over someone, especially a human.