He shrugged. "Surely you've watched documentaries on animals and insects that kill by luring their prey?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's why you feel the desire to be bitten. It isn't real, Ara, which is another reason I will never share blood with you."

"But...you're not using lust as a spell now, are you?"

"No. Of course not."

"Then...why do I still want you to drink my blood?"

Beneath his smile, his white teeth gleamed; my eyes traced the sharp edges of his fangs and the straight lines of the front teeth. "Maybe you're more like my species than you care to admit."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean-" He sat up a little. "Okay, look, it's a very intimate act-blood sharing. It-"

"Wait! Sharing?"

"Yeah."

"Sharing? For real?"

"Yeah."

"As in, like, I can drink yours?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"But-" I pointed to my neck. "You don't bleed."

"I do bleed."

"But I tried to...I mean...I actually tried to cut you open when I bit you. You didn't break."

"You..." His eyes widened, his head rolling forward into the cloud of disbelief. "You tried to cut me?"

"Yeah." I grinned.

He coughed out the shock with a smile. "It won't work. If I were to share blood with a human, I'd have to make a cut myself-for them to drink from."

"Oh, okay." I looked at his neck more carefully.

"Stop thinking about it, Ara. We can never do that."

"Why?"

"Because it...it leads to other things, okay? Not to mention, it's seen as a bit bizarre to do it with a human you don't plan to kill."

"Why?"

"Because..."

"Because?"

"Because it just is. I'm not going into detail, Ara. You don't need to know anything else about my world. Now just drop it." After a long pause, David took a deep breath through his nose and let it out. "I'm sorry, Ara. Okay. I just don't want to taint you any further than I already have."

I sniffled. "You're repulsed by the idea of doing it with me."

"Repulsed?" His jaw jutted forward. "Not in the slightest. Sweetheart, sharing blood with the one you love is one of the most intimate exchanges of passion. Lust and desire mean nothing in comparison to blood sharing. God knows I want to do that with you. I just-"

"Just?"

"Just...I won't. Okay?"

My mouth filled with saliva. I swallowed it down. "I wish I knew what you tasted like."

David released a short, breathy laugh. "Well, I've been told it's a little like milk with too much sugar."

"What do you mean by told?"

"I'm pretty old, Ara. I have been with other-"

"Wait!" I held my hand up. "Don't go there."

He laughed. "Okay, I won't. If you promise to drop this blood sharing thing."

I looked down at my hands. "Are you afraid you might kill me if we did it?"

"I don't know."

"Are you picturing it?" I asked playfully.

"I'm trying not to."

I watched his eyes, so lost to thoughts I wished I could be a part of. "Why don't we just try it, like, maybe a small cut at first-just to test?"

"Look. Stop it, okay?" He firmly planted his hand to my shoulder. "I'm not going to hurt you like that. I really love you too much to bear the thought of you being in pain-especially just to please me."

"Then I'll do it myself." I jumped off the bed and ran to my desk.

"What are you doing?" David seized my arm as I grabbed the scissors.

"I'm gonna do it myself. Then you don't have to hurt me."

"Ara, you've lost it. You've actually gone crazy-give me those." He snatched the scissors from my hand and threw them back in the drawer-slamming it shut.

"You're right." I sat down in my desk chair. "I have gone crazy." Maybe all this had been too much for me. Maybe finding out about David was the last straw. Vicki warned me that trauma and grief could manifest themselves in unusual ways-ways you might not recognise. But she was talking about things like promiscuity and drug use, right?

"This isn't manifested grief, Ara. It's a collection of thoughts and cravings over a period of time that have grown into desire," said the voice of reason from beside me. "There's nothing wrong with you. But you have to drop this. All right?"

I nodded, wiping fat teardrops from my chin.

David ran his fingers through his hair and down the back of his neck, then held out his hand; I looked up at him. "Come on," he said.

"Where're we going?"

He grabbed his jacket off my desk and slipped it on. "We both need some fresh air."

"Fresh air?"

"Yes."

"And, where exactly are we going to get that from?" I asked in a shaky voice as he scooped me off the ground. "And how are you planning to get there?"

He squeezed me close, propping his chin on my forehead. "You may want to cover your eyes."

"Holy shi-" I rolled my face into his chest as a jolt forced me to hold my breath.

"You okay?" he asked, his lips against my hair.

I think so.

"I'm going to put you down now, okay?"

"We've stopped moving?"

"Yes." He laughed. "We've stopped."

"Okay." I clung to his shirt as he set my bare feet to a cold, slanted surface, and a dewy breeze circled my ankles, howling a warning. "Are we up high?"

The kidnapper wrapped his arm around my waist and whispered in my ear, "Open your eyes. See for yourself."

"Do I have to?" I shut them tighter.

"You're not afraid of heights, are you, Ara?" He chuckled lightly.

"I'm going to kill you for this, David Knight. I ha-" A breath of awe escaped my lips as my eyes inched open and I saw the endless skyline, trailing off to a dark blue horizon, where the hills that were grey in the day looked invisible under the scattered stars. "David, it's so beautiful up here."

He shrugged. "I come here all the time."

"Is this where you spent the summer? Spying on me?"

"Yes," he said, with a cheeky grin, taking my shaking hand to help me sit with my legs dangling over the slant of my dad's roof. "But you know that was only while I was worried about you."

"So, you don't do it anymore?"

"Ha! Ara, if I was going to be at your house, I'd be in your room, with you-awake, or I'd be at home, leaving you to rest."

I snuggled my head into his shoulder. "So, if I was depressed again, you'd stay with me more often?"

"No," he laughed the word out. "You're a little suicidal for me right now."

I slapped his chest with the back of my hand. "Wanting to share blood with you is not suicidal."

"Oh boy." He shook his head, still laughing. "If you only knew the truth of what you do to me with your thoughts, girl. You have no idea how close you've come to death, do you?"

A cold shiver raced down my spine and sent my heart back into my chest with a jump. But even after the eerie feeling subsided, the shaking remained and my teeth chattered together.

"You're so human," David remarked lightly, wrapping his jacket over my shoulders.

"And you're so warm-like a human." The heat within the leather felt like that warm spot in someone else's bed after they get up, layered pleasantly with the scent of citrus and that woodsy smell his car had. I slipped my arms through the sleeves, then moved to sit between his legs, wrapping his arms tightly around my chest.

"Are you frightened up here?" he whispered against the back of my ear.

"The human in me is, but the girl in me, who knows how much you love her, isn't."

"You know I'd never let you fall, right?"

"Even if I do fall-" I yawned as I spoke, "-I know you'll be there to catch me." I smiled, and as I looked at the eastern horizon, a flicker of silver glittered across the night sky. "Did you see that?"

"A shooting star." David nodded. "Make a wish."

With my eyes closed, I crossed my heart and thought, I wish David would get the happy ending he longs for.

David held his breath, his whole body going stiff. "Why did you wish only for my happy ending?"

"Because, then I know that, even if our happy ending isn't together, you'll still be happy."

He swallowed and looked away. "I thought you said you were a selfish girl."

"I am." I shrugged. "I didn't wish for world peace."

He snickered softly. "My darling, there are more than enough people in the world to wish for that. But it requires sacrifice and tolerance-not hopes and prayers."

"Like us," I said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, happiness is a possibility for us-we can be together. It just means a sacrifice on one side."

David nodded. "And tolerance on yours."

"Tolerance?"

"Yes. For death."

"You can't ask a human to tolerate the death of another human. That isn't fair."