#27 seconds

Your face had warmed and you hadn’t been able to think of anything witty to say in return. All too soon you had arrived at your home. 

Before Luke left, he asked if you would be interested to come over to his place tomorrow to study. You had twirled a strand of hair between your fingers and pretended to think long and hard about it.

You sort of liked how nervous he was—hands stuffed in his pockets and biting his bottom lip. 

“Sure, I guess so.” Relieved, Luke had given you the address and, flashing you a million-watt smile, bounded away. 

Now, less than twenty-four hours later, you were standing in front of his house like an idiot. Not wanting the neighbors to think you were a creep, you walked up to his porch. 

You checked your watch again. Five minutes early. You were debating whether or not to ring the doorbell when the door swung open.

There stood Luke, smiling ear to ear, wearing a red and white plaid button down with most of the buttons undone to expose his tanned chest. 

“Hey! Great to see ya. Right on time too.”

You stepped over the threshold and heard the click of the door shut behind you. It was dark inside; all the blinds were shut and there were no lights on. The only illumination came from two candles on the dining table.

“Actually, I’m a little early,” you murmured, taking in your surroundings. You were in a cozy living room which joined into a spacious kitchen and dining space and staircase that must have led to the bedrooms. 

“Are ya? Well, it doesn’t matter much. Welcome to my crib. Would ya like anything to drink? We’ve got pop, water, beer and sweet tea.” 

“Beer?” You raised an eyebrow. “Won’t you get in trouble with your parents? Speaking of which, where are they?” Except for you and Luke, the house seemed empty. 

“Oh, they left to go run errands for a few hours and my sister is running around with her beau. Got the place all to ourselves.” He gave you a sly wink and ran a hand through his blond hair.

 You swallowed at his expression and at the implication. “Cool.” You took off your backpack and unzipped it. “Are all those cats outside yours? They’re really cute.”

Luke’s expression soured as he peeked through the window’s blinds. He answered with thinly veiled contempt, “No. Just a bunch of strays. I’ll call animal control later.” 

“Don’t like cats?”

“No, whole family’s allergic to them.” He walked over to you, his smile returning

“That’s a shame.” You didn’t think he should call animal control, but it wasn’t your property to decide which stray animals could and couldn’t stay. “Uh, I brought some history homework if you wanted to–”

“No, no. We’ve been doing school work all week long. C’mon, it's the weekend! We gotta have some fun!” Luke grabbed a lighter from his pocket and flicked it on. Walking over, he leaned forward and for one horrible second you thought he was going to burn you.

Instead, he lit three more candles on the side table behind you. He brought the lighter close to your face; the orange flame danced in your field of vision, unusually bright. 

“We need to unwind.” He moved across the room and lit more candles on the mantelpiece and coffee table. They had a lot of candles in this household. Wasn’t that a fire hazard? Luke resumed speaking as he lit more candles.

“And you know what's a great thing to do to unwind?” He blew out his lighter and crept nearer. You had to resist the urge to step back. You didn’t want to seem scared even though your bravery was steadily shrinking bit by bit.

Luke pressed a button on a record player and a soothing melody started playing. “We dance.” He placed your left hand on his shoulder while his right hand settled on your waist. He clasped your other hand in a firm grip and began swaying back and forth to the music. 

You were stunned by his boldness, but it wasn’t completely unwanted. You were comforted that he just wanted to dance. It sounded like he was expecting something more.

You had to admit that dancing with Luke in the candle lit room was rather romantic and he was quite handsome in the light’s soft glow. 

Still . . .

Wasn’t it a tad soon for this scenario to be happening? You had only met him less than a handful of times yet Luke was looking at you as if you two were lifelong lovers. You avoided his pale blue gaze and cleared your throat. 

“This is a nice song. What’s it called?”

He replied barely above a whisper. “Sleep Walk by Santo and Johnny. My whole family loves them. We got almost all their records. We listen to ‘em every day.”

“That’s nice.” You didn’t know what else to say. Luke was perfectly content to just stare into your eyes and dance in your arms. You glanced around the room, casting about anything to remark on when you noticed something peculiar. 

“Luke, why don't you have any family pictures?” There wasn’t one family portrait or wedding picture of his parents or photo of him or his sister. 

“Hmm? Oh, we haven’t unpacked them yet. We’re still in the process of moving in and everything. They’re probably in a box somewhere. We’ll hang ‘em up eventually.”

Something about his answer didn’t sit right. The house appeared to be well moved into. Maybe the boxes (and the pictures) were secluded to the upstairs portion of the house. Yes, that would explain it. If only you could convince yourself of it.

“You okay? You seem on edge. Tense.”

“I’m fine,” you said a bit too quickly. “What makes you think I’m tense?”

He laughed, “Cause you are! It’s like dancing with a corpse.” He twirled you around and spun you back into his arms. “What's eating ya? You can tell me.” He bumped his forehead against yours gently; it was a familiar act, as if he had done it a hundred times before.

“Um. To tell the truth, my folks were under the impression that your parents were gonna be here too. I don’t think they’d be too thrilled I’m alone with you. Not that there’s anything wrong with you! They’re just kinda suspicious when it comes to boys. And I don’t want them thinking I lied to them.”

“Lying to your parents ain’t a big deal. A white lie now and then ain’t the end of the world. For instance, my mom and pop are nosy as hell and when I told them I’d be spending the afternoon with a girl they asked if I had a crush on her. I didn’t want ‘em to start giving advice and all that and being drags, so I lied and said no.”

“You have a crush on me? You hardly know me.”

“Well, I’d like to get to know you. To confirm what I already know. That you’re sweet, smart, and funny. And still on edge.” He shook his head in amusement. “C’mon, there’s gotta be something I can do to help you relax.” 

He twirled you around a second time. “In fact, I think I know the perfect thing.” Tilting his head to one side, he kissed you on the lips. Shock flooded through your body but it quickly melted away into pure bliss. 

You closed your eyes and concentrated solely on the feeling of his hot mouth on yours. You wrapped your arms around his neck and his hands repositioned themselves on your waist. Every worry disappeared while trapped within his embrace. 

Luke stole your very breath away. Literally. You wrenched away from him which took more effort than it should have been, gasping for breath as if he had been suffocating you with the kiss. 

“Woah, sorry. Shouldn’t have done that,” Luke mumbled.

“It’s fine. You really don’t waste any time, huh?” You and Luke both continued swaying to the music, bodies pressing together.

“Don’t make sense to waste time. Not when I know you’re the one.”

“What do you by the–” Luke cut off your question with another kiss filled with so much fervor that you might have thought it was his last one before death. He walked you backwards until your legs hit the sofa and pushed you down onto its plush cushions.

You followed his direction without any qualms. All thoughts evaporated into thin air when his lips melded into yours. Luke withdrew and stroked the side of your face, staring as if he had found his long-lost soulmate. 

 He pressed slow, tender kisses to your neck, each burning hotter than the one before. “You have no idea how long I’ve been dreaming of this. So many decades of no one to love.” 

You stiffened at his odd choice of words. Love was a strong feeling to have for someone this quickly. But more worrying was his use of decades.

He couldn’t have been a year older than you, so why would he choose such weird phrasing? Luke raised his head and the blood froze in your veins. 

Luke’s brows formed into an unnatural V shape, below his eyes gleamed an inky black, his nose narrowed into thin slits, and worst of all were the razor-sharp canines protruding from his red mouth.

You screamed and thrashed about like a wounded animal to get as far away as possible from him. His nails dung into your cheek, drawing blood, to hold you in place. “Shhh… Don’t get so excited. The fun part hasn’t even happened yet.”

You were helpless to stop Luke as he sunk his teeth into your neck. Luke knelt beside the couch next to your writhing body, caressing your hair. The transformation was never fun and watching it was even worse.

He had ripped off your clothes as your body simultaneously began expanding and wrinkling like a prune. He laid a hand on your torn cheek to let you know he was still there.

Blood poured from your neck and dripped onto the hardwood floor. He’d clean that up later; he didn’t want to leave you for a second. Your eyes had rolled back into your head and you heaved as if every breath would be your last.

But it wouldn’t. He made sure of that. The bite was deep enough to infect, but not deep enough to kill. Luke had been extra careful. You would survive and then you and Luke would be together forever.

He wouldn’t be alone anymore. Of course, his family had always pointed out that they had each other. It wasn’t fair though. His mother had his father for centuries. 

His sister had found a mortal man to bless with their nature and share her life with him. Now it was Luke’s turn. His family had been hesitant about adding another to the clan, but he had finally won them over. 

Nothing would keep you from him. You would love how you changed. You might panic and curse and hate him for a little while, but you’d soon see that the bite was a blessing.