We'd been walking side by side through the morning woods under the shade of the trees, me being understanding enough of his 'skin condition', and him being polite enough to keep his hands to himself with the trust that I wouldn't make a run for it.

I occasionally shuddered whenever the thought hit me that I was walking with a supernatural creature that had been alive for six centuries and drank blood. Though it irked me that he still didn't clear up how my father knew him, I had bigger issues at the moment.

He had been kind enough to return me my jacket and shoes at my insistence, however kind would be an understatement as awkwardly apologetic as he was. His excuse was that he'd not been in the company of a woman for a while. His exact words were 'in the company of a young lady'. I don't know what's worse, how specific that description was or the classification itself.

"Can I have my phone back?" I asked.

"Are you bored?" He asked back.

"Uh, no?" I replied in confusion.

"Are you hungry?"

"Not particularly." I said gingerly.

"Are you alone?"

"No."

"Then you have no need to rub at that block of glass. My my, you people of this era," He shook his head in disappointment. "Had I been a human like you I would be scaling walls and wrestling bears. You are so healthy, do not laze your youth away."

You've got to be kidding me right now.

"Duly noted, sir." I grumbled.

I felt around my backpocket for anything else he didn't take and surprisingly, found something much better.

"Gimme a light?" I asked, holding up the cigarette.

He stopped, and stared ahead in thought. Then, he reached into the pocket of his coat. Seeing this, I relaxed my muscles. A gentleman was always a gentleman, I suppose.

Finally, I thought to myself as he took out a lighter. I could calm the hell down. I handed him my cigarette, and like a true gentleman he lit the end of it.

I reached out to take it, but he moved it away from me. He let the burning cigarette drop to the dirty ground and before I could pick it up to save what little was left, he stomped on it and ground it with the trail dirt and twigs by the heel of his expensive leather shoes, barely missing my fingers.

Still kneeling, I looked up at him from the ground in disappointment. He grabbed me up by my collar, lifting me with one arm up to eye-level, my feet off the ground. I gripped at his unrelenting fist and avoided looking into his eyes, they freaked me out.

His eyes are so blue in the daylight, they almost seem completely gray.

"You belong to me now. You do not have an addiction, and I will not let you develop one," He said calmly, then pulling me closer. "Inţelege?"

I was furious by his touch, enough so that I did the sanest thing any furious person would do. I bit him on the hand as hard as I could, and out of pure spite looked into his eyes.

Although I shouldn't kept being by now, it still left me bewildered to see minimal reaction from him as I bit down on his hand. When I let go, he set me back down on my feet.

"Do what you must to vent your petulance. It is better than suppressing it."

"What are you, my therapist?" I muttered as I dusted off my knees and turned to the side to blow a raspberry to take the taste of his hand out of my mouth.

"As a matter of fact, I am a psychiatrist. How did you know?"

I had to do a double take there. What in the everloving fuck? I'd been joking.

"Wait, so you're a shrink. You, help people," I pointed to him, making sure I got it right. "People... know you."

"Of course, they do. I have great reviews from my patients, actually. People do not suspect me at all."

This world is going to shit.

"That you wanna eat them?"

"Drink their blood." He corrected. "And I was referring more to my underground activities. You are quick to judge, drăga."

"You drink blood and buy people. I feel somewhat entitled to, man." I snidely remarked.

Can he stop calling me a dragon?

"For your kind information, you are the only one I have bought."

I raised my eyebrows when he said that, stopping to look at him to let him know it kinda stung. My heart dropped in my pit out of sorrow, and he must have felt it too, because he stopped as well, with his back still turned to me. He apologetically cleared his throat, before continuing to walk.

"So what do you actually do? And how does my father-?"

"Ah, here we are," He interrupted, his voice slightly hitting a high note out of nervousness.

A nervous vampire. I halted my thoughts just to process this one fact before letting it flow along with the rushing waterfall of thoughts in my head.

"Domnule."

Literally out of nowhere, I realized that we had walked towards the main road, where a black SUV with tinted windows was pulled over and a blonde man stood outside the driver's seat. Like Vlad, he also wore a hood and pretty expensive clothes.

Driver's seat is on the right in Europe, dumbass. I cursed myself for forgetting.

"Dumitru, merge." Vlad commanded coldly, his voice did change a bit due to the language switch but it felt as if he switched personalities as well.

He opened the car door and held a hand out for me to sit inside. I did so, very stupidly but I seemed to have no other options as of that moment. I scooted to the other end of the back seat, secretly trying to open the car door. However, it didn't budge, and the car had started moving.

Fucking child locks.

I had entertained the thought of jumping out and doing the good ol' tuck and roll on the road, but thought better of it.

I am not going to talk to him. I decided.

"Can you eat garlic?" I suddenly asked. Vlad snapped out of his trance and looked at me as if I asked him if he was a unicorn.

"Of course I can, why could I not?"

"Vampires are allergic to it, I think." I explained. He chuckled, pulling his hood down.

"Ah, so you think. But may I ask you something?"

I mentally groaned.

"Sure."

"Why do you not live with your father, or your mother?"

Getting personal, buddy.

I shifted uncomfortably at his anticipation, but answered nonetheless. If he wanted to take interest in my life, why not indulge him? I mean, what more could he do now besides hurt or kill me?

"Well, my father, he doesn't approve of my lifestyle, and I don't like to be under his judgement all the time. As for my mom, hell I don't remember the last time I saw her." I answered carefully.

"But you seem quite sound for your age, it would have been wise for you to live with somebody.

Flattery ain't getting you in my pants, buddy.

"I simply didn't want to, and now I sure as all hell regret coming down here at all." I said, making sure I looked very interested by the scenery. I also kept an eye on him with the reflection of the window.

"As tranquil as you are now, I expected you to-"

"Be more scared?" I quickly finished for him.

"React differently." He corrected, still looking at me. I hated eye contact, but what I hated more was being ogled at. It gets old after a while, especially once I learned the thoughts behind most people who stare at me, and that was from a very young age.

Let's give it to him ice cold. Spook him out.

"You're obviously stronger than me, so gouging your eyes out won't exactly be a cakewalk. Counting ol' Fabio in the driver's seat, I'm outnumbered. I can't scream for help, then you'll just get your hands on me again and I don't want that- that and you seem rich enough to make your car soundproof. Also, this window," I tapped on the glass with my fingernail. "Probably laminated the way its tint looks. Maybe if I had my carving knife, maybe...." I trailed off, my voice a bit raspy at the end in an attempt to sound threatening.

"Devoted to your craft, are you not?"

"Made all the wrong life decisions for it, so go figure."

"Where did you learn to fight?" He asked, extra inquisitively. Was he trying to figure me out so I could be contained easily?

If he was, does it mean he's scared of something?

"Where I realized that being a girl isn't easy." I said curtly.

"That is what a man is for." He shot back.

"If that's all what he's for, then apparently I'm more capable than him."

"No, you have done nothing of the sort. All you have done is told me of your distress, and I simply explained the reason why."

"I never said being a girl distresses me, I just explained why I learned how to fight."

"And I never asked why, I asked where you learned how to fight."

"Well, what if I don't want to tell you?"

"A simple refusal to answer my question would have sufficed." I could tell he was annoyed now. I saw his jaw tick and his Adam's apple move in his throat.

I gotta bust outta here. But what then?

It was established to myself without any acknowledgement nor further thought, that I wasn't staying at my dad's place anymore.

Get to the US embassy, but I ain't no citizen.

Fine, just check into some low key motel and tough it out till the day of the flight back home.

With that thought, I relaxed a bit. Sure, I couldn't get out right now, but at least I had a plan of what to do when I would.

I stared at Vlad's translucent reflection in the window glass, more prominent in front of the dark woods passing by us. It was almost to be early afternoon, yet it felt dark.

They probably chose this route so they wouldn't turn into Bheja Fry in the car, God knows how my brain's fried right now though.

I had shifted my focus from the vampire king to the scenery outside. Those trees were so high that they overshadowed the sun. The pretty sight tried to help me forget that he'd been staring at me for a very long time without me even realizing it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bheja Fry is fried lamb brains, bit popular dish around India and Pakistan. It's also a phrase to express that someone's annoyed you so much it's like they fried your brain.