Inject Me Sweetly / Dusk Until Dawn

:Inject Me Sweetly: Chapter Seven

            “Feel carefully,” he growled, pressing my palm to his chest, where his heart was supposed to be.

            I held my breath, my eyes unable to break from his gaze. After a few moments, I grew confused. What was I supposed to be feeling for? His nonexistent heartbeat? Was this supposed to prove something? Why… A quiet gasp of surprise left my lips as I felt the tiniest, feeblest reverberation through his chest.

            “I don’t know who taught you about vampires,” Vincent started in a dangerously low voice. “But whatever you do know, I can guarantee it’s wrong. Humans know nothing about us.”

            “I’m sorry,” I breathed, unable to pull my hand away from his chest. In fact, I couldn’t even move. Something was rooting me to the spot.

            Vincent abruptly dropped my hand, flashing away from me. “Don’t apologize,” he snapped. “It’s not your fault humanity is ignorant.”

            I licked my lips, trying to make the dry feeling in my mouth disappear. “No, I should apologize. I’m just as benighted as every other human. Before I met you and your family, I just assumed vampires were exactly how they are portrayed in movies.”

            “Sparkly?”

            I smiled. “I was thinking more 30 Days of Night than Twilight.”

            “30 Days of Night is more correct,” Vincent responded flatly. “While it may not be completely correct, there are vampires that do live by brutally attacking humans. The rouges.”

             “Rouges?”

            He gave me an irritated look. “Look, I’m here to cook you dinner, not answer all your stupid questions.”

            “Well sorry for asking stupid questions! You said yourself humans know nothing about your kind! I was just trying to learn something! What is with you? You’re talkative one second and then the next you’re an arrogant jerk!”

            Vincent scowled at me. “I think I liked you better when you were the timid mouse.”

            I stared at him in outrage. “Look, I don’t like you having to baby sit me just as much as you don’t, but I’m your responsibility! If we just argue all the time it’s not going to be a pleasant experience for either of us!”

            “It’s hard not to argue with an idiot.”

            “You are such a—”

            “Vampires that don’t follow our laws,” he cut me off, turning the knob on the oven so fast I barely caught it. “That’s a rogue.”

            I abruptly shut my mouth, cutting off any retort. Now he decides to answer my question. “Are rouges illegal?”

            “Yup.”

            “Don’t take this the wrong way,” I started slowly, debating whether I should ask my next question or not. “But… Why do you have a heartbeat? Why is it so slow? I mean I understand you’re not dead. But if you’re not dead, why…?”

            Vincent snapped the oven closed with a loud bang. I flinched at the loud noise. I hadn’t even seen him open the oven. He came over to me again, stopping at an uncomfortable proximity. “I don’t know the reason why our heartbeat is so slow, but it’s probably because we have much less blood than humans,” he told me. “The reason as to why we have one is because we are alive. It’s not like you can be born dead from a dead person. That’s more like a zombie.”