Chapter 15. Fight or flight

Ezra had entered Love's room swiftly and quietly in a low crouch, coming to stand at the end of her bed with an intentionally cool and impassive expression leaning languidly against the bedpost. But in the next moment his face dropped in disappointment.

Was she asleep? But he had made such a graceful entrance, hell he'd even practised that expression before coming here, she was meant to surprised and intimidated.

He frowned down at the young woman's sleeping form, pouting childishly. She appeared to have fallen asleep whilst sitting up fully clothed on top of the covers. Her legs were sprawled out, with one hand resting on her lap and the other underneath a pillow. He glanced down at his commlink. Ah, well, he supposed he had arrived quite a bit later then he had intended to.

He looked back to the sleeping woman and cocked his to the side curiously. Despite the darkness of the room Ezra could see with perfect clarity, and noted a few changes to her appearance from the last time they had met. The previously unhealthy pallor to her skin was no more, and was now of a smooth alabaster that appeared to emit a subtle glow of soft radiance. Her hair that was already a beautiful deep black, reaching to the middle of her back, was currently tied into a high ponytail, falling around her shoulder like a raven coloured waterfall, he imagined that in the daylight the colour would be so deep as to absorb any light that touched it.

He couldn't see her eyes but he was excitedly anticipating the moment he would be able to hold that cold grey gaze again.

Being far older than the average vampire, Ezra caused an involuntary reaction of fear within those of the younger generation, with most actively avoiding his presence. For the humans who were sensitive to such things, they showed a similar reaction, whilst others would simply blush and stumble their way through the brief interactions with such an inhuman figure. This was a result of both the subtle aura of strength accrued over half a century, and the eery perfection of his appearance.

This made for a rather lonely existence for Ezra, particularly for somebody who otherwise held an outgoing and excitable character. Which was why he felt a strange sense of elation when those grey eyes instead of showing fear or lust, had regarded him with nothing but a cool gaze that hid a thinly veiled layer of irritation and annoyance.

It was this initial impression that created a small spark of curiosity for the otherwise nondescript young woman, who stood a little taller than her peers, and held herself with a quiet confidence. 

And then a small droplet of her blood had fallen from her hand and his mind had reacted curiously. Instead of feeling subtly drawn towards the blood, a typical reaction that all vampire's had trained themselves to ignore, he instead felt a strange aversion to her, a feeling that he had felt only once before in his long life. He felt a spike of adrenaline as if he was entering a state of fight or flight. His body had tensed and his mind was telling him only one thing, whirring round and round with persistence - Danger.

Regarding her relaxed sleeping form now, without even the sight or smell of her blood, he could feel that this strange sense of aversion had magnified slightly. It was faint enough to disregard however so he ignored the persistent voice in his head that urged him to kill or flee and debated how to wake her.

"Hmmm, should I just shake her a little, or call out?...Ah, but I wanted her to open her eyes and find me standing by her bed silently, looking all aloof and intimidating, that would have been cool." He whispered quietly to himself, pacing a little about the room and nibbling on his finger. 

"Ah, I got it." Out of the corner of his eye he had spotted a small notebook on the dresser, similar to those you would find inside of a hotel room.

Carefully he tore a piece of paper from the pad and scrunched it into a loose ball. After moving back to his previous position of leaning casually against the bedpost he lightly flicked the ball of paper at Love's face, and then hurriedly crossed his arms and arranged his face into his practised look of cool indifference.

However, the young woman had simply moaned softly and rubbed her face with her hand before dropping it back into her lap and continuing to sleep soundly.

Ezra cursed quietly, before straightening up and lifting his foot from the floor. He proceeded to nudge her leg not once but twice, swiftly recreating his pose after each attempt, only to groan in annoyance when the woman continued to sleep.

"Damn it, is she asleep or dead? This is ridiculous." He muttered.

Frustrated he moved to the side of her bed and crouched down next to it, proceeding to lightly prod at her cheek with his index finger. Just as he was about to give up and shake her awake instead, her eyes flew open and a loud gasp startled the vampire. He had not expected her to wake up so suddenly after so many failed attempts. With a small yelp he fell backwards from his crouched position and landed sprawled on the floor.

"Ouch! Argh, damn it you scared- " But before he could finish his sentence, Love had moved with startling speed, the hand under her pillow drawing a thick shard of jagged glass from beneath it. She dived at the intruder and landed on the floor, straddling his waist, with the glass barely an inch from his throat.

Despite being caught off guard however, Ezra had reacted at the last moment and grabbed her forearm, stopping the shard from cutting into his skin.

"Good evening to you too. Is this how you treat all of your guests?" Ezra remarked in amusement. At this distance Love could see the playful spark in his eyes and his lips curled up into a half-smile. 

In fact his face was a little too close for comfort. Her heart began to thump uncomfortably as she took in his eerily perfect features, from the skin that was too clear and devoid of imperfections, straight black eyebrows that matched his slightly tousled hair that fell gracefully into his deep emerald eyes, that no human could possess.

Her body had a strange response to his presence, even though she had just woken up, and with a shock at that, she felt possessed with a strangely exhilarating energy and a small voice at the back of her mind that was urging her to end the life of the vampire that was currently sprawled underneath her, and smirking playfully.

"Are you going to drop the glass, Love? Even if I let go, do you think a piece of glass would kill me?" Ezra asked nonchalantly, as if they were discussing the pros and cons of synthetic meat instead of the effectiveness of a potential murder weapon.

"Ah well, I didn't have any silver to hand you see, but removing your head would work, no?" She replied, just as calmly.

"Pfft, I think you would cut through your own hand before then, my love." He retorted glancing pointedly at the small trickle of blood leaking down from her hand where she gripped the shard tightly.

Suddenly her hand shook as she glared fiercely at him, her eyes now that he could see them again, almost caused him to shiver involuntarily. Whereas before they appeared cold and grey, they now adopted a metallic silvery sheen, swirling like two pools of mercury.

The glass shattered into hundreds of tiny fragments as she gripped the front of his shirt with a bloody hand. "Don't call me that!" She hissed.

**