"Since you know that I don't fall for humans, obviously I am. You can leave now and give your report." I turned around to return to Tanner.
"Are you going to give me more of a show?"
I spun around and got in his face. "I'd say not. The mood's been ruined, Danny."
He laughed. "Enjoy the human."
Shaking my head, I walked back to Tanner. His eyes were wide and I could smell his fear long before I got to him. I hoped that Danny didn't take that as an invitation. I'd hate to have to kill him in front of Tanner. That would probably scar him for life.
"What's going on?" Tanner asked.
I ran my hands through his hair, knocking sand out. I pulled him close and gave him a long, sweet kiss and then I held his hand and led him to the blanket. "Let's sit so we can talk about this."
As we sat down, I could smell his fear dissipating. "Are you a…vampire?" whispered Tanner.
Cupping his face in my hands, I nodded.
"Are…are you going to hurt me?"
I shook my head. "I just protected you back there."
"Who, or what, was watching us?"
"It was another vampire. He won't be bothering us again."
"Another one? Are there a lot of them, well you guys, around?"
"You'd be surprised. We blend in pretty easily."
"How can you walk around in the sunlight?"
"That's where the witches come in."
He sat quietly, obviously taking it in. I let him process it while I thought more about the story I would tell him. For the first time in my life, I found myself not wanting to lie. How was it that he, a mortal, was able to bring out parts of me that I hadn't even thought existed?
"So if you're a vampire," he said, seeming to have trouble saying the word, "how were you turned?"
I had figured that he would ask something along those lines, but the question still unnerved me, being that I was born into this life. All of the vampires that I surrounded myself with had been turned, so at least I was familiar with the lifestyle. It would be easy enough to pull off acting like one of them.
He squeezed my hand. "If it's too hard to talk about, don't feel like you have to."
"So you believe me? That I'm a vampire, I mean."
"You drank my blood and somehow gave me superhuman strength to fight five guys at once. It's the only thing that makes any sense, to be honest."
I took a deep breath, hating myself for lying to him. But I couldn't tell him the truth. He was a kind person and would be turned off to know that I was trying to lure one of his classmates to the most powerful common vampire so that he could kill her. He would certainly hate knowing that I had been bedmates with that same vampire for many decades. We had met when poodle skirts were popular.