Page 2 of Love Lives

"That's not what I said. Stop trying to deflect." I nearly rolled my eyes at him. Silly vampire. "You really don't have to be here at all times."

"Your family can't visit you."

"I know." I grimaced--and then immediately regretted contorting my facial features because it aggravated the wound on my chin. A long gash where falling debris had cut into my skin. "You don't have to stand in for my family. I get that they have to hide."

"You should be in hiding too, so as long as you can’t leave here, somebody's gotta keep an eye on you."

“You think someone's going to attack me here?"

"No, but I didn't think anyone was going to attack the safe house either, and then I come back to a blazing fire and you stuck under a piece of ceiling, getting roasted. You're supposed to cook food, squishy, not get yourself cooked."

"Yeah, I must have read the instructions wrong.“ I lay back down, kind of glad I didn’t remember anything about that night. "Did you just call me squishy?"

"Don't take it personally. All mortals are squishy.“

This time, I did roll my eyes at him, and I didn't even care that the action made my headache spike. "What time is it?"

Aldrich looked down at his phone. "Three in the morning. You should go back to sleep."

"I don’t feel like it.” Sure I was tired, but if I closed my eyes again, I’d just be bombarded with more images that made no sense. Images of my family in pain. Visions of Aldrich dying. I tried to shove the thought aside because I hardly remembered that vision, and really, it might have just been a dream.

Actual dreams were still a thing, right?

“What do you do all night while I'm asleep?" I asked, needing a distraction.

He nodded toward the TV. "They playFriendsreruns. I'm greatly entertained."

"Really?"

He shrugged again. "It's timeless. You wanna watch?"

"Nah." Even just the thought of TV and canned laughter made my head hurt worse. I closed my eyes for a moment, then looked at Aldrich again. That chair he was sitting on didn't seem terribly comfortable. "You're really here to keep an eye on me?"

"You're too squishy to be left alone."

And to think I'd been about to thank him... I shook my head at him--just slightly to keep the pain to a minimum--and directed my gaze at the ceiling.

"I could entertain you," Aldrich suggested.

"Entertain me?"

"Yes." He snapped his fingers. "I change my looks and you tell me what appeals to you."

"Really?" I turned to him again, only to see he'd already started his 'game.' He didn't look much different than he had a minute ago, only that now he had pink hair. "Definitely not."

"Not a fan of pink. I get it. It's not in style for men anymore. It's blue these days, isn't it?" He snapped his fingers again, and now his hair resembled the color of a bright summer's sky. "I do keep up with the times."

"Red was fine."

"Never got the feeling it was doing much for you." The color of his hair changed back, without a snap of his fingers. I was beginning to suspect he was only doing the motion to add a dramatic flair.

"I don't really care what color your hair is."

"If it's not the hair, is it my body? Because I can change that too." He shot me a grin. "I can be whatever you want me to be, remember?“ He raised his hand again, and a second later, the person sitting by my bed was a woman instead of a man. A woman with long, flowing red hair and a winning smile. And boobs. Very large boobs.

I exhaled in mock-exasperation. "Am I healthy enough now that you want to get into my pants again?"

"Is it working?"