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I STAND AMID THE TREES, WAITING. Then the sound of the forest abruptly drop out. A predator is near. Jasper appears behind me. I don't turn around.
"You're impossibly fast. And strong. Your skin is pale-white, ice-cold. Your eyes change color. And sometimes you speak like...you're from a different time." I face him
"You never eat food. Or drink, or come out in the sunlight. And you said no to the beach trip only after you heard where it was. Because of the treaty." I told him
This last registers with him. I step closer towards him.
"How old are you?" I asked him
"Seventeen..." He told me
"How long have you been seventeen?" I asked him
He sees he can't hide anymore. Honesty is an enormous risk, but he has to take it.
"161 years..." Jasper truthfully tells me
I inhale. I knew, but it's still shocking.
"I know what the Cold Ones are. What you are. What's your whole family is." I stated to him
He titled his head smirking
"You can say it." He told me softly
"Vampire..." I whispered
We seem to hover in monetary stasis, him utterly exposed, me reality utterly rocked
"Is it scary?" I asked him
He looked at me with a soften gaze
"I don't think so."
"Are you afraid?" He asked me
"No."
"Than ask me the most basic question: what do we eat?" Jasper questions me
I shake my head in disbelief
"You won't hurt me. You're different, I know you are." I told him
"You don't know me." Jasper told me
He glares at me. I hold my ground. Suddenly, he takes my hand. And we start walking
"Where are we going?" I asked him
"Up the mountain. Out of the cloud bank. You should see what I really look like in the sunlight." Jasper told me
"What? No! Couldn't the sun hurt you?" I asked him holding him back by his arm
"No."
He abruptly and effortlessly scoops me up into his arms
"Hold on." He told me
Then he flings me onto his back...and starts running.
We make it up and out of the cloud bank and I get off of his back and stay where I am while he got up on a rock
