Blood Land, J.R. Lawson [electric book reader .txt] 📗

shoulder blades and spread themselves out, showing their bat like exterior. She stood in shock and terror. Even more, she felt confusion as she knew that it was still daylight outside and the confusion only persisted when Rogan turned his head to look at her and he was still in his human-like form.

“Wha—? How are you doing that?!” she exclaimed.

Rogan chuckled, “I spent several years learning this. Only one other vampire, other than me, knows how to do this. Makes getting around a lot easier.”

“Oh…um o.k.” Nora responded, still dumbfounded. She got a slight shiver as she looked at the image of Rogan with his large bat wings spread out behind him. He must be a very powerful vampire if he knows how to do something not many know. That must be why that one vampire in the alley that tried to attack her in the Blood Lands was so afraid of him. In that case, shouldn’t she, herself, be more afraid of him as well? However, she wasn’t; not really. There was no denying a slight bit of fear but it seemed to be easily confused with excitement.

It was then that, without uttering a word, Rogan bent his knees and jettisoned up into the air and flew off, past the trees in the neighborhood and out of sight. Nora couldn’t help but let a smile escape her lips as she watched him go, curiosity filling her mind as she thought of what tomorrow might bring.

CHAPTER 7

 IT WAS THE next morning and Nora was up almost at the same time as the sun. For some reason, the thought of Rogan coming over again today made her feel excited. She had a slight spring to her step as she passed through the living room, tossing Rogan’s black jacket onto the couch as she went, and then headed to the door to the basement. She couldn’t help but think about how well her timing was when she entered and suddenly heard a knocking from the cellar doors across the room. She hastened over, opening them and then smiling at Rogan’s presence outside the door.

Rogan nodded slightly as he entered. Not many words were exchanged between them as Rogan lifted the only box that remained of pig’s blood that needed to be loaded into his truck. After all that was said and done, the two of them re-entered the basement and stood awkwardly in silence as they both realized there wasn’t much left to do.

“So….” Nora then spoke up, breaking the horrible silence, “I guess that’s all that was left to do today, huh?”

“Huh, yeah,” Rogan half chuckled to himself. It was silent again, but this time they stood looking at each other, almost as if they were waiting for the other to speak first.

“Well, what do you want to do now?” Rogan was the one this time to speak up. He rubbed his arm as he spoke. Nora couldn’t help notice he wore a dark maroon shirt today as opposed to the black ones she always saw him in. However, the almost famous black jeans were on him too, leading down to his plain black shoes.

She gave him a puzzled look as she broke out of her observant gaze and responded, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I don’t have anything to do for a while so…” he let his sentence trail off as he then plopped down on the couch in a very relaxed manner, letting his arms rest on the back of the couch.

Nora didn’t respond. She didn’t really know what to say so she just shrugged.

“What do you do for fun? What is there to do around here? I have some time to kill so…” Rogan then spoke up again, now sitting up a bit on the couch.

“Um…o.k.,” Nora now said as she paced a bit, thinking about what they could do. Finally she came up with the first thing that popped into her head, “I could…show you around the house or something?”

Rogan shrugged, “Alright why not,” he then stood up abruptly and held a hand out, gesturing her to walk ahead of him, “Lead the way.”

Nora lightly laughed to herself and shook her head as she then headed toward the door into the house, Rogan following her.

“So, this is kitchen…I mean who hasn’t seen one of those?” Nora light heartedly spoke as they walked through the kitchen and into the narrow hall.

Rogan stopped and looked down the hallway, “And what’s down here?”

“Oh you know, bedrooms and stuff,” Nora answered, beginning to gesture away from the hallway and into a different direction.

“Oh really?” Rogan now had a hint of mischief to his voice. He clearly made no effort to notice Nora’s obvious attempt to get him away, “Which one is yours?”

“Um, no,” Nora suddenly objected, “You’re not going in my room.”

“Oh come on,” Rogan persisted as he then walked down the hall looking at each closed door. Nora was quick as she hastened to one of the doors and then tried casually to stand in front of it. Unfortunately, to her dismay, Rogan saw her.

“Oh, so what’s behind this door?” he teased as he walked over to stand in front of her and the door behind her.

“Nothing…just ya know, a closet,” Nora answered, putting her arm up, blocking the doorway further.

“Sure….” Rogan rolled his eyes and went for the doorknob. Then, as if completely ignoring her presence, he opened the door and nudged her out of the way as he entered the room. Nora nervously hastened in after him.

“Wow…nice” Rogan moved at a casual pace around the room, looking around as he did.

“O.k. you saw my room, congrats…now get out!” Nora demanded, standing still close to the doorway.

Rogan only chuckled slightly as he continued to glance around. It was then that he stopped at her white chest of drawers which was littered with lots of framed pictures. He glanced over all of them noticing most consisted of photos of her and Will or her and Will’s dad. One in particular that his eyes fell on was of both of Will’s parents casually sitting on the couch, heads turned to the camera, a small smile on both of their faces as if their activities had been interrupted only for a split second as the picture was taken.

“Nice pictures…” Rogan commented as he observed, “Just one question,” he now looked up and turned to stare at Nora who was still standing in the same place.

“What?” she asked almost defensively.

“No pictures of your actual parents?”

Nora fell silent. She didn’t really know how or even if she wanted to respond to that question.

“Well?” Rogan pressed further when she didn’t answer.

“Well…” Nora then hesitated, “I—it’s like I said….Will’s parents practically raised me. They were more parents to me than my actual ones so…”

“Yeah I get that,” Rogan then interrupted. He picked up the framed picture of both of Will’s parents as he continued, “But no pictures of your real parents? I mean, they may not have been around but they were still your real parents. You don’t even have a crumpled up picture in your sock drawer or something?”

“No,” Nora answered, trying to show as little emotion as possible.

“Seriously?! Nothing? You…Miss Emotional….?! No pictures at all?”

“No!” Nora felt her voice raising a bit so she tried to compose herself.

“Why?”

“That’s my business, o.k.?” Nora felt her hands forming into fists at her sides. She looked away from Rogan’s gaze and to the floor.

Rogan noticed this and shrugged, “O.k. fair enough,” he then set the picture back down on her chest of drawers.

“Now can we please get out of my room?” Nora begged, still looking away from him.

“Sure,” Rogan agreed. He then walked past her and out the door. Nora’s hands relaxed out of the fists and she turned to follow him out.

They both left the hallway and entered the living room. Rogan walked toward the couch and sat down. Nora walked over to stand next to him.

“Why do you always ask me personal questions like that?” she found herself suddenly blurting out.

Rogan closed his eyes and chuckled slightly.

“Seriously!” Nora argued, “You’re always prying into my personal life!”

Rogan leaned back on the couch looking up at her with that smug smirk he wore so well and shrugged, “I don’t know. I find you…interesting.”

“Interesting?” Nora repeated as if it were an insult.

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve never met a human like you. So I guess I like trying to figure you out, that’s all. You’re very fascinating.”

“Oh great,” Nora then fell onto the couch beside him, “So I’m like something for you to study like at a museum?”

Rogan laughed slightly at her statement, “I guess so. You puzzle me, that’s for sure.”

It was then that Nora glanced over at Rogan and a small smirk now began to grow on her face. She sat up abruptly as she then spoke, “So what about you?”

Rogan looked over at her, “What about me?”

“Why can’t I know anything about you?”

“Um, no.”

“Come on! You ask me all this stuff because I’m fascinating to you but you won’t tell me anything about yourself?”

“You don’t need to know anything about me.”

“You don’t need to know anything about me either.”

It was then silent for few beats as the two of them stared directly at one another.

“Come on, you’re fascinating to me…” Nora mocked as she sneered.

Rogan chuckled at her response and expression and shifted a bit in his seat as he then responded, “O.k. well, what do you want to know?”

Nora stared at him for a couple of seconds, twisting her mouth and her eyes squinting as she thought. Finally she asked, “How old are you?”

Rogan nodded in slight approval, “Alright I guess I can answer that…I’m twenty one.”

“Geminus years?”

Rogan then squinted at her in slight surprise before answering, “Um…no. twenty one is what my body’s age is.”

“What’s your real age then?”

Rogan sighed and shook his head slightly smirking.

“Come on! It’s not that personal of a question!” Nora nagged.

Rogan then sighed, “Twenty six. There ya happy?”

A smile crept its way across Nora’s face as she continued to look at him. She then found herself scooting forward on the couch in slight excitement as she asked another question, “So how old were you then when you were attacked and bitten?”

Rogan looked over at her in slight confusion. He shifted a bit in his seat so he was now slightly facing her, “What?”

Nora glanced at him in the same amount of confusion, “What part of that question is confusing?”

Rogan chuckled in nervousness, “Um…maybe the part where you assumed I was attacked and bitten.”

“Well, weren’t you? That scar I’ve seen on your back has got to be your bite scar right?” Nora remembered the scar so well that it was if she could almost see it through the shirt he had on. At first she had seen it as hideous and gnarly, but of course now she came to think of it as beautiful and familiar. She wouldn’t dare tell him this, however. She immediately pushed these thoughts from her head as she began to feel herself blushing slightly.

“Oh so you’re an expert on vampire bite scars are you? How do you know I didn’t get that before I was a vampire?” Rogan continued.

“O.k. what, did you get attacked by a bear or something before