Chapter 5:
When she returned that evening, climbing in through the window again, he was nowhere to be found. She lowered herself to the floor and called his name softly, scanning the length of the room.
"Tyler…"
She felt him at her back at the last second and in a move that convinced her beyond doubt that her vampire reflexes were much stronger than her human ones, she turned around and pinned him to the wall. She loosened her hold immediately once her mind clicked into place from the temporary limbic response that had overtaken for an insane second, but clearly the hurting werewolf had recovered spectacularly, because as soon as her hold slackened, he pounced on her with enough force to knock her down.
"What the!" she exclaimed before she threw him off of her.
He came back, surprising her yet again, this time twisting her arms behind her from the back and pushing her against the wall.
"Tyler!" she called his name in agitation, no longer trying to fight him, but also not knowing what had gotten into him.
"Fight me back, Forbes." He whispered harshly in her ear.
"What?" She tried to shake off his hold, but not with much force.
"Fight me back!" He repeated, pressing harder on her twisted hands.
She pulled her hands out of his hold in a sudden motion that caught him off guard and turned around swiftly to twist him around so that she had him in a choke-hold from the back.
"Would that do?" she asked, tightening the crook of her elbow against his wind-pipe for emphasis.
She felt his taut muscles loosen for a moment and relaxed her hold as well, only to have him turn around and twist her arms behind her back – this time facing him - and press in on them, which in turn pushed her body to his.
She could feel her face starting to turn, the skin beneath her eyes tightening and her fangs elongating; her breath was coming in bursts and she tried to focus on just his dilating pupils as she fought to regain control.
He pressed on her hands with force again and she growled instinctively.
"There's my favorite vamp…" he said now, smiling, before he let go.
She took a few more deep breaths before she trusted herself to speak.
"Are you freakin' playing with me?" Her voice came out low and she was sure that it let him know how angry she was.
"Oh come on, it's only fair." He turned his back on her and walked towards the bed.
She rushed at him and knocked him onto the bed before twisting him around under her to pin his arms to the bed.
"What's fair? Was that some shitty joke for your personal amusement? 'Let's see how I can get a rise out of the vampire chick, just to get back at her for seeing me all vulnerable'?"
He was quiet for a moment. "It wasn't a joke."
"Then?" She asked when he didn't elaborate any further.
He didn't respond immediately, but he didn't move either. She realized that she was pressing down hard on him and started to ease up, but he stopped her.
"No, don't. The pressure feels good. I feel like I am going to jump out of my skin. I want… something… I don't know... Fighting you feels good. You are the only one strong enough that I know of who can fight me back now. Well, if only you would fight back…" he added with a smile at the end.
It took her a moment to absorb what he was saying and what he wasn't saying...
"You are not as strong as you were on Friday, Tyler. I can really hurt you now."
"I'll take that risk." He said easily.
"No you can't. What's wrong with you?" She got off of him and lay down next to him.
"I don't know… I don't know what's wrong with me…" he whispered now, not looking at her.
She didn't know what he meant, but she also knew that she didn't want to know anymore at this moment. So, she did what she always did when something made her nervous. She deflected.
"Did you eat dinner?" She asked, sitting up suddenly.
He shook his head and she got off the bed, pulling on his arm. "I am starving. Let's go see what your mom has stocked in the refrigerator."
He let himself be pulled up, but paused to ask, "If you are hungry, don't you need blood?"
"Why, are you offering me yours?" She asked with a deadpan expression.
When he looked taken aback and started to say, "uh…", she laughed.
"God, I am kidding! No, this is the human kind of hunger… when you really don't want food for sustenance, but just to be a glutton."
"Ah… I love that kind." He laughed and agreed.
