Grumpy Old Softie
Phillip
She was just supposed to be some immature teenage vampire hunter.
The plan was never to truly partner myself with her or get attached in any way. And for a lifetime, I’d done a good job of keeping people around me at an arm’s length. I used every person I met for a means to an end. Even Rose never worked her way into any place vulnerable.
Not the way V had in only two weeks.
I dreaded what months, years, maybe even decades would do to me if I stayed with her. Yet, the idea of parting ways with the spirited ginger-haired Hunter was agony inside my chest.
Worse still was when that agony resurfaced every time she stole a look at her phone, desperately waiting for that damn wolf to call her. For that useless dog to say anything that proved he hadn’t abandoned her.
“I won’t live like that. I won’t settle. Just watch me.”
In the two-hundred and fifty plus years I lived, only a handful of people challenged me the way she did. A few had come close and said things but inevitably wavered.
Something about V told me she’d do whatever it took to live the way she wanted. She’d do what she wanted when she wanted, and nothing I ever said could convince her not to. She’d plow through anyone in her way and have everything she ever desired, though at some cost.
Everything about the tiny Hunter intrigued me.
I found myself watching her, most times when she hadn’t any awareness of the people around her. She was still young and lacked the proper observation skills most Hunters honed with experience, and I exploited it whenever I could.
She didn’t dress the way other girls did.
She wore simple outfits, kept her voice down in class, and never smiled.
The only time I witnessed a smile from her at school was in the company of her weirdly loud and enthusiastic classmate, Kate, or with that damn wolf.
Even while I observed her for a week or two before presenting as the Biology teacher.
In public, she was reserved and quiet. With me, her tongue whipped and her blades slashed. The gap from one person to the other was confuddling all on its own. But more than that, so many barely noticed her. She flew under the radar the way every Hunter should but didn’t manage as well as she did.
Most striking were her abilities without the blood activated.
I expected a fair bit from what Rose led me to believe but seeing it for myself was astounding.
She matched my speed and movements like a second body, intuitively going where I thought to go next.
Not only was she clever, but she was proactive and self-assured.
Even semi-seasoned Hunters didn’t work as seamlessly with me the way she did.
With her blood activated, very few things would pose a problem for her. Together, we’d accomplish what I’d carefully planned for nearly a century and a half.
Despite all that, it was her gaze that had me spellbound. It was always directed straight ahead, strong and unwavering. Powerful and beautiful, it captivated me every time I caught sight of it.
Until that night.
When I warned her about the danger she’d bring to those around her, it rattled the self-confidence she packed in every glance. For some reason, the fact that I had any effect on her self-confidence bothered me. More than it should. More than anything ever had.
The sight of her wavering hazel-green eyes stayed with me.
It haunted my nearly nonexistent conscience.
I instantly regretted saying anything to her.
I’d done it to warn her, to hopefully give her some necessary guidance with my years of knowledge and experience, but it sat on my chest like a feeling I knew all too well.
Guilt.
Knowing my well-intentioned speech had impacted her judgment plagued me all through my shower. It was a feeling I battled until she nearly ran into me with her eyes red from crying and a broken phone tossed angrily into the trash.
She looked defeated. I wanted to comfort her, or really say anything that might redeem my misdeed, but nothing I would’ve said in desperation could change how she felt.
So, instead, I distracted her with stories about her grandmother and the many mischievous goblins I’d fought. I permitted myself those moments to drown in her laughter and smiles. It was rare to have them aimed at me, and I definitely did whatever I could to be graced with more.
I gave myself over to the stories she told about herself and Rose, about a life dedicated to being a Hunter, and watched the way her head fell back and her lips lifted when I said something that amused her.
She relentlessly teased me about my open disgust for angsty teenage anything when I complained about her choice in movie.
But when she rested her head first on my shoulder, then let it drop onto my lap, succumbing to the exhaustion of a life upturned and torn apart, an emotion crowded my chest. The desire to protect another person had never been so profound or powerful.
I was afraid to wake her, or to even move.
I tossed my jacket over her to keep her warm.
I took in every detail of her face, which didn’t betray how tumultuous her recent days had been.
I explained it all away as the duty of her self-proclaimed partner—as the only person who truly understood the loneliness of being one of few—but I spent hours mesmerized by her unguarded expression.
I wanted to be close to her. I wanted to share more nights alone, just the two of us. For the first time, I was grateful to be given the chance to truly know someone.
When the wolf showed up outside of V’s school accompanied by his aggressive beta, my blood boiled and my fists ached to send a punishing blow into the bastard’s face. I wanted nothing more than to demand how he could ever leave her without word, then come back with the expectation she would listen.
I didn’t punch him, though. I couldn’t. Not only had I played a major role in his departure, but my words had done unspeakable damage to her.
He and I shared equal parts of the blame.
I’d forced her to distance herself. I’d given her that painfully sad expression on her face; the look of heartbreak, loss, and shame. It was ultimately my statement that made her stand her ground, spit fire, and try to convince herself it was for the best.
God help me, I wanted nothing more than to steal her away before his pleas for leniency did her in and jaded her strong, youthful gaze.
But supporting her through that moment was necessary.
V deserved nothing less, and I’d make it up to her.
I’d rectify my senseless actions. I’d do whatever I could to keep her smiling beside me, even if it meant letting that useless wolf stay.
Even if it meant playing nice with a young Shifter who might end up dead or detained.
Even when I knew it was only a matter of time before he did.
Because what I said to her wasn’t wrong. It was the reality of our kind. It was our curse to bear. It was a brand I wore on my heart for the many people I’d come to care for—many whose deaths weighed on my mind.
“You really don’t have to come.” V threw her bag over one shoulder and eyed the door. “If you insist, maybe just hang back in the car?”
I collected my things and heard the whispered chatter of gossiping teens outside the door, already passing along the event from that morning. “If that’s what you want, I can. I need to be close enough to come to you if anything happens, though.”
Her quiet gaze stayed with me before she took a step my direction. “I don’t blame you, you know.”
I was stricken by the statement and paused mid-grab. “For?”
“I said a lot of things the other night, but I also know when it’s time to accept the way things are. I didn’t know about all that stuff you mentioned, and I’m glad you told me now instead of later. It would’ve killed me to be the reason he got…”
She didn’t finish, but I was smart enough to figure out what was left unsaid. She twisted her hand around the strap of her bag and nibbled her lower lip in a way that brought my eyes straight to her mouth.
“Anyway, you did me a favor. It’s better this way.”
I couldn’t help myself. I took a few steps closer and came within inches of her. My height easily towered hers, and I secretly enjoyed the way she was forced to look up through her thick eyelashes to gaze at me.
It got my blood pumping.
Only in times like these did V seem so small and fragile, and it brought out a side of me I didn’t quite understand—a carnal, all beast side that I didn’t have any business feeling with the young Hunter.
I knew better. Well, I should, anyway.
Previous me wouldn’t have cared, but something about V made me want to get my act together and take it slow; avoid scaring her by using the usual tactics to reel in a woman.
V was different. Special. Worth the wait.
And for the first time in what felt like forever, it exhilarated me to think I’d get to spend time getting to know someone.
“Do you really believe that? I’m not going to punish you if you want to be with him. I seem to overstep a bit when I’m around you, and I think it’s becoming a problem that you listen so well.”
Her eyebrow rose in confusion, pink lips swept up in a way that made me want to kiss her.
Just a little taste. Just enough to tide me over for a few years while I tried not to ravish a girl barely out of high school. It would be a major problem for too many reasons if I coaxed her into it.
Not that I suffered for physical attention, but around the ginger-haired spit-fire, I fought harder to keep my hands off and my thoughts pure.
And I’d never worked so hard to fight my baser needs.
Something about the way she snapped back whenever I said anything she didn’t agree with made me want to shut her mouth with a kiss and change her venom-laced barbs into gasping, pleasure-filled moans.