Free Melabeth Forgive Me, For I Am Sin! by E. B. Hood

point of view, you will not start your life until you end others.”
    He was half right and I knew it, “I do care.” Great, now I felt like crying.
    Mi chael gave me a worried look, “Enough to put others before your revenge?”
    What was he asking? I was almost shouting, “Should I allow those men to get away with rape and murder?”
    Michael looked over at the fountain, then back at me, “I don’t have your answers, all I was saying was that at this point of your life others are not your concern. I’m sorry if I upset you… look let’s start this over. For what it’s worth, I don’t think you're heartless, you just have different priorities. You didn’t call me out here so I could tell you how you don’t care. What did you want to talk about?”
    His tone and the way his eyes pleaded for me to understand, it softened me, “Yes you’re right, I would rather talk about my hair.”
    Michael’s body rel axed and he laughed out loud, “Don’t kill me, but you’re still prettier as a blonde.”
    I laughed as I lost eye contact with him and looked at the fountain. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Michael; except for the fact he was the sexist man on earth. In a much softer voice, “I will spare you this once.”
    Michael once again moved closer to me, and then put his arm around my waist. I don’t know why he touched me, but I found it comforting and didn’t complain as I laid my head on his shoulder.
    I watched the water fall from the fountain and tried to find peace in it. After a minute of silence, I broke the silence by blurting out, “I loved David, and I still love David. I don’t know how I feel about him . I don’t know how he feels about me. I believe us to be lovers, but he makes me feel like his weapon. Something’s changed, I don’t know what. If I don’t know what has changed, how do I fix it?”
    Michael looked thoughtful for a second, “I can’t say that I understand your relationship with him. Let us try to figure it out, together. How does that sound?”
    I looked up at Michael and asked, “Where do I begin?”
    A big goofy smile crossed his face, “I have an idea. How about the beginning?”
    “I can still hurt you,” I was smiling when I said it.
    Michael changed the subject, “Have I ever told you about my tattoo?”
    “No, what tattoo? I’ve never seen it.” I had seen Michael in a bathing suit befor e, so I believe I had an idea where it might be.
    Michael moved away from me, he then lifted his shirt showing me his back. There on his back was a large tattoo of many Celtic patterns. On the top of the tattoo , the name McCloud was woven across his shoulder blades and between the patterns.
    “McCloud ?” I wondered out loud.
    “My name before I became a White,” Michael answered.
    I traced my fingers around the tattoo, it was beautiful. I had no idea this much detail could be painted on to a human body. “When did you get this done?” I asked.
    Michael lowered his shirt, grabbed my ha nd and we started to walk. As we did, he talked. “This is the second time I have had this tattoo. Do you remember the story that Ezra told you when we first met? The tale of when I was caught on fire with tracer rounds and he saved my life.”
    “Vaguely," I didn ’t remember the story in detail. "Where are you taking me?”
    “To the tattoo parlor, there’s someone there I would like you to meet.” Michael answered me and then went on by saying, “Ezra had explained tracer rounds to you. Remember how he told you that I had been hit and almost burned up before he put me out? He then killed the men who had shot me. What he hadn’t told you was that I had been burned from head to toe. My skin, eyes, everything, I was a complete mess.”
    I stated the obvious by saying, “That must have hurt?”
    Michael went on, “O nly for a minute, one of the great things about being a vampire. Our pain never goes on too long. If I were human, of course, I would have never survived. It had