Free Fledgling (The Vampire Manifesto, Book Two) by Rashaad Bell Page A

play out the way the way she imagined.
    But now, after witnessing the way I entered her home, it was just validation coming home to roost. I wasn’t concerned however. I could always just enrapture her, make her forget everything and implant fabricated memories into her mind if things got out of hand.
    Only time would tell.
    “Are you going to say anything?” I asked.
    She simply stood there, not doing anything, scarcely breathing. This is definitely not going the way I imagined it.
    I stood far quicker than humanly possible, causing her to flinch. I started walking about her room, keeping a modest distance between us of course, inspecting her things as they caught my interest. I picked up a snow globe on her desk. It was the Twin Towers in New York. I gave it a quick shake, watching the little flakes inside swirl about before setting it down.
    There were posters on her wall, musicians I’d never heard of, teen actors that I didn’t really care about, but it gave the room its own personality, its own identity if you will. Her laptop was opened, but I ignored it, moving on to her bookshelf, my fingers strolling over the spines of the books there. She had all the classics, Dickens, Sawyer, Verne and what not. I paused at one in particular, rereading the name. John Rogers. I smiled. Of course he would be here.
    She still hadn’t stirred. Maybe this was a mistake. I seem to making so many this night it would only be par for course.
    “Would you like me to leave?” I asked. When she didn’t respond, I made my way to the window, my back to her, one foot on the window seal.
    “Wait.” It was faint, hardly above a whisper. “Don’t.”
    I turned around to face her.
    “Don’t go.” She said, slowly taking a step towards me. I stood my ground as she moved close, reaching out her hand tentatively to touch my face with her fingers. “You are real, right? I’m not just imagining this am I?”
    I reached out and held her hand within my own. “I’m as real as you want me to be.”
    Just being this close to Dakota was ecstasy. I could sense her aura, feel it comingling with my own. I moved closer, wrapping my arms about her, pulling her into an embrace. She rested her head against my shoulder and I realized that even though she was two years younger than I was, she was still slightly taller than me by an inch or so. I closed my eyes and breathed her scent in, letting it engulf me with its fragrance. The impulse to consume her was there, immeasurably strong, a burning desire to taste her, to have my way and let her blood fill my yearning and yet I fought that feeling, struggling against my nature.
    I drew on the knowledge of what I did to Aiden. On how I lost control and killed him because I couldn’t regulate my emotions. I pledged to myself that I would never become a slave to my passion ever again. I am the governor of my actions, not the blood, no, never the blood.
    “I’m scared.” She said softly.
    I pulled away from her, continuing my tour of her room, observing the numerous photos she had on the wall. They were mostly of her and her friends. A couple of her just by herself and a few of an older woman that appeared to be her mom. I didn’t see any of her and her dad.
    “Tell me what it is you’re scared of?” I asked.
    Dakota Theia sat down on the bed. She was wearing a pair of burgundy sweat pants and a white tank top. All of it was form fitting. I wondered if that was what she was planning to sleep in or was that just her attire for the day.
    “It’s just you and your mom here?” I asked.
    “Yeah.” Dakota said. “I’ve never really met my dad before.”
    “Any family other than your mom?”
    “Nope, it’s just us.”
    I frowned. “How solitary.”
    “Sooo…” She began. “You’re like Spiderman, right?”
    “No.” I said very serenely.
    “I just thought with the jumping and all…” She continued.
    “I’m not like Spiderman.” I repeated.
    “Then uh…” Dakota paused. “Then what