Palindrome

Hannah

I felt his eyes burning in my back when I walked up to the doctor`s office, putting one foot in front of the other, scared I would faint again. The pounding in my head didn’t diminish; it matched the rhythm of my heart. One minute his sister talked about killing me; the next, I almost jumped him in the middle of the store after he`d licked my blood from his fingers. Was that a symptom of a concussion?

I explained to the man behind the counter what had happened, and I was told to sit and wait, and the doctor would be with me shortly. I prepared for a long wait, but I had just slumped down on a chair when someone called my name. The doctor was a woman; she seemed too young to be a doctor. Long, blond hair in a tight bun, sparkling blue eyes, and a heart-shaped face. My regular pediatrician was old Doc Bailey; he must have had the day off. I shook her hand and cringed at the current that ran through me; she caught me off guard. What was this? She didn’t seem to register the sensation; she just said her name was Devon Saint-Michael, but I could call her Doctor Devon. I smiled shakingly and told her about my fall. Her calm, efficient hands washed the wound and declared that I needed stitches. She gave me a thorough examination and talked calmly while she used a small flashlight to my eyes. “I want to send you to take an x-ray, but the nurse told me you didn’t want to go to the hospital?” She sat down and wrote something in a journal without looking at me. “If I can avoid it, that would be cool.” I touched my skull gingerly; it was very tender. The doctor glanced at me with a worried look. “You might have a concussion, so I need you to be careful the next few days. Do you have someone that can stay with you?” She put the pen down and waited for my answer. Did I? I could ask Mrs. Jensen to look into me throughout the day; that would do. I nodded and regretted it immediately. The doctor`s eyes sparkled with humor, and I liked her more. I spoke instead, “Yes, I have a good neighbor; she will look after me.” She let her fingers glide over my hair, and the pain seemed lessened by her touch.

“What are you?” My mouth blurted out the words; I didn’t know what was happening. Her lips broke out in a breath-taking smile before she laughed. “Oh, I love a clever witch!” Up close, I could smell her; it was flowers. “I am one of the ancient ones; my gift is to heal and care for people.” My mind tried to find something that made sense in what she was saying, and once again, it was something my mom had said that came through. “Angels are everywhere; they yearn for humans since they feel like they were given a gift that the angels never received. Mortality. You`ll know when one is near; the ones that visit us make you feel giddy and protected.”

Angels. Could it be? I knew they existed, but what were the odds of one being here, especially now that I also had the Adamsons here? They, too something other than human.

“Angel?”

Doctor Devon smiled, “Oh, one of the lesser ones, I promise.” My mind worked to wrap around this encounter.

“Why are you here? Is it normal for your kind to live amongst humans?”

She shrugged, “Not to live, but we try to get as much human interaction as possible. As to why I am HERE,… I`ve heard rumors, or we`ve heard, rather. Writings in a book, same old, same old.”

I had to laugh; so not what I expected of a celestial being. “Can you tell me what William and his family is?” The idea popped up in my head, but by the mention of them, her smile disappeared, and she opened the door, gesturing to me to leave. “They are of the dark. If the rumors are true, we will soon see if the Prophecy is finally happening.”

I felt like a child being sent out in the hall at school. I turned to her, opening my mouth to ask her some more. She was gone.

Like in a daze, I left the office. Angels, what was next? My fingers buzzed suddenly.

“Angels, they can be so dramatic. That`s what you get when a man locks you inside for centuries. She`s one of the good ones, but beware. They will always protect themselves first, even when it seems they have your best in mind.”

I`d stopped when the Goddess spoke and jumped when someone grabbed my arm.

“Hannah, you ok?”

William`s voice penetrated my haze, and I looked down at his hand holding my sleeve. I saw him sniffing the air around me and wrinkling his nose. Could he smell the doctor? “Do you need to go to the hospital?” I cringed at the attention he gave me; I swear he could tell that my heart hammered like crazy. “No, no hospital; I must be careful the next days. I`ll ask Mrs. Jensen to check in on me.” William wasn’t a tall man, maybe half a head taller than me, but he gave off an aura that made him feel like a bear. He walked me to his car and opened the door, even putting on my seatbelt. “Hey, I can manage.” My voice was sharp, mostly because I liked how he cared for me, and I didn’t like that I liked it. I groaned; my head wasn’t up for this much thinking right now. William took my groan for an expression of pain; he ran so fast to the driver`s side that it almost looked like a blur and surprised me by stroking his hand against my chin when he was inside again. The gesture was so sweet and confusing I just leaned back away from him. The motion seemed to wake him, and he put his hands on the wheel and spanned out of the parking lot, eyes hidden behind the Ray-Bans.

He didn’t say much during the ride, nor did I. I kept looking at him through the corner of my eye, trying to figure out what drew me to him. Yes, he was good-looking, with his groomed messy hair, the fifties-style sweep, over blue eyes surrounded by dark eyelashes, and the bowed brows over heavy eyelids. He looked tired, black around the eyes, but that was normal. A straight nose and a slight stubble that gave him a rugged look. I knew he meant trouble; clearly, he and his family had a bad history with witches. And yet… Here we were in a car together. I decided to try the same straightforward method with him as I used with the doctor. I didn’t think he would kill me right now, so it was safe to question him.

“What are you?”

He was back at playing the cool, unbothered boy behind his sunglasses. “What do you mean; what am I?”

I raised an eyebrow and ticked off on my right hand.

“You knew I was a witch. You picked up on the protection spell. I see visions whenever you`re near me. Your family wants to kill me.”

William smirked; “You see visions? Is that why you lose your senses being around me?”

“I do NOT lose my senses. Mr. Blood-Licker.” I`d forgotten about that on my countdown. He gave a slight moan that sent shivers down my spine and almost whispered the following sentence.

“I`d give anything to taste that again.”

My heart raced, bloodlust? Unconsciously, I pushed myself closer to the car door. “William, are you… Are you a vampire?” The media created a vampire stereotype that had nothing to do with the real vampire; they didn’t sparkle in the sun or kill anyone they drank from. As we got our powers from the earth, they got theirs from blood. Very potent, so you don’t need much to fuel you. They also didn’t live on blood exclusively; they ate food like the rest of us. They did seem to have an affinity for death, maybe because the blood was such a giant symbol for the living, so they needed to balance it out. The first vampire was a well-known biblical person, namely Jesus. Second was Lazarus, and then he “recruited” twelve more. The vampires had spread from these, but the number wasn’t very high. The transformation of the body was a big one; not many survived it.

William snorted, “Don`t make me laugh, those posers?”

So, not a vampire then, but something else. I threw my hands in the air, “Then what?” I saw his hands tighten before the car halted to a stop. I looked confused around, realizing I was home. “You are not ready. Just…” He looked down at his hands that was now in his lap. “Just remember me like this when you learn the truth?” My hands were shaking. From anger, confusion, lust, I didn’t know. Even now, hearing him telling me without using the words that he was dangerous, I had to stop myself from throwing myself at him. William looked at me, and I could see that half-smile forming, him interpreting my body language. “We need to keep away from each other for some time; we can’t do this.” His voice didn’t match his smile. Neither of us spoke, and I heard the music playing, Roy Orbison`s She`s a Mystery to me. The text came through and sliced me open, am I left to burn, to burn eternally? Why does he keep doing this to me? The thought pierced my heart before I shook myself. What? Keep doing what? Burn? I`d just met him; my mind was playing tricks with me. Rationally, I knew there was no way I could have these feelings for a guy I met a few days ago, one who everybody warned me against. But my heart told me this was what I`d been waiting for without knowing it.