Darkling by Mima Sabolic

twenty different cars in the compound’s garage, mostly SUVs. Belun left his car keys inside and walked me to the front door of my building.
    “Goodnight,” he said softly, and walked away.
    For some reason, I was speechless. But a couple of seconds later, I forced myself to run after him. I caught his hand and he turned to me. His eyes were even darker now, but they were free of anger. I held one of his hands with both of mine.
    “Thank you.”
    We stared at each other in silence. Then I felt something wet drop onto my forehead.
    “Snow,” he offered, smiling. Something inside of me sensed a change, and I liked it.
    “Goodnight.” I managed to sound normal.
    “Goodnight.”
    And this time I was the one who turned and left. I didn’t hear him move until I crossed the threshold.
     
    I had just gotten out of the shower the next day, when my phone rang furiously. I rushed out of bathroom and grabbed it.
    “Hallo.”
    “Nika! You ok? When Belun told me what had happened I couldn’t wait ‘til morning to call you. I mean I’d have called earlier but he told me to give you some space—.” Doris was babbling hysterically.
    “I’m fine. It shook me, I mean. But now I’m fine.”
    “I’m so sorry for leaving you alone.” Her voice broke.
    “It’s not your fault. I should’ve been able to defend myself, but I froze.”
    “Oh, poor thing. But it was me who brought you into that situation! I should’ve known better.”
    “Thanks for your concern, Doris. But you can’t take the blame for your guests. Things got out of control; something like that could have happened to me in Berkeley.” Maybe.
    “It was in my apartment!”
    “Stop beating yourself up. I have to run—call you later, ok?”
    “Sure, ok.” She sounded dejected.
    The unpleasantness of the previous night no longer bothered me. What bothered me was my own inability to react.
    Had I frozen because he was a guy, or because he was a vampire guy? As appealing as the latter sounded, I wasn’t so sure that was the reason. Unfortunately, I had lived in a glass bowl my whole life. Ever since I could remember, everyone around me had been kind and good. Now the glass had shattered and everything had turned out to be an illusion—fake images that my brain had doodled of twirls, rainbows, hearts, and all that kind of crap. Still, no man had ever attacked me that way before. Maybe that’s the way my ex-boyfriend had felt when he had gone for my ex-best friend; I mean, there had been some intimacy between me and him, but not this untamed lust that had freaked me out the night before. If I had felt even a little bit of the same feelings as that vamp, it would have been different at the party. But I hadn’t, and clearly he had wanted to use me—to use my fear to his advantage. Asshole.
    I walked in on Belun dragging weight lifting equipment around the gym.
    “Hi, how you feeling?”
    “Okay,” I said.
    He scanned me from top to bottom, as if looking for physical evidence to back up my answer.
    “First, you’ll work on your strength. Second, hits.”
    I nodded and sat on the weight bench. First, I worked my arms, then switched to my legs. Each series of reps was short, and at the end of each one Belun would add a little more weight for me to lift. At least it was easier than running.
    Since I wasn’t chasing him through the woods, I took the opportunity to try and check him out. However, every time I looked in his direction, he would look right back, as if he was protecting himself.
    When I started with punches and kicks, my concentration surprised me. I was hitting the pad he held, and this time he didn’t push at me. He changed its positions frequently, though, which made things more difficult for me. I tried hard to do it right.
    “I see you found your motivation.”
    “Yeah, looks like it,” I replied.
    “Running at 8 p.m.”
    I made a face, and he smiled. Smiled?—Yes, actually smiled. Then he left the gym. I wondered where he went after