"Changed" Chapter 14

Chapter 14:
“So let my hands stray past the boundaries on your back.”
(Brand New)

I opened my eyes and could see from where I lay the light streaming through the windows. I rolled over and saw that Nicholas was already awake. He was laying there watching me with me with a smile on his face.

“So, I have an idea. Why don’t we get out of the city today? I figured I could rent a car and we could go upstate for day or two. What do you think?” His offer sounded innocent enough but the look in his eyes told me there was something more behind this.

“Why do you want to go upstate today?” I asked suspiciously.

“I just thought you might want to get away for a little while.” Now I knew something was up. He was hiding something from me. I just stared at him, trying to pull the information out of him myself. Finally he sighed, “Okay fine. I saw the date of your funeral and I thought you might want to be further away from it all.”

My funeral. It had been so long since I thought about my first vision. “When is it exactly?” I spoke up.

“Today,” he replied quietly.

Today? The memories began to flow through my brain. Everyone wearing black, my mom crying, my dads face, my casket…

“Charlie, please don’t put yourself down for this. You had no choice. There was no way around it,” he tried to comfort me.

I took a deep breath, “You’re right Nicholas, I think I’d like to be as far away from that as possible. Where did you want to go exactly?”

“I don’t care, as long as I’m with you,” he replied with a smile as he rose from the bed. “I’m going to go reserve a car for later on,” he explained to me as he made his way toward the door.

“Okay, I think I’ll take a shower and get ready then,” I replied as I jumped out of the bed. I followed Nicholas down the top flight of stairs to the bathroom. He reached the door before me and turned to give me a kiss before continuing to the first floor. I smiled after him, and then walked into the bathroom to shower.

When I got out of the shower I stood there staring at my reflection in the mirror. Ever since I was in High School, I noticed that whenever I was in a bad mood I would wear more make up, almost as if I was hiding. However, it had the opposite effect with my friends. Whenever they saw me with more than my usual eyeliner and mascara, they always knew something was wrong. I smiled at the memories and quickly left the bathroom in a towel to get dressed upstairs.

When I got to the room, Nicholas was sitting there on the bed smiling at me. “There is a bag over by the dresser for you to pack your clothes in. Mine are already downstairs.” I walked over to him and put my arms around his shoulders. Nicholas leaned his head against my chest and took a deep breath. I sat on the bed next to him and kissed his neck gently. Hmm…I wonder if we should finish what we started last night…

Nicholas laughed and put his hands on my shoulders, gently pushing me back. “I wish we could, love. Truly. But we are leaving around twelve this after noon and it is already eleven,” he saw my lip jut out into a pout and laughed again as he pulled me closer. “Don’t worry Charlotte, I said we weren’t done and I meant it. Trust me, this is much harder for me than it is for you,” he said softly in my ear.

“Yeah right,” I retorted, “How could it possibly be harder for you than it is for me right now?”

He pulled me back from him so he could look in my face. Then he smirked and simply said, “Cuz’ I’m a guy.” I rolled my eyes at him and pushed his shoulder away as I stood up to find clothes.

“I’ll be in the shower,” he called as he exited the room. I searched through the drawer that was now mine and found another pair of long jeans. it was bad enough I had to expose my unnaturally pale arms, I didn’t want to show off my legs too. Then I put on an aqua colored shirt with three quarter sleeves. I looked around for the bras and underwear I bought yesterday but came up empty handed. I decided to look in the drawers again, hoping to find my purchases.

I opened the top drawer of the dresser and found all my new bras and underwear placed in there neatly. I smiled to myself, remembering how lucky I was. I took what I needed and proceeded to get dressed.

When I was done I picked up the bag Nicholas had given me and began to deposit clothes into it. I didn’t know what I would need so I took almost everything.

I picked up my almost full bag and decided to go downstairs and wait for Nicholas in the living room instead of getting caught awkwardly staring at him again. I sat on the couch, leaning my head back and closing my eyes. Then I remembered, this wasn’t a fun trip to the country, this was me escaping the pain of being near my funeral. Nicholas was right, I didn’t want to be anywhere near that scene I had been forced to see it in my head. A small tear silently made its way down my face as I sat there thinking about all the heartbreak I was causing the people I loved.

Just then I heard Nicholas walk down the stairs. I quickly wiped the tear away with the back of my hand and smiled up at him, “You’re looking nice. Expecting to see anyone up there?” I asked, teasing him. He was wearing dark jeans this time with a dark, striped shirt with a collar. The short sleeves showed off the muscles I had come downstairs to avoid.

He rolled his eyes at me, and then something in his face shifted. A smirk appeared at his mouth and I noticed his body crouch down slightly. Oh, no, was all I had a chance to think before he lunged at me, trying to tackle me on the couch. Luckily I was fast enough to jump out of the way before he got to me. He landed on the couch with nothing below him but leather and looked up at me confused.

“You really thought I would fall for that again?” I asked as I pranced around the other end of the couch and headed for the stairs. “I’m going to put my make up on while you sit there licking you wounds,” I laughed and it sounded weird in my ears. How could I possibly be laughing when not forty miles away, my family thought they were burying their only daughter?

On the way to the stairs I picked up my bag and brought it with me. I began walking toward the stairs again when I heard something whiz by my ear, barely missing me. I looked down to find one of the throw pillows from the couch on the step in front of me. I whipped around and called out, “Sore loser,” and ran the rest of the way up the stairs before he could find another pillow to toss at me.

Once I was in the bathroom I started searching through my make up. I found a color of eye shadow that closely matched my shirt and some liquid eyeliner. I put the regular eyeliner on my bottom lid first before I applied the eye shadow on the top of my lid. Then I drew a thin line right above my eyelashes with the liquid liner, finishing off with mascara and lip gloss. I put everything I would need in the bag with my clothes and replaced what I didn’t want to bring.

I left the bathroom and bounded down the stairs. I skipped over to the couch, dropped my bag and jumped in Nicholas’ lap, wrapping my arms around his neck. He was still sulking. “If I promise to let you win next time will you smile?” I asked him before I kissed his smooth white cheek.

He turned his head to look at me and I could see his lips twitching with the effort to hold back a smile. “Maybe.”

“Okay fine, next time I notice you are trying to pounce on me I will pretend to be clueless. There, are you happy now?” I asked.

He wrapped his arms around my waist and leaned me back so my head was on the arm of the couch. “I told you, I can’t be unhappy when you’re around,” he said quietly. Then he reached down and pressed his lips to my jaw bone. I smiled as his lips traveled up my face to kiss both of my eyelids and the tip of my nose. Finally I felt him press his lips to mine and I fully returned his kiss, moving my mouth with his.

I turned my head a little to end the kiss and looked around the room to find a clock. I spotted one above the T.V. and sighed. Nicholas took the hint and pulled his face back a few inches to look at me. “I love you Charlie,” he said and his voice was so sweet it almost broke my heart.

“I love you too,” I said simply and put my hands on his face to bring it back down so I could kiss his forehead. Then he leaned up, bringing me with him into a sitting position. I hopped off his lap and grabbed his hand to help him stand. Nicholas picked up our bags from the couch and headed for the door.

When we got out of the building there was a shiny black hatchback car parked in front of the building. Normally there were never cars in front of his building because it was a “no-parking zone”. I looked up at him questioningly but he just smiled and walked over to the car.

Just then a balding man in a gray suit got out of the car and walked over to us. “Mr. Danley? It’s very nice to meet you. I have the car you rented right here.”

“Thank you very much. I really appreciate you being able to rent me something on such short notice.”

The two of them continued talking about the specifics of the rental. Finally the man shook Nicholas’ hand and walked away. Nicholas walked over to the car and opened the passenger side door for me to get in. I smiled and sat in the car, then Nicholas closed the door softly behind me. I fastened my seatbelt as Nicholas walked around the car to get in the other side, throwing the bags in the backseat.

“What kind of car is this,” I asked once he was inside.

“A 2007 Dodge Caliber. I’ve never driven one before, so I’m kind of excited to see how it handles,” Nicholas said. He sounded like a kid on Christmas morning. “You know, that’s one downside to living in Manhattan, it’s so impractical to own a car.” With that, he put the key in the ignition and the car purred to life. I leaned back on the gray leather seats and stared out the front windshield as Nicholas expertly navigated through the midday traffic.

After a shorter time than I would have thought possible, Nicholas was driving across a bridge toward I-95. We drove North on the highway and after we were about fifteen miles out of the city, the traffic finally started to subside.

“Do you want to listen to the radio?” Nicholas asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Um, sure,” I said as I pressed the volume knob to turn the radio on and began searching through the stations for a good song. The first station I turned to was 92.3, New York’s most popular modern rock station. They were playing a song that the radio had made me despise so I hit the button again to find a new station.

On the way up the channels, I briefly stopped at 100.3, the top one hundred station. They, too, were playing a song I had been forced to listen to more than I would have liked. Finally I stopped searching and left the radio on 101.1. I remembered listening to this station when it was all oldies. Now they were some kind of cross breed. Their motto was “we play everything”. I figured at the very least, I would hear a song that hadn’t been played out.

I leaned back on the seat and stared out the window. I was glad Nicholas seemed to be so comfortable with the silence. Sometimes it was better to just be quiet rather than fill the empty space with mindless conversation.

I idly wondered where Nicholas was taking me to. I had only been upstate a few times and wasn’t that familiar with it. Then the highway we were driving down began to fade away. In its place was a large white house that had columns lined up in front of it. It had dark green shutters and a tree right outside that was taller than the house itself. Along the whole front of this house was a porch with rocking chairs set at intervals around it. I had never seen a more beautiful house. Finally I noticed a sign in front of the house that read “Renwick Clifton House.” I didn’t know what it meant but I didn’t have time to investigate because the house was fading away to reveal the highway again.

I gasped, “Nicholas I just had another vision!”

“I was wondering why your thoughts were so quiet all of a sudden. What did you see?”

I paused for a minute. Could I have…? “Nicholas, where are you taking me today?” I asked sternly.

“It’s a surprise,” he responded with a smile.

“Well I saw a house in my vision, and I wonder if that’s where you are taking me.”
“Charlie, you just started having visions, I highly doubt you could control them enough already to be able to see into the future at will,” he said pessimistically.

I decided to prove him wrong, “The sign outside of the house said ‘Renwick Clifton House’. Does that ring a bell?” I asked a little upset that he didn’t believe in my power.

He turned his head to gape at me. I was right. “How did you…” was all he could get out.

“I don’t know. One minute I was wondering where you were taking me and the next I saw the house,” I tried to explain.

Nicholas sat there silently for a few minutes and I said nothing. Finally he took a deep breath, “Charlie I don’t know what it is about you, but you are progressing at a ridiculous rate. You woke up from being changed hours before you were meant to, you had a glimpse of you power the first day you were a vampire, and the third day you were a vampire you started to gain some control over this power.

“There are even little things that are extraordinary about you. For instance, earlier when I tried to jump on you, you made it out of the way before I could get to you. I am much older and supposed to be much faster than you. There is no way you should have been able to get out of the way fast enough…” Nicholas trialed off, looking out the front window. I could tell he wasn’t seeing much of the road or cars in front of him.

“So what does this mean,” I said in a small voice.

He remained silent for another couple of minutes and finally turned to me, “I’m not sure Charlie. It could mean nothing at all. Let’s just drop it for now. We are going away for a few days and I don’t want anything to spoil the time we have together,” a hug smile breaking out on his gorgeous face. “And yes, I am taking you to the Renwick Clifton House. Cheater,” he finished with a tease.

I smiled and rolled my eyes at him. “Nicholas I’m glad you decided to take me out of the city,” I said, all traces of joking gone. “There is too much going on right now and I just want to concentrate on one thing at a time.”

“Well I’ll be your only problem up here, so you only have me to concentrate on,” he said, still smiling.

“I would hardly call you a ‘problem’,” I said as he picked up my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

We drove for about an hour after that, barely talking. Every so often one of us would comment on the scenery or a song on the radio, but the majority of the time in the car was spent in silence.

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Finally, Nicholas pulled off the highway and onto a small main road. We drove through what must be the main part of town which was lined in small stores. Finally he made a left off the main road and drove down a much more secluded area of town.

At first there were houses that lined this road but the further we drove, they became few and far between. I felt the car slow down and on my right I saw a large, black, wrought iron gate that had been left open. We turned in and drove down a long drive that was lined in large beautiful trees. As we drove closer, the house came into view.

I stared at the large white house in front of me, wide eyed and disbelieving. This was exactly how I had seen the house, with the dark green shutters and massive tree out front. Nicholas pulled the car into a parking spot on the side of the inn and came around to open my door for me.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it? Of course you’ve already seen it,” he teased as reached into the back seat for our bags and he took my hand to lead me to the front door.
I couldn’t respond to his teasing. My mind was on overdrive. I had accepted the fact that I had visions and even started to get used to them. I was no longer afraid when the scene in front of me melted into something completely different. But I had never actually seen a vision come true. To be honest, I don’t know if I even really believe they would until now.

We walked to the front porch and up the stairs to the door. Nicholas reached out his pale hand to knock on the dark green door that matched the shutters. We only had to wait a few seconds before a short, stocky woman with short, dark curly hair answered the door.

“Welcome to the Renwick Clifton House! Please, come in,” she said brightly as she held the door open wider and ushered us in with her other hand. Nicholas smiled and pulled me along beside him as he walked over the threshold of the enormous house.

“We were wondering if you had any open rooms.” Nicholas inquired once we were inside with the door shut.

“Oh, of course! We have two regular rooms available and our suite is open as well. How long will you be staying with us?” she asked, obviously excited to get visitors in the middle of the week.

“We will only be staying a night or two. Do you need to know exactly how long now?” Nicholas asked.

“No, no, no. Anything up until the weekend is fine dear. Come over to the counter and let’s get you set up,” she said gesturing to a small counter along the far right wall. “Now, do you know which room you would like to stay in?”

“We would like to stay in the suite,” Nicholas answered her politely.

“Wonderful. Now that room is $250 per night. You have your own bathroom with a whirlpool tub and a wonderful view from every window. In the morning we have a complimentary breakfast served in the dining room which is just through that doorway,” she explained as she motioned behind us.

“That sounds great. Thank you very much,” Nicholas answered. I tried to suppress a smile at the thought of us sitting down to the “complimentary breakfast”.

“Now, you don’t have to pay in advance, but I will need to get your credit card information beforehand. Is that alright?”

“Yes, that’s perfectly fine,” he said as he put our bags on the floor and reached into his back pocket with the hand that wasn’t holding mine. He dropped my hand to open his wallet and take out one of his many credit cards. He handed her an American Express card and leaned on the counter slightly while she ran his information.

I saw the woman reach under the desk and come up with a key which she handed to Nicholas along with his credit card. “Now, that’s the key to your room. If you go up the stairs at the back of this room, the suite is on the third floor, the second door on the left. My name is Nancy and if you need anything don’t hesitate to call down here, alright?” she explained as she smiled brightly at us.

I smiled back as Nicholas reached for my hand again and replied, “Thank you very much Nancy, we will be sure to do that.”

We walked to the stairs Nancy had directed us to and ascended them easily. When we got to our door on the second floor, Nicholas put the key in the lock, holding the door out for me to walk in first.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in were the windows at the other end of the room. I walked over to them and looked out at the beautiful view of the forest and mountains. Then I turned around to study the room. There was a king sized bed with a soft pink, satin comforter on top. Above the bed was a thin transparent canopy that was open all the way. Opposite the bed was a medium sized TV on a stand next to an open doorway. I walked in to find the bathroom and the whirlpool bathtub Nancy had promised.

Nicholas walked in behind me and put both hands on my shoulders. “Do you like it?”

I turned around to see a tiny look of doubt in his beautiful gray eyes. “Yes. I love it,” I answered enthusiastically. He pulled me into his chest and I breathed in his sweet scent. “I’m going to unpack now. I hate living out of bags,” I said as I gently pulled away and walked past him back into the bedroom. Next to the bed was a tall dresser with six drawers. I retrieved our bags and began unpacking both of them.

“You don’t have to unpack my things Charlie. I’m a big boy, I can do it myself,” he said jokingly from behind me.

“I don’t mind,” I answered, preoccupied with arranging our clothes in the drawers.

“Charlie, when it gets dark will you go running with me? I want to show you this place I found last time I was in the area,” I could hear the excitement in his voice and turned to find it in his eyes too.

“Sure, we can do whatever you want,” I replied with a smile. I turned back to unpacking but suddenly my feet left the ground.

“Nicholas! Put me down!” I demanded through my giggles.

“Fine,” he said shortly. Unexpectedly I felt the soft satin of the bed under me.

“Thank you. You know, I don’t know where you get the idea that you can just throw me around Nicholas,” I said in a mock scolding voice, looking up at the ceiling of our suite.

I felt Nicholas climb onto the bed and put his head on my stomach so he could look at me. For a long time we sat like that, not moving, staring into each others eyes. After what felt like hours, Nicholas reached up to put his hand on the side of my face. “How did I go this long with out you in my life? It seems impossible to even imagine one day without you,” he said softly as his hand caressed my cheek.

“I don’t know how I ever thought that I was in love before you Nicholas,” I couldn’t say more than that because I was afraid I would start crying. Nicholas sensed that and leaned up to kiss my forehead.

He lay down next to me and I squirmed over to be closer to him. Then he wrapped his arm around my waist and sighed. “I wish things were always like this. So…uncomplicated.”

I didn’t respond. I agreed with him of course, but his comment reminded me of all the things I was running away from.

“This isn’t running away. This is…taking a break. You aren’t doing anything wrong so please stop feeling bad,” he almost pleaded with me.

I just sighed and closed my eyes. Okay Nicholas, I’ll try for you, I thought in answer and I felt his arm tighten around me.

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I opened my eyes because I felt Nicholas kissing my face. I looked up into his perfect face and smiled. “Sorry did I go to sleep? I didn’t realize, I was just so comfortable,” I said snuggling closer to him.

Nicholas wrapped his arms around me tightly. “I could lay like this with you forever Charlie. But its dark out and I thought I would give you the option of going along with the plans we made earlier. If you don’t want to go then we can try tomorrow night instead.”
I tilted my head back and kissed his chin, “No, I want to see this place of yours.” I sat up in the middle of the big soft bed and made my way to the edge. I walked into the bathroom to quickly make sure my bed-hair wasn’t too bad.

Through the mirror I saw Nicholas standing in the doorway looking at me. I still can’t get over how gorgeous he is. “I was going to say the same thing about you,” Nicholas said from where he stood. I didn’t have a clever comment so I just smiled and walked over to him.

“I’m ready, let’s go.”

He nodded his head and led me towards the door. Before he turned the knob, he put his index finger up to his pale lips to let me know we should be quiet. I nodded my head in response and we made our way out of our suite, down the stairs and out of the enormous house. Once we were out front, Nicholas took my hand and we began to run.

I was so different running in the forest compared to running the in the city. There was no way anyone would be able to see us in the heavy darkness, even if there were people around. I had never been much of a runner when I was human, but now it felt like second nature to me. We easily dashed through the forest, avoiding trees and roots.

Finally after about ten minutes of running Nicholas started to slow down and I followed his lead. We had run up a hill, and Nicholas had paused at the top. I looked around at the picturesque view. On the other side of the hill was a large beautiful lake with tree lined banks and calm water.

Nicholas turned toward me and grinned wickedly, “Are you ready?” he asked.

“For what?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, Nicholas pulled me towards him and threw us down the hill. We were rolling down the soft grass and wildflowers that covered this small hill. One moment I was on top, the next he was. On and on down the hill all the while we were both laughing hysterically.

Finally the decline slowed, as did our bodies. We were now lying a few feet apart trying to catch our breath from laughing so hard. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nicholas slowly get up and crawl over to where I was. He lay on his back next to me as we both got our laughter under control. I looked up at the stars for the first time since I had been here.

“It’s incredible,” I exclaimed. “I have never seen so many stars before.” There had to be a hundred times more stars than I have ever seen on even the clearest of nights on Long Island. It looked like there were too many for them each to have their own space in the sky, like they were crammed in.

I turned my head towards Nicholas to find him already staring at me. “Why are you looking at me instead of the sky?” I asked as I turned my head back to the dark blue overhead.

“Charlotte, I’ve had hundreds of years to look at the stars, but only three days to look at you. You hold my attention more than the stars ever have.”

I quickly snapped my head towards him. I saw the sincerity burning deep in his gray eyes and my heart melted. He put his hand up to my face and held it there for a moment, his thumb making soft circular patterns on my cheek.

“I don’t know what to say Nicholas. No one has ever said anything like that to me,” I stammered.

“Well they should have, but I can’t say I’m sorry they didn’t. If they had, it wouldn’t sound so original coming from me,” he smiled at me.

I laughed a little and tilted my head into his hand. Then I closed my eyes and sighed. This has to be the most perfect night I have ever had.

I heard Nicholas shift next to me and felt his hand lift my face a little. Then I felt Nicholas’ soft lips on mine. He was still holding my face but instead of keeping it there, he was pulling my face closer to his. I pushed my lips hard against his and he shifted again so he was almost on top of me.

I sat up a little so we could be face to face. Nicholas held my face in both of his hands and continued to kiss me deeply, moving his mouth with mine. I leaned forward a little towards him. Finding that he complied, I leaned all the way forward until he was lying on the grass. I lifted one leg up and swung it around the other side of him. I was leaning over him, kissing him, with my dark hair falling like curtains around both of our faces.

I felt Nicholas’ hands on my back as he gently rubbed the part of my skin that was exposed. Slowly he began to lift my shirt up. Finally when he got so far that he couldn’t go anymore I broke the kiss, sat back and raised my arms in the air so he could remove my shirt completely. When it was off I leaned back down and began kissing him again.

With a little more urgency than before, Nicholas rolled over so he was on top of me now. He didn’t wait for me to try to take his shirt off, doing the job for me. He pressed his hard chest closer to mine and kissed me deeper than before.

I could feel his hands gently rubbing my sides up and down. Nicholas broke the kiss this time to kiss my cheek, my jaw bone, my ear. “I love you,” he gently whispered against skin just below my ear. Then slowly he moved his lips down my neck while his hands moved to the button of my jeans.

After a while of passionately kissing, we were both completely undressed, lying on the grass just below the hill we had tumbled down. Our bodies moved together perfectly. We fit together perfectly. I knew then that I had never felt ecstasy until that night.

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We lay in each others arms, still undressed under the sparking blue of the night sky. Every once in a while Nicholas would bend down slightly to kiss the top of my head. I sighed, realizing I had never been happier in my life.

Nicholas rubbed my bare arm, “Neither have I, love,” he said gently. Then I felt him shift slightly up onto his elbow and I looked up into his face. “Do you want to go swimming?” he asked, excited.

“No, won’t it be cold?” I asked uncertainly.

Nicholas laughed and jumped up, running for the lake. He splashed his way into the water only stopping when he made it far enough to dive in. After a few seconds he resurfaced, smiling with his black hair plastered to his forehead. “Come on, Charlie,” he pleaded.

I just sat there with my arms wrapped around my knees. I didn’t know whether I wanted to risk the cold or not. Finally I decided that the separation between us was worse than the possibility of the cold water. I jumped up and ran into the lake. Surprisingly it wasn’t cold at all.

Nicholas laughed and swam over to where I was treading water now. “You’re a vampire, you don’t feel cold or hot the way humans do.” Then he put his arms around me and I swam up a little so I could wrap my arms and legs around him. I lay my head on his shoulder and whispered, “I love you Nicholas, and I never want to be without you.”

“Don’t worry Charlotte,” he reassured me while he kissed my cheek. “You won’t ever be without me,” he promised.

We swam around in the lake for hours after that. Finally we could see the sky on the eastern horizon start to lighten and we got out. We hadn’t thought to bring towels so we had to wear our clothes back wet. The run back was possibly better than the run there.

When we got back to the inn we crept silently into our room so we wouldn’t wake up any of the other guests. We changed into dry clothes and I put my hair up in an elastic I had brought with me. When we were done, we crawled under the covers and fell asleep in within minutes, still holding on to each other.