The Legend of the Blue Eyes by B. Kristin McMichael Page B

thirteen hours
is a long time to sleep,” he complained, as he placed the paper he
was reading on the nightstand.
    “What…” she began to ask, but fumbled with
her words. Here she was lying in a bed with a half-naked boy with
absolutely no memory of the previous night.
    Devin smiled. “You don’t remember last
night?” he asked, knowing it would be fun to tease her a bit
more.
    Arianna blushed from head to toe as she
tried to look away from Devin. Arianna’s experience with boys was
rather limited. While many girls her age were allowed to date, Aunt
Lilly and Uncle Dean had told her she would have to wait until she
was older. For the most part, Arianna didn’t care, as she was too
busy helping with the diner. In reality though, she wanted to hang
out with her friends more, and the prospects of dating were quite
scary. Every boy she had ever had a crush on was impossible to talk
to. When she finally liked a boy, she couldn't make complete
sentences when alone with him, even if just in a hallway at
school.
    Devin cautiously reached for her hand as she
obviously, for a reason unknown to him, became frightened by the
situation. Arianna moved to stand, but instead felt her legs
weaken, and she ended up back on the bed. Without looking up, her
face continued to glow red. Devin tried to catch her gaze, but she
avoided him.
    “Have I done something to offend you?” he
asked as he looked down at himself. Devin buttoned his shirt and
smiled. “Are you feeling okay?”
    “My legs feel a little weak,” Arianna
replied, grabbing a pillow to try to hide behind.
    Devin moved to try to catch her gaze, but
she still refused to look at him. “That’s because you aren’t
completely transformed yet. You use up your blood too quickly.”
    Arianna peeked up at him. “Will it always be
like this?” she asked.
    “No. It will get better as you learn to
control things, such as your sensitive hearing. Doing things that
are beyond human ability uses the blood you drink. So the more you
do, the more blood you will need,” he explained.
    “How did you make me go to sleep last
night?” she asked. “I tried to sleep, but everything was too
noisy.”
    “I read in one of my books that you’d be
drawn to the sound the heart makes. Just by touching my skin, you
can hear it, can’t you?” He waited for her to understand. Arianna
nodded. “It seems that’s enough to block out all other sounds.”
    “Does that mean every time
I want to sleep, you have to be there?” she asked, blushing again
as she found herself wanting to add half
naked .
    “Are you afraid of me?” he replied with a
question. Arianna shook her head no. There was nothing scary about
Devin. He had been kind to her since the first moment she talked to
him. He was very quiet, which made her always wonder what he was
thinking, but he wasn’t scary. “You are doing your best to hide
behind that pillow like I might jump over there and attack you.”
Arianna looked down at the pillow she was still hugging. “Like you
think I’m a monster. Let me reassure you, I’m human. You should be
able to tell.”
    “It’s just that this is all a little weird,”
she replied. “I’ve never even dated a boy, and here I wake up in
the same bed with a boy I’ve only known for two days. Aunt Lilly
would kill me if she knew,” Arianna accidentally blurted out before
turning bright red again.
    “Oh that’s the problem?” he replied with a
laugh. “Then don’t worry. You’ve known me much longer than two
days. In fact, we met over ten years ago.” Arianna slightly dropped
her defensive pillow. “You don’t remember? You told me that you
would marry me when we got older.” Arianna began to blush.
    “But I don’t remember that,” Arianna
replied, trying to remember ever meeting Devin.
    “I came here right after my family was
killed. Your grandfather took me in. He felt bad for me because he
was too late to stop my family from dying,” Devin explained.
Arianna