The Difference Between You and Me - Chapter 21

Okay, just a note to Rosabella Marie - I am not trying to make you like Zane. I am simply laying out Zane's personality for all of you to see - whether you like him or not is up to you. A note to Mel - Okay, yes, I do like Zane, but that does not mean I will make him end up with Colie. I try to think of myself as a professional author, and I won't let my idiosyncrasies get in the way of what's best for my main character. What happens at the end is for me to know and for all of you to find out soon, and I'm glad you like the story. =) This chapter is dedicated to Janet, simply because she sees what's there. It's also dedicated to AprilJazmine - because she's liked Zane before he even made an appearance. So you guys, I hope you like this chapter. =)
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I had a very strange dream that night.

I was spinning around in a beautiful field, with perfect green, lush grass and a clear blue sky, with lots of shade that big, tall oak trees provided. I was laughing, my hair flying wildly around me, and then something appeared.

A dark angel – a beautiful dark angel with big, black wings. I was mesmerised. I look wondrously up at The Dark Angel’s face, only to blink in confusion. Was that…Vincent? Yes. Yes, it was Vincent.

‘Colie,’ he was murmuring, and though he seemed to be taking steps towards me, he wasn’t getting any nearer to me. ‘Colie. Come to me. I hold the light.’

That confused me. How could a Dark Angel hold light? But…but he was Vincent, wasn’t he? He was everything right. He had to hold the light.

‘Colie,’ a softer voice whispered, and I turned around slowly, feeling drawn by the beautiful voice. ‘Colie.’ It was Zane, and, unlike Vincent, he wasn’t dressed head-to-toe in black. He was dressed like he normally was – tank top and faded jeans. ‘I am myself.’ He whispered, and even though the sound couldn’t have been any quieter, I got the feeling that it could have been heard for miles around. ‘Don’t you like me?’

I found myself looking between Zane and Vincent, just looking. Choosing.

But then, before I got to say anything else, I woke up. And forgot the dream completely.

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Zane, as I had requested, had bought new clothes for me. And I appreciated that. What I didn’t appreciate, however, was that all of my clothes were designer. Uh-huh. There was not one piece of clothing that he had bought me that was under one-hundred pounds. Even my underwear was in the three digits. Speaking of underwear, my face grew hot when I took a look at the intimate lingerie he had bought me. The pieces were gorgeous, yeah, but only if I had bought them for myself. It gave me shivers that Zane had bought me this stuff. It was all lacy. All of it. And he had bought them in violent shades – blood red, bright aqua, lemon yellow, lapis lazuli blue and hot pink. And the normal black and white two pieces that he had bought me were set with even more intricate designs, probably to make up for the fact that they were only casual, everyday colours. If I started hyperventilating when I saw the bras, it was nothing compared to how I reacted when my eyes set on the panties. They were all see-through. Well, the basic part of the panties was see-through, but the little intricate flowers that were set in swirl were a solid colour.

For my outfit, I chose casual skinny-flare jeans, and a yellow tank top, and my matching lingerie yellow two-piece set to match. He did have good taste, which is where Zane and Vincent differed because Vincent had absolutely no idea when it came to women’s natural desires. And if I was being honest, I felt slightly thrilled that I was wearing something that Zane had bought me.

As I got changed in front of the mirror, I couldn’t help but checking if the bump from my baby showed. I rubbed my abdomen tenderly, but still I saw nothing, which I interpreted as a good sign, because the last thing I needed was Zane finding out about my unborn child.

I slipped on a pair of black ballet flats and stepped out of my ‘bedroom’ – or so Zane had labelled it – and peered around cautiously. ‘Zane?’ I called timidly. ‘Zane?’ It didn’t feel right being in his mansion without being with him.

‘Right here, princess,’ came a voice from behind me.

I jumped, startled, and turned around and found myself looking at the guy himself, leaning back against the wall and looking very casual in his usual tank top – black, today – and a pair of Levi’s, with, as usual, his trademark smirk plastered on his pouty lips. He looked good – really good.

‘Good morning,’ he murmured, and pushed away from the wall to come and stand just a few inches apart from me. ‘Sleep well?’

‘Yes,’ I replied, just as he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me closer to him, and reached out for a tendril of my hair and curled it around his finger, stroking it to it was the most delicate thing in the world. I blinked. He really did have a habit of doing that.

I tried to step back a little, but his grip around me was like the strength of steel and iron combined.

‘Mmm,’ he had leaned down to the lock of my hair that he was fingering and inhaled. I started trembling. I couldn’t help it.

He seed to like that, pressed my face into his hair and started stroking my waist. It meant that I could actually move away from him. But I…didn’t want to? Oh, you have got to be kidding me.

‘Mmm, Colie,’ he murmured.

My mind started to frantically flit through any possible way of getting myself out of the situation I was in. Finally, I came up with something somewhat plausible. ‘I want food.’

I grinned, satisfied, when he stopped nuzzling me and pulled back. ‘You need to feed?’

The smile slid off my face. ‘No. I said that I’d like food.’

Zane looked sceptical. ‘Colie, you are not human. You don’t need food.’

Tears immediately sprung to my eyes, and I bit down hard on my lower lip to stop it from trembling. It wasn’t Zane’s fault, though. He didn’t know that I craved to be a human again so much. I forced my tears back by thinking of something that made me angry – the face of my enemy back in High School – and I swallowed the lump in my throat, just as he asked, ‘Colie? Are you Okay?’

‘I’m fine,’ I said dismissively, my hands resting lightly on his shoulders, the hands that had previously been trying to fight him off. ‘Please Zane? I really miss my human food.’

I looked up at him hopefully, and he pursed his lips his and relented, ‘Okay. Fine.’

I’m sure my face probably lit up because I was so happy, and he gave me that crooked smile, the one where one side of his lips pulled up. The one that, though I refused to consciously admit it, I loved. ‘What sort of food?’ He asked.

I frowned thoughtfully. ‘Hmm…I know! We can make a cake!’

Zane looked baffled. ‘Why would you want to make that?’

I pouted and playfully smacked him on the arm. ‘Because making cakes is fun!’

He just looked at me, and I raised my eyebrow and said. ‘Don’t you give me that look Mr….’ I looked up at him, and to someone just walking in, I’m sure we would have looked like a very happy couple. ‘What’s your last name?’

He looked deeply into my eyes for a moment, as if searching for an answer there. ‘Dresden.’ He said finally. ‘My last name is Dresden.’

‘Oh,’ I said. My face felt hot due to the stare he was giving me. Like he was looking right through me. ‘So, where exactly is the kitchen?’ I asked, just to say something.

He didn’t answer me, just scooped me up and said ‘This way will be quicker,’ and before I had a chance to protest, he started running.

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The kitchen was a long, narrow room with a huge fridge at the end, and a big, wooden table situated in the middle. The only other thing in there were the cupboards that lined the right wall.

‘Very good,’ I appraised. I walked over to the fridge and got out the six-box of eggs and the milk. ‘We’ll also need fl- Oh!’ I had turned around and gasped to find Zane so close to me. I almost dropped the eggs and milk in the process.

He was speculating me with his head tilted to the side, as if he were a small child.

I hurriedly brushed past him and looked through the cupboards for the flour. I really didn’t need him listening to my thumping heartbeat.

‘Do you have a– Oh.’ He had already got out the mixing bowl and cake-mixers. ‘Thankyou.’

He laid the equipment down on the counter and said, ‘Now what do we do?’

‘Well, first I have to put in the flour.’ So I measured out two-hundred grams of flour and poured it into the bowl.

‘Hey,’ I said to Zane, turning to face him. ‘If you don’t eat human food then why do you have it in your house?’ Though the word ‘house’ was for off to what his mansion really was, I didn’t correct myself.

He shrugged. ‘Sometimes Jordan, a member of my coven, cooks food. Any food. He wants to be a chef.’

That answer brought on another question that had been tugging at my brain cells. ‘Speaking of which, where is your coven?’

‘I told them to stay away from here.’

I wasn’t expecting that. ‘Why?’

‘Because most of my coven consists of males, and that means that they’d be looking at you in a way I wouldn’t like. And nobody looks like that at what is mine.’

I didn’t bother to contradict him, to tell him that I wasn’t his. I just said. ‘Now you can put those two eggs in the mixing bowl.’

He picked up at the eggs from the counter and placed them into the metal mixing bowl, looking triumphant. ‘There. I did it.’

I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. Another similarity I had picked out. Zane, just like Vincent, had no idea when it came to the kitchen. No idea at all.

‘What’s so funny?’ He asked looking adorably – yes, the leader of The Opaque Coven was looking adorable – confused.

‘Zane,’ I said, between little fits of giggles. ‘You have to crack the eggs first.’

He scowled at the un-cracked eggs in the bowl as if it was their fault that he was so kitchenly inept.

And as I cracked the eggs – as it was clear that Zane had no idea how to – he began to mutter darkly, ‘Oh, she says put the eggs in the bowl, so that’s what he does, but no he has to crack the eggs first. Silly, silly boy. Of course he should have known…’

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‘Yay! It’s done!’ I grinned fanatically to myself and reached my oven-glove clad hand into the oven and took out the perfectly risen sponge cake. ‘Doesn’t it look beautiful?’ I said to Zane, and lay the cake onto the metal rack incrusted into one side of the counter.

'Not as beautiful as you...' Zane murmured, and my breath caught. I couldn’t help but still be amazed at how beautiful his eyes were. He caught me staring at him and stared back, and I didn’t know whether it was me or him who moved closer. All I knew is that I was suddenly in his arms, and the cake lay forgotten. He bent his head down to my ear, and whispered so softly. ‘I almost forgot, Colie. Your time is up. The week has gone. You know what that means…’