The Difference Between You and Me - Chapter 24

First of all, this small note is for Rosabella Marie: I could ramble on and on about how much you annoyed me with your last comment, but I’m choosing not to. I accept advice, tips, little snippets of information that could help me, and ideas that are suggested. I do not accept people telling me to ‘get a hold of myself and realise that we hate Zane!’ Because, last time I checked, four out of the six polls that I set on my chapters that asked, ‘Zane or Vincent for Colie?’ were in Zane’s favour. Make a comment like that again, and you’re comments, to me, will be the equivalent of nothing – they won’t take on any significance. You may think I'm being harsh, and if you do, you're right, I am. You're probably thinking, 'God, what a horrible person! In which case yes, you are right, I am a horrible person. I am not a nice author. I am not a happy or tolerant author. I am only an author. That is it.

Okay, now a note to all of my readers. I understand that a lot of you think Zane and Vincent are basically just the same person personality-wise, because, of course, you see the events through Colie’s eyes, and therefore you don’t actually know anything of what is happening outside of what Colie can see. So I just mean to say that they’re not alike one bit. Colie thinks they are alike because she loves Vincent, and she has been taken away from him. She was spotting similarities because she misses him. Remember the first time Zane and Colie properly kissed, and Colie said that if she could have opened her eyes, she would have seen that it wasn’t Vincent, but she didn’t open her eyes and pretended that it was Vincent? Have you noticed that the longer she’s stayed with Zane, the less she compares him to Vincent? Well, anyway, just a note, an incredibly long note, and I’m sorry for that. I really am.
So getting back to the story. This chapter is dedicated to Flore, Rebby, and Mel, and of course, the amazing AprilJazmine, who loved Zane before everyone else. So I hope you like it guys. =)

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Zane carried me back to his mansion.

After he had so kindly comforted me after my embarrassing breakdown, he had forced me to feed. Said that if I didn’t go and feed then he would ‘kill the animal and shove the blood down my throat’. In those words. Well, at least he doesn’t bother with pretence.

So I had chose a skinny bambi – yes, I call baby deers bambis – that was quite obviously going to die soon, and fed off that. It made me happy, though, that the bambi came into my arms almost gratefully. I cried while I fed, and left the bambi under a tree, concealed slightly by bushes so the others animals wouldn’t find it and eat it up too quickly.

And on our way back, when Zane didn’t even so much as ask my permission before scooping me into his arms and carrying me bridal style. Though I had to admit, I stopped protesting when the warmth of his embrace snuck around me, invading my senses.

And anyway, the nakedness of his chest didn’t exactly help with my complaints. They were hard as rock and yet somehow soft, too.

‘Do you like rabbits?’ He asked out of the blue, though I wasn’t surprised. I was beginning to get used to Zane’s total lack of predictability.

I shrugged, the movement causing my shoulders to rub against his arm in a way that made me shiver. ‘Yeah, I guess. But I could never have them when I was younger.’

‘Why?’

‘My older sister, Adele, was allergic to them. She was actually allergic to most animals with fur.’

‘I was allergic to cats when I was human.’

This information, for some reason, made me smile, and I looked up at his face. ‘Aw, the big, scary vampire was allergic to itty, bitty kitty-cats.’

He smirked, and he jumped over a rock that no human would have been able to. I had an overwhelming urge to reach up and smooth my fingers over his lips, but I stopped myself

I realised that I wanted to hear him speak, desperately, needily, and I quickly asked, ‘What was your life like as a human?’

He contemplated the question as he sprung across a small lake. ‘I don’t know. My grades at school weren’t so good, so I didn’t have many options.’

I frowned. ‘But I thought you went to medical college?’

‘I did,’ he said. ‘Because I realised that if I wanted to get out of my parents house, then I’d actually have to try.’

I came to a conclusion. ‘You didn’t get on very well with your parents.’

His lip curled up in contempt. ‘My father, no. But I loved my mother.’

I wanted to ask why he didn’t like his father, but I didn’t want to pry. After all, there’s some things that are just personal.

But he could always read my face better than anyone I ever knew. ‘My father was a cruel man.’

I hesitated and bit my lip, but nevertheless took the plunge. ‘What did he do?’

A low growl sounded deep in his chest, and I blinked as his grip around me became tighter. He did not answer me, and I decided that I would not ask him anymore questions.

I rested my head back on his arm and looked up at the sky. It was a beautiful night, with scatterings of yellow stars sprinkled out amongst the deep blue depths. Back in my apartment, you couldn’t see the stars at night because I had lived in the city, where there were too many lights. ‘Wow,’ I breathed.

Zane looked up to where I saw staring in amazement and said softly, ‘Do you like the stars?’

‘I love the stars,’ I said. ‘But I’ve never been any good at astronomy.’

He looked deep in thought for a moment, or so the tell-tale tilting of his head and slight pout of his lips told me. I wanted to reach up and smooth out his cheeks, run my finger from his forehead to his–

My thoughts completely toppled out of my head when he suddenly lunged forward and started sprinting so fast everything around me blurred.

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He didn’t stop until we reached his mansion, and by then my head was whizzing. When he set me down on my own two feet on the floor, I quickly grabbed onto his forearms to keep from falling over.

‘Wh – what -?’ I gasped, blinking rapidly. ‘Why did you -?’

His arms snaked around my waist to steady me, and when my vision finally stopped seeing triple, I realised that his face was very close to mine. I jerked back instinctively, but his arms around me tightened, and I was pulled even further into him. My eyes glanced up at his face, and then quickly veered off to the side when I saw that he was looking at me with that look.

‘What was with the speed?’ I asked his shoulder. I’m sure my heart would have been beating more erratically then it actually was had it not been for the night. The night had always calmed me, something about the strange sort of…peacefulness, I guess is the word, of it.

I glanced up at his face when he didn’t answer me straight away, and when I felt something tugging lightly on my hair. I could not help the smile that curved my lips when he was almost absent-mindedly staring at the tendril of my hair he had curled around his finger. He pulled the lock of hair down gently and watched, almost amused, as it sprang back up.

I needed a distraction. ‘Zane,’ I blurted out.

He raised his gaze to mine and cocked an eyebrow.

‘I said,’ I huffed, not liking the mocking way he was looking at me. ‘What was with the speed?’

He blinked, and his eyes immediately became hooded. He let go of my waist, and my heart lurched at how…how lost I felt, but then my heart swelled when he took my hand. He said, ‘Come on,’

I frowned, wondering where on earth we were going as he began to lead me around the edge of the house. It was very dark, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine what time it was. Zane’s hand over mine was warm, and I was hyperaware of how it brought every sense in my body to life.

I had only realised that I had never seen the outside of his mansion, but just as I was about to turn my head and crane it upwards, his hand tugged on mine, pulling my body around. My breath caught and came out in one whoosh. I was looking at a forest, a forest with trees that looked black, making the sky look just that little bit lighter. They were huge, stretching up so far I knew I’d get whiplash if I even tried to look at the top. The stars that twinkled and winked around them only added to the eerie effect. ‘Wow,’ I breathed.

Zane, said nothing, only tightened his hand around mine and led me to the small opening that, from where I had previously been standing, I hadn’t seen was there.

I bit my lip, and I knew that had I been with anyone else, my eyes would have instinctively searched the dark depths for anything that could be taken to me as a threat – the vampire in me coming out. But I was with Zane and that somehow made everything different.

We stepped into the small opening together, and my eyes looked around curiously, but all I could see was more trees and leaves that were scattered on the ground. Questions flooded my head. Why had he taken me there? What were we doing there? What was in the forest?

We walked deeper into the forest, the crunching sounds of our footsteps grinding against leaves and the chirping of crickets the only sound to break the silence in the night. Zane finally stopped walking at one point, and I looked around, confused. The place where he had stopped was no different from anything that we had walked through to get there. Wasn’t there supposed to be some significance?

He turned around, and I had to stop myself from moaning aloud. Zane almost seemed to be illuminated in the darkness of the night, his shining, beautiful emerald-coloured eyes being what stood out the most. They were like a light in itself.

He pulled me into him, and because he was slowly making to sit on the ground whilst holding both of my hands, I sank down with him.

‘Come here,’ he lifted a finger and motioned for me to move closer to him.

I hesitated, but slowly crawled towards his crossed-legged form. He opened his legs and turned me around, then pulled me into him so that my back was leaning against his chest, and my head was safely tucked back into the crook of his neck. My every sense was on alert, the mere casual brushing of our bodies causing a strange tingle to shoot up my body in a way that made me want to writhe and gasp, but I quickly got a hold of myself.

His breathing in my ear was warm and comforting, and slowly, so slowly that I felt every step of the rising temperature around me as he got closer, I felt his lips land on my neck. I couldn’t see his face as I was facing the other way, but that didn’t stop me from gasping and clutching onto his thighs.

One, another kiss planted on my neck, Two, a harder kiss this time, and the lick of his tongue, Three, a kiss and a nipping at the skin of my neck, Four, his teeth sank down into my throat. I moaned and arched my head, his soft lips in deep contrast to the sharpness of his teeth. ‘Zane,’ his name escaped my lips breathlessly. ‘Oh, Zane.’ I tried to turn myself around so that I could let his lips press to mine, but his hands restrained me, and I got the feeling that he was doing it on purpose.

His hair that, for once, wasn’t in a ponytail, was brushing my skin as erotically as his lips were. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply as the pleasurable assault continued.

Eventually, and it could have been minutes or hours, I honestly didn’t know, his lips stopped moving against my skin, and I was horribly aware of the extremely deep, ragged breathing that escaped my lips in short gasps. I was a little less embarrassed, however, when I heard that his breathing couldn’t exactly be called even, either.

The silence stretched out and around us until we were almost suffocating with it, and I tried to insert some sort of normalness into an awkward situation. ‘So,’ I said, trying to get a hold of my breathing which, to my dread, wasn’t cooperating. ‘Why did you bring me here?’

For the thousandth time that day, he didn’t answer me, but I felt him shift behind me, and he whispered in my ear, ‘Look up.’

I frowned and looked up at the sky in confusion, and both my eyes and my mouth widened. ‘Oh…’ I breathed. I had always wanted to see the New Dortons stars, but I had never been in the right place at the right time. But that all changed when I looked up. There it was, in all its shining yellow glory. The New Dortons were a cluster of stars that only ever came around every six months. They were beautiful, all clustered together to make a shape that resembled a giant O. Each individual star twinkled and winked brightly, as if saying ‘Here I am. Look at me, look at me.’ It was a truly beautiful sight.

‘How did you…?’ I started, and then twisted my body around so that I was facing him. He was leaning against a tree trunk, and his face was just as beautiful – maybe even more – as the sight above, and the mocking smirk that I knew to be permanently plastered to his lip was, amazingly, gone, replaced with secret, knowing smile.

I’m sure my expression asked all the questions, since all he said was, ‘You said that you liked the stars.’

I wanted to throw my arms around him and bury kisses everywhere on his skin, I wanted to grin and clutch at his hair and look into his eyes forever.

But I knew that I couldn’t do any of that, so instead I settled for smiling. ‘Thankyou, Zane.’

He leaned forward, and if I said that I didn’t know what he was about to do then I’d be lying. His lips pressed into mine, and we both kept our eyes open, green into hazel.

It was a beautiful night.

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I was a bad, bad person. This was the thought that kept repeating itself in my head the morning after while I sat on my bed forlornly. And it was true – I was a bad person. I felt guilty for not feeling guilty about the feelings I seemed to be having for Zane. I kept telling myself you need to remember Vincent, you need to remember him. But much as I tried, I just couldn’t do it. Sure, I could remember his face and his smile and his laugh, but it didn’t bring up any of the sorts of emotions I used to feel for it. I thought of him and felt…nothing.

And it was killing me.

How could you be such a slut, Colie? my conscience screamed at me. How could you? But I still couldn’t bring myself to feel guilty about my continuous intimate interactions with Zane. It almost seemed as if….as if I was supposed to be doing these things….but no, that wasn’t right. I was with Vincent, and I loved him…I think.

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‘Zane?’ I called as I stepped out of my room. ‘Za-ane, where are you?’ That day I was wearing casual faded jeans, and a cream top that was pulled in below the bust. My sandals clip-clopping against the wooden floor was the only sound to be heard.

I was starting to get worried. He always answered me, was always there when I called for him in the morning. Where could he be?

I made my way over to his room and knocked tentatively. No answer. I knocked again. Still no answer.

I frowned and bit down on my lower lip, and I heard a creek, and almost jumped out of my skin. I turned around, gasping, to come face to face with an amused smirk.

‘Wow, Colie,’ Zane drawled. ‘You sure know how to get worked up.’

He had just come out of the door opposite his bedroom, one, I realised, I hadn’t even known was there. He was wearing jeans, as usual, with the same boots, but for once, he wasn’t wearing a tank-top. No, he was wearing a plain black t-shirt that made him look…dangerous. Even more so than he already looked in his usual attire.

I blushed furiously and forced myself to make eye-contact, and my heart immediately started to speed up, as it always did when I looked directly into those emerald green eyes. ‘I was looking for you.’

He cocked his head, and for a second he looked curious, his stunning green eyes searching my face as if he were an archaeologist looking for something vital. And then his expression cleared and he said, ‘Come here,’

A flash of Déjà vu struck me at unawares, and I was brought back to yesterday night. ‘You said that you liked the stars.’ I blinked to organize my thoughts and said suspiciously, ‘Why?’

He rolled his eyes. ‘Just, come on.’

I looked at him, questions flooding out of my eyes, but stepped through the doorway nevertheless. The room was average-sized, minimal, like most of the rooms there, but what little furniture it had were extremely well-lavished and I knew that every individual thing in there probably cost more than my monthly salary each. There was no bed in there, but a large, black sofa stretched out through the entire length of the far wall. The walls were painted a deep blue, with a strange tint of heliotrope, and a dark mahogany cabinet leaned discreetly against the wall on my right. These were not the first thing I noticed, however. No, what I noticed first was the small cluster of rabbits that sat and hopped directly in the centre of the room.

I gasped and spun to face Zane, who was looking at me with that special crooked smile that made my heart swell. ‘Did you…did you….?’ I honestly didn’t know what to say.

‘Well, your sister is not here, and you said that you liked these turpid creatures, so….’

I didn’t let him finish, didn't even acknowledge the insult. I squealed and grinned and threw my arms around his neck. He seemed neither shocked nor surprised by my enthusiastic reaction, actually, it seemed almost as if he was expecting it. His arms wrapped around my waist tightly and despite the sudden super-speed of my heart, I still managed to whisper into his ear, ‘Thankyou, Zane.’ And was it me, or did it seem as if I was saying those two words an awful lot lately?

He kissed my throat once, his tongue skimming lightly over my pulse, and my whole body froze in his arms. Why did he have to be so appealing? But then his arms around me loosened and came undone altogether, and I frowned, wanting to feel them around me again.

I did not mull over this not-so-foreign thought, though. I just turned around to the sight of those adorable bunnies.

‘Oh,’ I breathed, and kneeled down near them. It was true, I had always wanted one when I was little, and it seemed like I was prepared to make up for all the lost time that my sister’s allergies had caused.

I tentatively held out a hand to a small white bunny, with black splodges splattered across its nose, its ears and its back. It sniffed the palm of my hand, burrowed its nose, and I giggled softly when I felt its soft nose burrow into my hand. When I felt that it wasn’t scared of me, I slipped my other hand under its tummy and lifted it up. It nibbled my hand affectionately.

I glanced up to see Zane just sort of sitting there, looking at the small rabbits as if they were an equally disgusting and fascinating fly. I could not help but smile. ‘Here,’ I said. Zane looked at me. I held over the rabbit to him, and he looked completely baffled. I laughed and said, ‘Hold out your hand.’ He did as I told, looking seemingly reluctant. ‘When I put Kye on your hand, hold it close to –‘

‘Kye?’ He interrupted me, one eyebrow raised, amused. ‘That’s its name?’

I scowled at him. I, for one, had liked my name choice. ‘You got a problem with that?’

He smirked. ‘No,’ he drawled, looking every inch the mocking monster I had first thought him to be. ‘Not at all.’

I glared at him. ‘As I was saying, when I put him in your hand, keep him close to your chest.’

He nodded, and I carefully placed Kye down onto his hand. Zane looked down at the creature in his hand with open curiosity. Kye pressed his nose to Zane’s palm, and I smiled softly. I was amazed to see that Zane looked somewhat…pleased. He held Kye to his chest and stroked the fur softly. Oh, how I would have loved to take a picture of that.

I held a different bunny, a girl who I pronounced Sasha, while the other small rabbits bounced around happily.

I looked up once and saw Zane looking at me with an intensity that, until that moment, I had never witnessed. His green eyes locked into mine, while that same small smile he seemed to be wearing a lot lately played around his lips. It seemed to convey a lot, a lot of which I knew nothing of And in that moment, I knew.

I was in love with Zane.