In public

"The Dark Stranger"

© VeGirl 2014

We take my car down to the centre of our little town. The icecream place draws us in and I can't help remembering his chocolate-covered strawberry and whipped cream and that first mindblowing kiss of ours. I look up at Vincent and I know he's thinking about that as well. Our eyes meet and we both start a wicked smile. Is this what life could be like with him? In that case; bring it on!

"Is sex all you think about?" he whispers and my body reacts instantly. I can't answer, my mouth has gone dry. "Isn't that my thing? I'm the guy, with the topmodel of a girl."

Topmodel, yeah right! I think, focusing on my icecream. I don't have any of the curves Eddie has and I feel insecure all of a sudden. As the salesperson fixes a couple of ice-creams for us, I stand there digging a hole for myself to jump into.

'Stop that!' Vincent orders in my mind. 'You are beautiful in every single way. You are perfect!'

I look up at him with wide vulnerable eyes and I see the sincerity in his eyes, I know he means every word. "Thank you," I mumble as he pay for our treat before we walk out of there hand in hand.

"I'm going to have to show you to a mirror, to make you see what I see when I look at you." He smiles. "My angel..."

He keeps showering me with compliments and gradually I feel better. Why does my confidence always have to be in the bottom? My parents have always been supportive but despite that, I have always had a need to prove myself.

Vincent is good for my self-esteem.

When I am in his company I never have to prove that I am good enough. The feeling of meeting Mary and Amelia on the sidewalk in town is indescribable. I see them notice me and their eyes widen as they catch a glimpse of Vincent. A smug grin forms on my face and when we are a few meters apart, their eyes flicker to me and they see my grin. "He'ya girls."

"Sam?" They say as if they haven't seen me in years, when we actually met just two days ago. Their eyes flicker towards Vincent who is still holding my hand.

"Oh, this is Vincent, my..."

"Husband." He leans closer for a stagewhisper, before he pulls his hand out to shake theirs. "Nice to meet you." He flashes off one of his hundred watt smiles, and I roll my eyes.

Please!

'Please? Are you begging me again already?' Vincent's teasing voice in my head makes my stomach clench at the same time other info is being yelled through both my ears.

"Husband?" My friends gawking faces need no further descriptions, but their minds demands it. "You got married?"

I gulp.

Vincent is feeling my stress and takes charge. "It was actually a long time ago and there were apparently some problems with an annulment, which suits me pretty fine right now."

I am so glad to have Vincent there, with his made up explanations. I have never been good at lying, and in this particular subject, I wouldn't even know where to start.

"You've been married all this time?" Amelia sounds like she can't believe her own ears. "But you were engaged to Peter for... what... two years?"

"Yeah, who knew the annulment didn't go through?" I laugh. "That would have been a surprise if we actually were about to get married."

"And you just ran into each other and all this came up?" Mary asks with her brows in a tight line.

Both Vincent and I laugh; he confident and me nervously. "Even worse, I moved in next door, and I accidentally got her mail, and then one day Sam walks out the door," Vincent explains and turns towards me. "And you're even hotter now than when I asked you to marry me."

Every part of my body starts to tingle, and I want to get away from everybody and have him to myself again. "Yeah, how old were we; seventeen?" I laugh to hide how my body is anxious and tense.

'Patient!' Vincent says in my head and I think of how handy it is to be able to have private conversations like this.

"Yeah, so now you can stop glaring at me when Trey is around," I tell Mary and she is blushing that very instant.

"I don't," she mumbles.

"You so do!" Amelia and I say simultaneously and then laugh.

"Yeah, you have to stop flirting with other men now." Vincent is looking stern at me and I feel certain parts of my body response vigorously. "You are mine." Those words have an effect I would never have imagined. If anyone else had said it, I would have told them to sod off, but when Vincent says it, my whole body is trembling from expectation.

I smile at him. "You're right."

Vincent's phone interrupt us and he excuses himself and walks away to take the call.

"My God Sam, I have never seen a man like that." Amelia hiss. "He is drop dead gorgeous, where have you hid him."

"In my bedroom," I tease them.

"Why do you always get all the goodlooking guys?" Amelia whines.

"Hello, did you see Peter?" Mary reminds her, and the three of us giggle.

Vincent returns and tells me we have to go, so we say our goodbye and resume our walk.

"Is there any trouble?" I ask concerned.

"No, I just wanted you to myself." His statement makes my body tense up again and my stomach flutter. "Just to hear you beg," he teases.

"Oh please Vincent..." I use the acquired tone, low enough just to see him tense up. A wicked smile breaks out on my face and he growls as he realizes that I was just teasing him.

"We need to get out of sight for a while. There are hunters heading this way." His facial expression tells me that this is serious things.

"Hunters?"

"Yes, they are part of the team that is looking for you and me; the dominions."

"What?"

He smiles patiently. "It's okay, I have a plan." Vincent has a soothing calming voice, which is working wonders for my panicked mood. "I haven't spent two hundred years to panic now," he assures me.

My grip on his hand is gripping so tight that I'm probably preventing the blood to flow to his hand. "They're after us? What shall we do?"

"We'll just go into hiding," he explains it as if it was the most natural thing in the world; that it is something everybody goes through now and then.

"Where will we hide?"

"My basement?" he suggest, wiggling his brows. That simple suggestion sends off shivers and my mind starts to paint pictures in my mind. "Baby, not through that part of the basement." He is smiling wickedly and now I am on the verge of cursing that mind-connection of ours.

I glare at him for a while and change the subject. "How do you know this?"

"I have friends."

"The guy in the black car? What was his name...?"

"Damian. No it isn't him," Vincent explains. "There are a few of us around this area. We try to keep a low profile, but somehow the hunters have been tipped off, perhaps by the malachim, but I'm not sure."

"Here are others like you and me?" I breathe, feeling both exhilarated and scared even if I have no idea of what he and I have in common except passion.

"Yes."

I just stare at him, astounded.

"Perhaps we can see them, until the hunters are gone," he suggests.

"Yes please."

He smiles. "There is that lovely please again..."

I can't believe how just a few words and a smile can change my focus instantly. When he starts to chuckle, I understand that he knows how I wish for a broom-closet he can drag me into; or perhaps I can drag him into it.

"Don't tempt me," he says silently and grabs my hand a bit harder. "We need to get under the radar, babe. But there is something I have to fix first." I walk obedient after him as he navigates among the stores in town, until we stand before a suspicious looking boutique.

Really? Is all I have time to think before Vincent turn and looks at me.

"Yes, really!" He says and I feel berated. "We're have to teach you how to shield those thoughts of yours; you're projecting everything right now," he laughs.

"Sorry," I mumble. "I'm new to this."

He chuckles. "No you're not, you just forgot it. It's kind of like riding a bike; it'll come back to you." He pulls me into a hug and I immediately feel better. "Come on." He motions with his neck towards the small boutique and we walk in there.

The feeling is dense, almost like I felt when I saw Esmeralda at the fair, a lifetime ago, when I didn't know anything about threehundred year old marriages and sex-God's like Vincent.

A man appears behind the counter and I think he studies us a little too close up before he smiles at us. "What can I do for you?" he asks as if that scrutinizing look never happened.

"I'm looking for a crystal; a Malachite," Vincent says, looking assertive and dignitant.

The clerk's eyes wander over our features once again and I feel the need to stay auspicious. I drop Vincent's hand and wander around the store to look at different things.

'Good girl.' I hear silently within my head, and feel proud and pleased that I listened to my inner voice. I strain my ears to eavesdrop on the two men as they're talking about different crystals.

"I need an Amethyst, a raw one, preferably a staff."

"How about an Adamite?" I hear the man say and Vincent is silent a fraction too long. That is enough to set my radar on alarm.

I have to stop myself from turning around and look at Vincent.

"I'm not really familiar with that one. I'm just the messenger to my sister." He chuckles and I notice in the reflection in the window how he shrugs.

I stroll back to the two men. "Don't look at me; I'm not the crazy sister."

The man glued his eyes unshamefully on me. "You look familiar," he says

"Yeah I get that a lot," I laugh. "But I'm not Vanessa Hudgens; I'm just little old Myra."

That man apologizes and I am just about to say that's okay, when I realize it was in that ancient language that 'little old Myra' would know nothing about, so I narrow my eyes and look weird at him. "I'm sorry?"

The man is looking at me as if to see through my lie, but apologizes and looks like nothing happened. "Was that all?" He asks Vincent.

"Oh Mike, I saw something cool over here," I say and skip over to the shelf and picks up a crystal wand. "Look at this stick baby, it would look so good in my window, you know where I have those prisms from IKEA," I ramble on, doing my best to sound like a complete airhead. It looks like even Vincent believes it; he blinks surprised with his brows closing in on the hairline.

"Sure baby girl, of curse I'll buy it if you want it."

"It's a wand," the man behind the counter says. "For healing."

"Oh cool!" I beam and flutter my lashes.

He runs it through the till and soon we are on our way to the car.

"So, what do you want to do with your shiny new stick, Myra?"

I laugh out loud. "Let me tell you something Mike. I just instinctively knew that I was supposed to buy this," I tell him, proud that I listened to my inner self. "And it was so shiny," I add in a stupid tone.

Vincent laughs.

"That man spoke Echanoian."

"Enochian, you mean?"

"Yes."

"Yes he did and I am actually proud of how stupid you sounded in there, even if I first thought you had lost your mind," he adds a little cheeky smile. "He is on to us. We better get under the radar this minute. Let's go see some old friends."

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