Chapter 39

LAYLA

My alarm goes off and nothing in me feels like I want to stand up but I know that I do not have much of a choice. Stacy did warn us that we will be getting up early the next morning but we chose to go out and sightsee.

Of course, now I regret it because jetlag is blooming in my body. I wish I just stayed in bed yesterday and relaxed. Then I stand up unwillingly and I look around the room only to find out that no one wants to get up. Everyone must be feeling the way that I do, beyond exhausted.

I make my way to the bathroom and get dressed. I look in the mirror and I realized there is no way that I am going to make this look good today. Then we make our way to the van and finally arrive at the stage area.

We can all see the reason why we could not set up the stage yesterday because some of the ground is still wet from what looks like rain. Then I make my way to the makeup room where I will start to figure out what outfits Jake is going to wear.

I do not think that I have realized yet that I am going to see Jake again but I can anyway not afford to think about that right now. I need to focus on getting the best outfit that I can. Then someone knocks on the door and comes in.

"I thought you might need this"

It is Rita with a cup of coffee in her hand.

"It is like you were sent from above. Thank you so much"

She quickly turns around because it is clear that she needs to do a few other deliveries with the number of coffee in her hand.

"Good luck, I will see you later"

"Thank you again!"

She closes the door behind her and I take a seat before my laptop. As I take a sip I start to think of how I can make him look even better than what he already does.

JAKE

The scent of my natural enemy has consumed all my senses. It is as if every little nerve end stands at attention. All I know is that I want to kill him. When I think about what I am thinking about, I get scared. How can I even think of killing another human being?

But then suddenly it is as if it dawns on me. They are not human beings. They are vampires and for all intents and purposes, they are dead. They have no heartbeat and no warm blood running through their veins. So, if I kill them I will not kill a human being.

This only motivates me to follow the vampire. I start to wonder what is he doing out in broad daylight. Did he come to get himself a snack and why is your walking hand-in-hand with that woman that is clearly a human being.

I can almost hear her heartbeat but when I focus on him, I hear nothing. I only smell that which I want to kill. I realized that I better shake myself out of this trance that I find myself in. I can not allow myself to change into a wolf as the public will see me change.

I have to physically pull myself away from this situation and start running in a different direction. I run as fast as I can back to the limo and when I close the door I say breathlessly to Bruno.

"Get me back to the hotel fast!"

"Yes, sir"

I take shallow breaths trying to not to smell his scent but it is very difficult to get rid of it. The further we get away the better I am able to calm myself down. I start to wonder how would I react when there is a vampire in my audience. Will I want to kill him or even her?

Then suddenly a dreadful thought enters my mind, what if I have slept with a vampire and do not even know it? What if one of my fans that were invited to my house was a vampire? I know as much about vampires as I do about werewolves.

I recognize that I need to do a lot of research regarding my natural enemy and I still have to find out more about myself. I quickly make my way back up to my room and then I start to do research. I need to know everything that I can about the life that I am leading right now.

"Jake! Wake up, man!"

As I try to wake up, I knew that I must have fallen asleep in front of my laptop. I can feel that my back aches because of the way that I fell asleep. Then when my eyes finally focus I look to see Mark standing next to me.

"What time is it?"

"It is already eight in the morning and we need to be at the stage right now"

I can not believe that I have been so tired that I did not even go to bed. But then I quickly jump up and make my way to the bathroom. Then I say to Mark.

"I will see you downstairs in five minutes"

"Sure"

I hear him leaving the room while I splash some water on my face. I start to think back about what I have learned last night and I am so glad that my laptop turns off automatically because if Mark saw what I was looking at, he might be starting to wonder about things.

I grab my jacket and my bag and then my stomach starts to growl. I feel that I am very hungry and that the wolf in me needs his food. I take three of my protein bars and I know that it will do the job. I quickly open one and start to eat.

The last thing that I want is to look at someone as a piece of meat. I need to feed my wolf. Then I make my way back to the limo and my thoughts quickly go back to the fan that almost attacked me. I realized that if I was that fan, I would stay very far away from myself.

With the new information that I got yesterday night, I realized that I must be very strong. I also know that when I keep on hunting I become even more stronger. The vampire on the other hand becomes stronger from drinking human blood. The entire existence of a vampire makes me nauseous.

As we get to the stage, I know that I will be seeing Layla. She is like a breath of fresh air and my entire being wants to see her again. I realized that we had an awkward moment on the plane but I think I am just going to play it cool.

I softly knock on the door and then I hear her voice.

"Yes?"

As I open the door I see her sitting in front of her laptop with her glasses on. She looks extremely desirable and I struggled to control myself. But then when she turns to look at me I see that she is very tired. I guess it must be the jet lag.

"Hi, are you ready for me?"

LAYLA

As he strolls into the room like he owns it and says very nonchalant if I am ready for him. I admit that I am not ready at all for him. I am ready with his outfits but me the person are not ready for him. I know that I have convinced myself that we can not be together but after our little rendezvous on the plane, things are beginning to look a little bit blurry.

"Oh yes, I am. Please take a seat"

"Are you doing okay? You look a little bit tired?"

I can not believe that he is concerned about me. So, avoid his eye contact because I do not want to show my shyness to him and then I say.

"I am fine, really. I guess I am just a little bit jet-lagged. Are you at all tired?"

"No, I am fine thank you"

"Sorry, I am sorry I did not mean to ask that, I was just wondering if you were ready for this stage but, of course, you are...I mean you usually do this for a living...So, why would you not be ready? I guess that was a very stupid question-"

Suddenly, I discover that I have been rumbling on. I instantly get a blush on my cheeks and I turn around so that he can not see me. I stop in the middle of my sentence and I can not believe what I did.

JAKE

I watch as this beautiful woman in front of me tries to explain why she asked me if I was tired. I can not help but smile as I listen to every word that she says. She is indeed a rare beauty and there is no desire in me that wants to leave her. I anticipate that I can sit here and never get tired of just listening to her voice.

"Please...do not stop talking..."