Ezra didn’t even know where the words had come from, but he meant every single one. Somewhere down the line, this fictitious relationship with Kayla had become all too real, and he didn’t want her thinking anything to the contrary.

To think, he had hated Stephen’s idea of leaving town and coming to Cleveland, not to mention being thoroughly annoyed at his insistence that Ezra become a Maker. Yet it had all brought him to Kayla, a woman who had made him rethink his choices with her kindness and hidden strength alone.

“I don’t know what to say…” she muttered quietly, looking at their intertwined hands. “I thought after Seth, I’d be more careful, so I don’t get that blindsided again…” she trailed off, before her eyes snapped back to his. “But I’m tired of being careful. This thing between us just feels right, and I want to see where it takes us,” she smiled, and Ezra grinned back.

“I wasn’t sure where you were going with that for a moment there,” he replied, relieved that she felt the same way as he did. “I know it’s going to be a bit complicated, and there are many things we still don’t know about each other, but I have this sense it doesn’t really matter.”

“I know, I feel it in my gut,” Kayla nodded, smiling at him. “It sounds naïve,” she shook her head. “But I don’t care.”

Her arms were around his neck in a flash when his mouth slanted over hers, the kiss sweet yet urgent. She tasted of champagne, and he loved hearing her breathing accelerate as he deepened the kiss. When she pulled away, breathless, she spared a nervous glance at the rest of the bar.

“Oops, maybe that’s a little too much PDA,” she whispered.

“Trust me, no one here cares,” Ezra waved a hand. “The humans are used to seeing all sorts of things, and the vampires are certainly not easily shocked. Once you’ve been alive a certain amount of time, the affairs of others become inconsequential. What importance does someone else’s opinion hold when you’ve had decades to get to know yourself?”

“That actually sounds… nice,” Kayla remarked. “I tend to care too much about what people think,” she admitted.

“You’re considerate, and I like that about you. But you shouldn’t let fear get in the way of you showing everyone how amazing you really are,” Ezra replied, pulling her to her feet.

“What are you up to now?” she asked, throwing him a warning look.

“Showing you how not to care,” he replied, waving a waitress over.

Whispering in her ear so Kayla wouldn’t hear, he asked the woman to play a song for them, something slow and romantic. The waitress nodded and gave him a quick smile before running off.

“I have a feeling you’re not going to tell me what that was about,” Kayla remarked.

“You’ll see soon enough,” he replied, leading her toward the small stage near the back wall.

She protested at first, especially when smooth jazz started coming from the speakers, with a woman’s smoky voice singing about finding that special someone. But she let herself be pulled along nonetheless, blushing yet smiling to herself as well.

“Why not let everyone see the prettiest girl in the whole place is mine?” he asked, as they took the couple of steps to the stage and he pulled her closer.

With one arm around her waist and her hand in his, they started to slowly dance, bodies moving to the music and eyes glued to each other.

“You are such a flatterer,” Kayla rolled her eyes at him, as he led her around the stage.

“Just honest,” he winked, and she just shook her head, grinning from ear to ear.

Having her in his arms felt like the most natural thing. The future was still uncertain, with him being immortal and her being human complicating things, but he didn’t want to think about that now. All he wanted was to enjoy the moment.

When he dipped her low and kissed her throat, she giggled, and when he pulled her back up, she wrapped her arms behind his neck.

“Even if everyone was staring at us right now, would you care?” he asked, whispering the question into her ear.

“I had already forgotten there was anyone else here,” she replied.

* * *

Kayla was still smiling when they got back home, and Ezra watched her hips sway in that skintight dress of hers, unable to keep his eyes off her.

“I liked that place,” she said over her shoulder, before heading for the bathroom.

“I hope the company had something to do with it,” he called out after her, before sitting down on the couch.

Ezra knew his Maker was eager for an update, and he had felt his phone buzzing in his pocket before. No doubt it was Stephen, trying to get more information on Kayla. He knew he would have to call him back eventually, but spending time with Kayla seemed more important at the moment.

“It did,” she replied, returning to the living room with her hair now up in a bun and her earrings gone.

Curling up next to him, she grabbed the remote from between the couch cushions, but didn’t turn the TV on.

“What show should I introduce you to next?” she mused aloud, tapping her chin with her finger. “If you’re going to be walking around with a flip phone, you should at least know a little something about popular culture to make up for it,” she teased.

“Are you making fun of me?” Ezra asked, raising a brow at her. “No respect for the undead these days,” he huffed dramatically, making her giggle.

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask, though…” she said, growing more serious. “Do you like it? Being a vampire, I mean. I know it’s kind of a silly question…”

“You can ask me whatever you want,” he assured her. “And it’s a valid question. Many grow tired of endless existence, especially the ones who haven’t found someone to share their lives with or have lost them.

“But other than that, on the physical side… I never get tired, I barely need to sleep, I’m faster and stronger than any other creature out there,” he counted off, “and I save a ton of money on food.”

Kayla rolled her eyes at him, but there was a smile on her lips.

“But you’re still the same person you were before?” she asked.

That made him think a little harder, and maybe prompted him to be a little more honest when looking at himself than he had been recently.

“I think at my core I’m still the same,” he said, thinking back on himself lifetimes ago. “I make the same bad jokes, I like to have fun, I’m loyal to the people I care about… I guess I have been feeling somewhat lost lately, and distracting myself with one party after the next.

“Time has an effect on all of us, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still me. Stephen turning me only changed me physically, any other changes came with experiences, like they tend to do.”

“I think you’ve made me different,” Kayla replied, sounding far away.

“I hope in a good way,” he prodded, wrapping an arm around her.

“Definitely,” she smiled back at him, tilting her head upward, her eyes darting to his lips.

To his frustration, there was suddenly a loud knock on the door just as he was about to kiss her. Even Kayla groaned as she let her head fall back on the headrest. Ezra only counted one heartbeat in the hallway, its rhythm a little faster than usual.

“Hold that thought, I’ll see who it is,” she said, getting up from the couch.

“Whoever it is, they better make it quick. I’m not a patient man when it comes to kissing you,” he warned.

Kayla gave him a brief grin over her shoulder before pulling the door open, and Ezra could see her skid to a halt and still as she saw who it was.

Seth. What the fuck are you doing here? Ezra thought, but didn’t say aloud.

Whatever business the man had here was between him and Kayla, and Ezra didn’t want to intervene. Kayla’s ex might be a huge douche, but that didn’t give Ezra the right to butt into her private affairs.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” Seth asked, his eyes darting over her shoulder to Ezra. “Alone?” he added.

“Seth…” Kayla started, but Seth didn’t let her finish.

“I know it’s late. I came by before but you weren’t here. I just need a moment,” he said, and from the way Kayla’s shoulders slumped, Ezra knew she would agree.

“Can you give us a minute?” she asked, turning back to Ezra.

“If that’s what you want,” he shrugged, and Kayla shot him a brief, grateful smile.

Retreating to her bedroom, Ezra couldn’t help but keep an ear on their conversation. For him, it was easy to hear, and he could only avoid making out every word perfectly if he really tried tuning it out.

He didn’t feel like putting in the effort, this time.

Why are you here, Seth? Kayla asked, and Ezra was wondering the same thing.

To stop himself from pacing around the room like a caged lion, Ezra pulled out his phone, only to see it was dead. If Stephen was trying to reach him and found his cell turned off, who knew what kind of scenarios his Maker could be cooking up in his head already?

The man is getting paranoid in his old age, Ezra thought, just as he spotted Kayla’s laptop on her desk. A quick e-mail might calm him down.

As he opened the up the laptop, he could hear Seth talking about making mistakes and whatnot, but he found it hard to focus on that conversation when he saw what popped up on Kayla’s screen.

What is this… he wondered, his eyes quickly scanning the document in front of him. An exposé… on vampires?

Ezra could hardly believe his eyes, but there it was, right in front of him, in black and white. A dark thought entered his mind, one that he hadn’t ever even considered just a moment before.

Has Kayla been playing me this whole time?