Lilith couldn't help but gape at him again. While Lilith was still in a daze and at a loss for words, Kyle slowly but naturally stretched out his hand to tuck some strands of her unruly red hair that had gone rouge to the back of her ear. What he did made her eyes grow wide and then, out of the blue, her palms made a sound as they landed on both sides of his cheeks, effectively giving him something between a slap and squeeze of his cheeks between her hands.
"If you think your cheesy lines will make me stay with you, then you're wrong. Those words of yours just makes people feel more embarrassed and want to hide their faces, and that is about it. So stop…" Lilith trailed off because for the first time, the vampire showed her a really bemused expression. His expressive eyes even flashed such a strong displeasure after hearing all that she had said.
Blinking, Lilith nibbled on the inside of her lower lip, not knowing what else to say or add to express her stand.
"Why don't you believe me?" he asked, his expression serious, his voice sounding exasperated.
Lilith eased back, about to pull her hands away from his face, but Kyle grabbed her wrists, stopping her movements and keeping her palms there on his cheeks.
"Answer me. Can you tell me why you don't believe me?" he probed, and Lilith's eyes was focusing on everything and looked everywhere but his face.
"Well, because… I'm a witch and we just met a while ago… we're just strangers."
"Strangers…" he echoed her words and Lilith was forced to look at his unusual eyes. His brows were knitted tightly together. "We stood up for each other, held each other's hands, embraced each other for many minutes, and now were talking to each other like this…" his voice died down and he closed his eyes and smiled awkwardly. "Since I held your hand for the first time a while ago until now, I never thought or felt you're a stranger." He sighed. "When you let me hold your hand and clung to me, I thought you felt the same way."
Speechless, Lilith didn't know how to react but used this opportunity to gently ease her hands from his grasp and back into her lap. Why was she in this awkward situation? And how could this vampire… what was he even… Suddenly, she was unable to think properly. She was never caught in situations like these before. She had a lot of friends who were witches and even some human and a few vampire friends as well that were around the same age as her. When she was with them, their chats were usually light-hearted and carefree. There were times when they did get into arguments, but they tend to be childish ones and end up with either parties forgiving the other or just laughing it off. They were all about fun and trying out wild and adventurous stunts. And when they talk about the opposite sex, it was all jokes to her, and she never took it seriously. Maybe because she was never interested in that kind of topic yet, even though she had already turned sixteen just yesterday. It was almost never that they spoke in a serious manner such as how this vampire royal did to her. It truly was the first time.
That was why she was so thrown off and found this vampire incredibly weird and strange. Was it because he is of royal blood? When she thought of the other scary vampire he had called as 'brother', Lilith couldn't help but think that the vampire royals were weird and so very different from the rest, even from the normal vampires.
But as she thought about his last few statements, Lilith realized that in just that short period of time, she had done things with him which she had never done with anyone else before. Remembering that she indeed had let him hold her hand – multiple times, at that – and had allowed him to embrace her for so long. She even recalled having thrown herself at him and clinging so desperately to him that the memory of it now made her face burn red. The most unnerving thing was that she too, never felt or thought of him as stranger until she said it as an excuse – not because it was what she truly felt but because that was the logical thing that she was supposed to say and feel for a person she had just met.
"What is it that got you thinking so hard?" he pulled her out of her thoughts. When her attention was back on him, she realized that he was now leaning against the wall, and she could not help but notice he was a little further from her than before. The chain that bound their hands together was a meter long, so he was able to move somewhat freely away from her and put some distance between them.
"N-nothing," she lied. She wasn't sure what to say to him.
"You look like you're thinking something complicated." His voice became light and chilly again as he spoke with a smile playing at the corner of his lips. "It's fine, you don't have to think any longer on the matter. Even if I'm just a stranger to you, I still like you."
This time, Lilith choked. She really couldn't take the way this vampire deals and speaks with her. Every time he opens his mouth and say something, her entire system would short-circuit and malfunction. His words and actions pulled at her on all sides and confuses her. It felt as if she were a small boat without and oar that is being tossed about in the stormy seas. She really did not know if this little boat – namely, her – would be able to survive more tossing and turning of the waves which was this little highness the vampire prince.
Suddenly, he was next to her, looking worried. His hand in mid-air but it seemed he didn't know where to touch. "Are you okay?"
