Desire of the Soul by Alana Topakian

sweet, standing there with his eyes all lit up and that adorable smile. I nodded, and watched as he pulled strawberries out of my fridge and put them into a glass bowl. They didn’t smell all that appetizing, but I chalked that up to my body not needing to eat food anymore. Blood was definitely enough to support my system.
    After just one strawberry and a long stint in the bathroom, most of which was spent throwing up, I learned the hard way. Human food and my system did not go together. At all.
    “I’m so sorry Tammy, I should never have even suggested giving you food. That was so stupid of me, so stupid,” Luke said, rubbing at the scruff on his chin.
    “It’s okay, at least I figured out what would happen should I eat food in front of other humans,”   answered back, shrugging my shoulders. “I mean I’ve seen Duke eat, and he seemed to tolerate it, but I guess that’s since he’s a lot older than I am. Sorry you had to see that, Luke.”
    “Duke…isn’t that the guy who I made you call? The one who-” Lukes’ mouth dropped, and he stepped away from me. “I-oh God, I am so sorry Tammy. It was my fault; you’re like this because of me. I did this to you!” he exclaimed, hands pulling at his hair.
    I felt the world start to spin, my heart dropping as I felt myself start to pull away from my body.
    “Tammy? Tammy are you okay?” Luke asked, and I felt him grab onto my arms.  
    “Go, leave now and get Duke. Hurry!” I managed to whisper, before I felt myself fall to the ground and separate from my broken body.
    I looked down and watched as Luke scrambled to his feet, running out of the house as if he knew what was about to happen should he stay. That was impossible though, he was just a human, human’s didn’t know about us. Right?
     

Secrets
     
    I was floating again, floating through time. Colors twirled past me as I went back in time, creating a rainbow for me to look at. But, instead of going years in the past like last time, I was kicked out of the swirl that was time. I landed roughly on my butt in the middle of a dirty bar, only a couple weeks back from the present.  
    Luke was sitting at the counter sipping at a beer; he definitely used his fake ID to get it, and was chatting with another guy. Duke. My heartbeat sped up as I started at him smiling and laughing as though he had no care in the world.  
    “All right Luke, you seem like a pretty cool guy, but I have to do this. It’s the only way I can get to her. Listen to what I say; we just got into a terrible bar fight and you beat me up pretty bad. You’ll use that as an excuse to have your girlfriend call me, because if she doesn’t then I might sue,” Duke said, his words wrapping around Luke like ribbon.
    Luke’s’ eyes glazed over, and he repeated the words that Duke said to him. “A bar fight, I hurt you, you want to sue,” he mimicked, and walked toward the door that was the exit of the bar.
    Without another word Duke zipped away, my body trailing after him as he took familiar twists and turns that without a doubt led to my house. He jumped into the large acorn tree in front of my bedroom window, and my body instinctively repeated his movements.  
    “I’m coming for you Tammy,” he whispered, looking at my closed window. “Don’t worry.”
    I remember this night perfectly. I had thought there was a noise outside and so I had run to my window and looked out of it.  
    Just as I expected, my face peered out of the window like a ghost. Duke backed against the tree, blending into the dark shadows the branches had created. My face searched for another minute before giving up and moving away from the window, and I exhaled a long breath. I hadn’t been crazy. There really had been someone outside my window! But why Duke? How did he know me? And why did he not just make himself invisible to me?  
    It would’ve been a hell of a lot easier for him, since moving caused rustling of the leaves. It didn’t matter how quiet you