I turned to see a young man standing behind me with his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He was blushing severely and biting his lower lip.

"Yes?"

"Um, my friend over there wants to buy you a drink." He turned and pointed to the end of the bar.

I glanced over to see a tall, muscular, blond guy waving at me.

"Then why didn't he come over here and ask me himself?"

"I don't know." The kid blushed again and looked down at the floor. "Maybe he's shy."

"Him?" I laughed softly. "No offense love, but you seem to be the shy one out of that boisterous group."

I had noticed the entire pack of them walk in to the pub an hour earlier. They were drunk and loud and pretty obnoxious. All of them except this one. He was definitely younger than the others, by at least five years. I figured he was legal, but probably not by much. Nineteen, twenty tops. He was also a head shorter than the rest of the guys, which would have made him barely taller than me at five foot five. He was kind of scrawny, with dark hair cut military short and big, wide blue eyes framed by the thickest eyelashes I had ever seen. Basically, he was exactly my kind of man.

"What's your name sweetie," I asked him.

"Mouse," he said softly.

"Mouse? That can't be your real name."

"No, my real name is Colin. But everyone calls me Mouse."

"I wonder why." I smiled.

"Because I'm so quiet I guess, and I'm kind of small," he said.

"Yeah, I got that. I was being sarcastic. You're not that great with people are you?"

"I'm okay. I just don't like to talk a lot."

"Not even to me?"

"Especially not to you."

His answer startled me a little. "What's wrong with me?"

"Well, for starters you're a vampire." His face turned so red it was almost glowing. I could see the blood pumping faster up the vein in his throat. Cute and smart ... sort of.

"What makes you think that?"

He gave me an eloquent look, somewhere between confusion and "you're fucking kidding me, right".

I smiled, making sure my fangs peeked out between my lips. His eyes widened but he didn't step back, which impressed me.

"You're not so scared you'd run from me?"

"I never said I was scared, I'm just not a big fan of vampires."

"I see. And how did you know I was a vampire?" I watched his face to see if he'd attempt to lie to me. But he didn't. Instead he leaned closer and whispered against my ear.

"I could smell you a mile away." His tone made it sound sensual not offensive.

"And what do I smell like?"

"Peaches ... and death." He moved back and watched me struggle with my next words.

"Not very flattering, love." I laughed softly, though not because of any humour in the situation. It was more of a nervous laugh. Which was ridiculous. I could have crushed the kid like a bug under my Manolo Blahnik clad heel. But something about the look he gave me made me question that thought as soon as I had it.