Chapter Four

    "My parents are the kind of parents who like ask a lot of questions." I warned him as we walked up to the front door of my house.

    "And I'm the kind of vampire who can deal with that sort of thing." Mark assured me with an arrogant smirk. 

    "You better not pull any of that mind control stuff on them." I threatened, remembering some of the information in the book. "They're gullible enough without it." 

    "No promises. But since you remembered that part, I'll only use it if I feel like I have to." He agreed. 

    "You haven't used that on me have you?" I suddenly asked, and I stopped walking.

    "No. I haven't had the need to. You've been strangely... agreeable with all of this." He shrugged. "Besides, it's against the rules. Like I've said, you're protected."

    I was about to say something else when he started talking again. 

    "Now, why don't we go inside so your parents will stop staring out the window at us." He said lowly to me. "They're wondering where you met me." He informed me. 

    "What? Do you read minds too?" I asked, a little freaked out. 

    "No. I just can hear them talking." He sighed. "We met through a friend. Let's say Ella, since it's not really a lie. We've been hanging out for a few weeks, and I decided to ask you out, but wanted to meet your parents." He summarized as we waited for my mom to open the door. For the first time I paid attention to the clothes he was wearing. Even though he was in jeans and a rather plain black shirt, he still looked like a college kid who was meeting his girlfriends parents. Maybe this wasn't going to be a disaster like I thought. 

    "Okay." I agreed, just as the door opened to reveal my mother.

    "About time. We were wondering where you had wandered off too." She moved aside so we could come inside, but never officially invited Mark in. And since he couldn't enter without an invitation, this posed a problem. For him, at least.

    "Yeah, we just were talking." I told her. "What's for dinner?" I asked, smelling something burn slightly.

    "Sheppard's pie." She told us just as her eyes widened, "Oh, I forgot about that! I hope it's not ruined!" She ran off, and I turned to Mark, who was looking at me with a slight pout on his face. 

    "I don't know whether I should let you in, or see how you handle this situation." I laughed. 

    It was kind of funny. Big bad vampires can be stopped by something as simple as the words, "come in."

    "I could always just use hypnosis on your lovely parents." He reminded me. 

    "Nu-uh." I said, remembering yet another thing from the book. "It's one of your rule things. 'A vampire cannot control the mind of a person of a household into inviting said vampire in.'" I quoted the book, shocking not only myself, but also Mark. "Just like you physically can't come in without an invitation, you physically can't trick yourself in." 

    "Well aren't you on top of things. I see the magic has started to work." He commented. 

    "What magic?" I asked. 

    "Can't say stuff like that out here. Someone might overhear." He told me, which caused me to roll my eyes. 

    "Fine. You're invited in. By all means come in. Just don't kill anyone." I smiled. 

    "Why thanks. I'm so honored." He said sarcastically as he passed the threshold, ignoring my comment about killing.

    "There you two are." My dad said, coming into the room.

    "Yeah, sorry, we got caught up at Ella's work." I apologized. "Dad this is Mark. Mark, this is my dad." As I introduced them, I felt awkward, I didn't think about how awkward this would be until it actually happened.

    "Nice to finally meet you sir. You have a lovely home." Mark greeted. Who would have thought, the vampire had manners and could actually be polite. I smiled to myself. 

    "Wish I could say the same, but I haven't heard about you until now." My dad joked, but sent a questioning look toward me, causing me to send him an awkward smile.

    "Fair enough." Mark said. 

    I was glad that he was deciding to play into my dad's comment too much. It made my life a lot easier when it came to going along with this entire situation. 

    "Why don't you two talk, and I'll go help mom." I said, and quickly made my way out of the room.

    I was hoping with all my heart that Mark didn't do anything that would make this situation worse for me. I honestly didn't understand why we were doing this anyway. 

    "Need any help mom?" I asked as I entered the kitchen, 

    "If you could set the table, that would be great." She told me and I glanced back into the breezeway, and saw Mark and my dad laughing about something. 

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