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I first began to learn it, and it was years before I could play it without making major mistakes. From what my piano teacher told me, it was one of the hardest pieces to play. Most of her students never mastered it.
    As I began the opening notes to “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2” by Franz Liszt, I noticed I was not anxious like I normally was when I played the piece. It is a difficult song, and at around ten minutes long at my preferred tempo, it was also exhausting. This time, the song flowed from the end of my fingertips and onto the keys like water flowing over rocks in a river. It was inexplicable, but I felt completely comfortable playing for the first time since I was a young child.
    My fingers danced over the keys as I played the song, and the glow from the candelabrum was so warm I could almost feel it on my skin in the crisp, cool air of the church. I abandoned every other thought, and I just let the song flow forth. I hadn’t noticed, but I closed my eyes a few moments into the song and I played by touch alone. This song was so much a part of me that I did not need to see the keys. I knew every finger movement by heart.
    At the end of the piece, I didn’t feel drained as I usually did when I played it. I felt energized – alive. I looked over at Kai, and he appeared to be mesmerized. He did not speak; he just looked at me.
    At once, I became a little self-conscious. I cleared my throat, and I stood up. Kai just watched me as I stepped away from the piano. I looked back at it, trying to turn my eyes away from Kai. His pale eyes seemed to be burning into me, and it was difficult to look at him. Why did he stare at me so intently?
    “Please,” he finally said. “Sit with me.”
    He beckoned me over by motioning toward the pew, and I picked my way across the floor to sit at the other end of the pew. He did not seem to be bothered by the fact that I sat as far away from him as I could. I had never been alone with a human, and I was terrified of what I might do to him if the hunger overcame me. He just kept looking at me with those intense blue eyes. Again, he cocked his head to the side as he looked at me – apparently still trying to figure me out.
    I sighed and absently brushed a piece of lint off my pants. I didn’t know what to say or do. I felt uneasy, and I thought perhaps I should go play something else. I had felt so comfortable while I was playing, and now the feelings of insecurity and awkwardness had come rushing back in. Were all humans so terribly befuddling?
    “Enchanting,” Kai said suddenly.
    “What?” I asked, confused.
    “The music,” he clarified. “When you play, it is absolutely enchanting.”
    I blushed and looked down at my hands, which twisted nervously in my lap.
    “I have heard those songs a thousand times before, but when you play them they sound different somehow,” he told me. “I can’t explain it.”
    I didn’t know what to say. It was a compliment, but it didn’t seem like something I should thank him for saying.
    “What time do you have to be home?” he asked me.
    “I don’t have a curfew,” I told him.
    He raised one eyebrow at me quizzically. I guess it was unusual for a seventeen-year-old girl to have no curfew. I had never had one. After all, vampires love the night, and my mother knew I could easily defend myself. Even as a young child, I could have overtaken an adult human male with no effort whatsoever. If he was shocked, he did not say so.
    “Do you want to go to the beach?” he asked me out of the blue.
    “The beach?” I mumbled. “I’ve never been.”
    “Never been to the beach?” he questioned. “But it’s only a few miles from here.”
    “I know,” I said uncomfortably. “I’ve… just never been.”
    The beach isn’t exactly a place vampires typically go. We sunburn so easily, and we’re not fond of exposing our pale skin in swimsuits. It had never even occurred to me to go. We don’t turn to smoldering ash in the sunlight like the