Harsh Light of Day

by Jaye A. Jones

  **

  “Hello, Declan,” she said casually into the shadows.

  Stepping into the light, Declan nodded, “hello, Annabelle.”

  “How long have you been skulking about?” she asked with a touch of joking.

  Declan cast his eyes to the pitch black horizon. “Since one hour after she ran off.”

  “Does she know you are here?”

  “No.”

  They walked together slowly, looking straight ahead. Declan was too preoccupied by his memories to say more, not that he and Annabelle had lengthy conversations as it was.

  But Lena was all he could think of, and it was overwhelming. For years, he had perfected his ability to push the unwanted thoughts away. There was no point in remembering how Lena once was, because she was not that girl anymore. That was what he had told himself.

  But the memory of himself standing at her door with a fistful of mismatched flowers he had picked out of gardens in town haunted him now. Oh, how he felt insecure and out of place. Declan had no idea how people behaved on dates. He could not quite believe he was about to take a human out on the town. It was absurd.

  Declan remembered berating himself, and nearly talked himself out of seeing her. But then she opened the door, and the first thing she said was, “are you all right?”

  How she could read his expressions, he did not know. Only vampires could read the subtleties within the controlled face, the cold eyes, the lifelessness of another vampire. But not only could Lena look at Declan and not be frightened, she actually saw him.

  “They’ll be here tomorrow,” Annabelle offered up to the silence.

  Declan ignored his thoughts for a moment to respond, “Yes, but not before dusk.”

  “Of course.”

  After their first date, Declan was enchanted by Lena in a way he had been convinced was impossible. After only a short time, their love was epic, mythic, and all-consuming. Declan could not understand why such a person like Lena would allow herself to love a creature like him. Even after she found out what he was, even after she was faced with the truth of their choices, she loved him. A stubborn, unyielding love that, no matter his protests, she refused to deny or let fade.

  Declan found the more he was around her the more he wanted to be around her. It went beyond her unexplainable ability to make him feel like the best version of himself, even though that only intensified with the time they spent together.

  He did not want to turn her and she did not want to be turned.

  “You will love me when I’m wrinkled and senile and can’t even remember who you are?” she asked him one night.

  “I will.”

  “You will love me even though I get my entire life with you, but you only get a small part of your eternal life with me?”

  “I will love you unconditionally until the day you leave this world. And on that day, you will know there is someone left on the Earth that will love you for all eternity. All of the years of my immortal life, Lena. I swear to that.”

  Lena smiled her radiant, pure smile, nuzzled Declan’s neck in the intimate way she always did.

  “Man am I gonna be one lucky old lady.”

  The edges of Declan’s lips rose slightly at the memory, and Annabelle could see his expression out of the corner of her eye. But she knew him well enough not to ask any questions.

  “Will you talk to her before Colin’s arrival?” Annabelle asked instead.

  “Yes.”

  She stopped then at the abrupt, little word, turned to Declan and asked, “What will you tell her?”

  The memories made his heart ache. They flooded in now like he was being haunted by them. The hot honey and human blood scent of her filled his head and intoxicated his thoughts.

  “I cannot make this decision for you. If I could, I would make it so there was no decision to make,” he had told her.

  “But this is how life is. No one gets anything without paying a price. You were willing to stay with me during my short, little life and spend the rest of yours with nothing but memories. Declan, don’t you see? This is my price.”

  “For what?”

  “For getting to have you. For one day, or for eternity.”

  Oh, how he missed who he was with her. He had been something worthy of her affection then. Sure, he was a monster, but he did not have to be evil.

  “Declan,” Annabelle whispered tentatively, then repeated, “What do you plan to tell her?”

  He met Annabelle’s eyes, and she was stricken by the force within him. It exuded off him with the last word he spoke before disappearing once again into the shadows.

  “Everything.”