“You’re the one asking the questions.”
“How’d he end up here? I mean no offense or anything, but this is a pretty obscure town. Did he know people here?”
I cringed. The other shoe was about to drop. I had hoped he wouldn’t ask this until his brain was fully wrapped around my earlier confession. How did I tell him without completely freaking him out? He hadn’t launched off the dock yet. Maybe he could handle this. Again, I chewed on my lip as I looked at him. Another deep breath.
“Cami?”
“Will, I...my family isn’t exactly unique in this town.”
There it was, the rest of the story. If he was going to run, this would be the opportune time. But he didn’t. He remained at my side blinking wildly-mouth agape. I was about to make sure he was still breathing when he sputtered out his next question.
“N-not unique?” he managed. “As in, there are more like you?”
I winced as I nodded a confirmation.
“A lot more?”
I nodded again. “That’s the ancient rumor.”
He remained motionless. I was sure a light glaze formed over his eyes. Fantastic. He’s having a heart attack. Why did I have to tell him? He had somehow figured the first part of our secret, so it was only a matter of time before he figured out the second on his own. I liked that scenario better because then I wouldn’t have been responsible for his death.
His eyes finally closed and I waited anxiously for him to pass out “I don’t understand,” he murmured, but I wasn’t even sure that he was talking to me anymore. “How many?”
“I don’t know, there are supposedly some families like mine. But there are some individuals too. I’m not sure if anyone knows how many. The rumor has always been that the Inn is where new vampires would stay until they could get accustomed to life here, and then they would move into their own homes.”
His eyes fluttered open. “Do the -uh- normal people know about this?” His face contorted fruitlessly to find a better word.
“Normal?” I laughed. “Are you suggesting I’m not normal? In case you haven’t caught on to what I just said, William, you are the one who’s not normal around here.” I laughed even harder. It was somewhat relieving to have a break in the seriousness of the day. I hadn’t anticipated I would be spending today letting Will in on our town’s dirty little secret. It was the farthest thing from my mind yesterday.
My cackle seemed to lighten Will’s intensity as well. A smile cracked the hardened facade his face had become. “Wow. I guess I am the weird one.”
“I’m sorry,” I apologized, stifling my amusement. “I know it’s a lot for you to absorb. Actually, I’m a little shocked your uncle didn’t tell you.”
“I don’t think he knew.”
“Really?”
I never spent much time wondering if Mr. Townsend knew, actually I’d never really wondered who did know. Although he had lived here long enough to hear it from someone, he was extremely reclusive.
“Yeah, actually I’m positive he didn’t know.”
“He would have told you?”
His face was troubled again. “Without a doubt.”
He stared out over the lake again. I could only imagine the things he was thinking. It’s not every day you learn that the town you’ve adopted is full of centuries-old refugees. I hoped he wouldn’t revert to the vile thoughts he had before. I thought I had been able to change his mind. His preconceived notions about my family were awful. I didn’t want him to think of us that way.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked.
His gaze didn’t break away from the lake. “I really don’t know what to think right now.”
“You’re wishing you never moved here, huh.”
He nodded absentmindedly. “Wait...what? No, Cami. That’s not it. I’m glad I came here. Very.” His hand brushed away the hair I was hiding under.
His smile made my heart skip. So far, he was still happy to be here. That was good. However, there was a “but...” coming. I could feel it. After all, he didn’t say he was staying either. In all my paranoia, I didn’t notice he was watching me again. He elbowed my side.
“What are you thinking about?”
I was sure he meant ‘what are you freaking out about?’ “You.”
“You’re thinking I’m going to rocket out of here aren’t you?” He laughed.
“That did cross my mind.”
“Well, I’m not. I’ve lived in worse conditions.”
Worse than this? I didn’t think that was possible. “Oh yeah, right. Worse than a town crawling with lame vampires.”
“How about town crawling with hungry vampires,” he joked.
His thirst for knowledge hadn’t yet been quenched. “How do you know who is and who isn’t like you? Especially if you aren’t even sure how many of you there are?”
“The Inn, remember? Supposedly the oldest families in town belong to a sort of membership. It’s an exclusive club for freaks.” I laughed.
“Oh good. So my uncle and I work for a support group for cannibals.”
“Will!” I choked. “I cannot believe you just said that!”
The remorse swept across his face. “Sorry. Sometimes I speak before I think.”
“So I see.”
“In this little club of yours, are they all like you? Or are there varying degrees of... vampirism?”
I’d never heard it put that way before. Varying degrees. He really was trying to understand. “Vampirism?”
“Humor me please.”
“I suppose there are varying degrees. There aren’t any full or even half around here. I don’t know about the rest. It is all rumor though, Will. Its just speculation that that is why the Inn is exclusive. I really think it’s to keep the super annoying folks in town away from it with the exception of large events, like the ball this weekend.” I hadn’t thought about any of it for a significant amount of time since I was a little girl.
Juanita first introduced me to “our kind” through stories she told when I visited her at the store as child. It was the best way she knew how. It was funny to think how those fairytales had been my favorite part of the day then. I dreamt of far off places, fancy parties, and my prince that I would one day find. The stories became more truth than fiction as I got older. By the time I was ten, I knew everything. And the fairytales were replaced by nightmares.
“Doesn’t it ever worry you?” he interrupted my nostalgia.
“What?”
Once again, he was trying to find the best way to ask a question without offending me. “Doesn’t it ever worry you that someone might expose what’s going on here...or worse, that one of you will... slip?”
Another good question.
“Not really. We have…safeguards?” I was at a loss for the right word. That was as close as I could think of.
“Safeguards?” he smirked. “What, like vampire repellent?”
A disgusted growl escaped my throat.
“Sorry!” he laughed. “I did it again. I really have to stop talking!”
“No not a spray...people. Guardians, watchers, I don’t know what they’re called. They just keep us protected.”
His interest perked at the suggestion of a group of protectors. “Who are they?”
His interrogation left me thinking there was an enormous gap in my knowledge of the most basic and important facts of my own existence. I had never asked these questions because by the time I was old enough to have the nerve to ask, I no longer believed. He had been able to think of them so easily. I sighed. “I don’t know that either.”
I wondered if my sudden curiosity about it all would alarm my grandmother. Speaking about this to me was not her favorite thing. Perhaps this is why she wasn’t fond of the idea of me spending so much time with Will. She saw how close we were becoming and didn’t want him knowing the truth. She wanted to spare me the trouble of telling him? Was she protecting me? She definitely didn’t anticipate us getting so close. She wasn’t
the only one.
“There was a hunter, awhile ago, his body was found around here. Was that a one of you?”
“Ew. No, Will, that’s awful. He was a hunter, and you’re in north Idaho, remember? It’s very sad, but hunting accidents aren’t that unusual.”
“Well then how do you know? How do you know they are ...guarding?” he asked.
He really should have been a reporter.
I hated the thought of saying it again. “I told you, it’s not real. And even if it were, I wouldn’t know how. And I hope I never have to find out.”
“Yeah,” he agreed.
It was quiet between us; the comfortable silence again, as we both digested the conversation. There was a lot to think about and a lot for him to decide as well. Did he want to stay? I couldn’t see why not. Nothing had changed, except for his newfound wisdom of the valley’s supposed supernatural history.
“You never answered my question, you know,” he finally said.
“What’s that?” I was pretty sure I had answered every significant question he fired at me.
“Why here?”
“Oh, yeah, well.” I looked around at the mountains that surrounded the lake. “The largest concentration of silver in the world used to be in these mountains. A long time ago, before they started to mine it all out, that is.”
Will looked even more confused. “Silver? I was under the impression that silver was bad for werewolves. Silver bullets, you know.”
As fascinated as I once was with the subject, I was really not into this history lesson. “There is no such thing as werewolves, Will. And no, it has to do with something about the first human to become a vampire betrayed someone and received payment in silver. Whether or not that’s the case, silver is fatal to vampires. It is why my Great-Grandfather decided to live in a town that had settled right smack in the center of it.”
The light bulb switched on. “Oh,” he said. “Like the eye of the storm. They’re safe inside.”
“Precisely.”
“Wow,” he let out, impressed. “That’s genius.”
He seemed satisfied. Good. It was completely humiliating telling him the ridiculous lore of this valley. While I never once in my lifetime witnessed anything that would lead me to believe it was at all real, it was still real to some people. It was real enough, in fact, to ignite a fury among a small population that referred to themselves the “purists,” although I never really understood why. Most of them had issues far superior to a sketchy family tree. They did believe that there were still vampires that lingered, and that citizens were protecting them. It was not uncommon for them to hold small protests at town hall meetings, especially this time of year. They actually believed Halloween was the height of vampire activity and that their neighbors might sneak into their houses at night to bleed them out. Their ignorance amazed me.
I snuck a quick peek at Will to see if I could read his face. Nope.
“Are you afraid of me now?”
He snorted. “Should I be?”
“I don’t know. You know everything now.”
He leaned toward me with narrow eyes. “Are you going to bite me?”
I stared back at him, contemplating my answer. I just might if he didn’t tell me what he was thinking! “No.”
He leaned closer, only inches away from my face, still scrutinizing me. A grin slowly curled at the corner of his mouth. “Then no, I’m not afraid. And you need to stop worrying about what I think. You are who you are, Cami. Don’t be ashamed.”
“I am not ashamed!” Am I?
His eyebrows questioned me.
“I’m not. I just don’t believe any of it.”
“Why not?”
“Because Will, real vampires? Come on. If I were a quarter vampire, or whatever, wouldn’t I want to drink blood? The thought of it makes me ill. And even though we have these watchers to keep us safe, wouldn’t I have a need for it? How do you explain that?”
I’ve been sure for a long time that it was all just a lousy reason for those who were too lazy back in the day to work in the silver mines. Irelynn’s more fitting theory was that the mine owners wanted to scare people away from the area so there would be no competition. We shared a similar talent of seeing through loads of crap.
“And don’t you think people would notice if someone’s hand bursts into flames when they touched a piece of silver or walked out in the sunlight? It’s kind of hard to hide that kind of thing.”
He shook his head. “Blame it on allergies.” He laughed again when I rolled my eyes. “And?”
“Right. Allergies. And.” I repeated. “Food supply? It’s impossible; vampires would eventually use up the supply of blood. And then what would happen? They’d turn on each other?”
“Cami, there are like six and a half billion people in the world. They are reproducing rather quickly and finding cures for diseases every day. I think the supply is fine.”
He had an answer for everything. “Do you have ODD? Everything I say, you debate. You can’t deny the fact that people might run into their loved ones they thought were dead. It’s a small world.”
“Doppelgangers.”
“Gah!” Without thinking, I punched him in the stomach. He doubled over in mock pain, laughing. I pummeled his shoulder more until he grabbed my hand.
“Okay!” he whined.
He stood, pulling me with him. His long arms wrapped tightly around my shoulders, burying my laughs into his chest. I wanted so badly in that moment, against the warmth of his body, to climb up inside his shirt and stay there with him, forever. I waited for his grip to ease but it didn’t, only becoming tighter when I squirmed closer into his shoulder.
The tiny voice inside that I loved to ignore was nudging into my happy place. I had been away from the house a long time. If she hadn’t already, Dorothy would be checking on me. And while it wasn’t unusual for me to sleep late on Sundays, today her eagle eyes would be focused on me. She was probably already on her way home from church instead of staying to help clean. I had to go soon. I groaned.
Will pulled back a little. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know what to do about Dorothy,” I said through a heavy sigh. “She’s put the kibosh on me—us. I don’t think there will be anymore sneaking around.”
He considered that for a moment. “Definitely not. She’ll be pretty busy this week with the festival and all that. I’ll be at the Inn finishing a side project she’s got me working on. We can see each other then. That’s not much, but it will do until we figure something else out.”
“I know my parents will save me from her paranoia. I can’t wait to see them,” I complained, burying my head again.
He cupped my face in his hands and stared into my eyes. “It will all work out.”
6
Shawn’s voice boomed from the porch followed by a cluster of different laughs, including the one that I was most worried about. Dorothy. He was making so much noise that I didn’t bother trying to shut the back door quietly. I came around the corner from the kitchen and was met by my green-eyed friend.
“Where have you been?” Irelynn whispered anxiously. “They’ve been trying to come in for an hour to check on you. You owe him big.”
I gave her a quick hug before rushing out to save Shawn. “I love you guys.”
“Calm down, you just woke up, remember?”
“Right.” I acknowledged her cue and calmed myself before walking out the door onto the porch.
The ladies greeted me with warm smiles.
Hazel was the first to ask how I was feeling and just when I thought she was going to spare me by not asking how the injury occurred, I saw the question form on her lips. Irelynn did too.
“We have shopping to do, ladies. The Inn isn’t going to decorate itself. C’mon Shawn.”
Shawn smiled and bowed as if he were on stage. “Ladies, it’s been a pleasure.”
We shot off the porch and piled into Shawn’s car as quickly as we could. And that’s when
the inquiry began. What did happen to me? Why wasn’t I there? Why were the ladies having a low toned discussion about Will when they’d arrived to pick me up?
I pacified them by telling them that it was no big deal. I rolled my ankle last night and was just out visiting Will this morning without telling her and that upset her. I wasn’t ready to relive the drama of this morning.
Shopping for the decorations was a disaster, but I tried to contain it to the confines of my mind. My heart ached to be with Will again which ruined any chance of focusing on what they were saying. I felt guilty, but each minute wrenched a part of my soul along as it passed. How would I be able to survive not seeing him all the time like I had? I was forced to play by Dorothy’s rules until Mexico, which seemed like an eternity away.
Shawn tried several times to get me to talk about what I was toiling over, but my depressed mood eventually started to get on his nerves.
“Seriously Cams. The whole teen angst thing doesn’t look good on you. Cheer up, will ya?”
“Shut up, Shawn. Leave her alone and help me,” Irelynn ordered.
“I’m bored with this. I thought we were going to hang out today. Not shop till you drop on. OH! Ribbons and bows,” he mocked.
Irelynn held a roll of ribbon to his throat. “What if I hung you by the ribbon? Would that be more interesting?”
“Your threats mean nothing to me, woman.” He waived her off and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me. “Snap out of it!”
“Boo!” Irelynn jeered, pushing the shopping cart forward.
When she was around the corner, Shawn whispered into my ear. “You’re upstaging the drama queen.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay! I’m sorry, I’m just a little preoccupied, but I’m over it. No more angst. Just regular old sarcastic me.”
His face lit up. “Yeah.” He rounded the corner of the aisle and jogged to Irelynn shouting. “She’s back!”
It took several trips to and from the art supply store to unload all of the decorations for the ball. Luckily there were enough volunteers to make the trips short. By the time the last box was in the Inn’s dining hall, we were exhausted. Not too tired, though, for me to take a quick look around the grounds to see if Will had arrived. I spied his truck safely rusting away in the parking lot.
The Valley Page 10