by Jayme Morse
Brandy raised her eyebrows. “Yeah? How long ago did your mom donate here?”
“She died about two years ago,” Anna replied quietly. “Up until then.”
“What was her name?” Brandy questioned, tearing open a packet of saltine crackers and crumbling them on top of her soup. “I’ve been donating here since around that time. We might have crossed paths at one point.”
“Annemarie Lancefield,” Anna replied.
Brandy’s eyes lit up with recognition. “No way! I knew Annemarie.”
“You did?” Anna questioned, a sense of excitement washing over her. She’d been hoping that she would meet someone besides Darius who had known her mother here, but now that she finally had, she wasn’t sure what to say.
Brandy nodded. “Yeah, she was my mentor when I first started here.” When Anna gave her a confused look, Brandy explained, “If we commit to being donors on a long-term basis, we’re assigned a mentor to help show us the ropes. They teach us about things we should and shouldn’t do as a donor, and how to make sure that we keep this whole thing as healthy—and as safe—as possible for both the vampire and the human.”
Anna nodded understandingly. “This is going to sound weird, but . . . what was my mom like?” When Brandy gave her a raised eyebrow look of confusion, Anna explained, “I mean, what was she like when she was here? She kept this whole thing a secret from me and my dad. Was she happy here?”
Swirling the crackers around her soup, Brandy hesitated. “Annemarie always had a smile on her face. You never saw her without that smile, but . . . there was always a certain sadness behind her eyes.” Brandy met Anna’s eyes. “I don’t know what it was, but I could always sense that she wasn’t one hundred percent happy, you know? It might have been because she missed you.”
Anna felt an empty feeling fill her stomach. She’d been clinging to the idea that her mom had been happy at Westbrooke, but what if she really hadn’t been? Anna had a feeling that she would never know the truth either way, but the idea that her mom might have been unhappy made her feel sad.
“So, what about you?” Anna asked Brandy. “Why are you a donor here?”
Brandy tossed her dark hair over her shoulder. “Well, unlike you, I’m definitely not here by choice. I’m here because my fiancé is a vampire. He killed his last girlfriend. It was on accident, of course. He drained her of too much blood, and well . . . you know. Anyway, he wanted to make sure he doesn’t kill me, too, so he insisted that we go through this program at Westbrooke before our wedding this summer. So, we signed for three years. We’ll actually be done with the program this month.”
“Congratulations. You must be so excited that you’re almost done,” Anna said.
Brandy grinned. “You wouldn’t believe how excited I am. It’s been so hard keeping this whole thing a secret from my family and friends. I would never tell them the truth about him being a vampire, so they think we’re living abroad because Jansen, my fiancé, had to move there for work. It will just be a big relief to go back home. And I can’t wait to get married. I’ve been working out the details with a wedding planner, and our wedding is going to be gorgeous.”
Anna speared a slice of tomato with her plastic fork before asking hesitantly, “Can I ask you a personal question?”
Brandy raised an eyebrow at her. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Are you going to become a vampire yourself?” Anna questioned.
Brandy shrugged. “I don’t know if I am. There are times when I think I want to be one, just so I’ll always be here with Jansen. I’d hate to think about what would happen to him when I die. I mean, he doesn’t even do his own laundry, you know? He’s so dependent on me.” She spooned some soup in her mouth before shaking her head and explaining, “But then there are times when the idea of becoming a vampire scares me. I don’t want to have to drink blood. I can’t even stand the sight of it.” Brandy wrapped her arms around her chest and shuddered.
Anna smiled. “The sight of blood has never bothered me, actually.”
“Yeah? Well, maybe you should become a vampire then,” Brandy said with a chuckle.
“Maybe,” Anna murmured. She would know if she should become a vampire soon.
*
“Are you ready for your blood donation session?” Darius asked, as Anna tossed her empty salad bowl in the trash once she had finished eating.
Anna felt a knot tighten in her stomach. Even though she didn’t feel ready, she knew that she was just as ready as she would ever be.
Glancing up at Darius, Anna nodded. “Yes,” she said quietly. “I’m ready.”
“Marvelous!” Darius grinned with excitement. “Now, the vampire who I’ve lined you up with today is named Peter. As I explained to you before, we try to choose our donors for our vampires based on their blood type. Peter thrives on O- blood, so I think this will be a wonderful match.” He led her out of the cafeteria and down the hallway. “There are several things that you should know before you enter the live donation room.”
“What are they?” Anna asked, as a worried feeling filled the pit of her stomach. She wondered why Darius had waited until the last minute to fill her in on everything.
“The first thing you should know is that there’s no reason to be afraid. It’s not likely that this could ever be an unsafe donation. Our vampires in training have already mastered blood quantity. They’re not allowed to feed from our live donors until they are able to fully comprehend how much blood is too much. Even so, there are several things you can do to make sure this continues to be as safe as possible for both of you and that things don’t get out of hand,” Darius explained.
He glanced over at her, his dark eyes filled with concern. “As you may already know, vampires are very sexual creatures. The practice of drinking blood is very erotic. For that reason, you won’t want to do anything that could possibly arouse them.” Darius opened the door that led to the stairwell before adding, “Try to contain yourself at all times. I’m not going to say you can’t make noise when a vampire drinks from you. In fact, I encourage you to make some noise, because this prepares our vampires for feeding from humans in the real world. Just don’t go crazy. And, more importantly, we ask that you keep your clothes on at all times. When our donors remain fully clothed, our vampires are less likely to lose control of themselves.”
Anna nodded understandingly. “No problem. I wasn’t planning to take off my clothes.” Somehow, just talking about taking her clothes off left a bitter taste in her mouth. The idea itself made her feel like she was cheating on Austin, even though she wasn’t sure if they were technically still together at the moment after the fight they’d had before she had left.
Actually, scratch that. It would be cheating, Anna decided. If Austin had been the one who was taking his clothes off to drink from another person, Anna would feel like he had cheated on her. Even considering the idea that, back in Pennsylvania, Austin could be thirsty and drinking from someone made her feel a slight twinge of jealousy.
“Very good,” Darius said, glancing over at her with a smile, as they stopped in front of the blood donor station. “Well, here we are. You’re going to be behind Curtain 1 for this donation, which is right over there.” He pointed his chin at the curtains that were divided into numbered stations, which Anna knew the vampires drank behind.
“Alright,” Anna said. As she was about to turn away from him, Darius gently caught her elbow.
“Anna? Make sure you at least try to enjoy yourself, okay? I truly believe that after you’ve made your first donation, you’ll be able to understand why your mother believed so much in our facilities,” Darius said softly.
“Okay, thanks,” Anna said, forcing a small smile before turning away from him and heading through the door that led to the feeding stations. Even though she had thought that she might enjoy this experience, there was a part of her that was beginning to have her doubts. Letting Austin drink from her suddenly seemed so much different, so much safer, than allowing a rando
m, blood thirsty stranger to drink from her.
As Anna drew back the curtain and slid into the booth that she had been assigned to, she stared at the white walls across from her. Something about this whole process seemed so . . . detached. It was weird that someone would be drinking her blood in just a few moments, and she didn’t even know anything about him except for his first name. She didn’t even know what he looked like yet.
At that moment, someone stepped into the station and glanced down at her. His light brown eyes penetrated through hers, as a slow smile spread across his face. He extended his hand. “Hello, Anna. My name is Peter. I’ll be drinking from you today, as long as that’s okay.”
Chapter 11
Austin sat in the back of Dan’s car, staring out the window. If it had been up to him, he would have just stayed at home today, sulking like he wanted to. Lexi and Dan had insisted that he come with them to the cat shelter and then to visit Lexi’s half-siblings at her father’s house.
Even though Austin had wanted to decline their invite, he understood why they had insisted that he come along. It probably wasn’t good for him to stay inside the house, waiting for Anna to come home.
What if Anna never came home, though? Austin tried not to think about it that way. Anna had promised in her letter to him that she would be home within a few days’ time. She wouldn’t make a promise like that if she wasn’t able to keep it.
As much as Austin tried to shake the thought away, though, he simply couldn’t. He had a bad feeling about Anna being gone, but he couldn’t seem to figure out what it was.
When they pulled into the parking lot at the cat shelter, Austin climbed out of the car and followed Dan and Lexi inside the building. Austin was never able to smell much, but once they stepped inside, the scent of kitty litter filled his nostrils. As much as he sometimes missed being able to have the same sense of smell he’d had as a human, he almost wished he didn’t have it at that moment.
“Lexi!” the woman working the front desk said, glancing at her over the rim of her glasses. “And Dan! What a nice surprise this is!”
Lexi turned to Austin. “This is my cousin, Austin. Austin, this is Mary. She runs this cat shelter.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Austin said politely.
“You, too,” Mary said before turning back to Lexi. “Are you here to volunteer again?”
“Actually, we’re here to look at the cats,” Lexi replied, motioning to the glass window that the cat cages were visible through.
Mary narrowed her eyes at them. “Are you planning to adopt another cat?”
“We’re considering it,” Dan replied. “We’d like to take a look around. Of course, we’d need to bring Garth back here to meet whichever cat we might want to adopt to make sure it’s a good fit.”
“I wouldn’t count on adopting one, then,” Mary said with a chuckle. “Garth doesn’t take kindly to other cats.”
Lexi laughed. “That’s true, but I think we’ll still take a look, anyway.” She led Dan and Austin back to the cats. She pointed into one of the cages at a fluffy white cat that looked like it was part Persian. “What about that one?” she asked Dan.
Dan shook his head. “No, definitely not. I let you pick Garth. He’s more your cat than he is mine. Let’s choose a cat that’s a little less frilly.”
“But I think it’s cute,” Lexi said with a pout. Instead of protesting, though, she moved onto the next cat cage.
Austin wondered if Anna would ever want them to have pets together one day . . . assuming that she wanted to be with him at all. Austin didn’t even want to think about what would happen to him if Anna decided she didn’t want to be with him and become a vampire. Just thinking about it terrified him. Losing her would be the hardest thing he would ever face.
Even though it was hard, Austin tried not to think too negatively yet. It seemed like a longshot, but there was still a chance that Anna would be with him eventually . . . wasn’t there?
“Austin, what do you think of this one?” Lexi asked, pointing to a short-haired Calico cat that was lying on its back with its paws in the air.
“It’s cute,” Austin mumbled. Deciding that it was too difficult to be around people, he moved away from them and began his way up an aisle. He pretended he was browsing through the cat toys and catnip, even though the only thing he could do was think about Anna and how much he wanted her to be there with him.
*
Lexi watched as Austin distanced himself from them. Sighing, she did what she had promised herself she wasn’t going to do. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and opened a new text message to Anna.
Hey, when are you coming home? Austin really misses you. I don’t think you’re being fair to him.
Once the green arrow showed that the text message had sent, Lexi waited a few seconds to see if Anna would send her a text message back right away, the same way she normally did. When there wasn’t an immediate response, she stuffed her cell phone back inside her pocket and turned to Dan. “There’s something I actually want to talk to Mary about in private, if that’s okay with you.”
“Sure, I’ll just hang out with Austin,” Dan replied, glancing over his shoulder at Lexi’s cousin. He, too, seemed to notice that Austin clearly wanted to be alone. “Or on second thought, maybe I’ll just play with the cats over here and see if I can get any of them to like me.”
Lexi gave him a small smile before heading to the front of the shelter, where Mary was still sitting at the front desk. As Lexi approached her, Mary smiled. “Did you guys find a cat you might want to adopt?”
“Dan’s still looking, but I didn’t really see any that I connected with,” Lexi admitted. She paused before saying, “Actually, Mary, there’s something you mentioned to me once that I sort of wanted to ask you about.”
“Oh, what’s that?” Mary asked offhandedly, as she typed something on the keyboard in front of her, no longer looking at Lexi.
Lexi hesitated. “You mentioned once that your daughter used to live in Briar Creek. Until she died?”
Mary glanced back up at her, fully aware of the conversation they were having now. “Yes, she lived there. What is it that makes you ask?”
“Well, I was just wondering . . . what happened to her?” Lexi questioned, knowing that she shouldn’t be asking this woman what happened to her dead daughter. She didn’t want to open any old wounds, but she couldn’t stop herself. The truth was, she wanted to ask if her daughter had been killed by vampires, but she didn’t want to risk mentioning vampires in case Mary really didn’t know that they existed. Lexi liked Mary; she didn’t want her to think she was crazy. Even worse than that, though, Lexi didn’t want Mary to have to know that vampires existed if she didn’t already know about them. Life somehow seemed a lot scarier when you knew that paranormal beings, like vampires and witches and werewolves, were really out there.
“Well, she was killed,” Mary replied. Her voice wavered a little, and Lexi got the sense that it was still difficult for her to talk about, even though it had been years since her daughter had died.
“Do you know who did it? I think you mentioned that you tried to convince her to get out, but she didn’t before it was too late,” Lexi said softly.
“There was never any proof that Rosie was really murdered. They found her body in the bathtub, and it looked like she slit her wrists. There was blood everywhere and . . .” Mary trailed off, obviously still scarred from the memory. She met Lexi’s gaze. “The police didn’t take her case seriously. They tried to convince me that Rosie committed suicide, but I know that’s not really what happened. My daughter was always a happy go-lucky girl. She was teaching at Briar Creek High, and she really loved that job. She said those kids made her feel real special. I know my daughter. There was no way she ever would have done something like that. My daughter was murdered, and I think I know who did it.”
“Who do you think did it?” Lexi asked, feeling a pang of sympathy for Mary because she knew just how she
felt. It was the same way Lexi had felt when she knew that her mother had been murdered. Aside from a shady autopsy report, there hadn’t been much for her to go on, but she’d had a gut feeling.
“My daughter was seeing this young man,” Mary explained. “It sounded like she was very happy with him at first. He did little things a nice guy would do, you know? He bought her flowers and took her out to nice dinners. Rosie really liked him, and he sounded great at first . . . but as time went on, she told me things that had me questioning what his motives were. Some of the things may not sound too strange to you. Maybe they’re just things that only a mother would have picked up on, but what she told me gave me strange vibes about this guy.”
“What sorts of things did he do?” Lexi pressed. She wasn’t sure why she was even asking so many questions, but a part of her wanted to help Mary solve her daughter’s murder—partly because she had wished that someone had done the same thing for her when her mom had died.
“First it was that he had gotten inside her house when she wasn’t home, without her permission. She’d said he found the spare key under the flower pot, and maybe he did, but . . . you don’t just go inside another person’s home without asking like that, you know? It just struck me as really odd,” Mary explained. She tapped her fingers against the desk nervously. “Then there was another time when Rosie came home to visit us on Thanksgiving, and he just wouldn’t stop calling her. I eavesdropped on her conversation a little, and from what I gathered, it sounded like he was angry that she went away to visit us without inviting him to come along. It also sounded like he was upset that she’d had dinner with one of the teachers she worked with.”
Lexi nodded. The behavior that Mary was describing sounded characteristic of any controlling boyfriend, but she knew, better than anyone, that vampires had a tendency to get jealous.
“The thing is,” Mary went on, “Rosie was killed a week later.”
“So, you think that argument on Thanksgiving was what led him to kill her,” Lexi pieced together.