by Amira Rain
Possibly seeing horror written all over my face, Jen immediately put my mind at ease by laughing, then saying that she hadn’t had to prove her age for anything “dirty.”
“First, it was just to prove to Bucky that I was old enough to get in the RV without asking my parents or anything.”
“Who’s Bucky?”
Seeming to forget all about letting Wanted in the house, Jen hopped up on a barstool. “Oh, he’s just this really nice man I met. He’s super old. He’s like, probably sixty-five or something. Same with Phyllis. That’s his wife. They’re both now my really good friends.”
With a sleepy Chrissy still in my arms, I sat back down on my own barstool, asking Jen how she’d met Bucky and Phyllis.
She said she’d run into them in the Box-Mart parking lot. “And I do mean I almost literally ran into them. See, when we got out of the store, Wanted was in a super-hyper mood, and he went tearing off through the parking lot, with me holding his leash. Just before we got to our car, we almost smacked right into Phyllis and Bucky, who were trying to load groceries into their big old RV. Bucky was like, ‘Whoa there, little girl!’ And I was like, ‘Well, sorry for almost wiping you out, but I’m not a little girl. I’m actually legal voting age, and I can even buy cigarettes and lottery tickets, too.
I could even join the army if I wanted to. I could be an actual soldier.’ And then Bucky was all like, ‘Oh, you’re pulling my leg!’ And I kept saying, ‘No, sir, I’m really not.’ And, then…well, me, him, and Phyllis all kept talking, and I showed them my age on my driver’s license to prove that I’m really an adult, and then we all kept talking some more, and then after a long time, I told Bucky and Phyllis that I wish they were my grandparents, because they’re so nice, and I’ve never had any grandparents.
Well, so then Phyllis started getting the tearful sniffles, and she said she wished that I was her and Bucky’s granddaughter, because I’m so nice, and they never got any grandkids, because their son died in a motorcycle accident some decades ago before he could have any kids.
Well, so then I gave Phyllis a big long hug, and Wanted even kind of gave her a hug, too, and then Phyllis told me that she and Bucky just bought a ton of groceries to make deluxe turkey sandwiches with, with bacon, and avocado, and tomatoes, and a bunch of other stuff, and she asked me if I wanted to come inside their RV to have lunch with them, in the little kitchen part of their RV.
See, they have a little table and everything in there. A sink, too, and even a full shower and a bed in the back, and a nice little couch thing, too, in the middle part of the RV. I lay on it a while after lunch, just because I was so stuffed, and it was actually one of the most comfortable couch things I’ve ever lain on in my life.”
“So, you and Phyllis and Bucky all had a nice lunch together?”
Jen paused to eat the last bite of mashed sweet potato still left in Chrissy’s dish, washing it down with a swig of iced tea from my glass. “Oh, yeah. We all had an awesome lunch together. Phyllis even made Wanted his own little sandwich made from turkey, bacon, and lettuce, and she even gave him some baby carrots to eat, too. That’s when I knew that I wanted her and Bucky to officially become my adoptive grandparents.”
“So, what did you all do after lunch?”
“Oh, well, first, we all walked to the art carnival thing that was going on in downtown Sweetwater. We saw all this different art stuff, and Phyllis bought this little painting of a tree by a stream with little fairies sitting by the stream, and her and Bucky bought me a caramel apple when I stopped being so full from lunch, and then we all started talking to this lady who was selling handmade jewelry made from quartz, which is a special kind of rock.
And, actually, I started talking to this lady first, and I introduced Phyllis and Bucky to her as my official adoptive grandparents, and she thought that was pretty neat. Phyllis bought me a quartz pendant thingy from her that I’m supposed to tuck behind the visor in my car, because the pendant was blessed by real angels, and it will keep me safe while I drive. I told Phyllis I barely need it, though, because I’m such a safe driver. I told her I’ve never even had a single ticket, unlike Mel.”
Chrissy had now fallen asleep, and I carefully shifted her from one arm to the other without waking her up.
“Well, it sounds like you all had a really fun time at the art carnival. Did you guys stay there all afternoon?”
Jen said no, curiously shifting her gaze from my face to the island. “Oh…no. We left after an hour or two, and then we went and did something else.”
I wondered what that “something else” was, because Jen had been gone from the house for about eight hours. I’d honestly been about to call her and ask if all was okay when she’d finally shown up at home. I asked her what else she, Phyllis, and Bucky had done that afternoon, and she just shrugged, keeping her gaze on the island.
“Oh…you know. Just a bunch of stuff. Just, things.”
“Jen, please just tell me what else you did. You’re making me think it was something strange or something.”
Jen finally lifted her gaze from the island. “All right. Just don’t think it was stupid what we did, okay? See, Phyllis and Bucky took me to play paintball, and we had a blast.”
Thinking of two senior citizens playing paintball with Jen, I smiled. “That sounds really fun. Why did you think I’d think it was stupid?”
Jen said she wasn’t sure. “I guess people are always just judging me so much around here that I guess I’m just used to it. I should have known you’d be nice about it, though.”
“Well, of course.”
“Well, anyway, so that was the second time I needed my driver’s license today. They wanted to see it at the paintball place to make sure that I was old enough to shoot a paintball gun.”
“Well, that seems funny. Don’t little kids play paintball? In fact, I remember going to a birthday party at a paintball place when I was maybe only eleven or twelve.”
Reminding me of Hayden when he was stressed, Jen suddenly raked a hand through her hair, avoiding my gaze. “Oh…yeah. Well, they probably had your mom sign a form for you or something. See, I think the paintball place just wanted to see if I was an adult because I didn’t have a parent present or something. And I told them right up front that Phyllis and Bucky haven’t legally adopted me as their granddaughter yet, so they couldn’t sign a form for me. So, that’s probably why the paintball place just wanted to make sure I was an adult.
I think I even saw a sign there on one of the walls. It said something like, ‘If we think you’re a kid, you have to have a parent sign a form for you to play paintball. You can have a grandparent sign, too, but they have to be a legal grandparent, not someone you just met. And if you look like a kid but don’t have a parent or a legal grandparent with you, we’re gonna have to check your driver’s license to make sure you’re an adult.’ Something like that.”
Something about a teenager with two older people having to prove she was an adult to play paintball still seemed off to me, but Jen spoke again before I could ask any further questions.
“Anyway. So, Phyllis and Bucky are my new friends and my official adoptive grandparents, too. They’re even gonna stay my grandparents all summer long, because they’re parking their RV at the Sweetwater Lake campground until they head down to this one place in Virginia in September. Then, they’ll stay there for the fall months, and then in winter, they’ll park their RV down in Florida, and they’ll live in their little house in Florida, until early spring.
Then, they’ll start their trip back up to Michigan in the RV, stopping in all these different states, and having all sorts of little adventures, along the way. Maybe they’ll even pick up some souvenirs along the way, to give to me when they come back up to Michigan. After all, I’m their official adopted granddaughter now.
Bucky and Phyllis even said so, and Phyllis even gave me a kiss right on the forehead when they brought me back to my car, and she even gave Wanted a kiss on the forehead, too. Want
ed wagged his tail super hard, meaning that he loved it. See, just like me, he’s never had grandparents before, but he’s always wanted them.”
With my heart thoroughly warmed, I smiled and said that Phyllis and Bucky sounded like really nice people.
Jen smiled in return. “Yep. They totally are. They’re just really nice adoptive grandparents. They’re taking me out to lunch in Sweetwater tomorrow, and then after that, we’re going to rent a paddleboat at the lake and cruise all around, and then after that, we might even go play paintball again.”
Jen started to say something else but was interrupted by Wanted barking loudly at the front door. She went and let him in, then hopped back up on her barstool.
“So, anyway, how was your day? I meant to ask you earlier, but the baby food you made tonight was just so good that I guess I just got too hung up on it to do much talking.”
I wasn’t sure that I was ever going to understand how Jen could actually eat baby food, and not just eat it, but love it. I’d had a few bites of Chrissy’s pureed food myself when I’d first started making it and had found the texture to be a little off-putting, to say the least.
To answer Jen’s question, I said that my day had been okay. “We got all the flowers planted around the house, and they look nice, I guess. The petunias, especially, are really pretty.”
“Well, then, why do you look so sad about them?”
I wasn’t aware that I was looking “sad” about them.
Sighing, I glanced down at Chrissy’s angelic sleeping face before returning my gaze to Jen. “I guess I’m just still really wanting Hayden home. This whole ‘hunting for Carla’ thing is just really taking a toll on me. Hayden can’t give up now, though. He’s following her up to Michigan from Mexico, and he’s going to find out exactly what she’s up to once she gets here. Then he can come back home and be with me and Chrissy.”
That didn’t happen that night, or the next. Or the next. Now that Jen wasn’t getting up in the middle of the night to play with Chrissy anymore, Chrissy once again began sleeping through the night, although this hardly even mattered to me. I was now the one who was waking up a few times a night, not even sure why. I just missed Hayden. That was all. I just need him here, I thought every night, while curled up with the part of the blanket that still held just a faint trace of his scent. It was a faint trace that was getting fainter by the day.
It was the first day of June when he finally came home. However, my elation at his return soon turned to dread.
CHAPTER THREE
After our joyful reunion, Hayden sat me down and told me that the Warrens had plans to attack the farm soon. “And they intend to kill all of us.”
My first thought was Chrissy, who was sleeping in the nursery, and a sense of dread immediately twisted my stomach into knots.
Hayden was quick to continue, though, telling me that he would never let the Warrens do what they wanted to do. “I’ll keep you, Chrissy, and everyone here on the farm safe, Sydney. I promise you that.”
In the dim light from a single glowing lamp in the living room, his beautiful blue eyes radiated sincerity and confidence. However, knowing what the Warrens were capable of, and knowing that their numbers had swelled in recent months, I just couldn’t muster the same level of confidence. Simply put, I was afraid. I was afraid in a way that I’d never been until I’d become a mother.
I was more afraid than I’d even been when the Warrens had attempted to kill me by running my car off the road about a year earlier. Even the mere thought of someone harming my precious baby was enough to make my face flush hot and then cold, while fear seemed to course through my veins like some living thing, becoming stronger with every beat of my heart.
Sitting beside me on the couch, Hayden seemed to sense my anxiety, and he took both my hands in his while also turning his body toward mine to look at me. “Hey. Believe me, Syd. I won’t let the Warrens, or Carla, hurt you or Chrissy, or anyone else here on the farm. I promise you.”
With my mouth a little dry, I forced myself to nod. “I know. I believe you.”
I wanted to, anyway. I at least mostly believed Hayden, and trusted him too. It was just that I didn’t trust the Warrens. I didn’t trust them to not use their strength and power to do something absolutely heinous, like harm my child. And no matter how much Hayden assured me that this wouldn’t happen, the fact remained that he was fallible, even though he was an exceptionally strong vampire.
This was where my fear came from. It came from me knowing that even superhuman creatures, like vampires, could make mistakes or be overpowered. This knowing made me wish that I were a superhuman creature, just so that I could help protect Chrissy in some way. As it was, with me being a regular human, I knew there was next to nothing I could do, which made me feel powerless, and only added to my fear. So far, my reunion with Hayden wasn’t turning out to be the evening of pure bliss I’d expected.
Soon, he went on to tell me that Carla was currently with the Warrens just a short distance east of Sweetwater.
“So, she is definitely in league with them, then?”
Hayden said “Yes, without a doubt. They’ve had yet another shakeup in leadership recently, and their new leader, Axel Warren, has accepted Carla with open arms as some sort of co-leader, at least for the time being, while they both share a common goal of annihilating all of us Watchers here at the farm.”
I told Hayden that I understood why the Warrens wanted to wipe us out, but still didn’t know what Carla’s motive was. “Have you been able to find out?”
“Basically, unbeknownst to me, I killed her fiancé, Clark, who was a Warren cousin, a few years ago. Carla was a mortal woman then, and they were trying to have a baby. So, by killing Clark, I killed all chances of Carla getting what she wanted and having a happy future.”
“So, that whole story she told me about being pregnant with a vampire named Conner, and then losing the baby after finding out he was cheating on her…that was all a total lie?”
“Yes,” said Hayden. “It seems like that was all just a tall tale she told you to try to gain your sympathy and trust. She was never actually pregnant, and ‘Conner’ never existed. Some parts of the story she told you were true, though, at least in a way.”
“What parts?”
“Well, she wasn’t lying when she claimed that a personal tragedy caused her to ask vampire elders to turn her into a vampire, too, so that she could be strong enough to take revenge against who she felt wronged her. She also wasn’t lying when she said that she was turned, and then at least tried to get revenge.
Her saying that she was living among some random, non-Warren vampire coven at this time was definitely a lie, however. She was already living among the Anarchist Warrens, although she wasn’t on our radar at all yet because she was still human and therefore never joined in fights, which ended up working to her advantage.”
“Because she was then able to get the Warren elders to turn her, and then she infiltrated our community here on the farm with no problems?”
“Right. I never had any idea about her true past, and neither did anyone else. We all simply bought her story, which was a story similar to the one she told you. She said she’d come from some non-hostile coven a few hundred miles away, one so small that I’d never even heard of it, but things hadn’t worked out, there had been a heartbreak, so she wanted to join a different group in a different state. At the time, I had no reason to doubt her.
That being said, though, I still did, but just a bit, and just in the beginning. After a few months, she’d worked her way into the fabric of the community, and I began to trust her, which I’m sure was exactly what she was hoping for. I’m sure she was also hoping I’d be receptive when she made it clear that she wanted a relationship with me, but as you know, that wasn’t the case. I know a lot of people think she’s quite the looker, but I just wasn’t attracted to her.”
“And thank God for that. If she’d been able to worm her way into your heart, I’m sure sh
e would have used that closeness to try to kill you.”
“Exactly. She would have tried, I’m sure, although there was never any chance of an attempt being successful. Simply put, Carla’s just too weak of a vampire to ever take me down in any kind of a physical battle.”
I pointed out that she’d had an enchanted, poisonous dagger, though, and Hayden said that was true.
“She might have been able to get me with that, but I foiled her revenge plan when I rejected her. And that’s when I think she realized that she’d have to try a different tack, using someone else to do her dirty work. For a while, knowing that everyone here at the farm is loyal to me, I bet she didn’t have a clue what she would do. But then, you came…and I think she figured that she’d use your insecurities about me being gone to get you to try to kill me, knowing that you could probably get close enough to me to do it, and that my guard would be down because I trusted you.”
Recalling how I’d actually planned to kill Hayden, my face flushed with a bit of hot shame, and I said that I couldn’t believe I’d allowed Carla to get inside my mind how she had.
Giving my hands a squeeze, Hayden said none of that mattered anymore. “That’s all in the past. Now all we have to deal with is the future.”
“Which includes an attack on the farm.”
“That’s true, but like I said, the Warrens can attack us whenever they want and with however many fighters they want, but I’m still not going to let anything happen to you and Chrissy, or anyone else here on the farm. With this advance notice that my men and I got from our spying activities, we’ll be ready for a Warren attack now. We’ll be ready to annihilate them.”
“There’s so many of them, though…and if they’re still so determined to kill Chrissy because of what a ‘super vampire’ or whatever she might grow up to be—”
“Try not to even think about that, Syd. It’ll just make you upset.”
I was already plenty upset, specifically because Hayden hadn’t denied that the Warrens still specifically wanted to kill Chrissy, and I told him this. Again, he didn’t deny it, and instead, he tried to change the subject, saying something about how he didn’t want me to worry, because everything would all be over soon. I persisted, though, demanding that he tell me if the Warrens still had specific plans to kill Chrissy, and he sighed, pretty much telling me all I needed to know right then.