by M. Leighton
“So you’re saying that when a vampire hasn’t had blood, I can see them for some reason?”
“That’s what I think, yes.”
“So you’re trying to tell me that you think Devon is a vampire.”
“Yes.”
“Then what about my mother? She drowned, remember? She’s dead,” Savannah stated, the hurt still evident in her voice.
“I happen to know that she’s not. Dead, that is.”
Savannah’s eyes widened and I could see her struggling to quell the hope that rushed to the surface.
“That’s insane. I mean, how…”
“I haven’t figured that out yet, but trust me, your mother’s alive.”
“Trust you? Have you- have you seen her or something?”
Here comes the hard part.
“Yes.”
Savannah leaned out through the window.
“You’ve seen my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Ridley, you have to take me to her.”
“I can’t do that. I don’t know where she is.”
“Then take me to where you saw her.”
“She won’t be going back there. Trust me.”
“How can you even be sure it was my mother that you saw? I mean, it’s not like you ever got to meet her.” Savannah leaned back inside the window, her mind already working hard to come up with alternatives other than the fact that her mother purposely stayed away and let her loved ones think she was dead.
“I saw her picture in your room. It was Heather, Savannah. Trust me.”
She said nothing for several long, tense seconds and then I watched as her eyes filled with glistening tears. Savannah put hands to her mouth, like praying hands.
“Ridley, are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“My mother is alive?”
“She is.”
Savannah laughed, closing her eyes to drink in an emotion I couldn’t fathom. When they popped back open, however, they were filled with skeptical confusion.
“So she really has been staying away from me? From us? Why didn’t she come sooner?”
“I told you, she’s a vampire.”
“Ha ha, Ridley. Be serious.”
“I am being serious.”
“Ridley, it’s not funny anymore.”
“I’m not trying to be funny.”
“Maybe I can help,” Bo said as he came out from around the corner to approach the window as well.
Savannah’s mouth dropped open.
“Bo?”
Bo smiled. “In the flesh.”
“Omigod, come here,” she said leaning out the window with her arms spread, ready for a hug.
Bo obliged her by stepping in to her arms for a friendly embrace.
After they parted, Savannah withdrew once more inside her window.
“What is going on here?”
“They’re telling you the truth,” a familiar voice spoke from behind us.”
Bo and I turned, but saw nothing in the darkness. I smelled something, though. It was a sweet, musky smell that I couldn’t readily identify.
“Devon,” Savannah whispered.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Devon?” I asked, searching the dim light for his shimmer. Even though my vision was great, I still couldn’t make out his form. It had been far too long since he’d fed.
“Sounds like a lot of things have changed since that last time I saw you,” he said, his voice getting closer as he approached me. I felt his hand at my shoulder. “Come here.”
Devon pulled me in for a hug and I felt like crying for some reason. In a way, he was like a taste of home, a taste of an existence that had been somewhat “normal,” one I’d never see again.
Now, there was very little left of the life we’d shared. Many of our friends were dead, our eyes were opened to a world we hadn’t even known existed and our future was scary in a way that only infinity as a vampire can be.
“Who got you?” he asked as he leaned back.
“Um, well, that’s another thing I need to tell Savannah.”
I turned back to my friend, who was hovering silently in the opening to her bedroom. I felt the weight of what I was about to tell her pressing on my shoulders like an invisible gorilla clinging to my back.
“Savannah, somehow your mother got mixed up with a very, very bad person. Actually, he was the very first vampire. She…she’s…” I trailed off, struggling to find a way to tell my friend something that would likely crush her.
“Just spit it out, Ridley.”
“She’s the one who turned me into a vampire.”
This time Savannah didn’t hesitate with the vampire thing, throwing aside all common sense to rush to her mother’s aid.
“Then she must’ve had a good reason. Were you in trouble or something?”
“No, Savannah. She did it for Sebastian.”
“Sebastian? The guy you babysat for?”
“Yes. He’s actually…well, he’s a fallen angel and the very first vampire. He’s—”
“A what?”
“A fallen angel. He’s the —”
“Omigod, this just keeps getting better and better,” she said sardonically, slapping her palm against the window sill.
“Well, if you think that’s bad, then I suppose you don’t want to know that Bo is the son of two angels and that he can’t be killed. God gifted him with true immortality until he can kill his father. Apparently I’m destined to help him to do that, but we have no idea how to go about it. So far, all we know is that Sebastian is pretty much like the devil, your mother is his favorite gal pal, she turned me into a vampire, they kidnapped my niece and if Bo kills him, he’ll be mortal and I’ll be stuck like this forever. Alone. I think that pretty much sums it up, don’t you, Bo?”
When I turned to look at him, he was watching me with some amount of amusement, obviously having found my outburst humorous.
“Oh, yeah, and your mother is helping Sebastian to find a way to kill Bo. I left that little tidbit out. Also, there’s the fact that no one on the planet is safe with those two lunatics running loose. But, you know, no big deal. Evidently, I’m just being ridiculous.” My tirade ended on a bit of a sharp note, one that was not lost on Savannah. She appeared a bit taken aback.
“Well,” Devon began in his typical laid-back way, “it sounds like things are much worse than I thought they were. And here I thought Savannah and I had it tougher than anyone else. Listening to you talk makes me glad to be me.”
“Happy to help,” I snapped sarcastically.
“So does this mean Stanford’s out? Because I was totally gonna visit you there.”
“You were, huh?”
“Yeah. Thought I could pull off haunted dorm room or something like that. You know, anything to pass eternity.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Leave it to Devon to lighten the mood, although I knew it was for Savannah’s benefit. She really wasn’t looking so good.
“You guys are serious?” she breathed incredulously.
“Unfortunately,” I responded.
“So you’re saying that my mother is alive, but that she’s a vampire and she’s…she’s mean?”
Looking at Savannah’s crestfallen expression made me feel like a murderer. It seemed as though I’d killed her mother, taken Heather from her all over again. I’d robbed Savannah of the memory of a loving, devoted mother and replaced it with the knowledge that Heather was a cold-blooded vampire who’d just up and abandoned her.
“There’s something else about vampires. Their blood has a very powerful effect on humans, and if they share blood with a human, they can exert some amount of mind control. How much depends on the age of the vampire. But that’s just a regular vampire. Sebastian is different. His blood is so potent that he has practically erased hundreds of years of Bo’s memories. He could easily have manipulated your mother and may still be.”
While my words were entirely truthful and it was very possible that such
could have been the case with Savannah’s mother, I didn’t believe that it actually was. Being around Heather made me think that there was something not right about her—something that had nothing to do with Sebastian and everything to do with something else. But I didn’t want to tell Savannah that. It would help her to think that all this had been beyond her mother’s control, and that was the least I could do for her—to let her believe that.
“Do you think I’ll ever see her again? I mean, what will happen now?”
“I honestly don’t know, but you have to keep in mind that, if she does show up, she’s very dangerous. Even though she’s your mother, it’s hard to tell what Sebastian’s blood may have done to her, how it might have changed the way she thinks and feels.”
“Oh, I’m not worried about that. She’s my mother. She loves me, just like she always did.”
“But Savannah, you can’t—”
“Trust me, Ridley,” she interrupted abruptly. “I know my mother.”
Realizing there was no point arguing with her, I just nodded and let the issue rest.
“So where are you guys staying?” Devon asked, providing the perfect tension-breaking change of subject.
“At Sebastian’s house for the time being. I’m still afraid to be alone at my house with my parents or to go to school until I really get a handle on all of this,” I answered. “What about you? Where have you been staying?”
“My house. After a few weeks of watching Trinity feed, it got really easy to deny myself blood, so now I just sneak in and out of my house. It’s easiest that way. Besides, I think it makes Mom feel better. Somehow, I think she can sense me. Sometimes she’ll even talk to me like she can see me, like she knows I’m there. It’s pretty cool.”
The sadness in Devon’s voice belied his casual words. I couldn’t imagine how hard the last weeks had been for him.
I saw Savannah looking over my shoulder, smiling. At least they had each other, a person to cling to in all this madness. Devon provided Savannah with something to see in an otherwise dark existence and Savannah saw Devon when he was all but invisible to the rest of the world. The perfect match. Not a bad deal, all things considered.
“So now that the secret’s out and the band is back together again, maybe we can meet up at Sebastian’s. Savannah, I could come get you and then bring you home later. I’d just have to make sure and feed right beforehand.”
“You’d really try to eat me? After all we’ve been through? That’s friendship for you,” she teased with exaggerated indignation.
“Trust me, it’s a lot harder to control than what I ever imagined. I don’t know how Devon does it.”
All eyes turned in Devon’s general direction and I imagined him shrugging.
“I don’t know how either. I just do,” he said cryptically.
I didn’t want to ask how he was still alive or how long he could go on like that. I wasn’t sure anyone wanted that question answered, so I kept my mouth shut.
An awkward silence stretched around our little circle until finally Savannah broke it with a question that felt more like a bomb going off in my chest again.
“So what happened to Trinity? You said she’s gone, right?”
“What?” Devon asked. I heard him take a step toward me.
“Yeah, she’s gone.”
“What happened?” Devon was obviously very interested.
“Aisha caught up with her. Killed her before we could stop her.”
“Why would you want to stop her anyway? Trinity deserved everything she got,” Devon spat bitterly.
“Not in the end, she didn’t. She was like a totally different person. Tragedy can change anybody, Devon. Anybody.”
“Well, I find it hard to believe that Trinity had a decent bone in her body. If you could’ve seen…”
Devon trailed off. In my head, I pictured him shivering in revulsion.
“Devon, you might be able to control your thirst and that’s both admirable and enviable, but it’s not so easy for everyone else. Besides, Trinity had a terrible teacher. And she was under the influence of Lars’s blood, so we don’t know how much of what she did was really Trinity.”
“I have to say, I’m kinda with Devon on this. Trinity was just a nasty person,” Savannah commented.
“You didn’t get to see her die. You didn’t get to talk to her and see her and—”
I stopped, my stomach knotting and my chest swelling painfully with memories of Trinity.
“What happened? Exactly.”
“Aisha was crazed. Trinity fed on her a few too many times. Like Summer. I don’t think Trinity knew what it could do to humans when you keep feeding on them.”
“Oh, she knew,” Devon assured bitterly.
“Well, regardless, it caught up with her and it cost her both her grandmother’s life as well as her own.”
“Trinity caused a lot of heartache during her miserable existence. It was only a matter of time until it came back around to bite her.”
“Um, Ridley,” Savannah interrupted uncertainly. “Why is it that I can sort of see you?”
Savannah’s question drew everyone’s attention to me. For an instant I was confused, but then her observation brought my increasing thirst to the forefront of my mind. I felt the burn creeping up into my throat and I turned to Bo.
“Why would I need to feed again so soon?”
“You can’t forget that your body is still adjusting. It could take weeks for your metabolism to slow down to a more normal rate for a vampire. Plus, you’ve had a lot of emotional stress today. That’s very taxing, especially for a woman.”
“I didn’t realize that we had room in our circle for male chauvinists,” Savannah griped. “I suppose we’re just not smart enough to figure that out. Is that it?”
“You know that’s not what I meant. She’s under a lot of stress and women feel more. You know that.”
Savannah frowned, but said nothing, unable to argue with the truth.
“Well, I guess that means that we’d better go,” I said to Bo.
“So, what are you going to do? Go find someone to, like, drink their blood?”
Savannah’s question made me feel ashamed of myself. I was like some kind of parasite or criminal that had to take what most people were unwilling to give freely. My cheeks stung with embarrassment.
“No, she feeds from me,” Bo volunteered. “She can’t even stand the thought of feeding from animals. Ridley’s proof that becoming a vampire does not make you a monster.”
With that, Bo took my hand and tugged as he turned to leave. As far as he was concerned, this visit was over. I looked back at him, squeezing his fingers in silent gratitude for his defense of my character.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that, Ridley. Really. I’m sorry.”
I smiled at Savannah, even though she couldn’t see it very well.
“Eh, don’t worry about it. It’s new to me, too.”
“I’ll see you later, though, right?”
“Yep. Just give me a call when you want to come out and I’ll be sure to be...well-fed.”
Savannah grinned.
“I have dangerous friends. How cool am I?”
I laughed. She would see it that way.
“Very cool.”
“Devon, come by any time.”
“Where is it that you’re staying again?”
I gave him the address and explained about the drive being all but hidden. He knew the area and promised to stop by. With that, Bo and I made our exit.
We hadn’t gone very far when Bo stopped and took my face in his hands.
“Are you in very much pain? Do you think you can make it home, or…?”
Looking into his gorgeous eyes and being surrounded by the scent that turned my stomach to mush, I was sure I’d never love another person as much as I loved the man standing in front of me. He was so caring, so gallant, so passionately in love with me that I could all but feel it seeping into my skin through his fingertips. A
nd, truthfully, nothing had ever felt so good.
“I can make it. I’m okay,” I assured him, reaching up to lay my hand over his. “Thank you for what you said to Savannah.”
Bo shrugged.
“Why thank me? It was the truth.”
“I guess I just didn’t realize that you saw me that way.”
“You’re perfect and that’s exactly how I see you. You’re warm and compassionate, you’re strong and capable. Everything about you makes me want to be a better person.”
Even as my cheeks flushed with what little blood was left circulating in my body, I felt my heart swell to the point of bursting at his words.
“I can think of a thousand reasons I don’t deserve you and that just makes me love you that much more.”
“It’s no more than I love you,” I said quietly, mesmerized by Bo, by his touch and his eyes, by the sweet magic of the moment. I was captivated by the sheer pleasure of his words, especially knowing that, in all likelihood, he’d be gone from my life one day.
“Ridley, I’m going to find a way to work all this out. I won’t leave you to spend eternity alone. Time can come and go, but I’ll never leave your side.”
I wanted so desperately to believe him, but I just didn’t see a way for that to happen. Rather than letting facts ruin the moment, though, I simply nodded in agreement.
“There’s nothing I want more.”
His eyes scanned my face, as if he was taking in every fading detail and committing it to memory.
“I love you, Ridley Heller.”
He said it with such conviction, such sincerity, I couldn’t help but smile as my heart fluttered around in my chest. There were no words that I needed to hear more than those.
“I love you, too, Jonathan Bowman, Boaz, Bjorn, whoever you are that stole my heart. Whenever it is that I finally die and leave this world, I’ll die loving you.”
Bo dipped his head and brushed his lips over mine in the most loving, heartfelt kiss we’d ever shared. It was tender and sad and it said all the things that we both knew deep down, but refused to speak aloud. It said that forever might not come for us. It said that our days were likely numbered and that our ending might not be so happy. It said that we have now—right now—and that’s it. We have no promises for tomorrow, only right now and we had to seize the day, the hour, the moment.