by Atha, DL
Behind the apartment complex and melded into the shadows, I waited for courage. Just a few feet away through some thin brick walls, I could hear Ellie talking to my mother about school. Math was a little harder than she’d expected. There was a boy who was stealing her jacket. Mom said he was crushing on her. Ellie sighed and said that was just weird. Then she said she missed me. My mom said nothing, just turned back to the stove and clicked on the oven.
Immediately, I felt vindicated. Of course Ellie missed me, and I missed her desperately. I stepped out of the shadows, intent on seeing her tonight.
“Won’t that just make it harder on her?” Levi asked as he settled into the shadows of the building beside me. I’d never felt his presence nor seen his movement.
“How did you do that?” I asked. Compared to him, I was a clumsy child.
He pointed to the side of his head. “You don’t think like a vampire yet, and you’re not in touch with the environment or your surroundings. That’s the kind of thing your maker teaches you. If you don’t kill your maker, that is.”
I snorted. “Whatever. Asa never had any intention of teaching me anything.”
Levi leaned back onto the wall of the complex, his long legs crossed in front of him. “We’ll get to that later. As I said, do you think this is a good idea?”
“I’m here to hunt,” I lied.
He raised an eyebrow. “Your hunting skills suck. You’re here because this is where your daughter lives.”
“She needs to see me. She needs to know that I still love her.” “Does she? Or is it you that needs to see her? To know that you are still loved.”
In the apartment, Mom was helping Ellie cut her dinner. I could hear the knife sliding across the stoneware. They were making plans for the weekend. Mom mentioned going to a couple of antique stores in Fayetteville. My heart cracked, fissured. Maybe Levi was right. Maybe I needed it more than Ellie. “Is that so wrong?” I asked.
“Do you want to make this harder on her?”
I looked away from his scrutiny. “What kind of question is that? Of course I don’t.”
“Then walk away. Coming and going in and out of her life is the worst thing you can do to her.”
I started to argue, but he put a hand up. “At least walk away tonight. You need to feed more and be at full strength before you go in. You’ll feel more human. You’ll look more human, and it’ll help your relationship with your mother. Besides, the police have been looking for you. They’ve been here asking questions, and they’re casing the place. You’d know that if you were being cautious.”
“You afraid of the police?” I asked, dropping a large amount of sarcasm on the last word.
“I’m not afraid of any human. But you’re a liability to me right now and a danger to your family. You should be afraid of the police. I can disappear and not be seen again for fifty years. You, being in the family way, are tethered here. At least you are mentally. A prison doesn’t have to have metal bars.”
His logic was flawless. Of course the police would be watching, and I wasn’t skilled enough to fight them all, and if they had enough bullets, they could take me down. At least temporarily.
Resigned to listen to him, I followed him back into the woods.
Chapter 19
“Welcome home,” Levi said as I stepped out of the woods into what had once been a central yard for several buildings that looked like barracks. To the north end, a couple of larger buildings were sagging with age. They all looked worse for the wear.
“Why did you leave me behind, and why are we here?” I asked. Once he’d glided out of the shadows of the apartment complex, he’d left me struggling to track him. If it hadn’t been for his strong scent trailing behind him through the woods, I’d have never caught him. His speed was as amazing as my tracking ability was poor. He was lounging against the rotting remains of a front porch when I stepped out of the forest.
“First, you need tracking experience. Second you, actually we, need a new place to hide. And this is it.”
“You want me to leave my home?”
“Well, actually, I want you to leave the hole in the ground behind what was once your home.”
“For another hole in the ground, I presume?”
“Do you want to be taken in for questioning by the police? Because eventually one of those cops is going to stumble across the doorway to that cellar. You know the old expression ‘even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and again?’ We can’t stay there.”
I looked around at the deserted campground, finding nothing redeeming about the place. “But why here? It’s at least fifty miles away from my daughter and in the middle of damn near nowhere.”
“And fifty miles away from all of those cops, and the one you nearly killed, who by the way, is fighting for his life in the hospital you once practiced at. Out of sight and out of mind is what you need.”
“It makes me look all the more guilty,” I said. I’d been rethinking my strategy while chasing Levi through the woods. I didn’t look like I’d been shot. They certainly couldn’t prove that I had. Wouldn’t it be better to show up and make Rumsfield look like a man gone crazy?
“You couldn’t look any guiltier if you went and stood over his bed with a machete. What you need to do is to lie low and let the dust settle. Eventually, if he survives, his story is going to start not making sense. When that happens, you can resurface and answer a few lingering questions. Right now, the police aren’t feeling as generous as I am to dole out the benefit of the doubt.”
I studied his expression, looking for lies, but his face was as guileless as a baby’s. Still, I didn’t believe him, and I told him so. “I’m not lying. I have no reason to. Your previous life is immaterial right now. Your daughter is with your mother, who will never let you near her after what happened the other night, unless you’re willing to take her by force, which I suspect you are not. You are a woman wanted for questioning, although you haven’t been charged with anything yet. And you’re a vampire who has some serious explaining to do to me. If I’m not satisfied, you’re going to be much deader that you already are, and none of your other worries will matter anymore.”
We stared each other down for a few moments. He didn’t move at all. His eyes didn’t flinch, and there wasn’t even a hint of a friendly expression anywhere on his face.
“Fine. What is this place?” I asked, walking on into what had once been the yard. Whatever it was, it hadn’t been used in years. The vines of the forest were snaking through trees as big as my lower leg. I guessed it had been abandoned for at least three decades. Maybe four.
“I think it’s an old Boy Scout camp. Or maybe a CCC camp. I can’t detect any human scent outside the buildings. Inside, I can pick up a few old ones, but it’s been a couple years since this place was visited—let alone occupied.”
I pushed my way through the vinery and into one of the barracks. A pine tree had erupted straight through the floor and out the roof. Two sets of rotting bunk beds lined the walls. Mice droppings littered the moldy plank floor as well as pine needles that had dropped from the tree disappearing through the ceiling. The rock fireplace, the trademark of the CCC, stood tall and erect in the corner, the only structure in the barrack unmarked by time.
The CCC, or Civilian Conversation Corps, had built many places like this across the country during the Great Depression. Arkansas, being desperately poor, had been blessed by its fair share, but a few had been abandoned by the state from lack of funds.
Twelve buildings were left standing here. At least two more had collapsed entirely. The majority of those still standing were barracks like the first one I’d walked into. Another was a mess hall with a wood‐burning potbellied stove still standing in one far corner. Picnic style log tables, now hosting only dust and cobwebs, stood in the center of the room, and an outdated kitchen ran the length of the wall behind them.
Levi led the way to the last building hovering on the very edge of the camp, where another mountain was be
ginning to rise toward the sky. It was a two‐story, rock and wood home, small and compact with a screened in porch built partially into the face of the mountain—probably the overseer’s cabin from the looks of it. If it had been in better shape, it would have been called rustic, but now it was just called done for. Still it was beautiful in its own way.
“This is where we’re staying,” Levi said. The door was partially ajar. Too much wind and rain had bowed the wood of the floor and the door stuck as we walked through. Levi pushed it gently until the wood slowly relaxed and let us pass. “No reason to destroy it,” he said, indicating the door. “It has a certain beauty. Don’t you think?” I did think so, but I didn’t say anything.
The interior looked similar to the barracks but in better shape.
The wood had held up more in the face of the elements, and other than around the door, the flooring was overall intact. Another of the rock fireplaces dominated one wall of the room, the firebox cradling the rotting remains of a bird’s nest between the andirons. The kitchen was small with only an antique stove and fire pit.
Levi motioned to a stairwell leading up the stairs. “The upstairs isn’t light tight.” I nodded in understanding. “Those stairs lead to the basement, which is where we’ll stay. It’s light tight and dry. Pretty comfortable, really.”
So his idea of comfort and mine weren’t the same, and I told him so. He rolled his eyes. “This is a new life, Annalice. You need to get over some things. Right now, if you’re not roasting in the sun, then you’re pretty comfortable.”
He was right. I was logical enough to know that, but if someone had told me I’d be grateful to sleep in a cold, abandoned basement a mere three weeks ago, I’d have told them they were nuts. But in this new reality, I was being considered for attempted murder, my daughter was gone, I drank blood, and I couldn’t go out in the sun. Yeah, things had changed.
“Kind of hard to see it that way,” I said as I followed the stairs down into the dank remains of the basement. Light tight was an understatement, and even with my vampire eyesight, I could only see outlines and shapes. Levi could no doubt see much more, but I was hungry again and not at full strength. I wasn’t even sure I knew what my full strength really was. I flinched as Levi lit a match.
Levi was right, I realized, as I looked grudgingly around the room. The floor plan was open; the dirt floor brushed smooth from the many shoes that had once shuffled across it. In the far right corner, the comforter from my bed was folded up on a set of wooden bunkbeds. The basement was dry; the wood in good shape as well. In another corner, a leftover chair had been placed with another blanket and some pillows from my house. A handful of candles had been positioned around the room. Levi lit them as I watched. “I can see perfectly in the dark,” he said. “Still, I have always enjoyed a little light, and of course, there is no electricity here.”
“A lot of effort for a girl you may decide to hang in the sun,” I said. I picked up one of my pillows and inhaled the comforting smell of home. I missed it badly.
He finished lighting the candles before he answered. “You’re right, but don’t let that fool you. I’ll strip you and hang you facing east if I decide it’s the right thing to do. Until then, there is no reason we can’t be comfortable. Consider it similar to a last meal or last rites.”
We stared each other down for a minute, he conveying that he was serious, and me attempting to convey that I didn’t care. It was a lie on my part, but Levi was pretty convincing. Eventually, I looked away, knowing I’d lost the contest.
“So tonight then?” I asked. My voice was steady. I don’t know how I managed that given that I might be burning in the sun in a few hours if I couldn’t convince him that I’d put a legitimate end to Asa.
Levi nodded his head, his eyes never leaving mine. “But first things first, you need blood.”
My fangs grazed my tongue at the mention of drinking. Levi spread a blanket on the ground and motioned for me to sit. Knowing what was coming after the blood, I hesitated but finally lowered myself down. There was no getting around this.
He held his arm out, wrist up, as I moved closer and bowed my head over his arm, pushing my long hair to my back. I was so hungry. Or thirsty. Or maybe both. I found it hard to describe. I bit through his upper arm where the vessels are deeper but bigger. The wrist veins are shallower, but they’re also smaller. They collapse easily if the pressure is too high, just ask any nurse.
The blood came quickly, cool but calming. Just like the previous night, he didn’t stop me, and I drank, oblivious until I felt his other hand in my hair. Finally, he pulled me roughly away. I was still thirsty when he did but not burning with hunger like I had been.
His hand was still wrapped in my hair, his eyes closed and he was breathing heavy. I hadn’t seen him like this before. Or Asa either for that matter.
“What’s wrong with you? Am I hurting you or something?” I asked.
“No. Just give me a minute. Don’t move,” he said. Other than his breathing, he was still and quiet.
I tried to disengage his hand from my hair. He jerked me hard again. “Do not move!” It was a harsh command but laced with some pleading as well. I froze, having no idea what was happening or what I’d done wrong.
“This is dangerous for us both,” he whispered under his breath as he moved his upper body toward mine. He sounded both so resigned and so excited that I instinctively pulled back. The strength in his arm increased as he pulled me closer again. I lost the game of tug of war as he drew me across the space between us. His hand in my hair pushed my head backwards, and I felt his fangs graze my neck. It wasn’t a bite, just a nick, and immediately my skin began to tingle around the small puncture wound. I felt his jaw open for a true bite and then a hesitation before he snapped his mouth shut, his teeth grinding against each other. Like statues, he held us in that position for a few moments before he lightly brushed his full lips across my skin. Then he was gone. The air brushed my cheek as he left, and when I opened my eyes again, he was standing on the far side of the room, bent at the waist, his hands on his thighs like he needed the support.
I waited for him to say something. He didn’t, and I started to get to my feet. My motion jerked his head up. “What do you not understand about the words ‘don’t move’?” He looked half‐ crazed. His pupils were large; the blue of his iris reduced to a tiny sapphire ring surrounding deep black space. His hands were clenched hard on his legs, making the muscles of his forearms stand out in hard cords.
Even when he’d threatened to hang me in the sun, he hadn’t been this scary. I dropped back down and watched him warily. I’m not a coward, but I’m not stupid. This vampire had years on me, and I wouldn’t get five feet before he brought me down as easily as a lion takes a gazelle.
Nearly twenty minutes passed before he finally straightened up to his full height. He paced a few steps around the perimeter of the room, careful to keep his eyes off of me. With his every step, I could feel the tension draining from his muscles until finally he resembled the man I’d met a few days back.
“Let’s talk about Asa,” he said as he set down in front of me. His eyes were no longer the black pits from a few minutes before. He was calm and collected for the most part. His breathing was still a little rapid, and he kept dropping his eyes to my mouth.
“Let’s talk about what the hell just happened to you,” I said back. “Can I move now by the way? You know, scratch my nose or something?”
“Vampires do not have itches. At least not the kind you’re talking about,” he answered. “Back to Asa. How did you meet him?”
“I’m going to need more of an explanation than that, Levi.” “Trust me. I’m going to give you all the explanation you need when we get done with the topic of killing one’s maker. If I deem you worthy of living that is. So, again, how did you meet Asa?”
It was inevitable. I couldn’t avoid talking about him forever.
Be careful and watch your words, I mentally warned myself. “You
’ll do better if you just tell the truth,” Levi said, reading my expression. “You don’t have much of a poker face.”
“I thought you said vampires were good liars,” I answered back.
“One of the reasons I took a couple of days to study you. I know you a little better now. Watched your facial expressions, your body language. I know what I’m looking for. How did you meet Asa?”
I smiled sarcastically. “Like most human women met Asa. Flat on my back at the tip of his fangs.”
Levi raised his eyebrows in suspicion. “And yet like most humans who met Asa in this fashion, you didn’t end the night dead at the tip of his fangs. Why not?”
“He had other plans and decided to make me a proposition.” “Asa made you a deal.” It wasn’t a question. I guess he wasn’t that surprised. “What was it?”
“He said he needed a human to reacquaint him with the twentieth century.” It sounded stupid saying it out loud.
Again he spoke with the raised eyebrows, but this time he pursed his lips. “And you did that? You reacquainted him with the twentieth century?”
“No.”
“And why not?”
“Because all he wanted was blood and sex.”
He shrugged his shoulders and looked at me hard. “So you taught him nothing?”
“You can lead a vampire to water, but you can’t make him drink,” I said.
Levi narrowed his eyes. “Don’t be a smartass.”
“Get a sense of humor,” I said. Again with the steely eyes.
I sighed heavily. “Fine. He only asked a few questions about cellphones, but other than that, he didn’t want to know about anything.”
“And in exchange for this deal, Asa promised you what?”
“I told you the first time we met, Levi. He promised that my mother and daughter would go free. That he’d kill me but leave them alone.”