by K. A. Poe
I glared in Salem’s direction and sat on the cold walkway. Cassius was a perfectly normal human being with no ill-intent, from what I had seen. Sure, he acted a little unusual in the diner, but it was a private club—they could have had rules about sharing information about the food served there. Not to mention he was a native of Romania as far as I knew. I was sure their habits and customs were different than ours. None of his behavior pointed toward being undead, which I was afraid was what Salem was getting at. Maybe he was having more trouble disconnecting from our past that I was. My thoughts vanished when I heard the sound of squealing tires pulling up to the curb.
“Well that was a lot faster than I thought. The guy on the phone made it sound like it’d be an hour,” my foster father said and approached the cab.
I stubbornly followed Salem into the backseat and buckled myself in while Desmond gave the cabby directions back to our hotel.
4. MEMORIES
Melissa welcomed me back into the hotel with a warm embrace and a gentle, understanding smile. I didn’t entirely understand her actions, but told myself Desmond had to have told her what happened over the phone.
“I’m sure Cassius will get in touch with you again, Alex…but in the meantime, I have a few things planned to keep your mind off of it,” Desmond announced when we all settled into the room.
“And what did you have in mind this time?” I asked with false interest. All I wanted to do right now was curl up in bed and sleep the day away.
“How would you like to go on a tour of Dracula’s castle?”
My eyes widened as I contemplated the idea. I knew he had to have meant Vlad the Impaler and not the blood-sucking monster that Bram Stoker wrote about, but either way—I had to admit that I was intrigued. “That would be awesome!”
“By ‘Dracula’s Castle’, I mean Bran Castle, where the fictional Dracula’s life took place,” Desmond explained, proving me wrong.
“I’d love to…what about you, Salem?”
He shrugged. “It would be interesting, I suppose.”
“Great! I’ll make arrangements to go in the morning, if the tours aren’t already booked.”
Desmond exited the room to make a phone call and I crawled in bed, bundled underneath the covers and let out a silent sigh. Salem and Melissa discussed ideas for room service for dinner, but my thoughts were far away from food. I wondered how Jason was, and dwelled on the fact that Karen was gone. It felt like only yesterday we were eating cake at my eighteenth birthday party and she was teasing me about the ‘new boy’ at school. It had been weeks since I last spoke to Hannah, and I knew without a doubt she continued to hold a grudge against me. She was determined that I was going to birth the spawn of Satan, for lack of a better way to put it—the vilest vampire imaginable. Even she should know that would be impossible! Vampire children do not and cannot exist…or at least that is what I had been told.
I gathered my cell phone from the bedside table and scoured through my contact list. Spotting Paul’s and Karen’s names still among the list made my heart ache, and I quickly selected Jason’s number—smiling briefly at the small picture of him that was set as his contact image. It was a typical picture of Jason—sporting a casual T-shirt with some corny slogan on it, denim jeans and a pair of shades. Words could not express how badly I longed to have him here with us, his company never failed to improve my mood.
The phone rang at least eight times before he finally answered. All I could hear was scrambling and the faintest hint of his voice.
“Try going to a different room, I can barely hear you,” I said into the receiver and ignored the confused expression on Salem’s face when he realized I was on the phone.
“Can you hear me now?”
“Yes,” I said with a wide smile that he unfortunately couldn’t see. “Ugh, I have missed you so much. How are things in Colorado?”
“I’ve missed you, too. Things are…okay. Eila is struggling to find a job to pass the time after putting off college.”
“I’m sure she’ll find something eventually. But how are you?”
“Good, I guess. Tired. I’ve been working a lot, to get my mind off of things. And you know, it’s like one in the morning here right now.”
“Oh my god, I completely spaced the time difference. Wow, I’m sorry. Do you need to go?”
“No, it’s okay. It’s good.”
“So, what did you mean about keeping your mind off things?”
“Well…Karen for starters.”
“I understand that. I was just thinking about her…and you…about the past. How I wish we could all be the little kids in that picture again…the one I saw in your room.”
“Man, oh, man do I wish that too. Everything was so much simpler back then. But now Karen is…she’s gone. And you’re gone. I still can’t get you out of my head.”
“I know what you mean, I think about all of you so much.”
“That’s not exactly how I meant it…” he said shyly.
I paused and glanced at Salem who was back to browsing the room service menu. “Jason…I don’t know why you can’t get over that. I’m sorry. You already know how I feel about all that.”
“Well, you still have me wrapped around your finger and I’ve been stuck there for years. I’ve been saving up money when I can, thinking that I should give Eila what she deserves…but I don’t think I can do it.”
“…You mean a ring?”
“Yeah,” I heard him sigh heavily and felt a pang of guilt in my stomach. “Anytime I picture myself waiting at the end of the aisle, it’s always you that I see marching toward me…I’m sorry, Alex. This is no way to spend your few minutes of free time. Don’t pity me; Mitchell puts me down for it enough. I’m just afraid to settle for Eila when what I really want is still out there.”
“Oh, Jason…” I whispered and felt a tear slip down the side of my face.
“But…if you can’t be with the one you love, then love the one you’re with, right?”
“I wish there was something I could do, Jace. You have to believe me. But you know how it is…you know how I feel.”
I heard him sniffle and my stomach churned. “I know, I know. Look, I’ll text you later if I have a chance…I should really get back to bed now though. Mitch and I are going out for breakfast in the morning. I hope you’re having a good time.”
“Okay…enjoy your food.”
“I’ll try. Mitch says to make sure you put your scrapbook and camera to good use.”
“Hey! I have put it to good use; you can let him know that!” I laughed, “Talk to you later, Jace.”
I ended the call and settled back in bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking over the conversation. Salem joined me moments later and stared inquisitively at the phone.
“Jason?” he asked simply.
“Yeah…just thought I’d check up on him and Mitch. Which reminded me that I have something to show you!”
He seemed faintly interested in seeing what it was, but I knew he was dwelling on what my conversation with Jason could have involved. Ignoring his look of jealousy, I pried a thick book from inside my bedside table drawer and laid it out on my lap. It was a dark blue book with the names ‘Salem & Alexis’ sprawled across the cover in silver cursive lettering.
“Your scrapbook,” he stated. “When have you had time to use it?”
“Sometimes I have trouble sleeping, so I’ll get up and add some things in here.”
“May I see?”
“That’s why I took it out,” I said and nudged him on the shoulder.
Flipping through the pages made me feel mildly nostalgic. The initial images were of me as an infant, and one of Salem as a young boy. It still rattled my brain that this man I had fallen in love with had lived over a hundred years before I even existed and there was so much of his life that I had missed out on. The next page contained numerous photographs from our wedding—one of each important guest. When I reached the last few filled out pages, I felt saddened once
more.
“Home,” I whispered and ran my fingers across the picture of the house we were given as a wedding gift. I had barely even spent a night there before I was whisked away on this unexpected trip.
Salem grasped my hand and smiled reassuringly. “We’ll be back there before you know it.”
“Maybe. It hardly feels like we were ever even there.”
“What did you decide on for dinner?” Desmond interrupted as he came back into room, later than I had expected.
“We’re ordering room service,” Melissa replied, briefly looking away from whatever drama she was playing on the television. “You were gone an awful long time.”
“I was distracted by a call, Mel.”
I scrunched my eyebrows and glanced in their direction.
“What was it?”
“Our airline tickets are ready for next week.”
“What?” I gasped. “Where are you going? You’re leaving us here alone?!”
Desmond shook his head and laughed lightly. “We actually planned to invite you to join us, unless you’d rather go back home. Or if you get offered that job and stay.”
“Where will you be headed?” Salem asked.
“China.”
China. I had always admired the country for its amazing architecture, its history and of course, the pandas. Yet, a huge part of me wanted to say no. I couldn’t spend my life following Desmond and his girlfriend around the world, as much fun as it potentially could be, when I had a home and friends awaiting me in Colorado—two things that I had sacrificed immortality for.
“That would be amazing, dad…but…”
“We’ll only be there for a few days, maybe more.”
Salem stared pleadingly at me. It was his dream to explore the wonders of the world and experience as much of it as he could, and it was hard to say no to him.
“I guess we can go,” I said and glanced back down at the picture in my scrapbook. “Home will always be there waiting on us, whereas China might just be a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
“Excellent!” Desmond grinned and went to dial another number until Mel grabbed his arm to stop him. “Right, I’m sorry…let’s order dinner, and then I will get your tickets ready.”
5. A CHANGE IN PLANS
I awoke the following morning with a dull headache that would not cease. Abandoning Salem in the warm, comfortable bed, I retreated to the shower. The water was hot and relaxing as it beat against the back of my head, easing the pain almost instantly. There was a fresh clean towel hanging on the bar outside the shower and I quickly draped it around my body as I climbed out onto the plush rug. Water dripped carelessly from my drenched hair and I twirled a smaller towel around my head to stop the moisture from falling.
After dressing in jeans and a black V-neck shirt with a silver heart on the front, I slid on some plain white socks and quietly exited the bathroom. Everyone was still sound asleep. My eyes scanned through the room until I spotted the alarm clock—it was nearing ten in the morning. We were going to be late for our tour!
“Salem! Dad! Mel! Wake up!” I shouted as loudly as I could and watched each of them groggily look at me in alarm. “The tour is in less than an hour.”
“Oh, crap!” Desmond quickly leapt out of bed and went to change into something more appropriate than boxers and a T-shirt.
Salem was next out of bed and Melissa decided she was going to stay behind. She’d already seen the castle during a trip a few years before, and she claimed to be too tired still.
Salem and I held hands as we followed alongside Desmond, behind our tour guide—Emilian. He was definitely a native Romanian, you could easily tell from his speech. There were a few English words that he had more than a little trouble pronouncing, and my foster father was kind enough to assist him. He let us know this was only his second time guiding a tour as he had only gotten the job a week ago, but he seemed confident, especially with Desmond’s guidance.
“While it is often believed that Bram Stoker wrote his stories based in this castle, he was in fact writing of a location elsewhere in Transylvania that wound up being an empty mountain top. Despite this, people are still fascinated by the castle and intrigued by the idea that a vampire could have lived here—however, we all know that those are all myths and legends, and Stoker’s story is completely fictional.”
Salem and I both side-glanced at each other after Emilian’s initial speech.
“Bran Castle has been transformed into a museum displaying art and furnishings collected by Queen Marie—for all of you hoping for paranormal discoveries, I am sorry to disappoint you.”
I listened intently to the muffled voices from a crowd of people behind us.
“What are we looking for here?” a man asked in a hushed tone. I fought the urge to glance back at him.
“Anything that might aid us in our attack on Malik,” a woman spoke.
My hand slipped from between Salem’s fingers and I tensed up at the sound of the name. There had to be more than one Malik in all of Transylvania, it had to be a coincidence! I swore under my breath as I once again recalled the saying Salem repeated to me more than once during our first encounter.
“But you heard the man, this is nothing but a castle of legend—there’s nothing vampire-related here.”
I cringed and pulled Salem away from Desmond and Emilian. He looked bewildered at the sudden stop, having been immersed in whatever tale the tour guide was babbling on about.
“What’s wrong, Alex?” he asked, his eyes still focused ahead at the tour guide.
“The people behind us…they’re talking about Malik.”
He peered quickly behind us and then looked at me. “They may just be talking about someone else.”
“I thought the same until they mentioned vampires.”
Salem sighed and stepped casually backward, guiding me with his hand, acting as though we were leaving. Desmond didn’t seem to notice our absence. We followed silently behind the crowd—there were seven people among them, each of them speaking quietly.
“We should leave, there is nothing here for us,” a different male spoke than before.
“We can’t just give up, Mikael,” the woman said. “Malik has been here far too long, working his way through people just like us, claiming them as his own…there’s no telling how few of us still remain, and how many have become slaves!”
“Excuse me,” I said unexpectedly and Salem squeezed my hand tightly. “I don’t mean to interrupt but…are you speaking of ‘Lord Malik’, by chance?”
The group turned as a whole and stared us down.
“What of him do you know?” Mikael asked, scrutinizing us both.
“I have only heard rumors,” I explained. “Are you…vampire enthusiasts or hunters or something?”
Mikael exchanged glances with the female and they both seemed to silently agree on something. “We are hunters. Who are you?”
“I am Alexis Waldron,” I replied proudly, though technically my last name had changed.
“Waldron?” one of the men gasped. “The raven line…”
“We cannot speak here, lass,” Mikael said and glanced toward the guide. “Take this card and find us, maybe you can be of service to us.”
Before I could agree or object, they rushed out of the line and vanished from sight. It was hard to believe I had stumbled upon something like this. I was beyond lucky that they had been speaking English. Had they been conversing in Romanian I would have never known the group in our tour were hunters.
Salem looked at me warily but didn’t speak as we approached my foster father and Emilian. We trudged along behind them, faking interest in whatever the guide had to say. All I knew was that the building contained a lot of floors and a lot of furniture and artwork that didn’t appeal to me in the least. I was beyond grateful to be out of there when we were finished.
Desmond and Salem discussed some of the things they saw and learned during the tour while we were taxied back to the hotel. I blocked o
ut the majority of it as I contemplated the hunters we met. Cautiously, I slid the card out of my pocket and examined it closely. All it said was the word ‘Vanatori’ in an elegant script and an address that I wouldn’t be able to locate without a GPS. I put it back in my pocket and gazed out the window until we arrived back at the hotel.
Melissa was absent when we entered the room. My foster father informed us that she was visiting a nearby café to do some writing. He also explained to us that Mel records everything from their trips with the intent of someday writing a book. I had never even considered that she might actually do something, it seemed like she was just always along for the ride.
“Is she a journalist?” I asked, thinking of my Aunt Kim who worked as a journalist for the newspaper back home.
“She’s a freelance writer. That’s sort of how we met, actually. One can typically find her cozied up in a café booth with a laptop and cappuccino, typing away until her hands cramp. I bumped into her—literally—at a café in Paris and knocked her laptop right out of her hands as she was on her way to sit down! Needless to say, I was embarrassed beyond belief and felt awful, but I offered to buy her a drink and replace her computer if it was damaged.”
I pictured his story vividly in my mind and stifled a chuckle. “Was her computer broken?”
“It wasn’t bad enough that she needed a new one, fortunately. We stayed in touch after the incident, and she still teases me for it. Eventually, we met up again in Rome and things took off from there.”
“Wow,” I said quietly. “I never really thought of there being a story behind the two of you…but, I spent a lot of time avoiding thinking about either of you.”
Desmond frowned and patted me on the back. “I understand, Alex. I thought of you a lot, and talked about you enough that Mel knows almost all there is to know about young Alexis.”
I smiled fondly at my foster father. “Hopefully she’ll get to know more about older Alex now that we’re together again.”