by Amira Rain
“I know where Sweetwater is…but I’m not coming home with you.”
With her expression pleading, Mel glanced over at her dad’s SUV before looking at me again and speaking in a lowered voice. “Look. Please just come with us, Sydney. Please don’t make my dad physically pick you up and put you in the SUV. He’ll absolutely hate to do it, but he will. Our family will do anything to keep you safe.”
I couldn’t help but let loose with a snort of derision, even though at the same time, equal parts fear and dread knotted my stomach. “Is that supposed to make me want to agree to go to Sweetwater with you all? The threat of being kidnapped and held against my will if I don’t say yes?”
Just then, before Mel could respond, my phone began going off, and I looked at the screen. It was my Aunt Pam. And suddenly, I really wanted to talk to her. I didn’t even know exactly what I wanted to say, or what I should say, but I really wanted to talk to her. Maybe I even just wanted to hear her voice, even if she was just calling to ask me to pick up something for dinner at the store, like she sometimes did. I wasn’t quite sure why I felt this way, because the two of us had never been close, and that non-closeness had only gotten progressively worse in the past year that I’d lived with her and my uncle. But for whatever reason, I knew that I wanted to answer her call right then, and I told Mel to please give me a minute.
“This is my aunt calling, and I really need to talk to her.”
Mel winced. “Okay. But please don’t tell her anything about what’s going on. My dad has enough on his plate without having to go and clear her about your phone call. Please just tell her that you’re going to stay with a friend for a while or something. You’re eighteen; she can’t stop you.”
Ignoring Mel, because I still wasn’t sure what, exactly, I was going to tell my aunt, and what I wasn’t, I moved around to the front of my car for a little privacy, then answered the call.
“Hi, Aunt Pam.”
“I’ve just received a call from Kayley’s mother. Uncle John and I know you’re pregnant, and this call is to let you know that we’re done. You’re no longer welcome in our house. Don’t even think about trying to come back home again, because this isn’t your home anymore.”
I’d never thought that it was.
“You’re eighteen now; you’re a legal adult. You’re on your own now. You’ll have to find a friend to stay with for the rest of the weekend, or you can ask your baby’s father, whoever he is, if you even know, if you can stay with him and his parents. On Monday, you should go to the social services building in Moxon. They’ll help you figure out your options, because I’m not doing it. If you decide to keep the baby, I’m sure they’ll set you up in free housing for single teenage mothers or something. Or not. It’s really not my problem.”
Stunned, although on some level, not really, I didn’t know what to say in return, so I said nothing.
After a few moments, Aunt Pam spoke again. “Don’t you have anything to say? Well, I do. Uncle John and I took you in; we’ve fed you; we’ve clothed you; and this is how you repay us? With a teenage pregnancy? With public humiliation? Unreal, Sydney. Absolutely unreal. Your mother would be ashamed of you. Although, maybe she wouldn’t, considering her own life.”
This was a dig at how my mom had gotten pregnant with me out of wedlock.
“Text me when you’re settled in government housing. Let me know your bank account number, and I’ll transfer the remainder of your mother’s life insurance to you, although it’s certainly not much. I’ll also box up your things and mail them to whatever address you give me, but you’re not coming back here. Uncle John and I are done. Do you understand?”
Beginning to tremble with strong emotion for what felt like the millionth time that day, I hesitated for just a second before responding. “I understand, and that’s fine, because I’m going to live with my baby’s father, and his family. They’re good people, and they think that the fact that I’m having a baby is actually pretty magical. They’re going to protect me, and keep me safe during my pregnancy, because they actually care. That’s more than I’ve ever been able to say about you and Uncle John.”
There was a brief pause before my aunt responded.
“Anything else?”
“Yes. You should really stop going to church, Aunt Pam. You like to tell your friends that you’re a compassionate Christian woman, but I bet God just cries every time your hypocritical self walks through the door.”
With that, I ended the call, pocketed my phone, and walked over to Mel, who was standing a short distance away from my car wearing a clear look of anticipation mixed with something that might have been relief, as if she’d clearly heard what I’d told my aunt.
“I’ll go to Sweetwater with you and your family. I really have no other choice.”
Mel grinned. “Great. I mean…not ‘great’ that you don’t have any other choice, and I’m sorry about whatever just happened with your aunt…but great that you’ll come home with us. This is really the best thing for your safety. Now, let’s go. Let’s not make my dad have to clear any more poor, unfortunate farmers. He really does hate it.”
I asked Mel to just give me a sec while I grabbed a few things from the trunk of my car. “Or, on second thought, I should probably just follow you guys in my car, right? I mean, I can’t just leave it sitting here blocking the road.”
“No, but don’t worry about it. Sam or Trevor will drive it home so you can just relax and get your bearings a bit while my dad takes us home in the SUV. You really shouldn’t be driving anyway until we can get you checked out by our family doctor to make sure you didn’t somehow get hurt while being chased today.”
I told Mel that I really did feel fine. “And actually, this is maybe the best I’ve felt all day. The moment I sassed my aunt with that line about her going to church, I could almost feel my dizziness and nausea instantly lifting, like maybe I’ve just needed to tell someone off all day.”
Mel smiled and gestured for me to follow her to the SUV. I began to do just that, but then almost immediately froze, realizing that I’d spoken too soon about my dizziness and nausea. Both of my physical ailments were now back, especially my nausea.
This was because I’d caught sight of something just beyond the ditch, just at the very beginning of the forested area beyond, and this something was a severed human head. Just a short distance away from it, partially obscured by a tree stump, was the body that the head had formerly been connected to. The body of the man with the pale blue dress shirt. The man that Hayden had killed.
My baby’s father is a killer, I thought. He did that. He took that man’s head clean off.
He was not only a killer, but an incredibly violent, vicious one, by the looks of it.
Fixated on the severed head while a wave of nausea crashed over me, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk. Mel asked me what was wrong, and when I didn’t respond, she seemed to follow my line of vision and groaned softly.
“I’m so sorry about that. How disgusting. I know Hayden was in a hurry because of a minor problem going on at home, but he still should have taken the time to cover everything up with leaves or something so that you wouldn’t see it. But don’t let this make you think that he killed Christopher Warren in an especially gruesome way or something, just for the heck of it; he didn’t. See, vampires can only be killed by other vampires stabbing them through the heart and then decapitating them. It’s disgusting, I know, but it’s just the way it works.”
Vampires. My baby’s father supposedly was one. I somehow couldn’t fully wrap my brain around that. I couldn’t fully wrap my brain around the fact that vampires might actually exist. Even though at the same time, I couldn’t deny how fast I’d seen Hayden running through the forest. He’d been like a blur, probably running faster than a car going sixty or seventy miles an hour. I also couldn’t deny the effect that Mark (Dad) had on the farmer-looking man just by taking hold of the back of his neck.
Becoming increasingly nauseated and diz
zy, I couldn’t pull my gaze from the severed head for some reason. The eyes were still open, and the face was covered in blood. Flies had already started to swarm.
Mel began trying to pull me away with an arm around my shoulders. “Come on, Sydney. We don’t need you to get sick or anything.”
Suddenly, as hazy gray dots began floating in front of my face, obscuring my vision, I knew that I wasn’t going to get sick. I was going to pass out, and very soon. My baby’s father is a vampire was my last thought before I felt my knees buckle.
CHAPTER SIX
When I came to from my fainting episode, I felt like I’d been asleep for several hours. A digital clock with glowing numbers on a nearby nightstand told me that I had. It was ten o’ clock in the evening.
The room was fairly dim, with only a single nightstand lamp with a tiny bulb providing light. There was just enough for me to see that the room I was in was very spacious, with a high ceiling, and what appeared to be hardwood flooring covered in large rugs of different sizes. A row of wide windows covered the length of one entire wall.
I was reclined in bed with a thick stack of pillows behind my head, and the bed was so comfortable that it could only be described as luxurious. I was honestly pretty sure that I’d never been in another bed like it. The mattress was just the perfect level of plush, yet firm, as were the pillows. The sheets felt soft and silky. Covering my legs and torso was a thick white quilt that felt warm and snuggly, though without being uncomfortably heavy.
In short, I never wanted to leave this bed. However, the sensation of having an extremely full bladder told me that I was going to have to get out of bed very soon. And when I noticed a sliver of light coming from a cracked-open door on one side of the room, making me think that it was probably an in-room bathroom, I forced myself to push the quilt off and get up. The alternative was probably wetting the bed for the first time in about fifteen years.
When I was maybe halfway to the bathroom, a quiet knock on the half-ajar bedroom door made me stop and turn to look, and I saw Hayden’s impossibly handsome face peeking around the doorway.
“May I come in?”
I said yes, and he did.
“I just wanted to check on you. How do you feel?”
Almost to my embarrassment, I found myself too distracted by the sight of his strong-jawed face in the soft, golden light to issue more than a one-word response.
“Fine.”
“You were out for a long time.”
Slightly rankled by this statement for some weird reason, I didn’t answer right away. “Yes. Today I found out I’m pregnant; thought I’d been raped; lost someone who I thought was my best friend; had practically everyone in my hometown find out about my pregnancy; was chased by some lunatic in a sedan; nearly crashed my car; witnessed somebody getting beaten to death; was informed that I’m no longer welcome at my aunt and uncle’s home; and then I was told that I was impregnated by magic, and that my baby’s father is, believe it or not, and I’m not sure if I do, a vampire.
I guess it’s been one hell of a long day for me. So, I guess I must have been just a bit tired when I passed out. I certainly didn’t mean to sleep so long.”
My response to Hayden’s statement that I’d been asleep for a long time had come out way more defensive and caustic than I’d intended it to. In fact, I wasn’t even sure why I’d intended it to be even slightly defensive and caustic. It wasn’t like Hayden’s statement had been accusing me of a crime or anything; it was just a comment on the fact that I’d been asleep for a long time, which I had been. In fact, I probably could have taken it a different way than as an accusation; I could have taken it as a sign of concern.
However, even if his comment had been a sign of concern, something about that still rankled me, although I had no clue why. But it made me feel no need to apologize for what I’d said, and the tone I’d said it in.
If he felt slighted, Hayden didn’t show it. Instead, he responded in an even-toned voice, expression perfectly neutral. “I know you’ve had an incredibly long day. I didn’t come up here to bother you. I just wanted to see how you’re doing.”
“Do you really care?”
Again, my words had come out in a far more biting way than I’d intended them to.
With his expression still perfectly neutral, possibly a bit too neutral for my liking for some reason, Hayden took maybe a split second longer to respond to my question than I thought he should have. “Yes.”
He was looking into my eyes across the room, and he had been while issuing his single-word response; but for some reason, I wasn’t convinced of his sincerity. However, my full bladder was telling me to not respond, and hopefully soon end the conversation.
When I didn’t say anything after a moment or two, Hayden raked a hand through his thick, dark hair, breaking eye contact with me. “I’ll let you be now, and I’ll send up our family doctor. She’s been waiting in the kitchen for you to wake up so that she can make sure you’re really fine. Is that okay if she comes up?”
I said yes, and Hayden said all right.
“Goodnight, Sydney.”
Before I’d even finished mumbling a goodnight in return, he was out the bedroom door, closing it behind him.
While I used the bathroom, I found that I couldn’t get the image of Hayden’s face out of my mind. I couldn’t get the image of his entire self out of my mind, really, from his broad shoulders, to his trim waist and hips, to his long, muscular thighs. He was definitely my “type,” although that wasn’t too remarkable, because I figured he was probably the “type” of the majority of girls everywhere.
Just because of the way he looked, he was the type of guy who could make even the most poised of girls mess up their words for no reason, or stutter. Or act unreasonably snappish and defensive, like I’d done.
I really didn’t know why I’d been that way to him, and not the opposite. After all, he’d probably literally saved my life earlier that day, by taking out the man who’d apparently been sent to kill me. Thinking about this in the present, I experienced a strong wave of guilt. I hadn’t even thanked Hayden.
At the same time, I certainly didn’t trust him yet, and maybe that was why I’d felt and acted so defensive around him. Because of this, maybe there was a part of me that thought that he might have somehow had a hand in me becoming pregnant, despite what Mel had said about some sorceress.
A “sorceress.” It was all so completely crazy. So completely unbelievable. And yet, I couldn’t deny that everything that Mel had said was more believable than me being assaulted at a frat party without even waking up.
After washing my hands, splashing my face, and taking a look in the mirror, realizing that I was still wearing the same clothes that I had been earlier that day, a large fuchsia pink duffle bag sitting on one of two towel racks in the bathroom caught my attention. There was a yellow sticky note stuck to the side, and I read the carefully-printed words with great interest.
New pijames and bathrome stuf for Sidne. Withe frindshep, frum Jen
It was clear that Jen wasn’t the world’s greatest speller, but I found the note, with all its horrendous misspellings, absolutely charming for some reason, even bordering on precious. Also, I admired the fact that even with her clear difficulty with spelling, she’d still managed to spell three words right, as well as her name.
Inside the duffel bag, I found three brand-new, tags-still-on cute pajama sets, along with two packages of new underwear, two packages of new socks, and at least a half-dozen new bras in various styles. The bag was also filled with just about every new toiletry item imaginable, from body wash to lotion to toothpaste, and everything in between.
There was even a cosmetics case filled with probably no fewer than two dozen different brand-new makeup items, and a little bag within the case that contained about a dozen daily-wear type jewelry items, things like metal bangle bracelets and cubic zirconia stud earrings.
It was clear that Jen had put a lot of thought into buying m
y new things and making sure I had everything I could possibly want. However, I was soon to find even more.
After changing into one of the new pajama sets, brushing my teeth, and twisting my long, dark blonde hair up into a messy bun, I left the bathroom and went out into the bedroom, noticing another sticky note in the dim light. This one was on the dresser and read Lok insiyd for stuf thet did nat fit in the dufil bag. I put it awae for you. Frum yore closs frind, Jen
Like the first one had, I was somehow charmed by this note, especially to learn that Jen considered me to be a “closs frind” already. The truth was that I felt like I could really use one after having essentially been “dumped” and betrayed by Kayley earlier that day. Not that we’d really even been “close” for a while before that, anyway.
In the dresser drawers, I found practically a whole new wardrobe, including several pairs of jeans; an assortment of tops; several pairs of shorts; and casual clothes like yoga pants, sweatpants, and sweatshirts.
Remarkably, all the clothes were even in styles and colors I liked. A few of the tops were in shades of sky blue, which was my favorite color, and I wondered if Jen had been able to figure that out just based on the fact that I’d been wearing a sky-blue top and little sky-blue gemstone earrings that day. At any rate, she’d certainly done a champion job shopping, and I wondered when I’d get the chance to thank her.
Before long, a knock sounded at the bedroom door, and I said come in, hoping it was her. However, the door was opened by a smiling woman maybe around forty who introduced herself as Dr. Nelson.
“Nearly all my patients call me Nora, though, so please feel free to do the same.”
She soon gave me a perfunctory exam right there in my bedroom, checking my eyes, pulse, reflexes, and lungs, just to make sure that I hadn’t been injured or had knocked my head or something during the car chase that day and hadn’t even realized it.