The Keeper's Vow

by B. F. Simone

  The Iron burned her skin as she moved the chains to get to the lock. They started to fall off and Tristan dropped to the ground. He grabbed her.

  “Your face. Katalina, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He squeezed her in his arms. It hurt and she winced at the pain. He let her go. “I’m sorry. He—he touched you.” Tristan moved towards Eshmael and Larry. He picked up one of Katie’s fallen knives and shoved Larry off Eshmael.

  Tristan brought the blade down.

  Katie will never remember how exactly it happened. She’d been right behind Tristan. To do what? She didn’t know. But when the blade came down, it was Larry who was underneath it. Tristan twisted the blade and ripped it out before he could stop himself.

  “Why?” Tristan dropped the knife and backed away from Larry.

  Larry coughed up blood. Eshmael crawled from underneath him. He grabbed his throat still choking.

  “You can heal yourself,” Katie said, kneeling down over Larry. It was amazing how fast her hands pressed down over his bleeding chest.

  He shook his head.

  “I could do it.” She said it and she meant it. She was his daughter. She could fix it. All she had to to was—try. Tears clouded her vision and burned as the salt touched her face.

  He pushed her hands away and stared at his brother. He shook his head.

  Eshmael grabbed his own chest and gasped. He stood up but fell back down. The bond. It was breaking. One brother was dying and so was the other.

  “Brother,” It came out a whisper, “don’t let us die.” Eshmael shook in spasms. His eyes turned silver and his body began to fade into darkness. “You made—me—who I am.”

  Tristan knelt next to Larry. “You were there that night. You let him live after he killed my father. You let him live. He killed the woman you loved and you let him live—you’re a coward.”

  Larry blinked back tears and Katie held his hand. Tristan was right. He let the guilt of what he’d done to his brother hurt the people he loved. Larry squeezed her hand. He tried to talk but only blood came out.

  Katie shuddered. “Shhh.”

  A tear escaped his eyes as they turned bright silver. He was gone.

  There was a final scream as Eshmael clutched his chest. Both their silver eyes watching her.

  Dead.

  Tristan turned her away from them as she cried.

  It was over.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Katie and Tristan climbed out of the room using the path Larry had created. When they emerged out of the final hole, they must have looked like death itself. Mercedes, Johnny, and Franco watched them like they were wild animals. They asked what happened, but neither Tristan nor Katie told them.

  It was a silent ride back to The Pub. Mercedes offered them one of the rooms above her bar.

  They sat on the bed unmoving and quiet.

  “I hate him.” Tristan’s voice broke. “He left me in that house for eight years. It was a prison cell. I wanted to know. What had I done to deserve that. And so far away from you.”

  Katie rubbed Tristan’s back with her bruised hand. The one Larry’s bouncer stepped on. She was sure one of her fingers was broken, but she was slowly starting to heal on her own.

  “He was hiding me. That stupid, coward was hiding me from his brother.” Tristan turned away from her so she wouldn’t see his tears.

  Mercedes came in a little later with packets of blood. Tristan chugged two packets before Katie finished one. Mercedes made faces as they drunk and offered a few jokes. When that didn’t work, she told Tristan how Katie shot the guy who would have killed Mercedes. Katie frowned, but Mercedes smiled and told her she hated owing people.

  Katie washed up in Mercedes’ bathroom while Tristan used the one in the room. Her face horrified her. The swelling was going down, but the bruises were what made her jump at her own reflection. She washed the dirt and blood off her and borrowed a tank top and pair of shorts from Mercedes.

  “You should probably call your parents,” Mercedes said. Holding out a bag for Katie’s dirty clothes. She was right. Katie called her dad then Lucinda. They each screamed and demanded to know where she was, but she only told them that she was safe and would be home soon, with Tristan. She didn’t want to deal with the drama. Not after watching Larry choke on his own blood. He wanted to tell her something. She’d never know.

  Tristan was out of the shower when she walked back into the room. He watched her with red eyes. He looked better after his shower. He was still bruised and cut, but he looked better. At least he was looking at her now. But she couldn’t read his expression or his thoughts. He was blank. Maybe he still hated her.

  “I can go,” Katie said. He was safe. That was all that mattered. “I came looking for you because I wanted to say sorry. I was selfish. You were right, everything you said about me was right.”

  “You had no right coming down here,” Tristan said, not looking at her.

  “I’m—I’m sorry—but I’m glad I did.”

  Tristan sat in silence. He opened up and let her feel his thoughts, but it was just confusion. His and hers.

  Was this it. Were they going to say goodbye forever? What were they supposed to do when the future felt no farther than the seconds they spent in this silence.

  The thought gripped her heart and she wanted to fall. Katie grabbed onto the doorknob. If this was it, she wanted to leave with everything right between them. She promised herself to wait until she was far away before she’d let herself feel anything.

  She breathed in deep and turned the knob. Goodbye. She couldn’t say it out loud. Not if she wanted to keep her other promise.

  She felt the panic rising up both their throats before she felt his arms around her.

  “—I love you,” he said, squeezing the breath out of her.

  She hugged him back. “I love you too.”

  “I’m sorry, Katalina. I’ll never lie about it again. Not to myself or you. I love you.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Katie went back home. She walked into her room with her dad threatening to ground her and closed the door in his face. She wasn’t a kid anymore. She’d killed two men and held the hand of a dying one. Life wasn’t about cutting corners in school so she could sleep in. She wasn’t a girl anymore—and she wasn’t half-vampire.

  She was a new Katie Watts. Someone who realized how important it was to protect the people she loved and not be afraid. There were scarier things than death. Watching Eshmael point a gun at the boy she loved showed her that.

  Katie looked around her room. It wasn’t hers anymore. The empty gerbil cage, the clay pots she’d never painted, the books on cinema that she never read, the basket of yarn left over after she’d only knitted one ratty hat. Her infamous hobbies. All along she’d been trying to find herself and she never bothered to look in the mirror.

  Katie waited for her dad to go to sleep before going to the garage and collecting a few boxes. She spent hours going through her room and filling them.

  Last was her torn Peter Pan book. She could never read it. Katie tried to see if she could fix it, but the spine of the book was broken. She wrapped it in paper and put it in her last box, tapping it up to go away with the rest of her incomplete things.

  “What are you doing Katie?” her dad said, walking in her room in the early hours of the morning. She finished tapping the box.

  “I’m putting some stuff away. Not everything, just a few things that I don’t need anymore.”

  “Look. I don’t know what happened to you, but you just can’t come home after being missing for a day then throw away all your stuff.” He was starting to stumble over his words. He was afraid. He was afraid he was losing her.

  Katie put the tape down and hugged her dad. This was going to be her job now, to help the people around her stop running. “I’m here, Dad. I can’t be the old Katie anymore. I have to be who I’m meant to be. I have to be me.”

  “What the hell happened? It’s him, every time he comes into our live
s, you suffer. No more.” He was shaking his head.

  “Dad. For once stop blaming him for the things he’s suffered from. He was a boy. We were the same age. If you can’t accept what he is, then you can’t accept me.”

  “Katie, there are people out there who will damn you for what you are. You don’t understand the world we live in.”

  “Let them. It’s not going to stop me from being who I am. I am not a coward. I’m not going to hide anymore.”

  They both stopped hiding, Katie and Tristan. Katie made it a point that she supported Tristan, and if anyone asked she was just like him. They finished out the last month of school being ostracized by everyone except Allison and those to ignorant to care what they were. None of the teachers treated them differently to their faces, and Traci argued that she had her suspicions. “I may be bad with a gun, but I’m not stupid. Not as stupid as everyone else at least.”

  Traci helped her and Tristan study for their exams. During the final exams, they even got a meeting with the members of The Board in the guidance counselors office. Jim Heckler and Henrietta Sterling—it seemed Will’s position had not been filled yet.

  “You know, it is going to be very difficult for you to continue your schooling here at Hamilton,” Henrietta said. She looked the same as when Katie first met her almost a year ago. When Katie’s life had changed. Here she was again at the other end of the pendulum swing.

  “Life is hard outside these walls too. I can’t run from that,” Katie said, looking into her stark blue unblinking eyes.

  “We will not look highly on ill-behavior,” Jim said. He looked appalled when Katie confirmed the “rumors” of her being half-vampire. There was no need for a meeting. It was a show. It was a warning to them. Tristan had still yet to say anything.

  “And I do not look highly on your bigotry.” Katie said, staring Jim down. He had not expected that.

  “Do not wrap yourself so tightly in your woven web of victimization. You will end up suffocating only yourself,” Henrietta said. “What Mr. Heckler means to say is, you will still be expected to follow all school rules, which may or may not come into conflict with your new self-discoveries. Going to Gray City unattended is still forbidden.”

  “Even if all of the students do it?” Katie argued. Tristan put a hand on her shoulder.

  “The rules are for everyone, regardless of those who break them. Though, I would like to thank you for bringing that to my attention.” Henrietta said. She dismissed Katie and Tristan to go back to their class.

  “She’s right,” Tristan said as they walked down the hallway. “You can’t let people like Heckler turn you into a victim.”

  “I only spoke the truth,” she argued.

  “Yeah, you did. But it’s only been a few weeks since we’ve been back and you already have a chip on your shoulder. You attack anyone who looks at you, and you wear what you are on your chest like it’s who you are.” Tristan held her hand. “I never wanted this for you.”

  He was right. But, she was just trying hard to be herself. Whoever that was. When she was with Allison and Tristan she never thought about what she was. Only here at school with everyone reminding her. Asking her questions, not looking at her, whispering when she wasn’t looking.

  It was harder than she thought.

  “You’re strong,” he said, pulling her closer. “Even stronger than me.”

  It was a normal day. As normal as it could be. It was the first week of summer vacation and Lucinda watched them practice in the backyard. She was still tip toeing around Tristan not sure how to apologize, if she should, or what needed an apology. Tristan made it awkward because that was always his way of doing things, but none of them expected Brian to walk out of the door and into the backyard. Even Tristan, who was great at pretending Brian was nonexistent, stopped what he was doing and looked.

  Will was right behind Brian and from the look on Lucinda’s face she had no idea they were coming. She moved to hug Brian but stopped as if somewhere along the road she’d stopped being his mother and maybe he had found a new one. Brian filled the gap between them and hugged her first. Will put his hand on Lucinda’s back and she started to cry.

  Katie wiped her eyes and let Tristan take her from the backyard to the front. Practice was over. A family was reshaping itself and hopefully for the better.

  They went to Tristan’s room. Tristan took a deep breath and sat on his bed. Katie moved to sit next to him, but he pulled her on his lap.

  Katie blushed. They had never talked about that night at the hotel and nothing had happened ever since. They’d been better about keeping their thoughts to themselves, but more often than not they were lazy and shared most things. He, the mysterious Tristan, shared things with her freely. That was as close to the night he said, “I love you” as they got.

  “What are you thinking?” he said, placing his head on her back.

  She burned. There was no way he couldn’t feel how hot her skin felt now. Why did she feel so shy? As much as they’d been through, as many times as they’d seen each others raw naked thoughts, she should feel…open.

  It was because up until now, they had been busy. Always battling one thing after another, test, the school, the past, themselves. Now—now everything was quiet except for his hands starting to travel up her back.

  “Is this how you’ve always felt? Going crazy with wonder. Hating silent answers?” he said.

  She laughed and leaned into him. It was Tristan. Why be guarded now? Because he’s a boy and you’re not good at this. Last time he touched you he left and pretended his hands had never touched your body the way they did.

  Katie sighed and started to stand up. They needed to talk this stuff out. Figure out what they were doing and what his intentions were.

  He pulled her back to him and kissed her. The more they kissed the more his hands touched her like they might never get to again. He pulled her onto him and touched more. His hands rolled down her back and back up with her shirt.

  What were they going to do? She looked into his eyes. Blue. He kissed her and she melted into him. He kissed her neck and—stopped. He started to move her off him.

  This! This is why she was guarded because he was always doing this.

  “Tristan, I swear—” she started.

  “Katalina. Turn around,” he said, not looking at her, but her shoulder.

  “Why?” Did he want to bite her? Like in those romance novels—

  “Don’t be a pervert,” he said, turning her around and looking at her back. His fingers were soft on her skin. She felt naked.

  “Did you know you have the tattoo?”

  “What tattoo—the tattoo. Like yours?” Katie craned her neck but couldn’t see it. Tristan traced it with his finger. Under her shoulder blade. It was small he said. He kissed it as the door opened.

  “Tristan—Oh my god. No. Not in this house. There are rules. Katie put your shirt on—What is that on your back?” Lucinda’s face turned red. Katie slammed her shirt over her head, but as soon as Lucinda was done lecturing them and shaming her out of considering sex for at least another ten years, she went to the bathroom with a second mirror and looked at her back. There it was. Faintly glowing a little silver. Just like Tristan’s.

  The Mark.

  Katie was relieved to find out Lucinda hadn’t called her dad and told him about her and Tristan. They tried to tell Lucinda that he was just looking at her back, but she wasn’t buying it and was a little insulted. She did threaten to call her dad about the tattoo until Tristan showed her his. It must have been the blood. It was the only explanation that any of them could think of. Now that she was drinking blood it started to show up.

  Their theory proved right after a few days it came in better and better. Katie always made it a point to ask Tristan to look at it when no one was around. He’d always start gingerly lifting her shirt, and it always ended with them making-out on a couch. He was an addiction. But, in the back of her mind something stirred.

  Katie
fumbled a set of key’s in her hand. She finally knew what had been bothering her for weeks. She slid the key into it’s lock and opened Larry’s ice cream shop for the first time in months. Tristan put his hand on her back as they walked into the dark cool shop.

  Katie wandered through the shop silently. Larry left it to her, along with a gross amount of money she’d never be able to explain to her dad. What was she going to do with an ice cream shop. She opened one of the casings. They were on a timer and the ice cream was still cool and edible. The smell of chocolate, cookie dough, mint, and vanilla, swirled in her stomach and she closed it.

  “What are all these?” Tristan said from the back room. He was unfazed by all of this. He had rolled his eyes when he found out Larry had left him the house in New York, “As if I want to go back to that prison cell.”

  Katie took a deep breath and found Tristan thumbing through a few dozen receipts. No they weren’t receipts—they were stubs for paintings. She had one in her wallet now for a painting she had to finish and pick up next door. The shop stored paintings there until they were either finished or taken home. It cost a lot to do that, but then again Larry was loaded. Now she was loaded.

  Katie grabbed some of the stubs and exhaled. Keep it together. “They’re stubs for next door. Let’s go,” she said.

  Katie held her breath with anticipation. She needed to get out of the ice cream shop and she wanted to see some of his work again. A pang squeezed her chest as she remembered the way he’d instruct her on blending. The way his accent rolled thickly off his tongue when he corrected the way she moved her brush.

  She handed the front desk clerk a few stubs and was led to a room. “Actually,” the woman had been talking but Katie only heard her just now, “all of his painting are in here. He had so many we just stored them all in the same place. Is he all right?”