by Marta Acosta
Lucky was coming down the curving path, light and shadow flickering over his face. My heart jumped because he was even more stunning now that I knew his secrets. Our secrets.
I opened the door and waited on the porch. When he saw me, a blush came to his pale cheeks.
“Hi, Jane. Come for a walk with me.” He started up the path toward his house and then veered right to a narrow trail that had been hidden by thick shrubs. Leaves crunched under our feet and birds chirped in the trees.
I studied Lucky as he walked ahead of me. His shoulders were wide in a thin charcoal cotton sweater and his legs seemed longer in black jeans. Occasionally a ray of sunshine pierced the clouds and branches and brightened his gold-honey-amber hair.
Soon we arrived at a small creek that wound around a boulder. Lucky boosted me effortlessly atop the boulder, and then he sat beside me.
“Jack and I used to play here. We built dams and had sword fights. He was Sir Jacob, Defender of the Grove, and I was Prince Lucian, Heir to the Throne. He’d still be happy playing here, but I grew out of that a long time ago.”
The water in the creek pooled down below, the same color as Jack’s eyes, and the smell here was like Jack, vivid and green.
“My mom’s really mad at me because I didn’t wait until you were formally asked. That’s the reason I was staying away. Because I wasn’t supposed to … you know. Although, it’s not my fault that you saw the celebration.”
So that was the reason he’d kept away. “Your mother was calm yesterday. She told me about all of you like it was completely normal.”
“We’re human beings with a genetic anomaly, not monsters.”
“I don’t think you’re a monster, Lucky.” I watched a water skeeter glide on the water, and I thought about surfaces and tension. “So Bebe was supposed to be here with you?”
“Yeah, I spent two years getting to know her, and then one day she took off with this uncle who shows up out of the blue.” He sounded hurt and angry. “I didn’t even get a good-bye.”
“Were you in love with her?”
“Bebe? No way. But I could talk to her and she was cool. We were buds.” Lucky hesitated. “My folks were waiting to ask her about being a Companion, but I’d told her already. She was psyched, but I guess she got a better offer from this uncle. Hell, maybe she really did have an uncle.”
“You were upset?”
He nodded. “Hattie said I should get used to girls blowing me off, unless I straighten out my act. She knew I’d told Bebe. Jack, too.”
“It’s a little weird, knowing that Hattie was probably reporting on me to your mom.”
“If you told Hattie anything in private, she’d keep it secret because … you can always count on Hattie. She probably told my mom just enough to keep her off your back. It’s all tradition with my folks. They keep expecting villagers to storm Birch Grove carrying torches and wooden stakes.”
Our laughter eased my tension. My leg was alongside Lucky’s. His arm was beside mine.
“I like you, Jane. You’re smart and levelheaded. You listen and consider stuff. You didn’t completely flip out about the geezers’ ceremony or with me that night.” His gaze drifted down to my breasts, then my neck and my arms.
“Lucky, what you said about girlfriends being temporary…”
“A Companion is a lot more important than a girlfriend. A Companion is a bond for life. I know you want something different, but that’s because you’re used to a certain idea of a relationship.” He paused before saying, “This isn’t sex for me, but the feeling I get when I taste blood is amazing. That’s the only explanation I can give.”
He shifted his weight to one hip and then reached into his pocket for the penknife. He opened it with one hand. He moved his fingertips along my cheek, making me dizzy with desire. “But I’ll try to make it good for you, too. I want you to like it.” When his hand dropped, his fingers skimmed the tip of my breast and my pulse raced.
“I like being with you, Lucky.”
“Stay then. Two more years and we’ll get out of this stupid town and go to college somewhere cool. We’ll travel the world and have adventures. We’ll find someplace great to live and be successes. My family will pay for everything.”
“That’s a lot of money. I can get scholarships.”
“They’ve got a lot of money. You won’t have to worry about anything except being there for me, Jane.”
He rubbed my earlobe between his thumb and forefinger. He put his lips near my ear so that I could feel the soft exhalations as he spoke. “Will you stay with me, Jane?”
And his words echoed Jack’s song, Titania, stay with me, stay for me, and I remembered the heat of Jack’s hands on my face, but I shoved away those confusing feelings because I wanted Lucky to keep touching me. I wanted one bright and beautiful thing in the misery and ugliness that had been my life. I was used to wanting, I could exist with wanting.
But Lucky’s wanting me gave me a sense of power that was intoxicating. And so I said, “Yes.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jane, my very own Companion,” he murmured into my ear. “The lobe doesn’t have many nerves, but it has so many capillaries.” He bent my lobe to expose the back. Then he raised his knife and I felt the pain, like burning, as he cut me, and I cried out.
A burst of wind sent branches rustling and creaking as my blood flowed, sticky and warm and iron-scented.
Lucky watched with exhilaration as the thick blood trickled down my jaw and then along my throat. He pushed me back against the hard, cold rock and began licking my skin, his tongue rough and smooth at the same time.
The branches above us swayed as the wind grew stronger, and Lucky’s tongue rasped upward all along my neck. Then he nipped my earlobe and tugged, worrying at the cut and making it bleed more.
I closed my eyes and I wrapped my arms around Lucky. I would pay attention only to this moment, and this beautiful boy’s body against mine. I could feel the muscles moving in his back. His hand slipped under my shirt, and his fingers clasped my waist. I clutched his shoulders when he bit hard.
Then I opened my eyes and saw a blurry, transparent shape above in the white branches and fluttering leaves. I blinked and watched in wonder as the shape grew denser and dark. It didn’t move even though the branches thrashed, raining narrow leaves down on us.
“Lucky…” I said, but he kept sucking at my earlobe and then he grunted and shuddered.
As he lay atop me, breathing heavily, the shadow dissolved into mist, into nothingness. It was nothing.
Lucky pushed my hair back and started dreamily licking the traces of blood on my neck and behind my ear. I longed for more from him, and pressed my body against his, but he only gave a groan and nestled his face against the side of my head.
I stayed still even though a bump on the boulder jabbed my shoulder blade. I lay there uncomfortably, conscious of slick sweat on my skin where his hand still gripped my waist. I wondered if I should feel happier because I’d given him what he wanted. After a few minutes, he sighed and flipped onto his back. He licked a smudge of blood off his lips and murmured mmmm.
I stared up at the branches, which had stopped rustling as the breeze died down.
“Goddamn noisy trees.” Lucky swatted leaves off his shoulders with the same annoyance that people swat at mosquitoes.
“I thought I saw something up there. A shadow in the branches.”
He glowered at the leafy canopy. “The trees are nothing but shade and mess. I’d like to take a chain saw to all of them.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“No, I wouldn’t. My parents might get over it, but Jack would kill me.”
“The trees are so graceful and now I love the sound—it’s like they’re whispering and singing.” Susurration, I thought, but I didn’t want to share that word with Lucky.
“I wish they’d shut the hell up. Let’s go back and I’ll take care of your ear.” He lifted me down from the boulder easily.
&
nbsp; “You’re really strong.”
“You’re small.” He put his arm around me. “We do have more muscle mass and faster reflexes, which gives me an advantage in sports. Not that I could ever be in competitive swimming because I can’t take the chance that my sunblock will wash off. For every advantage, there’s a disadvantage, but I’d rather be what I am anyway.”
We went to the cottage and he got a tube of antibiotic ointment from the bathroom. He smeared the ointment on the back of my stinging lobe and massaged it into the cut, as cheerful as when we’d first met. “I really liked that, Jane, but it’s between us until you officially agree.”
“We could have waited.”
“I couldn’t. I waited for two years for Bebe.” Lucky put his hand on my chin and tilted it up so that I was looking right at him. “That’s why you always need to remember that you’re my Companion.”
“I’ll remember, but you’ve got to remember that this is a reciprocal relationship. You’re tied to me, too, Lucky.”
His brows went up, startled, and then his smile returned. “I’ll remember, Jane, and I’ll take care of you as faithfully as my father cared for Aunt Claire.”
It was when I was about sixteen that a certain dream first came to me, and this is how it befell. It opened with my being set down at the door of a big red-brick house, where, I understood, I was going to stay. The servant who opened the door told me that tea was being served in the garden, and led me through a low dark-panelled hall, with a large open fireplace, on to a cheerful green lawn set round with flower beds.
E. F. Benson, “The Room in the Tower” (1912)
Chapter 26
Mr. and Mrs. Radcliffe scheduled Thursday for me, starting with breakfast at their house. Lucky opened the front door and asked me to wait in the living room. I pulled my hair forward to cover my ear and went to the display of the family photos.
Lucky had been a striking child with silver-blond hair. Jack was a smaller version of himself, a sturdy kid with a mischievous expression and a mop of curls. Mrs. Radcliffe looked the same, displaying her familiar serene expression throughout the years. The only one who had changed noticeably was Tobias Radcliffe. He’d been robust and quite handsome, with a confident stance.
“Jane, come on.” Lucky was standing in the doorway, dazzling me all over again.
We went into the family room, where his parents were drinking coffee. Mr. Radcliffe said, “Lucky told us the good news, Jane. Welcome to the family.”
Or maybe he said the Family, but the term thrilled me—this gracious, attractive, and sophisticated family thrilled me. “Thank you, sir.”
“My own Companion, Claire Mason, was a very important part of my life. We met when she was only fourteen.” In that moment, he seemed years younger and handsome. “She was so bright and so eager to be my Companion.”
Mrs. Radcliffe flashed a sharp look at her husband. “We all loved Claire. Jane, come have breakfast.”
I sat at the table, which had a basket of pastries, a bowl of fruit salad with raspberries and blackberries, and a glass pitcher of red liquid.
Lucky picked up the pitcher and poured a glass for me. “It’s orange juice from blood oranges. Different color, same taste.”
Jack came in as we began to eat. He grabbed a cranberry muffin and said hi to no one in particular.
“Jacob, Jane has accepted our offer. Isn’t that wonderful?” Mrs. Radcliffe smiled, but there was an edge of steel in her voice.
Jack’s keen eyes caught mine for only a moment, making me feel … something like guilt, but I had done nothing wrong. “Jane, if that’s what you want, congratulations. I’ve got practice.” Then he left without another word.
“Jacob’s not a morning person.” Mrs. Radcliffe began talking about the improvements at the country club, a surreal twist to the morning. I tried not to stare at Lucky and kept touching my hair to make sure it covered my ear.
“We need to get a membership for you to the club, Jane,” Mr. Radcliffe said. “You can’t join on your own until you’re twenty-five, so we’ll sponsor you and cover the fees.”
“Thanks, but I’m not really interested in joining.”
“The club is part of Lucky’s life, of life here in Greenwood, so it will be part of yours, too,” Mrs. Radcliffe said. “Joining the right clubs and organizations is always a good idea. Knowing the right people can make your life much easier.”
“I’d rather be judged by what I do, not who I know.”
“Why not make things easier when you can?” Lucky said.
“In an ideal world, one is judged by one’s accomplishments,” Mrs. Radcliffe said. “And in an ideal world, friends help friends.”
The doorbell rang and Mrs. Radcliffe said, “That must be Hattie.”
Lucky jumped up. “I’ll let her in.”
His mother said, “Jane, I hope you don’t mind that we shared our good news with Hattie. She can answer many of your questions, but you can’t tell anyone else about us ever. Our lives depend upon confidentiality.”
Mr. Radcliffe folded his newspaper and set it aside. “Eventually you’ll be able to spot a Family member at a glance. We have friends among the long-established townspeople, too.”
“Like the librarian and the grocery store manager,” I guessed.
Mrs. Radcliffe said, “We had to be careful until we were sure of you.”
A few minutes later, Hattie came in by herself. “Welcome to the Family, Jane!”
“Thanks!”
“I’m so glad I have another girl my age to talk to about this stuff. Where’s Jack?”
“He went to practice,” Mrs. Radcliffe said.
“He doesn’t have…” she began, confused. “Oh, that’s right. I forgot that he’d told me they were starting early.”
Lucky didn’t come back to the family room and no one asked where he’d gone. Mrs. Radcliffe refilled my juice glass. “Jane, we do have an initiation ceremony to formalize your relationship with the Family. It was scheduled for Lucian’s Companion some time ago, and it’s coming up in a few weeks. I know it’s soon, but Hattie will coach you about your part. I hope you’ll enjoy our traditions, although my sons think they’re…”
“Hokey,” Mr. Radcliffe said. “Lucky thinks they’re hokey and boring, and Jack thinks they’re hilarious, which is why he is excused from participating.”
Mrs. Radcliffe sighed. “I told you a headmistress’s own children were her greatest challenge. Jane, you’ll need more clothes now that you’ll be accompanying Lucian to functions and gatherings. Hattie’s going to take you shopping and help you pick out the right things.”
“I’ll transfer over enough to your bank account right now, Jane, to cover your expenses.” Mr. Radcliffe tucked his newspaper under his arm and left the room.
Hattie popped a berry in her mouth. “Jane, do you mind going now? I’ve got a ton of work.”
“That’s fine. Thank you, Mrs. Radcliffe.”
“Be sure to be back by three, because you and Lucky have a meeting with a Companion counselor.”
As Hattie and I walked outside to her car, she shoved on a canvas hat and put on sunglasses. “There’s a mall near Millerton. I thought we could go there.”
“Good, because the stores in Greenwood are too expensive.”
Hattie leaned against the car. “Jane, we are a big extended family, but this is also a business relationship. Lucky is going to be asking a lot from you, so be sure to get what you need from us. Is he already taking your blood?”
I didn’t answer and Hattie frowned. “I thought so.”
She drove to the most luxurious mall I’d ever seen. Water splashed in big fountains and a jazz pianist played in a courtyard. We went into department stores I’d only heard about. She ignored price tags while she picked out clothes. “Most of these pants and skirts are too long, but we can have them altered in town. You’ll need a few LBDs.”
“What?”
“LBD is Little Blue Dress, the Birch Grove equi
valent of the Little Black Dress. Blue is seen as more appropriate for young women and the Family likes us to dress for the events, which are things like birthdays and graduations, recitals and the holiday parties.”
“What about the ceremonies?”
“They’re optional and we have traditional robes for those.”
As we left one store, Hattie said, “Oh, I think I left my sunglasses in the dressing room. I’ll be back in a minute.”
While I waited, I wandered away to look in the window of a bakery and then noticed someone inside waving at me. I went in and saw Orneta behind the counter. “Hey, Ornery! I wondered where you went.”
“Hey, Jane! Well, you know I wanted out of that place, and this job came up. It doesn’t pay as good, but it’s closer to home and a lot less creepy. How’s everything?”
“Good. The school is amazing.”
She gave me a free cookie and then some customers came in so we waved good-bye. I felt better now that I knew nothing bad had happened to her.
I ate my cookie and people-watched until Hattie came rushing up to meet me. She was holding a shopping bag and said, “Sorry! I made an impulse purchase while I was there. Let’s eat.”
Hattie and I had lunch at a chic little restaurant with white tablecloths and waiters dressed in white shirts and black slacks. After we ordered, Hattie said, “I’m surprised you didn’t run away when you learned about us.”
“Actually I did, but being away made me realize how much I missed Birch Grove and my friends here.” I paused. “Besides, I want to help Lucky.”
“Lucky is gorgeous, rich, and has everything he wants, Jane. Why would he need your help?” She spoke quickly and caught herself. “What I mean is, do this for yourself, Jane, not for someone else.”
“But I want to help him, Hattie. Let’s face it, everyone sells themselves somehow, and I’m getting something in exchange for what I’ll give Lucky. I’ve never had a family before and…” I paused. “Is it only the men who have Companions?”
“Only the men. Girls have to control themselves and act like ladies, even when we want to rip someone’s throat out and drain their bodies.” She saw my expression and added, “Kidding! Supposedly, the guys can be dangerous because they’re impulsive and strong.”