However, the library looked slightly different than it had when she’d dozed off. It was much brighter as dawn’s light was peeking through the window blinds. Gavin was out of the direct line of the windows, but that wouldn’t last for long.
Panic surged through her, and she began frantically packing up her laptop. “I’m sorry, Gavin,” she said. “I didn’t expect to nod off like that.”
“I completely lost track of time myself. I suppose that’s a good thing.”
Chloe stood from the desk and shouldered her bag. “Not when it’s going to put us late in getting back home.” She glanced out the window. There was no way they could get to her car without Gavin being singed by the sunlight.
“I can make it to your jeep,” he assured her. “But I’m not sure how I can survive the trip back.”
“It’s about two hour’s drive,” she said as she looked around for something to cover him with. The jeep had been a blessing for Chloe when she’d first moved to Carter Lake. Now, with no trunk to stow him in, she wished with all her heart that she had not traded in her sedan. Even if he crouched down on the floorboards, sunlight would still find him through the windows.
She rushed around the library, looking for anything like a tarp or blanket while Gavin hid behind a bookcase in the shadows. When her eyes lifted momentarily to check the angle of the rising sun, Chloe spotted a quilt hanging on the wall over the children’s area.
Disregarding the laws of men, she grabbed a chair to stand on and yanked the dusty tapestry down from where it was pinned. She would return it the next night or maybe when the detox was over.
She came to Gavin with the quilt, and he didn’t have to be told twice how to use it to his advantage. Taking careful measures, they exited the building with the quilt draped over Gavin’s crouched body and ran to her jeep. There was no telling when the staff would be coming in to open up the library.
Chloe heard Gavin grunt and hiss as she tried to hustle him into the back of her jeep.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, fearful that there was a tear somewhere in the quilt.
“Some sun is coming in through the stitches. I’m alright.”
Chloe grimaced and helped him onto the floorboard, covering him up as best as she could. The drive back to Carter Lake was a fast one, but the sun was winning this race. The light that came through her windshield was nearly blinding to Chloe who hadn’t stepped foot out in the sun in so long. She could understand why Gavin both feared it and missed it. The sun gave life, but in this case, it administered nothing but death and pain for him. If they survived this detox, Chloe vowed that she would help Gavin to enjoy the daylight once again.
Chloe’s jeep slid to a stop in front of her cabin, the wheels skidding against the pebble driveway. After snagging one of her nails on the seat buckle when she nearly ripped it off to get out of the car, Chloe threw open the back door.
“You ok, Gavin?”
The quilt moved a little as he was preparing to wiggle his way out of the back seat. “Yes, I’m fine.”
He sounded slightly breathless, but she couldn’t decide if it was from the fast ride home or if the sunlight was leaking through the quilt a little more than he was letting on.
Chloe helped him from the car, but after taking only a few steps, the quilt suddenly fell from Gavin’s body. He groaned and hissed as the light engulfed his skin. Wisps of smoke rose from his face, and even though it had only been a few seconds, Chloe could smell the charring flesh that he tried to conceal with his arms.
She ducked down and snatched the quilt from the ground. It was only then that she discovered that a corner of the fabric was snagged on one of the seat mechanisms. In her haste to cover Gavin again, she was sure that she tore some of the threading that held the quilt together, but she didn’t care. Gavin’s safety was a greater priority.
Gavin whimpered and had a slight limp as they hurried towards the front door. Chloe fumbled with her keys as she jammed them into the locks, the sound of her own heartbeat and rapid breathing loud in her ears.
“The cellar,” Gavin rasped when they stepped foot into the living room.
Her fingers scraped against the wood planks, contracting a couple of splinters in the process before she found the right seam and lifted the hatch to the cellar.
Helping Gavin down the dark steps, she was submerged in a cool darkness that she had never experienced before. Gavin had never permitted her access to this area. Under the circumstances, it was understandable to allow her here this once.
Once their feet hit the solid wooden floor, Gavin rushed deeper into the darkness and let the quilt fall away. Chloe couldn’t see him at all as she stood in the faint light that beamed down from the open hatch.
She listened to Gavin’s shuffling footsteps and heard the faint squeak of springs as if from a mattress. Unsure of what else to do, she climbed up the ladder a short way and closed the hatch but did not leave the cellar.
“What are you doing?” Gavin asked, his tone a little gruff and impatient.
Chloe didn’t respond but pulled out her phone with trembling hands and turned on the flashlight feature. A pale blue light washed over half of the cellar, which she found to be little more than the size of her bedroom upstairs.
In the far corner, she saw Gavin’s form sitting on a carved wooden bed frame. From the old colonial styled details, she could tell that it must be the bed that he and his wife once shared.
Off to the side was another piece of furniture, a writing desk. It was simply made, probably from the same era as the bed, with a single chair pushed underneath. On top of the desk were piles of parchment pages. Some were tinged with a golden hue, others as white as any modern sheet of copy paper. An ink pen rested atop a work in progress.
The floor beneath her was planked wood just like the rest of the cabin, but some planks were warped with age. The air in the room, along with being comfortably cool, was slightly damp, probably since they were half underground. The walls were also made of wooden paneling with white grooves between each wide plank. She wondered if they were the original boards that made up his home almost three hundred years ago.
“Chloe, you shouldn’t be down here,” he warned.
She paid him no mind. Yes, it might be dangerous, considering that he hadn’t fed in two days, and her blood was racing enticingly through her veins. But this was the first glimpse she’d gotten into his private life, the life she had wanted to see for so long.
When he’d told her about living in the cellar, she hadn’t been sure what to expect. Ironically, she thought that his space would be elaborately decorated with all the finer things and have several levels that he was free to roam during the daytime. But that was not the case. The cellar was simply that, a cellar. Wine or produce could easily have been stored here, but no, this was the home of a vampire in hiding.
Not only was it his home but the place where he listened in on all of her conversations and the conversations of her family for generations. Just as he had told her before, he listened to their fights, their parties and celebrations, their lamentations, and everything in between. She could picture him reclining on the bed and simply finding entertainment in listening to the humans who dwelled above. She could imagine him penning away masterpieces at that tiny desk and mourning over the fact that no eyes would ever read them.
Chloe marveled at the number of hours, days, years, he had spent within these walls. No wonder he wanted to be human. After three centuries in this place, she’d do anything to get a little more freedom.
Walking softly, as if the cellar were some ancient shrine or holy place, she made her way to the desk and examined the contents.
“What’s all of this?” she asked, talking in a near whisper.
“My manuscripts. Please don’t disturb them.” Gavin sounded a little more like his normal self.
Ignoring his request, she reached down and picked up one of the top sheets in the pile. The handwritten cursive was distinctly Gavin’s. In some pl
aces, there were lines striking out a few words, and then in other places, whole sentences with corrections had been scribbled in the margins.
Chloe’s eyes scanned through a couple of lines before Gavin was at her side. The wind generated from his quick movements blew a few papers off the desk, and they drifted to the floor. He seized her wrist and squeezed until she dropped the manuscript page.
She turned to look up at his face, the light from her phone illuminating patches of burnt skin that were slowly healing. A tight breath escaped her lips, brought forth from the shock of his assault and the sight of his disfigured face gradually morphing back into the handsome man she knew.
But his eyes were not the same. They were full of a rage that she couldn’t give a name to. It was neither from hunger nor the fact that she had disobeyed him. It was something else entirely.
After gazing up into his fiery green eyes, she finally realized why he glared at her in such a way.
“What are you afraid of?” she asked.
The hard lines on his face softened, and his grip eased around her wrist. “I am not afraid.”
“Yes, you are. Is it because I almost read your manuscript? I’m sure it’s not bad.”
Gavin let out a sigh and shook his head. “No, it is.”
Chloe searched his face for the truth, but all she could do was speculate. “Has no one ever read your work? Not even Janette?”
This time, he lowered her arm and twisted his hand around so their fingers would interlace. He appeared to struggle with the words for a moment, wrestling within himself what exactly to tell her.
“No. No one has ever read my work. Not Janette and not even a publisher.”
“But I thought you said you couldn’t get anything published? I assumed that meant you had tried.”
He shook his head. “I was always too fearful to hand my work over to anyone. Janette tried to convince me to solicit it somewhere, but I never did. She asked to read it herself, but I wouldn’t let her.”
Chloe stepped closer. “But, why not? Didn’t you trust her?”
Gavin looked pained at the accusatory question. “Of course, I trusted her. I wouldn’t have married her if I hadn’t.”
“Then why didn’t you let her read it?” she asked a little more urgently.
Gavin’s free hand balled into a fist and began to shake. “Because, I didn’t want her to hate it and have her stop believing in me. If she thought I had no talent, she might not have supported me so strongly in my passions.”
The corners of Chloe’s mouth twitched with a smile that she wanted to give him, but was afraid it would come out as mocking or condescending. “If she loved you like I believe she did, then she wouldn’t have stopped supporting you for anything.”
Gavin stared into her eyes for what seemed like ages, the two of them standing together in the silence of the cellar while the rest of humanity went about their morning. But in this dark place, Chloe felt as if she was in another world, and Gavin was the master of that world.
She could hardly believe what she was saying. In her mind, Chloe had never liked Janette for the pure fact that she had been married to Gavin. But here she was, reassuring Gavin that what Janette felt for him was special and unconditional.
Defending the woman who seemed like the enemy altered Chloe's opinion of her. Suddenly, she wasn't a threat anymore. If Gavin had never let her read his manuscripts, perhaps what they had shared wasn't so special after all. It gave Chloe hope that maybe one day, she could be better than Janette and that Gavin would love her even more completely than he had ever loved Janette.
But her eyes fell to the bed behind Gavin. If it really was their bed, Chloe was reminded of something else that she had not been able to share with Gavin yet. How many times had they done what married couples do in that bed? Was their son conceived in that bed?
All of a sudden, she felt like an intruder. She wasn’t a vampire like he was, and yet here she was, stranded in the darkness, his darkness that he’d been creating for years with his sorrows and regrets and memories of his former family. She hadn’t felt it when she’d first come in, but now it was suffocating.
“Maybe I should go,” she said as she turned away. But Gavin’s hand held her back from taking another step.
“No, don’t go.”
How could she resist his plea that was so full of the loneliness he had suffered for years? She stood still, the only thing connecting them were their joined hands and some spiritual bond that had formed somehow in the time they had known each other. It bridged the darkness, and for a brief moment, Chloe felt a light in her heart because of it.
She looked back at Gavin, and even in the dim light, she saw his tortured gaze in the shadows. His eyes, darkened as they were, begged her to stay. And this wasn’t his powers of manipulation. This was a genuine, subliminal call for her company, her acceptance, her love. And she would give it freely.
Chloe went back to him, her phone lowered so the light shined on their feet and legs. Their bodies somehow gravitated closer to one another until they were nearly touching. Her breath quickened, and heart pounded against her chest. She was sure that he could not only hear it but feel it, too.
Unsure what prompted her to say such a silly romantic thing, she whispered, “It beats for you.”
Gavin didn’t ask for an explanation before he snaked one arm around her waist and brought her closer. Their torsos pressed together, and she could feel every contour of his strong body. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him.
She didn’t know whether it was fear or passion that surged between them. Her body began to quiver, and an ache developed low in her belly.
Memories of the night in the woods flashed back to her. He had held her in the same way. Was this lust or hunger she saw in his eyes?
The need to survive spurred her to step backward, but he refused to let go. She whispered his name before his lips consumed hers.
Warm and tender, he kissed her, and the fear ebbed away. Her eyes drifted shut, and she dropped her phone, landing in such a way that the light bulb landed face down onto the floor. Darkness swallowed up the room as Chloe used her free hand to rake through Gavin’s hair.
"I love you," she finally whispered, professing to him and to the world the thing she had been so apprehensive to say from the beginning. To love a vampire, a powerful creature of the night, seemed such a morbid thing. Yet, holding him close and feeling his hands caress her so tenderly, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. How could this love that blossomed in the night be wrong in any way?
Their kiss intensified, the passion mounting between them and ready to boil over. His mouth moved along her jaw and down her neck. A moment of panic flared in Chloe’s chest before his lips and tongue sent her into a deeper level of ecstasy that made her forget everything. Nothing else in the world existed except for them and this cellar.
Before she had time to even think about it, Gavin’s shirt was on the floor, and hers joined it. Their skin touched, and it was a glorious feeling. Even in the chilly cellar, they kept each other warm. The manuscript and the conversation they’d started were quickly forgotten as Gavin and Chloe moved closer to his bed, still enraptured in each other. Kisses and caresses abounded as they expressed their true emotions in ways that words could not.
Chapter 22
When Gavin awoke, his senses were on fire. The darkness seemed as bright as the sun. The sounds of bugs crawling along the planked floors were like bear claws scratching at the walls. The smell of the grass and trees outside somehow penetrated the walls of his dwelling place to reach his nostrils. And his skin, oh his skin was alight with sensations he hadn’t felt in centuries. And above it all, he felt refreshed, somehow alive although he knew that he was dead.
And when he turned to look at Chloe, sleeping soundly beside him with her arm draped over his body, he knew exactly why. Memories of their lovemaking and overflowing passion came back to him in an instant.
A well of emotions cam
e rushing in, and he wasn’t sure whether to feel ashamed for having known her in the Biblical sense before marriage, elated that she would trust him enough to be intimate, or terrified that she was getting too dangerously close so far in the detox period.
He reached out and touched her cheek, savoring the softness of her flesh. He had her to thank for making him feel this way. Only she could have awakened that part of him once more. How could he feel ashamed of it?
A new sound echoed in the darkness with them—a heartbeat. His eyes dropped to the fragile skin on her neck, and he could see the veins pulsing beneath. An instinctual urge threatened to ruin the joy he felt. His mouth watered and stomach quivered in the first unbearable pains of hunger.
He felt his fangs grow behind his lips and eyes morph to display his bloodlust. It would be so easy to take her now while she slept so vulnerable in his bed. But his love for her stood as a wall, impenetrable and strong in the face of this curse he bore. How long would such a barrier stand?
Being careful not to wake her, Gavin slipped off of the bed, and he dressed himself in the clothes he had shed so eagerly. He listened and could hear the night owls making their usual twilight calls. It was safe for him to leave the cellar. But he could not feed.
Looking back at Chloe, he saw her shift under the blankets. He admired her body, remembering how it had felt in his arms and against his body. The lust of the flesh had somehow merged with his lust for blood, and the desire to take her, both her body and for sustenance, was almost too much to control.
Just one touch from her would set off a chain reaction that he would not be able to stop. He had to distance himself from her somehow, not only for his sake but also for hers. He could not bear the sight of her dead body limp in his arms. Fear gripped his chest while hunger assaulted his core, both battling for a say in what he should do.
***
Chloe had no dreams during that sleep, only a deep slumber that replenished her strength when she awoke. But even when she opened her eyes, she was still in darkness. The blackness was so complete that she couldn’t figure out if her eyes were truly open.
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