by Dave Ferraro
***
“Well, what did you think?” Samantha glanced sideways at the vampire who remained in his seat long after the other La Faer Noir elders had left. “Quite a show, wasn’t it?”
“That it was,” he agreed. He glanced up at Tessa.
Samantha looked back at Tessa and nodded, and the djinn left the room.
“Is she as much like Diana as they claim?” Samantha asked, walking toward his seat slowly.
The vampire took a deep breath. “More so than I imagined. I didn’t expect her to…” His voice trailed off and Samantha wondered it he was lost in his own mind, and had forgotten about her altogether, until he spoke again moments later. “She is strong. Stronger than last time. She would be…magnificent.” He turned to Samantha sharply. “Keep an eye on Shanna Hunt for me, Ms. Cummings. I want clear, detailed reports.”
Samantha bowed her head. “Of course, Vlad.”
Vlad smiled. “You do very well for yourself, Samantha. You will be among the inner circle yet. Now bring me something to eat, will you, dear?”
“At once,” Samantha turned to leave.
“Ah. And Samantha?”
“Yes, Vlad?”
Vlad stared at her intensely. “If that filthy vampire of yours touches her, I will rip his head off myself.”
With a slight nod, Samantha continued out of the room.
Epilogue
“I’m worried about her,” Amelia said, biting her nails as she looked out over the trees from the second floor balcony. “She hardly talks, and certainly not about…that. She needs her friends now more than ever, and she’s just shutting us out.” She shook her head. “I just feel so helpless. She’s obviously in so much pain.”
“Cameron’s an asshole,” Rachel agreed, sitting on the railing, nail polish in hand as she examined her hands. Amelia’s nervous habit was compelling her to bite her nails too. Not something she was going to return to doing. Her nails used to look so bad. “Shanna can do so much better. She shouldn’t waste another minute thinking about him.” She glanced through the trees, where she could make out Shanna sitting on the bank of the stream, just staring at it. It was a sad scene. She looked lonely, and didn’t deserve what had happened to her.
“But getting over someone takes time, guys,” Jade said. “She’s not going to just be fine overnight. She needs to go through the motions. Grieve. I mean, her ex just became a vampire. And he thought she would want that. That’s crazy!”
“What’s crazy is kidnapping your girlfriend,” Rachel said, beginning to put “Candy Apple” polish on her right hand. “I wonder if all he wanted was revenge for his face, and now that it’s whole again, if he doesn’t care about his calling.”
“I take my calling more serious than that,” Jade said.
“Me too,“ Rachel shrugged. “But now he’s…one of them. Isn’t that weird? He’s the thing that causes people to die and get hurt.” She shook her head. “That kid is screwed up.”
“More than we knew,” Jade agreed. “It makes you wonder what other dark things the people we live with are harboring.”
Rachel paused in polishing to look at Jade for a moment. She was leaning back against the wall, her arms crossed in front of her. Her arms crossed. Why did that seem wrong? Crossing her arms was a perfectly natural thing to do. She shrugged at her unease and began painting again.