by Jade White
Luke strolled around to open the driver’s side for her, grinning at the look of wonder on her face.
“Wow,” she said. “You don’t look like you pushed a car twenty miles.”
“Fifteen,” Luke said modestly. “And of course not. I’ve done plenty of things that are a lot more challenging in my time.”
Kim cocked her head and looked at him curiously. “Like what?”
Luke studied her carefully. Kim felt his gaze on her, but it wasn’t altogether unpleasant.
After a moment, he shook his head. “Maybe later.”
“Why not now?” Kim asked stubbornly. “What are you--”
“Hello?”
Both of them jumped and turned toward the shop to see where the gruff voice had come from. A squat man with a red baseball cap and a wild black beard was watching them, a soiled rag hanging from the front pocket of his coveralls. “Help you folks?”
Kim walked toward him as she spoke. “Hello. My engine has some damage, and the car won’t start anymore. Can you help me figure out what’s wrong?”
The man grunted, bending the brim of his already worn cap with one hand. “Pop your hood for me.”
Kim lifted her hood and propped it open, uncomfortably aware that the man had been staring at Luke for the entire exchange. Luke either didn’t notice or didn’t care; he put his hands in his jean pockets and started whistling, casting glances around them as if he were a tourist at a mildly interesting landmark. At the sound of Luke’s whistle, the other man’s body seemed to stiffen. He shot a few dark glances over at him in between fiddling with the engine.
She decided to try and break the tension. “Are you Buddy?”
“Nope. I’m Herbert,” the man said shortly. He jerked his head behind him, toward the still-barking dog in the window. “That’s Buddy. Well, Buddy the Third.”
“Oh,” Kim said. “Do you get many customers out here?”
Herbert grunted and threw another hostile glance at Luke, who was still whistling.
Kim walked over to Luke and put a hand on his bicep. “Are you going to head back to...your friends?” She caught herself before saying the other vampires; she was sure that Herbert had a thing against non-humans.
Luke smiled. “I think that’s probably best. Herbie doesn’t seem to like me very much.”
Kim laughed despite the tension. “Maybe he’s jealous.” She stepped closer to him and slipped her arms around his shoulders.
Luke put his arms around her waist automatically, his gaze traveling over her features like he was trying to memorize them. “Let’s give him something to be jealous about.”
He pulled her against him and bent his head forward to kiss her. Kim’s body reacted immediately; a pulse of electricity spread through her, starting from where their lips met and coiling around her spine until she felt like she was being heated from the inside out. Luke’s tongue gently separated her lips, lightly massaging hers as one of his hands slipped lower on her back to rest on the curve of her ass. Kim let out a soft moan and pressed her hips into his, her desire building to a crescendo faster than it ever had before.
Luke pulled away abruptly, his eyes dancing with lust. Kim could see that it had taken a tremendous amount of effort to pull away; she knew now that their bond really wasn’t one-sided, and that was almost enough to satisfy her.
“I should go,” Luke said under his breath. “I do have to get back to...my friends.”
“Okay.” Kim didn’t try to hide her disappointment, but she stopped short of asking him to stay, partially because of Herbert’s prejudice.
She let out a dry chuckle. Wow. I have a vampire boyfriend. It still feels unreal.
Luke’s gaze lingered on her a moment longer. “You okay?”
Kim nodded, a blush creeping into her cheeks. “Yeah. Just having a pinch-me-I-must-be-dreaming moment.”
The smile on his face was understanding, but the look was tinted with something else Kim couldn’t quite identify. “I know what you mean. I’ll pinch you later, okay?”
Before she could answer, he turned and set off running – though Kim wasn’t sure running was the best term; his feet didn’t kick up any dust even though he was moving at least thirty miles an hour. How fast can he go? His outline seemed to be gaining speed, judging by the way it was shrinking more rapidly as the moment wore on.
The feeling of unreality deepened as she watched his shape shrink to a pinprick on the horizon-- until he was a just a tiny dot cutting diagonally across the desert toward the slim column of smoke where the other vampires waiting for him, or did they resume their fighting? Would they ask Luke about the loud human who interrupted their sparring? What were they fighting for, anyway?
A loud cough broke Kim out of her trance. She turned around to see that Herbert was standing with his hands on his hips, lips pressed together in a thin line.
“This’ll need to stay overnight. Get it to you tomorrow.”
Somehow, his words seemed even less friendly than before.
“How much will the repairs be?”
Herbert was silent for a long time, and Kim wondered if he was thinking of a way to scam her.
“'Bout two hunnerd,” he said finally. “Parts and labor.”
She groaned inwardly. I’m sure my vampire boyfriend had nothing to do with your estimate. “Okay. I can call a cab or something. Mind if I wait in your shop?”
Herbert gave another non-committal grunt and turned around to hit a switch beside the door. An ear-splitting whine split the air as a garage door Kim hadn’t noticed before began to slowly rise, revealing a messy workshop and a lone set of tracks. Kim hurried inside the shop and saw that it was nearly as dusty as the desert outside; she wiped the seat of a cracked leather armchair before gingerly perching on it, hoping someone could come and get her before the dust covered her, too.
She was lucky it was Suzanna’s day off. On the phone, Kim made her best friend promise not to ask questions until she got to the automotive shop; she knew Herbert probably couldn’t hear her, but she didn’t want to risk somehow offending him with more details of her personal life. The shop was so quiet during the half hour she waited that she kept clearing her throat just to make sure she hadn’t gone deaf. Soon it was nightfall, and no noise beside Herbert’s tinkering had reached her ears. Is it this quiet here all the time? Maybe that’s why he’s such a grouch. He never gets any customers.
Suzanna’s blue sedan pulled up just as Kim was getting antsy. She bolted to the passenger side and got in without a backward glance, barely remembering to close the door before she put on her seatbelt.
“Where’s the fire?” Suzanna asked in surprise.
“In that grumpy old man’s eyes,” Kim said as they pulled out onto the road.
Suzanna laughed. “Am I allowed to ask you real questions now?”
Kim sighed. “I guess so, but it’s going to sound unbelievable to you, too.”
Her best friend turned her head toward the passenger seat, sending her curly, dirty-blonde ponytail whipping against the window. Her eyes narrowed.
“What do you mean ‘too’?” She frowned and turned back to the road. “...Wait. This has something to do with your vampire boytoy, doesn’t it?”
Kim took a deep breath. “You know how I keep running into him at random places? It turns out there’s a reason for that.”
Suzanna looked at her sharply again, and Kim shifted in her seat, feeling as though she were under a spotlight. Even the vampires weren’t this intense.
“We have some kind of...metaphysical bond,” she continued. It’s drawing us together, so we keep finding each other even when we’re trying not to.”
“I thought bonds only happened if a vampire bit you, or turned you?” Suzanna said blankly. When she spoke again, there was a note of panic in her voice. “Oh my god! Did he bite you that night?”
“No!” Kim said quickly. “I definitely would have told you if I’d been bitten. I have no idea how this bond formed. He has no ide
a how this bond formed,” she admitted. “But it’s there, and it hasn’t gone away.”
Suzanna’s face was as pale as Kim had ever seen it, but her voice was steady as she spoke. “So you drove twenty miles out of the city because your body told you to?”
“It’s closer to forty, actually,” Kim said. “Luke pushed my car to that shop.”
Suzanna laughed, and the sound had an edge of hysteria. “Okay, no. No way. He didn’t push two thousand pounds of metal twenty miles.”
“He did,” Kim said bluntly. “I sat in the car while he did it. He wasn’t even a little tired...and then I watched him run right back.”
The car filled with a thick silence. Kim felt like she was back in Herbert’s store. She stared at Suzanna, trying to gauge her reaction, but her best friend’s face was carefully blank.
“So what did he say when you showed up?” Suzanna asked finally. “How did he react?”
“Not positively at first,” Kim admitted. “He told me he’d been avoiding me because of the bond. He didn’t want to get involved in case it was purely lust-based. But eventually we both agreed to stop ignoring our impulses.” She paused. “Well, I guess I decided and then convinced him to.”
The remark earned her another pointed look from Suzanna. “Hmm.”
Kim waited for Suzanna to start speaking, but she looked reluctant to begin. “Are you going to expand on your “hmm”?”
Suzanna laughed nervously. “I don’t know. I don’t want it to seem like I’m overly suspicious or trying to poke holes in this.”
Kim turned her body toward Suzanna and stared at the side of her head. “Now you have to tell me.”
Suzanna’s broad shoulders slumped as she sighed. “It’s just...normally, from what I understand, vampires are eager to get involved with humans. I don’t know if it’s a fetish, or if sex with us is really that different, but my cousin’s husband – Jeanette, the one who married that half-vampire-- has confirmed that it’s rare for vampires to not jump at the chance.”
Kim frowned. “What are you saying?”
“I’m just being overly cautious,” Suzanna said. “It seems like there’s more to Luke than he’s letting on.”
Kim stared at her. “Do you think this is some kind of manipulation tactic? Like, he’s playing hard to get?”
“Maybe,” Suzanna said. “Maybe he’s just gun-shy. Maybe there’s a whole other reason. I don’t know. I just know you should be careful.”
Kim could feel a spark of anger in the pit of her stomach. “Maybe some vampires are just cautious, and they’re not all the same. Maybe they’re just people like us, with hidden complexities just like us.”
Suzanna looked pained as Kim spoke. “I didn’t mean it like that, Kim. You know I’m not like Daisy, judgmental and bitchy. I just want you to be careful, because with a baby in the picture, things could get weird. Weirder,” she amended. “I’m sorry. I’ll shut up now.”
Kim felt guilt smother the spark of anger inside her. “It’s okay. I think I’m just tired and annoyed. That guy at the auto shop didn’t seem to like Luke much, and I think his disdain rubbed me a little raw.”
Suzanna relaxed in her seat. “That’s understandable.”
Kim fell silent as they crossed the city line and headed for her apartment. She really didn’t think Suzanna was trying to be bossy or judgmental; even so, it felt strange for her best friend to be telling her to be cautious. When was she ever not cautious? Kim was known for always having backups, and backups for the backups, and a variation of one of the backups. She’d been that way since high school, after her prom date got forgot to get gas in his car and got them stranded in the desert and they had to camp out overnight. She’d been so angry that she refused to touch him again, even though his body would have warmed her. She hated unpreparedness, and she hated lack of foresight even more.
“Want me to come in?” Suzanna asked she parked in front of Kim’s apartment. “I have a few minutes before I’m supposed to pick up my brother.”
Kim shook her head. “I’m just going to go upstairs and take a nap. Thanks again, Suz.”
Suzanna hesitated; it looked as though she were going to insist on coming in. Finally, she smiled and nodded, leaving Kim to watch her car pull out of the driveway and head around the corner.
As she unlocked the door and eased into the living room, her eyes were pulled to a spot on her forearm. What’s different? She stood in her doorway, frozen, her mind turning over itself to figure out why her skin looked so different.
The bruise, she realized. It’s gone.
All at once, a wave of exhaustion settled into her bones, and all she could do was stagger to her bedroom as her eyelids started to droop. Kim knew she should be more alarmed, but she couldn’t be bothered to pursue the mystery of the vanishing blotch while her muscles were growing heavier by the second. Maybe I imagined it, she thought, though she immediately knew it wasn’t so – Luke himself had been the one to point it out to her. Maybe I’m dreaming now. Maybe this whole thing is a dream.
Then, as she thought of Luke’s soft lips on hers: Please don’t let it be a dream.
Evan was asleep when Kim walked into the bedroom, and Daisy was already putting on her shoes to leave. Her carrot-orange hair was in a frizzy ponytail, and she kept tugging on it as she dressed. She whispered a goodbye, saying she would be back in the morning, and explaining that she had an appointment across town, apologizing for not being able to stay longer.
Don’t be sorry, Kim thought. I need the silence.
She thought she would have trouble sleeping when she got underneath her covers – that the bruise would rise to the front of her mind--but as soon as she turned on her side, her thoughts trailed away and faded into silence, too.
Chapter Four
When Kim abruptly opened her eyes, sunlight was glinting through the slightly open blinds. How long did I sleep? She looked at her bedside clock and read 6:12 in blocky red letters.
Twelve hours, holy crap. What woke me up?
Kim sat up and looked over at Evan’s crib. He was gone.
She experienced a few seconds of immobilizing panic before she remembered that Daisy had her own key, and that yesterday she said she’d be back in the morning to pick Evan up and take him out to their vacation home by the Desert Park. Kim took a few deep breaths as her stomach unknotted itself.
Why didn’t he wake me to feed him?
Then she remembered that she’d placed a bottle next to him before lying down. He could feed himself now, and was even on the way to being potty trained. She’d never stop marveling at how fast a human-vampire hybrid could grow; she was thankful, but also a little sad, because he wouldn’t be a baby for much longer. Thank goodness. I’m losing my marbles as it is. Toddlers have to be easier than babies, right?
A hard knock on the door split the silence, and Kim realized that it had been what woke her up. Who’s visiting this early? She reached for a robe and belted it around her, a thin veneer of anger emerging from her drowsiness. The knock came again, and the anger intensified. “Keep your pants on!” she snapped. “I’m coming.”
Kim was too confused to say anything when she opened the door to find Luke standing on the doormat. Then the events of the previous day came flooding back, and she felt a smile bloom across her features. Luke smiled in return, and Kim’s heart did a giddy flip in her chest.
“What are you doing here?” she asked breathlessly. “Not that I’m not happy to see you,” she said, stepping back to let him in.
He didn’t say anything at first; Kim watched Luke as he turned in a slow circle, grey eyes scanning her spartan living room and stopping briefly on objects here and there. She was suddenly very aware that she hadn’t done any cleaning in three days. She looked at her bookshelf with its disorganized texts, her television with its inch-thick layer of dust, and the frayed rug that spread over most of the living room floor. I wish I could afford a maid. Or a better apartment.
Luke finally turne
d back to her, an easy smile softening his expression. “You’ve been to Italy?” he asked, gesturing toward a photo of her and Suzanna in front of an old villa in Genoa.
Kim nodded. “In college. Suzanna and I did a semester abroad.”
“Did you like it?”
Kim laughed. “Of course. Who doesn’t like Italy?” She paused. “Why do you ask?”
“I have family there,” he said casually.
Family? Kim tried to imagine a vampire family reunion. Would they have a punch bowl filled with blood? Would they hunt animals together instead of race in potato sacks?
Luke seemed to know her train of thought. “We don’t get together and perform rituals or anything,” he said with a wry smile. “It’s very tame. No fistfights, either.”
Kim blushed and put her hands over her face. “I’m sorry.”
When Luke spoke again, there was no sarcasm. “It’s okay. I know you probably don’t meet a lot of vampires in your spare time.” He moved toward her and pulled her hands from her face; Kim’s skin tingled even when he pulled his own hands back. “I brought you something.”
Luke fished in his pocket and pulled out a set of keys, grinning triumphantly when Kim looked at him in astonishment.
“He let you pick it up?”
Luke’s smile faltered a little. “Well. I kind of...had to persuade him.” His eyes widened at the look of alarm on her face, and he rushed to explain. “Nothing violent! It wasn’t even technically illegal.”
“Technically?” Kim squeaked. Her stomach started to knot together again.
“I just...used a little of my influence,” Luke said hesitantly. “That light magic we vampires have. I convinced him this car was actually mine...and that I’d already paid for it.” He seemed to be withering under Kim’s glare. “All vampires do it. It’s harmless, as long as the humans don’t get hurt.”