by Lucy Smoke
Thinking of the dark-haired beauty with her large brown eyes and long face made him hard, which was, admittedly, really weird. Not only had it been a long time since his body had gotten it up for anyone, but there had to be something sort of perverse about the fact that when it finally happened again, it was for someone who was technically no longer alive.
Adjusting his pants, he moved forward. No sooner was he spotted by the group gathered in the living room than squealing children leaped upon him. Opening his arms, he hugged his sister’s three children tightly. Anna, Margot, and Steven. He hadn’t spent enough time with them over the years. Even as a person who should have known better, since he’d essentially been dying since birth, he’d focused on his career for too long.
“How are you guys?”
Anna spoke first. She was the oldest, and she looked just like his sister, with the same blonde hair and hazel eyes he’d looked at for his whole childhood.
“Did you bring us any presents?”
“I did not.” Their faces fell so he kept speaking. “Because I had them sent ahead a few weeks ago. They’re already here.”
The children squealed, and he hoped that the two dolls and the t-ball set he’d purchased would be worth the anticipation. His sister walked in the room, followed by her husband, Rob.
When she saw him, she hurried over and pulled him into her embrace. She smelled like soap and baby lotion. In his wildest dreams, he couldn’t have imagined that Jenny would turn out so maternal. The wild child in the family, she’d made their parents nuts with her antics when she’d been a teenager.
“Ben.” Her voice held a hitch, and he knew she stopped herself from crying only by sheer force of will. “I hope the children aren’t pestering you for gifts.”
“They are.” He laughed as he moved back to stare at her. It had been a year since he’d seen her. They spoke on the phone, and e-mail let them be in constant contact. Still, there was nothing like seeing your loved ones in person. She had lines by her eyes that hadn’t been as distinct before, but other than that, she looked exactly the same. His older sister had grown into a beautiful woman. “But they’re supposed to. That’s what six, four, and two is all about, right? That’s exactly what we did.”
Letting her go, he turned to Rob. Holding out his hand, he expected his brother to shake it. Instead, Rob pulled him into a tight embrace. Ben wanted to laugh, if it hadn’t been so odd. How did you know when you were dying? When your stiff brother-in-law who never went for the Fox family’s displays of public affection grabbed and hugged you like he never wanted to let go.
Ben cleared his throat. “Good to see you, Rob.”
“You too.”
Rob finally released him, and Ben actually found himself without words. What should he say?
He opted for simple. “Happy Hanukkah. Where are Mom, Dad, and Grandma?”
“In the kitchen.”
“I think I’ll go say hello, and then I’m going to need to sit down for a while.”
Jenny frowned, her eyebrows pointing downwards in the motion. “Are you tired?”
He smiled. “I’m dying, Jen.”
“Don’t say it like that.”
Shaking his head, he realized as much as he needed this, to see all of them for the last time, in some ways, it was going to be a trying few days. “I am dying whether I say it or not.”
Jenny’s eyes welled up with tears. “Please, Ben. Please don’t.”
He sighed. Hell.
Rob finally spoke. “Look, Jen, Ben can handle this anyway he wants to. We don’t get a say in what he talks about.”
Snapping, she practically hissed at Rob, “He’s my brother.”
Now that side of Jenny he knew, having been on the wrong side of her anger more than once as a child.
“I’m aware that he’s your brother.”
Turning around, Ben decided he really wasn’t needed for this conversation. It was more about them than it was about him, and if Jenny was going to cry, he didn’t want to see. It wasn’t like he’d chosen to have a short life, or done it out of some kind of wish to cause his family pain.
As he rounded the corner to the kitchen, he peered out the window where the menorah sat facing into the darkness. Somewhere out there was a vampire who used to be Jewish when she’d been human. The few minutes that he’d spent with her, he hadn’t felt any pain at all, emotional or physical, and it had been bliss.
Pushing the swinging door to the kitchen open, he stepped into an all too familiar scene. His grandmother dished potato latkes onto plates, while his mother squirted the brisket with a turkey-baster. His father sat on the counter looking bored with the whole thing. He always did that. Cooking didn’t interest his father at all, but at Ben’s grandmother’s house, Ben’s dad never left his wife’s side.
“Hi there,” he called out upon entering.
“Benja,” his grandmother greeted him first, coming close to hug him, the spatula she held moving as she talked. “We waited to do the blessing for you, but it got too late.”
“I’m sorry, Grandma, the plane was delayed due to some kind of weather condition over Chicago.”
“Well,” his grandmother moved back to look at him, “I suppose you don’t control the weather.” She frowned. “You look tired.”
Out of the whole family, Ben’s grandmother knew the least about how serious his condition had gotten. It seemed cruel to worry her. When the inevitable came, she would find out like everyone else. Not like he’d be around to see that personally.
Unless he became a ghost.
He gulped at the thought. It was one thing to be so blasé about it outside in the presence of the undead. Now, inside his grandmother’s kitchen, he could admit to himself that the last thing he wanted to do was wander the earth aimlessly, haunting people for eternity…
His mother hugged him next, holding on a little too long, the only visible sign that she acknowledged what his looking ‘tired’ exactly meant. Then his father took his turn. Always emotional, after his dad got his turn, his father excused himself to use the bathroom, although Ben supposed it was to regain his composure.
“I’m sorry I missed the lights. I’ll get to see them lit tomorrow though.”
The doorbell ringing had him turning around.
His mother frowned, her dyed brown hair—or highlighted, as she would call it—sitting perfectly coifed on her shoulders. “Is it that man again, mother?”
“What man?” Benjamin glanced between them.
“Some man has been coming around the neighborhood every night. He claims to be a vampire hunter. Of all the nonsense.” Pushing open the door to the kitchen, she called out. “Rob, make him go away if it’s that man again.”
Ben’s insides went cold. A vampire hunter?
His grandmother shrugged. “He’s always polite. He’s mostly harmless. It takes all types in this world, even the crazy ones. How was the flight, Benja?”
Someone was hunting Ruth? Did she know? Benjamin wasn’t certain why, but he felt sick at the thought. After one conversation, Ruth had become his vampire.
He was going to have to warn her.
Ignoring his grandmother, in two strides, he travelled faster than he had in a year and walked out in the living room to regard the man at the door. Rob was chatting with him, even as he made the movements to get him off the front porch.
Rather unassuming, the man stood stick straight at six feet tall with blond hair trimmed close to his head and blue eyes. As if seeing Ben’s gaze on him, he nodded as he turned to leave.
Ben shivered. It felt like someone was walking on his grave. Even moments from inhabiting it himself, he didn’t like the feeling.
2
In her dream—she was aware she was asleep, it was the only time she saw daylight—Ruth walked down the main street of the town she grew up in. Nodding to one person after another, she knew she needed to get to her location quickly. He waited for her.
Rounding the corner, she saw him ahead. His back was to her, an
d he was bent over a cart, looking at the woman’s wares. Ruth rolled her eyes. He always tried to be so subtle, and she almost always caught him in the act. Her sweet husband, Ben, he loved to buy her flowers.
Standing up, he held two red roses in his hand. Nodding to the flower woman, he turned, and for a moment, looked absolutely stunned to see her. Then he smiled and laughed as he walked in her direction, holding up the roses.
He shook his head. “You caught me again.” She knew they were in Poland, and yet they both spoke English. Inwardly, she shrugged. This was pleasant. She needed to focus on what was happening so it didn’t go away.
“Why do you always wait until I am just about to arrive to do these things?”
She took the roses from his hand and leaned up to kiss him. Everything about him was familiar. It was like coming home to be in his presence, and she was grateful every moment of every day to be with him. Life without Benjamin would be intolerable, and she felt thanks she didn’t have to know what that was like.
“What would you like to do this afternoon?”
“Go home.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Go home?”
And just like that, they were back at their home. Since she was asleep, she didn’t have to wait during travel. They could simply be there.
She lay back on the bed, Ben posed above, looking down at her. In his dark eyes, she saw such love that she had to swallow the lump in her throat. This had never happened to her in real life. She’d been unmarried when she died and had never known carnal pleasure. As a vampire, she’d indulged with other vampires. Eternity was long, and she had to pass the time somehow. None of her undead partners had ever looked at her like this.
“When I make a fantasy up, I really make one.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean, Ruthie?”
Ruthie? She closed her eyes. No one had called her that in so long. It had been her family’s nickname for her, said only by those who loved her. She felt tears burn her eyes.
It was hard to speak around the lump in her throat. “Do you love me?”
He leaned down, holding his body over hers with his arms, and kissed her square on the mouth. His lips were soft, and the slight stubble on his cheeks rubbed her skin. It was a familiar sensation, like they’d done it a million times before, and yet she was sure she would never get sick of it.
Finally, he pulled back, his gaze that much more intense, thanks to how close their eyes were to each other. “You know I do.”
She did. In that moment, she could feel his love for her and she wanted to dive inside that feeling, swim around in it, and never resurface to the place where it didn’t exist. She swallowed her emotions. Why couldn’t this be the type of dream where she was unaware she was asleep?
Lifting her legs, she wrapped them around his waist, wanting to be closer to him.
“Are you in a hurry? We have all afternoon.” His eyes were lit with amusement as he planted small kisses on her cheeks, her nose, and her neck, causing small shivers to travel down her spine. She could feel them everywhere, like his mouth touched her entire body.
They didn’t have all afternoon. She wouldn’t tell him that. It might make the dream end faster.
“Yes, hurry. I need you.”
He stroked her forehead. “What is the matter?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. God, she was spoiling her own dream. “I just want you, need you. Please, before it’s too late.”
“Ruthie.” She pulled down her legs, and he rolled off her until he lay next to her on the bed. Picking her up in his arms, he tucked her neatly next to him. “You don’t have to be afraid. They aren’t coming to get us here. We’ll be safe, you’ll see.”
Now he sounded like her father had. Huffing, she sat up, pulling herself away from him. The joy of the dream was over. There’d be no finishing what they’d started now.
She glared. “You’re wrong about that. They are coming. They are coming here, and when it’s over, we’ll all be dead. Well, except for you, because you never lived in this time.”
He jolted up, running his hands through his hair. “What are talking about?”
“I’m talking about blood, Benjamin. Rivers and rivers of blood. So much, the stain will never come out.” She felt her fangs elongate in her mouth. Ben’s eyes got wide as he saw her, the love she’d seen in them swept away by another emotion she knew quite well—fear.
He backed up on the bed, holding out a hand as if to ward himself from her. “Ruth, what’s going on?”
“It’s time for me to feed.”
She lunged forward, hunger propelling her every move.
Ruth darted up in her bed. sweat beading down the side of her face, her hands shaking. “Damn, I need to eat.”
Looking up at the clock on the wall, she saw that it was past eight o’clock at night. No wonder she was famished, she’d slept an hour later than she usually did. Well, that’s what she got for having sex dreams that turned into violence.
Trying her best to shake off the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach, she moved fast. Making her actions deliberate and not wasting time, she dressed and hurried out the door.
Her makeshift apartment at the bottom of a mausoleum, two towns over from where she hunted, was good enough for her needs. Eventually, she’d have to leave it and her hunting grounds for new residency. She always did. It was how she’d ended up in America to begin with. If she wanted to live as a vampire and not seek the sun to end it all, then she needed to keep going. Maybe she’d try some place in the South next. Shrugging, she acknowledged it didn’t really matter where she went. Ultimately, they were all the same.
Striding into the darkness, she travelled the distance between her home and the streets where she found food fast. Too quickly, in fact, for any humans to see her. If they saw anything, it was a blur that was too suddenly gone for them to remark upon. It was a gift. Her kind, she supposed, couldn’t survive if they were constantly spotted.
Minutes later, she stood in the four-block radius of homes that had become her comfort zone. Exhaling, she smelled her first blood donor of the evening. An old man took out his garbage three doors down from where she stood. Perfect.
Within two seconds, she was before him. “Hello.”
He startled, but moments later, was under her enthrallment.
“I want you to bend your neck like this.” She demonstrated what she wanted him to do. It was easier than having to constantly repeat her demands or explain them over and over.
Obeying her—as they all did, except Benjamin—he put his neck into her desired position. She moved closer, embracing his body against hers.
“This won’t hurt much.”
Piercing his neck with her fangs, she sucked fast. The sooner she got done, the better. If he were to come out of his temporary enthrallment while she still sucked on his neck, he would be terrified and most likely scream. Even though she could easily get away, or kill him, which she preferred not to have happen.
She could hear his pulse in her ears. It was strong, she hadn’t taken too much. The blood was sweet, like the way chocolate drinks had tasted in her youth, and she moaned slightly at the pleasure. It wasn’t sexual, not any more than a fine meal had been in her human youth, but it still made her feel satisfied. Just a few more tugs with her fangs, and he would be dead.
Knowing this, she pulled back, licking the wound over his pruned skin until it closed. A quick glance in his eyes told her he was still under enthrallment, so she took him by the arm.
“Walk with me.” In three slow steps, she placed the man on his front step. “Sit here. You’re going to be a little dizzy for a few minutes. When it passes, get up and go inside.”
She patted him on the head like she might a dog. “Thank you. I feel much better now.”
Not really, but it seemed polite to say it. If she’d had any sense of humor left, she might have laughed at herself as she walked away from her meal. When had she decided she needed to keep her hu
man manners when feeding? Actually, she couldn’t remember. Most of the things she did and did not do had been determined in her first weeks as a vampire. Now, everything was just habit.
Abruptly, she stopped as she realized where she had wandered. It was the house again. The candles lit in the window like a homing beacon had pulled her to their presence. She exhaled as she stared at the sight. Three of them tonight. Two to represent the night, and one in the center to light all the others, called the Shamash.
In her family, they’d rotated whose turn it had been to light the candles. Her mother always lit the Shamash candle, even when it had been Ruth’s turn, later in her life, when she handled matchsticks perfectly well. She smiled at the memory. Her parents worried about the wrong things. Shrugging, she let the memory fade. They’d only been human. They hadn’t known better.
She moved closer to the house, watching the orange and red hues of the flames on the other side of the window dance. It was probably the air conditioning that made it do that.
“I hoped to see you again.”
Ruth jumped a foot off the ground and swung around as she focused on the person who had managed to take her off guard for the first time in sixty-five years. Benjamin Fox. The subject of her late afternoon fantasies that had screwed up her eating schedule. He was proving to be quite a problem to her.
Landing, she studied him closely. How had he done that? He sat on the stump of a cut down tree just feet from the window. How long had he been there? “You’re much more than you seem, Benjamin. No one has snuck up on me since I was changed.”
“I didn’t sneak. You just didn’t hear me.” He coughed. “And it’s Ben, not Benjamin.”
She raised an eyebrow. His heartbeat was weaker than yesterday. It was part of why she hadn’t heard him. The other part was foolishness brought on by a yearning caused by some silly candles.
“Are we to be friends?”
He rose. “I don’t know if I’m going to be alive long enough to develop a friendship with you.” He shrugged as he stepped forward, his eyes up on the night sky. “I still don’t like to be called Benjamin.”