He took my hand in his “I can take care of myself, if it comes to that. I have before, and I’m sure I will again, although I appreciate you wanting to. That seems like friendship, too.”
There he goes again, seeming human.It was so easy to forget and so completely devastating to my heart.
Griffin’s coffin lid creaked behind me as he pushed it open and I forced myself to continue looking forward; I didn’t need that imagery.Not ever again.
* * *
I always wanted to see the country, and I suppose I did, just at night from a mobile home. From gas stations and houses they rented for me to spend my days. They all blurred into one place after another, but I saw signs on the highway, indications of my progress toward my new home with the vampires—not just driving endlessly nowhere, from one highway to another.Cheyenne. Lincoln. St. Louis. Nashville. They were avoiding detection with me so we went a way that Caesar thought was best. Beyond those were a million other places that I didn’t recognize the names of but were part of my strange road trip with them.
We fell into a routine. Caesar drove the first part of the night, until we stopped for gas. Griffin took the second part. Neither of them had to feed, and I wasn’t in withdrawal. After the second night, it started to feel really companionable. On a journey with two gorgeous vampires who occasionally told fascinating stories about finding people to bite and making them forget it ever happened to them—that was a vampire gift they all had, but no one had ever used on me. They all wanted me to know that I had been their prey.
Eventually, we pulled into a home fifty miles outside of Asheville, North Carolina. Aside from fighting off exhaustion, I didn’t want to wear their clothes anymore, and my overall mood shifted to cranky. Still, the idea of being on the east coast of the country filled me up, so I bounded out of the vehicle with energy.
Caesar nodded toward Griffin. “Get her set up. I’ll bring in the coffins. Last night in them. Tomorrow, we’ll darken the place up so we can sleep in beds. I’m going to get rid of this thing before dawn. It draws too much attention. We’ll have cars soon, too.”
Griffin nodded and escorted me inside the house. They’d bought it for me, sight unseen. It didn’t feel like mine, and I didn’t think it ever would. It was their house, and for the moment, I would stay in it. Caesar proclaimed it mine, but him saying it didn’t make it so.What would I even do with something like this?It was too much. I could argue but the futility of that was beyond me. They’d win the argument. If I just kept my thoughts to myself and knew the truth, it was good enough.
“If you look out that window in the morning, you’ll see a creek. I thought you might like to have a view. I thought the woods would remind you of some of the nicer places in Kentwood. Well, there’s a creek there now, but you can’t see it. Four bedrooms. Two baths. It’s fifteen minutes from the rest of the vampires. Just far enough, they never come over here. They won’t find you, but we can come and go easily to be with you.”
I touched his arm. No matter how much I tried to make myself stop doing those things, I couldn’t help it. I needed to touch, I expressed myself that way. “Griffin, this is lovely.”
“Good. Take a look around. Pick a room. We’re going to install real darkening curtains tomorrow that will allow us to stay here during the day. The decorations are from when the rental company owned it, but we thought it would be easier to have the basic furniture already here. Obviously, if you hate the stuff, we’ll get new things.”
I laughed, walking toward the kitchen. “You think I have taste in furniture? I never thought to have anything like this in my life, not even to visit. I’m grateful for anything and this is gorgeous.”
In the white kitchen, all of the appliances looked new. The table was laid out with plates and silverware like someone staged the place. All of the bedrooms offered the same king sized beds and white comforters. But the best part was a clawfoot bathtub I discovered in one of the bathrooms. They said to pick a room; I wanted the one connected to that bathtub.
“This one, if that’s okay.” I called out to Griffin who grunted his assent.
A few minutes later, they installed the coffins into two other bedrooms, which I guessed now belonged to them. Caesar left. All of it happened so fast, I wasn’t sure what to do with myself at all. Everything had been about getting to this place.I’m here… now what?
I sank to the floor in the bedroom and pulled my knees to my chest. Griffin found me there minutes later.
“What’s the matter?” He sat down next to me.
“Now what? What do I do now? I’m here, so do I just hide in this beautiful house forever? What do I do?”
He tugged on the end of my hair. “No one knows you’re here. If I have my way, no one will ever know. You can make a life here during daytime hours. The daywalking vampires don’t go shopping or to school. They don’t have jobs. They only did those things when they had to because of us. Now, if they wander around, it’s inside the compound. Most of them prefer to sleep. Do whatever you want. What did you want to do when this all went to hell for you? Remind me. Did I know?”
I swallowed. “I wanted to get out of town.”
“Okay. Well, check that off. You did it. What else?”
That’s a very good question. “I wanted to graduate high school.”
“Ah yes, okay. Do that. Graduate high school.” He rose as if he just solved all my problems right then and there. “I’ll leave my credit card on the counter. Use it tomorrow. Get whatever you need, sign up for whatever you want. Make a life.” He looked over his shoulder. “But spend your evenings here with us.”
Could it be that simple?Make a life.How did someone go about doing that?
My stomach grumbled.Well, first things first.I’d eat, unless Caesar had taken all of the food with him.
As it turned out, he hadn’t. It was all on the counter. I stared at the various foods we had purchased on the road. It looked a little bit like I was a twelve-year-old boy trying to eat as much junk food as I could. Chips. Dip. Popcorn. At some point we abandoned all pretense of nutrition for me.I need to do something about that.
“I need to go to the grocery store tomorrow.”
Griffin nodded. “Caesar will come back with a car. Use it. My credit card. Get whatever you need. Anything at all.”
“Thank you.”