Breathless (30 page)

Leesa sighed. She didn’t want to spend time talking about the details of this stuff. She just wanted to know about Bradley—and whether Stefan could do anything to help him. “Not much,” she admitted. “I’ve heard vampires sometimes keep people captive just for their blood. That’s all.” She met Stefan’s eyes again. “Does Edwina have one?”

Stefan nodded. “Yes, she does.”

Leesa’s heart sank. This was the answer she had dreaded hearing. She reached into her bag, fumbling for her wallet. “For how long?” she asked, hoping Stefan would say something like “years and years,” which would mean it couldn’t be Bradley.

“Not long,” Stefan replied. “But we experience time differently than humans. I’m not sure I can give an answer that will be meaningful to you.”

Leesa at last managed to get her wallet out of her purse. She took out a picture of her and Bradley, taken by one of Bradley’s friends shortly before Bradley left for college. They were standing with their arms around each other in front of a bright red bougainvillea. Both wore happy smiles. Leesa’s eyes began to mist and she wiped them with the back of her hand before handing the photo to Stefan. “Is this Edwina’s feeder?”

Stefan studied the picture. Leesa watched for any sign of recognition, but Stefan’s face revealed nothing. Finally, he handed the picture back to her. His eyes were impossible to read, but she thought she saw a faint hint of sadness in them.

“It’s him, yes,” he said softly.

Leesa crumpled forward, her face coming to rest atop her forearms on the table. She sobbed into her arms, unable to stop her tears this time. She thought she had steeled herself for this moment. She had told herself to expect it, making herself think of it as the better alternative to Bradley’s being a vampire. She had even fantasized vague plans of rescue. But she was not prepared for the reality, for the actual words that made her deepest fears come true. Her beloved brother was being held somewhere, little more than a human blood bank, suffering what she imagined to be a living hell.

She forced herself to pull it together. Crying would do Bradley no good. She’d been waiting for Stefan, not just to confirm her fears, but also to find out whether he could help her. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and lifted her head. She was not a little girl anymore. Bradley needed her, and she was going to do everything she could to help him.

Reaching across the table, she clasped her hands around Stefan’s right hand, scarcely noticing how cool his skin was. “Is there any way you can help him?”

Stefan stared at her silently. She wished she could read his eyes, but they remained bottomless black pools.

“It’s very unusual for one vampire to interfere with another in something like this,” he said at last, “but yes, I believe I have the power to do so.”

Leesa could hardly believe her ears. Stefan could help her brother! Maybe her dream of reuniting her family was not just a dream after all. Her mom was already doing so much better, and now there was hope for Bradley. She forced herself to rein in her excitement. Nothing had happened yet. And there was something in what Stefan had said—or maybe in the way he said it—that gave her pause. So much of what he said always seemed to have hidden meanings. She needed a clearer answer.

“Can you set Bradley free?” she asked.

Stefan eased his hand from hers and stood up. The girl on the laptop looked up from her computer, distracted by the movement, and then returned to her work. Leesa’s eyes remained glued upon Stefan as he paced a few steps from the table, turned around and came back.

“It could cause a great deal of friction,” he said, standing over her. “Perhaps even land me in trouble with the Council. If I were to chance it, I’d need something from you.”

“Anything,” Leesa said. “If you’ll free my brother, I’ll do anything you ask.”

Stefan sat down. Once again, his eyes bored into hers. “Don’t be so quick to agree, Leesa. You haven’t yet heard what I want from you.”

Leesa had known all along Stefan wanted something from her—she’d been counting on it to get him to help her. But her blood froze when he told her what it was.

31.  WALKING THE HALLS

T
here was no possibility of taking a walk that day—at least not outside, where a fast-moving front had swept though overnight and deposited almost an inch of rain in less than two hours. Following the rain, the temperature plummeted, leaving a sheath of ice coating the sidewalks, streets, trees and power lines. The television was filled with news of jackknifed trucks, chain reaction collisions and downed electrical lines. Luckily, it was Sunday, so traffic was light and schools and many businesses were closed, but people were being warned to stay home and avoid the dangerous roads and walkways.

It was a warning Leesa hated to hear. She desperately needed a walk, after suffering a sleepless night tossing and turning while replaying her talk with Stefan and stewing over the deal he’d offered her. She’d bundled up and gotten as far as the front door, but one look at the deserted, ice-coated sidewalks had been enough to send her back to her room. But she still needed to walk, because in addition to helping her think, walking was the only way she knew to burn off the nervous anxiety gnawing at her stomach and tightening the muscles in her neck and back. This was why she was now trudging up and down the hallways and stairs of her dorm, drawing curious glances from her neighbors as she limped by their open doors for the third, fifth or seventh time.

She’d settled into a pattern: walk the length of a hallway, go down a flight of stairs, walk back the length of the new hallway, go down another flight of stairs. When she reached the ground floor, she repeated the same pattern going up, until she got to the fourth floor and started back down again. She’d been “hiking” the halls for almost an hour now and was beginning to feel pleasantly exhausted and at least a bit less anxious. Cali had joined her for a couple of laps, Stacie for a few others, but Leesa was too focused on her thoughts to be very good company, so her friends voiced their support for whatever was troubling her and melted away when they passed their rooms. They both invited her to come visit when she finished, either to talk about what was bothering her or for some distraction.

She wished she could have shared her burden with her friends, but there was no way she could talk about it to anyone except maybe Rave. And with the horrid conditions outside, there was no chance she’d be seeing him today, which was probably a good thing, since she wasn’t sure what she’d say to him, anyway. She thought briefly of confiding in her mom, but decided it wouldn’t be fair to burden her with the decision.

Reaching the end of the fourth-floor hallway, she headed back into the dim stairwell and climbed down the stairs one more time, emerging on the third floor. Like the other floors, this one was noisy with music, conversation and the sound of televisions blaring from almost every room. Unable to go out, the students were entertaining themselves as best they could. One of the few closed and silent doors was her own, which she passed yet again, heading for the stairs at the other end of the corridor.

Her thoughts returned to her talk with Stefan. He said he knew it was a big decision and told her to take as much time as she needed to think about it. She promised to have an answer for him within a week, and he told her where he’d be waiting at sunset every evening. If her decision was no, she could simply tell him and leave; if it was yes, he would be ready to release Bradley. It was so easy, so simple.

All she had to do was decide whether she could go through with what he was asking of her.

Monday morning broke bright and sunny, with little wind and temperatures soaring all the way up to a balmy forty degrees. It was still plenty cold, but warm enough to begin melting the ice from the streets. Early classes had been canceled—saving Leesa from math, at least—but once it became clear the ice would quickly melt, all classes from eleven o’clock on were being held as scheduled. So Leesa was now sitting in English lit, trying to pay attention to what the professor was saying, but without much success. She kept replaying her talk with Stefan, kept imagining Bradley chained in some dark cavern. For as much as she was getting out of class, it could have been Greek rather than English.

She had yet to reach a final decision, but she was pretty sure what it would be. And that meant she was wasting her time sitting here, even if she had been able to concentrate. There was no good reason to be here and lots of other things she’d rather be doing—like spending time with her mom, or maybe going to Moodus and looking for Rave. 

She closed her notebook. No more classes today, she decided. Not even the rest of this one. She got up and quietly made her way to the door. As soon as she was outside, she flipped open her cell and called Aunt Janet, arranging for her mom and aunt to come take her to lunch. Then they’d all go for a walk somewhere. She smiled as she headed back toward her dorm. This was a much better use of the time she had left.

She stopped by Cali’s room to see if she wanted to join them for lunch, but she was at class. Leesa tucked a short note into the crack of the door, in case Cali returned before her mom and aunt arrived, and then went up to her room to change clothes and put on a more comfortable pair of walking shoes.

The forecast called for the temperature to top out around fifty, so she chose a powder blue turtleneck and a dark gray Hollister sweatshirt, leaving the same jeans on but switching to a pair of worn gray Nike athletic shoes. She grabbed a nylon jacket in case it got colder than she expected and headed back downstairs. Today would be family day. Tomorrow she’d see if she could find Rave. And after that, well, she’d just have to see.

Aunt Janet pulled up in front of the dorm a few minutes later. As Leesa limped down the walk, her mom got out of the car, smiling and opening her arms wide. Leesa slipped into her arms, holding the embrace longer than usual, relishing the comfort of her mom’s hug before finally letting go and climbing into the backseat.

Aunt Janet suggested they go to the Harbor Park Restaurant, which occupied the Old Yacht Club building on the west bank of the Connecticut River. Leesa had passed by the restaurant a couple of times, but had never eaten there. She thought lunch on the edge of the river sounded perfect.

The three-story wooden building was nearly one hundred years old, painted white with brown trim. The place wasn’t very crowded, and they were able to get a table next to the window. From where they sat, Leesa looked out across a broad wooden deck, closed this time of year, to a panoramic view of the half-mile-wide river. To the north, she could see the two latticed steel arches of the Arrigoni Bridge shining like giant spider webs in the sunlight. Ninety feet below the bridge, the river rushed southward, its sun-dappled waters sparkling like a string of floating diamonds. Across the river, the barren hills retained only the last vestiges of the fall foliage.

Leesa ordered a hamburger and fries. Her mom chose a grilled fish sandwich and Aunt Janet decided to be a bit more adventurous and ordered a chicken fajita wrap.

“So, why aren’t you in class today?” Judy asked after the young waitress scampered away with their order. “Not that I’m complaining, mind you, about the chance to spend some extra time with my beautiful daughter.”

“A lot of classes were cancelled because of the ice,” Leesa said. It was not exactly a truthful answer, but it wasn’t a lie, either. And it kept her from having to explain why she’d been unable to concentrate in class.

“How lucky for us,” Judy said. “I’m glad you decided to spend your bonus time with a pair of old fogies, instead of your girlfriends.”

“Ha! Neither of you are fogies.” Leesa grinned. “Old, maybe. But not fogies.”

The two older women chuckled.

“Thank you for that, Leesa,” Aunt Janet said.

They spent a couple of minutes talking about the storm and the damage it had caused in Meriden—thankfully none of it in Aunt Janet’s neighborhood—until their food arrived. Leesa doused her fries with ketchup and added a few squirts to her burger. The fries were crisp, and her burger tasted juicy and delicious. Only about fifty times better than dorm food, she thought happily.

Everything was perfect—the food, the view and the company. She couldn’t have asked for anything better. As much as she enjoyed her food, she was even more pleased with how animated her mom was—smiling, laughing, chatting enthusiastically. Leesa couldn’t believe it had been less than a week since her mom had received the
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blood.

After lunch, they took a stroll along the river. Somewhere during the walk, Leesa reached one decision, at least. While she still wasn’t sure what to do about Stefan’s offer, she was definitely not going to endanger her mom’s recovery by discussing it with her. She’d been making decisions without her mom’s help for most of her life, and she would continue to do so now.

32.  HEARTS BREAK

C
hill winds still blew, and yesterday’s sunshine had given way to a high layer of gray clouds. Above the eastern horizon, a narrow strip of blue accented the gray like the painted trim on an old house. The cold, dim day mirrored Leesa’s mood as she limped along the dirt road toward Balin’s cabin—“road” being a kind description, she thought, of the rutted pathway. The musty odor of damp, dead leaves filled the air, and the farther she got from the lightly traveled highway where she’d parked her aunt’s car, the quieter it became. Eventually, only the strident, irregular call of some kind of bird that hadn’t headed south for the winter broke the silence, and she wasn’t happy with the quiet. The last song she’d heard on the radio before leaving the car had been “Meet Me on the Equinox” by Death Cab for Cutie, and its plaintive, drawn out chorus—“everything, everything ends…everything, everything ends”—kept replaying in her head. She tried to shoo it from her mind, but the refrain refused to leave.