Damon (27 page)

He was crying and I couldn’t stand it. I freed my arms from the blanket and pulled him to me. “It’s all right. I don’t blame you.”

“It seems so real I don’t even know I do it. I’m living in two worlds.”

Every muscle in his body tensed and he clutched me to him like a rag doll. What could I say? I also lived in two worlds, but mine were farther apart. I had to travel from one to the other. Damon’s worlds were through a doorway and all he had to do was step over the threshold.

“At least we’re always together in all four worlds,” I said.

He nodded against my neck and I felt him relax. “Everybody hates me,” he said. “Except you. It’s always been that way. Can you imagine finding a place where we belong? Where people don’t stare at us and accuse us and say we’re crazy? A place where everyone is like us?”

“Not really,” I said. Though, the thought of finding such a place did sound nice.

“It’s there,” he said with certainty. “It’s out there. We just have to find it.”

He sounded so hopeful my heart broke. There was a place like that, where everyone was like us, where we would belong. It was easy to find. I’d been there before. With Mama. This place was called a psychiatric hospital. No one would glance at us twice there, no matter what we said, no matter what we did.

“This is nice,” I told him. “Right here, together.”

He smiled and kissed my head. “Yeah. Life is sweet now.”

“Yeah.” Life was sweeter than it had ever been.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Jaynie wasn’t in the best of moods when we climbed into the backseat of her SUV. Though, she seemed angrier that no one had told her I was in the hospital than from losing sleep. Nevertheless, she drove us home and waved away my profuse thanks as she drove away.

The house was quiet and dark. So was the neighborhood as we stood on the grass, pausing to regroup.

We went in our bedroom door, hoping to avoid the wicked witch. I wasn’t sure how she would greet us. I was afraid I might attack and kill her if I saw her ugly face.

Damon was in a hurry or we might have made it out without her knowing. But he couldn’t keep from slamming drawers and walking with his full weight, creaking the floorboards. He was speaking too loudly.

Soon the door swung open and Cynthia stood there. Her hair was disheveled and she wore her robe, but I could tell she hadn’t been sleeping. She held a cigarette butt between her fingers and her eyes were focused, sharp, and full of silent accusations.

Her voice, however, had little volume. “What are you doing?” she asked, as if she couldn’t care less.

“We’re leaving,” Damon told her.

She pushed the door wider with her bunny slipper, and focused on me alone. “You sent the cops on me, you little shit. I should have sent them after you for what you’ve been doing.”

I’d been waiting for her to say something – anything that would give me an excuse to vent my anger. I’d been staying behind Damon so I wouldn’t have to look at her, but now I came out. “You deliberately gave her triple doses! You’ve made her a vegetable!”

She dropped her arms and stood up straight. “Somebody had to control her!” she shouted back. “And you certainly weren’t doing it!”

“You tried to kill her.”

Her eyes widened and tears instantly rolled. “I would
never
try to hurt her! She’s my sister! Don’t you dare say things like that!”

I couldn’t be stopped, even when Damon ran his fingers through my hair, warning me to be careful - we didn’t have time to hide a dead body.

I continued forward. “Mama was too much trouble. But you wanted this house. I don’t think you wanted to kill her. You just wanted her out of the way. You didn’t want to be bothered. Just like before, except you didn’t have to run away this time. Everything was a ploy to get this house back. Inviting us to visit. Pretending to be nice and acting like you cared. You are so selfish. You should be in jail.”

For a long moment, she only stood shivering. “
Get out!
” she screamed at us. “
I can’t stand this!
” She disappeared down the hallway and slammed her door so hard the house shook. Her voice could still be heard through the walls. “
I’m not your mother! I don’t owe you anything!
”

“Fine,” I said.

“Human,” Damon added in disgust.

We didn’t waste any time in packing. I packed a lot, because I didn’t think I would ever come back here. Back to Grammy’s beloved house and my beautiful lawn and my gazebo. I’d never get to finish my rock pond or use my flagstone walkway to stroll down to the water.

I was glad Damon hadn’t really started painting the house – let her deal with it.

I had to give it to her, everything, or I couldn’t walk away. I had to give her all the love and effort I’d put into the house, as well as the repairs left to be done.

Still, it hurt to leave the only home I’d ever known. I had a lifetime of memories here.

Thankfully, Damon was there to distract me.

“God, this is taking forever,” he complained as he went back in for the last box. “They know we’ve escaped by now.”

“I want my things,” I told him. Though, I took a moment to step out to the road and look both ways, just in case someone might be coming.

The night was quiet and peaceful.

I ran back in to make one last pass. Damon was waiting impatiently for me in the car when I slid into the passenger seat.

He backed out too fast, eyes alert. “Keep a lookout for undercover cars,” he ordered.

It felt so good to be dressed, and to have shoes on my feet. A shower would have been nice, but we had the CIA and secret government officials hot on our trail.

I stroked his hair. “We’ll get away. I can feel it.” My stomach lurched as he took a corner on two wheels. “Don’t go too fast or you’ll draw attention.”

He put all four tires back on the ground and straightened the wheel, forcing himself to let up on the gas. “Yeah, maybe,” he said and slowed a little more.

I settled down to relax for the trip, wondering what our new life would be like. “Are we going to live way out in the mountains, or near a town? What kind of cabin will we have?”

He smiled at me and relaxed back to drive with his wrist dangling over the steering wheel. He finally seemed to forget we were in mortal danger.

“The cabin is big, two stories. I built it myself. It overlooks a long, wide valley. No one nearby. Just you and me. It’ll be beautiful.”

I didn’t think we could find anything like that, unless we had plenty of money, and I didn’t believe Damon had any more money than was in the silver briefcase. At any rate, I was glad we were heading east. I was ready to move on and start anew.

“Do you know what,” I said, letting my thoughts roam so I wouldn’t have to look at my wonderful little town slipping away from me. “I think Chester and Mrs. Jarvis were in our room before we went to the hospital. They were saying strange things. I remembered right as I woke up, but then it all seemed foggy.”

Damon took an immediate interest, resting his arm on my shoulder. “What’d they say?”

My mind went blank. “Shoot, I don’t remember. That seems like years ago. I probably dreamed it.”

“You remember them being there,” he said. “You remember something.”

“Well, I remember Mrs. Jarvis saying we were just like… somebody. That we’d end in tragedy. Chester said they’d searched for an answer for fifty years but couldn’t find one.”

He slammed on the brakes so hard I might have broken bones ramming into the dash if I hadn’t had my seatbelt on.

“Damon, dammit!” I yelled at him. “Don’t do that!”

He stared right through me with wild, darting eyes, clutching the front of my shirt.

A car pulled up behind us and I saw Damon’s eyes shoot to the rearview mirror. I glanced over my shoulder and darned if it didn’t look like a sleek undercover car from TV. And the man behind the wheel looked like he belonged in
Men in Black
.

Then I saw the man loosen his tie and rest his arm over his head. He was probably just some tired businessman coming home late from a trip. He might have been Krista Heatherton’s dad. I couldn’t see his face well enough to tell. He waited a few seconds then honked at us to keep moving.

But Damon didn’t see what I saw. I could tell by his eyes he saw flashing red and blue lights. Or maybe he saw the man lift a gun.

“Oh, shit,” he breathed.

He floored the gas, taking us flying through our town’s only red light and then the stop sign at the square. We took the square like a roller coaster around the courthouse. I held on for dear life and kept my eyes squinted, anticipating a wreck.

As soon as the centripetal force would let me, I looked over my shoulder to see if the car was still behind us. No, we’d left him in the dust. He probably thought we were doped-up lunatics.

“Damon!” I called, trying to get his attention. If it hadn’t been four in the morning, we would have been crawling out of a crashed car. He wasn’t watching where he was going. He was just running as fast as he could. He was driving the car like a stallion on the open prairie.

“Damon! He’s gone!” I screamed at him. “He’s gone! Slow down!”

He checked the rearview rapidly several times then let up on the gas. He kept slowing until he could turn off into the parking lot of the co-op.

“Why are we stopping? Do you want me to drive?”

He dropped his forehead to the steering wheel and sat still, breathing heavily. “I’m gonna throw up. We need to drink.”

“Open your door,” I told him, leaning over to rub his back and hold his hair out of his face.

He stayed where he was, breathing through his mouth.

“You got yourself worked up,” I said. “We’re not up to this trip. We don’t have any energy.”

My heart was racing, mouth watering, stomach churning, and I knew I was just seconds away from being where he was. Unless we calmed down.

“You drive,” he said through clenched teeth.

That seemed like a very good idea. I climbed out and walked slowly on heavy legs around to his door. He sat there for a minute after I opened the door… then with a groan of defeat he gave up the driver’s seat.

As soon as he was settled, Damon fished a pill out of his pocket and took it without water. I handed him the water bottle we’d brought with us.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” he said. “Just diazepam.”

Probably from Mama’s old stash. Or possibly Cynthia’s. “Are you supposed to be taking that?”

“It’s mild,” he whispered. He fished another pill out of the bottle and took it with a swig of water.

Sighing, I carefully put the car back on the road, heading back the way we’d come.

“The other way,” he said.

“No.”

“Where are you going?”

“We’re going to go get the truth out of Chester. And see if they’ll loan us their guest room for the night. We can’t run like this. We’re exhausted.”

Damon stared at me for a moment, then sank back in his seat. He covered his eyes with his forearm. “Full-blooded vampire,” I heard him murmur. “He’ll kill us. I won’t be strong enough.”

I hadn’t realized all this time… Damon was afraid of Chester. He’d wanted me to quit my job because he thought I was in danger, and the worry he’d felt when I’d returned to work had sent him into his psychotic rage. He thought if we confronted Chester, he would turn into a monster unlike anything we could imagine.

“Chester loves me,” I told him, rubbing his leg. “He saved our lives. He’d never hurt us.”

***

Chester answered the door with one eye closed, squinting through the other. He was in his pajamas and slippers. He put his glasses on and squinted again.

“Oh, Maggie,” he said with a soft voice. “What’re you doing out of the hospital? You two look like you should still be there.”

“I’m so sorry to wake you.”

“It’s almost five. I’m just up.”

“Aunt Cynthia kicked us out and I was wondering--”

“Get in here,” he interrupted, holding the screen open for us. “Do you need a bed or some coffee? How’re you two feeling? I thought you’d be in the hospital at least till this afternoon.”

“We’re better. I hate bothering you.”

He shut the door behind us. “No, no, don’t worry. But you should still be in the hospital, not here.”

“We’re moving away, Chester.”

“Moving away?” He picked at his teeth with his tongue as if he had some food in there, and stared at us. “Moving where?”

“Don’t tell him,” Damon said. He stepped close behind me and wrapped his arm around my neck in a way that made Chester frown and check my eyes carefully to make sure I wasn’t being threatened.

“It’s okay. He’s just hugging me,” I told him. I had the envelope in my hand, and handed it to him. “Can we ask you about some things? It’s really important.”

Chester let out a breath, and squinted at the envelope. He gestured to the sofa. “Go ahead and have a sit and let’s look at this.”

I turned and bumped into Damon, who was standing there like a stone statue. “Sit,” I whispered.

Damon looked down at me without lowering his head, then turned and maneuvered past the coffee table to sit down. I sat beside him.

Chester took the recliner and leaned forward to take out the photographs. We sat waiting anxiously while he studied them all. When he finished, he sat back and gazed at us with an expression almost as blank as his young face in the pictures.

“I thought it might have been you,” he told Damon. “Breaking into my things.”

I handed Chester the pouch with the amethyst jewelry and he studied those as well.

“You’re traipsing close to the edge, kid,” he said, again to Damon. This time he gave us a look full of concealed emotion.

“What does it mean?” I asked, before accusations went flying. “What was Gram doing?”

Chester set the pictures and the jewelry on the lamp table and folded his hands over his stomach.

He stared at us for so long I thought he wasn’t going to answer, then he lifted a finger. “You tell me why you came in here writing about vampires on my wall.”

I turned to see Damon’s response - he was frowning. “I didn’t write anything.”