Lengths For Love (20 page)

“I did. I don’t anymore.” Her eyes were shining with tears. “I’m so sorry.”

Kristine knelt down beside us and tried to hold onto Alexis. Her body was shaking back and forth. Behind us, the house was engulfed in flames and the vampires were running around when they heard the sirens. “Why? You still have time to turn. I can...”

Alexis looked up at everyone. “I can’t do it. I just can’t...”

And with that, she fell to the ground.

Epilogue

Two weeks later...

I found myself sitting in JFK with Alexis leaning on my shoulders. She had gotten thinner and paler since we had left Vienna, but I knew it wasn’t just because of the illness. She missed Vince. She hadn’t been eating much since the funeral (which was attended by very few people, me and Alexis included) and I knew she couldn’t sleep. All she thought about was him and how things fell apart. Once we took care of things with the doctors in Vienna, we decided to head back home. I said a farewell to the other vampires who had calmed down now that Augustin Mansion was gone. Everyone now called it by its actual name. Where they had gone from there was a mystery.

As for Alexis, she wasn’t any better, but she was fine enough to go home. She felt guilty for coming this way for nothing, but I was relieved. At least now we knew what she didn’t want. And we did learn more than what we knew before. The only question was what would happen to us. I still loved Kristine and I loved Alexis. But I did not know who either of them loved. I had other things to look forward to with school and hopefully getting a social life. As for vampires, I was going to steer clear of them. I had enough to last me a lifetime.

My ankle had been set and fixed right after the mansion burned down. I was on crutches at the moment, but it was going to heal. Of course, my father wasn’t happy to hear that I had broken my foot. I had made up some bullshit excuse that I had fallen down the stairs and that’s why I was on crutches now. He told me to be more careful and that he was glad I was all right. Deep down, I was as well. But the physical pain was not my worry. That would heal. I just didn’t know about anything else. Looking at Alexis, now frail and skinny with no hair left, I felt lost.

“You always knew, didn’t you?” I asked as Alexis sat next to me. “Why didn’t it ever bother you?”

“I’m not sure.” She said. “But I couldn’t look at him and see this dangerous person. He admitted his crimes and I just felt like I had to change him.”

“But you didn’t change him. He kept at it. He stayed the same.” Then I changed the subject. “Are you sure you don’t want...”

She shook her head. “I think I can handle being a human for the rest of my life.”

“You love vampires.”

“I think love is a strong word here,” she murmured. “Maybe you were right about vampires after all. It was silly to get obsessed. The two men I’ve ever loved are human. I don’t know why I thought this was ever a good idea.”

“You just didn’t want to suffer anymore.”

“But I shouldn’t have tried to take fate into my own hands. If I hadn’t, maybe we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in now.”

“If you hadn’t, we wouldn’t have saved all of them,” I whispered. “And I know you wished you could save him, too, but it just didn’t happen. Plus, I don’t he’d want to live like that anymore. Someone would have killed him.”

“Still, maybe...” she trailed off and looked outside. It was pitch-black with only the lights from planes, towers, and everything else outside. None of the vampires would come here. Not unless they wanted to cause a scene.

“Can you ever forgive me?” She asked, sitting up straight. “I dragged you out here for nothing. I made you believe something that wasn’t good after all. And worst of all, I did the worst thing I could do to anyone. I’m just so ashamed.”

“Only if you forgive me. We were both idiots out there. We thought it couldn’t happen and it did.” I sighed. “I just hope they are all okay and they’ve made it to wherever they want to be.”

“Jenny will be okay?”

“I’m sure of it.”

“And Kristine?”

As if on cue, Kristine showed up at the gate. I was taken by surprise from how different she looked. She had straightened her dark hair and her clothes were not covered in dirt. I had to admit she looked beautiful in street clothes. The stress was gone from her eyes as well.

“Hi.” She greeted us, looking at me first and then at Alexis. “Ready to go home?”

“I’ve been ready from the beginning.” I said, moving over so she could sit next to us. “Where are you headed?”

“Same.” She sat down and looked at the Starbucks that was in front of us. “You know, I have seen so many of these places yet I’ve never been in one. I always wondered why people went in them. I guess they like coffee or something.”

“Would you like some coffee?” Alexis said, reaching into her purse for money. But Kristine stopped her. Her hand touched my girlfriend’s and I saw the difference again. Now Kristine no longer looked scared or weak. She looked healthy. Her fingers were long and lean as opposed to Alexis’.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I actually am going in your direction. I’m going to see if I have any family over here. Last time I checked, they were in the States. It might be a shock, but who knows? It’ll be nice to see them.”

I could only nod as the two of them stared at each other. I knew we were all thinking about the same thing: Vince’s death. The Vamporium was gone. Who knew when we’d hear the words From Here to Eternity again? And here I was, torn between two women I had loved. I blinked, looked at each one, and decided that Starbucks sounded like a good idea.

“You mind if we get some coffee?” I asked.

“No, go ahead,” she said. “I’m going to be fine and if I need, I’ll call you over.”

I started to lean in to kiss her but stopped. She looked down and I knew she didn’t want one. “All right. Just let me know if anything happens.”

“Okay.” I used my crutches to walk over to the Starbucks with Kristine at my heels. She stopped just as I was about to enter it. I could tell that she wasn’t over me or anything that had gone down.

“So what’s going to happen with you?” she asked.

“Alexis is going to finish her treatments at home and we’ll see how it goes from there,” I said. “I have to admit, she’s been strong through this whole ordeal. I just...” My mind went back to Vince and Alexis cheating on me with him. Whenever I felt anger over it, it was washed over by my own infidelity. I didn’t know who I hated more, her or myself.

Kristine put her hand on top of mine. She felt cold despite having drunk the warm coffee. “Maybe if I run into you again, we can get hot pot.”

I nodded. “Maybe.”

“Will we run into each other?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I hope so. I hate where things have been left off.”

“And what do you plan to do about them?”

“Fix them.” It was the only answer I had. I looked over at Alexis who waved at us. Normally, I would have found that cute. But it didn’t have the same impact anymore so I turned back to Kristine.

She was gone. I looked right and left, but did not catch any sight of her. Going back to Alexis, I asked if she had seen Kristine leave.

“No, I barely paid attention.” She admitted. “Why?”

“I didn’t really say goodbye to her.” I shoved my hands in my pockets. “Do you mind if I look out the window for a bit?”

“Yeah, I’m doing fine here,” she murmured. “Once again, I’ll call you if anything happens.”

I squeezed her shoulder gently, used my crutches to get there, and stared out of the giant window to where the planes were. It amazed me how dark this place was at night. Despite people being out there, it gave me chills. There was something beautiful about the darkness. Something mysterious. It was no wonder I seemed to enjoy this time of the day. Cold, black, quiet.

It was a good night to feed.