Survivor (12 page)

“You seem happy,” he said, eyes on the TV. 

I smiled.  “We used to have movie night when I was
younger…before.”  My smile wavered and I reached to take a piece of fluffy
popcorn.  “We aren’t really a family anymore.  Sometimes that’s the thing I
miss the most.”  Peter made his way to the couch, where he sat cross-legged
beside me.  He reached out a long arm and snatched the popcorn bowl, placing it
in his lap. 

“That must be hard,” he said, throwing a piece of
popcorn into the air and effortlessly catching it in his mouth.  The crunch of
the popcorn sounded louder than it should have. 

“I’m sorry,” I said guiltily.  “I suppose it’s
selfish of me to whine about my family problems when you don’t even have a
family.”

He raised his eyebrows.  “I have a family.”  I was
trying to open the pull-tab on my soda.  He took it from me and popped it
open.  “The coven is my family.”

I took my soda back and took a swig, feeling my eyes
water at the effervescence.  “Are you really that close?  I mean…that blonde
woman and the man who attacked you in the park, they’re part of your coven
aren’t they?”  I scooted toward him and snatched the bowl from his grasp.  The
cool brush of his hands was a sharp contrast to the heated plastic.

Peter gave me a look for hogging the popcorn.  It
was one of the rare human foods he enjoyed.  Granted, we had to get the all-natural
kind or he bitched about all the additives he could taste, but he said he
enjoyed the texture.  He picked up the D.V.D. remote and pretended to be
unaffected by my thievery.  “Cynthia and Viktor are like my younger siblings,” he
said dryly.  “Just because we are a family, doesn’t mean we always see eye to
eye.  We do love each other.”

I saw his point.  I loved Chelsea- most of the time-
but she was a real pain in the ass.  I’d slam her into a concrete bridge some
days, if that were an option.

I nodded when he hovered the selector over the
widescreen option, and Peter continued.  “Our coven isn’t like other covens.” 
He considered for a moment.  “I guess you would call us orphans.  Most master
vampires either create the members of their covens or take them in and bind
them.”  He shrugged.  “Leah doesn’t believe in binding the will of her people. 
Some, like me, were left to her when the previous master died.  Others came to
her for help when they were abandoned or lost their masters.  I suppose you
could say we are all adopted.”

They didn’t have family ties, but their kinship was
in their lack of ties.  I thought Leah was a very smart woman not to bind
them.  “If the coven is like your family, why is it that only those two pick on
you?”

He sighed.  “Cynthia and Vicktor are Leah’s
children, the only coven members that she created, and are therefore bound to
her.”

“What you are doing is pissing Leah off, so it
pisses them off too?”  I frowned.  It seemed a bit extreme and melodramatic to
me.

Peter slid close, putting an arm around.  Then he
leaned down and blew in my ear.  I was so distracted by his nearness that I
loosened my grip on the popcorn bowl.  He snatched it with ease, sitting back
with a laugh at my betrayed expression.  “They are brother and sister,” he
said, continuing our discussion.  “They were orphans at the time they were
turned, having only each other to rely on in this world.  I think they were
living like a couple of wild children.”  He shrugged.  “Whatever the
circumstances, Leah came upon them just after their car smashed into a very
large tree.  She told me about it afterwards.”  His expression was wry.  “She
acted without thinking, which is rare for her.  She said they were each so
worried about the other that neither one of them realized they were both dying. 
She wanted to keep Cynthia.  She was due to turn someone and she really wanted
to have a female companion, a sister.”  He smiled softly.  “She saw the two of
them together and couldn’t bear to separate them.  She knew she couldn’t let
one live and one die.  She should have let them both go, but she didn’t.”

I gaped at him.  I wouldn’t have pictured Cynthia or
Viktor to have such tender sides.  “But a vampire is only allowed to turn
someone every hundred years, right?”

He nodded.  “Generally, yes.  We are expected to
contribute at least that often, but no more than that.  We have to be very
careful of our population levels.”  If there were too many vampires…I really
didn’t want to think about it.

“She got away with it?”

He nodded.  “She was a master vampire by then, and a
new coven leader.  “As long as it was only the two, the elders looked the other
way.”  He chuckled.  “It didn’t hurt that our previous master was loved by many
of the elders, and that she favored him so much.”  I reached into the popcorn
bowl and he gave me a look, watching for any sneaky moves.  “Leah didn’t just
give them life; she gave them life together, for a very long time to come. 
They are fiercely loyal to her.”

I nodded.  “Uh… are we going to watch that?”  I
pointed at the TV.  If we didn’t stop talking family ties and start watching
the movie, I wouldn’t be able to make it through the whole thing.  Neurofatigue
would kick in half way through and I would lose the whole plot.

Peter wasn’t offended, used to my quirks by now.  He
ruffled my hair and pressed play.  He didn’t resist very much when I slid the
popcorn back over to my lap, instead using the excuse to snuggle close.  I
sighed.  We might as well have kept talking.  I wasn’t going to get anything
from the movie now, no matter how hard I concentrated.  All I could think of
was how nice it felt to be pressed up against him.  He laughed softly to
himself and I shot him a look.  He knew exactly what he was doing to me, and
had not an ounce of regret.

I
was surprised when Peter offered to
come swimming with me.  I hadn’t been entirely sure vampires
could
swim.
 After all, in some stories water was right up there with garlic and crosses….
though neither of those things had any effect on real vampires.  Sunlight did
have some effect, though it wasn’t devastating.  It mostly affected young
vampires.  For Peter it was simply annoying, hence the sunglasses perched on
his face as he drove into the Saturday afternoon sun.

  We pulled up to the aquatic center just after
noon.  I preferred this time of day.  I didn’t have to get up early, the morning
lap swimmers would be gone, and the afternoon crowd of parents with children
wouldn’t descend on the place for a couple of hours yet.  Peter helped me into
my chair and handed me my swim bag.  After he paid his fee and I got my card
punched, we went to our respective locker rooms to change.

You’d think a vampire would look terrible in a swimsuit. 
Wrong.  He looked amazing- broad shoulders, muscular chest, and narrow waist
tapering down to his shorts.  I will admit that with his skin tone, he wouldn’t
really pass for a swimsuit model, but I wasn’t about to complain.  The soft
sound of water lapping at the sides of pool and echoing off the tall ceiling
was a calming balm to my soul.  I had come here to swim once a week ever since
I left rehab.  It felt wonderful to be in the water, where my body was
weightless and easier to move.  I wheeled over to the ladder and he helped me
down into the pool.  Usually I needed the lifeguard, the big lift chair, and a
swim vest for this; but today I had Peter.  I clung to the side of the pool
while he climbed in.  Once I was in the water, I could stand for longer periods
of time, thanks to the buoyancy of the water.

Peter wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me
back against him so that we floated backward together.  The sensation of his
slick skin sliding over mine was distracting.  I sighed and relaxed against him,
kicking my legs slowly.  Peter was so patient with me, always there to support
me.  He was as graceful in the water as he was on land, and I wondered what it
would be like to see him out swimming in a lake where he wasn’t confined like
this.  Of course then I would have to sit on shore.  At least here, I got to
take part.

When we were all done I made my way to the showers and
got dressed, still glowing with the memory of Peter’s hands on my body, and his
bright green eyes twinkling down at me with laughter.  I sighed to myself.  Someday
soon, he was going to get sick of being my own personal aide.  He had to help
me do everything.  Sure, I enjoyed having company at times like this, but I
knew he must want an equal- someone who could swim beside him or race with him
through the woods, not someone he had to carry.

I made my way to the car in a quiet mood.  Peter
glanced at me in concern.  “Is something wrong?”  He asked softly.  “I thought
you were having fun…”

I gave him the best smile I could muster.  “Of
course.  Thank you.  Nothing’s wrong.”  
Except you loving me.

He didn’t seem convinced, but he did his best to
pull me out of my pensive mood, cracking jokes and goofing off until I couldn’t
help but smile, my fears forgotten for the time being.

*****

Sometimes I can be so trusting.  So completely naive.
 This is partly because of the stupid brain injury, but also because I haven’t
been able to live my adult life the way a normal young woman would.  I went
from being a teenager to being an adult treated like a teenager.  Turns out Mom
and Dad were right about one thing: I’m a little gullible, an easy target.  

It was approaching lunchtime.  The librarians had
popped out for a few minutes to get food, leaving me in charge of the place for
a short time.  I had just finished shelving the morning’s returns when I
noticed a man standing at the desk.  He was wearing a navy blue button-down
shirt with the logo of a delivery service stitched on the front.  I wheeled
around and gave him my best friendly-clerk smile.  “Can I help you?”

The man returned my smile.  He was in his late
twenties, handsome enough, with a good-natured face and bright blue eyes; one
of those people who would be hard to describe when he wasn’t standing right in
front of you.  He was of medium build, with that hair color that’s somewhere
between brown and blond.  He was very ordinary looking.  Of course, that’s probably
why they sent him.

“Melody Wescott?  I have something for you.”  He glanced
down at the tablet he carried in his hand.  “From a…Mr. Marcellus.”  I wheeled
around the desk, grinning like a child on Christmas.  Peter had gotten me a
present?  

The man headed for the side door that led to the
street, where we usually got deliveries.  “It’s kind of big, so I thought you
could take a look and tell me where you want it?”

I nodded and followed him out, wondering what in the
world could be that large.  There was a small delivery truck parked at the
curb.  The man went to the back of the truck and pulled up the big rolling door
so I could peek inside.  I maneuvered my chair over to the curb to look.  My
smile faded and I looked at the man, perplexed.  “There’s nothing in there…”

He moved faster than thought, clamping a hand over
my mouth and lifting me out of my chair.  No human could be so strong.  He
leapt into the back of the truck before anyone could notice us.  Another man
came around from the front and tossed my chair inside like it weighed nothing,
then closed the door with a bang, leaving us completely in the dark.

Creepy Jerk Number One let go of me, leaving me to
slump on the floor while he searched for something in the dark.  He finally
came up with a small flashlight, which he turned on and sat on the floor.  For
my benefit, I was guessing, since he didn’t need light to see in the dark.  Of
course, I immediately started screaming for help.  We were in the middle of
traffic in an enclosed truck going about thirty miles an hour or so.  No one
heard me- and even if they did, they wouldn’t know what it was they were
hearing, as travel and road noise reduced my screams to barely audible sounds.

The vampire didn’t react to my hysterics, and I
eventually gave it up.  My throat was sore and the blood was pounding in my
head from the exertion.  “Where are you taking me?”

He canted his head to the side as if studying
something he had never seen before.  “Does it matter?”

I rolled my eyes, feeling a sharp rush of anger.  “Of
course it fucking matters!  What the hell is going on?”

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug.  We went through
a couple of big turns and then sped up.  I suppose we must have gotten on the
highway.  The vampire swayed gracefully in the dim light, not bothered by the
maneuver.  “My master wishes to see you,” he said blandly.

I glared, trying to steady myself as I was jostled
around.  “And you are?”

He sighed.  “Our coven is based in a small town some
distance north of here. “

Aside from that, I got nothing out of him.  Apparently,
he was only the delivery boy.  He watched me like I might grow wings and fly
away, but that was all.  After a very long time, I nodded off, lulled by the
swaying motion of the truck and the steady hum of the tires beneath me.  I woke
when we slowed down and came to a stop.  My neck ached from the awkward angle
it had been in as I dozed against the wall, and my left foot was numb.  Pins
and needles raced up my leg when I shifted my weight.

The door was thrust open again and Creepy Jerk Number
Two came into view.  He was darker than the first vampire, but still very
non-descript.  Their appearance wouldn’t give the police much to go on if a
bystander had happened to spot us.  I squinted into the fading light that
streamed into the dark interior of the truck.  The sun was setting.  We must
have driven for hours.  Who knew where the hell we were now.  I thought of my
cell phone, likely still lying on the front desk at the library.  Even if I did
have a chance to call someone, I would have no idea what to tell my would-be
rescuer.