Wake of Darkness (8 page)

Sophie had a lot to consider…but in
reality, not a lot to decide. So, she slowly started to pack her things.

“What other choice do I have?” She
murmured.

Vampires are real
.

As much as she wanted to pinch
herself and disbelieve what she’d experienced, she knew it was the truth. She
sank down onto her small bed and curled up against the wall, her knees under
her chin.

What should I do?
She
thought to herself, over and over.

She was now on the vampires’ hit
list. That mere fact threatened to make her blood boil. The collective vampire
community knew that she was associated with Catherina and the rest of them. Sophie
would probably be eliminated the second one of them left her alone, thus the
need for the unarmed guard down below…she glanced toward the window again, but
she knew he was still there; she could feel him.

She shivered.

The reality was hard to digest. In
one afternoon, her world had been turned upside-down. Across the hall, she
could hear some girls gossiping and talking about cute college guys.

They have no clue,
she
thought. They were just as clueless about the world as she had been that
morning.

She was part of the supernatural
world now.

Vampires were hunting her now,
along with everyone else she’d just met this afternoon. Even without the
threat, the possibility of everything Catherina and Dante had to offer was
undeniably appealing. They offered her a family, a home. She’d never really had
either of those.

She pushed herself off the bed. Biting
on her thumbnail, she slowly walked back to the window. She looked down at
Alexander, who stood with his back to her building now, his arms crossed, and
leaning against the back of the bench. She absentmindedly stared at his back,
watching his head move slightly from side to side as he watched the seemingly
still night around him.

She watched as his hair caught the
nighttime breeze, and the stronger gusts disturbed the hem of his coat. He wore
a black trench coat and she would not have been surprised if he were wearing a
fedora as well. His posture and appearance were slightly antiquated, but not in
a bad way; he looked like an old-fashioned movie star.

He must have heard that she was
thinking about him, because he suddenly turned around and met her eyes without
hesitation. She froze at the window and returned his steady gaze with one of
her own. Even from a distance, he was intimidating but she wasn’t going to let
on to that.

She forced her eyes away from his
and turned back to her small room. She contemplated the concept of “home” as
the rooms around her gradually, one by one, fell silent in the night until she
knew from just listening that she was the only person on the floor still awake.

Time seemed to mean something
different to her that night. She wasn’t sure when she’d made the decision, but
at some point, she turned back to her bed, pulled a duffle bag out from under
it, and began resolutely and systematically emptying the contents of her
dresser into it.

*

“I’m ready to go,” Sophie told Jim early
the next morning.

She left her dorm room for the last
time, and followed Jim silently back to his truck, looking around nervously.

You’ve got nothing to worry
about, little sis. We’ll take care of you,
he told her silently.

She smiled at him, relieved to be
trusted with his thoughts. She let him put his arm around her shoulders, and
was glad for the protective gesture. She was nearly as tall as he was, but he
was easily twice her size, and she felt instantly safe in his presence.

When they walked through the door
of the house just a few minutes later, a further sense of security enveloped
her. All of the tension seemed to melt away from her. Jim chuckled again under
his breath as he walked up the stairs, her bags over his arms, leaving her in
the vast entryway below.

Why does he keep doing that?
She thought, watching him ascend the stairs.

Something caught her attention from
out of the corner of her eye and she looked to her right to see Laney, awake
earlier than any teenager had a right to, perched precariously on the arm of
one of the sofas holding her hands up in front of her face. Sophie edged
quietly around the end of the sofa to get a better look at what she was doing. Between
Laney’s hands was a silver spoon, floating in the air.

What the hell?!

“Hi Sophie!” Laney said
immediately, making the spoon spin in mid-air and then letting it fall into her
hand.

Sophie laughed in amazement, which
edged toward hysteria. “That's crazy,” Sophie whispered.

“Oh pah-
lease
!” Laney
exclaimed. “After
everything
you’ve heard? And
seen
?
This
freaks you out?” She skipped out of the room, her pretty laugh floating after
her as she went.

Sophie exhaled and gaped after her.
She shook her head. Laney had a point, but she couldn’t help it if she felt
like she’d stepped through the rabbit’s hole yesterday.

Something caught her attention from
the opposite corner. Her eyes darted to where Alexander sat staring at her. He
was seated in one of the many chairs spread about the front room, an anciently
bound book lying lazily across his lap. Her eyes met his and she suddenly
couldn’t breathe. She felt a strange, magnetic-like attraction that seemed to
be emanating from him.  

But unlike what she'd felt the day
before when she'd been close to attacking Dante, this force didn’t compel her
to stop. It didn’t push her back, and it didn’t serve as a warning. It
beckoned. And she wanted to follow it.

You're kidding me,
she
thought.

His eyes narrowed at her a bit,
scrutinizing her. He made no move to stand. He simply stared at her with the
penetrating gaze that seemed to see everything.

“Welcome home, Sophie,” Catherina
called from the large stairway.

The greeting wasn’t a warm one; it
was more a statement of fact. It took all of Sophie’s effort to force her eyes
from Alexander’s, but another part of her brain told her that Catherina probably
wanted her to follow her.

Sophie turned slowly, suddenly conscious
of her every move as she walked to Catherina. She could still feel Alexander's
stoic eyes on her back. Catherina’s mouth curved into a small smile. Sophie
shot a quick look back over her shoulder to where Alexander had been sitting. He
was gone.

“I hope you like the room we have
prepared for you,” Catherina said, pulling her attention away from the now
empty room. Sophie wondered if Catherina really cared if she liked the room at
all, or if she was just trying to be cordial.

Catherina frowned at her but didn't
say anything.

It took them a while to climb the
massive staircase together; Catherina moved slower than Sophie was used to
walking. The first floor was comfortable and modern in a generic sort of way,
but the second floor’s rooms were decorated in a varied array of themes.

They passed a room that must have
been Laney's and another that was probably Zoey's. Up a second flight of stairs
were Jim's room, and then Alexander's.

 “And here is your room,” Catherina
finally said, indicating the next door. “Jim has already brought your things up
for you.”

Sophie stepped inside the doorway
and let out a little gasp. It was beautiful. It was as if Catherina had stepped
into her mind and discovered exactly what she’d love. Everything was soft,
white on white textiles—a place she could really let her mind wander. Sophie
even had a towering bookshelf already quickly on its way to being filled with
books she suspected she would enjoy. Everything else in the room suited her
perfectly. They had really done their homework on her.

“Those are from Alexander’s
personal collection,” Catherina said, watching Sophie examine the books. “He
believed that you would like them.”

Sophie looked at Catherina
incredulously. Her mind immediately raced back to the man who she knew was probably
on the other side of the wall. “I really don’t understand.”

“He is quite interested in history
as well, and can be a bit of a bookworm himself,” Catherina explained with a
weak shrug of her fragile shoulders and then looked away. “I am gratified to
see that you like it here.”

Catherina turned to leave, but then
hesitated. She faced Sophie once more, as if she’d forgotten something. “I
shall leave you here to rest, since you seem to have neglected sleep last
night,” she added coldly. Without waiting for an answer from Sophie, she walked
off slowly, mumbling strangely to herself like a lunatic in an asylum.

Now that she was alone, she didn’t
fight the yawns that had been threatening to make an appearance all morning. She
walked around her room, taking it all in, allowing her fingers to touch
everything lightly despite her lethargy: the cotton on her new bed, the satin
of the lampshade, the antique wood of the door and trim until she made her way
back to the bed and slumped down on it.

She curled up and reviewed the events
of the past twenty-four hours slowly
.
Despite everything that had
happened, she felt strangely relieved.
She didn’t know what to make of
it all, but for the first time in her life, she felt like she was somewhere she
belonged. She sighed and relaxed onto the bed and before she knew what had
happened, she had drifted off to sleep.

*

The sun traversed the sky into late
afternoon. Sophie awoke with a start, sitting straight up. Her fitful sleep had
taken up most of the day. It took her a few moments to get her bearings, but
once she had, Sophie hugged her knees to her chest and closed her eyes.

For the first time since she had
been here, Sophie truly listened. She rocked back and forth absentmindedly as
she focused on everything around her. She listened so intently that she could
almost feel the others around her.

And that’s when she heard it
all
.

When she really listened and no one
was guarding their thoughts, she found that she could hear everything.

She found Dante first. He was down
in the kitchen, cooking spaghetti for dinner. She was thrilled by the small
revelation and grinned at herself.

She concentrated again and the
entire picture downstairs opened up to her as the information flooded her brain.

Catherina sits on a stool in the
kitchen, watching her companion; watching him cook for his big family. He calls
her Rina; this is the name that only he is allowed to use. She smiles at him. They
are discussing when they think the other one might show up.

Sophie smiled to herself. All
along, she just had to figure out how to become attuned to their minds. She
excitedly decided to try someone else and almost frantically searched for
another target; Jim seemed like an entertaining choice. Closing her eyes, Sophie
concentrated again until she found him. It didn’t take long. He and Alexander
were silently arguing somewhere in the house.

So when are you gonna tell her?
Jim
asked. He sounded happy, even in his thoughts.

Now James, whatever do you mean?
Alexander’s silent voice asked back. Sophie thought that—just maybe—Alexander
was taunting him.

Jim,
was the firm, correcting
reply.

As you say.

You know exactly what I mean. Our
new little addition. She likes you too, but she’s not gonna admit it.

“What?” Sophie gasped to herself. She
suddenly wanted out of the eavesdropping hole she’d fallen into. She
frantically tried to stop listening, but she couldn’t pull her mind from
his
now that it was there, no matter how imperative the action seemed to be.

I hardly believe what you are
saying. Besides, she seems terrified of me,
Alexander answered casually
distracted, though Sophie thought that maybe he sounded a little sad.

“I don’t want to hear this,” Sophie
sang to herself, as if she were able to block it out that way.

Well, yeah! You sit there in the
corner and stare at her like you’re gonna eat her or something. I’d be pretty
damn terrified too, Al.

Alexander.

Jim laughed.
Whatever. So, when?

Do you
not
realize that
she could be listening?

You think? Why don’t you go
surprise her?

Sophie’s heart raced so quickly
that she thought it’d pound out of her chest. She wasn’t ready for that. What
would she say to him if he decided to follow Jim’s suggestion?

No, no, no,
she wanted to
argue back. She didn’t want anything to do with him in that way.

 “Hi Sophie!”  

She froze. In her panic, Sophie’s usually
quick brain couldn’t keep up with the sound well enough to decipher the speaker’s
voice.