unvamped

by Elizabeth Stevens

  He twirled her around the dance floor and the other couples moved away to give them the whole floor and simply watched them. Ellie felt like they were completely in sync; she’d never before danced like this but there, with his arm wrapped securely behind her back, she instinctively knew what to do.

  She felt flushed and exhilarated as he spun her around the room of admirers, she was happy and carefree, with a laugh on her lips. She felt as though she had known him forever, that she knew his whole history – the good bits and the dark bits – that she knew his traits and flaws, his likes and his dislikes. She also felt… No, she knew, that he knew her just as intimately. His lips had brushed her neck ever so gently and a tingle ran up her spine. Just as Charles leaned down to kiss her, she woke, still with the laugh on her lips.

  ****

  Next door, Charles sat up in bed. Haunting operatic tunes and visions of smoky dragons filled his head. The smell of flowers and that something sweeter – berries! – and something else – passion – filled his nose. He still felt Pet in his arms and the tickle of her hair on his face as he whirled her around the room. He felt more connected to her than he had to any other person…at least, since Cateline...

  “Oh, Charles. Not again.” He flopped back on the pillows and decided to have fifteen more minutes in bed.

  Chapter Thirteen

  E

  llie’s shower that morning was cold as she tried in vain to not replay that last dream over and over in her mind.

  She slumped down the stairs, her bag sliding down behind her without even bouncing, and plopped into her chair at the table. Her mum had put a cup of coffee, a glass of orange juice and a bowl of muesli at her place, but there was no sign of anyone else in the kitchen. She moved the muesli around for a while before draining the orange juice and the coffee. She hiccupped as the liquid sat in her empty stomach, stood up, grabbed her bag and headed out the door.

  She didn’t see Charles on the way to school and she tried to remember if she’d invited him to come and practise that afternoon or not. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted him to or not. A strong part of her did, but the other part warned her that it wasn’t for good reasons. She was with Mike. Oh goddess, Mike! He was supposed to come over after school. They’d planned it late the week before. He’d said something about feeling bad about them not spending much time together and asked if they could plan some time together. Ellie had thought that was a little weird, but realised he had a point. Since before the summer holidays, they hadn’t really spent much time together – nothing meaningful anyway –with Ellie having gone away with her family and then almost dying. He still held on to her at school and kissed her, but it felt like he had pulled away a bit. Ellie hadn’t really minded, she was too busy with other things lately.

  Anyway, he asked and she thought it would be good. Knowing she had magic tutoring on Monday, she asked him about Tuesday. Now, walking to school, she found herself wanting to tell him something came up. But, she thought she knew her motives and resolved she wouldn’t.

  When she got to school, Mike met her in the courtyard as he usually did. As soon as she walked through the gates, and was met by all the noise and commotion, she felt like her brain was working overtime; she felt like she was noticing things she never really bothered to notice ever before. That girl she’d known since kindergarten, but whose name escaped her, now had bright purple streaks through her hair. Another she’d known forever was kissing a different boy than she’d last been going out with. A boy over there, sitting by himself, looked sad whenever he thought no one was looking. Ashleigh stared daggers at her whenever Mike touched her. She looked between them, but noticed nothing from Mike to indicate something was going on. She vaguely remembered being intensely angry at the way Mike and Ashleigh were talking on the first day back at school, but put it out of her mind. Surely, she’d imagined something and overreacted. After all, they hadn’t been like that with each other since.

  She was also hyper-aware of Charlie all day. She knew when he was walking behind her in the hall. She knew when he moved across the courtyard at breaks. She knew when he shifted in his seat in class, even though he sat behind her. She hated it. She’d never felt Mike’s movements that way before, and she hadn’t noticed Charlie like that before they touched. Damn magic!

  After school, Mike walked home with her, not giving her any chance to talk to Charlie about practice or not. She concentrated on Mike’s hand firmly grasping hers, trying to put thoughts of Charlie out of her head. To some degree, it worked all right. She was able to at least push most thoughts of Charlie out of her mind.

  No one was home when she and Mike came in the front door. She shrugged. It wasn’t odd for no one to be home, especially now she was well again and had convinced them that they could leave her alone.

  Mike followed her as she went up the stairs. She felt a sudden moment of panic as she thought she’d left the curse book on her bed, but then remembered she’d put it in the attic. Not that Mike knew they had an attic, or a basement for that matter.

  Ellie threw her bag on her bedroom floor and sat on the bed. Mike did likewise and sat beside her.

  “How have you been?” he asked her, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear.

  She felt no tingle at his touch, and she tried to remember if she ever had. She was sure she must have, at least at the beginning of their relationship, but she just couldn’t remember.

  “Not too bad.”

  “Over all that…flu business?” He cupped her chin.

  They’d told their human friends that she’d come down with a very bad strain of the flu while they were away and that was what put her in the hospital for so long. Since it took almost that whole time for the bite mark to disappear, no human had been allowed to visit her.

  She found herself laughing. “Yes, of course. They’d still have me locked up otherwise.”

  “Surely you still had TV and stuff to watch. You like books, don’t you? Did you get many read?”

  Ellie paused, she’d been unconscious most of that time so, no, she hadn’t really read much. She wanted to say as much to Mike, but felt that would ruin the moment.

  “No, not really. But, Morganna read to me a lot.” Which she supposed wasn’t entirely a lie since Morganna had read bits of the curse book to her…sort of.

  “Oh, good then.” Mike sounded an awful lot like he was trying hard to care, but Ellie thought he failed miserably. She sighed inwardly, Charlie probably liked reading.

  Mike leaned forward and kissed her, gently guiding her back down on the bed. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him back. Things grew heated and Ellie scooted up the bed with Mike following. He smiled at her and kissed her again. She reached up to undo his shirt buttons but he stopped her hand. It could have been an accident, but the same thing happened four out of five times since school went back. He just wasn’t interested in sex since she’d been sick.

  Ellie didn’t know if it was her; had she done something wrong? Well, dreaming about another guy was wrong in the world of relationships, but it’s not like she could control her subconscious. Was she no good and he just put up with her last year but couldn’t be bothered anymore?

  She tried a different tactic; she ran her hand up his shirt and put her leg around his. By his intake of breath, she knew he was getting aroused, but he pulled away from her and sat up.

  He looked at his watch and ran his hand through his tussled blond hair.

  “I, uh… I’d best go,” he said, getting up and adjusting his belt.

  “Oh, okay…” Ellie looked up. She didn’t particularly mind the not having sex; it was his apparent opposition to her that bothered her the most. Although, she found herself less upset than she expected.

  “Sorry… How about I take you to a movie this weekend? Friday maybe?” He picked up his bag.

  Ellie brightened somewhat. Sex aside, at least he apparently still wanted to spend time with her. “Sure, that sounds good. Any i
deas on what to see?”

  “Not really. Shall we just go and see what there is?” He headed out the bedroom door so she had no choice but to follow.

  “Sure, let’s do that,” Ellie said.

  At the front door, she let him out. She leaned up and kissed him.

  “All right, I’ll call you later,” Mike said and walked off down the path. At the gate, he waved before heading off.

  Ellie sighed and turned to go back inside. She caught sight of Charlie at his front door and waved. From that distance, Ellie thought he had an odd look on his face, but he waved back and smiled before he went inside.

  Ellie was about to ask him if he wanted to come over for practice, temporarily forgetting her hatred of magic in favour of spending time with Charlie.

  Ugh…he’d almost killed her and now she was practically drooling over him! She didn’t even know the guy. She was instantly transported back to her dream from the night before when she felt so close to him. She shook her head, disgusted with herself.

  That was just a figment of my imagination, she told herself.

  She decided not to go over to Charlie’s now but ask him at school the next day. He and Cam had been hanging out with her group again, after some strangeness on Cam’s part for the first few weeks. Not that strangeness on Cam’s part was particularly strange.

  “Pet, you home?” she heard her mum call from the kitchen.

  “Yes, coming.” She went inside and, for the most part, forgot about boys all together.

  Mike actually called like he said he would and Ellie enjoyed chatting with him for almost an hour before she went to sleep. She even almost got through the night without dreaming about Charlie. There was only one time when Mike’s face suddenly turned into Charlie’s and she woke up for a few moments.

  The next day, the confused feelings she was experiencing had lessened and she barely thought about or felt them. Even when she saw Charlie in the courtyard, she barely felt that weird pull to spend time with him. The feel of his arms around her were a vague memory and she actually looked forward to seeing Mike more.

  At lunch, she managed to sidle up to Charlie somewhat inconspicuously.

  “Are you free after school today or tomorrow?” she asked.

  “Um, this afternoon yes, but tomorrow I have got to see Mr Coleman about catching up. Why do you ask?” Ellie saw Charlie look from her, to Mike and back again.

  “I…uh… Mum thought it would be good to get some more practise in.” She thought she saw his face fall a little, but the look only lasted a brief second so she wasn’t quite sure.

  “Um, sure, that sounds fine,” Charlie replied. “I’ll meet you out here after class finishes?”

  “That sounds good.” She smiled. “I’ll see you then.”

  She did see him then. She found him sitting in the bench around one of the trees, kicking his feet and flicking through what looked like his school diary.

  “You ready?” she asked him.

  “Yes, shall we go?” He stood up, shoving his diary in his bag.

  “Watch out with that, you’ll break it.”

  “What?”

  “Your diary.”

  “Oh.” He looked down as he struggled with the zip. “It can go to hell for all I care. It is a confounded book full of nothing but misery and miserable reminders.”

  “Well, aren’t you a ray of sunshine?” she laughed.

  He looked up at her and smiled. “Apologies. I am merely frustrated. This being human business is still hard to adjust to.” They started off home and she let him continue talking. “I just miss my old life. The blood and the night-time, knowing all the rules and where I stand. It is just all so hard. I have not had parents in almost seven hundred years, I have almost always answered to myself. Now, I have two parents and I have to go to school. They did not have school like this in my day, you know. If you were lucky, your parents sent you to the church school to learn your numbers and letters. Otherwise, your parents taught you what they knew, if they knew anything. I certainly needed no teaching degree to teach my little brothers their letters and numbers. There was no homework or assignments, no Maths with letters, there was just the practical…what would get you by day-by-day.” He looked over at her. “I am sorry. You do not need to hear my worries.”

  She shook her head and waved her hand. “You…had brothers?”

  He nodded. “Two, Oliver was nine and Henri was five when they were killed.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

  Ellie had never thought about him having had a family before he became a bloodthirsty creature of the night. It made her want to know more about his previous life. She wondered about his life as a vampire, too.

  He shrugged. “Nothing to be done about it now.”

  “May I ask how it happened?” She thought she might as well try to get to know the guy who almost killed her, especially if they were going to be spending more time together with this magic stuff.

  “I can show you if you would like?” Charlie asked.

  Ellie was taken aback. “How?”

  “My vampire senses are in control, so I can use my power. I may need to borrow a bit of yours, if you do not mind?”

  “That…um…you don’t have to…”

  Charles shrugged. “I would have to relive it eventually,” he replied cryptically. “It makes no difference if you share it.”

  Ellie held the gate open for him. “I would…be very interested to learn something about your past life…” she mentally smacked herself in the face; what the hell was that, Petronella?

  “Well, we shall go inside and I will show you what I have begun to remember after all these years.” Charlie closed the front door behind them, locking it as though he lived there. Ellie found she didn’t mind.

  Charlie went in and sat on the couch and Ellie sat next to him. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Smell less nice, and still your heartbeat.” Charlie smiled at her.

  “I’ll see what I can do about that,” she laughed.

  “Hold out your hand, if you will.” Charles held his out, sitting side-on to face her.

  She copied his posture so she was facing him as well, and took his hand. The warmth spread out from her fingertips once again, but there were no sparks this time, just a slight electricity between their hands. Charlie twitched and looked down.

  “I do not think I will ever get used to that,” he said quietly, as though talking to himself.

  “What?”

  “Oh, nothing. Here. Let us begin. Close your eyes.”

  Ellie closed her eyes and felt herself get swept up inside Charles’ mind. She felt everything he felt, saw everything as he saw it. And how it rent her heart to experience what he showed her.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “W

  ould you like a cup of ale or some pottage?” Charles’ mother asked the stranger.

  “Thank you, a bit of both would be lovely.” de Savage sat down at the table without an invitation and placed his hat down. “It is unseasonably cold out there tonight.”

  “That it is.” Charles’ mother poured a cup of ale and set the pottage to warm. She turned to Charles. “Will you take the boys to bed please, Charlie?”

  “Oh, Ma!” Henri and Oliver wailed, throwing her winning smiles. Charles knew she could not help her return smile.

  “Go on, my darlings.” She went and kissed them on their foreheads. “Go with Charlie. If you’re very lucky and very good, maybe he will tell you a story.”

  “All right,” Oliver said, hanging his head.

  “Take your books to the loft and say goodnight to Monsieur de Savage.”

  “Goodnight, Monsieur.” The boys chorused and Charles ushered them up the ladder to the loft, helping them with their books.

  “Goodnight,” Charles said before he followed them.

  “Goodnight,” de Savage replied, smiling. That smile sent chills through Charles again and he fe
lt a foreboding. He shivered the feeling away and climbed the ladder.

  He put the two little boys in their nightshirts and tucked them into their pallets. He settled himself on the floor between them.

  “Will you tell us a story, Charlie?” Henri piped up.

  “Shh, Henri.” Charles laughed. “We cannot interrupt Mama and our guest.”

  “Who is he?” Henri whispered loudly.

  “I do not know. We will find out soon, I am sure. Now, do you want me to tell you a story?”

  As he spoke, they heard raindrops thudding on the thatch above them.

  “I want to fall asleep to the rain tonight, Charlie,” Henri said.

  “Oliver?” he turned to Oliver and found the younger boy already asleep. “All right, Henri. You come and wake me if you cannot sleep. Do not wake Mama.”

  “Yes, Charlie.” Charles turned away. “Charlie?”

  “Yes?”

  “When will we see Col again?”

  “I do not know, Henri. Now, to sleep.”

  “Yes, Charlie. Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight, little man.”

  Charles crawled over to his pallet. His frustration and sorrow had caused him to speak more harshly to Henri than he intended and he felt guilty. But, that was how he often got at the mention of his son.

  He lay down without bothering to get undressed. He listened as Henri’s breathing slowed to match their brother’s. The rain beat quite hard upon the thatch and he enjoyed listening to the sound, muffling the quite talk of his mother and their guest. As he felt himself drifting off, he thought he heard a muffled scream. He lay there, his heart beating fast, listening hard. There it was again.

  He scrambled to the side of the loft and looked over. De Savage and his mother were struggling. The kitchen chair had been knocked over and blood was running down the side of her face. De Savage had his hand over Charles’ mother’s mouth to stop her screaming.