by Night, Ash
Reliving that memory was like a knife to my gut. I shook my head and continued to walk up to Erin’s bedroom window. Peering through it, I saw her fast asleep. She smelled of fear despite her now peaceful expression. A nightmare? She hasn’t had one in months. Slipping into her mind, I found the source of her fear. Kistel’s ugly face loomed in her mind. After scanning her nightmare in disgust, I gently probed her mind for the memories of her two year hospital stay.
Her bed sheets rustled and her face scrunched up in pain as she tried to physically move away from my mental touch. I immediately backed off and softly snuck in through the window. Lightly stroking her hair, I whispered a lullaby my mother had sung to my brother and me countless times. Her peaceful expression returned. I kissed her forehead, tucked her in, and left. I smiled to myself as I saw her mind open the good dream I had left her.
I felt my fangs burn and set off in search of prey. Walking down the rainy street, I smelled a promising victim.
An eighteen year old girl was standing alone, shivering in a thin white shirt and denim shorts as she was trying to read the street sign. The light was too dim for her to read it properly.
“Pecan Street,”
She jumped at the sound of my voice. “Um, what?”
I moved closer, noticing she inched away with every step I took. “Pecan Street. I assumed you were looking at the sign so I decided to be a gentleman and help you out.”
“Why?” Her brown eyes darted to my hands. I put them out in front of me to show her I wasn’t armed.
I smirked. “I’m in a helpful mood. I’ve had one hell of a day and I suppose even my ability to be an ass has a limit.”
To my surprise, she laughed. “Alex? I’d recognize that asshole attitude anywhere.”
I blinked, caught off guard. “Have we met?”
It was her turn to smirk. “Erin Sapphire is a friend of mine. We met at Spring Lake, You rescued us from that mountain lion.”
Oh,” I said, scowling now. “You’re that wolf girl, aren’t you?”
She smiled easily. “Perceptive one, aren’t you?”
I growled, slightly annoyed I hadn’t been able to tell she was a wolf right off the bat. “I told you. I had one hell of a day.”
“I suppose you wouldn’t indulge me by walking me home, would you?”
“I don’t keep the company of werewolves.” I said, walking away.
She kept up easily, reminding me of a puppy following a human home, blindly trusting. “Don’t tell me you believe in that crap about werewolves and vampires not getting along.”
I scoffed, staring straight ahead. “Of course not. It’s most people in general I don’t get along with.”
The girl laughed. “I like you,”
Smirking in irritation, I stopped as I waited for a line of traffic to move through. “Then you aren’t very bright, are you?”
“Hey, hey, you’re a blond too, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“I’d always fancied dyeing it. Did once in the nineties. Never again.”
“So, where are we headed?”
I raised an eyebrow. “We?”
“Yeah, we. You didn’t exactly refuse my request to walk me home, but you seem like you’re in a hurry to get somewhere so we can make a stop or two first. I have no curfew as long as I keep my grades up.”
I smiled wryly as she stepped off the curb and continued to follow like a lost puppy. “How old are you? I never thought to ask Aubrey. He said you were two years older.”
“Four hundred and fourteen,”
She whistled lowly. “Wow, that’s ancient.”
“No, ancient is the pyramids, Stone Hedge, the Roman coliseums.” I wondered why I bothered keeping up this useless conversation. This girl meant nothing to me. A small voice in the back of my mind reminded me that she was Erin’s friend. It puzzled me as to why that mattered. Was I actually enjoying her company? I shook my head. My hunger was making me crazy.
“Earth to Alex! I asked where we were going about ten times.” The annoying wolf girl jolted me back to reality.
We had reached my house. It was an impressive two-story Victorian-era house with matching cone-shaped walls on either side. My room was on the east wing. Anastasia’s ghost haunted me whenever I lay in my bed. I rarely spent extended time in that room anymore.
“It’s my house,” I replied, sitting under the tree in the front yard, my elbows on my knees. An owl hooted at the crescent moon in the distance. A nice breeze rippled through the grass. Tomorrow, I would have to compel someone to cut it.
“It’s amazing. Have you had it long?”
“1921,” I said softly. The answer came with an unwanted memory. “I bought it for someone very special. Someone who brought fire to my soul. Who made everything better.”
The wolf girl looked at me with big clear blue eyes as she joined me on the grass. “Did you marry her?”
“I was forever wed to her since the day I laid eyes on her. She died the night I asked her to be mine forever.”
“I’m sorry,”
“Why do people say that, ‘I’m sorry’? It doesn’t change anything. Being sorry for anything that wasn’t your fault makes no sense. Sorry won’t bring her back.” I was spilling my guts out to a friend of Erin’s and I had absolutely no idea why.
“It’s just something people say. I’m not really sure why.” The wolf girl sounded sad. “I lost my brother Michael when I was seven. He was seventeen. He was attacked by a rogue wolf that wanted to join the pack. My dad killed the rogue wolf, but he had bitten my brother in the neck, damaging his windpipe. He died of blood loss in the snow that same hour.”
“Werewolves have an absurd way of dealing with things. Why didn’t he just kill the leader?”
She stared straight ahead. “The leader was away. That’s why the attack happened in the first place.”
I nodded. “I see,”
With a sudden grin, the girl howled at the moon. The hair on my neck prickled. She smirked at me. “Scare ya?”
I shook my head. “Of course not. Werewolves are nothing but overgrown shag carpets with legs.”
“I’m a shag carpet?” She laughed. “It’s no wonder Erin likes you. You’re funny.”
“I’m an ass,” I said truthfully. “There’s a difference,”
“Well, maybe I like assholes.”
“You’re a weird one,”
“At least you’re tolerating me,”
I got up and stretched. “Thanks for the company, but what do you say I walk you home now?”
“I knew you liked me!” She shouted, one fist in the air, as she bounded after me. I cracked a smile. I was growing fond of this little puppy.
The sun was sinking out of sight when I finally went over to Erin’s house. I’d spent the whole day keeping tabs on Erin in school. I was afraid of Kistel trying anything. My brother had spent the day trying to process what he had been told that morning. I grinned when I smelled his scent. He’d finally gotten out of bed.
“Alex, Amber told me you two hung out this morning before school. What was that about, huh?” Erin grinned at me as I came in through the window. She and my brother were playing cards on her bed.
I smiled. “She wouldn’t leave me alone. I tolerated her. Brother, good morning.” My brother smiled.
“I’m happy you two got along.” She said, turning back to her cards. “Got any twos?”
“Go fish, hon.”
Erin picked up a card. My brother smiled. They gazed at each other for a long time. When I came back from snagging an apple from the fridge downstairs, Erin was deciding which number card to ask my brother for.
He has a four. I grinned at her.
I heard that. My brother peeked at me from over his cards.
She giggled. “Got any fours?”
He growled at me playfully as he handed her the card. I smirked. “Great guess, sweet pea.”
“What, no help?” he asked me, grinning, when it was his turn.
I
laughed. “Sorry, my help is only reserved for lovely ladies.” I bit into my apple. It was delicious. “Brother, you need to try one of these.”
“Are you sure I won’t blow up the kitchen just by entering it?” he teased. “Any threes?” Erin shook her head.
I smirked. “Not even you could be that unlucky,”
“Play for me?” He handed me his cards as he went to grab one for himself and to cut up one with a bowl of peanut butter for Erin, her favorite.
“So, sweet pea, how was school?” I asked, picking a card from the pile to complete my brother’s turn.
“It was good. I was really tired though.” Erin looked down at her cards. She kept tapping her right index finger on her leg to the count of three. I had only known her a few months, but that usually meant she had something more she wanted to say.
“And?” I prompted. “Erin, you can tell me.”
“I saw that man again in my nightmare last night. It was the same guy I saw in my nightmare the night Aubrey left. He…he isn’t going to leave again, is he? He promised he wouldn’t!” The look of pure terror in Erin’s eyes made my stomach turn. I set down my cards and hugged her as tight as I could without crushing her. She shook as she tried to breathe normally. “My nightmares were twice as bad when he left. I dreamed that shadow monsters killed my mother and…they just left. I was all alone in the dark. Alex, I can’t deal with that…please.”
“Shhh,” I stroked her hair. “You won’t have to. My brother isn’t leaving. I promise. He’s going to stay with you forever. He knows how much it hurt you last time.”
Erin clung to me like a four-year-old to a blanket. I held her until she calmed down. “It’s just…he wasn’t in school today. I was worried he was considering it.”
I sighed. “He just got some bad news. It hit him pretty hard. He wanted to be alone to process it.”
“He did look sad. What was the bad news? He wouldn’t tell me why he looked so sad. He looked like he’d had his heart ripped out.”
I was silent for a few minutes. My apple was turning brown. My mind flashed back to an unseasonably warm fall day I had with my mother when she was pregnant.
You’re going to have a baby brother, Alexander. Promise me you’ll always take care of him. Family is the most precious thing in this world. Her words were burned into my memory.
“It had to do with the man you saw. That man you saw in your nightmares is Kistel. He was the sperm donor that helped create us.”
Her eyes widened. “Your father?”
“That’s the technical term, yes, but he wasn’t a father. He was an abusive asshole who deserves to rot in the deepest, hottest pit of Hell for what he did.”
“What did he do?”
“He beat the crap out of my mother and me. He tried to kill my brother by locking him in the cellar and starving him of blood when he was two.” A growl rumbled in my chest. “He killed my mother…and…Anastasia.” I forced her name out between gritted teeth.
I hadn’t even heard my brother come in. He set the plate of apple slices and peanut butter on the floor and held Erin on his lap. “Alex…”
“I’m…fine.” I said, pushing the memory away and locking it up where it belonged. “I was just explaining to Erin why you weren’t at school today.”
He looked solemnly at Erin. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t feel much like talking about…that.”
“It’s okay. I understand.” Erin got up to hug us, turning to me.
I flinched away. “Please…don’t, sweet pea. I have to go. I’ll see you soon.”
She shrank back, hurt I’d turned her away. “Okay, Alex. I’ll see you soon.”
I stepped up onto the window. “Brother?”
“Yes?”
“Take good care of Erin,”
Chapter Five
Aubrey
Something was wrong. I couldn’t hear his thoughts. My mind was completely cut off from his. It was jarring, like my mind was suffocating from the silence. Alex had kept things in his mind private, but he had never completely cut me off before. I hadn’t even known that was possible.
“Alex! Wait!” I cried out as he launched himself out the window. He was gone in a flash. It was like when we were kids playing hide and seek and he had left me alone in the woods, only for me to find him in the house setting the table claiming he’d forgotten he was supposed to be hiding. Even then, I’d always known his mind was open to me so I’d at least have a clue to where he was.
Now I had no clue. He had to be messing with me. Alex had never left me this alone before. In all my four hundred and eleven years, I’d never felt this terrified.
“Aubrey? Aubrey, what’s wrong?” Erin asked, hugging me gently, touching my cheek. “Are you okay? Where did Alex go?”
I turned to look at her. Her eyes were wide with concern. I noticed I was shaking. Taking a deep breath, I tried to steady myself. “I…I don’t know. Alex cut off my link to him. I…can’t hear his thoughts at all. This shouldn’t happen. He can’t just…” I trailed off. My voice sounded weak and helpless.
“Did he leave?” Erin asked. “Has he ever left you before?”
I nodded numbly. “Yes, but not like this. We can go decades without seeing each other, but I can always feel his mind. I always could with Mother’s, too. It must be a family thing. I…I can’t feel his anymore. The only time I couldn’t feel Mother’s was…” I felt ready to be sick.
Erin guided me to her bathroom and I rested my cheek on the cool white tile floor, trying to sort my jumbled thoughts. I just wanted today to end.
I felt her stroke my hair in a soothing gesture. “Will you be okay?”
Without opening my eyes, I whispered, “yes.” I didn’t miss the distinction she made between are you and will you.
She continued to stroke my hair until I felt well enough to get up. “Do you want to finish our game? I’ll even let you put two cards back.” She was trying to find her smile.
“Sure,” I tried to smile for her benefit and held her hand. “I’m fine.”
She hugged me as we went back into her bedroom. We sat across from each other, cross-legged, and picked up our cards.
“Got any fives?” She asked. I handed her four cards. Her fingers brushed mine and I grabbed them, drawing her to me.
The kisses started out slow, becoming more urgent as my need to be close to her grew. She leaned against the bed as she draped her arms across my neck. I growled.
She bit my lower lip gently. I kissed her harder. Her heartbeat was going crazy and it was driving me wild with desire. Love radiated from Erin as she looked into my eyes. She was panting slightly, her hair tousled. That moment seemed to last forever.
“Erin, you home? Did you hear from Aubrey or do I have to get out my flamethrower?” Lauren called from downstairs.
I groaned as Erin pushed herself up off the floor to answer her friend. She quickly brushed though her hair with her fingers, but it did little good to quell the desire I was feeling for her. I followed reluctantly.
“Was I interrupting?” Lauren asked, her eyes glancing down at my pants. I jerked my shirt over my waistband and tried unsuccessfully to hide my embarrassment.
“No, we were just…” Erin fumbled for an answer.
Lauren smirked and hugged her shoulders. “I’m happy you’re happy. Anyway, I came over to ask if you wanted to go to the bookstore, but you’re busy so I can come back later.”
Erin smiled. “No, that’s fine. I’d love to go. Aubrey, would you like to come?”
“No bonfires?” I asked, looking at Lauren jokingly.
“Of course not. You did nothing wrong.” Erin said, standing on her toes to kiss my cheek. “Do you need to hunt first?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m fine. I hunted before I came over today.” I followed Erin out to Lauren’s car, a beat up old Volkswagen.
Opening the passenger door for Erin, I got in the back seat. Without the distraction, I was reminded how quiet my mind seemed. Alex? I
called out tentatively. No answer. I still couldn’t even feel the pull of his mind. I suppressed a shiver. I remembered when I first realized I couldn’t feel Mother’s, and realizing I never would again.
“Aubrey? Doing okay back there?” Erin looked at me worriedly in the rear-view mirror. I attempted a smile.
“Um, yes, sorry,”
“Anything in particular you want to get?” Lauren asked. “What does a vampire read, anyway? I can’t imagine you pouring over the latest YA romance.”
I was grateful for the change of subject. “I’m a fan of survival stories, like the ones Gary Paulsen writes. It fascinates me how humans are able to survive, given your…limited abilities.”
“Limited? I’ll have you know I was ready to kill that mountain lion. Alex just got to it first.” Lauren teased.
I chuckled. “Why is it that I nearly believe you?”
Her eyes turned fierce for a moment. “You told me you’d do anything to protect your friends. Well, I would too.”
“It’s a good thing you were born in this time period. Back in my day, women were beaten for being so strong-willed.” I smiled. “I’m also glad Erin has such a friend.”
“I’m glad I have her, too.” Erin said. I smiled, trying to relax. I was worried about Alex. He could take care of himself, but, with Kistel here, it was unnerving.
When we finally parked in front of the bookstore, I held Erin’s hand tightly. She squeezed back, smiling at me encouragingly. I inhaled the smell of her perfume as a light breeze blew the scent my way.
The bookstore was so packed with people, I got lightheaded as the doors closed behind us, trapping in the scents of a hundred different people. I really should have fed before I left. Unaware of my hunger, Erin kissed my cheek and led me to a shelf. This was going to be a long day.
By the time the girls got in line to pay for their books, I had barely taken a breath. Any passerby would probably assume I was going to pass out at any moment. I quickly hurried outside, having no need to pay for anything. I’d barely glanced at any of the titles the whole hour I’d been inside. After Erin was distracted, I’d quietly excused myself to a less crowded area of the store and tried to block out the sound of blood pumping through everyone’s veins.
