"Yes you do," she grinned to show she had a secret, and she pulled harder on her hand. Daisy followed her lead around to one of the bedrooms where a dresser stood with most of its drawers askew. Perdy pulled open the second drawer from the bottom, and showed Daisy. "See? Clothes!" Sure enough, the drawers were filled with clothes, some folded, some not, most of which survived whatever fate had worn down the rest of the house. Daisy looked through them and found a white blouse that had survived yellowing by being buried beneath other clothes, a beige skirt with only a few small holes, and some under garments that would work if she rolled them. She shook them out to relieve them of the dust that made it into the drawer. Perdita sneezed.
"Strange that the rats didn't get to these clothes. All of this fabric would be tempting."
"They gnawed something fierce at some of them, but I tossed those away," Perdy said.
Daisy turned to her. "Well done, dear. Thank you." Perdita wrapped her arms around Daisy's hips and squeezed as hard as she could. Daisy barely felt it, but smiled anyway and patted her back. She went back upstairs and refilled the bath, grateful to whoever had not shut off the water to the house. The water was cold, but clean.
After bathing, she patted herself dry with her neighbor's borrowed—stolen, for heaven's sake—dress, and put on her new clothes. As she walked back down the stairs to find Perdy, she saw a shaft of sunlight coming through a quarter-sized hole in the roof almost perfectly circular. Possibly from a bullet.
It seemed as good a time as any to put some of her abilities and limits to the test. She stepped up close to the light and worked up the courage to try. It took a great deal more will than she realized to simply reach out her hand and allow the sunlight to settle into place. If she still needed to breathe, she would have strangle from holding her breath so long.
Instead, she was cut off from part of her sensory experiences. The scent and taste of the air were gone, and while it made her uncomfortable and vulnerable, it was otherwise bearable. Her hand in the sun, however, was not so easy.
Once Daisy managed to force her hand out into the light, palm down, she counted the seconds and watched. It was a science experiment, she told herself. She needed to know her limits.
One. At first it felt as sunlight should: warm. Two. Three. She allowed herself to breathe, as her hand grew hotter. Four. Five. Six. The heat became uncomfortable.
Seven. Eight. More pain. Nine. The smell of flesh burning. Ten. The pain came on like a bad oven burn.
Eleven. Smoke started to rise, and she willed her eyes to remain open. She stopped breathing in the scent of her own flesh burning.
Twelve. Thirteen. The skin began peeling away to reveal flesh beneath.
Fourteen. The pain became almost unbearable.
Fifteen. The flesh beneath the skin seared.
She was about to give in to the pain, when Nathaniel was suddenly there, gripping her wrist and pulling her back into the safety of the shade. "What do you think you’re doing?!" He hissed at her, and licked the wound.
It stung and Daisy flinched away from the contact on the scorched skin, but then the pain receded. Some chemical in his saliva sealed the skin back over the burnt flesh. The skin slowly knit itself together, blisters turning to a dusky splotch marring the pattern of liver spots on the back of her hand.
She learned two things. One: something in her saliva worked like a salve on her own wounds. Two: she could go out in the sun for fifteen seconds before the pain and injury became incapacitating. She considered scenarios in which both facts might be useful and stored away the knowledge.
"Daisy." Nathaniel continued to squeeze her wrist, threatening to break it. He might have, had she still been mortal.
"Release me, Nathaniel. As you can see I’ve healed."
He pushed her away from him, and growled at her. "What would possess you? Did you lose your senses in your dotage?"
A small voice called up to her. "Anthea?"
"Yes, dear, I'm here." She looked down to see to her charge staring up at her. "Did you leave any food for dinner?"
Perdita greeted her with an enormous smile, and showed Daisy the bundle of crackers and half of the cold chicken, now slightly warm, wrapped up in a dish towel.
Nathaniel sneered at the food and stumbled, his eyes rolling up in his head. Daisy caught him before he passed out, and managed to drag him back to a safe corner to finish sleeping. She noted a trail of blood now drying on his upper lip. Being awake during the day time cost him. Why am I able to be awake?
While waiting for dark, Daisy fed the child and asked her to show her all of the other secrets of the house she discovered during the day. Less than an hour passed before sundown, and she let Perdy know that soon they would leave for Atlanta to find the other aunt. Though she didn’t have a map, she had a general idea of where the aunt lived. Daisy hoped the address on Perdita’s old letter was current.
As they assembled a new pack to leave, Daisy went to sniff at the edges of the door to discover if anyone was passing near the house. Although the house was far from any major roads, she decided it was better to avoid anyone seeing them leave. Only the lingering scent of Nathaniel and the child remained in the yard, and the faintest hint of exhaust fumes from a car that never came close enough to see the house behind the overgrowth.
Daisy picked up the child, ready to leave the moment of full dark, when Nathaniel awoke and asked, "what do you think you’re doing?’
"Keeping my promise to the child. We’re heading to Atlanta to bring her safely to her aunt," Daisy said.
"That’s not where I picked her up," he said, wiping the old blood from his nose with his sleeve.
Daisy studied him. "You might be the savior this little girl needed. By taking her out of that house, you ensured she wouldn’t be hurt another night. You have a choice. You can help me get this girl to a family member she trusts, or you can leave us be."
Nathaniel looked between old woman and girl, and scoffed, turning his head away. He reached down and lifted up a small pack she didn’t realize he had, and slung it over his shoulder. "That’s just dandy. Fine. We’ll head to Atlanta. For your sake, of course. If you were caught in Valerie’s court without leave, she’d—" He stopped himself and pushed past them, opening the door wide. "Ladies first." His broad and mirthless grin gave Daisy chills.
A Better Home
City lights clustered on the horizon, and Nathaniel hissed, "Stop."
Reluctantly, Daisy circled back to him.
"What is it?"
Perdita muttered, "You smell like strawberries," and flung her arm out; Daisy held her closer, pulling the child's arm back to her chest. She didn’t like looking at Nathaniel and hid her face from him every moment of the trip.
"Do you have any idea how hard it was to track you? Even a weak vampire should have been able to make it to Atlanta in two nights. You made one heck of an arc across Georgia to get here."
Daisy scanned the horizon and looked around them as they stood upon a low hill. She didn’t want to tell him that Atlanta hadn’t been her original destination. If he expected her to go toward big cities, he didn’t remember her well at all.
"We're less than eight miles from the city center," she used her head to emphasize the direction toward the city lights, "to the East is Riverdale," she turned and motioned with her head, "to the near West ... is Union City."
Daisy turned back to face him; Nathaniel's mouth was pulled into a hard line. "Think back. Did you ever know me to have a poor sense of direction?" Nathaniel’s shoulders slumped a little, though his face pinched in annoyance. He is much as he was when we were young. Do vampires learn nothing through all their long years? Do they not change?
She continued, "When I found her," she elevated Perdy's head almost imperceptibly, but he noted the movement, "I altered my plans. I promised to take her to her aunt. The one less likely to neglect her and leave her in the hands of abusers."
"Why run zig-zags now?"
"To avoid being s
een," she said.
Nathaniel barked with laughter. "Seen? Do you really think these humans can see us?"
"If that’s true, then why warn me against the police and video cameras this morning?"
Nathaniel whistled. "What. You think I was lying? You might have run there fast and away from there faster, but you sat outside her window, stood in the kitchen for—"
"You were watching me!" Daisy clamped her jaw tight, her jowls trembling with rage. She took a deep breath, then another, though she realized after, they weren’t necessary. "Oh Lord, I’m certain you were. You’ve been following me a long time, have you?"
Nathaniel, at first chagrined, shrugged and took a broader stance. "Only about fifty or sixty years."
Daisy's mouth went slack before she could stop herself, and when she noticed, she immediately shut it. "Nathaniel. Why?"
Nathaniel’s eyelids lowered as he stared at her, then looked away. "I have to protect my progeny, don’t I?"
"I am not—"
"Fine! Cousin, then. We’re still cousins, aren’t we?"
Daisy wondered when he’d stopped using the word "ain’t." Maybe he changed a little. Was it his New York friends who changed him? He certainly never listened to my chiding. She didn’t feel it was the right time to commend him.
"Maybe they will see us, and maybe they won’t," Daisy squared her shoulders. "We still shouldn’t draw more attention to ourselves than necessary."
Nathaniel sniffed in derision. "Would you rather we slow up and walk the rest of the way?"
Daisy straightened her posture, adjusting the wary child in her arms, and began to walk toward Atlanta.
Nathaniel grabbed her arm. "Let’s not deprive ourselves of the whole night. It’s early, and if we run a while longer, we’re going to be there before her aunt heads to bed." He dropped her arm when he noticed the way she stared at his hand, as though she might bite it off to have it removed from her. "Any idea where this aunt lives?"
"Oh yes. Perdy is a resourceful girl. She kept the address tucked away."
Nathaniel rolled his eyes and held out his hand. Daisy had to nudge Perdita, who with reluctance and heavy coaxing finally offered up the worn slip of paper. Nathaniel took the address from her and whipped out his cell phone. He tapped the screen and held the phone to his ear, but even pressed as it was to his skin, Daisy could hear both sides of the conversation.
An automated voice responded and he supplied it with answers to its questions. There came a customary pause and a clacking of fingers on a keyboard. A woman's voice said, "Here’s the number for Esperanza MOR—"
"Stop. Give me her address," he interjected.
"Ok, hold on." She typed something else, and confirmed the address from Perdita’s letter. "Would you still like the number?"
Daisy stopped him from saying no.
"Sure," he said with irritation, saving the contact.
"You weren't nice to her. What happened to your manners?"
Nathaniel saved the number to his phone. "Daze, she's food," he sneered.
Daisy narrowed her eyes. "Not to me, and don't call me by that name. What are you doing?"
He shushed her as his phone began dialing the number.
"Hola," said a child's voice on the other line.
"Hey kid, where's your mama?"
It took a moment, but then a woman answered. "Hello? Can I help you?"
"Esperanza Moreno?" Nathaniel asked.
"Yes, this is she."
"Good. Stay there, or you'll regret it." He shut off the call and slipped the phone back into his pocket.
Daisy's voice lost its calm. "What is wrong with you, Nathaniel? Do you regularly threaten women in—?"
His look silenced her. Of course, she realized, he considered her nothing better than a slow moving meal.
Daisy narrowed her eyes. With steady conviction, she said, "You ought to be ashamed of what you've become. Now you pull out your phone and call that poor woman back. She must be scared out of her mind."
Despite their speed, he turned to look at her as they ran. "Why won’t you let me touch you? You used to like it when I touched you. It's not like—"
"That was a long time ago. A lifetime."
He appraised her out of the corner of her eye. There was a moment that he looked as though he might say more, but he kept quiet and focused on where he ran. They reached Atlanta in little time, and slowed to a more reasonable pace, so as not to draw attention to themselves. Daisy turned down a street and Nathaniel asked, "Where are you going?"
"I heard the address, this is the best way to get to her neighborhood." She slowed her pace to a determined walk.
"Daisy. We can't simply enter this city without announcing ourselves."
Daisy stopped, and gauged the wary expression in his eyes. "These 'others' you mentioned? They're here?" His expression betrayed him.
Oh Henry, now I'm becoming paranoid. She threw back her head and announced to the sky, "I, Daisy Margaret, am a vampire, and I intend to make a quick delivery and leave the city." With a smirk to Nathaniel, she continued on her original course.
Nathaniel hissed and marched up after her. This time his grip on her arm wasn't gentle, as he pulled her to face him. "No. This is not the way we do things."
"We, Nathaniel? You're the one who insisted on coming with me. I'm getting Perdy to her aunt's house, and that's all I intend to do. I'll be out of this city as fast as I can after I'm sure she's safe." She gave a slight jerk of her arm, but stopped when Perdita stirred in her sleep.
After several moments of staring each other down, Nathaniel dropped her arm and said, "Fine. We'll go to her aunt's house, but then—and you need to promise me this, Daisy—we head to see the Queen."
She couldn't help the snicker the escaped her throat, and since she couldn’t politely cover her mouth, she laughed openly. "Queen? The Queen? Of what? England?"
Nathaniel scowled, and his eyes turned an ice blue. "No. Of Atlanta."
Daisy couldn't stop herself. She outright guffawed. "D-does she have a-a throne? And a—" She laughed more. "A crown? Oops!" Perdita groaned and kicked at her.
The frown lines only deepened in Nathaniel’s face, his skin draining of color. "I suggest you get that out of your system, because no matter how much you want to laugh when you meet—she—doing so would end your brief time as an immortal."
Daisy saw the flicker of fear in his eyes, and ceased laughing. Whatever terrified Nathaniel about the Queen, Daisy surmised she was no one to trifle with.
They were nearing the street where Perdy's aunt lived, when a thought compelled her to ask, "How did you get to this point? You said you'd been waiting for me a while, so I suppose that means you weren't human long after we parted ways?"
Nathaniel didn't answer at first and finally he exhaled and said, "Remember that time I came to visit and told you about fighting the cougar up at my cabin?" Daisy nodded. "Guess he had a mate or something. About six months later, I found myself knee deep in snow, face to furry face with a girl who got in the first swipe. Didn't take long for me to bleed out since she swiped my gut. Three days later, I awoke half-gnawed and half-buried in snow and fallen branches—you know cats—with a thirst to return the favor. I found her by the second night, and got my fill of her."
"All this time?" Daisy sounded awed, and her eyes sparkled in the lamplight.
"Yep. Wandering around, trying to figure out why you kept on going. None of the others are sure how either of us continued our human lives after the bite. They’re worried it’s a disease or mutation in the blood. We’re a pair of curiosities, regular sideshow freaks among vampires." Nathaniel's features softened as he gazed at her, but Daisy stopped up short and pointed out that they were merely a house away. We'll have plenty of time to talk later, she thought, and kept walking.
The small yard looked well-tended, and an even row of gardenias greeted them at the foot of the porch. Daisy walked up without making a sound, no boards creaked to give her presence away.
She heard a small yelp from the room inside the door when she knocked. Esperanza Moreno opened the door slowly, the chain held taut as she peered at them. Daisy could only imagine how they appeared to the woman beyond: a bedraggled, elderly woman in a tattered dress with a leather-clad young man in punk attire, and with them, a malnourished child in a stolen blanket.
"Madre de dios!"
Esperanza shut the door, a scraping sound on the other side, and the door flung open wide.
"Mrs. Moreno? We spoke on the phone," Daisy said, but she need not have explained herself, as the stout woman in a quilted bathrobe scooped her niece from Daisy’s arms, and brought her into a wide, tidy living room where every toy had a bin or shelf.
Daisy knew the look of a caring parent, as Esperanza examined her child’s slumbering features, caressing her cheeks and glancing down her torso and legs for signs of injury. Perdita gave a big huff in her sleep, and Esperanza visibly relaxed.
The woman shifted to see them, realizing strangers stood in her living room, not having heard the door close or lock behind them.
"Mi flaca. She looks ... thin," Esperanza said, her sense of urgency replaced with worry. "Thinner than she did before my sister died."
Daisy heard the beating of the woman’s heart flutter. The sound mingled with the smell of warm blood, of cinnamon, chilies, and a vanilla shampoo that lingered in Esperanza’s braided hair. She clamped her throat closed, and forced herself to forget the habit of breathing, yet the heartbeat continued to tempt her.
Now hardened and whiter than she appeared at death, Daisy took a step forward, and stopped herself. Esperanza’s eyes, deep as chicory, widened at the sight of her.
"Please, sit," she said.
Nathaniel spied the sagging couch. "No."
Daisy rearranged Perdita’s dress while she slept in her aunt’s arms and took a woven blanket from the back of an empty chair, draping it over the mortals. Then she seated herself opposite Esperanza, her hands clenched into fists against her hunger.
She eyed the high cheekbones, the plump arms and bosom, the wide hips, and wanted nothing more than to taste her, to drink her in. No!
Daisy After Life (Book 1): Perdition Page 5
