by C. Gockel
“Have you ever been bitten?”
“No. No way.”
Gertie wasn’t sure she believed Nikita. Who wouldn’t try it, at least once, out of curiosity?
“You should talk to Hector,” Nikita added. “He can tell you plenty of stories about the tramps.”
“They can’t help what they are,” Gertie said. “They have no choice.”
“Even so, they are dangerous. Promise me you’ll stay away from Jeno.”
Gertie said nothing. How could she make such a promise? That’s all she could think about. The idea of seeing Jeno was the only thing stopping her from begging her parents to let her come home.
11
Night Visitor
The next day’s plans fell through. It was the last day before school was to begin. The Angelis family had planned to take Gertie to see the Benaki Museum and some neo-classical mansions, but Babá was called in to work and needed the car. Nikita texted Hector to see if he could take them, but he had other plans. Nikita and her family members were disappointed. Gertie was relieved.
She would have an entire day to herself to read.
Should she go down to the basement to retrieve the rest of The Vampire Chronicles? She had to admit that, when given the choice, she still preferred to hold a paperback in her hands. Her e-reader was convenient for travelling, but the act of turning the pages and of feeling the thickness of them between her hands—being able to see how many pages were left by the feel of them rather than by a percentage sign on her screen—were in themselves a pleasurable part of her reading process. But was it important enough to risk going down to the basement?
She’d been lying on her bed posting to her favorite Goodreads groups. Nikita lay on her bed opposite Gertie listening to music through her earbuds as she read a book.
Gertie sat up with a new thought, and before thinking much about it, blurted out, “Are there vampires in the basement?”
Nikita’s face fell. “What? No. Don’t be ridiculous.”
Gertie arched a brow, wondering how Nikita could possibly accuse her of being ridiculous after all she’d discovered about Athens.
Nikita sighed. “Not exactly.”
Gertie’s heart rate increased. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m not allowed to talk about it.”
“Why?”
Nikita pulled out the buds from her ears and jumped to her feet. “Listen, I already told you about the vamps. I’ll tell you about anything else you want to know. But please, for the sake of Mamá and Babá, I beg of you not to bring up those coffins. You will crush their spirits and destroy our family worse than it already is.”
Nikita left the room with her book.
Gertie sat on the bed, totally perplexed. The last thing she wanted to do was to hurt Mamá and Babá, so she decided to leave it alone for now. Yet she hoped one day she would get to the truth.
She downloaded the rest of the Chronicles onto her e-reader and had a reading fest all day, shut up alone in the room. Nikita had come in and out a few times, but otherwise had left Gertie alone. The whole family had seemed shaken up over her encounter with Jeno. No one wanted to talk about it. It was like they were giving themselves a day to forget about it, so they could pretend it had never happened.
But Gertie didn’t want to forget.
That night, she lay in her bed thinking of Jeno and the way he had kissed her. It had been thrilling to see the effect she had had on him, to know he was attracted to her in ways that had nothing to do with blood.
When the apartment was quiet and she had nearly dozed off, she heard a voice say her name. At first, she thought it was Klaus or Babá in the room. She sat up and turned on the lamp. Nikita snored beneath her covers, and no one else was there.
She turned off the lamp and lay back down on her pillow, only to hear the voice again. She switched on the light.
“Go to sleep,” Nikita murmured. “We have school tomorrow.”
Not seeing anyone else in the room, Gertie switched off the lamp and lay back down. But she did not sleep. She held her breath and listened for the voice.
“Gertie, it’s me. Jeno.”
What? She sat up, but did not turn on the light.
“I’m waiting for you downstairs on the street. I need to see you again. Will you meet me?”
Was she imagining his voice? She pinched herself to see if she was awake. Ouch. Note to self: Don’t pinch so hard next time.
Laughter rang in her head—but it wasn’t her own.
Without making a sound, she thought, “Are you speaking to me telepathically?”
“You really do know your vampires.”
Full of excitement, she pulled back the covers and climbed out of bed.
“Where are you going?” Nikita asked without opening her eyes.
“Bathroom,” Gertie lied.
She stole down the hallway to the front door, and then quietly unlocked the bolt. Turning the doorknob carefully, so as to make no noise, she inched it open a crack—enough to squeeze through, before closing it behind her. Then she crept down the stairs, praying no one would hear the creaking of the steps.
Jeno stood leaning against the railing of the steps outside the building, gazing up at the stars. It gave her a moment to study him—his tall, muscular build and long, curly hair. His skin was dark, and if it weren’t for the pale moonlight and the dim street lamp, he might be invisible in his black t-shirt and denim jeans.
He looked up at her as she descended the steps and joined him on the sidewalk. The wind lifted her hair into her face, and he reached up and brushed it back for her.
“You look beautiful,” he said.
“So do you.”
She hadn’t worn shoes. She’d come straight from bed in her white tank and shorts. She shivered with the cool breeze.
“What did you do today?” he asked. “More sightseeing?”
She shook her head. “I read about vampires.”
He gave her a huge grin. “My little vampire lover.”
The possessive pronoun made her heart flutter. He had called her his.
“Nikita said I should beware of you.” Gertie was partly teasing him, but partly feeling him out. What if he did just want her for her blood? “Are you here because…”
“No. I already fed.”
Feelings of jealousy surged through her as she imagined his lips on another girl.
“It was an old man who wants to feel young again,” Jeno said. “We have—how shall I say—a mutually beneficial relationship.”
Now her jealous feelings were replaced with those of mortification. She’d forgotten he could read her mind. Her every thought was an open book to him. The blood flooded her cheeks.
“I needed to see you again. Rarely do I have the chance to make friends.”
“So you just came to talk?” she asked.
“Is that okay? Can we go for a walk? Or, we can sit here on the steps. Makes no difference to me. Are you cold?”
“I’m okay. Let’s walk.”
“But you have no shoes, koreetsi mou.” He laughed.
“You sound like Mamá.” She laughed, too.
“Perhaps you would like to fly again tonight?” he asked.
Her smile widened. “Could we?”
“Of course. You aren’t afraid?”
She shook her head. “If you only knew how humdrum my life has been up to this point, Jeno.” And empty, she wanted to add—and then she realized she had.
He leaned in and touched his lips to hers. She closed her eyes and allowed him to caress her with his mouth. She gasped.
“You are driving me wild.” He grinned down at her. “Interesting, beautiful, and so very innocent. Believe me, I know humdrum. And you are no humdrum.”
She beamed up at him, speechless.
He wrapped an arm around her waist. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
He lifted her off the ground and into the night air. Her stomach fluttered as they flew abov
e treetops.
“Too high?” he asked.
“Higher.”
When they hovered over the skyscrapers of downtown Athens, her knees and fingers trembled with fear and excitement.
“I want to know more about you,” he said.
She looked into his eyes and allowed her mind to show him her parents, her home, her private school, her one favorite teacher, the fake friends who constantly stabbed her in the back, and her lovely grandmother, who had died.
“Your grandmother was the only one who understood you, no?”
Gertie nodded, holding back tears. When her grandma had passed, Gertie had felt alone in the universe.
“You use the stories in books to fill up your heart,” Jeno said.
Right again, she thought. It felt good to let someone in after years of erecting walls.
“Maybe you will make some good friends here,” he said.
She smiled up at him, unable to hold back her thoughts: I’ll be leaving in one year. What’s the use? How could I stay friends with people on the other side of the globe from me?
“You don’t think very highly of the power of friendship,” he said.
“I guess not.”
He flew quickly across the city toward the bright lights of the acropolis. They returned to the rock near the Parthenon, where they had sat together the night before.
“This is Klaus’s favorite spot, too,” she said.
The view was spectacular. It wasn’t hard to see why so many loved to come and sit here.
“That night we met on the bus,” Jeno started. “I was on my way back from saying goodbye to someone special to me. She was an old woman when she died, but she was young when we first met.”
“That must be hard—watching those you care about grow old and die.”
“It never gets easier.”
She didn’t know what to say to that.
“Can I tell you something?” he asked.
“Sure.”
“I think you see your parents’ lack of interest in you as—how do you say?—a reflection of you.”
“You don’t really know enough about me to make that assumption.” She didn’t like the direction this conversation was going.
“Wow.” Jeno shook his head and grinned.
“What?”
“You don’t just have walls between yourself and other people,” he said. “You have walls between yourself and your own inner soul. What are you guarding?”
“Can we talk about something else?” She didn’t expect a psychology lesson. She wanted to know about vampires—real ones.
“No, koreetsi mou, please,” he said. “I thought you were different. You aren’t going to ask me a hundred questions about what it is to be a vampire, are you? You already know so much. That’s why I like you. I don’t have to give the same boring lesson for the millionth time.”
“Fair enough.”
“Uh-oh,” he said. “I can see the disappointment in your face.” He brushed the hair from her eyes. “I’ll tell you what. We each get to ask the other one question about a subject neither of us wishes to discuss, yes? And we both promise to answer. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Ladies first,” he said.
“All right.” She already knew her question. She’d been dying to ask it. He probably knew it, too. “If I let you drink my blood, what should I expect to happen?”
He covered his heart with his hand. “I don’t even want to think about it.”
“Why not?” She was confused.
“Because it’s so hard not to think about it, and here you are asking me to.”
“You said one question.”
She shivered as he gazed at her throat, his longing obvious for only a moment before he grinned and said, “First, you would feel dizzy as the virus in my blood infected yours.”
“Dizzy? Like sick?”
“More like drunk.”
“I don’t know what that feels like.”
He grinned. “Oh, me. You are innocent. It’s like falling down a rollercoaster ride. A rush.”
She could relate to that feeling. “Okay so far.”
“Then you would notice how you can hear the quietest sounds and see the farthest distances.”
“Sounds amazing.”
“When you focus in on certain people, you can even hear their thoughts.”
“I’ll be able to read minds?” Her mind wandered to Hector, and how she’d love to know what he was thinking.
Jeno frowned. “Is Hector your boyfriend?”
Heat flamed in her face. “No. No, I…we only just met.” She was surprised by how devastated Jeno appeared.
“I’m sorry,” Jeno said. “I just like you too much, I guess.”
“I like you, too. Please, go on.”
But his mood had shifted. His smile was gone.
“Jeno?”
“I don’t want you to see me as just a vampire,” he said. “I don’t want the thing that lights up your face to be the consequences of my bite. I’m tired of girls using me for my powers, for the novelty of being with a vampire. When will someone be interested in Jeno? In me, as a man?”
“I’m sorry.” She felt ashamed of herself, for acting like the type of person she had always abhorred: the type who used other people rather than connected with them on an intimate level. That’s how all her supposed friends in New York had treated her. She came from one of the wealthiest families in America, and everyone knew it, and everyone wanted to be around her because of it. But no one seemed to care about getting to know the real Gertie.
“You don’t make it easy,” he said. “To get to know the real you.”
“No, I guess I don’t.” She looked up at him. “Go ahead and ask your question.”
“But I didn’t finish answering yours.”
“That’s okay.”
He held her hand. His was cold and made her shiver.
“Why do your parents ignore you?” he asked.
She hadn’t expected tears to flood her eyes. She bit hard on her lip. “I suppose they’re busy.”
“Is that it?” He caressed her hand with his.
“They don’t have to be busy,” she said. “They have family money. They don’t need to work. If they wanted to spend time with me, they could.”
“So why don’t they?”
Because they don’t love me, she thought. She couldn’t say it out loud.
“And why don’t they love you?” he asked.
Because I’m not what they wanted. Because I’m not lovable. Because I read too much. Because I’m boring. Because, because, she broke down in tears.
He held her in his arms and said, “This is what I meant. You take it personally, but it’s not your fault. Maybe they don’t know how to be parents. Maybe no one showed them.”
She threw her arms around his neck and cried her eyes out. He held her close and let her cry. The wind blew through their hair, the lights twinkled from both the city and the sky, and the quiet night held them.
12
The American School
Gertie awoke the next morning to Mamá’s voice calling through the bedroom door. She stretched and yawned. Then she bolted upright.
She couldn’t recall how she had gotten back to the apartment.
Swiftly, she stole from the room to the hall bathroom and studied her reflection in the mirror. No bites on her neck. None on her wrists. The last thing she could recall was crying on Jeno’s shoulder. Apparently he hadn’t bitten her. So why couldn’t she remember what had happened next?
Everyone in the house was excited about going to school. Gertie hadn’t realized before that morning that Klaus, Nikita, and Phoebe would be attending with her, and that they would be new students, too.
“Families that host international students get preferential treatment in admissions,” Klaus said at the breakfast table.
Nikita gave Klaus a dirty look.
“What?” he asked. “What did I say?”
&nbs
p; Nikita turned to Gertie. “Mamá is hoping the new school will be better for Phoebe.”
Gertie’s mouth dropped open. She felt a little like the old man Jeno had mentioned—part of a mutually beneficial relationship. The Angelis family had needed Gertie. So much for wanting to educate a young, impressionable American about Greece.
She supposed she couldn’t blame Mamá and Babá for wanting the best for their children.
A car horn blasted from the street.
“That’s Hector,” Mamá said. “Better hurry, glyká ta paidiá mou.” She rushed around the table and gave each one of them a kiss on the cheek.
“Hector is driving us to school?” Gertie whispered to Nikita as they crossed the living area to the front door. “My mother said a bus would take me.”
“Come on,” she said.
This time, Klaus took the front seat beside Hector, and the three girls squeezed into the back. Hector said good morning to no one in particular. Gertie wondered if his greeting had been meant for her, too, or if he still wasn’t speaking to her.
When they arrived, everyone was directed to the theater for a school-wide assembly, but they were organized by grade, so Phoebe had to go up front with the third-graders, and Hector and Klaus to the back with the seniors. Nikita and Gertie were near the back, too, with the juniors. Gertie was glad to have Nikita there with her. She hadn’t expected such a large student body at an American school in Athens.
“You think Phoebe is okay by herself?” she whispered to Nikita.
Nikita frowned. “I’m praying for her.”
Gertie was surprised to see that the student body was internationally diverse, and, as the first speaker addressed the students and faculty, she came to realize that, even though this was an American school, it served students from countries all over the world.
“There’s a lot of people here,” Gertie whispered.
“That’s just because all three schools are combined, I think,” Nikita replied. “The classes aren’t that big.”
“I get why you and your brother and sister are starting here, but why Hector?” Gertie asked.
