Crimson Groves

by Ashley Robertson

  Tyler took my hand inside his. My world started moving, breathing, pulsing. I wasn’t in the car anymore. I was inside his head. Or he was in mine.

  It felt like I was really there but in my mind I knew I wasn’t. It was like an outer body experience, based on what I’d heard about them. We were in a house, sitting on a dark brown leather sofa surrounded by plain white walls. We were staring at each other. Tyler was talking. “I know this is a lot to take in. It’s a lot to believe. But you have to. I saw that you were in trouble. I get these premonitions, and then it’s my choice if I try to change them or not. I try not to get involved unless it’s really bad. Then I feel it’s my duty to do something, to help out. So when I saw you, when I saw what that guy did to you, well, I knew I had to help.”

  “Premonitions?” I asked, looking deeper into his eyes. “You see things that happen in the future?”

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  “But I saw it too. Were you showing it to me?”

  He shrugged. “Yes I was.” His eyes flitted around the room, then back to me.

  “You know that I’m a vampire, but you still helped me? Why?”

  He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then slowly released it. “I learned about vampires a long time ago. Apparently, that’s against your rules, but hey, I can’t control what my premonitions show me. I know you won’t hurt me. You’re one of the good ones. Just don’t tell on me either, okay?”

  I swallowed, nodding. “So you’ve helped other vampires?”

  “Just a couple. Mostly I’ve helped other people.”

  “Why are you helping me?” I asked again. “You know this could get you killed?”

  He stared at me, eyebrows crimped up, voice soft, saying, “I saw how you became a vampire. I feel horrible that I couldn’t stop that from happening. He kept you trapped in a house somewhere and the premonitions never revealed enough for me to find you. I needed to see the outside of the house, what the yard looked like, what the area around it looked like, but he never let you go outside. Then finally, I saw you at Pulse.”

  “So you’re helping me because you feel sorry for me? That’s not a good enough reason to die!” I stood up and was across the room in one swift motion. There was a fireplace, an unburned log, red brick mantle. I stared into it, pacing back and forth, wooden floors creaking under my boots. I glanced over at Tyler, still sitting on the sofa. He watched me, a look in his eyes that shouldn’t have been there. It wasn’t pity. It wasn’t fear. Both of those would’ve been expected. Desire, attraction, and passion blazed in his perfect green eyes.

  “You’re not telling me everything, are you, Tyler?” I kept pacing.

  He nodded. “I’ve told you everything important. The parts you need to know.”

  I stopped pacing, flashed across the room, standing over him, glaring at his eyes. I knelt down, closer, closer. He didn’t flinch, stayed right where he was, confident, unafraid. “You’re a human that sees futuristic visions. That’s all you can do! How are you going to help me? Bronx will find us and kill us both. He’s stronger than me. He’s evil. He’s a monster.” Anger surged in a rush. My body got hot. Tingles crawled up my neck, on my head. My stomach burned. My mouth watered. It wasn’t anger. Crap! Hunger! I needed blood. I gasped, loud, shocking.

  Tyler’s eyes widened. “What’s wrong, Abby?”

  I stood up straight and stepped back. “I’m going to need blood soon.”

  I was back in the car with Tyler. I jerked my hand away, rubbing it, the residue from that vision still on it. Our situation just got a whole lot worse. Unless, of course, Tyler knew a few blood donors. The look on his face told me he didn’t. Wasn’t this just perfect?

  9

  Plan

  WE WERE SOMEWHERE NEAR Savannah, Georgia. The house was small, colonial style with a cute little set of stairs leading up the front porch. Oak trees canopied over the house and down the street as far as I could see, like thick blankets. A neatly trimmed row of bushes separated houses on both sides of this one. We pulled into a two-car garage minutes before the threat of dawn.

  The garage looked more like a storage unit. Don’t most of them look that way? Brown cardboard boxes were stacked in rows, some almost as high as the ceiling. His car was parked in the only opening. There was a workbench against the back wall, ambushed by more boxes. An access door, most likely leading inside the house, was straight in front of us.

  Tyler got out of the car, came around to my side and opened my door, extending his hand. I took it and let him lead me to the access door. It was unlocked. He walked inside. I followed, still holding his hand.

  We were in a dark laundry room. He walked as if he knew his way around, not bothering to turn on any lights. I didn’t need it anyway. I followed him down a narrow hallway—plain white walls, wooden floors. A doorway leading to a kitchen was on my right. We passed it, continued straight ahead. Not for long, though. The hall opened onto a bigger room. There were two dark brown leather sofas set across from each other, a rectangular-shaped coffee table between them. A fireplace made up the back wall, accented by a red brick mantle. The wall to the right, behind one of the sofas, was covered in windows. This room was exactly like the one I’d seen in Tyler’s vision.

  Tyler rushed to the windows, pulling a cord that released the blinds. There were burgundy curtains, white flowers sewn on them, sweeping away from the windows and attached to the wall. He unhooked them and they fell away from the wall, then he tugged them the rest of the way until the windows were fully covered. He came back toward me, hit the light switch, and motioned for me to have a seat on the sofa. I obeyed like a good little vampire.

  On the rest of our drive to this house, Tyler had told me that he didn’t know of any blood donors. Working with the two other vampires didn’t give him any knowledge about where we got our food. He’d never known people willingly fed us until he saw visions of me doing it. All of those visions were in Florida. Not really going to help us now that we’d left the state.

  I leaned back on the sofa. “This is bad,” I said.

  He sat down beside me, keeping a little distance between us. “Why?”

  Who said there weren’t such things as stupid questions? “You really have to ask?”

  He nodded, green eyes searching me. “The other vampires I worked with—er uh, helped—they could go long periods of time without blo...eating.”

  “They were probably a lot older than me. Young vampires need blood more often,” I said.

  “How often?”

  “I was drinking about three donors a night.” I stared down at the floor for a minute, then back up at Tyler. “I’ve only had two tonight.”

  His face started to crumble. He now understood what I meant by saying this was bad.

  “Can’t you just drink from me?” he asked. How sweet of him to offer.

  In a flash, I was standing in front of the fireplace. He gasped. “How’d you do that?”

  “Vampire magic,” I said, voice a little smart. “I can’t take blood from you. You’re an innocent! I’ve never had innocent blood.”

  “What’s that mean?” He scratched his head, started to get up.

  “Don’t!” I yelled. “Please stay where you are!”

  He dropped back down on the sofa, eyes wide, hand on his chest. “This is officially the first time you’ve scared me. What do you mean by ‘innocent blood’?”

  “You’re unbitten. Supposedly that means you’ll taste better than any blood I’ve ever had. I don’t think I should start sampling that with our current situation.” I turned around, stared at the log in the fireplace. “My bite will make you useless to me anyway. And if you really can help me, then I need you, uh, sober.”

  I explained to him how my bite would make him feel. Then an idea sparked to life inside my head. “I think there’s someone I can call that can tell us where the blood donor clubs are around here.”

  “Really? There are blood donor clubs here?”

  I nodded, took
a couple human steps toward him. “Yes, they’re everywhere. So are vampires.”

  A wave of relief flushed across his face. He leaned back so he could reach deeper into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. “Who are you going to call?” he asked.

  “There’s a donor that I became friendly with. Surely she’d know how to help.”

  In a sweeping flash I was sitting on the sofa across from him, the windows at my back. He stared at me, didn’t hand me the phone. I watched him, unsure what else to say. After a minute of playing the staring game, he stood up, rounded the coffee table, and then sat down beside me, still keeping a little distance but not as much as before. He stretched his arm out to me, cell phone in hand. “Call her. If she can’t help, we really need to know sooner than later.”

  I nodded, took the phone, then hesitated for a moment, watching numbers flash in my head like counting sheep. I’d called her only once before. Would it be enough to remember the number now? I closed my eyes and started punching in the numbers from memory. Tyler jerked the phone out of my hand.

  “What the hell?” I demanded.

  “You can’t just call her without blocking the number. Most cell phones have Caller ID. What if...?”

  “How do I block it?” Smart guy, that Tyler.

  “First press the star button, then the number six, then nine.” He handed the phone back to me with those three digits already entered. The small illuminated screen was waiting for me to enter Lily’s number.

  I pressed the highlighted numeric buttons with confidence. I was absolutely positive I’d got it right.

  After three rings, she answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Lily, hey it’s Abby.”

  “Abby? Oh my gosh, Abby! Are you okay? Where are you?”

  “Listen, I can’t tell you where I am. I’m okay. Don’t worry.” I gripped the phone tighter.

  “Bronx is on a rampage looking for you! He questioned everyone at the club and no one seemed to notice you leave. The club’s security is even helping him look for you, since it was their responsibility to keep an eye on you while they confined him!”

  Well, what did I expect her to say? Things were going just peachy? Yeah right. “I can’t go into all the details right now,” I said. “Lily, I have a favor to ask you.”

  Tyler scooted closer, reached over, and put his hand on my leg, just above my knee. A bold move on his part, but I chose not to do anything about it at the moment. He pressed his fingers gently into my skin, massaging in short, careful movements. Perhaps he was trying to help relax me and save his tiny cell phone from being squashed into a million pieces. Yeah sure—I remembered what I’d seen in his eyes. There was much more going on here. I wasn’t going to be naïve about it.

  Lily took a deep breath into the phone. “I’ll help you if I can.”

  My body relaxed a little, and my grip loosened on the cell phone. “Do you know of blood donor clubs in other states? Is there a list of places, nationwide, that you could provide to me?”

  “Ye—yeah, there is. It would be easier to know where you need one, though.”

  I could sense her desire to help me. And her fear of what would happen if she did, which was why I couldn’t tell her where I was. She couldn’t give away information if she didn’t know it. “I just got off a plane but I doubt this is where I’ll stay. Can you e-mail me a list of the top blood donor clubs in every state? That would be easiest since I don’t know exactly where I’m going.” I hated lying to her, but it would hopefully keep her safe.

  “Why are you running? Where are you? I don’t want anything to happen to you! He’s pissed! Abby, please talk to me!”

  “You need to be careful around Bronx! Lily, he’s crazy! That’s why I ran away! It’s best that you not know where I am.”

  A few quiet moments passed. I was praying that Lily was considering my request. Tyler removed his hand from my thigh. He lifted it up, behind me, pressing down into my shoulders, trailing up and down my back. It felt great. I couldn’t even pretend that I didn’t like it—I leaned forward just a little bit so he would have a better angle. Tingles spread over my body like tiny wildfires. Relief oozed over me in waves. Should he really be doing this? Should I be allowing him to? I started to feel guilty and a little uncomfortable, but then Lily chimed back in and made me forget about Tyler’s massage therapy.

  “All right,” she said, voice confident. “There’s a roster of info that all donors are given. Just in case we move around which a lot of us do. I’ll e-mail that to you. What e-mail should I use?”

  I looked over at Tyler and silently mouthed my need for an e-mail address. He got up, walked out of the room, and then returned with a notebook and pen. After writing it down, he handed me the notebook, an e-mail address written across the top of the paper. I read it out loud. Lily repeated it back to me, confirming she’d got it right, and then told me I’d have an e-mail within the hour. Since I trusted her, no second thoughts were given about the conversation. I knew Bronx was on her ass, but I also knew her loyalty was with me. We said our goodbyes and hung up.

  Tyler left the room again. When he came back, there was a laptop in his hands. He set it on the coffee table as he sat back down next to me. He glanced over, eyes locking onto mine—penetrating, deep, bottomless. They were filled with so much more than just curiosity and a desire to help. There was a whole different kind of desire there. A danger field if I was reading them right, which I knew I was.

  10

  Determined

  DAYBREAK WAS UPON US. The house officially became my daytime prison. Tyler headed back into the living room, bottle of Smart Water in his hands. I sat on the sofa with the wall against my back, staring across the room at the burgundy curtains with white flowers. He sat down beside me. I glanced over at him. He should have been asleep by now—his body must be running on pure adrenaline. At some point he was going to crash. “Aren’t you tired yet?” I asked.

  He gave a long sigh. “I’ll lie down soon. Too amped up at the moment.”

  “Why don’t you try lying down now? I’ll keep an eye on the computer for Lily’s e-mail. I’m not sure having someone come here is a good idea, so we’ll most likely need to go to one of the clubs tonight. I won’t be able to go much longer than that without blo...eating.”

  No response. He looked at me, eyes wanting, longing.

  I looked away, stared at the fireplace.

  “Abby?” He said it like a question.

  I didn’t want to look at him, not into those beautiful green eyes. “What?”

  “Can I see your fangs?”

  You’ve got to be kidding me. I wanted to say, “No way, go get some sleep.” But instead I said, “Okay.” I turned around, facing him. We were eye to eye, staring. I felt like a show-n-tell project.

  I smiled big enough for my fangs to be seen. His eyes grew wide with fascination. Instantly I was embarrassed. My lips tightened around my teeth, concealing them.

  “Don’t be embarrassed,” he said. “You’re beautiful.” He leaned in a little closer, lifting his right hand to my mouth, stroking my lips with his fingers.

  A wave of excitement rushed up my body. It caught me off-guard and I chuckled. His fingers were there—fast, gentle, creeping inside my mouth. He traced along my oversized canines. I swallowed hard, slow. If he cut his fingers, I’d smell blood. If I smelled blood, could I resist it? Better not to test it. I put my hand on top of his, assisting his fingers around my mouth, carefully.

  “Those are really sharp,” he observed.

  “It was really strange for me at first. I haven’t quite gotten used to them yet.” I spoke softly, barely moving my mouth. It made me think about the last time I was at the dentist’s office when he was asking me questions while my mouth was pried open. It had been so difficult to answer him.

  I allowed a few more seconds of fang probing, then decided to pull his hand away. As I did, his fingers intertwined with mine. His grip tightened. He wasn’t letting go. At le
ast there wasn’t another vision this time. Here’s looking for the silver lining in every situation.

  “Look, Tyler, I really appreciate you helping me but I’m just not sure this can be anything else. You’re human. I’m a vampire. Please don’t take this the wrong way or as an insult. I just...we just need to stay focused. You need sleep. I need to figure out my next blood source.” My free hand fidgeted with my hair. I was nervous; my stomach tightened. This was bad, really bad. This meant I liked Tyler, whether I wanted to or not.

  Could I be feeling this way simply because of everything we’d gone through together the last twelve hours? That had to be it. It had to be the adrenaline pumping through my veins, just like it was for him. Humans have a need to be close in times of crisis and uncertainty, and that same feeling is on steroids for vampires.

  His grip tightened around my hand. He looked away, stared down at the floor. He took a few deep breaths. Oh boy, he had something to say that I probably didn’t want to hear. He looked back up, saying, “I feel like I’ve known you for months. That’s how long I’ve had premonitions of you. Each one makes me feel closer. That’s really why I had to help you.” Yep, I guessed that right. Now what?

  I met his gaze. I did understand that, but it wasn’t wise to admit it out loud. Too many questions, too many problems; it was stupid to add more to the fire. “I’ve only seen two visions through your eyes so I guess I can understand that a little, but the reality is that we just met. I’ve never seen you before tonight.” I glanced down at our interlocked hands, mixed feelings swirling in my head.

  He didn’t say anything. I looked back up and we stared at each other for a few moments, eyes saying things they probably shouldn’t. His eyebrows arched, creases spread across his forehead in small lines. “I don’t know how else to say this without just coming right out with it. I’m not expecting you to love me yet or anything, but you have to admit you do feel something.”