“If my body was in better shape, we’d be more than friends, Ruthie.”
Gasping, she covered her mouth with her hand. Ah damn, he’d done something wrong, something really wrong. Feeling short of breath, he grasped the stoop tightly.
“What?”
She uncovered her mouth. When she spoke, her voice shook. “You called me Ruthie.”
“It suits you.”
“It’s been a long time since anyone has called me that.”
Ben knew he needed to change the mood of this conversation immediately or the lovely Ruth was going to take off again. “You know I have no proof that you’re a
Vampire.”
“What?” She gasped.
“I only have your word for it. You’ve never enthralled me. You could just be a crazy person, claiming to be a creature of the night.”
She stomped her foot on the ground. “This from the man who sees ghosts?”
“Don’t knock the ghosts.”
“I’m not. I’ve seen them too.” She harrumphed.
“You want proof? I’ll show you proof.”
As he watched, her upper canines elongated until Ruth stood before him with two large fangs protruding from her mouth. “Happy?”
He knew he should be scared, but he wasn’t. She appeared kind of cool. “Can I touch them?”
“Can you touch them?” She shook her head. “No, that’s gross. I don’t ask if I can put my fingers in your mouth.” The two fangs quickly shrunk, returning to normal sized teeth. “You’re an odd guy.”
“I am, but you like me because I’m strong willed.” He grinned, he couldn’t help it. It was fun to get Ruthie riled up.
“You’re also kind and handsome.”
The grin fell from his face as he swallowed past the lump in his throat. “You’re so beautiful. If I wasn’t sick I’d be dragging you off to a hotel room to show you just how much I want you.”
“If you weren’t sick, so close to death, you probably couldn’t be with me as we are. You’d be enthralled.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Irony?”
“Seems that way.”
Just then the front door opened with a bang. He turned that way as Ruth startled.
“Ben.” His mother stepped out onto the front porch.
“What are you doing out here?”
That’s when he knew he was alone. He’d lost her again. He hoped not for the last time.
Chapter Four
Ruth knew she shouldn’t be doing what she was doing. It was midnight, and Ben really needed his rest. Still, she might not see him again, and when she’d taken off to avoid enthralling his mother she hadn’t exactly had the chance to say goodbye.
Clinging to the side of the house, she felt ridiculous. She wasn’t a cat burglar. She’d never actually done this before, but her amazing strength let her scale the wall, so she thought to give it a try. It had taken her a few minute to locate Ben’s specific window. Ultimately, she’d listened for the heartbeat that didn’t sound right.
Finally, feeling really foolish, she tapped on the glass. She heard no response except that he rolled over, still asleep. She tapped louder and then wished she hadn’t. Biting down on her lip, she decided that not only had this been stupid, it had been downright irreprehensible. The last thing Ben needed was to be jolted awake.
He might have a heart attack. She had to get down, now.
Just as she made that decision, the window swung open, nearly hitting her. Ben stuck his head out, his eyes squinty.
“I wondered if I was suddenly in a rendition of
Romeo and Juliet that no one told me about.”
She snickered and then sighed. “I’m sorry, Ben, this was really stupid. I’ll leave. Go back to sleep.”
He stepped back. “Since you’re here, you should come inside. Do you need to be invited in to pass through?” “No, I can come in anytime. That’s just fiction, that
I have to be invited.”
He nodded as she clambered through the window. His room was small but well put together; the bed, doublesized, sat against the wall with one end adjacent to the wall. A nightstand stood next to the bed looking like it had seen better days with the wood on the left foot peeling. The mirrored closet door stood partially ajar, and a small television sat atop a folding table. It was clearly a guestroom his grandmother didn’t use very much.
“I was foolish to come here like this. You need your rest.”
“I’d like to say rest is for sissies, but I have to admit that I do.” He yawned. “Come get in the bed with me. We can talk.”
She arched an eyebrow, noticing for the first time he wore nothing but black pajama pants to bed. She gulped.
“Get in the bed.”
“Ruthie, I would pray to a thousand different gods if
I thought it would give me the strength to ravish you tonight, but it’s not going to happen.” His smile was sardonic, what she had come to think of as Ben’s ‘I’m uncomfortable so I’m going to make a joke’ grin. “But we can cuddle until I pass out.”
The idea of being so close to him made her feel excited and slightly giddy. “It’s probably best anyway; I might hurt you if we were intimate.”
He pulled back the covers on the side of the bed that was still tucked in and patted the mattress. “I’m aware of how strong you are, remember? I’m the guy you had to carry like a baby.”
She moved to the bed and lay down where he indicated. “Should I have let you fall over?”
“No, that might have been even less manly.”
She laughed and covered her mouth. They didn’t need his family coming in to investigate. The last thing she wanted was for Ben to witness her enthralling his parents.
“Besides, I have to leave before morning, so I won’t be staying long. I just wanted to see you. I didn’t want to run away like that.”
Ben yawned and pulled her up against him. She heard how his heart struggled and tried to ignore the sound. Every strained beat made her feel vulnerable in a way she hadn’t felt since the Nazi’s had ripped her from her family’s hiding place.
“Why did you come back tonight? I thought I lit you up too much.” His voice was sleepy. She didn’t know if he’d be awake much longer.
Even if their time tonight was limited, she’d always be grateful he opened his window and asked her to lie down with him. It had been so long since she’d been held. It almost made her feel… soft.
“I needed to know if you still lived.”
“Ah.” He snickered and ran his hand through her hair, which sent delicious shivers up her back. “It was a death check, and then I happened to be outside so you thought you might as well speak to me?”
“Honestly.” She drummed her fingers on his chest, listening to the wind outside his window and the soft creaking of his grandmother’s house. “I was so unbelievably undone with relief and happiness at seeing you sit out there that, for a moment, I forgot what I was and
I just ran to see you, like I had the right to do that.”
He jerked next to her, and she lifted her head to see if he was okay. He bit down on his lip and she thought for a second there were tears in his eyes, but then he blinked and they were gone.
“You did have the right.” Leaning over, he kissed her, hard on the lips. She gasped and lost herself in the feeling that was Ben. For a second, she knew what he would have been like if he had never been sick: strong, demanding, capable. Then it stopped, and he lay back on the pillow and covered his eyes with his forearm.
She waited in silence for him to say something. God, she really didn’t want to cause this man any more pain. She would go. Now. His other arm shot out, and he grabbed her shirt. “Don’t leave. I’m just feeling sorry for myself.”
Dropping his arm, he smiled at her. Clearing his throat, he rolled onto his side and covered her midsection with his arm. She turned until they faced each other again, his warm breath touching her face.
He ran his fingers over her face.
“Where do you live?”
She kissed his fingertip. “I don’t live. I’m already dead, remember?”
“Funny.” He rolled his eyes. “Seriously, where do you sleep during the day?”
“Thinking you might like to come and interrupt my rest like I’ve done yours?”
“Your unexpected visit tonight is the best thing that happened to me in a long while, maybe ever. It’s my Hanukkah present.”
“I’m not that great a gift.”
He pinched her nose, and she laughed. “It’s my gift.
I get to decide how great it is or isn’t.”
“To answer your question, I sleep below a mausoleum.”
He was silent for a few seconds. “That’s straight out of some Vampire cliché. Why don’t you get a house or an apartment?”
“The slightest bit of sunlight and I’m dead.”
“You could black out the windows.”
She shook her head. “How would I pay for a house or an apartment? I can’t exactly work.”
“Night shift?”
She ran a finger over his mouth, and he kissed it. “Until I’m overcome with the need to feed and suddenly my fangs drop down and the whole place becomes enthralled. No, wait, I actually couldn’t even speak to anyone. The second I walked in the room they would stop moving.”
“These are good points.”
She laughed. “Thank you.”
“Where is the mausoleum? Maybe I should be buried nearby.”
Gasping, she sat up. That was the most horrible thing she’d ever heard. God, she could imagine it. His name would be right there on the ground indicating he’d been buried six feet beneath it. She would walk over it every day knowing his body was down there decaying. Tears filled her eyes. No, she wouldn’t let that happen. She would move, immediately. It was vitally important she never know where he was buried or she’d spend eternity walking over his grave just to be near to his remains…
Ben spoke fast. “I’m sorry.” He struggled to sit up, and she pressed a hand on him to stop him. “I make bad jokes about this. My sister is going to kill me before my heart ever does the job.”
“I can’t see you dead or think of you that way.” Her voice shook, and she didn’t seem to be able to stop it.
He patted the bed next to him again. “I understand. I couldn’t think of you that way either.”
She leaned down where he wanted her to go. “I am dead.”
“Not to me.” He kissed her lightly on the mouth, this time pulling back before either one of them could invest in the moment.
“Tell me more about your mausoleum. How did you find it? Did you dig the hole yourself?”
“Vampires have kind of a code. You can walk through graveyards and old abandoned homes, places like that.” She stared at Ben’s round face hoping she wasn’t exhausting him. He looked more alert now than he had when she’d first come in. “We draw three intertwined circles.” Using her fingers, she traced the symbol on the bed. “It means there is a safe home down below the circle that has been abandoned. The Vampire who lived there last has moved on. It makes it a little easier. I’ll draw it when I leave here.”
“Where will you go next?”
“I thought maybe down south.”
He nodded. “Warmer weather?”
“I don’t really feel the cold. It’s more like a change of scenery.”
“You should go to Santa Monica. I had a dream of us there on the beach at night. We were going surfing.”
He’d had a dream about her? She bit down on her lip before she spoke. “There’s only one problem with that.”
“What?”
“I don’t know how to swim.”
Ben’s brown eyes widened. “You don’t know how to swim? Ahh.” He laughed and squeezed her waist. “Kill me, why don’t you? Man, if I was just a little stronger I could teach you. It’s not like you can drown.”
He had a point. But she would probably not go because now she would always imagine his dream of the two of them there.
“I don’t suppose you’d like to make me a Vampire.”
“Oh, Ben.” The tears that threatened to spill earlier fell from her eyes, and he brushed them off her cheek. “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. It’s an eternity of blood and darkness. I can’t do that to you.”
“Even if I want it?”
She raised an eyebrow as she sniffed. “Do you? Are you sure you do?”
He shook his head. “I’d like an eternity with you.
Other than that, I’m not so certain.”
“I didn’t have a choice. I wouldn’t have picked this.”
Sighing, he stared out in the darkness. “I understand. It was just a passing thought. Forget I mentioned it.” He cleared his throat again, which made her nervous. She really hoped he wasn’t getting sick. Or, she amended, sicker. “Do you think I’ll be a ghost?”
“I have no knowledge of how these things work.”
“Maybe I’ll come and haunt you in your mausoleum.”
“I’d be grateful for the company.” She laughed; it felt so good to banter with him. “I had a dream about you too.” Oh god, why had she said that aloud?
“You dream?”
“Vampires do dream, yes.”
He yawned, and she knew they had reached the end of his energy level. “What was the dream?”
“We were together, in Poland, when I was human.
We were married. Part of it was very sexual, and then it changed, you know, how dreams can.”
He leaned into his pillow. “You had a sex dream about me, and I’m too damn tired to hear about it. That seems so unfair.”
“I’ll tell you about it next time we’re in bed together.”
“That’s a deal.”
Kissing her once more on the nose, he closed his eyes. Ruth lay in the darkness next to him listening to him breathe. If she had been his Hanukkah gift, he had been hers, and tonight would sustain her through eternity.
Ben opened his eyes to the sight of his grandmother standing over his bed. “Grandma? What time is it?”
He looked to his left, not surprised, but still disappointed to find Ruthie gone. Not like he could blame her. She’d told him she had to leave. Still, he’d fallen asleep with a gorgeous brunette in his arms. It would have been nice to wake up that way.
“It’s after ten. We were worried about you.”
He sat up. “I’m okay.”
“No.” She shook her head as she sat on the edge of the bed. “You’re not. Everyone acts like I don’t know what’s going on, and I let them because I’m a selfish old woman.”
“Grandma…”
She held up her hand. “No, let me finish. I have to tell you, Benja.” Her voice broke, and Ben wished he could die right that second. He never, ever wanted to see her this way. “It has been such a blessing to my old heart to have you with us this holiday.” She moved over and kissed him on top of the head, smelling, as she always had, of baby powder. “The problem with your heart is that it wasn’t prepared for how deeply you feel things. You always loved harder than everyone else. It just can’t keep up.”
He sniffed as a tear fell down his cheek. “What should I tell Grandpa if there turns out to be an afterlife and
I run into him?”
“You won’t have to tell him anything. He already knows.” She stood up. “Can you come downstairs?”
He thought about it for a second. “I think I can.”
Minutes later, he walked down the stairs, basically fully dressed except for his lack of shoes. He’d left them somewhere, and he couldn’t find them. Shrugging, he was glad his grandmother’s house was carpeted, even if it was green shag.
“What are we all up to this fine morning?”
Jenny laughed and stood up. “Mom and Rob are talking to the weirdo Vampire hunter. He’s telling them his plans for the day.”
Ben’s insides went cold, and he cleared his throat.
“Oh, yeah? What’s
he doing?”
“He’s going to some old graveyard on the other side of town and he’s going to set fire to it. Rob is reminding him that arson in a crime. If he can’t persuade him, we’re going to call the cops.”
The man was going to try to burn up Ruthie? Ben’s already strained heart beat hard in his chest. For the first time in years, he ignored it. Moving as fast as he could, he went to the door. His mother and Rob stood alone on the front porch.
Rob swore. “I don’t know if I talked him out of it or not.”
Ben’s mother shook her head. “All of that property damage to people’s graves. It’s a nightmare.”
There was no way Ben could stand around and wait until nightfall to find out if Ruthie was dead. He shook his head as he carried on his own personal conversation.
“Mom, go call the police.”
Turning around, he nearly collided with Jenny. “Sis, would you and Rob do something for me? Even if it seems crazy? Call it your dying brother’s weird last wish.”
“Um, okay with me. Rob?”
Rob patted him on the back. “What do you need?”
“I need you to go to the basement and get Grandpa’s old World War Two trunk. The one with the lock. The big, long one. Bring it up here. Jenny, go start your car.” He paused, surprised by just how out of breathe he was just from talking. “Please.”
They both looked at each other before acquiescing to his demand. It didn’t matter if they thought him crazy. He couldn’t wait on the police’s attempt at finding the guy who may or may not want to burn down a graveyard.
Rob stumbled up the stairs dragging the awkward trunk behind him. Ben pointed at the car. “Put it in the car, please.”
Following his silent but he suspected confused brother-in-law out of the house, he climbed into the front seat of Jenny’s hybrid car. Rob climbed in the back. “Where are we going?”
He looked at his sister. “The graveyard.”
“Are you crazy? Ben, you can’t go running around a graveyard.”
Rob interrupted. “If that’s what Ben wants to do today, then that’s what we’ll do.”
His brother-in-law sat back in his seat. Ben knew when Jenny married him that it had been a smart move on his sister’s part. Rob was a great guy.
Light Me Up Page 4
