by Dina James
‘okay’. Nothing seriously damaged...I don’t think. I really didn’t have time to do much other than put the fire out and—”
“Fire?!” Nana interrupted, wide-eyed.
Rebecca nodded. “It’s okay, though. It’s out, and the kitchen is clearing of the smoke, and—”
“The house could have burned down!” Nana exclaimed, shaking her head.“Nana, it’s okay,” Rebecca said again, kneeling by the side of the chair.
She looked up at her grandmother. “Really, it is. It probably won’t make you feel any better, but I’m kind of used to it. You used to try and cook all the time, and forget. I’ve put out more than one fire. I’m just glad you didn’t have any oil on the stove this time.”
Nana looked unsure. Rebecca smiled at her.
“I know how to use the fire extinguisher and everything,” Rebecca assured her.
“You always were a smart girl who liked to be prepared. I think that’s the Healer in you,” Nana said. “Always trying to keep people safe, making sure everything was all right.”
“Speaking of ‘everything being all right’, what about you? You really okay?” Rebecca asked past the lump in her throat. “You scared me, Nana.
Fires I can handle, but if anything happens to you...” Nana patted Rebecca’s back soothingly. “I’m fine. I’ll be all right. That boy, though...Ryan. Syd’s thrall...”
Rebecca pulled away from her nana, her stomach turning a funny flip at the mention of Syd.
“Where was he during this demon thing?” she asked. “He wasn’t here, was he?”
Nana shook her head. “He had responsibilities to see to.” Rebecca stood up fast and turned her back to her nana to hide the scowl on her face. Her hands clenched into fists, her nails digging into her palms.
If the Master vampire had been here like he said he would be—
She turned back to her nana and crossed her arms over her chest. “So that thing about being here for two years? What was that? He can just go off whenever he wants to, regardless of what he said? Is he even going to come back?”
“Hey, now. Don’t go knocking off Syd,” Billy said. “If he wasn’t here, it’s ’cause he had somewhere more important to be. No offense, Martha.”
“None taken,” Nana replied. “And I understood. I told him I would be fine here with Ryan until he returned. Syd needs rest, too. He hasn’t been getting all that much around here, and has been using his power a great deal.” Rebecca unclenched, threw up her hands and shook her head as she left the living room for the kitchen. Syd had assured her that morning that Nana would be all right, and Rebecca had believed him.
She mumbled to herself as she filled a mug with water and set it in the microwave. She jabbed at the buttons, setting it for two minutes so that her nana could have a hot cup of tea. “Demons nearly eat my grandma while they kidnap his friend, but that’s all right because there was something more important going on! Well, I’d like to know what!” Movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she ignored the big werewolf who entered the kitchen.
“Aw, Bit, don’t be mad,” Billy said in what had to have been his best pleading tone. “I could hear you in there, you know, moanin’ about Syd not bein’ here. Don’t be mad at him. Nothing happened.”
“Nothing—” Rebecca began, ready to scream at someone—anyone—
about how she didn’t think this could be called “nothing.” Her nana had nearly been killed and Ryan and Syd were both gone!
“Nothin’! ‘S good. Syd’ll be—”
“‘Syd will be’ what?” came a familiar voice from the darkest corner of kitchen.
Rebecca glared at the tall vampire who slid from the shadows. Sydney bowed to them.
Her temper snapped. She’d had enough of everything jumping out at her today.
“Dude, don’t even,” she said, her voice cold. “You’re lucky I’m not very violent, ’cause I have half a mind to beat the living crap out of you before I shove Ryan’s lucky pencil through your heart!” Sydney straightened, his brow furrowed in confusion. He took in the deplorable condition of the kitchen and looked to Billy. The werewolf just shrugged.
“I told her everything was fine!”
“Fine?! I get attacked by demons at school who try to drag me through a mirror, who only didn’t succeed only because a werewolf showed up to save me, and once we get away he drives me home—if you can call what he does behind the wheel ‘driving’—”
“Hey!” Billy protested.
Rebecca ignored him and went on.
“—chased by demons the whole way, am nearly crushed to bits inside the car, have had a gun go off just inches above my head, and barely get away from them only to find the house nearly on fire, my nana upstairs looking like she’s dead, the guy turning into a vampire gone and possibly dying while who-knows-what ran through the house despite the fact that you told me before you left this morning that everything would be fine! If this is your idea of ‘fine’, I’d sure like to see your idea of a problem!” She turned and tried to run from the kitchen. There was no way on earth she was going to let Syd see her cry.
Syd had her by the upper arm before she could move two steps. She glared at him, only to see an astonished look on his handsome face. He turned his metallic blue gaze back to Billy and again surveyed the utter disaster that was just that morning a perfectly ordered kitchen.
“Billy, what’s happened?” he demanded. “Where is my thrall?” Billy growled. “Take your hands off her. Then I talk.” Syd released Rebecca and she glared at both Billy and Syd. The microwave beeped and Rebecca got the hot mug out of it, took a tea bag from a drawer and left the kitchen.
w x
Rebecca sniffed and plunged a rag hard into a bucket of warm water, sloshing some over the sides onto the floor at her knees. She wrung it out as though she wished it were someone’s neck instead and went back to cleaning the oven of the fire extinguisher residue. She had to work fast or it would harden even more and be almost impossible to get out, and she didn’t want to be here all night scrubbing.
Not that I’m not going to be scrubbing all night anyway, she thought, remembering the gray sticky deposit the smoke had left on the cabinets and walls.
She sighed and attacked a corner of the heating element in the bottom of the oven.
She felt Syd’s eyes on her before he took a step into the kitchen. She looked over her shoulder at him, unsure of what to say. She didn’t think she could speak to him right now without screaming at him or saying something completely mean.
He didn’t say anything. She watched as he closed his eyes and brought his hands up to his chest. He touched the tips of his middle fingers together for a moment before sliding one hand down toward his middle and the other one up to his chin. Then he flipped them both out to face the kitchen.
Rebecca felt a light breeze brush her skin and flutter through her hair.
She knelt back to look at the vampire standing in the doorway and hated the way her stomach crinkled and her mouth went dry at seeing him.
Damn it all, she was mad at him, she told herself. How could he have left Nana?!
Sydney lowered his hands and opened his eyes. He glanced around the kitchen.
Rebecca followed his gaze and gasped. No trace of any fire, current or previous, remained. Even the smell of smoke was gone. The walls were again white instead of the pale, smudged gray that never seemed to lighten no matter how hard or how often Rebecca scrubbed them.
Syd lifted his left hand in a careless gesture toward the sink, and the ruined pot and casserole dish were at once clean and mended.
Rebecca was dumbfounded. She looked back at the element she’d been scrubbing. The oven was clean, the burner unblemished, like nothing had happened. The rag in her hand and the bucket of warm water on the floor seemed completely silly now.
She noticed that his eyes were dark, when only a few minutes ago they’d been bright and pulsing.
“I’m sorry,” Sydney said, his
voice soft. “My apologies, Acolyte, for all you’ve endured today.”
She wanted to tell him it was all right. She wanted to forgive him—to accept his apology. Really, she did. She hated fighting and did her best to get along with everyone, no matter how horrible they were or what they’d done to her. Even Marla Thompson.
But Rebecca had left that morning assured by both Syd that everything would be all right. For the first time in years she hadn’t worried herself sick the whole day about her nana being alone and had come home to...to...
Rebecca found she just couldn’t nod and say she understood like she usually would have. She wished she could speak past the lump in her throat and tell him it was okay, but the words wouldn’t come.
It wasn’t okay, and she couldn’t pretend that it was. Syd had made her feel so safe and so sure, and nothing was.
Rebecca felt like he’d betrayed and lied to her. She stood and glared at him.“You can’t leave like that, do you hear?” Rebecca said, trying hard not to scream at him, though it felt really good. He deserved to be screamed at.
“You said you’d be here for two years! Which two years did you mean? A day at a time? You just show up whenever you feel like it? Whenever you’ve got time to bother with being here? If that’s the case, can I get you to call me whenever you don’t feel like being around so I can be? I know you don’t care about what happened to Nana or me today, but what about Ryan? He could be dying! You sure made it look like you cared about him when you brought him here! Was that just pretend? Do you only care about yourself?”
“Do not accuse me of being uncaring, Acolyte!” Syd shouted, advanc-ing on her. “Ryan would understand my necessary departure!” Rebecca flinched and took a step back. Maybe she’d gone just a little too far. Syd wasn’t just some good-looking guy. He was a Master vampire and she knew that he could hurt her if he wanted to. Rebecca was suddenly afraid of him for a moment, but the look on his face made her forget her fear.
Sydney collapsed into a chair at the table, all the fight leaving him. He brought a hand to his forehead.
“All you can see is how this has affected you,” the vampire continued.
He looked up at her. “Though your concern for your loved ones is admirable, there are others involved. I had to leave. I believed Martha would be all right here with Ryan. You make it sound as though I abandoned you both on a selfish whim. I assure you, this was not so.”
He sounded so tired. Rebecca blushed and stood, emptying her bucket in the sink and rinsing out her cloth. Now she felt horrible about yelling at him and making him feel bad.
“I’m...I’m sorry,” she said in guilty contrition, looking back at him.
“It’s just...been a hard day, you know? I don’t mean to take it out on you, Syd. Really I don’t.”
He smiled a little. “Apology accepted. Now, let us use these unfortunate circumstances in some kind of positive manner. There are many lessons to be learned from this by both of us. You no doubt have many questions, not the least of which is why I sent a werewolf to aid you when you’ve been told his kind and mine are mortal enemies.”
“That’s really creepy,” Rebecca said, though she smiled a little. “Even if the thought did cross my mind, please stay out of my brain.”
“I try to as much as possible,” Sydney replied, teasing. “I have no interest in the thoughts of a teenage human girl. However, there are times when what you think can’t help but be overheard. That’s another lesson you’re going to have to learn—to shield your thoughts and emotions, lest they be used against you.” He ran a hand through his hair.
This time she could feel his fatigue and helplessness. Hopelessness. He didn’t just seem tired, he was tired. Drained. How could a vampire be tired?
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Syd hesitated a moment. “I feel extremely uncomfortable telling you things that you should, theoretically, already know,” he confessed. “However, I agreed to assist in your training, and this is as good a lesson to begin with as any. To answer your question, look at my eyes, Acolyte, and tell me what you see.”
She did so, cocking her head a little. “They’re dark, when just a minute ago they were bright, almost pulsing,” she replied. “I’m guessing that your little clean-up stunt used a bunch of your power and now you’re weak.” He nodded. “That’s essentially correct, though I wouldn’t have phrased it quite that way. But my efforts—” He gestured around the restored kitchen and up at the ceiling, indicating the enclave he’d also restored to order. “—
did indeed consume a great deal of my power. In addition to Martha’s need increasing with her upset...”
Rebecca looked at him a moment then at her wrist. Without thinking more about it, she began to roll up her sleeve.
Sydney looked at her. “I did not ask for replenishment.” He sounded almost defensive.
“Do you have to ask? I’m offering. You look horrible.”
“I do not require your assistance,” he replied, defiant and sullen.
Rebecca sighed. “What? You’re going to punish yourself because you went and left Nana alone and Ryan—er—your thrall’s gone missing? Who does that help? You’re just going to make things worse if you don’t take care of yourself. You’re starving, and you’re in the house of a Healer. I can’t let you hurt yourself here. Don’t ask me how I know that. I just do. Besides...
maybe it’s my way of saying ‘thanks for the help and I’m sorry for yelling at you’. Now, are you going to let me...help...or not?” Sydney nodded and refused to look at her. Rebecca knelt down beside his chair and looked up at him anyway.
“I thought you guys were...you know...immortal,” she said. “Nana is so worried about Ryan dying. You are, too...I can feel it. Don’t worry. I don’t know how, but we’ll find him, okay?”
“We live, and we die, just as you do,” Syd replied in a murmur. “Just...
not as often, from the same things, or as in so short a time. Our children are our thralls—those we nurture and take into our lives, under our wing, just as mortal parents do with their children. We’re born into this life, we live it, and yes, we can—and do—die. We honor our fallen and mourn our dead, just as you do. Just because we are not human does not mean we are not humane.” Rebecca reached up to touch Syd’s cheek, encouraging him to look at her. “You eat too,” she reminded him with a smile. “Just like real people.” Sydney smiled at her teasing and brought his hand to cover hers. He turned his head and kissed the inside of her wrist, nipping it playfully with his fangs as he looked into her eyes.
“You’re doing that...that hypnotic thing to me again,” she murmured.
“Remember what it means to look into the eyes of a Master vampire.
Not only is it extremely rude, you should never do so unless you’re prepared to surrender control of yourself. However, this is just simple entrancement, not allure.”
“Why is it rude?” Rebecca asked in a dreamy voice. “Eyes are a big deal in your world, huh? Earlier I had a staring contest with a hellhound.
Was that rude too? It didn’t seem like it...”
“Hellhounds are different,” Syd replied. “To them, eye contact estab-lishes rank and dominance—says who is in charge and who has the right to speak first. It isn’t rude to stare down a hellhound. It’s rude to meet a vampire’s gaze—especially that of a Master—because such a thing involves...let us say...a level of intimacy. And yes...eyes are a ‘big deal’ to Ethereals because eyes are, as you humans say, the window to the soul. Looking a vampire in the eye is like saying you wish to see their soul, and they have none to see.
The immortal soul was sacrificed so that the body and consciousness might take on that immortality. Now do you understand why it’s rude?”
“Mmm,” Rebecca said with a compliant nod. “I think so...I don’t know.
You’re making it hard for me to think.”
Syd gave a soft laugh. “Shall I cease?” he asked as he got to his feet.
He urg
ed her up with him, tugging her arm lightly.
“No, after everything scary today, this feels lovely,” Rebecca replied with a silly smile, rising with his help. “All warm, and happy, and makes me forget that I’m supposed to be mad at you...”
“Don’t be angry with me, Acolyte,” he said in a soothing whisper as he brushed her hair back from her neck, exposing her Healer’s mark. “Anger taints the blood, and I’m not much for spicy food.” His fangs pierced her throat.
Rebecca gasped at the swiftness of it. Her arms went around his neck and she closed her eyes, giving herself completely over to him and hating herself for it.
Don’t hate yourself, she heard him say in her mind. And don’t hate me.
I don’t, she replied. I was just scared. Nana—
Hush.
Sorry.
It seemed to last a lot longer than when Ryan had done it, but Rebecca couldn’t be sure. Still, it was warmer, more intense, and she wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard Syd moan as he lifted his mouth from her throat.
“Mmm,” Rebecca murmured again, blinking her eyes as she tried to force the cobwebs from them. “I don’t feel like this after Ryan takes my blood.”
Sydney laughed again.
“Ryan doesn’t use entrancement, or any of the other niceties available to us,” he replied. “Yet.” He pulled back a little to see her face. “Think of it as the difference between a gentleman and a brute.”
“He’s been the gentleman?” Rebecca replied, teasing.
Sydney smiled so wide she could see his fangs. His eyes had returned to a bright, metallic blue. “Oh, Acolyte, I’m afraid you know exactly which one I am,” he said. “Feeling better?”
She nodded, still trying to clear her brain of fuzziness.
“My apologies again for all you’ve endured today,” he said as he released her. “And my gratitude for your restoration. You’ve provided me with much more than replenishment.”
“I have?” Rebecca said. “I don’t understand.”
“Through your blood I’ve made sense of what has happened here today, both to you and in this house, and your feelings about it,” Syd replied.
