I enter the kitchen but do not find Brandi. Water is rapidly boiling on the stove, and a delicious-smelling tomato sauce is bubbling away in a saucepan. My mouth waters.
A murmur coming from the direction of the study catches my attention. I follow the sound and find Brandi looking out the window, pleading with someone on the phone.
“Dad, I promise I’m okay. It’s a long story, but I’m safe.”
Pause.
“No. I can’t come home just yet. And I can’t explain, so you’ll have to trust me.”
Brandi is telling her family not to come get her. Why would she do this?
She continues, “I will call you twice a day. And you have the address where I’m staying so you know where I am. I just need a few days before you come for me, all right? It’s something I have to do.”
I lean into the doorway and fold my arms over my chest.
“Bye, Mom. Bye, Dad. I love you. Say hi to Marigold for me.” Brandi ends the call and turns, jumping out of her skin the moment she sees me. “Jesus! You scared me.”
I cock a brow. “Mind telling me what you think you are doing?”
“Well, I-I’m not ready to face my family yet. I need to figure out how I’ll explain what happened and that there’s a vampire after me. I figured you wouldn’t mind if I stayed a little longer. I hope that wasn’t overreaching?”
“I thought that all you wanted was to see your family again.”
“I do, but…I can’t let them see me like this.” She swipes a hand in front of her body.
Like what? Brandi looks rested and, well, generally lovely. Her brown eyes have a lively sparkle, her olive skin is smooth and creamy, and her dark hair shines like a new penny. She is a natural beauty in a curvy little package. I especially like how her chin dips in the middle. “You look perfectly fine after your ordeal.”
“Ah, that would be the old Botellino genes in action.” She swings her fist through the air. “Never let ’em see you sweat.”
I rub my scruffy jaw, which is due for a shave. As a mortal, it is something I avoid. I loathe nicking myself. “So you wish to remain here and regroup.”
She nods.
I do not believe her, but her motives don’t concern me. “Make yourself at home, then. I placed some clean clothes in your room.” I turn and head down the hallway toward the back stairs leading to my room, and she follows along.
“Where are you going? You haven’t eaten yet.”
“I have lost my appetite. Good night.” I go to my room and draw a hot bath. I have much to ponder, including the question that weighs heavily on my mind. When I am done reading the classics, do I truly wish to sit around waiting for death to come? After so many centuries of living a calculated life, perhaps I should end things on my own terms.
Or should I hold out hope that I will find a way through this?
Miracles are not for the evil. The evil get lucky from time to time, but God does not watch out for us. Vampires especially.
The next morning, I wake to the smell of fresh coffee, warm bread, and bacon. I cannot help but feel my spirits lift. I march downstairs and find Brandi has prepared a feast of carbs.
Before, I would have shunned such a meal, but today I am all in. What does it matter if my body is not in tip-top shape? I am no longer worried about being frozen in time.
“Wow.” I inspect the spread she has laid out. “Is this all for us?”
“You skipped dinner last night, so I thought you might be hungry?” She tosses a dish towel over her shoulder. “I made blueberry pancakes from scratch, scrambled eggs, biscuits, and the rest, well, you can see.”
My mouth waters, and I take a seat. She serves me a little of everything.
I take the first bite of pancake drowning in butter and maple syrup. It is like heaven. I try some of the coffee, rich and dark. Like my librarian used to make. “This is very nice of you, Brandi.”
“Least I could do for the guy who saved my life.”
Something I regret, but I do not tell her so. What is the point? What’s done is done. I made my choice to exchange my life for hers.
“So, what’s on the agenda for today?” she asks.
“I plan to spend some time reading. Thought I would stop by the library downtown first.”
“But there are so many books in this house.”
“The collection here lacks some of the modern works I wish to read. I will have to check those out.” Actually, Miriam is gone. I will just take them. The keys to the library are in the drawer. “You may stay here. Rest assured you will be safe, and if anything should happen, I will only be twenty minutes away.”
“Oh. Okay. But…I think I’d like to come with you.”
“Brandi, you do not have to. I promise you will be safe. Otherwise, I would not have brought you here.”
She takes a tiny bite of a biscuit she’s slathered with butter and honey. For a second, I am mesmerized by the action. She has such lovely lips. I wonder what her mouth would look like with a set of shiny white fangs. Hot.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asks.
“I think I see why Julia wished to enslave you.”
Brandi’s smile melts away into a dreary look. She slides a hand over her breast, over the spot where she has been marked.
“You do not need to feel ashamed, woman.”
“Excuse me?” Brandi arches a dark brow.
“No need to feel ashamed.” Did she not hear me?
“You think I’m ashamed?”
“No?” I question.
“No. I’m angry. That monster had no right to take me. She had no right to mark my skin like that.”
“She had every right,” I say flatly. “In her mind, anyway. Vampires are at the top of the food chain, and you were merely a thing, an object she wished to own.”
“Well, that’s just…fucked up.”
“It is the way of the world. One species dominates another, and if you have doubts, I urge you to look down at your plate. Oink. Oink,” I say dryly.
Her brown eyes drift toward the crispy strip of bacon next to her scrambled eggs.
“Everything must eat, Brandi. The animal kingdom is called so for a reason. Because we are all animals. Not saints. Not angels.”
“But—but—humans don’t taunt our food. We don’t bite them and tattoo their nipples with bats!” She pounds her fist on the table.
“Tell that to the cow marked with a branding iron.”
She narrows her eyes. “I’m not saying that humans can’t be cruel. We know they’re capable of brutality. And yes, we eat meat. But I don’t know many people who sit around salivating over watching an animal cry in pain.”
I shrug. “You think the cow cares whether or not you’re entertained by its death? All it knows is that it is not free, that it is about to die, and that there is nothing it can do about it.”
Brandi narrows her eyes. “So you’re basically saying I’m no different than Julia?”
I stare and say nothing. She knows the answer.
Brandi stands, nostrils flaring. “I see it now. I can tell you really were a vampire once.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that you think it’s your right to mistreat anything weaker than you, that the fact you’ve been given a soul and mind, capable of distinguishing cruelty from simple survival, means nothing.” She exhales. “In reality, though, you’re the cow. You’re trapped.”