I wander the bunker until I’m tired. I swear Mikey and Maverick have been talking for three hours. Because it’s been three hours. What in the world could they be discussing?
I shake my head. Duh. Everything that’s been going on. Maybe she’s giving him advice on what to do with Ari. I snort at the idea.
Speaking of.
I notice Ari sitting beside a vending machine in a mostly built hallway. Dirt still peeks through some of the stone, the wooden bones of the expanding compound giving it a strange, unfinished, renaissance feel.
She glances up as I near. Not sure if I was wanting to talk to her or not, but I guess that’s up to her.
She sits upright. “You’re that Bleeder guy. The Bleeder King, or whatever. Right?”
I nod. I guess she wants to talk after all.
She sighs, fidgeting with the label on her fruit punch drink. “I know you know who I am, but I’m Ari.” She offers her hand for me to shake.
“Zeke.”
“Great. Now that formal introductions are over with, I’m sure you have questions.”
The way her blue eyes dig into me makes me feel like an ant under a microscope. “I mean, yeah, but you don’t have to—”
“Sit down,” she says. “Let me tell you about the vampire I used to know.”
Stiffly, I do as she instructs. As she talks, I come to the realization that she needed someone to talk to, and I just so happened to be there the moment she figured that out.
Maverick was alive for a long time before Ari came into the picture. Apparently, Maverick knew she was a hybrid, but refused to tell her until she found out she was dying. Her dad wouldn’t turn her, and she wouldn’t let a stranger do it, so she wanted Maverick to do it. After all, he said he loved her, and she loved him with all she had. She ignored the warnings about fae creatures not knowing what love is, only obsession, and believed he really did feel things for her. But there she was, begging him to change her. She never got to hear his answer because she died in his arms.
She describes Maverick as a marvel, like he’s everything she ever wanted. He’s all she ever thought about, and she wanted to marry him. She wanted to be with him forever, and that’s even after she found out what he was. But he wouldn’t do it. And then he had her chained up for centuries. She says she remembers bits and pieces from that time, but the number one thing she knows she missed was the sky. Nighttime, daytime, it didn’t matter. She just wanted to be outside.
“He’s a monster.” She squeezes her drink so hard the lid pops off. Then she chucks it at the wall, spilling its contents all down the beam it hit. I struggle to find words as she crumples into her hands, her breathing ragged. I can smell the surging emotions spilling form her pores, sadness raking through the animosity. “He has to be.”
Those last words come out as a whisper as silence ensues.
Finally, I lean forward, reminding me of my dad a few hours ago in the sparring area. “I hated Mikey with all my being when she turned me into a Bleeder. She was the villain of my story. The bad guy. It was selfish of her to turn me. Petty. But everything after that…” I purse my lips. “I’ve always been angry. An angry zombie was a deathtrap, but I didn’t care. And I believed Mikey was the reason it festered. But it wasn’t. She wasn’t the monster. In fact, I truly believe she’s the reason I’m not one. Because I very much look like one most of the time.”
Ari meets my eyes. “But the way you look at her… That’s the way I would look at him.”
My heart squeezes. Of course it is.
I press my lips together as I work on my next sentence. “I don’t know what happened between you two all those years ago. I barely even know who Maverick is because he keeps his true identity to himself. But I do know he worked his butt off to find a cure for your Mindlessness, and it came in the form of Mikey, a girl he's basically adopted.”
Her face softens. Apparently she didn’t know that part.
Her eyebrows pull together, and she turns away, staring at the mess she made. After a long minute, she gets up, grabs a few napkins from a dispenser, and cleans it up. Finally, gives me a small smile. “Sorry for unloading all my drama on you.” She chuckles as she wipes her eyes. “But thanks for listening.”
“Of course.”
She tilts her head to the side, studying me. “Are you having girl troubles?”
My nerves spike. “What? Why would you say that?”
“You’re tense. Eager. But not for whatever the heck you’ve all been going through lately. There’s this air about you that screams girl problems.”
I make a face. Have I always been so easy to read? “No, Mikey’s afraid she screwed something up by being too honest. She’ll be okay.”
Ari purses her lips. “Well. Since you gave me advice, here’s mine: don’t expect her to read your mind.”
I snort.
“What?”
“The thing is, she literally can. We can read each other’s minds. It’s… kind of a Bleeder thing.”
She frowns. “Huh. Well, my advice still holds. Communicate. That’s where most relationships, romantic or not, fall apart.” Her shoulders sag. “Guess I should take my own advice, huh?”
I inhale deeply, letting her words sink into my brain. Sometimes thinking something isn’t the same as saying it aloud.
“Night, Bleeder King,” she says with a joking drawl as she turns. But she spins right back around. “Oh! And never forget she’s her own person. She will never be you. She will always be Mikey.”