CHAPTER 4

 

 

We made it back to the farm and Uncle Seward helped me haul Roland upstairs to my old bedroom. We plopped him on the covers. Well, I plopped and Uncle Seward dumped. Aunt Ma got a quilt from the closet and covered him.

"In case he gets cold," she told us.

"He's a vampire, Ma, he's always cold," Uncle Seward reminded her.

"That's no excuse for not trying to prevent catching a cold," she countered.

He rolled his eyes and they fell on me. "I'm going to make sure all the barn doors and windows are locked, and get my guns from the barn. You both stay inside and if somebody comes knocking-"

"I know, I know, don't answer it," I finished.

He frowned. "Of course you answer it. You think this person who tried to steal his soul-" he jerked his head towards Roland, "-is going to knock on the door? If somebody knocks it'll be me, so you'd better answer it."

He stalked off and downstairs. Aunt Ma came up behind me and set a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't take what he says too hard. It's only because he cares," she told me.

I sighed and nodded. "I know, and I can't blame him for worrying. I don't really know how we're going to get out of this one." I half-turned to Roland and the chair Aunt Ma had set up beside the bed. "I think I'll stay with him a little while."

Aunt Ma smiled and patted my shoulder. "Of course. You just come down when you're ready."

"Thanks, Aunt Ma."

Aunt Ma left, and I took my position beside the bed. Roland lay on the covers with his eyes closed. The covers moved up and down to show there was some activity going on in his body. I leaned towards him and grasped his hand in mine.

"We're in a real pickle this time, aren't we?" I whispered to him.

"So it seems," he murmured.

I started back, and he opened his eyes and smiled at me. My eyes narrowed and I glared at him.

"How long have you been awake?" I questioned him.

"Long enough to hear your uncle's advice about knocking doors," he quipped.

I snorted. "You should hear his advice about dating, but seriously, you scared the heck out of me."

Roland sat up and winced. "Fortunately, we faced that challenge and overcame it."

"Yeah, but now we're really on the hotplate with this one," I pointed out. "It's one thing to laugh at the Devil, it's another thing to be laughing at each other."

"You have me there," he agreed. He shivered and pulled the quilt closer to himself. "I had forgotten how chilly were human souls."

I frowned. "How come you're feeling different, but I'm not?"

"The changes are not all at once, and it will differ from person to person. My soul must first acclimate to your physical body," he explained.

"So how do we get your soul back to you?" I wondered.

"We must steal the book-"

"Heroes appropriate," I reminded him.

He smiled. "We must appropriate the book from Rose and perform the ritual in the mausoleum. No doubt she will have repaired any damage because she still wishes to steal my soul."

"So what do we do until then?" I asked him.

He leaned his head back against the pile of pillows behind him and closed his eyes. "Allow me some time to rest, and we will create a plan."

I stood and looked over his thin form. He looked horribly skinny, but there was a little color on his pale skin.

"All right, but don't you go wasting away on me. I don't want to come up here and discover a garden in my bed," I teased him.

He chuckled. "I will be sure not to cause you too much weeding."

"Are you sure you didn't take more than just my soul?" I asked him.

"The only certainty in life is uncertainty, so I can't say for sure," he replied.

I sighed and shrugged. "I guess I'll take that for an answer. Anyway, you get some rest and if you need me I'll be downstairs with Aunt Ma." He nodded his head.

I walked downstairs and found Aunt Ma at the head of the dining table. She had two steaming mugs of cocoa in front of her. I took a seat beside her and she passed a mug to me.

"How is he?" she wondered.

"Faking unconsciousness and health," I told her. I took a sip of the cocoa and wrinkled my nose. The flavor was off. "And I think he's just as lost in this whole mess as I am."

"A good rest will help you both," she assured me.

"Yeah, but I'm really-" I glanced at Aunt Ma and my eyes froze on her neck. Her pale, long, tasty neck. My tongue flicked out and I whetted my lips.

"Misty? Misty, are you all right?" she asked me.

I tried to shake off the strange hunger that rose up inside me, but I couldn't. Her neck looked like an unattended tap, and I was an alcoholic in desperate need of a drink. I slipped out of my chair and stood beside my aunt with my chest heaving and the hunger eating me up.

"Misty, what in the world are-" I lunged at her. My hands reached out for her neck.

"Misty!"

The loud, strong voice snapped me out of my homicidal plan. I froze a few inches from my aunt's neck and blinked. She blinked back at me.

"Misty, step back from her," the voice ordered me.

I looked over my shoulder and saw Roland standing in the doorway. He leaned. against the frame with his face as pale as death and his chest heaving for breath. I stumbled away from my aunt and clutched my forehead in my hand.

"What the hell was that?" I murmured.

"The hunger," he told me.

Aunt Ma stood and rushed to my side. She grasped my right arm and looked into my face. "Are you quite all right?" she asked me.

Her neck the the veins inside it flowed beside me. I scrunched my eyes shut and shook my head. "No, I don't think I am."

"You feel the hunger of the vampire," Roland spoke up.

I opened my eyes and frowned at him. "But I'm not undead," I pointed out.

He shook his head. "My soul is tainted by my very being, and that being is a vampire."

I leaned back against the wall and cradled my face in one hand. "Having your soul sucks. Literally."

"It. . .certainly does," Roland agreed.

He took a step forward, but his knee buckled and he fell to the floor. Aunt Ma and I jumped over to him and placed ourselves on either side of him. We each took an arm and lifted him off the wood floor. He smiled up at us.

"Though it does also seem to be a nuisance to be a human," he added.

"I think you both need to get to bed," Aunt Ma advised us.

"Aunt Ma, I nearly tried to suck your blood. I don't think a nap's going to fix that," I countered.

"Rest helps even the wicked, and you two have been through a lot," she insisted. "Now let's get Roland back upstairs and get you to bed."

I could have really used a drink right then, but I didn't like the limited menu a vampire-soul inhabiting human had to choose from, so I helped Aunt Ma heft Roland into the entrance hall. He was even lighter than when I'd carried him from the cemetery. We made it to the bottom of the stairs when there was a knock on the door.

"One moment," Aunt Ma told me. She broke from us and answered the door. Uncle Seward stood on the other side with his double-barrel shotgun in hand, and a rifle slung over his shoulder. Aunt Ma frowned at him.

"I don't remember that second rifle," she scolded him.

"I bought it last spring for the gophers, and I think we're going to be glad I did," he commented as he stepped inside. He looked Roland nad me over and pursed his lips. "What's he doing down here?"

"Preventing me from turning Aunt Ma into a smoothy bar," I quipped.

Uncle Seward's lips tightened and his eyes flickered to Roland. "What does that mean?"

"It means the vampire soul inside of Misty is causing her to feel the hunger of the vampire," Roland explained.

Uncle Seward's eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly. "Then she's turning into a vampire?"

"Not completely," Roland assured him. "Her body is still alive, but it may need the sustenance of blood to survive."

I whipped my head to him. "Wait, what?"

"I would explain more, but we have worse problems," Roland returned.

"What can be worse than me turning into a vampire and testing out my teeth on my aunt and uncle?" I asked him.

Roland slipped out of my hold and steadied himself on his own two feet. "The hunter knows this place, and he will lead Rose here," he reminded us. He turned his blue eyes on me. "We must leave."

"But where are we going to go? Ginsleh knows where I live and work, and Rose knows about your vacation home in the woods," I pointed out.

"Father Malone will shelter us," he told me.

"Who's Father Malone?" Uncle Seward interrupted.

"He's the preacher at the church in town. The one on top of the hill," I explained.

"And he can be trusted?" my uncle questioned us.

"With our lives," I assured him.

"But it's your soul we worry about," Aunt Ma quietly spoke up. She walked over and clasped my hands in hers. Her eyes looked into mine and for the first time in my life I saw she was worried. "Promise us you'll be careful."

I smiled and squeezed her hands. "I promise."

"And that you'll keep care of Roland."

"Definitely."

"And that we can come with you."

"What?"

The last word was uttered by the three of us who didn't ask the question, and we all looked at Aunt Ma in shock.

"You're not coming with us," I told her.

"But there's not safety in numbers here, Ma," Uncle Seward agreed. "We'd just get in the way and be moving targets for these two crazies."

"Then you can stay and protect the house, but I'm going with them," she insisted.

I grabbed her upper arms and shook my head. "But you can't. I might try to bite you again."

"You might, and you might try to bite Roland. He's human now, too," she pointed out. "If there's more than one of us we can protect ourselves, and you."

"But-"

"She's right." All of our eyes turned to Roland. His lips were pursed tightly together, but his eyes were firm. "I am in no condition to fend off an attack from you, and the next time you feel the hunger I might not be able to convince you to not attack me."

My shoulders slumped and my face fell. "Seriously? You're against me, too?"

Aunt Ma put a hand on my shoulder and smiled at me. "We want to help. Please let us help this time."

Uncle Seward stepped up to me and I looked up into his face. "Ma's right, Misty. We haven't been helping you much lately, and we'd like to help you out as much as we can now. Besides-" He raised his hands and jingled a set of keys in his hands. "I'm not letting anyone else drive my new truck."