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The house was quiet and I rolled, glancing at the clock. I let out a laugh at the blinking time. We had slept half the day away. Usually Steve hauled my ass out of bed to start our studies but he and Jennifer had taken a ride to their lake house for a quiet weekend alone.
I slid my arm from underneath Valerie and climbed out of bed. My head hurt and I didn’t know if it was from the alcohol binge or the seizure. Either way, it was miserable and I ducked into a hot shower, hoping the steam would alleviate some of the pounding.
Unfortunately, it didn’t do anything to dull the pain and I wandered downstairs, pilfering the cabinets for medicinal relief. Frustration clawed at my skin as I looked at the foreign words on each bottle. I still couldn’t decipher the different medicines and I slammed the cabinet closed. My mood soured to match my stomach and I took a seat on the couch, picking up the tablet and pulling up the latest list of words Steve had gone over with me earlier in the week.
What I really wanted was to do some research on what a vampire was, but even if I were able to figure out how to spell the damn word, any search engine result would be just as much of a mystery to me as the medicine bottles. I tossed the tablet on the table and growled my discontent.
My gaze landed on the phone and the list of names and numbers next to it. I bit my lip in contemplation, wondering just how much my brother would know about these things.
“What the hell,” I whispered. If he and Damian were in business together, I guess he would know a thing or two. I crossed to the phone and moved my finger down the list looking for my brother’s name. It took me two passes to recognize the T and I picked up the phone, pressing the numbers listed next to his name.
“Hello?” an electronic voice answered.
“Tom?”
“Yes. Is everything all right?”
“Yes. I just had some questions about...” I paused and sighed. “About vampires.”
Silence filtered over the line. “Give me a half hour and I’ll be down,” he said.
“Okay.” I hung up the phone and settled onto the couch with the television clicker in hand, waiting for Tom to arrive or Valerie to come down.
Nothing interested me on television so I clicked it off and stood, crossing to the bookcase where photo albums lined the shelf. I pulled one of the earlier ones down and took a seat. The photos were of the man and the woman Steve said were my parents; I realized I had a unique key to my life lining the shelves.
In this album, my mother’s belly protruded in the distinct form of pregnancy; and the way my father beamed at her told me enough about how happy he was at the thought of being a father. The way he seemed to take her in was familiar and I glanced at the ceiling, thinking of Valerie. I like to think I held the same expression of adoration when I looked at her. With each page, I got a flavor for how much they loved each other; it was written in every gaze, and sadness stretched over me.
As the pages progressed, babies came into the picture and I recognized Tom’s eyes in one of the infants. Through the years, his eyes never changed. They held the same strength and kindness that I had seen in him since I woke from the coma.
Seeing pictures of us at a lake, both holding fish up for the camera, made me smile. There was a connection in the way we played together and stood for pictures. His admiration of me was clear and I nearly laughed.
There were pictures of the other people as well. My half-sister and half-brother. The same ones in the wedding photo upstairs; the girl stopped showing up in pictures by the time I turned five. There seemed to be sadness in my mother, and her eyes didn’t light up like they had before, although she and my father still looked at each other in a way that burned off the page.
The mood changed dramatically around the time we were eight, at least that’s what the dates represented. The few pictures in that timeframe showed my mother barely able to hold a smile and my father wasn’t present.
A distinct gap of time occurred and the next set of photos of Tom and me showed pained eyes and subdued demeanors. Tom was a shell of his former self and I always looked angry. Every now and then either Steve or Jennifer would be in the picture, but overall it was Tom and me. Once high school started, Tom was with a different girl in almost every picture and he had a devilish grin all the time, like he was on the edge of trouble. Me, I was with the blonde we saw on the beach, or alone.
I closed the latest album and placed it on the coffee table when Tom walked into the house. “Are there any videos of us when we were little?” I asked.
Tom nodded. “I have some at our lake house,” he signed. “Maybe a change of scenery would be good for you.” He looked around the room and then back at me offering a shrug.
I bit my lip and had dropped my gaze to the photo album when the creak of the stairs pulled our attention.
Valerie stepped into view; her hair crumpled, and wearing an oversized t-shirt. When her gaze landed on Tom, her cheeks bloomed pink and she stepped backwards, using the knee wall as a shield against her naked legs.
“Hi, I didn’t realize you were here,” she said covering a yawn.
“I asked him to come by,” I said, drawing her attention. “I figured he’d fill me in on vampires since you shut me down last night.”
Tom blew out a stream of air, his gaze bouncing between Valerie and me as he accurately pieced together the current situation. The look he leveled at me was one of reproach and he crossed his arms, unhappy that I put him in the middle.
“Damian was a vampire,” I said and Tom glanced at Valerie for her permission to either confirm or deny my statement. When he glanced back at me, he nodded.
“But he’s not anymore, and we’ve all been immunized against the shadow virus as well,” he signed and articulated in his mind.
That was a new twist and I glanced at Valerie, because what she said last night didn’t jive with an inoculation. I cocked my head to the side, prompting her for more information without the words.
“I took samples of Damian’s and Naomi’s blood, along with Grace’s, and I was able to make a serum that makes us just as toxic to vampires as both Damian and Naomi,” Valerie said, and my eyebrows rose.
“Toxic?”
“Yes. If a vampire bites us, they die and we don’t. We are immune to the virus.”
“Oh,” I said, resorting to my fail-safe one-word response. My logical mind wasn’t piecing this together very gracefully and I sighed. Instead of pursuing the information, I decided to let it sink in and opted to return to the original conversation with Tom. “Lake house?”
“Yeah,” he signed. “We can take a boat ride around the lake, too, if you want.”
The thought was extremely appealing and I turned my attention to Valerie. “Mind if we go?” I asked, wondering if she’d let me go somewhere that might trigger a memory or two, and her gaze landed on the photo album before returning to mine with a sigh.
“Sure,” she said.
Tom grinned. “You might want to pack something for the night and leave a note for Steve and Jen,” he signed. “I’ll go grab Raven and Hannah and be back...” He glanced at his watch. “In a half hour?”
I nodded and he turned, leaving Valerie and me to pack an overnight bag.
I focused on her, taking in her rumpled hair and her bare legs, as she stepped into view. Packing could wait. She grinned as I closed the distance and pulled her into my arms.
“We need to pack,” she said, trying to level a stern look, but it didn’t quite work with the dimples still carved in her cheeks.
“We will. Eventually,” I said and picked her up, carrying her to my bedroom and planting a determined kiss on her lips. Losing myself in the feel of her, I closed my eyes, letting all sensation drive me. Making love to Valerie always felt like home, as if it was predestined that I be in her arms.
“I love you,” I whispered and snuggled into her.
“Chris,” she said and I raised my head, meeting her gaze. She just cocked an eyebrow at me.
“Oh, yeah, packing,” I said and pulled away, grumbling as we uncoupled and she slid out of bed.
“Yes. They’re going to be here any minute and we haven’t done a thing,” she said, rushing around the bedroom in a flurry that plastered a grin on my face.
“They can wait a minute or two,” I said, when she sent an exasperated ‘get your ass up’ glare in my direction. It earned me a pair of underwear pitched in my face. Begrudgingly, I slipped them on and pulled on a pair of shorts before helping her pack the duffel bag she hauled from the closet. “You might want to run a brush through your hair,” I said, studying the knotted mess.
Valerie glanced in the mirror and uttered a laugh before grabbing her sundress and crossing to the bathroom with her travel bag. I finished packing for us, making sure I had both our bathing suits as well as night clothing along with clothes for tomorrow. When she stepped into the room, I hesitated. She really was a beautiful woman, and for the hundredth time since I woke up, I wondered why she stayed with me.
“Because you’re rich,” she said in response to my thoughts and delivered a wink and a smile.
“So they tell me.” I zipped the bag and her smile faltered.
“You know I’m just joking, right?”
I took a minute to study the sincerity in her face. “I’m a stuttering idiot,” I said and hauled the duffel over my shoulder. “You staying with me because I have money makes much more sense than you staying because you love me.”
She put her suitcase on the bed and took the duffel bag from my hand before cupping my face between her palms. “I have never cared that you had money, or that you have a brilliant mind or even that you have all these mystical powers. Even if you were poor and powerless, I would still love you for what’s in your heart.”
I rolled my eyes and her stare hardened.
“I’m serious.”
My good humor faded a notch. “Then open your mind and let me see the way I can see into a stranger’s head.”
Her expression transitioned into a guarded frown, she dropped her hands to her sides. “I can’t do that,” she whispered.
“Why not?”
“Because that much information will likely blow all your circuits and push you right back into a coma,” she said and stepped away. “I can’t take that chance.”
Frustration edged in and I grabbed the bags, circling around her, ignoring her huff. I stopped in the hallway and glanced back at her. “Maybe it’s not up to you,” I said and didn’t wait for an answer before descending the stairs.
I wanted answers. The more things that were revealed, the more I wondered what the hell I was and why everyone was so damned quiet about my past.