“Jason is amazing,” I said, pacing back and forth excitedly across the room. “He’s so different to David.”
“Okay, but you still haven’t told me what his answer is,” Cal said, his voice muffled through the phone.
I paused a moment to build suspense, jumping up and down on the spot as I said, “He said yes! He said he was just so happy to hear that I’m happy, and he can’t wait to welcome a new vampire into the community.”
“Yes!” Cal was clearly jumping around his room, repeating that word over and over.
“He said Eric can turn you. He’s calling him now to organize it.”
“So when can we do this?”
“I don’t know. I guess it will depend on Eric.”
David walked in then and gently took the phone off me, putting it to his ear. “Cal, Ara’s gotta go, she’ll call you back.”
I heard Cal say ‘But…’ and then David cut him off, putting the phone back in his jeans pocket.
“Why did you do that?” I said.
“Because I need to ask you something.”
“Couldn’t it have waited?”
“No.”
“Fine.” I walked over and sat on the arm of the sofa, my arms folded. “What is it then?”
“Why him?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why not me?” David sat down on the coffee table right in front of my legs, looking up at me with clear eyes. “Why didn’t you ask me to be a vampire again if you wanted someone to feed off?”
“I…” My eyes drifted onto nothing.
“Hey.” He grabbed my chin and forced my attention back onto him. “Answer the question.”
“Cal asked—”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Yes, it is. I never thought of turning Cal, either. I only thought it would be a great idea when he suggested it.”
“But having me as your personal blood bank isn’t?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I…” I tried to look away again to gather my thoughts, but he wouldn’t let me. He stood in front of me, holding my head straight with both hands.
“I swear, Ara, I will get some answers out of you if I have to…”
“I like Cal, okay?” I shoved him back, not hard enough to knock him over though. “He’s a good friend and he’s someone I want with me for the rest of my eternity.”
David nodded, sitting back down on very suddenly weak legs.
“I’m not seeing Cal,” I said. “And I don’t have any plans to be with him, but he is a very good friend to me—the best, and—”
“I’ve heard enough.” He put his hand up and got to his feet, kind of rolling away from me before he stood.
“David, I didn’t mean for this to hurt you—”
“Shh.” He picked his phone from his pocket when it bleeped. “Eric’s away in Bunbury for a gig right now. He says to tell you he’s available on the 31st.”
“Halloween?” That seemed a pretty fitting night to make a vampire. “Will it… does it hurt? Should we wait until the day after the party?”
“You can ask Eric anything you need to know,” he said in a weak voice, his arms folded.
“Why can’t I ask you?”
He lowered his head, sighing. “Do you really need to ask that?”
“I don’t get why you’re so upset about this—”
“Because Cal has always been my competition, Ara.” He looked at me with squared, tear-filled eyes. “And now you want him for forever.”
“A forever friend, David—”
“I know there’s more to it than that.”
I just wanted to slap him! Why wouldn’t he believe me? “You know, I wasn’t going to tell you this, because I don’t agree with Cal, but he’s been in your corner ever since he found out about everything. He’s the one that told me I should give things a go with you.”
David looked back at me, frowning.
“He’s the one who convinced me that you weren’t as evil as I thought you were. He has been in my ear ever since, telling me that the right thing to do—for you, for me and for the kids—is to let you into my heart.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, laughing, although I wasn’t amused. Just really insulted that he was so fixated on me and Cal being together. “He’s a good guy, David. And you are too, and if you really must know, after Cal suggested himself as a feeding buddy, I did think about asking you to become a vampire again—”
“Then why didn’t you ask?”
“Because I thought about the monster you were, and I… I didn’t want to risk that, because as much as you don’t believe it, I care about you immensely, and I want us to get along. But I don’t think I can be friends with you if you’re heartless again. I like you human.” I walked forward and put my hands on his chest, leaning into him a bit. “And yes, I have thought about blood sharing and how that would be with you. And it would be amazing—if the closet incident was anything to go by.”
He smiled, chuckling once.
“So just chill, okay? There is nothing between me and Cal, no matter what.”
He wrapped his hand gently around my back and leaned down as if to kiss my head, but at the last second, walked away without saying a word. I wasn’t sure how he felt about what I said, but it was true.
Despite everything, all I ever wanted was for David to fall for me, as who I am. None of it—his nastiness, his evil soul, his past—it didn’t matter to me in the ways it should. I still wanted him to love me. But even if I told him that, he wouldn’t believe it. Not right now. Or he might, but it wouldn’t matter. He was still cut up that I planned to run away with his son, and I was horrified that I ever even thought of it. And he was still angry at me for not being his Ara, and I was still arguing with him every time he expected me to be. It was an endless circle of anger and confusion. A breeding-ground for festering-hostility and resentment.
So things had to remain as they were for now until he could forgive me for being me.
I looked across the room then at the piano, and my fingers tingled. Again.
Outside, I could hear David kicking the crap out of that jack-o-lantern—a healthy method of anger management, I suppose—so, with no one else home to hear, I lifted the cover on the piano and sat down, exhaling.