The Dark Proposal (The Claire McCormick Trilogy) (24 page)

Claire watched Samantha, half hoping she would come back with her sharp mind, half hoping she wouldn’t.
 

Thankfully, Samantha put on a similar smile with her teeth showing a bit. “Okay. Then I’ll give you some soda after you’re both done. Good?”

Daniel agreed, and a glimmer of relief came over Antonius. Claire immediately sprung up on the ball of her feet, indicating all was well. “Shall we get started?”
 

One nod from Daniel and he followed her into the bedroom, where nearly eight boxes meant to hold cases of beer bottles were piled around the floor. Although she knew the two vampires could easily carry each heavy box on their own, she helped them anyway. She was acting out a scene for her soon-to-be former roommates, mindfully watching each step and gesture. Giving Antonius permission to enter the apartment was blatantly strange and there was no room for anymore suspicious behavior.
 

The van was loaded up within a half hour. When the three walked back into the apartment, Monica and Samantha were already eating their dinner. The bright red tomato sauce covering the pasta made Claire think of blood. She shuddered.

Samantha got up to pour soda for the men. “I don’t know what kind you guys like,” she said, holding up a bottle. “But this is all we have.”

Claire knew that was lie, and she knew Daniel knew too. But he played along, accepting the glass and drinking the beverage without hesitation, as did Antonius. The two went over to the couch where they chatted quietly, while Claire sat with her friends for what could be the final time.

“You sure you don’t want anything?” Monica asked.
 

“We’re going out to eat once we move in,” Claire repeated, sipping her soda. Monica shrugged and twisted her food around her fork.
 

“So, you’re going to fly to Paris Saturday night?” Samantha asked nonchalantly.

“Actually in mid-afternoon, around two-thirty.”

“You better send us plenty of pictures!” Monica said. “I mean, come on, it is Paris!”

Claire smiled and promised she would.

“And don’t forget to call to tell us you’re there,” Samantha widened her eyes. “And remember to say
Bonjour!”

Claire started to giggle as the two began making a list a places for her to see, what to do, and what to wear. They also began telling how to adjust to life in New York. She was no longer a small town girl from New Jersey, and no longer someone from Staten Island, the forgotten borough. She was a city girl for now on.

Samantha nudged her. “So in the long run, you can forget about us because we won’t be cool or glamorous enough for you.”

Claire gasped. “Oh come on, you know I could never forget either of you! You have and will always be my family.” She punctuated that final word by throwing her arms around Samantha. When the other girl hugged back, Monica rushed over and joined in the group hug.

It was a long hug that started off gleefully but turned into sorrow. There was silent pause as the three hung on to each other, not wanting to face the truth hovering over them. But Claire’s sniffling broke the silence and she felt a tear slide down Monica’s cheek next to hers. She also felt weighted tension in Samantha, but it was tension of sadness, and even fear.

“I’m going to miss you, girls,” Claire’s voice came between chokes.
 

“We’re going to miss you,” Monica whispered. “This all happened so quickly.”

“We’ve been through so much,” Samantha said. “Didn’t we promise to stick together?”
 

They pulled back from each other and wiped their tears, though Samantha had none and instead swallowed heavily. For a moment, Claire was certain she was going to start complaining right there and create a scene.
 

But her friend just sighed and said, “Don’t forget us, I mean it.”

“I won’t! Don’t be silly,” Claire patted her shoulder. “Maybe we could meet up when I get back from Paris.”

“Yeah,” Samantha said under her breath, looking down while Monica sniffed heavily. She then raised her head and said, “Okay, I don’t want the dinner to get cold, so…”

Claire nodded and gave each friend a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. When she wrapped her arms around Monica, she saw Daniel and Antonius standing up from the couch, still talking to each other quietly. They seemed oblivious to the emotions going on a few feet away from them.

Pulling back, Claire wiped her moist face and went put her coat on. The two men gave their half empty glasses to Monica who put them in the sink. Samantha didn’t turn around in her seat to give the men acknowledgement.
 

Claire buttoned up her wool coat and looked at Daniel. He put his arm around her shoulders and turned to the two other women. “Thank you, ladies. I’ll have Claire call you once we are settled in.”

“You take good care of her, Dan,” Monica called to him as he began escorting Claire outside. The two girls began to follow them out.
 

“I promise,” he said over his shoulder.
 

Monica and Samantha followed them out into the cold night. They stayed at the doorway, and watched as Claire got into the passenger seat with Daniel in the middle, and Antonius in the driver’s seat. He started up the van, and Claire took what could be her final look at her friends. As Antonius backed out of the driveway, she waved at her two best friends and kept her eye on them until she could no longer see them.

Once they were out of sight, she leaned her head against the seat and closed her eyes. One tear came from under one eyelid and almost slid down her cheek, before Daniel wiped it away. She opened her eyes and looked at him.

“There’s nothing to be upset about.”
 

Claire only swallowed and sat up straighter. As the van drove onto the nearby expressway towards the Verrazano-Narrows bridge to Brooklyn, where it would go through the
Hugh L. Carey Tunnel
into Manhattan, Daniel began telling her about the seats he got on the plane, how Casames was already in Paris, and how she would meet his brothers. During this, she could hear him speak, but instead was lost in thought.
 

When he began talking about the exact date of the transformation, she slowly said, “I want to thank you.”

He looked at her. “For what?”

She then realized what was echoing in her head, so she quickly said. “For being understanding tonight. For giving us three some time to ourselves.” She placed her hand into his. “It meant a lot to me.”

Daniel seemed as if he were mildly surprised with his conduct in the apartment. He rubbed his thumb gently over her hand. “They were your friends. And you will see them again, we’ll just have to be careful with how we do it.”

In response, Claire placed her head on his shoulder and he brushed her forehead with his lips, ever so lightly.

Back at the apartment, Samantha was wiping clean the kitchen table while Monica cleaned the dishes.
 

“I’ll finish up my paper while you check out the apartments, okay?” she said. “I guess we should aim for the first week in January to move in.”

“Yeah,” Samantha sighed. “Hopefully in this area so you could attend classes and I could work at the sports bar without hiking all over the Island.”

They were quiet as they continued to clean. Once Monica turned off the kitchen faucet and wiped her hands on the dish towel, she turned and softly said, “This is unreal.”

“This?” Samantha shot her a look. “You mean that was unreal.”

When her roommate made a face in agreement, Samantha roughly headed over to the garbage can and throw away the damp paper towel. “Seriously, he looked ready to pick a fight with me? Just like that? He really must be a psycho if he acts like Mr. Nice Guy one minute but a douche the next.” She went to push the kitchen chairs underneath the table.
 

“Did you hear what he and…that other guy…”

“Yeah, what was his name again? Wasn’t it another name when we first met him?”

“I’m not sure,” Monica shook her head. “That was a while ago.”

“Well, whatever. What did they say?”

“I don’t know,” she looked pensive. “I didn’t exactly hear them, but I knew it wasn’t English.”

Samantha was confused. “Doesn’t Daniel speak a few other languages?”

The other girl nodded. “Yeah, but it sounded like they were speaking Latin. I picked up a few words I remembered from high school.” Monica frowned. “Who speaks Latin fluently these days?”

It was Samantha’s turn to look pensive. “Yeah, that does sound weird.” She paused before saying, “And why did that other guy act like he needed Claire’s permission to come inside?”

The two young women looked at each other in bewilderment for a moment before Monica finally said, “There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense, but I don’t know if there’s anything we can do about it.”

“There isn’t,” Samantha sighed as she moved away from the table. “Claire’s practically gone; there’s nothing we can do to help her.”

She was about to head for her bedroom when Monica said, “Not unless we try to keep in contact with her.”

Her roommate looked as if she was about to disagree with her, but instead she said, “Let’s do that, and see what happens.”

After an hour of driving, the van pulled up alongside the apartment building’s front entrance. Claire helped the other two load the elevator with her boxes, which took about an hour to bring from the van to Daniel’s apartment.
 

Inside, the boxes were piled around the living and dining room for Claire to unpack either tonight or tomorrow. “Your choice,” Daniel said. “But I don’t want them to be around tomorrow night.”

Claire decided to unpack once they returned from dinner. As she and Daniel left the apartment, Antonius followed them but he was going to catch the train back to Brooklyn for another night of rehearsal with his two lady vampires. He asked Daniel where they were going to eat out.

“That Japanese restaurant around the corner,” Daniel answered. “Claire likes sushi, so I figured she would want to savor the taste.”

Antonius smirked and looked at Claire. “Of course, but who’s to say you’ll want to taste that stuff again?”

Annoyed, she spoke up. “You eat regular food sometimes. I could eat that stuff again.”

Leaning in to her, the vampire whispered, “Sure, but after you are transformed, you’re going to want something…more tastier?”

She stared back at him, not saying anything. Antonius just laughed, waved good-bye and walked away. She tried to watch him go, but Daniel took her hand and began leading to her to the restaurant. They walked quietly for a couple of block before arriving at Genki Sushi, a small restaurant that had a few tables free.

Once seated, Claire tried to look over the menu, but could not focus. She could still hear her friends’ crying and feel their tears. Most especially, she could hear Samantha’s voice, saying the rhetorical question: didn’t they promise to stick together?

Daniel was examining the low lit restaurant’s Japanese decoration. When he finally noticed that she had not raised her head for a while, he reached across and brushed his fingers against her hand. “You okay?”

Claire wanted to scream at him. Of course she was not okay. He had destroyed everything for her. Her friendships, her connections to her family, her life as she knew it was all gone. All in the name of creating another vampire. But she also knew she was defeated in this fight and had to go along with turned out to be her fate.

“I’ll be fine. I just need some time to adjust.” That was probably the most honest answer she had given him in a long while.
 

“I understand,” he nodded. “I’ll give you some space before we fly out to Paris.”

“How did you make the arrangements in such a short period of time? As in, the hotel and everything?”

“Oh, there’s no hotel. We’ll be staying in the outskirts of Paris, at the home of Vorternon, the eldest brother. He’ll be conducting the ceremony, since its my first time ever creating a vampire, so its a big deal among us.”

“You’re moving up, I guess?” she tried to make a quip, but it sounded too sarcastic.

He didn’t seem to notice. “It’s part of the hierarchy. As you’re more trusted, you get privileges. Of course, if you abuse any of them, you lose them. But I’ve done well in my existence. And here I am.”

A waiter came by to take their order. Claire asked for several rolls of sushi, which surprised the young man. Daniel held back a laugh while simply ordering fried rice.

“Hey, I’m here to savor the taste, right?” she said after the waiter left with their menus.

“Yes,” Daniel coughed. “I just didn’t think you’d overindulge on it.”

As they waited for their dinner, they discussed their freelancing, which made Claire realize that she had fallen behind in her assignments. She almost jumped out of her seat when that dawned on her. Naturally, she had too many distractions.

“Relax,” he told her. “It’s due before we leave. You’ve got all day tomorrow to work on it, and you’ll be fine.”

“But I’ll do a lousy job and they’ll reject it.”

“If that’s the case, tell them you’ve been overwhelmed with something. They’ll buy that. It worked for me.” He winked at her.

“But I’m not like you yet, and I can’t burn any bridges.”

“You’ll be fine, dear. Please don’t get more upset than you already are.”

She got quiet and nodded several times while Daniel talked about his ideas for articles that he would do in January. He also brought up his students’ essays, which he got via email earlier in the day. Some of the papers he was impressed with, while the other students clearly showed they did not pay much attention throughout the semester. “But they’re done with. Now I got a month off before dealing with another group of brats.”

“You didn’t get the Intro to Playwriting?”

“I didn’t, unfortunately,” Daniel almost snapped. “I’m going to start looking for another school to teach at. I’m not getting anywhere.”

Their dishes came and the two ate. He mainly poked at his rice while watching Claire slowly eat her large plate of sushi. Knowing she probably wouldn’t taste the raw fish rolled with vegetables and rice either again or the same way, she took her time chewing and swallowing. But holding onto the flavor almost proved futile. She could not chew forever and as soon as the sushi went down her throat, the taste lasted for brief seconds in her mouth. If only there was a way she could stop the world so she could relish in her dinner. Such was the way of the world.