The Week I Was A Vampire (15 page)

Friday Night

Matters of an Undead Heart

Jude wore the navy sweater, like Lux had suggested.  She felt plain and far too casual for a night out with a vampire, and hoped it wouldn’t be the stylish Daphne who came to see her tonight.  The last thing she wanted was to make a bad impression on her potential grandsire, granted she might have already done that by insulting Jemima the night before.

              Thankfully, it wasn’t Daphne at the door, but Daniel, dressed in jeans and a black shirt with a leather jacket thrown over.  Jude couldn’t help but laugh.

             
“Is something wrong?” Daniel said, looking down at his outfit before returning his attention to Jude.  She shook her head.

             
“You kind of look like the romantic lead in a vampire novel,” she said and Daniel cocked his head to the side, but still smiled.

             
“That’s bad?” he said.

             
“No,” Jude said, allowing him to help her into her coat.  “It’s just that Lux would probably start flirting with you if she saw you.  She’s got a thing for vampire romance novels.”

             
“I thought she was already hitting on me?” Daniel said as Jude stepped outside.  She closed the door behind her and the pair set off for a walk down the street, heading in the opposite direction Jemima had lead Jude last night.

             
“True,” Jude said, “but if she saw you wearing leather, I can assure you she’d be much worse.”

             
“Then I’ll make sure not to wear leather around her,” Daniel said and lead the way down a quiet street Jude had often passed, yet never found the time to wander down.

             
Amaranth Lane was the name of the street and it was lined on either side by snow capped trees with the occasional, picturesque house breaking up the forested lots.  When Jude commented on the peculiar street name, Daniel told her it was derived from a Greek word that mean
t
unfading.

             
“Immortal things tend to find each other, I guess,” Jude said and Daniel nodded.

             
“It happens.  When everything changes, yet you stay the same, it’s nice to find a couple other things in life that are eternal.  Jemima and I watched the Eiffel Tower being built and Mafe was there when the Taj Mahal was finished.  None of us have any personal attachments to the monuments, other than the fact that we were there when they were built and they’re still there today.”

             
“Like old friends,” Jude said and was rewarded with one of Daniel’s brilliant smiles.

             
“It is nice, though,” he confessed, “to have actual friends.  My sister struggles with that one.”

             
Jude kicked up a cloud of snow as she stared at her feet, not really wanting to talk about Jemima, but still curious about Daniel and his human life. 

            
 
Which
,
she begrudgingly admitted to herself
,
just happens to involve Jemima and a mystery woman named Elaine.

            
 
“Daphne told me,” Jude said, “about Jemima being sick and how after she was turned, she hasn’t had much luck finding vampires her own age to hang with.  Do you think she ever regrets it?”

             
“I know she does,” Daniel said before steering Jude down a path that ran through the woods.  The snow was deeper here, hitting her mid-calf, and she was thankful for her tall snow boots and Daniel’s steadying hand.

             
“I’d offer to be her friend,” Jude said, “but I don’t think she really likes me.  Mafe tried to explain why, but I didn’t really get it.”

             
“What did Mafe say?” Daniel asked, helping Jude over a log.

             
Once again, she was thankful she couldn’t blush as she recalled what Mafe had said.

             
“Something along the lines of you liking me the moment we met and Jemima feeling left out.”

             
Daniel laughed, drawing Jude’s attention to his face as he shook his head.

             
“Mafe did not tell you that,” Daniel said.  “Or at least that’s not how she worded it.”

             
“How do you know?” Jude said, standing with her arms akimbo as she narrowed her eyes at Daniel.  “You weren’t eavesdropping, were you?”

             
Daniel held his hands up in surrender and shook his head.

             
“I know Mafe,” he said, “and she’s not the kind to beat around the bush.  She told you the moment I saw you, I knew you were the love of my life and Jemima was jealous.  Didn’t she?”

             
Jude huffed and looked at the ground for a moment before nodding.

             
“And that scares you,” Daniel continued, although sounding unsure.  “Why?”

             
“Because I don’t know you,” Jude said, looking up at him.  In the moonlight, his hair looked black and and his dark eyes shone like a cat’s.  The comparison made Jude think of Caleb who wouldn’t come near her now that she was something other than human.  It made her think of her parents who would be home in twenty-four hours and the human life she was trying to live, despite the fact she was no longer human.  Or, at least she wasn’
t
jus
t
human.

             
“If I asked you to trust me,” Daniel said, “would you?”

             
Jude thought back to the times he had asked her to trust him and realized, so far, he’d kept his word.  She hadn’t been harmed, disregarding Jemima’s backhand, but that hadn’t hurt much anyways, and she was making it through the transition process fairly well.  So maybe Daniel’s promises hadn’t been the most extreme, but he had asked for her trust and she’d given it, and he had yet to let her down.  Why was this situation different?

             
“I can’t,” Jude said, shaking her head.  “There are things I need to know about you before I make a decision like that.”

             
Daniel spread his arms wide, a gesture that signified he was a book open for Jude’s perusal.  She knew, without a doubt, that she could ask him anything in that moment and he would give her the truth.

             
“Who was Elaine?” Jude could tell by the way Daniel’s expression caved in on itself that this was the one question he hadn’t been expecting.

             
“Daphne,” he said and Jude nodded, feeling guilty for bringing up a topic that was obviously personal.

            
 
And painful
,
she thought as Daniel sighed wearily as he ran a hand over his face.  He held out his hand and she took it, allowing him to loop her arm through his as he continued to lead them through the forest.  His grip wasn’t painful, but it was firm to the point Jude was wondering if he was trying to keep her from running away.  Would she though?  Would Elaine’s story make her want to run?  And, more importantly, if presented with the opportunity to run, would she?

             
Jude flinched as a sudden thought occurred to her, but brushed off Daniel’s concerned expression.

            
 
I don’t want to run away from him
,
she thought just as he told her who Elaine was.

             
“Elaine was my fiancé,” he said and Jude felt her heart somersault.  “I wanted nothing more than to marry her and raise a family.  I adored her.  But when Jemima was turned into a vampire, she decided she could not spend eternity without her older brother, and so she begged Daphne to turn me.  It was not my choice, but Daphne could not resist the pleading of her child, and so she made me a vampire against my will.”

             
Jude sucked in an unnecessary breath and this time, Daniel didn’t believe her when she said it was nothing.

             
“Daphne said the next time I saw you,” Jude said, “I was supposed to say you were her biggest regret.  I thought that was a cruel thing to say, but now I know she meant...”  She trailed off and watched Daniel’s jaw clench, his eyes taking on a glassy sheen she knew all too well.  If he could cry, he’d be crying now.

             
“Some are made vampires against their will,” Daniel said, “and it can cause tension between the sire and their child.  I desired nothing more than a life with Elaine and Daphne took that from me.  Whereas I have long since forgiven her, she has still not managed to forgive herself.  We avoid each other as much as possible, which makes things easier on us, but I know it pains Mafe and even Jemima to see us so distant.  We are not the cohesive family we should be.”

             
“I think few families are,” Jude said, offering what little support she could.  She squeezed Daniel’s arm and smiled up at him when he looked at her.

             
“You’re too polite to ask,” he said, “but you want to know what happened to Elaine.”

             
“You don’t have to tell me,” Jude said.  “It’s really not my place.”

             
Daniel nodded his head, but she could tell he disagreed.

             
“I asked you to trust me,” he said.

             
“There are other ways to earn trust.”

             
He smiled at her.

             
“You have her kindness,” he said, “but you’re more open to things you do not understand.  After I was turned, I went to Elaine with the intention of turning her.  She was terrified of what I was and threatened to kill herself if I came near her.  Daphne did me a kindness by making Elaine forget what happened to me.  Instead, she was made to believe I had died, irrevocably in love with her, in an accident at one of my father’s factories.  But no amount of persuasion could ever make me forget the truth.”

             
Jude pulled her hand away from his arm and watched him falter in his walking.  She reached out and grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers through his before tugging him along with her down the path.

             
“My generation is pretty big on vampires and the whole supernatural thing,” Jude said.  “I think that’s why I didn’t freak out about it all, or maybe that’s because I have Lux as a best friend and she’s been convinced vampires were real since she was in diapers.”

             
She smiled at Daniel and he returned the gesture, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

             
“Maybe,” she continued, “it wasn’t Elaine’s fault.  Maybe if she’d grown up hearing about the supernatural, she’d of been more accepting.”

             
Daniel halted and pulled Jude to a stop as well.  She turned to face him and frowned at the peculiar look on his face.  He looked almost desperate.

             
“Forget you know about the supernatural,” Daniel said.  “If the man you loved came to you and explained he was no longer human, that he was a creature of the night, what would you do?”

            
 
I know what you want me to say
,
Jude thought, knowing without question what answer he wanted to hear.

             
“I don’t know,” Jude said.  “I know you want me to say I’d choose to be with the man I loved, but I honestly don’t know what I’d do.  I love my humanity too much to give it up for something I’m unsure about.”

             
Daniel flinched as if she’d struck him and Jude understood then the weight of her words and how he had interpreted them.

            
 
I love my humanity too much to give it up for you.

            
 
“I don’t mean it like that,” Jude said, but Daniel stepped away from her, dropping her hand as he did.

             
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” he said.  “After all, we don’t really know each other, do we?”

             
Jude opened her mouth to say something, but they’d reached the end of the path and she realized they were standing on the outskirts of the wooded area behind her house.

             
“Have a nice night, Miss Carstairs,” Daniel said and this time it was Jude who flinched at his icy tone.  He vanished into the night and she stared after him, even if she could no longer see him.  Inside, she could hear Lux laughing and so she went around to the front door, knowing the backdoor would be locked at this time of night.

•§•

“Tarrochi.”

             
Lux’s head shot up and she nearly fell off the barstool as she looked up to see a strange girl standing in Jude’s kitchen.  Or perhaps woman would be a more appropriate term because, while young in appearance, there was nothing girlish about this stranger.  A stranger, Lux’s inner voice cautioned her, who was most definitely supernatural.  It seemed to radiate off her.