My Shadow, My Vampire

Chapter Five

He follows me home that night, but I don't see his face again. A week goes by, and I feel him only twice more, walking me home on weekend shifts when it's late and hard to see past the pools of light cast by the streetlamps.

Instead, the next vampire I see is Ava. At first I don't recognize her, dressed in a patterned sundress and jean jacket, sitting outside and eating ice cream. I'm coming out of Shai's pet shop, smiling stupidly about a new puppy litter born that morning. I nearly walk straight past her, and then I feel a tingle across the back of my neck. It's familiar but not, and it prompts me to turn around. Ava doesn't say anything when I recognize her—just takes another bite of ice cream and pats the bench beside her.

It's a beautiful spring day—the kind for which it seems picturesque small towns are made for. The sidewalk is busier than usual, and I know every fifth person that walks by. Ava doesn't care and speaks in an even, uninterrupted alto despite some of their attempts to talk to me.

"You should know we all have our agendas, human," she starts. "Even Eugene. Especially Eugene. You don't get to be that old without making pettiness one of your core characteristics. I'd know."

"My name is Severine."

"Damn. Thanks, we've just been calling you Sleeping Beauty."

"What's your agenda? I haven't seen Rhett in over a week."

"Don't I know it." Ava sighs. "I don't like it when he pouts. And I don't like it when I'm the source of it."

"Surely you can think of something," I reply icily, "Since you've known him for so long."

"Nope." Ava pops the p.

"Why do you have an American accent and he has a British one?" I ask suddenly.

Ava shrugs. "It's a preference thing. I think he keeps the accent like he keeps lots of other things from when he was human. It lets him feel like himself. I've been around longer, but I'm also a little more chaotic. I like change, like slipping into new cultures. I change my mind. Rhett doesn't."

I sigh. "Listen, I still think he only slept with me to get to you. I don't know what kind of mind games you all play with all that immortality time gives you, but I'd rather not be a part of them. Even this right now—you must want something."

"You should watch out," Ava replies, smiling imperceptibly. "I might really start to like you too. Okay, sure. Next time you see him—" she holds up a hand to stop my protest— "and there will be a next time—ask him what I did to get us sent here." She sighs. "Trust me. He's mad at me, he's sulking—but all that has nothing to do with you." She laughs. "Humans that can slip into the shadows like you are rare. You're the first one he's ever seen. And you're also..." she bites her lip and tilts her head, looking at me. "Well, look, I'm not even going to try. Just ask him, will you? I hate his pout."

I don't promise her anything. Instead, I give her a curt nod and stand again, hoping she can't guess how shaken I am, and what I'm really thinking. Sure, I heard everything she said. But what I heard loudest was: there will be a next time.

***

He comes so unexpectedly I almost barf. Silas took us to a party being thrown by one of his coworkers at the bank, my first party since the lightning. A few drinks in I realized I wanted a lot more. I wanted to overindulge—not to the point of endangering myself, just to the point of numbness. Now I'm stumbling down the sidewalk, supported by Silas on one side and Shai on the other. I don't have my usual defenses against the feeling of him so close. I hear myself mumbling something that involves his name.