A vampire named Citlali receives an email from an old lover who broke her heart centuries ago. The message says the immortal is dead and she left a key for Citlali in a bank in New York. But the same message had been sent to two other persons whose...
It was not what I had planned. Not at all. But I wanted to be close to them. And when I did, well, I wanted to be even closer. And I didn't know what to do with that.
Citlali was watching us, and there was a tenderness in her eyes, but when I pulled back from Dovi, I had the sudden feeling that I had interrupted something. And I would have hugged Citlali too, but it now felt too overwhelming.
I buried my feelings and interrogations into research. I stayed away from recent papers, not wanting to reopen the wound, and I found a big spiral-bound notebook. Intrigued, I opened it. It was not a diary but some kind of register, with box numbers.
I frowned. "Have you found boxes with numbers on them? Apparently, she had a storage system for older documents and objects."
Dovi and Citlali shook their head. "In the cellar perhaps?" Dovi said. "Maybe we can check there."
"I'll go. I'll call you if I find something."
In the kitchen, a door opened to a wooden staircase leading to the cellar. I hadn't searched this room yet. It was completely furnished and equipped like a normal room and the decoration fitted what we could find on the upper levels. But instead of bookshelves like in most of the other rooms, this one was filled with cupboards and heavy wooden cabinets. Ameyal clearly used it as a storage room and not as a place to spend some time.
There were indeed boxes with numbers in them. Most of them contained objects, like in a museum's reserves. Some were really old, some more recent. A few looked precious, but it was mostly everyday items, that must have had a sentimental value, more than anything else.
Placed on top of one of the boxes, I found another notebook, similar to Ameyal's diaries. But the content of this one was different.
After reading it for a few minutes, I closed it and looked for Dovi and Citlali, who were now in the sitting room on the third floor. Both of them lifted their head when I entered the room.
"I found something," I said. "She was writing down the story of her earlier life, from before she started her diaries. She was telling what she could remember of it, with the help of her archives and the souvenirs she had managed to keep over time."
Dovi smiled, but I noticed a flash of pain, or of worry, on Citlali's face that I could understand easily.
"You'll probably find what you are looking for there," I said carefully to the vampire.
She forced herself to smile. "Probably, yes. But I'm not sure I'm ready for that."
Dovi took her hand. I sat beside her and wrapped her other hand in mine. "There's no rush. You don't have to do anything," I said.
This time her smile was genuine and warm. "I know. Thank you for your support."
I thought for a minute to go back searching the cellar but, looking into Citlali's eyes, another idea crossed my mind. "What do you think about a restaurant? The three of us. I know the best Italian in town."
Citlali laughed. "Sounds fantastic."
We glanced at Dovi. "Sure. Italian it is, then. But you know what? After that, I'd like to see a movie. Are you in?"
This time I laughed. "Look at us, with proper plans and everything."
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