Blood: The Third Course

Chapter Twenty-Three

Spencer had been dozing for the last few hours. Paige remained asleep, her head on his shoulder. At least, he thought she was asleep. Her breathing was slow and even, her body limp and malleable. Yet, when the steps vibrated down the steps on the other side of the door, Spencer thought he felt her breathing pause, her body become a little more rigid. He remained still, his shoulders against the wall in the uncomfortable position he'd been loath to move from since Paige had drifted off.

He lifted his head, his eyes narrowed as he stared, unblinking, at the door handle. The air moved with the steps on the other side, pushed beneath the gap between metal and concrete. The rattle of a key being pushed into the lock sounded like chains against the silence that had reigned inside the basement room, and the latch turning became a gunshot to the quiet. The handle twisted and turned downwards, the door swung open.

August took a deep breath as he surveyed the scene before him. His gaze drifted over Paige and up onto Spencer, their eyes locking. A small smile came to him and he stepped inside. Still Spencer didn't move.

"How did it go?"

Looking down at Paige, Spencer's eyes widened a little to find her looking between the two of them, both her sires, alert and awake. Spencer wondered if she'd ever been asleep, or if she'd merely kept the façade for his benefit. Reaching up over his shoulders, he leaned away from the wall and scratched as Paige sat up properly. August eased the door closed behind him, leaving a small gap between the metal and the frame, the smallest amount of fresher air coming in.

"The boy is alive. Whether he takes to the wolf line is still in question, but it is the best we could have hoped for, realistically," he said.

Spencer looked down at his feet. He chewed on his bottom lip as he rolled his shoulders in slow circles, trying to ease out the tension that had gathered there. For all his promises to Vince that he would turn the younger man, the more time he had spent with the teen, the more he questioned that decision. He had heard the same things Edeline had, though the brunette had been far more worried about the voice Vince kept quiet than he ever had. He wondered if it was an experience thing. She knew what to make of the splinters of thoughts you were able to pick out. Sometimes people thought in full sentences, stories they told themselves inside their heads, and others it was little more than fragments, parts of sentences that flitted about each other like swallows in a swarm high above the rooftops. Edeline had more experience in seeing the whole swarm than the individual thoughts, she knew what to make of each bird and where it fit into the story.

Even so, the things Spencer had heard had worried him.

Paige got to her feet and stretched out her body, interlinking her fingers and stretching high above her head. Her fingers almost brushed the low ceiling. She moved over to August and patted a hand affectionately against his chest. Spencer watched them curiously for a moment as August brushed a lock of hair from her face, giving her a warm smile. When his gaze darted to Spencer, however, Spencer was quick to look away.

"How has he been?" August asked quietly.

"I think he's better. It will take time, obviously. Better to talk to Tom about that, he'd have more of an idea on how long it'll take to get it completely from his system."

Paige didn't look back at him, she kept her gaze on the door and August, and Spencer wondered whether this was more difficult for her than she had let on. Spencer had felt like shit, and he didn't know how much of it had rubbed off on Paige, or if her feelings had made him more agitated. Truthfully, he had no idea how August and William had lived with it all these years, being so close to their sire, not truly knowing where they end and you began.