Vampire Romance: My Heart has Lost Direction

Chapter 18 -- A Week Later

The next week went by without too much trouble. I was quick to acclimate to a routine. At sunrise, I would shower and make a quick trip to the kitchen for a wake-up meal. Then I would go to Quinn's quarters where he would work me to the bone for a good nine or so hours with a lunch break. Then after a short meal for dinner, I normally went straight to bed or read a little. And that was my current predicament, as I laid on my bed, book in front of my, thinking about the previous week. At first, I acted as Quinn's mannequin, but soon he decided to teach me the craft of making dresses.

So, I learned to sew.

Quinn told me it was a skill I could put on my short résumé, so he taught me and together, we composed new works of art. At least, he made art—I made sewn squares. With each piece sewn, I almost felt like I was slowly putting myself together, jagged edges in all.

I tried to stay wary of Quinn, but no matter how hard I tried not to, I kept getting closer to him. He mostly talked about himself, and from what he talked about, I knew he was at least a century old. He discussed how his 'problem' of being gay had put him in insane asylums most of his life when he was a mortal. His terminology and way he spoke dated him. It made me realize that he was far older than I wanted to believe. He never broached the subject of how Kaylyn and he were first acquainted and left that to be a mystery. However, he was very informative about how Kaylyn took him under his wing, forcing him to move in with him and helping him get clean.

The picture he painted of the good Samaritan Kaylyn was one I had trouble swallowing. Though, he did admit that Kaylyn had a tough way of helping his friends. That I could understand. I could easily picture Kaylyn telling Quinn to either stab Kaylyn and take the drugs or stay sober.

Slowly, I started to open up to Quinn, and told him some stories from my past. I told him about my mother and father, and their parts in my dysfunctional life. I didn't see it as harmful to confide small or mundane things to him. He was patient with me in that regard and didn't push for information if I wasn't willing to give it.

Kaylyn and I were still testing the waters around each other. The only time we ran across one other was when I went to the kitchen at the end of the day to grab something to eat. He picked that as his designated time to read at the island. I had wondered if he was spying on me, wanting to know how much of his money was being wasted on food. He never said a word, though. His silence made my chest feel heavy. I didn't know how to act around him, especially when he wasn't treating me like a slave and I had some amount of freedom around him.

When I first started to go to the kitchen, I would grab something small and leave. As the days passed by, his presence became more tolerable and I started to select food that I needed to heat in the microwave. I wasn't much of a chef, so I never bothered trying to cook something. He just continued to stare at the book in front of his face as if he was in his own world that I could never interrupt.

Time went by and I started to think that I was with a different type of Amaranthine. I never heard of one of the fake sweetness escapades lasting more than a week. The hurt girl inside of me was far too wary, but I couldn't deny that there was hope for a future.

A knock at my day, broke me out of my reverie. Quinn opened my door and peaked his head through the crack. Even with only my reading lamp on, I could see that his blond hair was disheveled and the bags under his eyes were deep and purple.

"I let you off early so you can sleep, and instead, I find you reading." I stopped wondering how Quinn knew when I was or was not awake. I summed it up to his being a vampire.

"You still haven't told me what we are doing tomorrow." I challenged back with a raise of my eyebrows. Quinn had let me off work early, elusively saying that we had plans the next day. I felt a twinge of excitement at the prospect of leaving the compound since I hadn't left since we got my hair done.