26. Twenty-Six
Twenty-Six
I leave Erin to wash up in the bathroom. It gives me time to face the family and allow them to get their jibes in. Lucille spots me first and grins. I roll my eyes.
“Good nap?” she asks.
“Spectacular, thanks for asking.”
“Oh, calm down,” she huffs. “We all put our headphones in the minute you dragged poor Erin away.”
I eye her suspiciously. “Did you really?”
“Yes. Believe it or not, Amelia, I do not want to hear you smashing clams with your mate.”
“God, you’re so crass,” I hiss. Lucille laughs.
“We all know what it’s like when you find your mate. Trent and I didn’t leave our room for days.”
Continuing down the aisle, I stop at the table with food piled high. “We’ll be landing soon, Ms. Loch. I need to clear this away.” Amanda, the flight attendant, says. I grab a couple of croissants and a glass of orange juice .
“It’s all yours,” I smile. My parents are sitting with Laurence and Marcus. They have their heads bent over a map of Ireland.
“Ah, Amelia dear, good to see you. Where’s Erin?”
“I’m here,” Erin calls, taking the glass of orange juice from me. I hand her a croissant, too. We worked up an appetite.
“Marvelous. We were just going over the itinerary.”
“Isn’t the itinerary to go to this man’s house?” Jacob laughs, settling on the arm of my father’s chair.
“Yes, and that’s the itinerary I’m talking about.” Mom gets huffy when she’s asked stupid questions. “We land soon. There will be a car waiting for us. Once we reach Mullingar, we need to decide if you want to head straight to the address or find a hotel.”
“Straight for the address,” I say without pause. I have no intention of dragging this out a moment longer than necessary.
“Fine. And if this vampire isn’t there?”
“We find a hotel and regroup,” Erin answers.
“Did anyone think to call the man?” Aliah shouts from further down the aisle.
“No registered telephone,” my father answers.
“Does he live in town or in the countryside?” I ask.
Marcus and Laurence share a smile. “He lives in the countryside. We Googled the address.” Why do I feel I’m missing something?
“And?”
“And what?” Laurence answers.
“Have you seen the house?”
“Yup,” Marcus chuckles.
“Care to share the joke?” I snap.
“Nope,” Laurence grins.
“You know I could just google it myself, right?”
“No, please don’t,” Marcus pleads playfully. “Just wait.”
“Do you know what they’re finding so funny?” I ask my parents. They both wink.
Erin places her hand on the base of my neck. “Let them have their fun, babe.”
“Are you kidding?” I ask sharply. Marcus and Laurence laugh. My parents grin. Erin looks confused.
The house we are approaching isn’t a house at all. It’s a castle. A gothic castle. “What’s the problem?” Erin asks.
“It’s a bit on the nose, don’t you think?” I say, scrunching up my face.
“Oh, because of the whole Dracula vibe,” she titters.
“Yes. It’s gross.”
“Was Dracula real?” Erin asks. Whipping my head round, I glare at her, only to see the sparkle in her eye.
“You’re funny,” I deadpan.
“Oh, Amelia, chill out,” she laughs. “Humans have stereotypes, too. Do you know how many times I got called dumb as a young girl because I’m blonde?”
“But I bet you didn’t lean into that stereotype,” I shoot back. “This vampire has,” I say, pointing to the looming building.
“God, I hope he answers the door wearing a cape,” Maria laughs.
“Yes, with his hair slicked back.” Lucas chimes .
“I just want him to answer the door,” I whisper. My father leans over and pats my knee. “No matter what, we won’t stop until we find him.”
“Question,” Erin says, raising her hand. “If this dude is one of the oldest vampires in existence, why isn’t he famous or something?”
“Why would he be?” Lucille asks.
“Because he’s like number one.”
“So? He’s just a vampire like the rest of us. Living his life.”
“But he’s really old,” Erin stresses. I understand her curiosity. If humans found the remains of the very first human, it would be a big deal. But for vampires, we expect to live forever. Nothing to get excited about there.
“He is, but so are a lot of other vampires. This is our norm,” Father says.
“Huh.” Erin stares out of the car window in thought. I turn to watch the castle get closer.
“Are you ready?” Mother asks when the car stops.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I take Erin’s hand as we climb out. There are several lights illuminating different rooms of the castle.
“After you,” my father says.
Standing tall, I walk hand in hand with Erin to the large oak door. This guy better not be wearing a cape. The bell rings several times. It must echo around the entire building. A minute or two passes before we hear footsteps. The door creaks open and a woman smiles at us. She looks to be in her late thirties.
“Hello, can I help? ”
I can smell she is a vampire, so that helps the next part of the conversation. “Good evening,” I begin. “My name is Amelia Loch, and this is my mate, Erin.”
The woman smiles widely and gives me a knowing look. “You’re here to see Bartholomew,” she says. Am I? Mohan never gave me a name. “Follow me.”
I look over my shoulder to the rest of the family, who all shrug and urge me to follow. Erin grips my hand a little tighter.
The inside of the castle is just as gothic as the outside, making me want to scoff and roll my eyes. “Barty,” the woman calls. “Visitors.”
“Are we expecting visitors?” a man’s voice replies from somewhere upstairs.
“No, but you’re going to want to meet them.”
We enter a large sitting room with a roaring fire. The woman gestures for us all to sit and then offers me her hand. “I’m Anya, by the way.”
“It’s a pleasure.” I then spend a few seconds introducing everyone as we wait for this Barty fellow. Moments later, a tall blond-haired man enters. He is dressed in jeans and a shirt. A vampire, for sure.
“Evening all, I’m Barty.”
This is so strange. How do I begin the conversation? “Barty, it’s a pleasure,” I say. “I’m Amelia, and this is my mate, Erin.”
“Oh, wow,” Barty breathes. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”
“Do you… Could we ask you some questions?” I still haven’t established if this is the right vampire.
“You want to know if I’m the lucky vampire who mated with a human, right?”
“Yes, that,” Erin points at him, laughing .
“Take a seat, everyone.” We follow Barty’s order. Anya scuttles off to pour us all drinks. “To answer your question, yes, I am. And Anya is the aforementioned human.”
“But…” I begin, confused. “She smells like a vampire.”
“That’s because she is one,” Barty laughs.
“How is that possible?” my mother asks.
Barty takes a second to study his mate, who is handing out large glasses of Irish whiskey. I chug mine as soon as the glass is in my hands.
“Honestly, we don’t know,” Barty finally answers. Well, that was less than helpful. “Remember that back then. We had no doctors. We were still developing as a species.”
“Surely you’ve looked into it since?” I say.
“Not especially. We were just so pleased to have each other we didn’t question it.”
“Great,” I mumble a little too loudly.
“Not what you wanted to hear,” Anya smiles understandingly.
“We were hoping for a little more,” Erin replies kindly.
“Barty, Anya, would you be open to having our doctor examine you both?” my mother says, cutting through the melancholy that threatens to settle upon us all.
Barty and Anya exchange a look. Anya nods and turns back to us. “Of course, if it helps.”
“Thank you,” I croak.
“Dr. Mendhi is waiting in the car. He’s been overseeing Amelia since she found Erin.”
“You experienced pain, I take it?” Barty asks knowingly. I just nod. “I remember that.”
“Me too, like it was yesterday,” Anya says, closing her eyes .
“Did you get to the coughing up blood phase?”
“Oh yes,” I laugh. “During Erin’s birthday party.”
“Oh my. I’m sure that caused quite a stir?”
“It wasn’t fun,” I laugh. Barty spends the next few minutes describing his side effects, and they are identical to my own.
“Did you know the bonding had been successful before you turned thirty? You look fabulous, by the way,” Erin says earnestly. To be fair, they are a striking couple for being a few thousand years old.
Anya grins. “It’s amazing what good face cream can do.”
Dr. Mendhi interrupts us entering the room. His eyes fixate on Barty and Anya. I can hear his scientific brain climaxing from here. My father introduces him and then allows Dr. Mendhi to discuss some tests he would like to perform. Barty and Anya agree to everything, which makes me so grateful I could cry.
“We insist you stay here,” Barty says once Dr. Mendhi has finished talking. “We have plenty of space and I’d very much like to get to know you all better.”
“That’s very gracious of you, Barty. We’d be delighted.” Father replies, shaking his hand.
Deciding that the good doctor’s test could wait until the morning, we continue to drink fine whisky. Hearing Barty and Anya’s stories is a little mind-bending. I can’t imagine living through the ages as they have. I’ve never met a vampire older than Mohan and he doesn’t really talk about his past. Probably because it was awful. I mean, can you imagine living through the Dark Ages? Medieval Times? No, thank you.
“I have to ask about the castle?” I say, my words are a little slurred. Damn, the whiskey is potent .
“What, don’t you like it?” Barty mock pouts.
“It’s very on-brand,” I laugh.
“It’s the first castle we’ve ever owned. I know it’s a little much considering we’re vampires, and it perpetuates all those ridiculous stereotypes.” I like Barty more and more. “But back in the day, Anya and I never got the chance to stay in a fancy castle. We were smart enough to stay out of the way. Public scrutiny was not something we wanted back then.”
“I can only imagine.”
“Indeed. Anyway, we ended up in Ireland a few decades ago, and this place was on the market. We snapped it up, renovated it, and have been happy ever since.”
“Why aren’t you famous?” Erin asks. “Aside from the fact you are super old—”
“Thanks,” Barty laughs.
“You’re the first vampire to successfully mate with a human.”
“Yes, but for nearly all vampires, that was just a myth. Anya and I just wanted to live our lives together. Bringing attention to the fact Anya was once a human would only invite questions. We didn’t want doctors banging on the door, wanting to prod and poke.”
My face heats. That’s exactly what we’ve done. “Barty,” I begin, but am quickly cut off.
“You being here is different. You’re not just asking for our help for curiosity’s sake, you’re living what we did. For that, we are more than happy to oblige.”
“I hope the doctor finds some answers,” Mother adds.
“Me too,” Barty supplies. “If there is anything in our bodies that can give the doctor a clue as to how this all works, I believe he will find it.”
“Would it be possible for Erin and me to talk to you alone after the doctor has finished his tests tomorrow?” There are things I want to ask them without my entire family being present. Plus, I don’t want Anya to feel as if she has to tell a bunch of strangers about something very private that happened to her.
“Yes, I think that’s wise. However, until tomorrow dawns, we drink!”