Chapter 16
16
Ashley
T he nice thing about taking anthropology was they didn’t do a final exam. The awful thing about taking anthropology was the final project was a twenty-page report on a subject Ashley had lost interest in fifteen pages ago. She picked up her phone.
Ashley
Remind me again why I’m taking anthropology?
Esther replied in a matter of seconds.
Esther
Besides the fact that it’s a fascinating subject and everyone should take at least one class? Probably because you of all people need to remember how to be human.
Ashley scoffed at her screen. She was plenty human. She took another sip of her Bloody Mary—with actual blood. Well, it wasn’t like she could stop drinking blood. That was just part of the package.
Esther
You’re not doing anything tonight right?
Ashley
Wow. Presumptive.
Esther
I’m on my way over to pick you up.
Ashley
wait wut?
Ashley waited, but no response came. Not even the flashing thought bubble she hated so much. Esther was really on her way over, and Ashley was in her pajamas with her hair in a messy bun and a half-finished Bloody Bloody Mary. She was not ready to see Esther in the five minutes it took her to walk here.
Thank goodness for vampire speed.
In two minutes, she’d tried on and discarded two-thirds of her closet before finding something acceptable. Another two minutes for hair and makeup. With the last minute, she chugged her Bloody Mary and chomped the celery stir stick to dilute the sudden intake of vodka. Who drank vodka alone on a Thursday night while doing homework? She didn’t even like vodka. But freaking Cynthia was her alcohol hookup, and beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Ashley straightened her sweater, flipped off the heated blanket and therapy light, and took a quick selfie to check her makeup. When she heard steps on the sidewalk, she ran downstairs to meet Esther outside. Claribel might have noticed something was up, but Ashley needed to keep Hannah in the dark about social visits. It was Hannah’s house after all.
Ashley opened the door to find Esther walking up the porch, looking dark and sexy in a black overall skirt dress over a white turtleneck sweater, her lips a rich burgundy. She looked delicious, and Ashley had to bite her lip to stop from making any rash suggestions. Maybe she should’ve been drinking more blood and less vodka.
“Ready?” Esther had a tote bag on each arm and a pan in her hands.
“Can I carry something?” Ashley closed the door, anxious to move them away from the house.
Esther passed her the two tote bags, giving a happy sigh as the weight lifted off her arms. “Thanks. Those were getting heavy.”
“Where are we going anyway?” She peeked in the bag to find a handful of Tupperware containers. It smelled like a feast inside. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“Have you heard of Friendsgiving?” They started down the sidewalk together.
“Like friends having a Thanksgiving?”
“Exactly that. I wasn’t sure if the phrase was around before you were… Well, I guess I don’t know much about how or when you changed.”
Ashley wasn’t sure how to respond. She hadn’t explained the story of her change because she didn’t think about it. It was in the past, not relevant to her present. “Wait. What day is today?”
Esther laughed. “It’s Thursday and Thanksgiving. Why’d you think class was canceled?”
“But you have family in town.”
“Uncle Pete and Jason go back to Florida for the holidays.”
“Without you?”
Esther stayed quiet for another block, and Ashley scolded herself for being too forward. Again. If she wasn’t careful, Esther would realize Ashley and her complicated life and intrusive comments weren’t worth this much effort. She should remember to be nice, smile more.
“I’m sorry. That was—” Ashley started.
“No, you’re right. I could go with them. It’s just…I tell myself it’s because of the cost. I need to save up to pay back this student loan, but I kind of just use that as an excuse. It’s my mom’s family, and she’s not even going to be there, so like, why bother, I guess? I don’t see them often enough to be close, so I end up feeling like the odd one out.”
“Where’s your mom?”
“I think she said Naples today. But it’s hard to remember, and with the time difference, I usually get it wrong. She calls when she can, and we catch up. She sounds happy, so that’s good.”
“Is it?” Ashley hadn’t meant to ask, but Esther sounded so glum. And she couldn’t fight her desire to dig deeper.
“Yeah. No, I’m happy she’s happy. Sometimes I miss her, but…well, sometimes it’s better to be on your own. I’m a threat to fewer people this way.” She chuckled, but Ashley didn’t join in.
“Hey.” Ashley touched Esther’s arm. “You’re really cool to be around, and there are plenty of people that want to be around you on a holiday.”
Esther blushed but didn’t respond.
“So, where are we going?” Ashley hadn’t paid attention to their progress, focusing on Esther’s words and letting her take the lead.
They slowed in front of a familiar old house.
“No.” Ashley stopped, cementing her feet firmly on the sidewalk. “I’m not going in there.”
Esther stopped as well, balancing the dish on her hip. “Ashley, you’re there basically every day already.”
“And it’s literally a chore, so thank you, but pass.” Ashley folded her arms across her chest. She couldn’t believe she was debating voluntarily not spending time with Esther. But at what cost?
“Why are you here all the time if you hate him so much?”
Well, this was a pickle. Did she tell Esther she was a glorified spy working for August’s aunt or confess that she looked forward to her nightly visits as a chance to see Esther? She knew too much already.
Ashley settled on the truth only softer. “Hannah, his aunt. She asked me to check in on him. Like maybe she cares or something?”
“Oh. I guess that’s almost sweet, maybe. In a totally inappropriate way. Couldn’t she just do that herself?”
“I guess she has more of a reputation to uphold.” Ashley kept her answers simple. As much as she wanted to vent everything, she needed to keep Esther safe from vampire business.
“Well, I know you two don’t get along, and it was unfair of me to spring this on you.” The toe of Esther’s boot tapped at the sidewalk. “If you really want to go home, I won’t hold it against you. I just wanted to be with people I care about.”
Ashley narrowed her eyes. “This is manipulation at its finest.”
“I’m Catholic.” Esther shrugged. “Guilt is basically a love language.”
She huffed once, walked around Esther, and stomped up the steps. “I will not be held responsible if I have to kill him before the night is over.”
“Your restraint is appreciated,” Esther called back.
Ashley opened the door, not bothering with the doorbell. “All right, witch, I’m here.”
“Could you not be?” August called from somewhere out of sight.
Uther’s head popped up over the back of the couch, his hair disheveled. “Oh, you’re early.”
“Uther, you hussy!” Esther joined Ashley in the doorway. “We’re supposed to be having Friendsgiving.”
August’s head popped up next to Uther’s. “He was being quite friendly, in my opinion.”
Ashley turned back to Esther, amusement sparkling in her eye. “How exactly does Friendsgiving work again?”
“All right,” Esther announced to the room. “Ashley, you come with me to the kitchen to get this food started. Uther and August, you have three minutes to prepare yourselves accordingly and join us.”
“Want to see what I can do in three minutes?” whispered Uther.
“Uther!” scolded Esther.
Ashley
Ashley set the stuffing on the table, turning the pan just right so the kitschy orange-and brown flower design faced out. Perfect. With the matching dishes the witch had scrounged up and the single sunflower someone had plopped in an empty cup in the middle of the table, it was almost worthy of a visit from Martha Stewart herself. Or at least someone’s parents.
“Should we all go around and say what we’re thankful for or something?” Uther sat primly in his seat, hands folded in front of him. Ashley took her seat next to him, purposefully away from a certain undesirable at the table.
“Can Ashley even eat this?” August asked.
Unfortunately, sitting as far away from the witch meant sitting directly across the table, and now she had to look at his ugly face all of dinner.
August made eye contact but continued to speak to the table at large. “I thought she was on a liquid diet these days.”
“Commenting on someone’s diet is tacky, you oaf.” Ashley took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Esther wanted her on her best behavior. “And I can eat all the food I want to. I just don’t need it.” To be petty, she grabbed one of the rolls he’d been eyeing all of set up and took a generous bite—to prove her point, of course.
“Esther,” August growled, clutching his fork in a fist. “She knows the rolls are my favorite.”
“I’m not your parent. Deal with it yourself.” Esther scooped green bean casserole onto her plate and passed the dish to August. “Pretend you’re mature adults for one night.”
“She doesn’t even need it.” Under his breath so no one but Ashley heard, he muttered, “Probably suck us all dry if Esther wasn’t here.”
“You know what.” Ashley was done with his childish behavior. “Take your damn roll.” She picked up the one with a single bite missing and lobbed it at his stupid face, bonking him on the nose. His shocked expression made her stifle a giggle.
“Are you kidding me?” He scooped a hearty helping of the green bean casserole, but instead of dropping it on his plate, he lifted the spoon and flung the serving across the table.
She gasped, leaping to avoid the projectile beans, but only dodged half the serving. “You ass, this is cashmere!”
Her fangs came out with a hiss.
“You want a fight?” August stood from his chair, letting it crash to the floor behind him. “Let’s go.”
Ashley threw her chair to the side, ignoring a resounding crash, as August muttered incantations under his breath. Uther’s hand slapped over August’s mouth.
“Stop it!” Esther slammed her hands on the table, making everyone jump. “I made that green bean casserole.” She pointed at the mess splattered across the table. “Okay, I just dumped some stuff in a dish and stuck it in the oven, but I don’t cook so this is a big deal. And Uther heated those bakery-fresh rolls in the oven by himself. There is more than enough food for everyone, so stop being asses and eat your food, or so help me, I will cut someone.”
“She has a knife,” Uther chimed in. “She’ll do it.”
Under Esther’s glare, they righted their chairs and returned to their seats.
Esther sighed and dropped her chin. “What will it take for the two of you to stop being so scared of each other?”
The question must have been rhetorical. Instead of letting them answer, she picked up the platter with the canned cranberry sauce and resumed the passing and serving process.
A weight settled in Ashley’s stomach that had nothing to do with the dinner roll, but she wasn’t quite sure how to fix it. “Sorry about throwing your roll, Uther. I hope I didn’t ruin your Thanksgiving.”
“Are you kidding?” Uther reached for a second helping of mashed potatoes. “I’d take this any day over a meal with my conservative uncle and his thinly veiled homophobia.”
Esther accepted the tray from him. “How’d you get out of Thanksgiving with the family when they live so close?”
“I didn’t.” Uther looked down at his plate, mashing the already mashed potatoes with his fork. “We do family Thanksgiving the Saturday after so we can share Black Friday shopping stories and eat discount turkey. My family is clever like that. What does your family do, Ashley?”
“Oh, mine?” Ashley took another bite of turkey before answering. “I haven’t been home in years, but they were pretty traditional around the holidays. Aunts, uncles, cousins. We’d all cram into the house of whoever called it first that year. Before that, Oma hosted each holiday.”
Uther nodded along, like Ashley’s story was a familiar tune, and that small gesture warmed a place deep in her chest.
“Do the vampires do anything to celebrate?” he asked.
Right. Ashley had been swept away in her own story. She wasn’t human anymore. “Hannah and John are older than the holiday and generally don’t see what the fuss is about. Claribel and Cynthia will sometimes agree to a meal, but when you don’t need to eat anymore, a holiday around food doesn’t make much sense.” A return to a community was one of the main draws of joining the Family. She couldn’t say she wasn’t disappointed to learn of all the holidays they’d already outgrown. “When I officially join the Family, I plan on hosting some creative holiday parties where food is optional. But I don’t want to rock the boat until then.”
“When you join?” It was the first time August had spoken since their fight. She’d nearly tuned out his existence. “What do you mean ‘when’?”
“Well, I haven’t officially been accepted, so to speak.” She concentrated on shaping her potatoes into a unicorn, glad for once she was no longer able to blush. “They don’t let just anyone into a Family. You have to prove you won’t draw attention from the humans first.” She looked up again, feeling more confident. “But this is my year. I can feel it. Third time’s the?—”
“ Third ?” August’s voice raised a level, but Ashley didn’t find it as entertaining this time. “What happens if you mess up again?”
Ashley fisted her fork, holding on to her patience and that positive energy. “I won’t mess up again.”
“Ashley, this is serious. The witches…” August trailed off. She wasn’t sure he’d addressed her by her name before. His throat worked like he was trying to swallow his words. “If you aren’t part of a vampire Family, you’re their prime target. You need to get in.”
“I know that,” she snapped. “You think I’m not painfully aware of the stakes? Why do you even care?”
“I—I don’t.” He sat up straighter and resumed picking at his plate. “Just making conversation.”
Ashley eyed him, unconvinced. They resumed eating to the tune of silverware scraping plates.
“Damn.” Uther tapped at his phone. “My phone died. Does anyone have a charger?”
“Again?” August’s brows pinched together. “Is it your battery?”
“No, I lost my charger.” Uther gave him his trademark pouty face, fishing for sympathy.
“Again?” August rolled his eyes.
“I’d appreciate more sympathy and less victim-blaming, thank you.”
“You’re the victim of your own…never mind. I have one upstairs.”
August rose, but Esther cut him off, jumping up and grabbing Uther’s arm.
“We’ll get it.” She pulled Uther toward the stairs. “Uther and I cooked. You two can clean.”
Ashley was left in the kitchen with the last person she wanted to be alone with, washing dishes. “Can’t you just snap your fingers and finish this?”
“Shocking as it may sound, washing dishes is not as easy as snapping your fingers. It’s less mental energy to just do it by hand.”
“You’re one of those people that never had a dishwasher growing up, so when you finally move into a place that has one, you use it as a large drying rack while you continue to hand wash dishes, aren’t you?”
August didn’t answer, which only confirmed her theory and annoyed her more.
“But if you snap your fingers, I won’t have to do the dishes.”
He gestured a soapy hand at the empty kitchen, losing a dollop of bubbles to the kitchen floor in the process. “No one’s making you do the dishes,”
Sure, Esther wasn’t here to make her do the dishes, but after Esther and Uther disappeared upstairs, August started clearing the table. Ashley hadn’t even considered the idea of letting the host do the dishes on his own. She just wasn’t raised that way.
“What do you think is taking them so long?” She snatched the plate he held out to her and started drying. They were almost done with the stack, and Esther and Uther were still missing.
“They’re obviously talking about us.”
“What?” The plate slipped back into the sink, splashing both of them.
“Watch it,” August growled.
“You watch it,” she snapped back. “What do you mean, they’re talking about us?”
“Well, there are two obvious options.” He rinsed the plate and handed it back to her. “The first is that they’re talking about us as potential love interests. The pros and cons, if you will.”
“Oh god.” Ashley looked at the stairs and wondered if there was a way to stop them but couldn’t think of an option that also turned back time. “Wait. Both of us? As in I’m a love interest?” Did August not know Esther wasn’t interested in dating women?
August rolled his eyes and didn’t answer, and Ashley continued to hate him.
“Well, what’s the other option?” she asked.
“The other option is much worse.”
“Worse than them discussing what’s wrong with us?” Ashley squeaked.
He glanced at her through the hair that had escaped his hair tie. “The other option is that they want us to get along.”
She waited a few seconds to see if he had more to add before she burst out laughing. “Could you imagine?” She grasped her side and wheezed in stuttered breaths. “You’re the worst.”
Her laughter was interrupted by a burst of water from the handheld nozzle. “Right back at you, bloodsucker.”
Water dripped from the sleeve of her sweater. “Witch, I will end you!”
“You can’t.” He drained the sink, before turning to face her.
“You want to bet?” Ashley dropped her fangs. “We can be in the lake in ten seconds.”
“Esther wants us to get along.”
Dammit. She continued to glower at him but relaxed her fangs back into her gum line. Her mind whirled, but no answer came that would result in both destroying August and Esther not being upset with her. She huffed, unwilling to verbally acquiesce.
“Look,” he continued. “I know you’re leaving with her in a few weeks for the middle of nowhere Midwest to meet your family.”
“And?” She didn’t think she could handle a scolding from the witch. She still had the vial from Claribel in her pocket, reminding her how fleeting her non-relationship was. She was risking everything, letting herself be vulnerable, over something with an expiration.
August plucked her phone from the nearby counter and began typing. Stunned by his blatant disregard for private property, she watched in horror.
“The holidays can be tough, and new relationships are hard.” He handed it back to her. “So, if you need someone to call or text, you have my number. Also, you should put a password on your phone.”
Ashley’s hand shook. She snatched her phone back before he noticed. There were a handful of numbers in her contacts, and the only one regularly used was Esther’s. Ashley wasn’t sure what to do with something this serious. He couldn’t possibly know how alone she was in the world. Should she not threaten his life anymore?
“Are we friends now, witch?” she asked.
The corner of his mouth hitched. “Something like that, I guess.”