Chapter 26
26
Ashley
A shley stood in the doorway of the Platt House attic watching Esther snooze on her desk and wondering if she should just let her sleep.
She needed to make a decision soon though. She was quickly becoming a creepy vampire stereotype, watching her unsuspecting lover while she slept. Maybe she’d give her a few more minutes. She backed out of the room when a loud crash from downstairs broke Esther from her sleep.
What were Uther and August up to down there?
Well, since Esther was up. Ashley rapped at the doorframe to get Esther’s attention. “Hey, sweetheart, do you have a minute?”
Esther ducked her head to wipe her mouth on her sleeve before turning around.
“Ashley.” Esther’s gaze slid across Ashley’s body, and she couldn’t help subtly flexing and hamming up the moment. “I have all the minutes for you, babe.”
“How’s your project going?” Ashley scanned the desk. Esther had nearly buried her laptop in a mountain of paper, and Ashley would bet money whatever was in that mug had gone cold a while ago.
Esther sighed, tapping at her computer. “Slowly.”
“Do you need the night? I know we had plans, but if you need to work…” She had big plans for tonight, but if Esther wasn’t in the right mindset, it wasn’t worth pushing the moment. She could wait.
Esther’s eyes widened, and her brows shot up to her hairline. “No. Oh my god, I almost…No. This can wait.”
She shuffled piles around, taking a distracted sip from her mug and cringing. Definitely cold.
“Hey.” Ashley walked to the desk and crouched into Esther’s line of sight. “Are you sure? This is just a day on the calendar. I won’t be offended. You’ve been working so hard on this project, and you’re almost there.”
“No, I’m fine.” Esther drained the last of her mug and slammed it down like a shot. “This can wait.”
Ashley wasn’t sure she believed her. Esther was making that smile that was supposed to be comforting but was too teethy for an Esther smile. She was going to argue further when Esther took her hand.
“I know you’ve been working on some Valentine’s Day surprise,” Esther said. “Show me.”
That familiar intoxication whenever she was around Esther took over. They’d been together for real now for over a month. Surely this sparkly, hard-to-think feeling would dull and she could function like a normal human—or vampire—around her. In the meantime, Ashley bid rational thought adieu and led Esther to a smaller set of stairs at the back of the attic. Ashley had requested romance, and Esther had requested a quiet night in relative privacy. Since neither of them had exceptionally private housing, Ashley had enlisted the help of August, who’d lent them the upper floors for the night.
At the top of the stairs, Ashley pushed open a trapdoor, letting in a wave of cold air and exposing a box of starry sky. She helped Esther through the door and closed it behind them. She stayed silent, letting Esther take in her work. Twinkle lights were strung around the railing of the widow’s walk, and a corner was piled with soft blankets and the plushest pillows Ashley could find while scavenging through August’s surplus of guest rooms. Ashley had even tucked the heated blanket from her room into the pile.
“You made this for me?” Esther asked.
“Do you like it?”
“Oh, Ashley.” Esther tucked her head under Ashley’s chin, hiding her face. “It’s beautiful.”
Ashley wrapped her arms around Esther and kissed the top of her head. She led Esther to the blankets and pulled her down beside her. “I wanted to give you that quiet time you were hoping for, and I thought you might like this. It’s a little cold, but the stars were so bright tonight.”
“It’s perfect. Thank you so much.”
“Oh! I nearly forgot.” She reached into the pillow pile and pulled out a thermos and two mugs. “Cocoa?”
Esther laughed. “Yes, please.”
She poured the mugs, and they sipped in comfortable silence. “So, I didn’t mean to wake you up earlier.”
Esther snort-laughed into her cup of cocoa. “I didn’t mean to be asleep earlier.”
“Could this have something to do with our string of late nights?”
“Surely not,” said Esther, taking a sip.
“Esther, talk to me.” Ashley hadn’t meant to say it so sharply. Sometimes, it was hard to get Esther to share her feelings instead of keeping them all bottled inside. It must be exhausting. “I know you don’t like to demand or even speak up for yourself, but I care about you. I don’t want to dance around landmines, trying to avoid unknowingly stressing you. You’re not going to hurt my feelings.”
Esther lowered her mug. “It might be too many late nights.”
She mumbled so quietly it was only with Ashley’s enhanced hearing that she caught what Esther said. Ashley kept forgetting how much work Esther had to do. Ashley’s weekly workload could all be finished in a couple of hours on the weekend, and they were really just for show. Passing her classes wasn’t a requirement for getting into the Family. But Hannah and Claribel had hinted it would piss John off if they could brag about her grades, so she should at least try.
“That’s no problem,” Ashley said. “We can cut back to once a week. We could actually sleep at night.” They didn’t have anthropology anymore, which only made Ashley more desperate to see Esther during the week. She needed her Esther fix. But she wouldn’t keep Esther back from her dreams either, and graduating—and graduating well—was important to Esther, so it was important to Ashley too.
“I highly doubt that will happen.” Esther chuckled, all too aware of how difficult it was to keep their hands off each other. “It’s not just the sleep though. We don’t have any privacy. I have my uncle and Jason, and you have all the vampires. The only place we can find some privacy is here at August’s place, and this isn’t even that private.”
“What are you talking about?” Ashley gestured around them at the empty darkness. “We have plenty of privacy.”
The door to the roof smacked open, and August poked his head up. “Hey, Ash. Have you seen Uther’s bag? He said you might have moved it.”
“Do you know how to knock?” Ashley demanded. “I could have been topless up here?”
“A nice set of tits never scared me off.” August winked.
Ashley threw a pillow at his stupid face. “Get out of here before I drown you.”
“Hey, August. I found it.” Uther popped up through the hole beside August. “Oh wow. It’s so cute. Why haven’t you shown me up here before?”
“Because it’s literally freezing outside,” August said, “and only a cold-blooded narcissist would make their date freeze to death for the sake of some stars.”
Ashley stuck out her tongue, and he returned the gesture.
“I’d sure like to go somewhere warm.” Uther ignored their antics. “We should go somewhere for spring break. All of us. We could split the cost.”
“That would be perfect, actually,” Esther said. Ashley hadn’t expected this level of enthusiasm from Esther. Not when her schoolwork was building up. “It gives me something to work toward while buckling down on my final project. Something to look forward to besides graduation.”
“Graduation high five.” Uther and Esther air-fived across the roof.
“And it would be an escape from schoolwork and your uncle,” added Ashley. “Did you have any place in mind?”
“It’s a little last minute to be reserving stuff.” Uther already had his phone out and was scrolling. “People reserve beach houses months, sometimes a year in advance. And we only have a month now.”
“Actually,” said Esther, “I have an aunt with a beach house in South Carolina. I bet she would let us borrow it for the week. She’s almost never there anymore.”
“That would save on our budget too.” Uther was vibrating with excitement. “Now, how are we getting there? Were you thinking plane, or should we rent a car? If we rent a car, we’ll have it for the rest of the trip, which could be good for going out and getting groceries, but flying will leave us more time at the actual destination. We could rent a car once we get there. Now, what were you thinking for meal plans? Should we plan a menu to eat at home, or were you picturing eating out? What is your imagined budget?”
He made to climb the rest of the way up the ladder when August grabbed his arm.
“Or we can discuss this later,” August said, “and you and I can go downstairs and…work on that project we were talking about earlier.” He lifted a brow.
Uther scrambled back down the ladder. “Right, the project. Talk soon, ladies. Happy Valentine’s Day.”
August slammed the door behind them.
“Now, where were we?” Ashley cupped the back of Esther’s head, drawing her closer.
Esther brushed her lips against Ashley’s. “I think we were watching the stars.”
They sank into the blankets. Ashley toyed nervously with the item in her pocket. She’d waited weeks for this day, but now she worried Esther would think it was too soon.
“Esther?”
“Hmm?” Esther with stars in her eyes was heartbreaking.
“This is real, right? Us, I mean?”
“I sure hope so.”
Right. This felt right. “I got you something.”
Esther sat up. “What is it?”
Ashley paused, not knowing how to describe it. “It’s really weird now that I think about it.”
A curl worked its way free of Esther’s messy bun as she turned her full attention on Ashley. “Well, you have to tell me now. I like weird.”
“Yeah, but this is creepy weird.” In all the weeks she’d pictured giving Esther this gift, she hadn’t considered the optics. “There has to be a much cuter way to go about this.”
“Ashley.” Esther took Ashley’s free hand in her own. “I’m dating a vampire. In case you didn’t know this already, I like creepy.”
“And you’re okay with that? You know what I am and what that means. What a future with me would be like. Even a temporary one.”
“Ashley, you’re once in a lifetime. I’m not letting you go while I have the chance.” Esther kissed her, firm and deliberate—their lips speaking a silent promise as they moved together.
Bolstered by her words, Ashley broke the kiss and held up a silver necklace.
Esther took it and raised an eyebrow. “This is it? I thought you had a dead rat for me, based on the way you were acting. Jewelry is a pretty standard gift.”
Ashley scrunched her eyes shut so she didn’t have to see Esther’s reaction. “So, it’s kind of a vial—of my blood.”
Silence followed while Ashley waited for Esther’s reaction. Maybe she would scream or throw the necklace off the roof.
“Okay,” said Esther.
Ashley cracked open an eye to see Esther still sitting there, not panicking or running away screaming.
Esther nodded encouragingly. “I like where this is headed, but I’m going to need some more backstory.”
Ashley opened her second eye. Esther hadn’t left, and she didn’t look like she was tensing to run. Maybe this was okay? She breathed in through her nose and out slowly through her mouth, rotating her shoulders to loosen up again. She needed to get this story right. “So, I kind of got the idea from Claribel.”
“And Claribel is…an ex?”
“No!” exclaimed Ashley. “No, of course not. That’d be an inappropriate way to start this story where I’m trying and failing to be romantic.”
“Okay.” Esther waved her on. “Get to the romantic part then.”
“I’m working on it.” So bossy. “Anyway, she’s a vampire, and she had this guy she liked a couple hundred years ago—a human. And she knew he would die, so being the true goth girl she was, she collected some of his blood and keeps it in a vial around her neck.”
“So, you mean to woo me with your vampire blood?” Esther turned her head and touched a fist to her chin in a thinking pose. “Yes, I think I’m wooed. Good work. A quality Valentine’s gift.” She unlatched the necklace to put it on.
But Ashley grabbed her wrist and stopped her. “There’s still a bit more to this story.”
“Continue,” said Esther, setting the necklace back in her lap.
Ashley opened her mouth to continue then registered what Esther had said. “Wait? That’s it? Someone gives you a vial of their blood, and you are wooed?”
“Yeah,” said Esther—rather firmly, in fact. “It’s kind of hot.”
“You’re kind of a creep. Did you know that?” She nudged Esther’s shoulder.
“Takes one to know one.” They both laughed.
“I’m falling for you, Esther. Like, hard, and it scares me, but not as much as the idea of losing you.” She swallowed. Here goes nothing. “Part of becoming a vampire is to drink a vampire’s blood, so that’s what this is—a vial of my blood. And I don’t expect any final decisions now. I don’t want that. This is a symbol of how serious I am. I just hoped you’d consider it. Because I want to spend forever with you.”
“Ashley.” Water pooled at the corner of Esther’s eyes.
Ashley was dying. Not literally, obviously. But emotionally, Ashley was falling apart waiting on some clear answer from Esther.
Finally, Esther handed the necklace back to her. “Will you help me put it on?”