Chapter 3
Three
Blake
“What do you mean, love trapped you?” I was beyond denying it any longer. Now I wanted answers. Aaron got bored and wandered into the house. I knew he’d be playing a video game as soon as he raided my fridge, so I folded my arms and waited.
Marlon narrowed his eyes and seemed to size me up as he slowly paced in front of me. “Vampires do not mate out of love. It’s something we cannot choose, and we’re helpless to deny it. If we find our fated mate, it’s impossible to resist the pull.”
“But that still doesn’t answer my question.” I tried to be strong and show him I wasn’t afraid of him. But I could imagine how easy it would be for him to kill me, and I had a feeling the thought had crossed his mind many times as I watched his lip curl in disgust.
“The connection we had went beyond the bond that made us mates. I loved him and he loved me. But sometimes love isn’t enough.
” He sat down on the tailgate of the truck, relaxing back against the corner panel and swinging his legs.
If I didn’t know he was a vampire, I’d have sworn he was just one of my friends sitting here shooting the shit with me.
But he wasn’t my friend, and the sting in my arm reminded me he was definitely a vampire.
“Love made me weak. He’d asked me many times to turn him, but I couldn’t bring myself to end his life. ”
“But he’d grow old and die, eventually, while you would live. Didn’t you want to spend more time than that with him?”
The look he gave me was a mix of a little annoyance and a lot of hurt. “I didn’t want him to die,” he whispered. “But if I had changed him, he would have never forgiven me. This existence is truly a horror.”
“Look, I don’t really need to know all that. But I’m willing to help you figure out who trapped you if you’d like.” I forced myself not to roll my eyes at how stupid I was. I hadn’t meant to offer, but dammit, something in his helplessness haunted me.
“What difference would it make now? He’s dead and gone.”
I shrugged my shoulder and thought for a moment. “Maybe, or maybe not. Why would you have all that gold, anyway?”
“I wanted Josiah to be happy.”
“My great-great-great uncle?”
“Something like that. You know his name?”
“Uh, not really. That’s way too long ago for me to have ever known him.”
“Do you not know your family’s history?” he asked and lifted his lip in revulsion.
“What? It’s not really a thing. At least it’s not for me. Grandpa told us stories, but I never cared much about the ones concerning family relationships and distant cousins.”
He inhaled and let out a long sigh. “You said your family still owns the farm?”
“Yes, but no one lives there. They still farm it, but my parents live in a house on part of the land that’s closer to town now.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, he was off. But this time I knew where he was headed, and I had a feeling he wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.
“Blake, where’d he go?” Aaron asked from the living room when I walked inside the house.
“I think he went to the farm.”
“You just let him go?” Aaron asked and stood up, still holding the game controller.
“It’s not like he can go too far. The sun will be up, eventually.”
Aaron narrowed his eyes and shook his finger at me. “Good thinking, he’ll need somewhere to stay.”
“Yep.” I just wasn’t sure I wanted that to be in my house.
The two of us spent the next hour snacking on whatever we could find in the kitchen, which wasn’t much, and talking about the events of the evening.
“Do you really think he’ll come back?” Aaron finally asked.
“Unless he’s willing to go back into his grave. The old farmhouse doesn’t have a basement, and all the rooms have windows. Seems he’d rather come here where we have a nice safe basement than take his chances trying to find somewhere else.”
“Maybe, or maybe he doesn’t really want to share his gold,” Aaron said.
I looked outside and noticed the sky was at that in between time, where the sun was getting ready to rise but still had yet to chase away the dark.
“Shit, I’ll be back.” I ran out to my truck and gunned the engine as soon as it started.
“Stupid fucking vampire,” I grumbled as I hurried through town and was thankful it was still early for too many farmers to be out and about.
I turned off the paved road and onto the dirt road that led to the old farmhouse, sliding as I sped up.
The farmhouse remained unchanged and unimproved since its construction.
There was still an old screened-in porch on the front and back of the square house.
The roof was built high and at a steep angle that must have been the style of the time.
There on the wooden steps sat Marlon, looking toward the rising sun. “Hey, you stupid asshole. Are you trying to burn up?”
He looked in my direction and the look on his face told me he hadn’t even noticed I was there. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Trying to save your sorry ass. Now get in the truck.” I reached across the seat and opened the door. He sat there a moment more before he looked up at the horizon, then back to where I sat hoping I wasn’t about to witness him burst into flames.
“I think I’ll just stay here.” He made no move to get up, and once again looked toward the horizon and I wondered if he really wanted to be reduced to ash at any moment, as I imagined he would have been.
“Marlon, get your ass in the truck!” I yelled, and that time he got up and leaned into the rolled down window.
“Why do you even pretend to care? If I’m no more, it’s one less monster in the night.” There was an edge to his voice that told me he didn’t really want to die, but he had no hope left.
“I have no fucking clue. But I’m not willing to sit here and let you die. Get in the truck and you can stay at my house. I can’t even believe I’m saying this, but I would really like to help you.”
“You hate me,” he said with no malice in his voice.
“No, that’s not true. I don’t know you. And it’s not every day you meet some guy who’s been buried as long as you have and is still kicking. But I would like to help, and I want to know more about how you ended up there.”
He stared at me a full minute before looking toward the sun again, and when a thin trail of smoke rose off his bony hand, he jumped into the truck and ducked down. “Please hurry, I’d really rather not burst into flames.”
I stomped on the gas and spun the truck around.
The rising sun was behind us as we raced to my house, and when I pulled into the driveway, Marlon wasted no time running inside.
I hurried inside behind him and yelled for him to go to the basement.
Most houses in town didn’t have one, but for some reason, this one did. Fate.
Aaron sat on the couch, frozen, as he watched me hurry inside. “What happened?” he asked and looked around.
“Marlon ran in before me. He was moving fast and you might not have seen him.” I rushed to the basement door with Aaron on my heels.
“Oh, I saw him. He was laying down a pretty good smoke trail behind him.” He said it like it was something we saw daily.
“Fuck. Marlon?” I yelled as I stomped down the stairs.
It was a simple, unfinished cement-lined basement I used for storage, and my mom used to keep all her canned goods.
There, behind all the shelves, I saw him ducking down and covering his head.
“You’re okay. There are no windows down here.
” He looked up then and his eyes shot to all four walls before they settled on me.
“Thank you,” he whispered.