Chapter 13 #3
“Kind of all of it,” Des said. “This has been a disaster. Obviously. But work is just impossible. Every second I’m worried someone’s going to figure me out. The anxiety’s killing me. And normally I’d talk to my family about this kind of thing, but I can’t …”
“Why not?”
“They won’t understand. They’re like me.”
“Vampires? Surely that would make them—”
“No, no.” Des smiled reluctantly as her eyes welled up. “They’re cops.”
“All of them?”
“All of them … my mum, my dad, my brothers.”
“Ahh.”
“I’ve worked so hard for it, and now, it’s …”
“A nightmare …”
Des nodded in the darkness, her eyes still glowing like a stalking predator.
“I’m so sorry,” Mal said. “If I’d known—”
“What? You’d have let me die?”
“No, I guess not. Vampire is certainly better than zombie. Your flesh stays on, for one.”
“True.” Des nodded, a timid smile poking through at the corners of her mouth. “One of the many perks, I guess …”
“And night vision …”
Des’s smile drooped to one side, then slid off her face.
“Could you do something else?” Mal whispered.
“No.”
“Totally impossible?”
“Yes. I love being a detective, it’s all I’ve wanted since I was little.”
“Could you do it, but like, not for the police?”
“Go private?”
“Yeah. You wouldn’t have to stop being a detective. You could work your own hours, mostly at night.”
“That’s not really how it works. You’d need to be experienced, or have some specialized area to get good work. I’ve barely finished my training.”
“But you have a secret weapon …”
“Oh yeah, what’s that?” Des whispered.
“Me! I can talk to the dead for you. Should make most of your cases a lot easier.”
“Like it has with this one?”
“Well, they won’t all be Merlin and the dead.”
“I love that band,” Des said, catching Mal’s smile. “I don’t know. My family would hate that; they might even take that worse than me being a vampire.”
“I’m sure your family will understand. Mine wouldn’t, but they’re a terrible example. Yours love you. It might take them some time to accept your new reality, but they’ll still be there for you.”
“I’m not sure I’ve accepted it yet …”
“It takes time. Strange changes, big secrets, they’re hard to carry alone.
But you’ve got us. You got me. I’m not going anywhere, mainly because Walters will yell at me again.
But I’m here, if you need me. And if you can’t find me, then”—Mal plucked a hair from his head and handed it over—“you can track me down.”
“To the ends of the earth.”
To the ends of the earth.
Des leaned her head forward against the sofa. Mal scooched his head closer to hers so their foreheads were touching.
“Thank you,” Des whispered.
They stayed there for a moment in the calm dark; there were no sounds of traffic outside, just the distant rowdiness of Skelmir Alley. Des sat back and sighed. At that moment an intrusive thought poked its way out of Mal’s mind.
“You haven’t had any, uhh, cravings, have you?” Mal asked, subconsciously covering his neck with the blanket.
“No, thankfully not,” Des said, baring a fangy grin. “I am out, though. I might be pestering you for more at some point, if that’s okay?”
“As long as you bring me a cookie,” Mal said, “like at the blood places when you donate.”
“Any flavor?”
“Peanut butter or anything chocolate. Nothing with nuts though.”
“But you said peanut butter?”
“Yeah …”
“Peanut’s a nut.”
“I meant gross nuts, like hazelnut, or macadamia, or raisins.”
“Raisins aren’t nuts.”
“I know they’re not nuts, but they’re gross like nuts. Do you want my blood or nut?”
“Or nut?!” Des said, barely able to contain her laughter.
“I’m tired,” Mal said, smiling from ear to ear. “You know what I meant.”
“I do. Doesn’t mean I can’t take the piss out of you for it.”
“True. Annoying, but true.”
The pair’s chuckles drifted off into silence.
It wasn’t awkward; just quiet. Mal liked that.
He hadn’t realized quite how comfortable he was around her.
He found it odd that they were laughing; they had almost died twice in so many days and now here they were, laughing.
He guessed that the little moments in between the horrors were best kept not thinking about the horrors too much.
“I’ll let you get some sleep now then, zombie boy,” Des said, getting to her feet.
“Thanks, Buffy,” Mal said, turning onto his back.
“She wasn’t a vampire, she slayed vampires. It’s in the name.”
“Good point. I’ll have to get back to you with a better comeback.”
“You do that,” Des said, as she returned to her perch.
Mal pushed his head into the bumpy sofa cushion and got comfortable.
They said their final goodnights and within minutes Mal was snoring.
Finally, he could rest. No one knew he was here, no one would be able to find him, he could just turn his brain off and stop worrying.
No zombies, no parents, no siblings, no Ord—
“Mal, Mal …”
Mal felt someone shoving him gently through the blanket. Whhhhyyy? his mind groaned as he attempted to unstick his eyelids. He saw a blurry figure looking down at him with what little vision he could muster. Des’s glowing eyes pierced through the dark.
“Wake up, we’ve got a new lead …”