Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
FLORENCE
This instalment of my short list of essential vampire experiences has been quite the undertaking. And I mean undertaking like it’s taken a lot of effort, not the dealing-with-dead-people kind of undertaking. Although I suppose technically there was a dead person involved.
Well, undead.
I didn’t actually know that Louise had become the manager of the leisure centre until Cam mentioned it in passing after his early morning swim yesterday.
Louise and I were good friends when I lived here in the 1940s and spent many a summer night larking about in the sea.
That’s what gave me the idea for tonight.
That said, swimming in the North Sea at night is an activity best left to the immortal, and as we’re currently unsure of Quinn’s status in that regard, I thought a swimming pool might be a better idea. So, I took advantage of my afternoon off and went to see my old friend.
And now I need to go see my new friend.
It was important to me, after the disaster I made in the aftermath of the kiss, that the next time I saw Quinn I’d have a decent peace offering. And what says ‘sorry I kissed you in a haunted abbey and then freaked all the way out about it’ like a private, late-night swim?
Ok, so I actually have no idea if he can even swim, but as he grew up at the seaside and has hair that any surfer would be proud of, I’m taking a punt. I’m going to grab my things and then head round to Quinn’s.
I quickly find a bag I can use after I sacrificed my last one to the cellar beach, and stuff in my bikini and towel. I go to grab my phone, but before I get to it, it lights up with a notification. And then another.
QUINN
Tap.
Tap tap.
The grin that spreads across my face at the sight of his name on my screen is so wide it makes my cheeks ache.
FLORENCE
That’s my line.
Pocketing my phone, I grab my bag and keys and lock up the flat, then run down the stairs like the building’s on fire.
When I push through the outside door, there he is, leaning lightly on the railings that edge the pavement.
His mouth pulls into a lopsided smile when he sees me, and it sends my heart into free-fall.
It’s strange how quickly the parts of him have become familiar to me.
I take him in for a moment – everything from those wild sandy-brown waves down to his beaten-up Converse.
No glasses today, which I lament for a moment or two, but he’s made up for it with another shirt, navy this time, the sleeves rolled to his elbows.
Every part of his look seems like it might have happened by accident, but together? All together it’s magic.
‘Hi,’ he says, the timbre of his voice settling somewhere deep in my chest.
I chance a smile. ‘Hi.’
Then I start to talk at the same time he starts to talk and we’re both saying we’re sorry, and then we’re both laughing, and when we make eye contact again it’s like nothing was ever wrong.
But because I can’t entirely remember how to human and I’m not sure I was good at it in the first place, I don’t say any of the things I’ve rehearsed in my head.
Instead, I blurt out, ‘Sorry I kissed you in a haunted abbey and then freaked all the way out about it.’
And, well, it seems that nothing says that like … actually saying it.
He lights up with a huge, dimpled smile. ‘It’s ok. It was only the best kiss of my entire life. I’m pretty sure I’ll get over it.’
I hit him with a theatrical shoulder slap, but inside I’m grinning too, because I’m pretty sure that was the best kiss of my life, too.
If only I knew what the hell to do about that.
* * *
It’s just after 1am when we finally make it to the leisure centre, after a quick stop at Quinn’s flat to grab his swimming stuff, and just as Louise promised, it’s all ready for us.
I assume she’s around here somewhere because the door’s unlocked and some of the lights are on, but she’s doing a great job of staying out of sight. It feels private. Intimate, even.
I lead Quinn to the male changing rooms and disappear into the female ones, telling him I’ll meet him on the other side.
And when I do, I immediately realise my mistake.
I definitely did not factor in the level of nakedness that would come into play here, and now we’re here, and Quinn’s leaning against the tiled wall, and I don’t know where to look.
Ok, that’s a lie. I know exactly where to look, I’m just not sure that if I do, I’ll ever be able to look away.
The slightest glimpse of his broad, toned chest had my brain in a tailspin, and I’m worried that any more will be the end of me.
So I concentrate on keeping my eyes safely above his shoulders, only, when I do, they lock with his eyes and that feels dangerous, too.
‘Come on,’ I say, desperate to calm whatever fire it is that’s blazing in my body right now before I make any more impulsive decisions. ‘Let’s get in.’ And then I skip the few steps to the pool’s edge and dive.
There’s something about being in the water that I’ve always loved. It’s the weightlessness, maybe, or the feeling of being held in place. And since I was turned, there’s one other big advantage too.
‘Ok, so what’s uniquely vampirey about a swimming pool?
’ Quinn asks, as he pops up out of the water three feet away from me.
He flips his head to the side to flick water out of his hair, and I pretend not to notice the way the action makes the muscles in his shoulders flex.
This man is a walking anatomy lesson. ‘Wait, I thought you guys couldn’t go in water? ’
‘That’s running water,’ I say, rolling my eyes. ‘And it’s only slightly true.’
He shrugs, his lips pressing together like he’s itching to smile. ‘Then what? Are you immune to verrucas?’ He looks around, the pool lights reflecting in his eyes. They look like they’re glowing blue. ‘I assume this isn’t holy water.’
‘No, Quinn.’ I try not to look at the tiny pool of water gathering in the hollow of his throat. ‘It’s because of this.’
I kick my way down into the deep end and then blow all the breath out of my lungs and immediately start to sink. When I reach the bottom, I sit cross-legged on the tiles and wait.
I discovered this trick as a young vampire living in Cornwall in the 1880s.
The sea was always so clear there, I could see all the way to the seabed sometimes, to every sunken ship and lost treasure.
There wasn’t the equipment then that we have these days, and the diving suits available were far too bulky to fit through small gaps in rock, or tiny ship windows. But I wasn’t.
I had to be careful not to go out in full sunlight, of course, but that made it even better.
There weren’t many other people in the sea at daybreak or twilight so it was like a whole universe just for me.
I spent hours exploring those wrecks, trailing my fingers across small piles of treasure that wouldn’t be discovered for decades.
There’s a splash up on the surface and then Quinn is diving down towards me. I haven’t been here long, maybe a minute or two, but I can see the surprise in his eyes as he sits next to me, his hands sculling small circles to keep him from floating upwards.
The trick, of course, is to expel as much of the air in your lungs as you can because that helps fight the buoyancy.
It’s not easy to do in a body that relies on oxygen, not for any great length of time, and after around thirty seconds I see Quinn’s expression falter before his breath escapes him and he pushes to the surface in a long trail of bubbles.
I give him a minute and then I follow him up.
‘How long can you stay down there?’ he asks as he treads water. His voice is a little breathless and it does things to me that it shouldn’t.
I look away. ‘Indefinitely. I mean, I don’t need to breathe, so … I’ve not found the limit yet.’
‘You do breathe though.’ I can feel his eyes on me, and it takes everything I have not to turn back towards them. ‘I felt it when…’
He doesn’t say it, but I hear it anyway. When we kissed. When our faces were so close to each other that we couldn’t have missed even the slightest detail.
‘I do.’ I nod. ‘But I don’t need to. It’s more of a habit. Or sometimes it’s an—’
I realise what I’m about to say and stop dead. I hope he’ll leave it, but of course he doesn’t.
‘An…?’
Damn it.
I meet his gaze and bite the bullet. ‘An emotional response. If I’m really happy, or scared, or shocked, or, you know…’
Turned on.
From the look on his face, he absolutely does know, and the knowing grin that spreads across his face almost makes me gasp a breath there and then. But then, like he knows I’m struggling with it all, he changes the subject entirely.
‘I came by the clinic this afternoon.’
I nod, even though it wasn’t a question. ‘I was off.’
‘I know,’ he says, a smile not far from his lips. ‘Cam had to take my blood. He’s not nearly as gentle as you.’
I breathe out a gentle laugh. ‘You did it, though.’
‘I did.’ He smiles, then there’s a pause before he says anything else. ‘I hoped you’d be there. I, um…’ He flips onto his back and floats, arms and legs spread wide in a star shape. ‘I wanted to apologise. For the kiss.’
That takes me aback. ‘I kissed you.’
He lifts his head a little way out of the water, just enough that he can glance at me. ‘I know that.’
Something cold curls its way around my ribcage, tightening fingers that pull at my chest. Does he regret the kiss? Does he think I do?
‘It’s not like you forced me or anything,’ I bite out. ‘I was into it.’
He chuckles. ‘I know that, too.’
I frown. ‘Then what are you apologising for? Do you regret it?’
It comes out sharper than I was expecting, and when he flips back onto his front and swims the few strokes back to the side, I think I might have upset him. But then he turns back to look at me with the most devastating smile on his face.
‘No, Florence,’ he says, his voice gravelly and low. ‘I don’t regret a single second of it.’
‘Then don’t apologise for it.’ I swim after him and grab onto the side of the pool a little way down from where he is, the furrow in my brow so deep I can feel it aching. ‘I should be apologising to you.’
His gaze intensifies. ‘Why, do you regret it?’
‘Not a single second of it,’ I say before I can stop myself. And as it comes out of my mouth, I realise it’s the truth. I didn’t stop because I wasn’t enjoying it, I stopped because I was enjoying it too much. Because it felt like the start of something – something big.
‘So why are you fighting it so hard?’ Josiah whispers to me suddenly, and I’m so on edge that I completely forget to keep my reaction to him under wraps.
‘Because I’m not ready to lose him!’ I blurt, a wobble of emotion in my voice. ‘Not after the way I lost you.’
It feels like the sound of my admission bounces off every last surface in the room before it returns to me, layer upon layer of its echo hitting me as I float there, hypersensitive and numb all at the same time.
It’s so much all at once that I don’t notice that Quinn has gently pulled me to shallower water until my feet touch the ground.
His hands are on my shoulders and he’s saying my name and he’s looking at me with such tenderness that I almost can’t bear it.
‘Florence,’ he says again, his voice quiet and calming. I can only just see him through the blur of tears. ‘Who are you talking to?’