Chapter 21 – Oliver
SHE’S A MYSTERY TO ME
OLIVER
Ispend the early morning sleeping for a change. I’d been pleasantly tired after spending the night beside Vale. I snuck out of her bedroom early in the morning after I heard Nick starting to move around. She looked so peaceful there, I couldn’t wake her up.
I usually sleep a few hours a day, but I don’t need much.
I sleep out of boredom most of the time, a need to dream and let go.
She needs sleep much more than I do. I think she might be different, not completely human, but I don’t want to exhaust her.
She keeps feeding me when we’re together.
It worries me even though she hasn’t shown any signs of it hurting her.
In fact, the way she danced around Nick’s house yesterday, it made me think she had more energy than normal.
She wasn’t as docile as she’d been the last couple of weeks.
I’d spent part of my day talking to Nick about Vale.
I asked him to help me get all the information she’d need to take her driving test. Nick said Vale clams up about it whenever he brings it up, but with her turning nineteen in a week, she’s old enough to get her license whether her parents allow it or not.
The plan is for me to take her to the DDS office, though I won’t mention it until we get there, so it’ll be like a surprise present.
I get the feeling Vale’s mother Shannon gave Nick all her vital records when Phillip Granger decided his child was a demon. It still makes me cringe when I think about what Vale told me. Maybe Shannon isn’t all bad if she’d tried to protect her daughter in some small way.
How awful was Vale’s childhood? How did she survive it and stay so bright? I didn’t want her to go back to them, but what right did I have to ask her to stay? I have no rights when it comes to Vale.
“I’ve been hoping that girl would come live with me since she was six years old.
Phyllis and I saw how her soul seemed dimmer every time she’d stay with us.
Vale didn’t say anything about being treated badly, but I knew something was going on.
Phyllis said we couldn’t push her too hard because Vale could shut down.
Phyllis was right, and that’s why I let her get away with almost anything, in the hope that if she feels safe, she’ll speak out one day.
“You know, when she’s home with them, she’s not even allowed her phone.
She gets a weekly phone call as if she’s in prison.
They even took her out of school. She was on this swim team for homeschool students, and they took her out of that as well.
She wasn’t allowed to keep the telescope we got her either.
They tossed it in the garbage. Can you imagine?
“They make sure she’s completely cut off from the world.
We only got to talk to her because of those weekly calls.
I’m all she has, Oliver. I’m glad you’re trying to help because, one day, I won’t be here and I want to know someone’ll be there for her,” Nick tells me while we sit in the office on the first floor.
I’ve never seen Nick so on edge, but I understand why he’s getting more worried by the day, Vale will be leaving soon.
We chat in the library most days when I come to join him.
I’ve been doing all the translating for him.
It’s a lot of work, yet we find time to chat throughout the day.
He’s opened up a lot over the last couple weeks.
We’re running out of time. Every day is closer to Vale going back to people who hurt her.
She may not admit it, but I know she’s been hurt.
I feel it in my fucking soul that her father hurt her and not just with his sexist, controlling beliefs.
It makes sense now, why Nick started sharing things about Vale. He knows I’ll be right next door from her. He wants to make sure she has a protector when he isn’t around. I don’t blame him for wanting her to be taken care of.
“I’ll watch over her. Don’t ever worry about that.
If she ever needs me, I’ll be there,” I say, but the words are sour on my tongue.
I don’t like making promises to mortals.
It doesn’t feel right. When you don’t age, it means you can’t stay in the same place for long.
I’m lucky if I can get twenty years in one place, but I rarely stay that long anywhere.
I haven’t been close with any mortal in a long time.
I have acquaintances, but I don’t have true relationships with them.
Had I never met Vale, I’d have still wanted to be friends with Nicholas Dalton.
He’s a good man. One with a strength of character that’s rare in this day and age.
I find myself wanting Nick’s approval, which is a pretty strange feeling.
I hadn’t wanted anyone’s approval in a long time.
I’d need to make sure my family knows he’s off limits.
They can’t feed on him, and they definitely can’t treat him badly.
I would especially have to warn my mother because I knew they’d argue.
She’s a very strong, opinionated woman, and completely unafraid to express it.
I can see it now . . . oh, how they’ll fight over Byron’s work in this house.
For the first time in my life, I want to play protector to someone outside my family.
I want to protect Vale for Nick. And I want to protect Nick from my mother.
“Vale’s something else. When she’s not so nervous, she’s something to behold,” I say, unable to stop the words that escape my lips.
“That she is. She can argue with the most patient and knowledgeable people. She just holds so much inside,” he says with a smile as he grabs the clipboard from my desk. He’s been keeping insanely detailed notes on every book, every scroll, even when he needs me to translate their titles and author.
“Did she argue with you?” He gives me a look like he’s studying my every move. I feel like he’s seeing something he hadn’t before.
My cheeks flush at the thought of how we argued. Get it under control man, or Nick might kill you. He knows something’s up. “Yeah. We’ve argued a lot actually. I was surprised because she usually seems so timid,” I try to explain without giving anything away.
“It’s hard to tell her no when she finds something she’s passionate about.
You should’ve seen her when we built those go-karts a few years ago.
She wanted bigger and bigger engines, always wanting to go faster.
Finally, I taught her how to drive a car.
Just learn to let her roll with it. If she didn’t trust you, then she wouldn’t have argued.
I’m surprised to be honest. I think someone has a crush.
” Nick chuckles when he stands up, stretching, his spine popping.
“I do not,” I gasp like he said something completely preposterous.
Nick’s full-on laughing now. He holds the clipboard to his belly and shakes his head.
“I didn’t mean you, Oliver. I meant Vale.
She’s been reading Dracula again. That’s the third time this summer.
I think she’s in one of those romantic moods that teenagers have.
Be nice if she tells you. Let her down easy because I don’t know how to heal a young person’s broken heart,” he says, then he makes his way out the door.
His head pops back in. “I’ll see you at dinner. ”
Oh, if Nick only knew what kind of mood his granddaughter was in, he’d find a way to murder me. He doesn’t want Vale to give her dreams up for a man. Oh no, he wants to guard her and push her to achieve all she’s ever wanted.
Would he be any easier on me if he knew I want the same thing? That it’s one of the reasons I turned her down. I don’t want her to lose herself when her life is just beginning. I don’t want to destroy her dreams, her future.
If I could have Vale, I wouldn’t let her give up anything.
I’d push her to work harder to get it. I’d make sure she had everything she needed.
I’d fight for her, support her. Alas, Vale isn’t mine, and all I can do is make empty promises to Nick so he won’t worry about her.
Nick has more faith in me than I do. I can’t stop thinking about her.
I can’t stop pondering what I’d do to make her smile.
I want to make her happy. I need her to be happy.
The notification sounds from my phone. It’s turned over, screen down, so I lift it and see that Vale has replied to my message. I smile as I unlock my phone, then almost choke on my tongue. Fuck me!
There’s a picture of Vale, her long copper hair in a single, thick braid that falls over one shoulder between her perfectly round tits. She’s topless in the mirror, her phone in one hand. Her head is cocked to the side, cheeks flushed, as one delicate finger is sliding between her smiling lips.
Vale: Can’t get better than perfection.
The message couldn’t be more true, but it shouldn’t be me she’s talking about.
It’s her. I’ll never be able to get this out of my head.
I’m grateful for her picture, her bravery in showing me, but I know every inch of her I see is an inch I need to touch, to taste.
And these teasing pictures make me want her more.
I try to think of anything I can say back, anything I can add that would mean something. In the end, what I have to say is the absolute truth. I can’t deny it this time.
Oliver: No arguments with perfection. I’m looking at it right now.
All I get in reply is a blushing, smiling cartoony face. I hate text messages!