Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
The sun will be setting soon, and Xavier and I have successfully spent the day rotting in bed again. We finished another season of the show we started in Connecticut. I slept on and off throughout the day, ate my weight in junk food, and of course, had sex several times throughout the day.
This hotel doesn’t have metal blinds covering the window during the day, but instead has thick, velvet curtains that block out all the light.
Xavier is standing next to them, slowly pulling one back to allow a little bit of golden light into the room.
It’s not directly shining on him, and I watch him looking at the little sunbeam, expression neutral.
“That doesn’t hurt?” I ask, sitting cross-legged on the bed.
“Not in small doses,” he tells me. “And not at my age.”
“So a newer vampire is more sensitive?”
“Yes, and having this amount of sunlight in the room for long would weaken even me.”
Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I stick my hand out, fingers passing through the beam of light. “Do you miss the sun?”
“Not anymore,” he tells me and lets the curtain fall shut. “When I was first turned, the world of vampirism was too new and exciting to miss much of my old life.”
“Do you remember much?” I ask. “Of your human life. It’s been so long.”
“I do.” He sits next to me on the bed. “My human life wasn’t glorious. There’s not much to want to remember.”
“Right. You lived during the plague. And almost died by it.” I slowly shake my head. “It’s almost hard to comprehend. You’ve lived through so much.”
“Nearly seven hundred years,” he says, staring forward, vision unfocused as his mind goes to the past. “Much has changed over the course of time, but much has stayed the same.”
“What do you mean?”
“Humanity.” He tips his head down to me.
“When you live in the shadows, you get to see people in their truest form. What has driven humanity hasn’t changed over the years.
Greed. Money. Power. I’ve seen governments rise and fall.
I’ve seen politicians turn on their citizens and citizens turn on their politicians.
I’ve witnessed countless human wars and acts of horrific violence humans inflict on each other.
And then sat back and watched humans call us the real monsters just because we are better than them. ”
“I always struggled with that,” I tell him.
“Leo too. And we’d get in trouble for it if we ever brought up how human-on-human violence far outnumbered monster-on-human violence.
And there are monsters that are bad, for sure.
They are only here to kill, and demons only come from Hell to bring back souls.
That’s always been pretty black and white.
” I twist my engagement ring around my finger as I talk.
“It took me a while to see that the real monsters aren’t creatures. The real monsters are systems.”
“Like the one that killed your family.”
Shaking my head, I look away. Xavier has been trying to get me to talk about it all day, and I’ve evaded the conversation each time.
I don’t think I’m getting out of it now.
Deep down, I know repressing this forever is going to come back and bite me in the ass, but I also don’t see the point of making myself think about it.
My parents are dead.
The Order killed them.
I was kidnapped so the Order could try and make super soldiers they could control.
It didn’t work.
The end.
But it’s not the end, and I can’t quiet the little voice in the back of my mind that’s saying, “it didn’t work with me, but there’s nothing stopping them from trying with another kid”. What would I even do to stop this? There’s no way I can take down the entire Order.
“It really sucks what happened,” I make myself say. My tone is flat and I don’t sound convincing at all.
“You could seek vengeance.”
“It wouldn’t bring them back,” I reply with a shrug.
“No, it wouldn’t.”
I twist, hand landing on Xavier’s thigh. “I do want to know something, though.”
“What is it?”
“Vivian and Marco were following orders. I want to know who gave that order. Who sought out my family and decided I was the witch they wanted to use for their science experiments.”
“And then get revenge?” he asks, obviously hopeful he can help me tear Order members limb from limb.
“Yes, but I want to do it my way. They messed with a witch, they should suffer by witchcraft. I want to curse them.”
“I’m so glad you’re home,” Mabel says, running a brush through my hair. “And everything is back to normal.”
“Yeah,” I say, not wanting to burst her bubble.
Xavier and I got back only an hour ago, and Mabel is filming a get ready with me video for her TikTok account.
She got invited to a new bar in Huntersville that serves bottled blood.
She and Zeke are going, and she wants me to tag along since the owner of the bar offered free drinks and food for a human companion.
For someone who technically died a century ago, she was born to be an influencer.
“Tonight is going to be so fun!” She moves her phone to record another angle and styles my hair before shooting another angle for the transition. “Perfect. I’ll edit this one tomorrow.”
“Hey, I look good,” I compliment her work as I look myself over in the mirror. “Good job.”
“It’s easy to make you look good. You’re pretty and you have really nice skin.”
“Does acne go away if you’re turned?” I ask, reaching up and touching my face.
“I actually don’t know. I hope so.”
“Right?” I laugh. “I haven’t seen too many teenage vampires. Though a lot of the older vamps probably were younger than they looked when they were turned.”
“Right. The life expectancy has increased by years even since I was turned.” She fixes her hair and then turns, big smile on her face. “I’m going to go find my Zekey, and then I’ll meet you downstairs.”
“Perfect!” I smile back and get up from the vanity chair. Mabel and Zeke share this room and sleep together every night, but the decor is one-hundred percent Mabel. It’s a mix of 1920s style and over-the-top girlish charm.
I go into the kitchen to get a drink before we leave and see Theo sitting at the counter. He’s dressed in belted dark slacks with a light blue polo shirt tucked in, making him look like someone’s sexy grandpa from the 1960s.
“We’re not staying out long,” he tells me and I stop, looking at him curiously.
“Okay, good for you.”
“And you.”
I shake my head. “Why do you care how long I’m out?”
“Because I’m babysitting you.”
“No.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
I go to the counter and get a glass down. “I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Trust me, I told my brother the same thing.” He speeds over, eyes narrowing as he glares at me. “I don’t like what you do to him.”
“Are you talking about that thing I do with my tongue or something else?”
“Classy.”
“I know.” I smile and open the fridge, which is well stocked for just one person now that Devon won’t be eating food with me. The realization brings an odd wave of sadness that I quickly push aside. “Why are you coming with me?”
“Like I said, I don't know what you’re doing to my brother.”
“That doesn’t answer my question in the slightest.” I pull a bottle of cranberry juice out and turn.
Theo lets out a dramatic sigh. Knowing he had to purposely inhale air just to let it out like that amuses me. “Xavier wastes too much time and energy worrying about you. And since he has business to attend to tonight and cannot join in on your frivolous outing, he’s tasked me with joining you.”
“So you’re mad he found someone to care about. Or is it because I’m a witch?”
“The fact that you’re a witch has no bearing on my dislike for you.”
“Glad to know the feeling is mutual.” I pour myself juice and take a drink. “I’m fine. I’ve proven time and time again that I can hold my own.”
“I believe you. And part of me is curious to put that to the test.”
Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes. “I’m sure you would. Seriously, I really don’t want you to come. You’ll kill the vibe, grandpa.”
“Maybe you should learn to keep your mouth shut then and not tell Xavier that the Order is trying to run you out of town.”
“Okay, that’s way dramatic. And he’s my husband. I don’t want to keep things from him.”
“Oh please, you’ve been married for like half a second and neither of you wanted to get married in the first place.”
“He’s grown on me.”
“Has he? Or is that Stockholm syndrome talking?”
I raise my eyebrows. “So you’re admitting you kidnapped me?”
“Acquired.”
Finishing my glass of juice, I shake my head, dropping this back-and-forth thing with Theo. “I just want the Order to leave me alone. Wasn’t it enough that they made me feel like an unwelcome outcast my whole life?”
Theo doesn’t reply for several seconds. His eyes narrow again and he tips his head, scrutinizing me with his gaze. “They fear you. Keeping you below them made them less afraid.”
“I get that. Doesn’t make it right, but I get it.
People have been doing that forever, right?
What I don’t get is why they’re still trying to control me.
I’m gone. Not part of the Order anymore.
And they’re still running interference, trying to make my life difficult. It’s like they’re obsessed with me.”
“They are,” he agrees, surprising me. “They hate that they couldn’t control you then, and it kills them now. You need to change your perspective on it though.”
“How?”
“The more they try to control you, the more you’re actually controlling them.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it,” Theo says and raises his eyebrows. “Why would they want to control you?”
“Because they’re assholes?” I reply with a shrug.