Donna's heart pounded when she knocked on the thick, walnut front door, which took several moments to creak open. She heard shuffling on the other side of it during her long wait.
“Hi, Donna.” Samee's head poked out and her gaze shifted, as if somebody on the inside, just out of Donna's view was talking to her. “I'm...I'm so surprised to see you here. I didn't know you knew where I live.”
“Your new friend Rochelle mentioned it. I need to talk with you, Samee.”
“How about tomorrow?” Samee's voice was high.
“I'd like to talk now. Can I come in?” Normally Donna would never be so challenging, but normal no longer described her life.
“Um,” Samee stammered. “It's a bit of a mess in here. Maybe...maybe we can go...get something to eat?” Samee grinned hopefully. Donna tried to look past her, but it was dark inside, almost pitch dark. What kind of family lived in the dark like that?
Donna's jaw clenched. “Fine, we can have lunch.”
Even though I’m still full from breakfast at Mo's.
“Great,” Samee exhaled in relief.
“Would you like me to come in while you get ready?”
“I'm ready now.” Samee dashed outside, slamming the door and then right in to Donna.
Donna examined Samee's feet. “What about shoes?”
“Don't need them.” She ran toward Donna's car, hopped off the lawn and landed squarely on the pebble driveway. “Ouch!” she exclaimed.
“That's what happens when you run around barefoot,” Donna said, as if she would know. Barefoot was for people with toes that made symmetrical sense. “Are you sure you don't want to grab some shoes, Samee? I'll wait.”
Samee's gaze darted toward the tightly shuttered windows. “No. I mean, I'm fine like this.”
“No restaurant is going to let you inside without shoes,” Donna persisted.
“Then we'll take the drive-thru.” Samee motioned for Donna to hurry. “Come on, let's go.”
Donna followed Samee to the car, but not before taking another look at the clamped windows. What was going on in that house? Was it a prison? A sex slave operation? With horror, Donna wondered if Samee's family could be responsible for the kidnappings.
This place is so private, tucked away back here behind a half acre of trees.
She whirled around and hurried to the Mustang’s driver’s side door.
The drive to Barker's Burgers took fewer than five minutes, during which time Samee chattered about how much she loved school and how cute the boys were at The Dark Side. But she didn't mention a thing about what was behind the front door of her house at the dead-end of Autumn Lane, and she didn’t say a word about how she'd turned a perfectly normal ex-roommate into a mean-spirited, psycho-bitch.
They placed their order at the drive-thru. A brown-haired girl with multiple piercings and pale, flat eyes took Donna's money and handed her two drink cups and a couple of straws.
“Can you make sure my burger's well done?” Donna asked. The girl shrugged. “If you can, I'd appreciate it. I really can't stand rare meat.” Donna handed her $20.00. She went away, and then came back a few minutes later with the change and a bag. Donna said thanks then pulled forward and turned to Samee. “Why don't we go to The Commons and eat this? New car and all. I’d hate for the upholstery to get a mustard stain.”
“Sure. That sounds like fun.”
Donna drove to the park and Samee scampered to a picnic table only a few feet away from the very bench where Donna and Hunter had sat together the night before. That made pain shoot through her heart, along with the desire to squish Samee's cute little face against a burger patty.
They sat and Donna plopped the bag on the table.
“You seem a bit tense,” Samee observed. “Are you okay?”
“Not exactly.” Donna opened the bag and passed out the contents.
“What's wrong?” Samee grabbed a handful of fries and shoveled them in her mouth.
“Quite a few things, actually.” Donna pierced the straw through her iced tea lid.
“I'm sorry to hear that.” Samee looked at Donna with innocent green eyes and unfolded the wrapper around her burger. “Yum. I love Barker's Burgers.”
“And it all started the very same day I met you.”
“Huh,” Samee took a huge bite of her hamburger.
Donna sipped her drink. “Why did things start getting strange the very same day I met you, Samee?”
Samee shrugged, pointed apologetically to her full mouth. Donna folded her arms and watched patiently while Samee chewed the burger bite, swallowed it and pulled on her soda straw to wash it down. Then she cocked her head and grinned. Donna suddenly knew what the saying cute-as-a-bug's-ear meant.
“I wish I could tell you everything, but I can't.” Samee grabbed another handful of fries. “Mmmm.”
“Yes, you can tell me. It's called opening your mouth and letting the words spill out.” Samee shook her head and took another gulp of soda. Donna rubbed her temples. “I'm tired of being in the middle of everything, but informed about nothing. I'm like a secret agent without a clue.”
Samee took another bite of burger. After she swallowed, she stared at Donna and then sighed.
“Okay, I'll tell you. But Hunter is going to be really pissed.”
“So Mo was right,” Donna accused. “You do know Hunter.”
Samee grabbed another handful of fries. “He's like my big brother.”
“That's really sick, considering what Mo saw at The Dark Side.”
Samee stopped chewing long enough to shoot Donna a puzzled look. She swallowed and then belched. But not like Mo. Samee cupped her hand over her mouth and expelled quietly.
“What did Mo see?” she asked.
“You mauling all over Hunter.”
Samee squished up her nose. “Ew.”
“Ew, indeed.”
Samee giggled. “Does your friend always see the worst possible meaning in every situation?”
“Mo wouldn't lie to me.” Except about having a boyfriend…and being pregnant...
“Whatever she saw, it certainly was not me mauling Hunter.” Samee shuddered, filled her mouth with food again.
“How do you know him, Samee?”
Samee took another large swallow of soda and stuffed her mouth with the last of the fries. She chewed for a long time - almost as if she were mulling over an answer. She finally swallowed.
“Thanks for lunch, Donna.”
Donna nodded. “You were quite hungry.”
“Not really.”
Donna took a bite of her burger. It was rare, of course. “Are you going to tell me how you know Hunter?”
“He's going to kill me anyway, so I'll just tell you everything.” Samee belched again, equally polite as before. “I was five years old at the time.” Apparently, she really did intend to tell Donna everything. “My sister, Ashley, who was 17, said she had a secret to tell me. She said I was going to be an aunty. I was only five, so I didn't understand what that meant. She pointed to her tummy and told me there was a baby in there and that I could be like the baby's big sister. I remember going to bed and curling around my stuffed teddy bear and feeling like the luckiest girl in the world because I had a big sister and I was going to be a big sister. You know how kids are. I thought the next time I woke up it would be just like that. But later that night, a terrible noise woke me up. It was a crash, then a scream. It was dark and I couldn't see anything.” Samee's eyes were heavy with tears.
“Here you go,” Donna gave her a napkin.
“Thanks.” Samee smiled sadly. “I heard footsteps. Thick, heavy footsteps. They weren't familiar footsteps and they sounded bad so I hid under my bed. The light in the hall was on and I was so scared when the shadow of those footsteps crossed in front of my door. I heard another scream - it sounded like Ashley. I knew something was wrong and I knew it had to do with those boots. They thumped back down the hall and stopped right in front of my bedroom door. The door creaked open and
I screamed for my dad. Then the next thing I knew, cold hands clenched around my arm and yanked me out from under the bed. I tried to scream but I was so scared that no sound came out. At the age of five, I was faced with pure evil - and it had the most hateful eyes I've ever seen. It's been ten years and I still see those eyes in my nightmares. And his teeth -” Samee shuddered, “he smelled like death.”
Like the man in my nightmares.
“He laughed at me and said, 'Now that your parents and sister are dead, it's your turn.' I remember thinking that he didn't mention the baby in Ashley's tummy. So I hoped the baby was all right. I scratched at his face, but he slapped mine. Everything went black and the next thing I remember was falling. He dropped me. Then there were people fighting. I covered my eyes and refused to watch the fight, but I could smell it. To this day I can smell a fight from a mile away. It smells kind of like acid.” Samee took a deep breath, closed her eyes. “That's when the other voice said, 'I'll find a way to kill you if it's the last thing I do' and I thought that meant me. But instead of being killed, I was pulled up by a pair of warm, strong arms. They weren't familiar arms. The person who owned them didn't smell like my dad. Dad smelled like shampoo and this man smelled like spices.”
Like Hunter.
“I opened my eyes to a pair of black ones staring back at me.” Samee stopped again, blew her nose. The tears started to clear.
“Was the man who saved you -?”
Samee nodded. “Hunter.” She balled up the napkin and tucked it next to her pile of lunch wrappers. Donna looked down, poked a bit at her food, but didn't eat anything. When she looked up, Samee's chin was resting in her palms and she was watching a baseball game on the nearby diamond. Every so often, people in the bleachers cheered and a smile crossed Samee's face.
“Do you like baseball?” Donna asked.
Samee shook her head. “I'm not much for sports. I just like watching people - especially when they're happy.”
“For all you've been through, you still focus on the good stuff.”
“I focus on what I want,” Samee grinned. “And what I want is for everybody to be happy.”
“So,” Donna asked carefully, “What happened to your family?”
Samee sighed. “They were all killed…just like the monster promised, even the baby in Ashley's tummy. If it hadn't been for Hunter, I would've been killed too.”
“Who was the monster?”
“I don't know.”
Donna swallowed hard and hoped this next question didn't make Samee think Donna was entirely crazy. “Was he a...vampire?”
Samee shrugged as if the question was a completely normal one. “Maybe. Hunter knows, but he refuses to discuss it.” Samee balled up the burger wrapper. “I'm not one, in case you were wondering.”
“Not one of what?”
“A vampire,” her tone was almost regretful. So there it was. Proof that vampires were real.
“But, isn't that a good thing?” Donna finished the last of her fries and took a sip of iced tea.
“It is a good thing for me, but it's a bad thing for Hunter.” Samee shook her head. Sunlight caught the colors in her hair and made them dazzle strawberry and almond. “I'm a mortal, and mortals are weak. I'm weakness to him.” Samee stuffed the burger wrapper inside the empty drink cup.
“You're not a weakness,” Donna said assuredly. “You're a reminder of his own mortality.”
Samee shrugged. “Maybe. But I'm still a mortal who can be killed in so many ways. Hunter worries about me. He also blames himself for what happened to my family. He thinks that if he had gotten there sooner, maybe he could've stopped the attacks from happening.”
“He can't blame himself for that.”
Samee gave Donna a ‘you-know-Hunter’ grin. “So he's taken care of me ever since, and you should see some of the places he's taken me. We've moved around a lot.”
“Why?” Donna gobbled her food now that she knew Hunter wasn't dating the high school girl sitting across the picnic table.
“Because we were looking for you, silly.” Samee said it as if it should have been obvious. “He went by his heartbeat. The louder it got, the closer he knew he was to finding you. All the while, Hunter talked about his Eternal Partner - how kind and beautiful and smart she is. I was so excited to finally meet you.”
Donna thought about it. “Did you meet me on purpose that day when I almost ran over you?”
“It was Hunter's idea that I bump into you, but he didn't intend for it to be literally.” Samee giggled. “He wanted me to find out about you. But I'd have wanted to know you anyhow. I like you, Donna. You're great.”
“Thanks,” Donna smiled. “Why did Hunter want you spying on me?”
“It wasn't so much spying as keeping tabs on your habits. Hunter was just trying to keep his distance.”
“Well, that certainly explains his bitchy attitude toward me at The Dark Side.”
Samee laughed so hard that it made her snort like a donkey, which caught the attention of a young mom with two kids who were playing on the swing set where Donna had sat that fateful night. “Actually, that hardly explains his bitchy attitude at all.”
Donna pulled her knees to her chest then chewed the finger nails on her right hand. “Is Hunter often bitchy?”
“As far as I'm concerned, he always is. And it can't all be blamed on the fact that he's a vampire, because I know other vampires and they don't all act that way.”
Donna looked at the ground. “He tried to avoid me.”
Samee shook her head. “Hunter thought he was doing right by you. Every time he gets involved in any of your lives, they get crazy. So he wanted to step back and let you finally have a normal one.”
Donna nodded. “I do want a normal life.”
“You might want it, and Hunter might want it for you. But the fact is you're Eternal Partners with a vampire. A normal life's not in the cards.”
Donna raised an eyebrow. “Spoken like someone who was raised by a guy who doesn't do daylight.”
Samee shrugged. “And yet, I'm none the worse for it.” How she knew that was beyond Donna. After all, the girl lunged at moving cars and dashed around town barefoot.
A nearby tree branch shook. Donna looked up to see a squirrel busying itself with winter preparations. The squirrel knew what was coming and how to face it. That was how her life should have been. Neat, tidy, and prepared. Instead, it was confusing, maddening and full of questions like, “What blood type goes best with a romantic, steak dinner?”
“I'm going to choke Hunter for trying to make me live my life without him,” she said.
Samee giggled again. “Ever since we moved in that stupid old house, I've been telling him you'd say that.”
“Hunter lives in that big house...” The darkness, the closed shutters, it all made sense now.
“If you can call it a house,” Samee wrinkled her nose.
“Are you kidding me? All those improvements you've done are amazing.”
“The outside looks fine, but the inside is a different story.” Samee smiled, and now Donna understood what grinning ear-to-ear meant. “But I don't care about that anymore now that you're finally here. It's going to be nice to have another mortal around - especially one who understands Hunter.”
“I haven't even begun to understand that guy yet.”
Samee giggled, then so did Donna. In fact, they giggled until an old guy with a yapping, white poodle walked by and stared hatefully at them, which made them giggle more.
Once the giggling stopped, Donna bit her lip and asked the next question. “What's going on between you and Rochelle?”
Samee quietly belched again, like a perfect little lady. It was so entirely unlike Mo's foghorn approach. “I hate to be the one to tell you this...”
“Is Rochelle a vampire?”
Samee shook her head no which made Donna sigh in relief. “She’s a minion,” Samee explained, “which is worse.”
“What could b
e worse than being -?” Donna clamped a hand over her mouth.
Samee smiled sadly. “He knows you would rather he be mortal.”
“It would simplify things,” Donna admitted, but then Samee gave her a look that suggested it probably wouldn't. Donna chewed on her thumb nail. “Okay, then. What's a minion?”
“Minions are mortal servants in the Underworld,” Samee carefully brushed away a ladybug that had landed on her forearm. “In this situation, Rochelle has become the servant to an Underworld creature.”
Donna shook her head. “What would make Rochelle do such a thing?”
“What would make Rochelle do anything at all? She did it for eternal beauty.”
“You’re kidding.” Donna stared in horror.
Samee shook her head. “Nope. Let me explain. A mortal human becomes a minion by selling their soul for a certain price. It can be money, fame, a chance to bring back a loved one - anything at all that means a lot to the mortal.”
That didn't explain anything. “What does a vampire want with Rochelle's soul?”
“It doesn't have to be a vampire. It could be a zombie, or a demon, or any Underworld creature. They all have the power to buy souls. In fact, soul stealing and swapping has a huge black market. You see,” Samee explained, “Underworld creatures have no souls but they crave them. So they purchase or steal them from humans like Rochelle who see more value in what they don't have than in what they do. It's basic economics. Rochelle may have no soul, but she will look beautiful, right up until the day she dies.”
Donna shook her head, contemplating demons and zombie and whatever else might be Out There. “So Rochelle can never get her soul back? The vampire – or whatever - who bought it gets to keep it forever?”
“Well, not forever,” Samee said.
“There's a chance Rochelle could get her soul back?”
“Not at all. The undead world is hard on souls. Eventually, Rochelle's will become exhausted and empty. Then it will wither and die.”
“Die?” Donna shouted the word loud enough that the mom with the kids on the swing sent her a harsh look.
Samee nodded sympathetically. “The Underworld has impossible conditions when it comes to soul health. Eventually, Rochelle's soul will get the life sucked out of it by its host. Then the creature will need to search for another one.”
Donna cringed. “How long does it take for an Underworld creature to suck the life out of a soul?”
“That depends on how quickly it devours the soul. Some Underworld inhabitants crave souls daily. Others might take years between fixes.”
“So it's like an addiction?”
Samee thought about it for a moment. “Maybe. But I tend to think of it as a binge. Sometimes you just have to have that candy bar and then other times, you don't. See?”
Donna saw. Rochelle's soul was nothing more than candy in the hands of monsters. “Who did Rochelle sell her soul to?”
Samee shrugged. “The kidnapper, maybe. Who knows?”
“Is the kidnapper a vampire?”
Samee nodded. “I thought you knew that, Donna. He's the one Hunter's been chasing all these years.”
“I thought Hunter was trying to find me.”
Samee nodded emphatically. “It just so happens that the kidnapper and you always end up in the same place.”
“Well that's an interesting coincidence,” Donna frowned.
Samee nodded as if it were as interesting as watching eggs boil. “Anyhow, I'm not entirely certain who Rochelle sold her soul to. And even if I was, it wouldn't make any difference. Souls are traded in the Underworld like stocks are on Wall Street. There's no way of telling where Rochelle's soul has gone now that she's sold it.”
“How do you know she sold it? Did she tell you?”
“Of course not, silly.” Samee giggled, then sucked in a breath when she saw Donna's disturbed stare. “Sorry. A person usually doesn't even have a conscious awareness that they've sold their soul.” A couple of teenagers playing Frisbee tossed the disc and it landed on Donna and Samee's table. Donna didn't even notice until Samee threw it back and hollered, “Be careful, please. You almost hit my friend in the head.”
Donna rubbed her temples. “Rochelle doesn't know what she's done? The other minions? They don't know, either?”
“There's no guarantee they don't know, but it's quite possible. People sell their soul all the time without realizing it.”
Would I realize it?
“Does Hunter want my soul?”
“Why would he want just your soul when he can have all of you?” Before Donna got a chance to think that one through, Samee looked at her phone. “It's getting late.” She looked hopefully at Donna. “Would you mind taking me to the grocery store? Just once, it would be nice to go shopping in broad daylight.”
“You can't shop in the daylight?”
“My ride to the store can't.”
chapter ten