sure you’re doing alright Sav.” Sam adds.
“You guys only left like an hour ago.” I reply puzzled. “What could possibly happen in an hour?” Um a lot! Have you not been here for your little show?
“It’s almost dawn.” Tyson answers. “We have been gone about eight hours.”
“But it only feels like an hour.” I say even more confused.
“It happens sometimes.” Sam replies. “But what Dominic says is true. We always wanted a girl around.” He walks over to me and hugs me tight. “You’re gonna be the best sister a guy could ever ask for.”
“Oh yeah?” I ask smiling for the first time since this whole thing started. Genuinely. “And how is that?”
“You’re gonna help me get the girls!”
“No she's not!” Dominic says protectively and this time I actually like it.
“I’m not?” I tease him. “But Sam needs a wing woman!”
“Like hell he does.” Dominic all but hisses. I hide a smile – a real smile! Oh my god I’m smiling!
“You could just hook me up with your friend Sophie.” Sam grins at me and Tyson flinches behind him, it’s only subtle but I see it. his shoulders hunch and I immediately know why.
“Or not.” I smirk at Sam.
“Come one Savvie baby!” Sam goes all sugar and spice, batting his eyelashes at me. “You know she’d like me.”
“I’m sure she would,” I agree and Tyson looks even more deflated. “But she’s not for you.”
“Says who?” Sam demands and Tyson looks at me with panicked eyes.
“She’s human.” I say, tearing my gaze away from Tyson to Sam. “So nuh uh.”
“But…”
“Let’s go watch the sunrise.” I say, interrupting. I look at the three boys before me grinning goofily and not so subtlety letting Sam know to drop it. I feel for Tyson. “I want to remember this moment as one of the best first memories I have of being a vampire – wow it’s weird to say that!”
“Yes ma’am.” They salute me and Tyson extends his arm for me to link it with him. I grin at him as I do.
Dominic
I watch Savannah link arms with Tyson and smile.
“She’s gonna be okay isn’t she?” I say to Sam who I know is holding back to see how I’m doing.
“Absolutely.” He answers without hesitation. He’s telling me the truth. “It’s always tough dealing with a reborn, let alone your eternal mate reborn at the same time.”
“I don’t wish it upon anybody.” I answer his unspoken question. How am I coping? The stress and strain of wanting to save her from going through it at the same time knowing she needs to plays havoc with one’s mind. “Except maybe Zeke.”
“Why would he do that?” Sam asks just as the first rays of light shine over us onto the mountains. Savannah takes a deep breath and makes a lot of ooh ahh noises. Deep midnight blues light up the sky followed by pinks, yellows and purples as I look to the universe I smile. “Why would he want to kill a girl you just met who had absolutely no clue we even existed?”
“I don’t know.” I answer. “I have been racking my brains for the better part of a night thinking about why. I don’t even think he meant to turn her. I think he meant to kill her.”
“Why do you say that?” Sam seems genuinely surprised.
“Just this gut instinct I have. Especially since the way he carried on when I was wrestling with him up the mountain.”
“But why?” Sam asks again, not expecting an answer, just trying to figure it out.
“I’m going to find out.” I say. “He must know something we don’t.”
“What could he possibly know that you don’t?” Sam sounds like he thinks I’m crazy. “You see everything!”
“I see people’s futures. There are many many futures for many many people.” I reply. “I don’t always know which one they will pick. Not only that I stopped seeing him after he killed the boys. I don’t know why but it’s the same with Savannah too. It’s like it’s some weird interference or something.”
“What you mean?” Sam seems genuinely surprised. “You saying you can’t see Savannah’s future anymore?”
“I could up until the party the other night. But then it stopped and I haven’t been able to get it back since.”
“What the hell is going on man?” Sam sounds awed, and nervous. “You used to be see everyone’s!”
“Except Abraham.”
“Except Abraham.” Sam nods. “But even Zeke’s… wait until six years ago yes?”
“Yep. I never saw him killing Abe, Brey and Censon.” I admit truthfully. I don’t know why but I never saw it. “Or maybe I didn’t want to see it.”
“I don’t know man.” Sam says knowing nothing he says will change my mind. I will hold that guilt in my non-existent heart until the day I die. The first ray of the sun suddenly lights up the morning sky. I can just see the tip of it on the horizon. “But do you think not being able to see Zeke and Savannah are somehow related?”
“I was wondering that too.” I answer. “I have no answers. Just lots of questions and I don’t know where to start.”
“I do.” Sam looks at me like he's ready for battle.
“Don’t say it.” I sigh, even though I know he's right.
“But he might know something.”
“I am not gonna lose her Sam.”
“Of course not.”
“But what if he chucks up a stink?”
“You’re the last pure Pure left Dominic. You can overpower him any day.” I look at him like he’s crazy and he gets frustrated. “Dude you are! You are a pure for god’s sake whether you believe it or not. Remember that.”
“Hey Dominic!” Savannah calls from somewhere near the small lake Cookie College has near it. “You gotta come check this out!”
“I’m coming Sav!” I call, shooting Sam a look that says speak of this to no one. Tyson doesn’t count. He would have heard everything anyway but was keeping Savannah occupied. Sam nods and I realise that I wouldn’t know what to do without them.
“What am I checking out?” I ask her appearing next to her and a smiling Tyson. Oh my god Tyson is smiling!
“The sun!” She exclaims like a little kid in a candy store. “Oh my god it’s so beautiful!”
“Yes you are.” I agree looking right at Savannah instead. She smiles at me until what I said registers. The smile drops a bit and she looks nervously from Tyson to me and back again several times.
“This is amazing!” She says an emotion filled moment later. “I could get used to sunrises like this!”
“I’m glad you like it.” I say. I look into her eyes and try to imagine the beautiful sky blue versus the red now. I want to enjoy this moment for what it is. Even though I know we need to go see the guy Sam mentioned earlier, I want to give this moment to Savannah. I’m not looking forward to it and I'm sure she won’t be either but he might give us some answers. “We are gonna go see someone today.” I say randomly when the sun has half risen.
“Sophie?” Savannah asks hopefully and I want to say yes. The look in her eyes makes me want to do anything she says.
“No.”
“Oh.” She deflates faster than a popped balloon.
“A guy that might be able to help us find answers about why Zeke bit you.”
“There are more vampires around here?”
“Yes honey.” I smile at her. She has no idea but she will. I just hope she doesn’t rage in front of them and say something stupid. “Lots.”
“Really?” She seems surprised. “But how can there be? Wouldn’t they all act funny or something? Wouldn’t people like notice?”
“You have read too many books.” I laugh. “You actually know who we are going to see.”
“I do?” She squawks. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“Well tell me who?”
“Adam Barton.”
Savannah
“Oh my god.” I gasp as all the signs now click. His eternal good looks
and gentlemanly behaviour. The way he talks with authority like he’s known what he's talking about for decades. And oh my god does he know what he's talking about. I had him as a lecturer last year and the students all say the guy is like a walking encyclopaedia – on everything. Makes sense now! He’s had plenty of time to learn!
I stand there watching the sun for a few minutes absorbing the information Dominic has just told me and admiring the way the sun shines so brightly. A human would blind themselves doing this and yet here I am staring directly at it. A weird sensation comes over me as I am staring out into space. The tingling starts in my throat and spreads through my whole body.
“Dominic!” I squawk, panicking. “Dominic quick something’s happening to me!”
“What is it?” He asks instantly beside me.
“There’s this weird feeling going all over me!” I feel like I am going to hyperventilate.
“Like a tingling feeling mixed with banging your head against a brick wall?”
“Yes!” I exclaim relived he knows what I am talking about. “How did you know?”
“You need to feed again.” He says simply.
“Ah no.” I say backing up as if a human were in front of me now. “Absolutely not. Forget it. Never doing that again.”
“Savannah you’re not going to be as bad as you were the other night.”
“How do you know?” I say as I start shaking. This uncontrollable urge to fly down the mountain has overcome me and I am fighting really hard to stay put.
“It only happens that badly in the first twenty four hours.” Dominic stands next to me and puts a hand on my shoulder. He is trying to comfortable me but all he is doing is making it worse. “Savannah we can help you. Tyson has gone to get you someone to feed on.