Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Crystal ❯ Chapter 16

Crystal, Chapter 16:

 

 

We piled into Michael's car for the last leg of our trip as soon as it got dark, but not before Johnny and I refreshed ourselves with some local blood. Johnny woke up around five, long before true dark, and as usual, the Brown men underestimated his ability to withstand the light of day.

 

Being a girl had its advantages. We all rested until afternoon, and then we went to find something to eat. Paul said his mother would have a late supper ready for us when we got to her house, but we should eat our main meal here. Afterwards, I wandered around the shops until all the boys had glazed looks on their faces and followed me like zombies. I took pity on them, and sent them back to the bed and breakfast to gather up our things. “I can find my own way back,” I assured them, glancing at the late afternoon sky. Johnny should be up soon. They were too ready to take me at my word, and practically ran out of the last shop, leaving me alone at last.

 

I waited until I was sure they were gone before I made my way down to the lake. Johnny met me halfway. He was wearing different clothes, including a lightweight orange windbreaker with the hood pulled down low over his face. I turned my face up for a quick kiss, and he scooped his arm around my waist. We walked back to town that way, leaning into each other, as the sun turned the lake golden.

 

We followed a tourist family to their parking area, and Johnny caught the husband as he went to use the facilities, then went back for the wife and their two kiddies as they sat in their car waiting for the man to reappear. I crawled into the back seat next to the sleeping kiddies, and took a very little bit of blood from each of them. Johnny had taken more from the parents. None of it was enough to harm them permanently. Paul and Michael wouldn't see it that way, which is why we weren't going to tell them. They still believed in the old ways—that a vampire never touched human blood unless it was from an enemy, or offered freely. Johnny no longer believed in the old ways, for the most part. Me, I don't know what I believed, but I trusted Johnny.

 

Satisfied for the moment, we headed back to the bed and breakfast.

 

“Look who I found,” I said, swinging Johnny's arm. We were holding hands.

 

Michael glanced out the window at the setting sun, then back at Johnny, whose face, thanks to the blood he had just had, wasn't even red. “Are you sure you should be—out?” Michael stumbled over his words.

 

“Why not?” Johnny asked insouciantly.

 

Michael didn't know what to say to that. He grabbed his car keys and brushed past me on his way out the door, giving Johnny a wide berth. “Then we should be going,” he said brusquely.

 

I cuddled next to Johnny as we drove, first on main roads, then as we got farther north, on narrower ones where we had to pull over occasionally when another car came from the other direction. Night fell, and I drifted in and out of sleep. It was too dark to see any scenery, and all of the boys, including Johnny, were lost in their own thoughts.

 

“We're here.” Michael pulled the car into a narrow lane between a row of hedges and a dark building. Around the front of the building a yellow light glowed softly, marking the entrance.

 

All of a sudden, lights turned on in the main house and the front door flew open.

 

“There you are!” A compact woman, older than my mother, came towards us, arms outstretched. “Let me look at you,” she said to me after she hugged me. “I'm so happy you came!” She glanced around. “I thought you were bringing your boyfriend.”

 

I looked, too. Johnny was gone. I hadn't even seen him leave. By the look in Paul and Michael's eyes, neither had they.

 

“He went around back to stretch his legs,” Uncle Robert said, bringing all our attention back on him. “Hello, Rose.”

 

Paul's mother blinked, as if noticing her ex-husband for the first time. “Robert,” she murmured. “It's good to see you.”

 

There was a history between them that was palpable to the rest of us standing awkwardly by the car. At first, I thought maybe she had married Uncle Robert for his bloodline, much like Paul had wanted to marry me for the same reason. But they had kept in touch over the years, even after their divorce. Now, seeing them face each other in the dimly lit driveway, I felt there was something more to their relationship. Was it because the blood called to the blood? Were they drawn to each other despite the distance and the passage of time? Or had they truly loved each other once, and never really gotten over it?

 

The moment passed, and Uncle Robert reached forward to shake his ex-wife's hand, his professional salesman's smile pasted across his face. “It's been a long time. We have lots to talk about. I see you kept the old place. ” He hesitated. “Thank you for sending our sons to me.”

 

Mrs. Brown, obviously flustered, murmured something unintelligible and waved us all inside. Her house was small, but neatly put together with an upstairs just as small as the downstairs. I wondered where we would all sleep.

 

She had a fire roaring in the fireplace. Even in August, the nights got chilly this far north. We brought in our luggage. There was still no sign of Johnny.

 

“You can sleep in here, dear,” she said, showing me to a small bedroom on the upper floor. There was a narrow bed near the only window. “This used to be Michael's room. Your young man can have the room across the hall, with Robert.” Her eyes took on a steely, no-nonsense look. “I hope you weren't thinking otherwise. I don't like to make judgements out of turn, but I was quite surprised when Paul told me you would be bringing your young man along instead of your parents and your younger brothers on this trip. I was so looking forward to meeting them.”

 

I wondered where Johnny had disappeared to. Had he gone looking for his vampire brother already? “No, no that will be fine. He won't mind,” I said. “Thank you for inviting us. My parents wanted to come, too, but they couldn't get passports for the boys so quickly.”

 

Mrs. Brown's mouth quirked. “So I've been told,” she said. “Pity.”

 

I'll bet. Mrs. Brown was definitely in on the plot to kidnap my little brothers. Pity, my foot. I smiled politely. She was a nice lady, and I guess she had her reasons, but I didn't like it that she thought she had me fooled. If she had her way, I'd still be dating her son Paul. I don't think she was too happy about my `young man,' as she called him. Wait until she met him.

 

We were at the table, having sandwiches and tea, when Johnny knocked at the door. Paul let him in, bemused but not saying anything. I hopped up to introduce Johnny to our hostess. “Mrs. Brown, this is my boyfriend, back from stretching his legs.” I frowned up at Johnny, who smiled blandly back at me.

 

“Pleased to meet you,” Mrs. Brown replied, getting to her feet. “Don, isn't it? Welcome to our home. Have a seat. Would you like some tea?”

 

“Thank you, yes,” Johnny replied. He took a seat next to me, keeping his distance from Mrs. Brown. Paul caught his glance once, and Johnny slowly shook his head. He would reveal himself to Mrs. Brown in his own good time. Paul nodded back.

 

“I hope you didn't get lost on your walk,” Mrs. Brown said, passing the plate of sandwiches to Johnny, who smiled and declined. “It gets dark out here on the bluff. There's a sharp drop down to the loch. You'll be able to see it better in the morning.”

 

“Probably,” Johnny agreed. “You're alone up here?”

 

“There are other houses down the road,” Mrs. Brown replied. “And Michael's house is a ways down near the village proper. They can take you down tomorrow to have a look around.”

 

“I'd like that.” He sipped his tea, and watched Mrs. Brown over the rim of his cup. I yawned. It was getting late, and all our traveling was finally catching up with me.

 

Michael stood up. “I'd better be going,” he said. “Annie doesn't even know I'm back, yet.”

 

Annie? “You're married?” I blurted. Somehow, I never pictured Michael as having a wife or even a girlfriend.

 

“Married, and with a little one on the way,” Paul said, smiling. “I'm going, too. I'll stay at Michael's while you're here. Dad and J—Don have my room.”

 

“Oh!” I said. I hadn't realized.

 

Mrs. Brown walked her sons to the door and spoke quietly to them in a different language. I already had to listen carefully to catch what she said in English. This language wasn't the old, secret language of the Picts. I couldn't understand any of it.

 

“It's Gaelic,” Johnny said softly. He leaned his elbows on the table and listened shamelessly. “She's complaining to her sons about me.” His eyes twinkled. “She thinks I can be easily swept away, and that Paul should try harder.”

 

“I'll talk to her,” Uncle Robert said.

 

“No, don't,” Johnny replied. “I'll handle it.”

 

“All right, then, bed!” Mrs. Brown closed the door behind her sons. I caught Paul's anxious gaze before the door closed. He was worried about his mother, but he understood enough by now about Johnny to realize that if he pressed the issue, Johnny would take it to where nobody wanted it to go. He had no choice but to trust Johnny wouldn't harm his mother. Since Johnny hadn't permanently harmed Paul or his brother, and since he wanted to come here, it was a safe bet that he wouldn't harm Mrs. Brown. Much.

 

I helped clean up the dishes, and Uncle Robert banked the fire, then we all went up to our beds. Johnny dutifully followed Uncle Robert into the room that belonged to Paul. I knew he wouldn't stay there; Uncle Robert knew it, too.

 

Johnny crawled into my narrow bed with me and I shifted to make room for him. “Where did you go?” I whispered, seeing his eyes reflect moonlight from my single window.

 

“To the loch,” he said, pronouncing it like Mrs. Brown did. How quickly he fell back into the old familiar patterns. My heart lurched. Was I losing him already?

 

“Did you find anything?” I asked, almost afraid of the answer, but Johnny shook his head.

 

“No,” he said. “But it doesn't mean he isn't there. He may be sleeping until he is called. That's what we used to do.”

 

I remembered Johnny, too, slept under our lake for years, decades sometimes, until something, maybe loneliness, drove him to awaken and join the real world again for a time. It was only since he met us that he stayed awake more often, sleeping the deep sleep only during the winter months.

 

“What about Mrs. Brown?” I asked. “Are you going to tell her who you really are?”

 

Johnny chuckled. “Eventually,” he said. “I'll give her enough rope, first.”

 

“What does that mean?”

 

“You'll see.” He held me close for a minute. “Do you want to see the loch?”

 

“Now?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Okay.”

 

Somehow we opened my tiny window and made it down to the ground without mishap. It was still so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, and I clung to Johnny as he drew me with him across the yard and down a steep hill to the bottom where a dark lake gleamed in the moonlight. I touched my hand to the water and pulled it back. It was cold, much colder than our lake at home. Johnny laughed softly and pulled me closer for a soft kiss.

 

“Are you going to sleep here tonight?” I asked. What if another vampire really was sleeping in this lake? Would he sense it if Johnny entered his territory?

 

“Yes,” Johnny whispered against my ear. “Just until morning. Mrs. Brown says we should see the loch in the morning light.”

 

I could feel his shoulders shake as he laughed silently. Mrs. Brown would certainly not suspect Johnny was a vampire if she saw him in the daylight. Uncle Robert had been shocked. Paul and Michael had been shocked. Apparently, their vampire hadn't let them in on that particular little secret.

 

“How do you call a vampire?” I wondered out loud, thinking of what Johnny had said about the other vampire who was probably sleeping in this lake.

 

“You know,” Johnny said. “You called me once.”

 

The time Paul was about to kidnap my little brothers, I had gone down to the lake and cut the palm of my hand. I let the blood drip into the water as I called for Johnny to help me. “Blood,” I said, remembering. Then, as I thought about it, “Mmm, blood. Johnny, do you think maybe we could get some blood before we have to go to sleep?”

 

Johnny chuckled. “Bloodthirsty, aren't you? Tomorrow, I promise. Tonight, we just rest.” He picked me up so we could run back up the hill, and I could sleep in my lonely, narrow little bed, and he would go back under his cold, dark loch.

 

“Sure,” I said, half-joking. “You probably already had a snack when you went out to stretch your legs. I know, I know,” I said, as I caught his look of protest. “I don't really need it.”

 

I kissed Johnny good-night. I didn't need it, but oh, how I wanted it. I rolled over and closed my eyes. Tomorrow should be interesting.