Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Vampire Summer ❯ Chapter 14: Trust ( Chapter 14 )

 

 

When I awoke, it was completely dark, but I could feel that I was still on the couch. Slowly my eyes adjusted until I could make out the vague shape of Johnny sitting opposite me.

 

“Crystal?” I croaked. My throat was so dry it hurt.

 

“Sleeping.” I felt Johnny move, then a glass of water was pressed into my hands. I drank greedily.

 

“What time is it?” I struggled to get up, but Johnny pushed me back onto the couch.

 

“You wanted to talk? Talk,” he said roughly.

 

I sighed. “I need you to tell me the truth,” I said. “What happened to you out there today?” I peered into his face, which didn't appear quite so raw. It looked like either my blood or the darkness had helped, just as it had last time.

 

“What do you think?” Johnny sneered. “I got burned by the sun. I am a vampire, you know.”

 

“What does that mean? I still don't have any idea!” I said in frustration. “You scare me to death! Then you go and do something stupid like this, and I feel—I feel—I don't know what I feel.” I shook my head, having said more than I intended. The click of the lamp on the side table warned me and I averted my eyes from the glare just in time to see Johnny's lips twitch in amusement. Mercurial.

 

“I'm fine now,” he assured me. “I suppose I should thank you. Why did you offer me your blood?” He sounded puzzled. It wasn't as if he wouldn't have just taken it sooner or later anyway. He did last time.

 

I didn't answer. I sipped my water and gathered my thoughts. There were so many things I wanted to ask. What had Johnny done to my father? What did my father know about our family's past that now was erased? Why? It was time Johnny and I cleared the air and got everything out into the open.

 

Johnny gave a short laugh. “You and your daughter are more alike than I thought,” he said. He leaned back in his chair and regarded me. “I wanted to know if Bethany and Eddie had the blood. Your brother doesn't. If he had, he would have reacted to me like your father did, but he didn't. But the children are too young. I had to taste to be sure.”

 

I began to feel sick. Every time I let my guard down, every time I started thinking of Johnny as `human,' he did or said something to remind me of the truth. He didn't think the same as us.

 

Johnny must have seen something in my eyes, because he held up his hand and gave me a very brief, bitter smile. “I didn't,” he said. “Crystal stayed by my side and put herself between me and the two children. She knew why I was there. Crystal held out her arm for me instead.”

 

My eyes widened. No!

 

“I will not take Crystal's blood until it is time,” Johnny continued, dismissing my growing upset. “If I had taken the blood, either hers or the children's, I would have been fine. But Crystal protected her cousins by offering herself, and I would not touch Crystal's blood, so I did without. You saw the result.”

 

He had let himself burn. Stupid vampire.

 

“Why is it so important to find out if they have `the blood?'” I asked, hoping I was wrong in my theory that he was looking for a potential replacement for Crystal if he was unsuccessful in changing her. “You said my father knew what you are because he had the blood. What did you do to him?”

 

Johnny stared at the unlit fireplace. In profile, his face looked so young. “I answered your question,” he said. “I don't owe you anything else.”

 

“How can I help you if I don't know what's going on?” I asked, surprising myself. Since when had I decided to help Johnny?

 

He must have wondered the same thing. “Who said I need your help?” he responded gruffly, still staring at an imaginary fire.

 

I put my hand on his arm. “Johnny,” I said softly. “You did. Every time you tell me bits and pieces of your story, you're reaching out. So now I'm reaching back. But I can't do anything with bits and pieces. I'm asking you to trust me a little more.” Johnny had stiffened and slowly turned to face me. I took my hand back. “Besides,” I smiled, “you can always kill me later. Right?”

 

He fought a smile, but he replied, “You don't know what you're asking. You should just let it go. It's late. Go to bed before Crystal wakes up and wonders where you are.”

 

“Fine, but at least tell me what you did to my father. ”

 

Johnny's eyes narrowed, but he answered me. “No, I don't owe you for that. Normally, I would have killed him, slow or fast, once I knew he had the blood and had recognized me for what I am. You should be grateful that I let him live at all. He didn't know any people from the town, but he knew that his father, your grandfather, Philip, came from here. Philip warned your father to stay away from the townspeople, but he never told him any more than that.”

 

“Do you think my grandfather knew about you? You recognized his name, didn't you? If he was trying to protect his family from you, why did he come back here?” I wondered.

 

Johnny shook his head. “No, Philip had no idea what I was. He didn't have the blood.”

 

“But he knew you?” I persisted.

 

“I knew him,” Johnny replied. “Leave it. Don't ask me any more questions. Go to bed.”

 

I was dismissed. I yawned and went to the room I shared with Crystal. What was it about this place that drew people, or at least my family, here? And why did my grandfather warn Dad to stay away from the townspeople? There were too many unanswered questions. Maybe I could get Betty to see what else she could find out from the town records.

 

“Shh!” Crystal cautioned me the next morning when I turned on the radio in the kitchen. “Johnny's sleeping.” I came out to the living room, where Crystal was watching television with the sound turned uncharacteristically down low. The door to the front bedroom was shut tight.

 

“In there?” I was astounded. This was the first time Johnny had stayed past morning. “He didn't go home?” Wherever home was. He must have taken my little speech about trust to heart.

 

Crystal nodded. “He was very tired,” she said. “I told him he could sleep over. That's all right, isn't it?” Crystal looked at me with anxious eyes.

 

I sat down next to Crystal and put my arm around her. She snuggled into my shoulder. “I'm surprised, that's all.” I said. “You were worried about him?” Yesterday afternoon, when I had sent her in to take a shower so I could offer my blood to Johnny, she had gone without a word of protest. I should have guessed that something wasn't right. Crystal usually gave me grief about washing up.

 

She bobbed her head up and down against my shoulder, and I pulled her tighter to me. Poor little girl. We both felt sorry for the vampire. “You really like Johnny, don't you?” I asked softly.

 

“Yeah,” she said. “Mommy, why did he take your blood and not mine? He was hurt, but he wouldn't drink my blood.”

 

“Because I'm big, honey,” I said. “I can afford to give up some blood. You, on the other hand, are still little and need all your blood inside you. I thought we talked about this.”

 

Crystal pulled away and stared up at me, on the verge of tears. “That's what Johnny said, too. But why did he try to take Bethany and Eddie's blood? They're littler than me.”

 

I could hear the hurt in Crystal's voice. “It was a mistake, honey,” I told her. “Johnny made a mistake. He wasn't going to hurt your cousins; he told me so. You were a very brave girl for protecting them.” Now, all I had to do is make sure Johnny never had the opportunity to be near them again. He hadn't thought he was making a mistake. I knew he would try to taste them again if he could, and it still bothered me that I didn't know why it was so important to him.

 

Crystal looked doubtful, but she accepted me at my word and soon was back to watching TV. I made us both something to eat, and we tiptoed around the cottage so we wouldn't wake up the vampire. Was this the next step in our screwed-up relationship? Moving in together?

 

I so very badly wanted to see what lay beyond that bedroom door. Was he `dead' while he slept, or did he breathe? Could he hear us? Would he wake up if I went in there? What would happen if I raised the shade on the window? I was pretty sure he wouldn't go up in a puff of smoke, but would he burn through the glass? Otherwise, why didn't he hang around inside the house during the daytime? There must be some reason why he slept. Vampirism was more than having a third-shift job, wasn't it?

 

At four o'clock, the bedroom door creaked open. Johnny emerged, scratching his tousled hair and blinking. His eyes focused first on Crystal, who had maintained her post on the couch all day long, declining even to go swimming as we usually did in the afternoons. She met his eyes and smiled shyly. Then Johnny looked at me, and I couldn't decipher the expression I saw there. Defiance? Resignation? Perhaps a combination of the two. He didn't speak to me, however.

 

“You did a good job, Crystal,” he said to my daughter, taking her small hand and pressing it to his lips in a gallant kiss. “I'll be back later.” He walked out the front door and left me wondering about his remark.

 

“Were you guarding Johnny today?” I asked Crystal. “From me?”

 

“Mmhmm,” Crystal replied, engrossed in her program.

 

So much for trust.

 

Later we all went down to the beach for a late night swim, but Johnny wouldn't go in the water. Maybe vampires couldn't swim. He built sand castles on the beach with Crystal while I swam. When he had come back from wherever it was that he had gone, he had been in a good mood. All traces of his sunburn had disappeared.

 

I dove under the water and let it stream through my hair. Night swimming was the best, vampire or no vampire. There was an island off shore, no more than a few trees on a clump of dirt. The boats used it as a point to circle around on their ski runs during the day. I struck out towards it—it wasn't that far. Crystal was safe enough with Johnny.

 

“Ew, ew, ew,” I muttered as I carefully waded to shore. The ground here was mucky and soft. I hoped there were no snakes. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. I finally reached a piece of mossy, relatively dry land, and I sat and looked out over the water towards the beach. I could swear I saw Johnny's eyes gleam in the moonlight. He was watching me watching him. I finally had found a place where he couldn't get to me, and I smiled in satisfaction. Of course, it was only temporary. I would never leave Crystal to him, even though I didn't really believe he would hurt her anymore. He felt something for my little daughter that he did not feel for me. It still didn't mean I was just going to let him have her when she got old enough. I just wasn't sure anymore how I was going to stop it.

 

Eventually, I swam back to the beach. Crystal had fallen asleep on the blanket and Johnny had covered her with a towel. I sat down beside him, completing our little family picture. If it weren't for the fact that it was dark outside and the moon was shining instead of the sun, it would have been the perfect day at the beach.

 

“Johnny,” I said, “You realize that at the end of the summer Crystal's got to go to school and we will have to go home. There's the whole situation with Sam and the divorce, and I don't know what's going to happen. We can't stay here. The cottage isn't a year-round house. It has to be shut down in the winter.” I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. “I don't know what we are, the three of us, but you can't come with us.”

 

“I know.” Johnny spoke quietly. “I will wait. You will come back.”

 

He sounded so sure. “Well, just as long as you understand,” I replied. We had the rest of July and all of August to go yet. I hadn't heard from Sam since the last time he left in a huff. I needed to straighten out that mess soon before he did something we all would regret. Johnny would not tolerate losing Crystal to Sam, and neither would I.