Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Vampire Summer ❯ A Hard Truth ( Chapter 23 )

 

 

The phone rang several times that morning as I drifted in and out of sleep. Somewhere in the back of my consciousness it registered that I should get up and answer it. Where was Crystal, I wondered.

 

After the third time I remembered hearing the ring, I staggered out of bed. Johnny had taken too much and I wasn't completely coherent—or maybe it was the fact that I had stayed awake all night. “Hello?”

 

“Lisa? Are you all right?” I heard Kenny's frantic voice on the other end of the line.

 

“Yeah, yeah I'm fine,” I said.

 

“Why didn't you answer your phone?” he asked, a note of irritation creeping into his voice now that he knew I was all right. “Were you avoiding me?”

 

At first, I couldn't process what he was saying. Then I remembered I was supposed to be mad at him—hell, I was mad at him! “That would be childish,” I replied snappily. “I didn't get much sleep last night after you left,” I told him quite honestly. “You woke me up.”

 

“Oh, sorry,” Kenny apologized. “Can I see you again—tonight? Talk about what happened? I'm still kind of fuzzy about the whole thing.”

 

“That's just great,” I told him sarcastically. “Kenny, I think we should cool it for a while. Last night proved we were both moving too fast, and I, for one, am not ready. I'll call you in a few days, okay?” I wasn't sure I would be able to face Kenny ever again, knowing what I now knew about him. “Look, I've got to go,” I said. I didn't wait for Kenny to reply, and just hung up the phone. Where was Crystal?

 

I found her outside by the picnic table, happily playing with her dolls. “Why didn't you wake me up?” I asked her, ruffling the top of her head. She had made herself lunch and the remnants of it sat on a paper plate among the doll things on the table. She was becoming quite self-sufficient, my daughter.

 

“Johnny told me not to,” Crystal confessed, gazing up at me with a little smile. “He said you would be very tired.”

 

“How considerate of him,” I said drily. Damn vampire. “Did you have a nice talk with him before he left?” I asked.

 

Crystal nodded. “I showed him my pictures, too.” She reached under another pile of doll clothes and pulled out her sketch pad and showed me the picture she had been drawing last night before she went to bed. A brown haired man with long teeth rose out of the water while the moon shone down on him. Somehow, Crystal had known Johnny would return that night!

 

“Did he say anything else?” I asked, curious to know what Johnny's reaction had been to Crystal's artwork.

 

“Mmhm,” Crystal mumbled, nodding again. “He said to wait for him tonight.”

 

Wait for him—for what? I picked up one of Crystal's crusts from the paper plate. There was still some peanut-butter on the edges. I was suddenly ravenous. “Want me to make us another one?” I asked her.

 

I ended up cooking us grilled cheese sandwiches instead, something that was—as yet—beyond Crystal's capabilities, as I had told her she was not allowed to turn on the stove herself. We took our sandwiches and a pitcher of Iced tea down to the beach for the afternoon, and I actually went swimming in the lake. Now that I knew Johnny's rotting corpse was not lying on the bottom of it, I could go in the water again. I missed the cool feeling of it against my skin.

 

As I swam, I thought about the lake water and how it revitalized Johnny, although I wasn't sure how that was possible. I was afraid that if I asked him, he wouldn't reply. He had used up his quota of explanations on me last night—his words, he didn't owe me any more explanations. So I floated and let the same water rejuvinate me. It didn't do a whole lot for my physical body, but it lifted my spirits. By the time we walked back up to the cottage, I felt calmer than I had in a long time.

 

“We have to go back to Betty's house,” Johnny told me. He had been waiting for us when we got back to the cottage, just as he always used to, before his attack. It was reassuring in a way. Things were back to normal—if you could call what we had normal.

 

“To put back the pictures? I know,” I said. “But I should do that. You don't want to get caught.”

 

Johnny scowled. “I told you that will never happen again.”

 

Chills ran up and down my spine. I realized he meant he would kill anybody who could endanger him if they found out he was still alive—Betty, Kenny, me. I couldn't say I blamed him. “Then why take a chance?” I countered, thinking to protect them as well as myself. “I took them—I'll put them back, somehow.”

 

“That's not it.” Johnny said, “There are other things I need to check in that house, things I saw before. . .” His voice died off. Abruptly he got up and reached for my car keys. “Give me the pictures,” he said. “You and Crystal distract Betty and I'll put the pictures back. Piece of cake.”

 

He didn't come in the car with us. We drove, and Johnny traveled in his usual mysterious way which Crystal had experienced but I never did. Betty was surprised to see us show up at her doorstep unannounced. She already had guests. I was suddenly very glad that I didn't have that envelope marked `Proof' in my purse.

 

“Lisa,” she said, and I could tell she was uneasy. I recognized a few of the relatives I had met at her party. They were all gathered in her formal living room and stared warily at Crystal and me when Betty ushered us in. It was quite different from the other night when they had welcomed me warmly. “You remember Lisa, and her daughter Crystal,” she said to the room in general, and I received a few grudging nods in return. Clearly, I had interrupted some sort of meeting.

 

“I'm sorry if this is a bad time,” I said. “We were just in the neighborhood and thought we would swing by and see if you were home. If you're busy, we can come back another time.”

 

“Nonsense, you're here already, and we're just about finished anyway,” replied Betty. “Sit down, while I put on some coffee.”

 

Crystal followed Betty into the kitchen while I sat in the living room wondering what to say to the three men I had only briefly met at Betty's party. The murmur of a car engine, then the slamming of a car door made us all turn our heads. Either I wasn't the only univited guest, or Betty hadn't been quite truthful when she had told me their meeting was over. I was betting that it hadn't even begun yet.

 

The newcomer walked in, his face closed and wary. He had seen my car parked outside and already knew I was here. As much as my traitorous heart flip-flopped to see him there, I also felt a surge of dread. If Kenny was here, then these three must also have the blood, which meant this was a meeting of the vampire hunters who had murdered, or thought they murdered, Johnny!

 

Please, Johnny, hurry up and do what you came to do and get out of here, I silently prayed.

 

“What are you doing here, Lisa?” Kenny asked me cautiously, his eyes flicking up and down my face, clearly disturbed that I was where I wasn't supposed to be, and at the same time glad to see me. Maybe it wasn't all manipulation on his part—maybe he actually did care for me a little.

 

“Just in the neighborhood,” I said offhandedly. “I didn't realize you and Betty were in some sort of club.” There, let him make of that what he would.

 

Kenny exchanged glances with the other men who sat quietly on chairs in the formal living room. He was saved from having to reply when Betty walked back in carrying a tray with coffee and cups. Crystal followed with the cookies. “We can finish our meeting another time,” Betty said to Kenny. “Now, who would like coffee?”

 

We all sat around and chatted and gradually Kenny relaxed around me enough to sit next to me on the sofa. I moved slightly to the side to give him more room. Crystal had no such problem. She squeezed in between us and stole cookies off Kenny's plate. The girl was very forgiving, much more so than I was. I knew she was still very young, but I had no doubt that she was aware of everything that was going on. Since Johnny had disappeared, she no longer talked about him or about vampires to anyone other than me.

 

I excused myself and slipped upstairs to use the bathroom. I didn't dare go up the extra flight of stairs to the attic, and there was no light on so I couldn't tell if Johnny was still up there or not. I checked my face in the mirror and it was unusually pale. I had hidden the rash on my neck with make-up so I didn't think that would send up a red flag to the group downstairs.

 

As I closed the bathroom door behind me, a strong hand gripped my elbow. I swallowed a scream as adrenaline shot through my veins. “Come with me,” Kenny hissed, dragging me none too gently down the hallway to what I assumed was Betty's darkened bedroom. He didn't completely shut the door so the hall light let me see his face clearly. I'd feared he was angry, but that wasn't it. “Lisa,” he whispered hoarsely, then he folded me in his arms and kissed me.

 

I was too shocked to move at first, and then I forgot I was supposed to be mad at him, or hate him or something, because before I knew it I was kissing him back. After a long moment we both stepped back but he still didn't let go of my arm. “Tell me it's not over between us,” he murmured.

 

I closed my eyes, a lump in my throat. “I don't know,” I told him. “We hardly know each other, Kenny. I realized that last night.” And a lot of other things. “There are parts of your life that I know nothing about—like this club you're in.”

 

Kenny pulled me closer and kissed me again, gently. “We'll take it slow, like you said,” he agreed when we broke apart. “Don't shut me out, Lisa.”

 

He was a cold-blooded killer every bit as much as Johnny was. Who was I to say which one was right and which one was wrong? I leaned forward and initiated the next kiss. My back was to the doorway so I had a perfect view of Betty's bedroom. She had a large double-bed piled high with fancy pillows, an antique no doubt, and two dressers on adjoining walls. Leaning casually against the far dresser was Johnny, watching us kiss with a sardonic half-smile on his lips.

 

Panicking, although I wasn't sure who I was trying to protect, Johnny or Kenny, I wrapped my two fists around the front of Kenny's shirt and pulled him out of the bedroom and into the hallway. “We should go back downstairs,” I said breathlessly. I took one last glance behind me. Johnny hadn't moved.

 

“We'll have the next meeting of the Historical Society next Thursday at . . .” Betty was saying as we came down the stairs. “at your house, Ken? Same time?”

 

Historical Society? I'll bet.

 

“Sure, that's fine,” Kenny said. “Lisa, would you like to attend?”

 

I knew he only said that because I had made such a point about not being included upstairs. He didn't want me at their meetings, which were certainly not about town history—or maybe they were, in a bizzare way—the history of vampires in their town. “No, thanks,” I said. “Crystal has to start going to bed at a regular hour. School starts in less than a month.”

 

Crystal looked up at me in surprise.

 

I was the first to leave. Kenny had to go out and move his car out of the way so I could get out. “I'll call you later,” he promised.

 

Johnny slid into the front seat before I had even finished the turn out of the driveway.

 

“What are you doing?” I whispered furiously. I don't know why I was whispering inside my own car. “Someone might see you!”

 

He grinned. “Like your boyfriend?”

 

Crystal piped up from the backseat, “Kenny?”

 

“Kenny,” Johnny agreed, laughing at my discomfort. At least he wasn't murderously angry with me for kissing the man who had tried to kill him. Or maybe he was, and he was just hoping that if Kenny did see him, it would give him an excuse to kill Kenny.

 

“Did you put the pictures back?” I asked, since that had been the whole reason for this fiasco.

 

“Yeah,” Johnny replied. “I also got this.” He reached under his shirt and pulled out a squarish object, which he tossed into my lap. I couldn't really look at it closely since I was driving, but I could make out that it was a picture frame. That must have been what he was doing in Betty's room. “Put it somewhere safe, would you? Under your mattress, maybe?”

 

After I got over the shock of realizing that Johnny had known about my secret hiding place all along, I chanced to glance down to take a better look at the picture he had stolen, and got a second shock. It was the photo of the Crews, Jonny, Daniel and Emily, the same photo that had gone missing from Aunt Beth's house after she died!

 

I stared at Johnny, my assessment of him all skewed yet again. I had assumed he had killed Aunt Beth and taken those things from her house, but obviously he had not taken them. “You didn't? Aunt Beth?” I was skirting around the words I wanted to say because of Crystal.

 

Johnny glanced over at me with a small smile, but he didn't answer me.