Fate of the Vampire (19 page)

“Oh, for crying out loud, Mother,” Daniel said with an irritated sigh. “It’s just a sweater.”

“Of course
, I don’t mind trying it on,” I told her, doing my best to ignore Daniel.

I quickly peeled out of my own sweater and slipped the angora over my shoulders. It buttoned up the front with little pearl buttons and had a round collar. It gave me some room in the bust and shoulders but nipped in at the waist. I knew instantly that it flattered my rather hourglass figure where most sweaters tended to turn me into a box with legs. “You made this?” I couldn’t help but exclaim.

Jessie’s mom nodded, a pleased smile on her lips as she took in her handiwork. “I started knitting a few months ago.”

“How did you manage to learn to make something like this in just a few months?” I had to ask.

She shrugged. “When you live for an eternity, you find you have a lot of time on your hands. I’ve found it’s best to stay busy.”

“It’s lovely,” I told her with all sincerity. “Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome, my dear,” she said, and I could tell she was enjoying the glow of giving a well-appreciated gift.

“What do they call these things?” Daniel asked in a droll voice. “A Hallmark moment. When the vampiress teaches her future daughter-in-law how to knit.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m so glad my presence was required here so I could be a witness.”

Jessie glared at his brother. “I see that you’re in your traditional festive spirit,” he said. “It’s nice to know that some things never change.”

Mrs. Vanderlind shot both her sons an annoyed look. “Play nice, you two,” she scolded. “Jessie, where is your cousin? I thought you went out together.”

“We did, but he got caught up,” he told her. I thought I saw Jessie briefly glance in my direction, and I wondered if it was a secret that the two of them had gone to a mortal party. I thought it was best not to say anything. I didn’t want to be the one who let the cat out of the bag.

A servant dress
ed in the purple livery of the Vanderlind family appeared at my elbow. “Salmon mousse on wheat with chives?” he offered, extending a tray toward me with dozens of dollops of whipped salmon on mini-toast.

Maybe it was the fact that I’d grown up in the middle of Ohio, but I hated fish. I mean, I couldn’t even stand the smell of it. But Jessie’s mother gave me such a hopeful look that I had to accept one, along with a small linen napkin. I popped
the morsel into my mouth, feeling the gross fishiness of it sliding over my tongue. I made a little noise of approval and managed to say, “It’s delicious.”

“Do you really like it?” she asked, beaming. “It’s from a recipe I found on the Internet.” She emphasized the word “Internet” like it was a novel thing for her to do.

“It’s really good,” I assured her, hoping I wouldn’t have to have another one. I wondered if there was any way I could ask for something to drink without appearing rude. Vampires sometimes forgot things about being mortal, like that mortals get cold or become thirsty.

“This is ridiculous,” Daniel said.

“Daniel,” his mother snapped. “I don’t demand hospitable manners from you every day, but the once in a decade when I do ask for them, I expect you to comply.”

“Fine,” he grumbled. He was obviously one of those guys who
think that just because they’re not having a good time, they’re entitled to make everyone else miserable. “Although,” he added, “I think you should know that standing around watching you feed Jessie’s pet isn’t all that enjoyable.”

“Why don’t we have a little holiday music
,” Jessie suggested, crossing the room to what looked like a dresser. “That’s probably something we all can enjoy.” He flipped open the top of the dresser to reveal a record player.

“That’s a lovely idea,” his mother told him, giving her youngest son an appreciative smile.

“You always were such a little suck-up,” Daniel said, directing the comment at his brother. “No matter how often you screw up or humiliate the family, you’re always forgiven because you’re so good at kissing ass.”

Jessie laughed. “Is that right, Daniel? Is that why you think people prefer me over you?”

“I know it is,” he replied. The look in his eyes was so hateful, I had the feeling Daniel wouldn’t mind staking his brother if he could. “And I know a lot more than that.” A cruel smile spread across his lips. “Your days as the family golden boy are about to end.”

Jessie glared defiantly back at Daniel, but I could tell he was a little concerned. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked. Daniel was way too smug.

Then from somewhere near the kitchen there was a loud crash. An angry male voice bellowed, “Get out of my way, you lumbering brute.”

“You are not velcome in this house,” we could hear Viggo telling someone. “You have not been invited
, and you are not velcome.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” the other man told him. There was a sharp yelp of pain from Viggo
, and I knew something bad had happened. The man went on to say “This is my house.”

Jessie and his mother whipped their heads around, staring open mouthed in the direction of the commotion. “Jessie, what is it?” I asked, my voice coming out as a frightened squeak. Daniel was wearing a delighted smile, so I knew it must be something very bad.

The scar-faced man strode into the room, his eyes like two burning embers. “I’m home, my children,” he announced. Then, looking significantly in my direction, he added, “What’s good to eat?”

Before I had a chance to even draw another breath, Jessie had scooped me up in his arms, spirited
me out the door, and launched us into the night.

“Jessie,” I said, a bitter winter wind blasting me in the face as we flew. He had me clutched in his arms and was squeezing me so tight it was painful, but I was too frightened to think to ask him to stop. “Who was that man?”

“He’s my grandfather,” Jessie said. He was flying at breakneck speed, trying to put distance between us and the castle.

“Your what?” I asked, unsure if I’d heard him correctly.

“My grandfather,” he repeated.

What he said made no sense, but we were getting pretty close to my house, so I decided not to pester him any further until we had our feet on the ground.

Jessie flew me right onto our front porch even though the porch light was on. If any neighbors
had happened to be looking out the window, they would have had quite a surprise. “What about my car?” I asked him. “My bag? It has all my stuff. What about my winter coat?”

“Go inside,” he said, ignoring all my questions. “Lock the door. Make sure everything is locked.”

“Jessie,” I said, grabbing his coat so he couldn’t immediately fly off into the night. “How is that your grandfather? I thought you said he was dead.”

“I thought he was dead,” he told me. “It doesn’t make sense that he would still be alive.” He closed his eyes for a second, shaking his head slightly as if trying to erase a memory. “I should have known better. When you describe
d the man that was watching us at the graveyard, I should have known. It sounded like him, but I convinced myself that it couldn’t be true.”

“But
…” I also shook my head, almost mirroring him, unable to take it in.

“Aurora, I don’t know what’s going on,” he told me, removing my hands from his coat in a manner that was rougher than he usually treated me. “But I’ve left my mother alone with him so that I could make sure you were safe. I have to go back immediately. Now, get inside!”

He sounded so angry and so desperate, that I didn’t say another word. I just fumbled with the keys and finally managed to wrench open the door. As I was about to step inside, Jessie suddenly grabbed my face with both hands and kissed me rather forcefully.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said in a ragged whisper. “Just know that I love you. I’ll try to send you word when I can.” With that
, he vanished into the night. I stood staring at the darkness for a few seconds, tears cascading down my cheeks. Then I remembered myself, hurried inside, and bolted the door.

After that
, I wasn’t sure what to do. The house felt very still. I was expecting to see my mother, for some reason, sitting at the kitchen table or tucked under a throw on the couch in the living room, but the only trace I could find of her was a plate on the kitchen table. It held a sugar cookie and a carrot. Beside the plate was a note:

“
Dear Santa,

We have been very good this year. The carrot is for you and the cookie for your reindeer.

Love,

Aurora and Helen
”

“That’s right,” I said to myself. The idea was disorienting, but it didn’t stop it from being a fact. “Tomorrow’s Christmas.” Then I looked at the clock on the stove and corrected myself. “Today is Christmas.” It was ten minutes after midnight.

I sat on my bed for a long time thinking about what had happened. I wondered if Viggo was all right. He didn’t sound all right. He sounded at the very least like something was broken. And how was Jessie’s grandfather still alive? I remembered the story Jessie had told me. His grandfather had been dumped into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean by horrified passengers aboard an ocean liner on its way to America. I guess that didn’t guarantee death, especially for a vampire, but it made it pretty damn likely.

I am not proud of myself, but I ended up taking two sleeping pills. I wasn’t an idiot
; I knew it was dangerous to overmedicate, especially with something like sleeping pills, but I was exhausted and freaked out and knew for a fact that one sleeping pill wasn’t going to do a damn thing to help me close my eyes.

The next thing I knew, my mother was gently shaking me and saying, “Sweetie, wake up.”

“Whah ...?” I said, having trouble opening my eyes. They were so crusted over. “What’s going on?”

“I’m bored and you’ve been asleep forever,” Mom told me. “Wake up. It’s Christmas.”

I sat up in bed and gave her a hug. “Merry Christmas.”

Mom and I tried to keep our Christmases pretty simple. We each only got
the other one gift. I gave Mom a vest, which she said she loved, and she gave me a pair of super cute boots, which I really did love. Then Mom always got some kind of craft for us to do or game for us to play so we’d actually have a fun activity to occupy us for most of the day. She always wrapped it up like it was a gift for me, but it was really a gift for us. This year it was a knitting machine and a bunch of fun yarn. “I thought we could try making sweaters,” she said, which made me think of the sweater Mrs. Vanderlind had given me, which was draped over my desk chair. I was still wearing it when Grandpa Vanderlind had burst in.

“Don’t you like it?” Mom asked, seeing the expression on my face.

“No, I really like it,” I told her. “I just didn’t know there was a machine that could do knitting, and I was thinking how long it would take to knit a sweater by hand.”

“Longer than I’m willing to spend,” Mom joked. “Let’s get breakfast
, and then we can try setting it up.”

Mom put on some festive music while we whipped up pancakes, eggs
, and bacon. We’d pick up Grandma Gibson in the early afternoon for another meal around three, so we didn’t load up too much—like we would have if we were having our dinner at a regular time.

I tried to keep my brain from worrying about Jessie and his family, but it was impossible. I just couldn’t stop. Any time I had a free second, my brain would immediately go back to worry. The outcome was that I did most
of the cooking and all of the dishes.

“Is everything al
l right?” Mom asked as she watched me scrubbing at an imaginary stain on the counter.

“Fine,” I told her. “Everything’s fine.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

I thought for a second about how I would talk to my mother about my boyfriend being a vampire and his psycho grandfather showing up to ruin Mrs. Vanderlind’s Christmas Eve party. “No,” I told her. “I really don’t.”

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that because I do,” was her reply. “And I don’t blame you for being upset with me.”

I looked up from scrubbing the counter. “Huh?”

“Sit down,” she said, pulling out a kitchen chair for me. “I’ve owed you an explanation for a long time.”

“Oh
... kay …” I said hesitantly. I really had no idea what she was talking about.

“Danny and I met through work,” she began, a bright spot of pink appearing on each of her cheeks.

“Danny?” I said, unable to hide my complete surprise. I really hadn’t expected the conversation was going to be about a guy. “You work together?”

“We don’t exactly work together, but we met at a conference last year
, and then he had some business within my department.”

“Last year?” I said. I had no idea why I kept repeating her.

“At first, it was just casual. He has kids, and I have you, so I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to make it complicated,” Mom told me. “But then we started spending more and more time together. I knew you were probably wondering what was going on, but in a weird sort of way, I didn’t want to jinx it.”

I gave her a blank stare. I felt guilty because I hadn’t noticed her time had been occupied. I’d been too caught up in my own nonsense.

“We grew very close over Thanksgiving,” she admitted. “I was upset about your father, and Danny was really supportive.”

“Okay.” I nodded a few times. I’d driven them closer by letting my mom think I’d spent Thanksgiving with my dad when I’d really gone to Budapest to face down a family of vampires. “That’s nice,” I managed to say. “But why are you telling me all this now?”

“Well …” she stalled, both of her cheeks red as a rose. “We’re talking about getting engaged.”

My mouth fell open. “What
…?” I stammered.

“I know it’s a lot to take in all at once
, and we haven’t really figured out the logistics of combining our two families, but we want to at least get engaged and then work toward a solution,” she blurted in one long breath.

Too many thoughts started crowding my brain. Many of them were based on the fact that she was my mom and I didn’t want to share her. But I knew that was selfish. I was going to turn eighteen and be heading off to college soon. I was going to be venturing into the life of an adult. I couldn’t deny my mom the chance at happiness with a man she loved just because I was feeling a little jealous.

“Mom, that’s wonderful,” I said, rising from my chair and throwing my arms around her. “That’s so great. I’m so happy for you. I can’t wait to meet him.”

“Really?” Mom exclaimed, returning my hug. “I thought you might be upset because of the other morning.”

“Other morning?” I asked, pulling back to get a look at her face. “What are you talking about?”

Mom covered her eyes with her hand. “This is so embarrassing because I’m always so strict about you not having boys in your room.”

“Mom!” I exclaimed, half laughing but also a little shocked. “Have you been setting a bad example?”

“Yes,” Mom admitted from behind her hand. “And I was pretty sure you saw Danny leaving the house the other morning.”

I folded my arms and gave her a stern look. “You are so grounded.”

As the day closed in on noon, we finally got out of our pajamas and got ready to pick up Grandma Gibson. “How is Grams doing lately, anyway?” I asked, and we bundled into our coats. I was ashamed to admit it, but I hadn’t given her much thought since the funeral.
Oh God
, I thought.
I’m one of those girls who get a boyfriend and then blow off everyone else in their lives.
Of course, my boyfriend was a vampire, and I had to deal with all the entanglements of dating the undead, but that really was no excuse.

Mom shrugged. “I ha
te to admit it, but I haven’t really thought about her much since the funeral.” She hung her head. “I’m a crappy granddaughter.”

“Mom, you’re an awesome granddaughter,” I said. “I don’t know anyone who takes care of their grandparent as much as you,” I assured her. “You’ve just been excited about your own life. That’s a forgivable offense.”

“Thanks, sweetie.” She kissed me on the head. “You’re an awesome great granddaughter.”

I barely remembered to grab the black umbrella as we headed to the garage. At a certain point
, I knew the retirement community staff was going to get tired of me being an irresponsible teenager.

“Where’s your car?” Mom asked as we stepped into the garage. She’d already given me a suspicious look as I put on my winter parka instead of my dressier wool coat.

“I left it at Jessie’s, and he gave me a ride home,” I said. “It didn’t start and they have a mechanic on staff at the castle, so Jessie said he’d have the guy look at it.” I had no idea if they had a mechanic on staff at the castle, but given the size of the building, it felt like a possibility.

“That was nice of him,” Mom said as we both climbed into her car. “I’m glad you’re dating a boy who looks out for you.”

It felt so surreal sitting in the car while Mom drove us to pick up Grandma Gibson when so much else was going on. I was worried about Jessie and desperately wanted to know what was happening. What the hell did his grandfather want and where had he been for the last several decades? It made me want to scream in frustration.

On the other hand, I was also a little blindsided by the news that my mother was on the verge of getting engaged. To
a man I hadn’t even met. And he had kids. A girl and a boy, my mom informed me as we drove, both of whom were in high school.

We had Christmas music playing
, and my mom was chatting along about her future plans. I tried to fake being happy and excited, but I wasn’t sure I was doing a very good job. If my mom noticed, she didn’t comment on it, which was good. I was having difficulty keeping it together. Knowing her, she was probably giving me space to process the engagement bomb she’d just dropped on me.

All of the information I was processing was compounded by the fact that we were about to pick up Grandma Gibson. Neither of us had the slightest read on what kind of state she would be in seeing that we’d both been too self-absorbed to check up on her. I was really hoping for some semblance of a normal great grandmother. I didn’t think I could handle any other challenges piled on my plate.