Silence: Part Two of Echoes & Silence (30 page)

David followed my puzzled gaze across the rows and rows of cars.

“Is that…?”

“I think it is,” I said, stepping closer as if to get a better look. “I mean, he’s…
so
much taller, but…”

A white flash caught my eye then and a dog barked beside me, sending my soul out through the top of my head in a giant involuntary leap.

I looked down into its icy blue eyes and nearly fell over. “Petey!”

“What are you doing here?” David said rudely, as though he wasn’t actually speaking to my dad and Lord of Eden—as though he truly was speaking to a dog he’d owned for decades.

Petey backed away deliberately, keeping his eyes on Sam and Vicki, and we followed, squatting out of sight at the front end of the car. When I looked at the white ball of fur, he seemed to say, “What are
you
doing here?”

David nodded to him, then shook his head. “It’s not safe for us there now.”

“Wait!” I grabbed David’s arm. “You can read his mind now, or is he
giving
you those thoughts?”

“Concentrate, Ara,” he said. “I’m sure you can read it, too.”

So I tried, while he talked to my dad, but I couldn’t get in. I could hear Sam in the distance calling out for his dog, though, which was breaking my concentration.

“We’re at the lake house,” David said, glancing back at Sam. “Come find us when you can.”

Petey nodded once and ran off as Sam’s calls slowly grew more desperate.

“He knows where the lake house is?” I asked, standing up.

David laughed. “Of course. He was my dog since before I was vampire.”

I rolled my eyes at myself. Duh.

***

By the time I stomped up the steps to the house after my morning run, the sun was up and so was David. I unwrapped my neck and put my scarf over the porch railing, noticing then that it didn’t snag on dry flecks of greying paint. The surface was smooth and looked milky, like the wood beneath all that age and deterioration was white oak.

“David?” I called out, not really sure where to send my voice.

“Up here.”

“Up where?”

Two thuds came from the rooftop. I stepped back down onto the top step and shielded my eyes against the sun’s glare, framing the slender silhouette on the roof. “What are you doing up there?”

“Fixing the chimney.”

“You fixed it the other day.”

“It… fell down again.” He held up a book; I couldn’t see the title. “I’ve got some help this time.”

“Oh. Okay. Good. But…” I ran a hand down the smooth pole supporting the roof. “I thought we were going to work at human speed.”

“We are. Why?”

“Beee…cause you sanded the entire house in under an hour.”

He gave me a guilty grin and disappeared.

“David Thomas Knight! You get back down here and answer for your crimes!”

All I heard was a laugh.

“If you keep working at this speed, we’ll be done by the end of the week.”

“One can only hope,” he called down.

“Yes, but then what will we do?”

A shadow grew over the dirt beside the stairs and a giant beanpole landed heavily on top of it. He dusted his hands off and turned back to look at me, squinting in the sun. “You’re right. I’m sorry, your Majesty. I’ll work slowly.”

I poked my tongue out at him and went inside, taking my scarf with me.

While he pottered around up on the roof, doing who-knows-what, I tore down the old curtains and bagged them, swept out the remainder of the leaves I’d missed last time, and tried my best to mop up the mud and damp that had collected under them over the decades. But it occurred to me, after scraping the mud away and scrubbing the crumbling corners, that we’d need to replace the floorboards. At any moment one of us could step in the wrong spot and fall right through.

By the time David came back down from the roof, covered in soot and grey dust, the inside of the house was clean and ready to be painted.

“The new stove should arrive at the store today. Wanna come into town with me? We could have some lunch before we pick it up?”

I laid the dustpan aside and scrambled to my feet. “It’d be so much easier if we could just get delivery.”

“You know why we can’t.” He walked over to the sink to wash his hands.

“Same reason we can’t have phones. Same reason we can’t have friends. Same reason we can’t even get an electrician out here.” I sat down heavily on the new mattress. “I can’t live in isolation, David. I feel so cut off.”

“That’s because you are cut off.” He leaned against the edge of the giant porcelain sink, drying his hands on a towel. “And besides, I seem to remember a girl saying once that she could live in a world with just her and me and no one else.”

I flopped back, sprawling out. “I did say that, didn’t I?”

“Yes.”

I started a little when he appeared on top of me, his face right over mine. He pushed his knee between mine to part my legs, and dropped onto his hands, holding himself up off Bump.

“And that’s why they say to be careful what you wish for,” he added.

“Well—” I put my hands on his sides, “—when you say it like that, it’s not so bad.”

“Say it like what?”

“When you say it while you’re lying between my legs.”

He laughed and leaned down to kiss me, drawing back reluctantly. “And this is very nice, but it’s going to rain tomorrow. We should get that first coat of paint on outside.”

“Okay.” I rolled up a little and he sat back. “Maybe we’ll paint the outside at vamp speed then—so it has time to dry.”

“Sounds perfect.” He stood up and offered his hand. “In that case, why don’t I go out and finish that job while you get started in here.”

I took his hand and stood up. “Is the chimney fixed?”

“It is. And the few tiles that needed replacing are done. We should be good now if there’s a storm.”

“What about snow?”

He grimaced. “I might replace them all before the snow comes.”

“
If
the snow comes, you mean,” I said, thinking about Loslilian—how I was once told that it was the most beautiful place on earth when it snowed—and a part of me missed it so much then that I felt a little hole starting to grow inside my chest.

“I know the weather here well enough to know that if it was hot yesterday, it’ll be snowing next week,” he advised.

I laughed. “I’d say that’s a fair assumption.”

David laughed, too. “Anyway, we best get to work, my love. I want this done before midday so we can go into town—maybe even get a burger at Betty’s.”

“I’d like that.” I nodded, plotting out each task in my mind.

“Although, if we’re to spend the morning apart—working—we need something to keep us company.” He disappeared into the narrow stairwell behind the bathroom wall, coming back down a minute later with a giant tuba thing attached to a small box.

“A gramophone?” I raised a brow at it.

“What’s a little work without some good music?” He winked at me and laid the gramophone on the wobbly table in the middle of the kitchen. “I’ve just realised we should probably get a new dining table while we’re out today.”

“Then we’ll need a bigger truck than the one we brought the mattress home in.”

“That won’t be a problem.”

“You don’t think it’s a bit of a flashing sign above our heads—you know, like ‘here we are, come follow us to our lair’?”

“No.” He disappeared again and reappeared a second later with a stack of square card sleeves—the records inside wrapped in shiny tissue-like paper. “We’ll be fine.”

“You better be right.” I grabbed the pile of white sheets off the stool beside him. “I’m going to cover everything over before I paint. And we need new floors, by the way.”

“Of course we do,” he said, laying a record gently on the gramophone and meticulously placing the needle on the surface. “The whole house needs replacing.”

“I thought you said it was solid,” I teased.

“Well, perhaps I was wrong.” He pressed down on the floorboards with the toe of his shoe. “But I have a feeling it won’t matter soon.”

“Why not?”

“When we ran into your dad the other day at the store, he had a vision.”

“A vision?”

“You remember the Book of Carmen: Vampirie’s predictions over the course of history—”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” I said lightly, then put one hand on my hip, taking the pose of an angry wife. “So, why are you waiting until
now
to tell me my dad had a vision?”

“I wasn’t sure I should.”

“What?” My hands dropped to my sides with disappointment. “But we promised each other—no more secrets, remember!”

“I know,” he said innocently. “That’s why I decided to tell you.”

“Took you long enough.” I sighed, letting it go. “Anyway, what did he see?”

“A battle at Loslilian.”

“Did he see the outcome—or when it happens?”

“Outcome, no. But the battle takes place in the coming weeks. That’s pretty much all I saw in the three seconds it played out.”

“Damn.”

I dumped the sheets on the bed and walked past David to the sitting area opposite the bathroom door, flopping down heavily in the old chair. Motes of dust puffed up from under me and danced in the spread of sunlight. I watched for a moment, letting this new information sink in.

“I still can’t believe my dad didn’t know we’d been overthrown.”

David laughed. “It must have been an odd moment for him when he picked up our scent at the store, that’s for sure.”

“I’ll say.” I leaned back and stretched my legs out; it felt good to sit down after a morning of hard work. I may have been immortal and super-powered, but I clearly wasn’t super-woman.

“Are you tired?” David asked.

“A little.”

“Why not rest?” he offered sweetly. “I can finish everything up.”

“No, I’m okay.” My eyes did a sweep around the room, summing up my to-do list. “I want to get things finished before we have our first visitor.”

“First visitor?” David looked confused. “Oh, you mean your dad.”

I nodded.

“I thought he would have come the afternoon we saw him.” David looked at his watch as though it indicated passing days. “I’m worried.”

“Don’t be,” I said. “He’s older, wiser, and more powerful than any of us. He’ll come when he comes.”

I closed my eyes then and laid both hands over Bump; she’d grown slightly in the last few days—enough that when I stood naked in front of the mirror, I now looked properly pregnant, not just like a girl that ate too much spaghetti and then swallowed the bowl. But as I enjoyed my moment with the little jumping bean, I felt a presence—felt eyes on me. I opened one of mine.

“Why are you still standing there?” I asked.

He seemed stuck—like he had something awkward to say but didn’t want to.

“Spill it,” I demanded flatly.

Both hands went into his pockets. “Your dad spoke to Mike recently.”

My attention moved from David’s tight shoulders to his face. “Why do you say it like that—as if there’s bad news?”

“It’s not bad news. Not for us, anyway. But I know Mike, and I know he wouldn’t have wanted this.”

“Wanted what?” I stood up, a little wobbly on my tired legs.

“The Lower Council—when they heard he was residing in Australia—asked him to be a Set leader down there.”

My heart slowed and my mouth fell open. “And that’s
it
? You had me in a panic for that!”

“I know you care about him, and he left here to have a life, not maintain the Order.”

“It’s not a hard job. You have to remember the Lilithian Sets aren’t like Vampire Sets. He doesn’t need to chase down members that don’t check in or pay their exorbitant taxes. He’ll just be a peacekeeper.”

“And you’re okay with that?” he asked, one dark brow moving toward the other. “After everything he spoke to you about?”

“Well, no. But—” I moved over to the kitchen and grabbed a glass from the cabinet. “They only
asked
him, right? He can say no.”

“They’re refusing him a Blood Bond if he says no.”

“They can’t refuse a Lilithian the right to a Vampire,” I said, slamming my glass down on the small table. “What will he eat?”

“He’ll have to hunt.”

“That’s not fair. There are hardly any vamps in Australia these days. He needs to Bond with someone to ensure he’s fed properly.”

“I know, but unless he’s willing to take a position on the Set Council, he’s on his own.”

I looked at my glass, biting my bottom lip so I wouldn’t pout. “And this is exactly why I wanted to abolish the Sets entirely!”

“And you did that. And there was nothing but chaos, remember?” David’s arms slipped around my waist and he pressed himself up against my spine. “My love, we’ll fix it—all of it—once we get Loslilian back. I promise.”