Tanner winced. “This is my fault.”
“Brother, what did you do?” Caesar finally ate his own eggs.
Rowan held up his hand. “There’s nothing to do. Celebrating your birthday is exactly the sort of thing I want to do between now and the end. I want to have fun. A lot of it.”
“When I asked you to remember our birthday, I didn’t mean that I didn’t want to celebrate yours. Or maybe I made it too dark or whatever. I…I didn’t mean to. Anyway, that shouldn’t have put you off birthdays. It should have, I don’t know, emphasized them.” Tanner lifted his eyebrows. “We have to celebrate you. When you get home, we’re going to have a whole thing.”
Home? This was absolutely not that. My home was close by, but it wasn’t this ginormous place where Rowan lived. Even if I loved being here with them. For that matter, this wasn’t Tanner’s home either. Or maybe it was, because the guys were there with him. Maybe they were always at home together.
“I’ll be back after school, I guess.” Since my mother had sold me to the vampires. I hadn’t even begun to process that yet. I mean, I wasn’t entirely sure I ever really could. What the fuck was I supposed to do? A thought dawned on me. “I need a ride, please. Can one of you take me? My car isn’t here.”
Ace pulled keys out of his sweatshirt pocket. “Take mine.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Just take my car. Use it like it’s yours. I’m not using it, at least not today, and if I need a car and one of these guys can’t drive me, I will steal one from Rowan’s father. He loves cars, but I’m not sure he remembers how many he has most of the time.”
Rowan tapped on the counter. “True.”
No one had ever just handed me car keys. I’d only managed to get my mother’s because she got tired of driving me around. Easier for her to let me take myself back and forth to work. I shook my head at the thought. No more work. What was I supposed to do about keeping the lights on in the trailer? I rubbed my eyes. “Thanks, Ace. I’m very grateful. If we can figure out a time for someone to take me to get my car, I won’t have to impose on you this way anymore.”
He kissed my cheek. “It’s not an imposition. I’m going to be here all day reading vampire lore.”
Griffin made a gagging sound. “What? Sorry? Just the idea. It makes me want to puke.”
Rowan tapped the counter again. I wondered if he was nervous or if that was just something he did. “You’ve got to get going. Be careful today, okay?”
I nodded. “I will. I’m going to my trailer to get the rest of my clothes. My mom will be gone, I guess. I’ll need them, so I’ll run over there, grab some stuff, and come back here.”
They all hugged me goodbye, one after the other. Not one of them, not even Griffin, seemed worried about missing school. I guessed with their looming death date, it really didn’t matter anymore.
Ace’s car proved to be a challenge. Mine was kind of turn the key and go. There were all kinds of things I had to figure out in his car, and since my phone wasn’t hooked up to his Bluetooth, it was next to impossible to operate the radio. That was okay. I finally did successfully drive to school and park at the back of the lot, where I normally would park my car.
No one noticed me. That was also standard.
I stared at the brick building, a strand of hair blowing over my eyes. This was just going to be a normal day for me. I knew how to get through things in that building.
So why does everything feel so much heavier?
Classes dragged. Mrs. Reemus was back, and she looked like she’d been hit by a truck. I was new to the vampire thing, but the way her hand shook when she held her pen told me she was coming down with something. If she’d only been bitten twice, then she must be one of the unfortunate ones hit really hard by it.
I hated the woman, but my heart panged for her. I didn’t like to see addiction rearing its head on anyone, not even those that had perpetually treated me like shit. My wrist pained me, but I suspected it was more about me thinking about it and not because of any actual issue at the moment.
She left me alone the whole class.
Eventually, it was lunch time. I didn’t have any, so that was fairly standard for me. The library, however, held no interest. I needed sunshine on my skin. I could soak up some vitamin D and not think about anything important for forty-five minutes. Why had I walked in my sleep? What was that about? And there went my brain, not allowing me to turn it off.
I managed to get outside and find a place on the steps where no one was sitting.
“Maci?” A woman walked over to me. I blinked up at her. It was the servant from the night before, the one who’d delivered the news about the guys staying home.
“Yes.” I sort of stumbled to my feet. “I… What are you doing here? Everything okay?”
She held up a brown bag. “Rowan remembered you didn’t have lunch, so Caesar asked that I bring you this.”
“Oh.” I took it from her. “Thank you so much. That is so nice of you.”
She shrugged. “Not nice. It’s my job, and this one was easily accomplished. I thought I was going to have to track you down, but here you are.”
She was pretty. I hadn’t really looked at her before, but she had perfectly balanced features. Long blonde hair and blue eyes. Her arms, shown in a black tank top, were toned. Still, she had the look I’d seen when Rowan pointed out the servants. Her eyes were a bit sunken in. Her cheeks looked gaunt.
My guess was she was in pain. I put out my hand. “I’m Maci. You know that, but I don’t know your name.”
She opened and closed her mouth twice. Finally, she took my outstretched offering. “I’m Charlotte.”
“Did you already eat lunch, Charlotte? Would you like some of mine?” I opened the bag. I should have known Caesar wouldn’t just hand me a peanut butter sandwich. No, it was a whole subway production. And then a brownie. Some water. I blinked and then grinned. He’d written me a note that said Happy Birthday.
That was so sweet.
“I can’t eat it all.” I held up the bag.
She shook her head. “No, thank you, but I’ll sit with you. It’s such a nice day.”
Charlotte was right. I sank back down, and she joined me. It was sort of awkward to eat in front of people who weren’t eating, but I went at the sandwich anyway. It was delicious.
“I didn’t mind coming,” she said finally. “I wanted to get a better look at you. Everyone is trying to figure out who the girl is that has those guys all tied up a week before they move to the next level of existence.”
I almost choked. “The next what?”
“Well, when they get to be vampires, they move to a place above us.”
I wasn’t one to criticize other people’s religious beliefs. Not ever. But I was pretty sure she had this wrong. “I don’t think that’s how they see it. I’m surprised you still do, after everything you must have seen.”
“I can see why you might feel that way.” She shrugged. “I want to be a vampire. I want to have that power. I want to leave this world behind me and open the door to the next great thing. I’m hoping someone will make me their paramour eventually, then change me.”