Page 24 of Vampire's Vixen

There was a brief silence on the other end, then he said, “I take it you talked to Denise?”

“I did. I’m sorry, but I’m just going to rip off the bandage. Denise is gay, married, and had no clue about who you are, or what you’re talking about.” I paused, taking a breath before I dropped the bigger bomb.

“I see,” he said.

“Zandre, there’s more, and you’re going to find this out sooner or later. Earlier this afternoon, a few hours after I met with her, she saw a child run into the street in front of a car. She followed. She managed to save the little kid, but she couldn’t get out of the way in time. The car hit her. She’s dead.”

“Dead?”

I couldn’t read how he felt. “Yes, I’m sorry. The accident broke her neck, and she died instantly.”

Again, there was silence.

“Zandre, are you there?” The lack of his breathing was disconcerting. Vampires didn’t breathe, or if they did, it was so slowly that nobody noticed. And right now, he was still as the grave itself.

“She’s dead,” he finally said. “And so this is it.”

“I’m so sorry. There’s not much I can say…”

“Well, you’re right about that. There’s nothing really to say. I let her slip away. I’ve lost her.” He sounded so beat down that I almost felt sorry for him, except he was being melodramatic, in my eyes.

“Zandre, you never really had her. You were in love with a fantasy. With a concept. I’m truly sorry about Denise—she was a nice lady. But you’re going to have to let go of the idea that she was here for you. If you truly want happiness, I can most likely find you a mate, but I can’t if you aren’t willing to open up to someone else.”

More silence.

After a moment, Zandre said, “You’re right. I know it. I suppose I missed Eugenia so much that I talked myself into the idea that she would return for me. We promised we’d be together forever. This was before I was turned.” He paused, then added, “You don’t know what it means, to face an immortal future. Oh, I can make a choice to walk into the sun, but seriously, people relish the idea of living forever, until they actually find that they are. A series of unending days, weeks, years, centuries…it’s terrifying.”

I could feel the barriers slipping, and the real Zandre peeking out. “It must be. I don’t know if I could handle it.”

“Most vampires I know who are over a thousand…they change. They’re no longer human—or whatever they were to begin with. They become something else, distant from emotion. Either they’re exceptionally philosophical, or they’re ruthless. I don’t want to become either one, although by that point, who knows what I’ll be feeling. Having a partner can keep you in touch with your humanity.”

“That’s why you prefer a nonvampire?” I’d wondered about that.

“Right. Losing them hurts, but even pain is better than numbness.” He cleared his throat. “All right, let’s find my mate, Maisy. And thank you—you’ve made me seriously think about my life and what I want.” He sounded much warmer now, than he had at the beginning of the conversation. “I’m glad I decided to sign up for your service.”

And, surprising myself, I said, “I’m glad you did, too.”

After eating dinner, I headed to class. Tonight was cryptozoology, and I was finding it incredibly interesting. In fact, so much that I planned on taking a second class next semester, although the teacher kind of put me off. I wasn’t sure why, but he annoyed me.

I hadn’t heard of most of the creatures discussed, though some from urban legend were stock stories that everybody knew about but few people really encountered.

As I slid into a chair at one of the long tables and opened my laptop to take notes, the teacher—Jason Willows—was setting up his computer’s projection screen. The school had the latest in technology, and what had once been an overhead projector when I was young was now a computer program that projected onto a screen at the front of the class.

“Tonight, we’re going to talk about wild spaces. These are both wild spaces ruled by the Fae and interdimensional portals that can be found all over the world. They’re natural portals, not created, and every shadow town has at least one or two of them. Tonight, we’re going to discuss one found right here in Midnight Point, and on Sunday, we’ll be taking a field trip there.”

He clicked on the screen, bringing up a picture of a chain-link fence barring off some overgrown property. “This is Hollow Hill, and you can see that the city has cordoned off the area. I have permission to lead you inside.”

I froze. Hollow Hill was well known, though most people avoided it like the plague. I thought that it might be haunted, though I’d never looked into it that much—especially since I hadn’t been around town for a long time.

All I knew was that it was a dangerous place. When I was a child, my aunts had threatened me with a whipping if I even set foot near it. I’d obeyed, given they seldom gave out threats of corporal punishment, and when they did, I knew they were serious.

“Hollow Hill was a portal long before settlers came to the area, and a number of people over the years have vanished, never to be seen again. We’re going to discuss where those people might have gone, other phenomena seen around the area, and then on Sunday, we’ll go take a look for ourselves.”

As Jason Willows continued to discuss what we knew about the local ecology and what effect that might have on the wild place, my mind wandered.

I found myself tuning him out as my mind turned toward Saturday night and my initiation into the Dark Moon Society. By the time class was over, I realized I had taken barely any notes and had only gotten the gist of instructions about the field trip. Deciding I’d just have to bite the bullet and talk to him later, I quickly gathered my books and laptop and left the school.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

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