Page 44 of Little Wing
My lips twitched into a small smile that only spread wider at the feel of my phone buzzing against my thigh. I didn’t need to see the name light up my screen to know that it was Silas, who got quite good at texting me right as my shifts would end.
“Silas texting you? Like clockwork, huh?” Reina teased. “Sending you little heart emojis or dick pics?”
“Reina!” I tugged her to the side by the arm and covered my mouth. The lack of filter on her could make even young women blush. “I’ll be heading out now, spicy lady!”
Blowing me a quick kiss, Reina waved me off and stepped away to check in on another customer.
Once I left, I pulled my phone back out and confirmed that it was Silas who was checking in.
Hey! Hope you had a good shift. Checking if you wanted to volunteer tomorrow? The younger group really liked when you talked to them last week. They've been begging for more "Evans content"
I couldn’t deny how much I loved hearing that I was a welcome presence at Little Wing. The young vampires found my experiences to be full of valuable knowledge that I once longed to forget. Knowing I could share the history I lived through made some of those tough times a little easier to process. It felt better sharing it than keeping it all to myself. How could I hold it back if they wanted to learn more?
Of course! I have the day off tomorrow. I would love to come by.
Perfect. Come early if you want.
Oh?
Mhm. Need a one-on-one with you, to talk strategy and… whatnot.
Fuck it, ha! Been missing you this week. Want you all to myself for a bit before I let you loose into a sea of young vamps.
Oooh… I’d be happy to talk strategy. Worry not because I can be quite flexible.
The longer I stared at my phone, the more my cheeks hurt. I was grinning as I joined in and made sultry remarks that would have madeReina proud. Even while the shadows of my past lurked close behind, I pushed them further away. I was tired of feeling like I didn’t deserve this affection from Silas. I deserved to feel like there was nothing wrong with me.
What I endured did not brand me with a stain that deemed me undeserving. And as feelings I once felt wither began to sprout, I hoped they would grow and soon blossom.
I wanted to believe that it wasn’t too late for me.
“I’ve got to get going. We can resume later,” I whispered over my shoulder before stepping out of Silas’s office. While I worked to fix my hair that his hands were tangled in just moments ago, I stopped abruptly to find Quinn leaning against the wall, grinning playfully.
She tipped her chin at my hair and smirked. “Good strategy discussion?”
“Oh I—”
“Relax,” she huffed a laugh. “Not like I haven’t done worse all over the world with Mattie. Should have seen us in—” she waved her hand in front of her face andtsked. “There’s a group ready for you up front. Assuming you still want to talk?”
“Goodness, I’m sure we can… dig into that a little deeper, but I won’t keep them waiting. Thank you!”
Ever since Little Wing opened its doors in Fairhaven, weekly attendance from vampires of all ages remained regular. People were booking counseling sessions and attending informative seminars designed to prepare vampires for a life they maybe weren’t expecting to be part of. That was the main reason why I wanted to share my knowledge. What I had to share came from first-hand experiences, but that didn’t makeit any less valuable. At least that was the impression I got each time I was asked to come back to speak, which was more than a few times now.
There was joy in doing this. I could share fragments of who I was and what I experienced because, while the circumstances were dark and often painful, I did survive. I made it long enough to describe world events that couldn’t be found in textbooks.
“Um, Lotus?” a young vampire woman raised her hand. She looked no older than twenty with her hair dyed a vibrant pink and clothes that looked like they had seen better days. “Did you use to wear all those corsets and stuff? Like, not for cosplay?”
“Wait!” another vampire chirped from the back of the cluster of seats. “How did you decide to come out when the treaty was signed? Who signaled that it wasn’t a trap?”
“Alright, alright,” I said, pointing to the young woman with the pink hair. “Let’s go in order, shall we?”
We were setup in the main area of Little Wing, where I could watch people walk in while enjoying the discourse of today’s topic, which just so happened to be the evolution of vampiric identity over the last three hundred years. Not even ten minutes into our discussion, hands were raised and noise increased. I took each question and answered it to the best of my ability. As we continued to talk, I leaned back against the wall that separated the main room from the hallway. I was fascinated by their curiosity.
“Ms. Evans, what would happen back then if someone noticed that you weren’t getting older?” a young man with short black hair asked as he leaned forward in his seat. “Did people get suspicious?”
“Yeah, did they?” another young man sitting in front asked.
It was inevitable that questions like that would begin to come up. While I wanted to keep the unsavory parts of our culture concealed, I knew that it was important information. So many vampires made mistakes in their past. A lot of us committed crimes we were not proud of—all in the name of our survival. When humans began to question our identity, we sometimes had no choice but to act.
