Page 8 of Kentucky Nights
Daphne’s blood becomes sweet as her heart rate increases. She twiddles with the locket hanging around her neck, nibbling the corner of her bottom lip.
“Do you mind me asking if you have anyone special in your locket, ma’am?” I take off my hat again, not wanting to be disrespectful while talking to a lady such as Daphne.
“Please, call me Daphne.”
“As long as you call me Kentucky. Then, I’ll consider us even.” I smile, and she places the back of her hand on her cheek as if she is checking her temperature.
“Deal,” she says in a breathless way that has me leaning in, wanting to be closer. She opens her locket, and to my surprise, there is nothing in it.
My brows raise in confusion. “Did the photo up and walk away, Ms. Daphne?”
“Just Daphne,” her tone is sweet and light like the air in her reply to me.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Not ma’am either!” she giggles. “But no, I don’t think I have anything important enough to me yet. You know? Something or someone really special, hanging right here over my heart. To me, a locket isn’t just something that holds an image, but it’s meant to hold love that’s connected to the heart.”
“Is that what you want? A love so important it stays with you, like that locket?”
She pinches her lips together, tilts her mouth sideways, and pretends to think. Her finger taps her lips before she snickers in sweet, bountiful giggles. “Yeah, Kentucky. Just like that.”
We lock eyes, not saying a word, and I can’t help but wish I had met her in a different time, in a different life, where I couldn’t kill her because of my need.
I slip her locket off the corner of the picture frame, my eyes pooling with tears as I open it like I do every morning. A slight click opens the delicate silver. It burns my fingertips, but I don’t really care about the slight pain when I know I can heal.
Pushing the oval face to the left, the first tear falls when I open it to reveal a photo of me on the left and a picture of us on the right.
She got what she wanted, and I wish it were enough to soothe the ache of missing her. I’m only content because I know she was happy in the end. I remember her wrinkled, spotted hand taking mine. She was always so cold at that age. Her long, strawberry blonde hair had turned white. Those light green eyes I fell in love with were cloudy. Daphne couldn’t see in the end, but she knew I looked the same as the day I met her.
“Always so handsome,” her voice shook with age.
I leaned into her touch, bringing her hand to my cheek so she could feel me. I didn’t care that she was old or that she didn’t look as young as when we met. I wanted to die with her, but she didn’t let me. She wouldn’t allow me to die.
“Promise me, Kentucky. You’ll live another full life and love another. Your heart is too good and too full of love to give. You might meet your fated mate.”
“I don’t want her. I want you, ma’am. Just you.”
“What did I tell you about calling me ma’am?”
I couldn’t laugh at her joke when I could hear her heart slowing. It was subtle. She couldn’t feel it yet, but I could.
“—Kentucky. Promise me.”
“I can’t do that, Daphne. I won’t break a promise.”
“You gave me what I wanted. It’s time for you to have what I’ve had all these years.”
“I did. I got you, didn’t I?”
“You know what I mean, Kentucky.”
“What did I give you? I could have turned you?—”
“—It’s not what I wanted, and it isn’t what you wanted. You gave me love important enough to stick with me. It’s your turn.”
“Daphne, your love will stick with me for all eternity, fated mate or not.”
She died a moment later with a smile on her last breath.
