Page 66 of Life and Death
And very powerful.
We drove in silence for another minute, and the wordvampireseemed to get bigger and bigger inside the car. It didn’t feel like it belonged to her, really, but more like it had the power to hurt her. I tried to think of something, anything to say to erase the sound of it.
Before I could come up with anything, she spoke.
“What did you do then?”
“Oh—um, I did some research on the Internet.”
“And that convinced you?” She was very matter-of-fact now.
“No. Nothing fit. Lots of it was really stupid. But I just—”
I stopped abruptly. She waited, then stared at me when I didn’t finish.
“You what?” she pushed.
“Well, I mean, it doesn’t matter, right? So I just let it go.”
Her eyes grew wider and wider, and then suddenly they were narrowed into little slits, glaring at me. I didn’t want to point out to her again that she should probably be watching where she was going, but her speed had crept up to past ninety-five now, and she seemed totally unaware of the twisting road ahead of us.
“Um, Edythe—”
“It doesn’tmatter?” she half-shouted at me, her voice going shrill and almost . . . metallic. “It doesn’t matter?”
“No. Not to me, anyway.”
“You don’t care if I’m a monster? If I’m nothuman?”
“No.”
Finally she stared at the road again, her eyes still long slashes of anger across her face. I could feel the car accelerating under me.
“You’re upset. See, I shouldn’t have said anything,” I mumbled.
She shook her head, then answered through her teeth. “No, I’d rather know what you’re thinking, even if what you’re thinking is insane.”
“Sorry.”
She blew out an exasperated sigh, and then it was quiet again for a few minutes. I stroked my thumb slowly up and down her hand.
“What are you thinking about now?” she asked. Her voice was calmer.
“Um . . . nothing, really.”
“It drives me crazy, not knowing.”
“I don’t want to . . . I don’t know, offend you.”
“Spit it out, Beau.”
“I have lots of questions. But you don’t have to answer them. I’m just curious.”
“About what?”
“How old you are.”
“Seventeen.”
