Page 37 of My Road Trip with a Vampire: Season One
His smile falters when he sees my face.
“You’re not ill, are you?”
“Rude!” I tug my hood over my ears.
“What? I didn’t mean anything by it. You look —”
I hold a hand up.
“Don’t finish that sentence. Literally no one likes being told they look tired. Some of us happen to be decaying a little bit every day, so pardon me if I don’t wake up looking rosy and refreshed after doing a zillion shots ofwho-knows-whatwith you last night.”
“No I…” He shakes his head. “That’s not what I meant. I just know you get ill.”
“I’m fine, but you have to give me a heads-up if you expect me to look like that.”
I wave my hands in front of him, gesturing to his nice outfit. He laughs lightly.
“We’ll be driving most of the night, but we’ll be staying with a friend for a few days. She’s prepared for me to visit, so it’ll be quite convenient. She is a bit old-fashioned though. There’s a dress code.”
“That would have been nice to know.”
“I’ll pull over so you can get changed before we get there. No point in sitting in an uncomfortable dress for hours when you can travel in that. Your sweater is too big for you. It’s adorable.”
I grunt and grab my things, trying to brush off the compliment. I don’t entertain flirting once I’ve been rejected. If we’re sticking to being strictly co-workers, then I’ll be the picture of professionalism.
We’re quiet for a long time on the road, and I’m itching to fill the silence with something more than the playlists I’m making him listen to.
“Any research I should do before we get there?”
“No. It’s a standard house haunting. My friend can fill us in when we get there; she knows the home’s history.”
“Our boss approved this?”
His throat bobs.
“Not exactly. Think of it as a longstanding favor that was finally called in.”
“And your friend just so happens to know about my…talent?”
“Quite a few people have been sniffing after your talent for some time now." His eyes cut to me. “Playing with supernatural forces is basically an open invitation for dangerous creatures to show up at your doorstep. You’re lucky I found you first.”
A chill creeps up my spine. I get that feeling that someone’s watching me pretty often, but how many times has there actually been someone lurking in the dark? I lick my lips.
“Real lucky. You do require an invitation to come in off a doorstep, don’t you?” I cock my head to the side. “But you weren’t invited into the mill house back at the pond.”
“That was public property. Tricky loophole.”
“Ah. That makes sense.”
None of this situation makes sense, but I’ve learned it’s easier to go with the flow than to question things to death. I almost drove myself bonkers overthinking everything after my accident.
We fall back into an easy conversation that mostly consists of me asking him questions. I notice he’s guarded about anything that happened too far in the past, so I try to keep us focused on relatively current events.
The sky is deepening to an indigo color that bleeds into gray at the edges.
“Aren’t you worried about what might happen if you get stuck in traffic really close to sunrise?”
“No. I’d go underground and meet you at the location later, but we’ll make it,” he says. “We should stop so you can get changed. We’re getting close.”
