“The bar is the best kind of place to work; the number of people and the amount of energy they bring with them fills the place. You must’ve been clubbing. The energy in those places is huge and people who are at the bar don’t notice losing any to me. So, if there’s been no Shades through in the house, I can absorb some at work and I don’t need to go looking elsewhere.”
I nod and slurp my coffee, wishing this were a normal relationship with a normal guy, not someone who cavalierly talks about sucking the life out of people.
“Will I get urges to feed that I can’t control, like real vampires and blood?”
“Only if you’re really low on energy and probably not for a few years yet.” He strokes my hair. “Don’t stress; the world is safe from you.”
I push his shoulder. “This isn’t funny!”
Alek doesn’t apologise. Time for a subject change. “I know this guy who says there are people at the hospital who are killing patients,” I say.
“What guy? What did he tell you?”
“Not much. He’s a paranormal investigator and…”
“A what?” asks Alek with a laugh.
“He investigates ghosts and other supernatural occurrences.”
“A ghostbuster? There’s loads of those freaks around. The Shades have great fun winding them up.” He shakes his head. “What exactly does he know?”
“Not much; he works in the morgue and…”
This time Alek’s amusement heads toward hilarity at my comment. “Of course he does! Does he take his equipment with him? Zaps a few of the unwelcome residents?”
I’m offended on Tom’s behalf. “He’s a nice guy!”
“That doesn’t mean he genuinely knows anything. Humans can delude themselves into seeing things they want to and ignoring things they don’t.”
“If there really is something going on at the hospital that’s a threat, it might affect us. Tom should be able to help.”
“Rose. Firstly, I couldn’t care less how many people are dying; secondly, the answer to who’s responsible is Finn. You know that.”
“No. He denied it and I believe him. Tom says it’s something darker…So did Finn.”
Alek stands and turns to me. “Did you listen to the crucial fact he was sent to kill you, Rose? And you’re still talking to this guy!”
“I told you I spoke to him!”
“I’m trying to keep you safe; you could at least help yourself!” he snaps.
I cross my arms and frown at him. “And I said I didn’t want keeping safe!”
“You need to stop thinking you have control over your life, Rose. That went the day Finn sent you back here! What are you going to do? Live a long and happy life as Miss Independence? Get married and have kids? Not going to happen.”
His words are a slap; a future I’d not considered is as lost to me as everything else. But I won’t let Alek see he’s upset me. “I can still be me.”
I’m unsure if Alek means to look down at me with pity, but he does. “And what’s that, Rose? What are you? Because you’re not Rose Walker, not anymore.”
“I am! I have a job, records, a birth certificate, and no death certificate!”
Alek pushes a hand through his hair. “Yeah, for now. What about in twenty years’ time, and you look the same?” He catches my bad attempt to show I’m not bothered. “Look, if you don’t want to deal with this right now, I don’t blame you. Okay, so I annoy you sometimes, but I’m better for you than some weird dude who works in a morgue and a Reaper sent kill you!”
He’s right. I don’t want to face this. I’ve never wanted to admit anything has changed since the night I almost died. I wouldn’t listen when family and doctors told me I needed more time to recover. I couldn’t accept my life had been interrupted, and so I left the childhood home I’d been forced to return to, got this job, and proved a point to them all. Everyone was surprised by how well I coped and so quickly after such a major accident. If only they knew the truth about my new life, the truth I can’t accept myself.
“I’m getting ready for work.” I move toward the bedroom door and Alek extends a hand to stop me. I shrug him off.
Conversation and ceasefire over.
***
Dressed and ready to leave for the day, I duck into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. Alek is in the lounge watching TV, long legs stretched on the table in front of him.
“Are you going to work?” he asks, not looking at me.
“I told you I had a shift.”
“You’re not going.”
“I’m sorry? Since when did you run my life?”
Alek shifts around in the sofa, leaning his arm across the back of the sofa. “Did you miss the part about Shades trying to kill you? Or Finn? Or fuck knows what else is out there?”
“They’re not going to do it in front of anyone, are they? I’ll come straight home.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “Maybe I should come with you.”
“Oh, no. No way. No one tells me what to do.”
Shaking his head, Alek turns back to the TV. “Fair enough. Just don’t come running to me when you’re dead.”
I open my mouth to retort I can’t go running to him when I’m dead, but I don’t know anymore.
“So, are you going to trap me in the house again, like the other day?” I ask him.
He frowns. “That wasn’t me; I don’t know what that was.”