CHAPTER 20
I sit in the parking lot, looking up at the Wal-Mart sign and have my own sense of foreboding. Rowan doesn’t have much, but there is a Wal-Mart. So like many rural areas, the Wal-Mart becomes the social zone for everyone, just like farther South many will meet and greet their neighbors at the Piggly Wiggly. Only with twenty-four-hour store hours, you never know what you can run into this late at night. Always an adventure for sure.
Rick starts to get out then looks over at me. “Are you coming?” he asks.
I half-smile, take the keys from the ignition and get out of the safety of my car. Yeah, safety. I was in a locked car with a vampire and worrying about going into Wal-Mart in the middle of the night. What is my world coming to?
As we walk into the brightly lit store, Rick continues past the aisles of cheap and tawdry goods. I look around to see that most of the people in the store are workers. Most of them pay no attention that we have walked in, as if it is normal for shoppers to come in at all hours. Well, I guess it is since they’re open twenty-four-hours a day. I quicken my pace to try to keep up with Rick, although he is probably walking leisurely for a vampire. Keeping fanged company is a lot of work. If I could regularly take him to the mall, I would probably lose a lot of weight. Vampires as personal trainers - be trained or get drained. Yep, that would be motivation enough. Maybe.
I find Rick scanning the shelves in the vitamin aisle. He picks up a bottle of vitamin D, gives it a quick shake then says, “Well, this is it.”
“You didn’t explode, so that’s a good thing. I would hate for the Wal-Mart employees to have to clean up vampire off the floor.”
Pursing his lips he gives me a droll stare. “It’s not so magical that its power is going to penetrate the confines of a plastic bottle and kill me. If vitamin D were that good, humans wouldn’t have to take the supplement. You could just rub the bottle all over yourselves.”
I grin. “Sounds interesting and possibly a little kinky. Thank God that’s not the case. Oh, and it’s also good you’re not a puddle of vamp flakes and juice on the floor.”
“Thank you for your overwhelming concern for my well-being,” he grimaces as he makes his way toward the checkout.
As we walk, I notice a few of the employees sneaking quick glances. I probably shouldn’t have said “kinky” so loud. They probably think that we’re in here to do something naughty. Not exactly a romantic place, but who knows what they’ve seen around here.
When we get to the checkout, a young woman rushes up to the cash register. She picks up the bottle of vitamin D, smiling as she looks up at Rick. “Cash or charge?” she asks.
“Cash,” he responds as he removes his billfold from his back pocket. He pulls out a few bills and hands them to the cashier. As she takes the money, she giggles. “Your hand is really cold.”
With no expression on his face Rick confirms, “Yes, I guess it is.”
She continues to smile as she hands him the change and the plastic bag. Flipping her dirty blond hair over her shoulder she adds, “Well, if you need anything don’t hesitate to come back. I’m here during the nights and not many people come in to shop. It could be convenient for someone like you.” She smiles, showing all of her big, block-shaped teeth.
Rick nods at her. “Much obliged” and with that he turns and heads for the door.
I momentarily stare at the girl who slightly shakes her head and winks at me. Dumbfounded, I follow Rick out the door.
As we get back into my car, Rick puts the small bag in the glove compartment while I twist in my seat to look at him. “What was that all about?”
His head slowly turns toward me as he shrugs. “She probably has been with a vampire before. She was just putting the bait out there to see if I would bite. Pun intended.” He smiles briefly.
“A vampire groupie?”
One corner of his mouth turns up, “Not necessarily. May just be a preference. Some men prefer redheads. Some women prefer vampires. It’s just a matter of what excites us.”
I shift a bit in my seat, trying not to focus on the fact that he mentioned how some men prefer redheads, the practical opposite of me with my straight dark brown hair. Nothing new there. Well, me trying not to focus on it is new.
“Whatever,” I say trying for nonchalance as I right myself and turn the ignition. “Might not have anything to do with being a vampire and just how hot you are.” I immediately regret my choice of words. I try not to close my eyes since I was getting ready to drive, but I refuse to look at him in this moment. Still, morbid curiosity keeps my peripheral vision on hyper-alert.
I can tell that he is still looking at me as I pull out of the parking space. He makes a sound like he is clearing his throat, although I can’t imagine what would get stuck in a vampire’s throat. “Huh, so I’m hot?” he asks.
I instantly feel the heat spread all over my face. I thank every higher power that it is night so my embarrassment is shrouded in darkness. Still not looking at him I say, “I was merely suggesting that maybe that’s what she thought and why she acted that way. You know, there might actually be another reason than the fact you have fangs.” I pray that I sound just indignant enough to be believable.
I sneak a glance at him long enough to see a big, sinister grin on his face. “It’s okay that you agree with her,” he states matter-of-factly.
“Agree with her?”
He adjusts himself in his seat, “Yeah. It’s not a problem that you think I’m hot.”
I think please, God, let me die right now. “Wow,” I begin, my voice ever so slightly shaking, “you must think a lot about yourself. I do NOT think you’re hot.”
He laughs. “That’s okay, too. But I’ve known for a long time. You can’t hide these things from a vampire. With our heightened sense, we can smell excitement and sometimes even hear when your heart races. A sociopath is probably the only human who could hide such things from a vampire. So don’t feel badly about it.”
I can’t breathe. At the same time I feel like there is an elephant sitting on my chest while millions of ants crawl and gnaw all over my skin, urging me to run out and find something to soothe my ache. How can I work like this? Now that I knew that he can basically tell everything about me? I am so stupid! I should have realized all of this after our discussion about empathy and suggestion. For a smart gal, I sure suffer from episodes of logic block that put me in the most uncomfortable situations.
He said he could smell my excitement. There goes the project. Instead of focusing, I know I’m going to be uber-aware of what I am feeling and thinking, all while wondering how much of it he is picking up on. Not to mention that I am going to constantly question what he’s thinking about in response, since I have no way of knowing unless he tells me. Dangit! All I will do is question.
I stop in front of the facility, turn off the ignition and try to act as if it were completely normal to drive in utter silence after learning that my private feelings are not exactly private. People worry about the government listening in and invading their privacy. How many times do you encounter people - or vampires - who can do the same thing without any technological help? Not only are you unaware of it, there is absolutely no physical evidence that it’s happening. You would only know if they tell you. Yeah, maybe it is true that ignorance is bliss because in this situation, I SO totally wish I didn’t know.
Before I can get out of the car Rick grabs my arm. My whole body tightens before I look at him. I try not to sound too crabby, but probably fail. “What?”
He holds my gaze, not moving, not saying anything. A cozy warmth fills my body as I begin to feel light enough to float up to the clouds. The knocking sensation inside my chest stops. I want to stretch my arms to the sky and lounge in a bed of soft grass while soaking up the rays of the sun, surrounded by the smell of honeysuckle and wild violets.
Still holding my arm, Rick says, “There’s no need to panic.”
I blink slowly. As if coming out of a fog, my mind clearing, I jerk my arm away from him. “Dammit, Rick. I told you not to do that. When are you going to start respecting my wishes?”
He smiles at me, which only infuriates me more. He looks out the window as he starts to open his door to get out of the car. He glances back at me and lifts his shoulders in an almost imperceptible shrug.
“If it comforts you any,” he begins, “I think you’re hot, too.”
And just like that he is gone. The car door shuts and he is nowhere to be seen.
I don’t know whether to be happy or mad. Add to that embarrassment, excitement, aggravation and a little bit of lust and I am inebriated on one serious emotional cocktail.
I take a deep breath to steel my nerves as I get out of the car. I thankfully remember to get the bag out of the glove compartment. I lean back in and pull the handle to find that the bag is gone. Rick must have taken it when he left. He did it so quickly that I didn’t even realize it.
Huh. Maybe I’m not the only one who was embarrassed.
I walk into our research suite to find Rick is at the center island, apparently reading through his notes. Or maybe he is trying to look busy. There goes me questioning everything even more than I did before. Confusion is a garment best flung to the side like dirty underwear. Unfortunately for me, the only way to do that is by getting everything out into the open. GOD. I so don’t want to do this. But I need the money this project could bring me, so I can’t afford for anything to get in the way of us doing the best we can. Plus, maybe talking about things will confirm that he really does think I’m hot and wasn’t just saying that to make me feel better - his own way of smoothing the most recent wrinkle in our working relationship.
I walk to the center island and just stand there. Resting my hands against the counter, it’s like I am waiting for some sign from the powers that be that getting things out in the open will be a good thing. Or maybe that was just my ego trying to save face. I open my mouth several times, but nothing comes out. Rick continues to shuffle through his papers. I can feel my created courage slipping away.
Rick looks up at me, holding my gaze for a few heartbeats. A small smile plays over his lips. “I was telling the truth. Yes, I think about you at times. That shouldn’t surprise you because even human men do that when they find a woman attractive. That doesn’t mean that I’m planning to make any moves on you or jump you the first chance I get. I respect you and your work. I won’t do anything to jeopardize it.”
I let out a strained breath. I smile as I nod at him. I reach for the Wal-Mart bag. “Well, I guess we should get started with our little experiment.”
The door to our suite opens and Mr. Caulfield enters without much fanfare. He’s accompanied by a petite black woman with a big smile on her face.
“Dr. Allstedt, Dr. Burcham,” he motions to both of us. “I apologize for the much-needed interruption. There has been a change in archivists working with the research teams.” He motions to the smiling woman by his side. “This is Ms. Gwen Caverton. She is your new archivist.”
Rick and I both approach her to shake her hand. “What happened to Ms. Montgomery?” I ask.
“She has be re-assigned to the team of Dr. Vinh and Dr. Krishnamurthy,” he responds.
What happened to Tucker, I wonder. Rick beats me to it.
“I thought Tucker was their archivist. Has he fallen ill?”
Mr. Caulfield’s cheek twitches. He simply states, “Mr. Dutrieux has decided to seek opportunities elsewhere.”
I glance at Rick as he smiles at our new peeping-Thomasina. “Welcome, Ms. Caverton. It’s a pleasure to have a fresh face on the team.”
She smiles brightly, white teeth glistening. “Thank you very much. I’m excited to be here.” Her accent is decidedly Deep South. Maybe this would deflect attention from my hillbilly drawl.
Mr. Caufield nods ever so slightly. “Very well. I will let you get back to your work.” With that he abruptly leaves the suite.
I smile nervously at Gwen. “Well, Ms. Coverton. We were getting ready to do an experiment. Will you be staying to observe?”
“Oh, yes, ma’am,” she replies. “And please, call me Gwen.”
I tilt my head toward her, smiling. “Okay, Gwen. And please. Call me Emma.”
“Not Emma Jean?” Rick asks.
I glare at him. “Just Emma will be fine.” I turn back to Gwen. “You’ll have to excuse Dr. Allstedt. He’s made a sport of trying to humiliate me.”
Rick laughs and reaches to shake Gwen’s hand again. “Call me Rick. Like I said, it’s good to have you on the team.”
She beams. “Thank you all for the warm welcome. I’ll just sit at the table and take notes while you all work.”
We all smile at each other before she turns to backtrack to the table. Rick and I look at each other briefly, still smiling, before we return to the center island. I have a good feeling about Gwen. I’m usually pretty good with first impressions, at least with humans. Gwen seems to be a lot friendlier than Ms. Montgomery. I think she and I are going to get along famously. I can actually see myself being friends with her, which I couldn’t say about mousy Sarah Montgomery.
Still, I wonder what happened to Tucker and why they didn’t just assign Gwen to the other team. I will have to see if Ms. Montgomery knows anything, if I get the chance to talk to her again.
I lean over to get the mortar and pestle from the cabinets in the island. After setting them on the counter, I look at my watch. “The night’s almost over. Should we wait to do this tomorrow evening so we have more time to make our notes?”
Rick looks at me with his lips pursed into a thin line. “We have plenty of tablets in the bottle. We could at least try it once so that we know if we’re on the right track or need to focus on something else tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I nod, “sounds like a plan. Right. Let’s get started.”
I take the Wal-Mart bag and remove the bottle of vitamin D. After opening the bottle, I take one of the tablets and place it in the mortar. I begin using the pestle to crush the white tablet into a fine powder. Once I’m finished, I lay the pestle on the counter and look at Rick. He nods and lays his arm across the counter.
“Are you sure you want to do this? We could always wait until tomorrow and request Thalia.”
His lips twitching he says, “It’s fine. You and I both know that Bree and Abe are working like crazy to make up for the time they have lost. If they were as close as we were, they could pull ahead of us again if we don’t stay on track. Let’s take this first step now, then we’ll know what steps we need to take tomorrow.”
I take a spoon from the cabinet, wash it with sterilizing liquid and use compressed air to dry it. I load the spoon about halfway with the vitamin D powder. I raise my eyes to look at Rick as I carefully move the spoon closer to his outstretched arm. His lips are pulled tight in anticipation of what will happen in the next few moments. His half-lidded eyes remain trained on the spoon as it gets closer and closer.
Wanting this to be over and scared of what’s going to happen, I quickly sprinkle the powder on his arm. Nothing happens except for his skin slightly twitching. Then very quickly his arm begins to turn red, with the skin bubbling all around the affected area. Just like that, the powder starts to eat through the layers of his skin like acid. Rick howls as he rushes to the sink to wash the powder from his skin in hopes of stifling the pain. I stumble after him, helpless in what I can do for him and terrified that the process can’t be stopped once it has started. I have images of the reaction spreading all over him until he is completely consumed, finally, truly dead. My gut wrenches as my heart races, further betraying the fact that I don’t want anything bad to happen to him.
Rick furiously splashes cold water up and down his arm as he continues to release a guttural growl. The water goes from sparklingly clear to a foamy red as it mixes with the remnants of his blood and ravaged skin tissue. Rick’s motions start to slow as his shoulders begin to relax and his groans turn into the panting of a marathon runner who just completed Death Race 2012.
He places folded paper towels on his wet, marred arm. He turns to look at me, his mouth slightly opens to show that his fangs have extended. Taking a step back, the only thing I can think to say is, “Now we know.”
The suite door busts open and Gwen runs toward us with a fire extinguisher. Breathing heavily she screams, “Are you all okay?”
Rick turns, baring his fangs. I cock my head to the side, looking at her. “Why do you have a fire extinguisher?”
Swinging the extinguisher, “I thought there was a fire. I smelled a God-awful odor, then saw Rick rush to the water basin. So I ran into the hallway to get an extinguisher before we all went up in flames.”
I continue to look at her, amazement all over my face. “But I thought that you were just supposed to observe. You’re not supposed to get involved.”
“Yeah,” she responds, “until fire breaks out and my ass could be part of the kindling. No thank you. Saving my ass, first. Government project, sometime after that.”
I can’t help but smile. I abruptly turn to Rick, walking to him slowly, “Are you okay?”
He looks at me as if I have claimed to be the Queen of England. “Why, yes. I’m just peachy. Thank you for asking.”
I don’t stop myself from rolling my eyes. “I know you’re hurt, but are you okay now. Do you still feel something? Is it spreading?”
Holding his arm, he walks toward the table to sit down. “I feel fine, except for the burning sensation in my arm.”
I practically trip as I rush to him. “The water didn’t work? It’s still eating away at your flesh?”
Closing his eyes, he says, “As delightful as that sounds, no. It’s not still eating away at my flesh. I just have a sensation that is like what I remember a burn to feel like. Like when you remove your hand from a hot stove. It still ‘burns’ although there’s no longer any real danger.”
I sit beside Rick as he begins to slowly pull the paper towel from his skin. Gwen lays the extinguisher on the table and resumes her job of taking notes. Rick grimaces as the paper lifts, showing a mass of molten skin, blackened bubbles and exposed meat and veins. My stomach twists as my heart wrenches. I peer more closely. Before I realize what I am doing, I take his arm in my hands and begin examining the wound. I am racking my brain for an idea of what type of First Aid you give a vampire. Not like I would know. I shake my head. “What do we need to put on this so that it doesn’t get infected? Or so that it can heal quickly?”
I look up to see that Rick is looking down at my hands. He looks into my face for a beat then lightly shakes his head as if he were shaking the cobwebs from his mind. “None needed,” he says. “I can’t get infections and vampires heal so quickly that in a few hours, you won’t be able to tell that anything had happened. If you look closely, the skin is already starting to knit itself back together.”
I look back at his arm and sit up, my hands slowly sliding from the unmarred part of his skin. Indeed. It is as if small threads of skin and flesh were weaving under and over in their mission to rebuild perfect, unscarred vampire skin. I rest my hands in my lap and nervously smile at him. “I’m glad you won’t hurt for long.” We hold our gazes for a while before I rub my eyes with the back of my hand, feigning sleepiness as I poorly execute an attempt to stifle a fake yawn. I get up and head back to the center island. “I will jot down a few notes, then get ready to leave for the day,” I say over my shoulder. By the time I reach the island, Rick is already by my side, the crumpled paper towel neatly placed in the wastebasket.
“So you know,” he begins, “it was worth it. There’s no major damage and now we know that we’re heading in the right direction. We’re on the right path. Tomorrow we’ll start planning on what we need to do before presenting our findings to Mr. Caulfield and the others.”
I try to smile at him as I shuffle my papers, “Yes, I guess it was worth it.” I write a few lines in my journal to outline how we used the tablet of vitamin D, the process of making it into a powder and how we administered it to Rick’s arm. We will need to look at each step to make sure that no outside variable influenced the reaction, so we can confidently say that vitamin D is the source of the injury he sustained. In the name of science. For the benefit of humans. And for vampires. So that we can all be protected from the horrors of an all out species war and the casualties it will bring. Casualties that could affect both of us, in many ways.
Once I complete my notes, I go to the closet to retrieve my jacket and purse. I walk toward the table where Rick is sitting, nursing his arm in the best way he can. Gwen has packed her things up and is about to leave for the day.
“Thank you for the warm welcome and the excitement for my first day,” she smiles brightly, without sarcasm as if she genuinely means it.
As she leaves the suite, Rick stands to accompany me outside to the parking lot. We stop not far from my car. We both continue to look across the lot, to the wooded hills in the distance, the silence broadening between us like a gulf of hurt, embarrassment and new possibilities.
“Thank you,” he says as he continues to gaze out into the distance.
I turn my head to him, “For what?”
“For your concern.” He turns toward me, the side of his mouth raises in a half-smile. “So many humans wouldn’t care, and even those that do, wouldn’t dare show it. Thank you for that.”
I look down as I feel the blush cover my face. “No need to thank me for that. I can’t stand to see people in pain.”
He reaches over and takes my hand, lightly squeezing it. I look up at him again. “Thank you for that, too,” he says.
I just look at him in confusion. “For saying that.” He smiles. “I’m not a people.”
And with that, he is gone.