Ben Wake
Showing Carl the Negre sign definitely disturbed him. I had guessed correctly that he was taught the signs, but his reaction told me a lot more than that. He didn’t think I was just making an idle threat – there was a very immediate fear on his face, but not of me.
I really want to find out more from Carl, but he’s walking away, keeping himself tightly under control. I know that it would be a bad idea to keep the conversation going. Carl is walking away before things get ugly between us, the best thing for me to do is to honor that and let him go.
Not long after Carl drives off, Paul arrives to pick me up. “Have you noticed anything unusual around the house over the past few days,” I ask him as we’re on our way home.
“No,” he says. “You asked us to let you know if we ever caught anybody in the yard or loitering around on the road, but we haven’t seen anything.”
It’s only a very small reassurance. If there’s a Negre in the area now looking for me, if that’s what had unsettled Carl so much, it would be way too careful for a couple of freewheeling artistic types like Paul and Carol to notice it.
I also have to consider that the other vampire may not be hunting me at all, but, as I told Carl, may be drawn to Ivy. That could be why my sense told me that they’d find Ivy through Carl, but gave me no sign of what my immediate fate might be. Finding me here would just be an added bonus.
A hundred years alive, and I’m in love with somebody – genuinely and truly in love – for the first time ever, and now I’m feeling pushed to hurry the relationship along instead of giving it time to grow on its own. This is why I do not believe in fate, regardless of Carl’s accusation. If Ivy and I were fated to be together, I wouldn’t be wondering if my old clan were at this very moment stalking one or both of us. I would be savoring every moment between now and prom night, deliciously anticipating our first time together, on a night that I could make perfect for her.
Now I just want Paul to drive faster because I need to have a conversation with Ivy that he does not need to overhear.
As soon as we get home, I dash up to my room, barely remembering to thank Paul for coming to get me, and I call Ivy.
“Hey, Ben. How’s the bike?”
“Nothing wrong with it that a couple of days waiting for parts and an insurance check won’t fix. I should be back on it by this time next week. Plenty of time for you to ride to prom with me,” I say.
“I don’t think you know very much about how much prom dresses cost, or low long the skirt on mine is going to be. There’s no way I’m getting it anywhere near the motorcycle. If my dress doesn’t snag in it and kill me, I’m sure it’ll get filthy.”
“I’ll buy you a new one.”
“Ben,” Ivy says, mostly joking, but with a bit of a stern reminder that we’ve had this conversation. “I will buy my own dress, and we’re going halfsies on dinner and anything else that may cost money that night. You agreed.”
“I did,” I say. I love that she is strong willed in that regard, but also wish that she were willing to just let me make the night for her. It’s our senior year, and the only year she’s got a date for prom. I want to make it magical for her.
More than anything, though, I need to make sure she is under my protection before then. The Negre are horrid beasts, but even they cannot violate another vampire’s claim on a mortal. Not while that vampire still lives. That is why they forbid anybody in the clan from making a claim without permission from the head of the clan. It is too powerful even for them to undo. Still, the protection has its limits. No other vampire will be able to physically harm her, feed on her, or turn her as long as I live, but there are ways to torture somebody without ever touching their body. The Negre are very good at those twisted arts.
What I say next is a gamble, a huge risk that would be foolish of me to take if I hadn’t seen the way she’s acted around me since our first kiss. “Can I treat you to a special evening tonight, instead? A night where I get to completely spoil you.”
“What do you have in mind?” she asks. It seems like she’s receptive of the idea.
“I want to get out of town tonight. I know that I’ve had a hard time of fitting in here, and it’s just getting to me a bit, especially since you and I are now a thing. There’s a place up at the top of Harker’s Pass that I see when I’m out riding that looks like it has really nice rooms. It’s Friday, so neither of us has school tomorrow. We can have a night together, just us, without being in a big room full of people that are judging us first.”
Ivy pauses, then asks, “You, uh, want me. Tonight?”
“I’ve wanted you for quite some time now.”
“I know. And I want you, too.”
“But?”
“But. On the one hand, I don’t want to rush things,” she says.
“On the other hand?”
“You’ve lit a fire in me, Ben.”
“You’ve lit one in me, too. Like nobody has ever lit me up before.”
“Grandma just got home, and I’m making dinner for us now. I really hate to mention his name to you right now, but I really need to tell her about what happened between Carl and me. Can I call you back at seven, and let you know how I’m feeling? I really want you. Like, you would not believe how much I want you right now, but I also want my first time to be at the right time. Just let me have my dinner and unpleasant conversation with Grandma, and if it’s still feeling right, we’ll do this tonight. Ok?”
It is very easy for me to agree to the delay. Her having dinner before meeting me means I don’t have to fake my way through it. It gives me time to feed so my body will be warm. “That is fine,” I tell her. “I’ll call the inn and see if they can pencil us in for tonight. I hope everything goes well with your grandmother this evening.”
“Thank you,” she says.
Fortunately, the Harker’s Pass Inn has room, being in the small low season between the winter tourists that come for the skiing, and the summer ones that come to hike and camp the mountains. I book the deluxe suite with the whirlpool tub.
I rush out as quick as I can and find prey in the hills above my house. It gives me enough fresh blood in my system to have a strong pulse and some color for at least a day. I clean up, brush my teeth, and try to find an outfit that looks nice without seeming out of place for a couple of young people renting a room in a rural hotel. I settle on a pair of classic black dress trousers with a leather belt, royal blue button-down shirt, and a simple tone on tone black necktie.
At seven, precisely, Ivy calls. “I’m yours tonight,” she says. By quarter to eight, we are showing the desk clerk at the inn our IDs to prove we are both old enough to be spending the night in a room together.
We go up to the room, and I don’t think Ivy notices anything about it. As soon as I close the door behind me, her overnight bag is on the floor, and her lips are on mine.