Chapter 12: First night at home
I sighed and knew that I could not escape the talk any longer. I scrubbed my tired eyes and waited.
'When you got back to work...'
'Oh, it's work that you want to talk about. Good.' My relief was almost palpable. I thought that he was going to talk about the attraction we felt for each other. Or was it only one-sided? I knew I was attracted to him but apart from teasing me, he had never really shown any emotions. Could it be that in my heightened state of stress I had imagined everything? After all, I was known to have a very vivid imagination.'
'There you are, overthinking again.' Thanks goodness I was doing so, otherwise it would have been extremely easy for him to read me like an open book.
'So, tomorrow, there are some precautions you will have to take. First of all, tell me about those who are in your immediate surroundings.'
I thought back to my daily routine and listed, 'Claudia, a close friend, Gati, a bitch, the Principal, around 200 different students, a few other colleagues and some members of the board of the administration.
He sighed at the long list. 'Can you trust everyone? Any vampire or werewolf?'
I looked at him in disbelief. I didn't even know my own grandmother was a vampire!'
In frustration, he ran his fingers through his hair, making some of the strands stand up in spikes. It made him look so boyish that I couldn't help but smile.
'Tell me, what could happen to me at work? You're behaving as if I am a celebrity who will be chased by hordes of fan. I'm just a simple educator, Dave, doing a simple job.'
'That's the problem. You're not taking this seriously!'
'I'm not taking this seriously?! I'm currently living a man whom I have known for less than 48 hours. I've learnt that the members of my family are either vampires and werewolves, and you tell me I'm not taking this seriously. Do you think I asked for any of this to happen?'
Dave held out his hands as if in peace and said, 'Okay, okay sorry, don't bite my head off.'
'You're the one who bites people for pleasure, not I,' I reminded him acidly. I wanted to stay angry at him but at my comment he smiled so widely that I couldn't help my own lips from twitching.
'Come, let's have some tea, then we talk,' he finally said.
'Again?'I mumbled.
'Unless there is another activity that you'd like to indulge in, of course,' he said, eyeing the bed suggestively. That got me moving to the kitchen even more rapidly.
'Many Vetalas and werewolves have settled on Earth for so long that it's hard to differentiate them from normal human beings, except if you are a vampire yourself.'
'Which I'm not, contrary to what you believe.'
'Even vampires can be tricked too.'
'If it's the locket they are after, I can leave it with you,' I suggested.
'No, you can use it to escape should you be in any danger, so keep it close to you all the time. They want YOU, Ash.'
'At least some people do,' I mumbled under my breath, peeking at him from behind my lashes. Apart from frowning, he didn't show any reaction. 'I can defend myself you know. I've done some Krav Maga training.'
'Learning something and putting it into practice are two different things. Let's assess your worth.' Before I had time to react, Dave had pushed his chair behind and half-lifting me, he pinned me against the wall, holding both my wrists captive. My first reaction was to enjoy the proximity, but then I thought that it was frustrating to be underestimated like that. Many of my sparring partners had the same opinion at the beginning. They looked at my petite frame and labelled me as weak. That was until they found themselves flat on the floor.
I let my body sag to the floor and this caught Dave unawares. He half-released my wrists and this moment of inattention was enough for me to drive my knee forward in an upward movement, stopping only when I grazed his crotch. He understood the threat and his eyes widened with shock, while my lips curved in a flat smile.
'Not bad, but it won't work against a real vampire's attack. I haven't really used my strength and you know it.'
I knew he was not saying that just to discredit me and for the first time I started wising that I was more like my mother and Nani. Everyone kept saying that they were powerful vampires. I was the only one who was weak. I felt so sad and deceived by my own inabilities.
'Don't discredit yourself like that. You're stronger than you know.'
I didn't reply, but merely smiled weakly.
For dinner, we ate the same pasta we had prepared for lunch. And it was finally time to sleep.
'Do vampires sleep?'
'Why else would we need beds then?'
'Well, you know, to...' I couldn't complete my thoughts as I saw that I had played right into Dave's game. Where would he sleep that night? I didn't have a guest room, I had converted Nani's bedroom into my study and my bed was too small to share, he would be too close to me and I didn't know if I could resist cuddling to him. When Claudia usually stayed over, I would pull a mattress from my bed and put it at the foot of my bed. I actually slept on two mattresses.
'Ya, it might do it,' Dave said and pulled out the mattress neatly and put it at the foot of my bed. I threw my hands in the sky in frustration. At least let me talk!
He merely smiled and put the bed cover back on neatly. I threw him my spare pillow and it hit him square in the chest. Bull's eye.
'You sure you want to start this,' he said menacingly and started marching towards me. I looked at him warily and knew that if it came to a pillow-fight, he had the advantage over me.
'Not a fair match. We're not in the same category.'
'Coward,' he whispered and turned around. The next pillow hit him straight on his tight bum and I barely had time to squeal before he launched himself at me making my knees buckle and we both landed on the bed at the same time. He pinned both my hands above my head so that our chests were almost touching and slowly, with my eyes following his every movement, he raised his other hand until it was just above my left breast.
'So you want to play with me, huh?'
He lowered his hand and then he mercilessly started tickling me, digging his fingers deftly around my armpit area. The move was so sudden that I could only gasp before I dissolved helplessly into tiny bouts of laughter. 'Please, stop. Stop,' I managed to croak out with my body still quivering. 'You win.'
He finally stopped his ministrations and laid his forehead over mine, gazing straight into my eyes. I felt my breath hitch.
'It's late. We should sleep. Sleep tight.' And with these last words, he planted a kiss on my forehead and went to his mattress. He switched off the light before lying down and that was the last I heard of him till the next morning.
I smiled in the darkness and brushed the area where he had kissed me with the tip of my fingers and it was with a smile that I fell asleep.
Dave and I, we went to a motel during the afternoon. He wanted us to rest a bit before we traveled to Long Mountain where we had an important meeting with a contact of his. 'It's only for an hour, so we have to make the best of it.' He gave me the key and I took my bag with my spare clothes.
'I'll park the car. You go in.'
Knowing that he would be back soon, I didn't lock the door and left it ajar. Suddenly, a middle-aged woman barged in with two shopping bags and she was followed by a young teenage girl, who seemed to be her daughter and an old man, her father apparently as she referred to him as 'Dad'.
'Hey, this is my room,' I said to them.
The woman closed the door and said, 'Oh I know, I'm actually the owner of the motel. While she was talking, her daughter and father actually took off their shoes and laid down on the bed, as if getting ready to sleep.
'Go to the reception desk and ask them to reimburse you,' she said. 'Or better yet, here's half the sum you paid. Take it and find another motel. You can return the key at the reception though.'
I found all of this very surprising and didn't know how to react. In the meantime, the woman had pulled off her jacket and it was the same I was wearing.
'Hey, we're wearing the same shirt,' I exclaimed to her and she smiled. I had already started changing my clothes before she came in and I only had my shoes left to wear. I turned to my bag and started rummaging for my socks. I couldn't find it. I finally saw my pink socks in the bag and, looking at the woman who was also getting ready to share the bed with her family, I pulled it out. I quickly pulled it on, but when I looked at my sheet I was wearing blue socks. I pulled out the wrong pair. I turned around to look for my shoes as it was becoming awkward to stay in the room. I started feeling stressed. Where was Dave? Was he not supposed to have reached already? I found my shoes and pulled them on even though I didn't remember actually bringing that pair in my bag.
'Close the door on your way out,' the woman told me and I did so, waving at her. As soon as the fresh air hit me, I started feeling very queasy. I was feeling lightheaded as well and walking a few steps ahead, I cried out Dave's name. He finally appeared in front of me and as soon as he saw me, his face became concerned.
'Ash, what happened?'
I just had time to explain about the woman taking over our room before I fainted. When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed, and both Dave and the doctor were at my side.
'What happened to me?' I asked.
'Carbon monoxide poisoning. Dave brought you here on time,' replied the doctor.
'What?'
Dave then explained, 'The family that kicked you out of the room, they are all dead. Apparently, there was a gas leakage in the room where we were supposed to stay. It could have been us.'
'You mean someone was trying to kill us?'
Dave then took my hand in his and started shaking it, 'Wake up Ash. Wake up.'
'It was another bad dream, Ash.' I opened my tired eyes to look bleakly at Dave. I had had a nightmare two nights in a row. And I knew the solution to it. Without saying anything, Dave merely laid on the bed with me in spoon fashion, with my back to his front.
'You're safe with me.'
And it's held in his arms that I finally fell into a deep slumber.
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