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The Donor House: Alice: A Death at the Donor House (part 7)
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Part 6
Knowing that Nick was watching, and probably half the donors in the house, stopped Alice from giving Sam a hug like she wanted to. “Contact me if you find the vampire and don’t go after her alone. She might be dangerous.” Biting on her lip she reached out and gently touched his hand. “If we didn’t need all the help we can get right now I’d find a way of stopping you.”
“The only way you could stop me from helping, Ally, would be to tie me to a chair.”
“Don’t tempt me.” Alice smiled at him. “Go before I try, Sam.”
Smiling back, Sam turned away. “We’ll keep the house open,” he said over his shoulder. “One way or another.”
It was nice to know that Sam was on their side, although as far as he was concerned he was just on her side, and breathing a sigh of relief she turned to walk back to Nick. Nick was already standing behind her, watching Sam walk away. Alice looked at Nick, waiting for him to look at her or say something, and when he eventually did she was surprised to see a half smile curving his lips up, because he’d never liked Sam. Their meeting in Echoes had made it difficult for her to convince Nick that Sam was slowly learning that there were different types of vampire. Like her it was a lesson he didn’t need to learn until there was a vampire in his life who didn’t hunt for pleasure.
“Okay, maybe you were right.”
“Right about what?”
“Him not being here to cause trouble.” Nick brushed a hand through his hair. “I should trust you. You’ve always understood people better than I have, but Sam…”
“I know.”
“How often have the two of you been meeting?”
Shaking her head, Alice looked down at the floor and then back at Nick. “Promise you won’t be mad at me.”
“I promise, Alice.” Nick sighed. “I did guess a little while ago that you were spending time with him, but I didn’t realise how close the two of you had become.”
“We’ve been meeting up about once a week, sometimes more. Sam sometimes rings me up after a hunt, wanting to talk, because they’re going after vampires they probably shouldn’t be… and I can’t help worrying about him. Some day he’s going to come up against a vampire who doesn’t decide to walk away because the little human hunters are amusing.”
“You can’t stop him. He is what he is, and at least he’s going after the right vampires now, even if they are going to kill him.”
“Nick!”
“It’s a fact, Alice. Going after soft vampires who hunt animals and never wanted to be a predator is one thing. Hunting the real predators is something humans aren’t capable of doing and we both know it.”
Knowing that he was right and feeling hurt that he was being so blunt about it, Alice made her way over to the notice board. On a shelf next to it they kept a pile of index cards, with several pens, and she picked up one of each, before stopping to think about what she was going to write. Nick had, thankfully, put up the closed sign they never thought they were going to use. Biting her lip again she watched as he locked the doors, wondering if they really could keep the donor house open.
Breathing deeply Alice put her pen to paper. ‘House meeting: tonight, midnight.’ That was more than enough time for all the donors to gather, even though it was only half an hour away. It was likely they were all waiting for a notice to go up, because there was no way the vampires could have kept the death a secret from them even if they’d wanted to. She stuck it up at the top of the notice board for the waiting donors and as she made her way to the door to the dining room she smiled at the donors she knew best. It was a relief when they smiled back.
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.
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