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k_a_webbNick literally clung to Alice’s hand as they followed the humans over to where Cate had set up the chairs for the reading. “I can’t do this,” he whispered, the terror in his voice growing.
“Nick, you’ll be fine.”
“I should never have agreed to talk about the past.”
“You’re not here to talk about your past, but just generally what it was like to live in Tudor England. If anyone asks you about anything you’re not happy to answer then don’t, okay?”
“It was a long time ago.”
Alice looked at him. “Congratulations.” She sighed. “I know that this is bringing up some bad memories, and that’s something we are going to have to talk about once we get back, but you have to put them to one side for now.”
“Everything is connected, Alice. The past made me who I am today, so when I think about what it was like to live then I can’t help remembering the day I was changed into a vampire. I think about my creator and the vampires I lived with.” He shrugged. “Walking away from him was one of the most difficult things I have ever done, and I know that he’s always going to be watching me.”
It took all of Alice’s self control to not wrap her arms around Nick. Talking about his creator had always been difficult for him, for reasons he chose not to disclose, and she accepted that. She had to, even though she knew how much it affected him on a daily basis. Pushing him would just make it harder for him. At that moment cuddling him wouldn’t help either, because it would remind him of things he probably really didn’t want to be reminded of.
“I do understand.” Every time Alice looked at Nick she remembered the day she had been changed. “If I could do this for you I would, but this is something I think you need to do.”
Nick nodded. “That doesn’t make it any less difficult.”
“The sooner you start, the sooner it will all be over.”
“Ready?” Cate asked, looking at Nick.
“I think so,” Nick replied.
When Alice looked out into the crowd of maybe sixty or seventy humans, which was more than she expected, her eyes met with Sam’s. If he hadn’t seemed so anti-vampire it would have been nice to have a guy stare at her. She knew that Nick was in love with her, and had been for a long time, but there was never going to be anything between them, not after what had happened, even though she did think they could have been a couple under different circumstances. The day she had become a vampire had changed everything for her.
Sighing, Alice looked at Nick again. She could still remember the first day she’d met him, how he’d been her knight in shining armour, and for that she would always be grateful. If he hadn’t been there she would have ended up like Caleb. At the same time it was because of her friendship with Nick that she had become a vampire. Convincing him to stay had been a mistake, but she never regretted it. He needed someone to look after him.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” Cate said, drawing Alice’s attention to her rather than the vampire beside her or the man whose eyes she could still feel on the side of her face. “Tonight we have a guest speaker, Nicholas Reeves.” Nick had chosen the surname because he didn’t want people to know what his real name was. “He is a vampire who was born in 1530 and he had come here today to talk about life in England at that time.”
Gently, Alice pulled her hand free of Nick’s, wincing slightly. She was stronger that she had been as a human, but he was still stronger than her. When he held onto her hand he had a habit of holding with all his strength because a lot of the time he didn’t realise how strong he really was. He had always treated her like glass when she was human. It hadn’t been until she’d become a vampire that she found out how careful he really had been.
Nick took a couple of steps forward, so he was next to Cate. Alice stayed where she was, and leant against the counter, watching him closely for signs that he was about to fall apart. She could still feel Sam’s eyes on her, but she chose to ignore him. Looking after Nick was more important than getting into some pointless staring match with someone.
“As I’m sure many of you know,” Nick started, “England was ruled by the Tudor family at that time.”
“I’m sorry about Sam,” Cate said quietly, as she lent on the counter next to Alice.
“Don’t apologise, Cate.” Alice looked at her. “I know what brothers are like. My older brother hated vampires.”
“Sam told me I was making a huge mistake when he found out I’d invited Nick to give a talk. I don’t know what he was expecting, but I think some people see a vampire and imagine that you’re some sort of story book villian.”
“We’re used to it.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
Alice shrugged. “I can’t say I blame them. There does seem to be a lot more vampires who simply take what they want without thinking about who they might be hurting. Until the house was opened I didn’t think many vampires like Nick even existed and I’d been a vampire for thirty years.”
“How many vampires are there that visit the donor house?”
“At the moment we’re looking at about twenty to thirty a day. I was expecting maybe five or six at the most.” She smiled. “Nick wants to hit a hundred vampires a day visiting before the end of our fifth year.”
“Are there enough donors?”
“The house isn’t just about feeding vampires, Cate. We wanted to set up a community for humans and vampires to live together.” She looked over at Nick. “Nick did anyway. If it wasn’t for him I don’t think anyone would have ever thought of something like it.”
Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.