Eleventh Grade Burns(5)

Vlad thought back to the Freedom Fest. Meredith’s face flitted through his mind, shocked, then saddened. He’d hurt her with his words, and then he’d shoved her. She’d fallen to the ground, sobbing, and all he could do was walk away. He wet his lips and looked at Nelly. “It was the only way I could protect her.”

Nelly sighed, then gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Does your father’s journal say anything at all about how he resisted feeding from your mother?”

Vlad shook his head. Tomas had always told his son that he only fed from blood bags, but lately Vlad was finding that enormously difficult to believe. Personal experience in the form of monthly feeding sessions with Snow had taught him that once a vampire has fed from the source, blood bags were like trading in that brand-new Harley-Davidson for an old scooter. So the question remained, where had Tomas been getting his blood from? The idea that he’d fed from Mellina, Vlad’s mom, sickened Vlad to no end. It had to have sickened his dad too, so it had to be someone else. But who?

Vlad flicked his eyes to Nelly.

No. Nelly would have said something.

She patted his hand. “Well, I’m sure everything will be okay. You just need some time to get over the breakup.”

Groaning, he said, “Yeah, and there’s plenty of fish in the sea too, right?”

Nelly offered a reassuring smile. “Believe it or not, heart-ache doesn’t last forever.”

Maybe not. But it certainly sucked for as long as it decided to hang around.

Vlad’s thoughts turned to Otis. He had looked rather haggard lately, so Vlad had no doubts that he was sticking to their agreement that Otis wouldn’t feed from humans while he was staying in Bathory. But how was he managing it? How was he nuzzling Nelly’s neck without taking a bite? His resolve must have been made of steel. Vlad rightfully felt like such a hypocrite, keeping Otis bound to an act that he himself couldn’t keep to.

Nelly said, “Why don’t you give Henry a call? I’m sure Melissa wouldn’t mind giving him up for one night while you two have some fun.”

Vlad opened his mouth to say he thought that was probably a good idea—even though he didn’t, not really—but then Otis walked in the front door and Vlad snapped his mouth shut again.

He wasn’t mad at Otis; he never had been. But Otis was very upset with him, and Vlad knew why. Otis despised the slayers. Vlad was sure he had his reasons for it, but Joss wasn’t like the rest of them. At least Vlad hoped he wasn’t. Really. Joss was the only slayer that he knew, so he had no real basis for comparison. He only knew that he had hurt his uncle by what he had said, and he felt bad for saying it. But he and Otis both knew that he was right, and that felt worse.

Having his uncle reside in the same town had turned out to be a learning experience in many ways. Initially, they’d been inseparable. Otis had recounted stories about him and Tomas and their adventures together. But ever since the construction on Vlad’s old house had been completed, when Otis moved out of Nelly’s home to stay there, things had been dif ferent. And Vlad wasn’t exactly sure why. They were at odds over the littlest things, and Otis seemed troubled by something that he would not give voice to.

Otis brushed his lips against Nelly’s cheek, whispering his hello in her ear. Nelly blushed and smiled and eventually went back to cooking.

Vlad stood, money in one hand, Joss’s coin in the other, and left the room. His foot had just touched the bottom step on his way to his bedroom, when Otis said, “The silence between us is intolerable, Vladimir. The quiet in my mind ... it’s deafening.”

Vlad paused and glanced over his shoulder at his uncle. “I’m not the one who started it.”

Otis’s eyes shined with hurt. “True enough. Can we talk?”

Vlad shrugged casually, but inside, his muscles had already lost much of their tension in relief. “Sure.”

Then, inside Vlad’s mind, Otis’s voice, warm and welcoming—something Vlad missed more than he would ever admit to. “Not here. I was thinking of your house. You haven’t been by to see it since the renovations were completed. I have things I’d like to show you, things I’d like to discuss with you.”

Vlad’s initial reaction was to jump at the offer—after all, he missed Otis’s company, and very much longed for the opportunity to sit down and chat. But there was their last conversation to be considered. “First promise me that you’ll leave Joss alone, that you won’t harm him in any way.”