“What is going on here?”
“They’re tel ing you the truth,” a familiar voice spoke from behind us.”
Bo and I turned, but saw nothing in the darkness. I smel ed something, though. It was a sweet, musky smel that I couldn’t readily identify.
“Devon,” Savannah whispered.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Devon?” I asked, searching the dim light for his shimmer.
Even though my vision was great, I stil couldn’t make out his form. It had been far too long since he’d fed.
“Sounds like a lot of things have changed since that last time I saw you,” he said, his voice getting closer as he approached me. I felt his hand at my shoulder. “Come here.”
Devon pul ed me in for a hug and I felt like crying for some reason. In a way, he was like a taste of home, a taste of an existence that had been somewhat “normal,” one I’d never see again.
Now, there was very little left of the life we’d shared. Many of our friends were dead, our eyes were opened to a world we hadn’t even known existed and our future was scary in a way that only infinity as a vampire can be.
“Who got you?” he asked as he leaned back.
“Um, wel , that’s another thing I need to tel Savannah.”
I turned back to my friend, who was hovering silently in the opening to her bedroom. I felt the weight of what I was about to tel her pressing on my shoulders like an invisible goril a clinging to my back.
“Savannah, somehow your mother got mixed up with a very, very bad person. Actual y, he was the very first vampire. She…she’s…” I trailed off, struggling to find a way to tel my friend something that would likely crush her.
“Just spit it out, Ridley.”
“She’s the one who turned me into a vampire.”
This time Savannah didn’t hesitate with the vampire thing, throwing aside al common sense to rush to her mother’s aid.
“Then she must’ve had a good reason. Were you in trouble or something?”
“No, Savannah. She did it for Sebastian.”
“Sebastian? The guy you babysat for?”
“Yes. He’s actual y…wel , he’s a fal en angel and the very first vampire. He’s—”
“A what?”
“A fal en angel. He’s the —”
“Omigod, this just keeps getting better and better,” she said sardonical y, slapping her palm against the window sil .
“Wel , if you think that’s bad, then I suppose you don’t want to know that Bo is the son of two angels and that he can’t be kil ed. God gifted him with true immortality until he can kil his father. Apparently I’m destined to help him to do that, but we have no idea how to go about it. So far, al we know is that Sebastian is pretty much like the devil, your mother is his favorite gal pal, she turned me into a vampire, they kidnapped my niece and if Bo kil s him, he’l be mortal and I’l be stuck like this forever. Alone. I think that pretty much sums it up, don’t you, Bo?”
When I turned to look at him, he was watching me with some amount of amusement, obviously having found my outburst humorous.
“Oh, yeah, and your mother is helping Sebastian to find a way to kil Bo. I left that little tidbit out. Also, there’s the fact that no one on the planet is safe with those two lunatics running loose. But, you know, no big deal. Evidently, I’m just being ridiculous.” My tirade ended on a bit of a sharp note, one that was not lost on Savannah. She appeared a bit taken aback.
“Wel ,” Devon began in his typical laid-back way, “it sounds like things are much worse than I thought they were.
And here I thought Savannah and I had it tougher than anyone else. Listening to you talk makes me glad to be me.”
“Happy to help,” I snapped sarcastical y.
“So does this mean Stanford’s out? Because I was total y gonna visit you there.”
“You were, huh?”
“Yeah. Thought I could pul off haunted dorm room or something like that. You know, anything to pass eternity.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Leave it to Devon to lighten the mood, although I knew it was for Savannah’s benefit. She real y wasn’t looking so good.
“You guys are serious?” she breathed incredulously.
“Unfortunately,” I responded.
“So you’re saying that my mother is alive, but that she’s a vampire and she’s…she’s mean?”
Looking at Savannah’s crestfal en expression made me feel like a murderer. It seemed as though I’d kil ed her mother, taken Heather from her al over again. I’d robbed Savannah of the memory of a loving, devoted mother and replaced it with the knowledge that Heather was a cold-blooded vampire who’d just up and abandoned her.
“There’s something else about vampires. Their blood has a very powerful effect on humans, and if they share blood with a human, they can exert some amount of mind control.
How much depends on the age of the vampire. But that’s just a regular vampire. Sebastian is different. His blood is so potent that he has practical y erased hundreds of years of Bo’s memories. He could easily have manipulated your mother and may stil be.”
While my words were entirely truthful and it was very possible that such could have been the case with Savannah’s mother, I didn’t believe that it actual y was.
Being around Heather made me think that there was something not right about her—something that had nothing to do with Sebastian and everything to do with something else. But I didn’t want to tel Savannah that. It would help her to think that al this had been beyond her mother’s control, and that was the least I could do for her—to let her believe that.
“Do you think I’l ever see her again? I mean, what wil happen now?”
“I honestly don’t know, but you have to keep in mind that, if she does show up, she’s very dangerous. Even though she’s your mother, it’s hard to tel what Sebastian’s blood may have done to her, how it might have changed the way she thinks and feels.”
“Oh, I’m not worried about that. She’s my mother. She loves me, just like she always did.”
“But Savannah, you can’t—”
“Trust me, Ridley,” she interrupted abruptly. “I know my mother.”
Realizing there was no point arguing with her, I just nodded and let the issue rest.
“So where are you guys staying?” Devon asked, providing the perfect tension-breaking change of subject.