“Oh yes,” Caitlin said. “A lot longer.”
“Is that what I am?” she asked. “A vampire?”
Caitlin looked down at her shining eyes, looking up at her, and knew that she had to be completely honest. Children demanded that.
“Yes, honey, you are. And, in your case, that is a very beautiful thing.”
“Are you one, too? Is Daddy?”
“Yes,” she said. “We all are. Our whole family.”
“Does that mean that we all get to live a long time? Together?” Caitlin stopped and knelt down, and looked her in the eyes.
“I sure hope so,” she said.
Scarlet frowned.
“But I heard that vampires are scary. Does that mean I’m scary?” Caitlin smiled.
“No, love, you’re not scary at all. You’re perfect. Only some vampires are scary. Just like some humans are scary. Other vampires are very, very nice. Even nicer than some humans.”
“Is that my kind?” Scarlet asked.
“Yes it is. We never hurt any humans. We eat animals, just like humans eat animals.” Scarlet seemed to relax a little bit.
“When those wolves attacked me,” Scarlet began, “I felt them biting me. I felt their teeth in my neck. And then everything went black. I was sure that I was dead. It was like I was supposed to be dead. But I didn’t die. I don’t understand. Does that mean that I can’t ever die?” Scarlet stared back at her intensely, and Caitlin could see that she desperately wanted the truth.
Caitlin cleared her throat, and looked her in the eyes.
“You are like your Mommy and Daddy. Which means that you can’t die. Not like humans die.” Scarlet looked down at the sand, then off at the water, as if debating how to react. Finally, she looked back at Caitlin.
“I always knew I was different. Sometimes, I can hear things. Not like normal people. It’s like…
I can hear people’s thoughts. Like yours, sometimes. When I try to.” She looked at Caitlin. “Is that strange?”
Caitlin knelt down and smiled at her, brushing the hair out of her face.
“You’re not strange. You just have very special gifts. And you may have even more gifts, ones that we don’t even know about yet. But that doesn’t mean you’re strange. It just means that you’re special. Like us.”
“Like all of us,” came a voice.
Caitlin wheeled, shocked at the sound of the strange, male voice so close behind her, and immediately protective of Scarlet. Caitlin didn’t understand how anyone could have crept up on her, especially here, in the middle of nowhere.
Until, that is, she saw the face staring back at her. And her jaw nearly dropped open.
Standing there, a foot away from her, was Blake.
*
Caitlin stared, speechless. Blake looked exactly as he did the last time she saw him: he still had those perfect, chiseled features, the longish, wavy brown hair, the large, green eyes and that far-off, distant look, like a haunted loner.
Blake. It was really him. She thought of her dream the night before. Had it been more than just a coincidence? Had he visited her in her dreams? Of all people, alone on this desolate beach, why did it have to be him? And why now, just as she was sorting through her feelings for Caleb, just as she was preparing for her wedding day?
He stared back at her, and a slight smile formed at the corner of his lips.
“Hello, Caitlin,” he said in his soft voice.
Scarlet stood between them, and Caitlin could sense her curiosity, as she looked back and forth between them, trying to figure it all out.
“Hello, Blake,” she answered flatly.
Caitlin didn’t know what to say. She felt herself trembling inside, torn by a million conflicting emotions. She wanted to thank him for saving her life; to apologize to him for all that she’d put him through; she even felt the need to apologize to him for marrying Caleb.
But most of all, she just wanted him to stop looking at her that way, with those intense eyes that prevented her from looking anywhere else, from thinking of anything else. She thought back to their first time together, on Pollepel, of their standing guard together on that sunken parapet in the river.
On the one hand, it felt like lifetimes ago; on the other, it felt like it was just yesterday.
She had to forcibly shake herself out of it, to remind herself that she was with Caleb now. That Blake was lifetimes ago. That was the problem with vampire relationships and with immortality: nothing seemed to ever stay in the past. People and relationships always came back, full circle, again and again, no matter when and where you were. Nothing ever died. Ever.
“Your wedding is tomorrow,” he stated flatly.
She wasn’t quite sure how to respond. She felt nervous and guilty the same time.
“I’m happy for you,” he added.
“Thank you,” she said, trying to stay calm.
“Who’s that, Mommy?” Scarlet asked, tugging on her pants, pointing at Blake.
Caitlin wasn’t sure how to respond.
Before she could, Blake looked down and smiled at her. He walked over to the shoreline, collected a handful of small rocks, and gestured to Scarlet. She came over to him.
He reached over and handed her a few of them, as she opened her palm.
“Do you see these?” he asked.
She nodded back, studying the rocks.
“Choose the ones that are flat. Like this one,” he said, taking one of his and placing it in her palm.
“Then throw them like this, sideways.”
Blake reached out and threw the rock into the waves, and it skipped along the water. It jumped several times, and as it did, Scarlet squealed in delight.
Scarlet tried to copy him, but it didn’t work. He corrected her grip.
“You need to just skim the surface of the water. Don’t throw it straight down. Try to throw it sideways.”
Scarlet tried a second and third time, and it still didn’t work. But the fourth time, she managed to get it to skip once. She screamed in delight.
“Mommy mommy! Look what I did! The rock bounced off the water!” Caitlin couldn’t help but smile as Scarlet burst into action, picking up as many rocks as she could find, and trying again and again.
Blake stood, watching her, smiling. Then slowly, he came back to Caitlin.
“Do you miss me?” he asked, softly. She could see the sadness and intensity in his eyes, and she could feel how much he missed her.