“There’s nothing to support what you’re saying,” she argued.
“What about al this stuff with the Slayer? Haven’t you ever wondered what it’s real y been about? How he was never caught, just sort of disappeared? And al the people we know that are now missing?”
She didn’t need to answer. Her expression said she had puzzled over it, too.
“Alright then, say you’re tel ing the truth. You said we. If you are al the same, why can’t I see you? Why can’t I see any of the others?”
“Because I have recently,” I tripped over the gruesome term, “fed.”
“So you’re saying that when a vampire hasn’t had blood, I can see them for some reason?”
“That’s what I think, yes.”
“So you’re trying to tel me that you think Devon is a vampire.”
“Yes.”
“Then what about my mother? She drowned, remember?
She’s dead,” Savannah stated, the hurt stil evident in her voice.
“I happen to know that she’s not. Dead, that is.”
Savannah’s eyes widened and I could see her struggling to quel the hope that rushed to the surface.
“That’s insane. I mean, how…”
“I haven’t figured that out yet, but trust me, your mother’s alive.”
“Trust you? Have you- have you seen her or something?”
Here comes the hard part.
“Yes.”
Savannah leaned out through the window.
“You’ve seen my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Ridley, you have to take me to her.”
“I can’t do that. I don’t know where she is.”
“Then take me to where you saw her.”
“She won’t be going back there. Trust me.”
“How can you even be sure it was my mother that you saw? I mean, it’s not like you ever got to meet her.”
Savannah leaned back inside the window, her mind already working hard to come up with alternatives other than the fact that her mother purposely stayed away and let her loved ones think she was dead.
“I saw her picture in your room. It was Heather, Savannah. Trust me.”
She said nothing for several long, tense seconds and then I watched as her eyes fil ed with glistening tears. Savannah put hands to her mouth, like praying hands.
“Ridley, are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“My mother is alive?”
“She is.”
Savannah laughed, closing her eyes to drink in an emotion I couldn’t fathom. When they popped back open, however, they were fil ed with skeptical confusion.
“So she real y has been staying away from me? From us? Why didn’t she come sooner?”
“I told you, she’s a vampire.”
“Ha ha, Ridley. Be serious.”
“I am being serious.”
“Ridley, it’s not funny anymore.”
“I’m not trying to be funny.”
“Maybe I can help,” Bo said as he came out from around the corner to approach the window as wel .
Savannah’s mouth dropped open.
“Bo?”
Bo smiled. “In the flesh.”
“Omigod, come here,” she said leaning out the window with her arms spread, ready for a hug.
Bo obliged her by stepping in to her arms for a friendly embrace.
After they parted, Savannah withdrew once more inside her window.
“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?”