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.
“At Sebastian’s house for the time being. I’m stil afraid to be alone at my house with my parents or to go to school until I real y get a handle on al of this,” I answered. “What about you? Where have you been staying?”
“My house. After a few weeks of watching Trinity feed, it got real y easy to deny myself blood, so now I just sneak in and out of my house. It’s easiest that way. Besides, I think it makes Mom feel better. Somehow, I think she can sense me. Sometimes she’l even talk to me like she can see me, like she knows I’m there. It’s pretty cool.”
The sadness in Devon’s voice belied his casual words. I couldn’t imagine how hard the last weeks had been for him.
I saw Savannah looking over my shoulder, smiling. At least they had each other, a person to cling to in al this madness. Devon provided Savannah with something to see in an otherwise dark existence and Savannah saw Devon when he was al but invisible to the rest of the world. The perfect match. Not a bad deal, al things considered.
“So now that the secret’s out and the band is back together again, maybe we can meet up at Sebastian’s.
Savannah, I could come get you and then bring you home later. I’d just have to make sure and feed right beforehand.”
“You’d real y try to eat me? After al we’ve been through?
That’s friendship for you,” she teased with exaggerated indignation.
“Trust me, it’s a lot harder to control than what I ever imagined. I don’t know how Devon does it.”
Al eyes turned in Devon’s general direction and I imagined him shrugging.
“I don’t know how either. I just do,” he said cryptical y.
I didn’t want to ask how he was stil alive or how long he could go on like that. I wasn’t sure anyone wanted that question answered, so I kept my mouth shut.
An awkward silence stretched around our little circle until final y Savannah broke it with a question that felt more like a bomb going off in my chest again.
“So what happened to Trinity? You said she’s gone, right?”
“What?” Devon asked. I heard him take a step toward me.
“Yeah, she’s gone.”
“What happened?” Devon was obviously very interested.
“Aisha caught up with her. Kil ed her before we could stop her.”
“Why would you want to stop her anyway? Trinity deserved everything she got,” Devon spat bitterly.
“Not in the end, she didn’t. She was like a total y different person. Tragedy can change anybody, Devon. Anybody.”
“Wel , I find it hard to believe that Trinity had a decent bone in her body. If you could’ve seen…”
Devon trailed off. In my head, I pictured him shivering in revulsion.
“Devon, you might be able to control your thirst and that’s both admirable and enviable, but it’s not so easy for everyone else. Besides, Trinity had a terrible teacher. And she was under the influence of Lars’s blood, so we don’t know how much of what she did was real y Trinity.”