Page 20 of Crimson Born

I did it.

A weird mixture of elation and dread filled me at the realization I had succeeded in turning him.

He’s alive. This is a good thing. He’ll thank me.

Or hate me.

How I hoped that wasn’t the case. The fact that he was returning to his home with his parents meant they were handling the change in him much better than my own parents had handled my unexpected transformation.

Once again, the ache of loneliness swamped me.

I need to talk to him.

It had been days since I’d talked to a person. Josiahhad to be filled with questions. I probably didn’t have many more answers than he did, but we’d figure this thing out together. The ache eased just a touch.

Moving in the shadows, I watched mother, father, and son unhitch the team of horses and go into the house without a word. The windows glowed to life, first downstairs and then in the upstairs bedroom.

Since I knew his parents’ room was on the first floor, I felt safe in assuming Josiah was alone up there.

It wasn’t hard to get to his window. A large White Oak grew beside the house on that side. I climbed it and walked out on the branch that jutted nearest his window. There inside it, Josiah sat on the end of his bed, shirtless.

My face went instantly hot. I’d never seen him—or any of the boys I knew—like that before.

He wasn’t reading, not praying, not even getting ready for bed. He was holding out his arms, staring first at one then the other and flexing his muscles in apparent amazement.

When he stood and started unfastening his suspenders, I decided I’d better go ahead and announce my presence before things got even more embarrassing.

At my knock on the windowpane, Josiah whipped in my direction, moving faster than I would have thought humanly possible.

Thankfully his pants were still on.

When he spotted me, a pair of pointed teeth emerged from beneath his top lip.

Fangs. Josiah has fangs.It was almost too strange to believe.

He brought a hand up to touch them and frowned before walking to the window to open it.

“Abigail. What are you doing here?”

Though the answer seemed fairly obvious to me, I said, “I came to check on you, to see if you’re... okay?”

He stepped back, making room for me to climb through the window. Then he turned away from me, crossing the room to stand on the other side.

“No. I’m not. I should be dead. You should be too. My parents said you were at the hospital. I thought for sure you’d been injured in the accident too, but they said you looked perfectly well. Now that I see you... I know it’s more than that.”

“You look good too,” I said with a sheepish grin.

“No, I don’t. I look freakish.”

He gestured toward the fangs then swept his splayed fingers in a downward motion in front of his body.

“Did you do this to me? I heard the nurses talking when they didn’t realize I could hear them. Ishouldn’thave been able to hear them, Abigail—they were all the way down the hall and whispering. They said the word ‘vampire.’ Is that what you are? Is that what I am?”

I nodded, eager to explain.

“I was turned at the accident scene. I don’t know if they caused it or if they just happened to be there, but there was a group of them. One of them bit me. I woke up like this, though I keep changing. My sun sensitivity has gotten worse every day.”

“Whywould you bite me? Were you that... blood-crazed or whatever?”

---