Page 41 of To Save a Vampire
My eyebrows rise high. I slept for an entire day? I certainly feel like I’m well rested so, yeah … one day sounds about right.
Shae and Jim chuckle at my realization. The two of them are so synced they might literally be two halves of a whole. Shae looks at Jim with such love in her hazel eyes that I think she might really believe he owns the moon, and stars, and all that the galaxy possesses. And Jim looks at her like he’d give it all away just to hear her laugh once more.
“It smells like it’s the best meal,” I tell them, trying to find some normalcy in the room.
“All of Shae’s cooking is the best,” Jim says, shoving a heaping spoon of mashed potatoes into his mouth.
Shae rolls her eyes at his compliment, a light hint of a smile in her eyes. Then she starts loading a plate up for me. Everything smells amazing, and she doesn’t stop to ask if there’s anything I don’t want. Which is good because I want all of it. I take a big drink of water, but then I pace myself as I eat bite after bite of hot food. I can’t express how glad I am that I woke up in time for this.
My mother sits next to me, her plate also heaping with the delicious food, but hers is untouched. She listens to Jim and Shae’s banter, seeming engaged in the conversation if only as an intrigued audience member. She takes a few sips of water, which is a good sign, I suppose. She’s showered as well, looking more healthy and alive, but still a little lifeless inside her green, tired eyes. Her blonde hair hangs thick around her like a curtain ready to drop.
My thoughts start to pull me under, manifesting in my chest until it’s hard to find air and swallow down my feelings.
“The two of you seem like a perfect match. Our government so rarely gets it right, it’s nice to see success for once,” I say to Shae, trying my best to be present in this moment. To be here with them even though I’d rather crawl back in bed beneath my soft covers.
I take another large drink of cold ice water to calm my worries. Ripper fidgets at my feet, desperate for a scrap of food. His anxiousness does nothing to ease my nerves.
Jim laughs. Shae, of course, joins him. They seem to find what I just said very funny. I tried to be kind, to compliment them, and now they’re laughing at me. Perfect.
In all honesty, it really is just what I need to take my mind away, though. Nothing distracts your thoughts quite like confusion. And embarrassment.
“I don’t get it,” I say with a hesitant smile.
Asher smirks and shakes his head. “My grandparents weren’t a match. Not even close.”
“We were too a match. Just not an assignment for the government to check off like a task,” Shae says in a defensive tone. Her head is held high like she’s ready to fight anyone who says differently. I can’t help but smile at her tiny aggressive figure.
Jim’s smile grows broader before he leans forward. His arms rest on the table. His plate is pushed away, practically licked clean.
“Well decades ago, believe it or not, I was nothing. I was not the charming man who sits before you today.” He gives a wink to Shae who rolls her eyes, but a blush creeps up her face despite herself.
“I was just a young man going from one dead-end job to the next. But, for some reason, Shae loved me anyway,” he says without his confident and booming voice. His eyes never leave hers. “She loved a man who only had love to offer. So being the selfish kid I was, I asked her to marry me. To let me spend the rest of my life trying to live up to the man she deserved. And to everyone’s astonishment, she said yes. I never knew three little letters could add up to the happiest moment in my life.
“It lasted less than a month. Politics have a way of nudging into our lives despite how greatly we try to avoid them. The government put a freeze on all marriage licenses. We had set a date for the following year, but the official statement to hold all paperwork set a bad feeling into my bones. I still bought a ring.”
Shae looks down at her aging hands to a simple diamond ring on her left hand. Her thin lips ease into a small, wistful smile.
“We still made plans, even bought a little two-bedroom house just east of here. It was all forward thinking in a time that was changing too fast for us to keep up. At the first of the year, Congress signed a new law. A law that its people were not consulted about. It stated that going forward all unwed persons under the age of twenty would be assigned life partners. They would form a union, and basically be provided an outline for life. What job to lead, what children to have, what life to live. It was a process put in place to reduce our recklessly growing population and poverty.” His brow creases, and a look of anger passes over the man’s face.
“Shae was nineteen, and I was twenty-one. I would be encouraged to live my life alone, while they assigned her some dirtbag to marry—tounite with.” His fingers air quote his words like it’s a made-up language he won’t acknowledge. “I’d rot in hell before I watched the woman I love spend the rest of her life with Jason Miller.” A cackling laugh escapes Shae’s mouth, and Jim narrows his eyes at her, but a little smile pulls at the corner of his lips.
“Ugh, my mother had a fit when I told her I wouldn’t marry the wealthy boy. Not that wealth has any significant symbolism nowadays.” Shae shrugs her small shoulders at the thought.
“So, we got the hell out. We left our little house behind in the middle of the night. The little house that we saved for over two years for just a down payment.” He raises his eyebrows in outrage at that confession. I don’t really understanddown payment, but I don’t interrupt either. “We came here to the outskirts of town to the house I grew up in as a boy. It took a year for me to turn the basement into a functional home.”
“But it’s ours. The Burrow,” Shae says in a dreamy whisper. “We raised a family here. We have beautiful memories here.”
Their story is astounding and inspiring and terrifying all at once. They defied their government and lived a secret life underground, choosing to break the law rather than their own hearts. And they got away with it. And more importantly, they’ve lived happily ever after.
I look across the table, my gaze being pulled toward him. But Asher doesn’t appear to share my hopeful thinking. His silver eyes are cast down to his empty plate, his jaw set hard.
Jim clears his throat and stands. “Why don’t you show me that gift you brought back with you?” he says looking to Asher.
Asher’s face relaxes into a passive look as he nods. The two men walk into the next room. Jim moves to his seat in the tan recliner and Asher disappears into a closet near the entrance. My mother stands as well, but it’s an anxious gesture like she’s waited all night for dinner to be over.
“I’m actually still very tired. I think I’ll just go to bed.” She gives a tight smile to Shae, who nods with worry etching lines around her eyes.
Hesitantly, I trail behind her back to our small guest room. It’s dark in the windowless room, and she doesn’t turn on the light, but she seems to sense me behind her. She pauses, holding the door in her hand. She stands within the room, and I stand waiting in the doorframe. She doesn’t turn to me. Her slight shoulders sag with the weight of her thoughts.
