Page 103 of Your Coffin or Mine
Her jaw drops. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-nine.”
“Uh huh.” I can hear the eyeroll in her tone.
I smile. “Five hundred and ninety-seven years of age.”
Her jaw drops. “Oh my god.”
“Being so old gives me many abilities, but I did gain a few from my parents,” I continue, moving deeper down the hall.
“Parents?” she hisses, looking around the hallway as if someone could overhear. “You have parents?”
“Well, how else do you suppose I came to be?” I cock my brow.
She waves her hands in the air. “I don’t know... I’m assuming someone bit you?”
“That was my father, who found his bride, my mother, who then, over time, grew pregnant with me.”
“Wow.”
I watch her nervously for any sign that any of this may be too much for her, some inkling that she will need time to come to terms with what I am. We continue walking and she stops to stare up at a suit of armor I had worn during some long-forgotten campaign.
“Are they still alive?”
“Sadly, no,” I tell her. “They passed long ago.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” She goes silent, but I can practically see her mind whirring. “So all the terrible things Dracula did. That was you?” she asks this while crossing her arms over her chest.
I nod. “It’s possible. I have experienced many wars.”
Annoyance flashes in her eyes. “So?”
“So, it was very long ago, and men behaved differently,” I say, shrugging.
“Oh yeah? All the impaling?”
I scoff. I’d forgotten about that, and I almost chuckle to myself. “All the impaling—you make it sound like I staked an entire legion to the ground. It was lifetimes ago when the battles of men were much different. Besides, it was probably only a few hundred at most,” I say, waving her off.
She arches her brow. “Failing to see how that’s any better...”
“They started it. I was only defending my homeland.”
“Okay. We will circle back to that one later. You bit me. Does that mean I’m going to turn into a vampire too? And how did the marks fade that fast?” She peeks down at her phone.
I lean against an uncovered wall, my arms folded across my chest. “You made a list of questions, didn’t you?”
She nibbles at her bottom lip. “Of course I did.” That doesn’t appear like the whole truth, but I don’t pry.
I roll my eyes, but I suppose she does have cause for concern. “No, you will not turn from being bitten by a vampire, and all vampire bites heal quickly. The difference is, at my age, I have more control.” It is much more complicated than that, but that information is for another time, once she becomes more accustomed to my condition.
An odd expression passes over her face. “You can eat garlic?”
I wince. “Actually, no. Doyle stabbed me with an EpiPen to stop the allergic reaction that night.”
Her hand flies up to cover her mouth. “That’s why you disappeared! Oh my god, the foundations.” Her lips turn down in displeasure at our lies.
I hold my hands out to placate her, but she tosses her arms over her chest in obvious pique.
