Page 30 of Illuminated

I shook my head. “So far, no. And I had my shot and booster, but you never know.”

We were walking the busier arteries of Cromere now, and with the tourists back, everything still seemed lively. Walking these streets next to a vampire this time, I expected the looks Auris collected and examined the faces of those who stared at him.

A lot of the looks were just shy appraisals, the same thing I had done a hundred times when encountering a particularly good-looking man or woman somewhere. Others gave him downright hungry stares that seemed to say they would do anything he asked of them, would give him whatever he wanted. I couldn’t see any pattern in those stares, nothing to do with age or gender.

“When people look at you, can they feel what you are?” I asked him quietly.

Auris looked at me as we crossed a street. “Some very likely can, on a subconscious level. You have been noticing people who are easily willed under entrancement. There are always some that almost offer themselves.” He pointed his chin at a man in his fifties ahead of us, carrying grocery bags. “Like him.”

The look the man gave Auris was that kind of hungry stare, although… maybe not merely a hungry stare. This was the deep longing to let yourself be devoured. It was the strangest thing to see people so eager to give themselves away without them even knowing whom they would potentially be giving themselves to.

I mulled that over when Auris steered me into another restaurant. This one was in a remodeled building with a metal staircase leading up to the door. Each stair was flanked by potted flowers that defied winter with the very color in their petals, rose, fuchsia, and coral.

Le Petit Tresorread the restaurant’s name in swirling letters above the door.

As we entered, I expected Auris to do what he had done before, to use his ability to control minds again, but he did nothing of the sort. He walked to the hostess instead. “Two, and a quiet table,” he told her. She immediately focused on him and ignored me.

I saw her struggle not to drool or otherwise embarrass herself as she led us to a corner table at the very back of the restaurant. The place wasn’t packed, and tables were set the required distance apart from each other, but most of the tables were taken. It was either a busy night, or the food here rocked.

We sat facing each other, Auris with his back to the wall. His seat offered him a view of most of the restaurant and the door, and I hoped he would warn me if he saw a priest with a shotgun walk in.

“So you said being here to check-in with your old home was a side benefit?” I asked after the server had taken my drink order, and I had taken off my mask.

“Yes. If you are agreeable, I will slip out for a half hour, an hour at the most. Though this time around, I won’t even pretend to offer to let you to leave without me.”

I smiled at him as the server brought my water. I was thirsty and gulped down half of it. “I hadn’t planned on it. Mmh, I should probably call my dad anyway.”

Auris nodded. “I’ll excuse myself, then,” he said and stood, then kissed my cheek. “Enjoy your meal, and your phone call, my sweet.”

He left quickly though without haste. I didn’t turn after him, because I didn’t want to make myself wish for him to stop, turn around, and not leave, which seemed childish.

Instead, I took another sip of water before I pulled my phone out and called my dad.

The conversation was like most of our talks, really just an exchange of life signs and broad updates of significant things that had happened, which consisted of him informing me of a nice date night he’d had with Ben while I talked about my photography and avoided the mention of the handsome vampire whose company I was currently keeping.

Then, we talked about the news for ten minutes during which I muted myself so I could place my order.

Before we hung up, I switched to video call so he could see me not working all the time with his own eyes.

And that was the phone call, pretty much like every other phone call with him. It lacked the major life updates on my end: I had met a vampire, and I was allegedly in a prophecy with him. He had told me he loved me. I would never be able to tell my dad that, or anyone, really.

When the food arrived, I ate slowly and tried to wrap my mind around what had happened to me over the past few days.

My feelings for Auris… those were so new, but they felt so right. Too right. Everything with him seemed too easy. And yet, I remembered the night I met him, the violence. I didn’t think for a moment he would ever be violent with me, but that was a world I had no experience with.

So while I ate my Buddha bowl, I had my phone in one hand and searched for what the church had to do with violence. Forced conversions of indigenous children was among the first things I found, but I skipped past that and went to the Inquisition.

As I was reading and looking at some old drawings, I realized that my disbelief in priests with weapons might have been my own error. Historically, they didn’t seem to have shied away from violence.

And then, there were the Crusades. I hadn’t even been aware of how long that had gone on for and of how much fighting and violence there had been. Then, there was Friday the 13th, the day the Knights Templar had been massacred.

I ate the last of my food and was about to reach for the notebook in my bag so I could write some of this down when I felt a light touch on my shoulder. Auris. He slipped back to his seat, a warm smile pulling at his lips.

“I missed you,” he said.

I checked the time on my phone. “Barely half an hour.” I put the phone down and looked into his midnight eyes. “But I missed you too. So, what did you find out?”

“Mmh, I’d much rather hear about you. How is your father?”

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