Page 23 of Illuminated

“Of course, I’m watching you. You are the most interesting thing around here.”

“Get a TV.”

He chuckled. “Your wit seems wasted behind the camera.”

I swallowed before I spoke, holding on to a modicum of manners. “Everyone’s a critic. At least look at my photos before you decide my wit doesn’t translate into my work.”

He leaned a bit closer. “I did. I liked the thing you did with the anatomical collections.”

That one had been called dark and tasteless. “When did you see my photos?”

He shrugged. “I did have some time while you were sleeping. You have quite a lot of your art on your website. Fair warning, I cannot say how long I will hold off on buying some of your prints.”

I lowered my fork and narrowed my eyes. “Wait, you do sleep, right? And that series wouldn’t work with this place.” I indicated the couch. “This needs something that resonates with the ocean, not all that glass and what’s inside.” The anatomical collection series really might be too dark for a vampire home, but I didn’t want to throw that at Auris.

“Interior design as well? To answer your question, I doze. I don’t, as such, sleep. There is a form of hibernation that’s possible.” He ran his fingers along my cheek again as if he craved the contact every now and then, as if to make sure I was real, even though he was the dark vampire faerie prince. “And I am sure I can think of a place or several I own suitable for your photos.”

“Now you are just trying to flatter me,” I said as I finished the last of the pasta. I wondered whether he ever missed sleep. Or dreaming. I didn’t want to ask him right away, didn’t want to ruin the mood in case the answer was yes.

“I think I might enjoy flattering you, Ethan. I haven’t decided yet, so I’ll have to keep trying it.” He indicated the windows and the ocean beyond with his chin. “How about a walk along the beach? Or do you need more food?”

I pushed my plate away and stretched. “I’m good. And a walk would be nice, actually. I haven’t really been to the beach since I got here. I mean, I watched the waves, I just didn’t get sand in my shoes.”

He chuckled. “All work and no play, Ethan? About high time to feel the sand. Come,” he said, took my hand, and pulled me with him.

He grabbed my jacket from the hallway closet and helped me into it. Part of the large windows were actually a sliding door that led straight out to the back where a patio lay under a small dusting of sand from the beach.

Auris put his arm around me and led me to the edge of the patio where the steps eventually faded to a wooden walkway that wound through the dunes and from there down to the beach proper. I was glad that he held me close. It was dark, even if the ocean mirrored the soft glaze of starlight that fell on it, and I couldn’t really see where I was going.

It was a lot like the woods, this outing, but this time around, there was no lingering doubt about what would happen to me, I realized. I was safe with the vampire at my side.

The walkway ended, and our feet soon hit the sand. For a while, we walked side by side in silence, only the waves spinning their age-old tales in the ocean’s unchanging language. Between him and I, it was the uncomplicated silence we had shared the night before. It was comfortable. I broke it first.

“You said you hibernate?” I asked.

“Yes. Hibernation might not be the right word for it. Sometimes, just going on and on feels like a drag, like too much. It’s not that living becomes tedious, but I suppose you could say the noise of the life ebbing and flowing around you can become a cacophony. It’s wise, then, to seek out a lonely place below ground and well-hidden. There, you stay a while.”

“A while?”

“Yes, my sweet,” he said, light humor dying his melodic voice. “You stay for a few years. Decades, sometimes. I spent some time in the root cellar of my old house, back in the woods. The one I showed you. There are caves that are suitable, though these days, you really have to make sure they are not spelunking hotspots.”

I nodded. “And do you dream? Did you dream in the root cellar?”

“Hmm.” We walked a good ten steps before he answered. “I’m not sure the experience is like the dreams you experience. They are more memories, but with different sense memories highlighted. I don’t know how to explain it very well. Maybe think of it as replays with the focus elsewhere each time.”

“Huh. So that entire hibernation experience, it’s like sleep, but spaced out differently than normal sleep, just like the way you eat?”

He pulled me closer to him. “In a way. Does it scare you?”

I considered this. Sleeping and experiencing old memories over and over underground for years should have scared me, but then again, when one lived so long, the break might be welcome. “I don’t think so.Isit scary?”

“A good question,” he said. “It scared me, the first time I did it. I had been alive for a long time, from the human perspective, and I didn’t understand the need to stop, even though I had been told about it. Actually doing it was easy, however, and going back to the world after so long filled me with more energy than I had before.” He shrugged. “It was refreshing. Ten out of ten.”

I grinned. “Well, I’m glad,” I said, and he squeezed my hand.

For a while, the sound of waves rolling in and chatting amongst themselves was all there was. I tried to imagine what it must be like, growing tired after so long, then finding a cave or some hole in the ground in which to spend a few years unconscious before returning to the world. I imagined doing it, with Auris at my side.

“How do you know when to come back up again? From the hibernation?”

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