"As soon as we get back, I"ll sit her down, okay?" Chris said quietly, looking back out the window.
"I"d appreciate it," Amara said evenly. There was no real emotion to her words; they could have been pre-recorded.
"Will you back off then?"
Amara thought for a moment, then nodded. "I"ll back off."
Stephanie took the time that the other two were gone to get a short shower and get changed into a baggy t-shirt and soft fabric shorts. She needed to relax a little bit, or at least that was what the doctors told her. She was in the bathroom combing out her hair when the other two hunters walked in. Amara set the food down on the table and pulled out her burger.
"If she asks, I went to get some drinks," Amara gave him the excuse, and Chris nodded quietly in response.
"Please," Amara rolled her eyes, "Don"t act like you"re really into her. It"s not going to help."
"You never stop to consider things, do you? Maybe I really do care for her. Just not in a way you could understand."
"Right," Amara walked out, slamming the door behind her.
Chris pulled his food out of the bag and sat down. He started to go through his suitcase and pulled out a photo. He sat down on the bed beside his bag and smiled at it. His friends, his best friends. He touched the photo gently. It was his only real connection he had left with them. Three of them were dead; the other one was even more insane than he was. That didn"t matter in that moment because when he looked at the picture, it was his doorway to the past. He could look into their faces and relive the good memories.
He smiled at the picture, his best friend, Keith, to the right on the end; then Chris in the middle; then Ariel, who was a fantastic healer as well as the person who saved him on a regular basis; Danni, the boy who was always after Ariel, and finally Jamie, Keith"s younger brother. He ran his fingers over the picture again while memories danced in his vision. For a few moments, he was absorbed completely in the photograph.
"Chris? Where"s Amara?" Stephanie asked as she walked over and sat down beside him. "What"s that?"
"Amara went out for drinks," he said distantly. His voice had gone bland and hollow. He was being pulled back into reality. He looked up to at Stephanie. "She"ll be back in a few minutes."
"Who is that?" Stephanie asked as she looked over his shoulder.
"These are my best friends," Chris said quietly.
"He"s cute." She smiled, pointing to Keith.
Christopher laughed a little. "Everyone always said that about him."
"Where are they now?" Stephanie asked as she laid back.
"Dead mostly." Chris"s smile faded at the edges, and he shook his head. "Dead."
"Oh G.o.d, Chris. I"m sorry," Stephanie sat back up, startled by the information.
"No, it"s okay. You didn"t know." He shook his head.
She watched him looking at the photo for a long moment. He stared down at it as if someone in the picture were more than just a friend.
"Did you love her?" she asked, moving a little closer.
"Who? Ariel?" Chris laughed and shook his head. "Like a sister, but not like that."
"Chris...what"s going on? Are you okay?" Stephanie watched him again.
"Amara wanted me to talk to you about some things. I guess she was right after all."
"Amara is never right," Stephanie huffed. "Don"t let her get to you. See? This is why I didn"t want you two taking off together to get the food."
"No, she was right about this," he said softly. He sounded so very disappointed in himself, and it made Stephanie tilt her head a little. He set the picture aside on the dresser beside them, but didn"t take his eyes off of it. "The picture means so much to me because I did love someone in it. Not just as family, but more than that. I never got a chance to say anything," he sighed deeply, gathering his thoughts. "That"s a lie. I had plenty of chances, just never had the courage."
Stephanie watched him curiously. She leaned her head on his shoulder, looking at the picture. She tried to guess which person in the photo Christopher talked about. Being that there was only one girl in the photo, she made an a.s.sumption. Chris hadn"t pointed her out yet, so she decided it might be best just to let him talk it out. Obviously, this was something they needed to talk about but were never given the chance.
"Which one was it?" She finally asked him, in a gentle, understanding tone. The last thing Stephanie needed was to sound accusing or condescending.
Chris swallowed hard and pointed to the boy with short brown hair and light eyes;- Keith*s brother, Jamie. "I couldn"t say anything. He was my best mate"s brother. My best mate"s younger brother. We weren"t far apart as far as age went, only a year and a few months, but you can"t date your best mate"s sister let alone his brother." He said it as if he"d put a lot of thought into things.
Stephanie went quiet for a few moments. She was still putting it all together. Processing things. She had to admit she had not expected for Chris to tell her he was into men.
"So you"re gay?" she finally asked. She couldn"t hide the disappointment in her voice. She hadn"t meant for it to be there, but she could not seem to keep it away either. She really liked Chris.
"Well...," He thought for a moment, then smiled just a little. "There was this girl once who I really cared about, but I wasn"t really physically attracted to her." He sighed and looked down. The smile faded away as fast as it had come. "So yes, I suppose that sums it up."
Stephanie sighed deeply but didn"t pull away from him. She kept leaning on his shoulder , and didn"t flinch when he leaned his head against hers slightly.
"I"m sorry. About your friends," she whispered.
"You don"t hate me?" Chris asked, seeming surprised.
"No," she said, pulling away enough to look up at him while she spoke. "Why would I?"
"My father said I was a disgrace. He kicked me out of the family."
She watched Chris"s eyes glaze over with the memory and knew that he was reliving things.
"He tried to drown me in our bathtub. Then when I got away, he forbid my sisters and mother from seeing me."
"Why?" Stephanie looked stunned.
"It"s against G.o.d." Christopher shrugged, still looking down into his hands. Tears welled up in his eyes, making them gla.s.sy and distant. "I just...can"t help it though. I"ve tried. I really have."
"You sound more like you"re trying to convince yourself than like you"re trying to convince me."
Chris laughed a little. It was a dry, forced laugh. He looked up at Stephanie again. Things were worse for him than he was willing to tell her. The constant beatings, training until his bones were broken, the various near death experiences he had with his own family. Hunting vampires was easy. Telling his father he needed to stay home from school with the flu had been the hard part. Telling his father he was gay had been a mistake.
"I"ve had so few people be understanding," he said with a light smile. "Not that I"ve told a lot of people. Like I said, I never even told Jamie."
"Well, just count me in as a friend, and I"m happy with that," Stephanie said as she grabbed her sandwich and took a bite.
Chris tucked an arm around her and hugged her. "Thanks Steph."
"No problem," Stephanie said gently, but he still looked so forlorn. "Open up a little bit. What else is on your mind?"
"Just bad memories." He shook his head a little. "They hit every once and a while."
"Open up," Steph repeated as she handed him his burger.
"Well...," Here paused, thinking of how to word things. "I guess I feel guilty. Jamie wasn"t even a hunter. He was just a hunter"s brother. They never had any interest in him until I was in The Clinic. Until they were brainwashing me. I wouldn"t give up. I wouldn"t let them break me. That"s when they brought the news." Chris paused again, staring down at his burger with tears in his eyes. "They found him and killed him, and I just gave up. I had nothing to live for. I promised Keith I would look out for everyone, and they all ended up dead because of me. I let everyone down. It was all my fault."
"It wasn"t your fault. You were up against amazing odds," Stephanie said as she leaned on him again. "Overwhelming odds. No one could have done it. You are alive. Maybe you should consider this living for them?"
"Thanks," he said gently with a small nod, and a long moment of silence pa.s.sed between them.
"Chris? Is anything else Amara said true?"
"What exactly?" Chris looked over to her again.
"About you and Alexander? Do the two of you have more history than just being a hunter who is after him?"
"I think that"s sort of obvious, but so does Amara," Chris pointed out.
"Yeah." Stephanie kept her voice light, but there was still a question in it. "But he didn"t pull Amara aside at the club. Chris, be honest with me. No matter what your answer is, I won"t turn my back on you."
"Don"t make promises you can"t keep," he said evenly but lay back into his the bed.
"Then it"s true?" She sounded disheartened as she said it. "You"re really in league with the vampires? The bad vampires?"
"No." Chris closed his eyes and shook his head. "It"s not like that. When I was younger, before I told anyone about the way I am, he caught on. He knew. He used it against me and manipulated a few situations. At first I thought it was just to embarra.s.s me or to make me look bad." He shook his head at the thought. "After a while I realized it wasn"t that. I"m still not sure what it was exactly, but I don"t think he did anything to intentionally hurt me."
Stephanie watched him laying there with his eyes closed. She had so many other questions. Now that Chris was opening up, his past was more and more interesting. He seemed so very bland before. Attractive and kind, but vanilla. With such a colorful past, she wanted to know more.
"Did you love him?"
Christopher laughed and opened his eyes to look at her again. "Are you mad? Of course not. He"s Alexander Sef. I was one of the top ranking hunters, and he was dangerous for me to be around. I was terrified." When he noticed the strange look Stephanie gave him, he went on. "It"s hard to explain. It was a mix of emotions. Terror until I was caught up in the moment. Then I was just...," he paused and sighed peacefully, "tranquil. It was brilliant. He could just take everything and make it slip out of my mind. I slept easier those nights."
"I heard vampire bites can do that to you," Stephanie said lightly. She was just repeating facts;, that"s all.
Chris nodded and closed his eyes tiredly for a moment as if he might fall asleep.
"Promise me something?"
"What"s that?"
"After this mission is over, you"ll keep on touch."
"I can promise that." She smiled at him and nodded.
Chapter Twelve.
The hum of the engine in the car was a welcomed change from the constant droning on Amara felt sure was happening back at the hotel room. She knew Stephanie and Chris would have a lot to talk about, and that before they really got down to the more serious conversation, Chris would try to lighten things with small talk. She hoped that by the time she got back, the worst of it would be over and that the tears would have stopped. A short escape was more than welcome.
Maybe she would get back, and Stephanie would need the car for a drive. Maybe Chris would end up back in his own hotel room for a change. She smiled. One less person to have around meant she"d be just a little bit happier. Maybe without the distraction, Stephanie would act like a real hunter again and less like a pathetic high school girl crushing on one of her teachers.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Amara looked down at the gasoline gage just as the red warning light flashed on and off around the tiny depiction of a gas pump. It made sense that the car needed to be filled. They really put a lot of mileage on this new car already. She put on her turn signal and pulled into a lonely gas station on the side of the road.
A large white sign hung over the off-white building that stood at the back of the parking lot. The blue letters lit up "*Roady"s One Stop." ". The lot out front had two gas pumps and was well lit. It was a small place, but large enough that even with everything that happened in the past few days, Amara was comfortable pulling over to fill the car with gas there.
When Amara pulled up, she realized that there was no attendant to help her. A large blue sign with white lettering explained the situation well enough: "Self Serve.". She got out of the car and tossed the keys on the hood. The sharp, bitter smell of the fuel burned her nose as she started to fill the car.
A cool, summer night breeze drifted past her, carrying the smell of the forest around her. The dim lights of the station did little to help her see out beyond the trees as she dug through her purse for her credit card. She walked inside and grabbed a cup of coffee. At three in the morning, even the cashier dozed off.
When she walked back outside the moon was shining brightly. She glanced up and the sky was beautiful. Dark blue clouds covered most of the sky, but where the moon peeked out, it cast silver linings over the giant b.a.l.l.s of cotton-like fluff. She inhaled the cool night air and grabbed the keys off the top of her car.
Suddenly something seemed off. Like a sixth sense telling her to get into the car quickly. She looked around and touched the b.u.t.t of the gun hanging at her waist. Just knowing it was there made her feel better, even if whatever lurked in the dark couldn"t be hurt by it. She walked around the car slowly and tried to look as casual as she possibly could. Slowly, she pulled up on the handle to the car door when she heard a low growl erupt from the darkness.
Amara turned quickly; her hand on her gun was ready to draw and fire if she needed to. If she were just being paranoid in the dark and ended up pulling a gun on a stray dog or someone out late walking their his pet, it could just cause her more trouble than she was prepared to handle this late at night and after such a long day.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something small fly past her. The lights above her head shattered, flickered, and went out. Amara took this as her cue to get into her car quickly. As soon as she was in, she locked the doors. Exhausted and without backup, she didn"t want to take unnecessary risks. There"s never any harm in being cautious.
Back in the store, the cashier had disappeared, and Amara cursed under her breath. Could she really just drive off and leave the civilian cashier to face whatever this thing was? Could she really wake up the following morning, read about the death in the paper, and not be overwhelmed with guilt? That was the exterior guise she would have loved to realize, but when things got right down to it, she couldn"t let it happen.
With her gun safely secured at her waist, she got out of the vehicle. She checked the gun to make sure it was within easy reach and headed back for the store. Inside, the cashier was just cleaning up a few of the shelves.
He lifted his sienna eyes to Amara and put on a smile as he straightened himself back up. He ran his hand through his dark hair, making sure nothing was out of place.
"Can I help you?" he asked hopefully, as he watched Amara walk in the second time.
"Actually, no," she said as she glanced back to the parking lot. A large, ominous figure appeared by her car. Something hunched and animal-like. Its gleaming bright green eyes stared Amara down from the car. It lifted its head, sniffing the air and suddenly Amara knew what it was-a werewolf.
"Come on," Amara"s voice was a harsh, quickened whisper as she grabbed the boy"s arm and pulled him toward the "Employees Only" room labeled by a white sheet of paper and black permanent marker.
"What are you doing? You can"t be back here," he shouted quickly as Amara slammed the door and locked it.
"There"s something out there," Amara said quickly. "Something you don"t want to get involved with. Just stay here and stay quiet, okay?"
The boy gave her a strange look. It was the look she got more than once while trying to warn some Joe Schmoe on the street that monsters were coming to eat him alive.
"Listen," he said, his voice and tone filled with confidence. "I"ll go out and take a look. I"m sure it"s not too bad. You wait here, babe."
Amara grabbed him before he could touch the door handle and pushed him back into the wall behind her. This kid had no idea what was going on. She wasn"t sure if that was for better or worse at this point. If he knew there was a man-eating werewolf standing in the store, he might not be so quick to put himself in harm"s way.
"Listen, I"m with the police," Amara said quickly and did a quick flash of her Administration badge. The kid wouldn"t know any difference. "A special unit. There"s been a few murders lately, and the animal doing it is standing outside." She watched his eyes widen a bit and turned for the door.