Book Cover created in acrylic by the extremely talented @therealpaul
If you have not read the first book of the series, "Reborn", it is advisable you do so before reading "Renewal" or you will be lost. This link will provide you with a series summary as well as all sixty-eight chapters of Reborn
Chapter Fifty
Chris barely spoke while his friends were gone, just kept stealing furtive glances her way. He seemed at a loss as to what to talk about and she wasn’t sure if she was grateful for that or not.
He’d ordered another movie and she pretended to be watching it.
She was plagued by confusion about the three males. Despite their appearance they seemed okay, and since it was daylight when the other two left she knew they weren’t completely turned. But the vampire who had turned Anna hadn’t been either, so it didn’t mean much.
She couldn’t think of what questions to ask that wouldn’t alert them to the fact that she’d lied. Observation had never been her strong suit but she knew it was the best she could do for now.
She was absently gazing across the room into the kitchen and her perusal landed on an open bottle. The label seemed to leap out at her and she squeezed her eyes shut feeling a little dizzy. Zoom lens. She recalled Anna describing her sight and how she could use her eyes like binoculars. She suddenly realized how lucky she was to know someone who had been through this and wondered how Anna had dealt with it so well when she hadn’t known much of anything.
The fear she’d initially felt at the thought of her new abilities began to wane a bit. It helped she had fantasized about becoming one of them. When she was at the height of her crush on Tyros she’d imagined leaping with him into trees and running like the wind…blurring Anna called it, and she’d always thought having the ability to be invisible would be awesome.
She smiled a little as she remembered how Macey had tried to get Anna to go into town and mess with people once she’d figured out how to “dim”. She’d kept saying, “You could flip off their hats or flick them in the ear, it would be so funny!” Anna had agreed it would be funny but at the time she’d been nervous about going into town. Because of the demons, Jess thought, recalling one aspect of being a vampire she could do without. Demons could talk to her now. No thank you very much, she shivered.
She felt Chris’s eyes on her. “Are you cold?” he asked jumping up. He left the room and returned with a blanket and she took it meeting his concerned eyes.
“Thank you,” she said quietly and he smiled. It was a very disarming and boyish smile and she realized if she ignored all the piercings he didn’t seem so scary. She watched him wander into the kitchen thinking he looked a lot like Tyros from the back. He had the same dark hair, though it was streaked with an unnatural shade of red that she thought must be hair dye, and he was about the same height and build.
He sat down at the table, his back slightly turned to her. Who are these males, she found herself thinking again, how did she end up with them? She wanted to ask but couldn’t think of a way to do it without giving away the fact that she’d lied.
Again she found herself wondering what they intended to do with her. Maybe they didn’t know what to do with her. Since they hadn’t expected her to survive the change as a relatively normal being, maybe they were at a loss.
She wished she could know for certain whether or not they worked for or with the vampiress and Paulo. It seemed like they had to, how else would she be with them? But what if….she put her head in her hands and squeezed her eyes shut. No point in dwelling on what if, just observe for now, she reminded herself.
So far from what she’d observed-well they hadn’t done anything threatening and she didn’t sense any malice.
As if you would, she scoffed inwardly, Jenna’s always telling you what a bad judge of character you are. The thought of her sister made her heart squeeze. What had happened to her? Was she all right? What about Anna, had she been lured into a trap?
She felt a light touch on her shoulder and looked up into Chris’s eyes. They were a lot like Coderin’s, amber and gold. Studying his face again she thought aside from being more narrow framed he looked a lot like the one called Aerik. She wondered if they were related.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She looked down and whispered, “I don’t know.”
“You really can’t remember anything at all?”
She shook her head a little too quickly but he didn’t appear to notice.
“Maybe that’s a good thing,” he was looking away when he said it and she wasn’t sure if he was talking more to himself or her. He glanced back when she didn’t comment.
“Whoever you were before, that’s changed now….” he trailed off, not knowing how to explain.
She nodded slightly.
The front door opened and the other two males came through it. “We’re leaving on a plane for Nevada in three days,” Aerik announced.
Jess’s heart rate accelerated. What was in Nevada?
Chris heard the quickening beat and squeezed her shoulder. “It’s where we’re from…or at least where we live,” he explained.
Her brows furrowed, they were from Nevada? Although now that he mentioned it she realized they were American. Every other vampire she’d met had had foreign accents.
“It’s not safe for her here,” Jay told Chris who nodded.
“Why?” she asked.
The three of them exchanged glances and Aerik came to sit on the other side of her. “Do you understand that we’re vampires?” he asked softly, searching her eyes.
She bit her lip and nodded hesitantly. “I drank your blood,” she blurted then looked down.
“That’s right. But you…you weren’t a vampire before. You were a human, do you understand that?”
She looked back up at him and nodded slightly again. “I think so.”
“I know you don’t remember who you are, but do you remember other things, like movies and books?” He and Jay had discussed the likelihood of that. Since she could obviously still speak then her memory loss was selective.
She nodded hesitantly again.
“The way they portray vampires, as being evil and killing humans…well there are some that are and do. And they are here in Europe. We’ve lived in America for the past sixty years and have never come across any like that there. So it’s just safer for us to go there, do you understand?”
She nodded again. Although she didn’t. Well she understood what he was telling her, she just didn’t understand him, them. They wanted to get her to safety? That didn’t exactly fall in line with Paulo and the vampiress. Abruptly nothing made sense. Wouldn’t the vampiress be angry if they took her?
A thought occurred to her and she blinked several times. The vampiress had slit her throat, what if she thought she was dead? Maybe she had been left somewhere and these three had found her and changed her in an attempt to save her life.
That is truly reaching, she thought with an inner sigh. Especially since humans don’t normally make the change like she had. If they were the ones who changed her then their initial intentions could not have been good.
Aerik spoke again interrupting her thoughts. “We’re going to have to think of a name for you, make an identity. Do you have any preferences? For a name, I mean?”
She stared at him then slowly shook her head.
“I met a Lilah once who looked a bit like you,” Jay put in.
She wrinkled her nose and they laughed.
“How about Elizabeth?” Chris suggested.
She cocked her head to the side. “Liz,” she tried it out. “I don’t mind that,” she said quietly.
“Liz it is.”
She nodded and sighed inwardly again. Maybe she should just tell them the truth, it was the only way she could get any answers. She was plagued by indecision. They might not be so nice to her if she did, or they might lie to her which would make her questions pointless. No, she would stick to the plan for now and continue to observe, she could always pretend to regain her memory at a later date. That settled, she returned her attention to the television.
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