“Do you remember Ronan?” she said, and I nodded.
“The guy you were hooking up with?”
“Yeah, well, he was a Werewolf, and when we started to get more serious, I left because, well…” She paused, her brow furrowing almost as if the memory hurt her to think about. “Look at the lives we live, you know.
“Plus, how do you think it would go over with my dad if I started dating someone who wasn’t human?” she asked, but there was a sadness to her eyes and tone. “Yeah… anyway, I decided to put an end to it, but sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I would have given us a chance. Like you’ve said before, some of the monsters we run into are simply existing, just like we are. They aren’t all bad.
“And it seems like the Davorin brothers might not be all bad,” she said as a coy smile spread across her face. I hadn’t said those words since before dad died.
He believed those things. And maybe somewhere deep down, I still did too.
I pushed my straw against the counter and put the open end in my mouth and shot the straw wrapper at her face to try and change the subject, but all she did was laugh.
“All I’m saying is keep an open mind. Maybe they’ll surprise you,” she said just as our waitress brought us our food.
“Yeah, yeah.” I began eating to get out of this conversation, and so did Sam.
I didn’t like the thoughts she put in my mind. Trusting Vampires, let alone sleeping with them, sounded like an awful idea to me, but I couldn’t ignore all the things they had done to help me in the short time I had known them.
Telling her about everything only heightened my thoughts on those facts. And that’s exactly what they were and that’s what made it harder to ignore. They hadn’t done anything to put my life in harm’s way.
Even when I was bleeding out in front of them, they had so much control over their cravings; I never saw their eyes shift to the darkness that came with bloodlust, never saw the veins that I knew stirred under their eyes. The only time I had seen them was when they were trying to be intimidating.
Cute, but that didn’t work on me.
Everything they had done seemed to be in the best interest of helping me, and although I still carried doubt in my heart, it made me feel a small semblance of hope that I would finally find who had been behind my father’s murder, who had been behind the hordes of new Vampires created recently.
“The jukebox is working!” Sam squealed, pulling me out of my thoughts as she scooted herself out of the booth to run over to it.
Last time we came here together, it was broken and we missed being able to play our favorite oldies. Music began filtering through the speakers.
I Want To Break Freeby Queen played on the speakers as she made it back over to the table and for a moment, she looked at me expectantly, like she expected me to say something about the song choice.
We had always loved Queen. So did my dad, and the memory of him dancing in the kitchen last year surged in my mind.
Instead of making me cry, a smile grazed my features at the memory of him.
“You like it? It’s not our normal song,” she admitted.
Sam started singing along quietly to herself, her body language seeming more rigid with her fingers drumming against the table slightly off beat, but I didn’t pay much mind to it since it wasn’t one we played often.
“Of course I like it, and who cares if it’s not our normal song? It’s Queen,” is all I said, because it was plenty of an explanation. I smiled, and so did she, but it seemed forced as we finished the last of our food and readied to leave. Was something wrong?
I tossed money on the table, enough for a nice tip, and we both walked outside, the bell chiming above us as we left.
I made my way back to my motorcycle slowly; I felt a little queasy and lightheaded. My body had definitely had enough of being upright for today. I needed to get back to the motel and get some sleep.
“I’m glad you came, Serina,” Sam said with a sad smile. “It’s been a while.”
“Yeah…” I replied, knowing the last time I saw her was at my dad’s funeral. I had been distant from everyone since he died, and I know it wasn’t their fault, it was mine, and it was because I knew I wouldn’t be able to live through it again…
The pain of losing someone I loved so dearly.
I pulled her into a hug, and she squeezed me so tight it almost took my breath away from the pain that radiated through my side, but I refused to let her go or show it.
When she finally released me, she gave me one last smile before climbing into her dad’s truck. The rumble of the engine was a distinct sound that I could recognize anywhere as she started it, and I leaned against my motorcycle and gave her one last wave as she drove out of the parking lot.
I leaned against my bike for far too long staring at the diner, imagining all of us sitting in our favorite booth with smiles on our faces on the other side of the glass.
