“They might be tiny, but there are a great many of them.Brew was telling me that they keep their home clean without much thought.Even going so far as to run the vacuum cleaner once a day.I’d like to see that sometime, but I fear that I’d hurt myself laughing so hard.”She tried to think about how a tiny little person would be able to do that, too, and grinned.“Now I see you get the image.I wondered too if they wear maids’ outfits when they work.Now that I think I’d pay good money to see.”
They talked about the faeries, and she was startled when one of them came to sit upon her knee.They’d stopped for some lunch and were sitting at a picnic table near the Dairy Mart.When he bowed to her, she nodded her head at him.
“My name is Soot.I didn’t know what it was when I chose that name, so I’m stuck with it.”She smiled at him when he grinned.He had very sharp teeth and a sword at his back.“I will be with you forever, my lady.I will be there for you when you should need anything at all.”
“I don’t know that I need anything right now.Except for our new house to be cleaned up.But that would take you forever.”He assured her that there were many more who would love to work with her.“I need to know how to pay you.We’ve talked about it, Sirous and I, but we don’t know what to pay you with.I’m sure that our money wouldn’t mean that much to you.Not to mention how you would carry it around.”A short giggle burst from her mouth.“I’m sorry.We’ve been having fun today.”
“As well you should.Both you and Lord Sirous should be having lots of fun now that you’ve found one another.”He bowed to her again, and she put out her finger to shake his hand.When he did so, she felt a bit of something wash over her.“We have a connection now, the two of us.Whenever you need me, you need only to say my name and I’ll be there in no time.As for the house, it would be our pleasure to do this for someone as kind as you are.”
“Thank you.”He flittered a bit then asked her for permission to leave.When she granted it, he simply disappeared.She thought that trick would be nice when she didn’t want to talk to someone, like her mother.Sirous introduced her to his faerie named Lana.She too was going to work on the house to be cleaned up, and she was sure by the end of the day they’d have move-in-ready homes.At least she hoped so.
~*~
Sirous had never enjoyed shopping before.But today he thought that he could spend the entire day doing just that.He was sure it had a lot to do with Tabitha, but he didn’t care what it was; he was getting to spend time with her, and they were laughing a great deal.He looked at the couch they’d been debating on buying.It was a comfy couch, but it wasn’t in the color they wanted.
“You think that the faeries could change the color once we get it home?”He said he’d not thought of that but was sure that he could do it as well.“Then we’ll get it.I hate the color.I thought all places that sold furniture had choices that you could pick from for the material.Not only is this thing ugly, but the material is scratchy as well.”
“I believe I had one like this in the seventies.It was all the rage to have one of the mostuncomfortable couches around.I don’t believe anyone ever sat on it.Not so long as I was in the house, I don’t think.”She laughed, and he thought he could make it so she laughed all the time.He certainly enjoyed it.“I do hope that the fad isn’t returning.It will make for a lot of uncomfortable guests when they come over.”
“Do you entertain much?”He told her that he’d had no reason to entertain until she came along.“I’ve never had company come over for any reason.I went to work and came home afterwards.It was not only lonely, but it was also cheaper to be alone all the time.I never really struggled for money, but if there had been an emergency, I would have been screwed.”
He told her about his life as a man growing up when things were so different from what they were right now.There were no cars at all, and only the rich could afford a horse.“Unless they were farmers, and they had one long before anyone else did.I worked on a farm once.It was something that I decided I wasn’t cut out for.All that rising before the sun came out was hard on me.”
“I bet it was.”She smiled at him.“You’re very easy to talk to, did you know that?You’re very sweet too when you want to be.”He told her that she brought out the best in him.“I’m glad to hear that.You do the same for me.I feel like a new person when you’re around me.”
“You make me want to be a better person than I have been.I was set in my ways and never thought that a mate would be able to stand me.I’m glad that I’m wearing you down.”She laughed, and he had to smile.It sounded so natural for her to laugh at him.And he found that he didn’t care one bit that she was.It was as if he really had become a different person.“Well, we have work to do.I think we’ve decided on this couch and the love seat that goes with it.However, I think we should order two of the same so that there is enough room in the living room for people to sit.We’re all big men, and I’d hate to crowd them onto one couch when they come to visit us.”
They talked about anything they wanted.She would occasionally ask him a question about his life or that of a vampire, and he’d tell her.He didn’t get into the gory details of his life; he thought that would give her nightmares for the rest of her life.By the time they were ready to go home again, not only had they filled out most of the house, but they’d been able to pick up things for the walls as well.
“I have several houses that I go to when I need a break.I’ve never thought of them being in a good location for a mate.But one of them is in France.I have houses all over the world, as a matter of fact.We should go to them and enjoy ourselves.I know that there is staff at each of them, but I’m almost too worried about what the houses might look like now that I think about it.”He told her how Calla had found that Brew was paying a dead woman who had worked for him many years ago and thought about asking her to go over his books.“I do my own, but I’m sure that I’m missing something important when I just glance at them at the end of the month.”
“I used to be an accountant.Well, I suppose that I still am.I could do that for you.Unless you’d rather have Calla do it.She seems to enjoy it a great deal.”He thought it would go a long way in showing her that they had plenty of money if she were to do them for the household.He told her that he’d be happy with her doing them.“I’ll start on them as soon as we’re settled.I might even find a thing or two that you’ve done wrong.You seem so perfect to me right now.”
“Thank you.You’re making me blush.”When she smiled at him, he could have taken on the biggest monster in the world and come out on top.He nearly pointed out that he’d only blushed once before in his life, and that was a story that was better left untold.
He’d been a mere child when he’d seen his first naked woman.Upon reflection, she’d been neither young nor good-looking, but she’d been his first, and that had been an experience that he never forgot.Nor would she him had she still been alive.
But he did tell her of stories that he thought she might get a kick out of, like his first car ride and his first time on a horse.Neither had turned out right for him, and he’d nearly been killed when the car he’d been driving hadn’t had any brakes.Most of the day had been spent in good conversation like that.She also told him of her life, and he felt sorry for her as she’d not had a good life, not even as a child.
“There was never a time when we celebrated the holidays.I remember one Thanksgiving thatwe were dressed to go someplace to eat, and mother had gambled away all our money.She knew about my abilities by then, but since it was a holiday, there were no races that I could give her.That got me a night locked in the closet with the light off and no supper.She would blame me for her inadequacies all the time.After a while, you get used to that sort of treatment, I guess.”She smiled at him.“Tell me something more about your life so that I’m not feeling down again.She does that to me every time I talk about her.”
“Before I forget to tell you, the money is there for you from the burin.It’s a considerable sum too.I guess this Wayne person knew how to invest his money from your mother, and he did well with the ponies as well when she did.I never bet on something that is supposed to be a sure thing, but I guess people do win those sorts of things.”
“How did you get your money?I mean, did you start out life as a vampire with funds?”He said that he’d been from a very wealthy family, much like the others in their group.“So when they died, you inherited it all.I guess that’s a good way to have funds.I never knew who my other family was.For all I know, they could have been wealthy as well.”
“Your mother would have had to have gotten her money from somewhere, knowing how she gambles.I would imagine that they cut her off when she’d been growing up, or they might well have been as broke as she was when she was arrested.”He’d told her again about her mother being taken to jail, and she had a couple of questions about that, too.“She went without too much in the way of fanfare.I guess she told them that you were going to pay her bail, and there hadn’t been one set as yet.Being such a small town, about those kinds of things, we’ll have to wait until the circuit judge comes through or take her to Zanesville for a hearing there.She’s racked up quite a bill at the hotel, and she made a mess of the room as well.”
“That sounds like something she’d do.Make a mess of something that didn’t belong to her.She never kept house either.That was something that fell to me as well.”He took her into his arms and held her while she looked so sad.“How can a person who is supposed to love you treat you so terribly?I was only a kid that she took advantage of all the time.Then, when she found out what I could do, it was like I was only good for one thing.”
“I’m sure to her you were.”He realized that he shouldn’t have said that, but it was out now, and he held her when she started to cry.Pulling the shadows around them so they’d have some privacy, he let her cry out all her misery while he held her tightly in his arms.“I love you, Tabitha.You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me.And I would shout it to the world, given the chance.”
“Thank you.I needed that.”She looked up at him, and he could see that she was still tender.Kissing her lightly on the mouth, he told her that she needed some dinner and that things would look better.Just as they were leaving the store, he came upon a man whom he’d seen before.
He didn’t know him at first, only his face.Then, when it came to him, he was surprised to figure out that he’d been turned into a creature of the night.Nodding once at the man, he walked by him and out the door to the awaiting car.They were gone before the man could recognize him.
“Did you know him?”He explained that at one time he’d been a friend.“He didn’t look like he is anymore.What happened?Or would you rather not tell me?”
“His name is Ruby Frank.We met one night when I was hungry for a meal, and he was the only one that I could find.This was before I could be out in the sun for any length of time.Anyway, when I fed from him, he had no way of knowing what I was about, so I took what I needed, left him a little cash, and was on my way.But he remembered me and came to find me.”He thought about what the man had wanted from him.“He demanded that I change him into what I was.I have no idea to this day how he found me or what I was.But his demands didn’t go unnoticed by the townspeople.Finally, after several weeks of him hounding me, I had to show him my monster, and he finally left me alone.For a time, anyway.I wonder who he got to change him.”
