The room is exactly like I thought it would be. Bright, airy, slightly retro in appearance. The stove is black and chrome, gas, of course. The countertops are thick soapstone, a soft white that pair well with the light teal cabinets. There’s a circle table for four at the center of the room and a thick rainbow woven rug in front of a door that I assume leads out to the back porch I’d spied.
“Is french press okay?” Maris asks. She has an electric kettle in one hand and the french press in the other. Unlike the rest of the house, this room is homey, cozy even. Golden sunlight pours in through the window I first saw her though and I smile. Maris looks good in homey and cozy.
“French press is perfect.”
“Great. It’ll just be a few minutes.” She gives me another one of her quick smiles before she turns to work on the coffee. I take a seat at the table and watch her work. She’s efficient and quick,even with the nervous looks she sends my way while she starts up with the expected small talk.
“How’s your stay in town been so far?”
“It’s been peaceful. I’ve only been here for a couple of days though.”
“Have you met many people yet?”
She is sweet and soft, delicate like she might shatter at the slightest pressure. Gone is the woman who told me she couldn’t be stopped when she had decided to take a man’s life. There is nothing left of the woman who had stumbled into the confessional booth with me last night.
“No, just work and now, you.”
Where did the woman from last night go?
Her absence now though…it makes the Maris I’m seeing now all the sweeter, like a rare vintage of blood that I’m the sole owner of. Free to sip and savor on my own.
“I’m sure once you meet more people in town, you won’t feel like it’s peaceful here anymore, or lonely.” I can hear the finality in her voice. She thinks once I do meet other people that I won’t visit her again.
“New people are not always the best people.”
She looks at me in surprise. I watch her face to try and predict what her next response might be and for the first time I wish I had a different set of abilities. Not all vampires are created equally with some mastering the more advanced powers our kind can wield. There’s a few mind readers. They can only manage it with humans, though. I always thought that power would be terrible. Who would want to work all day to keep the thoughts of humans out of their head?
But Maris?
I’d give anything to be able to hear what she’s thinking in that pretty head of hers but since I can’t, I set about it the old-fashioned way and ask.
“What is it?”
“I’m new people,” she says, motioning between us, “I mean, person. I’m a new person to you.”
“You are.”
“But you said new people aren’t always the best, so does that mean-”
“You?” I ask, cutting her off. Whatever fucked up thing that has gone on in this town with Maris to make her think I wouldn’t see her as good is shining a little too brightly for my liking. Time to put that to bed while I have her with me. “Of course not. You’re my neighbor,” I tell her like it explains everything. “That rule doesn’t apply to you.”
She doesn’t look fully convinced but she drops it. “I’m an exception to the rule then?”
“Oh, completely. There’s a neighbor clause in these sorts of things, didn’t you know?”
She smiles and shakes her head. The smile is small but it’s there. “No, I think I missed the day that was announced.”
“Then trust me to teach you the rules you don’t know.” I lean forward, forearms on the table and aim for charming when I add, “I’ve been told I’m a very good teacher.”
I hit the target of charming so hard that it turns into sawdust, if the blush on Maris’ face is anything to go by. I let some of the glamour magic that I had to pull back in the coffee shop loose now. The only way the invitation into her house would hold is if Maris invited me of her own free will, no glamouring allowed. As much as I do enjoy seeing the real her, there’s nothing a little magic can’t improve.
I know the moment the glamour takes hold of her when she relaxes slightly, the tension that keeps her shoulders up and her hands balled at her sides, eases. She smiles at me and it’s warm and bright, just like the sun. It’s so unlike the small smiles she’sbeen giving me that for a second I feel like the glamour I’ve aimed at her has been redirected to hit me square in the face.
“Maris,” I say her name and she comes to me as easily as anything. The glamour slides over her a little more. I toy with the idea of using it at full force. Why not tell her that she’s in love with me? I could make her my Thrall if I wanted. But if I do either of those things, there will be no room for Maris anymore. It would be inside of her, taking up space where she is, where the woman that captivated me last night lives and breathes. She’d be gone. Silenced.
“Yes?” her voice is soft, just a touch above a whisper. I hear the grandfather clock ticking away down the hallway. The house creaks and moans while it shifts and the window behind her rattles from a gust of autumn wind. Winter will be here before long but will I? Rosanna’s tribunal will take place in the coming weeks and the moment Aubrey says I’m free to leave Vesper Point, I’ll be gone.
Maris would be left here alone. A mindless, vapid thing I would no longer have use or a taste for. No, I let the glamour slip away as fast as I summoned it. I can’t use it on her. Everything that makes her appealing would be hollowed out under a glamour.
