“Anna had passion. In five hundred years, I have never encountered so much fire in a living being. She was like…” he paused, searching for words, “Earth’s magnetic force, but grander. Unbendable. When she wanted something, the universe bowed to her.” He pressed a hand to his heart. “I wept in Anna’s presence the first time we met, as did every vampire fortunate enough to be looked upon by her.”
Who knew vampires could be such crybabies?
Stark drew a long breath and continued, “Anna could gaze into a person’s very soul and ignite the same fire she held within her. It was why, when she told us we could rise above our savage tendencies to become something greater than mere animals, many believed her. Even I began to question my separatist beliefs. And when the voices of her skeptics grew too loud to ignore, too angered by a human telling them what they could or could not be, she gave up her humanity. All to show vampires the potential within our souls, not our immortalbodies.” Stark shook his head slowly, as if coveting her memory. “I disagreed with her about coexistence, but I can admit that she transformed us with her passion, like a goddess with a divine spark.”
I got up and sat on the edge of the bed, pushing my hair from my face. His raw words explained why so many years later, vampires still worshipped her. “I understand she was special, but why did you come into the Flaming Rooster that night?”Tell the truth. For once in your life!My stomach rolled with a mixture of hope and dread.
“I had been watching you for a long time,” he confessed. “Since you moved to town.”
I’d been fifteen when we came here from Kentucky. “Why?” Because a vampire spying on a teenage girl? Super inappropriate. He’d better have a good explanation.
“One evening, you were leaving the Flaming Rooster, and your sister said something mean to you. Your ass was too fat and pumpkin-like, I believe. When she turned her head, you spit in her hair.”
I didn’t remember doing that, but it tracked. Sometimes, Maybell could be a bitch, and I enjoyed dishing back.
He added, “It made me laugh for the first time in centuries—the way you put on airs of innocence. Meanwhile, a large, goopy glob was sliding down the back of her head.”
I made a sour face. “So you started stalking mebecause I spit on Maybell?”
“Over the next several days, I would come find you, searching for a bit of amusement. Without fail, you were always up to something mischievous.”
My mouth dropped. “I was not.”
“One evening, I witnessed you hide your mother’s undergarments from the clothesline, in a bush. She spent days searching for them, yelling to your entire family, ‘Where are my panties?’”
I remembered that. I thought it would be funny to make her go commando for a week. “I was just a kid.”
“But you were funny, always searching for ways to rock the boat and push buttons, but never revealing your hand. Then, shortly after that, your father had a heart attack, and I turned him.” Stark rubbed his chin. “But not because your uncle begged me. I did it for myself. I feared that this tiny rascal of a girl would cease her shenanigans and leave me without my daily dose of entertainment.” He shrugged. “I’d hoped to save your father and thus preserve your innocent, but very wicked, little personality. It was not in the stars.”
So Daddy had been turned into a vampire because Stark saw me as the pubescentJackass?
I was about to tell Stark how crappy a reason that was, but he added, “Then after your father’s ‘death,’ I observed as your sorrow changed you. I began watching over you, fearing you would not survive the pain. I believed youmight…kill yourself.”
I frowned. “The thought never crossed my mind. Not once. I had Mamma, Maybell, and Uncle Jimmie there for me. But I don’t get why you’re bringing this up.” These memories were beyond painful. “Did you plan to stop me?”
“No, woman.” He scoffed. “Vampires don’t do charity.”
He’s the worst.“Then why?”
He didn’t answer, but my mind supplied a few scenarios. “You were going to feed on me.”Waste not, want not.
“Partially. Yes.”
“You were thinking of turning me?” I guessed.
“Yes,” he confirmed.
“But I was just a kid.”
“In my day, an unmarried fifteen-year-old was considered a spinster if not already promised to someone. Of course, humans only lived to forty on average. Nevertheless, I thought if you were intent on ending your life, I could at least put you to work. Perhaps as a clown or maid.”
“What?”
“For your father,” he said sternly. “Not for me. I have no need of a clown, and there are no shortages of slaves in my home.”
Stark truly saw nothing wrong with this plan?
“All right.” I lifted my chin with a big inhale, preparing for whatever hard truth might spill next from his immortal mouth. “We’ve established that you knew who I was the night you saved me. Butwhy were you there in the first place?”
