I shook my head. “I was thinking very clearly that night. I knew what I was doing.”
“How did the curse happen?” My dad was growing impatient. His dark hair, the same inky black as mine, normally styled back, was frazzled by the stress of my grand entrance.
“Well,” I rested my hands in my lap like a child. “I let her drink my blood,and then she slipped into sleep again. I took her homeand went backto my apartment. I didn’t know what to do. It was my birthday, I was turning come nightfall, and it would be a big thing.”
I swallowed the pit in my stomach,remembering how fucking shitty I felt going to the diner and finding that Scout was not only working that night, but she was our waitress. She looked at me,sulking in my seat next to Aleida in her vampire form,and was done with me. It had shattered me so completelythat Irealized maybe it was best I do what my family had wanted and marry the blonde woman with family ties and the personality of a sponge.
“I hadn’t turned when the restaurant we were all at got robbed. Guys with guns were everywhere,demanding we put our hands up. I was still human, so I had no choice but to listen to them. But they shot anyway. Everyone collapsed, including me, and I panicked. I started praying for help.”
“And someone answered.” My dad stood and started to pace the den. It was his favorite room in the house. He kept it dark and the fireplace going at all times. It always reminded me of those commercials where Santa reads stories next to a fire.Exceptwith the smell of cigars permanently seeping into the walls and floor. “If you call a demon,theywillanswer.” He didn’t look at me as he put his hands behind his back.
“I begged to go back. For them to not let me die as a human. I needed to turn,so I could save my soulmate. He agreed, but well, you know the rest.”
“Desiderio,” my mother groaned again. “What a disaster.” She pinched the space between her eyes. “What are we going to do?”
“You’re going to give me your approval to marry Scout.” I stood and stared at her with hard eyes.
“You’re joking. We can’t approve that.” My dad laughed. “She doesn’t even have a last name. Our family will be shamed.”
“More than it already has? You tossed me away when I came home with two different colored eyes, Dad. Don’t pretend like things have suddenly changed.”
“But they have. Desiderio, you have a chance to fix things. The Linotti family is still interested.”
“But I’m not.” I pressed. “And I doubt Aleida is either. We’re different people, living in different times. It’s not going to happen.”
We continued back and forth for the rest of the night until we were all exhausted. Finally, I turned and left the room. I couldn’t keep talking in circles with them. It was getting early. “I’ll deal with this tomorrow night.” I tossed over my shoulder before I left.
I went to my room and found Scout waiting for me in bed. I quickly stripped down and climbed in next to her.
“How’d it go?” she asked.
“Not great. They still don’t get it.Their brainsare so rooted in tradition it’s hard for them to understand how I could break them with no fucks given.” I rolled onto my side and pulled her into my embrace. Her skin was soft and exactly what I needed right now. I relaxed against her and closed my eyes. “I’m sorry you had to spend hours in here alone.”
She laughed lightly, which ignited the flame in my heart. I needed her in my life, and I refused to give that laugh up.
“It wasn’t terrible. I explored some. Teenage human Desi was a lot like adult vampire Desi.”
“Yeah?”
“When did you last live here?” she asked.
I squinted, trying to remember. “I moved out with my buddies when I graduated high school. So, nineteen-eighty-five?”
“I found all your Iron Maiden tapes. They were in a shoebox underneath the Van Halen poster on your desk. You have quite the collection.”
I laughed. “I went to as many of their concerts as I could when I was in school. Even when my parents refused to give me permission. I’d find someone to drive me five hours just to see them and buy a shirt.”
“I found pictures. Of you and your friends. They look like a fun group.”
“Yeah? You don’t remember them?” I sat up on my elbows,and she turned slightly to look at me. “You met most of them that night you met me.”
She furrowed her brow. “I don’t. Not specifically, anyway. I remember agroup of long-haired grunge heads taking up one of my tables all night,and then when I clocked out,they catcalled me from their car. And then you, I remember you.” She reached up and put her soft hand on my rough cheek. She smiled. “You were leaning against the wall, trying to act like you were different from all of those guys.”
“I was.” I defended. “I had the balls to talk to you.”
“Yeah, but you shouldn’t have.” She removed her hand,and the shadow of Aleida and what I had done returned, engulfing Scout and mine’s relationship again. I sighed and fell back onto my pillow.
“I was stupid back then. I thought I could have you all to myself and still make my parents happy by pretending I was with Aleida.”
