ASAP turned into the following week. Then, when he got back from knocking down someone else’s dreams in whereverville, Wayne caught a vile cold and couldn’t knock down the inn. Radiance would live for at least another week, probably longer because his cold was about to extend into the holidays and it’s not like he was going to work on Christmas.
“Could it be a Chrithmas miracle?” I wondered aloud.
Vlad looked around the house with a judgmental eye. “It’s still getting knocked down, so maybe.”
I gasped in horror. “Vlad!”
“Just kidding. I’ve grown quite attached to this place, but don’t delude yourself. It’s possible to live for years on death row, one mundane paperwork delay after another.”
Heaven walked in wearing a pair of painting overalls smattered in black paint. If anyone was in denial, it was Heaven. She’d thrown herself into a series of feverish home repairs that were bound to conclude on the eve of destruction. She flashed a big smile.
“Being a vampire suits you,” Vlad complimented her.
“It does, doesn’t it?” She did a turn and flounced her hair. She’d taken out her pink and gold braids and was wearing it in an afro. “I feel so alive.”
The irony. She might not be talking about sunrise as much as before, but the light was still bursting forth from her soul. Her spirit was too strong.
“Death isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it’d be.”
“Give it a hundred years,” Vlad quipped.
Ignoring him, she said, “Now, I need you two to move your lazy asses or pick up a paintbrush.”
“Why do you persist with renovations?” I asked. “All of your improvements will be destroyed as soon as the crane operator gets back to work.”
“I’m a maker. I’m making things. Making this room beautiful, making content. If it only lasts for a few days, oh well.” She swiped a thick line of glossy black paint down the wall. And then a few more, bringing to mind my Zen garden at Plasma4Life, except better. Raking sand was one thing, but at the end of this project, I could be entombed in the blackness of my own living room.
“As a vampire, I think you would understand how an end makes something even more beautiful,” she said.
She had me there. “Fine.” I picked up a paintbrush.
Several days later, she had made a time-lapse video of all the home repairs.
In three short minutes, I watched as we (mostly she) painted the whole house, reupholstered some furniture, and rolled a piano into the living room. Bob installed wall sconces.
It was a short ’n’ sweet transformation of a decrepit inn into a home that fit a vampire: sumptuous, sensual, dark.
Anticipation is everything. It’s true for public speaking, the dentist, sex, Christmas, probably even the destruction of your home. Anything that is big enough to be anticipated is bound to feel inconsequential when it finally happens. This is especially true of the holidays.
We were to have one Christmas in our inn before the town razed it, thanks to bureaucratic delays, an overbooked crane, and the usual December labor shortage.
Then I slept through it.
Of course I did. It’s a daytime holiday. Santa works the night shift (my only source of compatibility with Tyrone besides sexual chemistry). People wake up as soon as the kids open their eyes, eat pancakes, and open presents. Then they spend the afternoon watchingDie HardorLove, Actuallyor one of the new Lindsay Lohan movies. Go, Lindsay! I’ve been rooting for you. The only nighttime activity is the Christmas Eve church service. None of it is for vampires.
We woke up after the whole day was over. “Well, I guess that’s that,” I said.
“Vermont exists the rest of the year too, you know,” Heaven said.
“But does it?”
Vlad walked by looking rumpled and sexy. Had he gotten the memo that I loved him in sweatpants? He looked out the window and shookhis head. “The damn snow.”
I nodded. “The road to town has one lane open, but that’s it. All of the highways are closed.”
His voice sounding as pent-up as he was, Vlad said, “I’m leaving now.”
“I don’t recommend it.” I was learning. Vampires aren’t exempt from travel advisories. A second storm was predicted. It was going to be a few more days before we should embark on any road trips.
