The Vampire's Maid

Part 32. The Vampire's Maid

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“Everything’s going to be okay.”

His voice was low in my ear and soothing. It conjured up memories of my Dad and how he’d whispered comforting words to my six year old self when I’d had trouble falling asleep. His fingers traced the vein on my arm gently, tickling my skin.

“How do you know that, Ashley?” I whispered in a broken voice. “How can you possibly know that?”

My exhausted body moulded itself into the springy bed that I’d grown accustomed to after so many nights. It was safer to be here, Ashley thought, in my dormitory, than in his room. My head was resting on his firm shoulder and the comfort his mere presence gave me was incredible. My first night in this bed had been terrifying, haunted with the knowledge that vampires existed and that my Grandma was dead. Now I should have been more terrified. But I wasn’t. All I felt was an overwhelming sadness at the thought of leaving this house, the people who resided here. By tomorrow I would be gone... one way or another.  

My head was throbbing with tiredness and my eyes were heavy. But I couldn’t go to sleep, I knew I couldn’t. Not whilst Dane or Goliath were probably planning my death. But with Ashley whispering comforting words into my ear it was scarily tempting.

“You’re right. I don’t know that it’ll be okay. But what I do know is that I’m not going to leave you. I’m going to do everything in my power to protect you.”

His melodic, rich voice wrapped around me. But his words, as well as being a great comfort, sent a cold blast of fear down my spine. I wasn’t scared for myself; I was scared for Ashley. What had our relationship done to him? He was in so much danger now that he’d met me. Since our first kiss all I’d done was put him in danger over and over again. And now Goliath knew about us and whilst I was with him, Ashley would never be safe.

“What did you talk to Goliath about?” I said in the same broken voice.

Ashley had come and found me in the tunnel, smoothed down my hair and then led me gently back to the house. But we hadn’t spoken until we’d reached my bedroom and even then I hadn’t yet asked him why he’d wanted to speak to Goliath so urgently.

“I tried to reason with him.”

“About?” I asked, although I knew the answer.

“You.”

This was bad. He talking to his father about me did nothing to quieten the voice in my head telling me that this whole relationship was wrong of me. It was unbelievably selfish to inflict the danger I carried around upon Ashley.

“How did it go?” I bit back my instinctive urge to tell him what I was truly thinking.

“Well.”

I was immediately suspicious. I didn’t know much about Ashley’s relationship with his father but I knew that if they were having a conversation about me, it couldn’t possibly be defined as going ‘well’. But the suspicion was dull, oddly muffled, in my tired brain. My eyes were closed heavily when I asked him my next question.

“How did you reason with him?”

He was silent for a long time

“You don’t need to know, Elizabeth. But I hope that you’re in less danger now than you were before I talked to him.”

I knew that the danger wasn’t over and that there was no way it could ever be over. But I tricked myself into thinking that his words could perhaps be true. I inhaled Ashley’s subtle shampoo and vanilla scent and somehow the worries, the very important worries, were drifting lazily from my brain. I knew it was wrong and extremely foolish, but as I lost my grip on consciousness, I realised how much I wanted to sleep.