Growing Wildflowers | WLW

Bergamot

"Why did you say no?" Bri's voice crackles through the speaker on my phone.

I shrug even though she can't see me. "Why not?"

"Nuh uh. Don't pull that BS with me."

I can't help but laugh but I don't respond. Instead, I roll a loose thread from Aurora's bed comforter between my fingers.

"What is it, Gwen?" she prompts. "Might as well use the human before you kill her."

My chest clenches. I try to keep those thoughts to a minimum. I'm trying to stay optimistic, even though I won't say it out loud. I want Jamie to walk away from this uninjured. The more I get to know her, the more I want her to survive.

"I'm scared," I answer. "I'm scared that if I find out who killed my parents and turned me into this bloodthirsty murderer, I'll hunt him down and kill him."

"Don't talk like that." Bri's voice is quick and sharp, followed with a long silence. She lets out a frustrated sigh. "You have to stop bashing on blood suckers."

"I'm not bashing on them."

"Us," she corrects. "You're bashing on us."

"Bri—"

"No. You know what they'll do to you if you're not like the rest of us. You need to take this seriously."

There's a long pause as I think about my fight with John. Did he put her up to this? A twinge of guilt runs through my chest. We've never fought like that before, and we still haven't made up but maybe Bri is different. Maybe she'll understand. She's still young like me. She wasn't turned decades ago like John.

"Maybe I'm not like the rest of you."

"Stop talking like that, Gw—"

"No, Bri. Seriously. Did you feel bad when we killed those kids in the forest?"

"Don't ask me that."

"Did you?"

"No." Her tone is all acid. "Humans are food. And even if I did feel bad, I'm not going to say it out loud. That's like pointing a loaded gun to my head in the daytime and telling a hunter where to find me. Look, I have to go. I'll talk to you later." With that, she hangs up.

The call is ended before I can look at the phone screen. Great. I've pissed off two people I care about now. But, within seconds, the hollow thud in my chest is numbed by the doorbell.

"It's Jamie. I got it!" I call into the kitchen as I half-jog down the hallway but when I pull the door open, it's not Jamie staring back at me. It's Faith. The mousy looking girl from the beach. The one who saved me from drowning and tried to make me drink from her. She shoves a moving box into my arm and takes another from the older woman standing behind her.

"What are you doing here?" I whisper.

It's not until they both step into the house that I notice the resemblance, both with long brown braids down their backs, pale skin, and hazel eyes.

"Hey, you," Faith says, cocking her head to the side a little. "Miss me?"

I have to physically stop myself from shaking my head.

"Oh, Gwen." Aurora's strong voice comes from behind me as she wipes her hands on a dishrag. "You've met Faith already. How lovely. This is her mother, Denise. She delivers extra blood to me and a few other bloodsuckers in town."

The older woman, Denise, looks at me but her eyes are empty. "Nice to meet you, dear. Faith was so excited to run into a blood sucker out in the city, she couldn't keep herself from talking about you."