The Donor to a Vampire (Donor #1)

Chapter 20: The Face of Masked Regret

A month passed in the same constant rhythm. Ali sparred with me, making me physically tired, while Rosa and Matteo challenged me mentally. Gus-Gus helped me relax, and Will made me enjoy life while learning to be free. But even after a month at the Camaraderie, nothing has changed. Change probably came to this place at a glacial rate. People gossiped and stared like normal. In the wide-open, I was mainly with Will. Our inner circle avoided us like before, but we constantly communicated with secretive looks and smiles.

However, one person didn't share the bonding moments. Renée was giving all of us the ghosting of a century. She explained her absence by saying she was visiting a family in France with Collette. Naturally, she didn't give an explanation whose family it was or why. I thought the Stainless had to stay inside the community until they were mature enough to control their urges. And while Renée spoke in a sweet and syrupy voice, my distrust toward her increased each time we chatted over the phone. Soon, even those calls became less frequent and, ultimately, ceased altogether.

There was one significant change that brought me relief. Kendra was nowhere to be seen. Overnight, she just poofed into thin air. The harbinger of good news was Ali, who told me cheerfully one sparing lesson that Kendra was dismissed from the Camaraderie with her memory whipped clean. The shame her family has to deal with because of her behaviour and the substantial business loss they received was too much of a vengeance for me. It was pretty harsh to punish a whole family for the misdeeds of one individual.

"Good riddance, she vas annoying, vasn't she?" Ali remarked spitefully as I hit a bullseye on the target with one of her knives.

"That she was," I answered, and with a high five, we ended our practice.

The rumour of Julius being very firmly reprimanded circled around the Camaraderie for the first week, but since none of us saw him, there was no knowing the truth. Lysander hasn't come down to the Camaraderie to relay the story since the faithful night of the Julius-Kendra alliance. Even if he had come, I doubted he would speak about it. His absence was a relief, quickly turning into anger and resentment as the weeks without a word or a note flew by. I hated that I missed him while he clearly did not miss me or even had the decency to give me a much-deserved apology. I tried not to give Ly a second thought, although it was hard not to. Even in my sleep, he haunted me with his face, and I wanted to kick him in the delicate vampiric parts for that. I would be a liar if I didn't admit that the boxing bag had a big dent because I imagined his surprised face as he received my mean punch.

One day, a knock on the Wills' suite door surprised me while I leaned over a reading material Matteo had freshly provided. Thinking it was just another one of the group coming unannounced to pop by, I threw the door open with a smile, which quickly dropped. Then I threw my arms around them with tears in my eyes.

Patting him all over to see if he is hurt anywhere or forever limbless, I exclaimed through my tears, "G! I am happy to see you!"

G looked whole and well. I couldn't say he was alive and well since he was very vampirically undead, but it was nice to know he came out of that fight unscathed. He returned my smile, which was slightly strained and somewhat awkward. After a surprising moment, G returned my hug tenfold.

"Miss Dess, glad that you are alright after—" G stopped, not continuing. He touched the part of his shoulder where he was bit. Standing by the door, not knowing what to say, we went into an awkward silence. It would be nice if crickets would chirp to break the moment comically.

I cleared my throat. "Would you want to come inside or," Gesturing inside, I moved aside, but G took a step back with a shake of his head.

"No, I am not allowed to be inside the dormitories; however, I am here— how do I say this," Caught in an embarrassing moment, G tried to diffuse the tension by massaging the nape of his neck.