Circling Stars

🌟Chapter 20🌟

    Due to my age and Jasper's claimed age we couldn't get a rental car. We googled just about every place in town but the absolute lowest age limit required someone to be at least twenty-one. Instead we had to take an Uber to the closest establishment we could get to the farm. Which turned out to be a seedy bar. The guy who dropped us off was skeptical we'd be allowed inside and offered to take us elsewhere, but Jasper eventually convinced the man to leave us behind.

    Jasper and I walked around the place and determined that there were no security cameras. The loud off key music sounded bad to me and had to be hell on Jasper's sensitive ears. Jasper crouched down in front of me and said, "Do you think you can hold on?"

    A bit nervous I slid my arms around his chest and fastened my legs across his waist. While I had seen his extreme strength and speed a few times, this was a first. The whole reason Jasper wanted a rental car in the first place was for my comfort. Piggy backing while moving at insane speeds while fine for short distances tended not to be fun with long ones. This bar was five miles from town so he would have to run twenty five with me on his back.

    "If you get scared close your eyes."

    "I won't get scared," I scoffed.

    "Oh?" and he took off. Everything became a blur. The wind rushing past my ears blotted out every other sound in the universe. I had to remind myself to breathe. I couldn't tell how long it was before we stopped. When we did stop I found myself unable to move. Gently Jasper undid my stiff limbs and sat me on the boulder we were on.

    "I wasn't scared. You're full speed isn't so bad," I squeaked.

    "That wasn't my full speed." He tried to cover up his laugh. He smoothed down my hair, then lowered himself to sit. The crescent moon shone high above us and we faced the east. "Our home sat under that tree." He pointed to a huge white oak.

    You would never know this was once a place a family called home. There was nothing for miles. Another reason he'd wanted a rental was that we didn't know what would be waiting for us when we got here. It turns out we needn't have worried. My eyes could just barely make out the orange haze from light pollution that marked present day Houston.

    "The barn was about fifty feet to the left. Our farm was a few hundred acres of good land. A stream, it did not have a name, was the only reason we survived out here. We are sitting in the middle of it actually." The boulder now was nothing more than another landmark in the dry land. I wondered what had dried up the water, probably some dam that generated power.

    "Ma hated the heat. She was from New York." I hadn't known that. Though Jasper had been very open with me about details of his vampire life, he rarely spoke of his human one. Whether because it was so minuscule compared to his time as a vampire or too painful I wasn't sure. I brought it up sometimes but he seemed loath to talk about it in anything more than the broadest information. I knew he was born down here, had fought in the war, and rose quickly through the rebel ranks before being turned.

    "Why did she move then?" I laid my head on his shoulder and his arm went around my waist.

    "She married my pa. He met her in New York. Her father owned a small store and my pa's family had been tillers of the ground for generations. Pa was visiting his brother-in-law up there when they met. It was love at first sight. Her parents had arranged for her to marry a well off man in England, another month would have seen her on a ship back to Queen and Country.

    She was not happy about it but woulda' done it anyway. When she met my father she rebelled and eloped with him. They ran back to Texas as though Satan were on their heels. My grandfather with a shotgun was plenty frightenin' too."

    "He was actually gonna shoot your dad?" I asked in horror.

    "Did shoot him. They dueled and shot each other, pa in the shoulder, and grandfather through the bicep. Neither were good shots. A few days after they got stitched up drinks followed, and a night of drunken revelry saw them become friends." A goofy smile crossed Jasper's face.

    "That's-well certainly one of the strangest stories I've ever heard."

    "True. My sister always loved it though. She'd ask ma for it most nights we was growin' up."

    "A sister?"

    "Annabelle." Jasper whispered softly. "She favored our father, dark hair and bright blue eyes. Two years younger than me."

    "Go on," I gently urged.

    "I wonder how she turned out. Annabelle. What happened to her after the war. I only ever got one furlough during that time, the first Christmas I was away. She gave me that compass you wear. The entire family had saved for months to give it to me. I never saw them again after I went back."

    I couldn't imagine that. Going away to fight and never seeing your loved ones again, not because you died but because you became something else.

    "You never thought about going to them after you were turned?"

    "No."