The Vampire's Maid

Part 31. The Vampire's Maid

My Wattpad friend who, as well as being amazing, puts up with my obsession with Alex Pettyfer. Thank you for that! :)

“Oh God, Lizzy. You have done something. There’s that guilty, scared look on your face like the one you have when you’ve failed at cooking something.”

I gave a weak smile at Joe, but fear overtook almost immediately as his words and their implications sank in. With that fear came a panic that made my breathing difficult as I backed away from Joe and Ashley, slumping down the wall. The skirting board cut into my lower back uncomfortably but I welcomed the pain, hoping it would help me to maintain my grip on reality. I buried my face into my fists, only four words running through my head. I’m going to die! I’m going to die.

But did I really believe that? Did I really believe that Dane and Goliath were unstoppable? Surely they seemed that way; they had every vampire in the country on their side. I didn’t know how many vampires there were in existence but I’d seen how eleven of them had slaughtered my village. It would only take one to kill me.

But I was forgetting that I was not alone against them; I had Ashley. Brave, mysterious, fearless Ashley who’d promised that he’d come running if I was in danger. But would that be enough? Was there even a solution to the mess I’d found myself in?

I closed my eyes, trying to blank out my emotions and think. Think logically. But thinking logically hadn’t helped me to save my Grandma. Could it even begin to help me save myself?

“So,” Joe spoke. “Care to enlighten me?”

“About what?”

Ashley’s voice was pained and weary, but I could sense the calculated edge to it. He was thinking hard about something, his voice was detached a little from the conversation with Joe.

“About why your homicidal Dad is after Lizzy. She’s only sixteen! I thought you vampires waited until we were older to kill us.”

“I don’t play any part in that.” Ashley muttered, confirming every miserable belief that I had about what happened once servants reached a certain age.

“Okay, okay. You’re busy campaigning for human rights whilst your psychopath relatives murder the servants. The point is...Lizzy’s too young to die.” Joe said the last five words in a dramatised, Hollywood accent.

“They think,” Ashley’s voice cracked a little. “They think that I’m going to help her to escape. And if she did escape, she might reveal their secret to the world.”

“Oh, God. You’ve not been telling Vampire Boy about your deluded idea that you can escape?” Joe aimed in my direction.

I buried my head further into my fists, my head throbbing and my chest full of unshed tears. There was no chance that we could escape now. Without the car it was impossible to escape from this house.

“Why does your Dad think you’d help her escape?” Joe asked.

“He walked in on us.”

“Walked in on you doing what?” Joe asked, puzzled.

I kept my eyes shut, not trusting myself to open them in case I cried, not trusting myself to join in with the conversation in case my voice cracked. There was a moment of silence in which Ashley and Joe must have exchanged a look.

“Nice.” Joe drew the syllable out, a hint of approval in his tone. “So that’s why I had to change the locks? So you couldn’t run away with Lizzy?”

“Look Joe, you don’t think that you could change the locks back? Is there a way?” Ashley asked, his use of Joe’s real name rather than ‘mechanic boy’ notifying me that he was desperately wanting Joe to consent.