Hemlock Clan: What I Am

~ XXV ~

Blake

The lights in the mansion cast a soft glow onto the gravel driveway as I stopped the car right outside the front door.

"Here we are." I glanced over at Cameron sitting in the passenger seat, only to find his jaw on the floor for the second time tonight.

"Oh my god," he whispered. "You live here?"

I chuckled. "Yeah. A few of us live here, though. It's not just me. There's my family, some friends ..."

"But still ..." Cameron's eyes stared at the large house through the windscreen. He then sliced his eyes to me. "Why did you bring me here?"

"Uh, well, you've already shown me your place, so I thought I'd show you mine." I shrugged, trying to sound casual.

His eyes narrowed further and I had to resist the temptation to read his mind. He seemed ... pissed off at me and I wasn't sure why. Did it have something to do with us driving past his old house earlier? Since then, he'd been quiet and I'd kept stealing glances at him to make sure he was alright. His breathing had evened out and his heart hadn't been thumping quite as hard, so I'd taken those as all good signs and brought him out here. Away from the city. Away from his bad memories.

Between worrying about Cameron and watching the road, I hadn't had any time to process the fact that the little boy I'd saved from the burning house all those years ago was him. And the guilt that snaked its way through my body at the fact I had only saved him on a whim was now coiling around my limbs, threatening to render them weak and useless.

I had almost just walked past the fire, almost pretended to be a human and stood around to gawk at the disaster. But, I had decided against it and ran inside to save him.

If I hadn't been there ... If I hadn't made that split second decision ...

Fuck.

Shaking my head, I wiped a hand across my eyes. I wasn't crying, but I felt close to it. I needed time ... space ... to think about this. But I wasn't going to do it here, now. Not when I was trying to impress the one person I had saved all those years ago.

Switching off the engine, I opened the car door and grinned at him. "We don't have to go inside. We can go for a walk around the outside. The gardens are lit up at night. They're really quite nice."

"Gardens? As in, more than one?" His voice held a note of incredulity. I nodded and he blew out a breath as he sank further into the passenger seat. His eyes were still wide. "I don't even have one garden."

I chuckled again. "Come on. Let's go for a walk." I got out of the car and slammed the door shut, Cameron following suit. I jogged around the car and touched his elbow, nodding in the direction of the side of the house.

He smiled at me and nodded. Grinning back at him, I took his hand in mine and laced our fingers together, watching as a slight blush coated his cheeks and he ducked his head. I suppressed a groan at his cuteness. I didn't think I was ever going to get tired of it.

Tugging on his hand, I led him around the side of the house, towards the back, where the gardens were bathed in artificial light. I had told Gabriel that I was thinking of bringing Cameron out here tonight, and to try to keep as many vampires away from him as possible.

I hadn't wanted to tell my family because I knew they would jump on him the moment they saw him, but I also knew they would see us walking around outside anyway. I just hoped that they wouldn't scare Cameron away. Lance had managed to do a fine job of scaring him already and I didn't want him to fear my family, too. I was trying to protect him by bringing him here and I was sure he wouldn't feel safe if he realised he was surrounded by vampires.