Reminiscence {Book Two of the Vengeance Trilogy}

Chapter Ten: Hiding Places

By midday, there was still no sign of Peter and no one else seemed to care. Tom was still locked up in his office and every other vampire in the church went about their business as usual like nothing happened. Fianna was gone, but I didn't want to start asking around about where she was. If she found out that I was looking for her, then she wouldn't leave me alone for a while. She would be convinced that I was concerned about her and that I cared, which was something that I didn't have the energy to deal with.

Clouds eventually took over the sun's morning glow and vampires one by one began to leave the church for the day. I had no desire to leave. There was nothing out there for me anyway, so I simply explored the rest of the church on my own, trying to see if there were any places that I could hide away. To the right of the altar, across from Tom's office was a door and a plaque that read bell tower. Glancing around, making sure that everyone was preoccupied, I quietly made my way over and went through the door. Carefully shutting the door behind me, I let out a small breath to expel the tension from my body. I glanced around and up at the flight of wooden stairs that zigzagged up the tower. Cold air swept down from the outside, but one of the perks of being a vampire meant that temperature was never an issue.

"Oi, anyone up there?" I called out, my voice bouncing up the sides of the tower. I felt my shoulders shrug at the silence as I began to climb the stairs to the top of the bell tower to see what I could find.

What felt like twenty flights of stairs later, I finally reached the top. Though a large bell took up a lot of the space, the tower was cozy in a strange sort of way. I threw my shoulder bag against the corners where the walls kept going. Beautiful arches exposed the bell to the world on all four sides of the platform. There was a chill winter breeze that came tumbling through, but once again I felt nothing but numbness.

I sat down at the edge of the platform, allowing my legs to dangle over the edge. Although I was hidden from the world, I still felt as though I could see everything going on in it. I began to feel more and more at home here. When I glanced down, it felt as though I were looking over a small kingdom of houses and gardens. Cars went humming by on the small one way street, completely unaware of how many vampires occupied the small church they were passing. I glanced over to the right and saw the graveyard where Aunt Aileen was supposed to be buried.

For a moment, I found myself thinking about what Declan had said about telling Elliot about the grave. Maybe he was right. As much as I hated to admit it, maybe Elliot should know. Elliot loved his mother as much as any child did. Sure, sometimes he got pissy with her, but that was normal for kids to do. He still adored her and he practically idolized his father. I, on the other hand, saw nothing good in Uncle Daley at the start.

***

It had been three days since I was able to move again, but my body still ached in ways that I had never felt before. Nearly all of my thoughts revolved around Kay still; where he was, what she was doing, if she had thought about me yet today, or if she even thought about me at all since she left. Aunt Aileen told me that thinking about her would just make the pain worse and that if I wanted to get through this, then I would have to clear my mind of her completely. She also told me that perhaps spending some time with Elliot would help. I loved Aunt Aileen, but Elliot was about as interesting as the grass in the back garden.

Still, it was better to hear it from here rather than the pompous asshole that I now had to call my uncle. Any time Aunt Aileen would tell me anything, he would always feel the need to chime in and add, your aunt is right, you know. That still wasn't as bad as when he would try to make amends with me on his own. It always started the same. He would say something along the lines of I know you haven't gotten to know me yet or I know you aren't my biggest fan right now. He acted as if he were somehow entitled to my respect. Much like my own father, he felt as though no matter what he was above me.