Eleanor stayed at the hospital until Tim Higgins arrived at dawn. She stumbled on her feet to hug him, her eyes drooping dangerously close to shutting. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and took her home, although she didn't remember the drive. They hadn't given her any drugs at the hospital, but it felt like her entire blood stream turned to Novocain. She'd slept for a whole day after having her wisdom teeth removed. This was worse. Her post-vampire induced exhaustion felt like the difference between a 5k and a marathon. When she'd got home, she didn't even talk a shower. It was only with her mom's help that she managed to get changed into her pajamas.
When Eleanor woke up again, she stared out the dark window. Her nightstand light was on. She groped across the table top but couldn't find her phone.
Her fingers grazed her grandpa's watch, and she squeezed it in her palm. She slipped it on her wrist, even though it was too big and banged against her bones.
"You're awake," her mom said, coming into the room with a tray loaded with grilled cheese, tomato soup, and water.
"Triple cheese?" Eleanor asked meekly.
Her mom smiled. "Cheddar, mozzarella, and pepper jack—it's your favorite."
"And rice in the tomato soup?"
"Of course."
Eleanor didn't eat fast, but she didn't talk to her mom while she absorbed herself in the heavenly taste of the fats. Her body felt shaky like she'd had the flu. She didn't know how long she'd slept, but she knew low blood sugar when she felt it. She was careful to eat on hikes to avoid that shaky, weak feeling inexperienced hikers got when they didn't bring enough carbs.
"What day is it?" Eleanor asked. "Where's my phone?"
"It's Saturday night," her mom said.
"I've only been out a day? It feels..."
Like a lifetime. Like she was Rip van Winkle awakening a hundred years in the future with a world filled with freaking vampires.
"Tim Higgins had a deputy bring your car back today, and I've kept your phone so you could sleep. And yes, I called Jo and Brendan to let them know you're alright."
"Did anyone else call?" Eleanor asked.
"No, but you needed your rest, and whoever is important knows where to find you."
Daniel's face floated through her head. She'd just left him at the party, running off without explanation. All the faces blurred together after she'd seen Virginia's prone body on the ground. All except the vampires. She'd never be able to forget them.
She shuddered, her entire body spasming. Her mom put a hand to her forehead. She asked, "Eleanor, are you feverish?"
Eleanor shook her head. Voice cracking, she said, "It's my fault, mom. I took her to that party. We should've stayed in and watched movies."
Her mom gathered Eleanor into her chest. Eleanor sobbed silently into her mom's blouse, staining it with her tears. Her mom sighed and said, "You can't control what evil people do. You've always been that way, you know, caring more about others than yourself. Your grandpa was like that. He would've given the shirt off his back to help someone in need. But people do things you can't control. Not everyone is kind, dear. They're not all like you."
Eleanor pulled away from her mom, wiping her tears. She stammered, "Y-you think I'm kind? Even after all we've fought about? Even after the scene I made?"
Her mother sighed, wiping away Eleanor's tears with the edge of her blanket. She said, "Just because we're not seeing eye to eye doesn't mean I don't love you. I want you to take care of yourself, too, Eleanor. I try to take care of you, I do, but you're right—you're an adult. There's only so much I can do."
"Do you want to watch cartoons like we used to with grandpa?" Eleanor whispered, fingering the over-large watch on her wrist.
"Of course, dear."
*****
Sunday morning, her mom made breakfast. Jo and Brendan came over, and they talked about rock climbing and school. Not a word about vampires. That afternoon, they went to see Virginia in the hospital. She was going to be released the next day, although she'd have two weeks of medical leave from Bowdoin.
Eleanor collapsed on her bed that afternoon. Her mom agreed to let her stay home tomorrow as well, and Eleanor picked up her kindle, not feeling the slightest bit guilty about blowing off homework.
She started awake after dark. There was a knock on her door.
"Mom?"
The door opened, and her mom peered inside. She smiled and said, "I saw you were asleep, and I made sandwiches out of the leftover toast."
"You didn't have to bring them up," she said, sitting up in bed. "I suppose I should change into my pajamas."
Her mom sat them down and told her goodnight. Eleanor ate, brushed her teeth, and went back to reading. Another knock interrupted her, and she sat up, frowning at the door.
"Mom, I—"
The knock came from the window.
Eleanor jumped, grasping at her grandpa's watch. She searched the room for something to fight with. Her ice ax...which was downstairs in the hall closet.
The knock came again, and she crouched down, creeping forward on her knees. She nudged the window open, the cool autumn breeze tingling her nose. Outside, the street lamps illuminated the sidewalks, and she peered down. No one stood below the window.
A stone pinged against the glass. Eleanor's gaze darted up, looking into the inky boughs of large oak outside her window. Her stomach turned, and she regretted eating both sandwiches for dinner.
"We need to talk," the shadows said. No, not the shadows. Wes. The vampire.
"You are the last person I want to see," she hissed through the open window crack, "other than your friend, and he's dead, so yeah, you're the last person...not that you're a person."
"He wasn't my friend," Wes said. He didn't speak loudly, but his voice carried through the dark. He sounded like he had the day when she'd broken into his house--less guttural, more normal. But she couldn't think of him that way. He was a vampire, not a person. He'd attacked Jo. She'd seen what one of his kind could do.
"Whatever...what part of 'I don't want to see you' do you not understand? And no, being veiled in shadow doesn't freaking count," she snapped. "Cut the aura of mystery crap. I know what you really look like."
The breeze rustled the leaves. Had she imagined some of the shadows stiffening? Get a hold of yourself, she thought. A vampire wasn't going to care about her high-school level insults. She had to get him to leave. Farah said he could get in without an invite, but she had her grandpa's watch, a talisman of her home. It would have to be enough.
Eleanor pressed it against the windowpane. She thought a shadow shifted among the branches.
"If I wanted in your house, if I wanted to hurt you, I would've done it by now," Wes said.
"Gee, you do know how to make a girl feel better."
"I tried getting ahold of you via chat," Wes said tersely, "but you weren't available. I didn't fancy coming out tonight, either, and lurking in a tree."
Eleanor shot a quick, guilty glance at her closed laptop. She hadn't been on it since the party, and she hadn't bothered much with her phone, either, leaving it turned off most of the day. If Wes tried contacting her that way, she wouldn't have been available.
"There are somethings you need to know. I wasn't there to hurt you or your friend. I was looking for the other vampire."
"Did Chad send out invitations for all of his vampire buddies to show up at his party?" Eleanor spat.
"I told you," Wes growled, "we weren't friends. I didn't know him. I've been living here two damned decades, and he was new to the area."
A small knot between Eleanor's shoulders relaxed. The deaths started recently. It had to be Chad, whose brains she'd bashed in. Wes made sure he didn't get up again. Eleanor's stomach rolled, and she pushed the gory memory away. Chad was definitely dead.
"Then Guilliford is almost rid of its vampire problem," Eleanor said tartly.
"I've lived here a damn sight longer than you have," Wes hissed. "I've as much right to call this town my home as you do. You're going to forget where I'm staying, okay? Don't tell your friends. If you want to be left alone? Fine. Do the same for me."
Eleanor rolled her eyes. What compunctions she'd had about telling people about Wes, about treating him different than the murderous vampire, disappeared when she'd seen him rip into vampire Chad. Like Farah said, there was no such thing as a good vampire. She was an idiot, thinking their little chats meant anything.
Licking her lips, Eleanor whispered, "And let you keep snacking on people? Yeah, I don't think so."
Wes hissed. "I live with my brother. He's diabetic and arthritic. Think about that when you bring your pitchforks."
Eleanor's brow wrinkled.
"There was an old lady and a SUV, but I assumed she was your sex slave or something..."
Wes snorted derisively but it sounded more dog like than human. Eleanor's insides twisted, and something niggled at her mind. The glasses and the hospital bed...of course those hadn't been for Wes. She'd been too preoccupied afterward--with him being a vampire and all--to give the rest of the house much thought. Someone elderly did live there, and it clearly wasn't Wes, who didn't need to use adult diapers.
"She's my brother's caretaker. She takes him to his doctor's appointments. I can't very well do that, can I?"
"The bedroom...with the hospital bed..."
"Good to see you were observant when you broke into my house...or my brother's house, as it is."
Eleanor slouched against the window frame. She was an only child and didn't understand sibling things. She couldn't imagine taking something like Wes into live with her. But what if he was your mom, your grandpa? a little part of her teased. You'd do it then out of love for your family...biting and glamour be damned.
She swallowed and asked, "He knows?"
"It's a hard secret to keep."
"Do you...do you—"
"Would you? If it was your family?" Wes hissed.
Eleanor shuddered, even though the window was only open two inches. It wasn't the night air that chilled her. She didn't want to even think about her family as vampires...as those things. That was a black hole she couldn't afford to fall into right now. She needed to concentrate on making things normal, on Virginia getting better, on her grades getting better. She needed to climb with Jo and Brendan again.
"Let's call a truce. No more attacks, no more deaths, and you can hide away in the woods," Eleanor said, her voice shaking.
She pressed her ear against the opening, but Wes didn't answer. Maybe you didn't hear him, she thought, wedging the window open several more inches. No sound but the scraping of branches together and the distant thrum of a car engine on a neighboring street. Eleanor clutched the sill and leaned her head out. The oak tree looked normal, and the deep shadow of the vampire wasn't there anymore.
He'd gone like he said he would.
(Note: Sorry this is a sad chapter, guys. This is one of my favorite chapters in the story, though, and it starts this whole conversation between Eleanor and Wes about family. I think this is also the first time where you get to see Wes angry, which he definitely is at the end. Happy post-Thanksgiving US-ians...until next week.)