The first thing I noticed when I awoke was the smell.
All around me was the dark scent of ashes, the trademark smell of a vampire, mingling with the scent of roses, a smell I had come to realize was unique to Spike.
After sniffing the air a few times, I realized that the scent wasn't coming from one general spot, so Spike wasn't actually in the room at the moment. This led me to believe that I was somewhere in Spike's home. That was the only thing that could explain his scent being almost literally everywhere.
I slowly opened my light eyes and looked around.
I was laying on a comfortable, king-sized black bed in a dark bedroom. The walls were black, the carpet was black, the two large windows in the room were covered in black paint as well as black curtains, and even the desk, wardrobe, and other pieces of furniture in the room were made of the darkest materials one could buy.
I sat up, then slid off of the bed carefully, wincing whenever I moved in a way that hurt one, two, or all of my many half-healed bullet wounds. I got to my bare feet before bothering to look down at myself.
I was clad in nothing but bandages and my lacy black panties, but that didn't bother me in the slightest, and I was pretty sure Spike had known that. He would've taken the time to dress me if he had thought otherwise.
I ran a hand through my long black hair and found that it had been brushed recently. I'd have to remember to thank Spike for that when I found him.
As it turned out, I wouldn't have to search for the vampire too much, because soft ballroom music reached my ears as soon as I stopped to listen for any noises in the surrounding area. Naturally, I followed the sound, my bare feet making no noise on the carpeted floor.
I found Spike standing in the middle of a large ballroom, eyes closed and body swaying slightly to the quiet music coming from the expensive-looking stereo system pressed up against the wall to his right. His back was to the open double doors through which I entered.
Without saying a word, I studied the expansive room and found it to have that same dark, seductive atmosphere as his bedroom. The floor was a delicate design of black and white tiles while the walls were just pure white. How the atmosphere remained so dark in such a light room, I had no idea. It simply did.
"Are you feeling all right, now, Raven?" the boy asked in his usual stoic, quiet voice as he continued to move to the music with his eyes closed.
"Yes. Thank you for bandaging me and brushing my hair," I replied, stopping a few feet away from him.
"I only bandaged you. Dominick wanted to help me, but he had to leave to try to hunt down your new enemy, Mr. Carpenter, before he could do anything. Riley is the one who brushed your hair." He stopped swaying and turned to face me, opening his pretty silver eyes. "He claimed that he knew nothing about cleaning and wrapping wounds, so brushing your hair was all he could do to help you."
"Where is he now?"
"At home. He told me to tell you that none of this was your fault before he left, though. He had wanted to tell you himself, but he was afraid of what his father would do to him if he stayed out too late."
"Ah," I said with a nod.
He gave a single nod of his own, then looked toward the stereo when it started playing tango music. Those gorgeous silver orbs of his moved from the system to me and he asked, "Do you know how to tango?"
I shook my head. "No. But I'm willing to learn."
Spike walked toward me slowly, his eyes never wandering from mine. Soon, he reached me, taking one of my hands gently while lightly placing his other hand on my waist, leaving me to put my free hand in the proper place.
"Just follow me," was all he said before beginning to lead me in a slow tango that moved at a tempo far behind the music. We sped up as I gradually began to understand the dance, eventually ending up at the correct speed. Our eyes remained locked the entire time.
"You're a good dancer," I stated after a few seconds of this quick, basic tango.
"You're a fast learner," he retorted, allowing me to fall back into a graceful dip suddenly. He brought me back up after we gazed at each other for a moment longer, releasing my waist and spinning me suddenly out before bringing me back into him, his hand once again finding my waist.
The moves rapidly grew more complex, some initiated by him, the experienced dancer, and others initiated by me, the fast learner. It seemed almost as if we, the two emotionless, powerful, seductive-without-trying beings, were competing for some reason, trying to win the title of the most skilled person on the floor, or maybe the most dominant.
When I spun myself around, crossing my arms in front of me so our hands could remain locked, pressing myself back into him and moving my hips in a seductive, almost inappropriate fashion, we blamed it on our little competition. When he turned me back around and pulled my body close to his, the hand on my waist moving down to lightly touch my ass for a mere second before moving back up so we could continue the dance, we blamed it on our little competition. Even when we found my hips grinding against his, my breasts pressing into his chest and his eyes boring intensely into mine, we blamed it on our little competition.
Sadly, the music soon ended, and I found myself being held in another elegant dip as the sound faded away, Spike bending close to me, his face only centimeters away from mine. That was apparently the end of the CD he had in the stereo, because silence was all that followed the music's final note.
"You're a very, very good dancer," I amended my most recent statement.
"You're a very, very fast learner," he altered his own.
The vampire and I straightened after staring at each other for another silent moment, moving so we were no longer touching at all.
"Where did you learn to dance like that?" I asked, watching Spike walk over to the stereo and turn it off.
"My mother taught me," he replied as he turned to face me once again. "For some reason, she thinks it's very important that everyone knows how to dance properly. She followed me into a nightclub once, completely forgetting what she was yelling at me about when she saw the people on the dance floor. She scolded those teenagers quite a bit."
"Is she a vampire?" I questioned, my dark eyebrows raising.
He nodded. "Yes, as sad as that is. She's the one that turned me into a vampire, actually."
"Oh...I see."
The boy nodded again and told me, "She didn't want to be alone, I guess."
"That makes sense. I mean, I don't really understand what's so bad about being alone, but I've heard people talk about how terrible being completely alone would be."
"You don't think it would be terrible to be alone?" Spike asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.
I shrugged and looked down at the black and white floor, now feeling foolish for ever having said such a thing. "Not really. I'm used to being alone."
At this, his expression softened a little, and he gave a single nod. "Me, too. But do you like being alone?"
My light eyes found his again and I shrugged once more. "I don't know anything but loneliness. To me, there's nothing better, and there's nothing worse. I really can't say whether I like something or not unless I have something else to compare it to."
"Oh...Well, I know what it feels like to not be alone," Spike stated, his eyes still locked with mine, "and that feeling is far better than loneliness."
"How does one go about making oneself not alone?" I asked, feeling childish even as I did so.
"Find people to love who love you back."
My own brow furrowed in confusion as I repeated, "People to love?"
"Yes," Spike said with another nod. "People to love."
"How exactly does one go about finding such people?"
"There's no specific way to do it, really. Just talk to people and get to know them while letting them get to know you."
"I don't really like people. I find getting to know others quite...pointless."
"Your problem is getting to know people. Mine is letting people get to know me."
"Stop hiding behind that emotionless mask, then," I told him, turning and heading toward the open double doors behind me.
"Why don't you stop hiding behind yours?" he retorted, his tone still calm and emotionless.
"Mine isn't a mask." And with that, I left the room.
"What do you mean it's not a mask?" Spike asked after I had made it only a few feet away from the door, the tiles of the black floor cool against my feet.
"I don't feel. Well, I don't feel much, anyway. I've been feeling more than usual lately."
"So that's why being alone doesn't bother you," the vampire mumbled, more to himself than to me.
I stopped suddenly and turned to face him, nearly causing him, deep in thought, to run into me. "Getting to know people and letting them get to know you is how one starts to not be alone, right?"
He nodded slowly, looking slightly confused. "Yes."
"Let's get to know each other, then." I turned and looked around the dark hallway. "Where is your living room?"
After studying me for a moment, trying to figure out whether I had some ulterior motive or not, he walked past me and began to lead me through a maze of long hallways. "This way."
"What time is it?" I asked as I followed him down a straight flight of carpeted stairs.
"It's nearly morning. You've been out for a while," came the stoic reply.
"Yes. That many gunshot wounds can bring even a Levellua to their knees."
"Speaking of those wounds, how are your legs feeling?"
"All right. If I don't think about the pain, I don't feel any more than the occasional twinge."
"And your back?"
"The same."
"Arm?"
"Same."
"Good." He opened a door and entered a cozy little parlor near the front of the massive mansion. "Here we are."
My nearly colorless eyes slowly roamed around the relatively small room. It had that same dark, sexy feel to it that the ballroom and the rest of the house did. There was more black carpet and dark furniture here, and the walls were black. The curtains in this particular room, however, were lacy and thin instead of thick, although the window was still covered in a dense layer of black paint.
Ah, the lair of a vampire...I thought, enjoying the feel of sex and power the mansion itself seemed to radiate. Out loud, I said, "This is nice."
He nodded as he sat down on the comfortable black loveseat facing the large, paint-covered window. "I know. It was actually furnished like this when I...ah...took control of the property."
By 'when I took control,' I knew he meant 'when I killed the owners and stole their house,' but I didn't comment on that. He was a vampire, and that's what most vampires did during the early twentieth century.
"You've had the place fixed up, though."
He nodded again. "Naturally. The place couldn't look nearly this good without being repaired at least every few years. Now, have a seat."
"Where would you like me to sit?" I asked, looking from the black couch pressed against the wall to the left of the loveseat, to the loveseat itself, then to the black chair situated across from the couch and back around again.
"Wherever you would like to sit."
"Your scent is all over everything," I commented for no real reason as I sat down in the black armchair, swinging my legs over one of the arms and letting them dangle there above the ground while leaning against the other arm.
"Does that bother you?" Spike asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Not really," I replied, gazing at him calmly. "It's actually quite comforting."
Both of the male's eyebrows went up when I said that. "How so?"
I shrugged and allowed my eyes to wander to the black ceiling of the almost pitch-black room. "I don't know. It just makes me feel a little...safe, I guess."
"Oh." He looked a bit confused by this, but he didn't ask anything else.
"So, how did your eyes become silver?" I questioned without preamble, still looking up at the ceiling.
He seemed surprised by this random question, simply staring at me for a moment. He snapped out of it soon enough, however, and answered my question, now looking away almost shyly. "Well, as I told you when we first met, my mom likes the color silver. It's actually her favorite color. When I was a child, she hired a witch to make my eyes look like this. She claimed that she wouldn't have it done to herself because she had to deal with people more than I did, and having silver eyes would probably make people think that she herself was a witch. After my eyes were changed, she forced me to stay inside almost constantly in order to keep people from seeing me."
"That sounds...cruel."
"It was," he agreed, nodding as he looked back up at me. "But she's always lived her dreams through me, so it didn't really bother me back then."
"Where is she now?"
"I'm not sure. I think she's over in Europe somewhere, though."
"So she turned you into a vampire to keep her from being alone forever, only to pretty much abandon you afterward?"
"Yes. That's basically what she did."
"Oh..." I stared at the poor boy for a few more moments, then asked, "Want me to stake her next time she comes around here?"
Much to my surprise, he actually began laughing. Yes, that's what I said. Emotionless Vamp Boy was laughing. And not just a little chuckle, a full-on laugh.
Once his laughter had subsided, he said, grinning at me in a way that made him lose his mysterious air, "No, thanks. If she goes, who's going to send me an ugly suit every Christmas?"
"Spike? Are you here?" a voice called weakly from the entrance hall next to the parlor we were sitting in.
"Dominick?" I sniffed the air, and my eyes widened, worry filling me. I leapt off of the chair and hurried out the door and into the hall, finding the Levellua on his knees on the floor, the blood I had smelled pouring from numerous stab wounds and falling to cover the tiled floor. He coughed, and more blood spattered across the shiny black surface.
"What happened?" Spike questioned, his voice emotionless once again, watching me as I hurried to Dominick's side.
"Carpenter caught the two guys Raven tried to save," the brunette stated while getting to his feet slowly. "He has control of them now."
"And he made them attack you?" Spike asked.
"Yes. They didn't want to do it, though, so, to appease Carpenter without killing me, they used knives to attack me instead of their claws. I fought those weapons off far better than I could've fought off their claws, so I managed to escape. He didn't bother to send them after me once I started running."
The vampire nodded stoically, staring thoughtfully at the bloody floor. "You're sure they aren't after you?"
Dominick nodded. "Positive."
"Good." Spike turned and headed toward the stairs. "Now, come on. We need to get your wounds cleaned up." He glanced back over his shoulder at us as he began to climb the stairs. "You're both lucky my hunger has been sated, or I probably would've devoured one of you by now."
Neither of us doubted that, so we simply followed silently, my bandage-clad self having to stand up before doing so, only to end up helping a far too grabby Dominick up the stairs to a guest room.
"Where is Carpenter hiding now?" Spike asked, keeping his back to Dominick and me as I helped the male Levellua out of his fancy tuxedo and shoes. He didn't like that I made him keep his pretty blue boxers on, but I didn't really give a damn.
"I'm not sure. He's left the office building, though. I know that much," Dominick replied, wincing when I began to clean a wound on his abdomen. To me, he added, "I don't know why you're bothering to clean those. We both know I'll be fully healed in no more than a few hours."
"You could bleed to death in those next few hours. It's best if we make sure that doesn't happen so your wounds really do have a chance to heal." I licked some of the boy's blood off of my finger without really realizing it. "Dead people don't heal, you know."
"Meh," was the cocky bastard's reply. "By the way, how are your injuries doing?"
I reached down and used a single claw to slice through the bandages on my legs. The flesh beneath the white gauze was clean and unmarred. "Great. I'd take the rest of my bandages off, but I don't think that would be wise to do in your presence."
Dominick pouted. "No fair." A smirk suddenly graced those pale lips of his, and the next thing I knew, a claw had been used to cut right through the bandages covering my upper body. They fell away slowly to reveal my arm and breasts, which caused Dominick's smirk to grow.
"Well, you son of a bitch," I said, trying to sound enraged even though I couldn't force any anger into my voice or expression.
I heard a noise to my left, and I looked toward it to find Spike unbuttoning his silk shirt while walking toward me, his silver eyes focused on my pale face instead of my exposed breasts.
"Here," he said, holding the black garment out to me.
I took it, forcing myself to look at his face and not his abs, which could be seen due to the tightness of the white muscle shirt he had on beneath the more expensive piece of clothing. "Thank you." I slid my arms into the long sleeves and buttoned the shirt up calmly.
"Well, you're no fun," Dominick muttered to Spike, crossing his arms and pouting.
"It has nothing to do with fun," the usually calm vampire all but growled, his eyes narrowing when they landed on the male Levellua. "It has to do with being a gentleman."
Dominick glared right back at Spike as he sat up, ignoring the pain his wounds had to be causing him. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could start an argument, I placed a hand on his chest and forced him back down.
"Shut your mouth, Dominick," I ordered while beginning to clean the Levellua's wounds once again. He winced at the burning sensations caused by my cleaning, but otherwise remained silent and still.
Once I completed that task, Spike helped me bandage the injured male, then all three of us remained silent.
"Does Riley know what I am now?" I asked suddenly after several minutes had passed.
Dominick nodded. "He knows what Spike and I are, too."
"And he's accepted it, so don't worry. He doesn't hate you for it or anything," Spike told me, obviously knowing what I was going to say.
"Good," I sighed, relieved. My legs unexpectedly started to give, but Spike had his arms around me before I could reach the floor. "Sorry," I mumbled into his chest as he held me upright, my eyes threatening to close. "I haven't eaten for a while, and the healing process uses up a lot of energy."
"Can you stomach vampire blood?" he asked me while gently lowering me into a sitting position on the bed, his arms still around me so I wouldn't fall over.
"I think so," I replied weakly.
"She should have some of my blood instead," I heard Dominick say from behind me.
"Wouldn't that be a form of cannibalism?" Spike asked, sounding almost angry.
"Isn't vamp blood cold and pretty much dead?"
"Cold, yes. Dead, not quite. Our bodies do produce new blood to replace any blood we lose, you know. We would be completely colorless and unable to bleed at all otherwise."
My eyes slowly closed as the argument went on, only to open again a few minutes later when Spike whispered in my ear, "Drink my blood, Raven."
I smelled the delicious substance spilling from his wrist, which he had sliced open only seconds ago. He was holding it close to my face so I wouldn't have to move too far to reach it. All I had to do was turn my head, sink my fangs in, and drink, and that's exactly what I did, my eyes closing once again as I did so.
Vampire blood was indeed cold, but it tasted rather...sweet. For some reason, it made me think of chocolate and wine. Dark, dark chocolate and red, red wine...Delicious.
I felt Spike shudder against me, the softest moan escaping him as I pulled cool blood from his pale wrist, my fangs tearing into his flesh even though it was already cut open.
Once I felt most of my strength return, I released the vampire's wrist and leaned away from him. "Thank you, Spike. Are you all right?"
He straightened from his hunched position in front of me with a nod. "Yes, I'm fine. How are you feeling now?"
"Better. Much better. Thank you again."
"Okay. Now that we know how everyone feels, who's going to share their blood with me?" Dominick asked impatiently.
"I will," I answered immediately.
"No," Spike argued. "I will. But not until your wounds are fully healed."
Dominick pouted, having obviously wanted to taste my blood. "Fine, fine. Have it your way."
A soft knock at the front door reached my sensitive ears, followed by the sound of the door opening and a call of, "Spike? Raven? Dominick? You guys here?"
"Riley," I murmured, looking at the bedroom door.
"I'll bring him up," Spike said, hurrying out the door before Dominick or I could argue.
"I don't like him," Dominick growled once the vampire was gone.
"Why?" I asked, now looking down at him instead of over at the open door.
"I don't know," he lied, shrugging and glaring at nothing. "I just don't like him."
Spike and Riley entered the room just in time to keep me from replying to Dominick's statement.
"Raven," Riley said, going wide-eyed when he saw me and what was showing of my fully healed flesh. "You're all right."
I nodded once and said, "Of course I am. The question is, are you?"
"Yeah," the boy replied with a goofy grin. "That Carpenter guy didn't hurt me or anything. All he did was knock me out." His smile faded as he added suddenly, "God, you have pretty eyes."
My cheeks warmed when he said that, and I didn't understand why. It was an odd sensation to me.
I'm...blushing?I thought, looking away from the human and cocking my head slightly. Aloud, I said, "Thank you." Then I threw in flatly, "I hate them."
"Why? They're so...unique and...and..."
"Stunning?" Dominick finished for the stammering human. A smirk worked its way onto his face. "I'd have to agree with you there. The color suits her more than it does me. Eyes the color of ice for an ice cold bitch."
"Thank you, Dominick," I muttered. "That makes me feel lovely."
"Don't listen to him, Raven," Spike spoke up. "The color does fit you, but that's not why."
"Yeah," Riley agreed.
My cheeks grew even warmer as my eyes were repeatedly complimented. "Thanks."
The two nicer males simply nodded while Dominick sighed. "I was just kidding, you know."
"Yeah. Right," I mumbled, unbelieving. Then, louder, I questioned, "What time is it? And what's in the bag?" My eyes dropped to the plastic grocery bag in Riley's hand.
"Six-thirty in the morning, and I brought you some of your clothes," Riley answered, handing me the bag. I opened it and found a black bra, a pair of black panties, a pair of my usual black jeans, a black T-shirt, and a pair of black tennis shoes. "Your...um...master gave them to me and told me to take them to you." It sounded as if he didn't like using the word 'master,' but I didn't comment on it.
"What else did she say?" I asked while bringing my gaze back up to the human's face.
"Did you want her exact words or the softened version?"
"Exact words."
With a sigh, Riley repeated the older woman's words, the curse words sounding odd coming from him. "'Tell that bitch to get her ass back here as soon as she's able to make the trip back. If she's not here by noon, I'm going to Call her, and she knows what'll happen.'"
Both Dominick and I cringed at the last part, knowing how utterly painful a Calling could be.
"Ouch," the male Levellua mumbled. "Let's be sure to get you home before noon, then."
"What? Why?" Riley asked, obviously confused.
"Being Called by one's master is exceptionally painful. Even if you obey the Call, the Levellua Signum stings until you're in your master's sight," I explained, shuddering at the thought.
"Oh..." The boy thought this over for a moment, then asked, "What's a Levellua Signum?"
"The mark that links a Levellua to their master," I answered before leaning forward and tilting my head down, moving my black hair away from the back of my neck and allowing my Levellua Signum to show.
Behind me, Dominick did the same, and Riley said simply, "Oh."
"Yours is more curvy than mine," Dominick stated while we both sat up. "Mine's really weird and jagged."
"Must be a difference caused by gender," I said with a shrug.
Dominick nodded, now removing his bandages. "All healed, Vamp Boy," he said, smirking at Spike. "Ya gonna feed me now?"
"Not if you insist on calling me Vamp Boy," Spike pretty much snarled, glaring at the cocky son of a bitch.
I sighed and held my wrist out to Dominick before a fight could start. "Drink up, jackass."
Riley's innocent brown eyes widened once again. "Y-you...you drink blood, too?"
"Yes," I replied simply, carefully watching Spike and Dominick.
Spike's glare turned almost jealous when Dominick took my wrist carefully in his strong hands, smirking at the vampire.
A pale hand wrapped gently around my forearm, roughly yanking my wrist from Dominick's grasp. "You can have some of my blood," Spike growled, offering Dominick his already bloody wrist while continuing to hold my arm in his other hand.
Dominick's smirk only grew at this. "All right, then." His fangs slid into Spike's wrist, but instead of moaning as he had done when I had bitten him, the vampire just glared down at the back of Dominick's head.
While those two had their little creepy moment, I slid my arm out of Spike's grasp and wandered closer to Riley. "Are you sure you're all right?"
The blond nodded, smiling at me reassuringly. "Yep. I told you, all Carpenter did was knock me out. It didn't hurt a bit."
"But you shouldn't have been knocked out at all," I argued, looking down at the floor and dropping the bag he had handed me a minute ago.
"It's not your fault." I opened my mouth to protest, but he sternly said, "You didn't know it was going to happen. Even if you had, it's not like you asked him to knock me out." I looked up to find the fierceness in his voice mirrored in his dark eyes. "It is not your fault. Okay?"
I nodded, allowing my eyes to drop back to my feet.
"Good." And with that, the conversation was ended.
"I suppose I should shower," I muttered to myself once Dominick let Spike's wrist go.
Spike heard me and gestured to a closed door to my left. "That's the bathroom. Everything you need should be in there. I have a strange habit of keeping the guest rooms stocked up."
"All right. Thank you." I grabbed the clothing-filled bag, headed toward the door, and opened it, but before I went in, I said, "Try not to kill each other while I'm gone." Then, leaving the lights off, I entered the pitch-black room and closed the door, preparing to take a quick shower.
An argument began almost as soon as I started to wash my hair, but all I did was sigh and listen to the yelling. Spike shouted things about how much of a pervert Dominick was while Dominick yelled about how much of a delusional prick Spike was. Riley occasionally tried to get them to calm down, and, naturally, the non-humans ignored him.
I actually managed to get most of my usual showery activities done before a crash forced me to turn the water off, wrap a thick black towel around myself, and leave the dark, steamy bathroom.
My eyes widened when I saw Riley laying amongst the splintered wood of a broken nightstand beside the bed, unconscious. Apparently, one of the other two males had gotten tired of him interrupting their argument.
"Riley!" I cried as I rushed to his side, wet black hair plastering itself to my arms and face. I ran my thumb lightly across a bloody gash the blond boy had just above his eyebrow, having been thrown or shoved into the nightstand front-first. I gently picked him up, easily transporting him to the bed Dominick had been laying on earlier.
I lightly touched the gash on the human's forehead again, then I spun around to face the stoic vampire and his guilty-looking rival. "Which one of you did it?" I asked, an angry venom filling my voice that I'd never used before. I was becoming a bit more protective of that human than I really wanted to admit...
"I did," Dominick answered softly, his light eyes dropping to the floor. My fist met his face before he had any time to react, sending his ass to the floor as I glared down at him.
"I'll kill you if you hurt him again," I threatened, somehow managing to regain my usual emotionless tone. I turned to Spike and said, "Take care of that wound for me while I get dressed, please." Once he nodded, I went back into the bathroom and quickly got dressed, remembering to brush my long hair as well.
I entered the bedroom no more than a minute later to find Riley's wound already bandaged, Spike standing silently next to the bed and watching Dominick nurse a bloody nose across the room from him.
"Thank you, Spike," I said for the billionth time that day while stopping to stand beside him.
"You're welcome," he replied softly, keeping his eyes focused on Dominick, who was now watching me.
I stared down at Riley until he woke up about ten minutes later, peering up at me, disoriented.
"You were thrown into a nightstand by Dominick," I told him so he wouldn't have to waste time asking. He nodded, and I said, "I think we should get going now. It's almost sunrise, and Spike needs to get to bed. I don't trust Dominick here with him, and I don't want you walking home by yourself, so the three of us are leaving together. Does anyone have a problem with that?" When nobody made a sound, I continued. "Good. Let's go." I turned and headed for the door. "You can keep my dress and shoes, Spike," I told the vampire while exiting the room, feeling Riley and Dominick following me slowly.
"All right," Spike replied stoically.
My two bitches and I went down the stairs, then out the front door, Dominick closing it behind himself. Soon, we were off of Spike's property and on our way to Riley's house.
Eventually, I finished escorting both of the males and found myself heading in the direction of my own home, alone. Emotionlessly, I wondered what Miss Lumberton would have to say to me, or, better yet, what she planned to make me do today.
Let's hope she doesn't plan to make me rob another house tonight. I might have to try to start crying if she does.