"Okay, learn book," Penny said mockingly, taking the book in her hands. "Is there anything I should know that will speed the learning along? This is a pretty thick book."
"Not to be smart, but the beginning. Read the first chapter a couple of times. It's a very basic introduction. After that, you can skip around."
"So, will I learn why I wasn't killed with my family in this book?" Penny asked. The thoughts tormented her since that night. Most of her dreams revolved around her surviving.
"Indirectly, maybe. However, I can tell you one thing: it's important to remember with vampires that they are supernatural creatures, unlike humans who are natural, physical creatures. So a lot of things that make no sense to us, or even appear to be completely silly from a human perspective, are important to vampires."
"And how does that relate to him sparing me?" Penny asked. She often wished that she had just died with the rest of her family.
"Ah, basically, that you may never know. It could have been something you were wearing, your birth date, something you ate that night."
"Like garlic bread?"
"Um, no, vampires aren't allergic to garlic. More like an herb they consider having mystical properties or, even more likely, a dish that their mother used to make when they were human. Vampires tend to be obsessed with certain smells from their human life. If you get to know a vampire well enough, you can trap them with nostalgia."
"So if the vampire's mommy made tuna noodle casserole, now he has to stop and smell it?"
"Yep, kinda like a tuna noodle trance," Charles said without a hint of a laugh. Penny liked that she had a hard time deciphering when he was being serious or joking.
"You're right, that is silly." Penny leafed through the book for a minute while Charles stood over her.
"Do you have any questions?" Charles asked. He was leaning in close to her. Penny's heart beat a little faster every time he got closer to her. "I have some business to deal with. But I will be back in a couple hours."
"No," Penny replied, even though she had one burning question on her mind: What about us? Actually they were a series of questions about him kissing her, whether they were even allowed to kiss each other, and if he actually liked her or just got caught up at that moment. She would wait until later. "I need to get settled in here anyway."
"All right, I'll see you later then." He left without a hug, a kiss, or any other sign of affection that had been there before.
Penny sat on her new bed and surveyed the room that would be hers forever. There were strange symbols and decorations on every wall. The furniture was elegant, and either made of wood or gold. There were no mirrors anywhere in her room and, in fact, she hadn't seen them anywhere else in the house either. The ceiling was painted with frescoes from Shakespeare, and all the linens were silk or taffeta and all the drapes, the ones surrounding her bed and the ones covering three windows, were made of heavy embroidered wool. It was much fancier than she would have expected from a group of vampire hunters. But then again, from the moment she saw the house, it had blown her mind.
To say that the house was enormous was an understatement. Its Victorian architecture sprawled on four acres with gazebos; the miles of twisting hallways were made even more intriguing by secret passageways in the walls. Charles and Penny had to travel through the house in a roundabout fashion in order to get to her room. They descended a staircase seven steps and then went up eleven steps, where Charles reached out his hand and smacked the wall. A door had appeared, and he swiftly directed her through it. They had walked through walls, opened windows on the floor, walked on air. They rode the elevator down several stories and then walked across the hall and rode it back up to the same floor, which now looked completely different than before. Penny had counted again to make sure they were on the same floor. When Charles had seen how confused Penny was, he said, "I know this place doesn't seem to make much sense, but it keeps the vampires out." Penny was beginning to wonder if becoming a vampire took away your sense of logic.
Penny stood up from her bed and went to a window. She thought they had gone way too far into the house for there to be windows. But then again, she could be looking out onto the front lawn. So she threw open the drapes.
Penny screamed. There was a naked man standing in her window. She quickly shut the blinds as the man realized that he was being watched. Was he in the shower? She thought, Why would a window in my room look into someone's shower?
Charles burst into the room. "What's wrong?" When he realized she was standing next to the curtains, he said, "Oh, oops, sorry, I should have warned you not to open that curtain." His voice was broken up with laughter.
"It's not funny," Penny said. She was sure that her cheeks were as red as a vampire's lunch. "Is there anything else that you forgot to tell me? Are there more naked men hiding in my closet?" Penny threw a pillow at Charles's face. He caught it mid-air and continued to laugh at her.
"No, just good old George's shower..." Charles replied, still snickering at Penny's predicament.
"Get out of here," Penny said as she threw another pillow at Charles. He caught that one too and threw them both back at Penny. The massive wool and silk pillows hit her square in the belly and sent her sprawling onto her bed.
Charles jumped onto the bed and grabbed another pillow to protect himself as Penny flailed her legs and arms.
"You are really gonna need to learn how to fight better if you plan on lasting against any vampires," he said, still chuckling. When he leaned over Penny's body, one of his small, perfect curls fell out of place and into his eyes.
Penny sighed. He was gorgeous.
"You are very beautiful when you get frustrated," Charles said. He leaned over, kissing her lips longer than before. The pillows still separated them as Charles continued to kiss her. Penny tried to remove the barrier keeping her from embracing Charles, but a knock on the door interrupted her.
"I bet that is George coming over to introduce himself," Charles said as he pulled himself off Penny. He started laughing again.
"Hello?" An older gentleman entered the room.
"Afternoon, George!" Charles said, rather chipper. "I haven't laughed this hard in years!"
"And all this time all I had to do to get you to loosen up was shower naked," George said as he stepped into the room. He was a tall, thin, older man with gray hair.
"Hi, George," Penny said, trying not to show her embarrassment. "Charles neglected to tell me about the window to your shower...in my room."
"Ah, yes, I wouldn't worry about that," George said and laughed. "If you start to make it a habit, though, I might get the wrong impression." George winked at Charles. "And who wouldn't want to get the wrong impression from a pretty girl like you." He patted Charles on the shoulder as he paused. "Normally girls go for Charles, not me!"
Charles rolled his eyes. "All right, old man, I think that's enough for now," Charles said, cutting him off from divulging more information.
"Oh, already got your game on, eh?" George sat in a wingback chair near the bed. "Can't find a better guy than Charles."
"So you're allowed to...to fraternize?" Penny said. She had been hoping fraternization was possible since the moment she set eyes on Charles.
"Oh, this ain't the military. Besides, who else?" The old man shrugged. "Welcome to the Brotherhood. Sorry, it's in such terrible circumstances."
"Thanks," Penny replied. She stood up and walked over to another window. "Is there anything behind these other two that I should know about?" She wanted to avoid the topic of her family. She was sure that everyone in the Brotherhood knew what had happened.
"No, one's just a wall and the other is a stained glass window," Charles said as he walked over and pulled back the curtain, revealing a window with a plain wall behind the glass. "There's a trap door behind this window that leads to a crawl space. It's an alternate escape route. All rooms have them. Yours just happens to be behind a window."
Penny peeked behind the curtain and saw a stained glass window showing a relief from Romeo and Juliet.
"Do the curtains need to stay closed, or can I open them?" she asked.
"Why isn't there a curtain on your side?" Penny asked. She thought that if it was her shower, she would want control over who could peep on her bathing.
"That's just not how it was designed," Charles said as he closed the curtains over the trap door window.
"Everything has a purpose and a reason. They may not make sense to you, but they do to vampires. You can have the curtains open sometimes, but you should close them before you sleep or leave the room."
"Okay," Penny said, rubbing her eyes. She was getting tired.
"I think that we will leave you alone for a little bit," Charles said when he saw Penny rubbing her eyes. "You need some rest."
After the two men left; Penny decided that sleep was indeed in order. She flopped on the bed without even bothering with the blankets. The long trip and emotional strain had worn her out, and she was soon fast asleep. That night Penny had the worst dreams since her family had been killed. Instead of just throwing her into the closet or turning her into a vampire, the monster kept coming into the closet with her. He would stand over her paralyzed body, staring at her as the screams of her family echoed through the house. No matter what she did in her sleep, the vampire was always there, following her, touching her, staring at her.
Then her dreams shifted; instead of the vampires killing her family, it was the Brotherhood. They came in through the windows, like the vampires. Oddly enough, the same vampire still pushed her in the closet and stood watch over her as her family was butchered outside.
The next few weeks went by in a blur of introductions and training. Charles was assigned as her main handler. They spent most of their waking hours together. However, it was not all fun and romance as Penny would have preferred. Charles was mostly business. Randomly, he would pull her into a secret passageway and make out with her for a few minutes. It never lasted long enough for Penny. Then it was right back to fighting. Violent fighting. Charles was the best fighter in the Brotherhood, and he was doing his best to make his girlfriend into the second best fighter in the brotherhood, or kill her in the process.
"Are you crazy, you idiot, you could have broken every bone in my body!" Penny said, yelling with every vocal cord. She held her head in her hands and managed to stand somewhat straight. For a second, she thought she saw real concern in his beautiful eyes, but then it changed back to aggression.
"Hey, I didn't pitch you with all my strength. I am aware of who I am fighting with," Charles said, egging on Penny.
"What does that mean?" Penny didn't like being insulted. Why couldn't he just kiss her instead of hitting and insulting her? She knew it was training, but still; it wasn't fun.
"I want to see what you can do. Fight me, hit me back, you weakling," he said. He was holding a practice weapon in his hands.
"Look, I don't really want to fight you right now," she said, irritated.
"Why? Don't admit that you're afraid!" he said. He brandished the weapon at her. Penny was not afraid of Charles. She knew that he wouldn't really hurt her.
"What now?" she asked. "Do you really want to keep this up for another ten straight hours? I could use some food or a shower or something."
"Hey, have I ever mentioned that you are really... amusing?" He advanced toward her slowly but menacingly.
"Go away, you crap face; I don't want to fight you right now, okay?"
"Oh geez, I just hurt you! Take your revenge and hit me back," he said, provoking her even more.
"If I fight you, I'll just beat you... probably to a pulp," she said, but she wasn't very convincing.
"I know you lack in the muscle department, so before you move I'd rip your very sexy head right off," he said, looking straight into her eyes. She inhaled.
"Screw off!" she yelled, turning away, but he just followed her.
He glared at her persuasively. "Just one more round... I promise, that's it," he said, grinning.
All of a sudden adrenaline charged through her, and she rushed at Charles, who stood there waiting on her attack. As she attacked, his fist sprang towards her face, but her instincts responded, and she ducked. She was distracted with her brief victory and didn't notice Charles's other fist. He punched her in the gut, stealing her breath from her lungs.
"Son of," she started to say, but couldn't get the rest of it out. She fell to her knees, gasping for breath.
She attempted to get off the floor, but Charles kicked her back, and she fell to the ground with a thud.
She spit blood out from her mouth. "Charles, you are mad!" she said through clenched teeth. His face was very serious, and he stood before Penny and raised her gently by the shoulders. He kissed her on the cheek. He seemed upset that he had caused her to bleed.
"Call me mad or whatever else you want, but remember, I'm going easy on you," he said, backing up a little. "You're going to be facing much harder than me soon. I just don't want to see the vampires tear you apart. They don't care that you get hurt like I do."
She gazed into his eyes; there was great feeling in them... not anger, but something else like pain.
He placed his cheek on hers. His breath tickled her ear. These were the moments that Penny loved. The ones where he stopped being her trainer, piercing her with those eyes. She knew he was right, though. The vampires would not be so kind to her. If she couldn't take all that Charles could dish out, then who was she kidding that she could battle a real vampire?