Karen stares morosely at the walls of the house. They've lived in the small town for almost a month now, and Karen still has yet to leave for anything other than hunting. "We'll be returning to the seethe tomorrow. You need time with Melissa. After that we'll come back here if you still wish." Cliff tells her coming into the room where she sits staring at the walls.
"It doesn't matter, Cliff." He had made sure that she stopped calling him sir, he didn't like the formality.
Cliff frowns. He thought that by now Karen would be not only in need of her maker, but able to eat on a more stable diet. He takes a closer look and finds the bond between Melissa and Karen very faint. At first that could have been attributed to Melissa having needed help in turning Karen, but not now.
"Tell me, Karen, do you feel the need to return to the seethe for any reason?"
Karen gives out a bitter laugh, short and sharp. "No, that place has only been hell for me. I miss Melissa and Tad and in the end Timothy had been nice to me, but the others would have preferred me dead to having made the transition. They only reason they didn't let me die that night was because it would likely kill Melissa. I know that. I am aware of just how unwanted I am there."
"Tell me, Karen, who told you about that night? You were unconscious for almost the whole time after we came back from the fund raiser. You were conscious only long enough to tell us it would be better to die."
"No one had to tell me. It was all over their faces when they saw me. It was in how they treated me. It was in their thoughts..." Karen trails off.
"Fuck. Pack your things, Karen, I don't know how you managed to hide it, but you are a psychic vampire. It explains why you haven't gone into a blood lust when you haven't eaten enough food or blood to keep any one else alive."
"It's not possible. Timothy looked at me carefully after I woke up and asked me a ton of questions to figure out just what kind of vampire I was."
"Karen, Timothy is a great leader, but sometimes he's not the most observant of people. He should have understood once he knew that you couldn't keep food down. I should have understood at that point. Hell you've been living with me for over a month and I still didn't notice or pay much attention to how little blood you've taken. Not even with the sex you've had would it be enough to sustain you without you going into a full flown frenzy. Not with you being a baby. I might be able to but never a new born."
"Cliff, do me a favor, and kill me?" Karen says hopelessly.
"I can't, Karen, I'm sorry. Melissa would kill me and likely start a full blown purge to take her anger out."
Karen manages to cough out half a chuckle but that was all. "Right." Her voice is filled with disbelief.
Before Cliff could say anything else the doorbell sounds making Cliff frown. "Are you expecting any one?"
"Me?" Karen looks at him and rolls her eyes.
"Right, the original introvert. You know vampires don't make good introverts.
"Then let me show you the first introverted vampire." Karen mutters under her breath, but it's loud enough that Cliff hears her and laughs.
For this town Cliff had changed his looks to that of a young man to be closer in age to Karen in looks.
He opens the door and loses his amusement and says angrily, "What the hell are you doing here? Haven't you done enough damage to her?"
The person hands him an envelope and waits as he opens it and reads it. "Shit! You better come in, but she's not going to like it that you are here." Cliff says moving out of the way and allowing the vampire into his home.
"Can I see her?" The vampire says diffidently. He knows that he isn't welcome here, he can feel the dislike Cliff is pouring out. It's starting to make him sick.
"She hardly comes out of her room and no, you aren't allowed to go back there. You are the reason she's in this state, Travis. Why did you come?"
"I have to make things right. She shouldn't be away from Melissa for this long. Melissa is losing weight and unable to sleep or eat because Karen is gone. It will be better for her to return and for me to leave. I will come back regularly to make sure Melissa doesn't get overly sick, but I will stay out of Karen's way."
"Riiight. Well, good luck on that one, Travis. She barely even talks to me and only leaves to hunt when she absolutely has to. We are leaving in the morning to return to the seethe and visit Melissa. From what you are saying we better plan on a prolonged stay, at least a month. I will let her know."
Cliff gets up and prepares to go back to Karen's room when he sees her in the shadows of the hall way. "I heard. I'll be packed. Will I need to make travel arrangements?"
"No, I'll take care of them. You better talk to Travis. He came all this way to talk to you. Afterwards you won't have to talk to him again if you don't want to. That is a promise I am making you." During the time they've been traveling together, Karen found that Cliff hates to break his promises. He'd rather die than do so.
Karen nods, believing him. She goes into the living room where Travis stood up when he felt her presence. He turns and faces her, "Karen, I know you have no reason to want to listen to me and no reason to believe me, but please hear me out."
"Very well," Karen says as she takes a seat across from Travis.
She sits and just waits for him to say anything. When five minutes go by and still nothing she looks at him and says. "As enlightening as this has been, I've had enough of your games. I gave you a chance to speak and you didn't wish to say anything, I think that says everything that needs to be said." Karen stands up preparing to leave.
"No, please, I was just trying to find the right words to say to you."
"Any words are better than no words. Wait, I take that back, there are many words that are worse." Karen takes a step forward to return to her room. "Now I need to pack if we are returning to that hell place I'm supposed to call home."
"I'm sorry, so fucking sorry that you feel that way about the seethe. It's my fault that it became like that for you and it should never have been so. I was blind to how the others treated you. I had no idea how bad it was for you until after Timothy gave you permission to leave.
"I didn't know how to deal with my feelings for you and that caused me to treat you badly. I never should have ignored you or treated you like that. You did nothing to deserve it, I was just an ass of the highest order and took out my insecurity on you.
"No matter how you personally feel about me, and you have every right to hate and despise me, I beg of you to think about returning to the seethe full time. Melissa needs you there. She's sick because you aren't there and she needs you, even if you don't need her.
"If you agree to return then I will leave so that I don't cause you more problems then I already have."
Karen sniffs, "Yeah, that sounds like a great plan. They treated me like shit because you did. What will they do if they think that I was the reason you left the seethe? They would make my life pure hell. No thanks."
"No, things will be different. Timothy reminded them of the reason why he was seethe leader. They once more follow his lead on how to treat others. Many of the vampires have requested that you return so that they can show you that they are sorry for how they treated you earlier."
"Right. And hell has frozen over." Karen says moving forward once more. She is stopped by a letter Travis holds in his hands.
Karen looks from the letter to Travis then back to the letter. "It's from Timothy for you. He requests as your seethe leader that you read it. After you do so, whatever you decide he will accede to."
Cliff comes back into the room at that moment. "Travis, you are requested to return with us to the seethe tomorrow, by Melissa's orders. She wants to talk to you both."
Karen nods and goes to her room taking the letter with her.
Sitting in the window seat she breaks open the old fashioned seal and reads what Timothy wrote to her. She goes through the whole letter, five sheets written on front and back and sits back and ponders what she read.
"Come, Karen, we are going hunting at the club tonight, and in the morning I have some place to show you before we leave here."
"Very well." Karen says and leaves her room in the jeans and shirt she was wearing earlier. "This is what you want to go hunting in?" Cliff asks incredulously.
Karen shrugs. "It won't matter, they'll still come on to me."
"Can I join in the hunt?"
Cliff looks at the uncertain vampire. "It's up to Karen if you can come or not. This is her territory you are invading right now."
"Cliff, it's your territory and we both know it." Karen reproves him gently and gives him a soft smile.
"If you insist I will admit to it being our territory." Cliff scowls as he says it though.
"Bullshit, Cliff, this was your territory before you gave it up to live in the seethe with Melissa and her brothers." Travis says and then waits for the backlash to hit from his speaking out of turn like that.
"You lived here before, Cliff? Why didn't you say so?"
"You were in no state for me to do so. If you had been more alive I would have taken you to some of my favorite places. Now we won't have time for more than the one I told you I would take you to. But that doesn't mean anything when we were talking about whether or not young Travis can go hunting with us tonight. That's your call and yours alone, Karen."
"It's okay if you don't want me to go, I'll hunt in another location. I have a hotel room so I won't bother you again. What time and where should I meet you tomorrow for the flight?"
"We'll be taking Timothy's private jet. I'll pick you up at the hotel's main lobby at nine tomorrow morning. Make sure any females are gone before you leave. Melissa won't like females left alone in the penthouse."
"I'm not staying in the penthouse. Also, I won't be taking any females back to the hotel with me."
"You can come, tonight I mean." Karen says before he can leave.
Travis stops as he is about to go out the door. "Are you sure, Karen? You don't have to let me come just to be nice."
"I'm sure."
Cliff looks at Travis with narrowed eyes. "Be ready in an hour. We'll give you time to freshen up before we leave. We'll wait for you in the lobby."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, Karen." With that he leaves and shuts the door behind him softly.
"Are you sure that you want to have him come along?"
"No, but I'm not sure that I don't want him to come along either."
Cliff sniffs, "Fair enough girl, fair enough."