Anna laid on the bed with the pillow over her face for what felt like hours, but she assumed that only minutes had passed. She heard the footsteps downstairs as they walked into the house. The stairs creaked as someone came upstairs. She did not take the pillow off of her face until she heard the door click shut.
Rhys was leaning against the wall. His arms were crossed and he was chewing on his bottom lip.
"You want to explain what happened outside?" he asked.
"Alright," Anna said. "You brought some psycho chick over here to try and kill me with a knife."
"Any other girl would have at least gotten their face cut open by Alice," he said. "You're the first person I have seen win in a fight against her."
Anna shot up so that she was sitting on the bed.
"You should have never made me fight anyone!" she said.
"I had to," he said. "I am going to try to, but I can't keep my eyes on you 24/7. I don't want to turn my back for one second and have you staked by a hunter."
"And why do you have to watch me?"
"Because I turned you. I hold a certain responsibility for your existence."
"And that's why you're making me sleep in your room? In your bed? That's kind of creepy."
Rhys's jaw hardened. Anna raised an eyebrow. The simple gesture pissed Rhys. She assumed he was not used to people questioning him.
"I have seen new vampires not be able to contain themselves in the night," Rhys said. "The last thing I need is you running into town and going on a feeding frenzy."
Rhys uncrossed his arms and walked toward her. He grabbed her bag and threw it onto the floor. He sat next to Anna. She pushed herself down the bed to create more space between them.
"You need to feed tomorrow night," he said.
"I don't want to," she said.
Rhys ran his fingers through his dark hair.
"This isn't up for discussion," he said. "I'm not giving you any more of my blood. You need to start feeding."
"I can't kill anyone," she said. "Can't I feed off of animal blood?"
"Have you been reading Twilight? Vegetarian vampires do not exist. You get a mouthful of animal blood and you'll probably spit it out. It's the vilest thing I have ever tasted."
"What happens if I don't feed?"
"Remember the pain you were in earlier?"
Anna nodded. It seemed like days ago that she was consumed by that horrific pain, but it was just over an hour ago. She did not want to go through that again.
"You have to feed to keep the pain away," Rhys said.
"I don't want to kill anyone," Anna said. "I can't do it."
"It gets easier with time."
Anna leaned forward and buried her head in her hands. Time was something she had a lot of now. She was never going to grow old. She was going to stay twenty-four forever.
"Are you hungry?" Rhys asked. "Drew is probably making dinner."
Anna raised her head and arched an eyebrow.
"You guys eat human food?" she asked.
"With enough blood in our system, we can do pretty much anything that humans can do," he said.
Anna nodded. Her grandmother always told her that vampires survived off of blood and nothing else. Part of her wanted to tell Jonathan about what she just learned, but she could never see him again.
Rhys stood and extended his hand. Anna ignored it and held her hands behind her back. She stepped around Rhys and headed for the door.
"Do you know where the kitchen is?" Rhys asked.
Anna halted in front of the door and looked over her shoulder.
"No," she said. "I guess you better lead the way."
Rhys rolled his eyes before opening the door. Anna walked beside him as he went down the stairs and through the house.
The kitchen had white marble counters with black tiles along the wall. Lights were dangling from the ceiling and over the kitchen island. Drew was at the stove and spooning spaghetti onto plates. Alice was standing at the island tossing a salad. Huxley was sitting on one of the stools at the island. Calvin was sitting at the long wooden dining room table. He had a sketchbook flipped open in front of him and was running his pencil along with the page. Anna took a seat on the other stool.
"I never thought that I would be eating pasta with a bunch of vampires," Anna said.
"You mean this isn't a scene in your book?" Huxley said with a smile and a chuckle.
"What book?" Drew asked.
"It's nothing," Anna said.
She balled up her fist and lightly punched Huxley on the arm. Drew set a plate full of food down in front of her.
"Don't be expecting any garlic bread," Drew said. "The important part of cooking is to not add any garlic to your food."
"Or salt," Huxley said before shoving his mouth full of spaghetti. "That'll cause you to burn from the inside out."
Anna twirled her fork in the pasta. Rhys and Alice sat down at the table with Calvin. Drew ate while standing across from Anna. She took a bite of her food and noticed that it had no flavor without the salt.
"So are you going to fight Blondie again?" Calvin asked Alice.
She picked at the salad that was on her plate. Anna pretended to not see her glare.
"She better be prepared," Alice said. "Next time I'm not holding back."
"Don't want to get your ass kicked again, Alice?" Huxley asked.
Alice scoffed. Anna's lips twitched into a smile. She could sense that Huxley was probably going to be the only person in this house that she could trust.
"Hardly," Alice said. "You know, the only thing that stopped me from killing her is that Rhys would behead me if she died."
"We all got our asses kicked when we first started," Rhys said. "It's not going to be any different for Anna because she is a girl."
"Am I the first girl you have turned?" Anna asked. "What about Alice?"
Alice laughed.
"Rhys wishes he turned me," she said. "The last time I was human was three days before the Battle of Queenston Heights. Luckily my husband was at the battle and didn't notice me turning."
"You were at Queenston Heights?" Anna asked.
Anna had taken many courses in Canadian History. She always had dreams of writing a novel about the war of 1812. It was her next project in her mind for once she had completed her vampire novels. She would love to talk to Alice about it, but she did not want to seem suspicious.
"I wasn't at the actual battle," Alice said. "I was living in Niagara at the time with my husband and baby."
"You have a baby?" Anna asked.
Anna would have never assumed that Alice was a mother. She came off as so cold, and not someone loving and caring.
"Had a baby," Alice said. "I hope he died. I would hate for him to be roaming this world somewhere."
Anna took another bite of her food and nodded. She was surprised to hear that a mother wished her child was dead, but she understood that death was a better fate than their own.
"These boys don't turn anyone anymore," Alice said. "You should consider yourself lucky."
"I don't know if I would use the word 'lucky'," Anna said.
"I could have left you bleeding out on the ground," Rhys said. "Just remember that."
Anna's hand went to the bandage on her neck. The dull throb had eased and she almost forgot that she had been attacked. She wished that she did not try to run. If she was able to fight the boys like she fought Alice she may have won. She had to remind herself that she would have been outnumbered four-to-one.
"Did you turn each other?" Anna asked.
"No," Drew said. "We all met each other over the years."
"Have you all turned anyone?" Anna asked.
"Well, there was Hannah," Calvin said.
Anna could not see it, but Rhys kicked Calvin under the table. The plates rattled on top of the table. Calvin rolled his eyes and rubbed his shin.
"Who's Hannah?" Anna asked.
The name sounded vaguely familiar to her.
"No one that concerns you," Rhys said.
"Best not to ask about her," Huxley said. "Rhys gets really pissy when someone mentions her name."
Rhys slammed his fist down on the table.
"Stop talking about her," he said. "We're not living in the past. We have too much of that to dwell there."
"Alright, let's change the topic before Rhys explodes," Alice said. "Anna, I'm going to buy you a dress for tomorrow night."
"What's tomorrow night?" she asked.
"Your first feed," Alice said. Anna's stomach twisted and a wave of nausea washed over her. She knew this was inevitable. "It's your choice: red or blue?"
"Nothing slutty," Anna said.
"You have got to learn how to lure men," Alice said. "A revealing dress can play a critical role in that."
Alice picked up her plate and dumped it into the sink. She went back to the table and picked her leather jacket up off of the back of the chair. She slipped it on and grabbed her purse.
"No one wait up for me," she said. "I may take a trip down near the shelters."
"Why would you do that?" Anna asked.
"I feel like a little snack."
Alice winked at her before turning around and heading for the door. Anna knew that she should stop asking questions.