need your strength in the morning.” He placed one chaste kiss on my lips and I gave into my nagging need for sleep, visions of Miss Hotsy-Totsy dancing in my head.
* * *
The following weeks were spent gathering the Amaranthians into small groups, meeting with them in our little home to explain our motives and convince them to join or at least support our plan. Guards were sparse in the streets since our arrival, only permitted to force the villagers to work and keep up with their daily tasks. Gavin stayed around the house to hold the covert meetings, while Gabe, Josh, and the others spent time in the city, helping calm the weak uprisings and feeble riots that broke out in spurts across the villages. Audrey and I were often stuck cooking for and cleaning up after the meeting attendees. The work was hard, and I sometimes found myself wishing that the villagers were vampires too—drinking blood seemed a lot easier than cooking on a wood stove. My feminist streak started rearing up early. To make matters worse, Scarlet often joined us to “help.”
“I mean, really. Why aren’t we out in the streets helping?” I said one day. I huffed and puffed, threw my rolling pin down. “If I have to bake any more bread, I’m going to puke.”
“Cam, if you want to get out there and be all rough and tough with the boys, go for it,” Audrey said. “I’m kind of digging this pioneer woman thing, personally.” She rubbed her hands on her apron and lifted her hair to tie it back.
Of course she is. She’s Ms. Super Chef. It was a relief to spend so much time with Audrey, an even bigger relief to see her human again. It felt as if no time had passed at all, with us once again finishing each other’s thoughts.
“Fine,” I mumbled, rolled up the bread dough just as she’d shown me, placed the entire roll into a loaf pan and left it to rise, covered, next to the stove’s warmth. “Any word on your great-aunt Cecile?”
“Not yet. Scarlet’s been trying to help me, but I think she’s right. If we haven’t found her by now, chances are she’s not alive.” She secured her hair tie, shrugged. “I thought if I got anything out of this mess, aside from being able to stay with Gabe, I’d at least find out about my history with the frozen souls.”
“I’m really sorry, Aud. Something still might turn up.”
“Yeah, I hope so.” She gave me a warm smile and prepared to beat some eggs. “Hey, you know, I never really had the chance to apologize to you … properly.”
“Huh? For what?” I lied, knowing well what she meant. Sure, I was mad at Audrey for a while after she’d made the decision to become immortal without telling me, for keeping me in the dark about all that was unfolding around us. But I didn’t see a point in arguing with her about it anymore. I really did forgive her, and I knew she had her reasons, as crazy as they were. All that mattered now was she was back, and she was my Audrey again. That seemed a miracle, after what Gavin and I had done.
“Aud, you don’t have to do this,” I said. “We’re best friends, and best friends don’t need to apolog—”
“Yes, I do. Scarlet was right. Changing was a rash decision. And not telling you? Not explaining? That was awful. I’m really sorry, Cam. All I can say is, I felt compelled to come here with him, to see if there was any truth to my history with the vampires. And the idea of losing Gabe was … inconceivable. I never believed in soul mates until I met him that day on your driveway. One look, and it was all over. It began to consume me.”
She stopped beating the eggs, fixating on something in the distance. “And that was a huge reason I kept it all from you. Because you knew me so well. Too well. Something this big, this surreal, this … terrifying … I didn’t know how to even begin telling you.”
I was now focused on stirring the batter for what I hoped would be a delicious pumpkin spice cake by lunchtime. “I understand that. Really. I know you didn’t want Gabe to come here alone. And I knew you were a goner the second you met him. I know what he means to you, Aud.” I stopped stirring