To Save a Vampire - A.K. Koonce Page 0,55
opposites in every way and complement each other perfectly. Worry marks her face as she watches him. Her worry is consuming her the way Ky’s unspoken hurt is consuming him.
We’re close to our destination. No one has actually said this, but I can feel it. We’ve stopped running as much, and we’ve taken more breaks over the last two days.
My mother leaves Ky’s side and slowly walks toward me, leaves crunching under her boots. Asher, who stands at my side, seems to take note of the closeness my mother has created as she leans against a tree next to me. Asher looks from me to her. He walks a few yards and turn away from us. Near enough to hear us with his heightened senses, but far enough away to give the illusion of privacy.
“I need to be honest with you.” She pauses, not looking at me, but touching my arm gently. “I know I’ve gone about all of this in a strange way. I just wanted you to have an open mind. To not feel pressured into your future.”
My future? She’s now looking intently at me, searching my eyes for acceptance and kindness for what she’s about to confess.
“What are you saying, Mom?” I ask in a whisper.
Ky tilts his head up subtly, watching us. Asher hasn’t moved from within the forest. Ripper gives a low growl from where he’s curled up at my feet. Everyone takes notice and stands on edge for what she’s about to say.
“Asher’s twin brother was Micah,” she says slowly, searching my eyes. “I helped Asher escape in hopes to forge your union papers and give you the chance at a real future. A choice of your own.”
Her words drill into me all at once, and the air leaves my lungs.
“Micah was assigned to work on a farm and you were assigned to be a veterinarian. It would be simple for the two of you to live a happy and secluded life alone. I didn’t tell you the plan because I didn’t want to force a union on you the way our government does everyone else. I wanted you to have the choice to like Asher. If you two hated each other, we would still take him home to his family. But if you liked him, if you two formed a bond together, then there are possibilities for you both.”
Ky begins humming a low melody as if he’s oblivious to us. Ripper continues with his low growl; the dog’s throaty vibrating noise is filling my mind as my mother’s information streams in like a flood.
Asher was willing to falsify his identity to help me?
“It wouldn’t be an easy life, but it’d be more of a life than the camp or compound will ever be for either of you. It could be a happy life. A hopeful life,” she says, still trying to trigger a response.
Hope. It’s the one thing that stands out among all her words. Asher and I could build a life together out of hope. Hope could hold us together against the rules and the laws of our lives, but it would be a weak foundation. A teetering, balancing act. We would have to be strong together to make it work. But we are already strong together.
Asher makes me a less weak person. A better person.
His first words come swinging back to me. Be sure. Be sure of my choices. Be sure of us. Be sure of myself.
I look back at where Asher stands; the morning sun casts around him in an ethereal way. He’s listening, waiting for my response.
The panes of his back are tense, stretching the fabric of his shirt. The muted orange lighting of the sun shines over him. The angel God sent to save me. The broken angel I’ve risked everything for. I was willing to waste my life for his, and all this time he’s been risking his own for me.
A smile tugs at my lips, and I’m just about to respond to my mother when Ripper's bark echoes loudly off the surrounding cliff walls.
My eyes flash to the little animal barking aggressively at my feet, teeth bared. I turn, searching the deadly silent woods to find something that stills my heart in my chest.
An elongated figure stands on the rocks, its thin human-like body appears unnaturally stretched, making its presence loom over us. Its gray skin is stretched over long limbs, its odd coloring allowing it to blend into its surroundings. Big fly-like eyes fill its