Charlotte After Dark

Chapter 16: Against Our Better Judgement

"They can't be anymore degraded than the people I've met so far," I offered, extending my arm so it lay directly across the back of the couch barely inches from his fingers.

"I don't know whether to take that as an insult," he replied, a smile still playing on his lips. He moved his fingers to brush them against my fingertips lightly, thinking that I wouldn't notice. Even this made the muscles in my body scream out in apprehension

"Take it however you want," I replied, returning the smile.

There was a pregnant pause between us that I wasn't willing to let go. He looked at me with his gray eyes, still as a statue, but didn't move his hand. The smile on his lips grew wider as I let out a nervous laugh. He diverted his attention away from me as he got up to return to the work I had interrupted.

"They should be here in an hour or so," he said.

"What do you suggest we do in the meantime?" I asked, getting up to follow him.

He tossed me a large, leather bound book with the same gold letters like many of the volumes this library held. I looked down at it, reading the title: Encyclopedia Praecantatio, Volume I. The book held probably hundreds of yellowed, well-read pages and although my fingers and mind were eager to begin absorbing its pages, something nagged at the back of my mind.

"You'll enjoy it," he commented. "Just as laborious as A History of the Houses and Ruling Families of the Troll Factions with more of the tiresome, title-touting summaries of Principle Witching Families of the Northeast."

That reminded me that Principle Witching Families of the Northeast still sat on the nightstand in the bedroom and I had never even peaked at its pages. Glancing down at the large book in my hands, I placed it on the desk next to us.

"I can't help but notice that there are very few, if any, books about vampires in this library. I've seen more titles for kelpies than I have vampires," I said, placing my hand on the encyclopedia, putting my weight on it as I waited for an answer.

"Why have books on it, when you can ask one you know?" He responded, flipping a few pages in a red bound book that looked as though it wasn't even written in any human language, the pages filled with red symbols of varying sizes.

"Alright, Vampire 101, then" I suggested, playing with the end of my braid pretending to examine it for split ends.

"What is that?" He asked, not even looking up at me as he shuffled books around on the bookshelf.

"It's where I ask you a question and you give me an answer," I explained.

"Somehow I don't think I'm going to enjoy this game," he sighed, putting another book down and looked at me.

"Question 1: stakes?" I asked.

"Useless," he replied as he stuffed the red book between a line of thin books on the shelf.

"Question 2: Garlic?" I asked another question, stepping closer to him.

"Disgusting, but not an effective way of banishing a vampire," was his answer as he paged through another old book.

"What are you looking for?" I asked.

"That isn't a question about vampires," he answered.

"That isn't an answer," I retorted.

I could see him chewing the inside of his cheek as he looked at me, formulating a response. "Research," he said.

"Research for..." I pushed, hoping he would finish the thought.

"I'm not sure yet," was his enigmatic reply.

For the next question, I decided to go after a question that had stuck into my mind most unwelcome for the last few days after Audra had decided to take me for a feeding. The way the other vampires had looked at me, not in disdain, but in fear, weighed heavily on me as I replayed it again and again in my mind.