Penny's Choice (3 page)

“Yeah, always has been an interesting one,” he replied. He took her hands and looked into her eyes. “I really wanted to thank you again for agreeing to this secret. It really means a lot to me.”

“It's really not a big deal,” Penny said turning head
down to avoid his intense gaze.

“No, it really is a big deal. So thanks.”

Penny looked up at him again. His eyes were addictive. “You’re welcome,” she said. She wanted him to kiss her, but she didn't know how appropriate that would be. Perhaps the Brotherhood had rules against fratern
ization. She hoped they didn't.

Charles held her gaze and she felt like she was stuck in a vampire's seductive charm.

“I thought vampire were supposed to be the charming ones,” she said and let a nervous
giggle escape between her lips.

“Oh, they are...very seductive,” Charles said and gave her his trademark half smile.

“Well, that is not good because right now, I am sure you could get me to do just about anything for you,” she r
eplied inching a little closer.

“I could say the same for you too.” He let go of her hands and softly caressed her face. He cupped her cheeks in his hands and brought her lips up to his, kissing them lightly. Penny fought her instincts to just grab him and throw him against the car.

“Alright, get in the car. We have to get back,” he said, pulling away from Penny. He walked around the car and opened the first door fo
r her. “You can ride up front.”

Penny regained her composure from his kiss, trotted over to Charles, and got in the car. She tried not staring at him, but his lips commanded her attention.

Charles drove the rest of the way to the Brotherhood sanctuary. Occasionally, Penny caught him glimpsing in her direction. She gave him coy smiles in return. For the first time in months Penny was
happy again. She had new friends that understood and believed her, adventure, and a place to call hom
e.

“The best way to kill vampires is to get to know them. This is yours to keep. Learn it forward and backwards,” Charles said to Penny. He had given her a large book on the basics of vampires. The Brotherhood had assigned Charles to mentor Penny over the next couple months. She was excited to be able to spend so much time with Charles.

“Okay, learn book,” Penny said, taking the book in her hands. “Is there anything I should know that will speed the learning along? This is a pretty thick book.”

“Not to be smart, but the beginning. Read the first chapter a couple of times. It's a very basic introduction. After that, you can skip around.”

“So, will I learn why I wasn't killed with my family in this book?” Penny asked. The thoughts had tormented her since that night. Most of her dreams revolved around her surviving.

“Indirectly, maybe.
But I can tell you one thing: it's important to remember with vampires that they are supernatural creatures, unlike humans that are natural, physical creatures. So a lot of things that make no sense to us, or even appear to be completely silly from a human perspective, are important to vampires.”

“And how does that relate to him sparing me?” Penny asked. She often wished that she had just died with the rest of her family.

“Ah, basically, that you may never know.
It could have been something you were wearing, your birth date, something you ate that night...”

“Like garlic bread?”

“Um, no, vampires aren't allergic to garlic... more like an herb they consider to have mystical properties or, even more likely, a dish that their mother used to make when they were human. Vampires tend to be obsessed with certain smells from their human life. If you get to know a vampire well enough, you can trap them with nostalgia.”

“So if the vampire's mommy made tuna noodle casserole, now he has to stop and smell it?”

“Yep,
kinda
like a tuna noodle trance,” Charles said without a hint of a laugh. Penny liked that she had a hard time deciphering when he was being serious or joking.

“You're right, that is silly.” Penny leafed through the book for a minute while Charles stood over her.

“Do you have any questions?” Charles asked. He was leaning in close to her. Penny's heart beat a little faster every time he got closer to her. “I have some business to deal with. But I will be back in a couple hours.”

“No,” Penny replied, even though she had one burning question on her mind: What about us? Actually they were a series of questions about him kissing her, whether they were even
allowed to kiss each other, and if he actually liked her or just got caught up in that moment. She would wait until later. “I need to get settled in here anyway.”

“Alright, I'll see you later then.” He left without a hug, a kiss, or any other sign of affection that had been there before.

Penny sat on her new bed and surveyed the room that would be
hers
forever. There were strange symbols and decorations on every wall. The furniture was elegant and either made of wood or gold. There were no mirrors anywhere in her room and, in fact, she hadn't seen them anywhere else in the house either. The ceiling was painted with frescoes from Shakespeare and all the linens were silk or taffeta and all the drapes, the ones surrounding her bed and the ones covering three windows, were made of
a heavy
embroidered wool.  It was much fancier than she would have expected from a group of vampire hunters. But then again, from the moment she saw the house, it had blown her mind.

To say that the house was enormous was an understatement.  Its Victorian architecture sprawled on for acres with gazebos; the miles of twisting hallways were made even more intriguing by secret passageways in the walls. Charles and Penny had to travel through the house in a roundabout fashion in order to get to her room. They descended a stair case seven steps and then went up eleven steps where Charles reached out his hand and smacked the wall. A door had appeared and he swiftly directed her through it. They had walked through walls, opened windows on the floor, walked on air. They road an elevator down several stories and then walked across the hall and road it back up to the same floor, which now looked completely different than before. Penny had counted again to make sure they were on the same floor. When Charles had seen how confused Penny was, he said, “I know this place doesn't seem to make much sense, but it keeps the vampires out.” Penny was beginning to wonder if becoming a vampire took away your sense of logic.

Penny stood up from her bed and went to a window. She thought they had gone way too far into the house for there to be windows. But then again she could be could be looking out onto the front lawn. So, she threw open the drapes.

Penny screamed. There was a naked man standing in her window. She quickly shut the blinds as the man realized that he was being watched. Was he in the shower? She thought,
Why
would a window in my room look into someone's shower?

Charles burst into the room. “What's wrong?” When he realized she was standing next to the curtains, he said, “Oh, oops, sorry, I should have warned you not to open that curtain.” His voice was broken up with laughter.

“It's not funny,” Penny said. She was sure that her cheeks were as red as a vampire's lunch. “Is there anything else that you forgot to tell me? Are there more naked men hiding in my closet?” Penny threw a pillow at Charles's face. He caught it midair and continued to laugh at her.

“No, just good old George's shower...” Charles replied, still snickering at Penny's predicament.

“Get out of here,” Penny said as she threw another pillow at Charles. He caught that one too and threw them both back at Penny. The massive wool and silk pillows hit her square in the belly and sent her sprawling onto her bed.

Charles jumped onto the bed and grabbed another pillow to protect
himself
as Penny flailed her legs and arms.

“You are really gonna need to learn how to fight better if you plan on lasting against any vampires,” he said, still chuckling. When he leaned over Penny's body, one of his small, perfect curls fell out of place and into his eyes.

Penny sighed. He was gorgeous.

“You are very beautiful when you get frustrated,” Charles said. He leaned over, kissing her lips longer than before. The pillows still separated them as Charles continued to kiss her. Penny tried to remove the barrier keeping her from embracing Charles, but a knock on the door interrupted her.

“I bet that is George coming over to introduce himself,” Charles said as he pulled himself off Penny. He started laughing again.

“Hello?”
An older gentlemen
entered the room.

“Afternoon, George!' Charles said rather chipper. “I haven't laughed this hard in years!”

“And all this time all I had to do to get you to loosen up was shower naked...” George said as he stepped into the room. He was a tall thin older man with gray hair.

“Hi George,” Penny said trying not to show her embarrassment. “Charles neglected to tell me about the window to your shower...in my room.”

“Ah, yes, I wouldn't worry about that,” George said and laughed.
“If you start to make it a habit though I might get the wrong impression, though.”
George winked at Charles. “And who wouldn't want to get the wrong impression from a pretty girl like you.” He patted Charles on the shoulder as he paused. “Normally girls go for Charles, not me!”

Charles rolled his eyes. “Alright, old man, I think that's enough for now,” Charles said, cutting him off from divulging more information.

“Oh, already got your game on, eh?” George sat in a wing back chair near the bed.
“Can't find a better guy than Charles.”

“So you're allowed to...to fraternize?” Penny said. She had been hoping fraternization was possible since the moment she set eyes on Charles.

“Eh, this ain't the military.
Besides, who else?”
The old man shrugged. “Welcome to the Brotherhood...sorry it's in such terrible circumstances.”

“Thanks,” Penny replied. She stood up and walked over to another window. “Is there anything behind these other two that I should know about?” She wanted to avoid the topic of her family. She was sure that everyone in the Brotherhood knew what had happened.

“No, one's just a wall and the other is a stained glass window,” Charles said as he walked over and pulled back a curtain reveling a window with a plain wall behind the glass. “There's a trap door behind this window that leads to a crawl space. It's an alternate escape route. All rooms have them. Yours just happens to be behind a window.”

Penny peaked behind the curtain and saw a stained glass window showing a relief from Romeo and Juliet.

“Do the curtains need to stay closed, or can I open them?” she asked.

“Well, I would prefer if you left my curtain closed,” George said then he chuckled slightly to himself.

“Why isn't there a curtain on your side?” Penny asked. She thought that if it was her shower, that she would want control over who could peep on her bathing.

“That's just not how it was designed,” Charles said as he closed the curtains over the trap door window.

“Everything has a purpose and a reason. They may not make sense to you, but they do to vampires. You can have the curtains open sometimes, but you should close them before you sleep or leave the room.”

“Okay,” Penny said, rubbing her eyes. She was getting tired.

“I think that we will leave you alone for a little bit,” Charles said when he saw Penny rubbing her eyes. “You need some rest.”

After the two men left, Penny decided that sleep was indeed in order. She flopped on the bed without even bothering with the blankets. The long trip and emotional strain had worn her out and she was soon fast asleep. That night Penny had the worst dreams since her family had been killed. Instead of just throwing her into the closet or turning her into a vampire, the monster kept coming into the closet with her. He would stand over her paralyzed body, staring at her as the screams of her family echoed through the house. No matter what she did her in sleep, the vampire was always there, following her, touching her, staring at her. 

Then her dreams shifted; instead of the vampires killing her family, it was the Brotherhood. They came in through the windows, like the vampires. Oddly enough, the same vampire still pushed her in the closet and stood watch over her as
the her
family was butchered outside.

The next few weeks went by in a blur of introductions and training. Charles was assigned as her main handler. They spent most of their waking hours together. However, it was not all fun and romance as Penny would have preferred. Charles was mostly business. Randomly he would pull her into a secret passageway and make out with her for a few minutes. It never
lasted long enough for Penny. Then it was right back to fighting. 
Violent fighting.
Charles was the beast fighter in the Brotherhood and he was doing his best to make his girlfriend into the second best fighter in the kill...or kill her in the process.