The Comanche Vampire (28 page)

Anne
nodded. “Yes.
 
After Andrew asked you
that ridiculous question word got around and it wasn’t long until half the
relatives were talking.
 
Some whispered
maybe you were one, most said there’s no such thing as vampires, and the rest
just gossiped about you.
 
Grandma said
you should cut off your braid, Daddy bitched about you working at a casino, and
one of my uncles wondered if I’d go native if I kept going out with you.
 
They wouldn’t stop and I got mad.
 
I gave them a piece of my mind and told them
you’re not their business, just mine.”
The curiosity and talk failed to surprise him.
 
Ned had expected it.
 
Her defense
made him proud even though he knew what the main issue probably was for Anne.
“Thanks,” he said. “What bothered you the most?”

“Oh,
their bigotry upset me, but I hate that old vampire talk.
 
It’s ridiculous to even speculate.
 
If they’d known about….” Her voice trailed
away but he knew she referenced the half-empty pint of blood she’d found in his
truck.
 
She retreated from it. “Oh, never
mind.”

Maybe
the time had come.
 
It wasn’t going to be
easy no matter when or how he broke the news.
 
He put down his untouched hamburger and turned to Anne. “Honey, I know
you don’t like the topic, but maybe we should talk about it.”

Her
fingers fumbled with the sandwich wrapper. “I don’t see that there’s anything
else to say, Ned. We both know you’re not a vampire.
 
I’m so sorry Andrew said such a thing and
started this up again.
 
I’d almost
forgotten about it.”
 

Ned
didn’t believe her.
 
If so, she wouldn’t
have warned him on the way to her parents not to talk about it.
 
The vampire issue loomed huge between them
and he realized if they didn’t deal with it, it would destroy what they had.

“Anne,
it’s time to tell you the truth.
 
I know
you don’t want to hear it but you need to listen.” He watched her freeze, still
as death.
 
Then she began to
tremble.
 

“Ned,
don’t say it again,” she said in a broken voice. “Please don’t.
 
If you’re about to say what I think, don’t.”

He
ignored her plea. “I
am
a vampire,”
he said in a quiet voice. “It’s nothing like what you probably think.
 
Those movies, the books, and all that shit,
don’t tell it the way it is.
 
I didn’t
want to become one, but I’d like to tell you how it happened and what it’s
like.”

A
ragged sob burst from her mouth, harsh and loud.
 
Anne covered her face with both hands and
wept. “Ned, I can’t listen to this.
 
I
can’t.
 
I won’t.
 
I love you, but this is too much.
 
Vampires do not exist and if you think this
is funny, it’s not.”

Memories
of his meager, lonely existence over the past century and more crammed his head
full.
 
“I don’t,” he said with tragic
dignity. “It’s the way it is, honey.” A revelation struck and he understood why
the mention of vampires upset Anne so much.
 
“You see it, don’t you?” he asked, his voice hoarse with emotion. “And you
don’t want to so you try to shut it out.”

She
raised her tear-stained face. “Oh, Ned, it’s not like that, not at all.
 
I’m worried about you.
 
No one thinks they’re a vampire.
 
I think you’ve identified with the old time Comanche
so much you’ve convinced yourself you are one.
 
Since no one can survive for more than a hundred years, I think you’ve
dreamed up this vampire angle because they’re supposed to be immortal.
 
That’s the only explanation I see unless
you’re mental and I don’t think you are.
 
But you have to let go of the notion, Ned.
 
I can help you if you want.”

“I
wish it was that easy,” Ned said.
 
He put
one hand on her back to offer comfort and her body tensed. “Honey, I am
Pea’hocso
.
 
He’s not
my ancestor … he’s me.
 
That’s why I look
like the picture you saw.
 
I’ve looked
like this since 1875 and I’m not likely to change.”

“Stop
it!” she cried out. “Oh, Ned, please.
 
Don’t say anything else.
 
Just
take me home, please.
 
I can’t deal with
this.
 
After the holiday trip home and
all the emotional baggage, it’s too much.”

He
couldn’t leave it like this so he tried. “Anne, listen.”

“
Take me home
,” she screeched and buried
her face in her hands.
 
She sobbed and
after a moment when he decided any effort he made would be rejected, Ned threw
his untouched burger through the window.
 
He started the truck and they drove back toward Lawton in silence.

Anne’s
furious sobs lasted for thirty minutes or so.
 
After that, she let out an occasional sob and wiped tears from her
cheeks with the same handful of tissues.
 
She made no attempt to talk, and neither did he.
 
When they were close to Wichita Falls, he put
a CD into the stereo and let the old rhythms of some of his favorite Native
American chants soothe him.
 
He hoped they’d
help Anne, too.

By
the time they rolled into Lawton, his fuel gauge flirted with empty so he
cleared his throat. “Anne, I need to get gas for the truck.
 
Do you want me to drop you off first or
what?”

She
mumbled but he couldn’t hear her.
 
After
a moment, she spoke up louder. “You can get fuel first if you want. I’m not in
any big hurry.”

Uncertain
how to interpret her reply, Ned stopped at the first convenience store on Cache
Road.
 
He filled the tank, and when he
returned from paying the cashier, he noticed Anne had managed to mop up her
tears.
 
Although he didn’t think she’d applied
make-up that morning, she’d put on fresh lipstick.
 
More nervous than if he’d walked into a
hostile enemy camp, Ned said, “So do you want to go home or what?”

“I
thought maybe we could get a steak at that place you took me once,” she said.
“Then if you don’t mind, I’d like to drop my bags off at my apartment, grab
some fresh clothes and spend the rest of the semester break with you.”

He’d
expected more tears.
 
For miles, Ned
steeled himself to handle her rejection.
 
He’d figured she’d likely break off their relationship, so Anne’s words
stunned him.
 
“That’s fine if it’s what
you want,” he said. “We really should talk, though.”

Her
brown eyes met his. “Yes, I agree.
 
I’ve
got some things I want to say, Ned, and I will, over dinner.”

At
the steakhouse they shared a booth and steaks.
 
After he’d given the order to the server, Ned braced himself.
 
He had no idea what to expect.
 
It could be tears or temper or both.
 
This might be an end or a beginning.
 
“Okay, honey. You wanted to talk and I’m
listening.”

Anne
reached out across the table and grasped his hands tight. “Oh, Ned,” she
sighed. “I’ve tried to put together the words to say what I want for
miles.
 
I love you.
 
I’ve never felt this way, not like this, with
any man.
 
I want to spend my free time with
you and I feel connected to you, like family but deeper somehow.
 
But the vampire talk scares the hell out of
me and I don’t know what to think.
 
I
don’t think you’re crazy, but I can’t believe you drink blood or that you’re
very old.”
 
She paused and her forehead
wrinkled. “How old would you be if this was true, anyway?”

“Less
than two hundred,” he said. He forced the words up from his dry throat. “I’d
have to sit down and figure it out, honey.
 
It’s not something that I think about much.”

“I
guess it doesn’t matter,” Anne said. “But you do. I thought about this for
miles, staring out at the plains and the sky riding down the highway. You
probably thought I was mad, but I wasn’t, just thinking.”

“And?”
He couldn’t bear the suspense much longer. Whatever she had to say, he needed
to hear it.
 

Anne’s
grip on his hands tightened. “I came to the conclusion that I should consider
the possibility.
 
It’s insane and
impossible.
 
I must be crazy to even give
it a second thought, but I don’t want our relationship to end.
 
I want to be together for a long time, maybe
forever.
 
So I want to stay with you
until the new semester starts.
 
It’s
still a couple of weeks away.
 
I’ll pay
attention and keep an open mind as much as I can.
 
By the time school starts, I figure I’ll
either know what to do to help you get back on track or I’ll succumb to your
fantasy.
 
What do you think?”

“It’s
fair,” Ned said. And it was more than he’d expected or hoped. “Thanks for not
walking out on me, Anne.
 
I love you,
too, honey … in ways I never even dreamed were possible.
 
It’s been a lonely existence for so
long.
 
If you went away, it’d be hard for
me to go back to the way it was.”

“I
don’t want that,” she said. “So let’s forget about legends and creatures and
blood for now.
 
Let’s go on like we’ve
been.
 
We’re home and I’m glad to be
here.”

She’d
blindsided him by cracking her disbelief a fraction.
 
No, she didn’t believe but she sounded
willing to consider the possibility and she hadn’t ended their
relationship.
 
“So am I,” he said. “What
made you change your mind?”

Anne
tilted her head in a way that always made him think of a pretty bird perched on
a limb.
 
“I didn’t like what Andrew said
or the way my family talked it to death.
 
And you know how I’ve felt about the vampire thing.
 
I don’t like it and it scares me.
 
But I remembered the blood drive, what
happened then, what you said.
 
I thought
about the way you get so pale, sometimes, and I realized it’s mostly when
you’re outside, under a bright light, or if the sun is shining.
 
So I realized maybe I should examine it with
a logical eye.
 
I decided it’d be better
to consider the possibility than reject the idea, along with you.”

He’d
never been one to believe in miracles, but this might be his first.
 
Whether or not she’d accept the truth was
something he didn’t know.
 
And if she
did, she might run from him screaming.
 
Ned decided the chance was worth the risk.
 
If she accepted the truth, he had no clue how
they’d handle it from there.
 
If things
remained the same, Anne would age and he wouldn’t.
 
He’d never run across any way to restore his
mortality or humanity either.
 
No matter
what, though, he’d have a few weeks with Anne.
 
If it turned out to be the last, he’d still had more than he ever
expected.
 
Ned searched his heart and
head but found nothing else to say for now.
 
He glanced up to see their server heading in their direction with a
loaded tray.

“Then
let’s eat,” he told Anne. “Our food’s on the way and I’m hungry.”
 
For once, he craved food because it’d become
something he shared with her.
 
The tender
steaks filled his mouth with taste and the tension in his body eased as they
shared the meal.
 
They dropped the
volatile subject and talked instead of her family.
 
They laughed about some of the holiday moments,
Anne griped about others, and when they left the steakhouse, he thought they
were in harmony as much as they’d ever been.
 
Maybe more, he mused, since they touched on his dark truth and Anne
remained.

At
her place, Ned carried her suitcases up and waited while she grabbed fresh
clothing.
 
Anne checked her answering
machine, booted up the computer long enough to read her emails, and called her
parents to let them know she’d made it home.
 
Ned listened long enough to note the strained tone in Anne’s voice so he
gathered up her luggage and headed for the door.

“I’ll
be in the truck,” he said and she nodded.
 
At her suggestion they stopped at the market to pick up a few
perishables and basics, then he made a visit to the feed store to get oats for
the ponies.
 
Gary had promised to feed
the horses in Ned’s absence.
 
When they
bumped down the lane to the house, although the night loomed dark, Ned saw his
buddy’s beat-up pickup parked out by the corral.
 
Until then, he hadn’t thought about going
back to work but he remembered now with an inner groan he might be scheduled to
work as soon as tonight.