The Keeper's Vow (6 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

The rest of the
evening, Katie and Allison exhausted every topic they could think
of in relation to Tristan: where he came from, why he came to live
with Lucinda and Will, if he was dangerous, what he ate, how long
he would live—but, every answer they could possibly come up with
always led back to what he wanted with Katie.

Had he found her name somewhere in this
house? She always left things when she came over. Sometimes Lucinda
labeled food she’d bought just for Katie. Katie checked the Rainbow
sherbet. The cherry pop-tart box. The bag of Pink Lady apples.
Nothing. And anyway, that didn’t answer how he knew her full name
or what she looked like.

Long after Allison had gone to sleep, under
the fluffy down blanket Lucinda put out on the queen size guest bed
in the guest room, Katie still focused her thoughts on Tristan. He
couldn’t be dangerous or Lucinda wouldn’t have let him stay there.
Not in the same house Katie had considered a second home. The very
same house Katie had pretty much grew up in. All those years her
dad worked hundreds of odd jobs just to pay the mortgage and put
her through private school. He worked days and nights it
seemed—especially when she was younger—and it was
this
house
that she called home.

She looked around the dark room. There was
only a small amount of light coming in through the window, but she
knew this room like she knew every room in this house. By heart.
She could see the dresser right across the bed and how now, a TV
sat mounted above it where an old ocean painting used to hang. She
could see where the door to the little walk-in closet was even
though it really melted into a shadow casted on the wall. She could
feel the soft cream-colored rug without stepping on it. This room
was just as much hers as her room back home. There was no way Will
or Lucinda would bring someone into the house that was
dangerous.

Katie rolled onto her side and adjusted her
pillow. Her head was heavy. Though her eyes were just as heavy,
vivid thoughts from the day flashed across her mind, one in
particular repeated over and over: Tristan’s eyes. Every time,
there was something in them she couldn’t shake—a type of urgency
behind them…a type of anger.

Sunlight woke Katie up. She had hoped, that
maybe for a second, she would have forgotten yesterday. However,
like a stack of dirty laundry, it was there waiting for her the
moment she opened her eyes.

Allison was already gone, probably eating
the pancakes Katie smelled. All she had yesterday was her dad’s
eggs—edible but gross—a peanut butter sandwich for lunch and
rainbow sherbet ice cream for dinner.

Her stomach led her to the kitchen.

It was nice to see Will reading the paper at
the table and Brian pouring what looked like a second bowl of
cereal. This was normal. Katie sat at the booth next to Allison,
who was scarfing down pancakes with as little grace as ever. Katie
smiled. Normal.

“How are you this morning?” Will said,
looking over his paper. His hair was a mess, but that was standard
for a Saturday morning.

“Fine. I guess,” Katie said. On the table
was an empty plate waiting for her to fill it with the loads of
food on the table: bacon, eggs, pancakes, a fruit mix, a box of
cereal, milk, orange juice.

Everything was normal. Too normal. Or just
the same.

Why did that put her on edge?

She looked at Lucinda who was pouring a cup
of coffee at the other end of the kitchen.

“Where—” she couldn’t bring herself to ask.
It was clear why she couldn’t stop blinking blindly at Brian
slurping milk from his spoon. They were acting normal. Like Tristan
didn’t exist. Or were they? What difference did it make that he was
there? Why did she expect
them
to be different just because
Tristan had walked into their lives?

“What was that?” Will said, looking up from
his paper.

“Nothing.” Katie forked a few pancakes onto
her plate. She needed to be cooler about all of this. There was no
point in making anything a big deal if they weren’t.

“Looking for me?” said the reason she
couldn’t be cool about any of it. She didn’t want to turn around
and look at him. No, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to, she
couldn’t. But that was stupid she had no reason to be bashful.

“No,” she said, focusing on the bowl of eggs
she picked up.

“A little self-absorbed aren’t you? I wasn’t
talking to you,” Tristan said, sliding into the booth next to
Brian. Katie blushed.

Brian shifted. Katie realized he’d been
staring at his bowl of cereal like
Kellogg’s
was going out
of business. His “pity” face.

“Yes, Tristan,” Lucinda said. “I need to
know your pant size.”

“What for?” he said, picking up one of the
discarded news columns.

“You only have three pairs of pants, four
shirts, and you need a uniform. Did you think clothes just popped
out of thin air?” Lucinda said. She leaned against the kitchen
counter and crossed over her legs. “Morning, Sweetie,” she said to
Katie.

“I like to travel light,” Tristan said
behind the paper. Katie couldn’t stop staring at where his face
would be. She felt like she was starting to forget exactly what he
looked like. It was an odd feeling to have, like a compulsion. She
just wanted a peak.

He dropped the paper and it crunched. Every
one briefly looked at him as if he’d had a spasm, but he smiled.
Directly at her, as if he knew she’d been staring.

Katie looked away.

“I was under the impression you were done
traveling. Why else—”

“Alright, I’ll get more clothes,” he said,
cutting off Lucinda. “But I’ll buy them myself.”

“You’ll also need some school supplies—“

“Got it,” Tristan said a little louder. He
hid behind the paper again.

Lucinda breathed hard and changed the
subject. Katie sat and half listened to the idle chatter between
Will, Lucinda, and Allison. Mainly, because she didn’t understand
what they were talking about and partly because she couldn’t help
but feel Tristan was staring at her from behind the paper.

She knew that sounded dumb, but he hadn’t
turned the page once. His messy black hair didn’t move from one
side to the other, and she could still feel those blue eyes probing
her. He was a vampire after all. Maybe they could do that.
See
through things. It would explain the smile when he
caught her staring the first time. Then again, intuition could
explain that.

“I’m taking them to the Pony Express to meet
Fenkly.” Will closed his paper.

“You couldn’t arrange a meeting anywhere
else?” Lucinda said, putting her coffee mug in the sink.

“You know Fenkly. If he’s going to put on a
show he’s going to make it difficult. He doesn’t sell to minors
anymore so it’s not a big deal, Lucy,” Will said.

“What’s the Pony Express?” Katie ate the
last piece of bacon on her plate.

“A drunk’s pub,” Tristan said, looking at
her. When had he put down his paper? Stealth wasn’t even the
word.

“We’re going to meet a fate aren’t we?”
Allison smiled.

“A fate, indeed,” Will said.

“Seriously?” Brian asked with a little bit
of color in his face. Katie knew this face. It was the one he wore
to remind his parents he was an innocent, good kid. It rarely
worked.

Will frowned. “Remind me to search
you
at the door.” He turned his attention to Allison.
“You’ll like this, Allison.” He gestured for Tristan and Brian to
move so he could slide out of the booth.

Allison nearly pushed Katie out of the way
to get out of the booth. She followed Will out of the kitchen
rattling of so many questions Katie couldn’t keep up. Brian watched
her with contempt. Katie watched him for a moment. Now that she’d
thought about it, it wasn’t the first time she’d caught him staring
at Allison like that.

Whenever Will was around talking to Allison
his eyes would flicker.

Tristan chuckled to himself. Or maybe at
her.

“Brian, you better go get ready. You’re
lucky he’s taking you,” Lucinda glared at him. She definitely was
not over yesterday. It struck Katie as odd that Tristan didn’t seem
to care about yesterday. He sat next to Brian as if he’d been doing
it his whole life…sitting
there
in
that
seat. Katie
changed her mind. That wasn’t it. Earlier, Tristan reached over him
to grab the paper. Even now, as Brian left the room, it was like he
didn’t exist to Tristan. Tristan wasn’t over it—he was ignoring
him.

Petty. Warranted, but petty.

She was doing it again, staring at him, and
he noticed. She focused on the lines in the table and finished her
food.

“That will be us soon, Katie,” Lucinda said,
clearing the table. Katie helped. “Will is Brian and Allison’s
mentor. He’s getting them familiar with Gray City and the type of
people you find there.”

“Gray City?” Katie said.

“You’ll find out about it soon enough,”
Lucinda smiled.

They finished clearing the table and
cleaning the dishes as Tristan pretended to read the paper. She
knew this time he was pretending because he was turning the pages.
Her reasoning was mental, but she just knew. She could feel his
eyes on her, even when he wasn’t looking. There was a crooked smile
on his face every time she gave in and looked. It was a game. She
was going to beat him by not playing.

She left the kitchen, and Will stopped her
on her way upstairs to find Allison. “Katie, I’ll stop by your
house on the way back so we can let Drew know what’s going on. I
know it will be hard to explain by yourself.”

She wanted to nod her head and say,
“
Sure”
but in the back of her mind she heard, “
No.”
She couldn’t shake the feeling. She didn’t want her dad to find out
from his ex-best-friend who he barely talked to except on forced
occasions.

“No. I’ll do it,” she said. She knew her
dad. He’d feel uncomfortable with Will in the house, might even
refuse to talk to him, just to avoid the awkwardness.

“I don’t know,” Will said.

“I’ll do it, Will.” They looked at each
other for a long moment before he nodded and headed downstairs.
Katie exhaled. She felt like she’d dodged a bullet. A big bullet,
but she didn’t know why. She just knew it wasn’t right—not the way
she wanted her dad to find out.
He
had been hiding this from
her after all.

In the room she found Allison putting on her
shoes. “I have to run home to change and get ready. Want to walk
together?”

Katie shook her head. She didn’t want to go
home yet. Her world had been shattered. Here everything was still
hanging on by a string, but she didn’t know what going outside
would be like. She found her washed clothes from the previous day
folded in the dresser. Not a bloodstain to be found.

Lucinda never missed anything.

It didn’t take long after Will, Brian, and
Allison left, for Katie to get restless. She
had
to go home.
She needed to tell her dad what happened and find out, if anything,
why he kept everything from her. She let Lucinda know she was
leaving and took her first step outside since yesterday.

She didn’t even make it to the sidewalk.

She felt anxious. Sweat beaded on her
forehead and the hair on the back of her neck rose. She couldn’t go
back inside, Lucinda would make a big fuss and tell everyone. Katie
couldn’t risk that embarrassment. She needed something to sooth the
feeling of impending doom. Books.

She didn’t care much for reading them; she
just liked to collect old ones. She headed out of the neighborhood,
with her book-bag slung across her shoulder, toward her favorite
bookstore.

Barnaby Books was a sanctuary. A book buyers
dream heaven. Katie wasn’t always a book buyer, but looking for
first-edition odd-end books was an emerging hobby. Something about
collecting an original made her feel like a distinguished hoarder.
The scholarly kind.

As she made it out of the mouth of the
neighborhood, and into the belly of downtown, she waited for the
crosswalk light to change. It wasn’t so bad. Being out in the open.
The way the lady from the board talked about “protection” Katie
thought she’d be dodging paranormal activity left and right.

Nope.

It was just her and the normal downtown
crowd. The regular homeless hustling the crowd coming out of the
theatre. A few joggers. Someone with a dog so small, it’s little
legs are on full throttle to keep up. Kids from the nearby public
school. She could always tell they were from the public school
because they all looked the same, like a fashion hurricane swept
through it every three months. Skinny jeans in this month? Yup. How
about shirts with the neon colored writing? Check. Fringe bang? No,
not this month. This month all the girls are rocking bobs.