His laugh was short, but seemed sincere. "You know, I really believe that."
"So let's get this over with."
The exhale he let out was long and slow. "I'm kind of running low on time."
"In what way?" Ivie was very aware of her heart skipping a beat. "As in...you're leaving Caldwell?"
There was a pause. "Yes. I am."
Ivie let herself fall back against the cushions. "Where are you going? How far away is it? As long as it isn't the Old Country, we can long-distance things. I mean, if we get that far." When he didn't reply, she cursed. "You're going back to the Old Country."
"I'm so sorry. I hate this. I really do."
Yeah, wow. That kind of distance was a deal breaker. Bi-coastal would have been tough. But across the ocean? There was no dematerializing back and forth over the Atlantic, and planes were dangerous given that they had to travel at night only. A delay due to weather or mechanical issues could be deadly.
"I'm really sorry, Ivie."
"Me, too." She took a deep breath. "What takes you back there? Family? Or business. Or..."
"It's a family thing."
"An arranged mating?" As she blurted that, she cursed again. "Okay, that's not appropriate. It's none of my business--"
"There isn't another female. Trust me. That's not it."
"I'm glad." She moved the blanket over her knees. "If I have to lose you, I'd rather it not be to anyone else. On that note, how much time do we have? Is your plane ticket bought yet?"
"The, ah, precise night isn't on the calendar. But it looks like--well, from what I've been told about a month. I've got some things to wrap up here and then...you know, I'm gone."
"I can't believe I'm going to say this."
"Say what?"
She picked at a frayed thread on the blanket. "I'm going to miss you."
"Oh, God, Ivie." His voice grew hoarse. "I'm going to miss you, too."
"No chance for a change of plans, then?" she joked.
"It's not up to me, I'm afraid."
They both grew quiet. And when she couldn't stand it one moment longer, she frowned. "What's that beeping in the background?"
"Sorry, I'll turn it off. It's just a timer."
"What's the countdown for?"
"Armageddon."
"Lot of firepower in your house, then."
He laughed a little. "I want to ask you something."
"If it's how to dismantle a bomb, I can't help you there. I'm also not good with recipes, house plants, and anything that has to do with pets. I killed the one betta fish I had growing up within nights of getting him, and I am no better with things that come in pots as opposed to tanks or bowls. When it comes to keeping things alive, vampires are my only skill."
Now that laugh of his was more the way she liked it, deep and rolling. "Well, it's good to know your strengths and weaknesses."
"I agree. It cuts down on the bad surprises in life. So what do you want to ask me?"
"Go on a trip around the world with me."
Ivie blinked. "I'm sorry?"
"Around the world. With me. Before I have to leave."
"This has to be a figurative proposition, not a literal one, right?"
"What time does your shift start tomorrow?"
"Not until eight."
"I'll pick you up at six. It'll be dark enough, and we'll have almost two hours. I won't tell you where we're going, it'll be a surprise."
Ivie smiled. "It's a date."
"That's right. A date, dearest Ivie. See you then."
Chapter Five
The following evening, Ivie waited inside her apartment building's vestibule, that now-familiar prickling anticipation lighting her body and her mind up. The night was frosty and clear, the kind of thing where the snowpack was going to squeak under your boots, the moonlight turned everything blue, and you had to wonder, if the earth could get this frigid, how the hell cold must space be?
Taking out her phone, she checked the time. Five of. And no texts or calls to cancel.
"Houston," she said to the window she was staring out of, "we have a go. Assuming there isn't a--"
And there he was. Just a little early. In that big car of his. Was it a Bentley? Yup.
Ivie broke free of the building like she was released from prison, and even the shock of the below-zero air on her face didn't dim her happiness.
Silas got out from behind the wheel on the far side. "Good evening."
"It is now."
He came around the hood like he was going to open her door, but instead, he held his arms wide and wrapped her in an embrace.
"You always smell so good," she said into yet another cashmere sweater.
Tonight's was navy blue. His slacks were the same dark gray. And his black overcoat was made of a wool so fine, it had the nap of suede.
"Let's get you in where it's warm."
After he settled her into the passenger seat, he went around once again and got in with her.
"You ready?"
"I am." She smiled at him. "Although I would like to point out that unless this can pull a DeLorean, we shouldn't try anything transatlantic."
"A DeLorean?"
"The professor's time machine that flew in Back to the Future?"
"What's that? A movie?"
"You don't know about Marty McFly? What the heck do you rich people do for entertainment?"
"Mostly count our money and criticize each other."
She laughed as he put the engine in gear and they eased down the plowed road. "You know, as pastimes go, that sounds like sooooo much fun. No wonder so many of you have pursed looks of disapproval on your faces. I thought that was just from tight underwear."
Oh, the laughter.
As he threw his head back, she smiled again--and admired the strong column of his throat. For a split second, she pictured her fangs deep in his flesh, his vein open to her, her greed for him not just sexual, but for his blood.
Silas let out a purr. "You keep looking at me like that, I'm going to cancel our reservation and turn back around."
Ivie flushed and dropped her head into her hands. "I'm sorry."
"I'm not. But I do want to get you dinner, so there's that."
"Okay, so this is an international restaurant thing?"
He glanced over, the beautiful planes of his face illuminated in the glow from the dash. "I'm not all that original, am I?"
"Are you kidding me? I am so excited. Where do we start?"
"I figured we'd do this sequentially. So if we took a plane over the pond, the first thing we'd hit, if I were doing the itinerary, is the U.K."
"I draw the line at haggis. I mean, you might as well stuff a bagpipe with compost and call it dinner."
"To each their own." He smiled in her direction. "After all, it's not what the food actually is, but your associations of it. For all we know, that's someone's filet mignon."
"Or in my case, their Kraft Mac & Cheese." She patted her coat. "On that note, I hope the place is not too formal? I'm going to go straight to work, so I'm casual and comfortable under this."
"You're perfect, that's what you are."
"You're a charmer."
And she was buying everything he was selling, her smile so pervasive and persistent, she had to look out the side window to keep it to herself--as opposed to sitting next to him like a giggling loon.
Ten minutes later, she let out an "OMG."
The restaurant he pulled into was the anti-Sal's, nothing fancy but rather a quaint cottage that looked like something out of a Harry Potter novel. Made of stone, with a short-stack chimney and a postage stamp of snowed-in lawn, the pub was all about the homey and cozy, a little bolt-hole of mom-and-pop in an otherwise business-zoned area of Caldie's suburbs.
"Welcome to St. Jack's," Silas said as he got out. "If you haven't already been here."
Ivie opened her own door and met him in front of the Bentley's glossy hood. "I've heard of this place! There are commercials on
local TV for it all the time."
"It's a source of goodness in this world, I promise you."
Silas was gallant as any aristocrat as he offered her his arm and escorted up to the entrance. As he held open the door for her, she walked past him and was hit with a wall of warmth that was like sinking into a bathtub.
The ceiling was low, the beams exposed, the floor planks wide and scuffed. The place was packed, but then again, the seating area was filled with only ten four-tops, the tables and chairs unmatched just like the silverware and the plates and the glasses. There was only one vacancy, right in front of the fireplace, and as the sixty-year-old hostess came up, Ivie knew he'd gotten the best spot for them again.
"Are you Mr. Ivie?" the woman asked him.
"I am."
"Right this way," she said with a cheerful tone.
Silas slipped his arm around Ivie's waist, and together they wended their way through the other customers. "Hope you don't mind the name," he whispered in her ear.
"I love it."
After they passed over their coats to the lady, he settled Ivie in her chair, and then he was sitting across from her and they were picking up parchment menus as house wine was poured.
While Silas mulled over the short list of options, Ivie glanced around. He was attracting a lot of attention in the room, even the servers looking across at him. Then again, he was like a sports car on a country road, she supposed, something unusual and fancy.
"Do you not like it?" he said. "We can go?"
"Oh, no. This is right up my alley."
"Good. So what are you thinking?"
Shaking herself, she checked out the entrees. "Shepherd's pie. That sounds perfect. Hearty and will last me through the night."
"I think I'll have the same."
Extending his arm, he reached across and took her hand. As his thumb rubbed back and forth, she stared into his eyes and marveled at the color--or lack thereof--of them. His stare was so pale, it reminded her of the moonlight on snow.
"I missed you," he said quietly. "There. I admitted it."
"I missed you, too." She tilted her head. "You know what I like about you? I don't have to hide. Well, let me rephrase that. I can be myself and you seem to like that--I've never been good at hiding."
"And that's what I like most about you. Life can be very...obstructed sometimes. As I've gotten older, I've learned to value reality over fantasy and optimism."
"All joking aside, I've heard the glymera is pretty polluted with posturing." She smiled. "So I'm the anti-aristocrat, huh."
"I also like you because you make me feel alive."
Ivie squeezed his hand. "You know what's funny?"
"What?"
"That's exactly what happens for me, too."
* * *
--
Two hours never passed so fast--which kind of sucked. But that was what happened when there was never a lull in conversation and you cared about every word the other person was saying. Silas told her about his childhood, growing up in a castle in the Old Country and haunting humans over the moors. She gave him the definitive list of eighties' movies he had to watch. They enjoyed the food. Well, she did, at any rate. He didn't eat much, but explained that he'd had a huge First Meal at four in the afternoon.
"I can't believe I have to go to work now," Ivie said as she pushed her empty dessert plate away. "And oh, my God, that trifle was the best thing I've ever had. I want to thank you for not asking to share it."
He smiled at her over the rim of his coffee cup. "I enjoyed watching you enjoy it. That was sustenance enough for me."
"Are you going to let me pay?"
"No. But not because I'm a chauvinist. I like to think I'm traditional so if it was my idea, I cover the check."
"Some night, you're going to let me take you out."
As she said that, a spear of sadness went through her chest. The idea they didn't have an endless stream of these evenings to look forward to seemed like a tragedy.
Melodramatic much?
"So tomorrow night," he said, "I have something else planned--"
"Oh, shit." She clapped her hand over her mouth. "Sorry."
"I don't care that you swear. You have plans?"
"I, ah--yeah, sorry. There's this family birthday party, and I have to go to it. It starts at like ten tomorrow night, but they go for hours. I'll be lucky to get out of there by three a.m. I was looking forward to being with you, though."
"I can come with you. If you don't mind being seen with a reprobate like me in front of your bloodline."
Ivie lowered her coffee cup onto its saucer. "You would do that? I mean, Silas, seriously, these are not your peeps. My dad has tattoos and a Harley. He and my mahmen live in a prefab house out on a farm, and eat their own chickens. We're talking beer out of a can, a store-bought cake, and hunting dogs running around under the table."
Silas shrugged. "I'd love to meet your family."
"Well, if you're looking for an exotic meal," she muttered, "you're going to get it."
When she didn't say anything further, he leaned in, the firelight flickering over his face. "Listen, if it will lead to questions you aren't going to want to answer, I get it. I'm happy to wait until your next night off."
Ivie ducked her eyes and picked up her spoon just to give her hand something to do. As she stirred her going-cold coffee for no good reason at all, her foot was tapping under the table.
"I'll skip it," he said with an easy smile. "And I'll come see you after you're back--"
"I don't want you to judge them. I mean, I know you're cool with me, but that's probably because of our sexual attraction. My family is all I've got for assets in this world, and as far as I'm concerned, that makes me rich. They're good, honest folk who have nothing to apologize for."
He frowned. "I'm not a snob."
"You know your car? It's probably more expensive than their house."
"And that makes me disrespect them somehow?"
"It's a different world. You have no idea how they've struggled, Silas. You haven't walked in hard shoes. You've had everything given to you on a silver platter, from what it sounds like. I mean, your childhood home was a castle. That's a step up from a mansion, for godsakes."
He looked away to the fire. "No hard shoes, huh."
"I mean, come on. What's the most difficult thing you've ever had to confront? Seriously, I don't want to come across as a bitch here, but my parents lost everything in a fire ten years ago. Because the electric heater, which was the only thing keeping their house warm, shorted out. My cousin Farle almost died--and that never would have happened if they had been able to afford a real furnace. Have you ever had to face something like that? Have you ever had to choose which of your kids went hungry? When you were starving yourself?"
His brows dropped down low and he stayed silent.
And the longer things were quiet between them, the more the incompatibilities became apparent. Not that he was going to be around for much longer, anyway.
"I can't have young," he said gruffly. "I'm never going to get mated. And the last thing I want to do is leave Caldwell, but there's nothing I can do about it because the decision isn't mine."
Ivie felt a cold wash come over her head. And the sensation got worse as he eased to the side, took his wallet out, and pulled free two hundred-dollar bills.
As he rose to his feet, he looked down at her. "I don't blame you for being suspicious of me or my character. The aristocracy has more than earned any commoner's distrust by its reputation alone. What I do resent the hell out of is your not giving me a chance to prove myself otherwise and assuming that just because I have money in the bank that my life is a cakewalk. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave. I know you're dematerializing to work anyway so there's no need to give you a ride. Good night, Ivie."
Chapter Six
So if those one hundred and twenty minutes over dinner had flown by, the eight hours of Ivie's shift more than made up the differ
ence. When she finally got home, it felt like twelve years since she had left her apartment to wait for Silas in the vestibule, all full of excitement and giddy anticipation.
Man, she had crashed that happy little dinner into a brick wall, hadn't she.
As her father always said, if you were going to do something, do it well. So clearly, on that front, she had been bound and determined to offend a guy who had been nothing but decent to her. And it was especially hypocritical of her, considering she knew damn well that rich people got sick and struggled and suffered losses, too.
Hello, her nursing career?
When her phone went off, she put her purse down, found the damn thing, and answered her father's call with a false everything-is-fine.
"Hi, Dad! Yup, home safe. I had a great night at work, and now I'm going to watch some TV and go to bed. Yup, I'm coming tomorrow. I can't wait--yes, I know they said no presents, and I listened this year. I just don't understand why they won't--I understand pride, but come on. Okay. Yeah. Love to Mom--what? Oh, of course. I'll be on time."
Hanging up, she stared at the cell's little screen until it went dark. In the back of her mind, all night long, she had been trying out texts to Silas, practicing combinations of words, punctuation, and emojis, attempting to find some correct amalgam that made up for her being so prejudicial and doing to him exactly what she had been worried that he would do to her--
As her phone rang in her hand, her heart jumped in her throat and she fumbled to answer it. "Hello--hello, Silas? Hello?"
There was a beat of silence. "Hey."
"Hey." She sagged. "Listen, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for it--"
"Can you let me come up for a sec?"
"What? You're here? Oh, God, absolutely."
She all but raced for the buzzer, and she held the damn thing way to long, the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhh sound ringing in her ears, not that she cared. Opening the door, she stepped out and smoothed her scrubs.
The clothes she had worn during their date were in her shoulder bag. She hadn't wanted to put them back on. Hell, she'd been thinking of burning them to cleanse her life of the bad juju.
Silas stepped out of the stairwell and he was slow coming down to her. "Hey."
"I'm sorry. I really am."
As he stopped in front of her, she wanted to throw her arms around him, but she held back. Lord knew she had already trampled all kinds of boundaries.
"You know what I would like even more than an apology?" he said.
"Name it and it's yours. You want a kidney? Part of my liver?"