Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
The thought had certainly passed through Elias’s mind this past week, more than once. He almost brought it up once or twice to Kyle, but with their determination to move on with their lives, the timing never felt right.
“It was at my lowest that I finally had an epiphany … at my worst. I thought to myself … well, I am in an unconventional situation. Perhaps it merits an unconventional solution. So … I utilized my resources to secure myself something I felt could finally arm me against them.”
“A book?” asks Elias softly.
“An ancient text. Several hundred years old, maybe older. I decided against having it analyzed or examined by my people. I don’t know who to trust, who might be working for them, who might be … one of them, right under my nose, undetectable.”
“What’s in the book?”
“I don’t know. I can’t read it.”
With every answer, Elias grows more confused. “You mean it’s in another language?”
“I mean I can’t read it. The moment I try, my head spins, I feel sick, my bones ache … I can’t even describe a single word or illustration in its pages. There is something treacherous and dark about that book, Elias. It … It scares me.”
Elias shakes his head. “I don’t understand. Then how did you think this was going to arm you against the vampires?”
“Because it was allegedly written by those who had made it their life’s mission to end them. A secret society of hunters, if you will. Or so I’ve come to learn.” She meets his eyes. “I know you think your father would have fought these people off …”
“They aren’t people.”
“… but I have not been as submissive as you think. I made moves of my own. To protect us. I made deals, long ago, to secure our safety. I refuse to be their pawn. I’ve been fighting for our freedom from them for years. But … until I can make use of that book, I must play it safe … and so must you.”
“Then perhaps that’s the reason I’m here.” Elias leans in. “I think we can make use of that book.”
She scoffs at him, face wrinkling up. “But how on earth? It is entirely unreadable. It is like a … a bow without arrows … or an unloaded gun. Perhaps useless.”
“Maybe that depends on who’s reading it.”
She gives him a look. “You think you can read it?”
“No. But I think one of my friends can.”
She squints at him, perplexed.
“Take me to the vault,” he says, and perhaps it is the first time that his mother seems to acknowledge the request without instant indignation. “My friends are not what they seem to be. Nowhere is not what you think it is. And Kyle …” He grimaces as he fights back tears. Then at once the tears can’t be stopped. “Kyle needs me, Mom. You’re not the only one in this battle.”
And that’s when Rose becomes a mother again.
Her eyes soften as she stares into Elias’s.
For the first moment in perhaps years, the two of them are at once united, in this together, a glimpse of the mother who used to laugh and play in the sprinklers with her child, used to cuddle with him on an old couch in their first apartment and watch cartoons every Saturday morning, used to have tickle wars with him while his father laughed from the table, reading the newspaper with a mug of black coffee in hand.
“Well then,” says Rose through her shimmering, tear-filled eyes. “What the hell are we doing gabbing on in here for?”
21.
They Scream the Prettiest.
—∙—
Kyle sits on a gold-lined chaise with red velvet cushions, his feet propped up on a glass coffee table centered on a lush rug the size of his living room, the furniture sandwiched by heaps of meaningless trash, glittering treasures, stacks of books, crates of earthenware, and a marble statue of a naked woman with a serpent coiled up her arm and resting upon her shoulder. Just another spot in the Devil’s Mouth, the towering piles of junk acting like walls between the spaces in this cavern, like rooms in a big mansion carved into the earth with no thought of architecture or a floor plan. The noises of vampire revelry, laughter, and music echo all around them, as if it never ended. It has been like this for hours and hours. Only now, they have wineglasses filled with the blood of drunk college students Kyle barely got to know, walking around the various scenes set in this large cavern, like guests at a party. Just in front of him, two naked vampire women sip from each other’s wineglasses like newlyweds on a nearby pile of feathered pillows, arms twisted around one another’s, and with each sip comes a tonguing kiss. One fondles the other’s nipple, blood is spilled, she licks it off the other’s skin, then presses her to the pillow. The more Kyle watches, the more his face twists.