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“I am very glad to hear that.”
“But,” I continued. “I cannot handle another experience like the one I had the other night. Where I open the fridge and,bam—blood.” I paused, trying hard not to think about the sickening smell of all that blood in the place where I kept my food. The way Reginald had sucked it down like a kid digging into a juice box at recess. “If anything like that happens again, I’m gone for good.”
“I understand,” Frederick said, very quickly. “You neither want to see blood in the apartment nor see me eating it.”
“That’s right.”
“I will make it so,” he promised. “All kitchen food storage space will be for your use only. I will store my food in a special refrigerator I will keep in my bedroom for this express purpose. Or else keep it out of our home altogether.”
Our home.
I ignored the warmth that flooded me at those words.
“That should work,” I agreed, glad he was not there to see how flushed my face was.
“Good.” He paused, then added, “Please believe me when I tell you I never meant for you to see the blood. Or to see one of us eat. I swear I believed you would not be home that night until much later.”
I believed him. “What Reginald did wasn’t your fault.”
“Either way, I will only eat in the apartment when you are not around to see me do it.”
“Thank you.”
“It is no hardship. There are only a few hours each day when we are both at home, and even fewer when we are both awake.”
“You really aren’t awake much during the day, are you?”
He paused, and then sighed. “An aftereffect of having been asleep for a century, I’m afraid. I was once able to be awake during daylight hours like any mortal human, even though being in direct sunlight has always been mildly unpleasant. But...” He trailed off and sighed again. “I am still regaining my strength, Cassie. For now, the best way for me to do that is to minimize the time I am awake during the daylight hours.”
“Of course,” I said, as if I understood. But I didn’t. I still had so many questions about how his life—or, nonlife—worked. Everything I had ever learned about vampires was from fictional sources. Even among the fictional vampire worlds I’d seen or read about there were a lot of inconsistencies. The vampires in Anne Rice novels, for example, didn’t act like the vampires inBuffyorTrue Blood.
I assumed Frederick didn’t sparkle in the sun like the vampires inTwilight, though even that was just a guess. Beyond that, I had no idea how any of it worked.
I figured there’d be time to puzzle it all out later, though. For the time being, I put a mental check mark besideFood, reasonably satisfied by what he’d just promised me.
“I still have a lot of questions,” I admitted. “And concerns, too. But I’m willing to take a lot on faith, assuming you’re up front with me about the big stuff going forward.”
“If you agree to live with me and help me adjust to life in the twenty-first century, I will never again omit anything about myself that might impact your life in a significant way.”
“Good,” I said. And then, before I could stop myself, I added, “I will move back in tomorrow.”
I couldn’t know for sure, but when Frederick said good night to me a few minutes later I thought I could hear him smiling.
NINE
Hey Frederick
Cassie. Hello.
Is everything all right?
You are still planning to move in, I hope?
Oh yeah for sure
I just wanted to let you know I’m arranging to have WiFi set up at your place
My treat
