Chapter 5. Back Home

After spending almost the whole day in the hotel room eating ice cream, sobbing, and watching soap operas on the small flat-screen TV, I finally checked out of the hotel room and headed for the bar where I met the CEO the day before.

My car was in good condition and nothing was missing from it. I unlocked it and got in. I was still new to this vampire thing and knew that I had to avoid sunlight for the time being. 

I did not care what Bradley said, I was not about to take my chance on being burned to ashes. Even if that was just overexaggerated gibberish that was played out in films. 

The sun had already set and I felt a weird increase in my senses. It felt like everything around me was louder and bolder.

The colors I saw everywhere looked like they popped more. Normally, I had a terrible sense of smell, but now it was different. I could even smell the burger a guy across the road had in his hands as he ate it in his closed car.

This seemed cool but also freaked me out. I just needed to get home, take a shower, get into some clean clothes, and have a long night’s rest. Maybe then I would be able to completely process all the things that had been dumped on me.

The first thing the next morning, I had planned to go to work and then drop by the CEO’s company so he could at least give me some kind of manual or talk about being a vampire.

When I started my car, the roaring of the engine caused a ringing to hit my ear and I groaned in pain until it faded. What the heck was that? 

I decided to just ignore it and try my best to get home in one piece. After driving for a while, I did. 

Seeing the house made my heart race, and made my throat dry. I could still remember how upset I was when I rushed out of there after catching Mark with Nora. 

I shook the image from my head and I got out of the blue car. 

I fished in my handbag for my keys as I approached the door. When I finally found the keys and I was about to try to unlock the door of the house, I heard a small clicking sound. Then the door opened.

Who I saw standing in sweatpants and shirtless was Mark. “Lisa…” His voice was filled with guilt. “I’m so glad you're home.” He gave me a tentative smile.

I scoffed faintly at his mention of the word ‘home’. He did not have the right to call this place home after what he did. Instead of replying to him, I walked right past him and into the house. 

I heard the door close and he began to follow me.

The house looked about the same. I would have usually headed to our room but not after what I saw that he did with Nora in there. If I went in there, there was no doubt in my mind that I would snap; rage would be unleashed and that would not do any one of us good right now.

“Are you just going to pretend that I’m not here? Because Lisa, I am.” I heard Mark as he tried to follow me into the guest room. As soon as I entered, I closed the door quickly and locked him out. 

“Seriously?” He cried. “Real mature, Lisa. Real mature.”

I tried my best to ignore him by going into the bathroom that the room had. I removed my clothing and took a cold shower, with the intention of trying to ease the stress and anger that I felt. Did it work? In a way, it did. 

I had no clothes in the guest room so that meant that I had to go into our room, which I was in no way ready for. I wrapped my body with a huge white towel and headed for the door.

When I opened the door, it hit something, making it hard for it to open normally. 

“Lisa,” I heard Mark’s voice. He had been waiting for me behind the door for a while now. If I was mad at him for anything else than finding him screwing my best friend, then I would have found it romantic. 

But definitely not now. 

“What are you doing?” A tight frown sat on my face. 

“I have been waiting for you. I’m really sorry, Lisa. I can’t tell you enough how sorry I am. What we have is something special and I really don’t want to throw that away.” 

“What we had,” I corrected him, and he breathed out a shaky sigh. “Look, Mark. I need time to process everything. And seeing you just brings back so many ugly emotions. So please give me the time and space that I need.” 

He nodded slowly and seemed hopeful. But his hope was for nothing because there was no way I was going to fix things with him. Yes, I would forgive him when my heart was healed enough, but things were never going to be the same again. 

He slept with her four times! He would have continued to do it if he had not been caught, and this sickened me. 

“One more thing,” I stopped him from leaving. “Get me my suitcase and most of my things from our room. I would be staying in here now.” 

He did not argue about it and did as I asked. In a couple of minutes, he came down with what I needed and I took my things into the guest room, locked the door, and proceeded to change into my nightgown.

The next morning was weird. When I woke up, I felt hunger and thirst that would not be quenched no matter how much food or drinks I got into my stomach. Then it clicked in my mind; a reminder that I was no longer the Lisa from a few days ago.

I was a different Lisa. I had changed and become a vampire but I had also been grieving the loss of my best friend and fiancee. It hurt more because when I was feeling this kind of confusion and sadness, it was Nora that I’d call up.

I would have gone to her house and we would have eaten ice cream and I would have cried to her with my problems, complaints, and sadness. But now I had no one to cry to. And I could not run to her with the wounds on my heart. Because she was the one who put them there.

I was in the kitchen and I had made breakfast. Though it pained me to do so, I did not just make breakfast for myself but also for Mark. He was very quiet this morning which made me feel good for some reason.

He sat on the dining table and ate his eggs and bacon as he watched me. I sat at the table too and was eating but had to stop when I received a call. It was the CEO.

“Hello?” I said when I answered the call.

Bradley cleared his throat and then spoke, “Good morning, Lisa. How did you sleep?” 

“I slept well, and you?” I could feel Mark’s eyes on me but I ignored him.

“I always sleep well,” Bradley chuckled. “Do you feel any different? Your fangs would soon start to grow out, you know.” 

At the mention of fangs, my eyes widened a bit and I excused myself from the table. I could tell that Mark wanted to say something to me but he refrained from doing so. 

“There should be a safeword.” I informed the CEO, and he replied in confusion, “What? Why?”

“A word that we would say to each other before we discussed these kinds of things. I was literally sitting across from my fiance.” I was now back in the guest room with the doors closed.

“You mean your ex.” Bradley corrected me, and I felt a burn on my chest. I did not want Mark to be my ex. I had planned so much with him and it just hurt so much because I thought he would have been the one that I would spend the rest of my life with.

“Yeah, my ex.” I agreed with him. “How did you even survive as the last vampire in Seattle for this long when you’re this reckless when it came to speaking about these kinds of things?”

“Sorry. I’m just not used to having another vampire. Especially one that I have to teach how to be a vampire. It has always been me and it’s easier to keep myself in check that way.”

“Well, you’re gonna have to get used to it because I did not ask for this life. You brought me into it and you’re going to be fully responsible for me now.” My voice had a bit of anger smeared on it.

I did not like being co-dependent but now I had no choice but to be. I was a freaking supernatural! I had no idea what my life would now entail!

“Okay, Lisa. I understand and I’m sorry. Let’s make the safeword…A one-night stand.”

I could not help but laugh at the safeword he chose. “Why would we pick that?”

“Well…you and I know why. It was a one-night stand that changed your life. Plus it’s fun.” He laughed deeply.

“Okay, Bradley. One-night stand it is.” I walked to the full-length mirror and inspected the formal clothes I had on: a pencil skirt, a gray blouse, and heels. My hair fell to my shoulders and I had light makeup on my face.

“One-night stand,” He said the newly established safeword. “As I was saying, your fangs would start to grow out soon. In three full days, they would be ready. And I would teach you how to hide them easily. That would be our first lesson.”

“As for the sun. I use a particular sunscreen tailored for me. It protects me from the sun. Before I left the hotel yesterday morning, I left a few in your handbag.” He added.

My eyes shot to the handbag on the bed and I walked toward it. I found what he was talking about in it and I smiled. “Okay, I see them. Thank you. Now, what’s next?”

“That’s all for today, my pupil.” Bradley scoffed playfully. “See you later.” He ended the call before I could ask him about how I would be doing the arrangement now that I had to work with him closely on the nightclub project and the others.

I would just have to ask my boss when I got to work, which I still had some time to get to before I got late.

I placed the phone in the handbag and then used the sunscreen. I then left the room and headed for the living room where Mark was sitting on one of the couches watching the news. I wanted to ask him whether he was not going to work today, but I kept my question and concern to myself.

He worked with the UN and had a really good job, and that was where Nora worked too. So everything was beginning to make more sense the more that I thought about it. They must have started to hook up from work.

“Our wedding date is set for tomorrow, you know that, right?” I heard Mark ask when I was checking for the keys to my car. I usually placed them in a design bowl in the living room but I was not seeing them there.

“I know.” My voice was robotic and void of emotions. 

“And we have hundred-plus guests invited.”

“Mmhmm.” I began to search on the furniture because sometimes when I was tired I would just lay the keys someplace else. 

“Lisa, what I’m trying to say is that would we still go through with the wedding? I mean, I want to, but do you?”

I stopped my attempts to search for the car keys, looked at him straight in his dark brown eyes, and laughed. “I’m not going through with sh*t.”