Overhearing Elaina with the other vampires gave me a lot of insight into the situation with Robert. Not only did I know the plan, but I also knew that Elaina would be putting it into action very soon…she had no choice. I rushed home to get there before she did.
I walked into the house and almost didn’t hear her walk in behind me.
I was too busy staring at all the changes Elaina had made to my home. Shock and anger could not even begin to describe what I felt at that moment. Elaina had erased everything that made my home mine. It was as if I never existed.
My house looked like a vampire fortress. If it weren’t for Robert sitting there, I wouldn’t have believed it was my house at all.
Elaina stared at me waiting for my reaction as she entered the house behind me. I refused to give her the satisfaction of letting her know what I felt about the changes.
I continued looking around while she and Robert discussed the changes.
“So do you like it?” She asked Robert, I could feel her stare continuing to penetrate my back. My reaction was what she wanted to hear.
“Well…it’s different. There’s no way that the money I gave you could do all of this.” He answered as I entered the guest room.
I could barely hear her muffled response, “Consider it my gift to you. Now you no longer have to live in a ghost of a home.”
I re-entered the living room as their conversation continued.
“Did you do all of this while I was at work?”
“No, I had to work all day,” she lied. “I hired someone else to do it,” she said. I knew that part wasn’t a lie, because I knew that Elaina slept during the daylight hours.
Elaina paused a moment. “You don’t like it, do you?”
Robert pulled into a hug. “Of course I like it…in fact I love it!”
He continued, “This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. You make me so happy.”
“Do I really?”
“What?” Robert asked.
“Make you happy?”
“The happiest I’ve been in a very long time.”
Elaina didn’t appear pleased with Robert’s response. In fact, she seemed downright troubled.
“What is it, Elaina? Did I say something wrong?”
“No Robert…it’s just. I have something that I really need to tell you. Something that I guess you don’t realize about me.”
This was it…Elaina was about to make her move. I listened closely.
Robert smiled as if there was nothing Elaina could say to make him feel differently. “You can tell me anything,” he assured her.
“No Robert…not this,” she whispered softly.
Robert’s mood was suddenly serious. “Elaina, just tell me,” he said. I could tell that he was bracing himself for something that he didn’t want to hear.
“Robert…I don’t want you to hate me for this…”
Elaina lowered her head into her right hand as if she were pained by what she had to say.
Robert stood there struggling just as much. He wanted to encourage her to go on, but he wasn’t quite sure he wanted to hear what she had to say. “You can tell me,” Robert said, not offering any promises regarding his reaction.
Finally she said it, ”Robert…I’m a vampire.” Her words were soft; almost a whisper, but they still seemed to echo around the room.
“A vampire? What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. I’m a vampire…a blood drinking, undead vampire.”
“Wait…what? Are you crazy? How could you be a vampire?” Robert asked trying desperately to hold back his anger.
“I knew I should have told you earlier,” Elaina said placing her head in her hands; pushing tears out of her eyes.
“Told me what? You can’t be a vampire. There’s no such thing.”
“But I am Robert. There are vampires and I’m one of them.”
“No Elaina! Please stop this!” Robert said trying desperately to grasp what was being said.
“I am!” Elaina insisted.
Robert became angry. “Stop this! Stop this right now Elaina. Think about what you’re saying,” he said jabbing his finger toward her.
“It’s true Robert. I don’t know what else to tell you. I’m a vampire. Moonlight Falls is full of us. I was turned over 200 years ago-”
“You’re nuts…that’s what you are!” Robert said allowing his own non-belief opportunity to fuel his anger.
Now it was Elaina’s turn to be angry. “Come on now Robert…you had to have seen the signs. I never hid who I was. You had to have noticed my fangs…my cold pale skin, don’t tell me you didn’t taste the metallic blood on my lips when we kissed.”
She allowed her words to sink in before continuing, “How could you have ignored it all? Who exactly is crazy here?”
“All I saw was a beautiful woman. Yes, I found your beauty to be different, but different doesn’t make a person a monster,” Robert answered.
“Well I’m still the same person you saw when we met. I’m still the same person who makes you happy.”
Robert was visibly trying to hold himself together.
“I think you should leave!” Robert said, appearing to hold back more that he wasn’t saying.
Elaina stared back at him with anger painted all over her face.
“I’ll pay you back for everything you did to the house. Just send me an invoice,” he said as if their relationship was nothing more than a business transaction.
“I can’t believe you Robert,” Elaina said.
“What? What do you expect me to do Elaina? How can we continue this?” He said.
“Save it,” Elaina said. “I guess I was naïve to believe that our feelings for each other could get us through this.”
“I had feelings for a living breathing person Elaina.”
The anger slowly left Elaina’s face and was replaced by pain. “I am a person and…I have feelings too.”
Robert looked as if he hadn’t considered that and Elaina played on it by once again wiping away tears. “Sorry,” she whispered before walking away.
As she stepped away, her expression changed to satisfaction and I knew that this situation went exactly the way she wanted it to. She wasn’t through with Robert and she was sure that he wasn’t through with her.
As Elaina left the house, Robert stood in the same spot looking confused, embarrassed and hurt…just what Elaina seemed to want.
