We heard a call from upstairs "Yeah, I'm here! I'll be down in a second."
I then heard the light dance of feet run down the hallway and then she appeared at the top of the steps. The least I could say about her was that she was gorgeous; she had the same pale almost white skin that Oliver has. Her hair was strait like mine but instead of blonde it was a honey golden color that fell right behind her shoulders. Her eyes were a lot like mine they were the same crystal blue but hers seemed to sparkle more in the dim light that brightened the house. She continued her way towards us; she quickly hugged her brother and then turned to me, "You must be Grace. I've heard good things about you. Oh, and in case you didn't know I'm Oliver's sister, Elizabeth."
"Yeah, Oliver has mentioned you."
Oliver then leaned over to his sister and whispered something in her ear but it was to low for me to hear. Elizabeth responded with a positive, "Okay."
They both looked at me and Oliver said to me, "Grace, I have to go out real quick but Elizabeth will take care of you."
"Alright."
He quickly waved to us and headed out the door.
I waved back then turned to face Elizabeth again. She was smiling from ear to ear then her face went back to a normal smile and then asked, "Are you hungry Grace? Oliver says that you haven't had much time to get anything."
I was starving but I gulped at the thought of a vampire asking me if I wanted something to eat. I was afraid that they were going to make me drink blood and become a vampire. She must've seen the fear in my eyes because she quickly added, "Oh! I'm guessing that Oliver must've spilled the beans on our little secret. Don't worry, we have regular food because when my parents are gone we have a house keeper that stays here so she just stocks our refrigerator with food."
I let out a sigh of relief as I followed her into the kitchen. She looked at me and said, "I'm more than willing to make you something for you, but you are welcome to make you something. As you might've known I'm not very skilled in that area but I can always try…"
I walked toward the refrigerator, pulled out the milk, and answered, "No, that's okay I'll make something."
"Okay" She quietly sat down at the bar on the opposite side of the counter. "Grace, I want to get to know you since I'm guessing you'll be staying for a while. Could you tell me something about yourself?"
"Sure, what do you want to know?"
"Oh, I'm a nosey person; start out with your family."
"Okay, well I lived with my mom since my parents divorced when I was very little. They married right out of high school, so my mom wasn't a supporter of that after she had me."
"Did you have any brothers or sisters?"
"Nope, I was an only child."
"Oh, so was it always really quiet?"
"Most of the time since my mom worked like twenty four-seven, but I did have company when my boyfriend, Aaron was over."
"I bet you miss him a lot."
"In a way, yes, but its more pain than sorrow since I saw him with someone else."
"Oh yeah, Oliver told me about that. Sorry I even brought it up."
"Oh, it's okay." But really in my heart I wasn't okay. Every time I heard his name I saw his face and then hers and how much love was shown when they looked into each other's eyes. Seeing them together tore the inside of me into shreds and I stood there alone trying to piece myself together again. "Can I ask you a question?" I asked.
"Of course."
"Where did Oliver go?"
She paused for a second, took a deep breath and said, "Okay…umm…how do I put this? All right, you know how humans have to eat? Well, vampires need to hunt. Some hunt humans but my family and the Stevens are considered vegetarian vampires since we only drink animal blood. So your question about Oliver, well, he went hunting because if he doesn't then it puts you n more danger. He can only control himself for so long before…"
I could tell she didn't want to say that last bit so I broke in, "Oh okay. Well it's your turn to ask a question."
"No, it's okay. It's three in the morning, you should be very tired."
In fact I was tired, so I put my bowl into the sink after I had finished my plain bowl of cereal. I followed Elizabeth up the steps and down the hallway until we got to a dark bedroom. Even through the faint flicker of the candlelight I saw that there were two medium windows on the far wall and between them there was a large double bed. The walls were purple and black and so was everything else in the room. She sat down on the edge of the bed and said, "You can sleep here, I don't know how long you'll sleep but if you wake up after sunrise then you won't see us until tomorrow night. If you need anything our house keeper Tracy will help you get breakfast and stuff like that but for now it is important to sleep."
I walked over to the opposite side of the bed, Elizabeth helped me pull back the covers as I got in, and as I rested my head on her soft velvet pillow she whispered, "Sleep well Grace." Then I silently fell asleep.
I awoke not long after I fell asleep by the rise of voices in the room with me. I opened my eyes slightly, just enough to see who was in the room. I saw that Oliver had come back along with Elizabeth, also in the room was a man who looked like he was in his twenties. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes; standing beside him was a woman also in her twenties with long, wavy, black hair and her eyes were the same sparkly blue as Elizabeth. The man was talking in a low whisper, almost to low to hear. "Why is she here Oliver?"
Oliver's voice was a little louder as he tried to explain why I was here, "Like I said dad, it was like she was at a dead end. You should've seen the hurt in her eyes when it happened I just had to help her."
The woman spoke up this time, "Oliver, we aren't mad we're just concerned about her safety. We know you have so much strength to hold yourself back but accidents do happen."
A smile then appeared on Oliver's face as he said, "Well, I had an idea…"
I never got to hear Oliver's plan because I then closed my eyes and fell back to sleep.
I was awaken much later, I sat up in bed and noticed that there was light now pouring through the curtains. I looked over at the clock on Elizabeth's bed stand and realized that it was already noon. I stretched and then fell back onto the pillows. I was about to doze off again when I heard the bedroom door open. In came an older woman than the one I'd seen a while ago. This woman looked about mid forties, she was tall and lanky, and her plain brown hair was in to braids. She was carrying a silver tray with food on it; she smiled and said, "Finally, you are up. I thought they had changed you last night and that you were going to sleep all day. I hope I didn't wake you."
I yawned and sat up again. "No, actually I had woken up before you came in."
"Oh good. Well, I hope you are still in the mood for breakfast because I brought up eggs, sausage, bacon, and toast."
"Thank goodness that bowl of cereal that I had early this morning wasn't holding off."
"I'm glad I can help. I'm going to leave you to eat in peace but if you want to change there's a bathroom to the left two doors down on the right. Oh, you can call me Tracy I'm the family's housekeeper and just holler if you need anything." She smiled and then left me alone in the room. I quickly ate and set the tray aside on a small table that Elizabeth had in her room. I then grabbed my toothbrush, toothpaste, and another change of clothes and went into the bathroom. After changing I went back into the room and looked at the clock to find that it was one-thirty so I picked my book and started to read. Tracy came in twice during the day to see how I was doing. It was about five o'clock when the sun started to set it was then that I heard a noise in the hallway. I waited a couple of minutes and then I heard Oliver say, "Grace, are you in there?"
I replied, "Yeah, I'm here."
"Could you do me a favor, could you shut the blinds?"
"Sure, okay." I walked over to the two windows and closed the blinds hiding the fading sun from the room. "Okay, I'm done."
He was smiling as he walked in the room. I could tell he had just woken up because he was still in an old t-shirt and pajamas. It didn't matter that he just woke up because he was still as gorgeous as before; his dark black hair seemed to sparkle as it lay over his left eye. I smiled and asked, "Did you just wake up?"
"Yeah…I just didn't have time to change because I came here right after I woke up."
"Do you still sleep in a coffin here?"
His smile faded away and he dropped his head and said, "Yes, but I wish I didn't have to." He walked over to the opposite side of the bed and sat down beside me. "Well, you see, it's a pain being a vampire. You can't go outside in the daylight, can't have your picture taken, can't see your reflection, and so on."
I looked into his dark green emerald eyes and thought how tough it must be to loose all those things since he was a vampire. Elizabeth then suddenly interrupted us as she walked into the room.
