Updated: 1/29/17
Updated: 5/16/17
Chapter 9: Home
"Jay, where are we going?" I looked down from the sparkling stars to Law. He was shivering in his cloak.
"We are going to a place that I have called home for about a year now. It's not far. I have food there and it's warm." Law nodded.
"How far is it?" He shuddered again. I waved for him to come sit next to me. He came over and sat next to me. I wrapped my arms around him.
"It's about another hour away." I held him close to my body. "Level one." He snuggled closer when he felt the warmth radiating from me. He was asleep again after that.
An hour later and I was tying the small boat to a dock. A man came walking down the dock towards the boat. He brought the lantern he held close to me so that I would be able to see to climb up onto the dock in the dark. It was a kind gesture, but unnecessary for a vampire such as myself. We were able to see in the dark almost as well as we could see in the daylight.
"It'll be 100 berries for a day, 650 berries for a week." I turned to face the man holding the lantern. The light hit my face. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry Ms. Jay. I didn't know it was you." The people here knew me very well. I was hardly ever charged for anything. They feared me due to the reputation I had gained over the past three years. This man was no different. I turned and poked Law to wake him up. He slowly opened his eyes.
"We're here. Come on." I stood up straight and climbed out of the boat up onto the dock. I held out my hand to Law. He took it, and I pulled him up from the boat. I led him down the dock and into the town. I didn't live in the town, and truthfully I rarely visited. That didn't keep the people from knowing that I lived there on the island. "My place is on the other side of town." We walked through the town in silence. We came up to this very modest sized house on the edge of the woods. I unlocked the door and walked inside. Law followed me in. I walked over to the fireplace and threw in some firewood I had picked up from the pile just inside the door. I held my hand over the firewood, and I watched as a tiny flame. Sprang up. Law walked over and sat close to the fireplace.
"Jay, I'm tired and I'm hungry." Law didn't move from his spot in front of the fire nor did he look at me as I spoke.
"Food is right through there." He turned and looked up at my hand. I pointed, and Law followed my finger in the dim light from the fire. I pulled out some blankets from a closet in the hall and settled myself on the floor on a makeshift bed made out of blankets a bit further back from the fire than Law. "I don't have a bed yet, so this is where I normally sleep." I tossed some blankets onto the floor next to me. I pulled a blanket over me. "Sleep as best you can." Law watched as I closed my eyes. I heard a sniffle right before I drifted off to sleep.
"You could afford a house but not a bed. That's lovely to know." I shook my head at the woman's statement.
"No, I simply had no need for a bed. My house only had a single bedroom, and I used it as an office before Law got there. I slept on the floor in the living room." The woman shook her head and gave me a funny look.
"I would have had a bed at least." She wouldn't understand. She had lived a pampered life compared to mine. Even with the marines her life had been pampered.
"When you get tired enough, sleeping on a pile of jagged rocks seems appealing." She snorted at the thought of me ever being tired enough to do such a thing.
"As if you were ever that tired." The woman was actually beginning to grate on my nerves. I let out a low growl to warn her to watch her tone.
"I have been that tired before. I would go days to a week at a time without sleeping. When I did sleep, it was maybe for an hour or two, and I would wake up screaming. You wouldn't know what it's like to watch the people that you knew, the ones that were your friends and family die right in front of you. You have no clue what it's like to be able to hear people's thoughts screaming for you to run. My best friend was sliced in half right before my eyes. People ran through the streets on fire only to fall before me dead. I can still hear them screaming every night, but back then I would hear them in my dreams only to wake to the silence that was so maddening that it would often drive me to fits of insanity." The woman just stood there.
"I don't believe a word that you're saying." She turned to leave.
"That's right run back to the people who don't give a damn about you and would use you for your powers until you turn to ash and disintegrate." She turned back around and went to attack me.
"You will not attack her." The woman was pinned to the ground by the man that had been standing in the shadows up until that point. "I will not repeat myself." The woman struggled to get up.
"Law, that's enough. Let her go." Law let the woman go. She got up and glared at the both of us.
