Eleventh.
The hillside had a small outcropping about six feet high that served as a very functional cover over our heads. We put all the stuff down and I helped Lexi clear out all of the leaves and twigs. I asked her to grab the camping mattress and sleeping bag that were rolled up and attached to the bottom of the backpack. "I didn't really think of this before, but you probably don't have to sleep do you Lex?"
"Nope," she answered, "one of the perks of being dead."
"You've been dead for over 350 years," I quipped at her.
"And no one knows that better than you," she shot back.
"Ouch," I said back with a hurt tone, "Well since you won't have to sleep, and I still have to eat, why don't you make yourself useful. Reach out and touch that mattress and set up a bed for me." She responded by throwing one of the small pillows at me.
I didn't need to go far to find food, we were pretty deep in the woods. I didn't want to be out of earshot either since Lexi was the one who could sense if anyone was coming. I was back at the hill in less than ten minutes. I got back to find Lexi gone. I looked around and listened, but she wasn't there. "Hey Lex?" I waited, nothing. "Lexi? Alexia?" still nothing. I started to get nervous. Without her here how would I know if someone was coming after me. I sat down on the bedroll and waited. Another five minutes passed with no sign of her.
"Lexi?" I called out into the dark. Damn, where was she? "Alexia Branson?" I stood up and called out to her but again, no response. I was starting to get cold. I turned back to get my sweater out of my pack and suddenly she was in front of me. "Geez, where did you come from?"
"Just ran out for a minute, wanted to see if I could still track, why?"
I put out my hand. "Can you still feel this?" I asked her.
She narrowed her eyes and put her palm on top of mine. "Yeah, why?"
I reached out and smacked her on the arm. "That's why. Don't leave me alone out here, I have no idea where we are."
"That's never bothered you before," she said as she rubbed her arm.
"Well I've never had a psychopathic vampire hunting me down before either," I responded.
"So what are you going to do while I sleep?" I ask her.
"I dunno," she replied, "probably just sit here and watch you."
"You really are creepy now you know that?" I asked her. She waved her fingers at me making ridiculous ghost noises.
"I won't leave you alone, I promise, but we'll probably need to get out of here before dawn."
"Okay, well wake me early then. I should probably hunt before we leave so I won't have to stop later." We both nodded. "So can you still vamp out?" I asked her.
"I think so," she told me. "I haven't really had a reason to since I don't have to eat and no one can see me."
"Try it," I coaxed her. She stood up next to where I was sitting, turned away and then pounced on me, her fangs down and her face all twisted. I grabbed both of her checks as she hissed. "There's my little cherubic vampire."
She turned her head fast and bit my hand. "Oww."
"That's what you get. Don't be a baby, look up in the sky and heal it."
"No, I think I'm going to let it get infected, maybe fall off. That'll be a permanent reminder of my good friend Alexia." I pushed her over and healed my hand. "You can put those things away now," I told her pointing to her fangs.
"No way, come on, bring yours out to play. I'll bet you will have a camera in here somewhere."
"You want to take a picture? Seriously?" I asked her.
"Are you really asking me that? Seriously?" She mocked me.
I sighed. "Fine." I reached into my bag and fished around coming up with my camera.
"So if no one can see you, how is this going to work?" I asked her.
"No answers Nor, c'mon, stop worrying about how and just enjoy it." She was right, it didn't matter how it worked, all that mattered was that I had been given a gift. I got my sister back and neither of us knew how long it would last so I needed to just suck it up and enjoy her while it lasts. So that's what we did, we used the camera's timer and got some great angled shots, I got pictures of her standing with a deer who didn't know she was there preparing to bite it. She got a few of me running at the camera. We had a blast.
"Wow," I said as we got back to the hillside, "these came out great." I put the camera back in my bag and we laid back on the bedroll. "The sky is amazing, it's almost unchanged from when I was little. My dad used to take me out to the field and we would lie on a blanket and try to count them." As we sat and stared waves of exhaustion started to wash over me and I started to fall asleep. I wiggled into the sleeping bag and gathered the pillows.
I rolled over and looked at Lexi with her eyes closed facing the sky. I wanted to remember this in case it really is all a dream. If I wake up tomorrow and none of it really happened I wanted to be at peace with it. "Alexia?" She turned to me and opened her eyes.
"It's not a dream Norrah!" she exclaimed, "you do not get to say goodbye to me yet." She reached for my hand, "here, I will hold your hand while you sleep and when you wake up I will still be holding it, okay?"
I took a deep breath, "okay," I agreed. She squeezed my hand and I heard her mutter under her breath, "when did you become such a baby?"
Just before I fell off to sleep I whispered, "when you left me and got yourself killed." With that sleep finally took over, and I gladly gave in to it.