"Steven is coming, he knows you're here," Darby hissed at Lee. The vampire rolled his eyes.
"Really? What gave it away? The sound of his yells echoing through the hallways?"
Darby growled at Lee and began pushing him down the hallway away from the sound of Steven's voice.
"He can't run from his forever," George called after them. "Sooner or later you're going to have to face him."
Lee stopped in his tracks causing Darby to walk right into his shoulder.
"Don't listen to him," she told Lee. "Steven has held a grudge against you for years. He's not about to give it up just because you tell a sweet little story about Michelle possibly being alive."
"It's not a story," Lee insisted, his eyes glowing red with anger. "I wouldn't make that up. Mary is-"
Lee paused midsentence as Steven came dashing around the corner. George and Darby stood shoulder to shoulder blocking the angry vampire from getting any closer to Lee.
"I don't ever want to hear her name on your lips again," Stephen snarled. He pushed against Darby and George clawing to get at Lee but the two stood firm.
"This has to end," Darby gasped, using all her strength against Stephen. "At least listen to what he has to say."
"I don't want to hear a word he says," Stephen told her. He took a step back to look her in the eyes.
"He's a liar and a killer. My Mary would still be alive right now if it wasn't for him."
Stephen's fangs shrunk back into his mouth and he slumped against the wall. George and Darby relaxed but kept a close eye on him.
"What if I told you she still is alive?"
"Then I would call you a liar a second time," Steven hissed. "If she was alive, I would know. I would feel her."
"Not necessarily. A vampire can cloak themselves if they don't want to be found," Lee argued. "You know that."
"Mary would have no reason to hide from me," Steven shot back. "I loved her and I would never hurt her. Why would she stay away?"
"You can ask her yourself," Lee suggested, pulling a phone out of his pocket.
"Ha, you want me to call her on that? It could be anyone's voice on the other end of that thing."
"Then we'll do a video chat. Can't fake an entire person," Lee said with a shrug.
"That's a good idea," Darby announced. "We will call Mary and put this whole thing to rest."
"If it was that easy, why didn't he bring it up before?" Steven wanted to know.
"You mean in between all the times you were trying to kill him?" Darby snapped back. Steven glared at her but didn't respond.
Lee opened his phone and dialed a number, then held his finger over the call button.
"If I do this," he said, looking Steven directly in the eye, "If I make this call and you talk to Mary, we have no fight anymore."
Steven was silent for a moment, then nodded. Lee nodded back in agreement, then pressed the call button. Steven rose to his feet and pushed Darby and George to either side of him to get closer to Lee. The phone rang and rang, then finally stopped as a face appeared on the screen. There was a collective gasp and Lee held the screen up for Steven to see. The face on the phone looked confused for a second, then smiled.
"Hello?"
Bailey pushed open the door to her room and turned sideways to fit through the doorway with Thomas in her arms. He seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness and Bailey knew he needed food and water soon.
"There's obviously no human food in my room but I can order something to be delivered. What are you feeling? A burger? Fried chicken? Chinese?"
"I've barely eaten in weeks other than some crackers and bread. I think if I eat a burger my stomach might explode," Thomas said weakly. Bailey laid him down on the bed that still sat in her room, used long ago by whatever humans had previously occupied the house. A small cloud of dust rose up from the blanket as she set Thomas on top of it.
"I guess I need to clean in here," she said with a nervous laugh. "I'll just go ahead and order that soup now."
Bailey busied herself on her phone and Thomas watched her, his head resting against an old pillow with a yellowing pillowcase.
"So that's your plan? To fix everything with a bowl of soup?" he asked in a weak raspy voice. Bailey stiffened and looked even more intently at her phone screen.
"Chicken noodle or broccoli cheddar?" she asked.
"French onion," Thomas said.
"Oh yes of course, good choice," Bailey nodded enthusiastically, tapping away at her phone.
"Bailey, please look at me," Thomas begged, reaching out a hand in her direction. Bailey sighed and put the phone down on the dusty blanket. She looked over at Thomas and he smiled.
"You can't fix what happened to me with a bowl of soup. I was locked in a room for months and starved while literal vampires fed off my blood."
Bailey flinched and looked down at the floor.
"It's not your fault that happened and I'm not mad at you."
"But you should be," Bailey insisted, slamming her fist down on the blanket and causing another puff of dust.
"Darby made me a vampire because she thought I was weak and now here I am, a vampire, and still just as weak."
"You're not though," Thomas told her. "You just carried me out of my room in front of three vampires wanting to feed off me and you told them to suck it. Pun intended."
Bailey smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Your jokes are terrible but I guess you're right. It was pretty scary standing up to them like that."
"But you did it for me. And now you're feeding me and taking care of me in this very dusty but nice bedroom."
Bailey looked around at the room noticing the many cobwebs in the corners and piles of clothes scattered across the floor.
"I guess I have gotten a bit messy as a vampire," she admitted. She picked up her phone and submitted the soup order.
"But just because I was able to get you away from that room doesn't mean that you're suddenly safe here. Any one of them could break into my room and try to get you back."
"Have you considered locking the door then?" Thomas said with a smirk. Bailey walked over to the door and turned the lock on the ornate door handle then pulled on it to ensure it was really locked.
"That will hold them off for a while but we need to come up with some kind of plan."
Bailey walked over the bed and turned on the lamp that sat on the bedside table. It cast a dim light over Thomas's weak frame and Bailey's heart sank as she realized again just how frail he truly was.
"How long is the driver taking with that soup?" she said, picking up her phone.
"It'll be here soon enough," Thomas assured her, adjusting himself against the pillows.
"In the meantime we can talk about your bloodthirsty friends. Tell me more about them. Are they nice to you?"
Bailey scoffed.
"Nice is not the first word that comes to mind. I know they like me but they always try to boss me around and intimidate me. Most of the time I can ignore it but sometimes I'll admit they're just downright scary."
"Well they can't be any scarier than the one in the dungeon," Thomas told her. She looked at him confused and raised an eyebrow.
"The one in the dungeon?"
"Oh, you don't know about him?"
"Him who?" Bailey asked, beginning to sound impatient. Just then her phone buzzed and she looked down at the screen.
"Your soup is here," she told Thomas. "I'll go pick it up and when I get back, you're telling me about this person or thing in the dungeon."
Thomas sighed.
"Alright," he agree. "But you're not going to like it."
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