From Slate to Crimson Read Free Page A

the only way that could have been is if she was—”
    I stopped her right there, speaking more forcefully than I had wanted. “No. Not her.”
    “You don’t believe that,” she said softly.
    For a long time, my rampant emotions stole away my words, and I could only be thankful that none of my children could read my mind as I could read theirs, or they could read one another’s. My eyes were tightly shut, and my face was drawn and tense. I think I was trembling with the strain of it all, combined with my roiling thoughts when I felt my daughter’s slender arms encircle my neck.
    She was dismayed, and a little disappointed, but there was no accusation or judgment in her heart. I sighed, and felt the tension release, and the tears run down my cheeks as I relaxed and held her to me.
    “I wanted her…” I whispered, “…and I hurt her. And now, I don’t know what to do.”
    Our embrace lasted for a moment more, and then Elisa released me. I felt a handkerchief wiping the tears away, guided by her tiny hand.
    “I’ve never known the pull of a potential consummate host,” Elisa said, “but even I know that what you did is not unheard of.”
    “It doesn’t make it any better,” I said.
    “I know,” Elisa replied, “and she may hate you for it.”
    “I know.”
    “Perhaps you should alter her memory?”
    “It’s too late for that.” I shook my head. “Too much has happened. I’d never be able to erase it all. The memory of the drink, the first one, especially, is very difficult to remove.”
    “I doubt you would give her up if you could,” Elisa said. “We’ve both seen what happens when our kind is taken the way you’ve been.” Earnestly, she looked me in the eye. “Would you give her up?”
    I opened my mouth to protest, but found myself unable to speak against the wisdom of her words. The memory of that first drink, entrancing, bewitching, and beyond the sweetness of any feeding before overtook me, and I shivered inside.
    I looked away from my daughter’s face, forever frozen in its youthful roundness, but heart-shaped with its pointed chin, and surrounded by brown curls. I was humbled, and even more afraid than before at the implication of her words.
    “No.” I whispered it almost subvocally, but knew that she could still hear it.
    “Then it seems you know already what you need to do.”
    “Will you help her?” I asked.
    Elisa smiled. “Of course I will, Father.” She kissed my cheek.

Chapter Two
    My guest awoke as I received the large food tray from two of my children, who had brought it to my chambers. Elisa was with me, seated atop the night stand on one side of the bed, I on the couch upon the other side as the tray was set upon the table beside the bed.
    My insides knotted as I saw her stir, moaning as her eyes fluttered. She smiled, wide and drunken, as her thoughts stirred to wakefulness, still high from my drink. She laughed low and soft, her voice coming out dissonant and breathy.
    “Oh, Gary…I had the weirdest dream. I dreamed a vampire tackled me and then drank my blood…but it didn’t hurt at all! It kinda felt like that thing you did to me the other night. Y’know, with the Vaseline and the rotating…”
    Her words slurred into incomprehension, and then faded into soft whispers as she turned her head to the side…thankfully, Elisa’s side. My daughter had been reading a book—her copy of Alice in Wonderland , which she had preserved excellently since I had first bought it for her nigh on a century ago.
    Her thoughts were weak and sluggish, as I expected they would be after being fed from for the first time. I saw Elisa smile at her, and I felt the woman smile back. Elisa closed the book and scooted off of the nightstand, landing softly upon the carpeted floor. She placed the book carefully atop its surface.
    “How do you feel?” she said to the woman. “We’ve been wondering when you’d come to.”
    “I feel really strange,” the woman replied, her voice