Chapter Three-Meeting

The morning light never filtered into the basement of the house. There were no windows at all in Elian’s room but still on most mornings it was the rising of the sun that woke him. He rolled out of bed and changed quickly. He had showered the night before after he had taken an hour run to wear himself out. It had worked, and Elian had fallen asleep almost as soon as his head had hit the pillow, it didn’t always work, but he was happy that this time it had. Everything he needed for the buying of the house was locked in the trunk of his car. He had worried about his mother going through his room while he slept.

He could hear his parents moving around a little, but that was due to his door being open. He was getting into a habit of leaving the door open, and he didn’t like it. His phone alarm went off, and he silenced it quickly. Grabbing his computer from the table where he set it, he quickly turned it on. He’d left it on charge beside his bed so that he could do some work on it. He had spent a little time online looking at stoves, fridges, and other electrical equipment for the house. He wanted to try and move in as soon as possible. He figured that the changing of the utilities would take the longest, but he was going to pay their bills for the month anyway, just in case it took longer than he thought. He didn’t want to be without heating or cooling in case he needed it.

Two hours later, Elian closed the computer and put it away. He had all his appliances picked out, and they were in stock at the local Lowe’s. He had added them to his cart and was going to the library to print out the page so that he could find what he wanted at the store. He knew that the Harris’s were not living at the house at the moment and that the kitchen had been stripped of the electronic equipment before they had moved out. They had bought a place farther out of town. Elian would be able to move in as soon as the papers were signed. That had been information that was listed on the online page for the house.

By the time that he had styled his hair and got ready for the day, the library would be open. He would be able to do what he needed to do before the meeting at noon. Grabbing a towel, Elian moved to his bathroom to style his hair. He needed to get his hair wet to style it. It was going crazy on him from going to sleep before it was dry the night before.

Showered and dressed, Elian grabbed his computer and a stack of papers before he left the house. He tossed all his things into the passenger seat before he started up the car. He pulled out, ready to start his day. The town was just as dead as it was on any other normal day. Parents were at home or at work. Kids were not up given that it was summer. The library was just opening when Elian arrived. He grabbed his papers to make copies and a folder from the trunk to put them all in. He saw the same girl as before standing there at the check-in computer. Her hair was soaking wet. That was the only word to describe it. Elian could see the line of the wet shirt where it had dripped. He was surprised by that. The last time that he had seen her, she was impeccably dressed.

Smiling at her as he took his place at computer number three, Elian started to print out everything that he needed for the day. He plugged in his USB drive and opened up Google Chrome. There was a banner at the top of the library’s homepage that the Belpre, Marietta, and New Matamoras branches were hiring. He clicked on the application and looked at the requirements. He had more than enough degrees to satisfy the requirements. He filled out the application and looked through his drive to find his resume. He changed the address on the resume before he printed it out. He hadn’t been looking for a job too much but to have a library job drop into his lap, he couldn’t pass that up without trying to get it. He printed the rest of his documents and spent a few minutes searching the Internet before his stomach started to growl. In his excitement to do the paperwork and get everything squared away, he forgot to eat breakfast.

He ended the programs on the computer and closed out of his login. The girl was at the desk doing something on the computer. She looked up at him, and she just stared for several seconds.

“How may I help you?” she asked as she started to touch the screen of the computer. Elian had forgotten the screens were touch capable so at first, her movements shocked him. He had to think before he could speak and tell her what he needed.

“I had prints on three. I forget how much,” Elian admitted at he started to dig his wallet out. The girl made a few touches on the screen and then the printer behind her started to whir on.

“Three thirty.”

As Elian pulled out a five, he dug his card out as well. “I don’t know if I have anything in either. I forgot to check last night.”

The girl gave a laugh, and she took his card to scan it. Using his card as a pointer, she hit the screen twice more. “No. Nothing but I did see that you have a great many things on order. I’m sure something will come in soon. Anything else?”

“Yes. When will Jess be in?”

“She’s just running a little late. I expect her in the next twenty minutes.”

Elian looked at the clock above the front doors and saw the time. It was nearly nine thirty. He had time to wait for her. His prints finished up, and the girl handed them over. He pulled his resume and the application out of the stack.

“I’ve seen you in here before.”

Elian looked up from the papers, looking around to see who she was talking to. He saw no one else. The girl was walking to him. She gave him a small smile as she started to speak again.

“Yes, you, Elian Coats.”

“Yes, last week…” Elian stopped talking and wait for her to hopefully introduce herself.

“Rae. Rae Smith. I usually work nights, but I have a house here in town, and I’ve been staying in it. Jess calls me when she is going to be late, and I come and open. I am the only one who works here who lives in town. I was getting ready for the day when she called, I didn’t have time to dry my hair at all.”

“You say you have a house?”

“I was living in Marietta in an apartment but I finished up my doctorate at the college, and I’ve been thinking of moving back into my house. I’ve opened it back up to stay for a few nights a week.”

“Who quit?” Elian asked as he held up the application that he had printed out. Rae stared at the page for a few seconds before it clicked what it was.

“Oh, no. No one quit. Cat, Sammy, Victoria, Jess, and I still all work but we are going to be open longer hours. With the college opening on the edge of town, Jess pushed for us to be open longer. Once we have the new hire all trained up, I’ll be moving to the late night shift.”

“That kind of sucks that the new person isn’t getting it.” Elian would hate to be at a job longer than someone else and then getting the worst shift.

“Oh, no!” Rae smiled as she stuck out a hand to placate him. “I asked. When Jess was working on getting approval, I volunteered. I actually got more hours of it. Once the other person leaves, I’ll be locking the front door and patrons have to use the back door.”

“Sounds kind of fun.”

“I got to be a night person during college. I took mostly later afternoon and night classes.”

“You’ll be asleep when Jess calls you though if you work strictly the closing shift though, won’t you?”

Rae turned and looked when the back door opened. In came Jess with an arm full of decorations. Elian moved quickly to her side and grabbed a few of the things from her hands.

“Let me help you with those.”

“Thank you.” Jess looked at Rae at the desk and then around the inside of the library. “Been busy?”

“Pull list is done as well as expired. Book drop was full, but all the books are checked in now.” Rae opened the door to the back room, and Jess entered it and looked at the cart that had three blue bins on it and that it was full of closed bags. Elian followed the two women into the room. “I also had time to get cargo done.”

“Rae…”

“It’s fine. I had the time. Elian here was the only customer.” Rae pointed at Elian as she took the decorations from Jess and set them down on the table in the middle of the room. Elian went to back out of the room. It was technically a worker only area. “Elian also would like to apply for the job. I have his resume and application out on the desk.”

“Really?” Jess looked him up and down. Her gaze moves from him to Rae, and she smiles.

“You could use someone else your age working here.”

Rae blushed, and it was then that Elian really looked at her as a whole. Rae was beautiful. Her red hair was a perfect shade of color, and it set off her pale white skin. Her blue eyes were shining brightly. She gave off a perfect air of being young but when Elian really looked at her eyes while she was looking at Jess; there was an age there that belayed what she was trying to put off. There were secrets in those eyes as well.

“When can you come in for an interview?” Jess asked pulling Elian from his thoughts.

“I have a meeting later at noon but other than that I am perfectly free the rest of today. I don’t know how long the meeting is going to last. My number is on my resume and the application.”

“I have three interviews set up for tomorrow starting at noon. Why don’t you come in at one thirty and we can get you all set-up? Today is the last day that we are taking applications. You got yours in just in time.”

“I have been in such a rush over the past few days when I was coming in I must have missed the listing.” Elian looked at the clock over the front door and swore silently. He needed to get to the bank and still needed to eat something. He was going to be so busy after he signed the papers that he wouldn’t be able to eat. He smiled at Jess and nodded. “I’ll see you at one thirty tomorrow.”

Elian turned and left the back room just as Cat the next worker was coming in the back door. He smiled at her and waited for her to pass before he went through the door himself. He got into his car and set the papers he printed onto the passenger seat. He put his keys in the ignition and started up the car, checking around for cars and other patrons on foot before he pulled out. He drove down to the main part of the bank, not the motor bank and entered, waiting for the lady that he had spoken to before about getting a check made out for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He didn’t care what price they were asking, this was the money that he was giving them, no matter what.

The research that he had been doing on the house showed that he owned all the way down to the road that was part of the boat ramp for the town. It was roughly an acre of land that had no structure or road on it. His house was huge. The money he was given for it was more than fair.

He was out of the bank in an hour, and that gave him forty minutes to find something to eat. The Wendy’s down a ways from the bank was serving lunch, so Elian went through the drive-thru and then parked at Civitan Park to eat. He quickly wolfed down his food, being careful not to spill any on himself. He kept a close eye on the time and just relaxed back in his car seat, watching the waves on the river.

When it was fifteen till noon, Elian started up the car again and drove to the house. When he pulled in, he found that there were three vehicles there. An Ohio State Trooper car was first in line with an SUV behind it, and last was a compact car. Elian pulled up behind the car and parked. He grabbed the papers and slipped them into the folder the bank had given him. As he was getting out of the car, another car was pulling up behind him. A lady he had never seen was getting out of the car with a briefcase.

“You must be Elian. My name is Stacy Rhodes. I am a lawyer and will be overseeing the transfer of the house from the Harris’s to you.” As she approached him, Elian stuck out his hand to shake hers. She gave him a smile and clasped his hand. “I had to do some research for the Realtor into you. She was rather surprised by the amount of money that you had just sitting in a bank waiting to be used on the house. I found the information about the trust and everything was fine.”

“I didn’t even think how odd it would be to have an adult my age just show up and want to buy the house outright.” Elian shook his head. Of course, it was going to look odd. How would someone his age from this area get that much money? He dropped the lawyer’s hand and turned in step with her to walk into the house. The house was almost nearly empty except for a huge round table in the dining room. He looked around the house for a few seconds before he followed the lawyer over to the table.

It was an hour of signing papers and talking for Elian. He told them that he was so happy to have a place to call his own. He was ready to move out of his parents’ house.

Elian looked around his nearly completely stocked downstairs. He would worry about the upstairs and the basement as he went. He had a temporary bedroom set up for himself. He hadn’t started to move much of anything from his parents’ house. It was only the things that he didn’t want his mother and father to get into.

He moved to the living room area and set down on his lounge chair. Sitting beside it was the journal. He picked it up and opened it to the second entry. It was a little longer than the first.

1750

I’ve decided to write in this diary every twenty-five years. Given that I will live forever, that will still be a lot of journaling. As nothing has happened to me over the past twenty-five years that is worth noting at all, I decided to write about my childhood.

I was born in secret. My mother carried me and ruled her followers from afar. It was nothing out of the ordinary because her father had ruled like that on occasion. My family line was known for its quirks. There was only a small handful that was aware that my mother was pregnant and none of them ever spoke of it, even in their own minds.

The other powerful families for the witches, wolves, and vampires had no inkling that my mother even wanted children at that point in her life. It wasn’t until I was five years old that I found out why my parents acted like they did. The castle was my playground. I had never set foot out of the grounds in my five years of life. I was wandering around the estate and overheard my father talking.

“Denton will keep our secret. He has his own young to worry about. He has ever been our friend, Gwenie. We can trust him with our secret.” My father’s voice carried farther than I think he meant it to.

“She is my daughter, and I fear for her. She is the first of her kind to be born in over a thousand years and the only one alive at this time other than me. That she was born into the Shadow line makes her a target you know of the whispers. My father took his life when I was born. I waited so long to have a child. You know this. I will protect her with my life I need to.”

“Gwen, you are already dosing her with scent changers. No one will be able to smell that she is anything except what you have made her smell like.”

“Denton can bring Dmitry with him, but I do not trust his wife. I don’t trust her at all.”

“That is fine.” I could tell by my father’s voice that he was giving in instead of fighting.

I heard footsteps, and the door was jerked open. Father was standing there looking at me. He smiled at me, and within seconds a maid came and took me away. I struggled to get away, but the maid held on. She was not human. She was like me…or I had thought. It wasn’t hard after that to sneak around and to figure out their secret.

Most Vampires were bitten to continue the line. I was born. Born of two vampires. I was born into the Shadow line of vampires, and I was someone that someone out there feared. There were whispers about an outcome that a born vampire in the Shadow like could make a reality.

Denton eventually did not come around. That came much later.

Elian was pulled from his reading by the sound of his phone ringing. He was expecting Suddenlink to call and let him know that they were on their way to hook up his Internet. He looked at the number. It was the library. It was way too early in the day for them to be calling to let him know there was anything in.

“Hello?” Elian spoke as he put the phone to his ear, closing the journal as he did. He slipped it in between the cushions of the chair as he settled the phone between his ear and his shoulder.

“Elian Coats?” a voice asked. Elian ran the voice through his head. It sounded like someone he knew, but he wasn’t sure who it was. It was female, but that was all he could really tell. “This is Jess Gilliam. From the Belpre Library.”

“Yes. Sorry. I didn’t recognize your voice at first.” Elian stood up from his chair. He moved to his front door and out he went. He didn’t like to stand still while talking on the phone. He usually paced around his bedroom at his parents, but now that this house was his he liked being able to pace on his front porch. He had just gone for the interview just two days before.

“It’s fine. I wanted to let you know that you got the job. You start on Monday. Rae will be the one training you. Please come in at two for paperwork and then your shift starts at three.”

“What kind of clothes?” Elian asked. He needed to know which clothes to grab from his parents first.

“Jeans are fine and so are nice shirts. T-shirts are fine as long as there is nothing offensive on them. I am sorry, I need to go. Call and talk to the other girls if you have any more questions. Bring all your documentation.”

“Bye,” Elian said before he pulled the phone from his ear and pressed the button to hang it up. He smiled to himself. He had a lot of things to do over the next day or two and over the weekend to move into his house before he started the job. He would rather be out of his parents’ house before he told them that he was moving out. He knew that it was cowardly, but he didn’t want to give his parents a chance to make him feel that guilty for leaving. He was old enough to live on his own, and he needed to.

Moving out was going to break his father’s heart and piss his mother off, but he needed to do it for him. He had to stop living for his parents and start to live for him. His future was of his own making, and he had to start making it today. He would, of course, have to reveal to his parents that he had been given access to a trust from some unknown male back the Coats family line. That he kept it secret was going to make his mother mad, but he didn’t care. It was money given to him, and it’s not like his parents needed it. His parents made good money on their own. If they had needed some of the money over the year, he would have gladly given it to them, but they didn’t.

He needed to buy a few new shirts for work, but he could do that over the weekend. He had a house. He had a job, and he was sure that things were looking up for him.

I find that my house in Belpre is a perfect place to live. The town is smaller and better for hiding what I am from the people. The house is set back from the main street of Washington Boulevard and is considered to be on Middle Street even though it doesn’t actually face Middle Street. The view from my grand back porch is that of the Ohio River. I entered the house for the first time in years. I’ve not needed to stay in the area for nearly fifty years. I’ve rented the place out on occasion to people who want to stay in a nice house and even for a party or two over the years. Someone comes by and checks on the house on a nearly daily basis and protects what I have inside. Cameras record everything that goes on, but no one knows the cameras are there. Not even those who take care of the house. I have gardeners on retainer who care for my grounds year round so that my house is beautiful.

The smell of the boy is not in Marietta anymore. I’ve tracked every single trail he left in the city, and it gained me nothing. There is a smell of him in Belpre and Parkersburg. While I have speed on my side, sometimes it’s a hassle to drive from Marietta to Belpre and Parkersburg to track him. I will find him.

I find that my act of living and acting as a human has slowed my tracking of him but time is no matter; the only point in time where time matters is when he finds a girl to bed. If he doesn’t do what he needs when he has sex…I will lose him forever.