Eternally Blue (Sunset Cliffs Vampire #1) (Paranormal Teen Romance) (4 page)

I nodded and moved onto a picture of the inside of a seashell, admiring its shiny pink curves and Sue continued “My husband is the family photographer, I never understood it myself”.

“
Maybe he could show me sometime” I mentioned casually as I continued following her up the stairs. I would definitely want plenty of pictures of my tan self basking in the sun to remember fondly later on.

Sue regarded me for a moment, “I’m sure he would be thrilled to show you, he is so passionate about film and neither Stacey nor I take any interest in it”.

Moving on, she had just finished showing me the bathroom at the top of the stairs that me and Stacey would be sharing, complete with two sinks and girly but sophisticated pink accents throughout, when a man appeared out of another room looking disheveled. “Oh dear, Blue this is my husband Rick, I’m sorry dear that I must have woke you, Blue you remember I told you he works nights right?”

He grinned, “No harm done” he started walking forward and habitually I stuck out my hand for him to shake and he laughed and held out his arms, “we hug around here, did Sue tell you that? Welcome to our humble home, the girls have been very excited about your arrival”.

“
Hi” I managed, “Thank you for having me, sorry to wake you”.

“
No problem, I could hardly sleep anyways, I was eager to meet you myself” he yawned “But now that I have, I think I’m going to try to get some more sleep before Stacey wakes up and you guys get all giggly”. With that he winked and went back into what I can assume is the master bedroom. Before he could shut the door Sam had all but flown up the stairs and snuck in the room with him. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about her for awhile.

Sue showed me my room next, looking nervous. My breath caught as I looked around. A wooden white canopy bed with a pink, orange and purple netting tied back with purple ribbons sat in the middle, next my eyes landed on the window seat with lush pillows, and built into one side recessed was a bookcase. A small white desk with one drawer sat in the corner, with a white chair with a colorful cushion tied to it. The carpet even looked luscious; a white definitely made for bare feet, and had a long and skinny purple throw rug running down the center of the room.

This was a room fit for a princess or at the very least, a very fashionable teen girl.

“
Did Rick do all this” I asked.

She eagerly nodded, “Yep, he’s quite the planner and decorator isn’t he? I think it is why he is such a good surgeon; he can see the finished product in his mind and has it planned out before he dives in”.

She set my bag down on the bed and moved over to the closet “There is not a lot of room in here but we can clear you out part of the hall closet if you like” she looked at me hopefully. The closet seemed pretty big to me. Especially considering my one bag I had brought.

“
This looks perfect!” I reached over to hug her, and heard her sniffle so I pulled away. “Why are you crying?” I shrieked “Did I upset you?”

“
No, no.” she said, “This is just an emotional time I suppose, so much change and happiness you know, I just want to make sure that you to feel at home, and that you are comfortable and know that you can talk to me about anything.”

Oh right, emotional people. I felt bad for her so I squeezed her again and said “I know, this is an emotional time for me too”.

She dabbed her eyes and said she’d leave me to get settled in, she would be in her office downstairs if I needed anything and she closed the door on her way out.

I collapsed on the bed and kicked off my sandals, and laid there looking up at the colorful netted ceiling of my bed for awhile. This room is so gorgeous, so me, I don't ever want this time to end. Eventually I drag myself up and over to the window seat to check out my new book collection. A lot of the old classics were here, some teenage looking books, obviously Stacey’s and a few books on medicine and anatomy. Now there is a subject I could learn more about I think, I graze my fingers over the books trying to decide on one when I hear a knock at the door and jump.

“
Come in”, I move to stand up as the door opens but its Stacey and she motions me to sit back down and joins me by sitting on my bed. She is still wearing her pajamas and her hair is all messy from sleep but even without makeup I decide she is still very pretty.

“
What do you want to do today? Mom says I should leave you alone but isn’t that money burning a hole in your pocket? I thought we could go shopping and get you some new clothes. That dress you wore last night was stunning but the teachers would probably have different adjectives to use to describe it.” She motioned to her mid thigh and laughed as I blushed, that dress
was
a little bit short on me. “I’d let you borrow mine but I don't think will fit you, what are you, 5’8?” she was looking me up and down now.

“
5’9, and yeah I’m anxious to go to the mall too”.

“
Great, I just need to get ready first”, she looked around my room in disgust. “Maybe we can get you some posters or something for in here, have any celebrity crushes?” Her eyes stopped on me and she looked down fumbling with the blanket “that you, I mean, remember” she finished softly and snuck a glance at me. She looked relieved to see I was grinning.

“
No celebrity crushes, but that’s ok I like my room as is, maybe we can get me something to play music on though?”

She looked at me and shook her head. “A music player? You mean an iPod? You’re a pretty funny girl Blue. Ok I’m going to shower; my room is next door if you want to watch TV while I get ready”.

Of course I knew that was her room. Her door was closed when I arrived but it had a dry erase board on it with ‘Stacey’s room’ written on it and a picture of her and another girl grinning, stuck in the corner of the board.

“
Thanks”.

I went and looked around her room while she was gone; she had so many delicate little trinkets, memories of her past. Porcelain figurines each with a number on it showing her growth from birth to 17, action pictures of her and Sue on a roller coaster, a happy birthday tiara. All the things I have never known. There wasn’t much purpose in celebrating life by birthdays, especially since age would be a confusing thing. Like, I’d be six but only have the body of a two year old.

This room was filled with love and radiated with the confidence of its owner. I was afraid to touch anything, I didn't want her coming in and getting mad at me for snooping, but she had a basket of hats and hair things, so rather than sit and pretend to watch TV I figured those would be harmless to try on. Most were silly looking to me but I found a big brimmed floppy striped one and fell in love. I stood there looking at myself, it was like a new take on something from another era, something I never had a reason to wear being that these hats kept the sun from blemishing and ruining a ladies skin and I was a lady of the night, and as I wore it I felt beautiful for the first time in a long time. Well beautiful as in human; as a vampire I always had confidence, but this felt more real, perhaps it was that as a vampire my confidence came from knowing I was a predator.

I was trying to figure out the difference in feelings when Stacey came back in wearing a towel and had another on her head. She groaned when she saw my hat “Isn’t that the most God awful thing you’ve ever seen? My mom got that for me for a family vacation to the beach one year”.

I gasped and lovingly touched the hat, “This? This is gorgeous”.

She laughed then and when she stopped gathering clothes to wear long enough to study me she added “Yeah, actually you really pull that hat off. Weird, you can have it”. She immediately switched the subject to ramble on about the mall and getting food and meeting up with her, no, our, friends, but I was too busy admiring my new hat, and still in disbelief that she gave it to me to pay much attention.

That is until she started changing in front of me. I couldn’t help but sneak glances in the mirror at her tan lines and the reddish warmth all humans sort of radiate from their skin. I guess from my skin now too.

Eventually she laughed and bumped me out of the way of the mirror with her hip so she could do her hair and makeup so I sat on her bed and took it in as a quick lesson in human beauty. Finally she spun and asked how she looked. More as a formality than a question I think, since she looked great. She had her blond hair up in a ponytail but it was slightly curled and had a pink ribbon in it that matched the little bit of pink in her shorts. I would learn eventually that that pretty ribbons in her hair was her signature look, and it always gave her outfit an extra touch of femininity and class.

She drove us to the mall in her pink Jeep. When I first saw it she laughed at my expression “Yeah, dad got it painted for me as a birthday present. It used to be his and instead of buying me a used car, he just painted his old one to ‘fit me’ as he says”.

“
I love it”, I said honestly. The glossy pink paint job contrasted nicely with the faded interior.

“
Yeah so since the top is a pain to take on and off, I get garage privileges and mom has to park outside”, she continued, shrugging. She eyed me up at a stoplight, “I think we should find out if you can drive a stick”. She put on her blinker to turn into a grocery store parking lot and turned and to give the car next to us a pleading look. They nodded and waved her over into their lane and she grinned excitedly.

After silently debating for several panicked minutes I decided to just tell her that I did know how to drive stick. I wasn’t sure I could fake not-knowing how to if I wanted to and I didn’t want to mess up her transmission trying so after she parked I came clean “Stacey, I already know how to drive stick”.

She looked at me, trying to figure me out “You sure you’re not just trying to get out of driving ‘Pink Lady’ she said, patting her steering wheel.

“
P- Pink Lady?” I laughed, “No, absolutely not, I’d love to drive it… I mean her”. I corrected, seeing her faux anger at my referring to a car as a thing instead of as a being.

“
Don’t you think it’s kinda weird that you can remember some things and not others?” She seemed genuinely curious I decided, rather than suspicious so I nodded enthusiastically with relief. “Totally”.

“
Totally” She repeated, “Well I don’t think there’s any question you’re a Cali girl!” She smiled at me and started the car back up to take us to the mall.

Chapter 3

When we got to the mall we shopped for what seemed like forever, her acting as if I was her Barbie since I didn't seem to take a keen interest in any particular outfits, so she instead had me try it all on. She loved how much taller I was than her, and how all the clothes fit me better. At least that’s what she kept sighing longingly as I’d come out of the dressing room each time. It was really overwhelming being among all of the mall’s action. When we ran out of my donated money she flashed her credit card her mom gave her and we shopped even more.

I was having a blast, who knew how easy being an almost normal girl came to me. We purchased me an iPod as promised, I picked out a shiny green shuffle, and with only slightly masked disbelief she assured me she would show me how to use it later. My stomach started feeling weird and it growled at me and I jumped, scared. Stacey pulled out her cell phone to check the time and seemed shocked herself as she said “We’ve been shopping for four hours! No wonder you’re so hungry, so I am, do you want to grab lunch in the food court after I call Courtney and Lindsey?”

“
Yeah, sounds great”. So that’s what human hunger feels like. Why didn't the elders tell me I had my own personal food reminder? Not so different from vampires reminder that they needed blood really. Annoying and slightly painful and definitely embarrassing; our fangs would come out, and you couldn’t put them away until you fed. It was really awful if you were trying to have a conversation, with anyone really but especially with a cute guy. I was unfortunately caught off guard several times when I thought I could put feeding off a little longer.

While we waited for Stacey’s friends we walked all of our bags to the jeep and then waited outside getting some sun. Suddenly there was a lot of squealing and Stacey was up and running to meet her friends walking towards us. The girls hugged her briefly but were eyeing me the whole time. Courtney, I later found out was the trim brunette eyeing me like she wanted to eat me, Lindsey, a plain looking blonde, just looked excited.

Stacey introduced us, and Courtney smiled an award winning smile that didn't quite meet her eyes, while Lindsey gushed “I’m so glad to meet you; I can’t wait for us to be friends!” Seeing our bag-less hands she asked “I thought you were taking her shopping?” to Stacey. Before Stacey could answer though Courtney had a hold on her arm and was dragging her inside while announcing that she was hungry and that we were supposed to call her earlier. Stacey flinched slightly, and bit her bottom lip nervously before hurrying along after them.