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But to get as far down that road as he suspected they both wanted to go, he had to win back her trust. The one thing that couldn't be commanded from a servant.
SS
They pulled up to the house at eleven o'clock. Debra had called her grandmother on the way. She'd told Brian the older woman tended to be a night owl, so it was no surprise when she answered on the second ring. Debra explained that they were on an unexpected layover, and asked if she could come by. Though her grandmother seemed surprised and a little stiff, Brian's impression through Debra's mind, she told them to come.
Her stiffness made sense. Her granddaughter, who'd been so close to her grandfather, hadn't seen him in over four years. Brian recalled her last visit with him had been no more than a quick drive to the small Tennessee town when they were in Nashville. She'd done it during the day, after getting his permission. He'd told her as long as she had so-n-so stats ready by Friday, that was fine. Remembering it now, he winced at his callousness. Having those particular stats ready by Friday meant that she'd had to make it a pretty short visit.
And he wondered why she was always exhausted.
He knew the stereotype, that research scientists were oblivious to the world and people around them. The accomplished ones were often self-centered egomaniacs. He'd just never realized how very much he fit the mold. It was an uncomfortable mirror that even his vampire blood couldn't prevent him from seeing.
Jed Sheldon, Debra's grandfather, lived with his wife in a modest brick house on a twenty-acre property populated with woods, unused cow pastures, ponds and several large outbuildings. The buildings had been dedicated to various inventions, if the littering of rusty metal contraptions and other discarded building materials around them were any indication.
As their limo drove up to the house, Vivian opened the front door. The porch light bounced off some of those inventions, transforming them into bizarre lawn art. Debra stared through the tinted window of the car, and Brian gave her cold hand a squeeze. "Why don't you go on up and I'll follow in a couple minutes? Give you two a chance to say hello without a stranger at your back. Though if you prefer, I'll walk up with you."
Her hand tightened on his. Her immediate reaction was: Yes. Don't make me do this alone. Then her shoulders squared. She ran through the scenarios, knew his suggestion was the best idea, given her grandmother's potential state of mind.
His surge of protectiveness surprised him. He wanted to correct himself, override her. But he figured out the middle ground. "I'll be right behind you," he promised. And you know I'm as close as the nearest thought.
She nodded, her hand still tight on his. Then the driver of the rental car opened the door and she let him go.
Brian waved him away, letting him return to the front seat as he watched out the open door. He didn't know what he'd do if Vivian treated Debra cruelly. He and Debra both understood why she might react with hostility, but still...
Yet when Debra hit the top stair, he saw it wasn't an issue. Vivian already had tears on her face, and Debra didn't hesitate, putting her arms around her grandmother so they could cry together.
"I'm so sorry I haven't been here," he heard Debra whisper. "I think of you every day."
His father had dispensed plenty of advice when Brian told him he was going to make Debra his first personally chosen full servant. Stay out of their transition from their old life, son. It doesn't concern us, and it's part of how they grow strong enough to serve us three hundred years.
Brian remembered Debra weeping in the garden. Her desire to sleep and never wake, even as she curled her naked body up next to his like a trusting kitten.
Fuck that.
He left the car, but since Debra and her grandmother were still holding onto one another, exchanging murmurs, he paused in the shadows. Reaching out to one of the discarded inventions, he made the propellers rotate. It looked like some type of all-terrain vehicle that might run on windmill power. Another contraption seemed to be a modified vending machine. Jed's joy in taking mundane things apart only to put them together into something better was a trait his granddaughter had as well.
Maybe he was one of those things.
By the time he approached the door, he'd given both women time to pull themselves together. Debra turned, still holding onto her grandmother. "Grandma, this is Lo -- Dr. Brian Morris. I've told you about him."
The fast flash of background in her mind was that she worked with him, that he was a close colleague. Like most human females, Vivian did a double take when she got a look at him in the beam of the porch light. Being excessively attractive was something vampires took in stride. It meant nothing, just a simple genetic fact and a useful tool for spontaneous feeding needs.
As he took her hand with great courtesy, he noted it felt frail and tired. She looked like a woman pushing herself to the edge to care for a dying husband. But she nodded. "Come in. I told Jed you were coming."
She turned her gaze back to Debra. "I haven't seen him so excited in a long time. But remember, his energy comes in bursts. He's likely to nod off on you, but he'll wake again within a few minutes sometimes. I don't want him to sleep through your whole visit, but..."
"I won't tire him out," Debra promised.
They stepped into a neat, comfortable house, the interior dfcor reflecting accents and colors reminiscent of homes decades ago. Brian often found the offices and homes of older scientists more comfortable to him for that reason. It was probably why he hadn't changed his mode of dress much since the 1950s, despite Debra's teasing.
She'd seemed quite taken with his choice of jeans for the stargazing, though. He'd remember that in the future.
"I made both tea and coffee," Vivian was saying. "There's some coffee cake that Deloris Willoughby brought by ye
sterday. He changes what he'll eat day to day. He had a few bites of it, but..." Vivian lifted a shoulder. Her chin trembled as she met Debra's gaze, then she closed her hand over hers. "Go in and see him, child."
Debra glanced at Brian.
I'll be right here. If you need me, you just reach out. But take as long as you need. Don't worry about the time. He's your grandfather.
She nodded. Squaring her shoulders, she turned and moved down the hallway
Vivian watched her go, then turned to Brian. Before she could speak, Brian gestured. "I have some work I can do, Mrs. Sheldon. It's late and I have no intentions of making you play hostess when you already have your hands full with so much else. If you wish to join her, please feel free to do so."
It made her smile, an obvious effort despite being genuine. "You're very kind. If you don't mind, I'll do just that. It's been so long since they've seen one another..."
"Please." He sat down, drew his handheld out of his coat, as if he were preparing to work. "Let me know if either of you need anything."
"Thank you." He could feel her eyes on him, then she disappeared down the hall.
As soon as she did, he put the handheld back in his coat and himself in Debra's mind fully. There was no way he'd be more than a breath away while she dealt with this. Truth, since the night under the live oaks, there were times he'd had difficulty pulling out at all, as if Debra were a book he'd had in his possession for some time, one he hadn't read in far too long. Remembering how much he'd enjoyed the first few chapters, he wondered that he'd deprived himself of the rest of the story.
SS
Debra sank down next to her grandfather. He was in a hospital bed, the full-sized bed gone to make room for it in their bedroom. A sofa in the corner bore a neatly folded pile of linens. She was sure that was where her grandmother was sleeping. Jed was so thin, half the size she remembered him. He was a tall man with handsome silver hair, a long face that could smile and crease like a wise, good-natured basset hound. Knowing his resemblance to that particular breed of canine, he'd sometimes bay like one, just to aggravate her grandmother.
