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It was the place where the vampires sought refuge. The monsters gathered there. They were uninterested in taking over the rest of Ashbury, but they still liked to be close by. Ashbury wasn’t exactly a small town, but the Grove was. It was its own little haven, tucked away from the rest of society. Every few years, some new politician or young well-meaning do-gooder would try to clean up the Grove and make it part of the main city of Ashbury, but he would always die some strange, unpredictable, unexplainable death.
After awhile, everyone stopped trying to clean up the Grove.
Tonight, I couldn’t resist. I stood there and reached for the iron bars of the gate.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a voice said.
I turned, surprised at the voice I heard behind me. I hadn’t known I was going to find my friend here tonight. Was this a place she frequented often? I didn’t think so.
“Raven,” I said. “I thought you went home.”
“I’m on the way,” she said.
I looked behind her. I could see the car pulling away from the curb where it had dropped her off. I hadn’t even heard it. I’d been so lost in thoughts that it hadn’t bothered me.
“I thought you lived on the north side,” I pointed out. “Near the new development: Brookhaven.”
“I did, for awhile.”
She looked at me, watching me.
“Then what are you doing in the Grove?”
“I could ask you the same question.”
I looked toward the gate. Then I looked back toward my friend. Raven and I had been hunters together for years. Then I’d started dating Hank last year and the two of us had drifted apart. Raven had gotten more involved with her roommates. She’d been busy volunteering. She’d gotten a “real” job and wasn’t exactly as interested in hunting as she once had been. She’d always had an excuse when I invited her to come out and slay creatures with me, but all of a sudden it hit me.
“You’re turned,” I whispered.
It made perfect sense, and I felt like a fool for not realizing it earlier. They’d gotten her. There was a reason Raven and I no longer met up in the daylight, and there was a reason why she was always telling me to be careful about how I hunted. She was a vampire now, and I hadn’t even noticed.
“It’s not like that,” Raven said, cocking her head.
“Then what’s it like?” I said.
I felt...betrayed, somehow. It was like everything I’d ever believed had been a lie. That wasn’t true, of course, and Raven was her own woman. She was allowed to be a vampire if she wanted to, and I’d never slay her. Not in a million years. Besides, I was more upset that she’d hidden this big, huge thing from me than the fact that my friend was secretly a vamp.
Vampires...there were plenty of those.
Best friends?
Not so much.
Raven sighed and shook her head.
“I can’t explain that to you,” she said. “But you should go. Kim, this isn’t the place for you.”
I looked at the gates, and then back at my friend. My friend was now a vampire, and suddenly, so many things seemed to click into place. She could only ever meet me at night. She was never available to go hunting. She’d had a premonition about Hank.
Wait.
Hank.
“Raven,” I said.
“You should go.”
“Is Hank a vampire, too?”
