Vampire 01 - Daughter of Darkness

with a heavy but soft comforter.
    Because of the foliage and the trees surrounding our house, it was always in a blanket of shadows and dark inside. Those windows that faced the east in the morning and the west in the afternoon were shuttered. Neither Daddy nor Mrs. Fennel liked it to be too warm in the house anyway, and the heat was turned up only during the coldest winter months. Mrs. Fennel told me we would all sleep better that way. I liked the early fall, the colors of the leaves and the crisp air. I wasn’t permitted to wander far from the house, but because of the proximity of the woods and the foliage around us, I could see and watch the squirrels and often deer and rabbits that seemed as curious about me as I was about them.
    I thought the moon was a deeper shade of yellow in the fall so it could match the color of leaves. This particular night, we had a full moon with a cloudless sky. The glow fell like a great spotlight over the house, the illumination threading itself through the leaves and branches, twisting and turning shadows into new shapes as if they were made of black clay. One of my bedroomwindows had been left open enough for me to be able to hear Brianna’s laughter and then the voice of a stranger, a young man.
    When I peered out at them, I saw he had driven Brianna home and was dressed formally in a jacket and tie. Brianna had gotten out of the car and was on his side now, urging him to get out, too. She was actually pulling on the door handle and tugging at his arm through the opened window. For some reason, he was resisting.
    I pushed my window up a bit higher so I could lean out and hear what they were saying more clearly.
    “Stop being such a coward and a jerk,” Brianna told him, and let go of his arm.
    “I’m not being either. I’m just being sensible. All the lights are out. We’ll wake them up.”
    “I told you. My father’s away,” she said.
    Why was she lying? I wondered. Daddy wasn’t away. He had just come back yesterday.
    “The only ones in there are our housekeeper and my younger sisters, who are both asleep. We can easily slip into my room unnoticed, and I don’t plan on making a lot of noise anyway, do you? I mean, I should be the one moaning with pleasure. You can grunt.”
    He laughed, but he didn’t get out of the car. Frustrated, she put her hands on her hips, glanced up toward Daddy’s bedroom, and then turned back to her date as if something new had occurred to her, something that would get him to do what she wanted him to do.
    “I didn’t think you were this shy. You didn’t act shy earlier tonight. What was that back at the bar? All some macho act for your friends or something?”
    “No. I’ve been accused of a lot of things but definitely never of being shy.”
    “Right. You’re really hesitating because you’re worried about waking up my housekeeper.”
    “Look,” he said after a momentary pause, “I do have a confession to make.”
    Brianna took a step back. “Oh, no, don’t tell me you’re gay.”
    He laughed. “No. But I am married.”
    Brianna just stood there looking at him. “You’re kidding,” she finally said. She stepped back up to the window. “Married? You’re not wearing any ring.”
    “I don’t usually when I go to the Underground looking for some action. I asked you to let me take you to a motel, didn’t I? I don’t understand why you want to go into your own house. Why would you want to do that?”
    “I like making it in my own bed. Call me kinky. I’m better in my own bed,” she added. “You’ll see.”
    “I don’t know. I mean, if someone does wake up, you have to explain, and then, I mean, one thing can lead to another, and I don’t need to get involved with a costly divorce right now.”
    “You’re very deceptive. That’s very dishonest. What kind of a marriage do you have?”
    “Obviously not the best, but…”
    “But you’re disgusting,” she said, and turned away from him for a moment. I saw her look up again at Daddy’s bedroom, and then she turned back to him.
    “Listen. There isn’t any problem and won’t be any. My room is away from everyone else’s rooms. The walls are thick. No one will hear us, and even if anyone did, shewould ignore us. My maid certainly wouldn’t care. You’re not exactly the first guy I’ve brought home, you know.”
    He didn’t reply. I could see Brianna was getting very agitated. She turned away again, looked up at the house again and then back to him.