Page 56 of Silent Stalker
THIRTEEN
Reached your limit?
Word of Edgar’sreturn to the world of the living tore through the brood with the force of a tornado, resulting in everyone coming to the estate. I’d underestimated the number of vampires in the brood; after at least a hundred unfamiliar faces cramming into every available space, I retreated to the one place safe from prying eyes: the master bathroom.
I considered hiding in the walls and scurrying about like a mouse, but I suspected Emerick would fish me out and make me socialize if I remained clothed. A shower would help remove most of the gunk that had transferred from the child onto me, and a soak would go a long way towards restoring my sense of normality. I made it through the showering portion of my venture, but a knock at the door interrupted me before I could transition to soaking in the tub. Muttering curses and grabbing one of the bathrobes, I went to the door and cracked it open.
Emerick grinned at me. “Coming out?”
“No. I have a date with the tub next. You will have to use force to get me to come out there.” I peeked around Emerick to discover at least six people sitting on our bed and engaging in a heated conversation about something. “Tell the strangers I have offered some form of socially acceptable greeting or something. Tell the people who aren’t strangers that this is my bathroom, and they can use the inferior one down the hall. Do not make me escape into the walls like some mouse, Emerick. I will.”
“Reached your limit on how many people are around?”
I nodded.
“All right. Try not to fall asleep in the tub. I’ll come in to check on you, so don’t lock the door. I’ll let them know you’re a little overwhelmed and that you’re still adapting from being a solitary predator to being a pack predator. Will that work?”
“Just tell them I’m a spider and have to weave a web to ensnare you, my prey. I’m just weaving my web with bubbles at the moment. Will Edgar be staying with us?”
“Annora and Gerry are going to take him home for the next few days. They’re better equipped to handle him. Honestly, we won’t get him often. The penthouse isn’t ideal for him, and I’m not sure I can make everything here safe for him. We have to closely supervise him when he’s here. Annora and Gerry will be able to keep him contained and adapt him to modern society.”
“Are you all right with that?”
Emerick nodded. “It’s better I remain both an uncle and a main authority figure. He knows my word is law—and he understands your word is also law. I wish we could treat him fully like a child, but we can’t. He’s a child but he is also a predator, and he’s much stronger than other children his age. He can, if he wants, overpower mortal adults with little effort. We must take care with how we socialize him, especially with other children. Someone could get hurt, and it likely wouldn’t be him.”
“That’s terrible.”
“It is.” Emerick sighed, and he glanced over his shoulder at something. “We did our best to shelter him from as much as possible, but the reality is, we walk on thin ice with him. We always have. We always will. But modern times have brought many good things, including a better understanding of the human body. Maybe we can find a way to allow him to grow. But if not, we’ll cope. It won’t be easy, but we’ll cope.”
“And the situation with my father?”
“If he’s old, he knows about Edgar already and won’t have any interest in him. Edgar is, at current, incapable of maturing beyond the age of four or five. I don’t expect that to change. But he’s safe enough from your father if he is an old vampire, unless he wants an eternal child to dote upon. In which case, I would be very startled, because everyone learned quickly that Edgar’s state as an eternal child is far more of a curse than it is a blessing. People like to claim they don’t want their children to ever grow up, but the truth of it is a terrible thing. It is one thing to embrace the joy of the moment, but it is another to understand an entire future is lost. Which leads me to the next problem.”
“What next problem?”
Emerick sighed, stepped into the bathroom, and closed the door. “Edgar’s learning capacity is… not what it could be. While he’s capable of adapting, he struggles with establishing anything as a permanent memory. It will take him several weeks, likely, to learn who you are and what your role in the family is. He’ll pick some things up faster. If he really likes you, he’ll lock you into his memories quickly. It took him two months to learn who Annora is and four months to learn who Gerry is. Once he learned, he also learned to adore them. That’s also part of why I hesitated to take him from Annora earlier. He remembered her, and I didn’t want to interfere with that imprint.”
“Is there something wrong with him?” I whispered.
Emerick nodded. “Magic only goes so far, and he was turned after perishing from a terrible illness. He didn’t heal quite right, probably due to his age. You will find he is a sweet child, but if you want to teach him anything, you will have to be patient, and you may have to teach in unconventional ways. He expresses himself best with paint, so I will make sure he has the artistic supplies he needs. And, when you see his paintings, try not to be surprised. He spent many of his nights painting because that is what he likes and understands. Consider him a savant, I suppose.”
“He’s good at painting?”
“He’s very good at painting. We never tried to teach him how to improve at his art, either. All we do is praise him, no matter what he paints. It is his happy place, and it is our duty to preserve that for him. He has few others. He can’t read or write, and I don’t know if he ever will be able to. We try to teach him his letters, but it never stuck. I don’t know if his time asleep will have changed that. He is much as I remember, though.” Emerick raised a hand and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m asking a lot of you.”
Was he joking? I supposed I could understand why he might be concerned; we hadn’t discussed the situation. Maybe someone else would be offended by not having a say in the fate of a child who needed capable parents, but not me. Edgar would have more than two parents, something I found agreeable. More parents meant more love, and the child deserved that much.
To play his game, I staggered in the direction of the tub, sank down on the ledge, and flung the back of my hand against my forehead. “Oh, woe is me. I will have to help care for an adorable child who happens to drink blood. I am so burdened,” I stated in my most sarcastic tone. I sat straighter and met his gaze, narrowing my eyes, “How dare you bring an adorable child I get to play with and dote on into this household! As penance, we get him at least once a week so we can properly dote on him.”
“I see you have embraced the change to our brood with full enthusiasm.”
I nodded. “Are you going to be all right, knowing he’d been in the park the whole time?”
Emerick sighed, but he nodded. “Knowing where he was buried wouldn’t have changed anything beyond knowing where he was and holding hope he might rise again. And because he’s a child, we just don’t know how long it takes for him to heal when in the ground—or if he’d heal at all. He obviously did, but I would have spent those years wondering instead of assuming he’d met his final death somehow. While a shock, this is better. We grieved and we moved on after we lost hope for him, rather than grieved and held onto a slim hope that might never come to pass.”
“Ben was turned before he disappeared in 1866,” I stated.
“Ben was a younger vampire then, but yes.”
