Page 42 of Wounded Soul
She grimaced. “Fine. But don’t expect me to help you research or whatever it is you want to do in there.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Lys followed him out and they made their way down the hall towards the library. Most of the others seemed to prefer the living room or the games room. Only one other vampire was headed their way, and she was thankfully someone that he and Lys liked. And she also liked to keep to herself, another bonus. With the doors all open, Jesse could already hear arguing from the other rooms as they passed—over what channel to watch or which PS4 game to play. Hard to imagine they had hundreds of years between them.
“Jesse, Lys?” Raph called from behind and they both stopped, turning around to face him. “I just wanted to thank you for getting all the invoices in order. Personally, I think it’s a pointless exercise—we could be feeding off humans and pouring the hospital blood down the drain for all they know. But the VLCD like to check our consumption, so I humour them. I know it was tiresome, but thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Jesse waited for him to either continue speaking or move along, but instead he kind of hovered in between the two. It took Jesse a moment to realise he was listening to the arguments going on in the other rooms.
Seemingly satisfied that no one was about to kill each other, he turned his attention to Jesse again. “Are you two headed to the library?”
“Yep.” Jesse shrugged. “Thought it was about time I looked up some vampire history, and we have a few hours to kill...” He shoved his hands in his pockets for lack of anything better to do. “I mean, I’m assuming you’ve got some in there, right?” He didn’t want to come out and admit that he’d never been in there whilst they’d lived in this house, but by the looks of Raph’s smirk, he didn’t need to.
“Yes. We have all kinds of books in the library.” Raph said it with a straight face, but Lys snickered next to him. Jesse stood on her foot. “There are several I think you might find interesting. They’re in the history section at the back-right corner of the room, near the top. Have fun.”
“Thanks.”
They watched him go back down the corridor, and seconds later the sounds of gravel crunching under tyres sounded outside.
“Our guests have arrived,” Lys muttered. She grabbed Jesse’s hand and they darted into the library, out of the way.
They left the door wide open though. It was a VLCD requirement, but it also let them eavesdrop.
They listened to Raph greet the police as they came in. Lys ticked them off on her fingers.
“Twelve,” she mouthed. Just like Raph had said.
That meant a full inspection, probably including room checks and ID bracelet functionality.
They were going to be in the library for a fair while. “Might as well get a book and get comfy then.”
“I’d like to throw one at you.” She poked her tongue out at him. “I could be shooting things right now, but no...” She swept a hand out, gesturing at their surroundings. “Instead I get to read.”
Jesse laughed. “You should be thanking me for expanding your knowledge.” He walked backwards towards the section Raph had told him to look in. “Pick something, read it. Trust me.” He grinned at her, and she waved him away.
“Fine. I’ll attempt to amuse myself while you go search for whatever it is you’re after.”
He left her perusing the true crime shelf and focused on searching the rows of books on the top shelves at the back of the room.
There were a lot.
Jesse scanned the titles,Modern Day Vampire Lore,The History Behind Vampire Legends. Somehow he didn’t think those were what he was after. On the very top shelf, the books looked far older—bound in leather, the writing on some of the spines too worn to make out—so he slid the ladder across and climbed up to get a better look.
A few caught his eye, and he carefully eased them out, carrying them down the ladder and over to one of the leather chairs. Setting the pile on the table next to him, Jesse opened the first one.
Then promptly closed it again.
Of course it was in a different language.
He wondered if Raph or any of the others could read it. A lot of them were multi-lingual. Peter had tried to teach him French soon after he’d become a vampire, but Jesse hadn’t had the patience to learn anything back then. His life had been turned upside down, inside out, and the last thing he wanted to do was sit and learn. Maybe it was time to revisit that.
But not today.
He closed the book, longingly stroked the cracked cover, then set it aside and reached for the next one.
Also in a foreign language.
For fuck’s sake.
