Afterlight - Elle Jasper [44]
Finished, I twisted my wet hair in a towel and wrapped another around me. When I walked out of the bathroom, I saw that Eli had left the room. I was only mildly disappointed. After digging in my dresser, I pulled on a pair of cotton sleep pants and a black tank, and went to find my keeper. I found him flipping channels, once more sprawled on the sofa. I safely kept my distance, parking in the overstuffed chair kitty-corner from him. The TV screen had Channel 11 News on, and I stopped in my tracks as another murder report was broadcast. A woman, late twenties, had last been seen leaving the SCAD campus at eleven the night before. Her body had just been found crammed between two parking meters on East Bay. I watched as another black plastic body bag was loaded into the coroner’s van. The screen went black, and Eli tossed the remote onto the cushion beside him. He regarded me just as thoroughly as I regarded him. Finally, he rubbed his jaw. “Ground rules?” he said.
I inclined my head to the TV. “Those murders,” I began. “They’re not . . . normal.”
“No.”
I tried to get the visions of dead bodies out of my head, pulled up my knees, and locked my arms around them. Time to change the subject, because if I dwelled on it, my mind would never settle down. “Okay. Ground rules,” I said, and locked gazes with Eli. “I pee alone and I shower alone. Some things need to remain a mystery, and those are two I firmly believe in.”
Eli looked amused, but he gave a nod. “Agreed. Next?”
“Don’t interfere with my business at Inksomnia—no matter how crude and rude some of my clients might seem. Trust me—I can handle myself, and I’ve done it for some time without your help. It’s my livelihood, how I plan on putting Seth through college.”
This time, he didn’t look so amused, if I was reading the hard stare correctly. “I’ll do my best,” he said.
I gave a nod. “Good.” I shifted in my seat, and I admit—I was tired. Drained. But I turned my full attention to Eli. “There are things I need to know,” I said.
His eyes never left mine. “And there are things I want to know.”
“Me first,” I claimed, and thought about it. I knew I couldn’t find out everything in one night—I had to eventually get to sleep. Eli nodded in agreement, and I thought for several seconds. “About the contract,” I started.“Your father said the Gullah provided necessities in exchange for guardianship. What . . . necessities?”
Eli rose and walked to the window facing the water-front. He stood, staring out into the night. “When my family and I first arrived from Paris, we were . . . wild, newlings, completely out of control.” He turned to me. “Fresh, young vampires, and we were ravenous. We killed . . . many.” He kept his eyes trained on me. “A lot of the yellow fever victims weren’t really yellow fever victims, if you know what I mean. Until the contract with the Gullah. Not all Gullah, mind you—just Preacher’s kinsmen. Those days were primitive; they supplied willing donors, and we took only what we needed to remain alive.”
Chills ran through my body at the thought of Eli and his family sucking blood from the necks of willing donors . I stared back. “So, what—they just lined up, like at a soup kitchen?”
“Sort of.”
“And none of the Gullah transformed?” I asked.
Eli pushed the curtains aside and glanced out the window. “No. They have to drink our blood to transform.”
I froze. “You mean Seth drank