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I was talking to myself. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was deep. I resisted touching the silken softness of her skin. I didn’t want to wake her. I knew firsthand how much hunger pains took out of the body. Sleep was the only way to fully recover.

I stifled a yawn. The danger of being on the run was almost as tiring. But I wasn’t about to go to sleep. I left the bed and the too-inviting warmth of Charley, before I dressed back in my ‘borrowed’ clothes and headed into the lounge room.

Jasper’s toenails clicked on the faded linoleum floor as he followed me around while I triple-locked the front door and secured all the windows. I had no idea how the doctor had gone about safeguarding his house, but it would have been all for nothing if he’d opened the door to the vampire.

I had no doubt the bloodsucker would have compelled the doctor to step outside.

Satisfied the dark and rather dingy house was as secure as possible, I retrieved the bowl on the table and filled it with the soup. Placing the full-to-the brim container on the floor for Jasper, I watched with a half-smile as he wolfed down the food then licked his chops as he looked up for more.

“Guess you want what’s left on the stove then,” I murmured, before spooning out more.

The ginger cat pushed against my legs with a pitiful meow, as though we were now the best of friends, even as it glared menacingly at the dog.

I unlocked the back door and glanced outside to the warmth of mid-morning sunlight and a small backyard that had been recently mown. It wasn’t much, but at least the dog and cats had somewhere to relieve themselves.

The ginger cat raced outside first, followed by Jasper, who sniffed the yard suspiciously while the feline sharpened its claws on the rickety wooden fence. One of the tabby cats slid outside next and I sat on the step, watching the animals.

I managed a smile. It was a beautiful winter day, the sun warm on my face and the animals making me yearn once again for a normal life.

Charley’s sudden scream dissolved the fantasy quicker than ice dropped into boiling water.



















Chapter Sixteen

Maya

“Charley?”

I jerked my head up at the sound of the too-familiar cracked voice that was quickly followed by a curse and the staggering tread of my mother. She’d woken midafternoon yet again.

Sleeping off another drug high.

I suppressed my need to lecture her and instead used my ‘everything is fine’ voice. “Hi, Mom. I made you a late lunch. Your favorite. Corned beef and pickle sandwiches.”

She dragged a hand over her face. “I’m not hungry, Charley. You know I never eat first thing in the morning.”

Another reason my mother was thinner than a beanpole—aside from her drug addiction.