Drayton_The Taker_Evolution of a Vampire by Tony Bertauski

Author:Tony Bertauski [Bertauski, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: free dystopia, free adventure, free supernatural, free thriller, free vampire, free action, free paranormal
Publisher: DeadPixel Publications
Published: 2015-06-03T04:00:00+00:00

VIII

Drayton followed Annie past crooked pictures with dusty glass and family faces. Annie and her two boys and daughter. The daughter was the oldest, but she’d moved out a year earlier. The youngest boy, Drayton had yet to meet.

The hallway ended in the kitchen with peeling wallpaper of flowers and stripes and a small table with aluminum legs. Annie was already climbing the steep steps to the right, her footsteps clobbering each tread. At the top, a short hall went left and right, each ending at a door. Annie went left and turned the glass doorknob.

The ceiling inside was slanted. The books on the shelf were bloated. Annie asked Drayton about his luggage. He didn’t have any at the moment. She curled her bottom lip, stared, then decided it was an argument she didn’t have the energy for.

“Well, if you get any luggage, you can put it there.” She pointed at a bureau in the corner with a metal fan on top. “The washing machine is downstairs but the dryer don’t work. In this humidity, it’ll take a day and a half for them to hang dry. I don’t mean no disrespect, but if you start stinking to high heaven, you’ll have to sleep in the barn and that bed cost the same as this one.”

The day had gotten up to one-hundred degrees, but his shirt was still dry. Didn’t matter, a man can still smell underneath a dry shirt. The how and why his stink didn’t reach her nostrils didn’t seem to bother her. Wasn’t her problem, really.

“I serve supper at 6:00, but I’m running late. You’re welcome to make yourself at home up here or wander around the farm, pet the horses or whatever you plan on doing. Riding is off limits. I got an old mare stabled that you can take on the trail, but not until it cools off and not without one of us going with you. And you’ll have to sign a waiver. Understand?”

He nodded. Drayton listened to her descend the stairs. Pots and pans clanged below. She spoke quietly with Bo for some time.

Drayton had been in Middle East hot boxes that were only slightly warmer than that attic room. He stood at the window, contemplating Blake Barnes’s message. The day moved on. Annie knocked and told him supper was ready. He politely declined without opening the door, said he would like to rest. Then he watched the sun set. He listened to the house and the memories that penetrated the walls.

A television muttered from downstairs. Then music. Eventually, it was quiet. There was only the sound of tree frogs. Peace fell over the house. Those inside slept like the dead. Drayton stood at the window as still as the night.

When morning was near and the sky turned gray, he walked downstairs without a sound, found several boxes of tea in the cabinet. Among them Earl Grey.

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