Butler, Octavia - Fledgling

“Pretty much,” she answered. “Your eldermothers had three or four symbionts who did research for them. They were often awake during the day. I guess it didn’t help.”

I looked at Celia. “Did Stefan always sleep during the day?”

“He said he got stupid if he didn’t sleep,” she answered. “He got sluggish and clumsy.”

“Iosif had to sleep,” Brook said. “He would go completely unconscious wherever he happened to be when the sun came up. And once he got to sleep, it was impossible to wake him up until after sundown.”

Wright put his arm around me. “You’re definitely the new, improved model,” he said.

I nodded. “I think maybe someone’s decided there shouldn’t be a new, improved model.”

“We were talking about that,” Brook said. “About how maybe this is all because someone doesn’t like the experimenting that your family was doing. Or someone envied your family for producing you and Stefan. I don’t know.”

“How could it be about her?” Wright wanted to know. “Those guys were human, not Ina.” “They may be symbionts,” Celia said.

“Or one of them might be a symbiont and the rest hirelings,” Brook added.

Wright frowned. “Maybe. But it seems to me they could just as easily be ordinary human beings who imagine they’re fighting vampires.”

“And who have focused only on my family,” I said.

“We don’t know that. Hell, we’re in the same boat you are, Shori. We don’t really know anything.”

I nodded and yawned. “We probably know more than we realize. I think we’ll be able to come up with at least a few answers after we’ve gotten some rest.”

“Why are we in this parking lot?” Brook asked.

“To get food for you,” I said. “After that, we’ll find a place to park in the woods. We can get some sleep in the cars. Later, when we’re rested, we’ll see what we can figure out.”

“I thought we would go to your house,” Celia said to Wright.

“His relatives’ home is too close by,” I said. “I don’t want them to get hurt or killed because someone’s after us—or after me. I don’t want that to happen to anyone. So no hotel for now.”

The two women exchanged another look, and this time I had no idea what they were thinking.

“Let’s go buy what we need,” Wright said. “Celia, while Brook and I shop for food, can you be Shori’s mother or her big sister? There’s a clothing store ...” He opened the glove compartment, found a pencil and a small wire-bound notebook. “Here’s the address,” he said, writing. “And here’s how to get there. I did some work here in Arlington last year. I remember the place. This clothing store is only a few blocks from here, and it’s a good place for buying cheap casual clothes. She needs a couple of pairs of jeans, shirts, a good hooded jacket, gloves, and sunglasses that will fit her face. Okay?”

Celia nodded. “No problem if you have money. I spent most of what Stefan gave me in Seattle. He’s going to—” She stopped, frowned, and looked away from us across the parking lot. She wiped at her eyes with her fingers but said nothing more.

After a moment, Wright got his wallet out of his pocket and put several twenties into her hand. “I see an

ATM over there,” he said. “I’ll get more—enough for a few days.”

“We need gas, too,” Brook said. She looked at me, then looked past me. “I have my checkbook and a credit card, but they’re both Iosif’s accounts. I don’t know whether using them will attract the attention

of the police—or of our enemies. I have enough money to fill our tank, but if this lasts, if we’re on the run for more than a few days, money is likely to become a problem.” There was an oddly false note in her voice, as though she were lying somehow. She smelled nervous, and I didn’t like the way she looked

past me rather than at me. I thought about it, and after a moment, I understood. “Money will not be a problem,” I said, “and you know it.”

Brook looked a little embarrassed. After a moment, she nodded. “I wasn’t sure you knew . . . what to do,” she said.

And Wright said, “What do you expect her to do?”

“Steal,” I said. “She expects me to be a very good thief. I will be. People will be happy to give me money once I’ve bitten them.”

He looked at me doubtfully, and I reached up to touch his stubbly chin. “You should get a razor, too,” I said.

“I don’t want you getting in trouble for stealing,” he said.

“I won’t.” I shrugged. “I don’t want to do it. I don’t feel good about doing it, but I’ll do what’s necessary to sustain us.” I glanced at Brook, feeling almost angry with her. “Ask me questions when you want to know things. Tell me whatever you believe I should know. Complain whenever you want to complain.

But don’t talk to other people when you mean your words for me, and speak the truth.” She shrugged. “All right.”

My anger ebbed away. “Let’s go buy what we need,” I said.

“Hang on a minute,” Wright said. He wrote something else in the wire-bound notebook. Then he tore out the page and handed it to Celia. “Those are my sizes. If you can, get me a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt.”

She looked at the sizes, smiled, and said, “Okay.”

We left them. Celia and I took her car—one of Iosif ’s cars, she said—and drove to the clothing store. She found it easily, following Wright’s directions, and that seemed to surprise her.

“I usually get lost at least once and have to stop and ask somebody for directions,” she said. And then, “Listen, you’re my sister, okay? I refuse to believe I look old enough to be your mother.”

I laughed. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-three. Stefan found me when I was nineteen, right after I’d moved out of my mother’s house.” “Twenty-three, same as Wright.”

“Yeah. And he’s your first. You did very well for yourself. He’s a decent-looking big bear of a guy, and he’s nice. That jacket of his looks like a way-too-big coat on you.”

“When he found me, when he stopped to pick me up, I couldn’t believe how good he smelled. My memory was so destroyed that I didn’t even know what I wanted from him, but his scent pulled me into the car with him.”

Celia laughed, then looked sad and stared at nothing for a moment. “Stefan would say things like that. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be one of you, so tuned in to smells and sounds, living so long and being so strong. It doesn’t seem fair that you can’t convert us like all the stories say.”

“That would be very strange,” I said. “If a dog bit a man, no one would expect the man to become a dog. He might get an infection and die, but that’s the worst.”

“You haven’t found out about werewolves yet, then.”

“I’ve read about them on Wright’s computer. A lot of the people who write about vampires seem to be interested in werewolves, too.” I shook my head. “Ina are probably responsible for most vampire legends. I wonder what started the werewolf legends.”

“I’ve thought about that,” Celia said. “It was probably rabies. People get bitten, go crazy, froth at the mouth, run around like animals, attacking other people who then come down with the same problems ... That would probably be enough to make ancient people come up with the idea of were wolves. Shori, what did you get mad at Brook about a few minutes ago?”

I looked at her and, after a moment, decided that she had asked a real question. “She touched my pride, I think. She worries that I can’t take care of the three of you. I worry that I won’t always know how to take care of you. I hate my ignorance. I need to learn from you since there is no adult Ina to ask.”