Page 67 of Bite Me
“There’s a bus stop. I’ve taken the bus a couple of times.” Not that I particularly enjoyed the experience. “But I won’t have to take the bus tomorrow because Sheri will drive me,” I added emphatically.
Pinching his mouth shut, Russel watched the waves come and go. He finally seemed to accept my no.
“I’ve been wanting to ask you something,” he said after a while.
“What?”
“Your name is Benedict. Why Eddie? It’s not a common short version of Benedict.”
“It was what my dad called me. He passed away when I was ten.”
Russel let out a deep breath. “I’m so sorry.”
Usually, when I was forced to say that, I hurried to change the subject. Curiously, I didn’t feel the need to do it with him.
“My grandfather’s name was Benedict, but people knew him as Ben Perkins. My dad was Benedict Perkins Jr., but my grandparents called him Ned, and it stuck. Then I was born, the third Benedict Perkins, and Dad insisted on calling me little Eddie. The only person who calls me Benedict is my mother.”
“How was he as a father?” Rassel spoke quietly, as if the question could scare me. But I was glad I could, for once, talk about the parent who made me proud to be a Perkins.
“He was great. Caring, loving, interested. He was there for me. Maybe it’s just my child brain idolizing him. Maybe I’d have discovered plenty of his flaws had he lived long enough for me to grow up. But to the ten-year-old Eddie, he was a hero. The only dumb thing he’d ever done was to marry my mom.”
“But you visit your mom every other week?”
“Yes.” Seawater splashed high into the air, and the drops landed only a few feet away. My shoes had gotten dusty on the walk here, and I was still wearing the same slacks and the white shirt I’d had on last night. I wondered if the waves were getting stronger and we’d get drenched. The next couple of showers seemed weaker, though.
“How long has it been?” Russel asked.
“She’s been at Graystone for two years now.”
“Do you miss her?”
How to explain? I picked a broken shell, possibly a trace after a seagull’s snack, and threw it into the waves. “She’s my mother, and a part of me, the little boy in me, will always love her. But she’s got some difficult personality traits.” I could feel Russel’s gaze on me. I was torn between wanting to escape and craving leaning into him so he’d hug me. “I think she’s disappointed in me. What I find important and valuable, she sees as weakness or even stupidity.”
“You’re one of the smartest and strongest people I’ve ever met, Eddie.” Russel’s voice sounded steady, dead serious. It was a powerful compliment, and I struggled to believe it.
“What about your mom?” I asked.
Russel chuckled. “She’s…a lot to take. As you’ve witnessed firsthand.”
“She seems fun.”
“Oh, she is that. She drives me mad, but I adore her.”
“And your father?”
“I’ve never met him.” He said it lightly, unbothered. “My mom didn’t always ask the names of her many lovers, and her relationships with other vampires have been even more fleeting than the arrangements she’s had with human men. There’s a chance she doesn’t know who he was, either. She simply doesn’t care.”
“Wow. Good for her?”
He laughed. “Like you said. She’s fun.”
“I mean, monogamy is rare among your species.” I managed to sound casual. I wasn’t angling for a relationship with Russel—it wasn’t possible anyway. Was it? No. How naive could I be?
“Not as uncommon as my mother likes to claim to justify her lifestyle.”
What didhethink of monogamy? Had he ever had a relationship? With a vampire or a human? A spike of irrational jealousy made me shut the train of thought down. I must have been quiet for too long because Russel took my hand again.
“Eddie?”
