The Donor House: Elise: Talking to Lewis
Lewis was still in the doorway of the dining room when Elise realised he was looking for her. She glanced at Tom and Lily, who both shrugged, before nibbling on the cold toast that was still on the plate in front of her. It wasn’t hard to guess why the vampire was looking for her, not with Sarah arriving in a couple of days, and Elise could understand why there were questions. Becoming a long termer would have been easy enough to do in theory, if money had been the only reason Sarah wanted to enter the house, but there was more to the decision than how much money she would get for becoming a long term donor.
As Lewis crossed the room Elise did her best to work out how she was going to explain her sister’s choice. There were other vampires it would have been easier to talk to, and she wished it was one of them, but it was Lewis she was going to have to deal with. None of the donors really knew him, although it seemed as though they’d all fed him at some point, so she had no idea what his reaction was going to be if she told him the truth, or if he’d know if she lied to him. Sighing, she nibbled once more on her toast.
“Do you want us to stay?” Lily asked, sounding worried.
For a moment Elise wanted to say yes, because with them there she’d feel more comfortable around Lewis, but she knew that Sarah wouldn’t want more people to know about their problems. “I’ll be fine,” she replied, trying to sound as though she was sure of the answer she was giving.
They looked at each other and then back at Elise. “As long as you’re certain,” Tom said, sounding like he wanted her to change his mind, but then he’d never really trusted Lewis.
“I am certain.”
Neither seemed like they wanted to move, but in the end, when Lewis was less then a foot away from their table, they stood up. Tom had a stack of toast wrapped in a napkin, that he was probably going to take to his addict sister, and he glanced at Lewis as they wandered away. Elise nibbled on her cold toast a third time, trying to ask herself the questions that the vampire was going to ask her so she had some idea of the answers she was going to give. The house was the only place Sarah was going to be safe and that meant Elise had to say the right thing.
“Hey, Elise,” Lewis greeted, as he slipped into the seat that Lily had left. “I’m guessing you know what I want to talk to you about.”
“Sarah.”
“I assume she’s not coming to the house because your family needs the money.”
Elise shook her head. She’d just opened her mouth to explain when Nick sat next to Lewis and she couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief, because she knew that Nick had approved Sarah’s stay as a long term donor based on the truth. It had been hard to convince her to be honest, but Elise had known from the beginning that the two of the entering the house at the same time would be seen as suspicious. Nick smiled at her, reaching over to gently pat her hand, before turning to Lewis.
“Tom told me that you’d come to talk to Elise on his way up to his sister,” Nick said, explaining why he was there. “Elise didn’t come for the money either.” He looked at her and she could see the question in his eyes. “You could switch to being long term, Lise, it’s simple enough to do.”
“I think you should explain to Lewis why Sarah’s entering the house first.” Elise smiled at Nick. “Thank you, though. I have been thinking about it, but I’m not sure what I want to do yet.”
“We’ve heard rumours before about what happens to hunters’ children, when the hunters come up against a vampire they’ve underestimated,” Nick started, turning his attention to Lewis. “There’s never been any proof that the schools where the youngest are prepared for the auctions or that the older children are marked for later, when they’re old enough.”
“Until now,” Elise continued, a shiver going down her spine. “My parents were hunters. Dad died when I was four and I hoped that Mum would give it up, because she was our only parent. Instead she hunted more, spending every night out while she left us with our aunt or a babysitter, and eventually we became orphans. That night the vampires, there were three of them, came to our house, where we’d been left with another babysitter. She screamed and that was our only warning. Sarah, at eight, grabbed one of the stakes Mum left in our room, just in case, even though we all knew that we had no chance against them.” She bit her lip, remembering every moment as though it was a couple of days before rather than two decades. “Our youngest sister was two and they took her. They took the babysitter too. I don’t know what happened to the babysitter, but my sister was taken to one of the schools. She came back just before I applied to come to the house, after a really bad experience with the vampire that bought her. She won’t talk about it, so we don’t know how she got free.”
“Both Sarah and Elise were marked, even though they didn’t remember that it had happened.” Nick reached over and squeezed Elise’s hand. “It wasn’t until a couple of months after Elise was accepted as a donor that the vampire who marked them both went after Sarah.”
“At first Sarah didn’t know that he was a vampire. He was the new boy at her college and she had a crush on him from the beginning.” Elise brushed a hot tear off her cheek, hating that she hadn’t been there to help Sarah. “It wasn’t until six months later, when he broke into the house, that she realised he was stalking her because his plan was to change her, and that he was the same vampire she tried to stake when she was eight. When she rang me t tell me what happened I knew her only option was to come here.”
“You know the vampire who’s hunting Sarah?” Lewis asked.
“We already have all the information on the computer and I’ve almost convinced Lise’s baby sister that we can protect her too,” Nick replied. “I wouldn’t put any of our donors in danger.”
“I know that, Nick.” Lewis sighed. “I didn’t come to you, because…”
“I’m not angry, Lewis.” Nick shook his head, looking almost amused. “You had no way to know that Sarah had told me exactly why she needed a place at the house and coming to Elise made the most sense. I came over because I wanted to back up Lise, because telling stories like that…” He shook his head. “They’re never easy to talk about.”
“Ally and Issac know?”
“Not yet. I was going to tell them after Sarah got settled in. She’s at that point where she doesn’t really want anyone to know what’s happened to her.”
“Like Georgie was.”
“Exactly.”
It took Elise a moment to remember who Georgie was, because Elise had made friends with other short termers, while Georgina was a long termer. Georgina was someone who would probably be a good friend for Sarah. Biting her lip, Elise looked at Nick, wondering how to bring it up, but knew when he looked at her that she was underestimating him.
“It’s sorted, Lise,” Nick said, his voice gentle. “Georgie will be showing Sarah around, she knows what’s happened to your sister, and if anyone can help it will be Georgie. I’m going to get Caleb and… Alice, probably, to visit your baby sister once Sarah’s settled in, so she knows that we can help her.”
“Your youngest sister is an addict?” Lewis asked.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Elise sighed. “Thankfully she’s nowhere near as bad as Caleb, but she’s had it hard, and she refused to join the addicts who gather hoping that someone will bite them. Somehow, while she was travelling back to us, she came across someone who could help her, although he doesn’t have anywhere near the resources that you have.”
“He’s someone we should get in contact with,” Lewis said, smiling. “It’s good to know that we aren’t the only people trying to help the donors.”
“We’ve been talking,” Nick replied, smiling back at Lewis. “Ianto’s going to send a couple of addicts our way as a test of our resources before he thinks about joining with us.
“Ianto’s a good person.” Elise was always going to be grateful to him. “He didn’t have to help my sister, but he did, and I’ve talked to him about the donor house, because I think you could help each other.
Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.