The Vampire (THE VAMPIRE Book 1) (18 page)

Augere wandered into Bath and Body Works, with Jason close behind; they lingered, sampling many different fragrances. Augere didn’t seem to care that many of the items appealed mostly to women; he seemed to be having a good time, enjoying the various scents. They went into Barnes & Noble and split up for a while there, each browsing their preferred tastes and selecting books and magazines to purchase. The leather goods in Coach caught Augere’s attention next, and then a Halloween chocolate display in the Godiva store window; Jason had to buy truffles there. “I’ll gain several pounds before we leave here today.” Jason laughed. They wandered into Spencer gifts and Toys R Us; Augere seemed fascinated with the variety of toys and humorous items, and everywhere, Augere drew lingering glances. And not just from every age of female; men discreetly stole glances at him also. Augere could really turn heads, and the gazes often followed him, sometimes staring in his direction even after he had passed out of sight, Jason observed, falling back to continue to watch people’s reactions. Women stopped in the midst of conversations to stare at him openly.
I knew it,
Jason thought.
It is not just me
.

Finally it was time to go to the electronics store.

They looked over some items in the display case. The store clerk allowed Augere to listen to one iPod with headphones. Augere was impressed with the sound, but he turned the small thin device over in his hands, dubious of its ability to hold 4000 songs.

Finally, he settled on one he wanted. A simple model. He instructed Jason to select one also and he would pay for it. Jason protested he could buy his own, but he lost that battle and they each left the store with their new devices.

It was still just noon and the mall wasn’t too crowded, except for the lunch crowd at the food court.

“Shall we stay a while longer? Or are you ready to leave?”

Augere did not answer right away. He seemed to be focused on something at a distance. Jason tried to take a discreet glance, but couldn’t determine the source of his interest.

“We should stay a while,” Augere replied.

“Do you want to have lunch—?” Jason frowned as he realized he already knew the answer. Well, maybe today Augere actually would eat something. Maybe today would be different.

Augere turned to look at him with a solemn expression, which Jason interpreted as “no.”

“Seriously? Nothing? Not one thing?”

Augere shook his head.

“Okay, then,” Jason sighed. “I am going to get lunch. Do you mind waiting here, watching my bags, while I get something to eat?”

Augere appeared distracted. He nodded absently, as he sat down at one of the tables in the food court, the farthest table from anyone else while Jason walked around the food court trying to make a decision from all of the different choices.

He returned in ten minutes with a large Coke for Augere, as well as a tray of mostly healthy items for himself.

“Here you go,” Jason said, placing the extra-large Coke cup with a straw in it in front of Augere. “I know you drink Coke at least.”

Augere eyed the enormous cup with the plastic item stuck in the top of the lid with a look of dismay. Then he turned that look on Jason.

“Or I could just get you a cup of ice if you want?” Jason said, noting his expression.

Augere shook his head. Then his attention turned elsewhere. Whatever he was looking at, he was now intensely focused. It would be too obvious if Jason turned around to look now. But he was very curious. Everything Augere did, or did not do, remained a curiosity and subject of interest to him. It is probably just the fact of him being here, Jason thought. Just him taking all of this in. Worldly in many ways, and yet, not.

As Augere’s attention remained preoccupied elsewhere Jason enjoyed a large salad, but then finished with a big slice of apple pie and a large root beer. He didn’t feel that great when he was done.
Fast food always looks good, until I actually eat it. Time to walk around some more
.

“Are you still good? Shall we have another look around?”

Augere nodded with a thoughtful expression.

They walked with no particular destination. Augere seemed a little less interested in the shops now. After a while they came to a set of benches, park type metal ones, three of them placed end to end in the center of the mall’s corridor, with three opposite benches on the other side, all facing out to the stores on both sides and the shoppers who passed by. They had been walking around for at least half an hour. Jason would have liked to sit for a while but didn’t want to say so.

“I believe we should sit here a while.”

Jason nodded with surprise. They each sat at one end of a separate bench and passersby would not think they were there together. Jason had become used to Augere’s need for a little extra personal space and he no longer gave it any thought; he just automatically accommodated him.

They had been sitting for about five minutes or so when a trio of young girls came and sat down on the bench adjacent to the ones occupied by them. One of the girls actually sat down right next to Augere, separated from him only by the metal armrest. Jason expected him to rise and leave; or at the least, to shift uncomfortably. But he did not. He remained calm and composed Jason noted with some interest. Jason only had a sidelong view of the girls. They appeared to be no more than eleven or twelve, he would guess. Each of them had several small bags with different store logos from their shopping excursion. The girl at the farthest end from where Augere sat was slurping a blue icee; the girl in the middle was eating a small dish of neon pink ice cream with a small plastic spoon, and the girl closest to Augere, mere inches from him in fact, was taking shy glances at him.

“You look like one of my favorite vampires,” she said to Augere almost in a whisper. “I mean, the way I think he would look. From this book I am reading.”

Jason thought he seemed to tense slightly and then he turned his full attention to her. Her straight dark hair had a lustrous sheen and fell well past her shoulders. Her large blue green eyes were facing Jason but were fixed on Augere’s face, and her otherwise pale complexion seemed slightly flushed. She had a sweetly innocent expression.

“What is the book called?” he asked her. Jason was able to hear his soft nearly seductive intonation clearly.

“Truly Vampire,” she answered.

“Ah,” he said to her. “And you enjoy reading this?”

“Yeah, it’s really good. No one else I know reads the kind of stuff I like.” Her gaze flickered briefly to her two companions, then quickly returned to Augere’s face and stayed strictly focused on him. He studied her intently as well. Silence stretched for several moments.

“All of his kind are horrible, are they not?”

She tilted her head slightly, her gaze still fixed on his face. “Well…he—this character—can be really mean, sometimes. But it is not always his fault. Do you know what I mean?”

“I believe I do,” Augere replied. “Does he frighten you?”

“Yeah. Sometimes. There are some scary parts.” She seemed to be giving the question more thought. Jason sensed a maturity about her, lacking in the demeanor of her companions. He casually listened in now and then while gazing elsewhere. “Sometimes,” she said, “he keeps bad things from happening though. I like that about him.” Her eyes were locked onto Augere’s face.

“You think him dangerous though.”

“I guess you could say that.” She shrugged. “He could be. He is…complicated. But then, he is SO hot.”

Augere turned an inquisitive face to Jason. “Attractive. Desirable,” Jason supplied, feeling a little less ignored.

“I see. So, that makes it okay.” He gave her a faint smile.

She laughed, but then her face became quite serious. “You have to overlook certain things with him. You have to accept him as he is.”

More silence opened between them. Jason could only see Augere’s expression in profile.

“What is your name?” she asked him.

His attention was fully upon her. “Laurent.”

“That’s a French name, isn’t it?”

He nodded once.

“I’m going to be studying French next year. I already know a few words.”

“Excellent.” Augere gave her a small smile.

“And what is your name?” he asked her.

“Raven.”

“Ah…tu est la plus belle corbeau que j’ai vu jamais.”

“That is so cool.” She smiled at him. She probably didn’t understand a word of it.

Augere then made another comment Jason did not hear.

“Uhm…” Jason leaned out from the bench, the better to see the other girls. “How come you girls aren’t in school today?”

The girl in the middle paused from licking the back of her ice cream covered spoon just long enough to say: “teacher’s conference,” as if it should have been obvious.

“Yes. So Riley’s mom brought me and Casey to the mall to have a girls day out,” Raven stated. “My mom thought it would be a good idea for me. For us,” she corrected herself self-consciously. The implication seemed to be coming to the mall was not entirely Raven’s choice or idea.

Augere was still studying her intently. He seemed oblivious to the other two.

Jason’s attention wavered. He couldn’t hear all that was said now; only a few words or a fragment of a sentence. Harmless stuff he supposed. Augere was humoring her.

“Where did you get all of these?” Augere asked, as he lightly touched the various bracelets she wore on both wrists.

Raven looked at and touched several of them also. She wore beaded ones; leather, fabric, rubber and plastic varieties. Of course, Jason thought, bracelets were something Augere would notice. Augere’s slender fingers lingered lightly on her wrist.

Jason glanced around nervously. It was one thing for two guys in their twenties to be talking to adolescent girls—and not a good thing either, he thought, even in this most public of places—but touching them was definitely off limits. Even if the most casual observer would think nothing of it, and Jason thought Augere’s gesture quite harmless, some others might not view it that way. It was better not to be taking any chances. Jason was about to make a sign to warn Augere when he spotted a “Mom” waving at the girls—they waved back—from the window of the card shop just opposite where they were sitting.
Good,
he thought,
parental supervision
. Hopefully this parent wouldn’t freak out. If she had even noticed.

“These,” Raven pointed at several different bracelets, “I make myself.” She looked into his eyes. “Do you want me to make some for you?”

“You…would do that for me?”

“Of course. Wait—I know. I will give you these ones. I can always make more for myself.” She unfastened the two braided black leather ones that were the most appropriate for him, the ones he had admired, and then she stood facing him.

She fastened the two wristbands onto his thin outstretched wrist. Jason observed how close she stood to him, and how comfortable he seemed with that. It surprised him.

“Your hand is cold…but then I expected that,” she stated solemnly in a low voice. Their eyes were locked onto each other again. Both of them seemed reluctant to look away. Something passed between them, but whatever it was, Jason still thought it seemed harmless enough. Given her apparent age and Augere’s strange childlike worldliness, it could only be an innocent flirtation, at most. Raven sat down again, their mutual, silent gazing interrupted finally.

“What did you buy?” she asked, noticing two white plastic bags sitting beside him.

“A book. And…Eye…pod…thing,” he stated hesitantly.

“Great! What color?” she asked.

“Silver.”

“That’s really cool. I’m getting either a blue one or a purple one for my birthday next month.”

“An October birthday? Mine also.”

“Really? What day is yours?”

“3rd of October.”

“Mine is October 26.”

“It is not polite to ask a young woman her age…”

“I know.” She nodded solemnly, suddenly appearing worldly wise.

Augere glanced away for a moment and Jason caught his transient smile.

“How old are you going to be?” she asked him pointedly, her expression quite serious.

“How old would you guess?” he asked after a few moments. There was just a hint of humor in his eyes now.

Her blue green eyes stared unwaveringly into his violet blue ones. Both her expression and her concentration were intense.

“I think…you have lived a very, very long time,” she said softly.

Jason had to suppress a laugh.

Augere broke his gaze then and looked down at his hands. He leaned back slightly. It was as close to any sign of discomfort he had shown yet and still it was minimal.

“I will be twelve,” she said. “In three and a half weeks.”

There were several comments between them then that Jason didn’t catch. He strained to hear more, but only caught something Augere said about “being different.” The girl seemed to take on a sad, almost tearful expression.

Their strange encounter might have continued longer if the mom had not emerged from the card shop just then.

She came striding quickly toward them, smiling at the girls, and casting a friendly glance and a smile at Jason. She gave Augere a wary, intense look, for several moments. Jason caught it and thought it rather odd. Maybe she had witnessed the strange encounter between the two. Augere made no eye contact and appeared to take no notice of her.

“Come on, girls,” she said brightly. “I want to get going before the traffic gets wicked.”

They stood up to go, collecting their purchases. Raven moved slower and more reluctantly than the others. She bent down suddenly to tie her shoe, and took her time about it.

When she stood up, Augere said to her, “May I take your hand, Raven?”

She shyly extended her left hand to him.

Very slowly and carefully he took hold of just her fingertips, holding them as lightly and gently as if they were extremely delicate and fragile, as if they could break from mere touch. He leaned forward slightly and brought her fingertips to his lips and then lightly kissed the back of her hand as gently as if it were a rose petal. It amused Jason.
He has some smooth moves, I’ll give him that
.