Black Rain Falls

~~Chapter 10: Tour Guide~~

Laurel stood at the doorway as Janice and her family ate breakfast, watching. The smell of the food reeked, but Laurel refrained from wrinkling her nose.

Janice sat at the head of the table. Her husband, Sam, sat on her left side. Laurel found this a little odd. Didn’t the husband usually sat at the head of the table? Forgetting this thought, her attention switched to the two children: Lillian and Vincent. Lillian was seven and Vincent was nine. Lillian looked more like her father with dark, arrow straight hair. She had an oval shaped face and naturally darker skin. Her eyes were a pale green. Although she looked like her father, her body was the same type of that of her mother’s. Vincent had short dark hair, like his father, but his eyes were his mother’s. His face had more of an angle than his sister’s. He was also tall for his age, making him appear as lanky as his mother and sister.

The family was seemingly impervious to Laurel’s scrutinizing. Sam looked up at her five minutes later. Laurel had been standing there completely still for a while.

“Welcome to the family,” he said warmly. Laurel smiled, slightly uncomfortable, but welcome at the same time. The other family members looked up at her and smiled as well.

“Thank you,” Laurel said timidly. She’d been living in this house in Kelseyville, California for three days now and was shocked that these people would take her in so easily. Paolo had told her that they are considered vampire hunters to others who were aware of the affairs of the supernatural, but the family also took in younger vampires and ‘reformed’ them. That’s what Paolo had called it anyway. Laurel had asked if they’d taken him in and he said no.

“I am but a friend,” he had said.

“Do you know any other vampires they’ve taken in, then?”

Paolo had nodded slowly. “Most have left this place though. Left to live out the rest of their eternity, how ever long that may be…”

Laurel snapped back to the present. This whole situation made her feel like she were in a daze and yet she could see everything clearly, better than the family sitting at the table. Everything was so crystal clear in the physical sense but otherwise clouded. And then there were the fears Laurel had that Xavier might return to reclaim her one night when the family was sleeping soundly in their beds. They wouldn’t even hear Laurel’s protests…

“Excuse me,” Laurel said, not able to stand the food’s stench any longer. She turned quickly and smoothly exited the house, picking up one of the umbrellas next to the door on her way out. On the porch, she opened the umbrella and headed into the sunlight with that protection. She’d been out in the sun once in her vampire life and the vivid feeling of being burned alive had plagued her. Xavier had later explained that because their skin contained no melanin, they had no protection from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Sun block helped little, so they had to carry parasols or umbrellas wherever they went when they were in daylight. Laurel hoped that tomorrow would be a rainy day.

Laurel wandered through the vineyard, examining the grape vines closely. She eventually walked beyond the great garden of vines and arrived at the horse stables. Curiously, Laurel entered the stable, putting her umbrella down as she entered the shade. There were six horses in that stable. Two brown horses, three white, one black. Laurel noticed that the two brown ones were actually ponies.

Laurel drifted toward the black horse like a magnet. She stood in front of the horse, motionless for a moment. She reached up with ease and petted the horse’s nose. The horse was silent, looking at her as if trying to remember her, knowing he’d seen her once… Laurel shook her head. You’re thinking crazy thoughts, Laurel. This horse doesn’t know you, Laurel scolded herself.

“Beautiful, isn’t he?” a voice behind her said. It was Paolo.

Without turning, Laurel said, “Hello Paolo.” She heard the now familiar laugh.

He walked up beside her, also holding an umbrella. Laurel wondered if it was his own or if he’d borrowed it from Janice’s umbrella holder. “He is beautiful,” Laurel added as an after thought. Paolo smiled, reaching into his coat pocket, extracting a sugar cube and feeding it to the horse.

Laurel looked at Paolo’s jacket pocket. “Do you have any more?” she inquired.

Paolo pulled out another one, but before handing it to her said, “You’re not going to eat it, are you?”

Laurel poked him with no consequence. “Of course not.” Laurel held out her hand and Paolo dropped the sugar cube in her palm. Laurel turned back to the horse and fed it to him. He whinnied in satisfaction. Paolo started to pull out another sugar cube from his pocket. “I think he’s had enough of those,” Laurel pointed out.

“It’s not for him, is mine.” With this statement, Paolo plopped the sugar cube into his mouth and swallowed, a look of disgust on his face. Laurel started to giggle before it turned into laughter as Paolo swallowed dramatically with a ‘ta-da!’ expression.

“You tell me not to eat it and then you turn around and it one? Hypocrite,” Laurel said between her dying giggles.

“I didn’t want you to eat mine!” he said theatrically.

“Sure, sure. It’s just that you didn’t look like you were enjoying it much.”

“You’re right, it was terribly disgusting. I just wanted you to lighten up. A little bit of laughter usually puts people, or whatever they may be, in a better mood. You seemed to be a little shaken by being here.”

Laurel looked at Paolo with a tweaked eyebrow. “Alright, you win. Maybe I’m just a little tense.” She looked back at the horse.

“Would you like to take him for a ride tonight?” Paolo asked. Laurel thought about it for a moment.

“Janice would let us do that?” she asked.

“Technically, the horse is Sam’s, but I’m sure he’ll let us.”

“Wait, would we only take the one horse out?”

“I can run,” he said, winking.

“How about I ride wherever we go and run on the way back,” Laurel proposed.

“Fair enough. Let’s go to the lake. It’s not too far from here.” Paolo picked up the horse’s brush and opened its gate. He started smoothing its coat as they talked.

“There’s a lake?” Laurel asked.

Paolo nodded. “Mmhmm. Jeff here wont mind the run, will you buddy?” he addressed the horse.

“Jeff?” Laurel said, almost scoffing. It was such a silly name for a horse…

Paolo shrugged. “Sam’s bad at naming. Janice took full control of naming the kids a while ago after they got Jeff here.”

“I don’t blame her.” After saying this, Laurel felt another presence, the scent of blood lingering on them. It was Lillian and Vincent. Laurel was surprised to see that Janice let her kids out alone with a new vampire in their midst. She trusts me too much already, Laurel thought.

“Hello kids,” Paolo greeted. “Are you here to take Star and Buck out for some exercise?” Laurel assumed he meant the two ponies. Vincent nodded, opening the gate to what Laurel guessed to be Buck’s gate. He saddled and mounted buck like a pro and continued out of the stable. Lillian just stood there, staring at Laurel.

Paolo looked at Lillian quizzically. Laurel just stared back, interested as to why she hadn’t left yet. “You’re not taking Star out?” Paolo asked.

Lillian nodded her head. “You’re pretty,” she said to Laurel with a sort of dazed look on her face. Laurel walked over to her and knelt down to her height. The girl’s green eyes were captivating up close.

“So are you,” she answered, putting a hand to her soft, warm cheek. Was this what Xavier had felt when she’d only felt cold stone?

The two of them stood there like that for a moment before Laurel pulled herself from her thoughts. She stood, practically hovering over the little girl. Lillian then smiled widely.

“You sound like mom,” she said, still smiling widely. She then proceeded to saddle and mount Star, leaving just as easily as her brother had.

“The kids like you,” Paolo said with a smile in his voice. Laurel looked back at him and returned to Jeff’s side, petting his nose.

“I don’t know about Vincent. But Lillian seems to like me,” she responded.

“Don’t worry about him. He’ll warm up to you,” he assured, putting down the grooming brush.

“I hope so…It’s a but strange when there’s mute children just staring at me all the time.” Paolo laughed.

“Don’t worry about it.” He walked out of the horse’s stall and shut it behind him. Laurel nodded, vaguely wondering where the kids’ got their horses’ names. Laurel had noticed that there was a white star shaped patch on Star’s forehead, but Buck was still a mystery. Laurel asked Paolo.

“Oh,” he said, laughing. “Buck got his name because the first time Vincent rode him, he bucked him straight off. Vince actually found it kind of funny and decided to call him Buck instead of Bill. That boy’s got a good sense of humor once you know him.”

“Interesting,” Laurel said, picking up her umbrella. Paolo mimicked this as they left the stable to watch the kids ride around the grounds. “Oh, I forgot to ask, is that your umbrella or did you borrow it?” she asked, pointing to Paolo’s black umbrella.

“I brought it from Spain 50 years ago. Nice, isn’t it?”

“Sure. Personally, I just stole one from the house.” Paolo laughed.

“I’m talking to a thief!”

“Shut up,” Laurel said, nudging him. In this moment, Laurel had completely forgotten about Xavier and started looking forward to nightfall. She couldn’t wait to see the lake Paolo had spoken of. At this thought, Laurel laughed.

“What?”

“You’re my personal tour guide now, aren’t you?” she said. He laughed also, catching the joke.

“No one else will if all of the real tours happen at night.” He nudged her back.