Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel Page A

stacked neatly in black, circular tins against the wall. The smallest black canister read dandelion. Of course, I thought. Dried dandelion. The dried flower head is no larger than a dime and is meant to be carried for luck. If I was to assimilate into human life as Rhode had requested, I needed all the luck I could get. That, and a clock seemed to reside in my mind. During moments of silence when the distractions of this new age subsided, I could hear the seconds click past. Each tick-tock brought me closer and closer to the final night of Nuit Rouge. I shook my head as though to rid myself of these thoughts, stuck a dandelion head in my pocket, and grabbed a bundle of rosemary that was tied together.
    I stuck a tack in the door and hung the rosemary from it. I did this so that every time I came back to my dorm apartment, the safe place that I would call home, I would never forget where I came from. And how much farther I still had to go.
    With my backpack on, I locked the door behind me. I stepped out of Seeker and found Tony on the lawn, lying on his back with his hands behind his head, basking in the morning sun. I pulled the wide-brimmed, floppy hat over my head. Tony was wearing the ripped jeans again and a belt decorated by metal spikes.
    “Aren’t you afraid of getting burned?” I asked, and placed my sunglasses over my eyes.
    Tony hopped up. He pointed at me so that his backpack dangled off his right elbow.
    “Okay, the security guard told me that you live in Professor Bennett’s old place?”
    “If that’s the top-floor apartment, then yes,” I said.
    “‘The top-floor apartment,’” Tony mocked me and exaggerated my British accent. He blinked twice and his jaw dropped. “Professor Bennett died in July,” Tony clarified. His eyes were wide and his thin lips parted. He was waiting for me to react. When I didn’t, he continued. “They still don’t know how he died except he had two holes in his throat. Made all the psychics and nut jobs in town claim vampires.”
    I rolled my eyes…Rhode.
    “So?” I asked. “What does that have to do with me moving in?”
    “It’s September. The guy died two months ago. That doesn’t freak you out at all?”
    I shrugged. “Not really. Death has never really bothered me.”
    “Why doesn’t that surprise me, Lenah?” Tony asked, and threw his arm over my shoulder. “I guess you don’t care about vampires, either.”
    “Do you believe they exist?” I asked him.
    “Anything’s possible.”
    No, Tony, I thought. Not anything. Some things, dangerous things. Other vampires could have lived in Lovers Bay, Massachusetts, though I had never heard of any in that part of the world. Vampires generally know about one another—geographically, that is—and either way, what could I have done if they were there?
    “Do you?” he asked. “Believe?”
    “Why not?” I replied.
    Tony hugged me close to him so my left shoulder pressed against his rib cage and I could feel his body heat. The sudden closeness made my mouth water. In the vampire state a kind of salivation takes place. The fangs come down and then the vampire feels the instinct to bite. I pulled away and pretended to reach into my backpack.
    The pumping in my heart echoed within me, and I pressed my hand over my chest—as if it would quiet it down. I pulled out an official document from the bottom of the bag and pretended to look at it. Was I salivating because of Tony’s body heat? Did I want his blood? I concentrated on some sharp blades of grass. I swallowed to make sure the saliva had died away.
    I looked up at Tony. He had walked up the path a few feet ahead of me. I couldn’t help but notice the way he walked: a long step with a small hop. His feet were a little big for his body, too. He was wearing a pair of black boots that day, though one was different from the other. I’m not sure if anyone with regular sight would have noticed, but the stitching around the right boot was different from the