“Yes, well, there are certain
“Have one for lunch, did you?” Jane asked.
“You’re being petty,” said Byron. “It’s unbecoming.”
Jane ate the last of the crawfish and wiped her hands on a napkin. “Why am I here?” she asked. She was ready to be done with the evening.
“I want to apologize,” Byron said.
Jane looked at him suspiciously. “For what?”
“For how I behaved toward you,” said Byron. “All those years ago. It was wrong of me.”
Jane cleared her throat. “It was,” she agreed.
“I took your virginity and I made you what you are,” Byron continued.
Jane looked around to see if the other customers were listening. She feared they would think poorly of her if they overheard.
“I took advantage of you,” Byron said, apparently not caring if anyone heard him. “A sad, lonely old woman who—”
“I was not
“For the time,” said Byron. “But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I behaved badly. For that I’m deeply sorry. Can you ever forgive me?”
Jane picked a bit of crawfish shell from under a fingernail. “I don’t know,” she said. “You really were horrible. And after all of the nice things you said in your letters too. It was fairly shocking to me, you know.”
“I was young,” Byron said.
“You were twenty-eight,” said Jane. “That’s old enough to know better.”
“I meant in
Jane wished she had a toothpick, as there was a bit of corn stuck in her fang. She only half listened to Byron. She’d fallen for his flowery speeches before. “All right,” she said.
Byron, who was still talking, stopped. “All right?” he said.
“All right, I forgive you,” said Jane. “Anyway, what’s done is done. It’s not like you can unmake me.”
“You’re sure?” Byron asked.
“If you keep asking, I won’t be,” said Jane. “Let’s just move on. One thing I’ve always wondered—who turned you?”
Byron leaned his chair back, resting his back against the grimy wall. “Now that is a story,” he said. “You know that I traveled widely in the years before 1816.”
Jane nodded. “I do.”
“Much of that time was in Greece,” Byron continued. “While I was there I met a young man called Ambrose. He was a soldier.” He paused, and a sad smile crossed his face for a moment. “You should have seen him,” he said. “He was beautiful. I fell in love instantly.”
“Shocking,” Jane remarked, although not unkindly. She was seeing another side of Byron, and it was rather touching.
“The only thing that troubled me was that Ambrose would never spend the night with me,” said Byron. “Every night, after we ate and made love, he would leave my house. He wouldn’t tell me where he was going. I assumed there was a woman, perhaps a wife and child. At first I didn’t care, but as the summer went on I became jealous.” He looked at Jane. “I know that’s difficult to believe.”
Jane said nothing, sipping her beer. Given how many women Byron had stolen away from their husbands on a whim and then just as carelessly discarded, the idea that he could love someone enough to care in who else’s bed he slept was intriguing.
“One night I could take it no longer. I followed him. He roamed the city, finally ending up at the harbor. There, under the docks, I saw him kiss another man. At least that’s what I thought he was doing.”
“He was feeding,” Jane said.
Byron nodded. “I watched, horrified, as he killed the man. Then he turned and saw me. I wanted to run, but even more than that I wanted him to love me.”
Byron grew quiet. He seemed lost in thought, rocking his chair back and forth slowly. “You let him turn you, didn’t you?” Jane asked.
Byron looked up. His eyes were filled with tears. “Yes,” he said. “It was the only way we could be together. And for a while we were.”
“But you left him?” Jane suggested.
Byron shook his head. “He was killed,” he said. “After I was turned, Ambrose taught me to hunt. One night, I seduced a local girl, beautiful but foolish. It was my first time attempting a glamor, and I was overconfident. The girl woke up while I was draining her, and she managed to get away. She’d seen my face. I ran back to the house and told Ambrose what had happened. When the girl returned with help, Ambrose glamored her into believing that he was the one whose face she’d seen. He’d already told me to leave through the back and escape into the hills.”
Jane felt her skin grow cold. She feared what Byron would say next. The story would end badly, she knew, and she didn’t want to hear it. But she listened nonetheless, anxious for it to be over.
Byron took a deep breath. “They dragged him to the center of town, drove a stake through his heart, and threw him from the cliffs into the sea,” he said. “There was nothing I could do. No one could have survived such a thing. Afterward, I did as he’d told me to. I went into the hills and made my way back to Italy, where I began my new life.”
Jane wasn’t sure what to say, so she reached out and took Byron’s hand. He remained still. “Do you know what the name Ambrose means?” he asked after a moment. “‘Immortal.’ Ironic, isn’t it?”
“I never knew,” said Jane.
“Nobody did,” Byron said. “Until now I’ve never spoken of it. But I owed you. Perhaps now I’ve repaid that debt a bit.”
“You don’t owe me,” Jane told him, taking her hand back. “I came to you that summer looking for an adventure, and that’s what you gave me.”
“Yes,” Byron said. “But I should have asked whether or not you wanted to be taken on it.”
Jane started to say something but was interrupted by the arrival of Emmeline. She had with her a young man, muscular and glassy-eyed. He wore an AC/DC T-shirt and his neck was covered in bruises.
“Did you save room for dessert?” Emmeline asked.
Chapter 30
That night she read to Charles for the first time, stumbling over the words, then finding her footing and continuing on, anxious yet elated. All the while she secretly watched his face for any reaction. When finally she saw him smile, she felt that her heart might burst with joy.
Jane was relieved when the plane touched down. She was even more relieved when she saw Lucy waiting for her at the baggage claim.
“If it isn’t Jane the vampire killer,” Lucy said, hugging her.
“That’s not funny,” said Jane.
She looked around for the oversize baggage area and saw Jasper’s kennel. “I was convinced he would freeze in the hold,” she told Lucy as she dragged her over to where the dog waited. When he saw Jane, Jasper pawed at the cage door and whined. Jane let him out, and he jumped up on Lucy.
