Excerpt: Hope's Key

'Are you cold?' Sebastian asks. His hands are like ice. Cliché, Rebecca thinks, but completely true. But she doesn't care about the cold. After the disagreement with Ian, Mr. Whisper's death, it's so nice to be touched, to have someone embrace you as if to say, 'It's okay, everything will be alright'. But she doesn't expect Sebastian to say that, because Sebastian never lies.

'Tea,' Sebastian says.

Rebecca jerks her head up. 'What?'

'I have seen enough tragedies, and for some reason whenever a human is sad or suffered trauma, they make tea.'

He pulls away, and she's surprised to find disappointment surfacing as he does so.

'I will go and put the kettle on?' It's as if he is waiting for her permission. She nods and then thinks, wait, he has a kettle?

* * *

Sebastian has a kettle. Rebecca glares at it like it's the most stupid thing to ever see in a kitchen. It's perched next to - of all things - a black biscuit tin the shape of a cat. There's also a box containing teabags and a spice rack that you can turn.

Rebecca has never been in Sebastian's kitchen before, and as she looks around she questions what else he has. What's in the kitchen cupboards, the draws, the jars on the shelf above the immaculate stove? The fridge -

Whilst the kettle boils, Sebastian opens the fridge and pulls out a milk carton. Rebecca catches a quick glance of bottles full of a red liquid in the fridge door. It's a quick reminder. Whilst the kitchen is normal enough, the one who is now pulling a cup out of the cupboard and making tea for her, is far from human.

Sebastian sees her staring at the fridge.

'Are you alright?'

She nods, but he obviously isn't convinced because he then says, 'I did tell you what I was?' There's a smile on his lips.

Rebecca nods again. It's one thing being told, it's another to actually see it for yourself.

She's seen all sorts of odd things in her twenty years of life, creatures that most people think are pure myth, but Sebastian is the first vampire she has known. For three years she's known him. In that time she's seen him with glasses of blood, but she's never really thought about it. Maybe her mind has always convinced itself that the blood was red wine. But seeing all those bottles in the fridge, and the kitchen that looks newly fitted, just reminds her that it's all pretend. He's pretending to be human. Trying to fit in for her sake, offering her tea so that she doesn't feel uncomfortable.

She brings the cup to her lips and thinks: am I the first person to drink out of this? Then she thinks about the blood again, and wonders if he makes a habit of inviting people in for cups of tea.

'It comes from donors,' Sebastian says.

She imagines the 'bloodmobile' that parks in town so that people can donate blood. She imagines the looks on the donors faces when they are told that the blood is going to feed a vampire, and not for medical purposes like they first thought.

'It's from people who know about vampires.'

'Oh,' Rebecca says. 'I did think for a second that -'

'I was stealing blood off the NHS?'

She suppresses a laugh. 'Well. Either that or you were taking it from unwilling donors.'

After checking it is okay to drink in front of her, Sebastian takes a bottle of blood from the fridge. He pours it into a glass, saying, 'I only keep it in case of guests. Most of the time, when I am hungry, I go out.'

'Do you -'

'Kill? Not for many years. I find someone willing, or someone susceptible to my charm.' He grins, shows his canines. 'They get a thrilling night they cannot quite remember, and I am no longer quite as hungry. The downside is that you do not get as filled up as you might if you drained someone completely.'

Rebecca grimaces.

'I am sorry, too much information?'

Once again, he is standing close to her. She watches him breathe, thinks: he doesn't have to do that, and wonders again if it's for her benefit. What next, will he tape a watch to his chest and pretend he has a heartbeat?

He brushes a strand of her black hair from her face, tucks it behind her ear. 'Are you going to tell me about what happened between Ian and you?'