“What?” My pathetic squeak of a voice quivered.

“They’re here.” His touch came away as he pulled my dress down and stood up.

“Hu!” I breathed heavily, covering my eyes with the balls of my palms. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“Come on.” David reached his hand out.

“No. I need a moment. Please?” I kept my face covered, letting my knees fall together.

“Okay, but, don’t be too long. Your dad will think I did something nasty to you.” David sauntered off, laughing to himself.

I’m going to kill him. I’m officially going to kill him!

Still shaking, I stumbled out to greet Dad and Vicki.

“Ara?” Dad stopped mid-pass as he handed David his coat. “Everything okay?”

“Sure, Dad. It’s great. Merry Christmas.” I smiled and kissed his cheek.

Dinner was perfect; the first and last Christmas with all the people I love, and after I said goodbye to Dad and Vicki, I sat by the piano, waiting for David to come out of the shower—probably a cold one.

“That’s my favourite Christmas song.” Mike rested his elbows on the piano top.

“Silent night?” I said; he nodded. “I didn’t know that.”

“I’m a man of mystery,” he said playfully.

I sighed. “You wanna play a duet?”

“Maybe…if you ask me with even a tiny hint of enthusiasm.” He sat beside me. “What’s up, baby? You were really distant at dinner tonight. Turkey was good, but you—”

“I know.” I dropped my head to one side. “I’m okay, really.”

Mike took over the right hand of the song, while I played the left. “I know you, Ara. You can’t lie to me—something’s up. What is it?”

My hands fell into my lap, the lovely, ringing C chord stopping dead, the warmth of the song dying with it. “I’m going to miss them, Mike. Mum and Dad. I hadn’t realised that until I saw them tonight.”

He reached for my wrist and spun the small pink and white pearl bracelet around a few times—the one he and Emily gave me for Christmas. “Are you scared? That the vampires might catch you?”

I nodded, lifting one shoulder.

“Ara, baby.” Mike cupped my chin, shaking his head. “I’ll protect you. I’ll be your guard—for the rest of forever. I’ll never let them hurt you. I promise.”

“You know?” I said, letting my head fall against his shoulder. “I actually believe you. And for what it’s worth, that does make me feel a little better.”

“Happy to help.” Mike squeezed his arm around me.

Another pair of cool arms came up from behind. “I want to hear a happy song,” Emily trilled. “Can you teach me to play something Christmassy?”

“Sure.” I shuffled over and Mike moved off the stool, landing on the couch. “Okay, place your pinkie on the C, your middle finger on the E, and your thumb on the G.”

Emily sat still, frozen almost, with her hands in her lap, her eyes on the keys.

“Em? What is it?”

“She’s listening,” Mike noted, sitting forward.

“To what?”

“David,” he stated.

“What do you mean?”

“I can hear him.” She shook off her trance then and smiled at me, her eyes dark and round.

“Hear him?” I wanted to jump up and stomp my feet. “Hear his thoughts?”

“Kind of,” she said, sinking one shoulder.

Oh, hell-to-the-no! This is caps-lock, exclamation-level unfair. “I—H...How?”

“It’s not like I can hear his actual thoughts, but, sometimes, I can like, feel them.”

“What the hell? Emily, what do you mean?”

“It’s—” she looked to Mike, awkward. “It’s like I can tell what he’s thinking, from what he’s feeling.”

My mouth hung open, dry. I snapped it shut. “Well, what...what’s he feeling now?”

Emily, with lips pressed into a fine line, looked at Mike again. “Let’s just play a song.”

“No. Em, please?” I grabbed her arm. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Nothing.” She shrugged, then smiled to herself. “He’s just—suffering.”

“What? Suffering?” I jumped up. “Where is he?”

“Not like that, Ara. He’s okay. He’s just feeling—” She laughed then and looked away.

“What?”

“Never mind. Just leave him be.” She grabbed my hand as I edged away. “Just leave him alone—trust me.”

Mike stood up and walked toward my room.

“Well, how come he can go?”

“’Cause he’s a guy—it’s a guy thing.”

A guy thing? “Is this about sex?”

“Sex?” Emily doubled back. “No. Nothing to do with it, why?”

“Then why is he suffering?”

“Ara, just shut up and teach me a song.” She rolled her eyes, placing her fingers on the keys. “He’s fine. I promise.”

By the glow of a candle, with the gentle twinkling of Christmas lights reflecting off the bay window, I sat looking out at the blackness that was the frozen lake in the daylight, absently tracing a nail over the frosted glass chessboard in front of me. When a pair of intense green eyes stole my gaze from my own reflection, I looked up and smiled at my vampire, moving my foot off the opposite chair so he could sit down.

“I have something for you,” he said.

“But you already gave me my Christmas present.” I clutched the silver locket—the one I opened early this morning, when David woke me from a restful dream and placed a small green box with a red bow in my hands.

The locket is back where it belongs now, safely against my chest.

David held back a mischievous smile. “It’s something else—something that’s been missing from your life for too long.” He lifted his hand from his pocket, and something clinked on the glass board in front of me. “It’s time this found its way home again.”

There, among the white and black pieces to a game of strategy, sat the knight—the black knight that was lost before the box had been opened.