Chapter 13

Elaina explained to the indignant Dawn that she and Rob usually went around naked in the morning, but this morning they had decided to cover up to keep from embarrassing their guest.

The conversation had been less than sexy, and Dawn was feeling a little exposed now. Rather than asking, she went to the bedroom closet to get one of Rob's dress shirts. The tails came halfway down her thighs front and back, and she'd buttoned it high enough to cover what it needed to. She came strolling out, rolling up the sleeves after putting her hair up with a scrunchie.

"How is it," Rob asked rhetorically, "A man can wear a shirt like that and he's seen as a slob, but a woman does it and it's about the sexiest thing she could do?"

Dawn struck a pose and batted her eyes at him. Elaina came up to stand beside him, raking her eyes up and down Dawn's form.

"I think it depends on the man," she remarked, "But in Dawn's case, she could wear burlap and still be sexy."

Dawn's eyes widened briefly before drooping, a sultry smile spreading her cheeks.

"You guys really know how to make a girl feel good," she purred.

Rob's phone started ringing in the bedroom, so he headed in to get it. After a brief muttered conversation, punctuated with an occasional "okay," he returned.

"That was Archer," he told them. "He told me not to bring my katana to class Monday."

"Why not?" Elaina asked at the same time Dawn asked, "What's a katana?" Rob chose to answer Elaina first.

"He said my new teacher is a traditionalist. I wouldn't even be allowed to draw it until I demonstrated I wouldn't cut off my arm unsheathing it," Rob said. "I'll be using a practice sword until I'm proficient enough to handle a real sword."

"Wait a minute, you guys," Dawn interjected. "Hold on. Are you saying a katana is a sword?"

"Wait here," Rob said, and he hurried back to the bedroom.

"Where the hell else am I gonna wait?" Dawn muttered. She looked at Elaina, who was smiling contritely at her. "You have any more surprises for me?" Elaina smile became a grin. "Oh boy."

Rob came out with the sheathed katana in his hand. Dawn frowned on seeing it. "Aren't swords bigger than that?"

"What's this fixation you have with 'bigger'?" Rob asked. He gripped the hilt and pulled the katana free. Dawn's eyes grew. "Big enough now?"

"Wow," she said. "That thing looks dangerous."

"It's supposed to be, sweeting," Elaina said. "It's a weapon – a deadly weapon in the right hands – and Rob is going for training."

"Why would you want to learn that?" Dawn asked, perplexed.

"Elaina gave me this as a gift," Rob replied. "She brought it with her from Japan back around the middle of the seventeen hundreds, I think she said."

"Later than that, sweeting," Elaina corrected. "I came back just in time for the Revolutionary War, remember?"

"You were around for that?" Dawn asked faintly.

"Well, I'm afraid I missed the Boston Tea Party," she replied, "But I was in Lexington for Revere's ride. It's a shame he never made it that far."

"Oh, wow," Dawn said.

Rob sheathed the sword and put it away, having safely diverted Dawn for the time being from several subjects they weren't ready to expose her to.

Dawn wandered off to the bathroom, her head reeling from all the morning's revelations. She still wasn't sure why she wasn't more freaked out about discovering that vampires were real.

Rob and Elaina held a hurried conversation in the kitchen while Dawn was out of the room.

"We should tell her everything," Elaina said. "She's too astute for us to hide things from her for long."

"I've had months to get used to things," Rob argued. "She's known the big one for less than a day. Let's give her time to absorb that before we drop her in the deep end. Besides, most of what we could tell her are things that have passed."

"Well, okay," she allowed dubiously. "I'll wait, but if she starts asking questions, I won't lie to her."

"That's all I'm asking," he said hurriedly, hearing the toilet flush.

Dawn came out dressed in her clothes from last night.

"I have to go," she said reluctantly. "I need clean clothes, and I need time to deal with all this ... I need to sleep on it and get my head straight."

"Trust me," Rob said sympathetically. "I understand completely. Next time we get time together, I'm going to have to tell you about the night I met Elaina. It took me a week just to admit she was a vampire, let alone accept it. I kept wanting it to be a dream."

Dawn gave him a crooked smile. "Yeah, I think it would help to hear that."

She walked out and put her parka on. Rob made a hurried phone call then joined her and Elaina in the foyer. He hoped to delay her long enough for the car to arrive. Dawn was standing in front of Elaina and had her head down.

"Elaina," she started tremulously. "I remember saying something to you this morning, and I wanted to be sure you understood." Because her head was down, she didn't see the sadness that passed like a cloud through Elaina's eyes. "I remember telling you that I loved you."

Dawn lifted her head to look into Elaina's eyes. Elaina pasted on a neutral face to keep Dawn from worrying.

"I meant what I said, Elaina," she said with a sure voice. "I love you."

Relief coursed through her veins and she sagged when Dawn wrapped her in a hug. She returned the hug fiercely, her arms wrapped around Dawn's waist.

"Thank you, Dawn," she whispered. "I love you, too."

They kissed, gently with passion, then separated so Rob could have a turn.

"I love you, Dawn," Rob said softly. She squeezed him tight.

"I love you, too"

She asked that she be allowed to leave by herself this time so she could be with her thoughts, and they let her go. Rob went to the window to see the car waiting, and he sighed with relief. He didn't want to smother her, but he was still worried for her state of mind. Elaina joined him and they both waited until the car left with her tucked safely inside.

"Well," he said, "As exciting as this weekend has been, the clothes won't wash themselves."

Elaina heaved a sigh. "Yes, I suppose we must. Why don't you start the laundry while I get the grocery list in order. I'm hoping we'll be hosting Dawn more often now, and we'll need more food."

"Fair enough," he replied. "Should I get the key to the elevator now?"

"Probably wouldn't hurt," she answered. "We should be done before Tanisha gets back, but you never know."

Rob rounded up the laundry while Elaina went through the cabinets and the refrigerator, stopping to make notes on the list, absently chewing on the end of the pencil between times. She was still at it when he trundled off for the basement.

After he got everything started, he took off to find Stefan and get the key. Rob eventually found him on the second floor changing light bulbs in the hallway there. When Rob approached him about the key, Stefan packed it in, claiming he was finished, and he led Rob back to his apartment.

"Here," he said when they arrived. He handed over a brand new key with commemorative coin as a fob. "You ask for it so often, I had one made for you. Don't lose it."

"I won't," Rob promised and stuck it in his pocket. "I've got to get back to check on my laundry. It took so long finding you, I'm sure it's ready for the dryers."

Stefan followed him down and they chatted until Stefan announced he had to take care of the third floor now.

"I change all of them the same time every year," he said when Rob asked why. "This way, I never get a call about dark hallways. I check all the smoke detectors at the same time."

Rob was folding the last load when Elaina showed up. She helped out and the job was soon done. He was packing up the last of it when she spoke up.

"Rob, there's something we need to consider," she said seriously. "I bit Dawn last night." When he frowned, she said, "Well, okay, technically she bit herself with my teeth, but it all amounts to the same thing: she has my saliva in her bloodstream and we really don't know how long before the effects of that start showing up, or to what degree."

They pondered the possibilities as they trudged back upstairs. Just as they got in the door, Rob's phone rang. He pulled it out and saw it was Tanisha. He answered and, after a brief conversation, handed the phone to Elaina. Peeking into the kitchen, he saw her phone sitting on the table. He carted the clothes to the bedroom while she handled the call. He was nearly done putting things away when she came in to return his phone, the tell-tale bulge in her jeans letting him know she'd remembered to pick up her own.