24 How Old Are You?

Ruby didn't understand her vampire companion. Sometimes Ash was like a puppy at her beck and call, like when he fed her food as she drove or handed her gardening supplies. Other times he gave off a frightening aura.

She wondered what it was that made him that way but had her suspicions about what he talked about with Blair and why he needed to make a lot of money really fast. Something bad must have happened to him.

The closest vampire coven she had heard of was further north so she didn't know much about how they worked aside from the fact that they tended to stick with their own. A lone vampire in a destroyed castle wasn't normal.

If she had to guess, Ash was on the run just like she was. Maybe that sense of solidarity was why she proposed to help him longer than she originally planned.

Taking him to Las Vegas with her wouldn't be too much of an inconvenience. Besides, all the fairies she knew had always warned about the dangers of being caught in big cities. The more humans that were around, the harder it was to avoid bumping them with your wings.

Ash could potentially walk behind her and prevent that from happening like some sort of wing buffer. It would be fine. They could go their separate ways once he had enough money to do whatever it was he had planned and she was done with Vegas.

Once the castle was completely put back together aside from some tapestries and paintings that needed replacing, they had more time to hang out and talk. That got awkward pretty fast, which was the real reason Ruby proposed teaching him how to play gambling games.

It had the added benefit of giving him something to do when she was asleep during their trip. She had no expectations of him actually making money off of it but it should keep him occupied.

Sometimes when she looked at him he had the most haunted look in his eyes. As if he had seen every terrible thing the world had to offer. Either Ash was one of the ancient fae or whatever had driven him away from his coven had been unspeakably bad.

Fae ages were a bit strange. You weren't considered full grown until you were 150 and your appearance didn't change anymore so you looked perpetually young. Around 300 you were considered to be about forty-five years old in human terms.

A fae wasn't considered 'old' until they were 700 because most fae were killed somehow before then. Ancient fae were any that miraculously managed to escape the scourge of humanity and live past the age of 1,000. The only ones she knew about still lived in Europe and were practically legendary.

Fae could not die from illness or old age. They would continue to live forever unless they were killed. Some races were hardier than others so they tended to last longer; she had never heard of a fairy making it to ancient status because they could bleed and die as easily as a human.

Ruby eyed Ash curiously. She hadn't asked before because she didn't want to be rude but she had been wondering how old he was for a while.

His appearance was that of a man in his twenties. Right now he looked like a moody teenager irritably pushing his long hair out of his face as he bent over his cards with extreme concentration.

"Hey, how old are you?" she asked randomly.

Ash looked up at her in surprise; the strand of hair he had pushed out of the way flopping back to its original position. "Six hundred eighty-two."

He answered her without hesitation! Did he not care that it was a rude question? Or had no one ever asked him this before so he answered like it was perfectly normal?

He wasn't quite considered old yet but he was close. Interesting. Was it standard for vampires to live a long time? She hadn't heard many rumors in terms of how hardy a race they were.

Ruby couldn't stop herself from blurting out, "Are you old for a vampire?"

Thankfully he found her question amusing. He laughed and shook his head. "Not really. I knew of a small coven in the old country that had miraculously lived through the rise and fall of the Roman Empire."

She blinked at him in shock. That old?!

Ash's expression suddenly clouded and that haunted look appeared in his eyes again. What was he thinking about when he spaced out like that?

Ruby had tried remaining indifferent to her business partner (for lack of a better term) but she actually felt pretty sorry for him when he made that face. It was like the whole world had been torn out from under him.

In their brief time together she had noticed Ash tended to go back and forth between four moods: curious, amused, heartbroken, and murderous. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it but it hinted at a dark past.

It was time to distract him. "I'm one hundred fifty-six by the way and I've never left this area. My family owns a nursery nearby."

A ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "No wonder you took over the garden."

"Yep. I learned everything I know there," Ruby said proudly.

Her heart sunk. She would probably never see the nursery again and it had been all she ever knew. Now she was the one who randomly got sad in the middle of their conversation. No matter what she did she seemed to be treading through an emotional minefield right now. It might be better not to talk.

"It's your turn," she reminded him with a sigh. Getting back to their game would be better than talking about things they would both rather forget.

Ash jumped on her suggestion gratefully and the moment of melancholy passed. Ruby would have to watch what she said in the future to prevent awkwardness like this from happening again.