24 How Old Are You? (1/2)
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.