Chapter 26

Ivy Sparks

While Ben sleeps through the height of the day, I take another tour around the perimeter that he'd shown me. Like almost everybody else I know, I've always been scared of spiders. Grandma always told me to not worry about big spiders in the house, because they got big by eating other insects. That didn't really comfort me in their presence. But going around the cabin and finding the branches Ben had bent to put them at just the right distance to attract the kinds of spiders that spin the big, nearly invisible webs, I have a newfound appreciation of them. Every spider I see is a place a vampire has not gotten near the cabin.

I'm even learning to admire their beauty. The ones Ben cultivates have long legs, and spread them out in pairs so they look almost like a letter X, in a striking combination of yellow and black. I kind of get why he calls them fine ladies.