by Helen Bright
“Behave yourself, Sergei.”
“Yes Maggie,” he said as he followed her into Josh’s cottage, turning to wink at us before he left the doorway.
Julia and I went into Nik’s cottage and found Daisy sitting on the bed eating biscuits with Gina and Nik.
“How are you feeling?” asked Julia
“A lot better now,” said Gina. “I keep randomly bursting into tears, though.”
“It’s only to be expected,” said Julia, “I mean, you’ve had quite a shock and then with the blood loss…”
“Yes, I know. But I shouldn’t feel so sorry for myself when there’s poor Keeley like that.”
“Have you seen my Mummy, Auntie Gina? Uncle Alex says she’s poorly and she doesn’t want me to catch it, so Auntie Freya’s going to take me to her house to stay with her.”
We all exchanged a look with each other and once again I could feel a lump in my throat when I looked at little Daisy.
“Your Uncle Dan has decided to go to Auntie Freya’s with you too, sweetheart,” said Julia.
Daisy gave Julia the most beautiful beaming smile and said, “I’m glad Uncle Dan’s coming. I miss him lots now I live in my new house, but I’m glad I’ve got a daddy now. I hope my Daddy can make Mummy feel better soon. Uncle Alex, you could take her my cough medicine and see if that will make her feel better.”
“Come on Princess, let’s get you to Freya and make sure she’s packed all your toys,” I said as I picked her up and carried her next door.
“Uncle Alex, I’m not a princess, I’m a queen, like Ellie,” she said with a huff.
Duly chastised, I gave my apologies to the little queen and handed her over to Freya so that Julia and I could go into the office and start the night shift.
Chapter Twenty-One
Freya
About half an hour into our journey to my home in Aldbrough Daisy fell asleep. I tried to make conversation with Daniel but he didn’t want to talk. Understandable really, considering what had happened today, but it still left an awful atmosphere in the car nonetheless.
When we pulled up outside my home, I could tell Daniel was shocked. My home is a little larger than Gregor’s Manor house, but it doesn’t have as much acreage as his. I suppose Daniel was expecting something a little smaller, like the cottage Alex lives in. But even though I have other smaller properties, this one has always been my favourite, and one I will always consider my home.
Leonard, my butler, came to the car and immediately opened the back door to take Daisy out of her car seat.
“I thought she would be asleep,” he said as he lifted her up in his arms. “Millie has been baking all her favourites, and Sally has been to the bigger supermarket in Hull to get all her other favourite foods. She also bought her a large paddling pool, so I hope the weather is good tomorrow.”
“Leonard this is Daniel, Daisy’s uncle,” I said introducing them for the first time.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Daniel,” said Leonard, closing the car door behind him.
“Now let’s get this little one inside out of the damp night air, shall we Freya. Frank will come out and collect her things later.”
“I will get them,” said Daniel as he made his way round to the boot of the vehicle.
I drive an old Subaru Forester and I love this car. It has all wheel drive for the harsh winters we sometimes get on the east coast of Yorkshire, and it has never let me down in the eight years I have owned it. Gregor is always on at me to get a new one, but you get used to things. I would hate to let this one go.
Frank, my gardener, came out of the house closely followed by his wife, Sally. Frank offered to take Daniel and Daisy’s luggage, but I think carrying it inside my house made Daniel feel useful in some way. I believe he was a little overwhelmed by his surroundings, so I told him that once we had Daisy settled, I would take him on a tour of the house.
Daniel stopped to look at some photographs I had hung on the wall in the hallway. They were of Keeley, Daisy, and me on the lawns outside when Daisy was just a baby. It had been a lovely sunny day when they were taken, and we were relaxing after a walk on the beach at nearby Mappleton. Then further on there was a photograph of the three of us building sandcastles on Hornsea beach. I remember asking a lady to take the photo and how we tried our best to get Daisy to look at the camera and smile.
I hoped these photographs set Daniel’s mind at rest with regards to Daisy being here. She’s used to having holidays here with me, the only difference, this time, was that Keeley wasn’t with us.
Leonard carried the sleeping Daisy upstairs to the bedroom we had decorated for her last Christmas. We knew she was absolutely mad on the Fairy Queen, so we had the room decorated with the wallpaper and matching paint colours. Frank had made her a four poster bed and painted it white, while Millie had made the drapes from a shimmering blue voile material I had sourced from India.
I was still in the business of buying and selling fabrics, so this was easy for me. The room was enchanting, and I could tell that Daniel was impressed when he saw it.
“The room next door is the one Keeley normally stays in, so you can take that one if you want,” I offered. “It has an adjoining door to this room, and Daisy normally sneaks into bed with Keeley if she wakes through the night. But if you want, I will sleep in that room and you can take my bedroom or one of the others,” I told him.
“How many bedrooms are there?” he asked.
“Ten on this floor and most have en suite bathrooms, then four downstairs, but my staff have those rooms. Leonard is married to Millie, she’s my cook, and Frank is married to Sally, my housekeeper. The staff quarters are just off the kitchens and are separated into two wings. There’s also two more bedrooms, a sitting room, two bathrooms, a study, dining room and small kitchen. At one time we all lived here, Alex, Josh, and I, but they moved further inland to manage their business.”
“How far from the sea are you?”
“About half a mile, give or take, although with how fast the coastline is eroding it won’t be long until we are much too close for comfort.”
The coastline is deteriorating at an alarming speed, and lots of homes have already gone as the land has fallen into the sea. The North Sea can be a real beast when it wants to be, and there seems very little that can be done to stop it, although, along the coastline at Mappleton, huge boulders have been placed in front of the cliff side which has slowed down the erosion for the time being.
“I can show you around the area tomorrow, and weather permitting, we can take a walk along the cliffs.”
“Okay, that would be nice, thank you.”
“Daniel I want you to feel at home here during your stay. You have always been welcome in my home even if you didn’t come along with Keeley. I know the sheer size of this house can be a little daunting, but you will get used to it eventually.”
“Oh, I’m sure I won’t be here that long, so you don’t have to worry about me,” he said, a sharpness to his voice that made Leonard turn to him with a hostile glare. I caught Leonard’s gaze and shook my head.
Daniel had had some devastating news today and obviously he was upset. I busied myself by getting Daisy’s night things out of the suitcase I had packed for her, and Dan went through the interlocking door into his room.
A short time later when Daisy was tucked up in bed, I knocked on Daniel’s door and asked him to join me for supper. On our way down to the kitchen, I gave him a quick tour, and he seemed particularly impressed with the large ballroom.
Looking at it from a stranger’s point of view I suppose it was impressive. From the highly polished dark wooden floors, the intricate cornicing and mouldings adorning the ceilings, and the large floor to ceiling windows covered by beautifully crafted drapes, made it look like a room you would imagine in a fairytale. The chandeliers lit the room up nicely, but when the sun shone through the windows throughout the day was when it was at its loveliest. But apart from a few chaise longue around the edges o
f the room, it was unfurnished. This room always made me feel lonely.
When Gregor came to stay with me, he insisted that we light a fire in the huge fireplace and dance around the room like we used to two hundred years ago. It always made me smile when we did that.
Millie had prepared a curry with rice and naan bread. It had taken me a while to get Millie to add foreign foods to her culinary skills, but my goodness, was it ever worth it.
Daniel complemented Millie and I think it made her day. She began fussing after him just like she did Alex, Josh, and Gregor. I offered him a beer and he accepted it with a smile. For the first time since he had found out about what happened with Keeley, I saw him relax. I knew that it would be pointless to push further conversation this evening and, to be honest, I was happy to sit for a while in silence.
Sally was upstairs watching over Daisy, so I asked if Daniel would mind if I caught up with some work emails. He asked what my business was, and I explained about how I sourced the best fabrics from around the world and sold them to fashion houses.
We got involved in the fabric trade three hundred years ago. Alex and I would travel to Liverpool and meet the ships coming in from overseas with beautiful silks and vibrant coloured fabrics and spices. We quickly built up a good trade, and though Alex left the business to pursue other ventures, I kept on buying and selling fabrics.
I own two clothing warehouses and other ventures, but there’s something about discovering new materials and fabric colours that inspires me to carry on. Over the years, I’ve met some of the designers from the top fashion houses in the world, and I love seeing their modern, if not sometimes bizarre, designs.
Daniel asked how often I travelled for the business and how many different countries I had been to. I told him all about my visits to the Far East, and how exciting it is to learn about different cultures. He said he would like to travel more as he had only ever been as far as France and Spain with his family, and more recently on a few lad’s holidays to party resorts such as Magaluf in Majorca.
I told him he had many years to travel since he was not quite twenty-five yet. Daniel said he didn’t think there was much chance of travelling too far when he had a flat and a car to pay for on his wage. He seemed really down about his job, but I didn’t want to get into it too much tonight, because Daniel seemed to have mellowed a little and I didn’t want to spoil his mood. So I just carried on with my emails as he sat by the fire drinking his beer.
I occasionally sneaked a peek at him to make sure he was okay. Daniel was really good looking, with wavy blond hair which he normally kept short, but had recently let it grow so it came over his ears and down his neck. He had the most amazing blue eyes, which were framed by long lashes, and always seemed to be sporting stubble, which gave his face a sexy, rugged look. He was, at least, six-foot-three and was muscled to perfection.
I knew he regularly went to the gym at Night Movers because I had seen him working out there a few times. But he wasn’t overly muscular if you know what I mean. I can’t stand those over muscled guys whose veins stick out and have no necks. I know some women find that attractive, but I certainly don’t. Let’s just say Daniel has all the right muscles in all the right places, and if the women I saw ogling his six pack that day were anything to go by, then he wasn’t short of female attention.
He looked up and caught me staring at him, and I saw something in his gaze that I hadn’t seen for some time. It was lust.
I knew that Daniel had a bit of a crush on me when he was younger, but I hadn’t seen him look at me like that since he was a horny fifteen-year-old with a thing for a woman who looked like she was in her late twenties.
I was twenty-seven when I was forced into immortality, so my looks hadn’t changed since then, even though that was nearly nine hundred and fifty years ago. But to see Daniel looking at me like that again threw me for a loop, and I suddenly felt weird about admiring his body earlier. Like he was still a teenager, although clearly he wasn’t. So I feigned tiredness and told him I was off to bed.
Daniel followed me upstairs, saying it would be better if he could get some sleep as no doubt Daisy would be up early in the morning. We said goodnight without our eyes meeting, and I told him to let me know if he or Daisy needed anything.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Daniel
My room at Freya’s house was huge. In fact, you could just about fit our entire upstairs at my dad’s house in it and have room to spare. But although it was a big space, it didn’t feel cold. For such an old house, it had central heating, with huge radiators and open fire if you needed it.
I’m not usually one to wear pyjamas, but I had packed the only pair I owned to bring here. I wasn’t sure if Daisy would be sleeping in my bed, so I wanted something to wear just in case.
The bedroom had an en suite bathroom which still held some of Keeley’s toiletries like toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, and that raspberry scented body wash that she uses. I thought about calling Josh to see how she was, but they said earlier that she may be out for days yet.
After brushing my teeth, I got into the huge bed, amazed at how small I felt in it. It felt good not to keep my tall, broad frame in the single bed that I’d had most of my life at my dad’s house.
I thought back to tonight when I was sitting by the fire in the kitchen with Freya. I was sure I caught her checking me out, but I must have been mistaken. I knew I was a good looking guy, but Freya was on another realm to me in the looks department. I had fancied her since I was about twelve years old and used to fantasise about all the things I wanted to do with her when I had my nightly wank. In fact, I think most of the muscles in my right arm came about because of Freya.
Being a vampire, she hadn’t changed over the years, and she still did it for me in a big way. But I had seen her hanging around with that filthy rich boss of Keeley’s. The powerful, mega wealthy, good looking bastard was plainly her type, so obviously my childhood fantasies weren’t going to be coming true anytime soon, I was sure of that.
Still, it didn’t hurt to dream I thought, as I stroked my hard on through my pyjamas.
I started thinking about all the ways that I would take Freya. Her laid bare on the rug in front of that fireplace in her kitchen was the first thing that came to mind. I wondered whether the hair covering her sex would be as pale as the blond hair on her head, or maybe she wouldn’t have any covering her folds at all. I thought about how she would taste as I lapped at her slit and ran my tongue up to her clit. How her back would bow off the floor when she neared her peak so I would have to hold her hips down with both hands to keep her in position.
I pictured her full breasts topped off by rose pink nipples, hardening at my touch, and the feel of her tight wet heat as I sank my hard cock inside her. I took out my painfully hard erection and began to stroke myself to the brink, which didn’t take long at all. Pretty soon I came, the hot rhythmic spurts spilling into my hand and on my belly.
I used the tissues at the side of my bed to clean up the best I could; then I went into the bathroom to get rid of them and wash my hands. This was all it would ever be for Freya and me. A fantasy spilled over from my teenage years. And frankly, after what happened to my sister today, well maybe that’s a good thing, because no matter how great Freya and the others are, each and every one had the strength and speed to kill us in seconds. Although now this included my sister and, to be honest, I wasn’t sure how I was going to deal with that.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Keeley
It was dark when I woke, and I wondered what the time was. Josh had his arms wrapped around me and I was glad of that as it seemed to feel colder than it normally was. For a few moments, I let myself relax into Josh’s embrace. I was thirsty, and my head and throat ached, but this feeling of being loved and protected couldn’t be replaced.
“Keeley?” said Josh in a voice thick with emotion. I tried to turn my head to see him, but my neck and throat hurt.
“Josh, I think I’m
coming down with something. I don’t feel so good,” I croaked.
I thought about asking him for a few drops of blood to make me feel better, and that’s when it hit me. Blood, I needed blood. A thirst like no other I had ever experienced suddenly took over my whole body and I began to shake.
“Keeley, it’s ok, I’ve got you,” he said as he turned me over to face him and he bit into his wrist.
I don’t know what came over me in that instant, but his blood smelt so good. I snatched his wrist and brought it to my mouth, lapping, then sucking, at the blood that flowed. My gums throbbed and I felt something slide down them. The darkness of the room was suddenly tinged by what seemed to be a red mist as I felt myself bite into Josh’s already bleeding wrist. I couldn’t help the groan that escaped my mouth as I drank from Josh, no more than I could stop myself from climbing on top of him so I could grind my sex against his own, and still I drank.
“Keeley, that’s enough,” he said, his tone firm as he gathered my hair into his free hand and pulled.
I let go of his wrist as I cried out, the orgasm taking me over completely. But as I was coming down from the waves of pleasure something happened. Memories of yesterday started to flash through my mind, like swiping through the images on my phone, they kept coming and didn’t stop. I heard a scream that seemed to be in the distance, but a few moments later I realised it was my own, as I relived the moment Maxim tore into my neck.
I placed my hand over the area where he had bit me but felt nothing. I looked around, confused and frightened. This wasn’t our bedroom in Josh’s cottage, I was at the Manor, naked and in bed with Josh. I was still sitting astride him, but he was holding me tight to his chest.
