Longing for You

by Jenny Frame

  Katie needed to get her back to the house, so that she could be helped safely through the final stage.

  “What’s your name?” Katie asked.

  “Josie,” the woman wheezed.

  “Okay, Josie. You’re going to be okay. I’ll get you help. Just stay calm.”

  Katie reached out and squeezed Josie’s shoulder. Then everything happened so fast. Josie’s eyes turned red, and she attacked Katie’s wrist.

  * * *

  Alexis lay back on her bed staring at the ceiling. She had been in the same position since leaving Bhal and their chess game. All she could think about was Katie and worrying about her out on her own. Katie was so stubborn. Why couldn’t she see that she was just trying to keep her safe?

  Alexis had been shocked when Bhal called her out on her feelings. She didn’t think anyone would have noticed, but then Bhal was an old, wise soul. Bhal was right about how much she cared for Katie. She consumed all of Alexis’s thoughts. But it wasn’t right—Katie was a young vibrant woman, while Alexis was a century-and-a-half-old vampire who’d had her heart broken in pieces before.

  She sat up quickly and walked over to her chest of drawers. Underneath her clothes in the top drawer were a small painting of Anna and a lock of her hair. Alexis felt guilty about having feelings for Katie, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake them.

  Alexis closed her eyes, and the movie of finding Anna dead, downstairs, at the hand of the Dreds, played in her mind as it always did, but then something different happened. Katie’s smiling face came into her mind—her bright smile, her goodness, and the fire in her eyes when she and Alexis argued.

  She took a moment and imagined giving Katie love. Spending her days excited to spend time with her, to share meals with her, to make Katie happy, to make love like any normal couple. The warmth of those thoughts started to fill her body with light and excitement.

  She nearly jumped when she heard her phone ring. When she looked down at the screen it said: Katie calling.

  Alexis answered immediately, tension and worry already gripping her. It was out of character for Katie to call her.

  “Katie? What’s wrong?”

  “Alexis, I need help at The Sanctuary. I was just leaving to come home when I found a human injured. She’s been forcibly turned. She needs our help.”

  “I’m coming. Stay with Otto at the front door.”

  She hung up and immediately called a group of her vampires to assemble downstairs. She wouldn’t disturb the Principe until she had assessed the situation. True panic and fear gripped her heart and soul—she had to make sure Katie was safe. Newly turned vampires were volatile and unpredictable.

  Alexis hurried downstairs to meet her team, and they set off quickly. When they arrived at the front door of The Sanctuary, Otto was standing by himself and looked none the wiser to the incident that was happening nearby.

  When she got out of the car she could hear Katie down the side alley. “Luca, go and talk to Otto and see what he knows.”

  “Yes, Duca,” Luca replied.

  “The rest of you, follow me.”

  Alexis ran at super speed down the alleyway and found Katie on the ground comforting the newly turned vampire. What was she doing by herself, down a dark alley, with a vampire?

  Alexis’s worry and fear were turning to anger. Katie just would not listen and was going to get herself killed.

  Katie jumped in fright when Alexis appeared at her side. Alexis pulled Katie towards herself while her people checked over the newly turned vampire.

  “Are you all right?” Alexis asked looking her up and down for injuries.

  “I’m fine. Her name is Josie. She’d been turned and fed for the first time when I found her.”

  Alexis was thankful for that at least. The first blood a turned vampire drank was so overwhelming to their senses that they become possessive of the person they fed on, and addicted to their blood. It was a dangerous position to be in, as a new vampire could go too far and kill the person they fed on.

  As a matter of policy, the Debreks always fed new vampires from another vampire, never the human staff, to keep everyone safe.

  There was something strange about this scenario. Alexis sensed that Katie was nervous. Perhaps it was just the realization of the dangerous position she had put herself in. She needed to get Katie back to the car, so she was safe, and so she could read Katie the riot act. She wouldn’t reprimand the head housekeeper of the Debreks in front of her vampires.

  “Let’s get to the car. My vampires will bring the young woman,” Alexis said flatly.

  Katie followed, and Alexis could hear Katie’s heart beating so rapidly. Once they got into the car and shut the doors, Alexis turned to Katie and said with fury, “Once again you didn’t listen to me and put yourself in a dangerous position. She could have attacked you, fed on you, killed you.”

  “I had no choice. I can’t walk away when someone is injured,” Katie said defensively.

  “I’m not asking you to. You go and get Otto—he would have handled the situation—or you call me, and I’d be here as quickly as possible.”

  Katie pointed her finger at Alexis. “You always act like I’m a naughty ten-year-old. I can do what I want. I wanted to help a person in trouble. It’s my decision how I do that, and it’s none of yours.”

  Katie turned away from her quickly, but Alexis caught her arm and Katie hissed in pain.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Alexis didn’t think she had grasped hard enough to hurt Katie.

  Katie said coldly, “Just leave me alone.”

  Alexis sighed. If only she could tell Katie that she was angry because she was terrified of losing her. They rode back to the house in silence. Katie ran straight upstairs to her room, and Alexis could hear her bedroom door being slammed shut.

  She and her guards took the new vampire down to the blood room where she would be fed and monitored until she was stable. Alexis rubbed her forehead. How different this night could have gone. She could have been carrying Katie’s body back here, and she knew it would have destroyed her.

  Alexis had to be tougher on Katie to keep her safe, and if that meant Katie hated her, then so be it.

  * * *

  As soon as Katie got through her bedroom door, she tore off her coat to inspect her wound. Her wrist was a mess. This wasn’t like in the blood room, where the Debrek clan vampires fed with respect and care. Josie had torn at her wrist in the frenzy of her need for her first blood.

  The blood was seeping rapidly from her wound, so she hurried over to get the first aid box from her dressing table drawer. She quickly cleaned her wrist and bandaged it up tightly to stem the flow of blood.

  She looked into the mirror—she looked pale. It must have been the blood loss and the stress of the incident. She had to hide the fact that Josie had fed from her, or Alexis would go crazy, and she’d never hear the end of it. Plus, Alexis would tell Byron, and then her parents would know. It would just be a big fuss over nothing.

  Hopefully Josie would be happy with the blood available downstairs, and nobody need know.

  * * *

  Alexis paced backwards and forwards in front of Byron’s desk. She’d reported what happened to Byron when she got back, and Byron had dressed quickly and met Alexis downstairs.

  “You have to have a word with her, Principe, because she won’t listen to me.”

  Byron held up her hands. “Just take a breath, Duca. Katie is safe, but I will have a word.”

  “Katie forgets she is not like us. If she is attacked or killed, there is no second chance at life. She could be gone in an instant and I”—Alexis’s emotions threatened to overcome her—“know how much the whole clan would be devastated if that happened.”

  “Yes.” Byron sighed. “Her family is everything to me, so she must be well protected. I’ll make sure she understands. Did you get any information out of our new vampire?”

  “Nothing, she is having difficulties
with the change. Her thirst for blood is extremely high. We found drug paraphernalia in her pockets.”

  “Good God. That’s all we need,” Byron said.

  Humans with drug or alcohol problems always had a more difficult time turning, and their addiction often refocused to blood—always trying to get that first high of blood when they turned, chasing it relentlessly, and injuring and killing humans on the way, unless they got proper support.

  “Okay, well, she’ll need a tightly managed blood regime. I’ll come down and see her tomorrow morning. Go and get some rest.”

  “Yes, Principe.”

  But as Alexis walked out of Byron’s office, she knew she wouldn’t sleep a wink. She would play tonight’s events over and over in her mind, and the what might have been, like finding Katie drained of blood in the alley. The thought filled her with horror.

  Alexis needed blood but didn’t want to go downstairs to the blood room and disturb the medical care Josie was getting. A glass of blood and whisky would have to do.

  Alexis walked to her room and poured out a glass of Debrek Special Reserve blood and downed it quickly. She then got a large glass of whisky to try to dull the aching want she had to be with Katie, protecting her, and the deep hunger she had for Katie’s blood.

  Her mind kept being tortured by images of finding Katie drained of blood and dead in that alley. Then a different memory struck her. When she’d tried to grasp Katie’s arm, she remembered the discomfort Katie showed. Alexis didn’t think she had grasped her that hard.

  “No, it couldn’t be, could it?”

  Then the suspicion hit her: Had the newly turned vampire fed on Katie?

  Alexis slammed down her whisky and stormed to Katie’s room. She knocked hard on her door, and when Katie opened the door, Alexis pushed past her.

  “What are you doing?” Katie demanded to know.

  “Take off your dressing gown,” Alexis ordered.

  Katie crossed her arms defensively. “Excuse me? I don’t take off my clothes to order, especially your orders.”

  Alexis motioned for Katie’s arm, gently pushed up the sleeve of the dressing gown, and saw a bloodstained bandage on Katie’s wrist. Josie had fed on Katie. Alexis felt a mixture of panic, jealousy, and anger. She didn’t know what to say. Alexis’s mind raced with all the emotions she was feeling and processing how dangerous it was to have Katie in the same house as Josie.

  Katie gulped hard. She didn’t know how to react to silence from a clearly angry Alexis. She cradled her wrist and said, “I kept it a secret because I knew everyone, especially you, would make such a fuss, and Josie couldn’t help it, she was just following her instincts.”

  “You know what this means?” Alexis said. “Josie will now be ravenous for your blood.”

  “I’ll feed her if I need to.”

  Alexis shouted, “No,” and backed Katie up against the wall. Katie watched her eyes glowing red and her fangs erupted.

  “I don’t want any vampire feeding on you.”

  Katie gasped in shock. Alexis was jealous, demanding, and the look of want and hunger in her eyes was desperate. Katie’s body reacted to her. Her skin tingled and tightened with need.

  The want and sexual tension was palpable, and Katie was getting caught up in Alexis’s need. She reached out and caressed her cheek, and Alexis groaned. Then she touched her finger to Alexis’s fang and pierced her own finger, making the blood flow into Alexis’s mouth. Alexis closed her eyes and moaned, sucking her finger into her mouth.

  It was clear Alexis did like the taste of her blood. Had she been wrong all along?

  Katie put her hand on Alexis’s neck and pulled her close. Katie looked deeply into Alexis’s eyes and saw fear, as well as want. Alexis looked like she was fighting what she wanted.

  “Kiss me,” Katie said.

  “No, it’s not right.”

  “It’s right if we want it to be,” Katie whispered.

  Katie touched her lips to Alexis’s and ran her tongue along her lower lip. Alexis met the tip of Katie’s tongue with hers and then sucked in Katie’s lower lip.

  “Yes, kiss me.” Katie lightly scratched the back of Alexis’s neck. Her heart was pounding as well as her sex. She needed Alexis to touch her.

  And then out of nowhere, Alexis pulled away from her. “No, no, I can’t.” Then she sped out of the room at super speed, leaving Katie trying to catch her breath.

  “You ran from me again. What’s wrong with me?” Katie shouted, knowing that the Duca would hear her with her exceptional hearing.

  Chapter Six

  The next morning Amelia was sitting at her dressing table in her silk nightdress straightening her hair while Byron got dressed, and Byron told her about what happened last night.

  “This woman—Josie—fed on Katie? Is she all right?” Amelia said.

  “Last night all we knew was that Katie found a newly turned vampire. Alexis came to update me while you were in the shower.”

  “But is she all right?”

  “Yes,” Byron said straightening her tie. “Alexis took a team to The Sanctuary last night. Apparently, Katie didn’t want to tell Alexis or myself because she thought we’d overreact, but she doesn’t understand the severity of being a new vampire’s first blood.”

  “What does it mean?” Amelia put down her straightener.

  Byron walked over to her and put her hands on Amelia’s shoulders. “Being newly turned is a dangerous time for a vampire. Remember what happened to me when I first became a born vampire?”

  Amelia nodded and grasped Byron’s hand on her shoulder. Byron had gone so wild that she had nearly drained and killed Katie’s ancestors. Luckily Bhal got there in time and saved the family. That guilt always lay heavily on Byron, and since then the Debreks pledged to take care of Katie’s family. “I know, sweetheart.”

  “If the care of the transitioning vampire isn’t done within a clan, then the vampire will simply want to drain whoever provides first blood to them. It’s like an addiction, that first shot of heroin, that first bottle of whisky—the new vampire’s hunger for that human is insatiable.”

  Amelia sighed. “Katie.”

  “Exactly, but in this case things might be even more difficult. Alexis tells me that they found drug paraphernalia in this young woman’s pockets. If she already has a problem with addiction, then her need for Katie’s blood will be all the worse.”

  Amelia turned around on her stool to face Byron and said, “You’re not going to let Katie near her, are you?”

  “Of course not, mia cara.” Byron took her hand and helped her up. “That would only encourage her addiction—besides, Alexis would kill her. Josie is being provided with rich vampire blood.”

  “You mean Alexis is actually showing how much she loves Katie?” Amelia smiled.

  “You may have been right about Alexis and Katie, but all I know for certain is that Alexis doesn’t want her anywhere near Josie. I’ve never seen her so animated about something in over a century.”

  “I knew it. I can always tell when there’s romance brewing.”

  Byron slipped her hands around her waist and said, “Maybe it’s the witch in you?”

  Amelia remembered they were going to The Portal bookshop today to make contact with a witch who might help her. “Do you want to postpone today?”

  “No, it’s important. This is the first good lead we’ve had and the first witch willing to talk to us. I need to go down and speak to this new vampire, but then we can go whenever you’re ready.”

  “I promised Alexis I’d talk to Katie too. What she did last night was far too risky.”

  There was a knock at the door. “It’s Katie, may I come in? I have tea.”

  “Yes, come in,” Amelia called out, then whispered to Byron, “I’ll talk to her, okay?”

  “Thank you, Principessa.”

  * * *

  Alexis felt like her skin was crawling as she paced outside the basement room where they were keeping Josie. Byron had pr
omised to meet her here and talk to their new vampire.

  Josie had been nothing but trouble all night as she struggled with her need for blood. The blood bags and vampire donors were not being received well.

  The secure room was next to the blood room, and Alexis had relayed a message to Katie to not come down to the basement under any circumstances. Alexis also had the room and the basement under guard.

  If it was up to her, they would have turfed this woman out onto the streets. She was too much of a risk under the same roof as Katie, but she knew Byron would always do the honourable thing, just as she had done for Alexis after she was turned.

  Normally Alexis agreed with Byron’s approach, but Katie’s safety was everything to her, and her stress over protecting Katie was even more heightened after last night. She had tasted Katie’s blood again and it was like tasting Elysium. She closed her eyes and listened to the heavy thud in her chest. Normally her heart beat only every so often, but since last night it had been pounding like a mortal’s.

  A crash was heard from inside the room, and Alexis heard Josie shout, “Get me that girl’s blood now.”

  Alexis’s temper was near breaking. She burst into the room and found blood bags burst over the floor, and one of her vampires trying to clear it up.

  “Leave us, Nathan.”

  Josie was breathing heavily and leaning on the back of the chair. She didn’t look good. Dried blood was all around her mouth, and she looked dishevelled and wild. “The big boss is back,” Josie said with a sneer.

  “I’m not the boss. Byron is our clan leader, and if you wish to become part of the Debrek clan, then you had better drink the blood we are giving you and start behaving properly.”

  “I don’t want that blood. It’s not working. I need the girl from last night—Katie. She’s the only one who can satisfy me.”

  “Katie is not going to be an option for you, so you’d better get used to the blood offered to you,” Alexis said.