Mairin hugged me, hard and fast. I could feel how much she was worrying about everything in her life and I felt a stab of guilt for having added my own problems to her plate.
“Will do, sis. Love you,” she said.
“Love you, too.”
When she’d gone, I dumped everything out of my suitcase and started over. Mairin was right, the spring formal dress was really too fancy for a vacation in Florida. Especially since Xavier had told me his parents lived on the edge of a swamp in some tiny town. I doubted there would be any formal occasions for us to attend in the next seven days.
As I packed, I considered the strange year I’d lived through. The past year had definitely been the most interesting I’d ever had in my life. As though starting high school wasn’t enough trauma for a teenaged girl, I’d also had to deal with almost losing my sister twice. Losing Mairin was a nightmare I had had since I had been a toddler. After Daddy had been killed in a car accident, Mairin had clung to me while our mother had turned to Tawnya and left us much to our own devices. It was Mairin who had taught me to tie my shoes and who had made my lunches before walking with me to the elementary school we’d attended. And it was to Mairin I often turned when I was frightened or worried. I loved my mom, but she wasn’t always the most aware member of our family and something about Tawnya had always intimidated me. Mairin loved me and let me be myself.
When I’d almost lost her twice in the past year, my anger and fear had turned on Mathias. As much as I liked him, I still hated that Mathias seemed to be the reason Mairin was on the edge of death every couple of months. I guess it was just a hazard of spending so much time around vampires, though I had to admit that Mairin’s love of a vampire actually had less to do with her near-death experiences than her own hard-headed determination that it was her job to save the world. The first time, she’d gotten between a demigod and Mathias. The second time, she’d taken on one of the most powerful vampires in the world so she could save the man she loved. Of course, who was I to talk about dangerous company? The werepanthers in East Hampton weren’t that much more civilized than the vampires currently camped out at Mathias‘ house.
As though it wasn’t enough that my sister had chosen to spend her time with Mathias and put her life in the hands of one vampire, she was now spending her days working side by side with a couple dozen vampires. Since her return from England, more than twenty vampires had taken up residence at the mansion Mathias called a house. Mairin wouldn’t be more specific than to say they were there because of some weird thing to do with what had happened in England. I wanted to know more, but she wouldn’t give me the details. I could be patient, but only for so long. Sooner or later Mairin was going to have to explain the vampires' presence to Xavier and the panthers and I was going to be there when it happened.
Despite the stress of the year, there had been one brilliantly bright spot in the midst of the darkness. Meeting Xavier almost made up for everything else. The first day I’d seen him in my mom’s shop, I’d known I wasn’t going to forget him. Sure, he was kind of gorgeous, but it wasn’t just his looks that made an impression on you when you met him. You might find it hard to miss his luminescent green eyes, strong features and sandy hair, but it was this air of leadership and protection he exuded that would keep you riveted on him. It wasn’t until he’d told me about the werepanthers and his role as the head of the pride that I’d really understood why everyone sort of stepped back for him. Despite his age, Xavier was the leader of the pride. He’d never explained why, but I could see in the way the other panthers watched him, they trusted him to do the right thing for the pride and those whom they loved and protected. Even when they didn’t agree with Xavier’s decisions, the pride would go along with them and give everything they had to guarantee the success of the task Xavier set.
When Xavier had asked me to go to Florida with him for his annual trip to visit his parents, I’d been certain my mother and Tawnya would say no. But surprisingly, my mom and her partner had agreed to let me go with very little discussion. After the year of metaphysical uproar and Mairin’s “accidents,” I’d been sure Mom and Tawnya would insist I stay close to home, but Elise, Xavier’s grandmother, had convinced Mom that I’d be fine in Florida with her son, Tyler, and his wife, Dorothy. Mom trusted Elise when it came to the metaphysical things that seemed permanently attached to my family and had come to see Elise as the final word on so many things. If Elise said I’d be safe, Mom believed her.
Tyler and Dorothy Meyers lived outside of some tiny town near Gainesville. Xavier swore his parents were looking forward to meeting me, and that I’d love them, but I still doubted him. Well, I didn’t actually doubt Xavier. It was his parents who worried me. I guess part of me wondered what kind of parents would leave their child with his grandmother and allow him to live half a country away. Xavier said it was because his mother missed the Florida weather when she tried living in East Hampton, but the sadness in his eyes when he said it made me wonder if there wasn’t more to it.
My cell phone struck up the ring tone I had set for Xavier, jerking me out of my thoughts, and I scrambled around until I found it buried under a pile of shoes at the foot of my bed.
“Kerry, please tell me you’re not still packing,” Xavier said. I could hear the smile in his voice.
“Stuff it, buddy. I’m a girl. We take longer to make decisions because we actually think about things.”
He laughed. “Yeah, there is that,” he said. “Anyway, Gram wanted to know if there’d be room in the car for her so she could go to the airport with us. She’s changed her mind again.”
Elise had been changing her mind about going to the airport with us for two weeks. It was kind of freaky, actually, since Elise was one of the most decisive people I’d ever met. Xavier liked to say she was hard-headed, but I’d always assumed that whatever link Elise had to the metaphysical world gave her clear information. Armed with such a clear path, Elise simply didn’t feel the need to deviate from her decisions, regardless of what others might think. Her vacillation on joining us for the trip to the airport was so far out of character I didn’t know how to handle it and I felt my anxiety crank up another notch.
“Um,” I said, silently calculating the number of people, plus luggage and cursing. “If we ask you know who if we can use the monster SUV, yeah. Should I call Maire?” The only vehicle I could think of which would accommodate all of us and our bags was Alfred’s SUV. Xavier didn’t care for Mathias‘ friend Alfred and the older vampire had been pretty clear about not liking the panthers either. Actually, I was pretty sure Mairin didn’t like the old vamp either. They kind of glared at each other when they thought Mathias wasn’t watching. Their animosity didn’t make a whole lot of sense though, since it had been Alfred who arranged for all the doctors and stuff when Mairin had come home from England. I always thought his care for her health implied some sort of care between the two of them. But the few times I'd seen Alfred since Mairin had come home from England, their interactions had bordered on hostile. Apparently I didn’t understand vampire politics or etiquette and Mairin wasn’t explaining them to me. Actually, she tried to keep me as far from the vampires as she could without her attempts being too obvious.
“No, I’ll do it,” Xavier said. “I wanted to talk to her about the number of vamps staying at vamp central right now anyway. Of course, she could always just order him. Hell, I might even stop over just so I can watch the fireworks.”
“I really wish you wouldn’t egg him on, Xavier,” I said. “You know Alfred hates the whole ordering thing almost as much as Mairin does.”
“Yeah, that’s why I love it,” Xavier said, laughing. “The leech ought to feel bad about things from time to time.”
Xavier wasn’t usually so gleeful in his dislike of Alfred. “What happened?” I asked. The combination of Xavier’s joy in needling Alfred and his desire to talk to Mairin made me nervous. The last time Xavier had pushed Alfred and tried to get information out of Mairin, a vampire
had been killing men in East Hampton.
“Nothing, Kerr. Really. He just annoys me.” Xavier’s tone was irritated, but I could tell he was hiding something.
I knew he was lying, but I didn’t know how to get the truth out of him. Xavier was often pretty tight lipped about pride business, especially if it had anything to do with the vampires. I sometimes thought the pride saw me as a threat to their security. Mairin’s closeness with the vampires and my relationship with my sister put me in a position to pass on pride secrets or business to the enemy either intentionally or accidentally. The truth was, I would tell Mairin anything I thought she needed to know, but she’d be more likely to hold onto any secrets I shared with her as long as Mathias or anyone in our family wasn’t in any direct danger. My sister had always kept things close and rarely let herself slip. I’d never once found out what my Christmas gifts were before she gave them to me.
I decided to let whatever Xavier didn’t want to tell me go. “Well,” I said, “if I’m ever going to be ready to go, I can’t gab with you on the phone all day, Xavier.”
“Right. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
It was hard for me to be neutral when it came to the panthers and the vampires. On one hand, I knew the evil the vampires could do and the damage they’d done to my own family. That put me squarely in the same camp as the panthers when it came to exterminating any vampires who were a threat to the people of East Hampton and Highland Home. On the other hand, I saw Mathias with my sister. The kind of love they had was terrifying in its intensity. I knew Mairin wouldn’t survive if the panthers killed Mathias and I was unwilling to lose my sister. The panthers tolerated Mathias because of Mairin and me, but I could see how much that tolerance cost them every time I sat with Xavier during a pride meeting. The subject of the vampires in Highland Home came up regularly and the tension in the room was enough to make me want to run screaming. I hoped someday the two groups could find common ground and stop fighting, but I knew that the essential nature of vampires and werepanthers were so different than my hopes were unlikely to be fulfilled. I’d probably die standing between the two groups, trying to keep them from killing each other.
I finished packing, finally choosing mostly cute summer outfits and tucking a couple of dresses that would hang out quickly into the corner of my suitcase. The vampires and panthers would still be here when I got back from Florida. For now, I wanted to focus on a week away from the metaphysical mess that seemed to follow my family. I wanted to think about nothing more complicated than what to wear to the pond where Xavier swam as a child and what kind of soda to drink when I got hot. I wanted a week away from Highland Home, East Hampton, panthers and vampires. I wanted a week with Xavier.
Chapter 2
The wall of heat and moisture that greeted our arrival in Florida took my breath away. The heat waves rising from the tarmac gave the walk from the plane to the terminal feel like a stroll past the gates of hell. I took the deepest breath I could manage in the heavy air and sighed. The fresh ocean scent that had always meant home to me was definitely missing in the muggy mess these Floridians called air. I missed the sea and home already.
“Welcome to Florida, babe,” Xavier said, taking my hand and leading me to the tiny door set into the base of the terminal building. Sweat ran down my back and I struggled to breathe in the heavy, water-soaked atmosphere.
“You didn’t tell me I’d need gills to breathe here, jerko,” I said.
Xavier laughed. “It’s not that bad. You’re just spoiled.”
“Because I believe breathing should take less energy than running a marathon?” I asked.
“Yep,” he smiled and kissed me. Sweat drops ran down the sides of my face and I cursed under my breath. So much for looking fresh and pretty when I met Xavier’s parents. I'd be lucky if all my makeup hadn't melted permanently into my skin by the time we reached the air conditioning the foggy windows of the terminal promised awaited us.
The blast of arctic air which hit us as the door to the terminal opened was nearly as painful as the sub-tropical surprise that had awaited us as we disembarked from the plane. I went from sweating the shivering in under a minute. Xavier put his arm around my shoulder and kissed my temple. I clung to his warmth, almost missing the large group of shouting people and the neon "Happy Birthday Xavier" sign which awaited our arrival on the far side of the security barriers.
Xavier had spent half of the flight from Highland Home to Florida obsessing over how much his family would embarrass him in front of me. I had assured him that no matter what they did, I would still love him. What I hadn't done, however, was promise not to rub it in if the opportunity presented itself. From the look of the size of the crowd and the neon paint on the sign, the embarrassment was going to be epic and I was going to enjoy every moment of it.
“And you thought they’d forget,” I teased. “I’m glad to see Elise isn’t the only subtle member of your family.” Xavier’s complexion, usually dark from the time he spent in the sun, went decidedly purple with embarrassment and I couldn’t resist kissing his hot cheek. "I love you," I said, clinging to his hand.
"I love you, too," he said, pushing forward into the throng of waiting family.
While Xavier was consumed with hugging and kissing various members of his family, I remembered the strange way Elise had behaved as we'd been leaving for the trip. She had changed her mind three times that morning about whether or not she was going to the airport with us. When we'd been about to head through security and make our way to the gate, she'd cornered me and Xavier and insisted on talking with us privately. We let her pull us away from my family, despite the strange and worried looks from both Tawnya and Mairin.
“I know you two don’t get too far from each other anyway,” she said, “but on this trip, I don’t want you two to be separated. There’s something dark in Florida waiting for you, Xavier.” She’d looked at Xavier, who nodded.
“I’ll keep Kerry safe, Gram, you know that.”
“I know you’ll do your best, Xavier,” she’d said, “but I know if you two don’t stay together, something awful is going to happen. We all know what happened the last time you wandered off alone while you were in Florida.”
I knew Elise could only be referring to the attack that had left Xavier a werepanther. It hadn’t occurred to me to worry that there might be reason to worry about a werepanther attack while we were in Florida. The pride was so protective of me, they made me forget that the reason they were panthers and a pride was because a lone panther had attacked each of them at some point in their lives. The loners were dangerous, murderous in some cases. It was easy to forget that not all werepanthers were like the members of the pride when the pride where the only panthers I saw.
I caught Mairin's look over Elise's shoulder. I wondered, suddenly, if she had dreamed of other panthers and just hadn't wanted to worry me. I knew she trusted Xavier to keep me safe, but even I had to admit that at one time, he'd been the victim of a vicious attack. Somewhere in the swamps near his parents' home lived a loner werepanther with a vendetta against Xavier's family. It wouldn't be good for me to forget again.
Elise took Xavier's hands and put mine in his before clasping her own around ours. “Promise me you’ll stick together, no matter what.”
"Gram, I promise. You know I long ago gave up the idea of finding the bastard who did this to me. I certainly wouldn't go looking for that kind of fight while Kerry is with me."
"I know what has happened in the past, Xavier. I just feel that you might change your mind in the future. I ask only that you promise not to go looking for the panther who changed you while you're in Florida."
"I promise, Gram. I'll bring Kerry home safe. If I don't, all holy hell would break lose between the pride and the leeches and I won't bring that down on our family."
Shock made me tremble as it dawned on me that Xavier was right. My safety was not just a matter of his personal feelings for me. If I were harmed, the vamps at M
athias' house would likely break the tenuous truce they had with the panthers. Mairin would surely find a way to beat Xavier into a bloody pulp, probably with Mathias' help. Highland Home and East Hampton could easily be lost to a metaphysical battle of epic proportions and all because one teenaged girl got hurt while she was on vacation with her boyfriend. I knew I couldn't allow that to happen.
"Elise, I can promise you that even when Xavier's hotter head might want to overrule his good sense, I'll keep him from losing it. We'll stay together and come home safe. I promise."
Elise hugged us both and let us go back to where the rest of the family waited for us. She'd stood a little separate from us all, watching and not joining in with the irreverent ribbing or solemn warnings shared by the family. I knew she was uncomfortable near Mathias, but something else was on her mind today. Each time I caught her watching me and Xavier, I'd smiled, but nothing I did seemed to reassure her that we'd be find in Florida with Xavier's mother and father. I wanted to chock it up to normal worry for the young man she loved as a son, but I couldn't. I was worried, too.
"What is Elise so worried about?" I asked after we'd passed through the security and left our family behind.
"I'm not sure. She's been hinting for a couple of weeks that she didn't really want to let me go to Florida this year, but she never said why."
"Well, at least what she wants from us is easy." I linked my arm with Xavier's. "I'd rather not leave your side anyway."
Xavier's kiss curled my toes and he led us through the terminal to the gate where our plane waited to whisk us away from everything I was comfortable with.
Now I dragged him toward the rest of his not so subtle and currently shouting family members. It was good to know that while my family might be steeped in weird, Xavier’s family made up for being relatively normal by being loud and brash. I loved them before we even made it across the terminal.
“Xavier, you look so good,” a pretty blonde woman said, hugging him. “Too thin, but good.”
Seven Days Page 2
