“Well, that’s good to hear. Surprising, actually. The last time we had much of a conversation you were worried that things were progressing faster than normal, and that your timeline was speeding up. Did you get on better medication?”
“Hm, I guess you could say that.”
“Ok…Tara, what’s going on?”
“Actually, I think, maybe, that you should come visit. It would be better to talk about this in person, and I really miss you! It would be nice to see your face again.”
“Yeah, sure, I can do that. I’m just sitting at home now. I could make it there in an hour, if that’s good for you?”
“Yes, an hour is great. I will let the guards know.”
“Guards?”
“Uh, yes. My guy is kind of loaded, and careful. Apparently he has had issues with some former fans or something, so he has a guards to keep certain people out. My protective prince.”
“If you say so. Well, I will be there. See you then, girl.”
“See you, Cyndi.”
Tara hung up and returned the phone to her pocket. She felt anxious and decided to get as much out of acting like a child as she could. With no preamble, she began doing backflips and cartwheels across the ballroom until she fell over giggling again. She hadn’t explored the whole house, but she was wondering if there was a gym or someplace she could work off the excess adrenaline.
Her mind wandered to the exterior. The house was surrounded by a forest. Though it was only several feet deep in the front, there were hundreds of acres of woods around the place. Without a second thought, she headed toward the hall and one of the rear exists.
As she stepped outside, her senses were once again assaulted. The faint fragrance of dew, the clean smell of the pines and the cool breeze enveloped her. She felt invigorated as she headed toward the tree line. As soon as she passed the first few trunks, she began to run.
She felt amazing as she darted around trees, leaped t over bushes, and ducked under low hanging branches. She wouldn’t run out of breath and her heart wouldn’t feel as if it would explode. Her muscles didn’t burn. The air should have been bordering on freezing, and yet she was in a thin long sleeved shirt and jeans.
As she ran through another clearing of bushes, she abruptly stopped at the large rock wall that shot out forever in either direction. With one leap, she was crouched on top of the twelve foot wall. She dropped her feet over the side and sat, staring at the world around her. She could hear, smell, and see so many animals and bugs and plants.
Her view of nature had majorly been upgraded. As she scanned the forest, something brightly colored in the distance caught her attention. As she looked closely, she was sure there was someone out there.
Jumping down, she began to stalk the person without even realizing it. As she got closer, she climbed into a nearby oak tree, and watched. There were three people; two men and a woman. As the woman complained loudly about the conditions of their shabby camp site, Tara realized she recognized her voice. It was Blaine Connie.
Tara froze, a feeling of red rage burning up inside of her. She didn’t even realize she was growling until one of the men looked her direction, a frown on his face. Without thinking about what she was doing, Tara jumped to the ground and headed toward the three people.
*
Dru thanked the supervisor of the construction workers. The men filed passed him carrying boards, metal wall sheets, and an assortment of tools and other materials. Dru was confident it would be done by the time his Salvador and Ardo arrived. Feeling somewhat relieved now that things were in motion to help Tara and that he had some allies to help him, Dru headed into his office to put the signed contract from the workers and the receipt for the obnoxious amount he paid up front on his desk.
He stapled the papers together after he sat down and put them in his miscellaneous expenditures file. Before he went to find Tara, he pulled up his security camera footage. As the different angles and images filled the screen, Dru clicked through each angle. About half way through the cameras on the wall around the property, Dru saw spots of color that didn’t belong in the browns and greys of the sparse winter forest.
The camera zoomed in with his prompting, someone was in the woods. At first he wasn’t too concerned, until he saw the blue jean and black long sleeve clad form moving with a newfound lope that he had seen not even half an hour before. He was about to dismiss the images, figuring Tara took out her adrenaline on a run through the woods, and then he saw the shades of red, orange, green, and a few other out of place colors.
Dru felt a surge of his own adrenaline spiking as he watched Tara move closer, crouched down. He knew from her stance, the predatory motions, that whoever they were, she perceived them as a threat. As he stood, one of the other people turned her head and Dru took off through the house faster than most humans would be able to see. Tara was going to kill Blaine.
* * *
All three of them turned toward Tara’s direction, frowning.
“Do you guys hear that?” One of the men looked at the other two before scanning the woods again.
“Yeah, something growling. Are there bears out here? Or mountain lions?”
“I don’t know, but we are sneaking up on a vampire’s house, an OLD vampire’s house.”
Blaine hushed the two men, straining to see through the dying leaves and skeleton trees of the cold woods. She saw something, someone, but whoever it was, it was too thin to be Druian. She knew he had guards now, but this looked like a woman. Blaine released a sound that sounded like a snarl. Both men jerked to look at her and then glanced to where she was staring.
“What the fuck?”
“It’s his newest sex toy, I bet you.” Blaine wanted to vomit the words.
“We better leave, Blaine. I don’t know what she wants but that is a high ass fence. If she jumped that, shit, then she’s a vamp too, and the last thing I want her to find is two anti-vampers and her lover’s ex-lover in the goddamn woods.”
The other guy began grabbing his stuff before the older one even finished talking. He was all about barring those rights and refusing to feed those people, he wanted them gone. But he wasn’t going to get killed stalking a rich, old one for some angry bimbo.
“You fucking cowards! Whatever, leave. So much for a cause.”
“Lady, you ain’t got much of a cause but a woman scorned sort of crap. This ain’t for a cause, it’s for your own pride.”
Blaine shook her head and turned back to the woman coming towards them. Tara was about fifty feet away, walking slowly toward them. Her eyes were locked onto Blaine, the woman’s red hair blending in with the aura of hatred Tara envisioned around her. The two men took off running in the opposite direction. Blaine’s obsessive drive prevented her brain from registering the threat as Tara go closer and closer until she stopped twenty feet away.
“Hm, so he wouldn’t turn me because he already had a vampire slut.”
Tara stood perfectly still, her lack of breathing making her body unnervingly motionless.
“You mute? I do talk a lot, maybe that was the problem too.” Blaine squinted at Tara, “Then again, maybe you are just trying to play the badass. Thin, blonde, and blue eyes. Guess he goes for the classics. He tell you how I rocked his world?”
Tara could barely hear the woman’s words over her pulsing veins. The predator assessed, saw no threat but a definitive food source. This is what she was, and that was what she wanted. She didn’t react so much, just seemed to appear in front of the woman, less than a foot away.
“Bitch, back up!” Blaine felt her resilience slipping as she found herself nearly level with the elongated white teeth frozen in a snarl. Tara’s white-blue eyes showing nothing that Blaine could discern.
“Fuck you,” Blaine shoved the woman’s chest, only to find herself pushed back by her own inertia.
Tara felt something within her coil, pulling back like a wave before the tsunami. Her eyes locked onto the rapidly beating pulse of Blaine’s neck. Bla
ine’s eyes widened, but not at Tara. Just as the inner trigger was pulled, something heavy anchored itself around her waist, leaving her hands holding Blaine’s head at an awkward angle with her artery at the perfect position for the teeth that were frozen open merely a quarter inch from penetrating the flesh.
“Tara, love, listen to my voice.”
Blaine’s eyes flared, even as she shook fearfully under the woman’s statuesque position. She tried to jerk away from Tara, but only succeeded in causing a sharp pain through her neck.
“Get her off of me, I swear, or I will make you regret ever meeting me.”
“Shut up. And believe me, I already do, I did a long time ago,” Dru reached up to grab each of Tara’s hands and had to use more strength than he expected prying her hands off Blaine’s head, strands of hair being ripped out as he pulled them back, “Come one, love. She isn’t worth the trouble.”
“This is what I am. I’m hungry.”
“I know, I know, we will go get something, just let’s go back home.”
Blaine had distanced herself, backing next to the tent. Her body betrayed her need to look tough as she trembled uncontrollably. She didn’t doubt for a second that the woman, Tara, would have killed her if Dru had been even the tiniest bit later.
“I knew you cared about me, you saved me.”
“I swear if you don’t shut up I will let her go.”
“Are you threatening me?”
Dru ignored the angry red head as he turned Tara toward him. Her mouth was still twisted in a snarl; a look radiating hatred haunted her beautiful eyes. For a moment, Dru felt a pang of sadness. Tara wasn’t meant to be violent; he had created the monster that she would now live with. Was his greed of wanting to spend forever with her worth making her something else, something deadly? His heart ached.
“You need to be careful. This is not allowed anymore, remember? I really can’t have the authorities after you because of this pathetic excuse for a woman.”
Blaine felt her gut churn, she stared at the two of them, the way he touched her, so familiar. He loved this woman, and he really didn’t care about her at all. She wanted to say the same about him, that it was about immortality and the money, but her obsession had feelings that she didn’t expect.
And now she felt as if he had driven a stake in her heart. Something in her broke, his dismissals and disdain of her, his disgust, how he used her, and he thought he could get away with it. She would let him think that, but she was going straight to the police station. She had a new report to file, and she was sure attempted murder would be taken more seriously than her rape accusation, given her history of meeting up with vamps off of the dating site.
There was no signed contract about feeding this woman willingly, and now she could get her for attempted rape and murder.
Dru watched Tara slowly blink at him, her mouth relaxed, her teeth rescinding. She glanced back at Blaine and hissed before turning back to Dru.
“Why is she out here? That should make her free game.”
“I wish that were true, but she does make a good point,” Dru turned to Blaine; “I’m calling the cops and reporting the trespass. Say what you will, but that gives Tara reason to protect herself and our home. I can smell the traces of the men that were with you. I don’t know what the hell you are doing, but if you are still here in an hour, you will seriously regret ever meeting me!”
Dru grabbed Tara’s hand and led her back to the wall. He could feel the tension in her body, the want to turn around and end the woman’s life. How he wished he could give that. He was already worried about what Blaine would do. He wasn’t ready for Tara to have to deal with cops already, much less the government.
There was a special department, now. The Federal Vampire Compliance Administration. They were federal Marshalls for vampires. Any suspected crime, and they were up your ass and in your business, and this was the absolutely worse time for that.
Blaine watched them walk away, their back to her. She wished she had a gun, something, anything. She shook herself and turned to begin disassembling the campsite. Mentally she cussed Jared and Mark for leaving her here, Dru for not being what she wanted him to be and Tara for existing. As she gathered the stakes and poles, putting them into the bag, she nearly wet herself when the cracking of twigs came from the direction opposite of where Dru and Tara had walked off. Maybe they circled back around. They could make her disappear, they could still kill her.
“Jesus Christ! You scared the crap out of me. Nice job staying with a defenseless woman, by the way. Assholes.” Blaine began tossing the camping gear into a pile, wanting to throw it all at the two men gingerly making their way back towards her.
“Well, we didn’t need them to know we were here. Plus, we got something for you.” Mark walked over, holding up his cell phone, showing her the images on the screen.
“We got the woman grabbing you and the man pulling her off, you can see your hair being ripped out and everything!” Mark glared at his younger protégé, perturbed at the level of excitement.
“You’re kidding me!” Blaine snatched the camera from Mark and played the video. She was not happy at how weak and scared she looked, but she was holding gold. The woman’s face showed nothing but hatred and murder. She was really going to kill her. “Hot damn!”
“Well, now, the problem is, if we use this to report anything, they’re gonna know we were trespassing. All he has to do is take pictures around his woods and show them. Being a member of W.A.V.E., this is a clear case of harassment and means we provoked them.”
“Then we don’t tell them W.A.V.E was involved.” Blaine threw up her hands.
“Yeah, but I took the video on my phone. Investigations are gonna find that out. Then the Warriors against Vampire Evolution has a lawsuit against them and I get in deep shit.”
Blaine sighed, she was tired and pissed off and just wanted the safety of her home. She shook her head and the three of them finished gathering up the campsite and making their way back to the truck.
Blaine didn’t care about W.A.V.E., they were a means to an end. But she had a jumping point. She might not be able to use the video to turn to the cops, but she could use it to rally more vampire haters and get more people on board with their mission. If she couldn’t cause legal issues for Dru, then she would cause a whole other set of problems. And really, she preferred that. Police would take time and follow protocol; these people just hated vampires and wanted them dealt with. At this point, she was totally on board with that.
* * *
Tara felt frustrated as they approached the house. She was hungry, aching to satisfy the need. Dru hadn’t said anything, just kept a firm grip on her hand, making sure she wouldn’t turn and run back there to destroy that despicable woman. Everything in her wanted her to, wanted to feel her teeth sink into that pale neck and the warm nectar to flow down her throat. She wanted Blaine to no longer exist, to be nothing but a faded memory.
Dru didn’t deserve that trouble. And what would she do if the FVAC came around? They would want to know if she was registered, she would be investigated, and probably found out. And if they did medical testing? They would discover her other secret, and then she could expect to live out her days in a lab. Her babies would become science experiments, she would wish she had just died, and who knows what would happen to Dru. She felt ashamed.
“I’m sorry. I was just trying to get some exercise and I saw them from the wall. How did you know?”
“Security cameras.”
“Oh, well that was some great timing, I nearly ruined everything.”
“No, Tara.” Dru turned her towards him as they stood at one of the back doors, “I need to do something about that woman, and you are newly changed. Your body has changed its purpose. It wants to be a killer, a predator. The urge is hard to fight. Emotions are very extreme as a vampire as well. Your hatred could destroy whole cities and your love can make you die to protect anything. I imagine some of what you felt when you saw her, an
d with her mouth, I can imagine her provocation.”
“Still, I risked a lot and could have caused some serious problems.”
“Stop, forget about it. We have to think of some way to deal with her. I don’t know what the other two men that were there were doing, but I need to figure out what she is up to. We don’t need trouble, and she is trouble. And that, my love, is my fault.”
Dru kissed Tara’s forehead before stopping to listen.
“Someone’s here. Maybe one of the construction workers coming back from lunch.”
Tara glanced around Dru to see the car come around the side. She heard it pulling around and then jumped in excitement.
“Oh! It’s Cyndi. I invited her out. I needed to tell her about all this.”
Dru’s face when completely still.
“Dru, she’s my best friend, she thought I was dying, and she had been worried sick.”
“She will know, almost immediately.”
Tara paused as she watched Cyndi and turned back to Dru, her eyes widening.
“I don’t know how else to tell her. I want her to know I’m okay and I’m happy, and I’m having babies.”
“Tara, are you sure that’s a good idea? No one is supposed to know about this, no one. Do you know what will happen?”
“Yes, Dru, I do. And I also know that she would never do anything to cause me harm, or those that I love. You get to tell your vampire friends. She is all I have. I need a friend.”
Dru watched the small woman get out of the car. She was looking at them in confusion. Her eyes scrutinizing Tara, trying to figure out what was different. Dru felt so uncertain, but the look on Tara’s face, the pleading, he understood the need to have a friend, to have someone else to share your joys. He would monitor the woman very carefully, but he wouldn’t deny this for Tara.
Tara approached Cyndi. She watched her carefully, waiting for the reaction.
“I haven’t seen you in forever, you look….” Cyndi looked at Tara’s face, her mouth slowly dropping open, “Tara, what did you do?”
CHAPTER 12
Cured By Blood: A Vampire Pregnancy Romance Page 9
