I jumped back away from the door at the sound of Trevor’s voice. I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath and my heart was beating rapidly in my chest. I let out a long, slow breath before I grasped the handle and opened the door.
The first thing I noticed about his office was the gigantic desk made of a heavy dark wood. It was littered with stacks of books, and papers were scattered across it. It was a little shocking, because Trevor was normally such a neat freak. The laptop sitting amongst the clutter kind of ticked me off, too.
The next thing I noticed was that the room had a window. It was covered by thick curtains, but they were left open just a crack, just enough to let sunlight stream through, leaving a long strip of light that cut across the carpet.
Trevor sat leaning back in his office chair with his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankles. He was staring at the stream of light that was only mere inches away from his feet.
“What are you doing?” I asked, approaching him.
He looked depressed. He looked how I felt when I thought about everyone at the community. I missed them something fierce.
His gaze didn’t stray from the light. “I am dreaming of the past and wishing for the future.” He waved his hand toward the chair on the other side of his desk. “Please, sit with me.”
I dragged the chair beside his so we could stare at the strip of sunlight together. Like him, I kicked my feet out in front of me and crossed them. After about three minutes of complete silence, I asked him “Why are you sitting here staring at sunshine on the floor.”
He almost cracked a grin. “Do you know what a vampire most desires, Chloe?”
“Blood?”
He shook his head. “No, most vampires detest having to drink blood. We do love it, and we do desire it, when the bloodlust kicks in, but it is most certainly not what we desire most.”
“Well, I don’t know then.”
He rocked his chair a little bit. “I have not rested my eyes upon a sunrise for almost a thousand years. I rarely see any sunlight, other than shafts shining onto a floor or wall.” He gestured at the floor, “The daylight is my enemy, an enemy I shall never defeat. A vampire most desires what he cannot have, the sunlight. The day.”
I bowed my head. “Oh.”
“What do you most desire, Chloe.”
I thought for a moment before answering. “I’ve never really thought about it. I don’t know… my mother I guess, if we're talking things we want but can never have.”
He ignored my sass, like he usually did. He simply nodded.
About two months later, we were having dinner and Trevor made a surprising announcement. “Chloe, tomorrow night, we are going to entertain some friends. I think it’s time I introduce you.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Why haven’t you asked them over before to introduce me?”
“I’ve asked them to stay away to give you time to adjust.” He pushed his full plate away, looking irritated. “Alice,” he called out. She popped her head around the corner. “Would you bring me a glass of the reserve wine?”
“Yes, Mr. Trevor.” She disappeared.
“Well, I don’t know why you would ask them to stay away just because I’m here. There is no reason to live your life any differently than you did before,” I told him. Really, the last thing I wanted to do was meet any of his blood-sucking buddies.
“I was concerned with how you would react in a room full of vampires. Now, you are more acquainted with our ways, so it will not be such a shock, and my friends will be coming around more.”
I sensed there was more to it than just my needing to adjust. “Is that the only reason?” I questioned. “Should I be worried about something?
Trevor sighed and pushed his chair out a bit, then crossed his legs.
Curious, I caught his eyes and raised my eyebrows in question.
Finally, he relented and explained. “I simply could not take any chances with you, your mother…”
I felt my spine stiffen. “What about my mother?” I demanded.
He ran a hand through his dark hair, smoothing it down. “Your mother lived with me for about a year. During that time, she was attacked by one of my men. I will not take that chance with you.”
I think I snorted a little bit. “Really? Because, when you had all your goons attacking my family all those times, that was me in danger… that was you taking a chance with me.”
“That is hardly the case, Chloe. I had ordered that you were to be taken alive.”
I felt myself heating up. “Are you crazy? I was still in danger of being killed!”
“Why must you always be so insolent? I simply will not continue to tolerate your attitude. You are here now and must accept things the way they are.”
“Fine.” I crossed my arms. “What should I wear?”
He looked thoughtful, tilting his head and staring at me as if he were imagining me in a certain dress or something. “There are several dresses in the armoire in your room. You should pick out one of those to wear.”
“Can I go shopping tomorrow?” As much as I hated shopping, I wanted the illusion of freedom and going off the property would have allowed me that.
Alice came back with his wine and sat it in front of him. He looked up at her briefly and then dismissed her with a slight nod. Jeez, what an ass. Alice smiled and nodded at me on her way out of the room.
“No, you cannot go shopping. There is no time. Besides, if you were to leave the grounds, I would want to go with you.”
“Oscar could go with me,” I hopefully suggested.
“Chloe, there are dresses upstairs. You don’t need to go buy one. It’s only a simple dinner party.”
“Fine.” I pouted and looked down at my food. I should have known better, but I also didn’t like him having so much control. It felt awful not having any say in what I was going to wear.
After dinner I went upstairs and opened the armoire. There were four dresses there. I immediately cut the blue one because it was more of a formal gown, all fluffy and stuff. The next dress was red, and even though I looked good in red, I thought it was too flashy for a dinner party. The green one was a color that reminded me of Christina and her hooker dress, so that left the always dependable little black dress.
While I tried it on, I considered showing up in jeans and my Harley shirt. Strangely, I ended up surprised how nicely the dress fit and how appropriate it was. It had a skirt that stopped just above my knees, the neckline was scooped and the straps were about an inch wide. I ran my hands over my hips, feeling the soft cottony fabric beneath my fingertips. It felt good, so I decided to wear it. After digging around a bit, I found a pair of open-toed heels that matched in the bottom of the armoire.
The next night, after the sun went down, Alice rushed around trying to prepare everything for the guests. Hired help prepared food in the kitchen, and I chased Alice around, asking her every two minutes if there was anything I could do to help.
“Stop asking me that and go sit down or something!” she finally snapped at me, pointing at the couch. I was about to do just that when the doorbell rang. Expecting vampire guests, I wandered slowly to the door and pulled it open. It was a complete surprise when I saw Oscar on the other side.
“What are you doing here?”
“I was invited,” he told me and stepped inside.
I closed the door behind him. For some reason, I felt like a puddle of goo whenever Oscar was around. I just couldn’t place the feeling.
“I didn’t know you socialized with vampires,” I said, attempting to tease him.
“When I am invited by one of the most prominent vampires in the supernatural community, I certainly do socialize with them.” He shrugged out of his coat and hung it on the tall rack in the entryway.
“Well, come on then.” I waved him into the house. “No one else is here yet, but they should be soon.”
Oscar regarded me with slanted eyes. “You’re nervous.”
I nodded. �
��Yes, yeah, I’m very nervous.” I paused. “What if one of them wants to eat me or something?”
Oscar laughed “I highly doubt that one of them would try anything like that here, even if they did want to eat you.”
“It’s not funny, Oscar. I’m actually a little scared.”
The back of my neck tingled just as the doorbell rang again. I wondered if that tingling thing was ever going to go away. I glanced at Oscar and raised my eyebrows. Well, there wasn’t much else I could do except get it over with. I turned and opened the door.
On the other side, framed by the darkness, stood a man and a woman. We examined each other for a moment. He was tall, with dark hair and bright blue eyes and was dressed in black slacks and a dark blue button up shirt. His arm was protectively wrapped around the waist of his lady friend.
She was a pale goddess. Blond ringlets cascaded her back to her waistline. Her skin was so smooth, like porcelain. I wanted to reach out and touch it. She had big, wide, grey eyes, and she wore a dress almost the same color. The dress was classy: tight-fitting, touched the knees, showed just enough cleavage, elegant sleeves. I liked it.
“Hello, I’m Chloe.” I greeted them and opened the door wider. “Come in.”
“I am Vincent.” He ushered the blond inside. “This is Dahlia.”
He held out his hand for me to shake once they were fully inside and I was able to shut the door. I grasped his cool hand and nodded.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
He smiled at me, showing me his perfect white teeth. I couldn’t see any fangs.
“I’m happy to meet you as well.” I told him. “Have you met Oscar?”
Oscar stepped forward with his hand extended. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure. I’m Oscar Williams, Chloe’s tutor.”
I glanced at Dahlia and saw her watery, grey eyes scale up and down Oscar's body and briefly flashed with red.
Oh, my gosh!
I hoped she wouldn't try to drink his blood while he was here. I thought I was going to be the only one I had to worry about.
Before I could worry about it too much, the doorbell rang again. This time the couple in the doorway were women, both dark haired, dark eyed and dressed to impress. I escorted them in, introduced myself and learned their names were Vanessa and Constance.
“Do you know Vincent and Dahlia?” I questioned as we approached the couple, who were speaking with Oscar in the hallway. Vanessa shrugged out of her wrap, and held it out for me to take. I stared at her for a moment before grabbing it from her and hanging it on the coat hook.
What was I, her maid?
Immediately, I took back the mental comment, because of Alice.
“Yes, I’m quite familiar with Vincent and Dahlia.” She practically purred Dahlia’s name and ran her fingertips down the length of the other woman's arm.
Uh, weird.
I was beginning to think all these vampires were kind of perverted. Maybe that was another reason Trevor had told them to stay away. Before I could wonder about their odd relationships, the doorbell sounded again. Trevor swept into the room in his usual black clothing, only this time instead of jean, he wore black slacks and button up shirt.
“I’m so glad you all could make it.” He greeted his guests on his way to the door. Vincent, Dahlia and all the rest of us moved into the living room to mingle while Trevor ordered Alice to answer the door and take coats.
Trevor made formal introductions. Turned out Vincent was his business associate. For some reason, when he told me that, I thought of Eli and how my mother made it sound like he was Trevor’s main man.
I stuck closely to Oscar’s side and spent as much time helping Alice as I could. At dinner, the twelve of us sat at the table. I was bombarded with questions: How did I like it here? What did my mother tell me about my father? Did I have any vampire abilities? The list went on and on. I lied about all of them. Lying seemed to be something I was good at lately. Funny, I could never get one by my mother.
I thought it was just the dumbest thing that vampires were all sitting around a dinner table and they didn’t even eat. The whole dinner plate thing was probably just to give them something to play with while they questioned me.
Alice came in and out, serving us the courses and keeping our glasses full. Everyone’s goblets were full of some kind of blood wine mixture while mine only had water. Oscar had opted for a beer. I didn’t even know we had beer in the house.
Trevor sat at the head of the table while I sat directly to his right. “Chloe, would you like some of the wine?”
Oh, how I desperately did want some of that wine. If it was anything like what my own blood tasted like, then yes, I wanted some. But, I knew what weakened me, and I knew what I was here for. I didn’t want to become a vampire. I wanted to kill them.
“No, thank you. I’ll just stick to water.”
Trevor nodded and then proceeded to question the rather ugly looking male vampire to his left. Vanessa sat on the other side of me and Dahlia straight across the table. Dahlia, seemed like a quiet one. She hadn’t said anything since she had arrived. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my leg.
My head snapped over and I glared into Vanessa’s dark eyes.
“Take your hands off me,” I hissed at her under my breath.
“Oh, honey,” she whispered back. “I will place my hands anywhere I damned well please.”
“Take them off,” I repeated.
In complete defiance of my wishes, she ran her hand up farther onto my thigh. What the heck was wrong with this chick? Well, if she wanted to play with fire, she picked the right person. I looked into her eyes and smiled, then reached underneath the table. I used my fingertips, to gently walk her short dress up until enough skin was exposed. I then rested my hand on the cold bare skin of her thigh.
Everyone around us was chatting, not paying any attention to what was happening between us. Vanessa smiled and ran a fingernail over my skin.
I gave her one more chance. “I said, Take your hand off me.”
She leaned in like she wanted to tell me a secret.
“Why don’t you make me, Hunter.”
I closed my eyes and pulled in the energy in the air around me, channeling it down to my hand where I wanted to release it.
“Ow, damn it!” Vanessa screamed and jumped up out of her seat, snatching her hand off my thigh.
“Vanessa!” I exclaimed, feigning surprise, like I hadn't just burn her. “What happened? Are you all right?”
I hadn’t used fire. I had only warmed my hand, but against her cold vampire skin, it probably felt like she had been scorched. Our eyes locked. She read my silent message loud and clear: Touch me again and it will be worse.
She shook her head. “It’s nothing. I’m sorry. I haven’t eaten all day and my stomach is paining me today.” She caught Trevor’s eyes. “You know how it feels when you haven’t eaten.”
Trevor assessed the situation. I almost certain he knew she had lied.
“Alice!” he called out. His eyes held Vanessa’s. When Alice appeared, he asked, “Would you take Vanessa downstairs and assist her? Her stomach is paining her.”
Alice understood the code he spoke and nodded. “Yes, sir. Come with me, Miss Vanessa.”
Oh, my gosh! He meant for Alice to give herself to Vanessa, to give her blood. I didn’t even know there was a downstairs from the main floor. I thought we were downstairs. I wanted to get up and go after them, but I knew I couldn’t. I knew Trevor would never let me near whatever was going on. I barely touched anything else on my plate for the rest of the meal because I was so nervous.
When the meal was finally over, I felt relief wash over my body, except for needing to pee. The vampires rose and spread through the house, mingling and talking about one of the nightclubs Trevor owned—apparently one Vanessa ran for him—and how they needed to find a way to keep the hairballs out.
I didn’t know why there would be a problem with hairballs in a bar. I shrugged it
off and hurried down the hall to the bathroom. Before I could turn the knob, I heard voices on the other side.
“Do you think she knows?” I recognized Constance's whispered voice.
I heard a giggle followed by Vanessa saying, “She doesn’t have a clue. I hope he drains the little bitch dry. I’m sick of her already. Even though she smells wonderful, she is a pain in the ass. I don’t know why Trevor insisted on bringing her here so early.”
“He had to. He had to make sure she was here when she turned sixteen. It would have been really taking a chance to wait until closer to her birthday,” Constance answered.
What the… What were they talking about? It had to be me.
“Yeah, I guess,” Vanessa answered. She sighed audibly. I could just see Vanessa on the other side of the door, glossing her pale lips in the mirror. “I can see that, considering she had all those Hunters around who never left her alone.”
Constance lowered her voice even more. “I’ll tell you what, if I knew I’d get away with it, I’d snag her up and keep her for myself. The ability to walk in the sunlight would make me the most powerful vampire. Trevor doesn’t deserve it. We do all the work for him anyway.”
“Shut up, Constance,” Vanessa hissed. “Talking like that will just get you killed. What if someone hears you?”
What the heck is going on?
I felt my heartbeat and my body shook violently. It wasn’t clear exactly what they had meant, but it was clear I was in trouble. Big trouble.
Constance told Vanessa she needed to shut up, that she would say whatever she wanted. I turned around and crashed right into Alice, who had been standing behind me. I had been so intent on listening to the conversation on the other side of the door, I hadn't heard her approach.
She took a step back to steady herself and looked at me with sadness in her eyes.
“Did you know about this?” I demanded in a whisper.
She took two steps back and lowered her head. I took that as my answer and balled my fists. I lurched forward, grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall. “I should kill you! How could you?”
The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection Page 14
