by Kailin Gow
“Okay,” said Aaron. He reached into the front seat and squeezed her hand lightly.
“I think I could use a few days to myself, guys,” said Kalina. “But if you hear from Stuart – let me know, okay?” She didn't know what to say to Stuart. Her thoughts were tinged with guilt – after what had happened with Jaegar at the motel, at their almost-breakup (was it a breakup?) the last time they had spoken properly.
Kalina entered the house. Justin was arranging some papers on the kitchen counter. “Who was that?” he said. “It didn't look like Maeve's car – who was that guy?”
Caught, Kalina thought. She shuffled her feet and looked down. “Jaegar,” she said simply. “Stuart's brother. Stuart's been having some issues and Jaegar's been taking care of them – I stopped to help him out with some things after Maeve's.”
“Uh-huh.” Kalina could tell from Justin's voice that he didn't believe her. “Trouble, huh? Like...drug-issues?”
“No!” cried Kalina. “No, no, nothing like that at all! It's just...”
“Just what? Whether you're eighteen or not – I don't like the sound of this.”
“Wineries stuff,” said Kalina. “Business associates. Mature stuff – for grown-ups.” She looked Justin coolly in the face. “Stuart is a grown-up,” she said. “And so am I.”
“Don't remind me!” said Justin, sitting down at the couch. “I'm going to reheat some lasagna – you want?”
“Sure,” said Kalina. It dawned on her that she had not eaten in days; her stomach groaned as a reminder.
Justin came over a few minutes later and sat a soggy-looking piece of lasagna before her. “Sorry Stuart isn't around to cook something decent,” he said. “This....is pretty old.”
“How old?”
“Only a couple days!” Justin grew defensive, then reddened. “Look, Kalina, I'm sorry I haven't been home much,” he said. “It's been crazy at the hospital. I've been working 24/7. Whatever happened to Maeve – severe blood loss - it's been happening to a bunch of other girls. I've never seen anything like it!”
“Gosh,” said Kalina. Her voice was hollow.
“And then some guy in his thirties. It's like – a vampire movie or something.”
“Imagine that.” Kalina could not look at him.
“So there's plenty of garlic in that lasagna,” Justin laughed. “Just in case. And wear Mom's cross!” He took it from a drawer in the dining room table. “Just in case!” His face was filled with mirth. Justin had never been a man of faith – he had abandoned their childhood Catholicism for a belief in the power of science and half-hearted service attendance on Christmas and Easter.
“You wear it,” said Kalina. He needed more protection than she did.
“You'll never believe it,” said Justin. “I was talking to the hospital chaplain about the blood loss – you know Father Roberts; he used to work over in Goldcross Parish – and when I mentioned vampires – even as a joke – he got all serious. Insisted I take this home with me!”
He produced a flask of water, emblazoned with a cross.
“Holy water?”
“I know, right – crazy! Some of the doctors are getting really superstitious about the whole thing. So eat up your garlic!”
“It's cold,” said Kalina. Her thoughts were elsewhere. What had happened to Stuart – she couldn't feel his presence, his thoughts – she had not drunk from him as she had done from Jaegar? And who was this vampire on the loose in Rutherford?
Suddenly, she started. Realization had struck her. If vampires were after her Life's Blood – would they be after Justin, too? She was adopted – Justin was no blood relation – but she couldn't be sure that vampires knew that.
“You will wear that cross, won't you?” she asked, her voice growing in urgency.
“What, you too, sis?” Justin laughed.
“Promise me!” Kalina cried.
“I promise – I promise. Geez...”
“Hey Justin.” Kalina rose with the dirty dishes.
“What?”
“What do you think Mom would say about all this?” Kalina and Justin's parents had been missionaries – their belief in the Catholic supernatural had over the years been influenced by the indigenous beliefs and folk faiths of many of the countries they had visited, where Christianity and ancestral traditions had begun to exist side by side in communities. “God manifests himself in many ways,” they had always said. “The supernatural is part of life – same as bugs and birds and mammals.”
“Mom would tell you to eat your garlic,” said Justin.
“I've been wondering,” Kalina started again. “Why me? I mean – why did they adopt me?”
Justin laughed. “That's a heavy question,” he said. “They didn't tell me – I was nine! All they said was “you're getting a new sister.’” He sighed. “Are you wondering about your birth parents?”
Kalina nodded mutely.
“I'm afraid the record-keeping in Nepalese orphanages isn't exactly....organized,” said Justin. “As far as I know, nobody knew who your parents were.” He coughed. “Birth parents,” he said. “Mom and Dad were our parents.”
“Justin!”
“What?”
“Do you think – you could maybe analyze my blood?”
“Your blood?”
“Just – out of curiosity. If there's something different about it. Maybe...it will give me a clue, where I come from.”
“You mean like an HIV test?”
“Yeah,” said Kalina, glad to find an excuse. “Like an HIV test.”
“The orphanage said you were negative!”
“They also kept my papers on handwritten loose-leaf under a paperweight,” said Kalina. “I just want to be sure. Not just HIV – but...anything, really. If I'm a carrier for genetic illnesses – Stuart and I were talking...”
“I hope you're not thinking about kids yet!” said Justin, his voice growing protective.
“No – just do it, okay?”
“Okay,” Justin nodded. “But just so you know – you're my sister. Regardless of what the blood tests say.”
Kalina nodded. “I know,” she said.
Chapter 7
After dinner Kalina retreated upstairs and took a bath – the first proper bath she had in days. She felt as if she were seeing all the knickknacks and curiosities of her room for the first time, for in the period since her departure she felt that she had been impossibly changed. This was not what the villa had been – the viewless room with the Italian sheets and Octavius' portrait glaring at her from the wall. This was not the cheap one-night motel where she had stayed with Jaegar, where she had succumbed, or almost succumbed – but she could not think of that! She let herself float lightly in the bath, feeling the hot water smooth against her skin, like an embrace. She was at last free of them, free of the emotions that had rollicked and overtaken her in the past few days, since she had first fought with Stuart and crashed her car. Had she acted rightly? Kalina could not decide. She had, she knew, done wrong by involving herself with Jaegar before making her breakup with Stuart official – she knew now that his infidelity with Maeve had been only the product of her own imagination – and yet she would have, given the opportunity, made the situation clear to Stuart, insofar as she was able to reconcile the situation to herself.
What, then, was Kalina to do? What she wished to do, what she would have been at liberty to do (had selfishness permitted it) was to ask patience of Stuart and Jaegar – and Aaron – and that she be allowed to continue seeing all of them, on a casual basis, until she could make her decision! But such an ideal situation for her was impossible for them – her own moral indignity aside, they were brothers, and she could no more “compare” them in a week or two weeks’ time than she could do now – they each satisfied a different part of her. Aaron reminded her of a time when it was acceptable for her to be young and stupid – as much as she, affecting maturity, had not wanted to admit it – when she could revel in being seventeen and foolish and kissing boy
s beneath the bleachers. But she was so much older now – and Aaron was still seventeen, with all the anger and pluck of that age frozen in time. She remembered the vampire boy she had killed – still eight years old after centuries – and knew Aaron would never grow with her; she was already so much older than he was, for all that he had seen.
And then there was Stuart! She had warmed to him first, because of his silent strength, his maturity. But as she and Jaegar had come to spend time together – after what happened in the hotel, she couldn’t help think of Jaegar. She was intensely drawn to him.
She sighed as she turned off the tap and got out of the bath. She swaddled herself in a towel, shaking out the droplets from her hair onto the floor. The water pooled in tiles.
Wrapped tightly in a bathrobe, she reentered her room. How beautiful it was to be in her own room again – a room into which vampires had to be invited.
And then she noticed one tapping on the windowpanes.
She started. “Jaegar!” She rushed to the window. “What do you think you're doing out there?”
“Just checking on you.” He was hovering midair; the sight unnerved her. “Aaron took the car back to the Winery – he's checking for any of Octavius’ men...”
“And you just wanted to see me bathing?” Somehow it was more difficult to tease him, after everything that had happened between them. The joke fell flat.
“I just wanted to make sure you were safe. The fact that you're in a bathrobe doesn't hurt.” His joke, too, was weak. He peered into the room. “So this is where the princess sleeps.”
“I'm not a princess,” said Kalina automatically.
“You could be,” Jaegar shrugged. “You don't know who your birth parents are. You never know!”
“I seriously doubt I'm a princess,” said Kalina. She opened the window.
“Would you like to invite me in?” Jaegar asked. His face was a mask of smiles.
“Should I?” she considered him. The moonlight had made him more beautiful than ever; she felt that she could not escape the gentle fires of his eyes.
“Perhaps not.” Jaegar grinned at her; her gaze fell upon the sharpness of his teeth. “I like playing hard to get.”
She adopted a sweet voice. “Maybe I just don't want to get you,” said Kalina.
“Ah, well.” Jaegar turned away from her in mock despair. “You would have broken the heart, my dear, of a vampire who has no heart.”
She could not resist him. She took hold of the folds of his leather jacket and pulled him towards her. “Come in, you!”
He was lighter than she expected, almost weightless, and the force of her pull threw her backwards across the room, landing them both on the carpet.
They lay on top of each other in a tangled thud.
“Sorry,” said Jaegar. He was not moving. “When a vampire flies, we're almost weightless. But when you pulled me in like that – gravity took hold.”
His face was inches from her own.
“Not that I mind, of course,” he continued. “I like being this close to you.”
She could feel his skin spark every part of her, rouse her heartbeat to frenzied palpitations; her breath grew shallow under him. It was not only that he was handsome – of course he was handsome, handsome enough to render any girl powerless. But it was a certain look in his eyes, a power in his movements – the unbridled confidence of a vampire who had seen the world and scoffed at it all, that made him truly irresistible. He had seen China and Paris, Renaissance Italy and Revolutionary France, and with all that knowledge he nevertheless had chosen her. He exuded confidence and sexiness.
And then she could not stop what happened next. His mouth was upon hers, boring deep within her, and then his lips were hot at her neck, and his hands were fumbling with her bathrobe. And then they were as they had been days before at the Sunrise Motel, so close to succumbing; his shirt was flung over a chair; his trousers were unzipped; his lips were at her stomach.
“We should...” Stop, she knew, as Jaegar murmured, but despite his protestations he could not remove his lips from her shoulders.
“Jaegar,” she whispered. “What happens if – you know...we do...”
“It?”
“It,” she echoed him.
From his face it was evident that his first thoughts were not of its implications for the legend. “Well,” he said, “you'd lose the ability to give Life's Blood. Your vampire lover would remain a vampire, while you grow old – and die. Unless you were turned...”
Kalina looked at him intently. “And if I didn't have Life's Blood – would I still be...worth it? To you?”
He pressed her palm to his lips. “Of course,” he said. “I don't want you to lose that ability – of course I don't – but it is your choice, Kalina; it makes no difference to this.”
“What if you did turn me?” Kalina said. “Would I lose Life's Blood abilities?”
Jaegar stopped. He pulled away with a sharp jerk. “You want to become a vampire?”
“Maybe,” said Kalina. “I'd fight better – I'd be stronger. I'd be able to protect everyone – Maeve, Justin – who needs protecting. And the other vamps wouldn't be able to use me anymore...”
Jaegar smiled, a smile that turned into a grimace. “You would make that sacrifice...for those you love?” He spoke as if it was still strange to him.
“Of course,” said Kalina.
He shook his head. “I admire it,” he said. “It is honorable – heroic. But I will not participate in it – if you are doing it for another's sake, not for your own. You may be unselfish – but I will not destroy your life, even for the sake of someone else.”
“Growing soft?” Kalina's voice was tender, betraying only the slightest hint of hurt.
“Not soft,” said Jaegar. “But you are different – from other women. Human. Vampire. Believe me, Kalina; I am a stranger to waiting. I have been...successful. And with you, the waiting is harder. But I will not make the choice for you. You must make that choice.”
She sighed. “I'm sorry, Jaegar. I want to – I mean, I really, really want to – but I don't think I'm ready yet. Ready to make a choice. If you are...the one I love – then Life's Blood will turn you. And if you're not...”
Her voice trailed off. She knew what she meant – then we shouldn't be doing this at all – but her body resented her self-control.
“I understand,” said Jaegar, although his face did not mask his disappointment.
“It's not just about the spell, either...” Kalina straightened her bathrobe. “Although – believe me – there's nothing worse than telling a seventeen-year-old that they have to stay a virgin forever.”
Jaegar couldn't help but laugh. “If they'd told me I had Life's Blood when I was seventeen, I would have told the legend-seekers to sod themselves and bedded the first wench I met!”
They were interrupted by the buzzing of Jaegar's phone.
“Speaking of the thirteenth century!” Jaegar laughed. But his face darkened when he heard the voice on the other line. “Yes, yes,” he was saying. “I understand.” He hung up and looked at Kalina. “No word from Stuart,” he said. “Aaron says not a sign. He should have been there by now!”
“Oh, God...” Kalina sighed. “You don't think...”
“I don't know.”
“We have to do something!” Kalina cried.
“What, go back to Octavius? Because that worked so well before!”
His harsh words silenced her.
“I don't know,” said Kalina. “But...something!”
“Stay here,” said Jaegar. “You're safe here. Your brother put holy water around the property. Luckily I was already on the roof when he did so.”
Kalina smiled to herself. So, when he wasn't afraid of being teased by his kid sister, Justin still believed in the power of the unknown.
“How will you get out?”
“Secret passage,” smirked Jaegar. “Jump from your window to the roof, then to a tree branch, then down the tree. My wa
y – don't tell the others.”
“This isn't a time for jokes...”
“You'll stay put? Until you hear from one of us?”
“I'll keep my phone on.”
“Goodnight, my love.” He cupped her face with his hands, leaning in for a final kiss. “Be safe!” And with that he headed into the night.
Chapter 8
When Jaegar had gone, Kalina remained still for a moment, wrapping the bathrobe around her naked body. How close they had come, she thought – how close they had been... she shook her head. There was no use in thinking about it now. Had she not stopped him, in the end...right now, they still would be... No! She got up. She had done rightly; as much as she hated to admit it to her shuddering body she had done rightly. She had been raised Catholic, after all, and if she wasn't going to wait for marriage – even to her this seemed outdated – but then again, maybe waiting until then was a good idea considering how she was so unsure right now, but she would at least wait until she was sure of love. Thinking of Jaegar, she flushed.
She tried to cool her blood. She went over to her drawer and put on the least sexy clothes she could find – an oversized pair of sweats that hung heavily in folds over her slender frame, shrouding her breasts and hips. She couldn't help but laugh to herself as she gazed at herself in the mirror – wearing these ugly clothes, still stinking of Justin's garlic-laden lasagna. She supposed garlic didn't harm vampires nearly as much as Justin supposed it did – Jaegar hadn't even commented on the smell, which she herself could identify as somewhat pungent and unpleasant. Well, maybe it was true love, she thought. Or maybe the smell of her blood was just that overpowering. Or maybe he was just that good a kisser.
She heard a knock at the door, and rounded too guiltily to be entirely nonchalant.
“Oh, Justin,” she breathed. “You scared me!”
