“I know you weren’t. I’m just tired and bitchy. You look like you're feeling better. I can’t believe you spilled wine on that pretty top. Maybe we can still get the stain out.”
Hannah frowned. She had a strange memory of someone telling her that she’d spilled wine on her shirt. Maybe what she remembered was Nathaniel telling her the story they would give Lydia.
“We should go home now so you can get some more sleep.” Hannah suggested.
As Lydia turned to leave she lost her balance. Dominic caught her, but not before she tried to grab the door frame and somehow cut her index finger on it. “Ouch! Damn that hurt!”
Dominic held her in his arms, placed her bloody finger up to his lips, and then ran his tongue across the wound. “You’re supposed to kiss it to make it better, right?”
“No!” Noah snapped.
“Lydia, you can’t drive in your condition,” Hannah couldn’t imagine how someone could drive when they were too weak to walk.
“Then you drive,” Lydia suggested.
“I can’t drive a stick,” Hannah reminded her.
“I can drive them home,” Dominic said a little too cheerfully.
“No!” Noah snapped again.
“I’ll drive you home and have someone follow to drive me back,” Nathaniel said, ending all arguments. “I just need to shower. Please have something to eat while you’re waiting.” Then he seemed to remember that there wasn’t much in the kitchen. “Sorry, I’m not much of a cook, and the staff is off for the weekend. Perhaps we could stop and pick something up?”
“No, we’ll be fine,” Hannah assured him.
He nodded, and left the room.
“It was very nice meeting you,” Noah said. He scowled at Dominic and put the grapefruit back in the fruit bowl beside Hannah. “I’ll put this back just in case you feel the urge to throw something.” Then he followed Nathaniel out of the room.
Nathaniel waited until they were upstairs, and far enough from the kitchen to avoid being overheard. “So what was so urgent that you needed to speak to me now?”
“Let’s start with why you let your host, or intended host, sleep over, and then wander unescorted around the house. Obviously you didn’t feed off of her last night, or she’d look more like her cousin this morning.” He made no attempt to mask his disgust. “Then we can move on to the one-way plane ticket you charged last night. Your email advising me of the transaction was a little vague. Who pissed you off, and why do I get the impression it has something to do with your new host? My money would’ve been on Dominic, but he’s still here. Did Drew finally get the boot? You should just have Drew put down.”
“You can relax, Noah.” To Noah's surprise, Nathaniel seemed offended. “I would never harm Hannah.” He took a deep breath and smiled wistfully. “Noah, she’s everything that I’ve ever wanted, and she is going to be the mother of my son.”
Noah’s jaw dropped, and he remained silent as he tried to process what his brother had just said. Finally, it all registered. “Hold on. Are you telling me she’s pregnant with your child? I thought that the two of you met last night.”
“She isn’t pregnant,” Nathaniel sounded irritated by the question. “We were destined for each other. I’ve spent my entire life waiting for someone like her. My father is going to be pleased with my choice.” He nodded his head as if agreeing with himself.
Nathaniel was not the romantic type, and that made this whole conversation seem even stranger.
“What have you done with my brother? Where is the pod?” Noah asked.
“Your humor is not appreciated,” Nathaniel said dryly. “Last night, I messed with her memory.”
“You did what?”
Nathaniel blew out an exasperated breath. “Aiden attacked her. I didn’t want her to remember it. I liked her and I felt guilty.”
Modern humans didn’t really understand their family structure. Nathaniel was the eldest son of the eldest son. That gave him almost complete authority over all of his cousins. It also made him responsible for the actions of those living under his roof. So it wasn’t a stretch to say that Nathaniel was to blame for the attack, but Noah knew that he rarely felt guilty about these sorts of things. Normally he was just angry about the risk to their safety, and annoyed that he had to deal with someone else’s stupidity.
“Aiden attacked her?” Noah was shocked. “I admit I don’t really know him that well, but he hardly seems like the type to assault a woman.”
The attack had surprised Nathaniel too. “He was looking at her like she was a drug that he needed. I don’t know what came over him, but I’m guessing he tried to give her a mental push and it didn’t work. You know how hard it was for him to lose his parents, and he’s not close to any of us. I’m guessing that loneliness made him go a little crazy when he met a potential mate.”
“Believe it or not, there are people immune to mind control,” Noah said. “I know that you’re better at it than most, but you don’t try to control everyone so I’m sure there are a lot of people who can resist you, and you don’t try to impregnate them all.”
“There’s more,” Nathaniel added. “Aiden fed on her energy. Not completely, but she was too weak to walk right after it happened. Today she’s fully recovered. It takes someone with that kind of strength to carry our children. Last night I wanted her, but I figured that it would be a mistake after what had happened. I also knew we had no future. Now, I feel like Aiden did me a favor.”
“I doubt Hannah would consider it a favor,” Noah muttered. “I know that you believe she's the woman for you, but what if she doesn't want the life you offer her? I don't want to see you hurt. Manipulating this girl into your world won’t make her fall in love with you.”
Nathaniel looked at Noah like he was crazy. “Why wouldn't she want the life that I can offer her? I will give her everything.”
“Everything except a normal human life,” Noah added bluntly.
“She’ll have eternal life, eternal youth. That’s better than her human life.” Nathaniel spat out. “What human wouldn’t want what we have? You’re the only person alive that doesn’t want this life.”
Noah shrugged. This was an old argument, and he wasn’t interested hashing it out again.
“I’m not saying that she won’t want it,” Noah said gently. “I just want you to be prepared for the fact that she might not want it. You need to be honest with her.”
“What would you have me do, Noah? Tell her on our first date?”
“I didn’t say that you need to tell her right away, but you need to tell her before things go too far.” Noah hated lying. He knew it was a way of life for them, but he hated it anyway.
Nathaniel smiled. “Do you like her?” He had obviously moved on from their argument about being honest with Hannah.
The wistful look on Nathaniel’s face made Noah smile. “Yes I like her, but if you do marry her we should keep the fruit bowl out of her reach.”
Chapter Six
Hannah sat cross-legged in a grassy area of the college courtyard. There was a large tree shading her from the sweltering autumn heat. She had just finished her shift at the campus daycare, and she didn’t have a class for two hours. It seemed foolish to make the thirty minute drive home so she’d decided to hang out on campus. Her only companion was a squirrel that kept climbing down the tree to stare at her.
The week was dragging. Nathaniel had invited her to go horseback riding that weekend and she could hardly wait. He’d sent her flowers, but he hadn’t called her even once. She wanted to talk to him again, but she hadn’t worked up the nerve to call him.
Lydia had seen Dominic every night since the party. Whenever Dominic picked Lydia up, Hannah considered asking about Nathaniel, but Dominic didn’t seem interested in interacting with her at all. He was polite, but distant at best.
The growl of her stomach reminded her that it had been more than six hours since breakfast, and she was famished. She supposed that she would have to drive aroun
d to find a place to eat lunch. There were a lot of restaurants close by, but she wasn’t really that familiar with the area.
Her thoughts of food were interrupted when she spotted Noah walking across the courtyard with a briefcase and an overstuffed file folder. At first she wasn’t sure that it was him. He was wearing tan slacks, and a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His blond hair was slicked back neatly. As Noah hurried across the courtyard, the papers slid out of the folder and onto the ground. Hannah hurried over to help him.
“You look like you could use a little help.” She squatted across from him to help gather papers.
He looked up, and grinned. “Thank you. I knew I’d never make it out of here with this mountain of papers, but I didn’t want to make two trips.”
She returned his grin. “So you figured that it would be much faster to scatter the papers across the courtyard and then gather them all up?”
He leaned closer, and lowered his voice. “Actually, I was just lonely so I dropped the papers hoping that someone would come help me. Pitiful what a guy has to do for a little attention.”
She laughed, and handed him a stack of papers. “Are you a student here?”
“No, I'm an instructor. Nathaniel mentioned that you were a student, but I didn’t realize that you were a student here.”
She handed the last of the papers to him. “I'm only taking a couple of classes. I spend most of my time working at the daycare. Don’t be jealous of my glamorous life.”
He pointed a finger at her. “So you’re that Hannah!”
“Which Hannah would that be?” she asked cautiously.
“Little Henry’s Hannah,” he said.
“So you know my boss?”
“His mom’s a professor in the same department as I am. She said that he screamed bloody murder his first day at daycare, and didn’t calm down until your shift started. She thinks you’re a miracle worker. It was really hard for her coming back to work after Henry was born, and you’ve made it much easier for her.”
Hannah wasn’t used to receiving compliments. She looked away feeling a little uncomfortable.
Noah stood up, and stacked the papers on top of his briefcase. He led her to a stone table with benches around it, and began to reorganize his papers.
She sat opposite him, and studied his features. “Do you mind if I make a personal observation?”
A playful grin tugged at his lips, and he cocked his head slightly to the side. “That depends. You aren’t going to insult me are you?”
“Probably, but I’m sure you deserve it,” she replied with a smile.
“Good point. Observe all you want.”
“You and Nathaniel seem very different. You don't look at all like brothers. It wouldn’t stand out if he didn’t look so much like your cousins.”
Noah seemed completely nonplussed by her observation, and continued to arrange the last of his papers. “We both look like our fathers, and they aren’t my cousins.”
Her mother wouldn’t have approved of this impolite probing, but she was curious and Noah didn’t seem to mind. “Did you grow up with your father?”
He shook his head. “My father died when I was very young. Roman, Nathaniel’s father, took me in. I know it sounds strange, but we grew up in the same home, but different worlds.”
“You probably think that I'm the nosiest person that you've ever met. Trust me; I’m not normally this intrusive.”
Noah met her gaze. “It's only natural to wonder about people you've just met. Listen, I’m starving, I skipped breakfast this morning, and I was just on my way to get some lunch.”
Hannah leaned her head into her hand, embarrassed by her own manners. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry. I didn't intend to keep you here all day with my questions.” She slipped her book bag over her shoulder and began to rise.
Noah stood quickly. “That's not what I was trying to say at all. I was actually going to ask if you wanted to join me for lunch. If I don't get some food soon, I'm going to drop.”
Hannah felt a wave of relief wash over her. “Now that you mention it, I was just thinking about getting something to eat when I saw you.”
“Where were you planning on eating?”
Hannah shrugged. “I'm not really familiar with this area. The only thing I’m sure of is that I don't ever want to eat in the cafeteria again. Just thinking about it makes my arteries harden.”
Noah’s lips curled into an inviting smile. “Well, you're in luck. I know a superb restaurant close by.”
“Not just good, superb?”
He raised his hand as though he were taking an oath. “I kid you not. You are in for an exceptional dining experience. They serve the finest veggie burger this side of the Mississippi.”
“With advertising like that, how could a girl possibly resist? You’re a vegetarian?”
He nodded. “So, do you want to join me, or do you want to stay here and starve?”
“Promise me food, and I’ll follow you anywhere.”
“We can take my truck. I have a reserved spot so I don’t have to worry about finding parking again. Even this late in the day the student lot is pretty full.” He gestured toward the faculty parking lot.
“How about if I carry some of those papers so we don’t have to stop every few feet to pick them up again?” she offered.
“Fine with me. I know some would say the gentlemanly thing to do is carry them myself, but I’ve never been accused of being a gentleman.”
She took half of the papers.
Noah’s truck was a silver Toyota Tacoma with a double cab. He tossed the briefcase and papers in the back of the cab.
“Can I ask you something of a sensitive nature?” Hannah asked cautiously as Noah drove them to the restaurant.
They were at a stoplight, so he turned to smile at her. “You seem to do that quite often, but I think I prefer it to being attacked with fruit, so go ahead.”
“What happened to your parents?”
“My mother and father were killed in a fire.”
“That must have been really terrible for you to lose both of your parents at the same time.” Hannah spoke quietly; her heart ached for him, and for Nathaniel.
“Like I said, I was lucky that Nathaniel's father took me in. It was weird living with him. For the most part a nanny raised me. Nathaniel’s father has never been cruel or neglectful. He’s just,” he paused to find a word to describe the man who had taken him in. “reserved. I’m not sure that’s the best word, but it’s hard to describe him.”
Hannah looked down at her hands, and thought about his words. “I think I understand. My father isn’t a bad person, and he’s never really been cruel to me. He’s just very detached.”
At the restaurant, Noah waved to the waitress in a familiar way. He escorted Hannah to a table in the back, and held out her chair for her before taking his own seat. After closing the blinds, Noah removed his dark glasses and set them on the table.
The waitress was a chubby woman with gray hair, rosy cheeks, and a friendly smile. She immediately came to their table, set down two waters, and patted Noah affectionately on the cheek. “It's good to see you again, Noah. I see you've brought us a new customer today.”
“You know I always recommend your place to everyone, Maggie. How is your family doing? Has Joanna had the baby yet?”
Maggie beamed with pride. “I have a new granddaughter.” She pulled out a photo from her apron pocket and handed it to him.
He looked at the photo, and then back at Maggie. “She’s beautiful, just like her grandmother. Congratulations. Please give Joanna and Robert my best wishes.” He reached out to return the photo.
Maggie put her hand up and shook her head. “That picture is for you, Joanna insisted.”
He carefully placed the photo into his wallet. “Thank you.”
Maggie’s attention shifted to Hannah “Who is your lady friend?”
“This is Hannah. She’s a very good friend of my fami
ly’s.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Hannah.”
“It's nice meeting you too.” Hannah replied.
Noah leaned toward Maggie with an impish grin. “She’s just using me to get your food.”
“Would you like the usual today?” Maggie asked.
“Please,” he replied. “Hannah will need to see a menu.”
“No,” Hannah insisted, “whatever you're having is fine with me. I'm not a picky eater, and I’m too hungry to look at a menu. If I start looking at the menu I might order everything.”
“No offense,” he said, “but you don’t seem like the veggie burger type. I’m guessing you want something with meat.”
“I really don’t like veggie burgers,” she admitted, “but I’m hungry enough to eat a horse.”
“Not a vegetarian item and I’m pretty sure Maggie doesn’t serve horse here. How about beef instead?”
She nodded.
“Make hers with a regular patty,” Noah told Maggie.
“How would you like that cooked?” Maggie asked.
“Just barely medium,” was Hannah’s reply.
“Drinks?” Maggie asked.
“Water’s fine,” Hannah said.
Noah nodded. “Same here.”
Maggie went toward the kitchen to put in their orders.
“How long have you been coming here?” Hannah asked.
“About a year. I moved here to take a teaching position last autumn. Why do you ask?”
She shrugged. “You just seem very familiar with Maggie, like you’ve known her for years.”
“I like people,” he replied. He had grown up living on the outskirts of humanity, but he preferred being immersed in humanity. That wasn’t something he could explain to Hannah yet. He hated the feeling that he was holding things back, but it wasn’t like he could just reveal all of their secrets to a woman he barely knew. Lies were a part of his everyday life, but he never really got used to them. He took a small pill container out of his front pocket, removed three large pills, and swallowed them dry.
“That’s a lot of pills!” Hannah said in surprise.
Noah looked a little embarrassed. “I have to take some supplements every day.”
Vampires and Vixens (Psy-Vamp) Page 4
