“I feel your heartbeat,” he whispered.
Tessa staggered backward. He was leading her towards the bed.
Clothes were disposed of quickly. Once they were gone they both took a moment to stare at each other. Tessa licked her lips. The other night she hadn’t really had a chance to take in all of his naked body—hard abs, strong shoulders, muscular thighs, and legs. And his hard, long manhood, standing at attention for her.
He pushed her onto the bed. The softness of it seemed to offer up its own embrace, while his hard body pressed against her own.
He kissed between her breasts. Trailing down her body, he kissed her belly button. He took a moment to look up at her, his emerald green eyes full of delight. His thoughts were not words but the glow of emotions: pleasure, need, desire. Knowing what was going on inside him only added to her own need.
He bowed between her legs to kiss her most delicate flesh. Moaning, she grabbed the back of his neck. He did not seem to mind her nails moving against his scalp. When he lifted up, he hovered over her for a moment, looking into her eyes. She felt she could be lost in the sea of his eyes, the dark pupils that seemed to pulse at their center.
“Tessa,” Kristian sighed.
What she saw next from his memory was a flash. So brief he put the image away nearly the same moment it emerged. A brown haired woman with dark eyes, and an onyx pendant lying against the curve of her throat. This was the girl he loved before. Serena.
“I want you,” Tessa whispered.
She closed her eyes. Wrapping her legs around him, her back arched as she felt him thrust into her body. They moved together until both were spent. Lying beneath him, she drifted to sleep, haunted by the eyes of the mysterious woman whose name Kristian had chosen not to speak in more than a century.
#
“I have a question,” Tessa said.
She was wearing Kristian’s white dress shirt, with nothing beneath it. Odd how she could feel such a lady-like dressed in a man’s clothes. She sat on a stool in his basement kitchen space, legs crossed. Neither of them had woke until late afternoon. According to her cell phone, it was just past two. The rooms in this area did not have windows. It gave her the feeling of time passing differently, or stranger yet, not existing at all.
Once they were awake, the first thing he’d wanted to know was if she was hungry. He made her a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup. She watched as he poured a liquid from a black decanter, into a black travel mug. He kept his back turned, but she caught a coppery whiff of it. Blood.
He sat down across from her and watched as she took a bite of the sandwich. He apparently understood the idea of comfort food.
“What would you like to know?”
Tessa paused. What she really wanted to know was more about this girl, Anna. She asked something else instead.
“Is there some reason the Calder are after you and Veronica in particular? I mean, there have to be other vampires for them to occupy their time with, right?”
Kristian took a long draught from his mug and wiped his lips with the back of his hand. She didn’t see any blood, but the idea of him drinking it like coffee made her slightly queasy.
“The Calder do have more interest in some than in others. My coven was once known to cause them trouble in the past, so they have a vendetta against us.”
“Coven?”
“It’s what we call our families—the line of the vampires that sired us. My maker was part of a long line.”
Tessa nodded. He was still avoiding her name.
“Not just anyone goes up against them?”
“No, they don’t,” he agreed. “Most of my family is scattered. Some have fled to South America or parts of Africa. When we heard that the Calder were on the move, we decided it was best not to take chances.”
I stirred my soup. “So. My safety with you is doubtful but these predators that are after you... I am pretty sure they would not leave me alive either.”
“It’s in your best interest to help us,” Kristian replied. “And as far as your safety with me is concerned, it’s obvious I don’t want to hurt you.”
“And why is that? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I am enjoying.... whatever it is going on between us. It’s good to not be the strangest person in the room for once. But I don’t know about laying down my life for something which has nothing to do with me.”
“You’re not exactly an ordinary human. Whatever you are, the Calder would see you as a threat as well. I can provide you protection. And you can provide us your ability to read them. Think about it this way. I found you by accident, and the odds of one of them finding you, out on the road alone, is just as great. How many people do you think you meet in a year while you roam the country telling fortunes? The energy you give off—I could see it long before I ever saw you.”
“You can see my aura?” Tessa asked.
“Yes. And I am sure one of the Calder could, too.”
“What’s it like?”
“The same as the auras of other humans,” he said carefully. “Only larger. Enough to fill a room, where others have only sufficient to extend and inch or so from their bodies. Pale, and shimmery gray. I can protect you. And provide for you. Don’t you think you should be afforded a better life than living out of the back of a trailer?”
Tessa blushed. “I like living off the grid. Nothing is wrong with my life! I don’t have to answer to anyone, and I like it that way.”
“I would understand what it is to be a nomad better than you know,” Kristian replied. “And I am not judging by any means. I just think you deserve more in life than that.”
“Would you mind coming out with me today? I’d like to show you something,” Tessa said.
#
Tessa remembered it well: 1224 Wilmont Avenue. The house hadn’t changed in all these years, and she wasn’t sure if that pleased or unnerved her. The lawn was still neatly cut, with rosebushes out front in full bloom. Melissa loved her roses and was one of those people who was always trying to outdo her neighbors with her lawn. Both the cars were in the driveway, newer models, but still the mid-sized Japanese make the Forresters preferred.
Tessa and Kristian were parked across the street. He listened as she spoke. It was a difficult story to tell. She was aware of his feelings. Sadness.
“My parents died when I was eleven, shortly before my twelfth birthday. I had been in the institution for about a year, and I had these hopes that my parents would come get me out. Up until them, they visited me once a month. Whenever they came, there was this hope in their eyes. As soon as I said anything about mind reading, or knowing how they really felt about me, it was like something inside them shut off. Their eyes went dark. I wasn’t really their daughter anymore. “You’re sick, and you need help to get better. When that happens, we’ll take you home.” It was their nice little way of saying they didn’t intend to take me in until I stopped saying crazy shit to them about what was going on inside their heads. Even though they knew the things I told them were true. I spoke about things they didn’t want to acknowledge. I knew all about my Dad’s affair and Mom’s Jack Daniel’s habit. If I had lied, I would have never ended up there. But I was a kid, and rebellious,” she sighed.
“Well, I don’t think the rebellious streak went anywhere,” Kristian replied with a small grin.
“Touche,” Tessa said. “Anyway. I kept hoping they would see what the place was doing to me and change their minds. That never happened. When they told me my parents were gone, I realized I had to do better. Tow the line. Kiss up to the doctor and say anything he wanted to hear because no one was left to care whether I died in that place or not.”
“How did they die?”
“Car accident,” Tessa said. “Went off a bridge and into a lake. They were up in Seattle for some reason. I never found out why. Anyway. I convinced the doctor I was a good little girl and was never going to believe in such rubbish as mind reading again. It took a couple of months of lying through my t
eeth for him to believe it. They put me into the system. I was at a girl’s home for a couple of months, and that was lovely. Pretty much had to fight some chick every day. I wasn’t a fighter before then, but I learned. And then I got placed with the Forresters,” she said, making a gesture towards the house. “And I won’t even go into the wonderful experience it was for me.”
Kristian tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. It seemed an oddly human motion. Most of the time, he was so controlled that if she hadn’t been able to read minds, she’d have no clue he felt anything. “When we were alone. I noticed some scars on your back. Is that how...”
“Yes,” Tessa said.
“How long did you stay with these people?” he demanded. She felt a wave of his barely controlled anger.
“Until I was sixteen. I knew I needed to be able to work, and old enough to drive. With the right makeup, I could make myself look eighteen. Sometimes I would take waitress gigs. Then I figured out I could really make a lot more like a fortune teller.”
“Why are we here?”
“I haven’t been back here since the day I left. I always wanted to come back. Just to let them see they didn’t destroy me.”
#
As they approached the door, Tessa smiled. She didn’t tell Kristian that she wanted him to come along as insurance, just in case either of the Forresters thought they might not take seeing her very well. Feeling the waves of anger flowing off him like heat off an even, she wasn’t so sure it was a good idea. She could imagine him throwing punches and snapping necks. Or maybe just drinking his fill from their throats. It was a morbid thought, but she couldn’t help taking some small joy from it. She walked up to the porch with Kristian at her heels.
She rang the doorbell and waited. There were no sounds coming from within. The neighborhood was oddly quiet.
“Tessa,” he whispered. “Let me.”
The door opened beneath his hand.
“Breaking and entering?” she asked, taking a look around. “I don’t want to get arrested.”
“The door was open,” he replied frostily.
The television in the front was on, but the volume was very low. Mrs. Forrester was one of those people who never allowed anything electric to run unattended, much less the television set. A lump lodged in Tessa’s throat as Kristian went directly to the kitchen.
Tessa could see past him to a pair of shoes and the rumpled hem of a house dress.
She tried to push past him, but he blocked her way. Pushing against him was like walking into a brick wall.
“You don’t want to see it. They’re both gone, Tessa.”
“I have the right to see,” Tessa demanded, pounding his chest.
“Very well,” Kristian said, stepping aside. “I warned you.”
Melissa Forrester’s head was marked by a tennis ball sized black mark as if a weapon had burned directly into her skull. A pool of blood had congealed on the floor beneath her.
Jim Forrester must have died coming to her aid. He laid crumpled a few feet away from her, the back of his head marked by the same blackened hole. There were blood and gore and some gray-white substance that she didn’t want to contemplate.
Kristian pushed her gently backward, so that they were back in the living room.
The front door opened, and a woman stepped inside. She had short, burgundy streaked black hair, and wide, dark eyes. She wore all black, including gloves and a leather jacket.
“Well,” she said, addressing Kristian. “You beat me here. So much for needing my services.”
“Who are you?” Tessa spat.
“Well I could ask you the same thing, honey,” she said, narrowing her eyes.
“Tessa, this is Allison Harding. An old friend of mine.”
“Ally,” she replied caustically, never taking her eyes off of Tessa. “And let me guess, you must be the plaything of the month.”
Part Two
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No one had to explain to Tessa just what Ally was; another vampire, for one thing, and Kristian’s ex-lover for another. How many of them did he have, she wondered. While she listened to the pool of outright hateful things, the woman thought of her. The woman was as jealous as they came. If not for the situation—her foster parent’s dead bodies only a few feet away in the kitchen, she’d have given the bitch a piece of her mind.
“Alright, so why are you here again?” Tessa asked.
Ally turned her attention to Kristian. “Do you really want me to explain to this human?”
“She is my friend. This was her foster parents’ home, and they are dead. Anything you could tell us right now would be helpful.”
“I was tracking one of the Calder, and this is where the scent led me. I thought maybe she was just coming here to throw me off. I couldn’t imagine why she would be here among humans. And speaking of you Missy, what are you?”
Tessa wasn’t aware that she had moved forward until she felt Kristian’s hands on her waist pulling her backward.
“Don’t do something you’ll regret,” Kristian whispered against Tessa’s ear. “We should regroup at the mansion,” he said to Ally.
#
Tessa spent the drive back to the house in stunned silence. Finding her foster parents dead was the last thing she had expected. As far as she knew, the couple had no enemies. The house was completely undisturbed. It wasn’t a robbery. The vampires believed it had something to do with the Calder, and she was inclined to agree with them. The reasons the Calder would be after her foster parents was another question. She kept looking out the window at the ocean, clasping her hands together so they wouldn’t shake. The Forresters had never been kind to her. She counted her years with them as the most involved in her life, but she still was horrified that someone had killed them. In some ways, they were the only family she had left.
Veronica answered the door when they arrived at the beach house. She looked at her brother, sensing trouble. Her eyes fell on me, and I felt her worry. Shrugging away from them both, I went to sit down in the living room. Ally trailed behind us. I only half listened as Kristian explained to his sister what we found.
Kristian stood behind the couch—not touching me but close enough that I could feel him. His presence calmed me, despite the inner turmoil I sensed. Even though he didn’t say much, it was good to know he was concerned. Veronica sat on one of the leather chairs. I could feel how perplexed she was about the entire situation and angry too.
Ally stood at the fireplace. She had all of our attention. After filling Veronica in on what happened, she gave us the information she had about the Calder.
“I wish I had more to tell you,” she began. “I followed a group of three witches to Paris. After they had landed there, they split up. One remained in France but traveled to the South. The other one is currently in London. A third came to the States. She was back East as late as yesterday. There are two within the continent that I know of. One has been crisscrossing the country for some months now, without any others with her. There seems no rhyme or reason to her movements. I wasn’t too concerned with her because it didn’t seem her movements had anything at all to do with any vampires we know if. Caution is good, but I don’t get in their way if it doesn’t seem they’re prepared to screw with us.”
“You’re saying you lost the one who just came from Europe?” Veronica asked.
“If you want to put it that way, yes,” Ally replied with a sickening smirk. It’s nice to see she can be just as much of a bitch to other people as she is to me, Tessa thought.
“I have two of my associates on the others. The witch who was already here has been for a while. Well, I’d say she’s been in North America for at least a year.”
Tessa sat forward, fixing Ally with a serious look. “You say one had been all over the country. Do you know the last three states she was in?”
Ally rolled them off the tip of her tongue. Tessa felt her skin grow cold as her temples started to throb.
&n
bsp; “What is it?” Ally asked. Her face took on a semblance of concern. Or better stated, perhaps it was curiosity. With the roaring in Tessa’s head, she suddenly couldn’t read the vampires apparently. This sometimes happened when she was very upset; the voices of others thoughts melted into a roar, and she could only hear her own thoughts over the din. And barely those.
“Wyoming, Utah, Colorado,” Tessa repeated. “The last three states I have passed through.”
Ally crossed her arms. “Well, I’ll be damned. Who did you piss off?”
“What are you talking about?” Kristian demanded.
“We have a Calder traveling behind her. And yet nothing happens until you brought her here. It simply can’t be a coincidence. I don’t know why they killed her parents. Maybe to send a message, or to shake her up. One way or other, they want something from Miss not so normal. Who knows, maybe they want to harness that aura of hers. Either way, you’ve got trouble...”
“Enough!” Kristian barked. “I won’t have you needling her.”
“What’s our next plan then?” Veronica asked. “To protect all of us?”
“I’m working on it,” Ally took out her cell phone, texted someone briefly, and slipped the phone back into her pocket. “I’ll send reinforcements for you. Meanwhile, I ask you only stay put until my people get here. You could try leaving again, but I am not convinced it would do anything other than put you in more danger.”
#
Kristian asked to speak with Ally alone before she left. Tessa went to wash off her face and have a moment alone to collect her thoughts.She checked out her reflection in the bathroom mirror. There had been a few tears on the way home, despite the fact she tried not to. Her eyes were red. She looked just as shocked and angry as she felt. The image of her foster parent's dead bodies were still in her head. They weren’t real people by any measure she could think of, but what the Calder did to them no one deserved. She was still trying to absorb the possibility that she was the target of the Calder. Being a freak was nothing new. Being the one that anyone cared to pursue was another thing.
Paranormal Romance: Kiss Of A Vampire Page 3
