Tessa went into the kitchen for a bottle of cold water. She opened the fridge and when she closed it, found Veronica standing beside her in a space unoccupied only a moment before.
Tessa jumped. “I’m aware you can do that, there’s no need in showing off,” she sniped.
“I’ll take that into consideration next time,” Veronica said. “Come with me. We should have a talk.”
Tessa followed Veronica to the patio in the back yard. A sweeping view of the ocean was visible from there. Once they were seated, Veronica pulled out a pack of cigarettes. “You don’t smoke, do you?” she asked.
“No,” Tessa replied. “I could never afford the habit.”
“It’s probably better that way,” Veronica said as she lit up. “They kill you eventually. One of the benefits of being a vampire is you can abuse your body in all sorts of ways, and it doesn’t matter. You might as well know my brother hates the smell of them which is why I always come outside when I’m craving a smoke. As immaculate as he likes his house kept, it wouldn’t do for the upholstery to smell like smoke.”
Tessa raised an eyebrow. “Good to know. But I’m sure that’s not what you brought me here to talk about.”
Veronica nodded. She tilted her head back and blew out smoke. She tapped a bit of ash off the tip. Tessa watched the ashes swirl away on the wind before she continued. Her emerald green eyes were full and bright. She brushed back her light brown hair. She wondered if Veronica and her brother were blondes when they were children.
“I want you to know I like you, Tessa. You say what you think. And I can tell my brother cares about you. He hasn’t looked at anyone the way he does at you for many years. To be honest, not since Serena. How much did he tell you about her?”
“Not much,” Tessa admitted. “I could tell he didn’t want to get into it, so I didn’t push.”
“Good call,” Veronica said. “He doesn’t speak of her, but his mourning for that woman has never entirely ended.”
“Why is that?” Tessa asked. She was curious. Not to mention she was happy to discuss anything which didn’t reference the Calder and the new threat to her own life.
“The tie between a vampire and his maker is a complicated thing,” Veronica said carefully. “You know how you love your parents? Not when you’re a teenager or even say, an eight-year-old child who is old enough to be actually aware of the world and have a life separate from their families. Do you remember that pure, sort of unbridled adoration you had for your parents when you were maybe three or four years old? How they were your entire world?”
“I don’t know if I have reliable memories of events from that time, but I do remember the feeling.”
“Okay. Add onto that the feeling you had for the first person you ever fell in love with. The way you were fiercely devoted to them and would die to protect them. Once you have the strength of those feelings combined, you have something resembling a shadow of the love one has for their maker.”
Tessa didn’t know what to say. “Okay.”
“Our parents died young, as many people did in those days. There was a severe strain of pneumonia going around and one winter, and they both caught it,” Veronica continued. “I was thirteen years old, and Kristian was twenty. We were probably what was considered middle class by the standards of those times, but there were bills owed to everyone in town. My father ran a small restaurant, and Kristian was already working as an apprentice there. He took over. He worked day and night to keep the place open. He started selling baked goods in the morning and closing up until evening for the dinner crowd. Very enterprising. It’s something my father never would have allowed, but it saved our business. We were able to keep a roof over our heads.
“When I was sixteen, I got married. Kristian had his dalliances I’m sure, but no one he was serious about. And he was still working so much that he wouldn’t have had time or inclination for much else. I worried for him because my new husband wanted us to move to Boston, where his family owned land and business. In those days, a woman had no say in such matters. By leaving town, I was leaving him with no immediate family. Without a wife to care for him, my concern was he would work himself into an early grave.
“Communication between us was sparse, as you could imagine. I’d write letters, and he would write me back, but he wasn’t telling me everything. I could feel there was something wrong. I guess the same could be said on my end of things. My husband wanted a baby which I seemed unable to give him. And when he got upset about it, he commonly used his fists to get out his frustration.”
“I’m sorry,” Tessa breathed.
“Yes. Well, it was more than one lifetime ago. Anyway. I asked my husband if we could come see Kristian for the holidays. We were always so close, but by that time we’d been apart for a handful of years and I needed to see him.
“When I came home, what I found was not the Kristian I knew,” she said, her voice dropping deeper. Tessa could feel the sadness in her, along with anger, grief, other emotions which overlapped and blended together.
“My brother was in the house, alone, shutters drawn in the middle of the day. I thought he was dying, he looked so sick: sallow skin, puffy eyes with bags beneath them. He was thinner than I’d ever seen him. He refused to let me open the windows. He wouldn’t even look me in the eye. I tried to feed him, but he couldn’t keep anything down. My husband said Kristian was probably not long for this world, and we should go back home and leave him be.
“I told my husband he could go back, and when the crisis passed, I would join him. He didn’t like it, but for once I made a demand he listened to. I don’t know what I intended to do, Tessa, but I knew I was never going back to that man, even if it meant peddling on the streets or becoming a whore.”
Veronica paused, ground her cigarette into the ground with the tip of her black, red bottomed heel, and continued.
“My first order of business was finding out what was really wrong with my brother. Since he wouldn’t tell me, I followed him out at night. He was going to see this woman, Serena Faye. He would spend the entire night with her and hurry home in the hour before dawn. There were all kinds of rumors about her, and none of them good. Most said she practiced voodoo. Others claimed she was something far worse, though no one dared to say what. Well,” she said with an ironic chuckle. “Who is to say rumors aren’t right sometimes?”
“How long had he been going to Serena by the time you came back to town?” Tessa asked.
“Almost a year,” Veronica said. “One night he came home. I had been back a month by then. He staggered into the door, covered in blood. Finally, he confessed everything to me—that he had basically been a slave to Serena over the past months, letting her feed from him. She used it to keep her under his control, made him beg for sex. He’d finally gotten wise that he was going to go the way of her other lovers, and he killed her. But by then, Serena had already drained him, and he had ingested a bit of her blood as well. All that was needed for him to complete the change to a vampire was to take his first victim.”
Veronica lit her second cigarette and brushed an errant strand of hair behind her ear. She seemed calmer. Her thoughts were. Tessa licked her lips, waiting for her to continue.
“Kristian wanted to die. The two of us spent seven days and nights in the house. He was in bed most of the time, in terrible pain. I told him I would go find a man and lure him back for him to drink from. He didn’t want that. I offered him a rabbit I caught in the forest, which he took. It helped to sate him for a short time but after that, the pain returned with a vengeance. He’d shake, sweat, scream. It got so bad I gagged him so the neighbors wouldn’t hear. So many times he begged me to go away. I refused. I promised I’d be with him to the bitter end, just as we were when our parents were on their death beds.
“That last night was a full moon. I remember because we were sitting on the floor of his bedroom, and there was nothing but the glow of the moon illuminating it. He had laid his head on my shoulder. And I told h
im then, he should drink from me and be done with it. I had nothing to return home to. We would have each other if nothing else. Eventually, I got up and got a knife, and made a cut on my neck. Once he smelled the blood, starved as he was, he was not able to resist.”
“Thank you for telling me. I have a feeling Kristian wasn’t going to open up about it anytime soon.”
Veronica gave her a small smile. “I want you to realize what he’s been through. This business with the Calder is a mess. I don’t know if you’re really the one they’re looking for. It could be they just figured if you’re close to him, and hurting people in your life will get a rise out of him. I really don’t know. If I were you, I would consider doing the smart thing and get out of here. Before you get in any deeper with my brother or these people, decide to actually make you into their target.”
“Veronica!” Kristian called.
He was only a foot away from them. This time, Tessa managed not to jump. Being around these vampires was certainly a test of her ability to keep a poker face and look calm at all times. She pushed back from the table and made an excuse about wanting a nap after the trying day she had. Which was actually true. No one had to tell her Kristian wanted to talk to his sister alone. He was fuming, eyes wide and hands trembling. It was not a conversation she wanted to be a party to.
#
Tessa searched in her purse and found a half empty bottle of pain reliever. She thanked God she had a few left. She didn’t get headaches often but when she did they could get bad quickly. A quick shower helped dispell the tenseness in her muscles. A t-shirt from Kristian’s dresser would have to do. She laid down on the bed, luxuriating in the softness of the mattress.
She tried her best to block out thoughts of her foster parent’s violent end. There had been many times over the years she said she wished them both dead for what they did to her. Now that they were gone she realized that was never true. She only wanted them to care for her. But like her real parents, it was beyond their ability.
Sleep didn’t come easily, but once she slipped into unconsciousness, the dream came quickly.
Tessa was back at the street fair, but she wasn’t sitting in a booth. Instead, she was walking around, browsing the wares of other merchants.
But this fire was actually a bit larger and more involved than one she had been too lately. There were jugglers and musicians. An artist drew sketches in coal, charging five bucks for each drawing. A man played the steel drums, a cheerful song which was familiar but Tessa couldn’t name. He smiled at her as Tessa passed. He had a big smile with pearly white teeth. It wasn’t until she got close to him that she realized he didn’t have any eyes. The skin beneath his eyebrows was perfectly smooth.
Tessa clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming and continued on her way.
She briefly stopped at a table where a woman sold rare second-hand books. “Do you need something special?” the woman asked her. She was a lady in her mid to late sixties with smooth ivory skin and blush to her cheeks. Her long silver hair was plaited into a single french braid which reached her waist.
“No, just looking,” Tessa replied.
“I think this may be helpful,” the woman replied, placing a red book in her hands. Tessa’s name was written across the cover in gold, cursive script.
She opened it, flipping through the pages from back to front. They were blank. Until she reached the first quarter of it. She watched in amazement as she saw the pages being filled with writing, the same loopy writing that covered the front. She dropped the thing to the ground.
“I don’t need this shit!” Tessa said.
“Yes you do, darling,” the woman replied. “Look at your hands.”
I had not picked it up, and she had not passed it back to me, but somehow, I was holding the book again.
“You need every word,” the woman said. Her eyes turned black. “Go now.”
Tessa ran. She dropped the book into a trash can as she did. Eventually, she looked around, pausing to catch her breath.
She was back at the entrance to the fair.
A backpack hung from her left shoulder. When she opened the bag, the only thing inside was the book.
An empty table awaited her, with her fake crystal ball sitting in the middle. She took her seat at the booth and no sooner than she did, she was approached by a potential customer.
“Good morning,” she said. “I wonder if you can help me. You can hear me of course, can’t you?”
“Yes,” Tessa said, “of course.”
The woman nodded. It was only then that Tessa realized the woman was not speaking aloud. Not once had she ever moved her lips. She had blond hair and eyes which had turned black, just like those of the book dealer. Reaching forward to touch her with long, thin fingers, she squeezed Tessa’s wrist. “Who are you?” she questioned. “Is it that you don’t know, or you just don’t want to?”
She jolted awake in bed.
Kristian was standing a few feet away, giving her a look of concern. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, putting her palm over her heart as if she could calm the frantic beating that pounding in her chest.
“Nightmare?” he asked. He sat down on the bed and rubbed her back, moving his hand in slow circles. Something about his cool touch was calming.
“I don’t have them often, but this one was bad.”
“What was it about?”
“Nothing...craziness,” Tessa said. She tried to smile, but Kristian seemed unconvinced. “Do vampires have nightmares?” she asked.
“I know some who claim they do. I haven’t experienced any since my human life ended.”
“Do you ever miss it? The old life?”
“Some things about it perhaps, but not really. I do miss some of the people I left behind, I suppose. I knew a few very kind people when I was young, especially after our parents died. It is the nature of life. People come and go. Nothing is permanent.”
Tessa nodded. It was sad, but her experience bore out his words. She decided it was best to change the conversation “What happened with Veronica?” she asked.
“I had a talk with her about her need to respect you. It’s been a while since I have had anyone in my life, and living here in the house. She just needed reminding.”
“How much of our conversation did you hear?”
“Enough to know she told you it was a good idea for you to leave.”
“What if it is?” Tessa countered.
“All we know for sure is the Calder will destroy any vampires they come in contact with, and my family has been hunted for many years. They hurt your family. My bet is you’ll be safer with us than on your own. If you wanted to leave it would be your choice, but I wouldn’t want you to feel pushed into it. For my part? I want you to stay.”
“I don’t think I have much of a choice,” Tessa said. “Because I want to stay with you.”
She hadn’t meant to say it but the words slipped from her lips effortlessly. And now that she had spoken them, it made everything real.
Kristian’s eyes sparkled. Cradling the back of her neck with his hand, he brought her to him for a long, passionate kiss. His hand slipped beneath the t-shirt to squeeze her bare breast, causing her to moan. She ran her fingers through his hair. Though he didn’t have any sort of body smell, he did wear afterhave, and there was a light scent of shampoo in his hair. A clean, woodsy sort of aroma. His hand wandered to her inner thighs.
And his phone rang.
With a guttural growl, he parted from Tessa and answered his phone.
“We’ve got company,” he told her.
#
“Well, you didn’t think I’d leave town without my reinforcements being in place, did you?” Ally said. “That would be highly unprofessional of me.”
Veronica and Ally were in the living room when Tessa and Kristian came upstairs. The unease between the two women was obvious from their body language. Ally stood with her arms crossed over her chest, while Veronica
leaned forward, hands on hips, trying to look intimidating to Ally, who was slightly shorter. Tessa had to hold back her laughter because she could hear each woman’s thoughts towards each other. And at the moment their thoughts were almost solely profanity.
Ally was not moving, and she was not at all intimidated. Four men were standing behind her—vampires—and they were apparently awaiting her orders.
Tessa couldn’t help but stare. They were all fine specimens of men: tall, thin, and hard bodied. There was a long haired blond, a brunette with wavy, short hair, a black man with a shaved head and goatee, and a pale skinned redhead with a buzz cut.
“I just got a lead on a witch, and I am going to follow up on it myself. I am leaving you with some of my best trackers, so I am certain there won’t be any problems. This is Jared and Trevor,” she said, indicating the man with the goatee and the redhead respectively. “This is Ryan,” she mentioned the long haired blond. “And of course, everyone except Tessa remembers Morgan.”
Morgan was the dark haired man. He had full lips and long lashes, and shockingly blue eyes. He took one look at Veronica. Tessa was flooded with a flash of memories between Morgan and Veronica, all passionate and erotic in nature. Tessa was used to hearing other people’s intimate thoughts and seeing the images associated with them. Rarely were the thoughts from one couple so passionate at the same time. Tessa cleared her throat and then regretted doing it immediately after.
Ally smirked, shifting from one foot to the other.“In the spirit of full disclosure, everyone should know that Tessa here is Kristian’s lady, and she is a mind reader. I’d suggest none of you think anything which you’d be too embarrassed to say out loud.”
Paranormal Romance: Kiss Of A Vampire Page 4
