The First Vampire

by Alicia Ryan

  Justin laughed. “It does amaze how quickly you Americans take to tea time.”

  “It’s a great custom,” Ariana said. “I wish we had it. New York is always so rushed; I don’t think I could manage that much time out of the work day on a regular basis.”

  Another thought struck her as she turned to go. “Will Ash be joining us today?” she asked.

  Justin shook his head. “He usually observes something between London and New York time when he’s here because so much of his business is transacted out of New York. He gets up in the afternoon and works in his study. He might come down for tea. Seldom before then.”

  Ariana smiled and left the room, unsure if she was relieved or disappointed.

  The first thing she did upon returning to her room and getting her laptop plugged back in was to send Roger a detailed report. He’d sent her some information on prospective investments, and more would be coming tomorrow by courier, which was good because, from what she’d seen so far, there were considerable sums that could be moved right away. The rest would have to be staged to minimize penalties and take advantage of the best investments Ash was already in, but there was lots of room for improvement. Roger would be happy.

  Tea time rolled around before Ariana had even finished responding to yesterday’s emails and going through the materials Roger had sent. She made her way downstairs, assuming tea would be served in the same place as yesterday. She met Nancy halfway there.

  ”Hi there, dear,” Nancy greeted her. “I was just coming to tell you that tea is being served on the back terrace today. It’s so warm out, the master thought it would be a nice treat.”

  “Thanks, Nancy.” She still couldn’t get over Nancy calling him “master.”

  Nancy continued past Ariana down the hall, and Ariana headed for the terrace.

  Outside, it was a warm evening. The sun hung low, turning the clouds to cotton candy from one side of the horizon to the other. Ash faced westward, seeming to admire the pastel tableau, and Ariana stood for a moment admiring him.

  He was dressed informally in dark slacks and a gray sweater. The muscles of his shoulders and back stretched the soft, light wool as he lifted and replaced his teacup.

  Ariana longed to walk up behind him and let her hands roam over that rugged terrain. She wanted to do to him what he had done to her in her dream. She wanted to know if his hair was as soft as it looked.

  Justin appeared before her thoughts could get too far away from her. “Go on, then. He won’t bite,” he said.

  “What?” Ariana exclaimed. “Oh,” she said, realizing he was telling her to help herself to the tea cart.

  Ash turned, again wearing that enigmatic little smile. “Ariana, how are you?” he asked. “Are you finding everything you need here?”

  “Oh yes,” she said. “I’m glad I didn’t insist on staying in the city. I would have regretted not coming here.” In more ways than one, she added silently.

  “Me too,” Justin added, walking toward Ash and reaching for the tray. “Unparalleled luxury and all the cookies you can eat.”

  Ash laughed, and Ariana’s insides reverberated with the sound. She turned to look at him; he stopped laughing when he met her gaze.

  “I trust your room is satisfactory?” he asked. “Have you been able to get any sleep?”

  His eyes bored into her, and Ariana shook off the impression that he knew just exactly how she’d been sleeping. “The room is lovely, thank you. And I’ve been surprised at how well I’ve been sleeping here. Maybe it’s all the fresh air.”

  “The country doesn’t agree with some people,” he said. “Gives them nightmares.”

  Ariana’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I appear to have left all my nightmares in New York,” she said. “Nothing but pleasant dreams to report so far.”

  A wicked grin lit Ash’s face, turning up the handsome meter yet another notch. “Good,” he said, seeming inordinately pleased with himself.

  “That’s right. We don’t want you tuckered out when you’re moving all Ash’s money around,” Justin chimed in. “Can’t have you forgetting a zero someplace.”

  “On that note, Justin,” Ariana said, “would you be so kind as to pour me a cup of tea? I have been running at a little bit of a caffeine deficit since I got here.”

  Justin moved immediately to fulfill her request, accompanied by the bell-like music of cup touching saucer. “My lady,” Justin said, handing her the tea with a ginger cookie on the side.

  Justin piled a stack of cookies onto a plate and turned to go back inside. “I’m almost done with the summary I promised you. Ariana. Can you pop in when you’re done so we can go through it?”

  Ariana nodded. “Will do.”

  She rested her cup and saucer on the glass top of a small table that occupied one corner of the terrace, and Ash moved to join her. Alone with him, she couldn’t resist indulging her curiosity.

  “Dropping a zero would hardly put a dent in what I’ve been reviewing, Ash. Would you mind if I asked how you amassed such a fortune?”

  Ash frowned, and Ariana wondered if she’d overstepped.

  “Much of it has been in the family for generations,” he explained, still frowning. “The parts I’ve built in this life have come from well placed investments in small companies and well timed takeovers of big ones. Not very interesting really.”

  Ariana was surprised. “Oh, I don’t think that’s true,” she said. “If you’re able to see a good idea and help turn it into a reality, I think that’s very interesting. It’s part of why I do what I do, in fact. To create and build things, to be able to go home at the end of the day and say I made something better.”

  If she’d expected Ash’s expression to lift, she was mistaken. If anything, his look darkened even further.

  He searched her face for a long moment. “You should go back inside,” he said, taking a deep breath. “I’m sure Justin’s eager to show you what he’s been up to all day.”

  Ariana couldn’t hide her disappointment. He was so unpredictable, moody even. She knew he was drawn to her, but he pushed her away at every turn.

  But it was probably for the best, she decided. She didn’t really want to become entangled. Not now. Maybe not ever. Not after the fiasco she’d made of her life with James. Ariana sighed and, wondering if she needed her head examined, left one of the most intriguing men she’d ever met standing alone in his garden.

  Back in the war room, she discovered Ash was right. Justin was eager to show her what he’d been working on all day. He’d somehow whipped up a 40-page “summary” of what he’d been doing for Ash for the last few years and where all Ash’s assets were.

  Tea notwithstanding, Ariana wasn’t feeling quite up to the task, so she excused herself and took the stack of paper up to her room where she guiltily dropped it on the floor next to her desk. It was two hours before dinner. She just wanted a nap and a shower.

  The shower helped her relax, and she wrapped her long hair in a towel before lying down on the bed. It would dry while she slept.

  CHAPTER 27

  When Ariana woke, her room was completely dark. She glanced over at the illuminated clock and realized she’d slept well through dinner, which was okay, since she wasn’t hungry. Just wide awake.

  Not wanting to work, she pulled on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt and opened the door of her bedroom. She’d seen a library when Ash had given her the tour, and thought it wasn’t far. That seemed like the perfect thing for a bout of insomnia.

  She peered cautiously out into the hall. At 3:00 in the morning, the hallways of the manor were as black as pitch, except for tiny shafts of blue moonlight that crept from under some of the doors of the east-facing rooms. Ariana felt old fashioned wishing for a candle, but the moonlight provided little illumination and did nothing to alleviate the overall feeling of creepiness. She was reminded of the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World. If she passed a mirror, she’d probably scream.

  After walking for what
seemed like far too long, Ariana reached the panel doors she was searching for. The dark wood slid open at her touch and closed just as easily behind her.

  Inside, she flipped the light switch and breathed in the scent of old paper, dust, and leather. She loved libraries. Once a nerd, always a nerd, she thought with a smile.

  The room was large. Shelves lined three of its walls, all filled to the brim with glorious books. A few chairs were scattered about, along with a couch and a desk. There was even one of those rolling ladder contraptions to reach things on the highest shelves.

  Where to start? She scanned the shelves from where she stood just inside the door and decided to proceed methodically, beginning on the left and working her way around the room.

  The first shelf was devoted entirely to battles and warfare. It looked like there were books on every battle since man first picked up a club.

  The next shelf held more general history. Ariana paused to run her hands over some of the spines. This was more like it, she thought. Her hand paused over what looked like an original manuscript by Plato. How on earth? She would not have guessed Ash was a book collector. The war books maybe, but these? Wow.

  She resisted the temptation to linger, knowing she might also be tempted to take one down and run her hands over its pages. The desire to touch pages that had been touched by some of the greatest minds in history… She forced herself to keep walking. More of the same graced the wall opposite where she had come in. Ariana marveled at the pages and pages of knowledge, some of it quite ancient, that was assembled in this room.

  She passed the two large windows without bothering to look out. She knew nothing out there, even if she could have seen it in daylight, could compare to the wonders in this library.

  The shelves in the far corner appeared to be devoted to theology, even some occult books. Oddly, some of these were not dusty, as if someone had handled them quite recently. Ariana walked to the nearest one and pulled it from the shelf.

  There was no title on the cover. She carefully opened the black leather-bound volume. There was no title page either. It merely began—“In the beginning, God created them. Male and female, he created them.”

  Was this an old Bible? she wondered. No, not quite. That wasn’t the first verse of the Bible. Ariana had attended enough Sunday school to know that. She read on.

  “The male was called Adam, and the female was called Lilith. And they were stewards of the Earth, but Adam came unto Lilith and tried to make her will as his own. Lilith turned from Adam and from God and fled the garden God had made for them and went into darkness. And God was not pleased.”

  Ariana’s eye skipped down a few passages. “Lilith and her children were doomed to walk in darkness, never knowing human comfort. Adam was given a new mate, Eve, but he was destined to know no peace, either in his own house or in the houses of the generations after. And Lilith and Adam sired many lines. And so the curses stand, not to be lifted until the end of days.”

  Ariana read the passage again. She didn’t know what this was, but it definitely wasn’t the Bible. There was more, of course. Some of it was familiar. Eve and the apple, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the new punishment of mortality and nakedness for Adam and Eve. All that was there. So where did this first wife Lilith come from?

  Ariana shut the book. Some things were better left undiscovered, and she had an overpowering intuition this was one of them. She returned the book to its place and sat down behind the large, leather-covered desk at the far end of the library from where she’d entered. Its big matching leather chair was comforting, and Ariana found she needed it. That book had given her the willies.

  She put her elbows on the desk and looked around wistfully. What a pity to have a library full of books you don’t dare to touch, she thought.

  She slid the chair back and was about to return to her room when something caught her eye in the slightly open desk drawer. It was a manila folder. A white label at the top had her name typed in bold, block letters. Ariana Katherine Chambers.

  She had that feeling again—the feeling that she should put the folder back and forget she ever saw it. She opened the folder anyway.

  Inside was her resume and what looked like an investigative report. Her entire life was spilled out over a half dozen white pages. Everything was there—where she grew up, her high school GPA, her first job, her wedding date, a criminal background check consisting of some youthful traffic violations, and even an entry on James’ disappearance.

  Why had Ash felt the need to have someone go to so much trouble to get information on her? Her resume and bio were on the fund’s website for heaven’s sake. Did he really need to know all this just to decide to invest with them?

  She wasn’t sure, but she thought she might be angry. Before she could figure it out, something else drew her attention. Removing the folder had uncovered a stack of white stationery paper. The top page had her name written on it.

  Over and over and over.

  Ariana hesitated a full minute, but then reached in and removed the stack of paper from the drawer. The entire page was more of the same—just her name, written over and over again in a handwriting she knew was Ash’s. She’d seen his signature enough times over the past few days to recognize it.

  Too bad she hadn’t recognized he was a lunatic, she thought. No, instead she had decided she wanted to sleep with him.

  Oh, shut up, she told herself. This is serious.

  Maybe there was some more sensible explanation. She looked at the next page. It too contained her name and also another—Delilah. What the hell?

  Ariana hurriedly replaced the stack of paper in the drawer. Most importantly, she couldn’t let on that she knew he was a psycho.

  Wait, how could he be a psycho? He was an established businessman. He bought and sold companies. He interacted with people all the time. He had amassed a fortune. He didn’t exactly fit the serial killer profile. Shit. Maybe I’m the lunatic, she thought, shaking her head.

  “You’re really quite the potty mouth these days, Delilah.” Ash’s deep, alluring voice came out of nowhere, but Ariana wasn’t surprised. It was almost as if she’d been expecting him.

  CHAPTER 28

  Ariana turned quickly. Ash stood at the other door. It was just out of her peripheral vision, and she hadn’t seen it open.

  He looked stunning, a god in blue jeans, just rolled out of bed. His soft gray button-down, not living up to its name, revealed far too much of his bare chest, and Ariana found herself longing to touch him. She remembered her fevered dream and felt her cheeks flush.

  “It’s nice to see you, too,” he said.

  “What?” It finally dawned on Ariana that he kept responding to things she hadn’t said out loud. Who did that make the lunatic?

  “Neither of us, I’m afraid,” Ash said, sliding the wooden door closed and coming to stand in front of where she sat frozen, half-facing his big desk. “I’m just a man on a quest, and you, well, you just aren’t fully awake yet, love.”

  He stopped in front of her and reached across the desk to grab the letter opener. Then he put his hands on the chair arms, trapping her where she sat.

  He knelt down to bring his eyes level with hers. “I don’t know how to tell you any of this,” he said, “so I’m just going to show you.”

  Ariana’s breath caught in her throat as he raised the letter opener; to her surprise, he didn’t plunge it into her heart but rather into his own wrist. Not too far. Just about half an inch. He twisted it a little, like you’d twist a juicer to get the last few drops from an orange. Blood flowed down his hand.

  “Drink,” he ordered.

  Ariana’s eyes widened.

  “Yes, I know how this must seem to you.” Ash quickly took two fingers and wiped up the trail of blood forming on his arm. He pressed the bloody fingers to her mouth.

  Ariana squeezed her lips shut and slammed her body back as far in the chair as it would go. She didn’t know what was happening here, but it w
as definitely not good.

  “That’s where you’re wrong, love,” Ash said. “Everything about this is good. In fact, I haven’t felt this good in a few thousand years.”

  Ariana put both feet on his chest and pushed as hard as she could. He was only holding the chair with one hand, so they both went rolling in opposite directions. Unfortunately, she wasn’t getting any nearer to the door.

  Ash leaned back against the desk drawer that had stopped his tumble and laughed. It wasn’t even an insane laugh, she thought. He seemed genuinely amused.

  “I am amused, love,” he said. “I have the strength of ten men and yet, again, you managed to get the jump on me.”

  Ariana resisted the temptation to push the chair back farther into the corner. “Will you please stop doing that!” she said. She was mystified by what was happening and tapped into the temper she rarely showed.

  Ash laughed again. “I’m sorry. It takes some getting used to, I know.” He stopped laughing but didn’t rise from where he sat on the floor. “I wasn’t planning to tell you like this, you know.”

  “What—that you’re some kind of whack job?” she asked.

  “No,” he said, eyes glittering, “that I’ve been alive for thousands of years, and I’ve spent most of them looking for you.”

  Ash slowly rose to his feet. The look in his eyes had turned menacing, and Ariana knew her first taste of real fear. He closed the distance between them without ever taking his eyes from hers. When he got to where she sat cringing in the chair, he planted his feet on either side of hers and grabbed her by the arms, lifting her so they were face to face.

  “Ash...”

  He cut her off with a bruising kiss. Ariana felt dizzy and wondered how her body could still respond to him.

  He lifted his head and smiled at her, revealing the tips of his fangs. Ariana’s eyes widened in panic. She struggled in his grip, to no avail.

  “Trust me, you want this,” he told her.