“What kind of proof?”
“Like the fact that whenever Anton got close to another woman Libby would buy them off and send them away. She didn’t want him full time, but she didn’t want anyone else to have him either. One girl fought for him and Libby had her committed to the psych ward. I had my suspicions about her the day you left with her and she tried to kill Anton.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Just before you left, she drained him almost completely dry. Since I was the only human around I had him feed on me to save his life.”
“You did what?”
“You know, I did it for you too today or you wouldn’t be talking to me. But that day you left, Dominic didn’t get Anton to pull away in time and I ended up in the hospital. I remember calling for you as loud as I could, but you didn’t come. That’s when everyone decided if you didn’t come for me then, you’d never come back for me.”
“So you almost died and I wasn’t there.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say almost died, but a little anemic maybe.”
“So you said you went through the money faster than you figured you would. Did you ask for money from Dominic then?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. They weren’t family at the time.”
“But they were my family and you should have gone to them.”
“Devon, you weren’t exactly treating me like family before you left. Plus everyone thought you ran off with someone else. Old girlfriends cast aside don’t usually go to the ex’s house and ask for money.”
“Yeah, I guess I wasn’t treating you right, was I? I was so screwed up with Libby, I pushed you practically out the door. I don’t know what came over me when she asked me to go to New York. I shouldn’t have said yes, but I did, I’m so sorry. The next day I don’t even really remember agreeing to leave with her. The next thing I knew we were in Anton’s penthouse and she was coming on to me. I pushed her away and the next thing I remember I was waking up chained to that bed.”
“You know, you and Anton really ought to talk. You both have been tortured and almost drained of life by the same woman for almost half a century. He didn’t have a whole lot to do with the elopement, you know. She planned it all. He also was the bait to get her away from you so Dominic and I could rescue you. She even played your uncle and held that over his head to keep Anton from getting a divorce.”
“Well, I guess you know more about my family’s dirty secrets than I do.”
“Maybe.”
“So how did you find me in the end?”
“Libby seemed to have a very specific taste in vampires. She would only feed on vampires of noble blood. After Mark and I found that out, a couple lists back and forth between Anton and Mark and I and we started putting the pieces together. Mark tailed her and found that she frequented the same guy once a week. After following her for a while, it was deduced she had one for every day of the week. But what really cracked things open was when Mark and I went to Anton’s penthouse in New York. Mark found an address on a post-it note in a woman’s handwriting and he found your overcoat there.
“The address on the post-it note turned out to be the address of the house you were at. At the time we figured it was just another address, but when we found seven men and eight addresses, with the eighth being the one she came home to every night, we figured that had to be where you were. The thing that kills me still was that I was outside the house two nights ago, all night, and I couldn’t save you. I had to wait until we knew for sure and we had Blake and Dean for backup.”
“So where is Libby now?
“Dead somewhere – Blake took care of that with Mark, Anton, and Dean. I don’t really know. Don’t really care. I don’t ever want to hear her name again.”
“I totally agree. I love you so much, Darby. Thank you for not giving up on me when I gave you every reason in the world to do so.” He kissed her so sweetly she melted right in his arms and they didn’t stop until morning.
Chapter 23
The morning was glorious, waking up in his arms, their two naked bodies entangled together, more in love than ever before. She actually pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. She rolled over facing him and kissed his forehead. He was still rather thin but his skin was radiant once more and his eyes were their warm chocolate brown with flecks of amber. He smiled his ‘I can make you do whatever I want to’ smile and she kissed him again.
“You are more beautiful than I ever remember, Darby. I dreamt about you so often in my stupor, sometimes I didn’t know if I had died or not. It is truly heaven here in your arms. Come, take a shower with me, I don’t want you away from me for a second.”
She washed every inch of his body as he did for her. Like rediscovering each other after being away for so long from one another, it was purely decadent. After, he made love to her like he never had before. Each touch was filled with such tenderness and love, that she cried at their climax from the completeness she felt their love had achieved.
He was starving and so was she so he quickly dressed. He wrapped a blanket from the bed around her beautiful body and they ran to her room where she got dressed as he watched her every move.
He noticed the black coat over the back of a chair. “Is this my coat you found in New York?” She felt a little ashamed, and nodded.
“It looks like it’s been worn a lot.”
“It has. Once I found it, well, I just couldn’t bear to take it off. It still had your smell on it and I couldn’t be without it. Silly, huh?”
“I think that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.” When she was all done getting dressed they went downstairs to the dining room where they found Blake, Mark, and Dean, competing on how many pancakes they could consume.
As they entered the dining room hand in hand, Darby said, “Mark Rosenthal, this is Devon Bloomington.”
“Nice to finally meet you. You look a hell of a lot better than you did yesterday.”
“I suppose I have you to thank for some of that?” Devon said, “As I do everyone in this room. Thank you for helping Darby find me!” As he walked to the sideboard to get some coffee with Darby, he patted Blake and Dean’s shoulders.
“Good to see you feeling better,” said Dean.
“Good to be feeling better.” Continuing around the table, he patted his uncle on the shoulder and smiled until he got to Anton. He held out his hand in hopes Anton would take it and shake. “We’ve sure made a mess of things, Anton. I’m sorry I blamed you for so long for all that happened. I was wrong about you and I’ve treated you badly for way too long. Please accept my apologies?”
“I do, thanks, Devon. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about what happened; I was stubborn and stupid.”
“Not at all. Thank you too, for, well, I heard you were kind of the bait in my great escape.”
“My pleasure.”
They smiled at each other. Dominic was beaming with such happiness Darby thought he might explode. They both sat down and watched Dean beat Blake and Mark at consuming the most pancakes. The final count for Dean was twenty-six, however, he didn’t look too well the rest of the day and that made Blake and Mark feel much better about losing.
After breakfast, all broke off into groups going this way and that. Devon had a quick conference with Blake and then another with Dominic before returning to Darby’s side, but when he did, he apparently had a plan.
They borrowed Dominic’s Mercedes and drove to New Bedford, Massachusetts and took the ferry to Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard. Darby had never been on a car ferry before, so that in itself was quite a thrill. It was a sunny day for late March, so they spent their time cuddling on the deck as the world went by. After such a long time without him, every second was pure heaven. The ferry ride was about an hour long. She had learned not to ask about his surprises, from their first date, but she knew she absolutely didn’t care where or what he had planned as long as he didn’t leave her side.
&nb
sp; It was a very short drive from the dock to their destination. Apparently, the Larsens owned a lovely little home in Vineyard Haven, nestled in among some trees. They drove up a gravel circle driveway to the most adorable house Darby had ever seen. Three dormers graced the sharply pitched roof and a two-sided fireplace that was open to the living room, and the sunroom was faced in river rock stone. French doors adorned the house almost everywhere. The sunroom was completely enclosed on all three sides with French doors and there were French doors on either side of the fireplace to enter the sunroom. The kitchen was airy and open and had all the latest amenities. The house was decorated in a comfortable French Country look that Darby absolutely adored.
The property also had its own little dock and was close to the sandy beaches on the sound. The house was the perfect size too, not huge but not itty-bitty where you’d be tripping over yourself. Of course, Devon had arranged for the house to be fully stocked before they arrived with anything they might need.
After they explored the house, they went for a walk along the beach. It was a sheltered beach, more like an extremely large pond, so there were no crashing waves, just the lapping of the water on the shore, like a lake. Unlike a lake beach though, the beach had lovely soft sand where they sat and nestled into each other’s arms. She said to him, “Oh I forgot, I have something for you.”
“For me, why?”
“Yes, for you. It’s actually not anything super duper, but it is something I’ve been carrying around since we flew out here in November. It’s your Christmas present. I’ve been carrying it around with me all this time, so the paper’s a little worn and its certainly not pretty anymore, but I still would like you to have it.”
“I guess we did sort of miss our first Christmas together, didn’t we?”
“Yes, but never again, at least if I can help it,” she said and she dug around in her large purse and handed him the tiny present. It was about a three inch by three inch by one inch box. It looked abused from being in Darby’s purse for four and a half months, but it also looked like it had been lovingly wrapped and pretty at one time. He carefully opened it and found a two inch amethyst heart in the box.
“My father gave it to me a very long time ago. He told me to carry it in my pocket and whenever I got nervous or scared, to rub it between my fingers and it would take my stress away. I’ve carried it around now most of my life, so it is a bit beat up. I wanted to give it to you, because I don’t need it anymore. I have you to calm and protect me. Since the day I met you, I’ve not touched it once. Although I will admit that when you were missing there were times I wanted to rip that package open and use it, but I kept telling myself you were out there somewhere and you needed me to find you and once I did I wouldn’t need the stone anymore. You don’t need to carry it with you, it’s really just a symbolic gesture of how much you’ve come to mean to me. How much I love you and depend on you.”
“Thank you, Sweetness. It means everything to me, thank you. I feel horrible that I never even got a chance to go shopping or think about Christmas.”
“Well, you were a bit tied up,” she joked, but didn’t laugh at how horrible it must have been to be chained, drained, and tortured for months on end. She sighed and said, “God, it’s lovely here. I absolutely love the house. You know you really have this romantic thing down, Devon. You should market your skills for the goober guys out there that just don’t know where to even start at doing something romantic for their loved one.”
“It just comes from the heart; I just try to think of something you might like and go from there.”
“You make it sound easy, but some don’t find it so easy.”
“Well, thank you. I’m glad you like it here. So tell me, would you like to go out to dinner or would you like to dine in?”
“I told you when we met, I was a cheap date. I’d just like to have you all to myself tonight, if you don’t mind. Just enjoy you and no one or anything else.”
“Sounds perfect.” They sat there for a long time in silence until the sun slowly started to hang low in the sky. Darby was a bit cold and Devon could sense this and asked her if they should head back. He would make her a fire and she could warm herself while he put a few things together for dinner. She agreed that sounded delightful.
He helped her up and they headed back hand in hand. As he had said he would, he turned on some lovely background music of mostly guitar and started the fire and headed for the kitchen for a few minutes. He came back carrying a cutting board with a loaf of fresh French bread, cut up cheese, some grapes, smoked baby oysters, and a bottle of white wine with some glasses.
“Nothing fancy, but good, just the same.”
“It’s absolutely perfect – like a picnic without the ants and cold.”
“My thoughts exactly.” They had a few pieces of bread each and sat back with their wine glasses, watching the colors in the sky start to turn orange, pink, and purple. He took her hand and walked her to the sunroom where the sky was absolutely gorgeous. The sun had set and the clouds were an amazing pink and orange against the sky that was now turning from blue to purple.
He grabbed her around the waist and they started to dance to the music that was playing ever so softly. They danced in front of the fireplace and watched every bit of pink and purple color turn to darkest blue. Standing there swaying in his arms, warm and safe, she felt the sense, again, that she must be dreaming.
“You know, Darby, I have a gift for you too, although it’s not really a Christmas present like yours.”
“Really? I thought you said you’ve really not had any time to shop or think of anything like that.”
“Well, this is a little different. I didn’t really get this from a store. It’s more a…” and he pulled out a tiny leather antique box and held it in front of her continuing, “…family heirloom.” As Darby took it from his hands in astonishment, he had spun her completely around, landing her in a chair near the window and he was now in front of her, between her legs on his knees. She slowly opened the tiny box revealing a beautiful diamond ring, simple and perfect and not too big.
“It was the ring my father gave my mother when he asked her to marry him. Dominic had held on to it for us until I asked him for it this morning after talking to Blake. I was hoping that you would do me the honor of being my wife, Darby O’Rielly. My love for you is such that I can’t believe I ever thought I had been in love before. There is absolutely no comparison to anything I’ve ever felt for anyone else. I just know that it is perfect and timeless and I can’t imagine my life with anyone else, but you forever.”
He took the ring from the box and held it in one hand and held her other hand in hopes of putting it on her left ring finger. “So what do you say? Will you be my most cherished love, to share all our days and nights together for the rest of our lives, as husband and wife?”
The End.
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Special Thanks
To my readers: Cyndi True, Bonnie Tolles, Betsy Riccomini, Tina Rollins, Lori Day, and Janet Traxler, and also to my family – thank you for all your support.
Blood Lust Page 18
