“You’re not looking good,” Fiona said. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“You said you came in Sean’s car?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Is the trunk empty?”
“No; but I can move stuff to the back seat,” Sean said.
Fiona gave me a questioning look.
“I have a house we can go to. The Society doesn’t know about it. You’ll both be safe there. I—I’ve had a long few days and I haven’t eaten. I need… We should go. I can travel in the trunk. It will keep me out of the sun and will be safer for you.”
Fiona came closer, but I waved her back.
“Don’t,” I insisted.
“If you need blood, I’m here for you. We’re a team, remember?” She continued to approach despite my objections. She pulled her hair back from the left side of her neck, away from her scars. “It’s okay.”
“No; it’s not,” I said. “I don’t want to be the monster you fear.”
“I don’t fear you.”
“No, no, no!” Sean shouted, stepping up to Fiona and pulling her back from me. “I’m not going to let you do this.”
“I don’t need your permission!” she argued.
“I don’t care! I’m not going to let him hurt you. Not while I’m around.”
“He’s not going to hurt me,” she said, shaking out of his grip.
“No, Fiona,” I said, oddly agreeing with Sean. “I can’t do that to you. Can we just go?”
Fiona reluctantly backed down and was about to ask Sean to clean out the trunk of his car when he offered her the keys.
“Please, Fiona,” he pleaded.
“You’re being ridiculous,” she huffed, but took the keys and stomped out of the room.
Then I was alone in the room with Sean. “I could drink from you just as easily,” I said.
“But you won’t—because of Fee,” he said, standing before me with an air of confidence, but I knew he was quaking inside.
“You’re right. I won’t.”
“I know she doesn’t want me back, but if you ever hurt her… I’ll kill you.”
I tried not to but couldn’t help myself from laughing. “Do you even know how to kill a vampire?”
“Umm… no—not yet—but I’ll find out.”
“Sunlight. Beheading. Ripping out my heart. Fire. Angel blood poison,” I said. “You should be writing this stuff down.” I went over to the desk and found a pad of paper and pen.
“Thanks,” he said. “But I think I can remember them. You really don’t need to do that.”
I ripped off the top sheet from the pad and handed it to Sean. “It’s the address, garage code, and alarm code,” I said. “There’s enough room in the garage for you to drive straight in.”
Fiona rushed back into the room. “The car’s ready,” she said, noticeably out of breath.
“Sean’s got the address,” I said as I ripped the bedspread off the bed and wrapped it around myself. “Let’s get the hell out of the desert.”
It felt fitting that Sean would be driving his Hyundai with me in the trunk. It had to be some kind of a karmic joke.
12
Fiona
The navigation on my phone led us ten miles south from my apartment, to a neighborhood not far from the freeway with million-dollar mansions, each one vastly different from its neighbors.
“Are you sure you typed in the right address?” Sean asked, his head craning from side to side as he gawked at each passing mansion that somehow seemed more extravagant than the last.
I checked what Matthew had written against what I’d typed into my phone. Sure enough, they matched. Another thing I hadn’t mentioned to Sean yet was the luxurious lifestyle the Society afforded us—but he’d find out soon enough.
“We’re going the right way,” I said. “You’ll be making the next left.”
After a few more turns and a steep climb, I pointed to the inclined driveway we’d be turning into. The driveway was longer than most, leading to an estate hidden from the street. The first half of it was shared with one neighbor, but Matthew’s house was farther back than both adjacent mansions.
Once we reached the private portion of the driveway, it was closed off with a black iron gate. I got out and punched the code Matthew provided into the keypad, and the gate electronically opened. On one of the corner posts, I noticed a small security camera staring at me.
It appeared the driveway still extended a fair distance, so I hopped back in the car as Sean inched forward. “Convinced we’re in the right place now?” I asked.
“I guess your money can really compound over a century or so,” Sean said, leaning forward in his seat to look up at the approaching Mediterranean-inspired mansion. It looked more like a vacation resort instead of a single-family house. The exterior was made of multi-colored stones and there were balconies on each of the three levels. A four-car garage was positioned to the left, a main portion of the estate on the right, and a stone archway connecting them. The main entrance had to be somewhere beyond the archway.
“He’s not that old,” I said, then stepped out of the car again.
“Is he closer to our age or a hundred?”
I closed the door without responding and made my way for the garage. I used the other code Matthew had written down to lift the first of two double garage doors. And the space inside was mostly clear, as Matthew had said, so Sean was able to pull the car and trailer in, parking at an angle to fully fit inside. Behind the other garage door was a black Audi sports car, parked in the farthest space.
I quickly found the garage door operator and hit the button. As soon as any errant sunlight was extinguished by the descending door, Sean popped the trunk of the sedan. I hurried to Matthew to see how he’d fared from the long drive.
He shook free of the comforter he’d stolen from the motel and climbed out of the trunk. “Yeah; that wasn’t much fun,” he mused and turned to Sean. “At least you weren’t conscious when I drove with you in the trunk. And I’ll be turning eighty-nine in December. I’ve still got a way to go to reach a hundred.”
“You did what?” Sean asked, sounding offended.
“Did I forget to mention that vampire hearing is crazy good?” I said.
“I guess I’ll have to be careful what I say.” Sean was glaring at Matthew, obviously not amused by the trunk comment.
“Make yourselves at home,” Matthew said, heading straight for the door leading into the estate. “If you’ll both excuse me for a few minutes.” Then he sped away.
Sean and I moseyed inside, passing through a number of large rooms. I flipped on some lights because blackout curtains were drawn in every room. The furnishings were sparse and only one or two framed pictures hung in each room. The house looked more like it was staged for open houses than really lived in. But this was the first I’d heard of this house, so I wondered when anyone had stayed here last.
“There sure is a lot of space for one man,” Sean said, his voice echoing from the wood flooring, cavernous rooms, and limited furniture. “And it’s dusty.”
“I don’t think it’s used very often,” I said, continuing into the open kitchen where Matthew was standing by a microwave swiftly approaching zero.
“He could rent it out.”
“I like my privacy,” Matthew said, chiming in on the conversation.
“But you could—”
“If I needed the money, then yeah, I’d rent it out. But I don’t—so I don’t need to worry about tenants. However, I do have rental properties, enough to pay for the taxes and upkeep of this place.”
“Oh…” The wind was knocked out of Sean’s sails as he pulled out a bar stool on the near side of the island.
“How often do you come here?” I asked, taking a seat beside Sean.
“Not as much as I used to, but maybe once a month or so. It depends on how much I need to get away. Now it’ll come in quite handy, don’t you think?” He took the packet of blood out of the microwave
, throwing in a second before even closing the door. Then he cut a top corner of the bag and poured the crimson liquid into a waiting glass.
“It’s convenient,” I said.
The room was quiet as Matthew downed the contents of the glass in one long gulp. As soon as the microwave chimed again, he poured the blood from the second bag into the glass, then approached the far side of the island. Now he was only sipping the blood.
“Where did you get that? A hospital? A blood bank?” Sean asked.
“I have my own sources,” Matthew said. “It’s not human blood, but animal blood. You may find it hard to believe, but I abstain from human blood as much as possible. I fall off the wagon time and again like any true alcoholic, but I do my best.”
“You’re comparing being a vampire to being an alcoholic?” Sean sounded offended again. “I wouldn’t say that’s anywhere close to the same thing.”
“And what do you know about either?” Matthew challenged.
“Boys, can we get into what’s actually important right now?” I said, exasperated.
“Of course,” Matthew said. “It seems we all have our stories to tell, so let’s go around the table and get the rest of us up to speed.”
“No more secrets,” I reiterated. “We need to really come clean… and I’m willing to go first to prove my conviction.”
“Wait one moment,” Matthew said, then went to the refrigerator and brought us each a bottled water. “Currently, I’ve only got the necessities.”
“Thank you,” I said, taking a sip before starting my side of the story. Since I was going first, I could intentionally leave out the small detail of time travel—the main thing I’d held back from Sean—which would hopefully tell Matthew that little detail was still sacred.
I started with my mother taking me to Frederick in the hotel suite, revealing him as the real Damien Galt. “He warned me how difficult he could make things for us if I told you about the plot,” I said. “He knows so much about the Society, which he’d said was mostly information that came from you over the years. I was trying to protect you. Then when they captured Sean, I had no choice but to do what he said. But in the end, all he really needed me for was a diversion because he had Taylor to get him into the North Building. Apparently, you know her… intimately.”
If a vampire could turn from pale to white, Matthew did. “I can’t believe she’d do something like that. I knew she was upset with me and she had a thing for vampires, but I didn’t think she’d really betray the Society.” He paused, not able to look me in the eyes, like he was ashamed. “We were together for a while. She was very forward and preyed on my weakness. That’s when it became obvious she was a vampire groupie—obsessed with my kind, not specifically with me.”
“She preyed on your weakness?” Sean asked.
“I told you, I try to abstain from human blood,” Matthew said. “Taylor wanted me to drink from her. And she was very persuasive. She used to live in the penitentiary, but I got her kicked out, so she couldn’t continually show up at my doorstep.”
“Yeah… she can be very persuasive,” Sean said. “She was the one who marked me at Fangloria.”
Matthew gave Sean a questioning look, which sparked Sean to begin his side of the story—from going to the club with Harrison to meet a girl, his capture, captivity, and subsequent release. “They seem to know everything about me,” Sean said. “I don’t want my family to be in danger because of me.”
“I can have someone watch your house,” Matthew said. He finished his second glass of blood, then set the dirty glass in the sink. When he returned to the island, he took a deep breath and began his story. Strangely enough, it started with the accident that totaled Sean’s old car and put me in the hospital, where I met Matthew for the first time—or at least I thought I did.
I finally learned about what he was keeping from me, which had made me so furious after initiation. He was already watching my mother, after having discovered she was involved with vampires. He didn’t know her involvement was with Frederick until now. So much of the pain and strangeness in my life seemed to lead back to my mother.
“I think I’m going to need something a little stronger than water,” Sean said once the stories were finished and the room quiet for a long minute.
“There’s a wine cellar with over a thousand varieties,” Matthew said. “You can have whatever you want, though some might be past their prime.”
“Of course, you have a stocked wine cellar,” Sean said, shaking head.
“They age well… kind of like me.” Matthew gave me a smirk, causing me to roll my eyes with his pathetic attempt at flirtation.
“Can you point me in the right direction before I throw up?”
“Why don’t I show you to an available bedroom, then the wine cellar,” Matthew said, coming around the island. “Then you can drink to your heart’s content and crash whenever you’re ready.”
“I won’t allow myself to get shitfaced,” Sean said, starting to follow Matthew. “I’ll still be keeping an eye on you two. Plus, I still need to get my U-Haul at some point.”
“We don’t need a chaperone,” I said, tagging along for the ten-cent tour. “I’m as safe as I can be.”
The wine cellar was impressive. Matthew asked if I wanted a bottle for myself to take upstairs, but I shook my head. We left Sean still perusing the bottles. After everything that had happened over the past few days, I needed some alone time with Matthew. So, we retreated to the master bedroom, which was practically an apartment suite by itself, with its own second-floor balcony overlooking several towns.
Matthew remained in the room as I gazed out at the sun-kissed world on the balcony. When I returned inside, I noticed Matthew in the en suite with a syringe in his hand, just finishing giving himself a shot.
“Is that the sun serum?” I asked, sliding the door closed.
Matthew nodded, then set the empty syringe on the tile countertop. “It sucks to be so dependent, but at least it allows me to still see the sun. I know plenty of vampires that still live in total darkness.”
“Just like in all the stories.”
“That’s where the stories come from,” he said, stepping back into the bedroom. He walked up to me and placed his hands on my hips, then kissed my forehead. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“I thought you hated me,” I said, wrapping my arms around him and nuzzling into his chiseled body.
“Frederick has taken away everyone I love, which made me leery of getting too close to you. But it seems you have a guardian angel.”
“Do not call my mother that,” I insisted. I was reminded of Becca speaking of a guardian angel Mom had found—which I now knew was Frederick.
“She’s keeping Frederick from killing you to torment me.”
“But he’s been through the portal now. He claims we’re free—that he’ll no longer interfere.”
“I wish I could believe that,” Matthew said, raising my chin, then guiding my lips to his.
The taste and feel of him sent shivers through my body. His hands ran up my sides, then moved to my back. Our hearts were nearly in rhythm, both speeding up as we continued to indulge in each other’s essence. My mind returned to the last time we were together, when I’d allowed him to gently kiss my scars and we’d made love for the first time. I wanted to feel that exquisite pleasure again. And as he pushed me toward the bed, I sensed how much he wanted it too.
“I meant what I said earlier,” I said, breathless. “You can… you know… if you want. I don’t want to deny you what you really need. And I don’t want you to have to get it from someone else.”
“I don’t need it,” he said, his smoky eyes boring into mine. “I just need you.”
Matthew grabbed the bottom of my shirt and tugged it up and over my head. I did the same for him, wanting to get him out of his clothes as quickly as possible. Then his lips were back on mine as he felt around for the clasp of my bra—and as soon as he unhooked it, at knock at the door i
mmediately doused the flames burning between us.
“Hey guys,” Sean said from the hallway. “Is there a trick to turning on the sound system for the entertainment center?”
Matthew produced a small growl, resting his lips on the top of my right shoulder, gently caressing my scar. “I can’t believe him,” he said.
“Don’t do anything rash,” I warned, even though I concurred with how much Sean’s timing sucked. “He’s just concerned about me.”
“I’ll give him something to be concerned about.” Matthew stepped back with fire in his brilliant eyes.
“No, you won’t,” I said, re-hooking my bra and picking up my shirt from off the floor. “You’ll be nice. He won’t always be here.”
“That’s a relief. He’s your ex-boyfriend. It’s not exactly the most comfortable situation.”
“He’s been through a lot too. He deserves our help.” I put on my shirt and tossed Matthew his. “Sean, we’ll be right out.” I gave Matthew one more kiss on the cheek before heading for the closed door.
13
Susan
2006
I was just about finished blow drying my hair when I thought I heard yelling. My nerves were already on edge this morning from at least one of the girls crying on three separate occasions, and it wasn’t even 7:30 yet. Mom was going to have her hands full today.
I turned off the blow dryer and listened, expecting to hear another argument ensuing about who had more Lucky Charms marshmallows in their cereal bowl or who was stealing whose clothes. Fiona and Becca shared just about everything, which was just as much of a curse as it was a blessing.
Everything was silent for a moment, which was almost as much cause for concern as yelling—even though some peace and quiet would be so amazing.
Then I heard a frantic call from Fiona.
I hurried out of my bedroom to see what was wrong and didn’t see either of the girls, but the front door was wide open. Mom never arrived this early. And as I was about to check outside, I realized I barely had on any clothes. As I ran back into my room to grab a bathrobe, Fiona started screaming—bloodcurdling screams that nearly floored me. I grabbed my bathrobe from the bathroom door hook and raced back into the living room, not even worried about tying it.
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