Well, I hadn’t expected that, now had I.
“Blood disorders?” I asked on a gulp.
His eyes flicked to mine again and then back to the road. “I’m going out on a limb and trusting you with this information. You have no idea how out of character that is for me, but given all you’ve heard tonight and the fact you’re still here, I think you are someone I can trust. I hope you’re someone I can trust with my secrets.”
I swallowed again. Loudly. “You can trust me.”
Seeming to accept my answer, he said, “Okay then,” and continued filling me in on his projects. “The main research being conducted is done so under the guise of finding cures for certain diseases. This gives us access to the best medical facilities and database of information. While that is going on, there are side projects also taking place that look into specific, unique traits of vampires. Specifically, we each have different extrasensory capabilities and, hereditary, if you will, traits that are passed down from maker to progeny. I’m hoping the research unlocks how this happens, and why one trait might be passed down instead of another.”
“It sounds fascinating,” I admitted.
“It is. And vastly frustrating because it’s hard to make progress when you can’t talk about what it is you’re doing.”
“How do you identify subjects to study?”
He clenched his jaw. “I’m not involved with that. I have a group I work with who acts as the middleman in that regard. I’m just the cash since I don’t understand the mechanics behind any of it. I just want to know the results.”
“To what end?”
“Knowledge, what else?” he asked, as if it wasn’t completely obvious.
“And what will you do should you obtain this knowledge you seek? Would you, or your business partners, use it to breed a race of super vampires?” Jokingly I added, “Are you looking to take over the world William Macauley?”
He narrowed his eyes—a subtle reaction—but his ensuing silence gave me pause. Holy shit! That’s exactly what he was hoping to do, isn’t it?
“You’re not going to answer me, are you?”
“That’s not my aim,” he bit out.
“And your partners?”
“I can’t speak for them.”
“But you know their goals?”
“Theirs is not my information to tell.”
This cryptic bullshit was annoying but I could see he wasn’t going to say anything further. He’d trusted me enough to tell me what he was looking for and I needed to trust him enough to believe him when he said he was in it for the knowledge alone. Still, I felt uneasy about what would happen once—if—his doctors discovered these links.
Wanting to know more about him and less about his business pursuits, I tried to steer the conversation back toward personal details. I needed him to start filling in some pretty major blanks and those snippets of memories I’d seen from a bygone era from a person I didn’t remember being weren’t going to suffice in my own education.
“Alright then. Enough about your job. Tell me about you.”
“I don’t know what else there is to tell,” he hedged. “Aside from my work, I’ve used a lot of the wealth I’ve accumulated over the years to help finance a few personal endeavors, including the restoration of the castle, which you’ll see in about twenty minutes.”
I’d thought he’d said it would take more than an hour to reach the castle, and we couldn’t have been driving for more than twenty minutes, so how were we so close already? I glanced over at the speedometer and saw we were driving nearly 190 kilometers per hour! Doing some quick math in my head, I figured we were going well over 100 miles per hour. The car was so smooth and William’s posture so relaxed I’d never for a moment felt like we were out of control or unsafe. Yet when I looked out the window I could see all traces of civilization had receded and it was just us, the car, and the stars overhead. I rolled down the window to let the crisp night air swirl in the cabin, bringing goose bumps to my skin.
“Tell me something personal William. Something that isn’t widely known about you.”
He shrugged and I got the impression he wasn’t going to answer. Inspiration—and not a small amount of jealousy—struck.
“Fine, who was the woman in the photograph from that gala?”
I heard an intake of breath from his side of the car indicating my question had thrown him, but he didn’t immediately answer. Undaunted, I continued, “Not to sound like a jealous paramour or anything, but she’s a very beautiful woman and I want to know if my being in your life is going to cause either of us any difficulties.”
In the glow of the dashboard lights, I could see William holding the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip. Purposefully diminishing his hold, he relaxed his hands before speaking. “Elizabeth is ...” he trailed off, searching for the right words before proceeding. “That is to say, our relationship is unusual, but certainly not difficult. It works for both of us.”
“I think you misunderstand my statement. I’m less concerned about your difficulty where she is concerned than I am my own. Is she going to find out about me and go off into a jealous rage? Do I have cause to be concerned? Am I stepping on her territory by going home with you tonight?”
Running his right hand through his head of thick black hair—a gesture I was beginning to recognize as one he did when he was stressed or thinking—William took a deep breath and launched into his explanation.
“Elizabeth is a woman with a loneliness that rivals my own. She’s not vampire, if that’s what you’re wondering. She’s human but she knows who and what I am, and accepts me anyway. We care for one another and we give each other a respite from some of the more unpleasant realities of our situations.”
His voice hitched on the word “realities.” Breathing deeply, he continued.
“She doesn’t know any specifics about Ceara—or obviously about you considering I don’t have many specifics either, which I do plan on rectifying once your thorough examination of my character is complete—but I suspect she knows the source of my issues stem from what I am, how I came to be, and the memories that have haunted me since those first early days.”
I could hear in his words and voice what he wasn’t saying out loud. William was a deeply unhappy man. Despite everything he had at his disposal—his success, his wealth, and his position in society—none of it meant anything to him because none of it truly mattered. But what then did he value? What would bring him the bit of peace he sought but could not find? Could I make him happy? My questions were put on hold when he continued.
“Currently, I don’t know where Elizabeth is. She was incredibly angry about that photograph She left me.”
He paused again, searching for words that wouldn’t betray his friendship with Elizabeth, but obviously wanting me to understand the intricacies of his relationship with the woman and the role she played in his life.
“She tends to do that when things become too much for her. I think it’s how she’s learned to cope with the more unpleasant encumbrances of life. She claims it’s because she likes to keep her life private, and for reasons she won’t really discuss, she doesn’t want anyone knowing about our connection. I’ve never really questioned it because she’s let me have my secrets as well—” he shot me a glance as to say I was the only women he knew who pushed him the way I had “—but I think on some level she must find our association distasteful which causes her to want to distance herself from me.”
William continued speaking candidly about his relationship with the mysterious Elizabeth, which underscored how stilted his words had flowed before. I wondered if talking about it felt a bit like catharsis. It must have been difficult to be such a relationship with what sounded like an even more complicated woman.
“We go months at a time without seeing one another, but then she’ll show up one evening completely unannounced. Then we’ll spend weeks on end together. It’s a rather odd, I know, but I don’t question her too deeply, nor she me, an
d so we’re able to go about our lives in a fairly comfortable, if unconventional, manner.”
Briefly I wondered when Elizabeth would pop up next and how William would explain me. Would he be as open with Elizabeth as he’d been with me? Would he have anything to tell? We occupied a weird space where we knew the other was important, but what came next was a bit of a mystery to both of us. I was apparently his dead wife, but what did that mean in the here and now? Could I live up to the feelings he’d harbored for Ceara all these years? Did I even want to try?
The woman had been the love of William’s life but there was no guarantee the two of us would be able to establish that same sort connection here in the present. While we had a shared history—one he’d lived with every day—we’d need more than that to base any sort of relationship on. You couldn’t build a life on something you couldn’t remember. But how could I build anything with him with the specter of other women looming over us?
I was forced to table these questions when William turned onto a twisty country road and slowed the car down. As we rounded a bend in the road, the lights from his Audi landed on a set of wrought-iron gates twenty feet ahead. In the distance I could see the moon glinting off the calm, rippling water of a lake. We’d arrived.
William rolled down his window and spoke into an intercom before the gates swung open to let us in. As they clanged shut behind us, my heart gave a flutter in nervous anticipation.
As the car made its way up the long, tree lined drive, William broke the expectant silence that had hung between us since he’d stopped speaking about Elizabeth. “If you decide to leave before I can take you back to Dublin, feel free to use any of the vehicles in the garage. Seamus, my majordomo, will provide you with the keys.”
Even though I’d resolved to see the situation through to the end, whatever that end my be, I got the impression he thought I might try to sneak away like a thief in the night. Or in our particular case, the day.
“I know you think I’m going to flee screaming any minute, but I promise you I am in this for the long haul. No matter what happens, I’m with you.”
William reached over and rested his hand on my leg and I felt that strange electric current course through me again, hot and tingly, shooting up my thigh and into my belly. I knew he felt it too when he closed his eyes on a soft sigh.
“Thank you,” he said, stopping the car and turning off the engine. When the lights of the Audi went dark, I could see the castle in front of me for the very first time, a few windows lit from within.
“Welcome home, Olivia.”
Chapter Sixteen
Olivia
Exiting the car, William walked around to the other side to take my hand, directing me to the crushed stone path that lead to the front door of the castle. I halted, not yet ready to take the steps that would propel me into this next phase of my life. As long as I never crossed that threshold, I reasoned, I could go back to Dublin and forget any of this had ever happened. If I didn’t go through those doors, I told myself, I could still back out. And do what? Go back to the life I’d been living before? Because that had been working out so well for me.
No. I couldn’t do that. If nothing else, I’d never been a coward and I didn’t intend to start being one now. Besides, just minutes before hadn’t I had told William I was committed to him and this endeavor, seeing it through come what may. I wouldn’t—couldn’t—back out now. I had to know what was waiting for me on the other side and how it would alter my future.
William must have sensed my hesitancy, but he didn’t force me to do anything I wasn’t comfortable doing. “It’s okay, take your time.”
“No, I’m good.” Quickly, I squeezed his hand to show him I’d meant what I’d said before. “Show me your home, William.”
Walking up to the castle’s imposing entrance, the door opened before he could reach for the handle.
“Hello, Seamus. You didn’t have to wait up,” William said to a man who stood in the doorway to greet us. Putting his left hand on the small of my back, William then nudged me forward. “And this, Seamus, is Olivia.”
“Ah, yes,” Seamus answered almost snidely, and I was overcome with the feeling Seamus had heard about me already and wasn’t happy to be meeting me now. His next words belied my first impression. “Hello and welcome Olivia. I’m glad William was able to persuade you to join us here. Welcome to Macauley Castle.”
Moving out from William’s side, I extended my right hand. “Good to meet you. I hope my presence doesn’t cause you any problems.” I glanced back at William to gauge his reaction to my next words. “With William having ... somewhat abnormal hours ... I’ll try not to be in your way during the day.”
“I think you’ll find we’re generally a relaxed household. I’m sure you’ll be no problem whatsoever,” Seamus responded affably.
Given William’s hours, it occurred to me that even though this was William’s home, Seamus was likely in charge of everything that went on during the day, from dealing with cooks and maids to all the other necessities that went in to running an estate of this size. I hoped my presence wouldn’t be a burden and that he wouldn’t feel the need to entertain me while William … rested.
When Seamus stepped aside for us to enter, I was struck by how beautiful the interior space was, even more so than the photographs I’d seen had indicated. Focusing on everything at once, taking in all the beauty, I was overcome by its combination of grandeur and comfort. I turned to tell William what a beautiful home he had only to find him leaning against the door jamb, arms folded across his chest, an impish grin on his face.
“I take it you approve?” he asked, pushing away from the doorway and moving to stand next to me. His grin did crazy things to me, causing a whole new wave of jitters in the pit of my stomach. If I found his home lovely, I found him devastatingly beautiful.
“You know I approve,” I responded. “Not only do I approve, but I’m in love.”
William drew up in front of me, his grin giving way to a satisfied smirk. “Ah, well. Let’s not get carried away just yet.”
And just like that I realized my verbal blunder.
“Are colloquialisms going to be a problem?” I demanded, hoping belligerence would cover my embarrassment and put an end to the awkward moment he’d created by twisting a simple turn of phrase.
“No, we’re good.” He chuckled, raising his palms and taking a step back.
I was standing in the foyer of a 600-year old castle being teased by a 362-year old vampire, and in front of his employee no less. Nothing about the situation as far as I could tell was funny, although it might have made better sense to laugh at it all than to sob as I’d done earlier at the hotel. What a mess that’d been.
“Alright then,” I shot back, still vexed over the whole exchange, but wanting to put it behind us. “Give me the rest of the tour.”
“I’m going to leave the rest of it to you and William,” Seamus interjected, reminding us he was still in the room. “If you need me, I’ll be in my room. Goodnight Olivia. And again, welcome.” He turned to William and gave him a look I interpreted to mean something of import but I was at a loss as to interpret what that something was. “I hope you’ll enjoy your stay,” he added before turning on his heels and walking away.
Alone again at last, the air turned thick with uncertainty. Standing close, William rested the palm of his hand against the small of my back, sending currents of fire and ice down my spine. Nudging me forward softly, he guided me into the castle’s great room. If I’d thought the foyer was impressive, the room before me now was magnificent! On one side stood a stone fireplace both tall and wide enough to fit three adults standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Above hung a tapestry of splendid reds, golds, and blues depicting what I recognized from my tour of Dublin’s historic sites to be the Battle of the Boyne. A low, crackling fire kept the room warm with its dancing flames. On the other side, spread out on a large bed made of tartan, slept two giant Irish Wolfhounds, their snores a low rumbl
e in my ears.
“That’s Edward and Bella,” William said, motioning toward the sleeping canines, cracking a broad smile that dared me to comment on their improbable names.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“At first I was. And then the names just stuck. You don’t care for the irony?”
“Are you going to breed them?” I asked, not bothering to comment that William had named his dogs after the main characters in a notorious, albeit completely fictionalized, vampire novel.
“No, they’re from the same litter—brother and sister. Terrible idea.” He chuckled again, realizing his unconventional naming strategy was even worse than he’d initially thought.
“Okay, that’s just sick.” Turning toward the dogs I said to them half jokingly, “Poor puppies. Daddy hates you and you don’t even know it.”
All kidding aside, the room, while cavernous, was the very picture of sophisticated relaxation. Somehow, even though everything must have cost a fortune, nothing felt stuffy or overdone. I ambled over to a mammoth leather sofa and plopped down, letting my body sink into the plush cushions. I could get used to a room like this, especially for writing on cold, wet, winter days.
“Don’t you want to see your room?”
My room?
I was taken aback to realize that my coming here had been a foregone conclusion in his mind. At first I was offended by his highhandedness, but then I remembered his earlier uncertainty and came to the conclusion that me having a room set aside wasn’t borne out of confidence, but rather hope.
“Later,” I said, wanting to put off seeing the room as long as possible. Even though we would be lovers before long, I didn’t want to jump into bed with him right away. For one, there was the exquisite, yet tormenting, anticipation building between us. And secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I wanted more time to get to know him so that when I did finally take him to my bed I could tell myself I hadn’t made love to a complete stranger.
Resurrection: Part One of the Macauley Vampire Trilogy (A Paranormal Romance) Page 10
