by Lisa Olsen
“That’s something I’ll never have to worry about at least,” I couldn’t help but laugh, waving away her puzzled look. “Listen, thanks for coming all the way up here and sticking up for me, I really appreciate it.”
“What are big sisters for?” Hanna smiled, giving me the hug I really needed. “I’m gonna hang around the city for a while, make the most of taking a personal day. You want to go grab a cup of coffee or something? I could use a serious dose of chocolate right about now.”
“I’d love to, but I really do need to get to class or Dad will have my head. What about later? We could meet up this evening?”
“Um… sure, we can do that. How about six o’clock, the usual?”
“Hey, if you have a date or something, we could always do it another time,” I teased over her hesitation, my eyes widening when her grin stretched wider.
“I do, but not until later, we’re good.”
“You have a date here in the City? With who?”
“I’ll tell you later tonight, now get to class before I report you for the truant you are.” She smacked my rump and I scooted off, tugging my protective hat on as soon as I stepped outside.
*
By the time I finished with my morning classes, I had a much better idea what I needed to do to catch up on my schoolwork. No more moping about Bishop or anything else, I had to start focusing on my academic career or I’d find myself kicked out of school and unable to pay my rent. I thought about sleeping under my bed for the day just in case I had an unwelcome visitor, but thoughts of crawly spiders had me huddled up under the covers, as close to the wall as I could manage before I passed out.
Looking forward to meeting Hanna for a sisterly chat before I hit the books that night, I wore one of my pretty new outfits, a black, long sleeved top with an asymmetrical neckline and a red skirt made out of leather so soft, it was almost a crime to sit on. I’d never owned a leather skirt in my life, let alone a red one, but I put in the effort to look good on the outside, hoping it would make me feel good on the inside.
Hanna was already there when I arrived, laptop open on the arm of the chair, two mugs on the round table beside her. “Am I late?” I asked, picking up the one filled with hot chocolate.
“No, I just got here early, thought I’d squeeze a little bit of work in. How are you holding up? Tough day, huh?”
“Tell me about it.” I blew across the top of the cocoa, savoring the rich scent of chocolate that wafted up. “I’m more interested in hearing about your new boyfriend though. You didn’t tell me you were dating anyone who lives in the city,” I scolded her gently.
“I didn’t want to jinx it. Besides, most of the time I see him it’s in San Jose. I didn’t even know he lived up here until he let it slip the other day. He does a lot of business in Silicon Valley though, so that brings him to my neck of the woods fairly often.”
“Oh? What does he do?”
“He’s a marketing consultant for companies all over the world. Spence spends a lot of time traveling, but he’s based here in the Bay Area.”
“Spence?”
“Yeah, Spencer. Oh, you should see him, An… he’s as big as a house, well, compared to me.” My sister stood all of five foot two with shoes on. “In a good way, I mean. Six foot two, brown hair and eyes. God, I love his eyes…” she sighed. “He’s got a beard and you know I normally hate beards, but on him it’s kinda sexy,” Hanna grinned.
“Sounds yummy, tell me all about him. Start with where he grew up and end with his credit rating, ‘cause I know you ran a check on him,” I grinned. I listened to her wax on about his wonderful qualities for the better part of a half hour before I started to get a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“It sounds like you’re one smitten kitten.”
“That’s funny you should say that, he calls me kitten all the time,” she laughed. “Only it doesn’t sound sexist at all when he does it, I swear.”
“Do you have a picture of Spencer?”
“Oh yeah, of course,” she flipped open her laptop again, bringing up a folder of pictures before she turned it around so I could see. “Here he is, my sweetiepie.”
In the center of her screen, mugging it up for the camera was Bishop’s buddy and who I thought was my friend too, Mason.
Chapter Twelve
It took me more than an hour to track Mason down. I started at the Order’s secret lair, leaving a vague message for Mason with a bewildered Jenessa. I knew where some of the other vampire haunts were, even if I hadn’t spent much time in them before, but it was too early for any of them to be really swinging yet. Finally I found him on my second pass at The Bleeding Hart. Ignoring the friendly faces as I entered the bar, I stalked right up to Mason who sat lounging in a chair with the Asian guy whose name escaped me and Corazon.
Without any warning, I tipped him out of the chair and onto the ground. Before he could recover, I set the lower rung of the chair across his throat, putting enough pressure on it to keep him pinned to the ground like a rat caught in a trap. Split seconds later, I heard the cocking of weapons, aimed at me I assumed, though I didn’t take my eyes off of Mason.
“Hi Anja, nice to see you again,” Mason wheezed, the chair cutting into his air supply. I could tell he put some serious effort into breaking free but I had the advantage of leverage and Ellri blood running through my veins to give me the edge I needed to keep him down.
“Tell them to back off,” I said in a low voice, though I’m sure most of the vampire patrons in the bar heard just fine. The place had gone completely silent except for the music on the jukebox playing something by Blue Oyster Cult.
“Let him go, now,” Corazon demanded, and I could imagine the deadly threat written all over her face but I held my ground.
“This has nothing to do with the Order, this is personal business, isn’t it, Spencer?” I growled at Mason whose eyes widened in surprise.
“Maybe you should switch to decaf?” he rasped, and I squeezed the rung against his throat even tighter. “It’s okay, I know what this is about,” he barely managed to get out and I eased up on the chair. “It’s cool, she’s right, it is personal,” Mason coughed, rubbing his throat. “We should talk.”
“You think?” I let him up and the guns dropped, though they did stay unholstered, I noticed. “Come on,” I led him through the bar, straight for the back room, which was reminiscent of the time Bishop dragged me in there to read me the riot act.
Bishop.
Pushing him from my mind lest I lose focus of my anger, I waited until the door shut behind us before I let Mason have it, shoving against his shoulder. “What did I tell you about dating my sister?”
“That it was charming and impulsive?”
“Except I remember it being more like don’t,” I shoved again, wanting to wipe that smirk off his face.
“I didn’t hurt her, I like her,” Mason rubbed absently at his neck and I wondered if I’d really injured him.
“The one thing I asked you not to do, Mason…” I muttered, stalking to the other side of the room to keep from striking out at him again, because I really didn’t want to hurt him. Most of the time I liked his goofy good humor. “I don’t want her drawn into all this crap, don’t you get it? My family is like the one normal thing in my life.”
“I know, she’s just so amazing, I couldn’t resist.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Um, pretty much since that night I met her,” he winced in anticipation of my reaction, his words coming faster. “It wasn’t hard to track her down and…”
“I can’t believe this!” I hissed, clenching my hands to keep from screaming. He’d stalked her down that same night? “And here I thought I could trust you.”
“You can trust me! You know I’d never say a thing about your little you know what.”
“No, I can’t. It’s one thing to keep my secret, but it’s quite another to use my own sister like a feeding bag.”
“You
make it sound so crass, I didn’t treat her like a meal. We dated. You know, like movies and dancing and… other stuff.”
“Isn’t it? Are you going to stand there and tell me you didn’t drink from her?” I knew exactly what impulses were triggered when vampires started to feel real friendly and from the way Hanna gushed about Spence, things had gotten pretty friendly.
“Well, um…” Mason swallowed. “See, this is what happened…”
“Save it,” I waved him off. “I don’t want to hear all the intimate details.” I already had a mental picture I wished I could unsee. “You need to break it off with her.”
“I can’t do that,” he balked and I advanced on him again, less concerned with hurting him when he refused me.
“Oh yes you can, and you will. I’m completely serious about this. Your life is dangerous and you know it, even beyond the fact that you’re a vampire. What about the Order?”
“The Order doesn’t care if I date a human as long as I keep her in the dark about it.”
“But your enemies won’t have that same attitude. What happens if someone comes after you and she gets caught in the crossfire?”
“Anja, I think you’re overreacting about this. I promise I won’t let anything bad happen to her.”
I had to step up my game, he wasn’t intimidated by me in the least, most likely because he knew I wasn’t really four hundred years old. It was time to remind him why people believed that about me. “Mason,” I picked up his hand, holding it gently in mine. “Do you believe I have the power to hurt you in ways you’ve only imagined?”
“To be honest, not really. Everybody knows you wouldn’t hurt a fly,” he gave me a lopsided grin.
“Just like I didn’t hurt Kursik?” I took a gamble Bishop hasn’t filled him in on the details of that night, and from the way his jaw went slack, I could see he hadn’t. Yay for Bishop’s taciturn nature paying off for a change!
Mason licked his lips, no trace of the grin remaining. “I was gonna ask you about that. So, was that really true then, what they said…”
“Did they say his heart was torn out?” Mason nodded and I smiled sweetly, still holding his hand gently. “It wasn’t you know. Booth’s heart was torn out. Kursik’s heart never left his body. Just a little squeeze…” I squeezed his hand, not enough to hurt him, but it was just the right counterpart to my story. Technically it wasn’t a lie, I never out and out said I killed Kursik or anyone else, and I gotta say, it was a lot of fun watching his eyes widen like that. “I’m thinking no one will blink an eye if I have to take steps to keep my sister safe. Do we have an understanding?”
All at once Mason’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “Alright, I’ll do it.”
“Tonight. You’ll do it when you see her tonight.”
“I said I’d do it.” He looked so bummed, I started to feel sorry for him. Was I a bad person for splitting them up? I couldn’t dwell on that, not when Hanna’s safety depended on it.
“Look, I’m sorry. I’m sure you’re a really great boyfriend and all, but I can’t take any chances where Hanna’s involved, she’s my only sister.”
“I understand. She’s probably too good for me anyway.” He tried for a smirk but I could see his heart wasn’t in it.
“I’ll see you around.” I wasn’t sure what else to say now that my victory tasted so sour in the face of his disappointment, or dare I even say heartbreak? I didn’t even want to think about how Hanna would feel, she was so excited about her new boyfriend.
Not feeling much like hanging out in the bar, especially when I got so many awed looks the moment I stepped out of the back room, I headed straight for home. In a pretty crummy mood, I stopped off for the essentials for a long night of studying, a) a new box of hot chocolate, b) some cinnamon – which I was keen to try in microwaved blood, and c) another pint of chocolate explosion to replace the container I’d pigged out on over my break up with Bishop.
Bishop.
At some point I’d have to stop sighing inside every time I thought of his name. I wondered what he’d think of my confrontation with Mason? With all those witnesses it was bound to get back to him sooner or later. Would he side with me or Mason? I half wished I’d find him waiting for me at home, ready to read me the riot act for causing a scene if it meant I’d get to see him again.
Instead I found Rob sitting on my couch, watching an old black and white movie with the sound turned low. “Hey, where’s Bridget?” I asked, not hearing her up and around in the kitchen.
“She’s asleep,” Rob jerked his thumb towards the bedroom.
“And you found a powerful need to feed your Michael Caine fix?” I looked at the TV.
“She asked me to wake her up in an hour for work.”
I shrugged away my curiosity where their relationship was concerned, stowing away my purchases and setting up my laptop on the scarred table tucked in front of the bay window. I’d actually gotten pretty used to seeing him around the apartment, and it made the place feel less lonely, even though we didn’t usually talk very much.
Settling in to start attacking the mound of overdue assignments I had, I found it hard to concentrate. My mind kept going back to Mason’s defeated slump and the way Hanna’s face lit up when she talked about him.
“Hey Rob?” I asked after my third time reading the same paragraph. Rob made little more than a grunting sound that I took to mean: yes, what would you like to talk about? “Do you think it’s safe for a vampire to date a human?”
“In the market for a new man already are you?” he raised a single brow.
“No, I didn’t mean for me,” I explained hastily, going into few details but outlining the fact that I’d busted up a new relationship between a member of the Order and a friend (not sister, since I wasn’t supposed to have any living family). Rob let out a low whistle, when I mentioned confronting Mason at the Hart.
“Wisht I’d been there to see that. Not many will tangle with the Order, especially not so openly.”
“I didn’t mean to, I was just so angry, especially since I’d already warned him to leave her alone. But is it? Safe, I mean, for a human to date a vampire?”
“It can be, but I don’t have to tell you how easily lust turns to thirst.”
“I know, right? That’s exactly what I was afraid of. Especially with him being in the Order. Even if he proved to be a perfect gentleman, he could put her in danger without even trying to just by being around her.” Not that I’d cared when Bishop tried to use that line on me, and I had a sinking feeling Hanna wouldn’t have cared either if she’d known the truth about Mason.
“Nothing wrong with looking out for your loved ones, yeah?” Rob rose and patted my shoulder on the way to the kitchen.
“Do you really think so?” I called after him. The sound of running water came back to me and I heard him put the kettle on.
“Try not to fret about it.”
If I wanted more touchy feely reassurance, I was barking up the wrong tree, but his low key support did help me feel better about it. I turned back to my studies, surprised when he set a mug beside me on the table on his way to the couch a few minutes later, his own cuppa tea in hand. Instead of tea, I found my mug full of heated blood, a light dusting of cinnamon across the top. “Thanks,” I smiled at the back of his head, rewarded with one of his noncommittal sounds.
As crazy as it sounds, the cinnamon did make a big difference, and instead of gulping it down as fast as I could stomach it, I savored the warming beverage the way I used to enjoy a good cup of chai. “Hey, this is pretty good.”
“Old family recipe,” he replied, sipping his tea.
“Does your family have a lot of vampires in it?” I joked, but he took my question seriously enough.
“Some. Let’s just say my family has a long association with vampires and leave it at that.” Ten more questions popped up at that mysterious reply but I didn’t want to tick him off since he’d said to leave it at that. I turned back to my homework, but Rob was
obviously in a chatty mood for him. “Any other mishaps since you stopped staying with your boy?”
So, he knew I’d broken up with Bishop. Bridget ought to put more thought into it before she spoke half the time. “Mishaps? Like someone playing Benihana with my clothes? No, nothing else like that. I did get a little crispy one day though.”
“How do you mean?”
“Someone broke in again and opened all my blinds while I slept. You should have seen my legs, I looked like Freddy Krueger.”
“When did this happen?” A deep scowl appeared on his face and Rob looked downright scary.
“Ah… a few days ago, why?” I’d managed to surprise him for once. “You mean there’s an aspect of my life you don’t know all about already?” I teased, trying to get him to smile again but he barely registered my remarks.
“I thought your boy fixed it so this place was safe?”
“Well, he fixed it so Bridget couldn’t be compelled to let anyone in again, but she might not have even been home or awake at the time. It could have been anyone, really. I was passed out cold as usual. I don’t know what we could do to uninvite someone, is that even possible?”
“Might could make some calls,” he replied, sounding a little distracted. Rob didn’t say anything else, but I could hear his fingers flying over the touchscreen of his phone.
“I can always wake Bridget up if you have something you need to be doing,” I offered after he’d spent several minutes hunched over his phone.
Rob tucked it away, leaning back on the couch to look back at me. “I don’t mind hanging ‘round, if you don’t mind the intrusion.”
“No, you’re not bothering me. Especially with the sound turned so low. You know she’ll sleep through a bomb blast, right? You can turn that up if you like.”
“S’alright, I’ve seen it before,” he shrugged, and I wondered why Rob spent so much time at my place? Of course, I could spend an hour making a list of questions I had about Rob and his behavior (I made a note to my master list to make a list of things I wanted to find out about him later).
