by Margot Fox
Looking at herself in the mirror, Tesa felt… new. This didn’t look anything like her. That was a good place to start.
Gunner held out his elbow, chivalry-style. Tesa rolled her eyes and took it.
Stark was pacing the foyer as they descended the stairs. He opened his hands in front of him and smiled broadly.
“Well now… this is a sight. Gunner, you really can put yourself together when you give it an attempt. And Tesa,” he said, his smile crinkling his cheeks, “you are an absolute vision. I knew the gown would suit you.”
Tesa tried not to blush, but when all of Stark’s charm was focused on her, she found her chest swelling with pride. Having his gown around her body sounded thrillingly like having his hands around her body. And he looked at her with such plain affection… Didn’t he?
He had to feel it. She was certain.
As Stark and Gunner guided her through the rest of the mansion she hadn’t yet seen, Tesa had to remind herself to keep her mouth closed. They passed multiple parlors and small, marble tiled hallways that faded into darkness. Several long rooms seemed to comprise a single library. As they walked to the back of the house, she began to hear the high sounds of music. A harp or guitar, she thought.
To the left, she saw a blazingly white kitchen and at least a half dozen white-coated people hurrying back and forth with heavy trays. To the right, a massive dining room with two fireplaces on opposite walls, painted in a matte vermilion hue that seemed almost like a powder, or like porcelain.
They stepped into a glass enclosed conservatory and Tesa could see the lights of torches in the garden beyond. The music was louder and she couldn’t help but smile, feeling the heavy weight slowly draining from her heart. It was a midnight garden party, like something from a fairy tale.
Jamie walked up with a tray of chocolates and small pastries festooned with curls of bright vegetables and caviar. Three flutes of champagne bubbled lushly near the rim.
Stark plucked one from the tray and handed it to Tesa with a smile. “Would you like something? A chocolate?”
She accepted the champagne flute gratefully. A glass would soothe her raw nerves, she figured… and perhaps prepare her for whatever was going on in the garden.
Jamie tipped the tray toward her, but wouldn’t meet her eye. Still mad at her, she figured. Tesa bit her lip thoughtfully. Caviar? Bernie had mentioned it was gross. She accepted two chocolate-covered strawberries on a tiny porcelain dish.
Gunner nodded, clearly bored. “I’ll catch up with you,” he said and walked through the glass doors to the garden beyond.
Tesa felt a wave a gratitude for his absence. She looked up at Stark. The firelight from the torches outside set his coppery eyes aflame.
“To… you,” he said, tipping his glass toward hers. She clinked hers delicately and took a sip. A million bubbles burst on her tongue and danced down her throat. She could feel the cool liquid sliding all the way down to her stomach.
“It’s delicious,” she breathed.
Stark laughed. “After the incredibly trying day you’ve had, I love to see you enjoying yourself. Truly I do,” he said. “Try the strawberries. I really think you’ll be pleased.”
Tesa smiled weakly and handed him her champagne. He really seemed to enjoy watching her eat. She opened her mouth slowly, watching him out of the corner of her eye. He seemed breathless with anticipation. She closed her teeth around the hard chocolate shell, snapping through it crisply. A burst of strawberry gushed onto her tongue and she giggled, trying to eat as neatly as possible.
“Well,” he breathed, “how is that?”
“Oh my God,” she laughed. “It’s amazing. I’ve never had anything like it.”
Chuckling, Stark encouraged her to finish the strawberries while he watched discreetly. When she was finished, part of her ached for more, but she didn’t want to seem like a total glutton.
Girl, you are going to get your figure back and then some if this keeps up.
When she was finished, he handed her back the champagne and she sipped it delicately. He wouldn’t make eye contact with her for more than a moment at a time, and she didn’t know how much longer they would have privacy.
“Tesa,” he said, “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Yes?” she said expectantly.
He took her hand. “I can only imagine what you must be going through. I just— I wanted to convey my deepest sympathies for your loss.”
“Oh,” she said softly. “Thank you, Stark. It was—”
“Quite a shock, I imagine.”
“Er… Yes. It was… horrifying.”
Stark nodded gravely. “Were you very close?”
“Were we close?”
“Did you know each other long? Were you… in love?”
“I— I don’t really know what to say to that,” Tesa stammered, feeling strangely defensive. She felt terrible, but then, she also barely knew him. And yet, what she knew of him was decent and admirable. “Grant was good. He was nice to me. Someone… something… I don’t understand how that could have happened.”
Stark shook his head. “Unimaginable.”
“But Gunner said you know who it was? What it was? Will you… can we find him?”
Stark looked momentarily taken aback. “He said that? Well… we spoke of it briefly, but I don’t think we can really know . Did you happen to see the person?”
“I don’t think it was a person. What I heard sounded like a bird… or something.”
“That’s very interesting,” he said slowly.
Tesa peered up at him in the near-darkness, trying to gauge his expression. He seemed to have closed himself off from her completely. And what he was saying wasn’t entirely making sense. Why would he say he didn’t know what it was?
“I want to assure you that you are safe.”
Tesa nodded.
“I think you will agree that no matter what your feelings before today, you are safest here until we can ascertain what has happened.”
“Well…”
“No, Tesa…” He stepped closer to her. She could smell the starch in his collar and a whiff of cologne. The champagne was on his breath, and she could feel it on her cheeks. Her heart began to beat very fast. “I want you to understand that you’re under our care now. You’re very important to us. We have to take care of you and I fear… you may be in danger also.”
She shook her head. Images of Grant were beginning to flood her mind’s eye again.
“Please don’t be afraid.”
The more he spoke, the more afraid she got.
The garden door swung open and Gunner walked in. He stared at them from the shadows and raised his glass.
Tesa felt numb. Was he trying to frighten her? She walked awkwardly toward Gunner, though in many ways that felt much, much worse. The torch flames flickered just outside the door and she stepped outside, inhaling deeply the cool night air.
She looked around. Her hand flew to her lips.
“Tesa, it’s all right. No one here is in any danger,” came Stark’s calm voice from her shoulder.
She spun around, wanting to accuse him but unable to speak. He looked at her apologetically.
In the garden, fifty or so guests gathered along the pristinely manicured hedges. Their extravagant finery glittered in the light of dozens of torches. Champagne glasses littered the lawn.
Among the guests, dark-haired, topless women wearing long white linen skirts carried trays of strawberries. They offered the trays, then their necks or wrists. A raven-haired guest in a dark green silk gown plucked a strawberry from the tray, then the wrist of the serving girl. She stared into the girl’s eyes as she drew her supple arm to her mouth.
Opening her mouth, she raised an eyebrow and bit down hard, just below the Clean Blood Badge. The girl threw her head back but remained silent. The woman’s cheeks sucked in as she gnawed on the wrist. Finally, she let her go and staggered slightly as if drunk. A thin streak of blood trickled down her chin.
<
br /> Tesa looked around frantically. They were everywhere. One girl was being feasted on by two white-headed men in some kind of foreign military uniforms. They knelt before her and had each taken a breast in their mouths. She stroked the backs of their heads fondly, beaming down on them.
“I— I don’t understand…” Tesa stammered.
Stark held her elbow. “You are in no danger here.”
She swallowed. “Okay… okay.” She nodded, trying to get her head around this. No one was screaming. But the blood… there was blood everywhere. An image of Grant appeared in her mind and she started to swoon.
“All right, all right there,” Stark murmured. “Just breathe.”
“Why… why are you showing me this?”
She turned to him, searching his eyes. “You didn’t have to show me this!” she accused.
“She’s right, brother,” Gunner drawled, walking up casually. “Why are you showing her this? She could have been watching television in her chambers. Funny day for a party, isn’t it? All things considered?”
Stark pointedly ignored his brother. “Tesa, I wanted you to see there is nothing to be afraid of here. Look at them. No one is afraid.”
Tesa looked over her shoulder, trying to only see a little at a time. The images were overwhelming. People feeding, people kissing, people lying on couches or in the lawn…
This is so bizarre! she said to herself.
Just out of the torchlight, a woman caught her eye. She seemed to draw herself up very tall. Tesa watched her… did she know her?
The woman walked toward them. As she came into the light, Tesa marvelled at her blood-red trousers and elegant cowl-necked, sleeveless blouse. She was very curvy and sauntered elegantly into the light.
Tesa sucked in her breath.
“What? What is it?”
“I know her!” Tesa hissed.
“Impossible!” Stark responded, seemingly surprised.
The woman walked up slowly. Tesa could see her smile glittering in the firelight. Rings of gold jangled on her wrists.
“Maybe you’re not the only one with ritzy friends, eh?” Tesa sassed.
Tesa raised her hand and waved politely, ignoring Stark’s subtle scoff. She noted that Yvonne didn’t even glance at her badge. Instead she kept her gaze steady on Tesa’s, so steady that it was a struggle not to flinch or run away.
“Tesa,” Yvonne purred when she came up close, smiling supremely.
Yvonne leaned close and brushed her right cheek against Tesa’s, then her left. It seemed like an old-fashioned gesture, more feminine than a handshake and infinitely more intimate.
“Yvonne,” Tesa answered with a forced smile, her head spinning.
“I’m so glad you could make it,” Stark said coolly, turning to his guest. He took a small step, placing himself between Tesa and Yvonne. “I trust you’re enjoying yourself?”
“Oh, of course I am, Stark dear. Thank you for inviting me. We should probably… chat.”
Stark held out his arm with formal stiffness, and Yvonne took it after giving Tesa a knowing glance. He led her across the garden, out of sight.
Tesa was reeling, trying to put it together.
“What the hell is she doing here?” she said to herself.
“It appears,” Gunner answered with a mirthless grin, “she was looking for you. And if Yvonne is looking for you, then you are in quite a lot of trouble.”
“She always knew where to find me before,” Tesa muttered.
“Oh is that so? Trust me. You’re not her type.”
Tesa scowled at Gunner, who rolled his eyes and looked away. When was he going to stop messing with her? It seemed that everything he said was meant to frighten or confuse her. Was that fun for him? She hated feeling like she was being toyed with. It seemed like he was never just going to give a straight answer to anything.
But she had to admit, something definitely felt like a trap. A game. That was not the same Yvonne she had seen at the bar. Not by a long shot.
For the last couple weeks or more, Yvonne had been hanging out until all hours, scanning the meager crowd of mullet-sporting burnouts and leather-vested motorcycle guys. She played pool pretty well as far as Tesa could tell, but she never seemed to really hit it off with anybody.
When she arrived, it was generally around eight or nine, and she came alone as women often did. Usually they were divorcees, or maybe stepping out on their husbands or boyfriends. An out-of-the-way biker bar was a pretty convenient place to be anonymous and not worry about running into anyone who knew you. In fact, that’s why Tesa picked it too.
She drank the hard stuff and watched the pool league as though utterly bored. She wore tailored blouses and trousers in linen or wool. If someone sat next to her or walked up to order a drink, Tesa remembered her as chilly to the point of glacial ice. And inevitably, she’d be alone again in a few minutes, back to people watching like a jaguar in a tree.
Yet, every night around closing time, she would have someone on her arm to go home with. Sometimes that someone was Bernie. At closing time, everyone just started to seem somewhat more acceptable, as bar wisdom went.
But this Yvonne wasn’t the out-of-place divorcee looking for strange. This woman was apparently intimidating enough that Stark had to quarantine her. And Gunner acted like she was practically in charge.
Which, apparently, is what she really was.
Tesa shook her head in disbelief. If she could have gotten Yvonne so wrong, what else didn’t she know? What kind of trouble did Gunner think she was in?
She turned around and squinted at the silhouettes of Stark and Yvonne, barely visible in the flickering garden torchlight. Yvonne moved her weight to one side and Tesa was momentarily dumbfounded by the sexual energy that radiated from her. Where before she had seemed “plump,” now Tesa envied her seething voluptuousness.
Tesa decided it was probably safest to assume Gunner was right — she was in some kind of deep, deep trouble.
“What are they talking about?” Tesa wondered.
“Could be a lot of things. The weather. The stock market.”
“Really?”
“No, dummy. Not really. They’re talking about you, obviously.”
“You know what,” Tesa snapped, pivoting to glare at Gunner, “why don’t you leave me alone? Stark obviously has this under control.”
Gunner scowled. “You don’t have to get all snippy with me.”
“Oh really?” She raised her eyebrows. “It seems like sarcasm is the only tone you understand. So go!”
For a moment he seemed to be having a conversation with himself. He looked all around and knuckled his chin.
“You really are safe here, you know,” he muttered.
“That’s what I hear!” she barked, exasperated. “Seriously! GO!”
Muttering something about catching up with her later, Gunner lurched away from Tesa and trudged across the lawn. Tesa rolled her eyes as he headed toward a redhead with pendulous breasts and a fake ruby choker. The woman raised one eyebrow as he approached, offering him her tray of chocolate-covered strawberries and perching her other hand on her hip with some sass.
Gunner shook his head slightly and bowed to whisper in her ear. The woman’s eyebrows went way up. She threw her head back and laughed, full-throated.
“Ugh, disgusting,” Tesa groaned and turned her head away as he plucked the woman’s hand from her hip.
Downing the rest of her champagne in a single gulp, Tesa took another glass off the tray of a passing server, a handsome young man of about nineteen. He paused and looked at her inquisitively, holding his arms out so she could inspect him.
He was shiny as though he had been oiled, and the reflection of the firelight danced across his rippling, bronze muscles. He was a little young, but just her type: lean and muscled, with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.
Tesa wondered what Gunner would do to her if she made out with one of their servers in the lawn. She could have a little fun too, could
n’t she? Thinking twice about the possible repercussions, she made a mental note to have that discussion with Gunner, and sooner rather than later. If they were going to be all free love, she figured she deserved some too.
With a sigh, she shook her head and raised a hand toward the boy, muttering, “No, thanks.”
He probably thought I was a vampire, she thought. Ew.
Stumbling through the dark, Tesa sipped her champagne and tried to absorb the sights without fear or disgust. It looked a lot like she had imagined a midnight garden party at a billionaire’s mansion would, except that people were… eating each other.
An enthusiastic threesome rolled across her path, and Tesa stopped in her tracks to let them by. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was seeing, but it sure sounded like a combination of sex and eating.
As she crossed toward a stone bench, another couple seemed to be talking intently. The man stroked the young woman’s breast fondly. She smiled and nodded at him. He took her face gently in his hands and kissed her on the lips. Tesa watched with mounting envy as they kissed like lovers in a movie.
Then he dropped to his knees in front of her and opened his mouth side, showing white, glistening fangs that appeared as though snapping into place. He pulled the woman by the hips toward him and sunk his teeth into her narrow, heaving waist. Her head lolled back and she sighed as though she loved every second of it.
You better get used to this, she told herself as she watched yet another couple rolling on the grass in a decent imitation of lovemaking, except with a lot more blood getting all over everything. That will be you pretty soon, a voice told her.
Nope, not if I have anything to say about it! said another voice.
And yet as the night wore on, the champagne, the music, and the sheer repetitiveness of it all started to lull her into a sense of complacency. She found herself becoming more curious about the people, and almost felt like she was a bit of a voyeur, watching people make out. The effect gradually began to evolve from revulsion to a little bit of arousal.
I guess it’s not that bad, she caught herself thinking. After you’ve seen a couple dozen guys chewing through a couple dozen necks, it starts to become a little easier to take.
