“I’m sick, Ryan. I don’t know when I will be able to see you.”
“Can I come there?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t want to impose on my family any more than I am now doing.”
“But surely they wouldn’t say anything if I made a call on a sick person, besides I have questions to ask Mr. Wolff.”
Ryan wasn’t taking no for an answer and he insisted on seeing me. He was persistent, but I didn’t know if I would be around for his next interview or next anything. I agreed to see him if I were still alive which I thought wouldn’t be the case. At least not in a sense that he would understand.
“Yes. I’ll meet you at your apartment. Tomorrow night.”
Chapter Sixteen-Zoey
I didn’t want to tell Terry, but I felt myself slipping away. She would blame herself and Sebastian and Robbie would blame her also. Night had come and still Sebastian hadn’t returned. Terry sat with me from that morning to sundown. It was then Robbie burst through the door with a look of peril on his now irritated and excited face.
He stood holding a tall woman with long blond hair and blue eyes by her arm as if she didn’t want to be here. “This is Becky.”
“What is she doing here?” Becky hissed as she tried to back away.
“I’m here to protect her from your kind,” Terry said.
“It’s not my kind you have to protect her from. She has been poisoned by an old witch who has years of conjuring up potions. I still don’t know if I can help. Move away from her.” Terry did as she had been told and Becky came to the bed to check my pulse.
“She doesn’t need a doctor. If that was the case we could have had one over in less time it took to get you here,” Terry said to her, and Becky’s face furrowed with annoyance.
“If she’s going to stay here then I’m leaving,” she said to Robbie.
“You have to go, Terry,” Robbie said showing no emotion. Terry looked at me and I shook my feeble head at her motioning to leave me.
“Terry please leave,” I said my voice hoarse and weak. My entire body felt numb and I couldn’t feel anything now. Becky opened my weak eyelids and checked my eyes.
“She is worse than I thought. I don’t know if I can do anything that would help.”
“Just do something. I promised Sebastian that I would watch over her,” Robbie said.
“Sebastian. I know of Sebastian Vesper,” she whispered. “Not the vampire who gave up his throne to be with this human,” Becky said as she opened her pouch and sprinkled something around my bed.
“He must be in love. Then young men are passionate like that,” she said with a smile turning to Robbie.
“Young? He has to be over five hundred years old,” Robbie said.
“For a vampire, that’s very young, especially since he was turned when he’s in his most brutal, passionate, powerful, extreme point of his mortal life—his twenties.
Becky continued working on me. At this point I wavered between no feelings to extreme pain. I could hear but I couldn’t speak.
She sat near me and whispered over me and sprinkled something from her pouch. I didn’t know what it was but it had the smell of a newborn baby. My only senses working at that moment were my sense of sight, hearing, and smell.
“Samantha has gone beyond the boundaries of our rules. She’s using dark deeds and twisted spells to carry out her vengeance on humans. Those are forbidden.” She looked to Robbie, but he wouldn’t respond. He watched at her as if she was a goddess. I suspected he had a violent and warm relationship with her. Why else would she have come to help me knowing that Ann was his true mate?
Becky placed her hand on my head and quickly pulled it away. “She is extremely hot for a human. Her temperature is unnatural, and for her to be alive with such a temperature. It is the very thing that is saving her and the very thing that can kill her,” she said to Robbie.
“Can you save her?”
“Would you have brought me here if you thought I couldn’t?”
“Would you have come if you thought it was Ann?”
“Probably not. But I would do anything for you, Robbie.” She had this sorrowful look on her face. “I would do anything for you to forgive me, Robbie,” Becky said as she fell into a chant.
“I do forgive you but that will never change what happened between us. Now I’d rather not talk about it.”
My feelings came back slowly to my hands, and I began to wiggle my fingers and then the rest of my body responded. Becky looked at me. “You will be well within an hour but you have to rest. Samantha has been poisoning you slowly over time not just this one time. I need you to stay in bed and don’t tax yourself.” I shook my head.
“Anything,” I said.
“If you need me in the future, just concentrate and I’ll hear you. Don’t let that witch Samantha get near you again. And be careful with Terry. She can’t protect you from Samantha. There are only a few who can. Samantha can control your dreams, give you false realities and invade your body if you let her.
“But with your body temperature not much can survive in it, that’s why you lasted so long. Any other human would have been dead with your constant heat. Now I know why Sabastian is attracted to you.”
Becky smiled. She was beautiful with her natural pink lips and full mouth. Her blond hair cut short and her long lashes made her blue eyes look large. I can’t see how Robbie must have fallen in love with her. She was enchanting but his true love was Ann.
I couldn’t help wondering what Becky did to Robbie. They both appeared to be so pleasant and looked good together because they were tall, beautiful, and handsome.
I raised my hand and she took it. I nodded thank you with a closed smile. And Becky smiled back at me. She stood and faced Robbie and then Ann opened the door and Becky disappeared in a mist of white smoke.
Ann glanced at Robbie. “Why does she do that?”
“Because she never wants to see you. Like that she doesn’t have to accept that I’m no longer with her.” He placed his hand around Ann’s waist and leaned down to kiss her.
“Zoey is fine now. She has been through hell and needs some rest. Becky said she would be better than before.” I would be better if I knew where Sabastian was. Why isn’t he here at my side? He had promised me that he would return but he hasn’t.
After Robbie checked every inch of the room he called Terry in to guard me. He gave her instructions and as usual like a child she stuck her tongue out when he turned his back to leave.
“I hate taking orders from that shifter,” Terry whispered. No doubt Robbie heard her, but he closed the door and didn’t argue with Terry.
Chapter Seventeen-Sebastian
I knew where Samantha lived. She had numerous homes in every large city in the US. She lived to cause trouble and create mayhem wherever she went. It was as though her pain knew no bounds and because of her heartache, she claimed I brought her, she would make women pay who dared love me, and any unsuspecting naive woman who crossed her path.
She had taken their husbands and stole their children. She had been a wrecking ball throughout history, and she has done that and much worse. I knew she had to be stopped, but how?
I would have to be the one to stop her, and because I couldn’t live in peace with Zoey, I had to do something quick because she would kill Zoey. My travels took longer than I had anticipated. I had to reach Manhattan when she didn’t expect me.
When I arrived in Manhattan it was early in the evening and I found a place to stay in an old world hotel, where people with money who didn’t want to be noticed, usually frequent the place from across Europe and Asia.
The owners of the hotel would ask no questions and whatever accommodations were asked for, they were granted, as long as a large payment of gold was handed over on check in. No one looked sideways at you if you ordered a coffin in the basement of the hotel with an armed guard, which I did.
It would have been convenient for me to keep a place in Ne
w York, but I wanted no reason to be in the same city or country as Samantha unless it became necessary.
I dressed in a tux, and a limo was waiting outside. When the limo cruised up to Samantha’s estate, she was having a party. I could tell by all the cars parked outside and the happy chatter coming from the guest as they walked to the door with women dressed in their finest gowns. I wondered what she was celebrating. Was she getting married? I didn’t dare hope for such a good thing.
That would keep her occupied until Zoey and I found a place out of her reach and from Aare’s murderous band of werewolves he would send after me.
I stepped out of the limo and walked to the front door. The line of guests were dense as her doormen held open the double wide doors. Her parties were famous. When she wasn’t trying to make me miserable, she was entertaining for the express purpose of causing heartache to humans and immortals.
Knowing I had promised Zoey to be back this day, however, I had to take care of this first. I knew Samantha always celebrated when she felt good about her accomplishments, and by the grandness of the party, she had out-done herself with something wicked and unspeakable.
When I walked through the door, I was announced, and all eyes turned to me. The room filled with humans, witches, and vampires knew of my family.
The hierarchy of the underworld society surrounded me, and as I walked into the main room, they lowered their heads in reverence. The vampires being at the top of the food chain and the witches with their abilities to conjure up spells, take human form, were next in line, and then the humans who would sell their souls for money and immortality. Some humans just wanted the money. They weren’t interested in living forever.
“What are you doing here?”
“I seem to be asked that a lot. I’m here because of Samantha,” I said to Loren Vesper. We hugged. “And what are you doing here?” I smiled looking at him.
“I was summoned. When Samantha ask you to come to her party you go,” my brother said. “There are a few willing humans that desire to be immortal and I will accommodate them.” He had this quant smile as he nodded at the women who requested that he be the one to change them into vampires.
“I thought you had stopped feeding on humans,” I said to him.
“You know how that is, Sabastian. It’s like anything that’s addictive, and human blood is addictive. You can’t just get off cold turkey. I tried and I almost died. But eventually I did get off of it, but then I wasn’t committed to it and then I was back again. It’s been like a merry-go-round. When Aare discovered that I was serious about only feeding on animal blood, he told me I was weak and there wasn’t a place for me. Since I wouldn’t inherit father’s throne, I left and came to the US. But why did you leave?” He said with a quizzical gaze.
“I guess you haven’t heard about mother’s death,” I said.
“I knew of it but I didn’t know the particulars.” We began walking through the crowd of pleasure seekers. As we passed, the women were eyeing Loren. He had been the handsomest of the Vespers and the youngest of us. He had been only sixteen when he was changed, but that was only two hundred years ago.
That youth had denied him the maturity to see what Aare was doing. Loren was frozen into that early age and his actions were erratic. He wasn’t cruel enough to understand the feeding and brutality of making humans into slaves for the vampires’ urges and needs.
And he was too sensitive to continue to feed on humans. It was then I introduced him to animal blood which made him more delicate in strength and power. He couldn’t handle Aare and so Aare forced him out.
Although Aare’s change was recent, he stayed and nurtured father and mother, only to rid himself of everyone who stood in his way to the throne.
We stopped at the French doors leading to the large garden. “Why are you here, Loren? This isn’t a place for you.”
“Samantha took me in when Aare forced me from the castle. I would have gone anyway but she said that she loved me and wanted to be with me.”
“She is using you the way she used Aare.”
“I know, but I have nowhere to go.”
“You could have come with me.”
“Now is too late, Sabastian. She has a spell over me. I can’t do anything without her. I know I don’t love her, but I feel as if I would die without her.”
“Try to get away from her,” I said looking around to see if anyone was listening. It appeared only me and Loren were standing outside under the full moon.
“You can’t and you are more powerful than I am,” he said. At that moment I saw the look on Loren’s face. His eyes lowered as if he was afraid. When I turned with surprise at seeing her. I stared into the dark malevolent eyes of Samantha.
“When I gave you the name of Samantha, it was to be a playful endearing name. But there is nothing playful about it. You are a hideous odious deceitful creature, Samantha. If I could think of another name for Lucifer then that would be more descriptive of you.”
“I love you, too, Sabastian. Leave us Loren,” Samantha said staring at him. He nodded at her and smiled at me, but with his head down. Then he walked into the crowd of humans who were waiting to be changed tonight, and they were already drunk from wine to prepare their blood to be sweet and inviting to the vampires and to mitigate the pain they would have to endure.
Samantha grabbed my face turning me in her direction. “Never mind them. Why are you here? To tell me you will marry me and I will be your queen,” I hope. I stared at her. She was once so beautiful and she is now but it’s only outward beauty. Many humans and vampires have been seduced by her even me.
“I came to beg you to leave Zoey alone.”
“What will you give me?” she walked closer to me and ran her finger down the side of my face. I pulled back.
“Whatever you want from me.”
“See, Sabastian. That’s just what I mean. I want you to come to me not with the proposal of giving me what I want. It’s you I want to be happy.”
“Then leave Zoey out of our war. She’s innocent.”
“Innocent. She’s a woman and she has captured the heart of the man I love. I will never let her go until I see her dead.”
Turning to leave, she caught me by the shoulder. “Maybe we can reach an agreement. Announce to everyone here tonight that we will be married and I will be your queen.”
“What about Aare and Loren? You have turned them into your pets.”
“Exactly. They are just pets. But with you the rightful heir to Vesper, there is no one who can stop us. We will rule the underground and the humans together.” I glanced at her face. It would be a sacrifice I would be willing to make. A sacrifice to keep Zoey alive until I could figure out how to rid us of Samantha forever.
“I agree.” I stood shaking inside. To make a pact with this devil made me uneasy. I had known her to be cunning, but I tried to overlook it. “What will you do about Aare?”
“I will get rid of him. I know where he sleeps, I know the kind of women he desires. All I need to do is poison their blood, and he will be weak after he feeds, and then, well you don’t need to know that.” I gazed at her.
The thought of her sickened me, and the only thing that could possibly do me harm would be tainted human blood. That was one reason why I choose to feed on the blood of animals that ate grass.
“What are we going to do with Loren?”
“Kill him. He’s useless,” she said. Her voice dry.
“But he’s a beautiful vampire. He has a soul.”
“I’m not looking for someone with a soul. I’m looking for someone like you.” That was like a stake in my heart. It might well have been because I thought I was becoming human again because of Zoey, but I find I’m moving farther and farther away and Samantha can sense that.
“Let me have Loren,” I said. “As a wedding present. Release him from whatever spell you may have over him. I don’t want him harmed by you or anyone,” I said.
“Only after you have made the announ
cement,” Samantha said with a deceptive calm to her voice.
Chapter Eighteen-Zoey
I thought the potion that Becky gave me would work immediately, but it took a day before I felt like myself. I decided to get out of bed and take a shower and put on a little makeup just to feel better. By now I realized that something had happened to Sabastian. I had all kinds of questions I need answered and I couldn’t get that done by sleeping.
After dressing, I opened the bedroom door and I heard Terry’s voice and Robbie arguing over something. Feeling tired I probably should have stayed in bed but instead I hurried down the stairs to see them standing in the foyer.
“Where’s Ann,” I asked. To leave these two in the house together was like leaving gas with a lighted matched.
Turning around they both smiled as if they were the best of friends, but I knew better and I knew they were trying to hide something from me.
Standing between them I turned to Terry, “What is it Terry?” I knew you were arguing over something, what is it?”
“I was just telling her that she shouldn’t have brought that Bobcat into my reserve,” Robbie said as I turned to him.
“What reserve? You have a place where you corral animals and then you claim you’re hunting them for food. Tell me how that is different from what I do?”
“They are animals and you hunt humans for food,” Robbie said, his eyebrows raising, his hands flexing into fists. His forehead folding into two rows showing his irritation with Terry.
“If your food supply depended on humans, then they would be out there in you reserve and you would bet there would be corpses lying around,” Terry said her voice rising as she tried to bare her teeth. But because Sabastian hadn’t returned she was left in limbo. Not a human and not a vampire, which had her frustrated except for the beautiful face she managed to get in the bargain.
“Fuck this,” Terry said. “I’m going to Sebastian’s wedding and tell him I no longer want this shit. Well except for the face and he will have to do something.”
The Soul of a Vampire Book 2 Page 9
