by Lisa Olsen
“Where’s Rob?”
“In the kitchen. He said he couldn’t stand to watch me rot my teeth with this garbage,” she grinned. “He’s the one who had it in the cupboard.”
“How are you feeling? Hungry?” I looked at the concoction in her bowl. The colors had started to run, making it look like she was eating a melting clown face. Ick.
“A bit peckish, yeah. Rob said I’ll get the munchies a lot until my insides get used to the change.”
“I guess that’s true, only what you’ll get the munchies for isn’t always going to be ice cream and jellybeans. Have you given much thought to what you are now? How that makes you feel?”
“I can’t expect to be a vampire without drinking blood, now can I?” she replied, not visibly upset by the notion. What had happened to the sobbing girl in the shower who was so torn up about accidentally killing a girl?
“Ellie, was it your choice to become a vampire, or did Luca compel you into it?”
“Course he didn’t!” she replied, as if that was the most absurd thing she’d ever heard. “I chose this life.”
“You can’t be more than sixteen,” I gasped. “How can you make a decision like that about your entire life?”
“I’m nineteen!” she objected, her chin thrusting out indignantly.
“Same difference.” Not that I was so much older and wiser than she was, but I couldn’t help but feel her entire attitude was a bit cavalier about such a big decision. “What did he promise you? Immortality? Power?”
“Love,” her face softened, eyes growing misty. “I knew he was the one. It didn’t matter if he was a vampire, I had to go with my heart. Now I’ll spend eternity without him.”
My eyes started to sting as hers clouded with tears, and I blinked rapidly to clear them. “Not if the Order catches you. That’s why I’m here, to help you now that Luca’s gone. There are rules you need to follow to get along in vampire society.”
“I know the laws,” she sniffed. “Luca prepared me.”
“But not enough to actually follow the laws himself, and look where it got him,” I reminded her gently. We spent the next hour or more going through all the Vampire 101 lessons I remembered from my first Q & A with Bishop, and some of the stuff I’d learned since. She already knew the basics, but I was pleased to find I knew a thing or two she didn’t. We talked about the Ellri and the original vampire mythos. That segued into an interesting discussion on mythology in general.
I had to pretend to be much older of course, not wanting to deviate from my basic cover story, even though I could tell she had some questions about the whole compelling vampires stuff. I made her promise not to mention my ability to anyone, and I was still on the fence over whether or not I should compel her to forget about it altogether.
After that she told me about how she’d met Luca and found out he was a vampire, leaning heavily on the romantic aspects of the story. Poor Luca. I was reminded of Scotty and what he’d done for love, and it made me feel all the better for having helped her in the first place. Ellie had an enthusiasm that was hard to resist, even if she did have a worse attention span than I did.
I liked her. Beyond the whole responsibility thing, it was fun to talk to someone who wasn’t older than dirt for a change, but who could relate to some of the things I went through in a way Bridget never could. Eventually I noticed her yawns becoming more frequent, and I noticed the time. It was still more than an hour before dawn, but she looked like she was going to crash right where she sat.
“You should probably hit the hay. I’ll ask Rob about where you’re sleeping.”
“No need, he already showed me to my room.” Ellie stumbled out of her chair, smacking her shins on the coffee table. I could definitely relate.
“Alright, sleep well.”
“Thanks, Anja,” she hugged me impulsively, and I returned it.
“No problem, Ellie.” I watched her stagger down the cramped hallway. My melancholy had somewhat faded, but still lurked under the surface, returning once I stood alone in the living room. It looked like it had been decorated in the thirties and not much had been done to it since.
I found Rob sitting at the kitchen table, the familiar sight of a disassembled gun on the table before him, cleaning rag in hand. “Kettle’s hot if you fancy a cuppa.”
“Thanks.” A cup of tea didn’t sound too bad, actually, and it gave me something to do with my hands. The kitchen was small, but homey. Lots of little curios on the open shelves, including a collection of salt and pepper shakers on display. Not how I would have pictured Rob living at all. “This is where you live?”
“Sometimes.” His eyes ran over the china cabinet squashed into the tiny dining nook. “My Gran left it to me. Haven’t been here for yonks though.”
“It’s nice.” Dark and cramped was probably a bit depressing for his grandmother, but it was perfect as a vampire hidey hole. I took a seat at the table, warming my hands on the delicate teacup while I watched him work on the gun. “I talked to Jakob.”
“I know.”
“He called you?” I blinked in surprise.
“Wanted to make sure you’re alright after how things ended between you.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That you’re tougher than you look.”
That time I did smile. “I wish you could tell Bishop the same.”
“Wouldn’t do no good if I did. It makes no difference to him how tough you are, you still need protecting. I’d feel the same if you was mine.”
“I’m sorry I wrecked your night off. Did you get to see your girl tonight at all?”
“Some. Not in the way I’d have liked, but it’s enough.”
“I’m sorry,” I sighed, blowing over the top of my teacup. In the worst way I wanted to ask about her, but I knew he was a private guy. If he wanted to talk to me about her, he would. “Every time I think things are going to simple up, they end up more convoluted than before.” To demonstrate my point, my phone buzzed with another text message from Bishop. “I should probably head back before it gets too late,” I said with little enthusiasm.
“You could always bunk here for the night if you’d rather. I’ve a spare bed.”
“Really?” I looked up, trying to read if it was at all an inconvenience, but he seemed pretty cool about it. “Let me see what Bishop thinks of the idea.”
A glance down at the text from Bishop read It’s getting late, where are you?
I’m fine. I’m safe. Sleeping over at Rob’s place. Lost track of the time, too many things to see. I sent back with a smiley face.
I’ll come and get you.
Don’t be silly, get some rest. Talk to you tomorrow.
Okay, but call me when you wake.
I will. Love you.
Me too.
Part of me wanted to call him and hear his voice, but too much of me wanted to leave it as is.
“All settled then?” Rob asked, putting the dishes into the sink. “I’ll show you the room.” I followed him down the hall, past where Ellie lay open mouthed, dead to the world. Good gravy, was that what I looked like when I slept? “I’ve already put out the discreet word about getting papers for the girl. Should hear something soon enough.”
“Thanks again, Rob. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all your help. This is going way above and beyond the call of duty.” Impulsively, I leaned up and dropped a quick kiss to his raspy cheek. Rob stiffened at the peck, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he pushed open the door and waited at the threshold for me to enter.
“Should be fresh sheets, and the washroom’s at the end of the hall if you feel the need.”
A shower sounded nice, but at seeing the bed, I found I was more tired than I’d realized. “Thanks, I think I have everything I need. Have a good sleep.” I assumed he would rest while we did even though the sun didn’t make him feel like a zombie.
“Eh, there’s one more thing.” Rob hesitated by the door.
“What is it?”
“I hate to ask…” He rubbed at the back of his neck uneasily.
“Anything. I owe you big time for helping me out with Ellie.”
“Do you recall when I told you before about my family’s history with Jakob?”
“Yes, of course I do, why?”
“I told you then I needed vampire blood to survive.”
“I thought that was just a line to keep me in the dark about Jakob hiring you to be my bodyguard.”
“No, it’s true enough. The thing is, not just any vampire’s blood will do the trick. And it’s been a fair while since Jakob’s gone off brooding.”
“Are you asking me to give you some of my blood?”
“You’re a direct descendent of his. It’s enough to fix me up.”
“What will happen to you if you don’t get it?”
“I’ll get weaker at first, slower, lose my edge. I’ll start to age a lot quicker. It goes too long and I’ll die.”
“Your whole family is tied to him like this?” I gasped. How could Jakob do that to them? “Will they all die out if something happens to him?”
“Not exactly, not like me. We’ve all been changed, evolved as I said before, born with certain gifts. But since Jakob chose me, I’ve had his blood a lot more often. Now I need it to survive.”
What choice did I have? “Of course you can have some of my blood, it’s the least I can do,” I replied, and I saw the relief behind his eyes.
“I don’t have the means to take it from you, but I can pop out and get a syringe from the chemist. I just wanted to get your permission before you’re asleep.”
The thought of him stealing my blood while I slept made me feel all squiggly inside and I decided to simple things up. “When I gave you the vial of blood before, did you inject it, or did you drink it?”
“I drank it, why?”
“Then let’s just get it over with the easy way.” I pushed up my sleeve and his eyes dropped to my bare wrist, an unreadable look on his face.
“Right. Ta much then, I’ll fetch a cup.” He was back in a flash with one of the china cups.
“Here we go then,” I breathed, not looking forward to the pain of biting into my arm one bit, but I owed him. The taste of my own blood exploded across my senses, and I gave a good suck to get the blood flowing before holding it over the cup. Trouble was, the wound healed over pretty quickly without anything to keep drawing the blood out. After just a trickle, I had to bite my wrist again to reopen the wound. At that rate, it would take me an hour to fill the cup.
“How much do you need?” I asked, after the third time the trickle stopped.
“It’s fine. I’ll make do with this.” Rob took hold of the cup, but I could tell it fell pitifully short.
“I can keep going. It’s more time consuming than painful,” I lied.
“I never intended for you to hurt yourself on my account,” he shook his head. “Might could get a bit more if we used a knife to make a deeper cut, but…”
I could tell he was conflicted, his own need warring with concern for my wellbeing. “We’re being silly, there’s another way to do this.” I took the cup from his hand and set it down on the dresser. “Just drink it direct.”
His brows drew together sharply. “I don’t want to impose.”
“You’re not, I’m offering. We’re both adults. I think we can acknowledge it will be a little intimate for me, and move on.”
“Are you sure about this?”
I’d promised Bishop I wouldn’t feed from any men, especially not Rob, but I hadn’t promised anything about him taking my blood. Maybe that was splitting hairs, but as long as we were both adult about it, I didn’t see the harm in one quick feeding. It wasn’t like we’d be rolling around on the bed together or anything. “It’ll be the quickest, easiest way to get it over with. It’s not like you’ll feel anything.”
“Right,” he replied, still troubled over the whole thing and I decided to take matters into my own mouth. It was getting late and I really was tired. Bringing my wrist to my mouth, I bit into it again, holding it up to him carefully, so the blood wouldn’t drip.
“Hurry, before it heals up again,” I urged him, and his brows didn’t lose their sharp angle as he darted one last look at me and then clamped his mouth over the twin wounds, drawing sharply. I sucked in a breath at the first pull, riveted to the sight of him drinking from my arm. The way his throat worked when he swallowed, the rise and fall of his chest as he took in a breath and drank again.
Pleasure hummed along every vein as his mouth drew the blood from my body, and without realizing it, a soft moan escaped the back of my throat. Rob’s eyes flicked to meet mine and I saw the hesitation there before he drank again. I couldn’t watch any longer. My eyes squeezed shut as I fought my nature, my body clamoring to join with his. My every instinct was to touch him, to seek the throbbing pulse at his neck and taste him in kind, until it became nearly painful to be apart from him.
Again and again he pulled at my flesh, almost as if he hungered for my blood the way a vampire would. I could feel his heart jackhammering inside his chest across the inches that separated us, and my free hand slid out to rest over it. I don’t know what I was thinking (no, scratch that — I wasn’t thinking, that’s the point), but as soon as I allowed that simple touch, it wasn’t enough.
My hand slid up his chest even as my body moved closer, pressing up against him as my fangs slid out with a snick. I felt Rob’s arm encircle my waist as I laid my head against his chest, the throb of his heart maddeningly near. His hand splayed across my back, holding me close for just a moment, before his fingers caught onto the loop of my jeans and pulled me away from him.
“You don’t want to be doing that.” His voice was low and rough as he released his hold on my wrist to swipe at his lips with the back of his hand.
I cried out at the loss of contact, before awareness swept over me and I realized what I’d been doing. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, hopping back a foot to crash against the doorframe in my clumsiness.
“It’s my fault,” he said, unable to meet my gaze. “I shouldn’t have let it go for so long.”
My cheeks burned with shame, knowing what I would have done if he hadn’t stopped me, promise or no promise. “No, it’s my fault. I knew what it would do to me, I should have been more careful. None of this is your fault. You’re the one who stopped me from making a terrible mistake. Thank you for that.”
“I should be thanking you.” Something passed over his face, too quick for me to see what it was, and then he edged past me through the door. “Good night then, miss,” he said formally, still looking everywhere but at me. “I’ll see you come sundown.”
“Will you wake me? I don’t want to sleep the night away, and alarm clocks don’t work all that well.” Bishop would be worried, though I didn’t mention it aloud.
“Yeah, I’ll be here for you.” Rob looked up then, with one of his half smiles before pulling the door shut after him. I fell back against the bed with a long breath, still tingly over what had passed between us. No — not between us. I had to remember that it was only one sided, Rob hadn’t felt any of it. Right?
Chapter Twenty-Three
I was worried things might be weird between us when I woke up. If Rob felt awkward around me, he gave no sign of it the next night, so I did my best to pretend nothing had happened. Ellie slept even longer than I did, and there was no rousing her until she was good and ready to wake. My phone call to Bishop found him busy and unconcerned beyond the fact that I was still safe, and my guilty conscience was almost disappointed he didn’t ask more questions before he got back to work. Deciding there was no rush to get back to the Vetis House, I offered to take Ellie out hunting and give her a few pointers.
“But I’m not hungry yet,” she yawned. “Except for more jelly beans. Have you any more?”
“Fresh out,” Rob replied, hardly looking up from the evening paper.
“That’s the perfect time to go hu
nting,” I insisted. “If you wait until you’re ravenous, you won’t have any self control at all. While we’re out we can pick up some jelly beans, I promise.”
Ellie agreed readily enough and we settled on a small pub she’d never been to before, the better not to be recognized. Picking a booth in the corner, I talked about selecting a good candidate, things to watch out for, everything I could remember about what I’d learned.
“How about her?” I suggested, pointing to a petite blonde who looked like a good height match for her, but Ellie’s nose wrinkled in distaste.
“I don’t want to eat a girl, I want that one.” She pointed to a guy about her age, on the short side, with wiry black hair and an Arctic Monkeys t-shirt.
It was my promise that kept me from eating good looking guys, not hers. “Alright, first let’s practice compelling. Let’s start with you compelling the bartender to give you a drink.”
“Why can’t I just order a drink?”
“Because you’re underage.”
“The drinking age here is eighteen.”
“Oh.” Feeling less like a worldly vampire and more like an ignorant tourist, I tried again. “Okay, so try compelling him to giving you a drink on the house.”
“I can do that.” Catching enthusiasm for the idea, she strode up to the bar with a big smile, engaging the bartender in conversation. In scarcely a few seconds, she had him drawing a beer and sliding it across the bar to her without attracting any undue attention.
“She’s a natural,” I beamed proudly and Rob nodded in agreement.
“Good thing, you don’t know how long you’ll be in these parts.”
“True.” My future was still pretty up in the air. “Wait, you mean we, right? You’ll be coming back with me when I go back to San Francisco, won’t you?”
“About that…” Rob shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Something’s come up.”
