“Seriously?”
He nodded. “He’s putting on a good show for your family.”
“I’ll bet he is.” I pushed myself up and it didn’t hurt like it should have.
“Don’t try to move. I’ll put the bed up.”
“I’m fine,” I told him, but he put the bed up anyway. I smiled. “Can I have a kiss?” I asked.
Pierce seemed to consider this. I guess he was trying to figure out how to do it without hurting me. Finally, he leaned over me and brushed his lips against my own sore, swollen, bruised ones.
When he pulled back I smiled. “All better,” I whispered and, he chuckled.
There was a knock on the door and a head peaked around the wall in true Edgar Appleton fashion. “LeKrista?”
“Hey, Eddy.” I tried to sound pleasant.
“How are you feeling?” He stalked into the room on graceful feet.
“Well, they say I was in a car accident, so not so great.”
Eddy smiled one of the most charming smiles and motioned to someone out in the hall. Bomani the African princess walked in with a lovely arrangement of flowers that I could hardly believe was for me.
“Wow.”
“It was the girls’ idea. They felt bad and wanted to do something for you.”
I knew that was a lie. I nodded acceptance nonetheless and said, “You can put the flowers on the table. Forgive me if I don’t get up.”
Eddy nodded. “Well, we’ll be going. We just wanted to bring the arrangement by. You take your time getting back to work, alright?”
Yeah, I’m sure you’d love that.
Out loud I said, “Thanks.”
Eddy and the Princess said their goodbyes and took their leave.
“Well, that was nice,” my aunt said.
“Yeah, whatever. He’s so full of...it.” But part of me wondered if they hadn’t been for real.
CHAPTER FOUR
I was discharged from the hospital the next morning and spent the day watching movies with Pierce. He left by eleven, though he was technically allowed to stay until midnight.
I had no trouble falling asleep, but I woke up about one a.m. I was so thirsty and I attributed it to all of the pain meds. Walking hurt, but my overwhelming thirst got me to the kitchen. The first glass of water somehow slipped past my tongue. I was dizzy, my tongue dry and scratchy like sandpaper. It was almost as if I hadn’t even drunk it. The second was better. I felt the wet in my mouth, but it didn’t slake my thirst. The third helped, and by the fourth I was feeling better.
I walked across the kitchen to the back porch. My feet moved of their own accord, even though my brain was telling them to take me back to bed. I opened the door. My feet hit cold tile and jarred me from the vision.
My feet were freezing and I looked down.
When did I get out here?
I was on the back patio. I saw my hand reach for the lock on the screen door as if I was having an out of body experience. This wasn’t another vision. Someone else was in control. My hand pressed the latch and pushed the door open. I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered.
He was waiting in the shadows and I went to him.
“Hello, my sweet,” that time-branded accent beckoned. “I trust you are well.”
Coming back to myself was like standing in a desert and suddenly having the sun turned off, or instantly being incased in fog. I didn’t immediately realize where I was, how I’d gotten here, or who exactly this man in front of me was. The fear hit me then, sharp like the panic from before and my breath came in gasps. The nausea was next and I gagged.
Strong arms grasped me around my waist as I went down and cool fingers brushed my cheek. Warmth spread through me as it had before and the nausea faded. My breathing returned to normal, and I pushed the arm away opting to stand on my own.
“Why do I always panic when you’re around?”
Laughter wasn’t the reaction I’d hoped for and I scowled in the darkness, even though he couldn’t see me. “Because you fight me, my sweet. Come. I want to show you something.”
“Are we going to fly again?”
Roman chuckled. “Yes.”
He whisked me away, but we landed on concrete a few moments later in front of a Tudor-style house not far from my own home and one I’d always wanted to explore.
“Then let us go inside.”
"Are you reading my mind?"
"Yes," was his cautious reply.
"That's going to get old quick."
"I will take that into consideration."
No, he won't.
Roman led me into the front hall and to a room off to the right decorated tribal from the ceiling to the floor.
This must be the African Room.
“I will be right back.”
Roman left and I stood to examine the relics on the walls. I skimmed over spears and knives and jewelry and pottery, and eventually came to a leathery, serene looking head. Long dark hair was still attached and the eyes and lips were sewn shut. A little bit of tooth showed on each side of the mouth.
A shrunken vampire head? Really?
I reached out and touched one of those little white spots and jumped when it nicked my finger. I pulled away and stared at the spot of blood.
I felt a change in the air when Roman came back and I turned. “Is that a shrunken head?” I asked.
Roman strode slowly towards me, his nose tipped up slightly as if scenting the air, and nodded. “Twas a friend of mine.” His voice was soft and his accent so thick I almost couldn’t understand him.
“Oh,” I squeaked as he stepped up so close to me that I should have been able to hear his heartbeat. “I’m sorry.”
Roman took my hand and held it up so the dim candlelight shone on the little spot of blood. He looked down at it then blinked lazily up at me. “LeKrista, you’ve hurt yourself.”
I nodded. My heart pounded in my ears and a lump formed in my throat that I couldn’t swallow around. Roman lifted my finger to his lips, waving it under his nose as if it was a glass of wine, and I didn’t fight him. As suddenly as he’d taken my hand, he dropped it and I pressed my finger to my leg.
“Shall we begin?” Roman asked and he smiled again, bigger this time and with not even the slightest hint of fangs.
“Begin?”
A lovely woman with alabaster skin and pale blue eyes came into the room from the hall and I took her in with wide eyes. She wore the most lovely red chiffon gown that clung to her shoulders by thin jeweled straps and dipped way below what for me would have been a comfortable cleavage line. The gown was cinched just below the bust line and spilled from there in a flowing A-line design that swirled around her feet when she walked. Gauzy little appliqué's gave the dress a feathery look, and I half expected her to sprout wings and fly across the room to me.
Her hair spilled over her shoulders in silken auburn waves that contrasted against her fair skin, and deepened the color of her eyes. There was a soft smile playing in those eyes, but I noticed it was more from humor than actual pleasure at meeting me. In her hands she carried a long, black velvet box.
She walked past Roman without a glance, though he watched her closely and I sensed tension between them. As she approached me, I could see that Roman was a little apprehensive.
“LeKrista, I would love to introduce to you, my Adelina. It means ‘noble’ and ‘small winged one’.”
Adelina dipped into a graceful curtsy.
“Ati putea prezenta ei cu colier, Adelina mea.” Roman spoke softly to her, but there was still a bite to his words.
I wasn’t sure what language he spoke or what he said, but Adelina did. She approached me as if she did not walk, but floated across the floor. When she was close enough that our toes should have touched, she dipped into that curtsey once more and offered the little jewelry box to me with her head down, eyes carefully averted from mine.
Geez. What’s with all the theatrics?
I took the box from her, but hesitated.
“You m
ay open it,” Roman urged, and I did.
Inside was a simple gold cross that hung from a delicate chain. I tried not to gasp at the gift, though, truth be told I wasn’t used to accepting jewelry from people I’d only known a week. It brought back a memory of a time when Pierce bought me jewelry and I refused it.
“LeKrista, I am sensing sorrow in you. Do you not like the gift?”
Adelina looked up at Roman shocked then turned her gaze to me as if to say, “For what reason would you possibly refuse such a lovely gift?”
I shook my head emphatically. “It’s not the gift,” I assured hurriedly. “It’s not the necklace. I just... It brought back a memory that’s hard for me to think about is all.” I looked down at the little gold necklace in the box and smiled. “No, this is lovely. Thank you.” There was no way I could refuse the necklace and not offend Roman or “his Adelina”, so I accepted it graciously, if a little nervous. What was I going to tell Pierce?
“Ajutor ei.”
It was a command that sent Adelina into action. She took the gift from my hands, box and all, and moved around behind me to fasten it.
“I have presented you with this gift, LeKrista Scott, as protection against the vampire that would kill you.”
And then I understood and remembered the significance of the cross to the vampire. I looked up as Adelina dangled the little gold cross around my neck, and found that Roman’s eyes were averted, turned to the side and slightly down.
“You can’t even look at me when I wear it?” I asked.
Roman shook his head. “Tuck it into your shirt.”
I did and Roman’s eyes came up, just like that.
Another woman entered the room, this one, though pale was not as fair as Adelina. Her hair fell in golden waves around her shoulders and the straps of a dress identical to the other woman’s.
“Calliope, my dear.” Roman pulled this woman into a loose hug and kissed her on the forehead.
“Why do I suddenly feel severely underdressed?” I muttered to myself, tugging at the pajamas I’d worn all day.
Roman turned to me with that beautiful, ancient smile of his and said, “Adelina and Calliope are here to fix that.”
“What?” It slipped out before I could catch it and I knew I sounded disbelieving and slightly horrified. I hadn’t showered in longer than I wanted to think about and I knew I smelled funky.
“They will take you upstairs to one of the bedrooms and you may clean up however you see fit.”
Ugh, the mind reading again!
I followed the women from the room in my pajamas and my new necklace.
“I promise they will take the utmost care with you. Won’t you, ladies?”
The women nodded, and it seemed more like they’d been forced into this arrangement. It didn’t make me feel very good about the situation, but what made it worse was I knew the moment Roman shut off his emotions. I felt it like a door in my head had clicked shut, and I knew something was changing between us. Something was getting stronger and I didn’t know why or how I felt about it.
They led me up the stairs and down a creaking hall to a bedroom door. Calliope rapped lightly on the door twice, listened for a few seconds with her ear pressed to it, then pushed her way in. The two women floated across the floor without making a single sound. I sounded like a herd of elephants all on my own. It was embarrassing. They gathered towels, bath soaps and shampoos in case I wanted them and none of it looked like it came from Wal-Mart. While they did this, I had a look around and somehow wasn’t surprised.
There were three queen-size, four-poster beds all made up the same way. Red and gold tulle draped each one from post to post, blowing whenever there was any kind of breeze. They were made with silken red comforters embroidered with gold trimmings and beads and anything else they could find that glittered in the faintest light. And the top half of each bed was buried in pillows. Pillows, pillows, and more pillows.
A crystal chandelier hung from the middle of the ceiling. Tiny crystal cups with gold embossed edges held candles, all lit and burning, casting their tiny lights across the room. When I looked down, I noticed that my bare feet sank into the thick, blood-red carpet.
A dark closet stood open on one side of the room and I made a guess that it was filled with more lovely red gowns. There was a fireplace between the closet and another door. This one was closed.
“He wishes for you to shower and change into something more suitable.”
The dainty voice pulled me from my inspection of the room and I looked up at the sound of the flawless, beautifully accented English. It was Adelina addressing me. I was so caught off guard that, once again, I let my stupid mouth speak before I had a chance to reign in my tongue.
“You speak English,” I told her, as if she didn’t already know. The smile she offered was small, but it held none of the disdain that I had felt with her earlier.
“Yes, I do.”
I frowned. “Then why doesn’t he speak English to you?”
“He wishes to keep my native tongue alive.”
I nodded. “Oh. What is your native tongue.”
A light came on in her eyes. “Romanian,” she told me.
I nodded. “And you?”
“I am Greek,” Calliope smiled.
“Yeah, you look like you would be Greek.” I took a deep breath and let it out. “So, I’m supposed to take a shower now I guess, right? I don’t have to go outside for that...I hope?”
Calliope chuckled at me. Adelina just smiled. “No,” was all she said and swept her arm across the room to a door hidden between two of the beds.
I nearly dropped to the floor when I walked in. There were six shower stalls, three claw foot bathtubs, three toilets, and a hot tub big enough for ten. In the middle of the room was a fountain like you find in a garden. Six sinks decorated one wall, but the appliances weren’t the impressive part. Everything, the toilets, the tubs, the sinks, even the floor and the fountain shimmered a golden hue in the faint candlelight. I walked over to touch one of the sinks, the floor cool against my bare feet. It was cool and smooth and soft like real gold. I pulled my hand back quickly and spun around to look at my two escorts with questioning eyes. They nodded.
“It’s all real?”
They nodded as if they’d been here before, answering this same question. I shook my head in wonder. I just couldn’t believe it.
“He says to please take your time. Do not come out before you are ready.”
Adelina and Calliope put their bath products on the floor of a shower and left me alone to revel in the beauty of this room. There was a sitting area just in front of the showers so you could wait in comfort for an open shower, though I doubted anyone did much waiting in here.
I wasn’t surprised to find that the sofa and chairs and the lovely rug upon which they sat were all woven with gold thread. I ran my hand across the back of the sofa, certain it would feel rough and unwelcoming, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The cushion felt like velvet and I found myself wanting to sink into it and fall asleep.
It was in that moment that I realized how tired I was and how badly I wanted a shower. I opened the third stall and gasped. I don’t know why I was still surprised, but the vastness of it wasn’t expected. They looked small from the outside, and they were narrow, but they were deep, also. There were four shower heads in the stall, and I couldn’t help but think, Orgy anyone?
A bench made of black marble shot through with gold streaks sat at the end and matched the floor. I turned on the water, not by a knob on the inside, but from the outside. There was a digital thermostat by which to adjust the temperature. I set it for something that sounded good and undressed quickly.
All four shower heads pumped out steaming water, and I had to adjust the pressure so I wouldn’t harm my tender skin. It felt amazing and some of the tension and fear leftover from my accident melted away. I let the water soak my hair, run down my body and soothe me. When I finally lathered up to bathe, I was afraid I�
�d been in too long. It didn’t matter. I got myself clean and scrubbed my hair.
By the time I stepped out of the shower wrapped in a thick, luxurious black towel I felt brand new. I chanced a look at myself in the wall to wall mirror as I passed, opening the towel to see what kind of damage had been done. There was still some faint bruising across my ribs, like I’d landed on something long and hard and the finger gouges on my neck were healed over. My face, well, it still looked like a train wreck, but it was getting better. I turned away from the depressing sight and took my clothes into the bedroom where my new entourage waited.
“Better?” Adelina asked. She sat perched on the edge of one of the nearest beds with Calliope at her feet. They were both still dressed in their gowns, but the way they sat said they’d been doing this formal thing a long time.
“Much,” I answered with a smile.
“Good. Come. We must get you dressed and do something with your hair.”
They led me across to the closet. There were innumerable formals down one whole side, then regular dresses, slacks, and blouses. Beneath the clothes were dresser drawers that stretched across the floor from wall to wall. In the center of the room was a dais from floor to ceiling filled with every kind of shoe you could imagine. A woman’s dream.
Adelina went to the formal rack and wasted no time in pulling down a lovely red gown.
“Put this on. Calliope will help you.”
I nodded and resisted the urge to salute and say “Yes, ma’am!”
Adelina left the room, leaving me standing in a towel with Calliope holding the dress for me to slip into.
“Don’t look, okay?” I asked, self-conscious about being naked in front of a woman I didn’t know.
Calliope smiled sweetly, shook her head, and covered her eyes with her hand. I had to laugh.
“Thank you.” I dropped the towel and stepped into the dress, trusting the older woman not to look until I was completely covered. “Um...what do I do about underwear?” I asked.
“I can give you some,” she said as she zipped the back of the dress, “or you can go without. It’s your choice.”
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