“You’re right, LeKrista. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, save it.”
Roman looked at me for a moment before he walked to the door, but he turned before he left. “You know everything,” he snapped. “You know how I regret lying to you. I’m sorry.”
And he was gone, just like that. My room no longer smelled of Pierce. Roman’s scent lingered in the air.
“Jerk,” I muttered under my breath before I closed my eyes. His mental laughter followed me into sleep.
Pierce showed up early the next morning, but I was already showered and dressed. My body ached more than the day before, and it was harder for me to move around, but I insisted on our picnic.
Pierce spread out the blanket while my aunt helped me outside. Pierce was grinning from ear to ear, those beautiful eyes so full of life and pride that I had to giggle.
“What are you so happy about?” I asked. He waved his arm at the blanket and I realized why it was so special. The blanket was woven from a picture of us from when we first started dating and said “Together Forever” across the top. Super cheesy, but very cute and very romantic. I made my aunt take some pictures of it before they settled me on top of it and she and Pierce went back inside to get the food.
We ate ham and cheese sandwiches and watched the clouds and cuddled until the sun started to go down. I made sure we got inside before it reached full dark.
“We could have watched the sunset and watched the stars come out,” Pierce pointed out. That would have been nice, but he didn’t know there were angry vampires after me.
“I’m feeling kind of sore,” I told him, and it was the truth. “And tired. You want to just watch TV or something?”
Pierce smiled his understanding and pulled me into a hug. “Of course, StaciDoll.”
I didn’t know I’d fallen asleep until something woke me much later. It was already dark and there was a text from Pierce letting me know I’d missed his call to tell me he'd made it home safe.
“How are you feeling, LeKrista?”
I turned my head toward Roman’s ancient voice. He sat on the floor next to my bed, his eyes trained on me.
No wonder I woke up.
“What do you want?” I asked, my voice groggy.
Roman muttered something in Latin and stood. Somehow, he seemed taller tonight. “I only came to see how you were doing. That is all.”
“How long have you been here?” I asked as I tried to push myself to a sitting position.
“About an hour. Maybe less.”
“Have I not passed inspection?”
“LeKrista, please. I am in no mood for your smart mouth.”
I shook my head. “You have no idea.”
“I am sure.” Roman pretended to examine his finger nails while I watched in the semi-darkness.
“Was there something else?” I asked.
“I thought I would ask if you wanted to come with me tonight. I know you are not feeling well, I know you are angry with me, but it wouldn’t have to be for long.” He paused for a moment, but I knew he wasn’t finished. “I am truly sorry for not telling you the truth, all of the truth, much sooner. I hope you can forgive me.”
“I guess I can go with you for a half hour or so,” I agreed, knowing I’d probably regret it. “As long as you don’t try any vampire stuff. I don’t think my body can take any more of it.”
“I should think not.”
“Also, I think you should answer some more questions.”
“Agreed.”
Roman didn’t bother with any more words. He simply scooped me up in his arms and lifted me off the bed. I let my head fall to his shoulder, my arms wrap around his neck, and the world blew around and through me.
It took a while to realize that I couldn’t feel the wind blowing through me like I had before. We weren’t flying that fast.
“Open your eyes, LeKrista,” Roman said softly in my ear. I was vaguely aware that he was doing something to charm me, trying to get me back into his good graces, and I knew it would probably work.
I opened my eyes and looked around. My heart jumped into my throat and I clutched at his clothes to keep from plunging to my death. In theory, flying is an excellent idea, but when you are suspended in the air hundreds of feet from the ground with nothing to keep you from falling but the arms you’re wrapped in, flying takes on a whole new meaning and ceases to be such a good idea. I knew he wasn’t about to let me fall, but it didn’t alleviate the panic.
“Don’t worry,” Roman tried to assure me. “I won’t let you fall.”
“Thanks,” I croaked, “but after what’s happened to me in the last week I’m not so sure something or someone won’t come swooping by and snatch me from your arms.”
Roman’s chuckle rumbled in his chest. “Would it make you feel better to know that, should something or someone come along strong enough, fast enough, and smart enough to simply pull you from my arms without my anticipating it, I would fight them to the death?”
“You would do that for me?”
“I would.”
“Not for Adelina or Calliope?”
“I have done no less for them in the past,” Roman answered with a twinge of bitterness, “and for you to assume such is offensive.”
“I’ve only known you for a week, remember?” I asked. “I don’t know what you’ve done for those women in the past.”
Roman’s arms shifted around me and I tensed, afraid I’d said something to make him want to drop me, or at least scare me a little, but he simply shifted my weight and wrapped me in a tighter embrace.
“What’s more,” I continued, “how do you expect me to think anything good of you after everything?”
“And what’s everything, my sweet?”
“All the lies and what you let happen to Adelina.”
“And what did I let happen?”
I growled, frustrated. “You almost let her die! You thought that would be okay?” It never left my mind that we were fighting in the air and it scared me.
“Have you any idea how long those women have been alive, LeKrista?”
I shook my head. “No, but isn’t it your fault that they’ve been around so long? Wouldn’t they have died long ago if you hadn’t intervened?”
Roman didn’t answer right away, but when he did, his voice had grown soft. “You are right, LeKrista. I’m an old vampire,” he added after a moment. “When I was human, we were taught to revere women. I would never let anything happen to any one of them without their express consent. Please believe that.”
I heard the sincerity in his voice, and I knew it was true. Could even a vampire fake that kind of honesty? Probably, but I wanted to believe the truth of his words. I wanted to believe that, even though he’d been dealt a bad card he’d made an effort to turn it around for good so, I let myself. I looked down on the world again, and through my fear I was able to see the beauty that Roman had laid out before me. The lights in the valley twinkled and flickered in the cold night air. Car horns and barking dogs and the occasional thump of music punctuated the night as Roman and I floated above it.
“Are you getting cold?” Roman asked when I shivered in a sudden breeze.
“Yes,” I answered.
“I will take you to my home where you can warm up in front of the fire with some hot chocolate.”
I smiled.
Oh, how I wish you were my Pierce.
I hoped Roman wasn’t listening. I felt a melancholy come over me. Here I was with another man when all I wanted was to be with my love. I felt like such a traitor. I should have been nominated for the “Worst Girlfriend of the Year” award.
When I finally opened my eyes, we were standing in front of a crackling fire in a thoroughly decorated room that I hadn’t yet explored. It was warm enough that I could remove my jacket and still wish I had on fewer clothes. I could smell the chocolate, heavy and sweet in the small room.
“Italian chocolate,” Roman informed me as I reached for a mug and took a seat
on an expensive looking red velvet sofa. "I've seen it in your mind before."
I shook my head and sipped. The chocolate was rich and dark with just enough sugar added to make it perfect. I loved it.
“I could drink this all day,” I told Roman as I set my mug on a golden coaster.
“That can be arranged.”
I didn’t know what he meant by that, so I let it go.
“Are you warm, yet?” Roman asked a little while later. I nodded and set my mug down.
“How did you keep me from dying?” I asked.
“Must we talk of this now? I am just glad you’re alive.” And I knew how much he meant it, but he was avoiding answering my questions. I was surprised at how well the house had fared after the fight two nights ago. Roman chuckled.
“I’ve had everything repaired.”
“Wow,” I said. “That was fast.”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
A gentle rap came on the door and we both turned to see Calliope enter the room. Dressed in a simple, but lovely red gown, she curtsied and I smiled at her.
“Master, you have a phone call. It’s important.” There was a twinge to the way she said important that caught Roman’s ear.
“Very well. I’ll take it in here. Take LeKrista upstairs and introduce her to Rachel, please. I think they will make good friends.”
“I can go if it’s a problem,” I said, but Roman waved it off and picked up the phone.
I followed Calliope from the room and up the stairs to a door at the end and on the right. Calliope turned and smiled at me as she opened the door and we walked in. This room was identical to the one from before, but it wasn’t empty. Six queen size beds that could have comfortably slept three people each were arranged in a half-moon pattern. There were two girls per bed, each dressed in satin pajama pants and tank tops. I assumed the colors were of their choosing because they ranged from pink to black.
“Rachel,” Calliope called softly and a young girl who couldn’t have been but eighteen stepped off the bed farthest from us and walked across the floor. “This is LeKrista. The Master wanted you two to meet.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Rachel,” I said.
“You too.”
Rachel was pretty. Long, dark brown hair, fair skin, piercing blue-grey eyes. She wasn’t tall. As a matter of fact, she was shorter than me. She wore black satin pants and matching tank top with no decoration. She was thin with love handles and I liked her instantly, but there was something missing from her eyes. Something that Adelina and Calliope and the three vampires had that Rachel didn’t.
Experience.
She was young, from my time and space, not thousands of years old like Roman.
“Rachel,” I asked, “how old are you?”
“Seventeen,” the girl answered.
I shook my head. “Why are you here?”
“She’s an orphan,” Calliope answered for her. “The Master found her and brought her here.”
“He provides for me,” Rachel added. “He treats me like a human being. He gives me respect.”
My head became light and my chest clenched. “One more year,” I tried to tell her. “One more year and you would have been free.”
“This is better than anything I could have ever provided for myself,” she defended.
I couldn’t tell if she thought she was right or if she knew she was wrong, but she was going to stand by it no matter what. “Not right away,” I continued to argue, even though I knew it was hopeless, “but you could have provided for yourself eventually.”
Rachel shook her head, and I thought she looked sad. “This is good for me.”
I looked at Calliope and knew what she was trying to tell me. Get away from this man. Get away from this place. I didn’t want to end up like Rachel and Adelina and Calliope, trapped, a slave to Roman for the rest of my life.
“What is this?” Roman’s voice boomed unexpectedly from the doorway and I felt the entire atmosphere in the room change. The girls all sat up straight on their beds, their legs crossed and their hands in their laps. Some of them straightened their mussed hair, trying to look presentable, though they were all shockingly beautiful.
“You told me-"
"No!” Roman cut Calliope off with a sharp slap. “I told you to-"
"Roman!” I tried to get his attention, but he wasn’t hearing me.
”You told me to introduce her to Rachel,” Calliope stopped him bravely. She pulled her split lip into her mouth. “That is what I did.”
“Not like this!”
“Perhaps next time you should be a little more specific in what you mean.” The serenity on Calliope’s face said more than her words. She knew Roman cared for her and she wasn’t afraid to correct him when he needed it. She offered him a small, arrogant smile before turning back to Rachel. “Go ahead and finish preparing for bed.” Then she turned to me. “LeKrista?”
I felt a rage build inside me that wasn’t my own and I suddenly knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Calliope had done this on purpose.
It could have been worse.
That thought wasn’t mine.
She could have seen the others.
There had to be a way to make the unwanted thoughts go away.
She could have seen-
A sharp pain ran through me from the top of my head, through the core of my body, and out through all four of my limbs. I was incapable of stopping my body from falling to my knees as the projected memories overrode my entire nervous system. I was vaguely aware that I was screaming as I remembered thoughts that weren’t mine.
Satin sheets. God I was getting tired of satin sheets!
Vivian and Lucretious in bed. Roman’s bed. They’d been making love. It wasn’t like with Lucretious and Perdita. This was real love. He truly loved her, and she loved him.
So, you killed her.
“You’re killing her.” It wasn’t my voice that said it, but Adelina’s, soft so as not to alarm the other girls. As if they couldn’t already see.
“No,” he answered in Latin. “I’ve learned how far I can go without killing. What happened to Vivian was a mistake.”
I gasped for breath. The pain was still unbearable. I clutched at my head, placing the heels of my hands over my ears, just in case. “Please stop.” The words came out as nothing more than a soft whisper. I wasn’t even sure that they’d heard.
“You’re hurting her,” Adelina replied, her voice more calm than I would have chosen. I knew she didn’t like me much, but some urgency would have been nice.
“I am only sharing memories with her.”
“Purposefully? Because, you know what can happen when you share memories with her by accident.”
There was silence. I thought maybe Adelina was in trouble, but the pain began to fade and, as it did, my body became light. I lost my balance and fell forward on my head, then to my side. My muscles spasmed. I felt my whole body shake and I wasn’t able to do a thing about it. Someone lifted me until I was looking at Roman eye to eye. There was a myriad of emotions in Roman’s eyes; anger, pain, concern, discomfort. It was weird. I didn’t know which one to believe.
“She needs to know. She needs to know why Lucretious and I feuded. She needs to know that, were it not for the death of my beloved it wouldn’t be this way. If he could have just left well enough alone.”
I looked up into Roman’s face. It had gone mysteriously blank. No emotion, no thoughts running through his eyes. One of the advantages to being a vampire.
“You killed her.”
Roman nodded.
“On purpose?”
He nodded again. “I didn’t have control of myself then.”
“And now?” I wanted to know.
“Now I do.”
“But you almost lost it,” I told him. “Just now, you almost lost control and you weren’t even mad at me. You were mad at Calliope. Afraid I would see something. More girls?”
Something flashed very quickly across Roman’s fa
ce and disappeared before I could tell what it was.
“I want to go home,” I said.
Roman reached out to put his arms around me and I pushed him away. He looked at me and didn’t bother to hide the hurt in his eyes.
“Can Adelina or Calliope take me, please?”
Roman nodded after a moment. I think he was trying to think of an excuse, but chose to give me what I asked for.
Adelina helped me outside to Roman’s Jaguar. The drive home was quiet, but I could sense something along the lines of a new found respect from Adelina.
“Take me to Pierce. Please."
“How do I get there?”
I gave her directions and we speeded all the way to Pierce’s house. The door was locked when we arrived so I called his phone.
“Hello?” Pierce’s voice was groggy when he answered on the second ring.
“Hey,” I sniffed, and I felt the tears burn behind my eyes.
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
“Um...I’m outside. Can you come open the door?”
He was at the door two seconds later with his phone in his hand. “Staci?”
I went to him and let the tears fall. He wrapped me in his arms and I cried all night. I caught the hiccups sometime between three and four, but I fell asleep soon after that.
It was almost noon when I woke. My head hurt, my mouth was dry, and my eyes felt like dried up raisins rolling around in my head. They burned as they tried to rehydrate themselves.
“You okay, Staci?” Pierce asked from across the room, and I rolled onto my side to look at him through my watery eyes.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I assured him and sniffed as he crossed the room to hold me. He cradled my head in his lap and stroked my hair. I closed my eyes and savored the affection while I could. Once I told him my story there wouldn’t be any.
“Baby, tell me what happened.”
I contemplated telling him we could talk about it later. It would be so much easier to put it off until he didn’t remember, and we wouldn’t have to go through what I knew was about to come. I didn’t want to do this, but because of my own stupidity and boredom and lack of self-control...here we were. Best to just get it over with.
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