Trusting Eternity (The Sullivan Vampires, Volume 2

by Bridget Essex

  Trusting Eternity

  The Sullivan Vampires, Volume 2

  Books 3-6

  by Bridget Essex

  "Trusting Eternity"

  The Sullivan Vampires, Volume 2 – Books 3-6

  © Bridget Essex 2016

  Rose and Star Press

  Smashwords Edition

  First Edition

  All rights reserved

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  Synopsis:

  What would you do if a chance at love slipped through your fingers?

  Rose Clyde fell in love with a vampire—but before her love story could unfold, the captivating Kane Sullivan was snatched away from her. But the rebellious heartbreaker, Tommie Sullivan, with her bright green eyes, her sarcastic smile and her spellbinding intensity, is determined to sweep the heartbroken Rose off her feet now that Kane is out of the way.

  The connection Rose feels for Kane is something she can’t explain…but there’s also something there between her and Tommie.

  And what if Tommie’s kiss can help her forget Kane?

  “Trusting Eternity” is the second volume in the Sullivan Vampires series. It contains the fourth, fifth and sixth novellas in the series: Eternal Dance, Eternal Heartbreak and Eternal Gane. The Sullivan Vampires is a beautiful, romantic epic that follows the clan of Sullivan vampires and the women who love them. Advance praise has hailed this hallmark series as “Twilight for women who love women” and “a lesbian romance that takes vampires seriously! Two thumbs up!”

  Dedication:

  For the love of my life.

  And for Marian, who knows the secrets of the Sullivan Vampires, and who loves Tommie as much as I do. Your constant support and love is cherished!

  Contents:

  Eternal Dance

  Eternal Heartbreak

  Eternal Game

  Also by Bridget Essex

  About the Author

  -- Eternal Dance --

  I was beginning to realize I was having a very, very bad day.

  I stared at the smug vampire for a long moment. Not that many creatures can pull off smugness as well as a vampire. And Melody was the champion of them all. Her full, red lips glistened as she grinned, folding her arms over her ample chest, throwing back her head so that her rich, red mane spilled out even more impressively over her shoulders.

  The poor woman who’d been fiddling with my lock with her screwdriver glanced up with a pained expression. She probably didn’t want to be in the middle of what might become a shouting match.

  I think Melody wanted me to grovel. She wanted me to beg to stay, to ask for more time, for favors. Maybe she expected me to explode with anger. But I didn’t want Melody to have the satisfaction of me losing my temper. I didn’t want her to see me reduced to anything. So I let out a long, quivering breath, drew myself up to my full height (which wasn’t really that impressive, but I liked to think it was made a little more impressive by the waves of controlled rage that were emanating from me), and said with a strong, clear voice, “Does Kane know about this?”

  A flicker passed over Melody’s face just then. It came and went so quickly that I couldn’t even be certain that I’d seen it or what, exactly, it was, but then her lips pressed into a firm line. “Yes,” she said, drawing out the word into a hiss. “She knows that you need to leave.” She straightened and glanced over my shoulder, not meeting my eyes. “Your suitcases have been packed and taken down to the front desk,” she told me firmly. “And since your services are no longer required at the Sullivan Hotel, you need to leave.” This last part sounded completely triumphant.

  My hands balled into fists.

  Just like that, the decision had been made for me.

  Again.

  I was getting a little tired of having my life rearranged by vampires.

  “All right,” I said, taking a deep breath and trying to hold onto my anger as I considered my rapidly dwindling options, and I began to deflate. My best friend Gwen had driven me here in her beat-up old van, Moochie—so I was without transportation myself. My cell phone was in my room and hadn’t been charged in days because I didn’t need it that often here. Eternal Cove, the little town in the middle of nowhere where the Sullivan Hotel stood, didn’t have a taxi service that I knew of, because it was—of course—a little town in the middle of nowhere.

  I needed to talk to Gwen, but I didn’t know where to find her.

  And I was starting to look like a fool standing my ground where I wasn’t wanted.

  “All right,” I repeated, taking another deep breath. I cleared my throat and thrust my chin forward and up. I would not back down from this woman. Even if she was a vampire. My mind thought furiously, trying to figure out what I could do.

  I’d have to walk to town with my cell phone and charger. Go back to the coffee shop Gwen and I had found together. Get the phone charged, call her, ask her to use Moochie to drive me back to New Hampshire. Or maybe I could get a bus ticket…

  Either way, it seemed that I was leaving Eternal Cove and all it represented: new life, new chances and choices.

  And Kane.

  And there was nothing I could do about it.

  Anger seethed in my belly. No. There had to be something I could do about it. I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. This was my new life on the line, my chance at a fresh start. I wouldn’t let someone steal it away without giving me a choice.

  Okay. First things first. “I need my cell phone,” I said clearly, crossing my arms.

  Melody tossed my purse at me. “It’s all in there,” she said with a sweet voice and a wicked smile.

  I turned on my heel. I walked quickly back down the steps, anger making my vision cloud to red. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew I needed to put some space between myself and the woman—the vampire—who was darkening the glimmer of a good life that had just begun.

  I was out in the parking lot before I really came to my senses. I hadn’t even had a chance to grab my coat. It was probably already packed in my luggage that had been so unceremoniously hauled to the front desk. Luggage that one person could never possibly carry alone, as my entire life was in those suitcases—or what was left of it. I sighed, rubbing my arms with chilled fingers as I gazed up at the blood-red maples, the brilliant blue sky with the roiling gray clouds on the edge of the horizon, billowing up along the line of the bright ocean. I could see my breath in front of me.

  October in New England can be warm and glowing and a brand of gorgeous that can take your breath away—or it can be cold and harsh, a type of cold that warns you of the winter yet to come. The latter seemed to be what I was in store for today.

  But I was stubborn. I glanced at the Sullivan Hotel behind me and squared my shoulders. The impressive red building sat there, silent and foreboding, without a trace of pity for my human predicament. But I didn’t want pity. I didn’t want Kane to know how pathetic I was, standing outside of the Sullivan Hotel without a coat or anyplace to go, or—even if I had a place to go—transportation to get me there.

  I wasn’t pathetic.

  I was going to fix this. No matter what.

  I took another deep breath and watched it fog out in front of me. And then I hitched
my purse up on my shoulder with numbing fingers, and I marched over the gravel driveway, the little stones crunching beneath my flats, and onto the road just beyond the hedges. The road that sloped down to Eternal Cove.

  The town wasn’t that far—a few easy, short miles, since it was all downhill, maybe just a little over one mile. I could certainly walk it, and I would have to. But as I began my descent, the chill wind blowing, the cold making my anger turn to ice, I wondered if this was a bright idea.

  Let’s be honest: I probably should have stayed at the hotel and asked if I could talk to Gwen. It was freezing out; I didn’t have my coat… At this point, I was just being stubborn. But I didn’t want Melody providing me any “favors.”

  As I walked along, rubbing at my arms and shivering as the wind picked up in volume, I did my best not to feel sorry for myself. I did my best not to think of Kane or the conversations Melody must have had with her to reach the conclusion that my services were no longer required at the Sullivan Hotel. God, Kane probably already thought I was pathetic. She was probably very, very glad that Melody had returned, that I’d been sent away.

  But then I’d take another deep breath and remember her cold fingers curling over my hips as her intense blue eyes devoured me, raking over me with a possessive tenderness that took my breath away. Had it only been hours before?

  I stood still for a long moment, shaking. I closed my eyes, felt the pavement beneath my flats, felt the wind dancing over my skin, and I remembered Kane’s low, husky whisper:

  After all this time, I don’t understand what has happened… But what was within Melody that connected me to her... It’s gone.

  And then I opened my eyes, staring up at the sky that was almost as violently blue as the vampire’s eyes. And I remembered another of her whispers to me:

  I am drawn to you. There is something about you that calls to me so strongly I cannot ignore it.

  How could I fix this? How could I set things right? Melody had returned, and with her return went every chance I’d ever had with Kane, because everyone knew Melody was Kane’s soulmate. She was Kane’s soulmate, or at least who Kane had professed to be her soulmate. That’s the kind of stuff that can’t be tampered with, two people so in love that they call each their soulmate.

  In that sort of equation, there was no room for anyone else.

  Okay. So at this point, I really was feeling sorry for myself. As my eyes began to cloud with tears, as I considered what I had just lost, I stood very still on the side of the road, holding my purse’s strap with a white-knuckled hand, and holding my side with the other, trying to keep myself from sobbing as the chill wind began to pick up.

  And that’s when the Mustang came roaring over the hill.

  It was probably from the sixties, a type of cherry red they don’t make cars in anymore, and I only knew it was a Mustang because of the running horse on the front grill. But it was a very pretty car, regardless of whether I knew cars or not, with its sloping lines and chrome stripes and retro curves. The convertible top was down—unusual on such a cold day—but when I saw who was driving the car, I realized the cold probably didn’t bother her very much…since cold didn’t seem to bother vampires.

  It was Tommie sitting at the wheel, her usually straight, chin-length black hair blowing every which way in the wind her vehicle’s passing was creating. She wore slick black sunglasses, and her white dress shirt was unbuttoned at the neck, the bright green tie (that perfectly matched her eyes, I realized) fluttered against that milk-white skin like a beacon.

  I never would have been able to notice all those details if she’d just roared right past me. But she didn’t. She slowed down her breakneck pace, and she pulled up alongside me, rolling to a complete stop.

  She stared at me for a long moment through her jet-black sunglasses, her mouth—usually contorted into a sexy smirk—frowning, her full lips turning downward.

  Tommie sat there, silent.

  “I thought vampires didn’t like the sunlight,” I quipped, which—considering my tear-filled eyes and the circumstances I now found myself in—took a lot out of me to say.

  Tommie glanced up at me over the rims of her sunglasses, then, with one brow raised, her head to the side. She leaned forward, her left elbow on the door of her car, her right hand lightly caressing the wheel, her long fingers resting against the leather there.

  Tommie was beautiful in a way that engaged my heart in that old cliché: she made my heart skip a beat. From the moment I met her, I’d been attracted to her in that effortless kind of way that pulls you across the room toward another woman, with an invisible tug that you’re powerless against, like gravity. She was magnetic: her sarcasm, her laughter that was at once carefree but also hard to find. Tommie smirked quite a bit and could crack a joke about anything, it seemed. But she would never laugh at them.

  “What are you doing out here?” she asked heavily, her bright green eyes flashing.

  Did she already know that Melody had forced me to leave? Probably. It seemed that news traveled fast in the Sullivan Hotel.

  At least, among the vampires.

  “I thought I’d get a breath of fresh air,” I managed, but it came out a bit choked, and then another tear leaked out of my eyes and ran a bright line down my cheek.

  Tommie’s jaw clenched, and she breathed out through her nose, her nostrils flaring as she stared over the edge of her sunglasses, watching the progression of the tear over my skin. She rose in the car, opening the door, her hand gripping the edge of it, her knuckles white. “Let me help you, Rose,” she murmured then, the words soft and low and soothing—hypnotic.

  My entire body leaned toward her.

  I swallowed, tried to control my responses to that low, soothing, sultry voice. “Look,” I managed then, anger rising in my belly. I fingered the strap of my purse, trying to clear my head. “That’s very…sweet…” I said, gesturing with my hand at the Mustang, at her, with one foot on the ground and one foot still in the car like a woman knight dismounting from her charger. “But I’m not a damsel in distress,” I told her with a sad shake of my head. “I don’t need to be rescued.”

  What I didn’t say (because I closed my mouth in enough time) was this: I didn’t want assistance from any more vampires.

  They’d “helped” me quite enough.

  “Rose,” whispered Tommie then, rising completely, leaving the car door open behind her as she leaned against the side of her Mustang, shrugging out of her sunglasses and peering up at the sun with a long sigh. “You know I’m burning up out here. Maybe I’m the damsel,” said Tommie, folding her sunglasses and putting them in her breast pocket of her immaculately white shirt. She stared at me with such an intense gaze, then, that my heart rate skyrocketed. “Maybe I’m in distress,” Tommie murmured, her lips twitching at the corners as she carefully controlled her expression.

  “Because of a little sunshine?” I asked, glancing upwards. “You’re a vampire in the sun. You don’t have to be out here,” I reminded her gently.

  “Maybe I want to be saved,” she said, grinning wickedly as she delivered the line with a smoky, low tone that made my toes curl in pleasure. Damn her and her sultry voice. I was supposed to be making my way to a coffee shop and figuring out what I could possibly build out of the newly broken pieces of my life.

  Instead, I was standing on the side of a road next to a too-attractive vampire, leaning nonchalantly against a hot red Mustang.

  I suppose that, as far as terrible afternoons go, mine was starting to look up.

  “See, I want to help. And you’re being stubborn,” said Tommie, one brow up as her lips twitched at the corners again. She suppressed the smile as she shrugged and folded her arms. “But I can be stubborn, too. Let me help you. Or you’re going to be responsible for the serious burns I’ll be sporting.”

  I considered her. “How could you possibly help me?” I asked then, my voice low. I hadn’t intended for the words to spill out of my mouth, but then they were there, betwe
en us.

  Her joking manner was gone in a heartbeat as she leaned forward, pushing off from the side of the car. She was so close to me that I could feel the coolness of her body. Vampires are much colder than the normal human body temperature, I’d learned, and as she took a single step toward me, I could see, again, my breath coming out between us like smoke.

  She was so different from Kane as she took my elbow in her sure fingers, coaxing me forward. But different from Kane was…good, right then. I wanted to forget how Kane had held me, how Kane had touched me and kissed me. I wanted to forget the sound of her voice, because all of those memories, the very few that I had of her, were too painful.

  But Tommie wasn’t like Kane at all. She was a little shorter—though still taller than me. Her body was different from Kane’s, more muscular, a little more rakish and boy-like. Kane’s long white-blonde hair was nothing like Tommie’s short black cut. I wondered what Tommie’s hair would feel like in my fingers as the distance between she and me shortened dramatically. Her black hair, as shiny and bright as a raven’s wing, seemed like it would be as soft and smooth as ice against my fingers.

  Tommie was forward and strong and funny. She was reckless and a little dangerous, I thought.

  She was mesmerizing.

  Before I knew it, Tommie was standing there—right there. Close enough to lean forward and kiss. Close enough that I could smell the scent of her perfume, something dark, a blend of cologne and organic scents that I couldn’t quite place but that made me think of a dress shirt collar, pressed smooth and straight and cool.

  Her eyes were hard, bright, the green such a captivating color that I was held spellbound in her gaze as she clenched her jaw and searched my face. Her nose turned up a little at the end, and her full lips were pursed into a frown. They were wet, like she’d just licked them, and my heart began to hammer in my ears.