With a sigh he nodded, he could understand that. "Claire who gave you the drugs?"
She didn’t answer. "It is your choice to tell me, or Ben."
Her facial features turned to one of panic. "Ben will kill him."
"He will."
"And you???"
"I will merely scare him."
"Promise me that is all." The idea of killing the person was simmering at the surface, he could agree not to kill him for giving Claire the drugs that was easy. It wouldn’t take long for Vlad to find another reason to kill him.
"You have my word." Scaring someone could be more traumatic than killing them, it was a promise he could keep.
"The club owner, he told me that I was special and important and then he started giving me other things… Until we arrived at this."
Vlad could see this was only part of the truth, Claire was hiding things. He didn’t push her; we all have the right to have secrets. "As long as your secrets don’t hurt you any further we will leave it like this."
Ben and Lucky came back in, and explained to Claire that they had arranged to see a specialist doctor tomorrow, but that he wanted to admit her to a clinic. Lucky was crying as she told Claire that they wanted her to stay at home, instead they would bring help to her. Claire cried as Lucky cried, and then Claire pulled herself together again.
"Mom I have been taking heroin for nearly six months, it has slowly consumed me. It’s the last thing I think of before going to bed, and it’s the first thing I think of when I get up. My savings are gone and I have sunk lower than you could ever imagine."
Ben seemed to realise something. "Claire why haven’t I been able to scent it on you? Why haven’t we noticed?" She lifted her wrist where a small gold chain sat; hanging from it was an eye.
"When I wear this everyone sees what they want to see." Slowly she removed it and the effect was startling. Before that she looked tired, and drawn, a little thinner. But without it, she looked sick, truly sick and Ben gasped at the same time as Vlad did. Lucky broke down. The smell of the drug permeated the room, sneaking into their nostrils; Claire watched their reactions with tears falling down her face.
"I need to go to the clinic mom. I need to do this for myself. I am so sorry to do this to you all, so sorry."
Vlad slipped out of the room leaving Lucky curled up on the stark white bed, holding Claire close. Ben followed him; just before he left the room Claire stopped him.
"Vlad, thank you. I think you are right; I need to let people in. Um….…. Would you visit me please? You don’t have to….."
For some reasons her words humbled him and then it hit him. He was part of this family now and always would be. He nodded to her, feeling something squeezing his chest, a sense of belonging and protection.
"I feel privileged, of course I will."
Outside in the corridor Vlad surveyed the people as he waited for Ben's anger to hit. "I want to know who gave her that SHIT, I will kill them."
Giving Ben a few minutes to rant, Vlad waited until his friend slid down the wall with his head in his hands.
"She nearly died tonight" Vlad sat next to his friend of centuries.
"We nearly lost her." The tears fell down Ben's eyes causing Vlad's chest to tighten again. Someone would pay for this.
"Ben, Claire doesn’t want you to act against the person."
"Tough shit someone nearly took one of my girls. I might not be their real father, but they are my girls."
"She will not tell you who it is and to force it from her will cause her distress."
"So what am I meant to do, nothing." His voice was growing quieter, Ben was broken and he would see justice.
"No I trust you Ben, and I know you trust me. Claire told me who gave her the drugs." Ben's head whipped up.
"I will not tell you who Ben, but I would like you to trust me to deal with this. Please."
They both stood the challenge in Ben's eyes. "You need to go back in and take care of your girls, Ben."
Ben waited a fraction of a second, and then the fight left him. Vlad didn’t know what to do and for some reason he thought of Beth, what would she do? The answer was simple; he grabbed Ben and hugged him tight. Ben reciprocated and for the first time, Vlad truly pictured what it would be like to be a father, a scared father. He didn’t like it and thanked the gods that he would never be in this position.
Chapter 36
He teleported back to the club, he wanted to deal with this problem himself. Going back to the room where he had found Claire he looked at the sofa. If he had found Beth like that he would have felt the same as Ben. In fact, just the thought of it made his blood boil.
He sunk into suede couch waiting; he was a patient man albeit a man somewhat tired from all of the teleporting. He assumed that if Claire had been left here, someone would at some point come back for her. He was right, after about forty minutes he heard footsteps, two lots of footsteps before the door opened.
"Hey baby, I have some company for you."
A young man in his twenties came in, with his jet black hair, chunky boots and long leather coat he looked the part of a Goth. The multiple facial piercings added to what Vlad assumed would be an allure to some. There was a perception that the Gothic scene was something negative, Vlad didn't agree. As with any group of people there were good and bad, light and dark.
The two men pulled up when they found him sat there waiting.
"Who are you?" The other man didn't appear to be part of this crowd, in his late 40s with thick glasses, and a receding hair line, he initially looked excited until he saw Vlad. Now he looked as if he was going to faint, Vlads heart sank as he saw what must have been agreed. Making a call he ordered Ice to join them. Vlad made both men wait and sweat until Ice arrived.
Standing to meet Ice, he nodded to the other one. "Keep this one here; I am assuming you are the owner." The man nodded weakly not daring to lie.
Taking the older man into a separate room Vlad pounded him with questions, until he broke down. The man knew nothing about the drugs, or the owner but he did confirm Vlads suspicions.
Letting him go he went back into the main office. "Ice, can you wait outside of hearing distance please?"
Even though he looked confused, Ice complied.
"We have a problem." It was a statement, not a question. "It seems that you have been messing with my sister in law and neither I nor her step father, are pleased about it."
The man's pallor was quickly deteriorating, but not enough. "Did you honestly think that doing this to a well-loved young lady wouldn’t be noticed?"
"I..I, it wasn’t like that."
"Then explain to me what it was like, did you not manipulate her pain and sadness, did you not feed her drugs?" He didn’t go any further he had no need to.
"Well I did but it….." He didn’t finish the sentence before Vlad hit him in the face. He wanted to feel the man break under his hands.
The man unsuccessfully tried to stand again. This time Vlad kicked him, the man rolled to the floor. "Please, I didn’t know when he asked me to? I didn’t know who she was, and then it was too late." Vlad moved to kneel in front of the man questioning what he heard.
"Say that again."
"Let me go, please he will kill me." Vlad pulled him up by his collar. "I want to know who he is."
"I don’t know I owed some money to a dealer. I couldn’t pay, but then they didn’t want me to. I knew Claire from College, they said they would forget the debt if I got close to her and fed her the brown. I thought that would be the end of it, shit they kept wanting more. As long as I fucked with Claire they gave me all the brown I wanted."
This made no sense. "Who?"
The man was crying like a baby by now. "If I tell you, they will kill me."
"If you don’t I will kill you, and believe me I can make it hurt a lot worse than they can."
"I only know the dealer, I swear. His name is Ode and he hangs down town, a Hispanic dude with tatts covering his face. Th
at’s all I know I swear."
Vlad didn’t doubt it, the man was too scared to lie to him and he was but a pawn in some unknown game. Dropping him to the ground he left some parting advice. "You might want to get out of the city, a pissed off wolf will not listen as long as I have."
Vlad walked out of the club with a perplexed Ice following, but asking no questions.
Chapter 3 7
Too tired to teleport and not knowing how to teleport to where his need was greatest, he climbed into the car.
"Ice, please let me out at Silvers Club." He had this irrational need to see Beth, to hold her close. Tonight he had come to some sort of realisation. Beth may have upset him, tonight though he had learnt something new; when you cared for someone you did whatever you had to do to protect them. Beth had believed in that as well, she had done what she had to do to keep him alive.
He knew that she would end her night at Silver's and would likely be there by now. The club was busy, making it necessary to push his way through the crowd. Finally seeing a glimpse of her and Celia he watched them on the dance floor, she moved like a ballerina her body all graceful and pliant. As the song came to an end, another one started and Beth remained there having some fun. He couldn’t begrudge her that he hadn’t been a lot of fun to be around.
He started moving towards her when a young man approached; he seemed to know her from the exchange of pleasantries. The man was getting too close to her, and Vlad was fighting the urge to tear off his head. Beth didn’t seem to mind and he watched with a growing agitation as the man grabbed her from behind. Beth moved slightly, but not enough for Vlads liking.
He didn’t want to think she was flirting, but when the man grabbed her and pulled her into a kiss his anger went into overdrive. She hadn’t made it clear she was off limits maybe this was her way of paying him back. Just maybe she didn’t take monogamy seriously enough.
As he grabbed the man and threw him backwards Beth's face displayed utter shock. Damn right she should be shocked, he grabbed her arm and that of Celia's and teleported them out of there. Arriving in his office where Talia and Shaun awaited him, he held up his hand for silence.
"Talia leave." She started to protest but not for long. "NOW" As he bellowed Talia scurried off.
"Shaun, can you take Celia home?"
Celia had noticed Vlads thunderous mood. "Not without Beth."
"Now Shaun"
"And I said not without Beth." Celia's tone was also angry, she had no intention of leaving her friend with a vampire currently resembling a tiger.
Calming his tone he addressed Celia, ignoring Beth. "I am trying to remain calm, I can assure you that your friend will be safe. I may be furious, but I am not about to hurt her."
Celia seemed torn looking between the two of them. "Go home CeCe, I will be fine. This ass has nothing to be pissed at me for; I am just going to go to bed while Vlad gets over his hissy fit."
With a sigh Celia left with Shaun, Vlad turned to Beth. "Hissy fit, did you really just refer to me as having hissy fit?"
"I did and you are." Beth was a little drunk, well more than a little drunk. The night had started well and gone downhill from there. It didn’t matter where they were, men just kept harassing Beth and Celia. To the extent that Celia actually pushed one over, Beth was used to a certain amount of attention, and that was fine but tonight was ridiculous.
"I come looking for my wife, and find men pawing you and you doing nothing to stop it, and you call this a hissy fit. I don’t know what you expect a relationship to be like, but I assure you, I will not accept you cavorting with other men, and anything more than that is likely to get someone hurt."
They were now openly shouting at each other, their voices carrying through the house prompting Albert to poke his head around the door.
"Is everything……"
"NOT NOW ALBERT!"
She was in his face now, furious at his insinuation, poking him in the chest.
"Firstly I am not your wife and at this point, that is unlikely to change. Secondly I was telling him to go jump, when someone decided to rip his head off. Thirdly don’t take your shitty mood out on Albert. Fourthly I will have you know, that unlike you, I know what I want and who I want so screw you. And sixthly, I am not the one with my ex living in my house, am I?"
She stomped her foot at the end of the tirade. "Beth I saw you tonight and getting rid of Talia is something I cannot do. Don’t make assumptions about something you don’t know anything about."
With a second stomp of her foot, she made one last parting comment. "You would be surprised at what I do know; I am not the one who used to wear a Capotain." She left him staring after her, watching her long silky hair, sway on the way out.
Vlad slumped in his chair; this had been a horrendous night. One unfortunate thing after another, rubbing his temples he placed his head in his hands before heading to his bed room. Wanting to make things right with Beth, he thought about going to wait in her room. But then decided to give her some space, they had both said harsh things tonight and he didn’t want to make things worse.
Deciding she needed water to ward off the potential hangover from hell, Beth padded down to the kitchen. Stood in a pair of comfy pj's she drank a large glass before filling it again to take to her room. Unfortunately when she turned around Talia was waiting.
"It seems the honeymoon is over. I have to say you are looking a little worse for wear Beth dear."
"Can it Talia, I am a little drunk and may forget the reasons I can't stake you."
Even though Talia winced it didn’t shut her up. "It seems that Vlad did not like you and your performance tonight, such a shame really."
And then the penny dropped. "You bitch." Talia's laughter incensed her so much so that she nearly lashed out, thankfully her sanity prevailed. "You may think that you are clever Talia, but know this, I will take you down and it will hurt."
Beth walked out of the kitchen with her head held high seething, wanting to hit out at someone. Instead she closed her door, flung herself on the bed and screamed into the pillow. Wanting someone to talk to she called Claire but reached her service. Not leaving any message Beth called her mom, but again reached her service. Banging her fists on her pillows before laying down, Beth let the tears fall.
"Beth." Vlad knocked at the adjoining door. "Go away Vlad."
"I want to make sure you are okay."
"I am fine now please; I want to be left alone." Beth flung herself face down in anger.
"I can't Beth." She didn’t hear anything but she knew he was there.
"That’s not fair; I locked the door for a reason. It didn’t mean teleport into my room."
With a small chuckle, Vlad responded. "I get that and I know that you are mad. I just want to be with you tonight."
She turned to face him. "You are kidding, you give me shit, make unfair insinuations and then expect sex. Get real."
Dropping a kiss on her forehead, he sat in front of her on the bed. "That is a more than a tempting idea Beth, I don’t think you realise what you do to me. But how about you just let me hold you tonight? Nothing more. Please."
She thought about this. "I think that might be worse than sex." That closeness, comforting each other but with nothing more, it might be a lousy idea but he wanted to feel that closeness.
"Okay." Clad only in his shorts he curled up with Beth in his arms and slept.
Chapter 38
At some hour in the afternoon, Beth woke with a start. She had an epiphany of sorts. Xin was right, she did have a journey to make and she knew what that journey was. She just wanted five more minutes in Vlads arms, where she felt cherished and warm. Right here, right now she could imagine that everything between them would turn out perfect. But in reality she knew it wouldn’t be, sliding out of bed careful not to wake Vlad, she dressed.
Avoiding Albert she grabbed a few things and headed out to the garage. Vlad had several cars and she was sure he wouldn’t mind her borrowing one. Making the ne
cessary calls on the way out, she made her plans. The last on her list was Imogen, she didn’t want to call her and knew there was a risk that Imogen wouldn’t help her, but she needed information. It took a while to convince Imogen that she was making the right decision, even though Imogen wasn’t convinced but eventually Imogen agreed to help her. As Beth arrived at the airport and parked Vlads Porsche she took a deep breath, not quite believing she was doing this. She was either incredibly brave or incredibly dumb, only time would tell which one. She was potentially going to miss the flight so she ran and almost raced into the back of the last person boarding.
"Shit, oh sorry." And then the person turned. "Imogen!"
"I thought you were going to miss the flight."
"What are you doing here?"
"Well I am about the only hope you have of staying alive, I love you and your family and I also believe you are good for my boss. So here I am."
With a hug, she thanked Imogen for what was to be the first of many thank you's. By the time they boarded the plane to France, Beth was slightly nervous. She wasn’t sure how Vlad would take her disappearance or reappearance, if she made it back in one piece. Either way she didn’t think he would welcome her back with open arms. Going to meet Talia's beau was unlikely to be on Vlads list of things to keep Beth amused.
Chapter 3 9
He woke up feeling cold, which made no sense as vampires were not affected by temperature. A little disorientated to be in someone else's room, he realised it was Beth's absence that left him chilled. He didn’t hear her in the shower but on rising, he found a note from her saying two words, 'I'm sorry' he frowned trying to work out what she meant.
Holding her in his arms last night had been wonderful; he hadn’t slept that peacefully for a long time. Maybe they could work things out, maybe he hadn’t previously made himself clear about a monogamous relationship, maybe he read too much into a situation. Hell he didn’t know, he only knew that he had no intention of sleeping alone again.
Two Halves of a A Vampires Soul (The Silver Series) Page 22
