by Deborah Noel
Chapter Thirteen
I woke up sweating in bed. Declan was on his side next to me, sleeping soundly until I moved. He quickly turned to face me and asked groggily what was wrong. I cupped his face in my palm and told him I was fine, just thirsty. The corner of his lips turned up and he closed his eyes while offering me a smooch. I slinked my way out of bed and meandered down the hall. I checked on the girls. As I passed by the guest room I noticed the door slightly ajar. I tip-toed downstairs to the kitchen to get myself a drink.
Sam wasn’t in the family room on the recliner like I figured he would be. Across the kitchen, the french doors were opened a few inches. I poured myself a glass of cold milk over ice for optimum coldness and joined Sam on the patio.
“Hi kid,” he greeted me without turning.
“Uncle.”
“Some deal we have going on here, huh?”
“Yep, a quite a pickle.”
He was sitting on the stone wall overlooking the garden. He patted the empty spot next to him. I sat down beside him.
“What do you know about vampires, Sam?”
“Not much more than you, Annie… I’m sorry, Cianna. I always liked that nickname for you. When you were little, you knew it was me when I called you that.”
I laughed at the memories replaying in my mind. “It’s okay, Sam, I’m used to it.”
“Cianna is more becoming to you now. It matches your stature of maturity.” He laughed at his own joke.
“Ha, ha!”
Screeching off in the distance drew our attention to the woods at the end of our yard.
“Two cats, fighting,” Sam announced.
I sighed in relief. “Uncle, can you tell me what I need to know about this vampire situation?”
It was simple, according to Sam. Stay away from the Castle and close to Declan until we figured out what to do. Sam was going to talk to some people he knew to see what he could learn. Until then, we were all in the dark.
I didn’t feel any safer. I kissed my uncle on the top of his head and said thank you.
“Try to sleep well.”
“You, too.”
I went inside to the office and flipped on the computer. I checked my email and found one from Bolton Dethstare. He wanted to let us know that his wife was due in the States from Germany the next day and he wanted to have dinner in two days. I decided I would really work on my German.
Guten Ta. Hello was easy to remember.
Guten Abend. Good evening might be the phrase to say since we were meeting for dinner.
Wie qeht es Ihnen? How are you, seemed simple enough.
Danke, gut. Fine, thanks would probably, hopefully, be her answer.
My answer, if asked, would be Sehr gut, great.
And instead of Auf Wiedersehen, I’d surprise them with something casual like Tschus, which meant, bye, see you later.
Of course, I would have to be polite with my please and thank yous, Bitte and Danke schon. Even a Nein, danke, no thanks, might be a necessity during the course of the night.
And maybe I could throw in a daft ich, may I, for good measure.
A few more hours passed than I had anticipated with me staring at and listening to the German lessons on my computer. I was startled by Bullet pushing his way into the office. He jumped up on my lap and curled up. I continued, as I combed my fingers through Bullet’s fur.
When my eyes refused to stay open any longer, I stumbled past Sam snoring away in his favorite recliner and upstairs to join Declan dreaming away in bed. Our bed was much more inviting this time around. I allowed myself to get lost in its plush feathered welcome and my tired body sucked up the warmth trapped under the covers radiating from Declan. I was asleep in milliseconds.
Sun pushed its way through the slit in the curtains. I went to turn away, but couldn’t move. Declan was curled around me with his one arm around my waist and the other was underneath my neck and wrapped around my shoulders. Our legs were twisted together. I was pinned.
Not a bad place to be.
I tried to squirm, to no avail. I was there until he decided to change positions. I wiggled my arm through his and began stroking the only skin I could reach, his side, and awkwardly at that. He moaned with pleasure. The whole thing backfired on me, as he squeezed me tighter in place. I stared out through the beam of sunlight, unable to hide. My mind was bombarded with thoughts. None of them were coherent. I couldn’t even hold an intelligent conversation with myself. I closed my eyes in defeat.
A soft touch drifted across my stomach. It followed the contour of my breast, then worked its way to the other, delicately cupping it. A warmth, followed by a tender grazing of lips lingered over the back of my neck. Fingers made their way across my bottom thigh. As if the fingers controlled my muscles, my legs parted. Stroking from every direction rendered me helpless. My stomach fluttered in response. Want and need escaped from my throat. The grazing on the nape of my neck grew with hunger in answer to my groan. He caressed the inside of my thighs, teasing me at their meeting valley, now moist with anticipation of more. Still rendered motionless, I simply arched my back. In one swift motion and with authority, suddenly he was on top of me, my back flat to our bed. He held my arms above my head. He kissed the spot on my neck that only he knew would get the reaction he wanted from me. I pushed my head further back into the pillows and fluttered my eyes, moaning as he expected.
From my neck he lingered at my ear, “Good morning my love,” and without waiting for an answer, he covered my mouth with his. I clenched my fingers around his. He kissed my nose, then my lips again and my chin. He spent time around my neck again before releasing my hands. His fingers traced my wrists, glided down my forearms and repeatedly grazed the inside of my elbows. Firmly he pushed my arms into the pillows informing me without uttering a word that they were to stay there. With one finger he traced down each side of my underarms, along my collar bone then his entire hand drifted, barely making contact with my breasts. I shuddered. My body tingled. His fingers played around my belly as his tongue explored every part of me. He hovered at the place he wanted to pleasure the most. All I could do was twist my fingers through his hair, knotting them there as I pulled his head in closer.
I forgot everything at that moment.
He grabbed my hands and thrust them to my sides. In an instant he was on top of me again. This time a thrilling squeal trickled from my lips. He, again, covered my mouth with his as he entered me.
In an instant, euphoria riddled my body. We swayed in perfect rhythm, our bodies united as one. Satisfaction achieved.
We collapsed together; exhausted I drifted back to sleep.
I woke up to the sound of the shower running. I joined my husband as he was rinsing the soap from his body.
“What, you want more?”
I put my hands up in protest, “I couldn’t. Thanks, though.”
“Rain check then?”
“Most definitely!”
He kissed me as he stepped aside for me to get under the stream of water. He washed my back before leaving the shower to dry off and get dressed for the day ahead of us.
I took an abbreviated shower myself, knowing I needed to get the girls up and ready for school. Marcy’s parents were still in New Jersey. Funeral plans were being made and Natalie’s mother was a wreck. Mrs. MacMartin had called to say they would be down there at least another week and wanted to make sure I could still accommodate Marcy, which of course, I said I could.
To my surprise, the girls weren’t in their room. Declan, sensing my alarm, let me know that they were already downstairs and wanted to surprise us by making us breakfast. They had wanted to serve us in bed, but our door was locked.
“Good thing, huh?” I chuckled as I skipped down the steps. I felt like a schoolgirl.
As I turned the corner to the kitchen, the girls yelled “surprise” in unison. .The table had been set and everyone was seated. Mattie jumped off her chair and ran to me. She wrapped her arms around my legs in a fierce hug. S
he squeezed and let go to escort me to my place at the table.
There were fresh-cut flowers in a small fluted vase in the center of the table. Breakfast consisted of cereal and fresh slices of cantaloupe, strawberries and blueberries from the garden, along with a glass of milk and one smaller glass of orange juice. It was a wonderful gesture from a couple of good kids.
Breakfast table conversation focused around the school activities for the day. Shane promise to deliver the girls to school and then pick them up for ice cream afterward. It was his way of keeping a close eye on them, which was fine by the rest of us. Sam had some meetings to attend to and Declan decided it best to stay with me for the day.
After the dishes were finished, we all went on our ways. Declan retired to the office to set up the dinner date with the Dethstares and I went to the garden to weed and harvest.
When I came inside with the goodies from the garden, Declan let me know that dinner was arranged for the next evening. We were going to meet Bolton and his wife at a cozy little Italian eatery just outside of town.
Chapter Fourteen
The rest of the morning was pretty boring by all accounts. I sat with my notebook in hand writing some poetry while listening as Declan created a new song on the piano.
I started with a poem for Declan that I wrote in my head when I saw him laying asleep in bed a few days ago.
The perfect lullaby
Sleeping on the bed
Chest rising and falling
In rhythm, at peace
The contour of his body
Under the covers
Love swelled
Want boiled over
To be beside him
His warmth drew me nearer
My place
Against his body
A sign
Pulled me even closer
The beating of his heart
Sang me to sleep.
It was nothing fancy, just something simple to capture the moment as I felt it at that time.
Then my mind drifted to the vampire. All I knew of vampires was what I had seen on TV or in the movies. I had read a few books about vampires, but was unable to decipher whether the made-up version of a vampire had ANY similarities of a real-life vampire. Even before the encounter with the ghoulish monster, I never doubted that vampires existed. My mind toyed with the idea of what it would be like to be a vampire. How my life would be if it were so. How I would meet that type of fate. Before I knew it I was scribbling out a story through a series of poetry of being a vampire.
Vampire’s Single Tear
She sat on the edge of the rock
Hovering over the water
She dangled her long finger
The tip of it drawing a circle
In her boredom
The mist twisted upward
Around his heart’s love.
The mist tried to offer comfort
He felt her pain.
Their curse unbearable to them both.
She hissed into the Heavens.
The mist retreated,
Ever so slightly
To her displeasure.
A single tear fell
As she extended her hand to him
The mist filtered through her fingers.
This touch was all that could be felt
Between them.
But the memories of their life
Together in flesh
Tore through her heart
Shredding it further to pieces
Never to be put together again.
Vengeance grew
Along with the ache,
Emptiness,
And hollowness
Where her heart once was.
Another single tear fell.
The mist covered her
Hiding her from all.
She felt no comfort there in the mist.
The moss crumbled under a Stranger’s foot.
She didn’t stand to meet the intruder
Arching her neck back, she bellowed at the moon.
The ear piercing sound turned away the buck.
She refused to give into the curse of what she had become.
“Maybe we’ll meet again” Hung heavy in the air.
She hung her head,
dangled her finger back over the water
The mist wrapped himself around it.
I sat back and reread the poem. When I returned to reality, Declan was standing beside me, reading over my shoulder.
“Interesting.”
I looked up to him.
“Brilliant, well written.”
“Thank you, love.”
I stared blankly at the words on the paper. Something was missing. Declan took the pen from my hand and closed over the notebook. He kissed the top of my head and gently pulled me up from the small couch. He led me over to the piano and sat me down on the bench in front of the keys. He sat next to me. Softly he pressed a few keys with one hand and took my hand with the other. He placed my hand over the keys, with his above mine. He pushed my fingers onto the keys. Together we pressed the keys until the rhythm became second nature to me. As I repeated the pattern, he moved over to different keys and played in conjunction with the notes I was making.
Before I knew it, we were playing a tune together. I chuckled. Without missing a beat, he leaned over and kissed me. Of course I lost my concentration and the music suffered. We both laughed.
“Well, what do you say about a ride in the Jeep, my love?”
I raised my eyebrows.
“No. No Castle. Just a ride.”
“Sure.”
We left the piano room and closed up the house. Declan packed a few items in a cooler, we jumped in the Jeep and headed down the road.
As we exited our small little town and hit the open road, Declan slipped a CD into the player and cranked up the tunes. Good ol’ rock, the kind that was made to be played loudly in an open Jeep heading down the highway. The kind of music that you could sing along to without thinking of what the words were, they were ingrained in your brain. I let the music do its job. All stress and tension dissipated as I leaned back, sang along, and let the wind toy with my hair. I heard Declan chuckle and knew he had looked over at me; I didn’t care, this was what I had needed. Freedom.
About a dozen songs later, I felt a tug on my harness restraints. I opened my eyes. We were at the beginning of the trails leading back to where all the Jeep owners did all their four-wheel driving stunts. Declan turned down the music and we could hear engines revving in the distance.
“There’s a small jamboree today.”
I smiled slightly.
“Don’t worry; I won’t do anything too crazy!”
I knew better than to believe him.
He pulled that slack out of my harness and hit the gas pedal. Dust kicked up from the spinning tires and masked our existence to anyone who might have been behind us.
I couldn’t help but put a death grip on the grab bar in front of me and gasp.
Declan laughed harder and went faster.
We bounced over a series of mounds of dirt known in the four-wheeling world as whoopty-dos and twisted into the tighter, greener trails. Suddenly we broke through the trees and brush into a clearing.
There were larger hills on the furthest side of the flat land. Beyond them the hill was caked with vertical trails. To the left was the mud bog, with competitors’ tires already flinging mud into the air as they raced each other around the makeshift ring of oozing earth. Spectators were posed around the track at various safe zones cheering on their favorite driver. To the immediate right was the parking spot littered with Jeeps of all heights and colors. Most were being evaluated by people, checking to see who did what to their Jeeps to make them stand out. There were a few brand-new Jeeps, whose owners were not ready to suffer that dreaded first nick in the paint. Coolers, grills and chairs were everywhere. Past the crowd chowing down on all kinds of different food was the straight-run race track.
W
e found a spot under one of a few dozen trees that speckled the parking lot. Declan pulled out the cooler and set it down just under the open tailgate. He pulled out our two fold-up canvas chairs and snapped them into form with a flip of his wrist.
He tucked my hand into his and we started through the rows of Jeeps. He said hello to a few of his buddies he had made friends with during our split. He didn’t need to introduce me; apparently, he had spoken of me before and I was greeted as if I were an old friend, too. A few Jeeps had their radios playing music, but not so loud that it interrupted conversations of people standing next to them. We wove our way back to our Jeep and sat to have a drink.
Screaming and cheering erupted from the mud bog area. A new winner no doubt had crossed the finish line. The winning Jeep crawled straight up and over the side of the bog. An onslaught of hoorays and whoot-woos bellowed after him. The driver emerged from his seat up through the roll bars, waving his arms above his helmeted head in victory. He was covered in mud. There was so much mud you couldn’t even begin to tell the color of the Jeep.
Declan and I walked over to join in the celebration.
“Nice height,” Declan commented to me.
