"I can remedy that," he said, pulling the tail of his shirt from the waistband of his jeans.
"No! No, forget I said that," I held out a hand. "Just tell me where my clothes are, and where the shower is."
"You're so sensitive about this," he said, sliding off the bed. "You know it's almost impossible to embarrass an old vampire. That's an old saying, by the way."
"I'm not an old vampire," I snapped at him, sliding off the opposite side of the bed. His bedroom was dark and windowless; therefore, I had no idea where we were. We might have been on another planet for all I knew.
My clothes were on top of a tall chest on the other side of the bed. Gavin lifted them one-handed and shook them at me. I went over and snatched them away while thinking about stomping on his foot. He had shoes on and I was barefoot, so I'd more than likely come out the loser in that little battle. He might retaliate, too, and I didn't really want to know what he'd do. I was turning on the taps in a huge walk-in shower when he came up behind me, his arms dropping around my shoulders. "Don't you want to know what it's like?" He nuzzled my neck and nipped it. I'd never seen Gavin this amorous before and it scared me a little.
"Maybe I will sometime, Gavin. But I need to stop being afraid of you first."
He backed away at my words, turning and leaving the bathroom after only a few seconds. We didn't talk much on the way home and I worried that I'd done something irreparable. Gavin walked me to the door, where Merrill stood waiting. If he'd been human, Merrill might have been tapping his foot impatiently. As it was, the mask was in place so I had no idea if I was in trouble with him, too. Gavin took my face in his hands before he left me, kissing me carefully before his deep brown eyes stared earnestly into mine. "I cannot take your fear away. If I could kill Sergio Velenci again, I would do it without hesitation." He kissed me once more, leaving me with Merrill.
"Did he harm you?" Merrill asked as we watched Gavin drive away.
"No," I replied. "He only kissed me."
"I could see that for myself," Merrill remarked dryly and led me into the house.
My lesson that evening was Vampire Law number six, when you were allowed to kill a human. "You may kill if the human is threatening your life or the life of another vampire or those of the vampire race as a whole," Merrill instructed. "Obviously, if a human has a flamethrower, as Niles Abernathy did and it is a life threatening situation for you or another vampire as in Gavin's case, you are justified in taking the life. However, if there are human witnesses, they must have compulsion placed to forget the incident. If there is a body, then you must make it appear to be an accident somehow. You should hide it as well as you can anyway, so that it will never be found."
"Please tell me you're not going to take me out and have me kill someone," I muttered, refusing to look at Merrill.
"No. However, if there is a human taken down by an Enforcer or an Assassin and there is time, you will be conveyed to the scene and asked to cover it up. Occasionally humans learn of us and they hunt us. Many times over the centuries they have even banded together to seek us out and kill us. This seems to go in cycles, actually. We worry over the next wave because of the technology available now."
"Yeah. I can see that," I said, lifting my head.
"On another note," Merrill said, "Wlodek expects you to attend the annual meeting." I nodded; Wlodek mentioned it when he'd given me the last assignment. He hadn't explained what the annual meeting was and I was afraid to ask.
"It is a gathering of our most influential members," Merrill explained it for me. "There can be as many as five or six hundred there, so a huge ballroom must be provided. Several of us own appropriate facilities and it is usually held in one of those. There is a grand ball scheduled first, to which many of the attending vampires will bring human dates and companions. Some may even be married to those companions. I will explain the laws concerning that at a later time. You are expected to attend the grand ball so that the ones who have been asking after you may see you, all at once as it were."
"Gavin said something about that," I grumbled. "Merrill, what if I don't want to go? What if I don't have any desire to see any of these people? It scares me."
"Lissa, Wlodek recently informed me that you willingly went into a sealed vault, knowing you might not get out again. You risked your life, child, and yet meeting vampires frightens you?"
"Merrill, the next time you have compulsion laid so you can't even blink and are forced to follow along behind somebody that you trusted and thought was your friend, and that friend plans to kill you if so ordered, then we'll talk," I said.
"They can't get past my compulsion," he insisted, attempting to reassure me.
"Your compulsion. There's that word again. Compulsion." I said it with as much distaste as I felt I could get away with. "Free will among vampires is mostly a joke, isn't it?" I got up and walked out of Merrill's study.
He came to find me a few minutes later. I was sitting on my bed, pillows propping me up against the headboard, my knees drawn up to my chest.
"My compulsion is only to protect you and the ones who live inside this house," he said gently, sitting down on the side of my bed.
"I know that." My forehead was now pressed against my knees. "But that doesn't keep me from wanting to go out and do something because I want to," I mumbled. "I want to buy my own computer. Maybe go find a pair of shoes or just wander around London because I still haven't seen much of it. And I haven't been to the bookstore in ages. You and Franklin have some good choices in the library, but those things aren't all I like to read."
"You feel confined." It was a statement.
"Yes."
"Lissa, one of the reasons I am reluctant to allow you out on your own is because of what you are and why all those male vampires wish to meet you now. You are a rarity, something very desirable in our world. You shouldn't ever go out unattended, I don't think. London has a rather large vampire population. I would have failed in my duty if anything were to happen to you."
"Charles is so busy all the time or I'd ask him," I said. "We had a good time the night he took me shopping."
"I know. Perhaps I should look for a suitable companion so you may go out from time to time. And as far as a computer goes, borrow mine. Find what you want and order it online. I have a business address in London where it may be delivered; Lena can pick it up and bring it to you. She brings my deliveries from there when she comes to work most days."
"See, even Lena gets to come and go without supervision," I grumbled.
"Lena isn't sought after by a rather large number of males," Merrill observed.
"What makes me so special? They haven't even seen me."
"Thirteen of the sixteen female vampires are in a permanent relationship," Merrill sighed. "Most of those relationships are a result of the female having been a companion to the male vampire while they were still human. Theirs were successful turns. The two female Council members are unattached and then there you are, Lissa. Male vampires sometimes seek a relationship that could last centuries. With a human companion this is obviously not possible; they will age and die unless the turn is successful and the attempts far outweigh the successes."
"Merrill, this isn't making me feel any better," I said rubbing my forehead.
"I know. I am only trying to make you understand." He scooted up beside me and placed an arm around my shoulders, kissing my temple affectionately. "Feel better now?"
"Sure, dad," I sighed. He laughed.
* * *
"We are going to Paris," Merrill announced a week later. "We must find a dress for you to wear."
"You're joking? There isn't anything here in London?" I stared at my surrogate sire in dismay. Merrill gave me the patient expression I'd come to recognize; the one that said he was dealing with my ignorance.
It was the middle of September and the only things that had changed for me was the fact that I had more knowledge of the vampire race because of my lessons and I was now the proud owner of a nice
Mac laptop. I know—Gavin has one too. We had high speed, wireless internet at Merrill's manor. Franklin bought a laptop for himself after seeing mine and became addicted to solitaire. I sometimes sent him emails, just for fun. The other thing that was different was Franklin's lover from New York had come to visit. His name was Greg and he'd voluntarily submitted to Merrill's compulsion. He also didn't live with Franklin and hadn't ever. Franklin went to stay nights with him occasionally in New York on his days off and they'd been together for nearly twenty-five years.
"I almost had a heart attack when Merrill called and said Frank had surgery." Greg was a little more demonstrative than Franklin but not overly so. I liked him; he was warm, witty and treated Franklin very well. Franklin introduced us when I'd come downstairs on the first night of Greg's visit.
"Be careful, she'll have you drinking berry smoothies and taking vitamins and flaxseed oil," Franklin put an arm around Greg.
"Well, it's good for you," I chastised Franklin.
"Honey, are you sure you're a vampire?" Greg asked.
"Honey, that's not the first time somebody asked me that," I put my hands on my hips.
"I like her," Greg declared and that was that.
Franklin and Greg went with us to Paris. Merrill has his own private jet (go figure). We stayed for nearly a week. Merrill took us out each evening while Greg and Frank offered advice on ball gowns. I got a closer look at some of the landmarks, too. Merrill told me that he'd once climbed the Eiffel Tower, scaling up the sides when it was really dark one night. I almost laughed out loud, that was so unlike him.
I was also the only one in the party who didn't speak French like a native. I suppose I should learn. I suppose. The word I spoke the most, and even the designers and the sales assistants understood, was no.
"Merrill, this all looks like it was patterned after men's pajamas," I said, after viewing a very big name designer's current collection. I was doing my best not to gag. We weren't asking any prices but I had the notion that most of what I was looking at would cost more than I made in a year's time at the courthouse in Oklahoma. Some of it much more.
"Little one, we are running out of time," Merrill murmured against my ear. Franklin and Greg weren't saying anything but I was beginning to feel pressured. Was I supposed to wear something I hated with a capital H, just because it had a name attached to it? "Come," Merrill said wearily and we walked out of the showroom. Greg and Franklin stopped to get coffee at a little café before we walked farther down the street.
"Now see, why can't I wear something like that," I pointed at a dress displayed in a window. The gown was a midnight blue silk with a sweetheart neckline. Thin straps crossed over the back, holding the dress up on the mannequin. The dress was simple, hugging the body around the breasts and waist, and then falling to a flared skirt that might float around the ankles.
"Let us look at this," Merrill was taking in the dress along with a few other things in the window.
Franklin interpreted what the sales assistant was telling Merrill when we stepped inside the shop. "She says this is an up and coming designer, who is only beginning to make a name for herself," he whispered.
"I want to try on that one," I said, pointing to the midnight blue ball gown. I got my wish.
"I think this is nice," Greg said. Turning this way and that in the mirror, I agreed with him. A pair of shoes were brought out—Jimmy Choos. This would be my first pair. They were silver, a heeled sandal in a watersnake pattern—at least that's what I was told, with crossover straps at the toes. I tried them on and the dress was like a dream, no longer dragging the floor. The assistant went into raptures over how I should do my hair, I think, according to her gestures.
"We'll take it," Merrill said, and also bought a couple of other things there in the shop, including a white dress that he liked very much when I tried it on and one in black as well that had a deep V-neck and a very low back. I almost felt naked in it. We bought three more pairs of shoes, too. Merrill spent a truckload of money that night. I hoped he was taking it out of what I now had.
The ball was scheduled for the first Saturday in October, beginning around nine with dancing and the whole bit. The meeting would occur on Sunday and I wouldn't be going to that, thank goodness. Franklin and Greg taught me how to dance. Not up close dancing, I could do that well enough. They taught me ballroom dancing, but only the waltz and foxtrot. I was good on the waltz, a little shaky on the other.
"No rumba or any of that other stuff," I explained my dancing lessons to Merrill, who took me a couple of turns afterward. My first dance at the ball was to be with him.
"You'll be fine," he insisted. I wasn't so sure.
"Do you think I'll be the only one who has ever attended the werewolf meeting and the vampire meeting?" I asked as he whisked me around the floor.
"Quite possibly," he nodded, turning me several times. Trying to trip me up, I'm sure.
"What does one talk about while one is dancing?" I was being sarcastic but Merrill either ignored it or it went right past him. He never batted an eyelash, either way.
"The female allows her partner to set the conversation," he said.
"Great. Lots of nice weather we're having, then," I said, not even pointing out that the male got to direct traffic, both in the dance and the dialogue.
"What would you prefer they talk about?" Merrill's eyebrow quirked a little.
"Well, they could tell me if their Springer Spaniel had puppies or about their argument with Louis XIV or what they like to read." I put emphasis on the word read.
"And if they prefer Voltaire or Baudelaire?"
"Okay, you have me there," I conceded. "But they could try to convince me to read it if they're that passionate about it. Who knows, stranger things have more than likely happened."
"More than likely," the corner of Merrill's mouth tugged a little.
"But if that's all they read, then they've missed out on a lot of contemporary fiction, which might be a shame," I said. "We're all a product of our times, are we not? Isn't it important to keep up with things and not just bury ourselves in the past, pretending that current events don't exist?"
"Some of those you may meet have most certainly buried themselves in the past," Merrill informed me dryly. He was trying not to smile; I just knew it.
"Then we won't have anything in common," I said. "Therefore and henceforth, they should get themselves gone." I made a shooing motion with my hand. It broke contact with my partner which was a no-no in the dance and Merrill stopped right there, bent over and started laughing.
"Now," I went on, "while you may have been best buds with Voltaire and all that, I've seen his picture, that's some hairdo he had going, by the way, I've never met anybody important. Not while I was human, anyway, and I haven't read anything past Shakespeare I don't think, although I have seen quite a few movies. Does that make me insignificant? Maybe to you. But you have to look at it this way; in geologic time, we're all a blip on the radar." I walked away from him.
"That certainly does put things in perspective, doesn't it?" Merrill was back at my elbow and we went on with our dance.
"Are you aware of the controversy surrounding the last extinction—the one where all the large mammals disappeared?" I asked as we made another turn around Merrill's ballroom. Yes, he has a ballroom. Go figure.
"The one where some think it was caused by a comet or a series of comets while others think it was the Clovis people?"
"That's the one. I'm with the series of comets people, I think. Otherwise, those Clovis people had to be really hungry. There were some big, furry animals in that bunch. Made a lot of soup, no doubt."
"I agree," Merrill smiled.
* * *
"Oh, you're kidding." I stared at Mr. Dalton, hair designer, who stood in front of me, looking my hair over. He had an assistant with him—a young woman who popped bubble gum while she did my nails and make-up. The night of the ball had crept up on me. I was less than prepared to go and the gum cracking
was so annoying at one point I nearly let a claw slide out to pop a rather large bubble. Holding back that urge, I ground my teeth instead and hoped she'd finish soon. Merrill was already dressed and waiting impatiently while Mr. Dalton and Co. worked me over, gum chewing notwithstanding.
Mr. Dalton worked on my hair while the girl did my nails, toenails, and then my face, handing me a mirror afterward so I could see the results. Mr. Dalton had piled my hair atop my head. It looked decent, even if it did feel a little weird at first. My fingernails and toenails had never looked so good. Lena stayed late and helped me into my dress afterward.
"That looks incredible," Franklin said when I and my dress floated downstairs. Greg had gone back home only two days before and Frank and I both missed him.
"This will finish it off," Merrill slipped a diamond necklace around my neck, handing the matching earrings to me.
"I don't even want to know how much these cost," I said, slipping the earrings into my ears.
Brock was waiting to drive us, and I learned that he'd acted in that capacity for Merrill for a long time before becoming an Enforcer. He also piloted Merrill's jet and often flew for the Council when needed. We rode to the ball in the Rolls Royce Phantom. Brock explained during the drive that it was a Diamond Black and not just black in color, in addition to giving me information about the engine and other car parts I didn't recognize. As he talked, I nodded like one of those dogs that some people stick to their dash. He gave me a nice grin. "What kind of pizza am I?" he asked. Russell and Radomir must have been talking.
"You're the ham and pineapple guy," I said without thinking.
"Well, I was a ham and pineapple guy," he agreed. "Good guess."
"If it wasn't that, it was the shrimp and lobster."
"My second favorite. How do you know these things?"
"I'm a good guesser," I said, smiling at him. Actually, I had no idea what kind of guesser I was.
Blood Passage (Blood Destiny #2) Page 5
