Teren sighed. “They didn’t know anything about me, but they gave me more names, a few this time.”
I sighed and slumped down to his chest. I guess my scenario had been a little farfetched. Mixed were rare. We’d be lucky to find one, let alone a group of them. Teren sighed with me and kissed my head. I peeked up at him. “I thought you’d be gone longer. How come you’re home? Not that I mind.”
I smiled and he smiled down at me. “The pull. I found them much faster than I thought I would, and Ben and I were done by the time Great-Gran caught up with us.” He chuckled. “She was not happy about immediately having to turn around and run home to beat the sun, but she didn’t want to stay holed up in a strange place for a full day. Ben wanted to go to find a motel, since it was so late, but when I turned the car back towards your direction, I couldn’t make myself pull away from the highway. Not when you were calling to me. Not when I had no reason to stay in the city anymore.” He grinned at me seductively. “It’s a good thing I took Great-Gran’s car today. It’s much faster than mine.”
I laughed at that and ran my hands down his back to his jeans, pulling him into me. He smiled, leaning in to kiss me. “Ben?” I asked, between kisses.
Listening to the sounds of the house, I could hear Jack lightly snoring, Alanna and Imogen talking about my nightmare, since my screaming had woken them both up, and one person downstairs sighing irritably, muttering about how next time he was taking his own car. I laughed as Teren confirmed that Ben was hanging out in the living room.
Just as I started reveling in the miraculous man’s mouth, he pulled back and gave me a sheepish look. “Don’t take this the wrong way…” I frowned as his sheepish look increased. “They gave me a lead that I think may have something to do with a nest talked about in the journals. I think they may be connected to a group of mixed that the man already…” He sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “I really want to go check it out…”
I sighed, realizing that he was asking to leave. “Oh…can’t it wait?” I squeezed his body tighter to me. “At least until morning?”
He sighed and leaned down to kiss me. “It is morning, Emma.”
I peeked at the clock over his shoulder. It was morning in only the vaguest sense of the term; even the sun was probably begrudging the hour. “Barely,” I muttered sullenly.
“I need to get on top of this, Em. If they have anything to do with mixed…? If they may know about us…? I thought I could get it researched enough this afternoon, that Ben, Great-Gran and I could find them tonight.” I could hear the turmoil in his voice. He wanted to stay, he wanted to go. I decided to make it easy on him, since he was doing all this for me anyway, me and the kids.
I pushed away from him, cuddling up into my sheets instead. “Fine. I’m still tired anyway, I guess I’ll go back to sleep.”
He pulled the blankets around me, tucking me in. With a sexy smile, he leaned in to kiss me. “I’ll miss you. I love you.”
I bit my lip to not tell him that he didn’t have to miss me, that his entire body could be wrapped around me as we speak. I didn’t place that guilt trip on him though. This was just something he needed to do. “I love you too.”
We both heard Ben sigh irritably again, complaining that he’d rather by snuggling up with Tracey than a throw pillow, and we both laughed. Teren sighed and ran a hand down my hair. “I probably should run Ben home.”
I bit my lip and nodded, hating that he was leaving the house again. The reverse of the pull, while not as drastic as the reuniting, wasn’t pleasant. It was a tearing feeling, like a part of you was being stretched away. Never detached though, just stretched. I think it made the reunion part that much sweeter. I yawned as he watched me. “I’ll probably be asleep when you get back,” I sighed remorsefully, knowing that there was no way I’d be able to stay awake this early after a night of restless sleeping.
He bit his lip and nodded. “I’ll leave you alone.” I knew how difficult that would be for him and a part of me wanted to use that to my advantage, wanted to tell him that he should at least say hello, knowing that I could twist that kinetic energy between us into a break-the-bed love fest, but another part of me didn’t want to abuse our connection like that. I didn’t want to use sex as a weapon to keep him near me. Not when what he was doing was so vastly important.
I put my hand on my stomach and nodded, reminding myself what really mattered. “Okay.”
As Hot Ben started muttering that Teren should learn to handle his hard-ons the way every other guy did, I started laughing. “Does he remember that we can all hear him?” I chuckled.
Teren frowned at the floor and then looked back at me. “No, I think that’s slipped his mind.” He sighed. “I should get him home.”
He pulled away from me and I sighed, watching his lean body stand, highlighted by our glowing eyes. “I still can’t believe he willingly goes with you.”
Teren smiled as he looked down on me. “He’s actually pretty helpful.” He shook his head, delight clear in his face that he had been able to keep that friendship tight. “He surprises me constantly.” He gave me a wry grin. “You’d be very proud of him. Tracey too…if the whole thing wouldn’t have her screaming in terror.” He shrugged his shoulders and laughed at that, then leaned down to kiss me a final time.
Once back downstairs, I heard him surprise Hot Ben in the living room. “I’m done. I’ll take you home now.”
I heard Ben sigh gratefully. “Oh, thank god, you’re fast in the bedroom too.” I heard what sounded like Teren smacking him in arm. “Ow! What? Just saying…” Teren sighed and they both started heading for the door, Ben muttering, “Sorry, no offense or anything. I’m just tired. I want to go home…and be super speedy with my girl too.”
Both of the guys laughed at that and I blinked, surprised. I hadn’t realized in all the chaos, that Ben and Tracey had moved in together. I sighed that I was missing out on so much, being quarantined here, and smiled that Tracey and Hot Ben were moving in the right direction. Teren was right, Ben was turning out to be very surprising.
And that began the pattern of Teren getting farther and farther away from me. He’d search out every lead a vamp gave him, but he never found anything more than more names, more nests, more leads. No pureblood vampire seemed to know anything about mixed. Most of them were startled that such a thing was even possible. The one group he’d found that he’d thought was somehow connected to mixed, turned out to be a dead-end. Teren had thought they were connected because of a vague reference in the book that sounded like one of the vampire’s last name, but it turned out to just be a coincidence. The purebloods had nothing to do with the long-dead mixed vampires in the journals.
So far, no vampire he met knew anything about his kind. But every vamp gave him the name of another vamp, usually to get his annoying ass off their property. But Teren didn’t care how he got a name, just so long as he got one. As he was gone more and more, taking some of his family with him if the trip was close enough, I started hearing more and more about fights and scuffles.
As the weeks went by, and my lifespan dwindled, I started hearing about genuine knockouts, and started seeing the result of fighting in Teren’s clothes, if not his fast healing body. And of course, he couldn’t hide Hot Ben’s wounds. When I saw Ben with a black eye one night, I nearly went ballistic. They both assured me that it was nothing, merely a misunderstanding, but it riled me right up, and I practically demanded that Teren stopped this craziness. Obviously, the vampire community knew nothing, and obviously his continual prodding of their nests, was starting to piss them off. He was stirring the beehives, so to speak, and as a general rule of thumb, it was a good idea to leave something as dangerous as hornets, alone.
But Teren didn’t. He couldn’t. As we rolled into the beginning of April, and my 28th week, Teren started panicking. He didn’t take my upcoming due date as a good sign - that I’d make it, or at least make it close enough so that the babies would be able to live on their own, a
nd everything would be fine. No, he started freaking out because my twenty-sixth birthday was in two weeks. To him, that was it. That was the end of my life, and subsequently, the end of theirs.
I felt sort of stuck. As trapped emotionally as I was physically. I knew that physically, I needed to stay at the ranch, and not join Teren on these little outings, for the safety of mankind. In case I died and reanimated. If that happened, and Teren’s blood was enough to bring me back as a vampire, I’d go into a bloodbath-frenzy and chow down anything with a pulse. And as much as it pained me to think about it, I wasn’t sure if I had the same level of self-control that Teren had shown he had. I had the horrid feeling in the pit of my stomach, that got exceptionally strong when I was tipping back a bovine cold one, well, warm one, that I wouldn’t stop, even if the human in question were family. That thought terrified me into staying put.
I also knew why Teren needed to go. Emotionally, I knew I needed to let him do whatever was necessary to try and save the lives inside of me, but I couldn’t help the feeling that all he was doing was wasting our precious time. If nothing could be done, and I was going to die anyway, then we’d wasted weeks that we could have spent in each other’s arms. Assuming Teren didn’t get himself killed first.
A phone call from Tracey a couple of nights later, only emphasized the unease I felt about Teren’s increasingly volatile meetings. She’d called me right after I’d hung up the phone on my mother, Mom both worrying about how bored I probably was (which I wasn’t, since I could get up and move around just fine, better than ever actually), and delighted in all the time she was getting to spend with her four-legged grandchild.
Hearing Alanna humming outside the front door, I answered the home phone, hoping it was Teren. It wasn’t. “Hi, can I talk to Emma?”
Recognizing Tracey’s voice, I merrily exclaimed, “Hey, Trace, it’s me.”
She didn’t respond to that right away and I felt the tension curl into the line. I also heard her heartbeat surge, even through the phone. When she spoke, her voice was tight. “Is Teren trying to get Ben killed?”
Panic flooded my body, my heartbeat accelerating so fast and so suddenly, that I knew my revved up vamp blood was taking over. Not wanting shock to start my conversion, I exhaled in a long, slow breath, trying to ease my body back to normalcy. From outside, Alanna stopped humming and asked if I was okay. I whispered that I was, just before I finally answered Tracey.
“Uh, what do you mean?” I crossed my fingers, hoping Tracey was still oblivious to what her boyfriend’s true extracurricular activities were. I didn’t relish sending Halina to her doorstep.
She exhaled with clear irritation. “The fighting, Emma. You know, the training stuff.” I heard clicking and pictured Tracey’s long, high heeled legs pacing back and forth in her kitchen. Before I could ask her what she was talking about, she sighed and continued. “You should see his body, Emma. Yeah, he’s even more ripped than before, but the black and blue patches are not attractive…and can’t be good for him.” Her voice trembled a bit, as her true concern showed.
“Oh, well, Teren…” I trailed off, since I really wasn’t sure what Ben and Teren’s cover story to her was. I kicked myself for not listening to those conversations better, not that Teren had been around much to share them with me.
Tracey sighed again, her voice quavering. “And his face…did you see his black eye?”
I sighed. Yeah, I had seen that. “Sorry, Trace. I’ll talk to Teren.” I wasn’t sure what I was talking to him about, but I’d definitely try talking to him again.
She plopped down heavily somewhere, her clothes rustling. I heard the sounds of shoes being slipped off and thought maybe she’d gone to her room. Her voice relaxed as well as her heart. “Yeah, okay, thanks.” She exhaled again and I heard a mattress compressing as she lied down. “I don’t know how he ever talked me into this, Emma. I mean, really, it’s sort of ridiculous.”
I leaned back in my favorite plush chair in the library, one hand going to stroke my belly as I pulled my feet up. Outside, I heard Alanna continue her humming. Upstairs, Imogen clacked away, knitting. “I know, Trace. Men,” I harrumphed. I still didn’t know what they’d told her, but condemning the male species was usually a proper response to any female conversation.
Apparently it was. She laughed and I heard her roll over on the bed. I could even hear her feet bang together. “Right. I mean, UFC fighting? Seriously?” She laughed again, a little condescendingly. “I know he teaches kickboxing at the gym sometimes and works pretty regularly at that dojo in Chinatown, but Ultimate Fighting?” She laughed again, heartier. “What is he now, Bruce Lee?”
I closed my eyes and cursed my husband. Not for their ridiculous cover story, but for the fact that they knew Hot Ben might get tossed around enough that he’d need such a violent cover story. This was really getting out of control. “Yeah, Trace…kind of absurd.” I wondered how far they’d take the cover story. Was Hot Ben actually going to try out?
She snorted. “Yeah, and Teren sparring with him. Who knew the metro sexual was so aggressive in the ring?” She paused for a second after she said that. “Uh, no offense or anything.”
I laughed at her analysis of Teren. I’d sort of accused him of the same thing once – he was just very…put together, for a guy. But that wasn’t what made me laugh. No, it was Tracey, the girl whose boyfriend could shoot Calvin Klein ads, calling my boyfriend metro sexual. She laughed with me when she realized I wasn’t mad at her comment, then my laughter died as what they’d told her sunk in.
I sighed and then she did too. I heard her sit up on her bed. “I know they’re both really into this, Em, but maybe you could ask Teren to ease up?” She sighed again, concern filling her again. “You know, I just don’t like to see him hurt. And I’m sure you don’t like seeing Teren hurt either.”
I sighed, remembering Teren’s ripped clothing, the dried blood that I knew had come from his already healed body. “No, I don’t. I’ll talk to him again, Trace. I promise.”
Her tone brightened and she stood up, her feet padding across her carpet. “Good! Maybe if they do, I can see a bit more of my boyfriend.” I heard her walk into the bathroom as I mentally agreed with her – I’d love to see more of my guy too. She started running water and I heard her lightly giggle. “Did I mention we moved in together?”
Giggling a little myself, I let my tension disappear, if just for a moment. “No, I had to hear it from Ben.” I relaxed back into my chair, wishing I had some blood to sip, and smiled at Tracey through the phone. “Spill.”
Tracey giggled as she got ready for her bath and proceeded to tell me all about it. As she went into the details of him asking her to live with him in the middle of one of their adventurous sex acts, I felt the stress slide off of me, and let myself just be a girlfriend. I laughed along with her story and commented in all the right places, and silently thanked Tracey for unknowingly easing my mind. Sometimes, I wished I could tell her how often she did that.
I could have used Tracey’s easing powers that Saturday afternoon, when Teren, after being gone for most of the week and all of that morning, rushed home with Ben following as close on his heels as a human could. Having felt him approach, I was waiting in the entryway, clutching the naked woman statue to stop myself from blurring to the parking lot and destroying his car again. He haltingly walked into the room, restraint clear in his features as he took jerky steps towards me.
We were trying to learn to control the strong pull we felt towards each other when we were reunited. It was a constant struggle, something we had to contain, much like I always had to contain my teeth from popping down.
At human speed he walked over to me, his movements not looking natural and breezy, but like a bad stop-motion movie, halting and restarting. I smelled the outside world on his clothes as he got near me. Using that to control myself (and also using the lingering fire in my belly, from the fact that he was gone so often), I closed my eyes and took in long pulls. The s
mell of the bay danced on his flesh, along with the unmistakable smell of fish. He’d been on the wharf today.
I heard Ben enter the house and sigh softly, muttering something about how weird that was, before turning to walk down a hallway that led to one of the side buildings. I tried to listen to him for as long as I could, trying to ground myself, but eventually the pull of Teren was too strong and I ignored Ben. I ignored everyone - Imogen and Alanna talking upstairs, Jack working on one of the cars in the driveway, and Halina’s stone-silent sleeping presence - everyone.
No one existed but Teren. My anger faded as my breaths increased. I could hear his increase as well as the draw pulled him closer to me. When he was a few inches from me, we both lost control. Then it was much like it always was when we got together; our restraint dissolved as the tension became unbearable. Then it was searching hands and probing tongues, small gasps and heavy groans. Then he was pressing his hard body against mine as my fingers tangled into his dark hair. Then it was a rush of desire and my mind begging him to take me. And it could be anywhere, right here on the rim of the fountain would be fine, just…take me.
Conversion Book Two: Bloodlines Page 36
