My stomach grumbled ominously and he chuckled again. “You are so human. Hungry again?”
I nodded and eased the quilt from my legs, preparing to get out of bed. Before I'd even managed to push the covers halfway down, Lucas was picking me up in his arms.
“I really think I could walk, you know,” I grumbled, as he flipped open the door handle and headed towards the stairs. I was still feeling a little tender about my human stupidity.
Lucas inhaled a deep breath against the soft skin of my neck and I shivered. “And miss this?” he whispered. “I don't think so.”
He stopped at the bathroom and dropped me onto my feet. “Call when you are ready.” He looked smug; obviously pleased he'd remembered my other human requirements this morning. I completed my morning toiletries with little delay, although I wasted some time trying to tame my wild curls into something vaguely decent. When I'd given up, I stepped slowly to the door and opened it. Lucas was waiting for me, leaning against the wall and lifted me easily into his arms again.
We descended the stairs and he carried me over to the couch, dropping me down onto it. The room was quiet this morning, with nobody to be seen.
“Where is everyone?”
Lucas spent a moment listening before he answered. “Marianne is talking to Gwynn upstairs. William is in the library. Striker is tinkering with your car again. Acenith and Ripley left a few minutes ago to hunt and Rowena said she was going into town to pick up supplies. And I would assume given you are so much better and his nursing duties are no longer required, Ben has gone to work.
He'd managed to astound me again. I honestly didn't think I would ever get used to this. “What does Ben do?”
“Social worker. He provides guidance to disadvantaged teens in Billings.”
“A vampire social worker?”
Lucas smiled. “We all need something to fill in our endless time, Charlotte. Ben enjoys working with teenagers; he provides them with advice and assistance, finds places for them to live if they are homeless.”
“You all have jobs?” The concept was a strange one, something else to comprehend.
“We have to appear ordinary, Charlotte. If we were to sit around and do nothing, people would wonder how we survived financially.” He smiled ruefully. “We are tax-paying citizens and we all hold down jobs, at some stage or another.”
I didn't get a chance to respond, my stomach did it for me, growling at an indecently loud level.
“You are hungry,” Lucas stated the obvious. “What would you like for breakfast?”
I eyed him suspiciously. “Do you even know how to make breakfast?”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “I have degrees in everything from philosophy to genetics – I'm sure I can figure out something.”
I couldn't help rolling my eyes. “Yes, philosophy and genetics have such a lot to do with cooking.” I held up my arms, knowing it was useless to suggest walking anywhere. “Why don't you take me through to the kitchen and I'll give you a cooking lesson?”
Lucas did as I requested, settling me at the small breakfast nook and then he eyed me confidently, hands resting lightly on the bench. “What would you like?”
I reluctantly drew my eyes away from the neck of his shirt, where I could see a glimpse of pale smooth skin and a smattering of dark hair. The man's entire body was a distraction. “How about we start with something simple? Have you ever made toast before?”
“No. But I'm always willing to learn.”
He located a toaster in one of the many cupboards and soon had bread placed in it, while I watched him put a pot of coffee on. “Why do you even have a kitchen?”
Lucas shrugged, concentrating on spooning coffee into the machine. “It came with the house and besides, it would look odd if humans visited and we didn't have one.”
“Do you get human visitors?”
“Of course. To integrate successfully into the human world, we become associated with people. It's impossible not to.” He flicked on the coffee machine and watched attentively as the water began to drip through.
It would explain how he could make coffee; he must have some basic skills so people would assume he was human. Despite his apparent skill with coffee, it seemed completely bizarre to be teaching a grown man how to make toast, one of the simplest things in the world. Not a man, I mentally reminded myself. A vampire.
This internal conversation with myself reminded me of another subject I wanted to discuss. “Is Katie really William's sister? She's human, isn't she?”
Lucas placed the toast on a plate and began to butter it carefully. He glanced up at me, his gaze curious. “Have you had contact with William's family?”
“No, I haven't tried to reach them yet. I wondered if they were still alive, given Katie can only be about four at most.”
He turned back to the toast. “Katie is completely human and she's not William's sister. It's a cover story we agreed on to make things easier for Katie to understand. She would struggle to comprehend the reality. They are related, but William was created during the Vietnam War. He'd left a wife and child behind in the States when he went overseas to fight, and he was attacked by a vampire. When the change was complete, William was alone, with no idea of what had happened to him. Usually the vampire responsible for creating the youngling stays by their side and teaches them our ways.”
“I guess that didn't happen with William?”
Lucas shook his head. “William found himself alone, deep within the Vietnam jungle. Without guidance, he was terrified and suffering from the extreme thirst which assaults us when we first rise.”
I had the sense something terrible had happened and waited silently for Lucas to continue. He pushed the plate away, turning to the coffee pot and retrieving a mug from an overhead cupboard.
“Unfortunately, William killed indiscriminately when he first awoke. He stumbled through the jungle, came across his own platoon, and slaughtered many of them before his thirst was sated. Horrified by what he'd done, William didn't care what happened to him. He stayed within the jungle for many months, slaughtering both Viet Cong and American military alike. By the time he began to gain some control over himself, finding a sense of the man he had once been, he felt he was beyond redemption.”
Lucas placed the plate of buttered toast and a mug of coffee on the table before me and sat down.
“What happened?” I questioned, the desire for breakfast forgotten. The knowledge of what happened to William; the agony he must have felt when he discovered what he'd done was breathtaking. How could he live with himself? How did he function each day, with those memories?
“William had been listed as MIA for months, without his knowledge. When he walked into a platoon camp he'd stumbled across and tried to confess to what happened, the Military Police wouldn't listen. They believed he'd been taken as a prisoner of war and tortured – and the stress had caused a psychotic episode. No matter what he said, how many times he tried to make them believe him, they wouldn't. Instead he was classified as mentally ill and shipped back to the United States where he was placed in a military hospital for a number of months.”
“How did he survive in a hospital? What about the need for blood?” The thought of William in a hospital and surrounded by injured service personnel was horrifying. They would be easy targets for a vampire and although I was curious about what Lucas would reveal, part of me cringed from the revelations he was making, didn't want to know what had happened.
Lucas linked his fingers together on the table. “I don't believe even William himself could answer how he managed to remain there without killing anyone. He relied on stealing from the blood bank in the hospital to survive, and used sheer willpower to keep his desire for blood to a minimum.”
“He said last night he didn't have his desire for blood under control,” I pointed out quietly.
“He struggles with the need for blood, every day,” Lucas admitted. “William battles a two-fold war, not only wanting human blood, but he suffers from PTSD since Vie
tnam. Everyday occurrences can trigger a reaction which he struggles to control and his response is generally violent and something else to add to his guilt.”
“Not surprising,” I muttered. How could he not suffer from stress after what he'd done? Killing your own compatriots in a war situation could only be unspeakable to recall. “Does he still… kill people?”
Lucas maintained eye contact with me, swallowing nervously before he spoke again. “He hasn't killed a human since 1972.”
“That's a good thing, isn't it?”
I didn't understand the dark look in Lucas's eyes, the sheer magnitude of pain within them. What could have happened that was worse than what he'd already told me? The answer occurred to me abruptly, and even before I asked, I feared I knew the answer. “What happened to his wife and child?”
“William was released from hospital in early 1974. His wife had been visiting him in hospital and William had learned to control the bloodlust. He thought he could manage it when he returned home.”
Squeezing my eyes shut I chewed my lip, harshly enough to make it sting. “He killed them?”
“Not exactly.”
“I don't understand.” Opening my eyes again, I stared at him, confused by his words.
“Jolene, William's wife, was working as a secretary. William wasn't stable enough to find a job and was still coming to terms with his condition. She came home from work early one day and discovered William with a bag of blood. He'd been stealing from the local hospital since he'd returned home, to keep his thirst under control.”
“What happened?”
“His wife was naturally horrified by what she saw. You can imagine what was going through her head – to come home and find her husband drinking human blood, to see his fangs extended. She fled before he could stop her, before he could try and explain.”
“He hadn't told her what he'd become?”
Lucas threw me a disbelieving look. “Do you imagine she could have understood, even if he'd attempted to explain?”
“I did,” I countered.
“You are the exception to the rule, Charlotte.” He lifted my hand and kissed my knuckles. “I imagine Jolene couldn't believe what she was seeing when she caught William drinking blood. She took off, before he could stop her. William waited for her to return home to no avail, contacting her parents, family, and friends – anyone he could think of to ask if they'd seen her. Hours later, the police arrived on his doorstep to give him the bad news. Jolene had been speeding in her haste to escape from William and lost control of her vehicle, she crashed off a bridge near their home and she and their son both drowned in the river.”
Tears brimmed against my eyelashes as I learned what had happened to William's wife and child. “How did he survive such a terrible tragedy?”
The shrug he gave me said everything and nothing. “How do any of us survive a tragedy? For a long time, I believe William didn't want to survive, didn't understand how he could. Despite everything that had eventuated, he adored Jolene and his son and I'm quite certain he would have never physically hurt them. He wasn't given the chance to find out however, and for many years afterwards, he wandered aimlessly around the world, searching for salvation, searching for peace. He only began to believe in himself again when he met Gwynn. She has gradually put the pieces of William back together, made him whole, and created the man you see today. He is still filled with self-doubt and recrimination, but he's functioning and with Gwynn's assistance he has found a peace he hasn't known for many years.”
“So how does Katie fit in to the picture?”
“Ah, Katie. Where this conversation began in the first place.” He pushed the forgotten plate of toast towards me. “Eat, Charlotte.”
Diligently I picked up a slice of toast and took a bite.
“William had refrained from having contact with his family after he lost Jolene and his son. He had realized – despite the lack of guidance from a mature vampire – that he would eventually have to leave because he couldn't hide the fact that he wasn't aging. For William, his self-loathing made him leave his family and wander for many years. It was only after he'd settled with Gwynn that he expressed a desire to know what had become of them. He traced down descendants, discovered the majority of them had died and there were very few left. His last remaining niece had problems with drugs and alcohol, had dabbled in prostitution to support her habits. She died about six months before William started looking for his family and Katie was already in the foster system – she was about eighteen months old at the time.”
“What happened?”
“William approached the Kiss, requested our assistance to retrieve Katie from the foster system and have her come live with Gwynn and him, here with us.” For a moment, Lucas's eyes clouded over and he looked deeply troubled. “As much as I wanted to give William his wish, it would be terribly dangerous for Katie to live with us permanently. Children are not mature enough to be constantly vigilant; they naturally fall over and scrape their knees and elbows, creating a risk of an accident because there is blood involved. I had to deny his request; it was a risk I couldn't accept for a tiny child.”
“But she is here,” I pointed out, shivering inwardly at his casual mention of an 'accident'. An accident was falling over and scraping your knee, in my book. What he was eluding to was something else entirely, and the thought of little Katie being drained dry was too horrifying to contemplate.
Lucas shrugged. “William was deeply distressed, as we all were, at the idea of Katie growing up in foster homes. We all spent time pondering the various ways in which we could make her life better, without putting her at undue risk. Marianne came up with the solution. She is naturally outgoing, and has made friends here in Puckhaber. One of them is an elderly lady on the other side of town, Cecilia Field. She was willing to have Katie live with her on a permanent basis. We provide for Katie financially and she is well loved and well looked after by Cecilia. We bring Katie over to visit with us regularly, for a few hours at a time, and of course, William and Gwynn visit with her.”
“Does this Cecilia know what you are?”
Lucas looked distinctly uncomfortable for a moment and I had the feeling he was keeping something from me. “Yes, she does.”
“Is she a vampire, too?”
Lucas shook his head firmly. “No. She isn't vampire.”
“But Katie knows? That you're vampires. How do you get a four year old child to keep a secret like that?”
“Katie is bright for her age; she knows why it must remain secret.” His voice was clipped as he spoke. “It was the best option we had at the time and we take each day as it comes. It is all we can do for now.” His blue eyes were carefully blank, his entire expression neutral and I had the impression this subject was one he no longer wished to discuss.
I drained my coffee cup and sat back in the seat. “You did a good job of breakfast.” I wanted time to consider what Lucas had told me, mull it over more carefully in privacy. I still had the impression he was keeping something from me. It seemed after learning he was a vampire, there was nothing else to withhold. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he had his reasons.
“I'm glad it met with your approval. Now,” he leaned forward, crossing his arms on the table, “what would you like to do today?”
I looked at him curiously. “I didn't think I'd be doing anything. You won't even let me walk around the house.”
“You must be a little stir crazy by now. Would you like to go and sit outside, or we could go for a short drive somewhere?” He thought for a second. “We could go to your cottage, collect your art supplies and easel.”
Mention of the cottage made me frown. “Damn.”
Lucas raised an eyebrow. “What's the matter?”
“I haven't thought about the cottage since I've been here. My rent will be late and Maude, Hank and Lonnie must be wondering where I am.”
“The rent has been taken care of and I dropped in to see Hank. He thinks I've taken you skiing in Aspen as
a Christmas gift.”
“You paid my rent?” It made me uncomfortable, knowing he'd paid something that was my responsibility.
“Yes, of course,” Lucas replied quietly. “You weren't in any fit state to do anything about it.”
“Hank knows about you and I?”
“He knows as much as he wants to know.” He leaned across the table to place his hand over mine. “Unlike you, the majority of Puckhaber Falls' residents find me intimidating. They don't know what it is, but they recognize I'm different.”
I lapsed into a fit of giggles and Lucas stared blankly at me. “I'm sorry, but if you think you're intimidating to everyone in Puckhaber Falls, you're sadly mistaken.”
“Explain, please.” Much to my amusement, he looked completely bewildered.
“Lucas, have you ever looked at yourself in a mirror?” Suddenly I remembered another myth I'd heard. “Hang on a minute, a vampire can't…”
He sighed. Deeply. “Myth. What were you going to tell me?”
“Lucas, you're the most attractive man I've ever seen in my life. No. Attractive isn't the right word.” I thought for a few seconds, running through my vocabulary, searching for the correct word. “You are beyond beautiful. Devastatingly handsome – yes, that might just about cover it. I think every woman in Puckhaber Falls is in love with you.”
He stared at me, a frown puckering his smooth forehead and drawing his eyebrows closer together. “You can't be serious.”
I leaned forward to touch his face, smoothing out the frown that creased his perfect features. “I am serious. But it's okay, I'll pretend you're intimidating, if you want.”
It did the trick. He blinked and his features smoothed out as he looked into my eyes with amusement twinkling in his.
“Now, how about we do go for a drive to the cottage?”
Chapter 15: Imprinting
Lucas drove cautiously down the gravel drive leading away from the house, restricting his speed to a snail's pace, to ensure my ribs weren't jarred by the experience.
Once on the highway, it was a different story as he accelerated smoothly until the speedometer was reaching well over ninety. I gripped the seat edge anxiously and Lucas noticed, glancing across. “What is the matter?”
Knowledge Revealed Page 18
