Mary’s Virgin: Vampire Romance

by Iva Britt

  She remembered her mother weakly grabbing her hand while the rest of her family sat vigil around the bed. “Your father will need you, even after he takes a new wife.”

  That was when it hit Lucy, that what had tried to take everyone else in her family had finally succeeded in snatching up her mother and was squeezing every last bit of life from her.

  Lucy was fourteen when her father finally remarried and Will came into her life. His mother was a widow, her husband killed by Native American hands. He’d been a ranch hand murdered on a cattle drive.

  Her father and stepmother's marriage was one of convenience really. Mary needed a father figure for her three sons and Lucy’s father knew she was too young to run a household by herself. They didn’t court, Lucy knew that there was no love between them when they first got together. The town had merely put two lonely people together and it had worked.

  It probably couldn’t have been a smoother transition. Mary was quiet and didn’t place any rules on Lucy and her younger sister, Grace. The boys were helpful and there were rarely fights. Honestly, Lucy didn’t consider Will, Abraham and Caleb her brothers because they didn’t act like siblings. They merely coexisted.

  That was nearly ten years ago. Mary and Lucy’s father lived on their farm alone, even Caleb the youngest no longer lived at home. Lucy lived in a boarding house closer to the center of town as she was the teacher for the one-room schoolhouse that she could see from her window. She was bordering “old maid” territory but she didn’t care too much. She was far too busy changing lives and trying to make her way in the world to worry about being married. It was also an agreement in her town that the schoolmarm was pure and virtuous and therefore she remained single. Lucy only felt regretful when she thought about the others. Grace had been married off the moment she turned eighteen and already had three children. Abraham and his wife had one. Even young Caleb had a wife. The only one who was unmatched like herself was Will.

  Will knew by the age of seven that he wanted to be a cowboy like his father and by fifteen when their families became one he was already well on his way. He rode a horse like he was born on one and was helping ranch hands nearly the entire time they’d lived under the same roof. Will had no home because he was almost always on a run or sleeping in the barn at various ranches all over, some as far as a hundred miles away. Lucy knew that his mother worried about him, she didn’t want him to see the same fate as his father. Will could not be reasoned with because not only was he good at being a cowboy, he was also very confident and stubborn to a fault.

  “Miss Thompson.”

  Lucy was brought back to her senses when one of her first-grade students named Ruth called her name. The child had stayed behind because she was struggling with her arithmetic. Her fair freckled face looked at her concerned.

  “I’m so sorry Ruth,” Lucy apologized. “I suddenly lost myself in thought.”

  The little girl looked relieved. “Thank goodness, I thought something was wrong.”

  They resumed their math lesson without further daydreams and Lucy sent the little girl home feeling happy that she had helped her understand subtraction better. Situations like that gave her the conviction that she had made the correct choice. She was meant to be a teacher.

  After washing up and having a bowl of soup down with the other tenants, Lucy retired to her room to do some planning for her lessons tomorrow and read a while before she went to bed. She’d recently purchased a romance and had to force herself to go to bed. Maybe she herself wasn’t in love, but it was still nice to escape to a place where someone one was.

  In what seemed like no time at all, her room was dark and her candle had burned down to a small stub. She could barely see the words on the pages in the dim glow. Admitting defeat, Lucy shut her book and blew out the candle. Images of lovers trying to find their happily ever after danced through her mind as she nestled herself under the covers.

  She was just about to fall asleep when there was an urgent knocking at her door. At first, Lucy thought that she was imagining it. The tapping grew louder and louder until she knew that it was very much in the now and if she didn’t answer it the other tenants on her floor would get angry.

  As Lucy rose from the bed and threw a shawl over her shoulders, she tried to figure out who would be trying to wake her in the middle of the night. Her room was small so her family often did not visit. Had one of the tenants found themselves in some sort of distress? Had they gotten locked out of their room?

  “Coming!” Lucy hissed as she groped in the dark for a new candle and fumbled as she tried to light it. When she finally had a small flame she dashed to the door and unlocked it. She couldn’t believe who was on the other side of it.

  It was Will.

  Chapter 2

  Even though they hadn’t been close, Lucy still recognized Will’s dark blonde hair and his broad shoulders. He was panting heavily and his eyes were wrenched shut, clearly in pain. Lucy surveyed his body and discovered in the poor light that he was holding his side with his hands and the shirt beneath them was stained with a dark liquid. Was that blood? What had on Earth was going on?”

  Lucy scanned the hallway, seeing if her neighbors had been woken by the noise before she yanked Will by the elbow into her room. If anyone saw her shut the door behind them, they would make assumptions and her job would be in jeopardy, but she knew that she couldn’t leave him standing in the doorway.

  “What happened?” she hissed. “What are you doing here?”

  Will continued to hyperventilate as he tried to form words. “I...I...got hit.”

  Now that she was closer to him she could see the shaft of the arrow sticking out of his side. “Jesus Christ, Will!” Lucy said. She gingerly guided him to the bed. “You need a doctor! What are you expecting me to do?”

  “I needed a place to hide,” he retorted. “I don’t think this was a random incident with an Indian. I think this was planned.”

  “So stay with Mary and Father!” Lucy bit back trying to not raise her point to the point of penetrating the walls of her room. “Even though you are my step-brother I could get in serious trouble for having you here over night! I’m the school teacher, I’m supposed to be virtuous and pure!”

  “If what I think is happening is true the first place these people would look is with our parents. You want them to be harmed too?”

  The silence that followed after that stung. Lucy couldn’t disagree. Whatever was happening didn’t need any more victims. “What trouble have you gotten yourself into?” she whispered before she moved to her dresser and pulled out a washcloth and wet it in the large bowl she kept on top of it.

  “I’ll tell you after we get this arrow head out of me,” Will replied.

  Lucy tried to keep calm as he explained what she needed to do. She was to cut a hole around the wound and then she would pull on the shaft as hard as she could. “It’s the only way to try to get it out without lodging it in me forever,” Will explained. Lucy looked at him like he was insane before he told her to reach into his pocket. She found a knife there and she held it in her trembling hands, looking at her step-brother’s angry side.

  “I’m sorry.” She whispered as she brought the tip of the knife to his flesh. She resigned herself before she penetrated his skin.

  ***

  What felt like an eternity later, the bloodied arrow was on her dresser and the water in her bowl was tinted red. Will lay on top of her covers in and out of sleep. He’d screamed so much, she couldn’t believe that no one had kicked her door down thinking she was doing something scandalous.

  She was exhausted. Lucy knew that in a few short hours, the sun would rise and she would need to head to the school house. There was no way that she could sleep now. Will needed a doctor. Each time she wiped at his wound with a fresh cloth, she knew what they had done was only a temporary solution. He could get an infection, he could die. They might not have close, but Will was still her step-brother. She didn’t want him to die. She would neve
r be able to forgive herself.

  “Hey,” Lucy jumped when he suddenly stirred, his voice weak. “I promised I would tell you the trouble I’m in.”

  “That’s okay,” Lucky tried to assure, “You rest.”

  The man shook his head, “I owe it to you.” He paused collecting his thoughts in his incoherent state. “My boss, the ranch owner...you wouldn’t know him. He...He offered me a partnership. The rest of the hands are mad. I think they might want me dead.”

  “That’s awful Will. Being a cowboy seems like a dangerous job.”

  He smiled as he eyes began to close, his long eyelashes something that Lucy had never noticed before. “I have no regrets. Much more exciting than teaching kids how to read.”

  Lucy ignored his comment and cleaned his wound one more time. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to surprise the shit out of them when I show up alive.”

  By the time Lucy found an old piece of fabric she could use to dress the wound, he was sleeping again. Despite the situation, Lucy found herself smiling. In all the years that had passed Will’s drive to be like his father hadn’t changed. In fact, they had almost met the same demise. She tried to carefully tie the cloth around his middle when once more Will opened his eyes, this time only slightly. He shocked her when he placed one of his hands over hers. Lucy tried not to flinch or panic. They’d never touched before, they’d never even hugged as children.

  “I always thought you were pretty,” he murmured obviously more asleep than awake. “Does that make me a creep?”

  Lucy stared him dumbfounded. Was he being serious? They barely spoke to each another when they lived at home and now he was telling her that she was pretty? She watched his eyes flutter closed as sleep consumed him one last time. Lucy slid to the ground beside her bed, never in a million years expecting the night to have played out like it had. There were so many unanswered questions. How was she going to explain her blood-stained wash cloths when she went to wash them? How was she going to sneak Will out or get the doctor to see him without people assuming the worst? How on Earth was she going to teach twenty-five students as young as five and as old as seventeen after having a sleepless night?

  Lucy tried to find strength in herself. She had saved Will’s life tonight. She felt important because for whatever reason, he’d decided to come to her and not anyone else. She thought of what he had just said to her and tried to reassess their relationship. Maybe they had been closer than she thought? Or maybe she was so tired and shocked that she didn’t know what to think anymore.

  She reached up for his hand and gently cupped her hand in his. “I always thought you were handsome,” she whispered into the night. “Does that make me a creep too?” More so, she thought, does it make me unfit to be the town’s school teacher?

  Chapter 3

  Somehow, she wasn’t sure how, but Lucy got Will out of her room and to the doctor without anyone in the boarding house becoming wiser. Feeling like the walking dead, she threw the dirty water out of her window and took all her spoiled rags and brought them down to the basement where they had a hearth to heat the boarding house and burned them. It felt overly dramatic, but it was easier to explain than why a bleeding man came and visited her in the middle of the night.

  The days that followed returned to normal. She taught the children reading, math and the history of their young nation, tutored those that needed extra help and then returned to the boarding house to keep to herself before she went to sleep. It was boring and just like she liked it.

  It wasn’t until almost a week later that things became amiss. This time at least, Will didn’t come to her in the middle of the night bleeding. It was as she was locking the schoolhouse for the weekend. The children had long since run home and after she triple checked that everything was just so, she was ready to relax.

  “Hello, Lucy.” She spun around to see Will stand there with a box in his hands.

  “Will…” she sputtered, instinctively looking to see if anyone was watching. “What are you doing?”

  He smiled up at her. “I wanted to thank you for helping me.”

  “Who could possibly turn away someone with an arrow in their side?”

  Will stepped closer, so that only a few stairs separated them. “Please,” he insisted, handing her the box. “Open it.”

  Lucy’s mind went back to holding his hand and of him telling her that he’d always thought she was pretty. They’d never exchanged gifts. They’d never told each other how they felt. They had just coexisted. What was going on?

  Tentatively, Lucy opened the parchment paper and was stunned when she found a box with beautifully ornate hair combs inside. It was obvious that they were expensive.

  “Will, this is lovely, but it's too much.”

  He shook his head before he changed the subject. “What are you doing tonight?”

  Lucy found her heart racing and she didn’t know why. “My usual routine. Dinner at the boarding house. Reading before I fall asleep.”

  “Come with me.” Once more Lucy looked around to see if anyone was watching. Will caught on to what she was doing and frowned. “Do you really think people are to judge you for spending time with your step-brother?”

  Lucy assumed probably not, but ever since she’d help with the arrow, things didn’t seem the same. He never looked at her like he was looking at her now, he never gave her gifts.

  “Come on, Lucy.”

  “Oh, alright.” She finally agreed and followed him away from the school and the center of town where she hoped that no one noticed when she wasn’t at dinner.

  ***

  He took her to the ranch and into one of the barns that doubled as a storage shed and barracks for the cowboys when they were home. Knowing that she was concerned about being seen, Will had Lucy wait in a makeshift seating area of boxes and crates while he snuck an extra ration of food from the fire where the cowboys were all congregating. When he finally returned, he placed a bowl of beef stew in front of her.

  “You chose to live here instead of with our parents?” she asked intrigued.

  “How is it different than living in that boarding house?” he questioned.

  “I’m twenty-four,” she countered. “I’m independent.”

  “So am I.”

  “It just seems…” She took in the vast barn and his small living space. “...lonely.”

  “No lonelier than eating whatever your landlord cooks and reading in your room before bed.”

  He gave her a long, scrutinous look with his brown eyes before Lucy admitted. “Fair enough.”

  Will rose from the table and searched among the piles before he returned with a bottle of whiskey. “I’ve been saving this for a special occasion,” he explained. “I think tonight is just the time.”

  It was Lucy that gave him the long look this time. Who was this person that she thought she'd grown up with? Will poured her the glass and after they clinked their cups, she surprised herself by draining its contents in one swallow.

  “Oh, don’t have the town folk seeing you do that,” Will mocked and when Lucy showed him a crude gesture, he filled her cup again. “Or that.”

  This continued until they’d each had three shots and Lucy felt warm and giggly. Will went to fill her glass a fourth time and she shook her head no. She watched him refill his own when she asked, “So do you think someone still wants to kill you?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’m sure they were shocked when I came back here, but it’s been awfully quiet. Even the boss stopped talking about the future.”

  “Who would want to kill you? You are the best cowboy on this ranch!”

  “That’s the issue,” he replied and Lucy almost thought he looked like he was rushing. “You really think I’m the best cowboy here?”

  Lucy nodded, feeling sluggish as the world moved with her. “You’ve been at this as long as I’ve known you.”

  Will stood up and closed the space between them. If Lucy wasn’t drunk she
would have felt anxious or even moved, but she remained unmoving as her heart pounding against her ribs.

  “I’m sorry...I need to do this.” Then he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers firmly.

  A sober Lucy would have tried to figure out what led up to this moment. Instead, she kissed him back, letting her instincts take over.

  Chapter 4

  It was frantic after that. Will pulled her to her feet and continue to crush his lips against hers as he guided her toward where a makeshift bed had been made near the straw. There were sheets on top of the straw and a pillow nestled in the corner, only visible if someone walked completely into his living area and even though Lucy was drunk she prayed that no one did.

  What were they doing anyway? This should have been wrong. She should have been having sick taboo sibling thoughts about him, but she wasn’t. Will had never felt like a brother, just a boy that lived in her home and asked her to pass the salt at dinner. She thought about how she always thought he was brave and how she always thought his eyes were the perfect color for his complexion. God, what was the matter with her?

  Breathless, they broke apart and he stared at her. “I’m only going to move forward if you tell me it’s okay.” His face looked like he wanted nothing more than for her to tell him to continue. Why had they never talked about this?

  Lucy’s head was spinning. She could feel the whiskey tingling on her lips. The sensible part of her told that they should talk about this, that they were moving too fast, but that part of her was smothered by the part that was filled with desire. “It’s okay,” she replied.

  Will pushed her onto the bed and covered her with his body. His fierce kisses moved to the rest of her body; her neck, her collarbone and even her breasts once he freed her shirt from her skirt. Lucy made sounds of pleasure in spite of herself, and she couldn’t believe that she was enjoying something so much.