by Liddie Cain
“Oh.”
Her face remained stunned. “I guess that explains why he left.”
I frowned. “Maybe. We haven’t spoken about it.”
“I believe it is probably a conversation you should have if you are going to be working closely with him. Don’t you?”
“I don’t know, Mom. It was a long time ago.”
“Time might heal all wounds, darling, but it does nothing about the scars. I’m not as worried if it is Mac, though. I’ll never understand why he left as he did. He was crazy about you.”
She wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. Of all people, she had witnessed the very worst of the breakup and I was sure there were plenty of times she blamed him for my lack of serious relationships after him. I had dated some. There had even been a couple that I brought with me to meet my parents. But none had clicked the way Mac had.
“Just be careful.”
“Of course, Mom.”
She leaned back and tucked my hair behind my ears. We looked quite similar. Both of us were tall and lean and I had her smile and brown eyes. My hair was lighter, more of a dirty blond than her brunette. I could only hope that I would age just as beautifully as she had.
“You’re going to cause quite a stir in town.”
I grinned. “I know.”
“They are all out there waiting to see if I am going to make a scene.”
“I know. Joletta and Lynn have both been out there for nearly half an hour pretending to shop. But you never make a scene.”
“Right, which is why they are out there waiting to see if it will push me over the edge.” She rolled her eyes, but her expression showed her amusement.
“Well, watch this,” she said under her breath to me before she opened the office door and spoke more loudly. “Roz, baby, I will of course be here for the donation seminar. We must be good neighbors to our future vampire residents. Call me later!”
Then she breezed out of my office before making eye contact with several of the ladies still browsing in the shop as she headed back out to her car. “Hi, Lynn! How is your momma? And Joletta, I love the shorter hair on you.”
By the time I got back up to the front desk, three of them, including both Joletta and Lynn, were already signing up to attend the seminar. I knew that half of those that came would never agree to be a donor, but there would be a good crowd since I had advertised a demonstration to take place. The town gossips would never miss that.
Joletta, especially. “Will the new town vampire be performing the educational demonstration, dear Roz?”
“Yes. It is Macory Jacobs. Remember him?”
“Your old high school boyfriend?” Lynn, one of Joletta’s shadows, asked with a dramatic gasp.
“Yes. Of course he wasn’t a vampire then. He is the new magistrate for our district.”
“Imagine that,” Joletta whispered. This kind of news hadn’t hit Steiner in quite a long time. It would be the best piece of gossip in town for weeks and here she was with the first-hand news to tell about it. She and my mother had shared a polite small town rivalry their whole lives. Joletta, being one year older had kept it from being too vicious since they were never in direct competition with each other. She had passed on a couple of pageant crowns and a homecoming queen crown to my mom. She’d always been nice enough to me, but a large part of that was likely because I was never like them. I favored Mom strongly, but I never had interest in the beauty routines that would have put me in the running for my own crowns. Joletta and the rest of Mom’s old beauty pageant pals were all patrons of my spa, spoke to me with honeyed southern smiles, and likely found plenty of amusement talking about Evelyn having a nerd for a daughter.
My looks might have come from the beauty queen Evelyn, but my brain genetics were direct from my father, Ellison Hunt. My mother may have made some small attempts to teach me how to do my hair and makeup when I was young, but she really did love that I was more like my father. She always had new books in the house for us, sat through documentaries, science fiction movies and TV shows, listened to us debate superheroes, cleaned up backyard science experiments and lovingly kissed us goodbye as we headed out to fan conventions or historical festivals.
My dad had been thrilled when vampires went public and I was sure I would get an excited phone call from him later after my mom got home and explained to him what was going on.
The last appointment for the day was gone and Meg and I were closing up the front. My main massage therapist, room-mate and best friend, Darby, walked out from the back. She moved with a quiet grace. Her red curly hair was pulled back into an artfully messy bun since she was at work, but those shiny curls reached midway down her back when left free. Her complexion was pale but blemish free and illuminated by large blue eyes and a friendly smile. She was taller than me and more meticulous with her appearance. Her makeup, clothing and hair styles were always tasteful and feminine. People noticed her.
Darby had always been in my life. My mother said as soon as we laid eyes on each other in our preschool room when we were two years old, we were best friends. I walked straight over to her and took her hand. She spent more time at our house than she did her own once we got a little older. Things were not as stable in her own family. By the time we got to high school, Darby basically lived with mine.
She came behind the reception desk to put her client’s file back away and smiled at me as she got close. “I heard we attracted a crowd.”
“Oh yes, Joletta and her gang showed up to see if my mom would finally lose her composure.”
Darby and Meg both laughed. Meg had her purse in her hand and waved goodbye. “I would not dare to miss the donor meeting. My sister is coming with me, too. Y’all have a good night!”
Darby and I both waved goodbye as Meg headed out the front door. I turned to shut down the computer as Darby switched off the lights and asked of my parents, “What do Eve ‘n Ell think?”
“Mom was cautious, but somewhat mollified when I told her it was Mac. Haven’t spoken to Dad yet, but if he is concerned, he will call.”
Darby was quiet, and I knew she was turning thoughts about Mac over in her head. She and Mac had been good friends when he and I had been together. He had treated her like a sister that he should protect since her natural beauty drew a lot of attention. Since Darby didn’t have the best home life, Mac had become one of the few men she trusted. When he dumped me and disappeared, it hurt both of us.
Her father had never been a part of her life, and her mother had frequent problems with the police due to substance abuse. My mother had been an expert at dealing with Darby’s mom and had managed to keep Darby out of foster care when her mother was in jail. They never told us the details, but as an adult, I guessed that they got Darby’s mom to agree to let them be some kind of legal guardian for her. Once Darby was old enough to read and write, my parents had given her a cell phone and they went and picked her up whenever she called to say she needed them.
I handed her purse to her then picked up mine. “Eating dinner with me tonight?”
“If you want to eat a little late,” she responded as we both headed to the front door. “I want to take a different group class at the gym and it doesn’t start until seven. Gonna run some errands for my gran before--” Her words halted as the glass of the shop’s front window exploded right in front of us.
I saw the movement of the brick flying right before it hit. I only had time to flinch away. Shards of glass scraped along my skin as I turned my body into Darby’s to shield her. Her arm wrapped around me as she lunged away from the window, pulling both of us to the floor as glass rained across us.
“Vampire-loving whore!” an angry male voice called from outside.
“You’ll be sorry for bringing that kind of trash into this town!” another called a moment later.
Darby spotted the flame flying toward us before I did, “Roz! Get back!”
I saw a bottle with flames flying behind it as it was thrown. I scrambled backward, ign
oring the glass that bit into my hands and legs, screaming at Darby to hurry before we both were burned.
But the impact never came. I looked over my shoulder and stopped. Mac stood in the midst of the broken window, his back to us. He’d caught the flaming bottle of alcohol. He glanced back at me as blood trailed down across my face. His green eyes glowed; even as he stood there in the dimming sunlight I could see they were illuminated. His lips parted as his fangs snapped down. I stopped breathing, frightened that those fangs were a reaction to mine and Darby’s wounds.
But in a flash, he whirled and took that flaming bottle back from where it’d come. The sounds of two grown men screaming quickly followed. I jerked around and hugged Darby. Both of us were shaking. She pulled back enough to tug her phone out of her pocket and call the police. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking as I started looking for how badly she was hurt. She grabbed my hand. “Roz, your leg.”
I looked down to see a large shard of glass stabbed into my right outer thigh. My shorts had offered no protection against the broken glass, and there were dozens of bleeding lacerations all over my legs. Darby had on black jeans that had protected her legs, but both of us had cuts on our arms. When I turned to look at my leg, she let out a choked cry at the sight of my back. “Oh Roz, we’ve gotta get you to the hospital.” I looked back down at the glass embedded in my thigh and spoke breathlessly.
“I can’t even feel it.”
The laceration on my head continued to trickle blood across my face. Darby used her shirt to wipe it away from my eyes as the sirens got closer. “They are almost here,” she murmured as my vision started to blur around the edges.
“I think I’m going to pass out.”
Mac’s voice dragged me back for a moment. “Open your mouth.” He ordered, leaning over me in a blur of movement. I opened my mouth and felt a drop of liquid, then a few more. It was cool and metallic. It absorbed into my mouth before I could swallow it as the world continued to fade.
Then the fading stopped. Light flooded into the corners of my sight as a wave of energy shivered across my body. I dragged in a deep breath and found Mac’s intent gaze when my vision once again cleared. He gave an approving nod and looked at Darby. “How hurt are you?”
Two police officers ran up to us as Darby was checking her injuries.
“The ambulance is on the way,” one of the officers informed us as he knelt down beside Darby. She winced as she touched a deep gash on her forearm. Mac slid the side of his hand against a piece of glass, then held it over to Darby.
“Lick it.”
The police officer kneeling beside Darby held his hand up. “Sir, I don’t think--”
“What the hell?” the other one exclaimed, looking down at my leg. The skin around the glass punctured into my thigh was visibly healing. As it healed, the glass shard was pushed out of the wound. It burned as it moved, and I gasped. Mac grabbed the piece of glass and jerked it the rest of the way out with movements too fast for the eye to see. I sighed in relief as the skin quickly closed behind it.
Mac held his hand toward Darby again. She looked dazed but leaned forward and licked his blood off of his hand.
“Mister, you’re a vampire?” the kneeling police officer whispered. Mac nodded in response, watching Darby closely. She closed her eyes, her hands tightening into fists as the effects swept over her. The deep gash on her arm was healing as the paramedics joined us.
I held up my hands where I had gotten deep gashes on my palms when trying to crawl across the glass. The first responders watched with me as the wounds closed in front of our eyes.
Darby seemed to have recovered her normal senses and slowly stood up, brushing the loose glass off of her. Mac scooped me up in his arms and stood with me cradled against his chest.
“What just happened?” one of the paramedic’s asked.
“He healed them,” the officer that was kneeling beside Darby answered as he also stood.
Mac looked at him. “Officer- I’m the new magistrate for the district, Macory Jacobs.”
The officer automatically held out his hand but dropped it since Mac was holding me. Mac shifted the way he was holding me to one arm then held out his hand to shake the man’s. Again, the officer looked stunned, but he took Mac’s hand. “I’m Sergeant Lewis. Jeff Lewis. And this is Officer Yates.
“Pleasure to meet you both. The men that did this are trapped in their truck outside. I secured them there before you arrived. They were about to torch the place with the ladies still inside.”
Both police officers instantly switched into duty mode, “We will take care of it.” They headed outside. One of the paramedics was checking Darby over gently. The other stepped up to me and Mac and started shining a pen light into my hair where there had been a sizable laceration just a few moments before.
“How are you feeling?” she asked me as she shifted my blood stained hair.
“I… I still feel funny. Like I’m floating.”
“That’s from me healing her,” Mac muttered.
“I feel mostly normal.” Darby sounded concerned.
Mac nodded. “I didn’t give you as much as I gave Roz.”
The paramedic attending me flipped her light back off and smiled at me then Mac. “Never seen it in person. It’s remarkable. Wish it didn’t have side effects so we could use it on the truck.”
“What?” Darby and I both asked in unison.
The paramedics looked at each other- then at Mac. He nodded toward both of them. “I will explain it to them. Thank you for coming so quickly.”
“Anyone else injured?”
“The men who attacked them both have minor injuries.”
“All right then, we will head out there.”
The glass crunched under their feet as they headed back out of the shop.
I still felt like I was floating, like it could be a dream. “Is feeling all floaty like this the side effects they were talking about?”
“No,” Mac sighed before continuing. “The high feeling is the bliss effect. It can be addictive like a drug. But the more of my blood you drink the easier it is for me to control you.”
“Control me?” Darby asked with a thread of irritation in her voice.
He shook his head. “There is no danger of it with the small amount you had. Roz got more and the connection will be more significant, but mostly for me.”
“How for you?” I asked, unalarmed. The peaceful haze had not faded. I was very aware of where my fingertips rested on his chest. As he continued speaking, I slightly caressed my fingers back and forth without it occurring to me that I wouldn’t have done this without the bliss high.
“It will be easier for me to pick up on your emotions when we are close to each other. You would have to drink more, and continue drinking it regularly to become blood bound to me. Blood-bound humans obey their master vampire without question, gaining long life and supernatural strength. Most older vampires have such arrangements.”
He paused, examining my face. “It also gives me a sense of your…essence, life force. Yours is different.”
“Oh?”
He frowned. “Maybe someone immortal from your ancestry.”
“I’m not aware of anything.”
He seemed like he would talk about it more, but I was rubbing his chest with my whole hand a lot more obviously now while Darby was watching. He finally smirked and set me down on my feet. “There are some lowering of inhibitions, Darby, but it doesn’t create attraction that wasn’t already there.”
She relaxed some tension in her expression. “So it’s not going to be like a love potion.”
“No. Roz just wants to touch me.”
At another time, I would have been slightly outraged. But right now, while still feeling the effects of his blood, I just giggled.
Mac smiled, and it was such a familiar and sentimental feeling. I leaned into him. He put his arm around me even as he gestured his head toward the door. “I’m going to take the two of you home.”
“It will be taken care of, Roz. Even with the help healing, your body still used a lot of resources, and both of you will need to rest.”
He kept his arm around me as we went outside. I got my first look at the men who had attacked us. They were both handcuffed, sitting on the ground in front of their truck while the police searched it. Neither of them would look in Mac’s direction.
“I don’t know either of them,” Darby whispered as we walked to Mac’s truck.
“Me, either.”
He hurried us into his truck and got us away from the scene. Darby sat up front and directed him to the house we shared. My mind still felt hazy, the world brighter than it should be around me. Fatigue started to sweep over me during the short ride. I was barely awake by the time he turned into my driveway.
The house had once belonged to my grandparents. They had made the stereotypical call to retire to Florida eight years ago. I sold my smaller house and bought theirs soon after I opened the spa. When Darby moved back to our hometown to be my head massage therapist, she moved in with me thinking that she would find her own place when she got settled, but it had been over five years and neither of us wanted to live alone.
The house was a traditional southern-style home with a front porch that stretched the entire front length of the home with large white columns for the porch roof support. The drive led to the rear of the house to the garage entrance. The sun had dropped lower in the sky as Mac opened my door and took my hand as I stepped out. I took a couple of steps toward the back door before my legs grew unsteady from the weakness and fatigue that had set in on the ride home. Mac was instantly scooping me back up into his arms before I barely even stumbled.
Darby had taken a few steps away from the truck before she also grew faint. He shifted me against his side, holding me with one arm across my back and his hand spread beneath my legs like I was a large football. Then he caught Darby up against his other side. He had to get Darby to unlock the door for him. As he carried us through the door, trying to get Darby to tell him where things we would need were, my world faded into black.
