Greater Vampires

by Trudie Collins

  Natalie nodded and Sarah left her alone. She didn’t need to look for Craig; he would be in his room.

  She didn’t bother to knock. She found him sitting on his bed, polishing his sword.

  “Talk to me Craig,” she said.

  “Piss off Sarah,” he replied. The emptiness in his voice worried her more than if he had shouted at her. Ever since she lost her fiancé, a long time ago, before she met JD, Craig had been there for her. He stopped her killing herself and helped her cope with her loss. There was nothing he would not do for her, or her for him, yet now she felt helpless. He was shutting her out and she didn’t know how to break through the barrier he had erected.

  She gave up and went to see her husband. He was in his office, but stopped working as soon as he said she could enter.

  “I’m really worried about Craig,” she said. “He won’t talk to anyone.”

  “I know,” JD said. He held out his arms and she settled down on his lap.

  “Isn’t there anything you can do?” she asked.

  JD thought for a moment. “I don’t think he will talk to me, but I might be able to get him to talk to you. Go and get changed for a training session.”

  Sarah didn’t ask what JD had in mind. She was used to obeying him when he was acting as her trainer, so she did so now.

  JD went to Craig’s room and knocked on the door. He was told to go away. He ignored the instruction and entered the room.

  “You really shouldn’t talk to me like that.” He wasn’t angry but put enough steel into his voice to make Craig think he was. “Arena. Now.”

  “Why?” Craig asked sullenly.

  “Because I said so. Or are you questioning my authority?”

  “Of course not,” Craig said and left the room.

  “Grab a Bo each,” JD said as soon as Sarah arrived. The hunters used the long sticks for fitness, rather than as weapons, as they wouldn’t be effective against a vampire, but Sarah had learned to use one well and made sure it hurt when she hit her target.

  JD was an expert in all of the weapons he used and trained Sarah to become as good as she possibly could be. As a result she was faster and more accurate than any of the other hunters at 14 with a sword or a Bo. Craig saw the smile on her face, which told him he was in for a hard time.

  “Here is what is going to happen,” JD said when they were both armed. “Craig, you are becoming a liability. You are putting in a lot of effort when training, but your mind is always somewhere else. You have not yet caused someone to be injured while on a hunt, but we’re all beginning to doubt that you have our backs covered. Without that trust you’re not an effective hunter. You need to talk to someone instead of shutting yourself away. I’m now going to leave you alone with Sarah. I’m not saying you have to talk to her, but she is going to beat the shit out of you if you don’t.”

  “You bastard,” Craig said softly, but not softly enough for JD not to hear. He couldn’t help smiling as he left the room.

  Sarah locked the door behind him, then turned to Craig. “Are you going to talk to me or do I have to hurt you?”

  Craig held his weapon, ready for an attack. “You’re not as good as you think you are.”

  “Maybe not, but I’m better than you.”

  Sarah stepped toward him, swinging her Bo as she did so. It was a weak move which Craig easily blocked. He prepared to block the strike he expected to come from the other side, but Sarah hit at the same side again, aiming for his ankle. He swore as her blow hit its target.

  The fight did not last long. Sarah was relentless, raining down strike after strike. Craig managed to block most, but not enough. Not once was he able to hit Sarah.

  “Enough,” he said when she hit his knee, sending a bolt of agony up his leg. “I’ll talk.”

  He collapsed onto the floor and waited for Sarah to join him before he began.

  He poured his heart out to her, telling her everything he was thinking and feeling. She didn’t interrupt and didn’t offer any sympathy or suggestions; she just listened. He needed to open up, get everything out of his system, not be told what to do.

  He didn’t say anything that surprised her. She knew him so well she could have told him what he was going through, but he needed to voice his feelings and fears out loud.

  When he finished, Sarah took him in her arms and held him tight. They stayed like that for a long time until Craig eventually pulled away.

  “I think you have broken my rib,” he said as he tenderly touched his side.

  “Don’t be a baby,” Sarah said unsympathetically. “Go and see Doc if you’re worried.”

  “I will.” He stood up, then held his hand out to help her up. “Thank you for beating some sense into me. Literally. I feel better having verbalised everything.”

  “My pleasure. Don’t make me take such extreme measures next time. Have you decided what you’re going to do?”

  “No, not in the long term. But in the short term I’m going to try to get on with my life and stop feeling sorry for myself. I should be relying on my family to help me through this instead of shutting myself away from them.”

  “Good. Now go and get showered. You smell.”

  “Yes ma’am,” he said and saluted her.

  Sarah couldn’t help smiling as she watched him limp away.

  He talked you into it I see

  “You’re late,” JD said as soon as Sarah walked into the arena for their one-on-one training session a few days later.

  Sarah glanced up at the clock on the wall. “No I’m not.”

  JD smiled. “That’s not what I meant.”

  Sarah frowned, then worked out what he was talking about.

  “Oh,” was all she said. She hadn’t realised he had been keeping track of her menstrual cycle.

  “Take a test,” he said. It was not a request.

  She moved toward the door, but he called out to her. “Where do you think you are going?”

  “You told me to take a test.”

  JD rolled his eyes. “I didn’t mean now. Grab your sword. You’re getting overconfident and are starting to make mistakes.”

  Sarah growled at him, then took down her sword. In the arena he was her trainer not her husband so she would obey his every command.

  JD did not take it easy on her and by the time they finished the training session, both were dripping with sweat. Their shower lasted a lot longer than it would have done had either of them been showering alone. Afterward, JD sat impatiently on the bed, waiting for Sarah to finish in the bathroom.

  “Well,” he asked as soon as she opened the door. She was holding a white plastic stick in her hand.

  Her eyes lit up. “I’m pregnant.”

  JD jumped off the bed, picked her up and swung her around. “This time we tell nobody,” he said. “Not for a while, anyway. I’ll let you continue to train and hunt, until the morning sickness kicks in again, but I will take it easier on you when we’re training alone. Deal?”

  “Deal,” she said. She was aware how hard it would be for him to not wrap her in cotton wool so was grateful that he wasn’t making her stop everything immediately. “Though we should think about telling Doc.”

  “Not yet,” JD said. “You know he won’t be able to keep his mouth shut. He was so excited last time it was like you were expecting his grandchild or something.”

  “Maybe I was,” Sarah said. “How do you know Scott and I aren’t having an affair behind your back?”

  “Yeah right,” JD said. Then he took her in his arms and kissed her deeply. “I love you,” he said. “This time everything is going to be okay.”

  “I know,” she said and pushed him down on the bed. A short time later they needed to shower again.

  ————————————-∞————————————-

  A few days later, Luke had an important question he needed to ask Anna. They were alone in her house and he was looking around instead of paying attention to what she was saying.

&n
bsp; “Luke,” she called out to get his attention. “What are you thinking about?”

  “Are you happy living here?”

  The question took her by surprise. “Yes, obviously. I would move if I wasn’t.”

  “That’s not what I meant. Do you have any particular attachment to this house, or this area?”

  She hadn’t been renting the house long, only since she had returned from her long trip, so he wasn’t expecting her to say yes, but he had to ask.

  “No, why?”

  “How would you feel about moving in with me?”

  Anna’s jaw dropped. They never spent a night apart and he was more or less living at her place, except for weekends, which they spent at his house, but the question still surprised her.

  “I’m not sure your family would be happy with that. They put up with the smell of human at weekends, but I don’t think they would like it to become permanent.”

  “Actually it’s my family who asked me to speak to you about it. They miss me and want me to spend more time at home.”

  “What about Gabriel? He sees enough of me during the day.”

  “He is more than happy for you to move in. Ask him yourself if you don’t believe me.”

  “I can’t move in with you,” Anna said. “You know how often I end up working from home. I need space for that.”

  “One of the spare offices has already been set up for you.”

  “What about privacy?”

  “The bedroom next to mine has been emptied so we can turn it into a private lounge. We’ll need to hire a van to bring your TV, sofa etcetera over.”

  “You’ve really thought of everything, haven’t you. What about food?”

  “You already eat at my place two nights a week so the family are used to it. Some even want to join you for your meals and learn how to cook again. It has been a long time for some of them.”

  “But I still have a while to go on my lease.”

  “Just because you are paying the rent doesn’t mean you have to live here. I’ll pay the full balance you owe.”

  Anna tried hard to find another reason not to agree to what Luke was proposing, but deep down it was something she wanted to do.

  “Alright. When?”

  “What’s wrong with now?”

  “Absolutely nothing. Let me pack a suitcase or two.”

  Anna couldn’t keep the smile off her face as she threw clothes into a suitcase. It would take a few trips for her to transport all of the things that she wanted to take with her to Luke’s place and she would have to put the rest in storage, but the organisation of that could wait. Right then all she wanted to think about was moving in with Luke.

  ————————————-∞————————————-

  “He talked you into it I see,” Helen said as Anna and Luke walked through the door, laden down with bags and suitcases.

  “I didn’t take much persuading,” she said.

  “Anything else in the car?” Gabriel asked as he ran down the stairs, having heard them arrive.

  “What do you think?” Luke said sarcastically.

  “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Anna asked.

  “I couldn’t be happier,” Gabriel replied as he walked past them toward the open door. He sounded sincere so Anna decided to believe him.

  Between them, Luke and his cousin emptied the car, while Helen took Anna into the kitchen to show her the fully stocked pantry and fridge. They had even purchased a freezer, which was full of all of the things Anna liked to eat.

  “Luke gave us a shopping list,” Helen explained.

  An extra set of drawers had been placed in Luke’s room and he had moved all of his clothes to one side of the walk-in wardrobe, leaving plenty of room for Anna’s things. It didn’t take long for her to unpack and when she returned to the lower level, she found Luke on the phone to a hire company, arranging to pick up a van the following morning.

  “Will your real estate agent still be open?” he asked as soon as he hung up.

  “It should be. Why?”

  “Let’s go and get you out of your lease then shall we.”

  Everything was moving a little fast for Anna, but she did nothing to slow it down. Experience had taught her that whenever Luke wanted to do something, he just got on and did it without worrying about plans or things that could possibly go wrong.

  Anna couldn’t believe how easy it all went. Within an hour her rent till the end of her lease had been paid and she had agreed to move out by the end of the month. A large storage locker had been rented and all of the vampires promised to help her empty her house the next day. Any doubts she had about them wanting her to move in vanished. Everyone seemed more enthusiastic than she could ever have imagined.

  “I take it we will see a lot more of your brother now that you live here,” Helen said to Anna later in the evening.

  Anna didn’t like the way Helen spoke. The question was almost too casual, as though she desperately wanted to know the answer but was pretending she didn’t.

  “Maybe. Why?”

  “No reason,” Helen said and started to absent-mindedly play with her hair. Anna glanced at Luke, who shrugged. He had no idea why Helen had asked the question.

  “Speaking of your brother,” Gabriel said. “Shouldn’t you let him know you have moved?”

  Paul had visited a few times since he was told the truth about Luke and he got on very well with Gabriel. A little too well for Anna’s liking sometimes.

  Anna went to the room she would now be sharing with Luke and made the call. Paul didn’t sound surprised by Anna’s announcement and said it had only been a matter of time. He said he was pleased for her and promised to help out the next day.

  Anna spent a very enjoyable Saturday night with the vampires, all of whom went out of their way to make her feel part of the family instead of just a guest.

  The next morning a number of cars drove over to Anna’s house. Paul was already there and had helped himself to coffee.

  “No Danielle?” Anna asked.

  Paul shook his head. “I asked her if she wanted to come but she said it sounded too much like hard work. I left her in bed watching a DVD of some stupid police series that she has become addicted to.”

  “You sound like you’re happy to get away from her.”

  “Maybe I am,” he said. “But enough about me. Where do you want to start?”

  Luke and Gabriel hired two vans and loaded one with everything that needed to go to the house, while the other was crammed with things to go in storage.

  Beds were dismantled, pictures were wrapped and boxes were packed. With so many helpers it didn’t take long to completely empty the house.

  After everyone had left, Luke found Anna looking at the bare walls. He walked up behind her, slipped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked.

  “How dirty this place looks now. I’ll have to come back during the week to clean it.”

  “No you won’t. I’ve organised for cleaners to come on Wednesday. I’ll take the day off to let them in.”

  Anna pulled away from Luke so she could turn around and look at him. “What did I do to deserve you?”

  “Something very very bad in a past life.” He kissed her then smiled. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

  ————————————-∞————————————-

  It was not many days later that Craig went to see JD. He had been much better since his talk with Sarah. He was now speaking to her regularly, letting his feelings out instead of bottling them up. He wasn’t quite back to his normal self, and anyone watching him could easily see the hurt in his eyes whenever he looked at Natalie, but he was getting there slowly.

  Natalie had finally agreed to see a councillor, though she chose a private one instead of the hunter Sarah had recommended. She said it helped, but not as much as she had hoped.

  “What can I do for y
ou?” JD asked when Craig walked into his office, closing the door behind him.

  “Is the offer of training to become a trainer still on the table?” he asked as he took a seat.

  “It is,” JD said. “Why do you ask?”

  “I’ve changed my mind about waiting. How soon can I go?”

  “You can’t,” JD said. “If anyone asks, I will say I don’t think you’re ready.”

  Craig glared at him. He had not expected JD to refuse to put in his application. “Why?”

  “Because you will just be running away from your problems.”

  “Surely that’s none of your business. My private life is my own affair, not my trainer’s.”

  “It is when it affects your training. If you go away for the wrong reasons, you’re not going to learn. Trust me, the training is really hard and there are times when you want to give in. If you’re not fully focused then you will fail and you’ll not be given a second chance. I am not going to take that risk.”

  JD was right, but Craig was still angry at him. “Thanks for nothing,” he said and stood up to leave, but JD called him back.

  “There is another reason why I won’t let you go,” he said.

  “What?” Craig wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what JD had to say, but was not brave enough to walk away. Extra training lessons would be the least of his punishments if he did that.

  “Sit down,” JD said and waited for Craig to obey before continuing. “I may need you around for the next seven months or so.” He paused, giving Craig the chance to ask why, but he didn’t. “I may need you to help me look after Sarah. Pretty soon I’m going to have to stop her hunting and she is not going to take that very well. I will need your support.”

  Craig opened his mouth to ask what JD was going on about, but his mind started working before he could speak. He closed his mouth and grinned broadly.

  “Congratulations. Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

  “We haven’t told anyone. We wanted to keep this to ourselves for a while, after what happened last time. Please don’t say anything to anyone. Not even Sarah. She will kill me if she finds out I have told you.”

  “My lips are sealed,” Craig said. “I’m very pleased for you both. This is the best news I’ve heard in far too long.”