by Amy Boyles
Chapter 9
“I was born in 1910 to a wealthy family in New York City. My father practiced law. I was supposed to as well. It was my destiny, he would say.”
Thorne stopped. A sad expression fell across his face. “It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was what they had planned for me. My life was all laid out before me. I would become a lawyer, marry a well-to-do girl, have children. Maybe run for office. It was all right there before me.”
He pushed his food around his plate until he seemed to tire of it. Thorne sat back and stroked his chin. “Then the market crashed. We lost everything. My father killed himself. My mother drank poison, following him.”
I grimaced. “I’m so sorry.”
“It was a difficult time, to say the least. I had nothing. But I was at Harvard studying. My father had paid the tuition all the way to the end, so the least I could do was finish. I did. I scraped by, and when I graduated there was nothing for me to return to, so I packed up and headed North.”
I stared at him. “North?”
“Yep. I cut logs, trapped for mink pelts, beaver, whatever I could get my hands on to either trade or make money from. It was a hard existence, but it saved me. I couldn’t return to New York to the nothing I had. I needed to be someone else, something else.”
He inhaled a deep breath that made his chest balloon. Thorne raked his fingers from his hair and smiled with amusement. His eyes held the look of memory, the sheen of the past, a good past within them.
“That was when I met Leopold.” He grazed the backs of his fingers over the stubble on his cheek. “He was a big-name trapper living in a compound of his own making. They trapped and lived. I met his men and quickly realized they were good people. Did I know what they were? No. I’m glad I didn’t. If I had known that, I would have been scared, afraid. Fear does bad things to people. There’s no telling what I might have done.”
He leaned forward, his expression darkening. “People make bad decisions out of fear. But anyway, life was good until a rival band of trappers moved in. They used nasty techniques to scare people and were vicious, vile men. I was living alone, in a cabin I made with my own two hands. I had a trapping line a little ways away. One morning when I went to check it, I found all the traps emptied, the lines broken.
“There was no doubt who had done the dirty work, so I confronted the men. Told them to stay away. If they ever encroached on one of my lines again, they’d regret it.”
He folded his fingers and rested his chin in his hands. “I never saw it coming. Never knew that one night I’d be attacked while asleep. The men entered my house and nearly killed me. They stabbed me all over and told me they’d do whatever they pleased.”
My stomach clenched. The hurt in Thorne’s eyes made a knot swell in my throat. I couldn’t imagine the pain he must have endured. Stabbing? How horrible.
He stopped talking for long enough that I wasn’t sure if he’d continue. Finally he picked up the story.
“They left me for dead, obviously. Leopold and his people, with their amazing sense of smell and hearing, had been able to figure out that something had happened. They followed their noses to my cabin, where I was bleeding to death.
“Leopold asked if I wanted to live.” Thorne gazed into the distance, watching the sun as it burned away for the day. “I remember then that everything seemed fragmented. I couldn’t form a coherent thought. I knew I was dying. Blood had pooled around me. I could feel the wetness of it. Felt my fingers stick to the floorboards. So when he asked if I wanted to live, it seemed absurd. I would die on that floor, and those men would have gotten away with murder.”
He dragged his gaze back to me. I shivered. “So I said yes. Yes, I wanted to live. Please, let me live.” He sighed, settled back in his chair. “Then Leopold gently smoothed my hair from my face. He opened his mouth, and I saw the fangs. My mind couldn’t process what I saw. But I felt the burn of his teeth in my neck. That was worse than anything I’d ever felt—even worse than the stab wounds.
“Once he had drunk from me, Leo opened his wrist and I drank from him. The change hurt horribly, and I wasn’t in my right mind for days. They had to chain me to a wall back at their stronghold until I finally calmed down enough to hear what I’d become.”
“And what did they say?” I asked.
Thorne cocked a brow. He sighed and brushed crumbs from his pants. “They said I would now live forever, but I would hunt for blood and drink only that. I would want humans, but I had to learn to drink from animals first. When I was ready, I could take revenge on the men who had almost killed me.”
Wow. Seemed pretty cut-and-dried. “And did you?”
He slowly nodded. “I did. With the help of Leo and his clan, that was now my clan, we tracked them down and ended their reign. Turned out I wasn’t the only trapper they’d attacked. These were bad men, men who deserved to be punished.”
It didn’t bother me that Thorne had destroyed those men. Should it have? They’d wanted to kill him and had tried. The vampire world was one of death. Thorne had said as much before. In his world, he’d gotten used to death. It wasn’t necessarily my world, but in one where you drank blood to survive, that made sense.
It was kill or be killed. When life became that bare-bones, survival was the only option.
The thought of Thorne chained to a wall made me shudder. “So it was hard—adjusting to your new life.”
“You could say that,” he said gruffly. “It was weeks before I was calm enough to find the men and months before I could accept myself for what I was—a killer. A powerful one, but still a killer. The idea and scope of what the change meant didn’t hit me until I realized I would never die. It frightened me. I grew up religious, and to be told I could live forever, what did that mean for my soul? It was hard to come to terms with. I’d never put another person through that.”
“Have you come to terms with it now?”
Thorne glanced over his shoulder at the sinking sun. “See that?”
I nodded. “It’s beautiful.”
“There are things I can control and things I can’t. When it first happened, I thought I was a demon, an abomination in the eyes of God. But after talking extensively to Leo, I started to ask, how could I exist and God exist? Had God created me? Some vampires feed on humans solely. They’re evil creatures. But that wasn’t how I was brought into this world. I’ve always hunted animals and have never taken a human life unless…”
“Unless it was absolutely necessary?” It was a bold move, risky to think that was what Thorne would say. Would he be angry that I’d dropped words in his mouth?
But instead of a flash of anger filling his eyes, he slowly nodded. “I don’t like to talk about it.”
“Few enjoy talking about things that cause hurt.”
“It wasn’t what I’ve caused. It was you.” His gaze filled with emotion, and my heart rate ticked up. “I didn’t want to hurt you by saying these things. Or make you think a certain way about me.”
A sympathetic smile tugged at my lips. “I don’t think badly of you. You seem like a smart man, one who doesn’t make a move without considering the options. In fact, I know that. I’ve been in a few situations with you where I’ve thought you should move quickly and you haven’t.”
He cocked an eyebrow in a way that made me salivate. “If I recall, I probably should have gone along with your plan, because when you and your family are left to their own devices, you get in trouble.”
I scoffed. “Please. This is a sleepy town. I need some excitement. How am I going to get that unless I track down murderers?”
Thorne threw back his head and chuckled. The sound warmed me to my toes. “You’ve got me there. I’ll admit you’ve worried me in the past.”
It was my turn to quirk an eyebrow in question. “Little old me?”
He nodded. “Little old you has kept me up worrying.”
“I didn’t think vampires slept.”
“We don’t have to. I sometimes do. At le
ast I lay down and rest. As you said, it’s a sleepy town. When there’s something bad going on or there’s a case I’m on, I don’t sleep.”
“What do you do instead?”
“I think.”
“About what?”
Thorne hoisted one ankle atop the opposite knee. He leaned back and stared at me. “Sometimes I think about you.”
A jolt flooded my body. I didn’t bother trying to hide the surprise that I knew must’ve filled every line on my face. Instead my gaze dropped to my napkin, which suddenly became very, very interesting.
“What do you think about me?”
“I wonder what it would be like to kiss you.”
I nearly fell out of my chair. Here was this husky vampire admitting he wanted to kiss me. I mean, we’d talked about kissing once before, but that was when Thorne told me I wasn’t ready to kiss.
“Oh?” I said once my tongue decided to work again. “Do you wonder that?”
“I do. I wonder if you think the same.”
My gaze dared to land on his eyes. Thorne studied me, an unreadable expression gracing his face.
I hiked a shoulder. “I won’t lie and say that I haven’t.”
Just then a waiter appeared out of nowhere. Our conversation died as he took away our plates and replaced them with small chocolate soufflés.
Thorne smiled at me. “We can talk more about that later. You should enjoy your dessert before it gets cold.”
Aw. But I wanted to talk about kissing more. In fact, I wanted to skip the talking about it and go straight to the practicing of it. I wanted to feel Thorne’s lips on mine. I wondered if he would cup my cheeks or if he would grasp my shoulders?
What would be the mechanics of his kiss? So many thoughts swirled in my head as I spooned up a dollop of the soufflé. The scent of chocolate wafted up my nose. It was warm and so inviting.
When the first flavors hit my tongue, the richness of the dessert exploded in my mouth. It was a chocolate party in there, y’all, and I had landed in heaven.
Yummy chocolatey goodness, rich and gooey, made my taste buds jump and jive. I moaned in pleasure.
“So it was the right choice?” Thorne teased.
“It was so the right choice.”
He smiled. I dug back into the dessert, doing my best to eat it in ladylike fashion, but fearing that I fell pretty darn short. I mean, I was ready to lick the sides of the ramekin it had popped out from.
In fact, I just might.
After several minutes and lots of moans and groans, I sat back in my chair, feeling fat and full.
“Bet you didn’t know I could eat like that,” I joked.
“I’m glad you did.”
Silence hung heavy between us, the tension building until I broke it. “So. What’s next on this whirlwind date?”
“How about a sunset walk?”
I licked my lips, delicately lapping up the last bit of chocolate. “Sounds great.”
Thorne rose before me, and in a blink he stood beside my chair, extending a hand.
“Whoa. You should really warn me before you use your vampire powers.”
He chuckled. “I’ll try to remember that. It’s just this is old hat to me.”
“It’s a new one to me.”
“Point taken.”
He offered his arm, and I snaked my hand through. He steered me toward a packed dirt path that ran between the waterfall and the horizon.
“I can’t tell you enough how much I enjoyed spending this time with you,” Thorne murmured.
“Me too,” I found myself admitting. “I mean, I knew I’d have a good time, but you don’t mind sharing part of yourself. I like that.”
I also liked how my heart fluttered when I was around him and how my head seemed to swim, how my thoughts got a bit jumbled.
I wasn’t myself, really, but that was okay. Sometimes we all needed to take a little vacation from who we were and just enjoy being with someone else.
Thorne stopped walking. He turned to me and glanced down. My knees quaked as I stared up into his silvery eyes.
“You know, for as long as I’ve lived—and that’s a long time—I’ve never met anyone with violet eyes.”
“You never met Elizabeth Taylor?” I joked. “Hard to believe.”
“I came close,” he said seriously, “but it didn’t happen.”
Oh. Well, touché.
“Charming, you remember when I said I didn’t think you were ready to kiss?”
“Yep. And I also recall you saying that you had issues as well.”
He scowled. “I did. But I’ve realized that I’m ready. I think we both are.”
Just do it, then! Kiss me!
Gosh, I couldn’t remember the last time I wanted a guy to plant one on me. Could Thorne just do it?
That was when my lips started tingling. At first I ignored it, but the tingling seemed to worsen. I tipped my face toward him, figuring the tingling was just some weird thing, but then his eyes widened.
And not in a good way.
“Your lips,” he said.
“What is it?” I said coyly. “Do they look ready to kiss?”
Here I was thinking the vampire stood enraptured by my full lips. Surely that was it.
“No, you look like you’re having an allergic reaction.”
“What?” My fingers flew to my mouth. My lips, my regular-sized lips were swollen. I don’t mean a little bit. As my fingers poked and prodded, it felt like I had two lemon wedges for lips.
My mind raced to what I’d eaten—the chocolate, but I wasn’t allergic to chocolate.
Then I remembered the potion I’d drank. Licorice. Sometimes potions with licorice interacted with chocolate. Like, really bad—obviously I looked like an inflatable.
My hand covered my mouth. “Oh no.”
Thorne grasped my shoulders. “Can you breathe? Do I need to get you to the hospital?”
I waved away his concern. “No. You need to get me to my mother. She’ll know how to fix this.”
Thorne plucked me from the ground and carried me to his car.
“I’m not an invalid,” I argued.
“Just trying to get there as fast as I can.”
Within a minute the waterfall and sunset had disappeared, as well as my hope that Thorne and I would have our first kiss tonight.
Chapter 10
Mama fixed my lips within minutes, and afterward she gave me a good hard look to say I should have remembered that licorice potions and chocolate often resulted in an interaction.
I shot her a look that said she should have reminded me of such a thing.
After all, I wasn’t as accomplished a witch as herself, now was I? I wasn’t the one who traveled to Nepal and taught witches who lived there. I lived in Witch’s Forge, Tennessee, for goodness’ sake. My job was to match folks I knew would fall in love.
Not to lead the next generation of witches in spell casting.
But anyway, my lips deflated enough for me to wish Thorne a good night from my porch. I received a chaste kiss on my cheek from him.
I guess my gigantic lips had turned him off. Who could blame him?
Anyway, Thorne left and I felt like a total loser. I entered the house, my chin dropped to my chest.
“Don’t look so glum, Charming,” Rose said. “At least you had a date with the vampire. That’s more than I’ve had, and I’ve done everything I can to get his attention, short of throwing myself at his feet.”
I laughed softly and hugged my great-aunt. “Thanks, Rose. Maybe we’ll have another date.”
Mama floated by, her hair lifting up off her back. “I’m sure you will. Remind me next time not to give you any potions.”
I scowled. “Remind me not to take any.”
We had a good laugh, and I went up to bed. With only one more day of the dating show, I was ready to get Frankie Firewalker gone and get back to my regularly scheduled life.
It was the night of Frankie’s date with Watts Pugh. It was go
ing great. They’d had dinner, gone bowling and it was hot tub time—Frankie’s favorite.
I prayed that her date with Watts went amazing, because I didn’t want Frankie to pick Thorne as her soul mate. Not just for the obvious reason that I was crazy about him, but because I didn’t want things to be uncomfortable. This was a dating game and show, but Watts and Tex seemed genuinely enamored with her, whereas Thorne wasn’t.
Thank goodness.
“How’re your lips?”
My mouth coiled into a smile. I glanced up at Thorne, who looked particularly dashing in a dark shirt.
“I’m better.”
“I had a great time last night.”
I hugged my arms to my chest to keep the butterflies flitting in my stomach from exploding out, and grinned. Probably more like beamed, really. “Me too. Great time. Thanks for all of it.”
He ran a finger over his lips. “There is one thing we didn’t get to.”
My face heated. “I seem to remember something about that.”
“We might need a second date so we can get to it.”
I had to stop myself from jumping into his arms. “Oh. Well, we might.”
Thorne nodded toward Frankie and her date. “Course we’ve got this to finish first.”
Thorne’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket, glanced down and scowled. “I’ve been waiting for this call. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Thorne disappeared with that vampire speed of his before I had a second to say goodbye.
“Talk about making an exit,” I murmured.
My attention turned to Watts Pugh. Watts smiled at Frankie. They stood in their swimsuits beside the hot tub. Frankie’s lips curled into a huge smile.
I wanted to jump up and down. This was it! She’d choose Watts Pugh, I just knew it.
“Frankie,” Watts crooned, “I gotta tell ya I’ve had a great time tonight.”
Frankie smiled bashfully. “Me, too. I never thought I’d recover after I nearly got tossed out of the hot air balloon, but this has been great. You are a real gentleman.”
“Oh shucks, Ms. Firewalker. I’m only like that because you’re the one who made me that way.”