by Maria Arnt
She shook her head. They had looked half-starved, and judging by the mess the female had made of Jake’s neck, her feeding trance had been pretty intense. It made Tanya’s skin crawl that she could relate to her in some way. From there it was easy to imagine the rest. Jake’s body sliding off the hood of the car. Herself, watching as the light went out of his eyes. She didn’t want to picture what happened next, but the images came unbidden.
The kiss the two vampires had shared reminded her of the first time she fed, and her stomach roiled. There was no denying it, she was more like them now than like Jake. But something about the memory bothered her. She was sure the male vampire had meant to drain her, so why did he stop? What spooked them off so easily?
As if on cue Tanya felt the rapid approach of a powerful Master Vampire. The hairs on the back of her arms stood up, and she froze like the rabbit that hears the hawk’s call. It was coming from the northeast, and she braced herself instinctively.
The figure that burst from the small stand of trees halted, sliding several feet through the loose gravel. Even before he stood up, she knew who it was. Seth.
“What in the seven hells are you...” he trailed off, looking around. “Deja-vu...” he murmured, and when his eyes landed on the car, he closed his eyes. “Of course.” Bending over, he fought to catch his breath. It was the most winded she had ever seen him.
“I didn’t think you’d expect me back at the motel for some time,” Tanya explained, trying to sound casual. “I thought I’d just take a look. I haven’t been back since... since that night.” Her voice shook, and she hated how scared she sounded, but he was obviously still struggling to get a lid on his power. She felt none of the exhilarating rush of the night he called Michael. Not when his anger was likely directed at her, and not in this place.
Seth straightened, running a hand through his hair. “You are correct, I thought you would stay at your parents’ much longer. But when I got back to the motel room and you weren’t there...”
“You followed me!” she shouted. She wasn’t surprised, but it still pissed her off.
“Of course I followed you, Tatiana,” he said, exasperated. “You are still very young, and this place, if nothing else, should remind you of the necessity of my presence.”
Tanya crossed her arms, facing him across the gravel road. In the moonlight, it looked pristine white. “And the fact that I tried to run away three weeks ago has nothing to do with it?”
He raised his eyebrows, and she realized belatedly that it was the first time she had admitted that she had intended to escape him that night.
“No, but that is the reason for my rather hasty arrival. What else was I supposed to think? You had a vehicle and plenty of night, plus Beatrice’s little trick would give you a way to hide during the day,” he said bitterly.
“Yeah, and what am I going to do for money? It’s a rental car, that’s almost worse than a stolen car, for an escape. I wasn’t going anywhere, Seth,” she argued.
He seemed to relax a little, and after he damped down on his power a bit more, so did she. He glanced up the road, at the car and the stand of trees, at her, and then unerringly at the spot where he had found her, all those years ago. “Why come here?” he asked gently. “I would think this place would only cause you pain.”
Tanya sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe if I looked at it with fresh eyes and extra-powerful senses, I’d learn something new? But it’s been six years, now. The trail is way past cold.”
Walking slowly, non-threateningly, Seth came to stand next to her. “What is it you hope to accomplish by finding your assailant? Vengeance?”
She shook her head. “I think I got that when I killed the female. It’s just... I don’t know where he is. It’s not like I’m afraid he’ll attack me again, I think it was just out of opportunity and not anything to do with me that he did it. And it’s not really that I’m trying to stop him from doing it to others, although that’s part of it. Just... not knowing kills me. The idea that he’s out there, somewhere, probably enjoying his disgusting life, it bothers me.”
Seth hummed his agreement. “It’s Justice you seek, then.”
Looking up at the stars, Tanya rolled the word over in her mind. Justice. “I guess so,” she said at last.
They stood that way a long time, lost in memory, as the stars turned in their eternal dance above. At last, Seth put a warm hand on her back, bringing her back to the present.
“Let’s go back to the motel,” he murmured. “You seem tired.”
She nodded. She was tired, although she couldn’t say why. She didn’t even argue when he asked for the keys, just handed them over and got into the passenger seat. As he pulled away, she spared one last backward glance for the place where her life had been forever altered.
The drive back was silent, and Seth found himself occasionally glancing at Tanya to check that she was alright. She seemed distant but unharmed, and he tried to content himself with that. Thank the heavens above that she agreed to drink from me tonight. He had needed only to feel for the connection between them to find her in the unpopulated Ozarks night.
As he closed the motel door, a thought occurred to him. “How did it go, with your parents?” In all the fuss, he had forgotten to ask.
She sat on the edge of the bed and stared down at her hands for a long moment, picking at a cuticle nervously. “It went okay,” she murmured at last.
He frowned. “Just okay?” He had hoped this would be a positive experience for her.
Running a hand through her curls, she pulled her feet up onto the bed, tucking her legs in close to her body. “I hate having to lie to them.”
Ah, yes. An old and familiar pain for him. “It must have been very difficult for you.”
To his dismay, he saw tears begin to pool in her eyes. Old habits die hard, and his handkerchief was out of his pocket before he knew he had reached for it. After a moment’s hesitation, she took it. He stood, as always uncomfortable in the presence of a woman’s tears and doubly so when it was his Tatiana in distress. “Why don’t you take a nice hot shower, wash the makeup off your face, change into something comfortable and just relax for the rest of the morning? There’s no rush, we won’t be leaving for Chicago until this evening.”
“That... that sounds really nice, actually.” She looked up at him, bemused.
“I do occasionally have good ideas,” he teased.
Tatiana stood, smiling a little. She seemed to assess him for a moment, and then slowly, unbelievably, she put her arms around him. His heart crashed against his ribcage, and he worried she would hear it.
“Thank you,” she whispered into his shirt.
He returned the embrace gently, lest she skitter away. But it was difficult, her sweet gesture made him want to kiss her so much his lips ached with it. “I don’t know that it was that good of an idea...” Bemused, he tucked his chin in so he could steal a whiff of her glorious hair.
She chuckled wetly. “No, I mean thanks for letting me come here. For helping me. It means a lot.”
Reluctantly, Seth let her pull away. “Your happiness means a great deal to me,” he admitted.
Tatiana raised a skeptical eyebrow, but she had not entirely left the circle of his arms.
“Were you wanting...” He glanced at the bed, uncertain.
“Aaaaand, there goes the moment,” she drawled, and put a significant distance between them. “Even if I did, which I don’t, I wouldn’t do it here.” She glanced at the gaudy bedclothes, which he admitted didn’t look as if they’d been replaced in several decades, and shuddered.
“Point taken.” He reclaimed the shoddy armchair and gestured to the bathroom to cover his disappointment. “Enjoy your shower.”
She sighed and shook her head, but went anyway.
Several hours later, Seth put down the book he was pretending to read. Tatiana’s breathing had slowed until it was nearly inaudible, even for him. Gently, in case he was wrong, he checked her pulse. He counted twent
y-five beats in the space of a minute and nodded. She would need to be well and truly out, and there were only fifteen minutes of darkness left to accomplish his task.
He cracked the motel door open just enough to press his ear to the gap. Outside, a symphony of birds and insects heralded the coming dawn. Sorting meticulously through the sounds, he found the ones he was looking for: those made by Detective Ken Shiro, amateur vampire hunter. The over-eager policeman had been a bother for the last couple weeks, trailing them with all the subtlety of a rhino. Granted, he was doing well for a human, but still.
Thankfully, it seemed Shiro had finally drifted off to sleep in his car. Naturally, he would anticipate that they would not leave the motel until evening fell, bringing darkness with it.
Seth pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket.
The response came immediately:
Moving quickly and carefully, Seth wrapped Tatiana’s body in a thick blanket and picked her up. He returned to the barely-ajar door and, listening one more time to be sure, he moved.
After long centuries of practice, he could easily move through shadows faster than the human eye could follow. But with his precious burden and the dim predawn light, he was at a disadvantage. In the space of a few dangerous heartbeats, he had made it to the room on the far end of the motel, and through the door.
It was quickly closed behind him. “Good to see you, sir,” the man said quietly. He was tall with dark, curly hair, although it was a few shades lighter than Seth’s, most people never noticed
Seth laid Tatiana carefully on the bed before responding. “Johnson. Here are the keys.” They exchanged car and room keys quickly. He glanced over the redhead his associate had brought with him. “She’ll do,” he nodded.
If the girl was irritated, she didn’t say so.
“Clothes are in the room. Go quickly now while he’s asleep,” he instructed. “Wait a couple hours, until the sun is fully up. He’s parked in the back row, so be noisy about it when you leave.”
“Got it.” Johnson nodded and glanced at his partner before they made their exit.
Not bad for humans, Seth thought approvingly, and set about blocking out the light from the room with painter’s tape and foil.
What Tatiana didn’t know was that the story he had given her to tell her father was not a lie. Johnson and the girl would take the car he had rented down to New Orleans and lose Shiro there. It would likely only keep him away a week at the longest, but seeing Tatiana’s double in broad daylight would remove any suspicions Shiro might have as to what she had become. Seth would be more careful in the future—when Tatiana needed to feed, he would make certain they did not go to any of his regular haunts.
He unwrapped the blanket carefully and made sure Tatiana was comfortable once more. Brushing a few curls out of her face, he resisted the ever-present urge to kiss her slightly parted lips. He would do anything, absolutely anything, to keep her safe. It would have been much easier to kill Detective Shiro, but he knew it would anger Tatiana and bring unnecessary suspicion on him. He would just have to avoid a confrontation as long as possible....
Tanya awoke that evening feeling refreshed and happy. She had successfully gone to see her parents, and no longer had to worry quite so much about keeping her awful secret from them. She certainly wouldn’t be able to visit as often as she did before, but her family would just have to adjust. It wouldn’t be any different if I’d moved to the coast, she reasoned. She was confident she could make it all work out.
And maybe it was just the blood-bond talking, but she thought Seth had been awfully supportive through the whole thing. Tanya had expected to have to fight him tooth-and-nail for every inch of her freedom, but instead he had been a great help. Even his reaction to her detour to Route 8 was reasonable and supportive, after he realized she wasn’t trying to run away again.
She smiled at him as she sat up. “Good evening,” she murmured, and for the first time, it felt natural.
“Good evening,” he replied with a bemused smile. “Did you sleep well?”
“I did. Ready to hit the road?” She stretched as she stood up, looking at their already-packed bags. Seth must have gotten everything ready while she was sleeping. Made sense, even with her new abilities, a seven-hour drive was still a bit taxing.
“If you are. I have a surprise for you, actually.” He gestured to the door.
She slipped on her flats and followed him out into the night. At first she was a little disoriented, something about the parking lot seemed off. Then she realized the rental car was gone, replaced with a sleek late-model Charger. Not as fancy as the cars Seth owned, but a definite upgrade.
“Sweet,” she murmured as she ran a hand over the black matte paint.
“You did so well on the way down, I thought you might like to have some fun with a V8 manual on the trip home. With the lights off, we should be able to cut the time in half.”
Tanya gave him an incredulous look. “I must have something stuck in my ears,” she teased, “because I don’t think straight-laced, by-the-book Professor Walker would ever condone such a thing as speeding.”
Seth chuckled darkly and stepped towards her until he was a breath away. “If you think of me as straight-laced,” he murmured, “then you really don’t know me yet.” He let the implied promise hang in the night air for a moment, before opening the driver’s side door for her.
“This is crazy,” she laughed as she got in. “What if we get pulled over?”
He sat in the passenger seat with cat-like grace. “My dear, I sincerely doubt a woman of your beauty has ever been ticketed.”
Tanya made a face at him. “And what if the cop’s a girl?”
“Well,” he smiled his charming smile, “then I suppose I will do the talking.”
She turned the engine over, relishing the way the hemi purred, even at idle. “You’re bad,” she shook her head.
He shrugged and leaned back in his seat. “I do try.”
26
The next few weeks went smoothly for Tanya. She hadn’t accepted her new life as a vampire by any stretch of the imagination, but she had found a certain stride, and she was determined to make it work. It helped that she had found a good balance between the occasional feeding and Seth’s amorous company. It didn’t hurt that he was pretty fantastic in bed, either.
Training was going well, too. With an eye towards getting her into fighting shape faster, Seth began to have her focus on perfecting a small set of moves, mostly defensive, rather than learning everything all at once. This meant more sparring and less mindless repetition.
Having Beatrice to talk to made a big difference, too—as long as Tanya stayed away from the subject of hunting vampires. This didn’t bother her much, as what she really needed was a friend, someone she could girl-talk to, and wasn’t constantly creeping her out.
All in all, it wasn’t a life Tanya would have chosen for herself, but it was one she could tolerate.
At first, she thought it might be a side effect of feeding off Seth again, but she didn’t feel the same ridiculous affection towards him. He was still a jerk, but he was somewhat predictably a jerk, and that loaned a sense of consistency to her days. His need for order and control gave her a structure that she could follow or flout according to her mood. Best of all, she was quickly discovering all the best ways to get a rise out of him, although he rarely lost his temper anymore.
Beatrice also helped keep the peace between them. Not so much that she would interfere, but her presence made Tanya and Seth wary of their behavior, so nothing ever got too out of hand. All in all, it worked much better with her there than it had before. Everything went fairly smoothly.
So it was with some surprise that Tanya awoke one evening to find the living room in complete disarray. The couches were torn and knocked over, the coffee table had been reduced to splinters. It looked like the scene of a natural disaster. Beatrice was gone—not surprising as it was Sunday night—but Seth was not to be found in the trainin
g room or the kitchen, which had suffered less damage by virtue of having less furniture, or the study, which was eerily untouched.
Tanya found herself standing before his closed bedroom door, hesitating. “Seth?”
There was no answer, and she laid a hand against the door, only to discover that it was not completely latched. It swung open at her touch.
Through the gloom, she could make out a figure sprawled across the bed, surrounded by the shredded remains of sheets and pillows. The great mirror on the headboard was shattered as if someone had punched it.
Cautiously, she stepped into the room. As she got closer, she managed to recognize Seth despite his disheveled hair and clothes. He stared at the ceiling, and the set of his jaw told her everything. The storm of his rage had passed while she slept, and had now wound down to a quiet, deadly ire.
“Seth?” she whispered.
“Justin is dead,” he said flatly.
“Oh no,” she murmured, and sat on the edge of his bed. Her fear was slowly replaced with surprise. She knew they had been fond of each other, but she would never have thought Seth would care enough to get quite this angry.
“Was it an accident?”
“No.” The icy word told the rest of the story: someone, most likely a vampire, had killed Justin.
“I see.” She sat a long time, waiting for him to move. It was creepy how deathly still he could be. “Do you know who it was?”
“Not yet,” he growled.
She sighed. “Well, why don’t we find out, and kill them?”
At last, he turned his head to face her, his flame-blue eyes piercing through the darkness. “You are very young,” he lamented. “You have yet to learn that revenge is the least satisfying pursuit of all. It does nothing to bring back the dead.”