Whiskey and Orange Slices

by Michelle Edwards

  I nodded, remembering our dinner date that never was a date to begin with.

  “I do need blood to survive though but I get plenty of that. I hold blood drives and a portion of the donations comes to us. The people that run it know who we are and know that we don’t intentionally go out and kill humans for the hell of it.”

  I stopped, grabbing his arm and making him face me.

  “Why me? What is it about me that draws you in so much?”

  “I could ask you the same question. This connection I feel toward you wouldn’t be as strong if you didn’t have it to.”

  I shrugged. “I can’t explain it.”

  He wiggled his eyebrows and smiled. “It’s the same response for me. I can’t explain it either, but I know it’s not normal. I also know I don’t want it to end.”

  We went and sat down with the others. Ethan was already piling up food on his plate, and Alexis was typing away on her phone while he put food on her plate.

  “Good morning! You’re still here!” Alexis exclaimed happily.

  “Where was I going to go?” I laughed.

  She shrugged.

  “Matt, after we eat we need to get the field ready for the activities.”

  He nodded.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll be at the hotel making ourselves look beautiful.” Alexis smiled at me.

  “Do we need to dress up for something?” I questioned.

  “Yeah the activities tonight are semi-formal. Don’t worry, Jess picked you out a dress and shoes.”

  “But how did she know my sizes?” I asked.

  “We have our ways. We can’t tell you all our secrets. Hell I don’t even know how she does it. She got me two dresses that fit better than anything I’ve ever owned,” Alexis explained.

  “If someone would have told me, I could have brought something.” I sighed looking at Matthew.

  “Well we felt we should stick with tradition of letting Jess do that for you.”

  I nodded and shoved a piece of toast in my mouth. Everything was making my head spin. I was nervous, but at the same time felt oddly calm and safe.

  Matthew smiled and laughed with Ethan, but was almost completely different when someone came up to him about business. It was like that at the office too and I noticed his quick change in attitude.

  After breakfast I barely had time to say goodbye to Matthew before I was being dragged away by Jess and Alexis. They took me to my room at the hotel and came in with a box of stuff.

  “What is all that?” I questioned, pointing at the box.

  “Beauty supplies.”

  “Do you think I need all of that?”

  They giggled, “No, but we like to have anything we may need. Alright, strip down and put this robe on.” Jess demanded handing the robe to me.

  I looked to Alexis for support.

  She held her hands up.

  “I’m just here to help if needed. Mostly for moral support and I want Jess to do my make-up.”

  I slipped out of my clothes and into the robe. I felt a little strange having someone do my hair and make-up.

  “So what’s it like?” I asked as she pulled my hair back.

  “What?”

  “Being a vampire.” I breathed.

  She glanced down and then looked at me through the mirror.

  “It’s different. It’s definitely hard sometimes. Not being able to tell people my secret. Always having to hide my eye color.” She shrugged.

  “I haven’t been a vampire long enough to really give a good answer. But I’m also a witch too.”

  “This is all so surreal. I never thought any of this was even possible,” I whispered.

  “You’d be surprised at who else is a vampire or something of the sorts. People you come in contact with every day and you may never have known,” Alexis explained.

  ***

  Hours later and we were ready to head downstairs. I sucked in a breath, and spun around to face the floor length mirror.

  The royal blue and gold dress hugged my body in all the right places. It flowed, barely touching the floor. My hair was curled and pulled to one side with a few straggling strands that curved around my face.

  “Holy shit,” I muttered.

  “You’re a knockout. When Matt see’s you he’s going to pee himself.” Jess laughed.

  I turned around to face them. They both had on gorgeous dresses.

  “How did you find this to fit me so well?”

  “It’s a gift.” Jess winked.

  I followed them down the stairs of the hotel. The butterflies in my stomach twisted so much I couldn’t breath.

  We stepped outside into the California sun. It was just after noon. I scanned for Matthew who was just rounding the corner with Ethan.

  “Wow,” he whispered, walking up to me.

  “It’s not too much?”

  “Not at all. You look amazing.”

  “Thank you. I’d tell you that you clean up nicely, but I’ve seen you in a suit and tie before.” I smirked.

  He smiled. “Ready?”

  “What are we doing?” I asked, putting my arm through his as we walked.

  “I’m going to make a speech and then we are going to have some games and activities.”

  “Who wrote your speech?” I giggled.

  “You think I can’t write my own?”

  I cocked my head to the side.

  “Well, I wrote it.”

  We stopped at a group of people. Some of them I hadn’t seen before now.

  “I’ll be right back.” He kissed my cheek and walked to the stage that was set up.

  “Here you go,” Glen said, handing me a glass of wine.

  I looked at him, and then down to the glass, and back to him.

  Alexis laughed so hard she snorted.

  “I thought the same thing you are thinking. It’s wine. Not blood. Look mine is thick as shit, your’s isn’t.”

  “Oh thank goodness.” I relaxed my muscles and took a sip of the red liquid in my glass.

  “Thank you all for gathering here today. Every year we get to come back to Hideaway and celebrate who we are. Even though Hideaway is open to any of us year round, it’s always a blessing to be here together. Now as many of you probably have noticed, we have a visitor. That’s all my doing. I want to thank you for being so welcoming to her. Remember our ritual night is coming up in a few weeks. Please make sure you are on time, dressed and ready. Let’s have some fun tonight!”

  Cheers erupted from the group. Glasses clinked together and they shared their drinks.

  Matthew rushed over to me, clinked his glass to mine and took a mouthful of the thick liquid in his glass while I took another small sip of mine.

  “Now what?” I questioned.

  “Now we have some fun!” He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close to him. His lips brushed against mine and I felt electric.

  ***

  The rest of the afternoon and evening consisted of games, long conversations and a lot of drinking.

  “Are you having a good time?” Jess questioned, stumbling over to me.

  I smiled, “A little too much to drink?”

  “Just a bit.” She held her fingers to show a little but instead they were just pressed together.

  “I am having an okay time. I’m still not entirely sure the point of all this.” I motioned to everyone else.

  “The point is for us to get out and enjoy ourselves. To remember that we get this gift of living for eternity and to never waste it. There are some people like us who don’t feel the same. Then there are humans who are begging to be turned,” Glen answered walking up to us and wrapping his arms around Jess.

  My eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

  “I hadn’t exactly gotten to that part yet.” Matthew sighed as he joined our small group.

  I turned to face him. My cheeks burned.

  “Every year, the council takes applications so to speak from those who wish to be turned. They don’t know who is a va
mpire until they are accepted and end up at the ritual.”

  “You turn people for fun?” I spat.

  “No. Not for fun. We turn people and show them how we operate. If we don’t turn some, others will. And those others will make them part of their army to kill innocents. This is our way of controlling that a bit.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. I honestly couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth. Was he seriously trying to justify turning someone into a monster?

  “It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Alexis pipped in.

  “Oh yeah, how so?” I snapped.

  “Because not long ago I was in your spot. Learning all of this and not believing how it could be possible or why. Then I was attacked, and turned all because someone thought I didn’t belong. They didn’t believe in humans knowing who they really were. They are the reason that Christina is a vampire too. Those types of people feed off innocents. They kill for fun because they can.” She sucked in a breath.

  “What we are doing here is stopping that. Teaching new vampires how to deal with their thirst without killing. Orange. Haven’t you noticed that Matthew goes through pounds of those nasty orange slices? They help control his thirst. Ethan and I suck down orange juice and orange glazed donuts.”

  I started to think back to every time I saw Matthew eating one of those candies. He did go through an awful lot of them. The night at the grocery store. He had two bags of them in his hands. It all fit and I couldn’t believe I didn’t realize it before.

  “So see, we aren’t out to murder people. We are out to help educate those who will find a way to turn. We’d much rather they eat oranges than kill humans every time they needed a fix.” Alexis finished explaining.

  For someone who was new to all of this, she sure had a pretty good grasp on everything.

  I stood quiet. I was at a point where I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “Why don’t we go for a walk?” Matthew asked.

  “Matt, you have an announcement to make.” Alexis stopped him.

  “It’s okay, make your announcement and then we can walk.” I nodded. If there was one thing I did understand it was the political side of all this which was surprising for me as I wasn’t much into politics before I met Matthew.

  He nodded and turned to the group of people who were either stumbling around the small area or chatting and laughing.

  ***

  I looked down at my phone as I flipped through paperwork later that week.

  Marty: John told me where you went. Saw your picture.

  I sighed, the last thing I wanted was to be in a texting conversation with Marty.

  Marty: No answer?

  I ignored the message and went back to flipping through paperwork.

  “Miss Holden, you have a visitor,” the receptionist said over my speaker.

  “Send them in,” I replied. Jess was supposed to be coming by to help me with something.

  “Nice digs.” John smiled standing in the doorway. Marty right behind him.

  My body tensed and my throat went dry.

  “No hello for your brother?” He smirked walking in and plopping down in front of my desk.

  I grabbed the glass of water on my desk and took a mouthful.

  “What are you doing here?” I whispered.

  “Well I figured since the grass is so much greener over here I would come check it out.”

  “And you brought him.” I groaned.

  “Yeah. He wanted to see his favorite girl.”

  “I’m not his girl.” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Why didn’t you answer me back? I've been texting,” Marty spoke.

  “That’s because I have nothing to say to you, and I have a job that I need to do.”

  “So now you are all work and no play?” Marty teased.

  “Bethany do you have--” Matthew stopped in the doorway. “Sorry I didn’t know you were busy.”

  “I’m not. Senator, this is John my brother and a friend of his Marty.”

  “Nice to meet you both!” he smiled, shaking their hands.

  “Yeah you too,” John muttered.

  “Bethany, we have an appointment across town in a bit, so we’ve got to get going.”

  I nodded, “I’ll meet you at the elevator.”

  He walked down the hall and I turned my attention to the guys.

  “Get out. I’ve got work to do and I don’t know why you two are here or what your agenda is, but you need to leave me the hell out of it,” I demanded.

  John laughed.

  “Get the hell out of my office right now before I call security.” I almost screamed.

  “Fine, but just know. This isn’t over,” John threatened before motioning for Marty to follow him.

  I watched them walk down the hall before I let my body collapse into my chair.

  “Are you alright?” Matthew questioned rushing into the office and shutting the door behind him.

  I shook my head. I was beyond angry.

  “What was that all about?”

  I shrugged, “Who the hell knows. John is furious at me for moving away, but I couldn’t stay there and he knows that. He doesn’t understand. Our mother remembers him, she doesn’t know who I am,” I cried.

  “Maybe he’s just here to clear the air,” he suggested.

  “Did that sound like clearing the air to you?” I shook my head. “He’s up to something. I don’t know what.”

  “If you need anything, you know I’ve got a whole army full of people that will help.”

  “I know. Thank you.”

  “Well, while I have you here, will you attend the turning ritual with me in a couple of weeks?”

  I stared at him, blinking.

  “I don’t want to turn you! I just want you to come with me.”

  “Can I think about it?”

  “Of course. Jess said she’ll pick out another dress for you if you like.”

  I smiled, I did enjoy her sense of style and how she seemed to find that one dress that fit so perfectly.

  Chapter Ten

  Matthew

  I left Bethany in her office. My focus was now on the two men who just took off down the elevator.

  I rushed around the corner and down the stairs. Vampire speeds came in handy in times like this. I knew I could beat the slow elevator.

  When I reached the lobby floor I waited around the corner, listening.

  “So what are we going to do now?” Marty questioned.

  “Now we will make the demands we want. We have her. Did you see how she acted with that monster around?”

  “Hey, I’m one of them.”

  “Yeah but you aren’t a public figure. He is.”

  Their voices trailed off as they exited the building. My hands clenched at my sides and I wanted to go after them.

  “Hello Senator,” Jess said walking up to me.

  I released my hands. “Hello. On your way to see Bethany?”

  She nodded.

  “I’ll ride up with you,” I muttered as we stepped onto the almost full elevator.

  I could tell she wanted to talk, but we both knew we couldn’t here.

  When we reached the floor, Bethany met us at the elevator.

  “Where did you go off to?” she questioned.

  “I had to run downstairs for something.”

  She nodded as she and Jess walked off to her office.

  I grabbed Alexis by the arm and pulled her to my office. I almost slammed the door behind her.

  “What on earth?” she huffed.

  “I need you to stop whatever you are doing and find out everything you can about Bethany’s brother John and his buddy Marty. I don’t know his last name, but I’m sure you can find it easily.”

  “What’s going on?” she questioned, sitting down.

  I popped an orange slice into my mouth.

  “He’s one of us.”

  “Her brother?”

  “No this Marty fella. I overheard them downstairs.”
/>
  “Matthew…”

  “I know. I know. I’ll notify the council immediately.”

  “Do you think she knew?” Alexis questioned.

  “No. She was surprised about us. If she knew, I would have noticed.”

  “Alright, I’ll get on this.”

  I watched as she left the office. Then I leaned back in my chair. The thoughts that were running through my mind were almost painful.

  I sent a quick text to another council member about Marty. As a rule, I had to notify them of any new blood that came into LA.

  ***

  Days passed and Bethany didn’t mention her brother or Marty again. Alexis still hadn’t come back to me yet with any sort of information and I was feeling restless. I needed information. I needed to know if this guy was a threat or not. We had our ritual coming up and nothing could impact that again. My mind wandered back to when Alexis was turned into a vampire during the ritual. It was by pure accident. I shook my head at the thought of that happening to Bethany. I didn’t want that for her. I didn’t want her to be turned against her will.

  I tapped my pen on the desk as I listened in on a conference call I wasn’t even paying attention to.

  Alexis slowly and quietly came into the room.

  I pulled myself up in the chair and muted the phone.

  “Well?”

  “I’d feel better talking when the call is over,” she whispered.

  I nodded, and agreed. It was a bit of a risk to talk about vampires on a call of business professionals.

  I sat back, twisting the pen in my hands as the conference continued. When it finally concluded, I gave all of attention to Alexis.

  “So how worried do I need to be?”

  “Well it’s definitely not good. He’s definitely a vampire. He’s got a bad rep back east. I talked to a few people and they aren’t exactly thrilled he’s still around.”

  “Great and he knows Bethany and her brother how?”

  She bit her lip and looked down to the papers in her lap.

  “Tell me.”

  She sucked in a breath, “They dated. For quite a while actually. I’m not sure how she didn’t realize he was a vampire, or why if he’s such a bad seed, why he didn’t just turn her or bite her.”