And then my nails. I blocked that part out, focusing on Eric and Jason instead, first on their differences, how one was tall and solid and the other short and slender; Eric’s hazel eyes with minute gold and green flecks mixed into the light brown, and Jason’s pure cornflower blue; the timbre of their voices, Jason’s low, almost rumbling, while Eric’s was soft and slow, full of wry humor. Their similarities, too, the light that seemed to emanate from them, the way they followed one another’s lead without speaking, the underlying determination I felt in equal measures from each of them.
Throughout, Alice chattered and fussed over me as if I were a little girl. It was oddly comforting having her there. Her fingers brushed over mine, reassuring me. Even her nudity was soothing. Having someone else’s skin pressed so close, as innocent as her touch was, eased a fraction of the hollow solitude I’d endured for an eternity.
When we were both groomed to within an inch of our lives, she showed me around the suite. “I picked out this comforter. Eric said green was one of your favorite colors, so I chose a lighter, spring green in here for the bedding and the upholstery, and the deeper green for the bathroom. If you don’t like anything, all you have to do is say so and we’ll fix it.”
“No, it’s lovely.” Light years away from the cage I’d inhabited for so long that I knew every scratch along the flat metal bottom, every nick in the evenly spaced steel bars, the exact height of the roof covering my view of the larger world. The musty damp cold would forever remain in my bones, and the shadows. I shuddered. The shadows would never leave me, no matter how much light Eric and Jason returned with their presence. “I’m very thankful.”
Alice’s gaze had gone sad again, though I had no idea why. Had I not pleased her with my gratitude? Should I have said something else?
She sighed and pointed to a wooden door set into the wall near the sitting area. “This leads to another bedroom. Eric and Jason use it when they visit, though they’ll sleep with you as often as they can. Trust me, you’ll want them to. And this, this is what I’ve been waiting to show you for days now.”
She opened the door next to the bathroom and beckoned me forward. I stepped inside and nearly lost my breath. It was a closet, at least six feet wide and more than that deep. Rods hung along the left- and right-hand sides holding a spattering of clothing in a rainbow of colors, with cubbyholes for shoes underneath. A counter occupied the far end of the room between the rods, with drawers underneath.
I fingered a scarlet dress, slid the silky fabric through my fingers over and over again. It was the finest thing I’d ever felt, smoother than the slick metal floor of my cage, but warm somehow, vibrant and alive, like a living flame.
“Do you like that one? Jason picked it out.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Let’s see how it fits.”
I released the fabric and turned wide eyes on her. “I can wear it?”
“Of course. It’s yours, all of this is.” She squeezed my hand. “I took the liberty of picking out enough clothing to last until you can go shopping on your own. Evening wear for formal occasions. Jeans and t-shirts in the drawers, and underwear. Everything you’ll need, really, including shoes.”
All of this, mine? The fine material, the sensual colors, chosen for a woman who’d been kept in a cage? “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything, Gianna.” Her smile tilted into mischief. “Let’s see how this one fits.”
For the first time since I’d met her, happiness touched me, my own happiness and not just an echo of hers. A dress had made me happy. I clung to the buoyancy expanding inside me, embraced it eagerly, and went giddy with the newness of it as it swirled through me.
Alice helped me put the dress on, tugging it into its proper place, and chose shoes for me, strappy mile-high heels the same daring red as the dress. She tugged me into the bathroom and threw on her robe, then settled me in front of the mirror. The woman peering back at me was so unexpected I glanced over my shoulder, looking for another person behind me. I lifted my hands to the soft curls surrounding an oval face, the skin a smooth café au lait that glowed slightly from within and without. My eyes were brown. Sinful dark chocolate. The words whispered through my mind, and for some unaccountable reason, they reminded me of Eric. I leaned forward, blinked, and the woman in the mirror met me halfway, blinking with me.
“You made me pretty,” I said.
“You already were. I merely helped you find it again.” Her fingers fiddled with the spaghetti straps of my dress. “Not too loose, is it?”
I shook my head, fascinated by the curls bouncing around my face. The dress was a dream. Folds of fabric cupped my breasts, pushing them up slightly and creating a shadowed hollow between them. Underneath, the fabric fell in soft, swishy folds to my knees in the front, angling down in the back to my ankles. I turned, peeked at the back, turned the other way and peeked again. “It’s just right.”
“I thought so, too.” Alice slid a hand into one of mine. “Now, we haven’t much time and I still need to dress.”
She led me to her room and I waited while she stepped into a dress made of a slightly stiffer fabric than mine, also with an empire waist, though with more substantial shoulder straps. The blue was an almost exact match to the color of her eyes, darker and of a different hue than Jason’s. I helped her zip it and fastened the tiny eyehooks holding it together, found the matching shoes while she arranged her hair and put on make-up, and then we raced hand in hand through the twisting hallways to the stairs leading to what Alice told me was the main floor.
She paused at the top and grasped both of my hands in hers. “I’ll be nearby if you need me. Don’t be afraid to catch my attention.”
I squeezed her fingers as flutters pinged through my stomach. “I won’t be.”
“I’ll go down first. Wait until I’m halfway down before you start. We want you to make an entrance tonight on your first night back with us. After that, follow my lead, or Eric and Jason’s if you can’t find me, ok?”
I nodded and nearly panicked when her fingers slipped through mine. Her face went smooth and blank as she laid an elegant hand on the rail and stepped onto the top step. When she was halfway down, I laid my hand on the rail as she had, inhaled deeply around the flutters bounding through my insides, and carefully took the first step toward the men awaiting my return.
Chapter Four
Dinky was waiting at the bottom of the steps for me. His expression lit up as I approached. “Stunning, as I suspected from the first. Masters Eric and Jason will be speechless.”
Heat flooded my cheeks. I cleared my throat and ducked my head.
“They’re in the parlor awaiting you and the meal. I delayed it long enough to give Alice time to help you properly, and look at you. Pretty as a picture and twice as charming. Shall I lead you to them?”
I followed his sedate pace through the house, my heels clicking against the marble floor. Dinky explained everything to me as we walked. How I wasn’t to go outside without a servant assuring complete darkness first, which rooms were which in Grandmother’s massive home, the numbers to dial on the phones placed in every room if I needed help or, and here he chuckled slightly, lost my way.
“Master Eric has been coming here for nigh on two years now and bless him, he still gets lost. He’s a rascal, is that one.”
Dinky’s voice held a fondness I envied. “You like him?”
“Oh, yes. Always up to something. Keeps us all on our toes. Why, I remember…” Dinky’s voice trailed off as he paused in front of a wide set of wooden double doors stained honey brown. “But you’ll want to hear that from him, won’t you.”
I nodded. Like so many gestures I’d made since Eric and Jason had found me, I didn’t understand why, only that it was something I should do. “Mr. Dinky, may I ask you something?”
“Of course, Miss Gianna.”
I lowered my voice and leaned closer. “What, exactly, is a husband?”
> He blinked at me, his expression completely blank, and then he laughed softly, setting his jowls to jiggling. “The man who loves you more than life itself. Come, now. He’s waiting for you.”
Dinky swung the doors inward and announced in round, solemn tones, “Mistress Gianna.”
He stepped aside and bowed, and I froze where I stood, hovering on the threshold of a spacious room holding at least a dozen people. I searched the crowd and located Eric and Jason almost immediately. They stood next to a black baby grand piano, their hands in the pockets of their suit pants, their glowing eyes resting so heavily on me, I could almost feel the heated glances. My heart stuttered in my chest at the twin expressions on their faces and suddenly, I wasn’t in the parlor anymore, I was in a bedroom, a small, shabby bedroom crammed tight with a double bed and matching furniture, surrounded by these men, our nude bodies entwined, sweat-soaked and panting, joined so deeply we were not three, but one…
(…the stronger the blood bond. Scattered voices, glancing touches. I’m missing something…)
A rough hand slid down my arm, startling me out of the memory. Marco held my fingers in his, and behind him, Grandmother beamed at me, the happiest I’d ever seen her.
Here, at least, was one person whom I didn’t make sad.
“Did you and Alice have a nice chat?” Grandmother said.
“We did.” I attempted a smile, my first ever, I thought. “She was very kind.”
A huge hand came to rest on my lower back, startling me again. Jason leaned down from his great height and kissed my temple. “Hey, Gigi. God, you look great.”
Eric appeared around Jason and nudged Marco out of the way. Grandmother’s man winked at me, surprising me with the casual gesture as Eric took the hand Marco had held and threaded it through his elbow. “There you are.”
He said it as if I’d been gone days instead of an hour. Had Alice and I taken too long getting ready? “We hurried.”
Eric’s eyes met Jason’s over my head and something passed between them, touching me so fleetingly I couldn’t catch it. Jason took my other hand and said, “Come on. We’ll introduce you around.”
“Small crowd tonight, thank God.” Eric shot a disgruntled look at Marco, whose thin lips twitched into a smile. “Elizabet has a couple of guests. Nothing to worry over, though.”
They introduced me to two beautiful vampires, Therese and Marlena, who turned out to be Elizabet’s vampire children, the same as Alice. The three daughters stood in separate clusters scattered throughout the parlor, each accompanied by two men, though I couldn’t for the life of me remember the men’s names. They were all genial, men and women alike, Alice in particular. Her China blue eyes flashed brightly at me as we chatted before Eric and Jason escorted me to the next group.
As we walked away, I whispered, “Are those her husbands?”
Eric smiled gently. “We’ll get to that, ok?”
The final cluster of people in the parlor held six men and a voluptuous redhead whose eyes roamed boldly over my boys.
One of the men broke off as we neared and intercepted us. He was athletic and handsome, an inch or so taller than me in my heels, and had stylishly cut golden hair and light brown eyes that were almost as golden as his hair, like warm honey in the sunlight.
Eric stiffened as the man drew near. “Devin.”
“Eric, Jason.”
Devin met my gaze and his eyes, so formal with my boys, softened into a smile. He dipped his head and kissed my cheek, a light touch that brought with it sadness and a deep longing for something lost. I hissed in a breath as he stepped back, startled by the echo of his emotions in me. I had lost something, too, lost it and perhaps found it again in the two men at my side, it or something better.
“Gianna, darling, you look lovely,” Devin said.
“Thank you.” I shifted from one foot to another. “Do I know you?”
He smiled, not unkindly. “Once, yes, you did. If you’ll excuse me.”
He nodded and moved gracefully around us.
Eric bowed his head for a moment, his lips set in a thin, hard line.
I caught a very faint Let it go, man from Jason, and then from Eric, Trying.
“Come on.” Eric led us to the final group in the room and nodded toward a lean man standing next to the curvy redhead. “Gianna, I’d like you to meet Nathaniel. He holds Charleston for Lanu, the vampire queen, and is one of the few male vampires in the United States.”
Nathaniel’s eyes were a penetrating silver set evenly on either side of his aristocratic nose, his mouth a sensual promise between the flats of his cheeks. He had dark hair, midnight black with hints of the moon, and wore a black suit with a sapphire tie shot through by swirls of deeper shades of blue. He was handsome enough, not cruel that I could tell, and yet I couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes. I lowered mine politely and clenched Jason’s hand tightly with my own.
“And this is Raquelle, who holds Birmingham in Elizabet’s name.”
“What a timid little mouse you are.” Raquelle’s plump lips pursed into a pout. “If you’re not careful, darling, I’ll steal these two scrumptious treats away from you.”
Something nasty trembled through me. She couldn’t take Eric and Jason, could she? No. No, she couldn’t. I swallowed the fear down and focused on the fury. Fury I knew well. Fury I could use.
Eric’s hand covered mine where it rested in the crook of his elbow, slowing the whip and whistle of rage building within me. “Sorry, Raquelle. We’re not up for grabs.”
“If she’s not strong enough to keep you…”
Jason shifted forward, his silent menace halting the vampire mid-word, and my fury dropped away as swiftly as it had risen. “We’re hers. Deal with it.”
Nathaniel’s smile held only a hint of humor. “Poor Raquelle. Not even a taste for you, then.”
She cut hard, bottle green eyes toward him. “As if they’d allow you into their bed.”
Eric laughed, though like Nathaniel’s smile, it held little amusement. “No one enters our bed, not without Elizabet’s say so, and right now it’s full. No offense.”
Nathaniel bowed slightly. “None taken. Ah, there’s the call for supper.”
We followed Dinky into an airy dining room containing three long tables draped in white cloth with huge flower arrangements situated at regular intervals down their centers. The middle one had been prepared for Grandmother’s guests. Elegant china rested in precisely placed settings, exactly enough for the assembled company. Eric led me to the end opposite Grandmother and held out a straight-backed chair for me to one side of the table, then sat while Jason took a seat on my other side.
Alice’s eyes met mine as she assumed a chair across from us, between the two men who’d stood with her in the parlor. You’re doing very well.
I touched a hand to my temple where the words had nudged against my mind. It wasn’t the first thought I’d caught that day. Was this the way everyone communicated their deepest thoughts here? And if so, why couldn’t I do that?
What if I tried?
I nibbled my lower lip, barely conscious of servants wandering around the room placing steaming bowls of fragrant soup in front of everyone.
What did I have to lose?
I closed my eyes and concentrated on Alice, sweet Alice who’d been so patient with me. Thank you, I thought, and pushed the words toward her with a surge of my mind.
Beside me, Eric and Jason’s arms scraped along mine and silence descended on the room. My eyes popped open. Everyone was looking at me, some with horror, others with satisfaction, Grandmother and Marco in particular, and still others with a rapt speculation that had me shifting uneasily in my seat.
Perhaps it had been wrong of me to try. Heat stained my cheeks and I turned away from the curious stares of Grandmother’s guests, away from the mute fear in Alice’s expression and the naked longing on Nathaniel’s, hidden so quickly, I immediately dismissed my interpretation. I’d gotten so many things wrong that day
, so many. No wonder Grandmother kept me in a cage.
Eric’s hand found mine under the table at the same time that Jason’s fell to my thigh. You’re fine we love you don’t worry came to me in an odd stereo, one voice echoing through both of them to me, and then Alice, distinctly her, brushed along my mind, her presence there a comforting weight. Our eyes met across the space between us, hers with a depth of compassion I barely understood, the fear erased as if it had never been.
I sighed, relieved that these three, at least, weren’t displeased with my fumbling efforts.
Eric leaned so close, his lips touched my ears, sending a delicious heat through me. “We’ll help you tone that down later, ok?” he said, so low I could barely hear him.
On my other side, Jason did the same, his words a rough rumble. “Eat, Gigi.”
I shivered and wallowed in their revered attention, the quiet concern emanating from them, and something good, something light. I searched for its meaning and returned to what they’d said to me, mind to mind. We love you. That’s what it was. Love. I hadn’t known that before, couldn’t even believe they felt something so beautiful for me.
Questions tumbled through me in a wild cascade of thoughts and exotic feelings, so many questions about everything. Their presence that day, the rings they wore. I’d seen those, in my memory. Three hands on a white surface similar to this tablecloth, fingers touching, and those rings. I stared at my hand where it rested, brown against the white. It was my hand I was seeing in that memory, mine and theirs. Happy, light, rings of gold and platinum, and people talking, swaying to a slow bluesy number. Norah Jones. Of course. I loved her, had all of her CDs…somewhere. I flexed my ringless fingers as an ache clawed its way over the memory, fierce and sorrowful and so reminiscent of my lonely existence I shrank from it.
A servant removed the soup, and another replaced it with a plated salad.
“Eat,” Jason said.
Dutifully, I picked up a fork and stabbed at a piece of lettuce, a tiny leaf coated with a light dressing. It didn’t look very appetizing to me. Then again, I’d subsisted on blood and barely cooked meat for as long as I could remember. Eric and Jason had already begun eating theirs in slow, steady bites. I mimicked them, raising my fork with genteel ease, and closed my mouth over the lettuce.
The New Vampire Page 3