by Amira Rain
In the glow from the lamps, the chandelier, and the twin red taper candles, I began eating my crackers, realizing that I had indeed drunk my three glasses of wine pretty fast. Not to mention that I hadn’t had anything to eat since lunch, a good eight hours earlier. I knew I really should have been a little more aware of exactly how much I was drinking, and how fast, especially since I'd always been kind of a lightweight when it came to alcohol. However, my mind had, of course, been on other things, like revenge and Nick’s handsome face.
Just on the off-chance that my inebriation had somehow caused my supernatural powers to return, I tried shooting a beam of fiery light at the wide window, and then at the paintings flanking it, but with no luck. Which was just as well, I realized. If my powers had worked, the noise of the shattering glass would have surely alerted Nick, and I would have had some serious covering up to do to conceal the fact that my powers had returned.
When I was on my last cracker, I realized that I’d begun to sober up a bit already, just in the five minutes or so since I’d started eating. I also realized something else. Although he could certainly be commanding and stern at times, Nick wasn't exactly behaving like a cold-blooded murderer, or even like anyone who’d allow any murders to happen on his watch. Also, although I was loathe to admit it, there was some kind of warmth about him that struck me as at least fairly sincere.
I set the uneaten half of my last cracker on my plate, suddenly troubled, and profoundly so.
For the first time, I wondered if James and I had been correct in our guessing that the Everglen Coven had committed the murders of my coven members. But there wasn’t anyone else it could have possibly been. The murders had clearly been done by vampires, and other than the Everglen Coven and the Dormios, there had been no other vampire groups in the area.
And as for the Dormios, they had absolutely no motive to commit the murders, and in fact, exactly the opposite. With James being their leader at the time, no one would have wanted to anger him by harming his girlfriend’s family.
The possibility that James himself had done it really wasn’t even a possibility. Again, no motive, not to mention that even though he definitely hadn’t been the perfect boyfriend, James had never lied to me before, about anything. At least, not as far as I knew.
Still, even with all these thoughts swimming around in my still-buzzy mind, even with all the certainty that I felt that James and I had guessed the murderers correctly all those years earlier, I still couldn’t help but feel that something about Nick and his coven being responsible just wasn’t making as much sense to me as it once had. However, this feeling of unease wasn’t going to last long.
Nick soon returned from the kitchen, bearing a plate and other items for my dinner. He set the plate in front of me, along with a linen napkin and silverware. “Enjoy.”
On the plate sat thick slices of what appeared to be, and smelled like, baked honey-glazed ham, along with scalloped potatoes, cooked baby carrots and green beans, and two rolls, alongside a couple of deviled eggs. Still tipsy, I just stared at the food in front of me for a moment with my head slightly spinning.
Then, I looked up at Nick, suddenly feeling some bizarre mix of confusion, anger, and sadness. “What’s all this for?”
Looking vaguely perplexed at my reaction, he smiled a little. “It’s Easter food. Because today is Easter.”
I hadn’t realized. I’d known it was April because government agents had told me the date not long after I’d awoken in their prison, but I didn’t have a calendar in my new apartment.
Seeming not to notice my emotional upheaval, Nick continued. “I had one of my staff members prepare you some traditional Easter food, even though it’s something we vampires don’t consume, of course. We wanted you to be able to enjoy the holiday with a traditional meal. Our staff chef who cooks for us when we have human and shifter guests in town had no idea how to make deviled eggs, but she asked one of the still-human women in the city, and I think she figured it out. Take a bite of one and see for yourself.”
With a little wave of nausea, I looked at the deviled eggs. Instantly, an image appeared in my mind. It was an image of my coven mother Aurelia, the only real mother I’d ever known. In my mind, I saw her in her pink-striped apron, her gray hair in a bun, as she surveyed a tray of deviled eggs on our kitchen counter, smiling. That was how she’d looked the day she’d taught me to make deviled eggs.
It had been the first time anyone had taught me how to cook anything, ever. My biological mother had always been too high on drugs to do any cooking. And each of my foster mothers had never wanted kids in the kitchen.
Beyond being the first day anyone had ever taught me how to cook anything, Easter had been a special holiday for Aurelia and me, maybe even more special than Christmas, because the day before Easter was when she’d found me and had “adopted” me, taking me into the coven. I’d kind of always considered Easter to be the day that we’d become a family.
In my still-intoxicated state, with my painful memories seeming to take over my brain, I was becoming miles beyond confused. Miles beyond sad and angry, too.
Without thinking, I suddenly flew up from my chair and turned to face Nick. “How could you do this to me?”
He frowned. “Whatever ‘this’ is, I didn’t mean for it to be so upsetting to you. I just thought you might like to have Easter food on Easter.”
I snorted, folding my arms across my chest. “Sure. You can drop the act, Nick. I’m not buying it, even a little bit. You did this completely on purpose. I just know it. You did this because you know, and you wanted to crush my soul. You wanted to just hurt me and make me remember what you did.”
Nick frowned even harder, furrowing his dark brows. “I’m really sorry, Tiffany. I don’t quite understand what you’re saying, but I didn’t mean to upset you by telling you that we don’t celebrate Easter here with food, if that’s what I did. For what it’s worth, we still celebrate Christmas here, you know, even without food. It’s even had a resurgence in recent years, with all the kids now in the city.”
If I’d had any doubts, I was suddenly completely convinced that Nick knew who I was and who my family had been, and he’d decided to play some kind of a sick joke on me. I had no idea how he’d found me out, because my mind was still too clouded by alcohol to reason that out, but I just felt in my gut that he had.
Ignoring what Nick had just said, I practically spat my next words at him. “You’re absolutely sick. It's not bad enough that you did what you did, now you just wanted to turn the knife. You wanted me to remember Aurelia, and my sisters, and Easter, and….”
I hadn't even realized my eyes were misting up, but a hot tear slid down my face, and I impatiently wiped it away.
“You’re a monster.”
Nick opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off.
“No…just, no, Nick. I'm done talking, and I'm done thinking. I just want to go to sleep. So, please, just leave. Unless you want to kill me right now or something. Because I know killing must give you joy.”
Nick, who'd been standing silently, just looking at me, now spoke in a low, measured voice. “I think you have the right idea about just going to sleep, and I’ll leave you be right now because alcohol clearly makes you paranoid and hostile. Goodnight, Tiffany. May you awake tomorrow completely sober. If not for your own sake, then for mine."
He began striding out of the dining room, still frowning.
He hadn't been gone a single minute when I realized I'd made a huge mistake. Just as suddenly as my little fit had come on, it had seemed to leave me, along with the tangle of emotions I'd been experiencing. Sitting down at the table, I realized that whatever strange thing had come over me, whether it had been caused by the wine, or the stress, or a combination of those things, it had caused me to say far too much. If Nick hadn't known I was a spy of sorts before, he’d certainly have suspicions now.
But then again, I reasoned, maybe he wouldn't. After all, I had been extremely ti
psy before my crackers, and Nick himself had blamed my hostility and paranoia on the alcohol I'd consumed. It was possible that he would never question that that was all it had been. Especially if I apologized the next day, saying that I'd simply been spouting nonsense because I was drunk.
I still wasn't sure exactly what I thought about him not exactly behaving like a cold-blooded killer. However, I had to admit as I ate my Easter dinner mechanically, without really even tasting it, a man bringing a special meal to a woman didn't seem like the action of a man capable of true evil. In fact, the thought that Nick had done it as some sort of a sick joke seemed a bit silly to me now. Definitely paranoid. Nick had been right on the mark about that.
Even though my paranoia, anger, and sadness had mostly left me, I was still confused. However, at present, I was too tired to do any more serious thinking. I needed sleep. Deep sleep. Then, I felt like I needed to spend more time with Nick to get an even better feel for who he was, and what he was and wasn’t capable of. If he somehow wasn’t responsible for killing my coven, obviously, I'd want to rethink my revenge plan. Not that I could even go through with it anytime soon anyway, still not having my powers back.
The next morning, after another night of restless sleep, I showered and dressed a little earlier than usual, wondering if Nick might come by for a morning visit. However, when Clara came by around eight, I wondered if I'd ever even see him again.
Smiling, Clara came inside, held my apartment door wide open, and then gestured to the hallway. "Go ahead and get out. Commander Alexander’s orders.”
So, he was kicking me out. I just couldn’t understand why Clara was smiling about it.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I stared at Clara, incredulous. “Nick is…he’s kicking me out?”
Clara smiled again. “Yes. He wants you out.”
"Do you mean ‘out’ as in... well, permanently, or...."
"I mean ‘out’ as in ‘out for the day,’ or at least for a little while. Commander Alexander thinks being cooped up is starting to make you crazy. So, go. Enjoy some fresh spring air.”
Slumping against the wall, I breathed a sigh of very unexpected and strange relief that I would be seeing Nick again. I told myself this was just because I was relieved that I could still execute my revenge plan to execute him if I came to the conclusion that he had indeed been behind the murder of my coven members.
After taking a deep breath, I nodded at Clara. “Okay, well, just let me grab a few things, and I'll be on my way out for the day, ready to get some fresh spring air.”
Smiling, she took a white envelope from her pocket and handed it to me. "Spending money for the day. Go to the cafe with the white awning across the street at nine. That's where a lot of the human women who haven't been turned into vampires yet go to socialize and grab a bite to eat. A young woman named Dana will be waiting for you there. She'll be your first friend in town, I’m guessing."
With a smile and a little wink, Clara soon left with her white tennis shoes squeaking quietly down the hallway.
My first step out of the apartment felt so good I could have cried. I hadn't realized it, but I now knew that my time spent being confined in the government prison had probably made me a little crazy. Not to mention that I hadn’t left my new apartment in Everglen the previous day. If I hadn’t been going at least a little crazy, I didn't think being outside would have felt half as blissful as it did.
I practically skipped down the long, marble-floored hallway to an elevator bay at the end. Then I got in and rode the elevator down to the ground floor as the only passenger. It was when I stepped out that all the stares began.
Like the hallway, the ground floor of the building was made of marble, and it seemed to be some sort of lobby, with people coming and going from different elevator bays. When they caught sight of me, most people stopped what they were doing and peered at me intensely. I began walking a little faster, uncomfortable with the attention, until a pretty, slender young woman with long, curly auburn hair caught up with me, began walking by my side, and said hello.
Possibly overly thrilled to have a possible new friend, I said hello back with a big smile.
The curly-haired woman smiled in return. "Wow. The rumors that are going around are very true. You're gorgeous."
I slowed my walking to a stop and smiled again, more than a bit embarrassed but pleased at the same time. "Well, thank you, but...how do you know me? I don't think we've ever met before."
She gave me a dazzling grin that made her vivid green eyes sparkle. "Well, I was told your general description, and you're also the only woman in this building I've never seen before." Still grinning, the young woman extended a hand. "I'm Dana, and I was just heading over to the cafe to meet you. I've been enlisted by Clara to show you around town today."
I took her hand and shook it. "Oh. Well, it's really nice to meet you, Dana. I'm Tiffany. And I'm really ecstatic to be out of my apartment."
She laughed, and we soon left the building and headed across the street to the cafe, and within ten minutes, we were sitting with plates of breakfast and mugs of steaming coffee, chatting away like we’d been friends for years. Bright sunlight streaming in through the plate glass windows of the cafe added to my buoyant mood, as did a few friendly waves and hellos from other human women sitting nearby.
Dana told me that she'd arrived in Everglen three years earlier and had a baby daughter named Stephanie with her husband Noah, who was a good friend of Nick’s, and also one of his top men when it came to fighting the Dormios. She also told me that the building we'd just left was strictly for Nick’s "inner circle" people to live in, and since she and Noah had an apartment there, we were neighbors, although separated by ten floors.
"So, anytime you want to come down and visit Stephanie and me, you're more than welcome to."
I said I'd love to, and I really meant it. I'd always loved children of all ages and babies, and the thought of getting to hold a baby soon filled me with joy.
Dana and I continued chatting while we ate, but when the subject turned to Nick and how we were "getting on," as Dana put it, I began to feel decidedly less chatty.
Lowering my gaze to my plate, I also lowered my voice so that none of the women nearby could hear me. "I'm sorry, but it's just that...well, I'm really not sure about the two of us right now. I'm really...confused about a lot of things."
To say the least.
"So, maybe if you wouldn’t mind...maybe we could just talk about something else right now instead."
Dana said that was no problem and that she understood completely. "But just know that if you ever do want to talk about how things are going with Nick, I've got a good set of listening ears, so come to me anytime."
I said I would, then changed the subject by asking if the cafe had Belgian waffles. "As long as I'm having sausage and eggs this morning, I guess I might as well go full-tilt."
I'd always had a hearty appetite, but fortunately, past my teen growing years, I'd never put on weight. Also, my hourglass-shaped figure had never developed any unwanted bumps or lumps. I could only hope that my metabolism would stay as fast as it apparently was for the rest of my life.
Dana flagged down the waitress and ordered Belgian waffles with strawberries and powdered sugar for us both, and while we ate them, she remarked what a shame it was that vampires couldn't enjoy food. "I mean, I know my husband enjoys...well, drinking you-know-what, and he claims that it's even more satisfying than eating food, if you can believe that…but for some reason, I'm still not convinced. I guess I'll just have to find out for myself once I let him turn me into a vampire after we're finished having kids. It's just that I've always been a little on the squeamish side."
"Oh, you, too?"
"Yes. Very squeamish, I should say, honestly. It helps to know that most of the vampires here in Everglen only drink from animals, but...you know, it really doesn't help that much. It still grosses me out. Noah says that I need to start trusting him when he says that I'll abs
olutely, positively get used to it, and that eventually, I won't find drinking from animals 'gross' in the least. He says I'll actually look forward to 'hunting' trips to the wild forestland outside of the city. I keep telling him he's absolutely nuts if he really believes that."
With a sense of unease creeping up on me, I put my fork down. "So...do you know if Nick only drinks from animals?"
"Oh, of course. Nick, Noah, and really almost everybody else here are exclusively animals-only. There's no difference between drinking from animals and humans, at least not nutritionally, as gross as that sounds when discussing the ingestion of blood. I think it's just more of an ethics thing."
"So... you don't think Nick would ever drain a group of people dry in order to kill them?"
Dana suddenly stopped cutting off a bite of her waffle with a fork and slowly looked up at me, frowning. "Please don't take this the wrong way, and it's really none of my business, but it sounds to me like you and Nick might really need to get to know each other a little better."
Instantly mortified, I picked up my fork and began cutting at my waffles, avoiding Dana's eyes. "Oh, I know that. I know we do. And that was just a silly hypothetical question. I'm just still on very unfamiliar footing with the whole vampire thing, so I've just been asking lots of random questions of people lately just to try to get all the information that I can."
"Well, there's certainly nothing wrong with that, and again, none of my business, but you might want to start asking more questions of Nick directly because it sounds like maybe you haven't been comfortable enough to do that yet. Just try it, though. I think it'll help. Nick is a really good man, and a good leader, and he’ll answer any other questions you have with complete honesty.”
I put my fork down, suddenly unable to eat another bite of my waffles, but not necessarily because I was getting full. As if I hadn't had my perceptions and convictions rattled enough the night before, now I really wasn't sure who Nick really was. I really wasn't sure if he was the man I should be planning on taking revenge on.