Chapter Two
“Tell me your name.” I gave her my most charming smile.
“Claudia.” She didn’t smile back.
“I’m Roman. It would be nice if we could walk together.” I put as much compulsion into my voice as I could.
“Rot in Hell,” was all she said as she stormed out of the room.
It is no lie—I’d never been so aroused.
Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog
It was a little after nine in the morning when Aiden headed out. Normally, he was an early riser, but he’d barely slept the previous night. After settling his stuff into the guest room, he’d gone down to the basement where his uncle had a full gym. He’d pushed himself for two hours, but he still couldn’t get his mind to shut off. He’d finally showered and headed to bed, only to lay awake and stare at the ceiling.
The painting disturbed him. He’d seen it before but only in passing. Those times he’d never paid it much attention, assuming it was a painting of Lenore. He’d heard the portrait traveled everywhere with his uncle, so it wasn’t a novelty and it usually remained in his uncle’s room. Had he not been studying it closely, he still would have believed it was Lenore even though there were more differences than the eye color. Had he given it more than a passing glance in the past, he would have recognized his father’s work.
That was the real problem. Big family secrets didn’t bother him. The Draksel family was full of deception. Unlike the rest of his family, his parents had been an open book, or so he’d believed. Now, he discovered some mystery woman in the family his father had known well enough to paint her portrait. He couldn’t help but wonder if this woman had been the cause of the rift between his father and uncle.
The other thing keeping him up was the knowledge that he wasn’t likely to find Claudia. Despite his uncle’s belief it would be easy to locate her, Aiden had as much chance of finding her as anyone else. At least, his uncle had narrowed the search area to a five mile radius. Still, he had to be in that five mile radius at just the right time.
Even if he found Claudia, she might run like a bat out of hell when he approached her. She was sure to recognize him as a member of the Draksel family, and she’d spent centuries avoiding them. He had no details about why his uncle had believed she was dead and it was certainly possible she’d taken off or faked her own death. Too bad his uncle didn’t seem inclined to share more details. He’d avoided seeing Aiden again after their conversation the previous night.
If she ran, he had no clue what he was supposed to do. Other than tying her up until she listened to him, he didn’t have many options. That thought caused his mind to travel in a very dangerous direction. His uncle might be planning to let Claudia go, but Aiden was sure it still wasn’t okay for him to have bondage fantasies about her. His uncle would definitely kill him if he tied her to his bed. He wondered if he could get her to tie him to a bed—a thought that made him realize he was probably going to get himself killed.
“Damn, I’m an idiot,” he grumbled as he sat in bumper to bumper traffic. The drive from his uncle’s house to San Francisco normally took about two and a half hours, but traffic was particularly bad that day, so it would be at least one by the time he arrived. He hated driving, even when the traffic wasn’t bad. His father had fallen in love with cars after their invention. The man had even done some racing. Aiden hadn’t learned to drive until about twenty years ago. He’d learned to fly a plane and a helicopter first. Those he actually enjoyed, possible because there weren’t many traffic jams when you were flying.
When he finally arrived in San Francisco, he found a parking garage with a monthly rate located near the area he’d be searching, but in a safer neighborhood. He’d find a hotel later. For now, he wanted to look around. With any luck, he’d find her right away.
“And pigs can fly,” he muttered to himself.
He hated this city—all cities. The streets were overcrowded. There were homeless people, and panhandlers pretending they were homeless, everywhere. Since he didn’t have a sympathetic bone in his body, it irked him to be approached by those pitiful humans. His father had raised him to have more compassion for humans than most of the family, but he had his limits with them. He hated people begging in the streets. Even though he was still in the section where the streets were pressure washed daily, the beggars were already surrounding him. He could only imagine how bad it would be when he crossed over to the streets that weren’t pressure washed and reeked of urine and rotting garbage.
“Spare some change for a pregnant lady to buy food?”
His eyes focused briefly on the sickly looking woman sitting on the sidewalk of Mission Street. Without another glance at her, he slipped money into her cup and walked on. It wasn’t that he cared what happened to her. It just seemed easier to give the really pitiful looking ones money. If he didn’t, they would keep pestering him with their sob stories. The motivation was purely selfish, he assured himself.
After three hours of scouring the streets, he was cold, hungry, and he had no more cash in his wallet.
“Can you help a guy get a meal? I haven’t eaten today.” one of the beggars asked.
“Sorry, but I don’t have any money.” Looking down at the guy, he sighed. This one looked like someone had shoved his face into the curb. His front teeth were cracked and his chin was bruised. Aiden kept walking and wished he hadn’t given the last of his money to the guy missing a leg. He should have given him half.
He couldn’t think of any place to eat in this part of town, so he decided to head back to the financial district for food. He walked back up to Market Street to find one of the underground train stations—BART stations, if he remembered correctly. He wondered idly who had come up with the name. It sounded harsh and uninviting. It stood for something, but acronyms should at least sound appealing. Then again, the trains weren’t any more appealing than the name.
Just as he spotted one of the station entrances his luck finally changed. It wasn’t Claudia, but it was a distraction to make this trip more palatable. A young woman was walking down the stairs into the station he was heading toward. She was a petite blonde dressed in a long flowing skirt and tank top. He was surprised she wasn’t cold. San Francisco wasn’t exactly warm at this time of year. He was freezing his ass off with a heavy jacket on. She wore her hair short which made her angular face stand out even more. There was no way to make out her eye color until he got closer and removed his sunglasses. Judging by her creamy skin and pale blonde hair, he would guess her eyes were a light color, probably blue.
Most of Aiden’s relatives only interacted with humans when they had to. Aiden didn’t form any lasting bonds with them because he couldn’t risk them realizing he didn’t age. Still, he’d never seen any reason to avoid humans. He’d had some friendships last several years, and he’d even dated some for a few months, because he wasn’t about to go without sex. He liked sex, a lot. It occurred to him he hadn’t been with a woman since before the unfortunate incident. It was time to remedy the situation.
Spotting a flower stand, he stopped before remembering his empty wallet. Lucky for him, he’d paid for the parking garage with cash and shoved the change into his front pocket instead of putting it back into his wallet. He quickly purchased a bouquet and headed down into the station behind her. He spotted her on the platform right away and circled around so he could approach her from the front. In his experience, women responded better when they saw him coming toward them.
Her gaze drifted past him as he made his way toward her. She didn’t acknowledge him at all, but he refused to let it discourage him. At his age, he wasn’t afraid of being rebuffed anymore. Despite what his recent actions might suggest, he normally brushed off any rejections knowing there were plenty of other women.
With his most charming smile, he bowed and presented the bouquet. She seemed like the romance novel type, so he decided to play the dashing suitor. “Although these flowers cannot compare to your loveliness, I hope you’ll accept them as
a token of my adoration. Please say I might gaze upon your beauty for a moment and perhaps hear the sweet sound of your voice.” He was laying it on pretty thick. He’d even allowed his Irish brogue to become more prominent. Normally, it was barely perceptible, but when his emotions ran high, or when he was trying to get laid, it was thick.
She blushed and smiled shyly. Her hand reached out to take the bouquet nervously. “Thank you. No one has ever given me flowers.” Her voice was soft, and he had to strain to hear her over the other people in the station and the voice announcing the elevators were working at all stations.
“I find that hard to believe,” he told her with a smile “My name is Aiden, and I’m honored to be the first man to give you flowers.”
She turned to watch the train pulling out of the tunnel, clearly distracted. “It’s nice to meet you, Aiden, but I have to go. My train is coming, and I’m meeting someone.”
“Please don’t leave me without at least telling me your name.”
“It’s Ivy,” she replied without looking at him again. “Thank you again for the flowers.”
Sensing he was about to lose her, he made one last attempt. “Stay and have lunch with me so I can spend more time gazing into your lovely blue eyes.” He could have tried giving her a compulsion to make her want to stay, but he only did so to feed, never for sex. It seemed too much like rape to use mind control for sex.
She laughed. “That would be difficult since my eyes are brown.” On those parting words, she walked into the train.
He laughed at his inept flirting skills. It certainly wasn’t his finest moment, and it proved he was more than a little out of practice. He shrugged it off since she wasn’t why he was there anyway. At the very least, making a fool of himself relieved some tension.
Scanning the area, his eyes landed on a raven haired woman boarding the train, and he instantly noticed the crescent-shaped birthmark on her shoulder. He wondered how these women managed to wander around wearing so little clothing. This woman had on skinny jeans and a turquoise camisole. The turquoise beanie seemed somehow out of place with the outfit. There was no mistaking the woman, she was Roman’s Claudia. He could see what Roman meant about her predatory nature. She was attempting to look helpless, but she radiated strength. He could also see why Roman had first been attracted to her. She was probably the hottest woman he’d ever seen, and she made him forget all about the little blonde. He quickly raced to the next car and boarded. He didn’t want the little blonde to think he was stalking her. She seemed pretty timid.
Once on the train he worked his way toward Claudia. Luckily, it was still a couple of hours before commute time, so he was able to move freely through the cars. At the next station, he stopped to look out the window and spotted her getting off the train. He barely made it out the doors before they closed. The driver must have been in some kind of hurry because Aiden could see people in some of the other cars banging on the doors as the train pulled out of the station.
Claudia was pretty far ahead of him when he reached the street level, making it hard to keep up with her. He considered calling to her until he noticed the bright green ear buds. She likely wouldn’t hear him over the street noise and the music. Occasionally, she looked around nervously.
He moved quickly after her. Trying to catch up with her was his only concern. He didn’t pay attention to the street names as they zigzagged through the city. He followed her to a small alley, not more than ten feet behind her. When he made it to the alley, he was shocked to find it empty.
“Damn! I can’t believe I lost her,” he muttered as he looked around.
One minute he was moving toward the back of the alley to look around and the next he was moving at a frightening speed backwards into a solid brick wall. He heard the sickening sound of his head hitting the wall just before the world faded to black.
Safe Hex With a Vampire Page 2