Chapter Fourteen
I will never forget that day. It was the day I watched my brother collapse to his knees and weep. I cannot tell you how thankful I was to have Claudia with me. I had no idea how to comfort my grieving brother. It was Claudia who held him as he wept.
Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog
“Wake up, Aiden.”
The sound of Tempest’s voice made him smile. He was curled around her body and had no desire to move. At some point, they’d removed the bedposts from his arms, and they’d both been awake enough to have sex again. He’d like to say it had been less rushed, but that would be a lie. He wasn’t sure there would ever come a time when he wouldn’t feel a sense of urgency to be inside her.
“Go back to sleep,” he murmured, refusing to open his eyes. They hadn’t slept long, and he was still tired.
“You need to feed me. I’m starving,” she told him as she pushed his arm off her “I also need to call my sister.”
Mention of Ivy was like a splash of cold water. He’d kidnapped Tempest, and someone must have noticed by now. If he was lucky, no one had called the police yet. While he was pretty sure Ivy wouldn’t believe he’d harm Tempest, he wasn’t sure Ivy would assume Tempest was with him. Tempest had essentially wandered away from the ceremony and disappeared. He rolled onto his back and sighed. “Can’t we avoid reality a little longer?”
She rolled over and looked at him. “What do you want from me, Aiden? Other than the obvious, what are you hoping to get out of this?”
“I want you to stay.” he admitted. “I just want you to stay with me.”
“We hardly know each other,” she argued in a tired voice. “We fight most of the time.”
That made him grin. “I have a lot of fun fighting with you, and I think you feel the same. All I’m asking is for you to give me a chance. Get to know me a little better and let me prove we can make this work. While we’re doing that, we can work on that baby you want.” He leaned over and brushed her hair back from of her face. “You can’t deny there’s something between us.”
She thought for a long while before she finally nodded. “You’re right. I don’t want to admit there’s anything between us because it complicates my life, but there is. Also, I really would like to learn more about this side of my family. Can Ivy come here, too?”
“I have to clear it with my cousin first. This is his house, and I’m not exactly supposed to be here,” he admitted.
“Why aren’t you supposed to be here?” she asked but didn’t give him time to respond. “That’s right! Your cousin said you were kicked out. Is this his house?”
Aiden shook his head. “Different cousin.”
“So, what happened?”
“The woman he’s marrying is the woman I tried to kidnap.” He’d already told her about the unfortunate incident, so he wasn’t sure why he was still so embarrassed talking about it. “Needless to say, there are some hard feelings. He might be okay with it since you’re his niece. On the other hand, now I have to admit, I also kidnapped his niece. Did I mention that cousin is Roman’s son?”
She shook her head.
“Yep, this is your great great whatever uncle’s house. Even if he’s okay with it, his fiancée might lose it when she sees me.” He sighed. “I might have to rent a place for us to stay while we figure this out. I have an apartment, but it’s in Portland.”
She patted his arm and sat up. “We’ll worry about that later. Feed me.”
“We should probably shower first,” he suggested casually.
She shook her head as she climbed out of bed and searched for her clothes. “I know that look. If you get me in the shower we’ll get distracted. Feed me and then we can shower.”
They dressed and walked down to the kitchen. Tempest didn’t have any clothes to change into, so she put on the dress she’d been wearing under her robe. It was a simple short sleeved teal dress that was tight around her ribs and flared out around her hips. The house seemed eerily quiet. There weren’t usually many servants, but there were almost always a few scurrying around. From time to time, the house was devoid of servants, but it was pretty rare.
Aiden found Justin sitting at the center island in the kitchen, reading the newspaper with an empty takeout container in front of him. In Aiden’s opinion, the kitchen was far too feminine for a house with only men in residence. The walls were yellow. What kind of man had a kitchen with yellow walls?
Justin looked as irritated as he had when he’d come into Aiden’s room a few hours earlier. He’d obviously showered and dressed for the day but more casually than usual. Aiden was pretty sure this was the first time he’d ever seen Justin in jeans and a t-shirt.
“Where is everyone?” Aiden asked.
Justin shrugged. “I didn’t realize it was my turn to watch them.”
“I really need to talk to Nathaniel so I can explain why I’m in his house,” Aiden told him.
“We’re closing up the house,” Justin explained as he folded the newspaper. “I’m not sure what Uncle Roman is going to do with it. Nathaniel and Hannah were in a car accident about two months ago and neither of them survived.”
Aiden wasn’t sure how he felt about his cousin’s death. He’d never been close to any of his cousins, but Nathaniel had been nice to him. He’d invited Aiden into his home. Aiden didn’t really blame him for kicking him out. It struck him as odd that his uncle hadn’t mentioned the accident when Aiden had been at his house.
Tempest perked up at the mention of Roman’s name. “Is Roman here?”
Justin looked alarmed by her curiosity. “Why would you want to know where my uncle is?”
Aiden squeezed Tempest’s hand, and she looked down at his hand with obvious annoyance. “Are you trying to warn me not to fight with your cousin?”
“He’s your cousin, too,” he reminded her. “And no, I’m not trying to warn you not to fight with him. I’m asking you to avoid kicking his ass.”
Justin raised an eyebrow. “Cousin? I assume this is by marriage and congratulations are in order.”
“She looks like Claudia.” It was his cousin, Isaiah, who made the observation. “Except her hair is blonde, and Claudia’s was black.”
Aiden was taken aback by Isaiah’s disheveled appearance. He was much thinner than Aiden remembered. His voice seemed hoarse, like it might give out at any moment. Isaiah still wore his glasses, which he didn’t need, but they did nothing to mask the haunted look in his eyes. From what Aiden remembered Isaiah always dressed well. Today he was wearing worn black sweat pants and a gray t-shirt that read Don’t feed the Vampires.
“Who’s Claudia?” Justin asked.
“Claudia, from Uncle Roman’s blog,” Isaiah explained impatiently. “Doesn’t anyone read my emails? I told you I’d talked him into setting up a blog. I even sent out the web address to everyone, VampireRomanDraksel.wordpress.com.”
Justin looked confused. “Uncle Roman has a blog? I didn’t even know he had a computer.”
“Of course, he has a computer,” Isaiah replied with an exasperated sigh. “Who doesn’t have a computer?”
“He called himself a vampire on his blog?” Justin was more animated than Aiden had ever seen him. “Back to my first question—who is Claudia?”
“Claudia is the woman in the painting Uncle Roman takes everywhere.” Isaiah told him. “Seriously, did any of you read my email?”
Aiden shook his head. “I normally only check my business email.”
“I have an email account?” Justin asked.
When Isaiah stared at him with something akin to horror, Justin held up his hands in surrender. “Just kidding. I know I have an email account. I’m just not good at checking it. That’s a painting of Lenore, Nathaniel and Noah’s mother.”
Isaiah shook his head. “Lenore had blue eyes. I remember Nathaniel telling me.”
Justin thought for a moment before nodding.
“Are you related to Claudia?” Isaiah asked. His voice was getting weaker. Th
ere’d always been an almost innocent expression in Isaiah’s eyes, but it was gone, leaving him looking jaded and more than a little crazy.
“Yes,” Tempest replied as she studied him carefully. “She was my great grandmother. I’m not sure how many greats are in there. As I understand it, Roman was her husband, and he’s my grandfather.”
Justin snorted. “That’s not possible. We can only produce male children.”
“Well,” she replied sweetly, “When I checked Aiden’s blood, I was able to find a genetic link between us.”
Justin suddenly seemed much too interested in Tempest. Under other circumstances Aiden was sure the mention of taking Aiden’s blood would have sent Justin into a panic, but he seemed too curious about Tempest’s findings to think about anything else.
“What tests did you run?” Justin asked. “Maybe we can do some more tests here.”
Aiden interrupted. “We need to eat. This can wait until later.”
“Are you okay?” Tempest asked Isaiah. He’d taken on a far off look.
Isaiah smiled. “You’re nice, like Hannah.”
Aiden laughed. “You must have lost your marbles while I was gone.”
Tempest smacked him hard and glared at him.
“What did I do wrong?” he asked as he rubbed his arm. “I think this abuse proves you aren’t really very nice.”
The doorbell interrupted their argument. It rang four times in a row before a fist started pounding on the front door.
Justin’s smile and look of anticipation surprised Aiden. “Speaking of nice. I think Caitlin’s come to see me.”
It took Aiden a minute to remember who Caitlin was. She was the woman Justin wanted as his mate. They’d known each other for around three years, but Justin insisted on waiting until she was a doctor before making his move. Aiden assumed things had progressed or she wouldn’t be pounding on the door.
“Are you going to get that?” he asked Justin.
Justin shook his head. “Hell no!”
“I told you she wouldn’t be happy,” Isaiah added.
The pounding stopped, and it wasn’t long before Caitlin slammed the veranda doors open with enough force, Aiden was surprised the glass didn’t shatter.
Aiden had never seen Caitlin before, and she wasn’t anything like he’d expected. Justin was kind of prudish, so Aiden had expected him to find a proper young lady. Caitlin didn’t strike him as proper. With her high-heeled, ass-kicking boots on, Caitlin was nearly as tall as Justin. Straight black hair fell to the middle of her back. She was seriously pissed, and her catlike amber eyes were blazing with anger.
She stormed up to Justin and poked him in the chest with her finger. “You,” poke, “do,” poke, “not,” poke, “decide who I date.”
“Calm down, Caitlin,” Justin said around his laughter. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?” she demanded with her hands on her hips.
“I like her,” Tempest whispered.
“You would,” Aiden muttered.
“Find out what?” Justin asked with wide, innocent eyes.
“She’s upset about you threatening her date with bodily injury if he even thought about touching her,” Isaiah added helpfully.
Caitlin turned as if she’d just noticed Isaiah. She gave him a warm smile. “Hi, Isaiah. Sorry I didn’t notice you, but I was distracted.”
Isaiah shrugged and shuffled out of the room, apparently done socializing.
“Why can’t you find someone else to stalk?” Caitlin nearly whined.
“Cause I really like you, baby,” Justin drawled, quickly ducking when she took a swing at him.
“Aim for the balls, it’s harder to duck those,” Tempest suggested. “I’m hungry, Aiden. Feed me or I might get violent, too.”
“I don’t see anything here, so I guess we’ll have to go out to eat,” Aiden insisted as he examined the contents of the fridge.
She groaned. “That means I need to shower first.”
Aiden flashed a wicked smile and snapped his fingers. “Darn!”
She walked back upstairs grumbling about perverted vampires.
Safe Hex With a Vampire Page 14