Chapter Sixteen
“Did something frighten you last night, Claudia?” Viktor asked.
She looked confused. “No. Why would you ask that?”
“I heard you scream,” he explained, and I could hear the laughter in his voice. “I just assumed something had frightened you. Certainly you wouldn’t give in to my brother’s lecherous ways.”
Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog
“Dear God!” Aiden uttered after their waitress left the table. “I’ve never seen a woman your size order so much food. Of course, I’ve heard great sex will make a woman hungry.”
She shot him a look meant to pass as irritated but ended up smiling at him. In front of her, there was an omelet, pancakes, a muffin, hash browns, and a double order of bacon. “The ceremony took a lot out of me. I’ll be eating like this for the next couple of days.”
“You could help my ego out here and say it was the great sex.”
“I get the feeling you don’t need any help with your ego.” She started eating as Aiden watched her intently. “If you don’t eat your own food soon, I may steal it,” she threatened with a grin.
Aiden smiled and shook his head before taking a bite of his club sandwich. Tempest had a bit of food envy as she wished she’d ordered a lunch item as well.
When he noticed her eying his sandwich, Aiden put a quarter of it on her plate.
“I’m sorry about your cousin,” Tempest said softly when she was a little over half way done with her food.
They hadn’t spoken much since leaving the house. Aiden knew talking would bring up reality, and that was something he wanted to avoid for a little while longer. It was obvious Tempest didn’t want to deal with reality either since she still hadn’t called Ivy. Things had been great that morning, but he knew how tenuous their truce was. Food seemed like a safe topic. His cousin’s death seemed a little too serious. He wasn’t sure there was a way to tell someone your cousin’s death didn’t bother you without sounding callous.
“I didn’t really know him very well.” he admitted. “I was born several years before Nathaniel, and my parents didn’t interact much with the rest of my family. My father and Nathaniel’s father had some sort of falling out long before I was born.” Aiden took a deep breath and confessed something he hadn’t planned to. “I was kind of jealous of Nathaniel. He was born years, actually decades, after me and treated like the prince of our family while I was expected to take orders from him.”
“I can’t imagine you taking orders very well,” Tempest remarked.
“I guess that’s one of the reasons I didn’t know him very well. Maybe if I’d grown up around the family, I would have accepted the hierarchy like everyone else.” He thought for a moment and smiled. “Actually, I think you’re probably right about me not taking orders very well. It most likely wouldn’t have mattered where I grew up. He wasn’t a jerk who lorded his authority over me or anything, but it still rubbed me the wrong way.”
“Why were you living with him,” she asked.
“After my parents died, I was lonely,” he admitted.
“It’s hard to believe a fight between two members of your family resulted in you being so isolated from everyone,” she remarked.
He shrugged. “Roman is the head of the family. I still had Ursula part of the time. Sofia visited me sometimes, but that’s not exactly a comfort.”
“Who are Ursula and Sofia?” Tempest asked. It was obvious she was trying to sound casual but a hint of jealousy seeped into her voice.
“That’s a good question,” Aiden mused, giving his answer some thought. “They’re both kind of like my grandmothers. Sofia was my grandfather’s wife, but she’s never really been the motherly type. She’s kind of scary. Ursula pretty much raised my father and all my uncles. According to my father, Ursula is probably either my grandmother or my great aunt. From what I’ve been told, my grandfather wasn’t a very good man, and he certainly not faithful. It’s likely Sofia didn’t give birth to several of his sons.”
“Who needs a soap opera with your family history?” Tempest told him before biting into her last piece of bacon. “It’s nice that you at least have Ursula.”
“Not often,” he added. “She goes around taking care of everyone. Mostly, after my parents died, I was alone. I don’t need to tell you what it’s like to live surrounded by humans, but not really be one of them. There are some other families like us, maybe a dozen, but my grandfather burned most of those bridges before his death. They want nothing to do with us. Actually, they don’t have much to do with each other most of the time.”
She nodded her understanding.
“It’s even harder when you don’t age. The most I can ever hope for was ten years of friendship with a human, and that’s pushing it.”
“I kind of understand,” she said. “We don’t age normally. Nothing like you, but we still age slower than most people. I told everyone I graduated from high school early to avoid questions about how young I looked when I was in medical school.”
“How old are you?” he asked.
“Thirty seven,” she admitted.
That surprised him. He’d guessed her to be in her early to mid twenties, but he should have realized she was older since she was a doctor. “What’s the average lifespan in your family?”
“About a hundred and fifty years,” she replied. “We grow old, but it’s at a very slow rate. I have a great aunt who is nearly a hundred and seventy-five years old. So, I guess we got some of the longevity, but I’ll look like an old crone in a hundred years while you’ll probably look the same as you do now.”
“I’ll bet you still look fantastic when you’re a hundred and thirty seven years old,” Aiden assured her.
She snorted. “Yeah, right.” Her voice sobered. “I’m sorry you were so alone most of your life. I’ve always been lucky to have my family, especially Ivy.”
“When my parents were alive it was easier,” he told her. “I was still lonely at times, and a little jealous of what they had. A lot of the couples in my family really hate each other. My parents were so in love it was kind of annoying at times. My mother always dreamed of having a huge family but for some reason, she never conceived after me. Most of the couples only have one or two children because they can’t stand being with each other longer than that.”
Tempest shifted uncomfortably. “So, that’s why you got so angry when I said I would take the baby and you’d have no obligations?”
Aiden pinned her with his stare. “I want what my parents had.”
Tempest sighed. “You can’t force that on someone.”
“I’m not forcing you to stay,” he assured her. “I only drained you so you’d know I could have forced you to stay. Yes, I’m aware of how childish that sounds. I wanted you to believe I was giving you the choice because I wanted to, not because I had no other options. I really didn’t do anything that horrible to you, did I?”
“You kidnapped me,” she pointed out.
“You kidnapped me first,” he argued.
A passing waitress gave them a strange look.
Tempest looked out the window of the restaurant and panic flashed in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Aiden asked, immediately on alert.
Tempest pointed a shaky finger at the sidewalk across the street. “I could have sworn I saw Brian standing over there, watching me.” Taking a deep breath, she shook her head as if to clear it.
“Brian? As in the guy you dated in medical school?” Aiden looked around the street which was a waste of time since he had no clue what the guy looked like.
“I must have been seeing things,” Tempest told him, still sounding a little shaky. “He moved out of the area after medical school for his internship and residency. Why would he be back here? He doesn’t have any family in this area.”
Aiden shrugged, more than a little uneasy. “Isaiah could probably track him down if you’re worried. He has a knack for that sort of thing.”
She shook her head.
“I’m sure I was mistaken. I think it’s because I talked to you about him recently. It’s the first time I’ve mentioned his name in five years, and now I’ve imagined seeing him twice.”
“Twice?” Aiden asked.
“The last time I went out hunting, I could have sworn I saw him racing to get on the train I was on,” she explained.
Tempest wasn’t the sort of woman to imagine things. “Give me his complete name and any other information you have on him. I’ll give it to Isaiah. Hopefully, he’s not too crazy now to do this sort of thing.”
“Don’t worry about it, Aiden,” she assured him as she leaned across the table to put her hand on his. “Even if he is here, he’d have no reason to contact me. Things didn’t end on good terms, and he’s made no attempts to contact me since we graduated from medical school.”
Reluctantly, Aiden let it go. He didn’t want to, but Tempest could take care of herself. She certainly didn’t need him to defend her. He loved her strength, but there was a part of him that wanted her to need his protection just a little. Maybe he’d get lucky and she’d be afraid of spiders. He quickly decided that was a bad idea since spiders creeped him out. Snakes or mice, he could rescue her from. “So, are you going to stay with me for a little while?”
“Okay,” she agreed without hesitation. “I really need to call Ivy and let her know what’s going on. I should ask her if she wants to meet our cousins, too.”
Aiden shook his head. “I’ve been thinking that might be a bad idea.”
“Why?”
“She’s not as capable of defending herself,” he pointed out.
“Your cousins don’t seem dangerous,” she remarked.
He started to argue, but Tempest put a hand on his lips to stop him. That simple contact made Aiden so hard, he groaned.
“Trust me,” she began. “Ivy can take care of herself. She’s not nearly as fragile as you seem to think. She can cause those around her to believe any image she projects. She works with victims of domestic abuse most of the time, so she projects a safe image. She wants people to see her as sweet and unthreatening. I’ve also seen her project fear into a man with such intensity, he peed his pants.”
He nodded and moved her hand away from his mouth. “Finish eating quickly.”
“Why?” she asked innocently, flashing him a knowing smile.
He leaned forward. “Because I’m going to take you back to my room and make you scream my name.”
Her face flushed slightly but not from embarrassment. “I’m done,” she told him, yanking him out of his seat as soon as he tossed the money on the table.
Safe Hex With a Vampire Page 16