Family Secrets (Young Adult Edition) (Davenport Manor (Young Adult Edition))

by Zaroski, Melissa

  He looked at Emma square in the eyes and with a pleading tone replied, “You have to figure out what she’s trying to tell us. What else do you know about her history?”

  “A little, but not much. I’ll see if there are records of her in the library. If not, I can always go into town and find out what I can.” She worried that she didn’t sound concerned enough. She knew good and well what Elizabeth was trying to tell them, but she had lied about it for so long, she began to believe her own tales. The story she gave to all the generations of the Davenport family, as well as Zachariah, became second nature to her.

  Emma climbed into bed and pulled back the other side of the covers, patting the mattress, “Come on, get in to bed.”

  Todd complied and nestled in next to her, lying on his back and instinctively holding out his arm for her to move in. She scooted herself over and situated into the nook of his arm, laying her head on his chest. Neither had interest in being intimate tonight; Todd’s nerves were frazzled and he couldn’t help but fear he was being watched. Emma’s heart was full of sadness while thinking of her sister and what she was going to do about her restless spirit. She wished so badly that she could communicate with Elizabeth herself instead of having to go through Todd. She knew what had to be done, she just had to find the right time to do it. Tonight was not the night.

  She slid off of his chest and onto her pillow while he turned to his side to face her. They laid quietly, gazing at one another’s face. He reached over and brushed a stray hair away from her face, lingering on the side of her head. She closed her eyes and put her hand over his, savoring his sweet touch against her.

  “Go to sleep my dear,” she whispered. Because I’m in for a long night of just laying here.

  “Goodnight love, and…thank you. I just didn’t want to be alone tonight,” he softly replied.

  He closed his eyes and she did the same even though sleep would never come for her. She figured once he was asleep she could get up and read a book or text someone. She listened to his heart rate and knew he had drifted into dreamland when it became a slow and steady pace. She got out of the bed in a quick movement so that the mattress barely shook. She grabbed her phone and turned it onto silent so that she could text without the notifications going off. At this point she felt like a prisoner in her own bedroom, a feeling she wasn’t familiar with.

  She could hear Zachariah, Vivienne, Declan, and Daniel still conversing together downstairs, but they had moved into the parlor. They were laughing, reminiscing, and telling their stories to Daniel, who listened in awe. And she…was bored.

  “I’m bored Zach…” she texted.

  She heard him yell from downstairs, “Your own fault for getting involved with a human!”

  Vivienne chimed in and taunted, “Come down and play with us, Emma!”

  This was stupid, she so badly wanted to join them downstairs, but couldn’t risk Todd waking up to her being gone. She lightly tossed her phone down on the couch cushion in frustration. Zachariah was going to be of no help right now. She picked her own brain trying to figure out ways to leave her bedroom, or an excuse she could use if Todd woke up and saw she was gone. But, she knew her best bet was to stay put; if he stirred she could easily slip back into the bed fast enough so that he wouldn’t notice.

  She paced around her room a bit and stopped to stare out the window into the dark forest ahead. What she wouldn’t give to go for a run right now! She wandered over to her bookshelf and pulled out Pride & Prejudice. She curled up on her couch and began to re-read it for the billionth time; it always made her feel nostalgic for her younger days. She read the entire night through with the occasional tauntings from her fellow vampires downstairs. When the sun began to rise, she gracefully climbed back into bed with Todd and pretended to sleep. As he began to stir awake, she let out a fake yawn and stretch, thankful that this prison sentence was almost over.

  “Mmmm, g’morning,” Todd said with a groggy voice and half-open eyes.

  “Morning,” she said while rubbing her eyes, thinking she was laying this on a little thick.

  “Want to go down for some breakfast?” He asked as he became more coherent.

  She didn’t know how she was going to get out of this; she didn’t plan this far ahead after spending the night together. But, the one thing she did know was that she was thirsty.

  “Sure, that sounds good.”

  Before crawling out of bed he snuck a kiss on her lips after taking a swig of water. God forbid he hit her full-on with wicked morning breath. He disappeared into the bathroom for a moment and she used that opportunity to text Vivienne. She knew she couldn’t ask Zachariah for help because he was thoroughly enjoying her awkward situation.

  Her fingers moved at lightning speed, “Viv, Todd asked me to have breakfast with him. I’m going to fix myself a plate of food (yuck), but when you hear me in the dining room call my phone. I’ll say it’s an important call I need to take. PS, I’m THIRSTY!”

  After a split moment she received a reply, “You got it. Meet you in the kitchen!”

  They went into the dining room where several platters of food were prepared. All the humans in the house were bustling around, talking, and eating their breakfasts. They each fixed a plate of food for themselves and sat down next to each other at the table with Daniel, who looked at her, and then her plate, with an amused and confused look on his face.

  “Morning…what’cha got there, Emma?” He asked, suppressing a laugh.

  She smiled pertly and replied, “Breakfast…”

  “Looks delicious, doesn’t it?” He antagonized.

  She looked at him with a forced grin and said, “Very much.” She was hesitating while waiting for her phone to ring. Vivienne, where are you??

  “Well…dig in!” Daniel’s face lit up like a kid on Christmas, he so wasn’t on her side. Zachariah must have gotten to him—darn them for being best friends!

  “Okay,” she answered as she picked up a fork for the first time in at least a century.

  “Are you okay, Emma?” Todd asked, noticing her odd behavior.

  She actually welcomed questions at this point because it helped her stall. “Fine dear, why do you ask?”

  Before he could respond, her phone began to ring in her pocket. She discreetly looked at it and apologized for having to take the very important phone call. She excused herself from the table, leaving her plate of food there and disappearing into the kitchen. Vivienne stood waiting by the center island with a glass of blood heated and ready for her. Her smile was broad, clearly taunting her.

  “You wench,” Emma shook her head and laughed as she walked in. “Thank you for the call and the blood.” She chugged it down without savoring it since she had been thirsty from the night before.

  Emma waited until she heard Todd finish eating and felt guilty for leaving him once again at the dining table alone. She heard Daniel tell him that he would put her food in the fridge so she could heat it up later after she was off the phone. She could tell by Todd’s voice that he was disappointed that she wasn’t there, but there was no way she was going to choke down human food as it completely repulsed her now. When Daniel walked into the kitchen with her plate he wrapped it up to put in the fridge for later. It was perfectly good food that shouldn’t be wasted, so Daniel had every intention of eating it later.

  “Thanks for covering me, Dan. I had better go find Todd and apologize. I hope he’s not pissed after I ditched him last night, too,” Emma said as she took her phone back out. She put it back up to her ear and emerged from the kitchen to the dining room, where Todd was just getting ready to walk out. She was wrapping up a fake conversation as she approached him.

  “I’m so sorry, Todd! It was my friend in Scotland, the one who had the family emergency a while back.”

  “That’s okay, I understand,” he replied with a soft smile, which made her feel all the more guilty. “Listen, are you busy tonight? I only have one scene to shoot today and should be done early, so I was thi
nking maybe we could finally go downtown.”

  She had nothing planned and agreed that it was a great idea. It was the perfect day to go since it had been unseasonably warm in Chicago the past few days. The cold wouldn’t bother her, but she didn’t want Todd to freeze. The wind from Lake Michigan could make downtown Chicago feel a lot colder than it actually was.

  Today they were filming interior scenes, which meant the parlor was now a movie set and they had made a few décor revisions to make it authentic. The TV had been taken down and all electronics were now carefully placed in the foyer area. The set designers had added some antique furniture and removed the modern-looking couches.

  Emma discreetly sniffed the air to find Zachariah, who was upstairs in her bedroom. She opened the door to find him going over his lines one more time before being called to set. He looked up and gave her a tight-lipped smile that didn’t come close to reaching his eyes like it normally did.

  “You’re mad.” She stated, feeling it radiating off of him.

  With a smug frown he shook his head. “Just confused, I don’t understand why. Why a human?”

  She had no answer because even she didn’t know what the appeal was. “I don’t know. I’m thinking it is because I have admired him from afar for so long…it’s kind of a thrill!”

  “A thrill for you, but in the meantime he is getting attached to you. Either way, this won’t end well…”

  “Don’t you need to get down to makeup or something?” She asked, trying to get him out of her hair.

  He rolled his eyes with a smirk, got up from the chair, and walked over to her. He towered directly in front of her, used a finger to tilt her chin up, and gave her a soft kiss. “Whatever happens…I just hope I will always be your number one.”

  She reached up to put her arms around his neck, “You should never doubt that. The reason you are what you are is because I loved you too much to let go when I should have.”

  Todd and Emma were cruising south towards Chicago in the Roadster and he could see the city lights coming closer with each passing minute. He took pictures while she drove, including a quick one of her profile while she laughed. Once arriving in the city, they valeted the car and set off on a small walking tour. Going down Michigan Avenue, they stopped into some of the stores along the way and walked a half mile until they reached the Chicago River. Todd stopped to take pictures of the Wrigley Building and the Tribune Tower, while Emma suggested they catch the water taxi right and take it over to Navy Pier.

  After the short ride to Navy Pier, they strolled along the boardwalk, checking out the little shops and kiosks and made their way to the 150-foot high ferris wheel.

  “It’s a seven-minute ride around, you’re not afraid of heights, are you?” Emma asked as they waiting in line, holding hands.

  “Nah, I like heights actually. We’ll probably get a great view of the skyline from up there, right?”

  “It’s gorgeous, have your camera ready!” She responded as they climbed into their slow-moving gondola.

  They sat next to each other; Todd had one arm around her and the other one was taking pictures of the beautifully lit up Chicago skyline. As they inched toward to the top, he looked down at her and began to kiss her sweetly, slowly. He set his camera down on his lap and used his now free hand touch the side of her face. The crisp breeze seemed a bit stronger from that high up and, being right on the lakefront, it gently rocked the gondola. With the wind blowing directly onto them, her skin felt like ice under his fingers.

  He pulled her closer to him and stated, “We’ve got to get you warm, you’re like a popsicle. Are you okay?”

  She snuggled in closer and replied, “I’m fine, I’m used to it.”

  They sat quietly for a moment before he took in a slow breath, “I don’t know how I’m going to say goodbye to you in January…”

  This was like a fork in her heart and she felt the pang of his dread. At that moment she knew she should have never pursued him. “Don’t think about that, just enjoy being in the now. And it will never be ‘goodbye’, we’ll be friends for the rest of your life.”

  He chuckled, “You sound pretty certain that you’re going to outlive me.”

  With amusement in her eyes, she answered, “I’d put money on it.”

  Chapter 10

  Todd and Emma decided to take a walk along the lakefront after they left Navy Pier. This time of year you didn’t find too many people near the beach this late at night, so it was the perfect alone time for them. It was something she rarely got since other vampires with sonic hearing lived in the Manor with her.

  They strolled arm-in-arm like they did the first time they spent time together touring the outer property of the Manor. They spoke of their childhoods; his growing up in London as an only child and she basically spoke of her experience during Daniel’s childhood. She told him of Daniel’s difficulty dealing with their parents’ death and that he nearly quit showbiz when he began to spiral into a depression. But, as it turned out, the best anti-depressant for him was getting back to work and being surrounded by his friends from the Ticking Through Time films.

  A short way in the distance was a group of six young men in their early twenties walking towards them, clearly drunk and obnoxious. Todd was speaking, but Emma had stopped listening to him so she could eavesdrop on what the men were saying. She snapped to attention when she over-heard one talk about jumping and robbing them.

  “Let’s turn around and head back, I don’t like the looks of these guys coming towards us and there’s no one else around,” she interrupted him.

  They casually turned around and began to walk the other way when she heard the men trying to quietly run up behind them. Her natural instinct was to turn around and defend herself, but she knew that if she did that Todd would know that she certainly wasn’t human. She was just going to have to let things happen as they may and try to defend herself and Todd the best as humanly possible. This was not a good situation and for the first time in nearly two-hundred years, she was scared. She heard the men approaching fast and they both turned around to look behind them.

  The leader, who was shorter than Todd, but stocky, shoved him to the ground while another guy grabbed Emma and positioned himself behind her. He used the strength of his arms wrapped around her to hold hers down, thinking she was defenseless. The third man ripped her purse from her grasp and laughed. Todd managed to get back up and fight his attacker, but he was outnumbered as the others joined in. One threw a punch so hard it knock him back down onto the ground and the others began to kick him in the stomach, back, and head. Emma struggled like a lady against the man holding her, knowing she could rip him to shreds within a blink of an eye.

  One of Todd’s attackers grabbed his wallet out of his pocket as the others continued to kick and pound him. His groans of pain were getting weaker and Emma could hear the gurgling inside him—he was bleeding internally. They finally let up on him, leaving him completely defenseless to protect Emma.

  She could feel her assailant pushing his groin into her back. “We should have some fun with this pretty, little thing,” he laughed to his buddies, who all started to surround her. One grabbed her chest and another tried to forcefully kiss her mouth. She pursed her mouth shut and turned her head, trying to squirm away from his face that reeked of beer. The defensive rage was rapidly building in her and she didn’t know how much longer she could “play human”. Todd struggled to get up, fiercely trying to protect her.

  “You just don’t know how to stay down, do you?” The original said through his teeth and turned back to Todd. Once again, they began to kick and beat him furiously.

  Emma’s natural instinct took over and she no longer allowed herself to fight it. If she held on to her self-control, Todd was likely to get beaten to death. She opened her mouth, descended her fangs, and let her fury explode. She flung her arms upward in a flash, breaking the man’s grip on her, startling him. She turned around and savagely kicked him in the stomach, causing him to
fly backwards twenty feet.

  Emma crouched, ready to attach as a growl built in her chest and roared unlike any beast they had ever heard. It blasted through the cold, quiet night air causing Todd to stop writhing in pain for a moment. Todd’s attackers stopped with shock and fear in their eyes, mouths dumbly hanging open. She moved at a speed that was blind to the human eye and Todd watched through blurry eyes as each man collapsed to the ground, one by one like dominos. Emma had snapped each of their necks. She flitted over to her own assailant who was still lying in the grass, but conscious.

  “Look at me…” she hissed as he tried to back away in fear. “You will go to the police in one hour and tell them that you snapped the necks of all your buddies there. You will admit to murdering all of them. You understand?”

  He dumbly nodded and agreed, “I killed them.”

  “Yes, you did…and you’ll forget you ever saw my friend and me. Now go.”

  The man took off in a staggering run back toward the city, holding his aching gut. Emma ran back over to Todd, who was badly injured and bleeding both externally and internally. He looked at her with complete fear in his eyes; no longer the soft look of what could have been love. His face was badly beaten; both eyes were beginning to swell shut, abrasions on his cheek and forehead, and a fat lip.

  She approached him slowly and carefully, desperately not wanting him to be frightened. “Todd, please don’t be afraid. This is what I am.”

  He couldn’t speak and she heard the gurgling inside him getting worse, but the terror in his eyes spoke more than words could have said.

  “You have to trust me, I would never hurt you,” she said as lifted her wrist to her mouth and bit it, causing blood to pour out. “Drink my blood, you’ll heal quickly and completely.”

  Todd tried to turn his head and pursed his lips closed with disgust and confusion, but he was too weak against her. She forced his mouth open and allowed her blood to flow into his mouth.