by Gayla Twist
“Let’s get out and walk around a little before the sun goes completely down,” I suggested, in part to end the conversation and in part because I wanted to see if any of the Italian workmen were still lingering around the castle.
“Sure,” Walter agreed. “Lev, why don’t you knock on the door? Introduce yourself. Let them know who you are.”
“Alright, cut out the smart talk,” Lev growled, flashing his friend a menacing look.
The smile quickly faded from Walter’s face. “Yeah. Sorry,” he said. “I was just joshing you.”
We walked for a little while in silence, skirting around the unfinished areas that were still mostly mud. The rose garden was nearing completion, with neat, short hedges making squares and rectangles around each bush. “Our father was speaking with one of the gardeners yesterday,” I said to whoever cared to listen. “Both the plants and the gardeners were shipped over from England.”
“I thought this pile of bricks was supposed to be Hungarian or something,” Walter said, trying to revive the jovial mood.
“It is. But just not the garden,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at him. That’s when I realized that Walter and my sister had their arms around each other. In an instant I knew that suggesting we all get out of the car was a mistake. Walter and Lilly were just looking for an excuse to find a cozy, dark corner where they could canoodle. Besides going against everything Lilly had told our folks, it would leave me alone with Lev. And who knew where his ideas might lead? I didn’t want to inadvertently put Lev in a situation where he thought kissing me was a good idea. I had to get out of there, and fast. Lev Wilson was not going to be my first kiss, if I had anything to say about it.
“Oh, we’d better get going,” I said after pretending to check the time. “Don’t want to be late.”
“You don’t need to hurry off that quickly, do you?” Lev said, trying to catch my hand. He must have also been aware of Walter and my sister’s intentions.
“We do if we don’t want to get grounded,” I insisted, eluding him by taking a few quick steps. “Our father won’t tolerate any kind of nonsense,” I said, hoping he would catch my double meaning.
“Come on, Lettie,” Lilly said, her voice carrying a bit of a whine. “We can stay a few more minutes.”
“No, we can’t,” I said, allowing my own voice to carry the firmness of my convictions. I had been foolish to agree to an evening drive to an isolated area, even if my sister was with me. “We need to start heading back to the car,” I told her. “Now.” I loved my sister dearly, but enough was enough.
“She’s probably right,” I could hear Walter say as I started walking rather briskly. “It’s time to go. I wouldn’t want your father to dislike me.” Then I heard Lev give a scoffing laugh.
Chapter 14
Jessie
I couldn’t stop staring at the empty bottles of blood. Who would do such a thing? I couldn’t conceive of what would have motivated a thief to such mischief.
Whoever had done it must have known that I was a member of the undead. What other possible reason would they have to break into my cabin and dispose of my only food supply? Getting to New York would be a tremendous test of my self-control and I wasn’t sure if I was up to the challenge. The word “test” made me think of my grandfather. This was just the kind of thing he would set up in order to help me “build character”. He felt that Daniel and I were too soft; that our mother coddled us. He also felt that I was ungrateful for my undead transformation. I looked upon being turned into a vampire as a hardship, but he viewed it as the greatest gift he could bestow on another human.
After giving it a bit of thought, I decided that disposing of the blood was probably Grandfather’s way of punishing me for my ingratitude. I quickly became convinced that he had hired someone to break into my cabin and get rid of my food. He probably told the criminal to rob me as well, as a measly cover story. Or maybe that was just something the thief thought up on his own, since he was already in my cabin and pawing through my things. Grandfather apparently did not warn the thief not to open the oversized trunk. Or, knowing my grandfather, he had instructed his minion to search the trunk for some nonexistent item. That would serve the dual purpose of forcing me to take a mortal life and probably save Grandfather the couple of coins he’d promised in payment. Thankfully that last part of the plan was foiled.
Hurriedly, I checked my valise and was relieved to find that the two pints I had stashed in there had not been disturbed. That was a small blessing. I was already feeling edgy from not having eaten and I needed to slake my appetite before I attempted to send word to my mother about what had happened. I knew she had packed enough blood so that sharing wouldn’t cause her any hardship.
Emily tapped at my door and then let herself in. “We’re going up to dinner soon, if you’d like to join us,” she told me. And then stopped short, catching sight of all the empty bottles. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” I told her. “Someone broke into my room while I was resting and this is what they did.”
“But who would do such a thing?” Mrs. Denkler asked. She had walked into my cabin behind my sister.
If I had been speaking to my mother, I would have voiced my suspicions. But Denkie was loyal to our family’s patriarch and I knew any words that passed from my lips would go straight to my grandfather’s ears. “I have no idea,” I said. “Someone who didn’t understand that they were putting everyone on this ship in mortal danger, I suppose.”
Mrs. Denkler’s mouth twitched. “It will be a test of your fortitude,” she told me. “Would you like me to check the ship’s passenger list to see who is likely to be traveling alone?”
Emily gave our housekeeper a startled look.
“That won’t be necessary,” I assured her. “I’ll have to think things over, but I might just ask you to get a message to my mother.” I looked between the two of them. “For the moment, let’s just keep this incident to ourselves.”
Frowning, Mrs. Denkler said, “Of course.”
Was the Vanderlind housekeeper aware of my grandfather’s plan? It seemed very unlikely. I knew Grandfather confided in her about many things, but he was too wily to share this type of plans with a mortal. I took a few, careful pulls of blood from one of the pint bottles. It allowed me to focus on solving my predicament rather than thinking about my hunger or allowing my anger to take control of me.
I didn’t want to upset my mother unnecessarily. I knew she would come to the same conclusion I had about the disposed of blood. And she already had an adversarial relationship with her father as it was. None of the passengers would benefit from witnessing two vampires battling on the deck of the ship. Plus, my grandfather was much more powerful. If he truly lost control of his temper, then he might actually stake my mother in the heat of battle.
No, the best thing I could do for the health of my family was not mention the loss of my food supply. Vampires could go for days without eating, as long as they were careful. I just had to keep myself away from mortals and ration the blood I had left. It would be necessary for me to not leave my cabin for the rest of the trip, day or night. That would keep me away from temptation and the rest of the ship’s passengers safe from me.
At first things went smoothly, I had several good books to keep me occupied. When my sister and Mrs. Denkler came back from dinner, I explained that I definitely did not wish for either of them to communicate my troubles to anyone else in the family. Emily was upset by my decision, but Denkie said, “That’s probably for the best.”
Things became more of a struggle once the two of them went to bed. My cabin began to feel claustrophobic, so I moved into our shared room, just for a change of scenery. Even with this transition, I felt almost an irresistible urge to go up on deck. But I knew people were still out and about, plus my hunger was increasing. The last time I had a sip from the open pint, I realized that half the contents was already gone. I knew I had to be more conservative when I fed or I would end up
having to tell Mrs. Denkler to chain me in my trunk for the remainder of the voyage.
As the hour drew close to midnight, I heard someone tapping at the door. Out of habit, my first impulse was to answer it. But then I remembered the state I was in and immediately withdrew into my cabin.
Before I knew what was happening, the little French maid who had been such a charming nuisance the previous evening was letting herself into my room. “Hello?” she said, her cheeks aglow. “You called for more towels?”
“No, I didn’t call for towels,” I told her in a tight voice. “And I think it advisable that you leave. Right now.”
“Do you really want me to go?” she asked, tucking her chin and looking up at me with large blue eyes that had been rimmed in charcoal.
“Yes,” I told her firmly. “That’s why I said it.”
“But what about your towels?” she asked, stepping further into my cabin.
“I never asked for any damn towels,” I insisted, inching past her and heading for the door. I could smell every fragrance of her body in such a confined space and it was making me drool.
“But Monsieur,” she said, reluctantly following me as I led her into the main cabin. “I brought them especially for you.” She stepped very close to me and tilted her head back to look up into my eyes.
I wanted to show her to the door, but I couldn’t. She was so young and beautiful, and she smelled so good. Her eyes were wide and innocent, but no one was that naive. She obviously wanted me to kiss her. But kissing wasn’t what I had in mind. At least not a mortal kiss. It would have been so easy just to bend her head to the side and expose the tender flesh of her neck. I felt my stomach give a painful growl at the mere thought of it.
“Is there nothing else you want from me, Monsieur?” she asked, blinking her wide blue eyes very slowly. “Nothing at all that I can do for you?”
“No,” I told her, and my voice came out like a creaking door. “I’m fine. I appreciate your…” I couldn’t even think of what to say. I cleared my throat. “I appreciate your concern for my comfort, but I think I would… I mean, I think you should just leave. Now. Please,” I gulped.
“You do not like me?” she said with a hint of a pout.
“No, that’s not it at all,” I assured her. “It’s just…” I was clinging to my humanity by the skin of my teeth.
“Maybe you would like to get to know me a little bit better?” she suggested. Her voice turned sultry and her French accent faded away. “That is something that could be arranged.” She glanced down at her bosom and then looked back up at me.
“No…” I began to say.
And then the French maid did something to seal her fate. She reached forward and placed one of her hands on my chest. “Why not?”
That’s when I grabbed her. I couldn’t control myself. A small part of my brain was shouting at her, “No! Get out of here! Run for your very life.” But it was too late for that. The evil that was brewing inside of me took over. I had meant to be so strong, but I was lost.
Rather than struggling, the maid melted into my arms. “Oh, Monsieur,” she said with a sigh, her accent suddenly returning. “I do not think I can resist you. I have never done anything like this before. But if I give way to you, I trust that you will take care of me. Yes?”
But I wasn’t thinking about anything that warranted her trusting me. In fact, I was thinking the exact opposite. Every fiber of my being wanted to drain her and toss the husk of her body over the side of the ship, never to be heard from again.
“I’ll take care of you,” I whispered, pulling some tendrils of her hair to one side and fully exposing her neck.
That’s when the cabin door burst open. Several burly men charged into the cabin. One of them looked me directly in the face and shouted, “Vampire!”
Chapter 15
Colette
“I’m mad at you,” Lilly said, thrusting her chin into the air and turning away from me. I already knew she was mad at me. It was obvious from the way she had been storming around our room all evening, picking up books, slamming them down again, and sighing quite dramatically. It wasn’t behavior she could exhibit in front of our mother and father at dinner, but just the two of us in the room we shared was a different story.
“Yes, I know that,” I told her.
That caught her up for a moment. “Well don’t you want to know why?”
“I think I probably already know,” I said, although mostly to myself.
“It’s because of the way you’re treating Lev,” she said without really hearing me.
“No it’s not,” was my reply. We’d gone driving with the boys the evening before and I was still irritated. If anything, I was the one who should have been mad at her. “It’s because you wanted to stay and canoodle in the moonlight with Walter and I wanted to go home.” I sat down at the dressing table we shared, picked up a brush and started trying to tame my hair.
“Well…” she stammered, “that too, but I also think you’re also being very rude to Lev.”
“No I’m not,” I said quietly.
“He really likes you,” she insisted.
“No he doesn’t,” I told her, giving up on the brush and combing my hair with my fingers. “He doesn’t know me. I think he’s just interested in me because I’m a challenge. If I was all gah-gah for him, I’m sure he’d suddenly find that he likes a different girl.”
“That’s still no reason to be rude to him,” Lilly grumbled.
“It’s no reason to kiss him either,” I told her. “I could see where things were going and I didn’t want any part of it. You know, you don’t always have to do what a boy wants you to,” I told her.
She shrugged. “I know. But Lev is so handsome,” she said, sinking onto her bed. “Don’t you think he’s very good looking?”
“I’m sure if I saw his picture in a magazine, I might think that,” I told her. “But he’s not very nice and I really think he’s a bit of a bully.” I remembered the menacing look he had given Lilly’s date after just a slight ribbing. “I’m surprised Walter would want to be his friend.”
“They’ve know each other forever,” Lilly said. “Walter thinks of him more like a brother.”
“How do you think he got that bruise on his cheek?” I asked. It was a question that had been tugging at the back of my mind.
Frowning, Lilly said, “Didn’t he say he was roughhousing with some friends and banged into a table?”
“Sure, but that must have been some very rough roughhousing. His knuckles were all bruised and his hands were swollen.”
“Really?” Lilly said, absentmindedly. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“I bet.” My sister only had eyes for Walter. When he was around, a falling star could land at her feet and she probably wouldn’t even notice.
“So I think you should go out with him again, just to make it up to him,” Lilly blurted rather quickly.
“What?” She’d caught me off guard with that one.
“You know, so he doesn’t think you dislike him or anything.”
“But I do dislike him,” I told her. “As a matter of fact, I dislike him very much. I’d be perfectly happy if I never see him again.”
Lilly got up to stand behind me so that we were both reflected in the mirror. “Isn’t that was Elizabeth says about Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice right before she falls in love with him?”
“Lev Wilson is no Mr. Darcy,” I informed her. To me that was abundantly clear.
“But you’re Elizabeth,” she said, gathering my hair in her hands. “You’re definitely the beauty of the family. That’s why Lev likes you so much, I guess.”
“Jane was the beauty of the family,” I corrected her. “Elizabeth was the one who made the pert remarks.”
That made Lilly smile. “So the analogy still holds,” she said with a laugh.
I turned in my chair to look at her directly. “But seriously, Lilly, I really do not enjoy Lev Wilson’s company. I’m sorry if it mak
es things more challenging for Walter and you, but I will never agree to go on another date with his majesty again.”
Lilly flopped back on her bed. “Do you really think he’s related to royalty?” she asked.
This made me laugh. “Sure, in the same way that we’re all related to Adam and Eve.”
“Oh.” Lilly frowned. “I really don’t think he’d lie about something like that. Do you?”
I wanted to say that I though Lev Wilson would say it was day when it was pitch black outside, but instead I replied, “I think that Lev is maybe prone to exaggerations.” Gross exaggerations, to be more exact, but I didn’t say that part out loud.
“I still don’t know why you don’t like him.” Lilly went back to her bed to have another moment to sulk.
“Lilly, I’m afraid I just don’t.” I got up from my chair and walked over to her. “Please respect my feelings and stopped trying to fix us up. You’ll only make everyone miserable.”
“Okay,” she finally relented. “How about another date with Herschel?” When I gave her a flat look, she quickly added, “Or maybe Walter could introduce you to another one of his friends.”
I sighed. “Lilly, the next time you want to go out with Walter, I’ll go as your chaperone and just read a book. But please stop trying to fix me up with one of his friends.”
Shaking her head, Lilly said, “You’re a funny kind of girl. You’re so pretty you could date any boy in town, but instead you spend all of your time with your nose in a book.”
I couldn’t help but shrug. “I guess that’s just who I am. And probably who I’ll always be.”
Chapter 16
Jessie
The French maid let out a shriek and I thrust her from my arms as more men came barreling into the room. They were brandishing makeshift wooden stakes that they’d procured by breaking the legs off of tables and chairs. I was trapped with nowhere to run. There was only one door and that was filled by a dozen armed men. Even if I took out of few of the angry mob, there was no way I was getting out of there without a stake through my heart. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the irony. My life as a member of the undead would be even briefer than my life as a mortal.