She’d been shaken to the core just a few days before when she’d been club hopping with Sheila and Alexander. As Alisha had been sipping her drink, she’d unconsciously and casually identified two people milling about in the pulsating lights as suitable prey. They both had been alone, stank of desperation, and clearly hungered for any sort of attention. She’d been unnerved to see that Sheila and Alexander were watching the same two people.
“Back in the day, that’s what we’d call easy pickings,” Sheila joked, a slow, wicked grin on her red lips.
It was then that Alisha was horrified to realize her sharp teeth had unsheathed. She’d hidden her mouth until they retracted, but the event frightened her. She hadn’t realized how much Vanora grounded her until that moment. Now that her sister was home, she felt much safer and calmer in her own skin. The predator inside of her was still alert, but the gnawing hunger had retreated to a dull throb.
Besides, there was much entertainment to be had with the return of her sister. Alisha was curious about the peculiar tension she sensed around Vanora and Armando. At first she thought she was imagining it, but then she noticed how deliberately they ignored one another during the course of the conversation.
Settling deeper into the chair she occupied in the family room, Alisha watched Vanora showing off her vacation photos on her digital camera to their brother. The siblings sat side by side on the couch, while Armando sat a safe distance from Vanora on the armrest, leaving a whole cushion length between them.
Alisha found it all very suspicious.
“So who are all these kids?” Roman asked, pointing to the screen.
“Those are friends of Felicia’s that visited one weekend. She wanted me to meet them before I move to Austin in December.”
“All these boys are her friends?” Roman sounded just like a dad, much to Alisha’s amusement.
“Boys?” Armando arched an eyebrow.
“Yeah. Boys.” Vanora cast a definite side eye in Armando’s direction. “It was about half and half. That’s Felicia’s new boyfriend. He’s dreamy. His name is Juan Carlos and he’s from Mexico City. That boy next to him is his even cuter brother.”
“I want to see.” Alisha thrust out her hand.
Vanora scooted around the coffee table and showed Alisha the image on the camera. The young man in the picture was very handsome. “Oh, he’s a hottie. Did he show any interest in you?”
“I hope not!” Roman sputtered. “She’s too young!”
“I’m seventeen!”
“Yeah, she’s seventeen!” Alisha agreed.
“How old is this boy?” Armando asked in a very neutral tone.
“Twenty-one,” Vanora answered.
“Too old,” Roman declared.
“I agree,” Armando chimed in.
“You don’t get a vote,” Vanora said darkly to Armando, brushing past him to sit next to her brother again.
Alisha smirked. Her little sister was definitely jabbing at Armando, but Roman was too obtuse to realize it. The frown lines on his face said it all as he glared at the screen of Vanora’s pink digital camera.
“I’ll call Uncle Nicolau about this boy tomorrow.”
“Oh, God, Roman.” Vanora rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I had sex with him.”
“Good!”
“Though if I did, it wouldn’t be any of your business,” Vanora continued.
“I’m your fa-brother!” Roman glowered.
Vanora giggled. “Will it make you feel better if I said he was a bit of a jerk and I didn’t like him?”
“Yes. If it was the truth.” Roman fretfully studied Vanora’s face.
“It’s the truth, Roman.” Alisha slung her legs over the armrest of her chair and grinned at him. “Vanora obviously has eyes for someone else.”
Both Vanora and Armando looked at her sharply.
“What’s that boy’s name? The one from school, Vanora?” Needling Armando was almost as much fun as needling her brother.
“There’s a boy at school?” Armando arched his eyebrows.
Vanora rapidly blinked at Alisha, confused, then caught on. “Oh, him.”
“Much better. Age appropriate. Plus, you’re leaving in December.” Roman irritably looked through the pictures on the camera.
“There’s a boy at school?” Armando inquired in his oh-so-casual tone.
“Uh huh,” Vanora lied.
“Uncle Nicolau let you wear a bikini?” Roman sounded horrified.
“Have you seen the Speedo he wears to the beach?” Vanora rolled her eyes. “Felicia loaned me that one. That was for the night swim we had on the Fourth of July.”
Roman muttered under his breath. Alisha knew Roman was struggling with the concept of Vanora actually being a young woman. “I want to see it, Roman. Hand it over.”
Roman gave the camera to Armando, who took a second to look at the photo, before passing it on to Alisha. Biting her bottom lip, Alisha tried not to burst out laughing. She could see why Roman didn’t like the photo. The bikini definitely revealed that Vanora was a young woman with a slender frame that was nicely rounded in all the right places.
“Get me a print of it. I like it. I want it for my photo album.”
Vanora grinned, reclaimed her camera, and playfully stuck out her tongue at her brother. “See, Alisha likes it!”
Armando remained perched on the armrest, arms folded over his chest, eerily still and thoughtful.
“You’re encouraging her!” Roman protested.
“She’s seventeen, Roman. Seventeen! I lost my virginity at seventeen!”
“I didn’t need to know that, Alisha!” Her brother looked completely chagrined.
“You’re just lucky she hasn’t been into dating before. She’s gorgeous and soon a lot of young men are going to start noticing. If they haven’t already.” Alisha met her brother’s glare defiantly.
Armando didn’t move a muscle.
“I should tie you up and keep you in the attic,” Roman grumbled, but he nudged Vanora with his arm affectionately.
“One day I might even have…dum dum dum…a boyfriend!” Vanora laughed at her brother’s discomfort.
“I’ll eat him,” Roman decided. “That’s what I’ll do. I’m a vampire. I’ll eat him.”
“Yeah, go all Dracula on him. Uncle Nicolau says we’re related to him anyway.” Vanora snuggled into her brother’s side. She looked child-like next to him and the sight tugged on Alisha’s heart strings.
“By marriage. Not direct descendants.” Roman looked peeved. “Nicolau loves to throw that little bit of family history around.”
“Was Dracula really a vampire?” Vanora asked Armando pointedly. “Did you know him?”
“No. He was mortal and the Turks killed him.” Armando shrugged slightly. “Bram Stoker didn’t actually base his vampire on Vlad Tepes originally. It was a last minute change before publication. Or so I heard.”
“Was Stoker a vampire?” Vanora poked Armando.
“No, no. He was not.” Armando seemed amused by the line of questioning. “Now another ancestor of yours was a vampire.”
“Don’t bring up Elizabeth Bathory,” Roman growled. “We’re related to her by marriage as well. Not a direct descendent.”
“And she’s dead. The hunters killed her long ago,” Armando said, shrugging.
“Uncle Nicolau says our family could claim the Romanian and the Hungarian crown if we wanted to.” Vanora yawned, looking very bleary-eyed, but was obviously having fun riling her brother.
“There are several families that could,” Roman said dismissively. “Our family decided it was best to keep a low profile. Far too much conflict.”
“Is that why your family changed its name?” Armando asked.
That perked up both Alisha and Vanora.
“Our family name changed?” Alisha gave Roman a questioning look. “Really?”
Roman sighed, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “Yes. A very long time ago. And no, it was
n’t Dracula. We’re related to Matthias the First, a Hungarian king. His sister married Vlad Tepes. Later our branch married into a Wallachian family and altered the name. It’s a bit of a soap opera.”
“So what was our original name?” Vanora appeared as keenly interested as Alisha. On the Welsh side of their family they were descended from farmers who happened to have the sixth sense. Their Romanian side was wealthy, aristocratic and shrouded in a bit of mystery.
“Corvinus,” Armando said to Vanora. “Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. He pushed back the Ottoman Empire invasion of Eastern Europe. Not a history to disrespect.”
Roman shrugged. “The past is the past. It has nothing to do with the present. Besides, our family is descended from the wrong side of the bed, so we were denied the throne after Matthias died. Our family was thought to become extinct, but we are descended from a secret child that was hidden away.”
Alisha liked the sound of that. “Oh, scandalous!”
“Very.” Roman smirked. “But there’s a reason we never claimed our legacy. Nicolau loves to talk about it, but I respect the decision our family made to keep ourselves apart from the political intrigues.”
“Though it does explain why you’re a natural leader,” Armando said teasingly.
Roman waved his hand dismissively. “I’m no prince, but Vanora is my princess.”
“Your sleepy princess,” Armando pointed out.
Vanora’s white lashes fluttered as she fought to stay awake. “Do I get a tiara?”
Alisha climbed out of her chair and reached for her sister. “C’mon. Time for you to go to bed. You’re not on vampire time.”
Vanora groaned, but held out her hand to Alisha.
Tugging her sister to her feet, Alisha snuggled her. “So good to have you home.”
“I’m glad to be home. I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed!”
Roman stood and hugged his sister, kissing her on both cheeks. Alisha felt a pang of sorrow at the sight. Roman had seemed even more lost than she had in Vanora’s absence. Alisha couldn’t imagine how he’d react to Vanora permanently moving out of their home and lives to establish her own home and life.
Alisha scooted her sister past the pensive Armando and winked at him. His reaction was priceless. He looked flustered.
“After I get Snow Pea to bed, I’ll be back down.”
The sisters trudged up the stairs to Vanora’s room. Roman and Armando had carried Vanora’s things up earlier, but her younger sister ignored the prospect of unpacking and fell face first onto the bed.
“So tired,” Vanora’s muffled voice said.
“Too tired to tell me what’s up with Armando?” Alisha asked coyly.
Vanora’s head snapped up. “Uh, what?”
“Don’t play innocent with me. You’re both acting really weird.”
Rolling onto her back, Vanora let out a long, exaggerated breath.
“So? Spill it, Snow Pea.”
“You know I have a crush on him. I’ve had it forever.”
“Yeah, but tonight’s the first time I realized it might be going both ways. It must be a new development because Armando never acted this way before.” Alisha sat on the edge of the bed and leaned toward her sister. She was a little unnerved by the idea of Armando, a dear friend, actually having interest in her sister, but tonight Alisha had realized what maybe Armando already had noticed: the truth. Vanora was a young woman now.
“You think so?” Vanora sat up, her purple eyes wide with surprise. “Really?”
“Yeah, but he’s like four hundred years old.”
“He was changed when he was twenty-two.” Vanora’s tone was slightly defensive, but also had an edge of defeat to it.
Alisha gently combed her fingers through Vanora’s hair and gave her sister a small smile. “I have no idea how age affects vampires. I’m forever twenty-two, too. I’m supposed to be dreading my thirtieth birthday this year. Yet, here I am frozen in time.”
“Do you feel different? Like older inside?”
“Yes and no. I mean, I have seven more years of life experience under my belt, but I…” Alisha faltered. It was hard to describe, but in some ways she felt unchanged despite everything that had happened. The woman she had been when she had died was the woman she still was. “I’m the same, but I’m not. I can’t explain it. But in four hundred years, will I still be who I am tonight? I don’t know.”
Vanora sighed and rolled onto her side. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Armando is not for me. I’m not for him.” She plucked at the silver bracelet that rarely left her wrist since her birthday. Vanora had claimed a school friend had given it to her, but now Alisha knew better. Armando had given it to her sister.
“Who said that? Armando?”
Vanora gave a curt nod of her chin.
Alisha lay beside Vanora so she could see her face better. The sadness etched in her sister’s features said it all. “He’s right, you know. You’re going to go to UT, you'll have a fabulous career, get married, have kids, all that wonderful normal human stuff. You get to have everything Roman and I won’t. Armando is right. Your forever is out there somewhere.”
Vanora visibly winced.
A startling shiver of ice slid through Alisha and she frowned slightly. Her words had felt somehow prophetic, yet cruel. “That’s a good thing, Vanora.”
“I know. But it’s hard to tell my heart that. This feels worse than any old crush. Like an ache inside of me that just hurts whenever I’m around him.”
“You two haven’t…”
Vanora pretended to pull something out of her jean pocket and hand it to Alisha. “V-Card intact.”
“Has he, you know, given you any indication of being romantically interested in you?”
Plucking at her lips, Vanora stared at her canopy before finally lifting one shoulder. “I don’t know.”
“The bracelet…” Alisha faltered when she realized how close her sister was to tears.
“It doesn’t matter, Alisha,” Vanora said at last. “It doesn’t matter because I’m leaving in December and doing all that stuff you said. I already feel guilty about leaving you and Roman as it is. I don’t need this…” She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. Seriously. Armando made it very clear that we’re nothing more than friends.”
“So I don’t need to talk to him?”
“Oh my God! I would kill you!”
Alisha grimaced. “Okay. Sheesh. Back off, homicidal sister!”
Vanora covered her face with her hands. “Just let it go. Let it be. That’s what I’m doing. Besides, now Armando thinks there’s a boy at school who’s into me. He’s probably relieved to have shucked me off.”
Alisha considered telling Vanora that she seriously doubted that. She had sensed great discomfort within Armando throughout the conversation earlier. Plus, she had seen his face when he had seen the picture of Vanora looking very much like a sexy young woman. Yet, if she told her sister her suspicions, it would probably make things worse for her. It was best if Vanora wrote off Armando just as Alisha had written off Sin. Even if it hurt like hell.
Alisha wondered if it would always hurt like hell.
“Besides,” Vanora continued. “What hope does a mortal have with a vampire?”
Alisha knew that answer too well.
None at all.
August 2007
“It’s kind of gruesome, don’t you think?”
Vanora swam up to the edge of the pool, tucked her hands onto the ledge, and pulled herself up far enough to see what Rhonda was gazing at. It was the mausoleum, barely visible beyond the oak trees. In the late afternoon lighting it did look particularly gloomy.
“I honestly don’t think about it,” Vanora lied. She fussed with her bathing cap. She had to wear it in the chlorinated water or else her fine white-blond hair would take on a greenish hue.
Earlier, Ryan had cleaned the leaves out of the old pool so Vanora and Rhonda could spend the afternoon swimming. Roman had finally relented a
nd allowed Vanora to have a visitor over during the day. It was only Rhonda’s second visit and she was endlessly intrigued with the gothic mansion and the grounds around it.
“But there’s dead people in it. On your property. Near your home!” Rhonda widened her eyes dramatically. “Boo!”
Vanora scoffed at her friend. “Oh, c’mon.”
“You live in a mansion straight out of a creepy horror story and you have a mausoleum sitting right under your nose. It’s all so…weird!”
Vanora slapped the water, splashing Rhonda. “Oh, shut up! See! This is why I never have you over!”
Laughing, her friend swam backwards across the pool. “It’s not my fault you live in Dracula’s castle. Hell, you’re even part Romanian.”
“My family wanted something that would remind them of home. So they built this…” Vanora motioned toward the house.
“It’s pretty awesome though. It feels like we’re in Europe.”
“Which was the point.” Vanora floated in the warm green-blue water. A few leaves had found their way onto the surface and she pushed them away with her hands.
“My house is so boring compared to yours.”
“My life is so boring compared to yours. Who got to go to Europe this summer, huh?”
“You should have gone with me. Then you could have been de-virginized by a hot Italian hunk, too.” Rhonda wagged her eyebrows.
Vanora flipped around in the water to face her friend. Grinning, she teasingly said, “Oh, and this makes how many times you’ve lost your V-card now?”
Rhonda rolled her eyes. “Whatevs.”
“Like the third time. Fourth time?”
“There are varying degrees,” Rhonda said, slightly pouting.
In Darkness We Must Abide: The Complete First Season: Episodes 1-5 Page 22