Promised By Blood

by Samantha Snow

  “No. Don’t. It’s just different. It’s amusing, actually,” Holly explains.

  “I live to entertain you,” Carmen says dryly.

  “You know what I mean.” Holly nudges her friend’s legs with her elbow. “So, you came over because you said you have something for me.”

  “Oh, yeah, I guess I did.” Carmen shifts a bit and rolls up to lean on her elbow. “You still having dreams about that friend of yours?”

  “Every night.”

  “Are they all sexual?” Carmen asks.

  “No. Not all of them.” Holly thinks back over the past few weeks. “Maybe half of them are but the others are more like memories from when we were kids.”

  “Really?” Carmen seems truly surprised at this. “But the sex ones are good, right? I mean the sex is good?”

  “We never really get to complete the act, if you know what I mean…” Holly trails off.

  “Ah, you’re left wanting in the morning. Sexually frustrated, Hol?” Carmen stifles a snicker. “Sorry, it’s just, man, it sucks. You’re not getting laid by your real boyfriend or your dream boyfriend.”

  Holly hadn’t thought about it that way. For three weeks, she’s been dreaming about Tristan. Greg no longer notices her, she’s actually only seen him a half dozen times. It’s as if he’s completely avoiding her. And she doesn’t care. It’s not like she could tell them about Carmen or the gargoyles who watch over her or the sprites who like to grade her papers and clean the house. How would she even begin to explain any of it? He’d have her committed in a heartbeat.

  “Hello, Holly…hey….where are you right now?” Carmen is peering into her face, noses almost touching.

  “What? Oh, sorry.” Holly frowns. “I was just thinking about what Greg would do if I told him about any of this stuff.”

  “Oh. That.” Carmen looks bored and retreats to her end of the couch. “He’d have you committed.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I think, too.” Holly sighs.

  “No. That’s what he would do. Unequivocally,” Carmen confirms. “The sprites checked. We were afraid we’d have to tell him something and Petey wanted to expose himself to Greg.”

  “Wait,” Holly giggled and gestured toward her pants, “like expose himself?”

  “Maybe.” Carmen shrugs, missing the joke. “Petey just doesn’t like Greg at all. He wants to scare the shit out of him.”

  “I might be okay with that.”

  “We have determined it is unnecessary to reveal our world to Greg.”

  “Probably for the best.” Holly giggles – the mental image of Petey exposing himself to Greg is just too good. “But it would be hilarious.”

  Carmen finally laughs. “It took a lot of convincing to stop him. He really doesn’t like Greg at all.”

  “I don’t know that I like Greg anymore,” Holly admits. She claps a hand over her mouth, surprised that she just said the words aloud.

  “It’s okay, Hol. Nobody could blame you. He’s sort of a jerk.”

  “What am I going to do?” Holly whispers. She’s finally giving words to the thoughts she’s been having for longer than she would care to admit.

  “Just keep on keepin’ on, kiddo. You said you need him in order to live here so just roll with it until it’s intolerable. The way I see it, he’s just a roommate and doesn’t really impact the rest of your life.”

  “So, no harm, no foul? What kind of life is that for either of us?”

  “Nobody is saying to spend the rest of your life this way,” Carmen begins, “just for the time being. Until we figure out what is going on, at least.”

  “Still nothing?” Holly is disappointed that her life remains in flux. There have been no attacks or further encounters with Tristan’s ghost but Carmen insists that she is still in danger.

  “No. It’s strange.” Carmen studies her wine, gulps down the rest of it, and extends her glass for a refill. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “I can’t live my life under constant surveillance,” Holly reminds her, “and things are going to change for me as soon as classes resume after the holidays, things that will make it a lot harder for Petey to just drop in.”

  “Oh, yeah, the asshole professor who stole you from your brother-in-law.” Carmen slurs her words just a bit.

  Holly sighs. It raised a bit of a ruckus when Gilson announced he would be leaving the university at the end of the semester. It became a full blown scandal when he left to elope with Holly’s sister. In his absence, another professor stepped in to fill Gilson’s classes. To say he stole Holly is more than a stretch but calling him an asshole is an understatement. Professor Jeffrey Hamilton is known more for pushing his TAs into sleeping with him than anything else. He’s hairy and sleazy and set to make Holly’s final semester a living nightmare.

  “Do you think Petey could do something to Hamilton?”

  “He could, but only if he does something really wrong or harms you.”

  Holly bolts upright. “Wait!! Could that be it? Could asshole Hamilton be the cloud over my life?”

  Carmen thinks about it. “Maybe. I don’t know. Do you think he would hurt you?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve only heard stories.” Holly paces the room. “He apparently pushes his TAs into sleeping with him. Nobody really understands how he does it because he’s pretty gross, but it happens all the time.”

  “Interesting.” Carmen frowns. “Maybe I should meet this guy.”

  “I’m sure I could arrange it, especially since you hang around me so much.”

  “What can I say, I like you,” Carmen teases. “But, maybe it’s just the wine talking.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you get drunk. What’s the occasion?”

  “Oh, this?” Carmen gestures toward the wine. “I’m not that drunk. But, I wanted to stay tonight to see these dreams of yours.”

  “Why?” Holly finds it creepy enough knowing that the sprites watch her sleep, but now Carmen, too?

  “I want to see if there is something special about them,” Carmen says simply.

  “What would be special about my dreams?” Holly asks.

  “Lots of things, but mainly I find it strange that you keep dreaming about your childhood friend. Do you know anything about him now? Like where he is and what he’s been up to?” Carmen seems more alert than she had just a few minutes prior.

  “No.” Holly really doesn’t want to go back down that road but she’s starting to realize she doesn’t have much choice. “He stopped responding to my letters like six years ago. I haven’t heard from him since.”

  “Spill it, Hol,” Carmen orders, “tell me everything.”

  Holly exhales loudly and sets her wine glass down. This is going to be tough.

  “Okay. He was my best friend and then my boyfriend. I loved him. We had a plan.” Holly remembers spending hours mapping things out in their treehouse. “Then, his Dad died when we were sixteen. His Mom moved them back to be near their families in New Orleans. We kept in touch for a while but then he stopped writing and my letters were returned as undeliverable. That’s it, that’s the story.”

  Carmen stares at her for a long time, her eyes brimming with tears. “That’s so sad.”

  “It is what it is. I’m over it,” Holly replies blandly.

  “No, you aren’t. You clearly aren’t, Holly. You’re dreaming about him for a reason.”

  “Maybe it’s just because somebody moved into his old house and it’s drudging up memories. Or because I’m having second thoughts about things with Greg, or because my mom keeps pushing guys on me. Take your pick.”

  “It just seems like a huge coincidence that all of this started up at the same time. Holly, I think we need to consider the fact that somebody is trying to mess with you, maybe even your ex-boyfriend.”

  “It can’t be Tristan,” Holly insists.

  “Then maybe it is somebody – or something – using the memory of him against you,” Carmen suggests. “It has to be tied toget
her somehow, there’s just no way it’s all a big coincidence. I’m sorry, Hol, but it’s just not very likely.”

  “That’s sick. Why would somebody do such a thing?” Holly recoils. Who could she have pissed off enough to deserve such a thing?

  “Who knows?” Carmen seems just as confused. “The world is a sick place, Hol.”

  “Yeah, but what did I do to deserve this?” Holly practically screams at her friend. She immediately regrets it.

  “I don’t think you did anything, Holly. And I’m going to keep doing everything I can to protect you from whatever is doing this.”

  “I know. I know you are. I’m sorry.” Holly buries her face in her hands. “I just don’t understand. Seeing Tristan every night, constantly being watched, my mom pushing me to settle down, knowing I’ll have to deal with this jackass professor because Gilson decided to take off with my sister – I feel like I’m caught in the middle of a shit storm.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m more than happy to weather this storm with you, even if it is a shit storm.” Carmen beams at her. “Now, let’s crack open another bottle of wine and drink until you pass out so I can watch you dream.”

  **

  Holly leans against the wrought iron balcony railings, relishing the view of the city, her city. The air smells fresh, like rain is coming in. The misty kind of rain that just wets your face.

  “The rain is coming in.” He wraps his arms around her waist and nuzzles her neck with his nose. His hair tickles her bare shoulders. “Come back to bed.”

  “I like it out here. The city is so beautiful at night.” Holly wants to stay, just a little longer. But then he starts kissing her neck, her shoulder, slides his hands under her cami and up to her breasts. She moans in spite of herself. “Tristan….”

  “Come back to bed,” he says huskily. He spins them around and pushes her against the glass doors. Tristan removes her cami, the cool air sends chills over her skin and her nipples harden. He growls low in his throat and sucks on her left nipple, teasing her. Sliding his hands down her body, Tristan peppers kisses down her abdomen. He pulls her panties down and traces along her inner thigh with the very tips of his fingers.

  Tristan looks up her body at her face, his eyes blazing with desire as he pushes into her with his fingers until she responds, wet and longing for more. He traces his tongue upward to the junction of her thighs. She arches her back as his tongue probes at her core, flicking in just the right rhythm, faster and needier as she grinds into him.

  Holly’s breath quickens as the excitement swells like a wave, her toes are tingling and she struggles to stay on her feet. Tristan compensates to support her weight until she cries out and her whole body shudders in relief. He carries her into the bed, his hands groping her ass, holding her just above his waist, teasing her with his arousal.

  Tristan tosses her on the bed and climbs up her form until he’s hovering above her, ready to enter her at last. His eyes are like mirrors reflecting a mixture of love and desire. He licks his lips.

  “It’s almost time, Hol.”

  The bed shakes beneath her, Tristan reaches for her from across the room. An unseen force is pulling him out the balcony doors as the bed shatters to pieces and the walls explode around her. Holly grasps for something to hold onto, anything. She’s falling, silently screaming into nothing.

  “Holly!”

  She snaps awake, breathing ragged, her skin sheathed in a cold sweat. Carmen is watching her expectantly.

  “They aren’t usually like that.” Holly struggles to get the words out through her ragged breathing.

  “What happened? Do you remember anything?” Carmen sounds excited

  “We were,” Holly pauses, searches for the right words, “doing things, and we were about to finally have sex when something sucked him away and the room was blown to bits and I was falling through darkness. It was horrible.”

  Carmen falls back on the couch. “Whoa.” She mutters to herself in that strange language again. “Did he say anything? Do you know for sure it was him?”

  Holly blinks at her. “Yeah it was him. Believe me, it was Tristan.” She thinks back to the remnants of the dream. It’s fading. “He kept wanting me to go back to bed and then he said it’s almost time.”

  “He told you it was almost time?” Carmen asks cautiously.

  “Yeah, but we were just about to do it when he said that. Then it all went to hell,” Holly explains. She remembers his hands on her, his lips brushing across her flesh. Gods help her, she wants that feeling again.

  “It sounded pretty hot until that last bit,” Carmen comments.

  “Pretty much.” Holly sighs.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “I expect you to grade everything on my behalf.” He looks down at her with dark, half-lidded eyes.

  “I understand, Professor Hamilton.” Holly suppresses a shudder and crosses her legs to cover it. She hasn’t been able to look him in the eye, focusing on the Dean instead. How does Dean Kaplan not realize what a sleezeball this guy is? Does Hamilton have something on Kaplan?

  “Jeffrey, please,” Hamilton corrects her with a chuckle. He’s trying too hard to be casual. Everything about him from the oily black ponytail to the too-tight denim jeans screams of desperation. He lumbers around the room, stacking papers as they talk. Dean Kaplan, prim and proper in her tailored business suit, appears interested in every creepy word out of the guy’s mouth.

  “I’m not sure I’m comfortable being so informal, sir,” Holly chokes out. She’s surely not comfortable with it. Far from it. Holly waited outside the building until she saw Dean Kaplan enter because she preferred being late to her first meeting than being early and alone with Hamilton. It’s easier to make excuses for tardiness.

  “But it was alright with your previous professor?” Hamilton arches an eyebrow at her. She sees the lust in his near black eyes, unmistakable and disturbing. How in the hell is she going to avoid being alone with him for a whole semester?

  “No, sir.” Holly bites back an insult. “I always referred to him as ‘Professor’ or ‘Professor Gilson’ when we were on campus.” It’s mostly true. She only slipped up once or twice and never in front of a class.

  “Indeed.” Hamilton must feel generous today. He turns his attention to Dean Kaplan. “Thank you for introducing my new assistant.”

  “We are just so grateful to you for taking over this course, Jeffrey.” Kaplan practically purrs at him. “I don’t know who else we possibly would have found on this short notice. We really could have been in trouble. I do not doubt Ms. Chamberlain’s ability as a TA, even if this is not her chosen field. She has shown remarkable ability in light of tragedy.”

  Kaplan looks at her sympathetically. Holly hates it but lowers her eyes respectfully rather than scream at the woman who helped her land the TA gig in the first place. She’d appealed to Kaplan when all of the opportunities in her department were filled while she was dealing with her father’s death. Kaplan had been kind and Holly hadn’t forgotten.

  “I live to serve.” Hamilton bares his teeth, flashes Kaplan a brilliant, too white smile. “Besides, it’s always a pleasure to meet new talent.” Hamilton trains his eyes on Holly. She feels like he’s mentally undressing her. Gross.

  “Of course, I never doubted it.” Kaplan stands and straightens her blazer. “I will leave you to it now. I have another meeting to attend.”

  “Wait!” Holly is not about to be left alone with him tonight. “Dean Kaplan, could I walk you to your next meeting, I have a few questions for you about my transcripts.” She lies quickly.

  Hamilton notices, his expression grim as Holly practically leaps from her seat.

  Kaplan is surprised but nods. “Of course, walk with me.”

  Holly grabs her messenger bag and without sparing her new professor a second look, slips out the door of Hamilton’s office close on Kaplan’s polished heels. “I’m set to graduate at the end of this term,” Holly says simply.

  “I am aware,” Ka
plan responds. “You have done remarkably well in light of the circumstances.”

  “I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me. I just wanted to tell you that,” Holly begins, “but is there any way you can help me request a different professor for my thesis?”

  She’d been saddled with Conway. It wasn’t enough that she barely eked out a ‘B’ in her course last semester, she’ll never get a thesis by the old bitch.

  Surprise flickers across Kaplan’s face. She contemplates this for a minute. “I’m not a Dean in your school, Holly. I don’t know how I could help.”

  “Professor Conway does not like me at all. I’ve worked so hard for so long and I know she can keep me from graduating just to be spiteful. I was just hoping you could put in a good word to have me assigned another professor.”