Draped over the white loveseat his six foot and a hell of a lot of inches frame took up almost the whole furniture piece, limbs draped along the back of the couch and on the arm rest, an open inviting embrace. With legs crossed wide-resting his right ankle over his left knee-I got a peek of designer socks embroidered with little lions between his loafers and cuffed pants.
Rather than sit next to him, which he clearly was expecting, I took a seat on the couch across from him. For a brief moment in time, his perfect grace, prim clothes and spectacularly angled features made me feel frumpy in my jeans boots and fleece. The peasant and her king in the most literal sense.
I fidgeted with my hair while his ice blue eyes bored into my own. His thick lips parted slightly in an expression that was part smirk, part sneer and a hell of a lot of leer. A predator who had flipped the mouse on its back. Apparently Caius wanted me uncomfortable and he had succeeded. Pulling at the collar on my fleece I pretended I didn’t see his eyes roaming my body in very non friend zone way.
“We need medical supplies.” I announced into the silence of his home.
“Procure them from surrounding towns.” He drawled with a shrug. “Have you missed me dear Evelyn?”
“And a doctor?” I bit my tongue before I blurted out the rest of that retort.
“You have medical personnel, teach them.” Despite my earlier assumptions that I had found an ace in the hole he wasn’t budging at all. Hell, he seemed downright annoyed I wasn’t talking about his spectacular pecs, perfect chin and thick dark lashes surrounding his ice blue...
I shook my head to clear it. That was not where I was letting my mind go. Nope. No way.
Leaning forward on the couch I started talking with my hands. “Look we’re your food right? Property or whatever. What happens when we all start dying off because we aren’t well cared for? What happens then? Any good farmer round these parts will tell you; your lot needs the investment in quality healthcare.”
A deep throaty laugh rang in my ears. “Not long on your council and you sound like a human politician.”
“I’m not spinning this Caius. Its survival fact. Nothing more.”
“I think you just wanted a reason to come see me. I felt your...heart when I came calling.” My cheeks flushed.
“I’m taking a team and I’m going north. The council will agree-”
“I can overrule your council. All caravans are required to have a vampiric escort.”
“Wait. What?”
“It was a mandate put forth five years ago to lessen death rates.”
“All of them?” I froze, a chill running down my spine.
“Yes.”
“Then what happened to the escort from the missing caravan from Lake City?” Silence hung in the air between us, his face unreadable and unmoving as a statue.
“Caius...”
“The female was killed by Antonia. She was far younger and less experienced than my daughter.” Caius clicked his tongue against his teeth. “It is her death that causes my son to tarry in the north. By the old law he is now Zhang’s property and restitution.” It was the first time since I had met him that Caius had spoken to me without any undertones or hidden meaning. For a brief moment, a saw of flash of what he may have been like as a mortal.
“If you two are even...then why the attack?” The massive vampire let out a huff of frustration.
“Again you assume there is a connection.”
“Most logical explanation.”
“The connection...would be the prior attachment to the female.”
“Antonia killed his girlfriend?”
“His lover, yes.”
“And you didn’t think it was worth mentioning to anyone else that you guys put a friggin target on the back of everyone who lives here?”
“These are vampyr issues, such things matter not to humans.” He waved my rage away elegantly with his hand.
“Tell that to our dead.” I mumbled under my breath, my left hand clutching my mother’s angel pendant around my neck. The tiny weight sharply pressing into my palm on the wing tips.
I didn’t care, the inconvenient pain helped me think. It may be his issue but we sure as hell were suffering because of it. Jeff, Lloyd, the other people in that house...lives lost because of their little tiff.
“So let me take Adam.” Pleading, I searched his face for any shreds of agreement.
“He is needed here to protect house Lambros.”
“Well make another one then.” I took a deep breath.
“Look. I’m going. I’m bringing him home,” I didn’t feel the need to mention the bonded terror I’d been suffering from, “and I’m putting this crap to bed with Lake City. The trade is crucial to our survival. We can’t have a war.
We just can’t. Humanity is too fragile, and by extension, you are too fragile.”
In an instant he was on me. His heavy weight pinning my body to the couch, his hands tangled in my hair as he held me in place, lips brushing my left ear.
“Watch your tone in my house female.” I did not struggle as he wrenched my head to the side, pulling me by the hand tangled in my hair. “Do I appear so fragile to you now?” His velvet voice was intoxicatingly close, breath cold against my skin.
“Everyone has an Achilles heel. Blood is yours. There’s no weakness in acknowledging fact.” My words came out in ragged gasps, his weight heavy over my body.
“Makes me wonder if I should just turn you.” He murmured, running his index finger along my jawline, trailing down over my jugular. “You know so much about us already.”
“No!” I spat out immediately.
“No?” He let me fight his hold, pushing back so that I could look him in the eye. Staring into that icy abyss my thoughts poured from me unchecked.
“When death no longer follows our step the importance of living the life we have is lost. I do not want to lose sight of today for countless tomorrows. For that to me is not a gift, but a curse.”
His hands, his body left my own. In an instant he was seated across from me again, his forearms resting on his knees. Swallowing hard I felt a lump in my throat, at the words I had spoken. Pain shimmered briefly in his eyes, it appeared as frail as I was I had found a way to crack stone.
“I will consider your words this eve.”
“Caius...” He raised his hand to silence me.
“Leave me with my…thoughts.” His head turned to the painting above the mantle at the far end of the room. A grassy farm scene, an old red barn surrounded by children clothed in a nineteen forties style, an old farmer standing proudly by his tractor. I drank in his profile for a moment as I rose from the sofa; back straight, shoulders squared under that designer shirt, dark waves pouring over his shoulders, strong jaw kicked up ever so slightly in pride, and expression unreadable like a living portrait from Raffaello Sanzio.
Although he had pretty much just attacked me-after feeding from me for months I might add-threatening to turn me into the ranks of the vampiric everlasting I was the one who felt horrid leaving his home. Surprisingly, hurting Caius’ feelings made me feel like an ass. A pain that reverberated in my chest with each step I took down the stairs from the porch. What was even more frustrating is I didn’t understand why. The old dinosaur was a heavy-handed self-absorbed expletive inducing pain in my rear who had threatened my life and robbed me of tiny bits of it. Yet I felt like I knew him, like I owed him something. An unexplainable debt of sorts that I couldn’t describe.
In a way I suppose it reminded me of a celebrity relationship. In the old world we’d see these people on television and read about them in magazines, find ourselves privy to so many details about their private lives’-favorite foods, childhood trauma stories, vacation spots and lovers-that we would develop a one sided kinship with them. In truth I knew very little about the once man no matter what I felt I knew. Extrapolating from there I reminded myself that I didn’t owe him shit and he needed to respect my boundaries. He was an aggressor, I didn’t need to
be a sympathetic victim regardless of the amount of vampire voodoo that made me want to snuggle up with him. That was that. I would not allow myself to be attracted to Caius no matter the-
My eyes flipped up right as I banged into the chest of Adam King, bouncing back I fell square on my ass scraping my palms on the sidewalk.
“Damn Liv. You alright?”
“Adam, ah hi. I’m sorry I didn’t see you.” With a wince I scrubbed at my left palm with my right hand, digging the little bits of gravel out of my skin. On habit from when I was just learning to ride a bike, I blew on my wound trying to lessen the sting.
“Yeah I noticed....I said hi about three times but you were too busy staring at your feet. You sure you’re okay?”
“Was just thinking I guess, it has been such a long day.” Adam reached over to me, pulling a dry dead leaf out of my hair with a smirk.
“You’re a dork.”
“Stop, I’ll blush.”
“Walk you home?”
“Only if you tell me why you were being my human roadblock.”
“Hey, you popped by my house and missed me. I just wanted to say hi as you were rude enough to leave without so much as a how are ya.”
“I was there to see Caius.”
“About?”
“Going to Lake City.”
“Wha-”
“We need a doctor Adam, medical supplies...” Adam grabbed at tufts of his dark hair, groaning.
“You should have come to me, we could have approached this together.”
“I asked him to let you go with us, he said no.”
“No shit he said no.” Adam sighed. “Damn it, for once in your life could you please coordinate rather than rushing into something halfcocked?” Frustration seeped into his voice.
“I’m not cocked at all thank you.” I snapped.
“Figure of speech.”
“He said he’d think about it anyway.” I informed him, as I kicked up my chin, arms crossed with indigence.
He just laughed.
“Bullshit, Caius doesn’t think about anything. He acts as though decisions are bestowed upon him through divine guidance.”
“Well it is what he said...” I chewed on my lower lip. “So did you know that Antonia killed Zhang Qi’s lover?” I knew he did before I finished the question. He may be a vampire now, but I knew Adam King’s facial expressions better than I knew my own fathers. Adam would never have been a good poker player, he wore his mind on his sleeve.
“I see.”
“Liv-”
“No. You know what? No. You want us to be a team and do things together but you keep stuff from me. You are no different than my father, Dimitri, hell every other damned person in this town.” I was yelling, not giving a shit about the scene I made or that he held his hands up in defense. Screw this. Screw all of it.
“Liv-”
“I mean do I look fragile? Do I look like I can’t handle things? Is that why you put me in the distressed damsel routine? I’m telling you I’m so over it, it isn’t even funny how over this I am.”
“Evelyn Younger! Shut your damn mouth and listen!” He snapped, the harsh tone having the same effect as the back of his hand across my cheek. I was stunned to utter silence.
“You walk around here with this sense of entitlement like you have special security clearance to know the innermost workings of the universe. Well you don’t. There are vampire matters that are not your concern and not your business. Judging by the way you react to things I’m fully within my purview to not tell you things you are not entitled to know. We are friends, we will always be, but if you turn me into your verbal punching bag one more time I am not going to socialize with you further, no matter what mandates my elder has bestowed upon me. I will guard you, but only from afar is that clear?”
By the time Adam was done with his rant I felt worse than I had since Candice ripped my head off. Shrinking into myself I felt two feet tall, my horrid temper....
“Yes.” I replied meekly. My vision blurred, his back turned to me as he started to walk away. “I’m sorry Adam. I just feel so lost in this Stepford world of ours.” I gestured to all the little well cared houses in their neat little rows. Most of these people kept to their day jobs, a beer or two at the garage at night on occasion and only whispers of our vampire companions. They were blissfully unaware of the current state, remembering the dead in their homes in nightmares, traumas from a lifetime ago.
“The world has always had two sides, always will. Those that face the shadows are masochists, suffering truth so that the innocent can dance in the light of lies.”
Shutting my eyes, I thought about his words while attempting to force my emotions back into a little box inside my brain. Lock them up with a key so none could find them.
“Accept your role my dark friend, only then will you no longer feel tortured.”
“I never asked for this. I just wanted to help.” My fingertips flicked away the tears streaking down my cheeks.
“And help you do, you bear the burden so they don’t have to.” “I have to save him, his pain is killing me.” I whispered.
“You and me both sister.” He linked my arm, turning me to walk towards my house. His other thin lukewarm hand patting my forearm gently as we strolled along. “You and me both.”
The town square-with its old shops turned into warehouses, restaurants converted to housing, the city hall/police headquarters as our own council chambers-was completely transformed. Where cozy old fashioned street lamps stood torches had been hung to carry us through the night. Fake floral arrangements in a variety of spring blooms decorated building fronts, tied back with ribbons of green, purple, blue and yellow that was reused year after year. Decorations were courtesy of the large craft store that had once existed a block south of the square. A banquet of preserves, meats-a rare treat-baked goods and vegetables was set up at the north end, next to the large collection of kegs that flowed freely. The opposite side of the square was a different harmony; voices attempting good conversation were drowned out by the strum of a guitar. The beat of the drum kept everyone moving, the singer lost in the waves of music by the lack of amplifying equipment. Still we all heard the words in our minds, songs carried down from generations retooled in a bluegrass fashion.
The citizens of Junction were dressed in their finest, flowing dresses and polo shirts intermingled through the crowd. The red hues of the setting sun intertwined with the glow of the lit torches, the whole atmosphere washed in the scent of burning woods.
Smiling, I took a deep breath; this was what it was to live. Right here, right now. The living intertwined in the celebration of simply being, a true testament to our resolve. Smoothing out my aqua blue tank dress I scanned the crowd for familiar faces. I had been late to the party due to an overflowing in pile from my new position. I had tried to talk to Dad a few times about the medical issue, planted a bug in Richards’s ear as well, and even brought it up to Zack as much as I disliked talking to the little worm. None of them seemed overly concerned about it, said we had enough supplies to get through the next year, that it would give the citizens of our northern sister more time to cool down before we renegotiated. My father stressed they needed our crop trade more than we needed their medical. All in all I was just wasting my words on persuasion, so I focused on the paperwork; spending an entire week in that little office processing this and counting that left me about ready to crawl out of my own skin.
There are those bred to be bureaucrats, filling forms and correlating with glee, and there are those who were born to run free. I was not built to be caged.
Taking a step into the crowd there was no pull of pain in my legs even in the low sling back black heels I had borrowed from Zoe’s closet. Every heel toe became a silent testament of my broken chains.
One drew my attention immediately. A tall slender blonde in her late twenties, bright hazel eyes gleaming as she laughed at a joke from the man next to her. Long blond hair swept back in a tight ponytail
causing her already defined cheekbones to scream perfection. Her dress was cream colored, sleeveless but square necked, flared at the bottom but ended at the knee.
The perfect combination of skin and modesty.
Working my way through the crowd towards my target I paused to shake hands with a few familiar faces; Lauren from preserves, Frank from the east wall, Anna who worked on the farmland. When I got close enough to my destination I heard Mark going on about something to the crowd. Talking animatedly with his hands he was such a sight, his thick dark hair a tousled mess, eyes wide and smile five miles wide. He seemed out of place in the khaki slacks and white button up shirt-which he had already spilled something on-Zoe had probably forced him into.
The proverbial clown in the tuxedo.
“So there’s these two men are driving through Southern Iowa when they get pulled over by a State Trooper. The cop walks up and taps on the window with his nightstick. The driver rolls down the window and WHACK, the cop smacks him in the head with the stick. The driver asks, what the hell was that for? The cop answers, you’re in Iowa son. When we pull you over, you better have your license ready when we get to your car. The driver says, I'm sorry, Officer, I'm not from around here. The cop runs a check on the guy's license, and he's clean. He gives the guy his license back, walks around to the passenger side, and taps on the window. The passenger rolls down the window and WHACK, the cop smacks him on the head with the nightstick. The passenger asks, what’d you do that for? The cop says, just making your wish come true. The passenger asks, making what wish come true? The cop says, I know that two miles down the road you're going to say to your buddy, I wish that asshole would've tried that shit with me!"
The Blood Bargain (Book 2): Breach Page 15