Angel's Guardian: A Contemporary Vampire Romance

by Zeecé Lugo

  “Christmas is only four days away,” she said. “Do you celebrate it?”

  “I never have in the past. I know what it is. I have seen it celebrated by New Yorkers for years. The lights, the music, the Santas, the shoppers out late, all are hard to miss. Some of the ethnic groups get pretty wild celebrating it. Back home, when I was young, it was a very solemn and religious time for Christian humans. That has changed here, but I am willing to learn new things if it makes you happy.”

  Angel considered his words as she went to fill the kettle to make tea. “For me, it always was a precious time. I was raised Catholic, and my family was big on Christmas. I want my children to grow up with happy memories of the tradition.”

  “Tell me, then, what do we do?”

  “We buy presents, wrap them, and put them under the Christmas tree.”

  “What tree would that be?” he asked, dreading the answer already.

  “The one we are going to buy this evening, and you are going to haul and set up in our beautiful living room,” she answered, her eyes sparkling with laughter. “Of course, it has to be the biggest one we find.”

  “I should have known it would entail work on my part. Since you came into my life, it’s work, work, work, work, work,” he said with mock annoyance. Angel laughed.

  “Don’t complain, vampire. I’m the one who does most of the work around here. Besides, you get plenty of fringe benefits.” She gave him a sultry gaze which set his blood boiling.

  “I will expect lots of those fringe benefits later.” His gaze dropped to the creamy tops of her breasts. He loved the blood kiss taken from those sweet mounds.

  “You’ll need to pay a visit to Toys-R-Us. They stay open late during the Christmas shopping season. Nina wants a dog, but with our plans to travel to meet your people, that’s not possible. Maybe you can find one of those mechanized puppies that run on batteries. I think she’d love that.”

  “Yes, but I think she’d also love her own tablet to play games and watch videos,” he said.

  “Yes, she would.”

  “What would you like for Christmas?” he asked, knowing that Angel was always last on her own list. She gave of herself without limits but asked for little.

  At once, a sad, wistful look came over her features. “Nothing, I want nothing. You’ve given me all I could ever want.”

  “Surely, there is something you’d like. Jewelry, if I remember correctly, females love jewelry. You might like a couple of beautiful gowns to wear during our trip. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to wear them since my people love balls and dancing.”

  Angel remained silent for a few minutes, deep in thought, considering her options. “Max, my real last name is not Ferrars. Marco was a Ferrars. I used his last name as he’d insisted I do. My birth name is Angelica Maria Alvarez.”

  Max nodded in understanding. He sat down at the table and moved the baby to sit on his lap. “Why are you telling me this now?”

  “Because something weighs heavy on my mind and my heart. Now that my life has changed so much, and the danger that stalked me for so long is gone, I can’t stop thinking about it.” She came to sit opposite him, her cup of tea cradled in her hands.

  “Tell me, tell me what’s on your mind?”

  “Max, I was fourteen years old when I was abducted. I am now twenty five. For over ten years, I have been dead to my family. They never heard from me and must think I was killed by some serial killer. When Marco took me, we were always just one step ahead of our enemies. It was impossible for me to contact my family as I would have brought death to their doorstep for certain.”

  “I understand. Your enemies would have killed them too as a punishment to you.”

  “Yes. But now, I am free. I know that they buried me a long time ago, but I have not buried them.”

  “You want to see them,” Max whispered.

  “Yes, I want to see them. I want them to know I am alive, and that they have grandchildren. Max, I don’t want jewels or gowns. I want to see the joy in my mother’s face as she holds Nina and little Marco. I want to be held in my father’s arms. I want to hug my brother and my sister. Do you understand?”

  No, he didn’t. Shamefully enough, he didn’t, and Angel had guessed he wouldn’t. He stood up and handed her the baby. He then proceeded to pace the room in silent agitation.

  She had a family, one to which he had not given a thought. She already belonged somewhere that was not part of his world. A long time ago, he chose to walk away from his own family because they were not convenient to him. She had been torn from her own, unwillingly.

  It was only natural that once the danger was removed, she would think about them. He thought that having saved her, she belonged to him alone, that no one else had a claim. He was wrong; she had a claim to her past and to the people she’d loved and lost through no fault of her own. How could he deny her the one thing she desired most?

  Fear struck at his heart. Once she found herself in the comfort of her family, she would forget about him. Why should she remain at the side of a creature who could not walk in the daylight with her, an archaic, murderous beast? The difficulties of keeping his secrets were insurmountable.

  How could she explain to her family that he was never available during the day and only came out at night? When they went out shopping, to the beach, camping, where would he be? When he missed every school function for the kids, how would she explain that?

  She would want to live near or with them. Soon, she would start to see the possibilities of finding a human mate, one that would fit perfectly into the human scheme of things. Max felt an incredible fear of losing what he’d fought so hard to keep.

  He felt an overwhelming urge to deny her, to force her to stay and not think about the past and the family that had been taken from her. He wanted her to think of only him.

  He finally stopped pacing and looked at her. She was watching him quietly, knowing full well what was on his mind. His agonized gaze spoke more clearly to her than words ever could. He wanted to refuse her wishes, but he couldn’t.

  She trusted him implicitly. She thought him noble, kind, good, honorable. If he kept her from her family, he was only continuing her abduction. She would have traded one captor for another, never to be truly free.

  “Yes, Angel. You will see them. I will have Jonathan make the arrangements. First week of the new year, you will travel to your family. When you return, we’ll go to mine.”

  Angel’s face broke into the most beautiful, joyous smile. “We will travel. I want them to meet the man who saved me and brought me back into their lives.”

  “That will be difficult, Angel.”

  “ We can stay at an upscale hotel nearby. Hotel rooms are well insulated from daylight. We can visit in the evenings. We will stay a few days at most. Please, Max, come with us.”

  “All right. We’ll do as you wish, but after the New Year. I want to have a few wonderful days with you and the children here. Teach me to celebrate Christmas. I want to spoil you all with presents,” Max said with a heavy heart, fearing that it would be their only Christmas together.

  ******

  They pulled up to the suburban, middle-class neighborhood in the chauffeured limo. It was ostentatious, but the limo offered plenty of room for the family and the windows were well tinted. The sun had been down for a while, and the street lights illuminated wide pools of freshly-mowed grass and meticulously landscaped front yards.

  Where in New York everything was grey and bare, in San Antonio the grasses stayed green through the winter. The house was a single-story ranch that stretched from one side of the generous lot to the other and was probably built sometime in the eighties, but it was well maintained.

  Angel squeezed his hand tightly, and he could feel her shaking all over. “Max, I think I’m going to throw up.”

  “No, you won’t. You are excited, that’s all. There is no reason to fear.”

  “What if one of them has a heart attack? They think I’m dead
. They might think I’m a ghost. What if they don’t recognize me? It has been eleven years. I’ve changed.”

  “Angel, listen to me,” he stopped and pulled her to face him, kissing her gently. “Love always knows. They will know. Trust me.”

  “Ok. Ok. I’m fine.” She breathed deeply several times to calm down. “You take the baby. Nina, stay by Max’s side. I will ring the door bell.”

  But there was no need as the porch lights came on and the door opened. A man came out, curious as to the unexpected vehicle that had parked in front of his home. He was of middle height and thickening around the waist. His hair was a mix of grey and brown. Behind him came a woman who, although heavier and older than Angel, looked very much like her.

  “Can I help you?” the man asked.

  “Poppa?” Angel asked, her voice quavering with emotion. “It’s me, Poppa. It’s Angel.”

  ******

  It was a turbulent night, to say the least. After the initial shock, denial, tears of joy, and welcoming, came the frantic calling of siblings. Angel begged that only her brother and sister be called. There was a great deal of explaining and recounting that was intimate and for no one else’s ears.

  Her family wept at the telling of her story. “But how could you never call? asked her younger sister, Rebecca, who was born two years after Angel and was not yet married. There are telephones everywhere in the world. Surely, you could’ve made one phone call to tell us you were alive.”

  “And what would you have done? You’d have gone straight to the police or come looking for me. Pretto would have ordered the entire family executed. He’d done so before. Besides, I was in Japan, not the states. I was isolated and watched all the time. Once Marco and I ran, we knew your phones could be tapped and the house watched. It would have caused you more agony to know I was on the run and not safe.”

  “The past is past,” pronounced her father. “You are here now, returned to us from the dead after so many years, an act of God, for sure. It was a miracle that Maxim’s cab was driving by that alley the night of the attack. It was even a bigger miracle that he stopped to rescue you. In the big cities, people are afraid to get involved. ”

  “We must now find you a place to live,” said her mother excitedly, “a nice house in a neighborhood with a good school for our beautiful granddaughter. Your brother is a realtor. He’ll help you find the perfect house, and of course, we’ll help you buy it.” Her mother beamed with joy. “For now, you will stay with us.”

  Maxim felt his heart stutter. Angel looked at him worriedly.

  “Momma, Maxim is a businessman with many financial interests. We left in the middle of a very special project for him, and he needs to be constantly connected to his people. He brought his laptop and papers to the hotel. He feels comfortable working in peace and quiet there. We’ll come over tomorrow evening, I promise.”

  “Tomorrow, he can bring all his business papers, and you’ll have the large master bedroom all to yourselves. He can work from there. We’ll make sure he has peace and quiet during the day.” Her mother’s eyes were begging to keep her long-lost daughter close.

  Maxim spoke up. “Mrs. Alvarez, I deeply appreciate your offer, but there are also a couple of appointments, business associates that I have in the area who have taken this opportunity to come meet me. However, I think Angel and the children can stay here, and I can come visit in the evenings. That will give you time to get to know each other again.”

  Angel looked at him gratefully, her eyes warm and relieved. “Thank you, Maxim. You are so good to me.”

  “Mr. Maxim, please, call me Delia. We are family. You have made this miracle happen, and you will be like a second son to me. Please, no ‘Mrs.’ anymore.”

  “You can call me Max,” he offered in return, feeling uncomfortable but somehow reassured.

  “Max,” Angel’s brother, Tony, addressed the vampire. “The housing market here has been pretty good compared to the rest of the nation. You can find a nice house right here, in this neighborhood, for a fraction of what you’d pay in New York.”

  “Yes, I imagine you are right, but I have made New York City my home for many years, and my investments, my business manager, and connections are based there. I have no wish to move anywhere else.”

  “Angel,” her father pressed, “after having lost you for so many years, we hope you want to live near us. We want to have our grandchildren around us, to spoil, to teach, to love, to catch up with all the things we have missed.”

  “Maybe I can stay a bit longer,” she said, looking at Max for his approval. “A week seems so little.”

  “Yes,” he answered woodenly, already feeling the divide opening up between them.

  ******

  Max stood alone and forlorn again, on the edge of a parapet, the wind blowing at him like a willful child straining to push him off. The moon was a sliver of white on a clear sky, and the stars were for once, visible, although not as bright and numerous as they would be in the country.

  Almost a month ago, he left Angel with her family and returned to the city. At first, he’d called every night, eager to hear about her latest experiences and plans with her parents and siblings. Then, he’d begun to resent her happiness and obvious enjoyment of a situation that did not include him. In truth, he was angry with her for being happy without him. He felt betrayed.

  A week ago, she’d stopped answering his calls. He was not stupid. He’d known it was coming. Tonight, he’d spent a few hours with Jonathan. His friend was totally recovered from the torture that Pretto dealt him. In fact, he now proudly saw himself as part of that elite warrior group that has survived torture and bears the scars as badges of courage to prove it. He seemed edgier now, not so soft, much more masculine.

  Max told his friend about the situation, his fear that he’d lost Angel. Jonathan thought he was being childish, petty, and impatient. Maybe he was.

  He took his cell out of his coat’s pocket and dialed again. No one answered. His fury and pain burning through him, he flung the phone with all his might, watching it disappear into the night.

  He stayed out until just before the edge of dawn. He dreaded going back to the house, to the lingering scent and absence of the little family that had so unexpectedly and thoroughly burrowed its way into his cold heart. Today, he would change his plans to visit his family. He would move them forward and leave immediately. He needed a diversion from his pain and misery.

  He opened the door and stepped over the threshold only to be assailed by the stink of baby poo. What the hell? he thought. Where has that come from? Then confusion gave way to joy. Baby poo. His favorite smell in the world!

  Max took the stairs three at a time. He burst into his bedroom, and there they were. Angel was changing the baby’s diaper. Nina, tired but awake, ran into his arms with a big whoop of joy.

  Angel turned, a big smile on her face. She picked up a freshly diapered little Marco and held him up for Max’s kiss. “We just got in. Took a cab from Kennedy. My phone fell in the toilet a week ago, and I never memorized your number. I was going crazy worrying about you.”

  “Baby, you should never have worried. I was not worried in the least,” he lied with aplomb. “You need to learn to use the internet, open a Facebook account so that you’ll always be connected. I will do it for you.”

  ******

  They kissed for hours. They touched forever. They remained locked in the ecstasy of their physical union all day. When Max’s fangs found their mark, the blood kiss took them to the edge of the precipice, and they went over it together. Later they talked in the hushed murmurs that lovers use when sated and exhausted.

  “You honestly thought I’d not come back?”

  “The possibility crossed my mind,” he said with nonchalance.

  “Hmm, the possibility crossed your mind. It doesn’t sound like it would make much of a difference to you.” Angel was upset.

  Max smiled to himself. His woman feared losing him. He pulled her over to lay o
n top of him, belly to belly and, taking her face in both his hands, brought her in for a long, passionate kiss.

  “I went insane. For a whole week, you stopped answering my phone calls. I thought you were doing it on purpose. Tonight, in my fury, I threw my cell phone away, my beautiful $700 Galaxy which I bought barely three months ago. I convinced myself that you’d chosen to stay in Texas with your family. You have no idea the joy I felt when I walked through the door and smelled baby poop.”

  Angel looked down at him with love in her eyes. “I love you, my vampire. I don’t think I could live without you. I can visit and talk to my family whenever I want, but my daily life, my happiness, my passion, I want to share with you each moment for the rest of my life. Never doubt that.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Besides, Nina would never let me forget you. She was almost as eager as I was to get home.”

  “I missed her too. I missed all of you. Most of all, I missed this,” and Max flipped her over again and taking her lips in a passionate kiss, sank into her sweet depths once more.

  ******

  The most beautiful full moon hung over the New York City skyline. In the distance, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and the rest of the nightscape spread out before them, seeming to go on forever. The breeze blew cold and crisp, the moon seemed an arm’s reach away, and the city twinkled and breathed below them, its night voice drifting up to them like mist in the hills. From their perch high up, the little family gazed in awe, their hair and clothes blowing in the wind.

  The baby was strapped securely in a special carrier to Angel’s back. Nina was similarly strapped to Max’s back, her little arms tight around his neck. At his side, Angel held his hand, both wonder and fear thrumming through her.

  “This is wonderful. Max. I never imagined. The view is magnificent, scary.”