“You know, girl, it really is bad practice to chill with vampires,” Dash called out as I was going out the door. “It’s hard to tell when one will turn on you. Ask me, I know. That’s what happened to me.”
I waved. “Thanks for the advice, Dash.”
Outside, Alec looked over at me. “He’s right. It’s not a good idea.”
I threaded my fingers through his. “I think I’ll take my chances.”
Chapter Six
Nicole
Alec pulled up to the curb in front of my apartment. “I’ll walk you in.”
“Will they come after me here, if I’m alone?” I asked, not quite ready to say goodbye yet.
Alec smiled. “You’ll be okay. For some reason, I don’t think Omar wants to come after you himself.”
Confused, I drew my brows together. “That doesn’t make sense. Isn’t he like this old and powerful vampire?”
He nodded. “I don’t know since I don’t have the ability to read Omar but I believe it has something to do with the Light Seekers and this secret he is hiding.”
“So you think it’s real?”
Alec shrugged. “I don’t know, but from Omar’s reaction when I confronted him about it, I think he believes it’s real.”
I turned to stare out the car window. My thoughts went to the dream I’d had.
For some reason, I felt compelled to tell Alec about it, but thought it would be better to wait until I’d talked to my mother.
Just who was the dark man?
That’s what I’d called him when I was a kid. He’d seemed so dark.
“When will I hear from you again?” I asked, turning back to Alec.
“Soon.” He was evasive, which made me nervous.
Turning away, he opened the door and got out. I didn’t wait for him to walk around the car and open my door.
He could practice his gentlemanly manners later. Right now, I felt the need to assert some independence. I was tired of feeling like some whimpering girl who constantly needed saving.
It was nice to know he would save me, but I wanted to be able to save myself, if need be. I wanted to be an asset to this situation, not a liability.
Alec followed me up the stairs to my apartment, staying only a few steps behind me. I wanted to ask him to stay, but I was getting the impression he was preoccupied. Whatever was on his mind, he wasn’t sharing it with me.
“Thank you for everything you’re doing,” I told him when we reached the door.
Alec placed his fingers under my chin and lifted it so that I was looking into his eyes.
“I know you want me to come in, but that could lead to things we might regret.”
My tongue felt as heavy as a brick, so I said nothing.
He was right. I wanted him to come in and I wanted so much more.
Alec brushed my lips with a kiss. “I hope you know it isn’t because I don’t want to.”
His nearness already had me trembling. My desire for him was so overwhelming that it was sometimes difficult to control. I was becoming the same as the rest of his groupies.
“I’m fine with that.” It was an outright lie, but the last thing I wanted to do is admit that I wanted him and that his rejection hurt.
Alec backed away. “I’ll see you soon,” he told me before disappearing down the stairs.
When he was gone, I let myself in, shutting and locking the door behind me.
My empty little apartment felt lonely. Usually, being alone in my apartment didn’t bother me but tonight I noticed the emptiness. It was so quiet, I could actually hear my own heart beating.
I eyed the door, half tempted to go visit my next-door neighbor, but it was doubtful Mrs. Potts would be awake at four in the morning.
One thing was certain. If I kept hanging around vampires, my sleeping habits would have to change dramatically.
Chapter Seven
Alec
Hovering high above the city, I scanned the ground for tonight’s prey.
I was weak. The past few nights I hadn’t fed well, not since meeting Miss Nicole Ashe.
My world had been in disarray since I set eyes on her. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t seem to get her out of my head.
Omar wanted her in a bad way. So much so, he was even willing to talk about the ancient truths of the vampire.
But why couldn’t Omar just go get her?
That’s what really had me curious.
I’d told Omar that I would think about his offer, but all I was doing was buying time.
Below, a tall figure stumbled into an alley.
Leaning against a brick wall, the man slid to the ground. He was obviously in a drunken stupor, which meant he would be easy prey. I hated to feed on those that were too fond of drink, but this one would take little effort.
When I came down, my feet hit the pavement so softly that I made no sound. Kneeling in front of the man, I tapped the guy’s face softly. The old man looked up at me, his eyes sad and miserable.
“Are you happy with your life?” I asked.
The man shook his head.
“I can end all of your suffering for you.”
It was at this point that the man noticed the light of the immortal in my eyes and recoiled. That’s when my fangs came out.
The man’s eyes were wide with terror. He tried to get away but was so drunk that he fell to his side, hitting his head on the pavement.
I froze. The hunger gnawed at me relentlessly, but so did the terror in the man’s eyes. The drunk had known suffering and sorrow. Death would likely be a welcome relief, but I couldn’t do it. I kept seeing the warmth in Nicole’s eyes.
Did she realize what kind of monster I was?
When I backed away, a look of relief and gratitude entered the man’s eyes.
“I guess I will find me a goat or something,” I mumbled out loud.
Deep laughter emanated from the darkness behind me.
Although I was going soft, I wasn’t quite there yet. I swung around to face whoever was stupid enough to sneak up on a vampire.
“A vampire with a conscience,” the intruder laughed. “Now that’s something unusual.” The figure that stepped out of the shadows wore all black.
The man’s gray eyes glistened beneath the streetlight and I knew right away they weren’t human eyes. He appeared to be middle-aged, with a speckling of gray in his dark hair.
It was then that the scent of the wolf hit me full force. Snarling, I drew my lips back to reveal my fangs.
The man’s eyes instantly changed, taking on a golden-yellow light. For just a moment, I saw the stranger’s features twist and merge with the wolf, but then it was gone.
“I knew if I followed you around long enough, your true nature would rear its ugly head,” the wolf said. “So many of you are scavengers these days.”
I would have attacked right then and there, but the man held up his hand. “Don’t take such offense. Why not look for the truth in what I’ve said?”
“What is it you want?” I asked, still glaring at him.
“I want nothing more than to protect my family.”
“What does that have to do with me? Who are you?”
“My name is Lex, and I think that perhaps we can help each other,” he said.
“You are the one who went to Ethan.” I voiced his suspicion.
“Yes, your friend, the Light Seeker. I saw him one night and knew he could be useful. He is a vampire masquerading as a human. He hasn’t yet accepted his fate.”
“I still don’t understand. What is it you want from me?” I asked again, not yet ready to trust the wolf.
“Omar is a danger to my family, and he is a danger to your kind. He must be stopped, but I cannot do it alone,” Lex explained.
“What do you know of the vampire secret and this light dimension?” I asked.
“Omar can tell you whatever you want to know about this.”
“Does this place really exist?”
“Oh yes, I assure y
ou, it exists.” Lex nodded.
“Then take me to it.”
“That is not something I can do.” He shook his head. “I too, have been banished from this place.”
“But you can tell me how to get to it,” I insisted.
“I could, but it wouldn’t do you any good. Omar has the key of entrance to the place we call Outerlands. It is a place that is here,” he said with a sweep of his hand. “But at the same time, it is different. A hidden dimension within our reality, if you will.”
“Why would he keep this information from us?” I asked.
“That is something you must ask him. I know no more than the legends myself. But, what I do know is that Omar will kill my granddaughter if given a chance.”
“Who is that?” I asked, wondering if he was talking about Nicole.
“Who it is, doesn’t matter, but I intend to make sure he never gets to her.”
“Is it Nicole?”
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
Maybe this was why Omar wanted Nicole.
Lex shook his head. “It is not Miss Ashe, though she is also in grave danger.”
“So what do you want me to do, kill one of my own kind for the likes of a wolf?” I sneered.
“Bring his secrets into the open. It’s these secrets that make him a danger to my granddaughter, and to your young lady. He wants to keep the truth hidden. As long as they live, he risks the truth being revealed.”
Suddenly, I heard a gurgling sound coming from behind me.
At first, I was confused, but then I remembered the old drunk.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that the old man was on his back, passed out and choking on his own vomit.
Grudgingly, I turned my back on the wolf so that I could twist the man’s head to prevent him from aspirating and drowning. I would hate to spare the man’s life just to have him die in such a disgusting manner.
When I turned back, he was gone.
Chapter Eight
Nicole
I pulled into the driveway of the small, white house located in the Gentilly Terrace District. It was the house I’d grown up in and the place I came back to when I needed to feel the comfort of home. Today what I needed were answers.
Just as I figured, Mom was in the backyard trimming the rose bushes. My mother had always loved flowers, and she definitely took pride in her garden. Nearly every morning I would find her outside, tending to her garden.
After my stepfather was killed, Mom never remarried. Instead, she’d filled that void with caring for her children. And then Jay was gone, and the only child she’d had left was me.
Though this should have brought the two of us closer together, my mother seemed to distance herself after that.
This only added to the guilt I already felt over my little brother’s death. I was sure my mother blamed me for what happened to Jay.
Of course she did.
Why wouldn’t Mom blame me for it? After all, it had been my job to look after Jay when it happened.
Kneeling next to where my mother was pruning the bottom of the rosebush, I waited for her to notice me so I wouldn’t startle her.
There was almost no resemblance between Vicky Trenton and myself. I had dark hair and brown eyes, while my mother was fair. She still wore her blond hair in the puffy style of the 80s and used colored contacts to change her eyes to green.
Finally, my mother looked up and acknowledged me with a smile. Her eyes seemed vacant as if she were miles away. “Hello, Nicole. What brings you here?”
“Can we go in and get a glass of iced tea?” I asked.
Shrugging, Mom set the pruning sheers on the ground next to the rose bush. “Sure, I need a break from the sun anyway.”
I followed her into the little three-bedroom house that was the only home I’d known before moving out on my own.
Mom always kept a large picture of iced tea in the fridge, just in case company stopped by. She reached into the cupboard and pulled out two tall glasses, filling them both with the cold brown liquid. From a small bowl in the fridge, Mom pulled out some lemon slices and squeezed the juice into the tea.
Now that I was here, I wasn’t sure how to approach the subject of the dark man. Finally, I just decided to come right out and ask about him.
“Mom, do you remember that time you took me to the park at night, when I was about five? There was a man there that talked to me after I skinned my knees.”
The color drained out of my mother’s face. She was shaking so badly that the tea splashed over the top of the glass. I quickly took the glasses from her and set them on the kitchen table.
“Are you okay, Mom?” I asked, alarmed by the distress I saw in her eyes.
“Why? Has he come back?” she asked in a voice that was little more than a whisper.
“No, but he promised to come back. Why didn’t he and who was he?”
Now I knew there was something significant about the man and I intended to find out what it was.
Mom sank into the kitchen chair on the opposite side of the table. She looked down and appeared to be absorbed in the tiny purple flower design that covered the plastic tablecloth. When she finally looked up, there were tears in her eyes.
“I don’t know why he never came back,” she sighed. “I never saw or heard from him again after that night.”
“Who was he?”
“He was your father,” she confessed.
“That was Donovan Ashe?” I was stunned.
She nodded. “Your father and I were never married, but I gave you his name. I did love your stepfather, but not like I loved Donovan.”
“Then why did you marry Jake?”
“I hadn’t heard from your father in years and I decided that you needed a normal family life, so I married.”
“What do you know about my father?”
Again my mother turned away. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again.
“He was a vampire, wasn’t he?” I asked, after swallowing the lump that had formed in my throat. I wasn’t sure I could accept the possibility.
Mom jerked her head up. “How do you know about those creatures?”
I thought it best if my mother didn’t know what was happening in my life at the moment. She had already gone through the heartbreak of losing a husband and child. There was no telling what losing another child would do to her?
“I’ve met someone and I think he might be a vampire?” I told her.
Mom shook her head. “Don’t do it, Nicole. They have some kind of power over women, but they are cold down to their core.”
I would have protested, but my mother cut me off.
“Don’t forget, the reality is you will age into an old woman, but he will remain young forever.”
I was more troubled by my mother’s words than I cared to admit. Alec’s immortality was something that I hadn’t yet considered.
He might desire me now, but what about twenty or thirty years from now?
“Why do you say they are so cold?” I asked, purposely avoiding the issue of the vampire’s immortality.
“He never came back,” she said. Now the tears were streaming down her face.
“Maybe he couldn’t. Maybe something happened to him,” I suggested.
Mom waved her hand, dismissing the possibility. “What could happen to him? He’s a vampire.”
I thought of Omar and knew there was a chance that something had happened to my father.
Then there was Bellea. In my dream, the old woman said that I needed to find the man.
“Mom, you need to tell me everything you know about Donovan Ashe.”
Wiping away her tears, my mother sat back in her chair. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know much about him. I fell madly in love with someone I really didn’t know.”
I could relate. Wasn’t I on the verge of doing exactly the same thing? After all, what did I really know about Alec?
“Don’t you think it’s time that you tell me what you
do know?” I asked.
“It was strange how I met him,” she began. “I was walking home after my shift at the diner, where I was working at the time. You know, Pete Snow’s place, down by the riverfront?”
I nodded.
“This man came up behind me and stuck a gun in my back. I could hardly see him because it was too dark. He demanded my purse. I would have given it to him with no problem. I didn’t have but two cents to rub together anyway.” Mom shrugged. “It wasn’t like it really mattered that much.”
Although my mother was smart enough to know that if someone was trying to rob her, it was best to just give them what they wanted, there is no way she could convince me it wouldn’t have mattered. When I was growing up, every dollar we had counted.
Mom continued, “Suddenly, Donovan showed up, almost out of nowhere, and boy did he scare that mugger. That man took off like the devil was after him.” Mom smiled at the memory.
“Donovan walked me home that night, and then he started doing it every night.” Again, there was sadness in my mother’s eyes.
I didn’t say anything but waited for my mother to continue. I didn’t want to risk her changing the subject on me.
“Then you came along.” Mom smiled. “He thought you hung the moon and stars, so I know he loved you, but he changed after that. He seemed to grow distant. Then one day he went away. I didn’t see him again until that night in the park. He’d sent a message that I should bring you there so that he could see you.”
“What did you know about him? Who was he before he changed?” I wanted to know.
Frowning, my mother shook her head. “He never talked about his life before he was a -” She couldn’t seem to bring herself to say the word vampire.
“A vampire,” I finished for her.
She nodded. “He did claim to have brothers that were like him.”
“Go on,” I urged.
“He told me that the originals were really a species, but that their bite was poisonous to humans, especially those sharing the same genetic makeup as the original immortals. I think that’s what he said, anyway.”
Mom threw her hands up in the air. “That’s really all I know.”
Dark Seduction: A Vampire Romance (Immortal Legacy Book 2) Page 3