The Rose Trilogy Box Set

by Tish Thawer

  I curled up on the bed, drew the covers around me, and did the only thing I could do: cry myself back to sleep.

  * * * * *

  (Christian)

  As I walked down the white tiled hall of our secure lair, which was located deep beneath The Rising Pit, I realized I wasn't ready to face everyone just yet. Usually, once everyone awoke for the night, we'd all meet upstairs and head out together to feed before opening the club for business. But tonight...I just couldn't deal with everyone questioning my bad mood. I hadn't stopped drifting yet so they would immediately know something was wrong. Rose and I had been so happy since she moved in, and honestly, I was feeling a little embarrassed to admit to everyone that we seemed to be having our first real fight.

  So, instead of heading for the spiral staircase that led up and out into the club from underneath the stage, I took the turn at the end of the hall which led to the area where the blood bags were kept. I would have to make do with cold blood tonight if I wanted to avoid everyone for a little while longer.

  "Hey, what are you doing down here?" Bobby asked as I entered the room.

  So much for that plan. "Nothing. What are you doing here?"

  "It's my turn to give Terrance his pity meal." Evie had stocked the room with blood bags the night after Terrance had been chained up. Even though he had done some pretty bad things, she would never let him starve, so each night we took turns taking him his blood.

  I turned around and started to head back to my room, but felt Bobby follow me out the door. "So tell me. What are you doing down here? I can tell you're upset. Did Rose stop putting out?" He chuckled, which was normal for Bobby...make light of every situation.

  It didn't surprise me Bobby picked up on the fact that I was upset. He would have known even if I hadn't been drifting. Best friends always had a way of knowing when something was wrong, and Bobby and I had been best friends since the moment I'd saved him and asked that he be turned.

  It was 1613, and we were in England to attend the marriage festivities of Frederick V and Princess Elizabeth, which included performances of six of Shakespeare's plays. Bobby had been one of the actors.

  After one of the shows, the actors were drinking and apparently there had been a scuffle and Bobby ended up getting shot through the chest. I'd been out walking, looking for someone to feed on, when I'd smelled the blood. They had dumped his body in the river on the edge of the grounds. He was barely alive, but just enough that Evangeline was able to save him. We'd been best friends ever since.

  "I just told Rose about her dad moving and she didn't take it very well."

  I prepared myself for his snide comment, but for once it didn't come. Our footsteps echoed in the hall as we continued to walk in silence towards Terrance's cell.

  We didn't bother to stop for chit chat; Bobby just tossed the blood bag into Terrance's lap and kept walking, but then I heard something that stopped me dead in my tracks. "I swear I'm gonna kill that bitch."

  Thankfully, I could now tell the difference when my skills flared up, allowing me to hear someone's thoughts. Before I just thought they'd been whispering something under their breath, but this was definitely one of Terrance's thoughts, and if it was about Rose... "What did you just think? You swear you're gonna kill who? I promise you Terrance, if you are talking about Rose, I'll have Evie kill you tonight!"

  He sat there staring at me while the muscle in his jaw ticked at an annoying pace. "I wasn't thinking about Rose. I was thinking about Meredith. The demon bitch who did this to me."

  Bobby looked at me with a frown on his face, while I was stunned into silence. This shouldn't be possible. Meredith's blood had infected Terrance, causing all memories of her to become fuzzy, ultimately hiding her involvement, even to him. He'd never been able to think clearly about her before, and shouldn't be able to think about her now, let alone contemplate killing her. Something was happening to him.

  As I looked closer, I noticed his hair wasn't quite as dark and his eyes seemed slightly lighter too. My god, could he actually be drifting back? "Bobby, go get Evie. Now!"

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Possibility

  (Rose)

  I woke up in Christian's bed...our bed, and immediately wanted to be somewhere else. I was shocked at the intensity of my feelings. Being with Christian had been all I'd wanted for the past year, but now...I just felt so stifled. I knew it was stemming from finding out about Dad selling our family home, but learning that had apparently opened a floodgate of emotions which were now threatening to overwhelming me.

  Maybe I could find Dad and smooth things over with him so we could live together again. Or maybe Jillian and I could get that apartment together like she wanted. I just knew that since becoming a vampire was no longer an option, I needed to come up with new plan.

  I knew it was something that would take some time to figure out, and luckily time was on my side. As Christian had pointed out, their clan was in transition. They currently didn't have a Sire who could change me, and right now, that was a very good thing.

  I knew Christian wasn't sure if he was truly the next in-line, but regardless of who the new Sire ended up being, it wouldn't matter. I'd never become a vampire and I wasn't sure how I was going to convince Christian to let me go without telling him the truth. But the fight we just had presented me with a pretty good opportunity.

  As much as it hurt me to do it, I would continue to act betrayed that he didn't tell me about my father sooner and slowly begin to pull away. But first, I had to find my dad. I needed to know if I was a wanted fugitive and how he really felt about everything that had happened. Maybe after leaving The Rising Pit I could move back in with him and things could go back to normal. The problem was, I now had no idea where to begin my search.

  My self-pity party continued as I got up to finish getting ready. I was just so mad, hurt, and confused. A year ago, I had a plan that would allow me to live forever with the man I loved–and now everything was ruined. I wallowed in everything I was feeling as I finished my makeup. Then I threw on a pair of jeans, a purple tank top, and slid into my flip-flops before flopping back down on the bed.

  I grabbed my new cell phone and prepared to call Jillian. It was a risk, but it also seemed like the most logical thing to do. My parents had been friends with her parents for so long, and I didn't think my Dad would have left town without telling them where he went.

  "Jillian? It's Rose. Please don't hang up." I was happy that she picked up at all since she wouldn't have recognized my new number. Christian had insisted I get a new phone when we'd gone into hiding.

  "Hang up? Are you fucking kidding me? I've been worried sick about you! Where the hell are you?"

  I almost started crying at the sound of her voice and the fact that she was worried about me. I wasn't sure how any of my friends would feel about me since I'd disappeared. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you where I am, but please know I'm okay. How are you? How have things been since I...left?"

  "Oh my god, Rose, it's been crazy. First, you just disappear off the face of the earth, and then your dad up and sells your house to move to Masen and live with that woman. It's just been crazy. My parents are freaking out."

  "Wait. What? Masen? What woman?"

  "That Meredith bitch he was seeing. After you left, they moved to Masen together. Are you saying you haven't even talked to your dad this whole time?"

  Oh my god, no! She can't be alive and still with my dad. I dropped the phone and started to hyperventilate. This couldn't be happening. How the hell could she still be alive?

  Jillian's voice echoed out of my phone. "Rose, are you still there? Rose?"

  Once the adrenaline kicked in, I grabbed my phone again. "Jillian, you can't tell anyone I called, okay?"

  "What? Why? Rose, why can't you tell me what's going on? Your dad has been looking for you and I miss you too. Where are you?"

  With this new development, it was so important no one knew I'd contacted Jillian that I did th
e unthinkable...I threatened my best friend. "Jillian, I'm not kidding. You can't tell anyone I called. If you do, I'll kill you!"

  Her loud exhale told me how offended she was, but right now I didn't care. I knew it made me seem like a real asshole, but I just couldn't risk anyone finding out that I'd contacted her. They'd start poking around again, looking for me, and that was something I couldn't risk. Besides, the urgency I felt to get to Christian and tell him that we still had a demon problem to deal with, left me with no time to explain. Jillian was just going to have to continue to think I'd lost my mind.

  I didn't wait for her response; I simply hung up and headed for the door. I couldn't believe Meredith was still alive and now had my dad within her reach 24/7.

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER SIX

  Recruiting

  (Meredith)

  It didn't take me long to reach Damien's house. He only lived about ten miles away. He was the first demon I ran across after starting my search. He and his family had lived in the area for seventy-five years, and he told me I was the first demon outside their immediate family they'd ever met. We became fast friends. He was single and about the same age as Jeremy and I. He spent a lot of time with his cousins and started bringing them to our meetings. At this point, we had about twenty demons who showed up to our meetings on a regular basis. I was hoping that number would continue to grow.

  As we made our way to the living room, he asked, "Hey, so what did you need to talk to me about that couldn't wait until this week's meeting?"

  "I wanted to see how familiar you are with some of the ancient ways. I have something I want to share with the group, but wanted to run it by you first." I sat on the thread bare couch and waited for his response.

  I could tell by the way he puffed up his chest he felt privileged that I'd chosen to share this information with him before anyone else. I didn't care how he felt as long as he was willing to do what I wanted. It wasn't because I met him first that I chose to share this information with him, but instead because after a little background check, he wasn't exactly the upstanding citizen he led everyone to believe. I was pretty sure he would be a power hungry demon who'd revel in increasing his powers. Time to test my theory.

  "Well, my abuela use to tell me some pretty freaky stories. Why? What exactly did you want to know?"

  "Well, did you know that our demon ancestors actually drank human blood?"

  "Yeah. She told me that and how they thought it would extend their life because they were ingesting another person's essence or some crazy shit like that."

  Time to drop the bombshell. "It's not crazy shit. It works. It's happened to me."

  His eyes nearly popped out of his head but at least he didn't run off screaming.

  "I was injured recently, and because I chose to drink human blood to test the theory of our ancestors, I healed almost instantly." I waited to gauge his response before continuing. He was still staring at me but the glint in his eye was enough to tell me that he was extremely interested in what I had to say. "I also found that by drinking human blood, I gained inhuman amounts of strength."

  Suddenly serious, he stood. "Show me."

  I stood up from the couch and then picked it up...with one hand.

  "Believe me?"

  The evil grin that spread across Damien's face was the last piece of confirmation I needed to know I'd chosen the right guy. "Yes. Now who do we have to kill to get some fresh human blood?"

  "That's exactly the question I hoped you'd ask."

  We spent the next two hours going over everything I'd learned from my experience with the vampires and from killing Loraine. We talked about who else he thought would be willing to join us in enhancing our demon powers and our new quest for immortal life. He didn't have a clue about the vampires, but was now excited to start drinking human blood so he would be ready to take them on.

  This was going perfectly. My recruiting had officially begun.

  * * * * *

  (Jeremy)

  The afternoon spent in my meeting flew by. It was now dusk and I was headed to The Rising Pit. I still had a feeling that I would catch a lucky break tonight. I really hoped I was right; it had been too long since I'd seen my daughter. When the accident happened everything had been so chaotic. I hadn't been in my right mind and I just sat there watching as she ran out of my life. But now that Meredith had recovered and we'd become settled in our new life together, it was time I found out exactly why Rose had attacked her in the first place.

  Whenever I asked Meredith to give me details about that night, she would only say that her memories were too foggy and that she just couldn't remember. All she recalled was that she'd come over late to talk to me and had apparently startled Rose and Christian who had seemed to be fighting. When she tried to step in, Rose went ballistic, yelling things about Meredith killing her mom and other ridiculous stuff.

  That didn't sound like my Rose, but I saw her attack Meredith with my own eyes and watched as she fled with her boyfriend. At this point, I wasn't really sure I knew anything about my daughter anymore.

  I eased my Lexus into the very farthest parking spot I could find. It was in the very back corner of the club's lot and didn't have any lights surrounding it. So far I was pretty pleased with my sleuthing skills.

  I sat there for about twenty minutes before the club's front door opened and out walked Evangeline with a few members of her staff, but unfortunately, neither Rose or Christian were amongst them. I blew out the breath I was holding only to have all of them snap their heads in my direction. I knew they couldn't see me way back here but I unconsciously slouched down in my seat because it felt as if they were looking right at me. It was odd. I watched as Evangeline whispered something into one of the guy's ears and then he walked back into the club as the rest of them headed off in a different direction.

  I checked my watch and realized I would only have another thirty minutes to spy before I needed to hit the road in order to make it home in time for dinner. It looked like my lucky break wasn't going to happen after all.

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Alive

  (Rose)

  The moment I entered the hallway I heard voices in the direction of Terrance's cell. I picked up my pace, anxious to see what the commotion was about, but especially because I was desperate to reach Christian and tell him that Meredith was still alive.

  "Are you sure he's remembering her and not just going off the things he's heard us saying about her?" I heard Evie ask.

  "No, he seems to be remembering specific things about her. I've been able to pick up on certain thoughts and they really are about Meredith," Christian said.

  As I grabbed Christian's arm and spun him towards me, the worried look on his face was enough to stop me from blurting out what I'd originally come to say. "What's going on? Why are you talking about Meredith?"

  "Terrance has started to remember things about Meredith. Somehow the thoughts are breaking through and he's really pissed about how she manipulated him." Christian eased his arm around me as he continued. "I heard some of his internal thoughts when I was walking by earlier, and it appears he's starting to drift back. We're just trying to figure out how any of this is even possible."

  "Well, I know one person we could talk to to find out." Everyone looked at me as if I'd sprouted another head. "Meredith. I just found out she's still alive."

  Christian's mouth dropped open and Evie stumbled back a step, while Terrance just let out a roar that sent goose bumps racing up my arms. They were right...he did sound pissed.

  "I'll kill that bitch for what she did to me. She caused me to lose the one and only thing I've cared about in over three-hundred years!" His chains rattled as he strained against them.

  "How do you know this?" Evie asked.

  I took a shaky breath then answered. "I called Jillian. She told me my dad sold our house and moved to Masen to live with Meredith. Apparently, being a demon has some perks."

  "I can
't believe this. If she's still out there, then what's going to stop her from coming after Rose, or from infecting another vampire in the area to do her dirty work? We have to find her and kill her!" Christian was drifting so fast that it was making me dizzy. Everyone else's emotions were starting to show as well. Seeing Evie with dark hair and an angry look on her face had me making a mental note to never piss her off.

  "How are we going to kill her if she has super-healing abilities and lord knows what else? We know nothing about the demons except that they're really strong and fast, and we can't bite them because we'll become infected. We're flying blind here." Bobby, for once, was the voice of reason.