by Мишель Роуэн
"That's not entirely true." He leaned back in his seat. "I have contacted several people in the Catholic Church—vampires—who are looking into the possibility of arranging an annulment between Veronique and myself."
My heartbeat sped up. "An annulment?"
"Yes."
Stunned didn't even begin to cover what I was feeling at the moment. I forced my gaping mouth closed. "After six hundred years of marriage? Is that even possible?"
He nodded. "My marriage to Veronique has long since been over. I would be surprised if she would take issue with this decision. We're very different people who want very different things. She desires a life of beauty and excitement in Europe surrounded by young, handsome men."
I swallowed hard. "And what do you want?"
His gaze was steady with my own. "You," he said simply.
My mouth opened a little but no sound came out. There was silence in the car for several moments.
The corners of his mouth curled. "Have I rendered you speechless? I didn't even know that was possible."
A breath hitched in my chest. "Thierry—"
"I can see it in your eyes when I speak with Veronique, or when she was in town, that her role in my life disturbs you greatly" He reached forward to stroke the dark hair off my forehead and tuck it behind my left ear. "It's been over between Veronique and me for many, many years, but it hasn't been official. I'm striving to make it so."
He pulled back a little from me and slid his hand into his inside jacket pocket. "I can't make any true commitments to you at this time, at least none that your parents would approve of, but I can make you a promise."
I looked down. There was a ring sitting on the palm of his hand. A woman's ring that was studded with diamonds all the way around the circumference.
An eternity band.
My gaze snapped back to his.
"I want you to have this, Sarah," he said softly. "For you to wear it knowing that it's from someone who loves you very much." He slipped it onto the ring finger on my right hand and then brought my hand to his lips. "Is that acceptable to you?"
"Yes, that's very acceptable." I looked from my new ring that seemed to sparkle even in the growing darkness, to Thierry, but his face was blurred because I was now crying like a baby.
He leaned forward to kiss me and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders to draw him closer to me.
If I was dreaming, I never wanted to wake up.
Chapter 5
Back in the motel room I started to get dressed for the reunion, but I couldn't help but gaze down at the ring Thierry had given me. Talk about a distraction. It was gorgeous. I felt happier than I'd felt in recent memory while looking at it, and it wasn't just because of the pretty bling. It was because it meant something.
Thierry had bought it for me. Me.
Would he really get an annulment from Veronique?
The future was so bright that if I could find the dough, I might even buy a new pair of sunglasses.
Thierry'd had his cell phone pressed to his ear since we'd returned to the room ten minutes ago. "It's official. Gideon Chase is dead. All active hunters are en route to his funeral in
Nevada as we speak."
And the good news kept coming. It seemed strange to celebrate the death of somebody, but in this case, I'd make an exception.
"Where's the champagne?" I studied his noncelebratory expression. "Why don't you look happier? Isn't this a good thing?"
He shook his head. "It doesn't feel right to me."
"You think there are still hunters lurking around?"
"It's not that. It's simply difficult for me to believe that he is truly gone forever."
I smoothed out the sparkly red dress I'd borrowed from Amy on the top of the bed.
"You're not going to miss him, are you?"
He shook his head. "Definitely not. The man relished death and destruction too much for me to mourn his passing. He had too much power at too young an age."
Billions of dollars, male-model good looks, and the dude had spent his life hunting vampires. What a waste. "May he rest in pieces. One less wooden stake for me to worry about."
He gave me a grim look. "I had a personal acquaintance with a member of the Chase family two hundred years ago. He nearly killed Veronique and me. He pledged to wipe out all elder vampires from the face of the planet. He didn't bother with fledglings, since they weren't much of a challenge to him."
"He hurt you?"
He paused before answering. "I heal remarkably well."
My jaw felt tight. "I'm glad they're dead."
"There will always be someone to take the place of a true monster. Especially a rich one."
I nodded. "That's why it's a good thing that somebody's decided to revive the whole Red
Devil thing."
Being staked had left more than an itchy healing feeling in my chest. It had left me with a ton of empathy for all the poor vamps who hadn't been lucky enough to be rescued.
"While I do owe him my deep gratitude for saving you," Thierry said, "I fear that he is simply a misguided vampire who is in well over his head."
"You think that's all he is? Misguided? Because the Red Devil never truly existed, right?
That's what you said the other night."
He walked over to the little curtained window that looked out onto the parking lot. "There was a time when there was a true Red Devil. A very long time ago."
I frowned. "Hold on. First you said it was an urban legend and now you're saying he really existed? Which is it?"
He turned to look at me. "The Diable Rouge came forth when hunters began to grow and organize their numbers. Vampires were helpless against them."
"And?"
"And he endeavored to save those who needed his assistance from the clutches of hunters who viewed us as monsters needing to be slaughtered. He saved as many as he could, whenever he could. It became an obsession for him. But that was a long time ago when such a man as the Red Devil was needed. To have someone acting as the Red Devil now would be merely a drop in the bucket of righting wrongs."
The hunters still looked at us that way. That's why most of them sharpened their stakes.
Because they really believed we were evil, bloodsucking things that needed to die. It was so Hollywood. "I guess we see differently on this. I figure a drop in the bucket is better than no drops at all." I shook my head at him. "Have you always been this way?"
"What way?"
"Mr. Pessimistic. You've got to remember, along with that bleak worldview, there is a whole lot of hope to go along with it. Otherwise, why even bother getting up in the morning? The world is a pretty good place, actually. You've just got to look for the good in it instead of the bad."
"Eternal optimism. I wish for you to always possess it." He moved toward the bed and leaned over to kiss me on my lips, but it felt like a sad kiss instead of a passionate one. I captured his mouth before he had the chance to pull away, and deepened the kiss, pulling on his shirt to draw him closer to me. He didn't resist.
"You know what?" I breathed against his mouth. "How about we forget about the happily departed Gideon Chase and the Red Devil? I haven't had a chance to say thank you for my new ring."
He gazed down at me. "You've just said it."
"That's not exactly what I meant." I swung my legs around so I was kneeling on the bed next to where he stood and I let my hands move over his shoulders and down his back, pulling his suit jacket off as I went. I kissed him again and slid my tongue against his, tasting him deeply. "Wouldn't want this snazzy room to go to waste, you know."
"Snazzy is not the word I'd use to describe it." He inhaled sharply as my hands slid to lower places on his body. They had a tendency to do that.
I smiled up at him. "Just because the artwork is nailed to the wall and I wouldn't want a
CSI team in here with their black light doesn't mean this can't be a romantic getaway, you know."
"Agreed." He leaned over and crushed his mouth to mine and, with a
hand at the small of my back, lowered me to the bed. His weight pressed firmly down on top of me and the bed let out a mournful creaking sound. After a moment he broke off the kiss and gazed down at me with a small smile. "But later."
With effort, mostly because I was wrapped very firmly around him, he managed to pull away from me.
"Later?" I glanced up at the ceiling mirror that lacked my reflection. "Why later?"
He raised a dark eyebrow. "Your reunion starts in less than forty-five minutes."
"I'm okay if we're fashionably late. Really."
With an amused look and another soft brush of his lips against mine that made me groan with frustration, he stood up from the bed and walked into the bathroom. I heard the shower being turned on just as there was a knock at the door. I sat up and swung off the bed. Being careful not to make a sound, I crept toward the little window and glanced outside. My eyebrows went up and I unlocked the door so I could swing it open.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked.
George leaned against the doorframe. "I just love this town. Where is that monster-sized pumpkin? I totally brought my camera this time."
I frowned at him. "What's wrong? Why are you here?"
"I needed to talk to you."
"To me? Not to Thierry?"
"No, just you." He was grinning so I could see his fangs. "Guess who I met?"
"I have absolutely no idea."
"Let me give you a hint. First name Red, last name Devil?"
"Are you serious?"
He nodded. "He is awesome, Sarah. So amazing. Everything I'd ever heard about him is totally true. He was waiting for me by my car outside Amy's and he scared the bejeezus out of me, especially with the whole scarf-over-his-face thing. But then he asked me personally to come here and keep an eye on you. He wants to make sure you're okay. Isn't that fabulous?"
Fabulous, sure. Also extremely strange and suspicious. "Why you?"
"Obviously because he knows I'm the right person for the job."
"The job of spying on me?"
He laughed at that. "Very funny. No, of course not. Of course he wants you to be safe, which is cool, but obviously he's interviewing me to be his trusty sidekick. Since I need a new job anyhow, the timing couldn't be more perfect." He pulled a compact digital camera out of his back pocket and held it up to his face. "Say cheese."
"Cheese." I blinked as the flash went off.
He eyed the display screen of the shot he had just taken. "You forgot to smile."
"I didn't forget." I chewed my bottom lip as I studied George, as enthusiastic as I'd ever seen him. "How did the Red Devil know where I'd be staying?"
"He didn't have to. Thierry gave me the address in case of emergency. The Red Devil didn't have to say anything. And now here I am." The flash popped again. "Okay, that was even worse this time."
I glanced past George at the dark and silent parking lot, and then grabbed his shirt and dragged him into the room, closing and locking the door behind me.
"Are you crazy?" I sputtered.
"What?"
I tried to breathe normally. "Whoever this guy is could have just used you to find out where I am right now. He may have followed you here."
He shook his head. "No way. He wouldn't do something like that."
I listened to the shower still going in the bathroom. Damn, that man loved his hot water.
I smoothed out George's shirt under his winter jacket from where I'd wrinkled it. "I know he saved my ass, and for that I'm very grateful. But I don't know anything else about him.
What if he's one of the bad guys?"
"Bad guys don't save people." He put a hand on my shoulder. "Look, Sarah. Relax. I know the other day with the stake was really traumatic for you, but don't let it make you even more paranoid than you already are. If the Red Devil was one of the bad guys he would have let you die, not brought you back to the club."
Paranoid. Yeah, that sounded about right. "You really think so?"
"The Red Devil is not a bad guy."
I let out a long and shaky breath and willed my heart to stop beating so fast. "Maybe you're right." A great sense of relief flooded over me and I gave George a hug. Then I eyed him now that I was able to focus again and noticed he was dressed to the nines in an expensive red silk shirt and black leather pants. "Why are you all dressed up? Got big plans tonight?"
He shrugged. "Well, since I was in town I was hoping I might be able to come to the reunion, too."
"To help keep an eye on me for the Red Devil?"
"Well that, of course, but, I would assume, there's free fruit punch of some kind? Possibly some finger sandwiches? A good old small-town hootenanny?"
"You can come, but if you tell Thierry why you're really here he's going to blow a gasket, and even though I'm not entirely sure what a gasket is, that would not be a good thing."
"Then I won't say a word." His gaze moved to my hand. "New ring?"
I rubbed it. "It's from Thierry."
His eyes widened. "Is it an engagement ring? Did he pop the question?"
"Of course not," I said bluntly. "He's already married, remember?"
He sighed. "You are absolutely no fun today. Did somebody take her depressing pill this morning?"
"Do I really sound that bad?"
He nodded. "Don't worry, we'll have fun tonight. There's dancing, right?"
"Allegedly."
He shook his head sadly. "You're even starting to sound like Thierry now. He's starting to rub off on you. I think that's the problem."
I pointed at the door. "Begone with you. I will see you at the high school in an hour."
He went. I shut the door after him.
I tried not to think about the Red Devil potentially following George all the way to my hometown to find out where I was. The thought was decidedly creepy. Who was this guy?
What were his ulterior motives?
Was I starting to sound like Thierry? All careful and cautious? Maybe that's the way you became after being less than an inch away from getting killed. Careful and cautious.
And tonight I would have a very careful and cautious evening with some mild dancing with old friends. Possibly some of that fruit punch.
With any luck, the sparkly red dress I'd borrowed from Amy would be the most exciting thing to happen to me tonight in my single-minded quest to feel normal and be happy.
Fingers crossed.
Chapter 6
The reunion dance was being held in the gymnasium of the Abottsville District High
School, and I had to admit that Missy and her crew had done a wonderful job of making it look like something out of a fairy tale. Sparkling lights flickered across the dance floor.
The walls were adorned with murals that looked like castle walls.
The last time I'd been here had been for my graduation ceremony. I'd whipped that little tasseled hat off and thrown it into the air so quickly that by the time it hit the ground I'd already moved to Toronto to start university and find my way in the big city.
It was just after eight o'clock by the time we got there. The dance was to go until midnight. Four hours of walking down memory lane seemed like more than enough, especially now that I felt on edge about the Red Devil's motives. I tried to relax and feel normal, but it was difficult. The red dress I'd borrowed from Amy was even shorter than
I'd anticipated, and the low-cut neckline barely covered the fading but really itchy stake wound on my chest. I'd positioned my name tag over the general area, so that helped a bit.
"Why is George here?" Thierry asked.
I glanced over at the dance floor. George waved at me.
"Oh, didn't I mention that to you? He wanted to come and I said he could. I think he's lonely."
Thierry had been in such a good mood, by his standards, that I didn't want to put a damper on the evening by telling him about the Red Devil's continued interest in my well-being.
Maybe it was early, but there weren't as many people in attendance
as I'd expected. In fact, at first glance I didn't even see anyone I remembered.
"Sarah?" I heard from over my shoulder. "Oh, my God. Sarah Dearly! I don't believe this!"
I turned, relieved to see somebody I definitely recognized. I smiled at the pretty woman with dark red hair and a cute black shift dress on her trim figure. "Claire!" I hugged her.
"Wow, it's so great to see you."
She smiled so widely it could be classified as beaming. I didn't. I'd trained myself to smile without showing off the fangs. Kind of a subdued Mona Lisa deal.
"I was wondering if you'd make it to the reunion," she said. "Can you believe it's been ten years already?"
"I really can't." I scanned the floor. "So where is everybody?"
She shrugged. "I did see a few people. I guess most decided they didn't want to show off their balding heads and big beer guts. And that's probably just the women."
I laughed at that. "Maybe you're right."
"So what have you been up to? How's the acting thing going? I know you had a big plan to do movies. Have you been in anything lately?"
"Plans change." I glanced over at Thierry, who was giving me and Claire a little room to speak relatively privately. "You know, after I left Abottsville I realized that acting wasn't really my thing. Way too superficial."
Not to mention, ridiculously hard to break into without sleeping with directors and/or producers. Even for the maxipad commercial I'd had to agree to go out with the casting agent. I strongly disagreed when he suggested a three-way with his "understanding" girlfriend and I never worked in showbiz again. Strange how things work out.
Claire nodded. "So what are you doing now?"
As glamorous as a short-lived career of being a personal assistant and now a part-time bartender sounded, I decided to vague it up. "You know, I do a little bit of this. A little bit of that. How about you? I know you wanted to go into… what was it? Corporate law?"
"Actually, I work at McDonald's," she said. "In Niagara Falls. Come by some time and I'll sneak you a free Big Mac." She turned to the side and waved her hand. "Reggie, come over here and meet my friend, Sarah." She waited a moment. "Reggie! Now!"
A nice looking, dark-haired man came to her side. He had a receding hairline and a suit that looked as though it didn't fit him too well, since he kept tugging at the collar. "I'm here, I'm here."