Emma turned up in the hallway to investigate what Daniel was calling for. She folded her arms, shook her head, and giggled at Daniel’s eagerness.
“All right, let me go get my skates,” she responded. The kid had the right idea, what better than to break the tension of all the drama that was going on in the house than rollerblade races through the hallways.
Daniel yelled once again for Todd to join them; he had gotten rollerblades for Christmas the first year he was there just for this. There was nowhere else to skate around the outside of the Manor since all the pathways are made of gravel. However, the house was big enough for them to enjoy themselves up and down the hallways.
Todd came up the stairs and down the hallway, which took just a bit longer than a vampire. He walked up just as Emma and Zachariah were sitting on the floor and strapping on their skates.
“Oh yeah!” Todd exclaimed. He loved when it was a skating day at the Manor. Granted, he couldn’t go as fast as the vampires, but when he wanted to keep up he would just hold on to Emma. They hadn’t done this in such a long time, he felt like it was long overdue. Plus, he was secretly wondering how Daniel would do on skates now that he had vampire speed! He ran to his room to pull his skates out of his closet and joined the others in the hallway.
“No seriously, dude,” Zachariah said to Daniel. “You better do some practice laps! It’s not as easy as you think, even though you’re a vampire and have quick reflexes. You’ll splat!”
“Yeah, the turnaround in the portrait hallway can get tricky. I don’t need your blood splattered on any of the paintings!” Emma chimed in.
Daniel skated off to practice while Todd, Emma, and Zachariah finished putting on their skates. They were all buzzing with excitement; this was always something they did when they needed to blow off some steam. And, no matter how hard life was for them at any given moment, when they would have their skate races down the hallway, all their problems momentarily disappeared. It was the first time that Todd was the only human as Daniel used to always hang on to Zachariah.
“Looks like I’m the lone slowpoke now!” Todd announced.
“You better hang on to me then if you want to have a standing chance,” Emma said.
They saw Daniel returning back down the hallway, anticipating how his little practice run went.
“This is going to be ugly,” Daniel laughed.
“You’ll be fine,” Zachariah encouraged as they all began to line up.
Todd rolled up behind Emma, took her by the waste, and hooked his thumbs through her belt loops to stay secure. Feeling his hands on her waist had her nerve endings on alert. She had craved his touch for so long; just the simple act of his hands “innocently” on her waist sent her insides into a frenzy.
She momentarily placed her hands on top of his and looked over her shoulder, “You ready? Hang on tight!”
Todd slightly bent his knees, had a firm hold on her waist, and tensed his muscles; ready for blast off! The first jolt forward was always the most startling, but once they were rolling he got used to it quickly. He braced himself as Zachariah said the “ready, set, go”!
They shot forward as Zachariah used all of his strength to hold on tight. They whooped and hollered as they took off down the hallway; Zachariah in the lead, Emma a close second, and Daniel coming in third. They flew past the staircase in a blur and approached the portrait hallway, which was always Todd’s favorite part. Even indoors, the wind blew his hair back and he had to squint his eyes, but he loved every minute of it. When he moved that fast along with the vampires, he could hardly breathe; he wasn’t sure if it was from the speed or from the exhilaration, but it was always such a rush.
As they approached the end of the hallway, Todd braced himself and leaned into the turn with Emma while she tightly held his hands onto her. She always did this so he didn’t end up flying off. The finish line was at the beginning of the bedrooms hallway so they would have enough room to slow down before reaching the end. They had to replace the rubber brakes on their skates quite often as they got worn down fairly quickly. Zachariah was still in the lead, but only by a few feet. Emma was determined to pass him up even with Todd attached to her. Todd felt her lean forward and use every bit of power in her thighs to catapult herself past him.
Much to their surprise, Daniel had gained some self-confidence as well as some speed. Emma glanced to her right and saw that she was now neck and neck with him. Despite Daniel’s reservations before the race, he was going for the gold! As soon as Zachariah realized that Emma and Daniel were flanked on either side of him and just inches away, he put all of his strength to dart forward. Todd’s only focus was to hold on tight, but he heard a lot of yelling and smack talking between the vampires!
“Woo!” Zachariah hollered as the cross the finish line by a hair, raising his arms in victory. “Nice try, slowpokes, but you won’t beat me!”
“You’re toast on the next one,” Emma boasted as they were allowing themselves to roll to a slower speed.
As they reached the start line, they turned themselves around, ready to have another go. They continued to race several more times as both Emma and Daniel were determined to beat Zachariah. However, his experience and lack of passenger gave him an advantage.
Kelly came home from work, and as she entered the foyer she heard the laughter and echoes of yelling coming from upstairs. It sounded as if there was a party going on, but she couldn’t make out with the rumbling sound was. Of course, it was the insane speed of their wheels against the floor, but she would’ve never expected to see this going on. She tiptoed up the stairs cautiously looked in the hallway as she approached the top. It sounded as though the party was in the portrait hallway at that point, but moving rapidly closer.
All she saw was a blur emerging from the portrait hallway and heading right for her. She shrieked and stepped back on to the stairs, not knowing who was charging at her and why the rumbling was so loud. When they spotted her, they began to slow to a stop before finishing the race. She was able to make out the blurs at that point which were Zachariah, Daniel, and Emma…with Todd laughing and holding on to her waist. Just the sight of them having such a great time together while she had been at work made her blood boil.
“Hey there!” Todd greeted as they rolled up to her and he let go of Emma as nonchalantly as he could. He knew Kelly was going to be pissed off at him. “How was work?”
The three vampires said their hellos to her as well, but picked up on the queue that she was not happy to see Todd holding on to Emma. She gave them a little wave and turned back to Todd with accusing eyes.
“It was fine,” she said with stiff lips. “Looks like you are having a good time.”
“Oh, come on! I’m allowed to have a little bit of fun, especially after everything that’s been happening here.”
She folded her arms and shifted her weight to one side, looking away from him in a huff. “I come home to find you latched on to your old girlfriend and having a good ol’ time with her.”
“It’s not like I’m trying to hide anything! It’s not like you just caught us in bed! We were rollerblading with two other people, no less.”
They stood silently and glared at each other, their pride taking over. Todd was sick of having to deal with her jealousy over Emma, and she was sick of being jealous over Emma.
“I don’t feel like fighting tonight,” Kelly shook her head, exhausted from all the fighting that they had been doing lately.
“Well, I don’t either, but you have to knock this off,” he said as he walked past her and started to go downstairs.
She began to follow him and he held up his hand without turning around, telling her to go her own way.
CHAPTER 12
“ Shit,” Kelly mumbled to herself.
She turned back around and headed for her room, slamming the door behind her. She threw herself down onto her sofa without changing out of her work clothes. She flung her arm over her face to cover her eyes, replaying everything
in her head. She wondered if she was truly overreacting or if she had something to worry about. She had no doubt that if Emma was human that Todd would go running back to her.
She was curious if Emma was thinking about drinking Todd’s blood to become human again. She doubted it, only because Emma was a Queen and seemed to enjoy being a vampire. But, maybe that was because she had never seen Emma as a human before. She kept telling herself over and over that everything would be fine and things would work out eventually.
She and Todd were supposed to go and visit her hometown of Canistota, South Dakota the upcoming weekend. She figured that would be a good way for them to escape and have some time together that was vampire-free. However, she had no doubt that guards would be following them inconspicuously. She figured as long as she couldn’t see them, she could just pretend they weren’t there.
Feeling quite bold, she got up from the couch and flung her door open, marching herself across the hallway to Emma’s room. She knocked on the door, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. At that point, she began to have second thoughts and wondered what the heck she was doing.
Emma opened the door with a closed-lip smile on her face. She was feeling a little smug from Kelly’s nervousness.
“All right, give it to me straight,” Kelly started, immediately wanting to suck the words back into her mouth. “Is there still something going on between you and Todd?”
“What do you mean by ‘something going on’?”
“Do you still have feelings for each other? I need to know if I have a valid reason to be so jealous of you, because you know I am.” Kelly could not believe how aggressive she was being.
Emma raised her eyebrows in surprise. Never one to sugarcoat anything, she replied, “I will always love him. And I’m fairly certain he will always love me. However, I will live forever and he won’t. That’s not fair to either of us. I want him to have a normal, human life and grow old with someone. I physically can’t grow old, so that someone will not be me.”
“Okay, let me ask you this,” Kelly responded. “I know vampires aren’t big on monogamy. If you had the chance to sleep with him, would you?”
“Yes.” Plain and simple, Emma had no remorse.
Her answer set Kelly aback; she wasn’t used to someone being so blunt. In fact, even though she wasn’t shocked at her answer, she assumed she might hesitate or maybe even feel bad about it. However, she had to remind herself but Emma was a completely different species, no matter how human she looked.
“You’re just going to have to trust him,” Emma added. “Sex means something completely different to humans than it does to us. While a lot of you equate it with love and relationships, we view it as a necessity. Our bodies want what they want. And a word of advice: the more you accuse him, the closer you’re pushing him my way. If a man is being accused of something that he’s not doing, he’ll finally just do it since he started getting grief for it.”
“I have to admit, it’s hard for me to trust him when all I see is him lusting after you.”
“Well, I can’t help that,” Emma smugly answered. “Seriously, you need to relax. You can’t get mad if he talks to me, or looks at me, or passes me in the hallway, or waves at me. We weren’t only lovers, we were friends. You need to deal with that.”
And with that, Emma shut her door and turned to Zachariah and Daniel who were both stifling their laughter. Emma rubbed her face, as if to wipe off the aggravation.
“Human girls…oh my goodness…I can’t take the drama,” Emma grumbled. “Creating issues over the most minor things.”
“That’s why I don’t bother with the human girls!” Zachariah said.
“Hey! Watch it! My girl is human,” Daniel warned while elbowing him.
“The jealousy is just ridiculous!” Emma continued. “He hasn’t even done anything, all he’s done is look at me apparently with lustful eyes. I could understand if she was angry because he slept with me, but come on…”
“You also have to remember that she’s young,” Zachariah pointed out.
“Not all young girls are like this,” Emma countered. “I think the problem is the fact that she’s just a regular girl dating a movie star. I think she’s afraid of losing him only because of his popularity status. Does that make any sense? I think she’s just starting to feel insecure and freaking out about it.”
“Well, she better cool it or else she’s going to push him right into your bed,” Zachariah said as he kicked up his feet onto the coffee table.
Deep down, that’s exactly what Emma was hoping for.
They continued to chatter and gossip and Zachariah brought up Vivienne. He knew that Emma must have overheard his conversation at least a little bit, but he just wanted to get it out into the open. He admitted to her that he was planning on going out to LA to visit her. He also confessed that he was finding himself somewhat attracted to her and had planned to take her out on a date. For a moment, Emma was fuming. Zachariah was her offspring and Vivienne had just turned their lives upside down just as much as Declan did. And here he was talking about taking her out on a date?
Once she cooled off and listened to Zachariah’s point, she was able to accept it. If Zachariah was going to make the choice to turn human again, what better person for him to be with than Vivienne? However, it was going to take Emma some time to forgive Vivienne for what she tried to do to Todd. She knew Todd would not have wanted to be immortal and was thankful that his blood rejected her venom. But, in turn, she was going to lose Zachariah as her second-in-command. It was strange times at the Manor and Emma was never big on change.
“Please, just try to relax and hear me out,” Zachariah begged. “I’m just really drawn to her. It happened when she turned back to human—I don’t know what it was. Envious? In awe? All I know is that, deep down, I wished it was me that it happened to. And now, it’s like she’s a different person since she is no longer Declan’s offspring. I can’t describe it.”
“Have you always been attracted to her?” Emma asked.
“No, not like that. I always found her attractive, but never to the point where I actually wanted to date her.”
Emma took a deep breath and looked to Daniel, who gave her a shrug. Not very supportive. “Well, I’m not going to tell you what you can and cannot do. You’re just…one of the people I love most in this world and it is already hard enough that you’re no longer going to be my offspring. But, I also want you to be happy and I want to do right by you now that I have the chance to. So, you have my blessing…go to LA.”
Zachariah smiled so big that she couldn’t help but smile back at him. He got up and hugged her, thanking her for understanding.
“Well, Dan, it looks like it’s just me and you this weekend since Zach will be in LA and Todd and Kelly will be in South Dakota,” Emma said.
“Actually, I was going to go stay at my condo downtown this weekend with Brianna,” Daniel answered, feeling somewhat guilty for leaving Emma on her own.
Emma tipped her head back and laughed, “Well! Then I shall welcome the solitude! In fact, I can’t remember the last time I spent a weekend here by myself. I must say, I’m looking forward to it.”
Kelly couldn’t even describe her disappointment. She had been looking forward to introducing Todd to her family in Canistota and having a mini getaway with him. But, he got a call from his manager about a script that he might be interested in and the audition was that Monday. So, he needed to spend the weekend studying it. Since the sixth installment of the Ticking Through Time films were still in preproduction, he wanted to take a job in the meantime. She had thought about canceling her trip as well, but she knew that her family was looking forward to seeing her. Of course, it was unsettling that Todd would be at the Manor with Emma, but she was comforted knowing that Daniel would be there to. However, she hadn’t gotten the memo that Daniel was spending his weekend downtown with Brianna.
Since her flight to Sioux Falls and Zachariah’s flight to LA both left within
a half an hour of each other, they planned to have the driver on staff take them to the airport together. Kelly sat on the edge of the bed where Todd was still sleeping since it was so early in the morning.
She lightly shook his shoulder and said, “Baby, I’m leaving now.”
Todd incoherently mumbled, his eyes barely opening. Kelly stroked his hair and admired his beautiful face as he lay sleeping. She leaned down and gave him a kiss on his semi-open lips. That caused him to stir awake a bit more, becoming aware that she was saying goodbye.
“You leaving?” He croaked.
“I am, I’ll be back on Sunday night,” she replied. “I’ll miss you.”
The exchange their goodbyes and I love yous before she picked up her suitcase and left the room. She was glad that she held back on telling Todd to behave over the weekend. She was trying to not worry as much as she had been.
Zachariah met her down in the foyer and picked up her bag to carry out to the awaiting car. Their flights were scheduled to return that Sunday within an hour of each other, so she planned to wait for him to land so that they could ride back together.
After they pulled away, Daniel turned to Emma and said, “I think it’s safe to say that she has no idea that I’m not going to be here this weekend.”
Emma chuckled, completely agreeing with him. She was aware that if Kelly knew that Todd was going to be alone in the Manor with Emma the entire time, she would’ve canceled her trip. However, Todd was going to be busy studying and Emma had plans for herself anyway. She planned to go out for a horseback ride, something she hadn’t done for quite some time. She also needed to go and pick up some jugs of blood from Patricia Miller, the funeral home owner and her blood supplier. She planned to do some reading; some of her favorite authors had books out that she hadn’t had time to read. She intended to catch up on some of her favorite television shows that she had recorded. She was especially excited to watch Dominion since she had only caught the first few episodes. There was something about Archangel Michael that had her smitten.
Revolutions (Davenport Manor Book 3) Page 16