“The five of us were able to stay together as we endured the chaos of the loading of the lifeboats. Of course, the officers were trying to get me to climb in since I was a woman, first class no less, but I wasn’t having it. I certainly couldn’t tell them that I couldn’t die. So, Zachariah and I helped load as many people as we could. We noticed that the lifeboats were not very full, but we didn’t know any better at that point.
“The next few hours were a blur of events. We were able to get Madeline and Clara safely onto a lifeboat, but they wouldn’t allow Henry on because he was a man and there were still women and children remaining. The lifeboats were all gone, so by then it was just a matter of waiting. Zachariah and I knew we would be okay and literally planned to swim to New York. Zachariah and I realized that if we were rescued, we would be put on the survivor list. At that point in time, we felt that it was time for us to disappear from society once again. We were accepting of the fact that we would be marked as dead. But, we wanted to try and save Henry. Once the ship went down we braced ourselves. We’re a strong species, I won’t argue that. But, the sheer force of that boat sinking into the water was enough to give us a run for our money.
“We held onto Henry as tight as we could when we hit the water; I know I felt his bones being crushed from underneath my grip. However, bones will heal, a life will not. Once we resurfaced with him, he was barely conscious. Zachariah and I tried to keep him afloat and out of the water as much as we could by using our own bodies as a raft for him. Too much water had gotten into his lungs and the icy cold water was too much for his body to handle. As we rapidly propelled ourselves in the direction of the awaiting lifeboats, Henry passed away. Our plan was to swim up to a lifeboat to have him rescued, and fake her own deaths by sinking into the water before they could pull us out. We were almost there, but we just weren’t fast enough. We didn’t bother bringing him to the boat as we knew they wouldn’t pull a dead body on board. We always felt bad that Clara never got to properly bury him.
“Zachariah and I swam west until we hit land. However, we didn’t end up in New York, we ended up near Boston, my hometown. When we finally climbed out of that icy water, it took hours for us to air dry. We smelled awful and looked just as bad! We had no money on us and our possessions were sitting at the bottom of the ocean. We tried to decide whether to charm shop owners so we could buy new clothes, or just make a run for it all the way home. We chose the latter for two reasons; first, clothes shopping back then wasn’t like what it is now. Things were custom-made and would have taken too long. Second, we didn’t want to be thieves. Plus, we already had one heck of an adventure going down with a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean, and swimming back to land. Why not keep going?
“I desperately wanted to stay in Boston and have a look around there since it was where I was from. However, we looked a mess and all eyes would have been on us as we looked like we literally just crawled out of the ocean. We allowed the sun to be our guide in the direction we needed to go. We ran through the Appalachian Mountains, which was spectacular. In all my years of being a vampire, I had never run so far. It was exhilarating! Once we cut through New York and Pennsylvania, we followed Lake Erie across the top of Ohio, on to Indiana, up through Chicago, and back into Davenport.
“Once we got home, we waited for Clara and Madeline’s return. Once they did, we had the unpleasant task of recounting Henry’s fate to Clara. She was devastated, of course. Their children were left with no father and Clara never remarried. We explained to the family how it was our time to fade from society, and that we did not add our names to the survivor list. So, to this day, if you pull up the actual victim list, you will see an Emma Davenport and Zachariah Dancy as those who went down with the ship.”
Todd was mesmerized, completely enraptured by her. He wished he could spend just one day inside her head, seeing history unfold through her eyes. What the world looked like then, how people lived. When one looks at old photographs, it’s hard not to picture the world in just black and white and sepia colors—it’s difficult to imagine that the world was in vibrant color as it is in present day.
“You are by far the most amazing person I have ever met,” he bluntly said as they continued to ride along.
CHAPTER 13
They came through a clearing and happened upon Elizabeth’s old cottage in the woods. For some odd reason, he always enjoyed peaking in to the home every time he was out in that area of the woods. It was like history was frozen in time on the other side of the windows.
They stopped their horses and hopped off, stretching their legs by doing some walking of their own. Emma knew that Todd enjoyed taking a look through the window, which she enjoyed his awe. Every now and then she would contemplate opening the cottage so that they could go inside, knowing that of all people, he would appreciate it the most. However, she resisted the temptation every single time, not wanting to disturb that little piece of history. It was the last place her sister was; everything inside was left as Elizabeth placed it. She didn’t want a single thing to be moved.
They walked up to the cottage and both rubbed their sleeves on the windows to clear the dust. They cupped their hands around their eyes and peered in, looking at the same items once again. Nothing had moved, nothing was changed, they had remained the same way since 1815.
“Let’s ride over to the cemetery quick so I can say hello to all of my family,” Emma suggested as she began to walk back to Phantom.
They began riding along the pathway once again that led to the open field that was the Davenport family cemetery. All of the ancestors were there; everyone was a descendent of her brother, Christopher since he was the only surviving sibling in her immediate family.
They allowed their horses to walk freely and nibble on some grass as they roamed the graveyard together. As Emma was speaking to Todd, he saw something move near the Davenport family crypt from the corner of his eye. He instinctively turned his head and was surprised to see Elizabeth, Emma’s sister, standing next to it. He took a breath and opened his mouth, beginning to say something, but Elizabeth held her index finger to her mouth. Understanding, he smiled and gave her a discreet nod as she politely waved back.
Even when she was haunting him, for some odd reason he enjoyed her presence. He felt as though he had a bond with her and she seemed to genuinely like him. In all his life, he never thought that he would be able to look a ghost in the eye and not be afraid. Hell, he never thought he would see a ghost to begin with! He wanted to go up to Elizabeth and asked her how the afterlife was treating her, and thank her once again for helping to save his life. Even after their silent exchange, she did not disappear; she continued to watch them. Todd was unsure if she was watching out of admiration and friendship, or if it was to make sure that Emma did not harm him. Elizabeth was not and never would be a fan of vampires, especially since she was killed by one who happened to be her own sister.
They spent some time walking through the cemetery before calling it a day and heading back to the stables. Once they had their tackle put away, their horses groomed and in their stalls for the night, Emma and Todd walked back to the Manor. After being outdoors and riding all day, they both decided that showers were in order. While Todd actually liked the smell of horses, he didn’t necessarily want to smell like one.
“Once we are done showering, do you maybe want to meet up down here for dinner? Or in your case, drinks?” He asked, not wanting their day to end.
“I’d like that!” Emma replied. “I don’t want to take you away from your studying though. I hope you don’t feel obligated since we are the only ones in the house.”
“Not at all! I’m having the best day, it’s been a long time. Plus, I have all day tomorrow and most of Sunday to study.”
They each went into their respective bedrooms to clean off the dust and dirt from their day’s adventure around the property. It was still fairly early, but Emma did not feel like getting dressed all over again. So, after her shower, she put on he
r silky, purple pajama bottoms with a matching button-down top. The only beauty regimen she did do was blow dry her hair only because she hated the feeling of her shirt being wet around the shoulders.
She knew Todd had finished getting ready before her since she could no longer hear him in his bedroom. Instead, she heard him cooking his dinner all the way down in the kitchen. She stuffed her feet into her oversize, bright, fuzzy slippers and scooted downstairs to join him. When she arrived in the kitchen, she saw that he was boiling macaroni noodles and shaking a packet of powdered cheese.
“You’re pulling out the big guns for dinner tonight, aren’t you?” She laughed at his boxed macaroni and cheese.
“See, lucky for me, I have no need to impress you with food!” He laughed as he strained the noodles in the sink.
She laughed as she took a glass out of the cupboard and reached into her hidden refrigerator for a jug of blood. “You could make the most gourmet meal and I would still find it revolting! A five-star restaurant could be spam for all I would care. It’s all the same to me.”
“Do you miss food?” He asked as he dumped the powder in with his noodles and added a little bit of milk.
She had to think about it for a moment. “I do and I don’t. I do because I miss the variety, I miss getting excited over particular meals. However, the thought of eating is extremely disgusting to me now. Imagine drinking blood as a meal until you’re full, that grosses you out, right? That’s how food is to me.”
Todd stared at her for a moment with an eyebrow raised in flatly said, “That’s messed up.”
The microwave beeped and Emma took her liquid dinner out, raising her class at him. She giggled, “Wanna trade dinners?”
Todd stuck his tongue out in disgust and made a “bleck” sound. “No, thank you, I’ll stick to my cheap, overly processed, boxed dinner.”
She began to walk out of the kitchen and showed the way, “Shall we go to the dining room?”
He was about to just sit down at the little kitchen table, but was happy to take his bright orange meal into the swanky dining room. They sat across from each other and continued their easy conversation.
“If the vampires ever come out in the open, you should write a book about all that you have seen in the world,” Todd suggested.
“Nah, I have only been around for less than three hundred years. There are other vampires out there that are way older than me with far more history.”
“So, what? You could be the first to write a book about your experiences. I can promise you that human history buffs like me would be the first to swipe them up.”
She took his advice into consideration; it wasn’t really a bad idea! However, at that point, the vampires were nowhere near coming out in the open just yet. It was disappointing, because she had really hoped that they would find a way to do so when the Kings and Queens had their last meeting. They just needed to have a solid plan in place and make sure they covered all scenarios of things that could happen.
After they finished eating and drinking, they put their dishes in the dishwasher and Todd reached into his pocket. He realized he had forgotten his phone in his bedroom all day. He excused himself for a moment and ran upstairs to check it, seeing that he had a few missed calls and several missed texts from Kelly. Each text from her became more and more perturbed from his lack of response.
He immediately called her back and was greeted with a very disgruntled “hello” from her.
“Where have you been? I’ve been trying to get a hold of you all day.”
“My phone was on silent and I completely forgot to check it all day because I was studying,” he lied.
“I tried the house phone, too, but no one answered.”
Shit, he thought to himself. “You know what? I’m not going to lie. No, I wasn’t studying today. I went out for a horseback ride.”
He could almost hear the steam blowing from her ears through the phone. Her breathing was steady and alarmingly noisy over the line. She was pissed off and he knew it. However, he left out the crucial detail that Emma had gone riding with him; that was sure to warrant her reaching to the phone and strangling him.
“You canceled your trip here because you said you had to study…yet you go out horseback riding?”
“I still have all day tomorrow and most of the day Sunday until you get back to study. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to go out for a ride,” he firmly answered.
“Did Daniel and Emma go with you or did you go by yourself?”
At this point, Todd’s brain reasoned with him. He was already in trouble to begin with, so he might as well just tell her the truth so she didn’t find out later on. “I went with Emma.”
Kelly didn’t say a word. She was stunned not only from the fact that Todd had spent the day out riding with Emma, but that he actually told her the truth about it. She was conflicted; while he was doing something that made her uncomfortable, he was honest about it.
“Say something,” he demanded, waiting for the inevitable backlash.
“Can I trust you?” She asked.
He threw his head back in frustration; tired of having the same argument over and over. “Yes! My gosh, how many times do I have to tell you this? Yes. Yes you can. It was completely innocent today. It was just two friends out for a horseback ride. I seriously cannot do this anymore.”
Kelly felt her stomach drop when she heard those words; putting her into a panic. She didn’t want to lose him, especially because she was being so obnoxious about his friendship with Emma. She apologized several times, begging him to forgive her for being so jealous.
“I don’t feel like fighting right now,” he mumbled. He continued on before she could respond, “I’ll just talk to you when you get back.” He hung up before she could protest or even say goodbye.
He tossed his phone onto the bed and walked away from it, avoiding another potentially sticky phone call. He was about to slam his door shut as he walked out, but knew better since technically it wasn’t his door to slam. He walked back downstairs and was about to head for the kitchen where he left Emma, but he saw her lighting the fire place in the parlor. She had the book that she was reading earlier waiting for her on the sofa and another glass of blood on the end table.
He knocked on the frame of the parlor’s entrance just as she was about to sit down. She had become a master at pretending as if she did not hear any of his fights with Kelly. She smiled and waved him in.
“I don’t want to disturb you, it looks as though you’re about to settle in with your book,” he said as he waved her off and was about to walk back upstairs.
“I have all the time in the world to read a book,” she mocked. “Come on in and join me! Do you want a glass of wine or something?”
Of course he wanted a glass of wine. However, he knew that alcohol would equal fewer inhibitions, which could get him into some trouble. Even though he was mad at Kelly at the moment, he wasn’t about to knowingly do something wrong. He politely declined, but sat down on the opposite side of the sofa, kicking one leg up on to it.
“So, I know you probably heard my side of the conversation with Kelly…” he started.
Emma set the book in her lap and looked down at it, embarrassed that she couldn’t help but overhear private things. It wasn’t like she wanted to hear everything that was discussed behind closed doors, but it was impossible to avoid most of the time. She nodded her head, once again feeling bad that she was the cause of their quarrels.
“I can’t keep doing this, Emma. I can’t keep having the same argument with her over and over,” he confessed. “What am I supposed to do? Not speak to you just to make her happy? I don’t play that game.” He balled up his fists and lightly pounded his thighs.
“I certainly can’t tell you what to do. It’s your life and your relationship,” Emma shrugged, not meaning to be completely unhelpful. “Do you remember when we were first dating and you had that moment of jealousy about Zachariah? I put you in your place pretty qui
ck, didn’t I?”
“What would you do if you were me? If I had constantly caused arguments because of my jealousy over Zachariah, what would you have done?”
“Do you really want me to answer that? I think you already know what I’m going to say.”
“It just sucks because I really do like her. I love her. But this is getting ridiculous,” he said as he leaned back his head and closed his eyes.
“Why is she getting so goofy? I don’t think you are I did or said anything to make her think anything funny was going on.”
“She thinks I haven’t gotten over you and that I’m still in love with you.”
Emma slightly tilted her head to look at him directly and quietly asked, “Are you?”
Todd locked eyes with her, but hesitated to answer. She heard his heart speed up, which combined with his lack of response, gave her his answer.
“You know, it’s hard to go from dating someone like you…fun, intelligent, gorgeous, and literally my best friend…to someone who just isn’t quite up to par. It’s hard to move on when we didn’t have a bad breakup, when it was because of the fact that you are pulse challenged.”
Emma let out a loud laugh.
“You’re just so worldly, I end up comparing others to you, even though I know I shouldn’t,” he continued. “And I’m just this normal guy who never thought he would date someone as spectacular as you.”
“But, you’re not normal,” she corrected. “Believe what you will, but you’re just as much of a supernatural creature as I am. You’re just physically wired a little differently.”
Todd had never thought about it like that before. He never felt like he was supernatural or could even come close to the vampires’ status. But, as he thought about it, she was absolutely right. While the vampires were powerful, fast, and for the most part, immortal, he was the one thing that could kill them. Or, at least he was. Now he was something entirely different; something that could help them rather than hurt them. That’s if they wanted to be helped. Some vampires thoroughly enjoyed their immortality, Aidan being one of them. Todd knew that he would sooner choose death over becoming a human again. Then there were those like Zachariah that saw vampirism as a never-ending curse. However, Emma was the tricky one to figure out; she most certainly wanted the best of both worlds.
Revolutions (Davenport Manor Book 3) Page 18