Roman smiled mischievously, pleased with himself.
“We can go to the bungalow.” I tried to keep the excitement out of my voice.
Roman stood in one smooth motion and swept me up into his arms.
“Um...okay.” I didn’t protest because I was still having trouble catching my breath. He carried me quickly across the sand and over the threshold into the bungalow. There was a bed in the far corner, overlaid with a gauzy material that I assumed to be a mosquito net. The bedspread was a deep blood red that shimmered faintly. Gold strands twined through the fabric and shone in the candlelight. Tons of pillows covered the top half of the bed in matching red, black, and gold. Above the bed golden gauze waved over a window.
The floor was made of smooth slats of wood. On the other side was a sitting area; two richly upholstered armchairs that matched the red, black, and gold decor, and a love seat. These all faced the bed, arranged around a coffee table that held a steaming tea kettle. There was no source of heat with which to make the tea.
“Would you care to have a seat?” Roman motioned me to the sofa and took his own place across from me in one of the arm chairs.
“This is nice.” I don’t think there could have been a bigger understatement. The bungalow reeked of seduction and comfort.
“You have questions, Miss Scott,” Roman began as he settled into his chair. “Please, do not allow me to dominate the conversation.”
What a gentleman.
“You can fly.”
“Yes.”
“What are you?”
“I think,” he tapped his full bottom lip with his finger, drawing my attention there.
Oh, he’s good at this game.
“I think that may be best left for another time.
I poured myself some tea. “You want some?”
“No, thank you.”
The kettle was light, even though it was full of tea. I poured my little teacup as full as I dared, and dumped sugar into the steaming liquid. When I looked up, Roman’s eyes, danced with amusement.
“I’m not a fan of tea,” I told him. “I use a lot of sugar.”
“I see that,” he nodded. “I will have to keep that in mind. Just out of curiosity, of what are you a fan?”
“Hot chocolate.” I blew on the liquid. “And big artistic mugs.” I sipped at the tea, proud of my ability to keep a straight face. “The other day at the store. You caught my beer.”
Roman nodded. “I have a slight gift of foresight. It’s not very strong, but I saw the box breaking. You cried. I did not want you to cry.”
“You saw me crying, and this bothered you.” He nodded. “Why?”
It took him a moment to answer, as if he wanted to get the words exactly right before he gave me his answer. “It hurts me to see women cry. Physically.” He touched a place over his heart and a pained look furrowed his brow.
“Who is Lucretious?” I was hoping to change the subject and wipe the pain off his face, but he went still and turned cold eyes to me.
“How do you know this name?”
I shrugged. “Is that important?”
“Incredibly. Have you spoken to him?”
“Not, really, no. I saw him with a woman. Her name was Perdita.”
“What did you see?” Roman’s voice was calm, but tense.
“Not much.”
“It’s important!” he almost shouted. “What did you see?”
I told him about the two visions, leaving out the intimate details. “She told him they were summonsed to some meeting tonight.” I shrugged again.
Roman nodded. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and I turned to look out the window. A faint cloud was outlined by the reflection of the silvery moon. Nothing too menacing until lightning lit the horizon.
“I should get you home,” Roman said. “Your family will wonder where you are.”
I couldn’t hide my disappointment. The only thing missing was my Pierce and this would be a perfect moment.
“You like the rain.”
“Yes,” I answered.
“I watched you. In the rain with your,” he paused, “boyfriend.”
That seemed to bother him. “Yeah. You ruined that.”
“Sorry.” He didn’t sound sorry at all.
“So, you are the one whose eyes I feel. Stop stalking me.”
Roman grinned. “Too late.”
There was no remorse in his voice, only fierce satisfaction. It should have scared me.
“Come. We must go.” Roman stood and I followed suit. He led me back down to the water where clouds were loomed near.
“Can we wait a moment?” I asked. “I like the rain.”
“LeKrista...” I was afraid he was going to tell me we had to leave. Instead, his fingers brushed mine and I looked at him. Something stirred inside me. A dark place woke and nudged at my soul, asking to be let in. It had always been there, but never this strong.
I felt the first drops of rain on my face and felt the dark place recede.
“Come.” Roman wrapped his arms around me. “Let’s get you home.”
The rain came down as we melted into nothingness.
I was fully aware that I was seeing through Lucretious eyes this time, and that I was asleep in my bed at home. Our minds were separate, but I knew what he was thinking and feeling. He wanted me here. Perdita was there next to him. She looked bored as hell and a little pissed off.
The room was a stone cavern, dimly lit by torches placed around the room. It wasn’t very impressive on a decorative scale. Lucretious placed his hands on a large stone table and brought my attention to the others in the room. There were thirteen of them, including Lucretious and Perdita.
“Why was I not alerted to this meeting?”
I recognized Roman’s voice immediately and I felt Lucretious’ alarm.
“We had a few things to discuss with Lucretious,” a man at the head of the table said.
“What are you doing?” Roman asked and it took a moment for me to realize he was speaking to his mind.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Creator.”
“You know very well what I am talking about,” Roman insisted. Out loud he said, “I see. Well, I will sit in on the discussion.”
Lucretious’ anger grew until it leached into my mind and filled me with a rage I’d never known before. The dark place from earlier in the night rose up to choke the life from my body.
I woke shouting and my chest heaved as I forced air in and out of my lungs. The darkness consumed me and my vision clouded and went dark. I fell from my bed and stumbled across the floor to the bathroom from memory. It took several tries to get the shower going and I fell into the tub without undressing. The hot water hit me and the darkness flailed and snapped. It squirmed in my stomach like a dying snake and slowly receded. I stayed there a long time. When the sun began to peak through the window, I turned off the water and wrapped myself in a towel. On autopilot, I dialed Pierce’s number.
“Hey,” I said when he answered. “I’m headed your way.”
I pushed curfew and left Pierce late that night. He walked me to the front door, but didn’t step outside because he was in his socks.
“Let me know when you make it home.”
I smiled. “I will.” I put my arms around him and gave him a quick goodbye kiss. When our lips touched, a current passed between us and shocked me. Something flashed behind my eyelids and was gone. I jumped and pulled away.
“Yeah, I felt it too.” Pierce kissed me on my forehead and sent me on my way.
I made it halfway home before I was stopped by a horrific accident that spanned the lanes on both sides of the road.
A red BMW made it to the middle of the intersection before it was plowed by a truck coming from the opposite direction. The truck forced the car across the road into the oncoming traffic.
A cop knocked on my window and I jumped.
“Everything alright?” he asked.
“I think I should be aski
ng you that.” I tried to smile.
“Heh. I guess so. Bad accident here. You’re going to have to turn around. You can cross the median here.”
The only other way to get home was to go all the way back around to the other side of town. I thanked the officer and shot Pierce a quick text to let him know what was going on. My new route took me through downtown Greenville and up Wade Hampton Boulevard to 276. From there I got on Sandy Flat road. It’s dark and backwoods and creeps me out at night.
As I passed the quarry my car slowed to a complete stop, bringing home all of my nighttime fears. There was a little lake that, by daylight shown emerald green, but by night was as black as pitch. Several years ago, a man shot himself and died in that lake. I’m not one to believe in ghosts, but it made the whole eerie situation that much more creepy. I looked down at the gas needle. It was on empty.
“What the crap,” I murmured to myself. “There’s no way. I just filled it up. Unless...” I wouldn’t allow myself to voice my fear of a cut gas line because my only option was to hike back to the gas station a few yards back in complete darkness.
I unbuckled myself and looked up. Where there had been nothing but an empty street a moment ago a man now stood, illuminated by the car lights. He wore nothing but a pair of black jeans and his sculpted chest glowed white in the brilliance of the lights. There was a sneer on his face, a cross between hatred and triumph, and I knew him immediately.
Lucretious.
His mind opened to me and my blood rolled in my veins. I wanted to go to him and I started to roll down the window.
“LeKrista, no!” Roman shouted in my head, but it was too late. I’d already given Lucretious the leverage he needed. He was at my car faster than should have been possible and yanked the glass from the window with a strength I had never seen before.
Lucretious gripped my throat like a vice and I struggled to breathe. I thought I would choke to death but he pulled away from me with such force that I thought my throat had been torn out. I screamed, raised a hand to my throat to find too much blood. When I could breathe again, Roman and the half naked Lucretious were fighting in the street.
I couldn’t see any of the blows, but I saw the results. Lucretious flew into the icy water of the quarry with a splash. A moment later he was back in the street to deliver several blows of his own until he finally sent Roman flying into the woods on the other side of the road. I heard trees snap and a loud thud as Roman hit the ground, and Lucretious was at my window again. He sneered at me, said something in a language I didn’t understand, and then my car and I were in the air.
This is it. I'm going to die.
Roman rushed back like a blur and stopped several feet from Lucretious. Roman said something pleadingly to him in another language, something that was meant to calm, but only made Lucretious more angry. Lucretious said something back, and then my car was tumbling. It landed on the top, crushed the car, and pressed me into my seat. I just knew my neck was broken. I rolled down the hill, hit my head several times on the roof, and landed in the icy water. Vaguely, I could feel someone in my head watching. My last thought before I passed out was, “Don’t worry, StaciDoll. I’m coming for you.”
I woke up in the hospital. Voices whispered softly so as not to disturb me. My first instinct was to make sure I had movement in all of my limbs. I tested my toes and found that they wiggled. I moved my legs and gasped. It hurt, but not much different from the hurt of an overused muscle. I was sure I had bruises and scrapes, but no broken bones there.
“You’re awake,” my aunt said. “You don’t have any broken bones, thank God.” She turned away and came back with a mirror, and I knew it wasn’t pretty. “We can wait to do this if you want. I just thought... I thought you’d want to see.”
I reached for the mirror and whimpered as I snatched it from her and held it up to my face. I didn’t give myself a chance to back down. It took a moment for the image to make sense. There were white bandages around my neck covering the finger gouges and I worked my way up, noting a split on my chin where I must have hit it on the steering wheel. The right side of my face was purple and my eye swollen, but not shut completely. My hair was bloody from a gash across my forehead that was butterflied shut. I was hideous, but not disfigured. I let out a sigh of relief and settled back against the pillows.
“Staci?” Pierce’s soft voice brought a faint smile to my lips, but it hurt too much to smile. His beautiful eyes shone with worry.
“You’re here.”
“Of course I’m here, love. Nothing could keep me away. You know that.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, baby.” Pierce rested his head on the bed for a moment. When he looked back up at me, there was a look of fear on his face like I’d never seen before. “I saw you,” he whispered.
My eyes widened. “What did you see?”
“Two men fighting in the middle of the road. One threw your car in the quarry lake.”
I didn’t know what to say so I asked, “How did I get here?”
Pierce smiled like I should have already known the answer. “I called 911.”
“Hold my hand.”
“Of course.” His touch made me feel safe and I drifted back to sleep.
Someone was speaking French as I came out of the stupor of the pain medication. Roman sat beside the bed, an old book propped against his crossed legs. He closed the book he was reading and smiled.
“LeKrista.”
I turned my head and smiled back the best I could.
“I am so sorry,” he began. “I underestimated his strength and ability. I failed to protect you as I should have.”
“You should have told me who he was when I asked.”
“I should have protected you better.” He came to stand beside me. His furrowed brow matched the pain I saw in his eyes and he took my hand. “Please, I cannot change what has happened, but I can take some of your pain. Please.”
“Fine,” I told him, “but you owe me some answers.”
“Ask me anything. I will answer.”
“What are you?” I asked.
“LeKrista.” He sounded like he was going to chastise me. “What I am... I fear I will lose you when you find out.” He shook his head and sighed. “LeKrista, I’m a vampire.”
I shook my head vigorously so the pain would keep me from going into shock. “There’s no way,” I whispered. “Vampires don’t exist.”
“On the contrary, my dear. We are very much in existence. We just prefer to keep it a secret.”
I knew my face was a mask of disbelief that I didn’t try to hide from him.
“Give me your hand.”
I offered it without thinking and he lifted one finger to his parted lips. They were soft and warm and there was something so sensual about the act. My finger slid over his lips into his mouth, across his teeth until I felt the point of one very sharp canine. My eyes widened in surprise and I gasped when it pricked me. I jumped and Roman gripped my wrist loosely so I wouldn’t jerk away. He pulled my finger from his mouth slowly, tasting my blood as he did. His eyes slid shut as if to savor the taste and I tucked my hand under the sheet and under my body, pressing my bleeding finger into the mattress.
Roman said something that sounded like Latin and then I knew was telling the truth. “I am sorry, my sweet. I forget myself. I hope I have not frightened you.”
I shook my head.
“Ah, LeKrista. Why do you lie?”
“Lucretious is a vampire?”
Roman nodded that stiff nod that seemed to mean there was information coming that he did not particularly want me to share with me. “Yes. One of mine.”
“You mean, you turned him?”
“Yes. He wanted it, but could not handle it once the deed was done. He is so far out of his mind that I cannot control him. He resents me for what he has become.”
“Why did he attack me?”
“To hurt me.”
“He thinks I mean that much to y
ou?”
Roman frowned. “You do mean that much to me, LeKrista. That is why you are in so much danger. He would see you dead just to cause me great pain.”
“He wants to kill me?” I whispered, my voice completely gone. “I haven’t done anything to him.”
“I know. That is why I must protect you at all times until I can figure out what to do with him. I won’t let anything more happen to you, LeKrista. This I promise. Now, let me take some of the pain away.” Roman caressed the good side of my face and heat poured through me. It poured from Roman like warm water and spread through my body. When it hit the injured places it began to burn like fire.
I gasped, “Roman, what’s happening?”
“I don’t know, my sweet. I’ve never-"
"It feels like I’m burning from the inside out! Make it stop!”
Roman pulled his hand from my face, but the burning only grew until my back arched and I thought I would scream, but the sound caught in my throat and I choked.
“LeKrista!” I heard Roman calling me, but he sounded so far away, standing at the end of a dark tunnel that grew longer and longer until he was gone.
“Pierce?” He was leaning over me when I woke.
“Hey, baby.”
“What happened?” My throat was dry and it hurt to talk. “Can I have some water?”
“Your heart rate went way up,” Pierce said as he turned to get a cup of water off the night stand, “and you lost consciousness. We were worried about you. You don’t know what happened?”
I shook my head and noticed that it didn’t hurt like it had before.
“Some of the swelling has gone down in your face,” Pierce said. “So has some of the bruising.”
I felt Roman’s eyes on me, keeping close watch.
“You have a visitor,” Pierce said, and his voice held so much disdain that I knew it could only be one person.
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