“I’ve already eaten.” It was his standard line, six months of life together, and every time I prompted him to eat, the reply was the same.
“That’s my fault,” I explained to her. “He doesn’t eat in front of me.”
“Any special reason why?” she asked. It hit me; he ate in front of her. I knew he drank blood, but E had seen it. He trusted her enough or was comfortable enough or whatever to drink blood in front of her but not me. Or at least, he had been when they’d seen each other last. I took a minute to do the math, four years of college, four years of war, a couple of years after that, a lot can happen in a decade, enough to make a man totally change his habits. Maybe he didn’t eat in front of anyone now. Maybe he’d developed some anxiety issue about drinking blood in front of others.
Sure, I could believe that. Really. I gave up convincing myself and waited for him to answer her question, to give her a reason why he wouldn’t even talk about drinking blood in front of me.
“So how was your day E? Settling into the new job okay?” Mark quipped. I gave him the dirtiest look I could muster. He was supposed to be helping me out, not saving Jakob from revealing his secrets.
“The new job is okay, nothing nearly as exciting as my first day last Saturday.” She nodded at me. I knew that was my cue to apologize, but I kept my mouth shut. After a second of silence, she realized I wasn’t going to say anything and went on. “Actually, something fairly great happened today. I got a cat.”
“A cat?” Jakob asked.
“A bright orange cat with wonderful green eyes,” she declared with a grin. “One of my coworkers couldn’t keep him, so now I’m a cat parent. I’m planning on spoiling him rotten.”
“What’s his name?” I’d never had a pet. When I was a kid my mother thought they were too much trouble, and as an adult I’d never gotten around to it. I’d known a few cats pretty well in my last job as a social worker, and every one of them had an owner that delighted in talking about them at length.
“Puss,” she said with a slight frown. “Jeanette’s daughter named him after some movie.”
“You,” Mark started but he couldn’t finish because of the laughter. “…have a cat…” he managed to choke out a few words at a time, “named Puss.”
“Well I was going to change his name, but now that I know you hate it, it stays.”
“I’m touched.” He wiped tears of laughter away from the corner of his eye. “But can you even take care of cat? I mean, have you ever taken care of anything?”
“Countless refugees, abused women, and wounded soldiers, other than that not much.”
“Good to know if Puss ever ends up in war zone he’ll be okay.”
“What about you Mark, anything new in your life? A woman maybe?” Her eyes glittered with anger but the waiter spoiled it, setting down a plate between them. The table was a small four top. There wasn’t enough room for plates and leering. I talked cats and cat owning through dinner.
We moved on to India where E had spent the last few years. From there they started talking about places in Europe. I’d never left the country, so I couldn’t say much, but Jakob was enthralled. My attempts to turn the conversation to something I could contribute to fell on deaf ears. Eventually I gave up and listened to her and Jakob.
Dinner came and went. Neither of the men ordered anything, but that didn’t make time go faster. To speed things up, I ordered coffee, but E ruined it by getting dessert. It took longer for the waiter to drop it off than I had hoped.
Worse, I wrapped my hands around my coffee cup. I discovered it was cold, just above icy cold actually. I spent a few minutes trying to catch the waiter’s eye but didn’t have any luck. Jakob and E were off on some new topic that I wasn’t part of, so I was grateful to Mark when he signaled the man.
“Has your girlfriend decided she wanted dessert after all?” the waiter asked him with a grin and then turned to me.
“Um, I’m not, no that wasn’t…” I stammered.
“We’re fine.” Jakob pronounced with vengeance. I suspected the man’s tip had evaporated. The waiter shrugged and left.
“Is something wrong?” Jakob asked. I noticed he didn’t call me my love.
“I was hoping I could get my coffee warmed up.” I swirled the fluid a bit, then pushed the cup toward the center of the table. “Oh, well it’s getting late anyway, probably best I go without.”
“Don’t be silly.” E reached over and put her hands on the side of the cup. A warm breeze of power brushed over me, and for a tiny second I thought I smelled wood smoke. The coffee in my mug started to steam as the heat from her hands leeched into it. The show was quick. I was still incredibly impressed.
“Wow, thanks. That’s a pretty remarkable way to end a night.” Okay, not the most subtle hint in the world, but I was tired of the tension.
“It’s not the end of the night yet. You still have time to stop by my place and meet Puss.”
“Do you live nearby?” I stalled. She was right; it wasn’t late, but I tried to end my Friday nights between the sheets with Jakob. Normally he’d leave me asleep and then head into work for the night. It seemed like this Friday was an exception. He wasn’t making any moves to ask for the check or get out of here in time for a meeting. Still, appetizers, salad, dinner, desserts, and coffee was all he could ask of me, right? I hoped I wouldn’t be forced to spend a few hours on E’s couch making loving faces at a housecat.
“Didn’t Jakob tell you?” She smiled. “We’re neighbors.”
Chapter Five
We were neighbors. The vacant apartment on my floor, the one I’d assumed a guy moved into, was E’s. Jakob asked her how she liked the Eclipse and the two of them chatted aimlessly while I sat dumbfounded. I couldn’t get over how she’d so neatly inserted herself into my life. Hugging Jakob when I wasn’t there, showing up at Convenire, and, oh yes, she lived next door to me. It was creepy.
I was on the edge of saying something when a cold touch on the back of my hand stole my attention. It was Mark of all people, his fingers barely brushing my skin. I looked up at his face and saw that he got it. Jakob was oblivious, but Mark understood. Did that mean something? Was this some giant flashing sign that my relationship with Jakob was doomed? My heart started to race, and suddenly the room felt too small. Something bothered me, and the wrong man at the table got it.
I was about to panic when Jakob looked over and smiled at me. When he heard my heart pounding, he’d looked over. I melted, he was oblivious, yes, but not with malice. E was done with her dessert, and my coffee, even if it was magically heated, wasn’t that enticing. I smiled back at Jakob briefly before I stood.
“Excuse me I think I need a minute before we get the check.” I hoped pronouncing dinner over wasn’t too rude.
“I’ll come with you,” E chirped. If she’d been Phoebe, I wouldn’t have been bothered, so I did my best not to be bothered by her. Why women feel the need to bond after using the toilet I’ll never know, but three minutes later there we were washing our hands and chatting.
“Did you have a good time at Convenire last night?” I asked.
“So-so, I don’t know if I’ll be back.” She smiled, away from Jakob she was almost likable. “I’m sorry about crashing your party.”
“It wasn’t a party, just an attempt to cheer Anna up.”
“God knows she needs it. Her father is out of hand.”
“She told you?” The drive from Convenire to the Eclipse wasn’t long, when had Anna had time to get into daddy issues?
“Uh, yeah, we ended up at her place.” At her place? Anna’s was in the opposite direction of the Eclipse.
“Really?” Was she Anna’s type? We’d never talked about the kind of women she liked. Was E even gay?
E smiled widely at my confusion. “Raya likes girls, and so do I.”
I followed her out of the bathroom, glad to leave the conversation behind. Mark was standing outside the door wearing a smirk wide enough to tell me he’d overheard us.
“Jakob’s getting the car”—he grinned—“leaving me with the two most beautiful women in the place. I’m a lucky man.”
“Vampire, you’re a lucky vampire,” E corrected. It seemed important to her.
“That too.” His grin didn’t leave. The hostess signaled to us, and we all started to walk to the door. I heard Mark whisper in my ear, talking only to me in a room full of people. It was a vampire’s trick, but one I’d heard enough to get used to.
“If you get tired of Jakob fawning over his prodigal granddaughter tonight, mention that she went home with Anna. I’ll talk to him about the rest of it tomorrow.”
His words put a smile on my face. Jakob was damn near perfect in every way, except he was a touch homophobic. He has his reasons, good ones, so I tried not to rub salt in the wound, but this time might be the exception. E was his darling girl. When he found out she’d spent the night with another woman, she’d be a lot more human. When Mark opened the car door for me, I put my hand over his for a second and smiled at him.
“Thank you.” I looked in his eyes, hoping he’d understand that I wasn’t grateful for something as small as opening a door.
“Thanks for letting me come along. I had a lovely time.” His words were cliché, but the sympathetic look in his eyes wasn’t. We pulled up to the Eclipse fifteen minutes later, and I was still smiling over it. E invited us to meet Puss again, but I begged off, reminding Jakob that we always spent Friday night at his place. I didn’t know if he would support my lie, but at the last instant, he surprised me and backed me up. Unfortunately, even with her out of the car, the tension didn’t evaporate.
“Do I need to be concerned about you and Mark?” he asked.
I laughed, rich belly laughs over the insanity of it.
“It’s not funny.”
“No, you’re right.” I struggled to get myself under control. “It’s hilarious.” I gulped a fresh breath while he drove furiously. “I’m jealous of E, and you’re jealous of Mark.”
“I saw him holding your hand at dinner.”
“Touching my hand, not holding it, touching it. He could tell how upset I was, and he was trying to comfort me.”
“Your heart was racing,” Jakob said in a surly tone. “And what was he whispering to you?”
“I didn’t think you could hear that.” His anger somehow seemed comical, maybe because I didn’t really believe he was falling in love with someone else.
“I couldn’t, so you’ll have to tell me what he said.”
“Oh you don’t want to know. Suffice to say, love, he was trying to cheer me up.”
“That’s my job.”
“Well, you were busy.” I teased but he wasn’t having any of it. He drove faster than usual, fast enough that I was glad the top was up to protect us from the wind. The night was filled with a thousand sounds, loons calling in the early fall, the last of the summer crickets chirping. We pulled into the driveway where last night we’d ended a fight with our bodies pressed together under the trees. I wondered how tonight would end. Jakob’s silence as we entered the house didn’t bode well for things.
“Tell me what upset you. I’m sorry I didn’t see it, whatever it was.” He seemed contrite as we sat down in the living room.
“I can’t stand the way I disappear when E’s in the room.”
“You don’t disappear.”
“I may as well for all the attention that you give me. You adore her, I see that, but it’s a little hard to watch.” I tried to keep a smile on my face, to keep this light instead of accusatory, but it did hurt to watch him dote on her.
“She’s like a daughter to me.” He thought for a minute. “Hold on.”
I sat completely baffled. His jealousy made sense, seeing my side of it made sense, but this was usually where we kissed and made up. Sure, dinner was a disaster, but it was nothing a little kissing and making up couldn’t cure.
“I introduced you to her the wrong way.” He came back into the room carrying a box painted silver and covered in stickers. There were horses and hearts, along with all the other symbols of a young girl. He placed the box in my lap.
“I don’t understand?” I began to wonder if vampires could go insane.
“It’s E. It’s what I think of when I see her. Open it.”
I followed his instructions. The box held a motley assortment of the debris of childhood. There were art class sketches labeled “To: Jakob” in shaky letters, notes with the intricate folds of junior high, and the kind of arts and craft pieces children make and only the adults who love them care for. I sorted through years of class pictures and dozens of snapshots of Jakob, a young man I didn’t recognize, and a very young E.
“Who’s this?”
“Ronald. E was five; he was eleven. She attached herself to him, utterly in love with her new relatives,” he said, and the pictures proved it. There were vacation snapshots, Christmas dinner photos; it was an entire lifetime shoved inside a cardboard box. Pushed up against the side were letters and postcards all written long hand in the script of a young woman.
“Wow.”
“Did it never occur to you that if she looked like my wife, she might also look like my daughters?”
“No, honestly, it didn’t.” For a minute I felt like a complete ass, but then I remembered the way dinner had gone. “But that doesn’t make it any easier.”
“What would?”
“Could we have some space, some time apart from her? I mean I know she’s just back, but you saw her Monday night, then last night, and now tonight, could we not have E come up in conversation for say the rest of the weekend?”
“Done.” His smile was unsure. “Will that be enough?”
“For now, I might need more later.”
“I’ll do my best to see it before Mark does.”
“Good.”
“Come to bed?” he asked, holding out his hand.
I was up to my elbows in the box, putting back the photos and cards I’d taken out a minute before. We agreed she wasn’t going to be part of the weekend, I was going to hold him to that.
“The box stays out here,” I said, defiantly.
He laughed loudly as I took his hand. His fingertips were cool against my own; it was fascinating but not fascinating enough for me to forget how much he was laughing.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“It was never in the bedroom.” He grinned.
“Uh-huh.” I deliberately turned my back on him and walked down the hall. The cold tile floor tingled against my feet. I was undressing as I walked, slipping out of my shirt and then bra, leaving them behind for him to follow. There was no good way to get out of a pair of pants while you walked though, so I entered the bedroom bare from the waist.
Jakob’s bedroom was far too utilitarian for my tastes. It held the wide king sized bed on a simple modern frame and two matching side tables that were required to make it a bedroom but little else. The only decoration was a mirror hanging from one wall. It was all too neat; on top of the long dresser was a simple dark wooden box where he kept his watches and jewelry, all of it orderly. I kicked off my shoes and tossed them in the middle of the thick white carpet. It looked better, messy. I pulled off my pants and left them crumpled by the bed. That improved the room even more.
“Are you cluttering up my bedroom?” a smooth voice asked from the door way.
“Uh-huh.” I dropped my earrings on the side table on the right. I put my watch on the other table. “This room is entirely too organized.”
“It serves its purpose,” he said.
“Life isn’t just about serving a purpose,” I said, trying to make my voice seductive. He was standing by the bed, and I raised myself up on my knees. I was the perfect height to look into his wonderful blue eyes. I could get lost in them for hours, in those many crystalline patterns the light blues chasing the dark in swirls and dips. My fingers worked at his tie.
“That’s what my life was about before I met you.”
&
nbsp; “Aren’t you glad I changed all that?” I threw the tie, and it fluttered down to land somewhere by my shoes. Oh yes, that was much better.
“More glad than you’ll ever know.”
“Why don’t you show me?” I teased, slipping his shirt from his shoulders, letting it fall on top of my pants.
His hands caught me and pulled me toward him hungrily. He kissed me, his tongue invading my mouth, and then pulled back for a long slow kiss. I felt the silky touch of his tongue on my lips, tasting me, teasing me with a tender caress. His hand moved to the small of my back and he tenderly pressed me back on to the bed, kissing me the whole time. He broke the kiss and moved his mouth down to my neck, leaving me gasping for air. In another second his mouth was on my breast, kissing a line of fire down to my nipple.
I moaned and pushed myself forward. I wanted him, I wanted him close to me, wanted him to be mine forever. My hands stole to the waist band of his pants, but the more his tongue captured the less I could focus.
“Damn it, take it off.” My voice was rough with passion. He looked up at me with a mischievous grin and then disappeared. I barely had time to see the thick mist in front of me, to feel its cold on my skin, before he was back, solid and wonderfully nude on top of me. Only the fabric of his clothes, left behind when he’d changed, was between us. I pushed them out of the way, not bothering to see where the undershirt and all the rest of it landed.
The clothes distracted me too long, leaving me unprepared for the feeling of his finger tips on my thigh. His hand was dancing, exploring up the side of my leg, barely touching those delicate places in the center of me. I was wet there, ready for him, wanting his touch.
I told him as much, my breath ragged as I begged him, “please, please there.” He nodded, his eyes on mine as his fingers dipped inside the hot flesh. His hands moved with expert motions, rubbing the spot that made nothing else in the world matter. My focus narrowed as he continued his caress. The pleasure began to build inside me, filling me until there was nothing left. My breathing increased; I was hungry for air but enjoying everything too much to notice. It felt so good, too good I realized, my body was close, on the edge of that cliff where all that would matter was how I felt.
Fire in Her Blood Page 8