by C. L. Quinn
Zach glanced back at Olivia. Beautiful, poised, confident, all things he loved in women. He should be inside her right now. Why wasn’t he? It had to be the dark hair that reminded him of Dez. Olivia even sported a hot pink streak down the side of her hair, something that Dez often did with blue or purple. If he dissected their voices, they even sounded alike, except for the fact that Dez’s accent was decidedly more cockney than Olivia’s. He shook his head. Whatever the reason, he knew he wasn’t staying.
Placing the empty whisky glass on a table near the bed, he smiled up at the lovely vampire.
“Thanks, it really is one of the best I’ve ever had.”
“Oh, I’ve got something better for you,” she whispered, her head lowered, intense eyes lifted to his.
“I bet you do. But, not tonight. Olivia, you are gorgeous, I know you don’t need me to tell you that. But I think I’ll go.”
He started past her when she wrapped her long legs around him and pulled him close.
“You really need to see what I mean by the best you’ve ever had.” Nuzzling into his neck, her teeth scraped his skin, her hot breath steamy against the scrapes.
Zach groaned softly as the movement and fangs shot to his groin. He could easily take her, he wanted to, but still, something felt off about being here with her. Just…weird. Although the feeling defied explanation, he’d learned to trust his instincts.
“I believe you. But it’s not the time. I’m still getting over someone.” Zach didn’t see the point in telling her that he’d had sex with at least a hundred women since he’d been with the woman he was really in love with.
Olivia tightened her legs around his waist and bit into his neck. The rush of sexual need and blood-desire filled Zach, his cock hard, his fangs down and ready.
“I know that you want me,” she whispered into his ear when she pulled back. “I can hear your mind begging you to take me to my bed.”
She could hear his mind? She was a mind-reader? Like Dez?
Pushing back, Zach had to power away from the grip her legs held around him, surprised at how strong the small vampire was. “What the hell do you mean? Are you first blood?”
Olivia’s eyes narrowed and she stared at him. “I don’t know what you mean, vampire, but I would love to try your blood. Come on, what the fuck went wrong here? You came with me, we’re both in need, both vampire. Why suddenly claim that you’re not interested? I can tell that you’re angry and confused, but why? And who is Dez?”
Backing away from Olivia as she dropped down from the dresser, Zach lowered himself to sit on the foot of the bed. “You really can read minds.” He looked up at her as she approached him. “You don’t know about the first blood vampires?”
Olivia shook her head. “No. Care to share?”
Zach closed his eyes. Should he? It wasn’t his secret to divulge. The first blood vampires needed and depended on privacy for survival, so he probably should keep his mouth shut. But that mind reading thing, that wasn’t normal vampire behavior. Dez could do it, and no one knew why, but he’d always suspected she had some kind of first blood link that no one knew existed…yet.
Now, to find a young vampire who reminded him more and more of Dez with each passing moment, and who had her same odd ability, it made his spidey sense tingle. Something was going on here, and while he didn’t know what it was, he only liked mysteries he could properly solve. He looked up as Olivia waited, her arms folded, her expression calm.
She ran her tongue around her lips before she spoke.
“Not sharing, then? Okay, look, if you’re not interested, although I happen to know that you are…” Her eyes dropped to his crotch, the bulge obvious. “Then we’re done here. Have a nice life.”
A second later, she pushed the button that engaged the hatch, and as it slid open almost soundlessly, she turned to him. “Go.”
Remaining silent for a few more minutes, Zach finally stood. “No. We should talk.”
“I didn’t bring you here to talk. Well, I did, but only as a secondary concern. I’m hungry and horny and if you aren’t interested, I don’t have a lot of time to look for another choice, so get your cute ass out of here, good luck with that Dez woman, and goodbye.”
“But…”
“What is it you’re not getting about this? You are freaking me out a little because I don’t know what your game is. This is simple. We eat, we fuck, we say thanks, we say good night, that’s how this was supposed to go. I hate complications.”
Olivia didn’t want to think about the fact that she wanted to talk with him about his blue eyes, to find out where he came from and perhaps get some insight into her own issues. She knew that her mind-reading talent wasn’t normal. In two centuries, she’d never met anyone who had a skill like it. Her sainted mother, God rest her soul, had tried to convince her that she was one of God’s children and as such, gifted with the ability to know the truth. That all sounded good, all wrapped up in a bow, but Olivia’s mother was a kind-hearted, gentle woman who loved her daughter more than anything on this earth and beyond, so she only saw the good in Olivia. And back then, good was the last thing that Olivia had been.
She’d been a wild girl, pushing her limits on everything in her young life, but she’d loved her mother with all of her heart. So when her mother died of consumption just after Olivia hit her twentieth year, she’d left Ireland and rarely gone back. Some years later, she’d become vampire and left all things human behind. While the memory of her mother and childhood were sweet, she did her best not to think of it. Now, with this man questioning her about her ability, she just wanted him gone and the subject unspoken and unexplored.
“Will you be moving on, then?”
“I really would like to talk.”
“No. If you don’t want dinner and a dip, then take off. Believe me when I say that I can make you leave.”
“Oh, I believe it. But we aren’t enemies, here, Olivia. What you might have seen in my mind is true, I’ve had a break-up with someone I am still very much in love with. You remind me of her. And, Olivia, she has the same talent that you do.”
Olivia froze. What? This woman, this Dez, had the same talent? Finally moving again, she walked towards him. “Who? This woman who spurned you? She can read thoughts?”
“She can. Very effectively. Obviously, you can too. That’s why I’d like to talk with you. We have something in common.” Zach paused, and grinned. “Spurned is a little harsh…and inaccurate.”
“You love her, but you’re not with her. I think I got it, stud.”
“It’s complicated.”
Olivia nodded slowly. “Yeah. I hate complicated.”
“Not a fan myself. So, can we talk? I’ll buy you dinner.”
“You bet your big ass you will. Okay, but I’m mostly listening.”
“That’s a start.”
Zach waved a hand to let her precede him up the stairs.
“What’s the nicest place in town?”
“Cirro’s. He came from Italy, opened a little place here thirty years ago, and stayed. Our gain, he’s amazing with a stove and oven.”
“Cirro’s, then. Shall we go?”
They retraced their steps and went back to the main street, past the tavern where they’d met, and stopped at a storefront with a wide glass window that highlighted a candlelit room with round tables and champagne-colored tablecloths.
As they entered, a loud voice boomed from the back of the empty restaurant. The man who came out of the darkness was slim, with a full mustache and a wide smile.
“My pretty, pretty girl. I am closing soon.”
“Cirro, please, for me and my new friend, another hour?”
Cirro’s smile slipped, and he scanned Zach from shoes to wild blonde hair that still looked like it had when he took his helmet off a few hours earlier. Zach thought he must have passed muster because the chef’s smile returned and he waved them to a table placed along the back wall.
“Si, I cannot ever tell you no.
Why is it, my little olive, that I can never tell you no?”
“My mesmerizing eyes?”
“That is it. Sit, sit. Do not look at the menu, I will bring you what you will love.”
The man disappeared as Zach pulled a chair out for Olivia. She looked up at him.
“Really? Wow, thanks. Hell, chivalry was dying when I was a girl, and that was a very long time ago.”
“How long?”
“Rude, asking a girl her age. But I’ll tell. Two centuries in three months. I’ve held up well, haven’t I?”
“You’re beautiful and you know it.”
“So…is she?”
The champagne napkin lying on the table in front of Zach was super soft and he busied his fingers smoothing the edges down. While he didn’t like to go into the failed relationship with Dez, her image was never far from his mind’s eye.
“Very. Like I said, you remind me of her. It’s probably the reason that I accepted your invitation at first. And probably the reason that I bailed when you took me home. I’m sorry. I hate when people carry baggage from one relationship to the next. But you two are eerily alike. The longer I spend time with you, the more I can see it. Then, there’s the mind-reading thing. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were her sister or daughter.”
“Ha! Well, we both know better.” Olivia swallowed her nearly full glass of red wine that Cirro had brought a few moments earlier, her eyes capturing Zach’s blue ones once again. “I’m glad we’re doing this. Even before you turned me down for sex, I wanted to ask you something. You’re curious about my talent, but I’m curious about your eyes. We both know that isn’t common for vampires either. If I talk to you about my history, will you tell me about yours? I can read thoughts, most of them, but my skill is unreliable and sometimes I only hear fragments. Otherwise, I’d just read it out of you. Like right now, you’re sending two words over and over…first bloods, first bloods. You asked me if I was one. So, do we have a deal?”
If there was ever a time to trust his vampire senses, this was it. Olivia’s enormous dark eyes were locked on his and somehow, strangely, he felt connected to her, almost like he did with Dez, as if his first blood DNA recognized something in her. It was ludicrous, of course, but he still felt strongly that there was something about this woman that made him trust her.
“Okay. We have a deal. I have blue eyes because I was changed by a second generation first blood vampire. Which…” Zach polished off his glass of wine. “Oh, that is really good wine. Anyway, first bloods. You haven’t heard of them before?”
“I really haven’t.”
“Most vampires don’t know they exist, other than by legend. In the same way that vampires keep their existence hidden from normal humans, first bloods generally do the same from everyone, including vampires. As the term may indicate, they are a select few vampires who, literally, are the first vampires. They’re the parents of all other vampires. They’re ancient, beautiful, and much more powerful than we are. They have talents, abilities, that vampires don’t normally have. Like mind-reading. That’s even rare amongst first bloods, but you, not a first blood, have evolved that skill. You see why I’m curious.”
Cirro arrived with a big basket filled with a variety of warm breads and another bottle of wine.
“Cirro knows my appetite,” Olivia commented to Zach and turned to her host. “Cirro, bella, bella…ummm, the bread smells divine.”
“Only the best for my favorite guest,” he answered with appreciation. “Now, for the main event, another fifteen minutes.”
As Cirro went back into the kitchen, Olivia tore a large hard bread in two, steam pumping from the inside.
“This, you must try.” She moaned as she bit into half and handed the other half to Zach. “How old are you, Zach?”
“Young. Very. Five years.”
“Wow. A baby. Sorry, no offense.”
Zach smiled. “None taken. I’ve been called that before.”
Olivia watched his eyes. “By the woman you love.”
“She is…not known for subtlety. But she’s warm-hearted, against her will, and loving.”
“Why did she leave you?”
“She didn’t. I left her.”
“Ah, now I’m fascinated. You are in love with her, but you left her. Did she cheat on you? Because, Zach, that’s not always a deal breaker in the vampire world.”
“It is for me. But, no, she didn’t cheat on me. Like I said, it was complicated. Someday, I hope it won’t be.”
“You’ll return to her.”
“If destiny sets us back on course.”
Olivia laughed. “Destiny? You believe in that crap?”
“I’ve seen it. Maybe not everyone has a destiny, but in the world of the first blood vampires, I’ve seen its hand. There are forces guiding this world.”
“I wouldn’t have guessed such a big, butch vampire would believe in magic and divine destiny. Interesting. So, you’re close with these first vampires?”
“I am. Although how it all happened, that was pretty weird too. The first blood who changed me, her name is Park, believes that I was always destined to be exactly where I was at that moment, and become exactly who I have. She’s pretty amazing, so I’m inclined to believe her.”
Olivia leaned in, her elbow on the table, her face just inches from Zach’s. “Huh. Zach, the baby vampire, has a magnificent destiny. Fascinating.”
Pitching a flaccid breadstick at her, Zach groaned. “I didn’t say it was magnificent, I said she thought that I was there for a reason. It might just be so that I can be there to take out her trash someday.”
Olivia laughed, a truly joyous laugh that made Zach smile again. There really was something about this woman that intrigued him.
“Your turn,” he said, pointing at her with another breadstick, this one he popped in his mouth. “I kept my part of the deal.”
Nodding, Olivia poured another full glass of wine. “Fair enough. I was raised by a single mother in a time when that wasn’t at all acceptable. I was a bastard and no one had any use for me or for her. But she was a kind, sweet woman, and I never felt anything less than loved. My ability was there even as a child. I would read her and she would look at me like I was an alien, but then she’d wrap me up in her arms and tell me that I was beautiful and special. When I was older, she always told me that my skill was a gift from God, but that I should never let anyone else know about it. I never did. Not while she was alive. Not while I was human. She died before I became vampire. So you are only the fifth person I have ever told about my talent.” Olivia stopped talking and concentrated on the bread again. Minutes later she looked up at Zach. “I don’t know why.”
The double doors to the kitchen burst open and Cirro came out carrying a tray laden with plates. Zach stood and helped him as he brought the heavy tray down to table level.
“Holy shit, buddy. This is an unexpected volume of food. And, God, does it smell good.”
The next half hour was a barely civilized glutton-fest, the like Zach had not seen since Bas’s house in Vancouver where he’d been changed. His belly satisfied and full, he sat back and used the old standard for indicating he’d overindulged and was happy about that, he unbuttoned the top button of his jeans and stuck his stomach out as far as it could go.
“Cirro, that was unimaginably incredible. You are an artist.”
Cirro beamed, refilling Zach’s wine glass. “I live to see a man or woman smile like this. Grazie.”
“Then you will live a long and fulfilling life, sir.”
Olivia pushed her chair back from the table. “As usual, you never disappoint. We’ll get out of here and let you get home to your wife.”
“Let me make you a basket of the leftovers.”
“You are my hero, Cirro.”
Olivia looked at Zach, reared back in his chair, his hand on his still flat stomach, and licked her lips, her eyes on his.
“Why don’t you stay in my place today? It’s secure, you
need that. And I promise I won’t assault you. You gave your room key to the cute guy with the long hair, so he probably has someone staying over.”
His belly filled, his head sloshing from the abundance of alcohol he’d had tonight, Zach nodded. “Yeah, okay, but, keep that promise.”
“I never break my promises. I learned a long time ago, when you’re immortal, honor means everything. I have no time for those who lie and cheat.”
Zach watched the beautiful woman as she pulled her jacket back on to prepare to go back out into the cool night.
“You’re a spellbinding woman. I’m glad we met.”
Olivia smiled. “I think we may have some interesting moments ahead. Keep your eye on me, vampire.”
“Not a hard task.”
Cirro brought a large basket covered with a checkered cloth and handed it to Zach. He kissed him lightly on each cheek, did the same with Olivia, and led them to the door.
“You must bring your handsome beau back, my dear,” he said to Olivia.
“He’s just a new friend, my dear man,” Olivia answered. “Good night, Cirro.”
Moments later, the hatch back in place, the basket secured in Olivia’s large refrigerator, she waved a hand to the bed. “Plenty of room, vampire.”
Zach nodded. “Clothes on, though, okay?”
With the lights out, settling in on one side of Olivia’s huge bed, Zach rolled over away from her. He felt her breath seconds later on his neck.
“You’re sure?” She whispered.
“Yes. It would be like cheating on Dez with her doppelgänger.”
“All right, all right. Good night, party pooper.”
Zach fell asleep immediately in the dim lighting of the room. When he woke, he knew it was night again, so he sat up and looked around the room. He liked Olivia’s taste, the colors tranquil, the room welcoming. Glancing down at her, pressed against him, her warmth felt nice.
With daylight gone, Zach rose and found a state-of-the-art coffee maker and started a brew. He glanced over at Olivia, still sleeping soundly, the sheet wrapped around her body, a naked breast peeking out. He rolled his eyes. At what point she’d gotten up and undressed he did not know.