Scent of a White Rose

by Tish Thawer

  "I'm fine. Now that I'm awake, when I think about what happened all I get is the image of Terrance and I locked in our embrace. For some reason I don't see the image of that woman. It's almost like it's now blocked from me."

  "Terrance said that he isn't purposely hiding anything from us. That when he thinks back to the woman you mentioned things just become fuzzy."

  "I don't know what's going on, but Dax, I'll admit I was scared. But now I'm pissed. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before. Something strange is going on and we need to figure it out fast."

  Dax hugged me tightly. "We'll figure it out Evie. I promise."

  I didn't doubt him; I never did. Dax was the love of my life, and for a vampire, that's saying something. It had taken 327 years for me to find the perfect man to become my consort. It happened in 1162 A.D. when I was in Ireland. I had been on my way to find a boat to the Americas, and that's when I had first seen Dax.

  He was working at the docks, and for the first time since becoming a vampire, I actually felt out of control. The pull that I felt towards him was like gravity. He was so beautiful: his sculpted body, his buzz cut brown hair, and those sparkling brown eyes had me postponing my trip just so I could stay and watch him.

  I followed him for three days, but after several silent trips back and forth through the shadows, I knew this was the man I wanted to share eternity with. He was masculine, kind, and had a great sense of humor. But I didn't think I could bring myself to actually kill someone and force them into a life with me without them having any say. The next day this concern was eliminated for me.

  There was an accident on the docks. One of the pulleys that held the ropes that were used to lift heavy containers onto the ship broke. I watched in horror as the large wooden crate headed straight for Dax. He didn't move fast enough and it landed on him, crushing his legs.

  I didn't take time to think, but instead used my vampire speed and strength to toss the crate aside, scoop him up, and run until we were safe in the woods outside of town, all of which took about ten seconds.

  Dax was of course in shock, but after explaining what I was and how by changing him I could save his legs, he agreed to become my vampire consort.

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Bad Ass

  (Rose)

  After bidding Jillian goodbye and thanking her parents for having me yet again, Dad and I headed home. We had stopped for takeout on the way, and were now sitting at home finishing out our Saturday evening by eating Chinese food and telling each other how our weekends had gone.

  "Did you have fun with Jill this weekend?"

  I wasn't sure if Jillian's parents told my dad that we had "gone to the movies" or not, but I didn't think so. He had always been pretty good about trusting them to watch out for me, so I decided not to share this little tidbit. "Yeah, it was okay, we really didn't do much Friday night, but today Jill and I went looking at apartments."

  I knew this wasn't a topic that he wanted to ever discuss, but too bad. After Christian and my little argument over it, I was still feeling a little jaded about the subject. It was time I stood up for myself, even if that meant having an argument with my dad.

  Dad took a deep breath. "I know that you turn twenty-one in April and then graduate in May. And I know I said that you could move out once you had graduated. But Rose, don't you think it's still a little too soon after everything that's happened?"

  "I don't think so, Dad. I'm a responsible girl, and I know Mom would want us to move on with our lives and that is exactly what I'm trying to do." I set my fork down, shifted in my chair, and met Dad's gaze. "I could have easily given up on everything when she died. And there were times when I thought I wanted to, but I didn't. Instead, I kept getting out of bed every morning, I kept going to school every day, and I kept getting good grades so I could get a good job after college even though I don't need to. I want to live my life Dad, and that involves me growing up and moving out."

  The more I thought about Christian and my dad having a problem with this, the quicker my temper continued to rise. "And if I can be honest here, I'm feeling really stifled with how protective you've become. You just said it yourself; I'm going to be twenty-one soon, and I really don't feel like I should be forced to have a sleepover every time you head out of town." I shoved the chair back from the table and stood up, continuing my rant as I cleared the dishes away. "As a matter of fact, I want to buy a car. I'm sick of being driven around by your guard dog for hire, or having to bum a ride with Jillian." I was on a roll. I wasn't sure where this newfound strength was coming from, but I was happy to have found it. It felt good to get all this off my chest. Dad, on the other hand, was looking at me like I'd just lost my mind.

  He sat there stunned for a few moments while I leaned back on the counter. I had almost sounded like a badass; now I was trying to look the part. It didn't work.

  "You know that I've always been proud of how you pulled yourself together after what happened. And I'm even prouder that you want to get a job after you graduate instead of living off of your settlement money. But that doesn't mean I will ever stop being your father, and with that comes the right to not only protect you from others, but to protect you from yourself. I just don't think you're ready to be out on your own yet." He finished with a very stern voice, stood up and dropped his plate in the sink with a loud crash.

  My dad wasn't someone who showed anger very often, but I could tell that my little speech had pissed him off. "I can't believe you are coming at me with this kind of attitude. We haven't even had a single conversation about me buying you a car, or you moving out, and the first time you want to talk about it, you act like this? Not the brightest move, Rose."

  "It looks like we are having a conversation about it right now! And I'm sorry if I have an attitude. I'm just trying to talk to you about my future, but for some reason you refuse to acknowledge that I have one! Plus, I don't need you to buy me a car, I can buy it myself!" Now I was the one who was pissed. "I'm so sick of being the sweet little girl who does just what Daddy says."

  Dad opened his mouth as if he was about to yell back at me, then shook his head, took a deep breath, and slowly walked in my direction. "Rose, I'm sorry," he started as he placed both hands on my shoulders, "I just don't think I'll ever get past seeing you as my little girl. And you're right; you've been dealing with the brunt of the fear that I've been fighting since your mother's death, and it's not fair to you. How about on Monday I pick you up from school and we go car shopping? Then we can talk about this apartment idea of yours."

  Wow. That was quite a turnaround. Not that I wasn't grateful for the change in his perspective, but I had a feeling things weren't going to go as smoothly as he was making them sound. "Okay. That sounds great actually." I tried to keep my voice steady and strong, when really, I was so excited about the idea of getting a new car that I wanted to squeak and squeal.

  Dad hugged me and moved off to put away his left over Chinese food. I started to do the same when I heard a knock at the front door. Dad's head snapped up from the table. "Are you expecting someone?"

  "No, are you?"

  "No, I'm not. Get upstairs right now and don't come out of your room, no matter what you hear." Dad's voice was clipped, serious, and panicked. So much for making progress on his over protectiveness. For all we knew, it could just be a couple of Jehovah's witnesses, but he was acting like Satan was knocking at our front door.

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Complications

  (Christian)

  It seemed like everyone had risen at the same time today. We had all gotten up and moved through our usual routines fairly quickly and arrived outside Evie's door at practically the same time. I thought it was pretty obvious that we were all still concerned over what had happened and wanted to see if Evie had indeed risen tonight without any further complications.

  As we greeted each other with head nods, or slight shoulder bumps, we heard Evie
and Dax talking from within. Thank God she was awake.

  "Hey! Quit messing around in there. You've got a crowd of concerned people waiting out here." Tori announced.

  "Okay. Give us just a minute and then we'll meet you guys upstairs," Evie called out.

  Bobby wagged his eyebrows. "I bet it takes them more than a minute if you know what I mean."

  Everyone started laughing as we headed down the hall. Finding Evie awake and okay had definitely lifted our spirits. As we filed past Terrance's cell, we found him sitting on the floor, back resting against the wall. He gave us all a weak smile, then said, "I take it Evie woke up?"

  Everyone stopped and looked at me. I guess since I was the first vampire Evie had sired after Dax, it kind of put me "higher up" in our ranks, even though we didn't really have ranks.

  I gestured for everyone to head on up while I took a moment to answer Terrance and maybe ask a few questions of my own. "Yes, she woke up. We're heading upstairs to have a meeting about what happened."

  "Would it be too much to ask for you to let me know how the meeting goes?" Terrance sounded calm and collected. I supposed I would too if I was trying to get information out of someone.

  "Yeah, I don't know about that. Plus, you know that's something only Evie can decide."

  It only took him a second to launch himself at me, rattling the chains until they pulled tight. His eyes were glued to mine and he squinted slightly. I thought he was trying to attack me, so I landed a kick to his chest that sent him flying back into the cinderblock wall. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Every time I got near this guy he did something else to piss me off.

  He took a moment to right himself and stood with his back against the wall. "Huh. I guess I was wrong."

  I started to stomp into the cell. "What are you talking about? Wrong about what?" I was so over this asshole. All I wanted to do was land a few more punches before he answered, but his next statement stopped me in my tracks.

  "Wrong about the fact that you're going to become our new Sire." The deadpan look on his face was the only indication that he was serious.

  "You really are fucking crazy aren't you?" I turned to walk away when I heard him call out, "You've read my mind before Christian, and you were just able to go against Evie's command. What do you think that means?"

  Holy shit! I had just entered his cell against Evie's command. But me? Sire? I didn't think so. I hadn't shown any signs of developing powers, and Evie certainly hadn't reported that she had sensed I was the one being triggered. As for being able to enter the cell, I wondered if Evie's powers truly were fading. I was sure that it had nothing to do with me, and this was just another classic case of Terrance being his asshole self.

  As I reached the top of the stairs and emerged out from under the stage, I saw everyone sitting at one of the tables talking casually. Obviously, they hadn't noticed that Dax and Evie were huddled just inside Evie's office.

  The two must have used the passage that lead from the pit to her office to enter the club, and by the look of things they weren't quite ready to get this meeting started. Dax was frowning and Evie was shaking her head back and forth. I didn't think they were arguing, but it was pretty obvious that they didn't agree about something.

  "What did Terrance want?" Tori asked, pulling my attention away from the office.

  "Nothing really, he was just being an asshole. He asked if we could tell him what happens in this meeting." I wasn't going to tell them about Terrance's ludicrous comment about me becoming Sire...what was the point?

  "Yeah, right. Like that's going to happen. No way will Evie keep him updated on what's going on. Especially when what happened to her was his fucking fault." It was clear that Bobby was having a hard time controlling his anger; his hair kept drifting from blonde to brown and back again.

  "Yeah, that's pretty much what I told him," I said.

  Evie and Dax must have approached the table while Bobby was talking, because just then I heard Dax say, "I think we should deal with one thing at a time is all. Let's get to the bottom of what's happening with Terrance first, and then you can question Christian."

  I turned around to ask what they would need to question me about, only to find that they were still inside Evie's office. Evie looked up and met my eyes just as Dax started out the door.

  Something strange was definitely happening here. All vampires had the ability to hone-in and hear things from a distance, but you usually had to make a conscious effort to do so. And right now...my hearing had just zoomed in on something without my control. By the look on Evie's face, she knew what had just happened and she was concerned about it.

  Dax and Evie made their way over to the table and all the chatter quieted down. "I'll start by saying that I probably don't have the answers that you want, but I'll tell you everything I can remember," Evie stated. "First of all, I want you all to know that when I went down to talk to Terrance, I had no intention of delivering the true death, but when it became clear that he wasn't going to willingly give me the answers I was looking for, I decided to let him think that his time was at an end. At the last moment, I felt his mental shields give way, and that's when I struck. I tried to make him sing, and as you are all aware, that didn't work out very good for either of us." Evie looked around, making eye contact with everyone. "I want you to know that I had no idea that it would be so painful for Terrance. The last time I had to "make someone sing," they were weakened mentally and physically afterwards, but there was no evidence of actual pain. With Terrance however, you could tell by his screams that this was not the case."

  I could tell this was upsetting for her. She sounded guilty and almost apologetic, even though she had nothing to be sorry for. Terrance had brought this on himself as far as I was concerned.

  "The moment I penetrated his mind, I caught the image of him feeding off a woman in the dark. She was tall, thin, and had long, blonde hair from what I could tell. The moment that I locked on and tried to expand the image, Terrance's shield snapped into place, causing me a lot of pain, and then our connection was severed."

  We all sat there in silence, none of us really knowing what to say. I had never heard of anything like this and from the quiver in Evie's voice, neither had she.

  Bobby broke the silence by asking, "Did you recognize the woman?"

  "No. I didn't. I was hoping that I could have picked up on a name or something more specific, but as soon as the image started to sharpen, it was over and I was being knocked out."

  "Terrance says that whenever he thinks of that woman his thoughts go all fuzzy. Do you think that's the reason you were unable to wake up? Because of whatever weird effect this woman has on Terrance?" I asked.

  "I've been thinking a lot about that, and it definitely seems like the most logical answer. But I just can't figure out how the woman could be affecting Terrance or me." Evie looked up at Dax and smiled sweetly. "I thought that Terrance had started reveling in the kill and had figured out a way to hide things from us, but now I'm not so sure. I almost think that he may be just as much a victim in this situation as the girl in the woods. I hope everyone can understand that I feel we need to keep Terrance around until we can figure all of this out."

  Whether I was as convinced of Terrance's innocence or not, I knew it would make Dax feel better if Terrance ended up not being the bad guy we all thought he had become, and that made me happy. "Is there anyone that you can contact to see if something like this has ever happened before?" I asked.

  "Dax and I have discussed it, and we've decided that I should contact my Sire to see if he has ever heard of anything like this before. If something like this has ever been recorded, then I'm sure Balam will have heard about it. Now, let's go feed and get this club open. I know that this situation has everyone on edge, but I'm fine now, so there's no need to worry."

  I wasn't as convinced by Evie's pep talk as everyone else was, but that was because of what I had accidentally heard her and Dax discussing. I was going to approach her abou
t it, but then she and Dax started heading towards her office. I could only assume she was going to make the call to her Sire now and I certainly didn't want to delay that. We needed to get some answers as soon as possible. So instead, I headed out to feed along with Bobby, Dom and Tori.

  We usually were able to charm a few people in the park nearby, taking only our fill and then making them forget. No harm, no foul. I, for one, couldn't stand the idea of hurting anyone, and it wasn't my fault that I required blood to survive. So like most vampires, we fed only out of necessity and didn't hurt anyone in the process. We were almost complete opposites to the vampires of legend, but I wouldn't change a single thing. I was happy in this life, and I knew everyone else in our clan, Terrance notwithstanding, felt the same way.

  If Rose was eventually changed, I would be the happiest vampire alive...what a contradiction.

  * * * * *

  (Evie)

  "Dammit, Dax! I know Christian heard us talking from inside the office. I'm telling you, he is displaying signs that he's the one being triggered. I need to talk to him about it."

  "Evie, please. Let's get to the bottom of this thing with Terrance first. I will be just as happy as you if it is Christian that's being triggered, but right now you have to understand that I am a nervous wreck because of what happened to you. You have no idea what it was like sitting there next to you and not having a clue how to help. I thought I'd lost you." Dax pulled me close and I could feel him trembling slightly.

  Dax was right. The situation with Terrance needed to be our first priority, but for reasons I couldn't explain I felt a strong sense of urgency about Christian becoming our new Sire, and I couldn't deny that it had me on edge.

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER NINETEEN