by C. J. Pinard
“Vampire,” Jonathan said.
Tyler nodded. “Yep, then the little bastard flung his eyes open and they were beyond frightening. All black like an alien or something, and his fangs were so vicious-looking! He hopped off the damn drawer table and launched himself at me. He bit me on the shoulder. I thought I’d died and gone to hell. As I was kicking and punching, trying to get him off, two men entered the room and pulled him off me. One of the men shot the vampire with what I later learned was a UV gun. He was out cold again, thank God, and by the time he came to, they had him in iron cuffs.”
“Who were the men that pulled him off you?” Thomas asked.
“BSI. Of course I had no idea who or what they even were. They just told me they were from the Justice Department investigating the shooting. Of course I thought this was odd since Oakland PD usually asked the questions, especially when it came to low-level nobody punk kids getting shot, like I thought this guy was.”
Kathryn grinned. “I knew it. Let me guess, they didn’t give you much choice about continuing on with your life?”
Tyler grinned. “Three choices, actually. They told me I could be the hospital’s BSI Liaison, or I could quit practicing medicine and join the BSI – and that one was kind of tempting, I won’t lie – or he would put me in touch with a coven of people who could use my talents. After getting more information about the last option, it’s the one I chose.”
“I assume you’ve met the queen, Malina then?” Thomas asked.
“Yes. She’s gorgeous, congratulations, man.”
Thomas flushed slightly. Smiling, he forked some eggs into his mouth.
∞∞∞
Newcastle, England – 1814
Once the family arrived back at home, Jonathan paid the carriage driver and sent him on his way without an explanation. To say Jonathan couldn’t care less about him was an epic underestimation.
As they went inside, Janie went into her room and Ben went into the kitchen and heated water for tea. The handsome teen was a spitting-image of his father, tall with wavy, dirty blonde hair and bluish-gray eyes. He was still in his thin, lanky stage but it was clear he would fill out nicely, just like his old man.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Ben asked boldly.
Jonathan sat at the dining room table. He ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. He had to admit that the little scuffle with the shifters had help to blow off some steam. And he was positively not going to report it to the damned council. He couldn’t care less about them right now, either.
“Yes, son, please sit.”
Jonathan sat and explained everything to Ben, starting at the very beginning. What Emma really was, the Zie Council, the vampires, the shapeshifters, and finally, his immortality.
Jonathan had never, ever planned on telling any of his children about any of this. He was planning on disappearing or faking his own death in about ten years when the kids were grown and he was supposed to look fifty but still looked thirty-five. He had plans on taking a boat to the New World and seeing what America had to offer. He had a feeling all that might change now.
Ben said nothing to his dad about the facts he had just heard. He simply went into the kitchen and prepared two cups of tea. He brought the steaming china cups over to the table and set them back down. Then he sat in the heavy wooden chair and took a sip from his own cup, not looking at his father.
Jonathan frowned a little, and when he couldn’t stand the silence any longer, he said, “Son, want to tell me what’s going on in that brain of yours?”
Ben looked at his dad, his eyes welling up with tears as one escaped and cascaded down his cheek. “Father, I think you need to speak to a head doctor. I’m afraid you are sick.”
Jonathan let out a humorless laugh. “But son, you saw with your own eyes. Did you not bear witness to those animals I killed in the forest tonight?”
“Father, Janie and I were quarrelling in the carriage for the majority of the time you were out there chasing ghosts. I heard a scream, and when I peered out, all I could see was you kicking a dead, nude woman, after stabbing her. Then you went and grabbed the head of her mate, throwing it at a tree. Why would you kill unarmed, unclothed people? What could they have ever done to you to warrant such violence?”
Jonathan just sighed and took a drink of his tea. He decided the plan to fake his own death wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
It just seemed it would be happening sooner than later.
CHAPTER 15
∞∞∞
Portland, Oregon – Present Day
Weeks had passed since the vampires’ discovery of Bryan’s sunlight-resistant body. Pascal put him on a pedestal. Despite his young vampire age, he was promoted to Lieutenant in their little vampire organization.
Smith was disappointed and bitter, but Joshua – oh, he burned with pure, unadulterated rage. How dare he! Joshua thought. He had been a faithful foot-solider all this time, and here comes Bryan to practically take over. The kid was stupid and shy and had no business running any part of the Portland Clan.
As the weeks passed, Pascal, Angel, and Mike recruited more new vampires from the club and turned all of them at the Oregon Vortex. It was like they had a new toy to play with, and couldn’t get enough of it. Pascal now had a dozen new vampires who weren’t restricted by daylight. It was as if he was creating an army.
And maybe he was.
Pascal had turned his new recruits into his personal servants. While the older vampires slept during the day, he had his newborns renovating the house. By the end of two months, the house had been restored to its original beauty with some modern flair: new paint, the porch repaired, landscaping done. Even the inside was redone; new floors, new curtains, new paint. Pascal called a shutter company to install custom wood plantation shutters on the inside of the house that fit perfectly on the windows to keep out the light during the day, should the older vampires wish to meander the house during the daytime hours.
Joshua wondered why Pascal hadn’t bothered to just hire humans to do these things before he turned all his precious new vampires. Then he decided it was because not only was Pascal a smug, undead bastard, he was also a cheap bastard.
He hated Pascal.
He hadn’t slept again with Angel. One night, while Pascal and Mike had taken the newborns to Night Crawlers, Joshua opted to stay home, as did Angel. He knew she was staying in to dye her platinum hair (no hair salons were open late enough for her). Tonight she decided to dye two large pink chunks which hung down either side of her face. Joshua thought it looked stupid but didn’t dare say anything, lying straight to her face about how great it looked when she asked.
After she was done with her hair, she sat on the sofa, watching a mindless reality show and Joshua sat next to her and rubbed her leg. She froze, but did not stop him. He then leaned over and smelled her neck, savoring her. He ran his tongue along her neck, then moved his hand up her thigh slowly.
Indecision crept into her face and she grabbed his hand, her black fingernails digging into it. “Stop it.”
Joshua pulled his face from her neck. He was preparing to bite as her command came. “What’s the matter, Angel?” he whispered with a ragged breath.
She scooted a little bit away from him, her black pleather pants squeaking against the new red leather couch. “Because. I think Pascal knows what happened a few weeks ago,” she said quietly.
Joshua’s green eyes grew wide. “What do you mean? How?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know, I just do. He’s acting differently. I can’t put my finger on it, and until I figure it out, you need to stay away from me. Pascal has zero patience or tolerance, and is very possessive of me, as you have already figured out,” she finished.
“I seriously doubt he knows,” Joshua replied, his face grave.
“Yes, well I’m not taking any chances. Now leave me alone, Joshua.” She folded her arms over her large chest, then picked up the remote and pretended to care
about the trashy show that was blaring from the flat screen.
∞∞∞
The new boxing ring in the Murphy Architecture’s gym had just been completed. Mirrors covered every wall, and the new ring was outfitted with the strongest ropes made. Jonathan had snapped more than a few in his time, and was tired of replacing them. He hoped the new ones would hold.
However, today was not boxing day for him. He stood in a black Nike tracksuit, holding a stopwatch, while he watched Tyler and Thomas on round five in the ring. Sweat dribbled off of Thomas’s black hair. He was wearing only a pair of red gym shorts and red boxing gloves. He drooled as he couldn’t quite close his mouth around the mouthpiece.
Beads of perspiration glinted off his head in the fluorescent lights as Tyler swayed his shoulders and loosened up his neck, preparing for the next round. He wore shiny blue shorts and blue gloves. He resembled Muhammad Ali as he bounced from foot to foot.
“Go!” Jonathan said, clicking the button on the stopwatch with his thumb.
Tyler popped his mouthpiece back in and grinned under it. They both bobbed around the ring, then Thomas took a face swing at him. He missed as Tyler ducked and punched Thomas in the gut.
Thomas doubled over, panting, but got up quickly. That was the fourth stomach punch and he’d had it. It was time to pull out the big guns.
As Tyler straightened back up, Thomas flashed behind him and hit him with the signature kidney punch.
Tyler let out a loud curse and fell down, panting.
Jonathan laughed and went over to the ring. “That’s enough, boys. Go get cleaned up. We’ll call it a tie this time.”
“Cheater,” Tyler mumbled to Thomas.
Thomas grinned as he pulled his gloves off and threw them in a basket. “A wise man once told me we all have talents and should use them!”
Tyler rolled his eyes and disappeared into the locker room.
Thomas followed, anxious to shower off.
“Wait, I need to speak to you,” Jonathan said, grabbing Thomas’s sweaty arm.
Thomas wiped his head with a towel then slung it around his neck. “What’s up, boss?”
“What do you think of the new kid? Think we can trust him?”
“I don’t see why not. The council appointed him. Plus he’s a doctor; he will be invaluable over the years.” Thomas took a swig from a plastic water bottle, looking at Jonathan.
Jonathan just nodded.
“We done for the day? You know I have a big night ahead,” Thomas asked, grinning.
Jonathan snorted. “Yeah. And I can’t believe you’re going through with that.”
∞∞∞
Thomas pulled up in front of Malina’s apartment complex. She no longer lived in the small house in the Wetlands with her friend, Serina, as Serina had been promoted to queen in the Southern U.S. territory. Malina decided to move to Portland into a brand new apartment complex in the suburbs. The council had begged her to move to the island but she refused. The convenience of portals aside, she didn’t want to live that far from her love.
Thomas parked the BMW and took the elevator to the third floor. He stopped in front of her door, adjusting his black suit jacket and smoothing out his navy blue shirt before pushing the buzzer.
Malina peered through the peephole before answering.
She opened the door wearing a very short, form-fitting purple dress. This was accented by white pumps on her dainty feet and a white shrug around her shoulders. Her long, brown hair was uncharacteristically down, waves falling gracefully around her shoulders. She smiled at him.
Thomas gasped involuntarily. She literally took his breath away.
Finding his words, he offered her an elbow and said, “You are a vision.”
Her face flamed at the compliment.
“Shall we?” he asked, escorting her down to the car.
After a few quiet minutes in the car, she turned to him and said, “Are you really not going to tell me where we’re going?”
He smiled sardonically. “Nope.”
She sighed and continued looking straight ahead, knowing him well enough to realize she shouldn’t even counter with another question.
When he took the exit to the airport, Malina looked over to him and said, “Please tell me we’re not taking an airplane somewhere?”
He bit back a grin but said nothing.
“Thomas Joseph O’Malley! You know I don’t like airplanes!”
He chuckled, “Of course you don’t; you’ve never been in one. When would you ever have had reason to?”
“They scare me,” she whispered.
He parked in the short-term lot and went around to open her door. Helping her out of the car, he said, “Tonight you will have nothing to fear, for you will be with me.”
They walked into the airport, and passing the big-name airline ticket counters, they headed for the chartered flights. They were quickly escorted through to a private tarmac.
“A small plane, Thomas? Really?” Malina measured a glare at him.
“I figured a smaller plane would be less scary than a bigger plane for you,” he said.
“Not funny.”
The plane ride to San Francisco International Airport was only an hour or so. Landing safely, a limousine met them on the tarmac. An Asian man in chauffer’s clothing and cap opened the door for them.
Once inside, the driver asked, “Where to, sir?”
“Fisherman’s Wharf, please,” Thomas replied. Then he turned to Malina. “That plane ride wasn’t so bad, was it?”
Malina looked at him. “No, I suppose not. But I could have taken us here in a split second, you must know.”
He laughed. “Of course, but it’s time I do something for you for a change.”
She just smiled. “This is so wonderful, Thomas. Thank you. You know how I love San Francisco so.”
“Of course I do, my love,” he said, grabbing her hand and kissing it. “It’s been six months since our first kiss so I thought we’d celebrate.”
She glanced at him from under her lashes. “My, aren’t we a sentimental one.”
“I suppose.”
The driver dropped them at Castagnola’s Seafood restaurant where they enjoyed mussels and wine.
“So, Tom, how long are we staying in the city?”
“As long as you wish to, gorgeous. Jonathan’s busy with his new recruit, so I doubt he’d even miss me.”
She laughed. “How is Dr. James working out? You have no idea how thrilled the council was to find a doctor who was also an Immortal. I had to do quite a bit of politicking to get him away from Northern California, you know.”
“Well, he seems nice, and very eager to learn. I think he’ll be a valuable asset to us. Jonathan’s anxious to teach him how to fight,” Thomas said.
Malina laughed. “Well from what I’ve seen, Jonathan loves to teach everyone how to fight.”
The waiter brought the bill to Thomas. Once he paid it, they left the restaurant and strolled hand in hand along the Wharf.
They came to a pier where a large blue and yellow boat was docked. It was nighttime and the boats had stopped running for the night, but it appeared there was a man on the boat. He disembarked, hopping over ropes to greet Thomas.
He was a short, older man, gray poking out from a black and orange Giants hat, a black pullover hoodie covering his large belly. He wiped his hands on his jeans, then put one out. “You must be Mr. O’Malley. I’m Jim, I’ll be your captain.”
Malina whipped her head to Thomas. “Captain? We’re not getting on that thing, are we?” She pointed at the bobbing ferry boat that sat on the choppy black water.
“Yes, my love, we are. Just humor me, okay?”
She shook her head, curls bouncing. “Boy, I must really love you to get into an airplane and onto a boat in the same day.”
Both men helped Malina onto the ferry. Jim started it up and they took off. A ring of white lights lined the ship’s railing. Thomas stood behind Malina, his arms around her
waist as they looked out over the choppy bay.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
“A little, but I’m okay.” She paused a minute. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” he grinned.
After about twenty minutes, the ferry pulled up to Alcatraz Island. As they exited the ferry, Thomas ordered Jim not to go anywhere.
“No problem, Mr. O’Malley,” Jim replied.
The old prison had been closed for over forty years and now belonged to the Park Service, who had turned it into a tourist trap, offering tours during the daylight hours. It was deathly quiet at this time of the night, however.
Malina let out an involuntary shudder. “Tom, what are we doing here?”
He grabbed her hand. “Follow me.”
Having no choice, she faithfully followed as he walked her up several inclining walkways that led to the top of the prison’s structure, which gave a breathtaking view of the San Francisco shoreline. The city’s busy lights twinkled, splashing off the water below them. An icy wind blew, chilling them both.
“Wow, this is quite the view,” she breathed. She turned to look at Thomas and saw he was no longer at eye level. She dipped her head to see he was down on one knee. She gasped, her hands finding their way to her mouth.
“Malina, I have never been happier in my entire long life. Forty years ago, we stood on this very terrace and something sparked inside of me, and for forty years I have regretted not telling you right then and there that I was indescribably and unfathomably in love with you. I vow today to not ever have any more regrets for as long as I live. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
He pulled out a small black box which contained a gorgeous platinum ring, a princess cut diamond perched on top of it.
She stood open-mouthed, then gasped.