She had no answer because even she didn’t know what the appeal was. “I don’t know. I’m thinking it is because I have admired him from afar for so long…it’s kind of a thrill!”
“A thrill for you, but in the meantime he is getting attached to you. Either way, this won’t end well…”
“Don’t you need to get down to makeup or something?” She asked, trying to get him out of her hair.
He rolled his eyes with a smirk, got up from the chair, and walked over to her. He towered directly in front of her, used a finger to tilt her chin up, and gave her a soft kiss. “Whatever happens…I just hope I will always be your number one.”
She reached up to put her arms around his neck, “You should never doubt that. The reason you are what you are is because I loved you too much to let go when I should have.”
Todd and Emma were cruising south towards Chicago in the Roadster and he could see the city lights coming closer with each passing minute. He took pictures while she drove, including a quick one of her profile while she laughed. Once arriving in the city, they valeted the car and set off on a small walking tour. Going down Michigan Avenue, they stopped into some of the stores along the way and walked a half mile until they reached the Chicago River. Todd stopped to take pictures of the Wrigley Building and the Tribune Tower, while Emma suggested they catch the water taxi right and take it over to Navy Pier.
After the short ride to Navy Pier, they strolled along the boardwalk, checking out the little shops and kiosks and made their way to the 150-feet high ferris wheel.
“It’s a seven-minute ride around, you’re not afraid of heights, are you?” Emma asked as they waiting in line, holding hands.
“Nah, I like heights actually. We’ll probably get a great view of the skyline from up there, right?”
“It’s gorgeous, have your camera ready!” She responded as they climbed into their slow-moving gondola.
They sat next to each other; Todd had one arm around her and the other one was taking pictures of the beautifully lit up Chicago skyline. As they inched toward to the top, he looked down at her and began to kiss her sweetly, slowly. He set his camera down on his lap and used his now free hand touch the side of her face. The crisp breeze seemed a bit stronger from that high up and, being right on the lakefront, it gently rocked the gondola. With the wind blowing directly onto them, her skin felt like ice under his fingers.
He pulled her closer to him and stated, “We’ve got to get you warm, you’re like a popsicle. Are you okay?”
She snuggled in closer and replied, “I’m fine, I’m used to it.”
They sat quietly for a moment before he took in a slow breath, “I don’t know how I’m going to say goodbye to you in January…”
This was like a fork in her heart and she felt the pang of his dread. At that moment she knew she should have never pursued him. “Don’t think about that, just enjoy being in the now. And it will never be ‘goodbye’, we’ll be friends for the rest of your life.”
He chuckled, “You sound pretty certain that you’re going to outlive me.”
With amusement in her eyes, she answered, “I’d put money on it.”
Chapter 10
Todd and Emma decided to take a walk along the lakefront after they left Navy Pier. This time of year you didn’t find too many people near the beach this late at night, so it was the perfect alone time for them. It was something she rarely got since other vampires with sonic hearing lived in the Manor with her.
They strolled arm-in-arm like they did the first time they spent time together touring the outer property of the Manor. They spoke of their childhoods; his growing up in London as an only child and she basically spoke of her experience during Daniel’s childhood. She told him of Daniel’s difficulty dealing with their parents’ death and that he nearly quit showbiz when he began to spiral into a depression. But, as it turned out, the best anti-depressant for him was getting back to work and being surrounded by his friends from the Ticking Through Time films.
A short way in the distance was a group of six young men in their early twenties walking towards them, clearly drunk and obnoxious. Todd was speaking, but she had stopped listening to him so she could eavesdrop on what they were saying. She snapped to attention when she over-heard one talk about jumping and robbing them.
“Let’s turn around and head back, I don’t like the looks of these guys coming towards us and there’s no one else around,” she interrupted him.
They casually turned around and began to walk the other way when she heard the men trying to quietly run up behind them. Her natural instinct was to turn around and defend herself, but she knew that if she did that Todd would know that she certainly wasn’t human. She was just going to have to let things happen as they may and try to defend herself and Todd the best as humanly possible. This was not a good situation and for the first time in nearly two-hundred years, she was scared. She heard the men approaching fast and they both turned around to look behind them.
The leader, who was shorter than Todd, but stocky, shoved him to the ground while another guy grabbed Emma and positioned himself behind her. He used the strength of his arms wrapped around her to hold hers down, thinking she was defenseless. The third man ripped her purse from her grasp and laughed. Todd managed to get back up and fight his attacker, but he was outnumbered as the others joined in. One threw a punch so hard it knock him back down onto the ground and the others began to kick him in the stomach, back, and head. Emma struggled like a lady against the man holding her, knowing she could rip him to shreds within a blink of an eye.
One of Todd’s attackers grabbed his wallet out of his pocket as the others continued to kick and pound him. His screams of pain were getting weaker and Emma could hear the gurgling inside him—he was bleeding internally. They finally let up on him, leaving him completely defenseless to protect Emma.
She could feel her assailant pushing his groin into her back, mock-humping her. “We should have some fun with this pretty, little thing,” he laughed to his buddies, who all started to surround her. One grabbed her breast and another tried to forcefully kiss her mouth while groping at her crotch. She pursed her mouth shut and turned her head, trying to squirm away from his face that reeked of beer. The defensive rage was rapidly building in her and she didn’t know how much longer she could “play human”. Todd struggled to get up, fiercely trying to protect her from possibly getting raped.
“You just don’t know how to stay down, do you asshole?” The original said through his teeth and turned back to Todd. Once again, they began to kick and beat him furiously.
Emma’s natural instinct took over and she no longer allowed herself to fight it. If she held on to her self-control, Todd was likely to get beaten to death. She opened her mouth, descended her fangs, and let her fury explode. She flung her arms upward in a flash, breaking the man’s grip on her, startling him. She turned around and savagely kicked him in the stomach, causing him to fly backwards twenty feet.
Emma crouched, ready to attach as a growl built in her chest and roared unlike any beast they had ever heard. It blasted through the cold, quiet night air causing Todd to stop writhing in pain for a moment. Todd’s attackers stopped with shock and fear in their eyes, mouths dumbly hanging open. She moved at a speed that was blind to the human eye and Todd watched through blurry eyes as each man collapsed to the ground, one by one like dominos. Emma had snapped each of their necks. She flitted over to her own assailant who was still lying in the grass, but conscious.
“Look at me…” she hissed as he tried to back away in fear. “You will go to the police in one hour and tell them that you snapped the necks of all your buddies there. You will admit to murdering all of them. You understand?”
He dumbly nodded and agreed, “I killed them.”
“Yes, you did…and you’ll forget you ever saw my friend and me. Now go.”
The man took off in a staggering run back toward the city, holding his aching gut. Emma ran back over to T
odd, who was badly injured and bleeding both externally and internally. He looked at her with complete fear in his eyes; no longer the soft look of what could have been love. His face was badly beaten; both eyes were beginning to swell shut, abrasions on his cheek and forehead, and a fat lip.
She approached him slowly and carefully, desperately not wanting him to be frightened. “Todd, please don’t be afraid. This is what I am.”
He couldn’t speak and she heard the gurgling inside him getting worse, but the terror in his eyes spoke more than words could have said.
“You have to trust me, I would never hurt you,” she said as lifted her wrist to her mouth and bit it, causing blood to pour out. “Drink my blood, you’ll heal quickly and completely.”
Todd tried to turn his head and pursed his lips closed with disgust and confusion, but he was too weak against her. She forced his mouth open and allowed her blood to flow into his mouth.
“Drink it, love. If you don’t, you’ll die. I can hear it inside you,” she continued to speak gently to him.
Reluctantly, he began to swallow all the blood that she was pouring into his mouth. She put her wrist up to his mouth and commanded him to suck on it, to which he obliged. Within minutes he began to feel stronger and the pain was quickly fading away. Once she knew he had enough, she pulled her wrist away and licked it clean while the holes sealed up. Emma retracted her fangs as Todd sat up, still slightly weary, but healing with each passing second. She could hear his heart beating strong again and the gurgling had gone. The swelling of his face rapidly diminished and the cuts healed over with fresh skin.
There was a long silence, neither knew what to say to the other. Todd was in shock, but the realization of what she was began to sink in. Once he felt strong enough, he stood up and was amazed at how great he felt. It was as though nothing had happened. The only reminder that the attack occurred were the five dead guys scattered around them with broken necks. Emma stood up as well, but didn’t say anything, she wanted him to be the one to speak first. She knew he was going to start asking a lot of questions once he found his words.
“So…what are we going to do about these guys?” He awkwardly asked.
“It’s taken care of, that guy that I let go is going to be sitting in prison for a long time,” she spoke softly.
He slowly began to walk in the direction they had originally come from. He slightly turned around and said, “Should we go get the car and head home?”
“Sure,” she said as she did a little jog to catch up with him. The ‘date’ part of the evening was definitely over. She so badly wanted to link arms with him as they walked, but she didn’t think that would be welcome right now as his hands were jammed into his pockets.
They carried on in a long, awkward silence along the lakefront even though Todd had a thousand questions screaming in his head. His long legs took lengthy strides, causing him to subconsciously speed walk with Emma practically trotting next to him. Once they were on Michigan Avenue once again, he felt the light was at the end of the tunnel. He just wanted to get in the car and go back to the Manor. He thought about packing up his suitcase and staying in a hotel, but he didn’t want to be that guy. All he knew was that he had had enough ‘weird’ in the past 24 hours that could fill a lifetime.
They got in the car and once they shut the doors all the sounds of the bustling city were silenced. It was too silent.
Emma couldn’t stand it anymore and had to speak up, “I know you’re in shock right now, but I hope you’re not afraid of me. I’m the same person on the inside, I’m just…”
“A vampire?” Todd interrupted with raised eyebrows.
“A vampire,” she bluntly repeated. She put the car into drive and drove toward Interstate 94, which would ultimately take them north to Davenport.
They were on the highway for several minutes when Todd finally spoke again, “This explains a lot of things…”
“Like what?” She was curious of what out-of-the-ordinary things he had noticed.
“You’re cold all the time…I have never seen you eat…” Suddenly a light bulb turned on in his head. “That’s why you always ditched me during meal times!”
She couldn’t help but chuckle and nod her head. “I almost had to choke down human food this morning. You know, feel free to ask me questions, I don’t mind.”
Now Todd was beginning to feel fascinated and slightly more comfortable with her. He knew the question he wanted to ask, but he hesitated. She could feel him wanting to ask her something, so she waved her hand at him to bring it on.
“How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Anatomically or biologically?” She replied.
“Both…”
“Anatomically, I’m twenty-five years old.” She took in a deep breath, “Biologically, I’m two-hundred and twenty-two. I was born in 1790, turned vampire in 1815.”
Todd sat silently for a moment while he absorbed that information when he suddenly had flashes in his mind. He recognized the years from the Davenport crypt in the cemetery, he remembered the portrait of the original Emma Davenport and the uncanny resemblance, and her distinct knowledge of the history there. “You’re the original Emma Davenport, aren’t you?”
She took her eyes off the road for a moment to look at him and with a shrug she sweetly answered, “I am.”
He shifted in his seat and ran both hands through his hair. He was captivated at the thought of sitting beside someone who was a piece of history, someone who had seen so much. His brain created several more questions to ask. “And Daniel?”
“No, Daniel is human. He is my sixth-great nephew, a descendent of my brother, Christopher. But, out of all of the generations that I have come to know through the years, I have never been as close to any of them like I am with Daniel. I dare say I am closer to him than I was my own brother.”
Todd thought some more as he pieced the puzzle together. “You’re ‘history’ with Zachariah…” he said using air quotes with his fingers.
Emma’s face turned solemn before she answered, trying to think of a delicate way to explain his story. “Zachariah is vampire as well…I turned him in 1839. He lived in town and was orphaned by the age of sixteen, so we allowed him to live in the little house that used to be next to the stables. Remember I showed you where it once was? Well, he was our stable boy. I was oddly attracted to him, something I had never felt for a human. For several years we courted; he never knew what I really was until the night I turned him.
“He was the only human I have ever been in love with; the only one I have ever pursued. When he was twenty-five he was dying from pneumonia and I made the selfish decision to turn him. I just…couldn’t let him go.” She spoke quietly as she always felt guilty about making Zachariah immortal. She came back to the present and added, “That’s why he behaves the way he does around you. He doesn’t dislike you…well, he’s a little jealous, but that’s only because he remembers what happened to the last human I had a relationship with…him.”
Todd was not expecting that response and it took him by surprise. He was beginning to feel uneasy with her again now that he knew what had happened to Zachariah, whose words were now echoing in his head. “I noticed you seem a bit smitten by Emma, it’s not a good idea to pursue it…Emma is a lot more complicated than you think…You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into…Take it from me, you do not want to go down that path.”
As they walked in the back door, Emma muttered under her breath so only the vampires could hear, “He knows.” They continued down the corridor that led to the foyer where Zachariah was standing like a statue with his hands in his pockets. His face was expressionless as he stared a hole through Todd.
He dramatically perked up and with a snarky tone he asked, “Have a good date?”
Todd looked at Emma and simply stated, “I’m going to bed. Good night, Emma.”
As he started to walk up the stairs, she called after him, “Todd! Please don’t think differen
tly of me. I’m still the same person…”
He nodded as he continued his way up to his room without replying to her.
She turned to Zachariah with a huff and rolled her eyes. “That went well!”
They sat down by the fireplace in the parlor where she told him everything that had happened that evening. He agreed that she had no choice in what she did, but reminded her that she could have charmed Todd to forget everything he had seen. Of course she knew that, but she didn’t use her charming abilities unless it was an emergency situation. Todd finding out that she was a vampire certainly was not a matter of life or death, instead it all came down to if he still liked her or not.
Vivienne and Declan walked into the parlor, each carrying an extra glass of blood for Zachariah and Emma. They couldn’t help but overhear everything that they had talked about.
“You know it’s for the best, Emma,” Declan said as he handed her a glass. “But, you know you’re going to have to charm him a little bit before he leaves. You shouldn’t risk him running to the press and telling them that Daniel Davenport’s ‘sister’ is actually a 200-year old vampire.”
She knew he had a point. It was easier to charm the source instead of having to do damage control once it went viral. She hated doing it, even though it was in her nature. “There has been talk of us coming out in the open, but it has to be carefully planned. It can’t happen because of a human going to the press. Although, they’d probably laugh at him.”
Zachariah sensed her hesitation with the idea of charming Todd and spoke up, “I’ll do it.” He didn’t want to sound like he was overstepping her and held her hand, “That’s if, you don’t want to. I can do it for you.”
Emma decided to think about it since they still had time before he left. She reminded them that Todd signed the contract before coming to the Manor and that she could easily put the legalities into play if it came down to it.
Family Secrets (Davenport Manor Book 1) Page 11