He pointedly glanced at the plate of food Alanna had set in front of me when I still hadn’t done anything. I tore my eyes away from the sight of him eating, and made myself concentrate on my plate. My mom and Tracey talked obliviously while Jack watched his wife with worried eyes. Ben went on and on about how good the fish was, and Ashley looked around at all the eating vampires with a look of puzzled amazement that probably matched mine. But unlike me, she shrugged, assuming it was just something they could do, and joined in a conversation with Mom.
I cut my food and woodenly popped some in my mouth. I really wasn’t sure if it was something they could do or not. I watched Teren and the girls eat, and felt a knot of apprehension at the look of near disgust on their faces. I wasn’t sure what human food tasted like anymore to him, but I knew he had no desire for it, and I imagined it was much like eating a plate of dog food, or maybe worse, dog vomit or something.
Tears stung my eyes again, but I pushed it back. They seemed to be eating fine and if it really was only that it tasted badly, well, they could handle that for one night, right?
As the meal progressed, and eventually everyone finished their wonderful food, a light and happy feeling fell upon the table. It would seem that dinner had successfully gone by with no one the wiser to my new family’s situation. I relaxed back into Teren’s side, but he held himself rigidly in his chair. Alarmed at the tension in his body, I subtly turned to watch him. His face was trying to stay smooth, but I could see the way he clenched his jaw, the way his eyes winced every once and awhile. He was in pain. He was sitting there, calmly having a conversation with Ben, in pain. I clenched his hand, but he didn’t look at me.
That was when I noticed the faces on the other vampires. They were all in pain, horrible, horrible pain. I could see it in their body language. To me, it was written all over their faces. Seeing the look on Jack’s face, his eyes overly moist, I could see he clearly saw it too. It was a little miraculous to me that the rest of the room couldn’t tell.
As Alanna hadn’t moved to clear the table – a startling indicator all by itself, my mom offered, and began clearing things away. Alanna smiled softly and thanked her. At this point, Imogen stood and politely excused herself. No human took notice of her leaving, but my eyes couldn’t stay off of her. She walked slowly and stiffly from the room, sort of resembling the way Ash walked. She was gone for just a few moments before Alanna and Teren closed their eyes at the same time, a look of compassion passing their faces.
That look terrified me. They were hearing something I probably wouldn’t want to hear, something Imogen was doing that they would each have to do. I suddenly closed my eyes, understanding. The vampires could eat food, obviously, they still had mouths and stomachs after all, but they couldn’t digest it. So…the food had to come out. The same way it came in.
I squeezed Teren’s hand, my eyes watering. He opened his and looked down on me, giving me a tight smile. He nodded and I nodded back. We both knew now, we were both on the same page.
Alanna excused herself as Mom started bringing in pie. I wanted to cry at the sight, tell Mom that no more food was needed, but I made myself smile and thank her. Made their sacrifice worth it.
Teren sat there the entire time we ate, no longer talking, his brow scrunched in un-disguisable pain. I wanted to scream at him to just go, get rid of it, since it was hurting him, but no one else would understand that, and I was way too riled up to secretly whisper it to him. Finally, Hot Ben seemed to notice his discomfort. “You alright, Teren?” He raised an eyebrow at him and tilted his head. I could have kissed Ben.
Teren cracked open his eyes. “Actually…I feel a little odd. I think I’ll turn in.” He slowly stood and calmly said goodnight to everyone. I watched him leave the room and had to force myself to not run upstairs to be with him. I looked over at Jack and saw the same level of restraint on his face.
None of the vampires returned to the table after that.
As Mom and Ashley and Tracey cleared the dishes and made some coffee for Ben and Jack, I excused myself to check on Teren. Jack gave me a sympathetic look and briefly nodded at me. He apparently knew what I’d find, and knew it would be bad.
My stomach clenched with each step up to our room. I hated what he’d done to himself, all to maintain the image of humanity. I hated that he had to hide, but at the same time, understood it. As I reached the top of the dual staircase, I put a hand on my stomach, wondering if this was the future I was condemning our children too. I suddenly understood one of the reasons why Teren hadn’t wanted to continue this…trait.
Softly and cautiously, I opened the door. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Looking around our opulent guest room here at the ranch, I blinked in the soft light of the lamps, surprised. It was empty. Just as I was wondering if maybe he went somewhere else, I heard him.
It wasn’t hard. I could clearly hear him cry out, although it was coming out muffled, like he was screaming into a pillow or something. It was coming from the bathroom, so I ran in there. My mouth dropped open and my heart leapt into my throat when I saw him. He was covered in blood. Panic seized me, until I watched him heave a pile of blood onto the tile floor. It wasn’t coming from a wound, it was coming…from him. My panic tripled as I knelt beside him. I wanted to yell for help, but there was no one to yell for. All the vamps were going through this, and the humans that knew the secret, were entertaining the humans who didn’t. There was no one to help Teren, but me.
He was curled into a fetal position and clutching his stomach, groaning into a blood soaked towel, in-between vomiting up more blood. His fangs were extended, having dropped down at the presence of blood, even his own. I’d never imagined so much blood could leave a person’s body. I started crying and shaking as I held him. He was so out of it he couldn’t speak, only continued screaming into anything that would muffle the noise, and heaving up more blood, food having long ago left his system.
His body apparently had had a severe reaction to the food being put inside it. His sickness was about quadruple what my morning sickness was. As blood ruined his clothes and mine, I held him tight, stroking his back and murmuring that I loved him, and everything would be okay. I wasn’t even sure if he heard me. I wasn’t even sure if everything was okay. I had no idea how to help him.
Worrying that my family would come check on us, and then understanding why Jack wasn’t immediately at Alanna’s side – someone had to run interference - I cried lightly into Teren’s back as he continued his muffled screaming and heaving, not knowing what else to do.
Shaking near uncontrollably, the vomiting eventually stopped. A while later, the cries stopped as well. I held him in my arms, our bodies coated in the blood he’d released - it was cold and sticky, and smelled awful, all pooled together like it was. I fought down my own nausea as I stroked back his hair and kissed his temples. I don’t know how much longer I held him in that chilly, bloody bathroom, as he shook in my arms, but eventually a body breezed into the room.
“Teren…how long did you let it go?” I startled as Halina knelt beside him, her face both irritated and worried. She lifted his weak head and his eyes lolled back before he could focus on her, his fangs red from his own blood.
“Will he be okay?” I whispered, hope filling me that someone who understood what was happening to him, could help him.
She muttered something in Russian as she examined him. “Yes,” she looked back at me, “We’re harder than that to kill.” Running her hand over his face, she muttered, “But he didn’t have to let it get this bad.” With a wry look, she added, “And he could have made this mess in the toilet.”
A soft laugh escaped him and I nearly sobbed in relief. He hadn’t responded to me once since I’d come in here.
Halina started cleaning him up and then helped him stand up. He was weak, but managed to get on two feet. She started walking him away, more carrying him than helping him. They walked into the bedroom and then she surprisingly turned to the window. Picking Teren up
and slinging him over her shoulder, like he weighed nothing, I watched her open the window and prepare to jump. Confused, I exclaimed, “Wait, where are you going with him? Shouldn’t he rest?”
She paused and looked back at me, her face hard. “No, he needs to eat. They all…need to eat, now.” Deep understanding rang through me, as I suddenly saw the real reason Halina had skipped dinner.
It wasn’t that she wanted a bite in town. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go through what Teren and the others just had. It was that one of them needed to stay strong, to help the others. Their love for each other was overwhelming, as was my guilt, that they’d felt the need to do this in the first place. I couldn’t imagine having the foreknowledge of how painful something you were going to do was, and then doing it anyway. It would be like knowingly shoving your hand in a fire. But, as my hand automatically drifted down to the twins in my belly, I reconsidered that. The end result of my situation certainly wasn’t going to be easy, but sometimes, the ends justify the means.
I nodded at Halina and watched her step up onto the window ledge; I guess they couldn’t really just walk out the front door, what with Teren soaked in blood like he was. Before she jumped, she turned back and looked me over. Shaking her head, she muttered, “Shower, change, and then go tell your friends that he’s fine and he’s sleeping.” She raised an eyebrow at me pointedly. “You’re going to be a member of this family. You must now play your part.”
I nodded again and then she turned back to the window and jumped. They were gone by the time I looked outside.
Chapter 6
Pre-wedding Jitters
I stared at the ceiling of our bedroom, waiting. I mentally traced every raised section of the textured walls, making images out of the patterns, where there really wasn’t any. Anything to distract my mind. Anything to stop myself from wondering how Teren was doing, if he was feeling any better. That last horrid image of him covered in blood wouldn’t leave me. Several of the patterns on the walls reminded me of the pool of red liquid we’d been huddled in. God, I hoped he was okay.
As I shifted for the thousandth time in the too quiet room, I finally heard the door crack open. It was late, several hours past the time everyone had called it a night, and the hallway behind him was dark. His eyes glowed at me until he walked into our dimly lit room. I sucked in a sharp breath when I saw him.
He softly closed the door and stood beside it, letting me take him in. He looked like something straight out of a Steven King novel - splotches of dried or drying blood covered him, his jeans and shirt saturated with it. His face had deep red smears and smudges, both from the act of being sick and my bloody hands caressing him. He stood slightly hunched and his face looked worn, close to exhaustion, if not already there. His pale blue eyes were slightly unfocused as he looked at me, but a small smile was on his lips.
“Hey,” he whispered hoarsely.
My eyes instantly watered at the sight of him and I flew out of that bed to throw my arms around him. My forcefulness made him stumble back a step, and I choked back a sob at how frail he seemed. His arms swept around me securely though, as he held me tightly.
“Teren, what were you thinking?” I murmured in his ear.
He didn’t answer, only softly stroked my back. I pulled away, my hands going to his blood smeared cheeks, cupping them and searching his eyes. He tilted his head and gave me another small smile. Hating the evidence of his painful night all over him, I grabbed his hand and pulled him into the bathroom. He willingly followed, his feet shuffling heavily on the padded carpet, as he forced his body to move.
I closed the door behind us, not really expecting any distractions, but playing it safe anyway. He watched me, almost blankly, and I thought only sheer will power kept him standing. I came back to him and gently swept his shirt over his head. His chest was smeared with dried blood from where the wet shirt had stuck to his skin. Some sections of the shirt were still wet, and I threw it in the corner of the recently cleaned bathroom. Bringing my eyes back to his chest, I bit my lip and felt mine start to water. His fingers came to my chin, lifting my gaze to his. “I’m fine, Emma.” He shrugged in a tired, but casual manner. “Just a little…discomfort, but it’s gone now.” He smiled softly again.
My mouth dropped open as the sounds of his muffled screams earlier filled my ears again. A little discomfort? I shook my head. “You didn’t have to do that,” I whispered, my voice sounding loud to me in the quiet room.
His fingers, still tainted red, brushed over my cheek and he tilted his head as he regarded me. “Yes, I did. We couldn’t have all walked out on dinner with your family, especially Mom and me. We had to appear normal.”
My hand grabbed his hand, flattening his cool fingers to my cheek. “No, none of you should have had to do that.” I shook my head again as I stepped into him, bringing my warm arms around his cool body, wanting him to feel the comforting heat I provided. Looking up at him, I bit my lip. “We could have gone somewhere else, or eloped. I was so selfish to ask for this.”
He immediately grabbed my cheeks, shaking his head. “No, Emma. We wanted this. We all wanted to give you this.”A warm smile lit his tired face. “You deserve a normal family dinner. I wanted to give you that, we all did. We crave normalcy too.” His eyes stared intently into mine. “And we want to give you a normal wedding experience.”
I sighed and then cocked an eyebrow at him, rubbing a smidge of dried blood off his chin pointedly. He grinned crookedly and shook his head. “Well, as normal as we can give you.” He shrugged and then looking too tired to keep standing, sat on the edge of the tub.
I watched him sitting, looking up at me with a content face, and sighed again. Turning from him, I stepped over to the shower and turned on one of the dual heads. Under the sound of the water, I again said, “You didn’t have to do that.”
As I turned back to him, he smiled, and I knew he’d heard me. He didn’t comment though, only slipped his stained shoes off. I helped him remove the rest of his clothes and then helped him get in the shower. It felt a little odd to help him, when he was usually the supernaturally strong one, but the evening had sapped a lot of that strength, and as he sagged against the shower wall, I slipped my pajamas off and hopped inside, to continue helping him.
He laid his head back against the wall, his eyes closed and his usually nearly tanned face pale. The spray of water hit his chest, droplets landing on his face and mine, the dried blood starting to break apart and run like rivulets down his body. I shook my head at the red streams and grabbed some soap, determined to see that bloody mess gone. He exhaled contently as I worked the soap into a lather and spread the bubbles over his chest, pausing, to scrub harder in the more concentrated areas. The bubbles forming on his body turned pink from all of the blood, and the water streaming around us went through various spectrums of the shade.
Noting the haggard look on his face and the shallow way he was breathing as I scrubbed his cheeks, I lifted a corner of my lip and wryly said, “You finally look hung-over.”
He cracked an eye at that and smiled. His eyes glanced down my naked body once, before closing again. “Totally worth it,” he muttered.
I ran some soap in his hair, watching my fingers turn pink as the dried blood in the blackness came clean. “I don’t see how anything could have been worth that,” I muttered.
Hearing me, he opened his eyes again. His hands came up to my hips, pulling me into him. “You’re worth it. You’re worth anything.”
I sighed at my pinkly suds-up fiancé, and laced my arms around his neck. I ran my fingers back through his wet hair and just took a moment to appreciate him. For me, he and the women had willingly done something that they knew would cause them intense pain. And as Halina had explained, while cleaning up the bloody mess he’d left, Teren had made the situation worse, by allowing the nearly toxic food to stay in his system much longer than was necessary, or healthy. She’d explained that anything but blood in their system now had a nearly acidic eff
ect on them, and what Teren had done had literally eaten holes in his body. If it weren’t for his super healing ability, it would have killed him. Sort of brought new meaning to the word allergic. Well, I guess we had a viable excuse for him to not ever eat out with us again – extreme food allergies.
I smiled and shook my head, kissing him softly and resting my wet head against his. His hand came up to grab some suds on his chest and teasingly, he plopped them on my hair. I laughed and he smiled, then closed his eyes again, too tired to keep them open.
While he continued to lean against the wall for support, I cleaned the rest of him, paying close attention to his fingers, ears and neck, anywhere where blood would pool, and be visible to someone else. When he was sparkly clean, I shut the water off and helped to dry him.
Looking half asleep on his feet, we crawled into our oversized bed, naked. His lukewarm from the shower body wrapped around me, and his head dropped down to rest in the crook of my neck. He sighed contently and buried himself further into me. I cradled his head, kissing him softly, before shutting off the lamp and closing my eyes.
Conversion Book Two: Bloodlines Page 12