by C. L. Quinn
“Ah,” she’d commented, her French accent still intact even after all these years. “You are fourth generation and this child is fifth. The power curve remains stronger in each generation, and you no longer need a conduit to touch each other through spirit. I cannot wait to meet this boy.”
“I want you here, all of you, when he’s born. He needs to know the incredible family and community he is born into.”
“Of this, he will have no doubt. I will see you soon, chérie.”
Her fone beeped and she glanced at a message from Dez. While her grandmother checked on her too often over the past month, Olivia knew it was out of love. This time, though, she asked if Olivia could check in with her restaurant, Flights, where she was having some managerial issues that needed a vampire’s touch. She texted back a message that she would take care of it with a double heart emoticon, and sent a second to Corri.
Corri, Dez wants me to check on her club before I go to rest tonight. Have kitchen send up last meal in about an hour. Invite Gio and Rochelle. See you soon.
Riding down on her private elevator, Olivia went over a mental list of what she needed when she and Corri started baby shopping next week. Dez had already sent quite a few items to her, but she was surprised at how much it required to set up a nursery the first time.
The evening air was warm tonight with a pleasant moderate breeze that felt nice on her exposed skin as she hurried toward the sporty ground car she used in the city. A sudden shadow to her right startled her and she whirled on a tall man who had come up beside her too fast; handsome, smiling, vampire.
It was obvious he intended to intercept her.
“Yes?” Voice inquiring, expectant, with little warmth. His appearance was at least unwelcome, and at most, suspect.
“Ms. Olivia, my name is Cal Worthington.”
Watching her from a distance, Frederick decided to follow through on his plan to befriend Olivia. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before. It made sense; he was attractive, charming, vampire, and she was unattached. Over time, he imagined they would become close, lovers in fact, and at some point it would be natural for her to reveal her secret to him. The plan was ridiculous in its simplicity. He just had to steer clear of Vaz and Corri. Once he cleaned up his accent, adopting a general American accent, he chose a common local name, donned casual attire, and here he was.
Before he approached her, Frederick handed his fone to a blood-bond he’d held for thirteen years. “You know what to do.”
“Mr. Worthington, what do you need?”
“I just wanted to introduce myself. I’ve been coming into your club, Serendipity, for my meals since I came to Vegas a few months ago, and I felt as if I should let you know how much I enjoy the ambience, the service, and the marvelous food.”
“Thank you, sir. The goal there is to make everyone feel like an honored guest. It seems we’ve achieved it.”
“You have. I find that I can’t make myself visit any other restaurant for first meal, I would miss your fare too much.”
“That’s wonderful. Well, thank you for letting me know. Have a nice evening.”
Pulling forward, Olivia was surprised to feel his hand on her arm. Turning, the suspicion part of her expectation going up, she stared him down.
“I have somewhere I need to be, Mr. Worthington.”
“Yes, I’m sure you do, but, if you could indulge me for a moment. Look, I’m quite new to town, haven’t made a lot of friends yet, and you intrigue me. May I take you to dinner some night soon?”
A dinner invitation. A date. This was unexpected. Men were often attracted to her, but they rarely made the first move. Olivia admitted she could be intimidating, and she rarely stopped moving long enough for someone to ask.
He seemed nice. Attractive, vampire, so of course his body was excellent, beautiful pale hair much like Vaz’s, tipped in purple, which appealed to her. But now was not the time to consider a new relationship. She used trusted blood-bonds for meals, and had no need of sex right now.
“What a lovely invitation, but I am otherwise engaged at this time and it may be a long time before I’m free again. Still, it’s nice to be invited, so thank you. Now if you’ll excuse me…”
Frederick moved closer, the hand clamping down too tight on her wrist. “Letting you go out of my life seems like a bad idea. You intrigue me, lovely vampire.”
Boldness was appreciated, but right now, Olivia had somewhere to be, and he was obstructing her. She pushed his hand off of her. “Again, I am flattered, but no, dinner is not possible. I must go.”
There was something about his response, frustration, fury perhaps, that disturbed her. Olivia turned to leave the man when his hand landed on her once more.
“Look into my eyes,” she barked, and when he did, she began a quick order, compulsion from vampire to vampire, and told him to forget he’d met her tonight and to go on with his life. Olivia left him in her dust as she rocketed away from him and headed straight to her car.
Left behind, confused, Frederick watched the traffic on the street for several moments as he collected his thoughts. Why was he here? What had happened? Nothing quite looked familiar and he felt a little fuzzy.
Oh, hell, had he been compelled again?
He swept the area for his car, but didn’t see it. Thankfully, he finally saw Ravi coming from behind a row of vehicles along the street.
“What do you have?”
“What you wanted. Look at the video, sir.”
Pressing the button, Frederick watched the entire brief interchange, especially the part where the female vampire had done it to him again, she’d compelled him to forget he knew her.
Fuck! It had happened again.
Later, at Serenity Tower
Vaz smiled, but Corri laughed.
“You shot him down? Poor man.”
“I have no interest in a relationship right now. Can you imagine the conversation when my child grows more obvious? And sex? Not now, or for…”
Olivia almost said forever, but she knew that someday, she would be ready to move forward, and yes, that would include sex with another man. The idea tore her apart right now. So she smiled sweetly, and asked if anyone wanted the last Chinese dumpling.
Two hours afterward, lying in bed, naked, her fingers caressing where her son lay, she thought about the man on the street. Could she imagine someone else inside her? It would be a long time. Will was still in her mind, in her heart, and if she closed her eyes and reached for the memory, she could still feel him. She couldn’t let anyone else wipe him away.
“Daddy’s still with us,” she whispered as she fell asleep.
Ten
He felt cradled, loved, held…whole.
Not knowing where he was or how he got where he was, he felt cocooned within the Mother’s bosom. Sparks of electricity, here and there, fingers, gut, ears, toes, eyes, heart; not pain, just tingles of sensations, pleasant, energizing. He wanted to open his eyes to see where he was, but he couldn’t. Somehow, he realized that they had to remain closed.
The sparks of energy increased, and focused, began at his head, heat infusion in his brain growing so exponentially, he wondered if it would explode. Down into his face, eyes twitching now, nose, mouth, ears, tried to do what they were meant to do, but couldn’t.
He needed to breathe, didn’t he? Drawing breath was where life began, and yet strangely, he knew he didn’t and yet didn’t need to. Not now. When had he stopped?
You are within me, child. I carry you now. All you must do is accept the magics that make you well again. Take what I give you, mind, body, spirit…rebirth.
Where am I? What happened to me?
Child of mine, you rest within me for a little while. Your journey was interrupted, but it is not over. You will go from here soon and not return for several cycles of the moon. Once healed, once remade, you will be unique to the world you come back to.
How did I get here? I can’t move my arms or legs. I don’t think I�
�m breathing.
Your mortal ties were cut, which gave you back to me so that I may prepare you for your destined life.
So it was true that I had a destiny all along?
It was always true. Rest now, my son. You are not yet well enough to proceed on your journey. Sleep again, and when you wake, I will show you the world through new eyes.
Will trusted the voice implicitly, but as he fell back into the sleep to wait for his promised future, he wondered if Olivia was okay and if she knew where he was.
Mid-afternoon, outside of Boston
Mies woke abruptly, breathing hard, and pushed from his bed, his eyes on Sarah, who slept peacefully. He rushed into the outer room of their suite, but didn’t turn on the lights.
A message…from the spirit world? He hadn’t been contacted, hadn’t been bothered, for a century. To his knowledge, although he’d been brought forward from his resting place a millennia ago, he’d figured he was like any normal first blood now, his life his own to live as any vampire would.
It appeared he was wrong.
What was that? A mission? For the living planet?
What the hell? Lying back on a cushy recliner, he closed his eyes and, for the first time in over a hundred years, let himself journey back into the spirit world to the strange place he’d first discovered that he would be granted life again.
The disembodied voice that spoke in feelings and not words, began to reveal its goal.
Someone needed his guidance, someone who had passed beyond the mortal veil to heal and live again.
This man was not vampire.
“Humans are not immortal,” he reminded the voice. “How does he live again?”
Mies laughed, the answer should not have been unexpected. This time, the words from the spirit world were clear.
The way that you do, vampire. You lost your immortal life forever, and yet here you live. This man lost his mortal life, and lives again. You know that rules don’t always apply.
“It gets confusing though. All right, tell me what I need to do.”
Two weeks later, high in the Himalayan Mountains
Small steps, small steps, small steps…
Will had been here for only eight hours, in yet another cave, and while this one wasn’t buried deep under the ground, in some ways, it was, because even though he’d entered through a slit in the rock with the vampire he knew of as Mies, it was carved into the mountainside thousands of feet below the summit of the highest mountain on earth.
It was where much of the earth’s magics lay. It was where he knew he had been brought to complete healing.
After helping Will settle into a corner of the cave, Mies proceeded to set up camp. Fire now blazing, he’d placed a pot over it to heat water for coffee, and pulled out two heavy sleeping bags to spread over the dry ground near the fire.
“Do you want to try to eat again?”
Will didn’t know what he was. His first meal in…he didn’t know how long it had been…which Mies had given him several hours earlier, had come back up. Was he hungry? Was that need still there? The answer blasted back to him. Yes!
“I would, but do you have something simple? Like crackers?”
“Yes, I do. I remember how difficult it was to begin to eat when I was brought back. Of course, in my case it had been considerably longer, but I think you’re experiencing the same thing. Here, try these.”
Mies handed him a small pack of thin wafers, and, carefully, Will bit the tip off of one. It had an enticing flavor and proved that he was indeed hungry, so he slowly began nibbling on each until the pack of 4 was gone.
“Things staying down?”
“So far. Thank you. For everything.” Will took a moment to scan the huge vampire who had apparently gotten the detail to help Will get to this remote cave in Asia. The man seemed to perform every task with supreme control, calm, measured, assured. He’d commented about being brought back too.
“You were dead, like I was?”
“For thousands of years. I was gone forever, until I wasn’t. Suffice it to say, nothing is ever lost in the universe, and when you realize that everyone ends up in the spiritual plane somewhere, you understand that, technically, people aren’t really gone so much as moved on to the next level of existence. It is rare, though, for ones such as you and I to return. My life was ended much shorter than it should have been, so it’s been a gift to be allowed to have the chance. It is true for you too.”
Mies lifted the heated pot. “How are you feeling?”
“The food seems to be staying down now.”
“Good. Let’s add some weak tea with a combination of energy supplements. Then I think you need to rest. This is your first time up since, uh, dying, right?”
“Right. It’s been several weeks, I’m not sure how many. Mies, do you know if the people in Brazil know that I’m alive.”
“No. I mean, no, I don’t know, but it’s doubtful. You are here for a reason, and if the people you cared about knew, they would be here instead of me, yeah? Look, I’m the one put here to help you because I’ve lived this resurrection thing too. What I can tell you is, take your time, let your mind, body, and soul reconnect and heal as one. In death, they are separated. We’ll do this slowly, integrate your magics, which are powerful indeed, and I’ll guide you to the best of my ability into adapting to whatever you are now. Will, you are not just a human man anymore, you get that?”
“I’m muddled, but I know that I’ve changed. I had changed before the death, but now, I don’t feel quite the same. Except for…”
“I bet I can guess the except for part. Someone special who is even now grieving for you.”
“I think so. It isn’t fair to her.”
“It never is. Hasn’t anyone told you? Fair has nothing to do with life. We struggle because we’re made to do so, and somehow, hope we come out stronger and okay on the other side. Let’s get you well, trained, and back to your life, deal?”
“Huh. Yeah, deal.”
“Now try this tea.”
In Las Vegas
“No. No, don’t make me do it.”
“You will. I tried to charm the bitch, but she’s un-charmable. She’s a whore, is what she is. My plan was perfect. So now, we’re going to try the same thing with you and that weird vampire from Corsica she took in recently. Obviously, he knows what’s going on. Give me your best work, Thalasia, and I’ll convert you, I promise. Otherwise, I’m so pissed, I’m likely to kill a lot of people just to feel better. Do you want that?”
“No, Frederick, I don’t. Fine, you don’t even have to use control, I’ll do it.”
“You bet you will. One thing I know, you cunts have strong survival instincts. You don’t have the luxury of failing this assignment, so get your hottest fuck-me dress and heels and get to it. For your sake, I hope he likes women and not men.”
Sick to her stomach, but relieved that he actually didn’t use compulsion, Thalasia went to her room and leaned against the wall to calm her shaking nerves. She fully believed he would kill her. He would kill anyone he just felt the itch to kill. It was past time to change her alliances.
So, when she went to Gio, one of Olivia’s newest vampire contacts, she would do her best to seduce him, as ordered. In the end, her intention was to protect herself, fuck yeah, just like Frederick said she would, but by asking to see Olivia and telling her everything. It was time to do the right thing, and finish Frederick Villioth’s dangerous obsession.
Across the city, Olivia prepared to go to bed after a non-stop busy day. Corri had already gone in even though daylight was two hours away. They were both exhausted.
The nursery was finished, a corner of her suite now repurposed with cute animated animals and pale blues mixed with yellow. And too many ribbons, but she loved the effect. Her baby boy would be here in less than four months. Gods, she couldn’t wait!
Her flat belly noticeably rounded, Olivia chose her clothes carefully to hide the shape. Vampires who worked for her, other t
han the few who knew about first bloods, would eventually be told that she’d adopted a human child. Since the baby would essentially be human until he changed one day, it wasn’t an unrealistic stretch; he would read entirely human to them.
It would ensure the time-honored tradition of keeping first bloods existence unknown, even from the general vampire community. Most felt it always would be the only way to stay safe.
To protect the coming child, security in the apartment and on the entire floor had been re-assessed by the best in the world. Bas’s IT guy, Tim, who had been with him over a hundred and thirty years, vampire now for the past 120, had always stayed current with any technology. It would be nearly impossible for anyone, including first bloods, to get into Olivia’s apartments now without authorization, a 6-pronged system of redundancies.
The recent threat that had taken Will’s life still existed. The bodies of the four men found in the wreckage with him had remained unidentified; the plane untraced to an owner or rental agency.
Now, daylight on its way, Olivia wandered through her apartment, smiling to herself. Happy and satisfied with her life like she’d never been before, she’d gone through so much pain and soul searching to arrive here, beyond grateful for this unexpected part of her journey.
Wandering to the rearmost bedroom suite, she opened the door that was usually kept closed. Smiling wider, she entered, a hand out to slide along smooth polished chrome, then along well-tended black leather.
“This was your father’s prized possession, my son. It will be yours someday, but not until you’re vampire and I know that you will be safe riding it. How he would have loved to have taught you.”
With a final loving gaze at Will’s vintage Harley-Davidson motorcycle, Olivia closed the door behind her as she walked back through the apartment, ordered a big chocolate milkshake, which had become a nightly habit, and returned to her room.