by W.J. May
Chapter Twenty-Four
They’d locked me in the bedroom but I could still hear their angry shouts from somewhere in the house. Caleb said he had to bring me back, but Ethan raged that I belonged with him. I wanted to go home desperately and prayed that Ethan would give in and release me.
There was a soft knock at the door and then it opened. An attractive red-haired girl entered the room, who I only assumed was Celeste, Caleb’s daughter. This time she wasn’t wearing glasses and her startling green eyes stared at me with interest.
“Here,” she said, throwing me a pair of shorts and T-shirt. “I heard you needed this.”
I stared at her, wondering if she was a vampire, too.
“Yes,” she said with a sardonic grin. “I am whatever it is you think I am.”
“What, you can read minds?” I asked.
She laughed. “No, I could tell what you were thinking by the expression on your face.”
“What are they going to do with me?” I asked.
“If Ethan had his way, you’d never leave his side. Caleb doesn’t really trust you, but he has the hots for your mom and isn’t willing to hurt her.”
I scowled. “How fucking sensitive of him.”
She laughed. “So, what do you want to do?” she asked. “Do you care for Ethan?”
“I don’t know,” I said, pulling the T-shirt over my head, “he stares into my eyes and I want nothing more than to be with him. But that’s not real, is it? Isn’t that some kind of power he has to control people?”
She nodded. “True.”
“But, even now…” I said. “He has this effect on me and he’s not even in the room. I guess I really might feel something for him. It’s all so confusing.”
“It’s only natural to feel lust towards him, if that’s all it is. He’s very sexy.”
“That is no lie.”
“Caleb said he caught you with some guy named Duncan,” she said.
“Yeah,” I answered. “I’ve kind of been seeing Duncan.”
“Are you in love with this, Duncan?”
“I think I’m confused. I don’t know. Maybe I’m a little in love with both of them.”
She smiled. “Being in love with one of us is dangerous. If you decide to stay with Ethan, you can’t live a normal life.”
I swallowed. “So, are you vampires?”
She grimaced. “I never did like that word.”
I swallowed. “So… do you suck people’s blood?”
She stepped closer to me and touched my cheek as I held my breath. “We take nourishment wherever we can get it. Some are willing to give us our nourishment, some don’t have much say in the matter.”
I backed up. “So, you are willing to kill people if you have to?”
She smiled darkly. “Survival of the fittest.”
“Is Caleb turning my mother into one of you?”
“I believe that he has chosen your mother to be his mate.”
Oh, hell.
“Is Caleb your real father?” I asked, continuing with my questions. If she was willing to answer, I wasn’t going to stop.
“Yes,” she said. “My father became a… vampire first. He then turned me into one to save my life.”
My eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean?”
“I had Typhoid.”
“Wow, when was that?”
“Eighteen ninety-one,” she said.
I stared at her in shock. “That would make you…”
“Much older than you,” she answered.
Caleb stormed into the bedroom and waved at me. “Let’s go. We have to get you out of here before your brother and Duncan show up. I guess they know about this place from Susan.”
“Are you taking me home?” I asked, backing away from him.
His eyes narrowed. “You weren’t hurt, and when I walked in on you and Ethan, you looked to be enjoying yourself. You aren’t planning on pressing any charges against Ethan, are you?”
I looked past Caleb to where Ethan was standing with his arms crossed, looking furious. “No,” I said.
“You aren’t going to make any trouble for us, are you? Not that anyone would believe you anyway,” said Caleb.
“If you leave my mother alone,” I said. “I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
Caleb’s face turned dark. “I can’t do that.”
“Yes you can! Do you think I want my mom turning into a vampire? I’ve seen her neck!” I yelled, surprising myself.
He sighed. “There are things you don’t understand. Your mother… I have feelings for her and I’d do anything for her.”
“So you’d turn her into one of you?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “How do I say this?” he stepped closer. “Your mother has cancer and I’m giving her a second chance.”
I snorted. “You seriously expect me to believe that?”
“She has breast cancer,” he said, his face grim. “Hell, she doesn’t even know about it yet.”
I felt sick to my stomach. “What, you can sense that?”
He nodded. “Yes and if she becomes one of us, she’ll survive. If she doesn’t, she may die.”
“But you didn’t even consider giving her a chance?”
“I was afraid she’d say no,” he said. “You’re right, though, I didn’t give her a choice. She may hate me when she finds out, but at least she’ll be alive.”
“Do you consider yourself alive?”
Ethan stepped past Caleb and put his hands on my shoulders. “Do I look dead to you? What you felt earlier, was that really so bad?”
I stepped back. “Ethan, you’re trying to control me again. I don’t know how I feel about you because it isn’t real. You use your powers to make me feel things that I’m not even sure about.”
“I only did it the first night we met,” he said. “And I’m…. sorry. But I haven’t manipulated you at all since that night. Every feeling, every emotion you’ve had since then, has been real.”
There was a sharp knock at the door and someone stepped into the room. “We have to do something, now!” hollered one of the guys I’d seen Ethan with in the diner the other night. “Someone’s here. I think it’s her damn brother.”
“Fuck,” groaned Caleb.
“Wait,” said Celeste. “Let me take care of him.”
“Don’t you dare hurt my brother,” I snapped.
She smiled. “Believe me, when I’m done with him, he’ll be begging me to hurt him. But in a good way.”
I wasn’t sure what she meant, but Caleb nodded and said, “Celeste won’t hurt him or she’ll answer to me.”
She gave him a pouty face as she stepped out of the room.
Caleb nodded towards the door. “You’re free to leave,” he said to me.
I looked at Ethan, who was obviously upset. “I…”
“I told you before that you were free to go,” he said. “I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
I’m sure he still thought I was Miranda and wanted me to become a vampire like he was. But the very idea of doing that was frightening beyond belief. I still wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about him, but I knew without a doubt that I didn’t belong to that world.
I looked down and stepped past him to the door.
“Nikki.”
I turned to him. “What, Ethan?”
“You haven’t seen the last of me.”
I wish I could have pretended that those words didn’t affect me, but they did. He must have noticed my reaction, because he licked his lips and gave me a slow sexy smile.
“Goodbye, Ethan,” I said, walking away.