“Why would the all-powerful Akeldama want to know anything about me?” I searched the crowd to see if I could find where the beautiful redhead had slithered off to.
“She has been in love with Stephan for a very long time.” At my frown, he smiled. “You must see the way Stephan looks at you. You, Gem, are a threat.”
I glanced up into his blue eyes to see if he was teasing. “I think you are mistaken, and you can tell Akeldama the same. There is no threat where I am concerned.”
He grinned down at me. “Whatever you say, Gem.”
Every time we made another loop around the ballroom, I caught sight of a glaring Stephan. One thing was for sure; he wasn’t happy. As we waltzed by him, I tried to give him a reassuring smile, but at the same moment, the space between Dakin and me decreased to a mere inch. And it seemed to make Stephan even more pissed.
Dakin chuckled. “Yes, Gem, you are right. Akeldama has nothing to worry about.”
Frustrated, I sighed. “She doesn’t when it comes to me. Now, Stephan might not dig her the way she fancies him, but it won’t be because of me.”
Dakin raised an eyebrow. “Then why did he bring you here tonight?”
“He brought me here because… I needed to get out of the house.” I gazed up into his eyes to gauge his reaction. “I was very close to a woman named Greta. She was Stephan’s housekeeper, and she was recently attacked by rogue vampires, and it cost her her life.”
I considered myself to be an outstanding judge of character. I’d always been able to tell the shady bitches from the non, and the look on his face was confusion.
“Stephan was recently attacked?”
“Well, no, but Dani, Greta, and myself were.”
“Same thing, Gem. Every vampire knows that if you mess with someone close to a vamp, you might as well be messing with the vamp himself. Why didn’t he bring Greta back?”
“Um, because she’s dead?”
“If it’s the same housekeeper I’m thinking of, she’s been in his employ for many years. She had to have been a human servant. They need their master’s blood every month in order to prolong their life, so your friend more than likely died with his blood in her.”
“Well, she obviously didn’t have his blood in her because she’s dead. However, she did die with my blood in her, but apparently mine wasn’t strong enough to bring her back.”
Dakin looked more confused. “If she died with enough vamp blood in her, no matter how potent it was or wasn’t, she would have come back as a vamp unless someone made sure that she couldn’t.”
My vision blurred, and I noticed we had stopped dancing.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Stephan swiftly moving through the crowd toward us with a lethal look on his face. Dakin dropped his arms from around my waist and placed his hands on my cheeks, pulling me in close to him. For a second, I thought he was going to kiss me. He laughed at my startled expression before he whispered in my ear, “Relax, Gem, one thing before I go. Don’t let Akeldama or anyone else see how much compassion you have. They will take it as a sign of weakness.”
Stephan came up to my side with his hands in his pockets. In a room full of possible enemies, I wanted to keep up the appearance that we were united, so I refused to make eye contact with him because I was beyond pissed.
Dakin gave him a knowing smile before tilting his head towards me. “I have taken a liking to your protégé. She is quite refreshing.”
Stephan’s jaw clenched. “Well, maybe you should take a liking from a farther distance.”
Dakin gave me a saucy grin and winked. “But she is so much better up close. Wouldn’t you say?”
Still not acknowledging Stephan’s presence, I said to Dakin, “My feet are killing me, and I’m in the mood for Netflix—”
“Why, Gem, are you inviting me back to your place for movie night?”
Dakin’s eyes twinkled, even as Stephan let out something close to a growl.
I tried to keep the smile pinned to my face, but it was pointless. “What I was going to say is I would like to go home…” I frowned. “Well, the place I currently reside at—my temporary sanctuary I guess you could call it. But before I head out, I was wondering if I could ask you something?”
“You can ask anything, Gem, though I might not be able to answer.”
“Fair enough. You wouldn’t know who could have been responsible for my friend’s death, do you?” His face shuttered. I knew he might not have known about the wreck, but he had a clue who was behind it.
For the first time, I looked over at Stephan, whose eyebrows were raised. His voice taunted me in my head. “Subtlety is obviously not your strong point either.”
I shrugged and tried again. “So, Dakin, do you know who murdered my friend?”
The good-natured socialite was gone, and in its place stood a warrior ready for battle. Usually, my Spidey senses would be going off, but my feet really did hurt. I wanted to get in the car, so I could ask Stephan if what Dakin had said about Greta was true. It had to be a lie. But if it wasn’t, I had two options. Move out and pray that I didn’t kill anyone by accident, so I would never have to speak to him again, or murder him in his sleep. Vengeance wouldn’t return Greta, but as Stephan always liked to point out, I didn’t have many good points. And forgiveness wasn’t one of them either. Grudge holding, calculating, tenacious, biatch? Why, yes. Check, check, and check.
Dakin brought me back from my plotting. “I’m not sure I know what you speak of, Gem.”
“Sooner or later, we will find out who was behind the attack on one of mine,” Stephan said. “And I will show no mercy.”
“I wouldn’t blame you.” Dakin searched the ballroom nervously, and I knew that he was looking for Akeldama. “I like you, Gem, but this is something that I cannot help you with.”
Before he walked off, I snagged his arm, making Stephan growl again. He sounded more like a werewolf than he did a vampire. “I like you, too, Dakin, but I have got to tell you when it comes to my friends, there is nothing that I wouldn’t do for them. There is only black and white. No gray. I will avenge her death. You are either with me or against me.”
Dakin looked almost sad for a moment. “I totally understand, Tandi.” Then he walked away.
I had a feeling that the use of my real name showed me where we stood. If Akeldama were behind this, which I was positive that she was, then he would back her. He was obviously on a different side than I was, and something about that made me very sad.
Stephan had collected Dani, and we all walked back to the vehicle. Once we were inside, I knew Stephan knew precisely what I was about to ask. His hands clenched the steering wheel so hard I was surprised it didn’t come off. Dani was uncharacteristically quiet.
“Is it true?” I asked.
“Tandi, there are some things that—”
“Answer the question. Why is Greta not here with us right now? Did you somehow stop her transitioning into a vampire? Yes or no, Stephan?”
“Oh, shit,” Dani exhaled.
I whirled in my seat to peer at her in the back. “You knew that he could have brought her back, too?”
She didn’t even have the courage to answer; instead, she dropped her gaze to the floorboard.
“Tandi, I couldn’t let her come back as a vampire,” Stephan said quietly.
“You are telling me that what Dakin said was incorrect. And he was also misinformed when he said that you were occasionally giving Greta some of your blood, so there is no way that she died with your blood in her system. Or better yet, even though I’m a weak vampire, my blood alone should have brought her back. But he was lying, so you could not bring her back as one of us?”
“No, that is not what I am saying—”
“So, what are you saying?”
“Damn it, Tandi. I am trying to tell you, but you won’t listen. Yes, Greta did take my blood because it prolonged her life, and yes, she was a human servant. She wasn’t immortal, but she could live for a very
long time. Did she have enough of my blood in her to come back as a vampire? I’m not sure. Did she have enough of your blood in her to come back as a vampire? Yes, she did.”
I could barely control my anger. “What did you do to ensure that she didn’t rise?”
“Tandi, she did not want to be brought back as a vampire.”
“What about what I want?” I shrieked. “I need her! And you could have brought her back, but instead you let her die. The rogue vampires killed her, but you sealed her fate by not bringing her back.”
His palm hit the steering wheel. “What about what Greta wanted, hmm? Over the course of the years, I have tried to sway her to become a vampire, to become immortal, and she vehemently refused. It is not want she wanted, Tandi. You can’t possibly be so selfish as to ignore her wishes to appease your own.”
I knew I was being unreasonable, but I was in pain, and it felt good to lash out, even if it was undeserving. With venom in my voice, I sneered. “What did you do, Stephan? Put a stake in her heart to make sure that she didn’t rise back up as a vampire?”
His jaw clenched so hard, I heard his teeth crunch. “I had her cremated, which was also her request upon her death. Her grave holds her ashes.”
My insides twisted with so many different emotions. Greta was more of a mom to me than my own mother, and I missed her so bad it hurt. I wanted another one of her long hugs, but she would never be able to give me that again, and it was all because of the man sitting next to me. I knew somewhere in the back of my head that I was being unfair, but I was in too much pain to think about what would have been right or wrong for Greta or if I was being selfish. Dani hadn’t said one word, and it was just as well. At this point, I considered her an accomplice after the fact, and I was just as pissed at her. No one talked for the rest of the trip home. Before I exited the car, Stephan tried to grab my hand, but I quickly evaded him.
“Don’t. Touch. Me,” I snarled. “I will find out who sent the rogue vampires, and I will help you find the key, but I need some space.”
I got out of the car, slamming the door so hard I expected the glass to break, and was more than a little disappointed when it didn’t. I stormed up to my room and locked the door before falling on my bed, where I wished for things that couldn’t be and cried myself to an unrestful sleep.
Chapter Ten
The next night there was a knock on my door. I refused to open it, so Dani talked through it.
“Listen, I know that you are just as upset with me, because some part of you thinks I betrayed you, too, and for that, I am very sorry. Please believe me when I tell you that if we had brought Greta back as a vampire, she would have hated us for that. She would have never forgiven us. My brother is nothing short of an honorable man. He has his faults, but he would have never gone against Greta’s wishes, no matter how badly he wanted to.” I heard her sigh and then the sound of a thump, like maybe she had laid her head against my door. “Try and remember that he loved her like a mother, too. He is hurting just as badly, even though he might not show it like you.”
I heard her soft footsteps as she walked away from the door. She was right. Stephan did the right thing in honoring Greta’s wishes, and I was acting like a selfish brat. Just because he had the opportunity to bring Greta back didn’t mean he should have. Especially if those weren’t her wishes. My lines between right and wrong were blurrier than Stephan’s. Embarrassment flooded me when I thought of how childish I acted. I needed to apologize. Stephan was obviously grieving for Greta, too; he didn’t need me blaming him for honoring Greta’s wishes.
I jumped in the shower, threw on some clothes, put my hair in a messy bun, and ran down the stairs to Stephan’s study where I knew he would be because I could feel him.
Without knocking on the door, I walked right in. He was sitting behind his massive, dark desk. The whole room was made for him with its masculine hues of dark brown and forest green. He looked up from a ledger of some sort that he was writing in. His gaze slid over me from head to toe like he was assessing the damage.
When his eyes met mine, I said, “I understand what you had to do, and why you did it. I did not agree wholeheartedly because of my selfishness, but that is between my maker and me, and I’m not talking about you. I would have brought Greta back, even if that meant she would have hated me for the rest of my days, and I would have been wrong.”
He gave me a sad smile. “As many conversations that Greta and I have had on the topic, I just couldn’t do it to her. Especially with how strongly she felt about the subject. I just couldn’t.”
I swallowed the lump rising in my throat and nodded. “I wish you would have told me the truth.”
There were two leather chairs in front of the colossal desk, but I opted to sit in neither. Instead, I walked around and sat on the corner of his desk. He swiveled in his chair, his knees almost brushing my legs, and waited for me to say what was on my mind.
“I know that there are other things that you are keeping from me, Stephan, and I ask that you tell me about those things now before someone like Dakin does. He blindsided me, and I don’t like that feeling.”
His jaw clenched at the name, but then he leaned back in his chair and studied me. “You’re right, little one. There are things that I have withheld from you like Greta.” When I began to interject, he held up a hand. “But the reasoning behind that is you’re not ready to hear everything I have to say. You have just become a new vampire, and you are still struggling to adjust to this new lifestyle, not to mention you were uprooted from the only home you have ever known. I didn’t want to add unnecessary worries.”
“Well, I think I can handle knowing everything—”
Stephan put a hand up. “Maybe you can and maybe you can’t, but some things I might need more time to figure out.”
“Um. That’s weird. I mean, if it’s about me, why can’t you just tell me? For starters, I assumed that I magically lost all of the weight that I had on me as a human because I turned into a vampire, but when we went to the party last night, I saw that there were vampires of all different sizes. I realized that my theory was shot to hell with multiple bullet wounds. I can go abnormally long without feeding. I don’t seem to be a vampire, but yet I have fangs. Why am I so different?”
Stephan sighed. “Tandi, I have some very important things to take care of today.” He shuffled some papers on his desk and refused to make eye contact with me, signifying that the conversation was over.
I cleared my throat. “I have some questions that I feel will make me a better vampire, and I would like for you to answer them.”
“As I’ve said, I have other things to focus on today. Shut the door behind you on the way out.”
“You are an ass,” I said. “Just thought you should know.”
His brown eyes narrowed. “Are you done with your little tantrum?”
“What? You claim that you need me to be a better vampire, and yet there are so many unresolved questions that could possibly help me to be better or at least understand why I am not. Stating a fact is not a tantrum, buddy.” Tantrum? He thought me asking questions that I had every right to know the answers to was throwing a tantrum. He had been the one to act like I was an anomaly. By him being so secretive, I’d been made to feel that I was something so different than the norm that I was nothing but a failure. I came here to extend an olive branch, and he couldn’t meet me halfway. Bless his precious heart. I would show him a tantrum.
I walked over to the door where a priceless vase was standing on a pillar. “Just so you know, buddy, this,” I said, picking up the vase, “is throwing a tantrum.” I let the vase slip through my fingers and watched his jaw clench when it shattered into a million pieces.
“Do you have any idea how much that was worth?”
“No, but I know how much it’s worth now.” I did a little finger wave then spun around on my heel. “Good talk, Stephan.”
In a flash, he was before me, gripping me by my arms. The anger radiating off
of him made me stop the nasty retort on the edge of my tongue.
“Anyone else, Tandi, anyone else, and I would have made them pick up those pieces with their teeth.”
“I would have just spit the mouthful of ceramic in your face.”
He rested his forehead against mine, and his nostrils flared like he was breathing in my scent. Wasn’t expecting that. I also wasn’t expecting the tightening in my stomach. “I know you would have, and that is another thing that I admire you for.” What was that scent? He smelled like heaven. He was a drug and being this close to him was intoxicating. I was having a hard time thinking straight. “I know you have questions and I need time. Can you give me that? You deserve the answers to your questions, and I’m working on giving them to you. I just need a little more time. Please be patient.”
I nodded and he released me. As his arms dropped from me I felt a surge of sadness. Oh no, this couldn’t be good. I was severely attracted to the Prince of Vampires.
Pasting on a fake smile, I joked, “Just remember, patience isn’t one of my strong suits.”
“I will see you later tonight. Maybe by then, I will have some answers for you.”
I left him in his study, and as I walked my way back up the steps, I thought that maybe I wouldn’t like the answers he found. But wasn’t it better to know? What if there was something truly defective about me? I couldn’t fit into the human world anymore, but would I also be ostracized from all vampires as well, to live a life of solitude. Stephan would have to wipe his hands clean of me in order to not be alienated either. I would be all by myself in this new life.
If this was something that was out of my control, then worrying about it would bring me nothing but more trouble. I took off my cuff and left it on the bedside table. A long bath, painting my toenails, and watching reality shows would fix anything. Well, almost anything.
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