Blood Ties (18 page)

I walked towards the glass wall
, too timid to explore, afraid of what I might find in a house with two living, breathing vampires. Well, living was a bit of a stretch.

Blending into the glass wall was a door. I stepped outside onto a white painted deck and walked past Adirondack chairs to the wooden railing. It had to be nearly noon by the way the sun hit the deck. Across the ocean, the haze of fog had receded and was now just a distant band of gray against the horizon. Swarms of seagulls swooped overhead, dipping up and down behind the rocks below.

I should leave. Go out that front door. Go home. Then what would I do? Call my mom, freak out my friends? I wouldn’t think vampires were real keen on people knowing about them. What if they changed their minds and decided I was too great a risk? What would they do to me?

I sucked in the ocean air with deep breaths. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, think normal. Focus on normal. Shit, I’d seen Michael during the day. Oh God. They could be up, somewhere in the house, doing God knows what. I quickly looked behind me, afraid they might be sneaking up on me, fangs out, ready to pounce. My heart began to race.

I heard the scuff of a chair and a jolt of adrenaline shot through me. I peeked over the edge of the railing. Down below, on the second deck that jutted further out towards the ocean were several more reclining Adirondacks. To their right was a table with two occupied chairs. Selene and Michael were sitting in them, casually talking to each other, their pale skin reflecting a slight bluish tinge. Selene looked up and waved. She yelled, “Hey Liz, come on down and join us.” Michael smiled warmly. I thought more happy thoughts.

As if they had a mind of their own, my feet found the stairs that led to the second deck and down I went, holding the side rail with a tight grip, taking calm, even breaths. Michael stood and offered me his chair next to Selene. He slid it under me as I sat down. I tried not to stare at their eerily blue tinged skin. He took the next chair, sliding it several inches away from me – trying not to be too close, too scary, I supposed. I slid my hands under my thighs. They were trembling.

“Did you sleep well?” Selene asked. Humor lit up her hazel eyes.

I concentrated on keeping my voice even. “Very well, thank you.” I glanced at Michael. It’d been weird that I had fallen asleep so quickly. He grinned, flashing his white teeth. I stiffened, and then let out a long breath when I saw nothing out of the ordinary. “It’s a little odd seeing you … I thought … well ...
,” I stammered, embarrassed.

“Why the both of us are sitting here in daylight, not spontaneously combusting?” Selene said, answering my thought
s. She laughed, the sound of it like a musical symphony. She lightly touched my forearm. “My dear, I’m afraid to disappoint you. Much of what you’ve read in books, seen in movies is simply untrue.” I looked at Michael. He had his arm propped up on an armrest, head tilted to one side, his long graceful fingers extended against his cheek. He looked amused by the whole thing. Goody for him.

“I hope you’re not too disappointed,” she added.

“Ummm, no.” I looked down at my lap. Warmth flooded my cheeks.

“Selene, you’re embarrassing her. Why don’t you go scavenge through that kitchen of yours for something
.”

“Here I am, being impolite to our guest.” She touched my arm again and looked into my eyes. “I’ll be right back.” She grinned. “Don’t let Michel bore you too much.” She headed up the stairs.

I felt uncomfortable feeling his constant gaze on my face and I still couldn’t wrap my mind around her calling him Michel.

I cleared my throat. “So … should I say good morning?”

He chuckled. “Yes, good morning will do.” He shifted slightly in his chair. “How are you feeling today?”

“Okay, I guess, being where I am.”

He laughed heartily. It echoed against the black rocks and startled the seagulls. “Yes, I can definitely see the absurdity of it.”

“How was your evening, did you sleep well?” I asked, not being able to think of anything else to say.

“Hmmm well, I really don’t have the luxury.” His lips twitched in slight smile.

“Meaning?”

“Well, our kind … can’t sleep.”

“I see.” I looked away. The next few moments were awkwardly quiet. I felt his gaze on me like a heavy weight. I looked everywhere but at him. Where the hell was Selene? Just then, I heard light footsteps down the stairs.

“Liz, I hope you like café au lait.” She laid a tray with a large bowl filled with steaming coffee and milk in front of me, along with a few croissants and a small plate of fruit. She explained, “I picked up a few things yesterday while you were sleeping.”

“It looks wonderful, thank you.” I reached for the bowl of coffee and held it, warming my hands.

“So, has Michel been boring you?” she asked as she stood over me. She glanced at him with a wide grin.

“No. I’m just a little nervous I guess. I’m not sure what I should say.” What should you say to vampires sitting on a patio, in broad daylight, watching you eat brunch?

“It’s completely understandable.” Selene sat down, gracefully leaning back in her chair. “Has he told you my story?” she questioned, stealing a glance at Michael.

“No, he hasn’t.”

“Would you like to hear about my ... birth?”

Birth. That was an odd way of putting it.

I hoped to God it wasn’t too horrific. Even if it were, the horror would seem out of place, here on this deck this morning, with the sun glistening on the ocean.

“
Okay, sure,” I said. What else was I going to say, “Hell no?”

“Hmmmm, where to start,” she mused. She took a deep breath, gazing towards the ocean, and began
, “Like Michel, I was born in France. My parents were gypsies, now days you call them transients, traveling from here to there, wherever we could find work. My father was skilled in woodworking, my mother made soap and perfumes. I was about twenty years old when it happened.

“We had been traveling for several days, moving from one village to the next when we were attacked. I don’t remember much. It happened so fast. I’m not sure why I was left alive.” She paused
and her eyes tightened. “I only remember the terrible pain. Michel found me, my body broken and bleeding, and cared for me, through my death, as it was.” She glanced at him. His face was somber.

“After my changing he watched over me, as a brother, helping me to come to terms with my terrible fate.” They exchanged a loving look. “
He had been tracking that foul creature and its brethren, the ones who had murdered his family and betrothed when he found me. We’ve been brother and sister ever since. Myself, a younger sister, having the span of fifty years between us.” She looked at him and he smiled softly.

She turned towards me. “So, not too scary then?”

I gave her a warm smile. I was falling madly in love with her. It was hard to believe she was a vampire. I glanced at Michael and knew I was hopelessly falling in love with him. How could I not? He was the angel in my dreams. They stole quick glances at each other. They were quiet as I focused on the food in front of me and began eating, suddenly ravenous. I was in some movie with unworldly beautiful creatures sitting next to me while I had croissants and café au lait. I stifled a giggle, almost choking on a piece of bread. How bizarre.

After I finished, Selene cleared the table and returned inside, leaving me with Michael. He offered to show me the beach. He gave me an encouraging smile and patiently waited while I decided. I stood and took his hand. He carefully
led me down the zigzag of stairs, his face turned away. In brief moments, when the sun glanced off his hands, they seem to turn translucent as the skin on a newborn baby bird. It wasn’t easy but I convinced myself not to sprint back up the stairs. I wasn’t ready to see the whole Michael with see-through skin. I don’t think I would ever be ready for that.

Thankfully the
high cliffs shaded the beach. He helped me navigate around a few jagged rocks and walked me to the edge of the water. Gentle waves moved back and forth against the gray black sands. I walked over to a shell and picked it up, watching him out of the corner of my eye.

I examine
d the shell, turning it rhythmically in my hands.

He
sighed. “Liz, I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”

I
continued to play with the shell. “It’s still unbelievable … unreal.” I shook my head. “It’s really hard for me to believe any of this.” I looked up into his eyes. They were a soft brown, patient. I stood to face him.

“So you don’t spontaneously combust in sunlight, you don’t sleep, so I’m guessing no coffins?” I searched his face. He smiled.

“Garlic? Crosses? Silver? Bats?”

“Fiction.”

I concentrated, tried to remember what I’d read in books, movies I’d seen. “Levitation?”

“Myths. We do have a few interesting attributes besides our pale skin. Enhanced strength, speed, sight, hearing and smell.”

Well hell, I could have guessed that, it was classic monster lore. “So you’re dead then?”

“Well, in one way at least.” He slowly reached for my right hand and gently pulled it towards him, placing it on his chest. I couldn’t feel a heartbeat. Then he moved my hand against the side of his cold throat, covering mine with his. There was no pulse.

I jerked my hand back and my heart began to race at the sudden reality.

“Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you,” he said quietly.

He was concerned, I’m sure, that I would start screaming, pass out, or maybe both. He must be psychic; I was thinking the same thing. I turned away from him and took a few steps to put some distance between us. After a few minutes, my heart calmed and my breathing returned to near normal.

I dropped the shell and faced him. “You drink blood.”

He watched me, not saying anything. It said it all.

“Human blood?” I squeaked.

“Sometimes ... it’s unavoidable.” Unavoidable? There was that word again. I slowly took a step back, then another, trying to keep the panic under wraps.

He spoke quickly upon seeing my not
-so-stealthy movements. “We hunt, we use large game to … satisfy our need. Yesterday, I was tracking the bear that attacked you.” He sighed and then slid his gaze up to the sky. “We try not to interfere with the course of life, of any human life. It would draw dangerous attention to us.”

Before I could react, he held my hands lightly in his cold grip. I took a step backwards and tried to pull away, my heart beating a staccato. “Liz, I could not let it harm you
. I couldn’t live with the thought of that animal, ripping your body to pieces, seeing you broken, lying there, lifeless when it had finished.” He paused, watching my frozen expression. A soft look traveled across his face. “Liz, you mean a great deal to me. I …” He raised my fingertips to his lips, brushing against them, closing his eyes.

He could hear it, I knew, my heart beating frantically. What was he saying? My God, what was he saying? He wanted me to be his vampire sweetie? Would that end in sudden death? The voice inside
me started whimpering.

I felt the stirrings of a wail growing deep in the pit of my stomach. Then it changed into something else, a stirring of a memory. There was something – something so familiar in the touch of his lips against my fingers.

“My dreams …,” I blurted out without even thinking.

“I’ve always had these dreams.” I spoke quickly, almost frantic. “I know it sounds a little weird, but when I saw you that first day in class, I thought you were him and had stepped right out of
them. And the girl in my dreams, she was me, but not me.” I tore myself away from his smoldering gaze and looked at my fingers pressed lightly to his lips. I trembled, afraid to say my next words. “The Michel in my dreams … called me Alisé.” There, I’d said it. I’d finally broken my deep cover.

He went perfectly still. I looked up and took a step back, yanking my hands out o
f his at the sight of his expression. He began to shudder.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Alisé … my Alisé?”

We stared at each other.

An ice cold swept through my limbs. “Your Alisé?” I mouthed, no sound passing my lips. There was thunder in my head. I took another step back, slowly shaking my head, staring at his shocked face. “No … you’re just saying that … it couldn’t possibly … I’m not … you’re not ...” My voice trailed off. The coincidences I’d repeatedly denied since I’d started college at St. Germaine surfaced to scream at me. Suddenly his arms were around me. He grasped my body tightly to his, whispering her name as he kissed every inch of my face, his tears wetting my cheeks.

I held myself stiff in his arms, afraid to move, terrified a quick movement, any struggle, might trigger a shower of punctures instead of the frantic kisses by my imaginary lover, now
apparently a dead lover with fangs. After several moments, he pulled away and spoke softly, “You are my Alisé, my love I lost so long ago. Why do you not believe it?” I shook my head and looked into his eyes that glittered with tears. “How can I convince you?” He thought for a moment, searching my face. “Your father’s name was Jacque and your mother’s was Sophie.” My eyes widened as I heard those names, the names of her parents. “My Alisé had a small star shaped mole on her left breast.” He lowered the neckline of my sweater exposing my mole. He bent down and gently kissed it.

I let out a panicked gasp and yanked away from him. “It’s not possible! These things are not possible!” I began to hyperventilate. “This is not real. All of this is just one crazy dream! I’m going to wake up and all this is going to go away!” I ran to the stairs at the base of the cliff.

“Alisé. Please come back.”

I froze on the third step.

“Please come to me, Alisé,” he said in a soft voice.

I turned around, shocked to my core. I had responded to her name
as if it were my own. I hung on to the railing as if it were a lifeboat. Then unable to stop myself, I stepped down, one rung at a time, until I reached the bottom. I swayed as my hands left the comfort of the wood to hang at my sides. I took one step and then another as if an invisible rope pulled me towards him. Overwhelming fear swamped me. I swayed, feeling lightheaded. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t stop moving.

He walked to me as he spoke
, “Please forgive me, my love. I shouldn’t have touched you like that. I know all of this is overwhelming, terrifying. I understand completely. But you must trust me. I won’t hurt you.”

He now stood in front of me, so close. I began
to quake in fear. Yeah, pretty to think those words would make all the difference.

“
When I first saw you, I knew God had heard my prayers. He has returned you to me.” He reached out to catch a strand of my hair floating in the air from the light breeze and tucked it behind my ear. “Alisé, my love, my only love.” Tears streaked his face. He gently grasped my hand and placed it against his cheek, closing his eyes.

My head thundered and the world seemed to turn backwards. The ground shifted under my feet. The fear drained out of me.

“Michel?” I whispered. I timidly reached out and touched his wet cheek. His skin felt as smooth as porcelain. I lightly traced his nose, his cheekbone, his brow. I touched his hair. It was the same but different, more fine, silkier. He gazed down at me with such love it wrenched my heart.

I threw myself into his arms and he cried out my name, weeping. “Alisé, my only love.” These words echoed in my mind as he kissed me, moving his cool lips gently against mine. I melted against him, feeling every hard angle of his body pressed up against me. He swept his kisses up to my cheeks and eyelids and I began to cry.

I wasn’t crazy. I wasn’t dreaming. This was real.

Time passed, it could have been minutes
or hours as we held each other, his sweet scent surrounding us in a cocoon. His chest rose and fell with each breath, his heart silent. Curiously, I wasn’t in shock, only numb from the reality of it all. It was probably my soul placating my unconsciousness, making it all seem right, as if I was home. It would take some getting used to. I’d thought I’d been crazy my whole life. I might be pinching myself for a while.

He suddenly clasped my waist and lifted me from the sands
, laughing as he swung me around in the air. “My love ... my Alisé!” Our laughter echoed against the cliff.

He set me down and raised a fingertip to my bottom lip, tracing it. “All these years I thought you were gone from me forever. Truly, it is a miracle beyond miracles. Death and time cannot break our love.”

I gave him a small smile and let out a shaky breath. “Are you sure I’m not dreaming? You are really … you?” I poked at his chest. “You know it’s been a long time,” I teased.

How easily I had accepted all of this.

He laughed. “Yes, I’m really me.” His face twisted up. “My love … how I have missed you. The hell I have been in, reliving the last few moments of your life every day of my forced existence.”

I reached up to touch his cheek. He buried his face in
to my hair. “How I love you so.”

The wind picked up and I
shivered. I let out a little girly “eep” when he swept me up in his arms. He ran me up the stairs to the house and set me down in front of the fireplace. In a few moments, a fire was roaring and its heat began to fill the room. He stood gazing down at me in awed adoration. I looked up at him, blinking. The shakes were on the verge of letting loose. My mind hadn’t caught up with everything that had happened in the last few hours, scratch that, the last day and a half.

He began to pace. “
Are you thirsty? I should get you something to drink? Are you hungry? Do you need anything?” He stopped in front of me, a lost look on his face. It was so cute, so sweet.

He bent down on one knee. “What should I get for you? Tell me my love.”

My heart wrenched. He held me as I sobbed, letting go of the pain I’d kept buried for the whole of my brief lifetime. He held me, whispering soft words in French, gently rubbing my back. I quieted down to sniffles and he brushed away my tears. “Tell me, my eternal love, what should I do?”

I held back another sob at his words and focused.
I needed to give him something, something to distract him, to help him deal with his own shock.