Deadman's Blood (10 page)

“Now wait a minute! You did horrible things to me and left me for dead, and I want to see your brother right now or I’ll bring the elders into this!”

“And who is going to believe a poor, dead spinster over a nobleman like myself? I’ll say it again,” he said brutally, “leave now!”

“But where is...?”

“Now!” bellowed Edward.

The commotion brought the rest of the family down and now all were yelling at her to leave.

Leave? Where am I to go? Where’s my Love? Why has he abandoned me? What is wrong with me?

She wandered around the town for hours. Anyone who saw her ran in fear. She couldn’t understand what was going on. She could hear their thoughts and their fears and those scared her more than the looks on their faces. After several hours she happened upon a drunk man staggering about, probably trying to find his way home. As he got closer, she felt that hot, gut wrenching pain again and her mouth salivated as two razor-pointed fangs pierced their way through her gums and poked at her bottom lip. She could hardly control herself. She ran to the man and eagerly drove her fangs into his neck and lapped up the warm fluid rushing into her waiting mouth. It was delicious. Her head was swimming in his thoughts and her thoughts; she felt drunk herself with power and life. But she remembered the man that had done this to her and she pulled back, refusing to be like him. She set the man up against a building in the shadows in the hopes he would sleep off his drunkenness and remember this all as a bad dream.

Too bad I can’t do that - wake up from this horrible nightmare.
Nothing would ever be the same again. She was...an animal or something. She had no idea what she was, but she refused to kill for a meal.

She wandered around the outskirts of town, living in the woods, taking bites from people in the dark. Surviving really, but not necessarily living. She clutched the ring that still hung around her neck from the red ribbon and she wondered what had become of her love. She gently pulled it out to look at its beauty. Only when holding it up in the sun could she see the blood red color within. She dropped it back down her shirt and moved on.

Over time she learned to control and master her abilities. For years, she watched and waited for her love to come back. But she never again saw him. Once she learned what she had become, or at least what the folklore books thought she was, she learned how she could kill one of her kind and that’s when she hunted down the unsuspecting Edward. So smug, thinking he had gotten rid of her so easily. He had changed her life and made her into a monster. She couldn’t be near her family or ever be normal again because of what he had done to her that night in the barn.

After her father died and her brothers had married and had families of their own, she decided her love was never coming back and that it was time to make a change.

She bought a ticket with money she had lifted from those she had fed upon and headed for the new colonies across the Atlantic Ocean. It was a terrible, torturous two months at sea. Disease was rampant among the passengers. The crew stayed clear of the steerage passengers and she couldn’t blame them. During the voyage, she fed on mostly drunken sailors, as it was too hard to be down in the dark steerage with the hopeful passengers and the horrible stench of vomit, waste, and body odor. She saw children die from small pox and chicken pox, dysentery, and cholera. She tried to ease their pain with her mind, but there were so many and it was so exhausting.

When they landed in the colonies, she took to wandering again. For centuries, a young woman traveling unescorted was unheard of. Women couldn’t buy land or own property of any kind. Julianna often dressed as a man just to avoid suspicion. She also never stayed in any one place for any amount of time. It wasn’t until the Victorian age that things finally started to change for women, but not before the years of loneliness and wandering had taken their toll.

*****

“
What I learned, Anton, is that love sucks and you can only depend on yourself. Survival is all there is,” Julianna proclaimed.

Anton could see that she was quite inebriated. “Come on, Jules. Let me help you to bed.”

“Mmmmmmm. That would be nice,” she said.

He scooped her up off the couch and carried her down the hall. Her head wobbled back and forth and she pointed to the bedroom when he got close. She wrapped her arms tight around his neck as he continued into the room. He set her down on the bed and pulled back the coverlet.

She had a seductive smile on her face as he pulled the covers over her and leaned into her. “Aren’t you joining me?” Julianna asked.

“No, Jules. That wouldn’t be right,” Anton said.

“Aw, come on. It’s a big bed. I don’t snore. At least I don’t think I snore,” she said.

“It’s not that, Jules. I just think that if we decide to take that step together that we should both be coherent and sure that we want to do this,” Anton explained.

“I’m coherent,” she slurred.

“Of course you are, Jules,” Anton said.

“A kiss then?” she asked as she sat up.

“Ummm. I suppose,” Anton conceded.

He leaned in tentatively and stopped a few inches from her lips, wondering if this really was a good idea.
What if I can’t stop?
he thought
. What if she wouldn’t remember? What if...

She came the rest of the way in and gently kissed his bottom lip. So soft were her lips that he couldn’t resist kissing them back. Her hands raked through his hair to his neck and then pulled him hard to her lips. Both so starved of love for so very long, the need to kiss became a necessity essential for their survival and they clung to one another for dear life.

Quite out of breath from the rush of his hormones, Anton pulled away from an astonished Julianna. She pouted. “Jules. I can’t,” Anton said.

“You can’t or you won’t?” she said.

“I won’t. Not like this. I want us both to be sober and aware of our actions. I want a relationship with you, Jules. A real, bonafide, ‘make it work’ relationship. I’m already falling for you and I don’t want to screw it up,” he explained.

“Really?” Jules said, rather astonished.

“Don’t act so surprised,” Anton said.

She seemed suddenly sober. “You want a relationship with me? To love? And... But I’m a monster. I’ve done things and seen things that no normal person should see,” Julianna admitted.

“I’m not exactly normal either, Jules. And you are no monster. You’re beautiful, spirited, smart, and talented. You are amazing. Like no one I’ve ever met or will ever meet again,” Anton said.

“Really?” she said, completely enthralled.

“Really. Now get some sleep and I’ll call you in the morning, okay?”

Flabbergasted by the conversation and what had just happened, she laid back down watching him as he left. She replied, “Okay.”

“Goodnight, Jules.”

Barely able to speak, she replied, “Goodnight, Anton.”

Darby was sitting on the couch in the guest house, knitting away, when she heard, “I’m hungry.”

“I am too,” she answered, assuming she was talking to Devon. A whoosh of air passed by her and then Devon’s hand was on her shoulder, startling her.

“You are too, what?” he asked.

“Geez. You have been awful sneaky lately. I didn’t even see you come into the room,” she said.

“I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you, but you were the one talking.”

“No. I was just responding to you,” Darby said.

“About what?” Devon asked.

“You said you were hungry,” she said.

“Uhhh. No. I didn’t. I mean I am, but I didn’t say anything,” Devon insisted.

“You didn’t? But I heard you distinctly say, ‘I’m hungry’,” Darby argued.

“Well, Sweetness, it wasn’t me,” Devon said.

“Hmmm,” she said. “That’s odd. Were you thinking it and I heard it that way?”

“I don’t think so. I was working on the computer back in the bedroom when I heard you say something. If I was thinking something, it would have been about wiring the house in Ireland and what I need to order for Sean and his brother to get started over there,” Devon explained.

“I was so sure it was you,” she said.

“Nope. Not me.”

“You sure you’re not just messing with me?” Darby asked.

“I would never do such a thing…” he smiled coyly, “but seriously, this time it wasn’t me,” Devon said.

She put her knitting into a bag on the coffee table and pondered the information. “That’s really weird. Anyway, do you want to go up to the house and eat?”

“Sure. I could go for a bite,” Devon said.

“A bite, huh?” Darby joked.

“Very funny,” he said as he held out his hand to help Darby to her feet and stole a kiss as a payment for doing so. Then they walked up to the house hand and hand.

*****

Rowan was bundled up like an Eskimo when Blake found her in the bedroom.

“What’s up? Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m just cold for some reason,” she answered.

“I don’t know how you could be; after all, it’s like 80 degrees in here with the fire going.”

“I don’t know what to say…I’m cold,” Rowan insisted.

“Are you getting sick?” He reached for her forehead.

“I don’t think so. Just have a chill. Once I get warmed up, I’m sure I’ll be better,” she said.

“Maybe you should have a nice, hot shower after dinner with a tall, handsome vampire?” Blake suggested.

“You think? Who would you recommend?”

“Me, of course,” Blake said matter-of-factly.

“Oh…well, I’ll have to think about it,” she said as she jumped up and wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest.

“You’ll think about it? Have you received a better offer?” Blake asked.

“No. Just wanted to get a rise out of you,” Rowan quipped.

“Uh huh. I see. Shall we head to dinner?” Blake said.

“Sure. But didn’t you just eat like an hour ago?” Rowan asked.

“Yeah, so?”

“Where exactly do you put all that food?” she asked sarcastically.

“I don’t know, guess I burn a lot of energy keeping you happy.”

“Oh…is that so?” Rowan said.

“Yep. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking with it,” he said as he opened the door and led her to the stairs.

“I wish I could eat like that,” she said as she slipped her left arm around his waist and he reciprocated by wrapping his right arm around her shoulders.

“It’s a very specialized talent. Takes a lot of practice.”

A shiver ran up her back as she said, “Does it, now? Who knew?”

“It’s a researched fact. Oh, yes. You can’t just binge eat on a whim,” he said as they walked past the library, when out of the corner of his eye he saw what looked like the fireplace burst into flames where there had been none before. “Holy moly! Did you see that?”

“See what?” she asked.

“In the library, the fireplace suddenly had a huge fire in it.”

She took a step back and peeked into the library to see a lovely, flickering fire in the fireplace. “Are you sure? Looks like the fire in there has been going all evening.”

“It does, doesn’t it? That’s weird. I could have sworn there was no fire in there just a second ago,” he said, puzzled.

They continued on to the dining room and the same thing happened when they passed the fireplace in the salon.

“Did you see that?” Blake said.

“What now?” Rowan asked.

“The fireplace. Again, it burst into flames as we walked by!” Blake said.

“Are you okay, Blake? You seem to have fire on the brain. What’s up?” Rowan asked, rather concerned.

“I…I… don’t know. You really didn’t see that?” he asked.

“No, handsome. I didn’t see anything but a fireplace with a fire in it,” she said.

“Weird,” he exclaimed as he opened the door to the dining room, leading her in.

*****

Dean had been jumpy all day, which is exactly how Sally was feeling. She’d never seen him jumpy before; in her eyes, he’d always been courageous and it was really throwing her for a loop. She wished he had been his usual self since she was feeling so edgy.

When they sat down in the dining room for dinner, she asked Dominic a question. “Mr. Larsen, I was wondering if you could tell me who the woman is in the portrait at the head of the stairs?”

“Aw. She’s lovely isn’t she? That is my dearly departed wife, Sophia,” he proclaimed.

“Yes. She is very beautiful and Anton has her eyes. May I ask how she died?” Sally inquired.

He finished chewing his bite of lasagna before answering, “In childbirth. She never even got to hold Anton in her arms. It was a terrible time. We were so excited anticipating his arrival and then tragedy struck and we lost her.”