Eternally Blue (Sunset Cliffs Vampire #1) (Paranormal Teen Romance) (11 page)

I turned on my heels and ran as fast I could back to my house, just praying that Sam was sticking with me, but I wasn’t fast enough. I knew that and now so did Noah and his vampire. She jumped in front of me before I made it to the end of his yard.

She blinked her wide, bright eyes at me, curiously. “Well hello, Blue,” she leaned into my neck for a slow drawn out sniff, and I stood still as a board. Noah was behind her and he kept his eyes locked with mine, his eyes looked so sad it made me even angrier at this pint sized vampire.

“
She smells good, surprisingly, for an American vamp. I can see your appeal” She flicked her head back around to Noah and grinned. I felt sick to my stomach, I was defenseless against her and so was Noah. I understood now, his sadness at her arrival earlier, he seemed to know what was coming. Does that mean he knew about me? Why wouldn’t he say anything? Maybe she is just jealous of any girl and he knew she’d want to dispose of me regardless. Maybe I’m not the first girl she’s gotten rid of.

I tried to shuffle a step backwards, I’m not really sure why I did, I knew I couldn’t get away, and every time I’d had prey attempt the same in the past, I always wondered what they were thinking in trying something so futile, but it is truly apparently ‘second nature’ and I tried even though logically I knew she would think it was fun and go after the chase.

In the same second she grabbed me with her tiny but insanely strong hand. I could tell even in my weakened form, that she truly was older than any American vamp I had met. Truly old vamps have a certain strength about them that even middle aged vampires don’t possess and I was afraid she was going to break my wrist, on accident if not on purpose. It also explains how she was able to come by in the daytime with an umbrella as coverage. None of these thoughts mattered though because all that mattered was that I was going to be sucked dry by a centuries old vampire, and she was going to absorb not only my bloodline but my love for Noah which is what truly made me angry now, the fact that I believed she would suck up my love for him and somehow love him even more than she does now, the sum of our loves combined. Maybe my smell on her body, emitting from her pores would make him love her back.

That thought is what inspired me to try to round house kick her to the face. She caught my leg with her other hand, and let go of my wrist with her first hand. That is how I came to be suspended in front of Noah’s house at approximately 8pm on a school night. Surreal that this thought could even occur to me. Where was the rest of my temporary family? No, I couldn’t let myself think like that, I didn’t want them involved in this. I changed my thought pattern to think about my throbbing upside down ears.

“
Put her down”. Noah commanded. Yeah, he commanded her. I didn’t even know he was capable of such authority, but the princess actually wavered, I could feel it in her wrist, just a minute change of grip.

“
Look Lainey, you are breaking dozens of treaties by being here and harming her. You know she is likely protected by a council, don’t risk your father’s country going to war right now over this, you haven’t had time to think it through”. He reached out for her hand, and she took it, effectively dropping me on my ass on the pavement. She seemed to be under his spell if I didn’t know any better. She really loved him.

“
I can smell the other vampire on her now though my pet. I know your senses are dulled but I can tell that the vampire sniffing around you is related to her and a male. She is probably only changed as a way to infiltrate your life, to end your life Noah, can’t you see?!” At the end her voice rose an octave and she stomped her tiny foot on the ground. Oh no, if we weren’t careful she was going to shed blood tears soon, and as a girl I know that that really sets us off.

It’s hard to keep your composure when your face is streaked with red tears. Yet another blessing of being human I suppose, for whom tears can actually be beneficial, and cute if I had to declare them anything from watching humans begging me not to kill them to eat. OK, mostly not killing, mostly just gorging on, them sending them on their way with no memory of what happened, but until I cleared their memory bank, they sure did remember, causing them to... what else: Cry, those beautiful and pitying gorgeous tears. Filling up their eyes and acting like magnifying glasses, enlarging them cartoonishly.

Back to the purpose, I had to keep this princess from crying. I opened my mouth to speak but Noah beat me to it, his voice cracking.

“
Blue, tell me it isn’t true.” His whole body looked like it was going to cave in on itself, like the ability of his legs to continue holding up his body was directly dependent on my answer. Frankly I was stunned into silence, wondering how he could think that I was here to harm him after all that we’d shared. I glanced at Lainey, and luckily she seemed honestly curious as to what my answer would be too, temporarily suspending the threat of her bleeding all over her face.

“
No Noah of course not, I didn’t even know what you were until I just overheard Lainey talking to you.” I tried to stand, but Lainey stood in front of me as if to keep me down. “No, you stay there. We need answers first”.

I looked at Noah to help but he just stood by looking about as torn up as I felt about this whole situation.

“
You can start by telling us what you know about the vampire that is stalking my child” Lainey continued.

“
OK, well, you said he was related to me, I personally haven’t smelled him around but my senses are dulled right now too” Lainey snorted, and I glared at her. “Do you want my help or not?”

She nodded and rolled her eyes, so I licked my lips to buy time before I continued, my heart thudding in my throat, I don’t know how much to tell them. What would my brother want with Noah? He was probably just checking out his scent, but he wouldn’t mess with an immortal so near to me and possibly blow my cover would he? I know he wants me home on Nikolai’s behalf but he wouldn’t do anything to sabotage me would he? Especially since he should have been able to smell Noah on me when he came for his unannounced visit. “Well, my brother came to visit me once, but he didn’t mention Noah and Noah wasn’t around at the time so…”

“
Wait!” Noah interrupted, “Was he there that day I came over to take you to the beach, you know, I smelled something unusual in your living room but I didn’t have the time or inclination to further analyze it. I didn’t think I had reason to distrust the Lacey’s”. He glared at me, but continued “besides, I was kind of distracted”. This time he grinned shyly at me and I blushed.

Lainey cleared her throat “Well this is all well and bloody good, but we need you to contact your brother and find out what he wants with Noah. I take it he’s not a stray vamp?” She glared me, eyed squinted, challenging me to say he was a stray. She would probably rip my head off this very second if she found out I was bringing strays around her ‘pet’.

I rolled my eyes “Not bloody likely Princess. What do you think the West American Council just hands out the elixir to relatives of strays? We’re just what, buying our time until I can change back and report to my rogue stray army how delicious Noah and his brother smell?” I snorted, “If I were a full vamp and a stray I would not be part of a team, I would just drain him myself, and I am surprised if you don’t know that considering that I thought the politics and nature of strays was the same in Europe”.

I was really angry now, getting accused of being a stray vamp was just downright insulting. Granted we didn’t have thrones here in America, we had councils, we were much more civilized (and less snobby) than that, but I was high class, and strays, well strays are like nomads. They generally don’t like to be bossed around by the council, thinking they should have a right to decide how and when they drain their victims, and when they get sloppy and leave behind obvious victims, they don’t want an organized vampire government chasing them down. They would prefer to just leave a mess that they feel the humans will just clean up and make up some animal bite story, to describe the damage.

They are right to an extent, there have been so many messy mistakes by these nut job strays that humans find before one of our kind do and when you hear about them on the news, they are so obvious to vampires, but humans just smile while reporting that an animal attacked the persons throat (on the street of NYC no less) or that they had a blood disorder that dissolved their blood. Oh no!

Lainey looked flustered at my mockery of her but regained her composure quickly and didn’t object when Noah came forward to offer me his hand to stand up, which I managed to do with a decent amount of grace considering the embarrassing way this tiny girl had deposited me on the ground.

“
Let’s discuss this over some coffee” Noah sighed, rubbing his eyes and looked at his watch.

I hadn’t been in Noah’s house before, and considering it was a house with two boys living in it I was surprised at how well kept it was. It was decorated and outfitted completely utilitarian, with simple furnishings, it didn’t look like it was outfitted to entertain, the sparse kitchen only having two stools at its breakfast bar. I took one, and Lainey sat next to me without so much as a single snarky comment which surprised me, and we both watched Noah making coffee silently.

After Noah had given me a cup of coffee and fixed one for himself, (Lainey obviously wasn’t going to be having any) Lainey finally broke the silence “Ok so Blue, why would you be given the elixir?”

I almost choked on my coffee and looked at Noah pleadingly. This was supposed to be a personal decision and I didn’t think I needed to share my reasons. Noah didn’t object to her question though I thought somewhat bitterly, probably because he knew I had already heard his story.

I relented, “My dad is on the council… I had just been proposed marriage”. Noah sucked in his breath across from me but I didn’t look up at him, instead focusing on my mug, and continued “I wasn’t ready to answer him but I didn’t see a way out of it except for to take the plunge (literally) and finally try life on the sunny side.” With that I smiled and looked around. Lainey was staring at me, not even trying to conceal her open mouth, Noah was looking at me more thoughtfully, less aghast. Then again I’m not sure he could ever look anything but smoldering and thoughtful. Oh, No scratch that – I got the word for his look, ‘pensive’, he was holding his mug in both hands and looking at me very pensively.

“
You are the daughter of a council member and you thought you’d TRY your luck at being a human?” She shrieked the last bit. I shrugged. “Yeah? Haven’t you always wanted to try it?”

She barked out a laugh “Me? No doll, I am way too old for that and too close to the throne to be risking my life for a day in the sun. Besides, now that I can go out in the daytime, what would I have to gain? A wrinkle? Do you realize how long it took for me to be able to withstand the sun?” She looked back and forth from me to Noah “Well, do you?”

I blinked in surprise, “No, I suppose I don’t, somewhere north of 600 years I would have to estimate based on the other elders I have met that can go outside during the day”.

“
Baby please don’t call me an ‘elder’” She spat. She started admiring her rings, twisting her hand in the light to make the diamonds weighing down her hand glitter. “Why did your brother come to visit you Blue? If I am not mistaken, isn’t keeping away from family while you are in your delicate state, a requirement to protect your best interest? What could persuade him to override that to come visit you? And seemingly during the day no less?”

She raised her brows at Noah for confirmation and he nodded his head once, looking for all the world like he was breaking. I wanted to stop her questioning, make her leave us alone and go back to where she came from but logically I knew she was trying to help me.

“
He was just trying to convince me to come home to start planning my wedding to Nikolai”.

“
Nikolai?” She screeched, jumping off her stool and kneeling menacingly in front of me on the counter top. “Your fiancé is Nikolai? What do you expect me to do with this information Blue girl? Do you want me to drain you right here in Noah’s kitchen? Maybe we can share you; you do know your kind can still benefit from drinking blood don’t you?” She hissed at me, not unfrighteningly, and I froze.

“
Is that bad?” I shrank.

“
Nikolai’s family is known for being position oriented; he has cousins that have even been disrupting things in Europe trying to get in line for the throne”.

“
Not Nikolai!” I gasp, “I have grown up with Nikolai and he may be a lot of things and yeah he is in line to be a council member but he is a generally good vamp and his family earned their position here. I grew up with him,” I repeated.

Lainey put her head in her hands on the counter; she looked at a loss which was kind of surprising for a centuries old vampire princess. “I will make you a deal” she said, muffled through her hands. I could tell this was hard for her, compromising, so I didn’t make it worse by asking her to repeat herself. I will stick around and protect Noah and Ben, and you Blue, will give me your word that within one week you will go to your council and request protection for myself and for both Noah and his brother. Can you agree to that?”