Family Secrets (Young Adult Edition) (Davenport Manor (Young Adult Edition)) (19 page)

They followed her into the dining room
and sat down while she continued to the kitchen with Vivienne
following behind her to help. Daniel had just finished heating up
the last couple of glasses of blood and put the jug away in the
hidden refrigerator.

“Thank you, Daniel. Why don’t you
crack open a beer and join us?” She asked as she placed all the
glasses onto a silver tray.

They sat around the large dining room
table having a lively conversation. Thanks to Aidan charming Daniel
to relax, he felt right at home socializing with the six vampires
around him. He had been a gentleman and pulled a chair out for
Mackenzie and took the seat next to her. He easily spoke about
growing up with Emma and Zachariah as part of the family and the
antics they would pull to amuse him as a child. Aidan and Mackenzie
began to see the appeal that Daniel had; the bond that he shared
with Emma and the admiration they had for each other. They realized
that growing up with vampires in the house was as normal as butter
on bread to him. Aidan spoke of his numerous travels around the
world, fascinating everyone in the room. He spoke in a manner that
allowed them to envision what life was like long before any of them
were born.

They shared laughs and began to get
louder with each conversation. Todd, who had been sitting in his
room watching TV, heard a faint commotion of people downstairs and
decided to check it out. He knew a majority of the cast and crew
were gone for the holidays—they were smart enough to book their
travels a few days before Christmas. When he had made his travel
plans, he was still with Emma and didn’t want to be apart from her
for too long. So, he booked his flight home to London on Christmas
Eve, arriving on Christmas morning. Now, due to the snow storm, he
was stuck in Chicago and traveling home two days after Christmas
was completely pointless.

He quietly walked down the grand
staircase and followed the sound of voices through the hallways and
into the dining room where he saw Emma and the others along with
two new faces. “Emma, you’re back already?”

She glanced up at him standing in the
doorway; for once she was actually surprised. She had been so
consumed in the conversations that she didn’t pay attention to any
surrounding sounds or scents. She had let her guard down, something
that she rarely did and she was disappointed with herself for doing
so. “I am,” she said with a smile. “Zach told me that your flight
was canceled for tonight. I’m sorry you won’t be able to be home
for Christmas.”

“
Yeah, I wouldn’t get out
until the twenty-seventh and my return flight was for the
twenty-eighth, so it’s pointless to go. I’ll just use my tickets at
another time.”

She stood up so she could introduce
him to Aidan and Mackenzie. “Todd, this is Aidan, my maker from
Scotland. And this is his other offspring, Mackenzie.”

Mackenzie gave him a polite wave
“hello” and Aidan slowly stood up and began walking toward him.
Todd met him halfway and shook his hand and noticed that Aidan
looked less than friendly.

“
Good to meet you, Todd,”
Aidan said with no infliction in his voice. His menacing stare
pierced through Todd, who remembered that Emma had once told him
that Aidan was an ancient vampire. He matched Todd in height, but
Aidan was far more bulky the he was. He looked as though he was
made of brick and mortar, solid like a rock, and he knew he didn’t
want to be on Aidan’s bad side. “Why don’t you join us, Todd?” His
voice was ominously coercive.

Todd was unsure what to think, but he
felt that if he declined it would seem insulting, so he hesitantly
replied, “Sure.”

“
Come,” Aidan’s voice
bellowed. “Sit between Emma and me.” He motioned his head to
Zachariah telling him to move down a chair to make room.

Todd sat down and noticed all eyes
were on him, making him feel like he was on trial. Emma gently
patted his thigh and he could feel the tension rolling through
her.

“
So, Todd…Emma tells us
that she has been dating you for the past couple of months while
you’ve been here,” Aidan said without changing his
expression.

Todd awkwardly nodded his head and
replied, “Yes, I was completely taken by her when we met. She’s a
lovely person.”

“
Do you still find her
lovely now that you know what she is?”

Without missing a beat, Todd replied,
“Yes.” He gave Emma a quick glance and raised his
eyebrows.

“
Even though you watched
her kill five men right in front of you without an inkling of
remorse?” Aidan grilled.

“
Yes,” he replied. He
started to feel like a teenager being interrogated by his
girlfriend’s father.

“
Did you wonder why Emma
was so drawn to you, even though you are just a human?”

“
I wondered why she was
drawn to me even before I knew she was a vampire. It just seemed
unlikely that a girl like her would fancy someone like me,” Todd
replied with honesty.

“
What do you mean someone
like you?” Aidan’s brow was now furrowed, almost angry.

Todd’s nerves were beginning to take
over and he stammered his response, “I mean…I’m just an actor.
She’s…this amazing, beautiful girl from an affluent family that
actually knew who I was. It was mind-boggling.”

Aidan nodded in agreement,
“It
is
mind-boggling.”

“
Aidan!” Emma
hissed.

He chortled and threw his hands in the
air, “I’m just trying to understand the appeal of dating a human
you have no intention of turning, love!”

She shook her head, rolled her eyes,
and let out an exasperated breath of air. “I’m sorry,
Todd.”

He chuckled, “That’s okay, he’s just
looking out for you.” He really wanted to say that Aidan was being
a prick, but he knew those would be the last words he would ever
say.

Chapter 13

Todd and Emma walked upstairs together
toward the bedrooms while the others remained in the dining room.
She had really missed Todd’s company the past few weeks and how
easy it was being with him.

“
I’m sorry about Aidan
interrogating you,” she said as they stopped in front of her
bedroom door.

Todd, knowing that Aidan
could hear them replied, “That’s okay.” But, he whipped out his
cell phone and typed as if he was going to text her,
He’s a jerk.

She quietly laughed and
took his cell phone from his hand and typed back,
He’s just a little old fashioned when it comes to
vampire/human relationships. I don’t think he can understand how I
let myself get emotionally attached to you when I don’t plan to
turn you. He still doesn’t get why I stayed with my family for the
past 200 years.

Todd nodded and took his
phone back and typed,
He’s still a
jerk.

Emma grinned and lightly whacked him
on the arm. “Do you want to come in?” She asked while turning the
doorknob. “I’ve missed you.”

“Love to,” he replied, grinning from
ear to ear. “I’ve missed you, too.”

She lit the fireplace and turned on
some background music. The only light in the room was the warm glow
of the fire that was lightly crackling and casting dark shadows in
the far corners. She crawled up onto the bed and motioned for Todd
to join her. He sauntered over to her, looking gorgeous in the soft
glow of the fire with his wavy hair tucked behind his ears. He took
his shirt off so that he was wearing just his black pajama pants
baring his slender, yet muscular torso.

Without missing a beat, he climbed
onto the bed and instead of getting under the covers, he took her
face into his hands and began to passionately kiss her. She reached
up and draped her arms up over his shoulders, running her hands
through his silky hair, occasionally grabbing and lightly
pulling.

Her fangs began to lower from her
gums, and she kissed down his jawline to the curve where his neck
and shoulder met. She had the strongest urge to bite, especially
being so close to his neck and hearing his blood pounding through
his jugular. She hovered her mouth over his neck, tempted to sink
her fangs into his flesh and drinking his warm, thick blood. She
grazed his neck with her fangs, but didn’t break the
skin.

“
Bite me,” Todd panted as
he felt the scratch on his neck. Being intimate with a dangerous,
once-mythical creature had suddenly become extremely fascinating to
him. He wanted to absorb every detail of it. “Do it, I know you
want to drink. I can feel your fangs.” He pushed his neck toward
her face, egging her on.

She opened her mouth
wider, preparing to bite, which was a natural instinct for vampires
when making out with someone. The combination of intimacy and
drinking blood was mind-blowing for them. She lingered above his
neck, having an inner debate on whether to do it or not. She’d
think
screw it
and move forward, then instantly pull back. She couldn’t do
it to him, her conscious wouldn’t allow it, but her urge to bite
was overwhelming. She couldn’t stop herself and quickly turned her
head and sunk her fangs into her own arm. She didn’t have the
willpower to not bite, but at least she had enough self-control to
bite herself instead of him.

Noticing that she bit herself, Todd
laid down on his side and gave her a confused look. “How come you
didn’t bite me? I know you wanted to.”

She turned her head to
look at his face, “I
did
want to, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do
it. Not to you.”

He was almost hurt that she wouldn’t
allow herself to bite him since he was somewhat craving the full
vampire-as-a-girlfriend experience. He was actually looking forward
to the pleasurable pain.

She read his face and knew what he
must have been thinking. “In due time, my love. There’s always next
time,” she said with a wicked wink.

Emma nestled in next to him and he
automatically put his arm around her. “Another thing you should
know,” she started, figuring she would continue to teach him things
about being a vampire. “We don’t sleep. So, don’t be surprised if
you wake up and I’m not in bed.”

He crooked his neck to look down at
her, “You don’t sleep at all?”

“Nope, I haven’t slept a wink since
1815. We can shut our eyes and kind of go into a trance-like state,
but never asleep.”

“Hollywood has you guys all wrong,
don’t they?” He chuckled.

“A little, but not entirely. Some of
those myths we made up ourselves so that humans couldn’t figure us
out. We made up the rumor that we’d burn up in the sun so that if
humans saw us out in the daytime, we’d never be pegged as
immortals. We obviously don’t sleep during the day and come out
only at night. We don’t need to sleep at all…we’re
dead.”

Her last statement sent a
small shock through his brain. He thought,
Okay, so I just made out with a dead girl…a very dead girl.
She should be long decomposed by now. How did my life get so
weird?

“You okay?” She asked, snapping him
from his thoughts.

“I’m fine, why?”

“Your heart sped up,” she
answered.

“I was just thinking how weird my life
got,” he snickered.

They laid in silence for a while, just
enjoying each other’s company. Todd began to drift asleep and Emma
listened for his heart rate to become slow and steady so she could
slip out of the room. She darted out of the bed and put her pajamas
back on, ready to go back downstairs and rejoin the other vampires.
She quietly exited through the door and headed toward the parlor
where she heard the familiar voices.

She turned the corner and was greeted
by Aidan’s eyebrow raised in disapproval. They had clearly heard
what she was doing upstairs with Todd and Vivienne had an amused
smirk on her face.

“Alright, Aidan, let’s have it,” she
waved her hand toward herself as she sat down next to
Vivienne.

“There’s something about him that’s
familiar. I can’t put my finger on it, but it is unsettling,” he
replied.

“He’s an actor, maybe you saw him in a
movie?” Zachariah chimed in.

Aidan shook his head, frustrated that
he couldn’t out what was so familiar about Todd. “No, it wasn’t his
face that’s familiar, it is his scent.”

Baffled, Emma said, “Have you met him
before?”

“No, I would remember him clearly if I
had. But, part of his scent is something I have smelled before, but
not the entirety of it.”

This troubled Aidan, as vampires had
an impeccable memory and never forgot the way a person
smelled.

They all jolted out of their
conversation when they heard Todd screaming from Emma’s bedroom. It
was an alarming scream, the kind you often would hear in a horror
movie. All six of the vampires flew up the stairs and were at the
door in seconds. Emma burst into her bedroom where Todd was still
under the covers, terrified of what he had seen.

“What is it, Todd? What happened?”
Emma exclaimed as she went to him to console him.

“I saw her again, your sister,” he
panted with fright. “She’s angry, completely furious! This time, I
didn’t have the sense of calm when she appeared; rage was radiating
off of her! She was bloody, it was all over her. It looked like the
side of her neck had been torn.”