In My Veins (24 page)

She started laughing, “I know. I could
tell you two were in love when I met him. I just wanted to hear what you would
say. This is wonderful news sweetheart.

James let out a breath that he was holding
and rested his head on my shoulder grinning. “You two have to come over soon so
I could get to know him even better.”

James’s head shot up and looked at me,
“Yeah mom we will soon. James’s just really busy with work and stuff lately. Whenever
he’s free I am busy too… especially now with the new job…”

“That’s fine. Whenever you two both have
time… I’ll tell your father when he gets home. This is wonderful news!” She
said again.

“Yeah… thanks mom. I got to get going
though. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Okay, you and James better come over
soon, you hear me?” She said as we both hung up.

“How are we going to ever avoid me
seeing your family and friends…” he said.

“We’ll figure something out. We won’t
avoid them.” I said and hugged him almost knocking him over. “See my parents
love you.”

He sighed, “I want to give you a normal
life…not one in hiding.”

“We will get there. One step at a time.”
I assured him.

“How are you feeling by the way?” he
asked making me blush.

“I’m good…” I said shyly making him
smile.

“You must be hungry…”

My stomach started growling at the
realization, “Starving.”

He laughed, “Well. I have breakfast in
the oven to stay warm and a bath ready for you to relax in.”

“A bath?” I shrieked as he lifted me up
knocking the blanket off in the process, “James!”

He smirked and dashed me off to the
bath.

Our breakfast turned into lunch from spending way
too much time in the bath together. And it seemed like our happy moment was
quickly put on hold when Collin ended up coming to his parent’s house so that
he could talk to James and his father.

Still a little creped out by him I
stayed close to James when I was around them and locked in Jenny’s room with
her when I wasn’t.

I felt my phone vibrate indicating I got
a text and I noticed it was from him,
“Don’t hide baby… I
miss you.”

I quickly wrote back,
“How did you know I was hiding? I’ll come out in a minute. :]”

“You two are so cute! You’re smile when
you saw his text was priceless!” Jenny squealed.

I smiled, “Well... I’m going to go check
on how their research is going. I’ll talk to you later.” I said as she smiled
knowingly.

As I opened the door Ellie opened hers
which was across from Jenny’s. I stood awkwardly waiting for her to go the
direction she was going but she didn’t move either.

She sighed and stepped closer and all of
a sudden hugged me. “Sorry for being a bitch before. I thought James would have
to go through what David did.” She said pulling away from the hug, “Welcome to
the family.” She smiled and opened Jenny’s door to go in. I wanted to ask what
happened to David but decided not to push her closeness too soon.

I went to James and noticed Collin still
looked ‘vampirey’. Is he always in monster mode now? Maybe it’s because James
is and it’s like a defense mechanism? I sat close to James and noticed he was
uneasy. He put his arm around my waist and kept me close, maybe Collin still
kind of creeps him out too.

Feeling safer with his arm around me, I
glanced at the old books on the table with writing in different languages.
Wanting to ask questions, I forced myself to stay quiet and let them do their
thing. I played with my new ring, twisting it around my finger and looking at
the diamond sparkle, as they talked about something.

“I don’t know …” Collin said sounding just
as stressed as James looked. I peeked up at him as he had his head back and an arm
covering his eyes trying to think. His mouth was kind of open and I couldn’t
help but look at the sharp tips of his fangs. I felt a shiver go down my spine remembering
him bite into my neck. James squeezed me reassuringly. I looked at him and one
side of his lips turned up in a forced smile.

“You know… there is another book place
in San Francisco.” He said, “I’ve never been so I don’t know if they’d have
this stuff but---”

“Where is it? I can go check it out.” James
said quickly.

“Umm…” Collin thought and pulled open
the laptop and started searching, “Here it is.” He said turning the laptop to James.
Haight and Ashbury. 

“I’ve been there.” I said casually.

“You’ve been to the bookstore?”

“No. I went to Haight and Ashburry
during a field trip.  I remember getting lost once with Tiff when we wanted to
go shopping after the museum we went to. It’s safe and full of tourists during
the day, but at night it’s kind of…not safe.”

Talking about Tiffany… I need to tell
her about my engagement as soon as possible!
She’ll get
angrier and angrier at me for not telling her sooner.

“I’ll go today.” James said as Collin
stood up.

“I should get going too.” He said. “Let
me know what you find.”

James nodded as Collin left. I suddenly
had a bad feeling about James going to San Francisco.

“What’s wrong baby?” he asked.

“I’m coming with you right.” I said more
than asked.

He hesitated, “It’s dangerous… I’d
really prefer you stay here with David.”

“Please James… I have a bad feeling
about you going…” I said looking at him. He caressed my cheek and brushed my
fringe out of my eyes, “James…”

“Fine… I would probably be worried if I
left you here without me anyway.” He smiled.

“It’s only San Francisco. Not like we’re
going out of state. And I’ve been a bunch of times.” I smiled.

“Yeah… we’ll come back tomorrow.” He
smiled. “When do you start your new job?”

“Mr. Wilson said I start Wednesday. I
was planning on going back to Mr. Yang on Tuesday to officially say bye and
thank him. So it’s perfect.”

He nodded and leaned in to kiss my
forehead. “I hope we find something.”

“Me too…”
I
thought and wrapped my arms around him.

*
*
*

We left around one and got to San
Francisco around seven. Considering the traffic and time of day...that was
amazing timing. He drove and didn’t get any stares when we crossed the bridge
and pay. Red eyes, crazy hair and fangs; Nothing new in San Francisco.

“Maybe if we don’t find a cure we can just
move here.” I suggested making James laugh.

I’ve always loved San Francisco. The
artistic architecture, the actual art on the houses, the crazy fashion choices,
the fun shops, the gorgeous weather, and of course the bay. The list can go on.

He parked the car a few blocks away and
we held hands as we walked to the Haight & Ashbury area. It was starting to
get dark so I was starting to freak out by the lack of tourists and increase of
some scary people.

James pulled me closer and eyed a group
of guys that stared me down. I heard a low guttural growl from him and I got closer
so he’d know I was safe and next to him. Before I knew it James pulled me
behind him and slammed one of the guys on the wall. He held him by the neck and
growled.

The creepy guy was wide eyed and staring
at James like he saw a monster. I peeked over and saw that he was flashing his
fangs and his eyes were blood red. “If you even look at her you’ll regret it!”
he growled.

I glanced around and noticed there were
still some tourists so I pulled on his arm so that he would let go before
anyone called the cops. James calmed down but kept his eyes on the man. “Calm
down…” I whispered loud enough so only he could hear.

He looked at me and smiled, “Sorry… I
sensed what he was feeling and it made angry.”

“It’s okay… you’re with me. I’m safe. He
can think whatever he wants.”

James hesitated but continued walking
with me to the antique book store. He glanced back a few times and kept his eye
on people around us…mainly the men. He was never this possessive before. Could
it be the unfamiliar area?

“I don’t want you ever to wear these
jeans out again.” He whispered in my ear.

“My jeans? What’s wrong with them? They’re
my favorite.” They made my butt look perfect.

“That’s the problem. I don’t like
knowing what these guys are thinking.”

I smirked, “Possessive much?”

“You’re mine.” he said heatedly.

“I know.” I showed him our engagement
ring, “And so does everyone else.”

That helped him calm down a bit as we walked
into the dusty book store that smelled like old paper and incents. The guy that
was sitting at the cashier looked up at James through his dirty blonde dreads.

“Cool eyes man.” He said nodding. I
smirked.
Yeah we’re definitely moving to San Francisco if we don’t find a
cure.
“Do you guys need any help?”

James looked at me, “Um… where are your
books?” I asked noticing only incents, candles, and random knickknacks.

“What kind of books?” he asked.

“Um… mythical?”

He bobbed his head and stood up, “Follow
me.”

We followed him past the candles, CDs,
pillows, belly dancing scarves to a curtain. He opened the curtain leading to a
back room. “It’s in there. Need any help, just yell.” He said and walked back
to the front.

James and I went inside to the room
filled with old looking books. Most were in Old English or other languages. James
glanced at them up and down and stopped at a silver box. He bent down to get it
and stared at it, “I think this is it.”

I looked at the metal box with a diamond
shape in the front. He opened the box and inside was an old leather covered
book. He opened the book and was wide eyed, “This is it! It has everything
about this curse in it!”

He looked at me and had a huge smile, “This
might have a way to get rid of it!” he leaned down and kissed me, “Let’s go buy
it we can read it in the hotel.”

We bought the book from the dreads guy
and were both in an enthusiastic mood as we walked out. I didn’t care if the
curse was cured or not, but I did care because it’s what
he
wants. I’d
be happy either way. And the book could have the answer. Hopefully.

As we were walking back to the car I
noticed James suddenly wasn’t happy. He was tense. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head and gave me a look
telling me not to say anything. I focused on how he was feeling. Worry? Fear?
Anger?

He squeezed my hand and lifted me.
Before I knew it he was holding onto me and running to the car. Because of his
speed we reached the car in no time and I was safely buckled as he sped off.

“We’re being followed.” He said with his
brows furrowed.

“By who?”

He hesitated as he kept at the rearview
mirror, “The same man who took our picture…”

“So he just wants a picture James. Calm
down.” I said as I touched his arm.

“No… he was just taking the pictures to
study. When I talked to Collin today he figured out who he was,” he hit the
steering wheel as he looked in the rearview and noticed we were still being
followed, “Collin thinks this guy’s a vampire slayer wannabe freak. He thinks
we’re vampires and he wants to kill us.”

I looked at him wide eyed, “You have got
to be kidding me.”

“No, this guy’s insane. He has a website
and everything.” He said driving even faster. I’m surprised neither of us have
been pulled over for a ticket yet.

“Where are we even going?” I asked as I
glanced at the signs.

“Just stay back, I don’t want anything
to happen to you…” he said as he continued focusing ahead and glancing mirror
every few seconds to check on the dark van that was catching up to us.

“How is that van even driving so fast?
You drive a Bentley!” I didn’t know much about cars but I was pretty sure that
a Bentley was faster than an old van.

“He probably got it changed so it would
go faster. Someone like him who’s life goal is to kill people he thinks are
vampires will go to any extreme.”

“Has he killed anyone else?”

“His website had a checklist of people.
Some were crossed off.”

“Why didn’t you call the police!?”

“We were going to if we couldn’t get to
him ourselves within a week.”

I glanced back again to try to see a
face but I couldn’t. He was getting closer and there weren’t any other cars
around. I looked to our side and saw that we were on a narrow rode…or is it a
bridge? It was so dark I can’t tell. But I can tell we’re surrounded by dark
water.

I glanced back and saw a glimmer of
something shiny in his hands. “Oh my God James I think he has a gun!” I said
but before James could do anything about it, there was a bang and the car started
spinning out of control.

The car rolled off the side of the bridge
and I felt my stomach do the twisty feeling I got from the one time I was brave
enough to go on a roller coaster. James eventually turned from his seat and was
holding my head in his chest protectively.  There was a loud splash and if
it wasn’t for James holding me tight I was sure I would have had whiplash from
the car’s belly flop.

All of it happened so fast. Once the car
felt like it had stopped falling we both opened our eyes and noticed, we hadn’t
stopped, we were floating down. My legs feel like they were smashed as the
water started filling up from the bottom up. I pulled myself away from James
and looked at him. He looked like he was in pain. Before I could even say
anything the car was filled with water.

I tried to open my seat belt but it was
stuck and so was James’s. The doors were jammed because of the pressure of the
water. And the windows weren’t opening or closing because they were electric.
We were drifting lower. I glanced at my legs and tried to bring them up so they
wouldn’t get smashed even more by whatever it was. I brought my knees up to my
chest and noticed that my ankle was bleeding.

That must be why James looks like he’s
struggling.

James took grabbed my seatbelt and tore
it off. I scooted closer to him and tried to open his but he shook his head. He
punched his window and broke it. Feeling my lungs start to constrict I shook my
head,
I’m not going alone
. He looked angry as he pointed out.

I glared back at him as I grabbed my
purse. He looked at me like I was insane as I grabbed the Swiss army knife my dad
always made me carry. He won’t set himself free, I will. I cut his seatbelt
open and he grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the car as he swam us up,
almost as fast as he runs on land.