Kindred (Kindred, Book 1) (15 page)

When I didn't move or say anything he asked, “ Have you eaten, my dear? Perhaps you would accompany me to dinner?”

OK, being invited to dine with a vampire is bit scary, even one you halfway trust, like I do Michel. “My dinner or your dinner?”  I couldn't help it, I had to ask.

He laughed. “You are welcome to watch me feed, my dear, but I dare say you would not like it.”

“I'd agree with you there.”

“
Oh, not for the reasons I suspect
you
have.” Did I really want to know? I raised my eyebrows anyway. This uncontrolled body movement thing was going to get me into trouble.

“
When we feed with willing donors, it can be a very pleasurable experience.”

My cheeks flushed with heat at the way he said that, all sensual innuendo and more.

He smiled slightly at my discomfort and then straightened his features into a more serious look. “I would like to take you to dinner, Lucinda. Would you care to accompany me, please?”

Maybe it was the please, maybe I was just hungry, but before I could stop and think about it, I said yes.

L'Esperance
is in Viaduct Quay, overlooking all the super yachts in the marina. It's strictly a table by appointment only kind of  place. I could understand the appeal to Michel, this was a five star restaurant and all, but the cutlery was usually pure silver. It didn't faze him in the slightest. He wasn't eating anyway and obviously did not fear any of the patrons picking up a butter knife to have a go.

I did feel a little out of place in my jeans and pale blue shirt though, but I had luckily placed a cream cashmere jersey in my pack before leaving home, and that draped over my shoulders provided me some sense of encouragement.

The waiters fussed over us as soon as we arrived. Whether they knew
what
Michel was, I couldn't say, but they definitely knew
who
Michel was. A table was quickly made available, much to the disgust of a couple trying to get in without a booking at the door and champagne was brought out as soon as we sat, without Michel even having to ask.

It was all a little overwhelming.

After giving my order; Hauraki Gulf Snapper, wakame, gnocchi, watercress, tua tua and mussels - I am quite capable of branching out from lamb when given the opportunity - I took a sip of my champagne, trying not to sneeze from the insistent bubbles against my nose and levelled my gaze on the unnaturally beautiful vampire opposite me.

“
What's the occasion?”

“
Can I not court you in the old fashioned way, Lucinda?

I scoffed at that. “Somehow I don't see you as the roses and chocolates kind of man.”

“Would you like roses and chocolates? I can arrange it.” He raised his hand slightly, as if to call the attention of a waiter, I batted it back down. He just smiled.

“
Are you going to tell me why you were at the station just now? Can you even admit that you're shadowing me, trying to protect me?” I asked.

“
I had thought you might give me some credit for not intervening at all. You have no idea how hard it was for me to stand back and just watch. Enjoyable on so many levels, but difficult all the same.”

“
You watched the whole thing?”

“
Practically, yes.”

Well, that was an unusual sensation. I'd never really had an audience before. Part of me wanted to ask,
Did I do OK? How did I look? Bad ass?
But I mentally chided myself as soon as the thoughts entered my head.

“
You are amazing when you fight.” He said it with such respect, reverence even, it sent a little shiver down my spine.

“
I don't need your protection, supervision, whatever you want to call it. I don't want it. It has to stop.” When in doubt, just stick with what you're good at. Maybe after saying it a certain number of times the miraculous would happen and he'd comply. A girl can only dream.

Michel sat there looking at me, almost as still as a vampire could be. But he was in public, so I could still see his chest rise, the pulse at the base of his neck move. He was keeping up pretences even when he didn't want to. Finally he moved to sip his champagne.

“I am sorry, Lucinda, but that is not possible.” Before I could even voice my many objections to that statement, he went on. “I am what I am. The urge, the
desire
, to look after you, is deep within me. Please understand, this is unusual for me too. I am... not used to this kind of emotion. I am afraid, I do not quite know how to behave.”

He actually looked abashed. Go figure. I shook my head slightly to clear the image from my mind. What was he saying?  Could he not help feeling this way, was it really not a game he was playing? Part of me and I admit, it was a very loud, very noisy part, wanted to believe that. But I am a vampire hunter by birth and I still couldn't find a way to completely trust this man in front of me.

“You could try to resist, Michel.”

He simply looked at me, no emotion at all. Not a word. Not a blink.

OK, so that wasn't an option. But... “We can't continue like this. I will begin to resent you.” Hell, I was borderline resenting him now, but I knew if this continued, this constant interference, constant checking up on me, I would begin to despise him. And really, if I was truthful with myself, he was too big a part of my life to let that happen.

Finally he breathed and reached for his champagne glass. My meal arrived at that point, smelling and looking delicious, so he didn't say anything straight away, but once the waiter had left and I had started tasting bits and pieces off my picture perfect plate, he said, “It will get easier, my dear.”

I swallowed a mouthful of succulent fish. “What do you mean?”

He leaned forward. “If we were to join, the emotion, although remaining within me, will be more easier to control.”

“How so?”

“
Well, you will then be mine of course.”

“
Is that suppose to clarify things for me?”

He sighed and looked decidedly grumpy, as if this should all be abundantly clear to me already. “At the moment, you are only mine by desire, not by fact.” He looked as though he really,
really
, did not want to disclose that little bit of information.

Oh, I got it. All that
you are mine, Lucinda
crap was just him
wishing
for it to be so.

He spoke unexpectedly then, as though he might as well keep going now that he'd admitted his deepest, darkest secret. His voice was low, so no one but I could hear. It surrounded me and bathed me in its warmth. “The alliance our races formed so long ago, provided for this urge to protect one's kindred Nosferatin prior to their maturity. It intensifies the closer your 25
th
birthday comes. It is a fail-safe, you could say. Designed to bring us together. Together, is how we are meant to be. That is why, of course, your death on failing to join with a vampyre is also necessary. There is a chance that you would not choose to do so otherwise.” He looked at me ruefully then.

Well that made sense. “But, why do we
have
to join?”

“
And there in lies the rub, my dear. We may have parted ways all those many centuries ago, but we were once kin. The power that resides inside us comes from
both
of us. Separate, our powers weaken, together it re-establishes the true bond. Vampyre have been losing their powers for some time now, we have felt it, we knew it was inevitable, but your kind had disappeared. Abandoned the alliance, chosen to forgo their powers and their life, for their peace.”

That was so sad, I felt my heart break at what my ancestors had chosen to do. The enormity of their decision astounded me. I suddenly lost all appetite for the sumptuous meal in front of me. How could I eat when my people had chosen death for their first born?

“Do you not feel your power increasing when around me, my dear?”

Huh. I had noticed that from the moment I saw Michel in the bank, I became stronger and quicker, not vampire quick of course, but definitely faster than I had ever been on the farm. And recently, that had intensified two-fold. Hadn't Rick mentioned how much stronger and faster I was in the ring after spending five days with Michel?

“We are meant to be together, Lucinda. Can you not feel it too?”

And you see, even though there was this enormous part of me that knew just how bad and evil and wrong vampires are, there was also a part of me that wanted with every being of my soul to make them better. If it couldn't be by culling those beyond reproach, then it was by standing by them and trying to influence them toward the light. Heck my name even
meant
Light
.

All my battles with Michel had been over his vampire ways and my insistence that he could do better. I saw the good in Michel, but it was also laced with bad, however I knew beyond a doubt that he could fight that side of him given the chance. Was I the chance he needed? Did I even want to be?

I chose to not answer his question, it felt a little rhetorical anyway. Instead I asked, “Is that why Max and his cohorts are trying so desperately to get me and my kind? Their powers are diminishing?”

“
That is exactly why, my dear. The older the vampyre, the more powerful; the more powerful, the more they have to lose. Maximilian and those like him, are too powerful for their own good.”

“
Why were you able to beat him the other day?” I think I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear him say it.

“
I did
not
beat him, merely stalled for more time.” For some reason his use of the word
stall
triggered a memory in me, but I pushed it aside as he continued. “But I understand your meaning. My strength has been increasing, the more time I spend with you. It will reach its full potential when” - seeing the look of questioning on my face, he amended what he was about to say - “
if
, we join.”

“
Is that why you're spending time with me now?” I said it evenly, but it wasn't at all what I was feeling inside. Doubt. Confusion, a little more than usual. Despair.

He leaned forward and took my hand, rubbing the back of it with his thumb as he always does. I didn't feel any power roll off him, but I felt that familiar sense of tingling and warmth, gradually making its way up my arm and down my body. How did he have such an effect over me?

“Not at all,
ma douce
.” Maybe it was the French accent which crept in, the use of his intimate pet name for me, the name he only ever used in my dreams until recently, or maybe it was just my deep seated longing for it to be so, that allowed me to believe him.

The waiter came at that point and removed my plate, Michel did not release his hold on my hand, but continued to stroke it softly. I couldn't face a dessert, all that sweetness when we were talking about such depths of horror that my world now contained. But, the night was still young and there was much to be achieved if we planned to face Max prepared in two day's time. And let's face it, I was
not
going to go willingly as he had requested.

Coffee, the perfect solution. I have never seen Michel drink coffee, only various types of wine. As a liquid, I understood that he could, I just thought perhaps he didn't like its taste, but he ordered one now, whether to keep me company, I didn't know, but I kind of liked it. Coffee is my elixir, all should enjoy it.

Of course his selection was a long black, the traditional coffee choice for connoisseurs. Hell, for all I knew he probably was there when they discovered coffee beans in the forests of Ethiopia or some such place way back when.

When the coffee came, he didn't pop sugar in, just sipped it delicately, as is. Me? I opted for
sweetener
and stirred my frothy milk with abandon.

“
So, my dear. What did our little friend want with you at the station?"

Ah, the true meaning behind our dinner date perhaps? He obviously hadn't been close enough to hear what old deadbeat had delivered, he was curious. Understandable.

I gave him a quick recap of the message and threat. Comply and go with Max willingly, or watch as he used ghouls to feast on my city.

You see, ghouls do feast. They're meat eaters, actually they could be called carnivores as it's all they eat, but ghouls prefer their meat as close to living as possible. Of course they have
feasted
on human flesh on many occasion in the past, but in today's world they usually behave themselves. The odd one might break into a morgue or such, but that's about as close as it gets. It doesn't stop them from pretending though and every now and then a ghoul will scare a human, but the thing is, on the whole they're a lot like you and me. They have jobs, communities. Hell, I've even had a ghoul taxi driver on the odd evening. When out and about, they tend to explain their dining preference as being on
The Atkins Diet
, most people just go with the flow.