The expression in her eyes made my heart skip a beat. It was a mixture of childlike wonder and desperate love for me.
“Good evening, lover,” I whispered, giving her a gentle kiss.
She tightened her arms around me as she kissed me back.
“My beloved angel.”
I held onto her. I loved the feel of her body in my arms, the soft sensation of her breasts against mine.
I pulled back, sighing. “We have to get out of here.”
She nodded. “I know.” She nibbled her lip, gazing at me. If she had been human, I thought she would have been blushing.
“I know.” I grinned. “You’re starving.”
She nodded.
“Well,” I said, getting out of bed. “We’ll feed and then we’ll head out of the city. I have a house we can go to.”
“Oh.” Bronwyn got out of bed and put on the shorts and tee shirt I had left out for her.
I pulled on my own shorts and tee shirt, careful to put my car keys in my pocket. I led her to the door Lucien had locked, and she peered over my shoulder at it.
“How are we going to get out of here?” she said.
I gave her a neutral stare. “I’m going to unlock the door and let us out.”
“You’re kidding?”
“No. It’s my house, and the keys are in my pocket.”
She blinked at me, nonplussed. “They locked us in here and left the keys with you?”
I nodded. “I don’t think they were expecting me to make you into . . . ah . . .”
“A vampire?” she asked, flashing me a grin.
“Yes, all right, then, a vampire. I think they thought you would choose death, and I would be so distraught that I’d just be sitting there waiting for them to come back.”
“That was pretty stupid on all scores.”
“David always was a moron, and Lucien was always too arrogant for his own good.” I snorted. “And Allenby? Well, he’s just . . .
Allenby. A fucking psycopathic idiot for all eternity.”
We went into the living room and took in the damaged house. I felt a sick quiver of disgust at the carnage that had once been our home. Allenby had obviously taken the time before he left to smash as much as he could, and to slash as much cloth as he could lay his disrespectful hands on. It was, quite frankly, a miracle that the police had not come, that no one had investigated the racket the destruction had to have made, and that looters had not visited us during the day.
The house was gone; it needed major repair work.
“Unlivable,” I said.
“What does it matter if it’s unlivable?” Bronwyn said, eyes flashing. Her arms were crossed in her classic pose of anger. “In case you hadn’t noticed, they’re coming to kill us for some reason I have yet to drag out of you.”
I nodded. “Let’s get out of here and go feed.”
The car, I noticed as I started it with a dull roar, was undamaged.
I thanked my lucky stars as I gunned the engine. We roared down the street toward a place I knew would have mortals for us to feed on and would be in the opposite direction to Aristotle, Lucien, and Allenby.
I tried not to let the pain of starvation show on my face as I stood with Bronwyn in the park close to our home. I gestured patiently to the couple making out in the bushes. I wasn’t really keen on interrupting them, but it was necessary because I had to show Bronwyn some of the basics of being a vampire. She could watch me and learn.
Bronwyn stared at the night all around her, transfixed by her enhanced sensory input. She seemed to lack the ability to focus, but I knew that would pass as she adjusted to her new existence.
I held her and pointed toward the bushes, steeling myself. It was no use being embarrassed now, we both had to feed, and at least I knew I could be graceful when plunging fangs into a human neck. “You have to feed. I can’t feed you any of my blood because I’m starving.”
She looked at me questioningly.
I sighed inwardly. “It’s not hard, really. Your strength is much greater than theirs. If you chose, you can be swift and gentle. It’s up to you. Silly as it sounds, your senses will do the work for you, so you don’t even have to consciously decide where to put your fangs.”
She nodded and moved toward the couple enjoying each other in the bushes. She did not hesitate. She picked the boy off the girl by his butt and plunged her fangs gracelessly into his neck without any expression other than momentary confusion over which artery she wanted to bite. Amazed, hunger almost forgotten, I could only watch and wonder what was going through her mind. Distracted from my prey, I was dimly aware that the girl was struggling for her clothes.
I reached out for her and held her arms by her sides with the ease of long familiarity. I gazed long and deep into her terrified brown eyes, willing her to relax. When she went limp in my grasp, I none too gently plunged my own teeth into her neck.
When it was done I showed Bronwyn how to spill drops of our blood onto the bite marks of our victims, so the wounds healed and looked less odd to the human authorities.
“Whoa.” Bronwyn shook her head. “Now I understand why someone would want to be a vampire.”
I gave her a sharp look as I tugged her by the hand toward my car.
“Well, you’ll be doing it for the rest of eternity, so I should hope you enjoy it.”
She studied the car. Then she took a couple of steps back and leapt clear over it to the passenger side.
I raised an eyebrow. “You all right there, Bronnie?” I had never seen Bronwyn during the day, so I had no idea what kind of an athlete she was, but I knew she was physically active, judging by the gorgeous, feminine body she had. I also knew that she enjoyed exploring her limits, judging by her nocturnal activities, but I had not expected her to adapt so quickly to the physical demands of being a vampire. She was going to test both of us, and she would have no trouble keeping up with me. That didn’t really surprise me, actually; that was the way she had been when she was alive.
“I’m fine, believe it or not,” she said as she gracefully leapt back over the car to me. “We have to talk. Why didn’t you tell me you were married? Who were those guys?” She sounded quite matter of fact, but quite tired, as though she didn’t want to face the mess we were in. I felt an instant of guilt. By rights, she really didn’t have to—it was my problem, and she’d just been sucked along for the ride.
I wondered how much I should tell her, then settled for the truth.
“Like I said before, technically I’m not married, because I’m legally dead and died before he did. He’s a widower. I never told you I was once married because it’s over and has been for a very long time. I don’t even think about it or him because it’s got nothing to do with my life right now.”
Bronwyn glared at me in that way she had that made me love her all the more. “Look, I wanted you, and he wouldn’t have been able to stop me. I still want you, and he definitely won’t be able to stop me now.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. From the moment she’d woken up, and I’d looked into her deep, radiant green eyes, I knew I was a goner all over again. Physically she pulled me toward her as hard as she had ever done. The blood I had given her had enhanced all of her wild beauty. It had changed her body in a fundamental way, but left her mind as sharp as it ever had been. When I looked at her, I saw my mortal lover at the peak of otherworldly beauty, the girl who had to have me at all costs.
“Go, girlie.” I grinned.
She was silent for a moment. “I do have one final question, since you seem to have ignored the question of who they actually are. Why did Aristotle call you a bad girl?”
Oh dear. “Uhhh . . . because I am?”
“Crowley.” Her voice was a sigh, and she shot me one of her patented looks with raised eyebrow that I’d come to know and dread.
“We both know there’s a hell of a lot more going on here. I’m not stupid. What are you not telling me?”
I threw up my hands, helpless. “Yes, of course there’s more.”
Without warning, I was flat on my back in the grass with her lying on top of me, nose to nose. Shit, that was quick—what else did she have hidden up her delectable sleeve?
I sighed, staring deep into her crystalline green eyes. “All right.
Up until about ten years ago, Aristotle had a lover called Kilkenny.
Beautiful, red-headed lady, deadly as hell. At the time, I was living as part of their little family. Someone burned her, one of the few ways we can die. Aristotle blamed me, as it was well known we hated one another. Aristotle hunted me, but I took off before he could find me.”
“Did you kill Kilkenny?”
“Hey! I’m a killer not a murderer. No, I did
not
kill Kilkenny.”
I flipped Bronwyn onto her back and sat on her hard stomach, arms crossed, glaring down at her. My control over my temper slipped a little bit. I took blood because I needed to, not because I wanted to. I was at heart a gentle person.
“Then who did?”
“Oh, man, that one’s so easy.” I smiled slightly. “It was Sembur.”
I needed a moment or so to collect myself. She was going to be furious.
She stared at me expectantly and then glared when I took too long.
“Well? Who’s Sembur?”
“Stephen Masters Burr. S. M. Burr. Sembur. He’s the one who transformed me into a vampire.”
She flipped me over and sat on me. “C’mon, Crowley.” She leaned down until there was only the barest of millimeters between us. “Don’t make me drag it out of you. Why did Sembur murder her?”
I lay back and closed my eyes. “He burned her so they would think it was me and then murder me.”
“What?” Bronwyn’s voice thundered into the night.
I winced. “You wanna watch that volume, lover. You’re going to make humans deaf.”
“Do I look like I care?” Bronwyn’s lip curled into a snarl. “Hello?
This news is somewhat shocking to me. You just drop a fucking bomb-shell on me like that and expect me not to react? When you know perfectly well I love you to death? Will you please just tell me why all this is happening? My normally boundless patience with you is starting to wear thin.”
Time to face the past and put it to rest. “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you the rest of it.” My voice was quiet and steady, much to my amazement.
Bronwyn kept her level stare, but smoothly slid to her feet and then held out a hand and helped me up. “We have to get moving. If we don’t, the hit squad is going to find us before you tell me what you did.”
She dragged me to my car as I tried to put my thoughts in order. I had to tell her what I knew devoid of as much emotion and judgment as possible, so she could make up her own mind about what was going on. Bronwyn climbed into the driver’s side and carefully pulled out into the light traffic.
We were on the road for a while, headed nowhere.
“It’s time to put your cards on the table. You have to tell me why you and Sembur are doing this.” Bronwyn was quiet and serious, not exactly defeated, more accepting of the fact that something very nasty was about to happen to us.
I sighed. “All right. I told you once before I am at the time of my life when people all around me are dying of old age. I wanted to die with them, pure and simple.” I glanced at her smooth, angular profile.
“It all started with Rose. It wasn’t until Rose went into hospital that I really realized what I’d let myself in for.”
Bronwyn snorted after a moment of silence. “That’s really stupid.”
“Actually, no it’s not. Look at you—you had me. No matter how you try to deny it, and I know you will, there’s something very attractive about being in a relationship with someone that you know will never end. For you it’s fine. For me, it’s not. I knew that I was going to have to sit back and watch you die by slow inches. You also weren’t going to stay young forever, and I was never going to get old. It would have torn us apart.” The conversation felt quite stale.
It didn’t really matter, anyway. She wasn’t going to age anymore. “I have been in free fall for the past fifteen years. I wanted to die.”
She thought about this for a moment. “How do you know I would have turned down your offer of immortality if you made it again after a few years?”
“I didn’t. I’m amazed you took it. Do you still love me? I mean really love me? If this was all about sex for you, then you can kiss that part of our relationship goodbye,” I said. “You aren’t going to be able to have sex with me anymore. If it was all some kind of romantic notion you had about vampires and humans, that’s also over. You look at me now the same way I look at you, with a vampire’s enhanced senses. We are truly equals. Now you’re pretty much stuck with your crush for eternity.”
Bronwyn pulled over by the side of the road, tires squealing, almost causing a major traffic accident. When the car was stationary, she faced me, eyes blazing, then the fight went out of her, and her shoulders sagged. “Fuck, what did I ever do to deserve your incredible lack of faith in me? It has never been about sex, although I must admit I’m going to miss that part, it’s about love. Once I was a small child and an angel—you—rescued me from the side of the road. I never thought I would ever see you again after that night, and it hurt me quite badly, right up until I found you again last year, because I knew you were what I wanted for me. I got shy when we met again after all that time—I wondered if I would feel the same way about you that I once did, because I was an adult now. Yes, I’m an adult—I had dated and fucked a lot of people while I was out looking for you, so I have a hell of a lot of experience in the people and relationship department. I wondered if I’d badly distorted my memory of you, if I’d wasted my life looking for you. The bland truth was that I was older, and my love for you had changed, as it does. My feelings for you are an adult’s feelings. Here it is, the honest truth: you make my knees weak with your incredible smile and your amazing blue eyes, but they aren’t the only things I adore about you. I got to know you a little better and realized that I was in serious trouble—I fell very hard for your off beat sense of humor, gentleness, courage, and romantic spirit. They really got to me and made me yours. You cared for me, you protected me, and you loved me, even though you would never admit it. Okay, so we’re physically on a more even footing, but you’re still my beloved Crowley: my angel, my lover, and my friend. We can talk about sex, teens, and crushes some other time when vampires aren’t trying to kill us.”