Vampire King of New York (17 page)

Vincent parked the limo outside of Max’s house. They could see the Statue of Liberty.

“Max, she doesn’t like being called ‘my Evelyn’.”

“Okay, I can call her Evelyn. I can do that.”

“I think she’s overwhelmed by you and what she’s feeling.”

“I know she was abused by her late husband. I would never do that. Can you convince her I’d never do that?”

“Sorry. That’s something you have to do, Max.”

Max held his head in his hands. “I hate admitting this, but I can’t sleep without her.”

“You may have to tonight.” David stared off into the distance. Then he smiled.

“What is it?”

“A message from Laura. Evelyn is asking if you would come back?”

“Vincent, turn the car around.”

Evelyn paced back and forth in the living room. “What should I say to him?”

“Tell him what you said to me, that you can’t sleep without him.”

“I can’t say that.”

She paced again. Then jumped when the door opened. David came in first followed by Max.

“Good evening,” Laura said, all smiles. Her fangs had descended. Evelyn couldn’t help but smile. Her sister made fangs look good. “I was planning a night of vampire movies. The rain has put me in the mood. Blood coolers? Popcorn, everyone?”

She went to get the refreshments while David went through the DVDs, pulling a selection of movies. Evelyn felt like a teenager on her first date.

Max sat on the large, floral print sectional sofa. “Would you like to sit next to me, my … No, I mean, Evelyn.”

She smiled even though she was shaking inside, and sat beside him. He didn’t touch her, and she wished he would.

“I enjoyed a lot of today. I think my favorites were The Cloisters and the puppet show in Chinatown.” She didn’t look at him, pretending to be interested in what David was doing.

“I’m glad you had fun.”

Evelyn couldn’t bear looking into his eyes.

Laura came out and put an orange soda on the coffee table in front of her sister then three blood coolers and one large bowl of popcorn.

“Okay,” David said taking his seat on the sofa. “We’re starting off with the classic Dracula with Bela Lugosi.”

“Yay!” Laura hopped onto the sofa and into David’s lap.

He dimmed the lights and pressed the remote control. For a short while, Evelyn actually became absorbed into the movie—the grim atmosphere, Jonathan Harker’s arrival at the castle.”

“Listen to the children of the night,” Dracula said, standing on the stairs.

“Oh, I love that. David, say it.”

David paused the movie. “Listen to the children of the night.”

Laura giggled. “We should go camping in the woods and listen to the children of the night.”

David nuzzled her neck. “We’d be the most dangerous things in the forest, my darling.”

Max laughed. Evelyn loved watching her sister and brother-in-law. She enjoyed the fact that love that true was possible. It was something everyone wished for in their hearts. She certainly did.

David pressed the play button, and they settled in again. Max got the bowl of popcorn and offered her some. She took it. Even if she didn’t want any, she knew fear stopped her from doing the things she truly wanted in life.

He ate some popcorn too. They shared the same bowl and before long it was empty.

“Do you want more?” Laura asked.

“Do you?” Max turned to Evelyn.

She shook her head no. The bowl stayed empty on the coffee table.

In the movie, the three wives of Dracula were having a little fun with Harker. Evelyn shivered.

“Have you ever had three wives?” she asked Max.

“Any man having more than one wife should have his head examined. One wife is a lot of work,” David said.

Laura bopped him on the head. “I’m a lot of work, huh?”

“Never you, dearest, I meant in the general population.”

“Good answer.” Max burst out laughing.

David hopped up and put in the next movie—
Love at First Bite
with George Hamilton.

Evelyn whispered to Max, “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I’ve only married once when I was human.”

Evelyn sipped her orange soda. They all laughed when Dracula was rousted from his castle by a communist gymnastics team and went off in search of true love in New York City.

The movie was filled with vampire humor. When they got to the disco where Dracula asked the model, Cindy Sondheim, to dance, they grew quiet. George Hamilton was amazing on the dance floor.

“Are all vampires great dancers?” Evelyn asked.

“No,” Max shook his head. “Not at first. I send all the new vampires to dance classes. We have a reputation to protect.”

She stared at him. He looked so serious saying it. Laura started to giggle. Evelyn narrowed her eyes at Max. “Oh, you’re joking. Stop that.”

He snickered. His fangs had descended. Damn, he looked sexy like that. All kinds of feelings rushed through the lower part of her that dancing wouldn’t cure.

“I’ve got to get something in the kitchen. Come on, David. Come help me.”

Next thing Evelyn knew, she was alone with Max. She tried to concentrate on the movie, but it was soon evident to her that her sister and brother-in-law had gone off to bed.

Max put his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him. Cindy and Dracula went to bed.

Evelyn couldn’t stand it. “I’m sorry …”

“Shh.” He stroked her cheek. “No. It isn’t necessary for you to apologize. I’m only happy you wanted me back.” He kissed her, his lips barely touching hers. “If you’re tired and wish to go to bed, I will sleep on the sofa. I don’t want to be far from you, but I want you to have your time to think.”

She shook her head and climbed into his lap, embracing him. “Max, I need you to hold me. I’m a broken person, and I don’t think I know how to love.”

He turned the movie off and together they lay on the sofa. He slid the flowered afghan down over them. In the dark, he kissed her hair.

“Evelyn, sometimes when I hold you a raging fire of passion consumes me. But then at other times, when you’re in my arms, I feel peaceful. I haven’t felt peaceful in over a thousand years. You give my heart rest.”

“I guess now would not be a good time to ask questions.”

He chuckled. “With you, my love, there will always be questions. Go ahead.”

Evelyn toyed with his hair, curling a blond lock in her fingers as she spoke.

“Before David met my sister, he had a lot of girlfriends and made a lot of them vampires. From time to time, it’s been a problem for them. Do you have a lot of vampire ex-girlfriends?”

“No, I do not. That’s not to say I was virtuous in the time before I met you. I wasn’t. But I did not make my temporary interests into vampires.”

“I see. How many vampires have you made?”

“Sixteen. That includes the remaking of David.”

Evelyn frowned. “What do you mean ‘remaking?’”

He shifted away, scrunching up his face. “Are you sure you want to know? It’s rather grotesque.”

“You’re very important to David. He considers you his father.”

“David is important to me, too.”

Evelyn cuddled closer to him. “Tell me how it happened.”

He sighed, stroking her arm. Each touch of his fingers played like music on her skin calling to the deepest part of her.

“The actions of the war between the states had reached a crescendo. It was as if the battle at Gettysburg had broken the nation’s heart. Too much blood in the soil.” He paused. “I was in my carriage on the way home to New York after attending to business in the South. While passing through a patch of woods in northern Pennsylvania one night, he appeared leaning against a tree. I knew what he was the minute I saw him and was grieved that another savage had been made. He stared at me, his face chalk white, his mouth blood stained. I ordered my driver to stop and leapt out.

“David ran into the woods. It is a common ploy often used by savages, to lure the human traveler away from the road into the dark wilderness. I followed. David did not know what I was.

“He wasn’t the David you know, more an unthinking animal. Later I found out that he had been made accidentally by a savage, when he lay mortally wounded on the battlefield; his maker left him for dead. He awoke to his new life afraid and crawling to seek shelter from the sun. There was no one to teach him, no stabilizing blood of a sire ready to accept the responsibility for him.

“I followed David. He jumped me, throwing me to the ground. I flew straight up and slammed him into a tree. He slipped from my grasp. I had to admire his warrior senses. It is seldom a new one can best an ancient in a fight. We battled back and forth but I finally overcame him, sinking my fangs into his neck. I listened for the last heartbeat. Upon hearing it, I withdrew my fangs and introduced my saliva as much as I could force into the wound before it healed. Then came the hard part—the waiting for him to wake. This is the tricky part—the part where everything can go wrong. There’s always a chance that even after doing everything right, the transformation doesn’t occur.”

Evelyn shivered with the thought, and Max hugged her closer.

“I found an abandoned barn to keep him in the dark. The following night he woke, and I gave him my blood. The vampire that spoke to me was different from the savage. He was calm and eager to learn. We shared my carriage home, and I was glad to discover that he was a New Yorker too. He was a good man in life and had the potential of becoming a good vampire.”

Evelyn sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes. “He has been very good for my sister.”

Max kissed her on the top of the head. “Yes. They are very much in love.”

Evelyn slipped out of his arms and stood beside the sofa. “Come on, Max. It’s time to go to bed.” She pulled his arm and he got up. “I’m not promising anything, but we both could use a good night’s sleep without any crashes or murders.”

Chapter 12

Svenna went with the village women down to the volcanic lagoon for the ritual bath.

She wanted to remember every detail—the velvet softness of the lichen beneath her feet, the heavy scent of pine, the sigh of the wind. One woman helped her out of her dress, and another woman helped her step down into the pool. The mud in the bottom felt good against her skin. The other women undressed and joined her.

“Soon you will be a wife and there are things you must know,” one began.

“How to please him,” another woman giggled.

“You have to lay perfectly still and let him do whatever he wants,” another suggested.

An older woman frowned. “Don’t tell her such things. But it is true that you let him lead you and then do everything together.”

“He’ll love it if you wiggle.”

Most laughed. The woman frowned again. “Don’t tell her to be a whore.”

“You can’t go wrong if you surrender to him. Be tender with him and encourage him on.”

They all nodded.

“It’s messy and hurts.”

One woman shook her head. “I’m sorry if it’s that way for you. It doesn’t have to be that way for Svenna.” She gently touched Svenna’s face. “Everyone can see that Reynard loves you. He will be gentle. Give yourself to him. Open your heart and let him guide you, and it will be a night of sheer magic.”

Several of the women sighed and nodded their heads. The hot water felt great, so restoring.

One woman leaned toward her and whispered, “He’ll love it, if you wiggle.”

Evelyn’s eyes snapped open. She rolled over and Max was not in bed. Did he leave her? Evelyn didn’t like the thoughts going through her head about playboy vampires.
My Max wouldn’t do that.
What! She shook her head. Evelyn couldn’t believe what she had just heard in her own mind. Her Max? He was getting to her.

Then she heard the water running in the bathroom, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
He must be taking a shower.
The heat of the dream had built up inside her and begged for release. Standing in a nightshirt and staring at the door, she wondered what she could do to get in with him. Towels. Of course, he needed towels.

She knocked on the door. “I’m just coming in to bring you some towels.” When she entered, Evelyn put the towels on top of the full set already there.

Max threw back the shower curtain. There he stood in his dripping magnificent masculinity—every inch of him. The hot water pounded in the background.

Evelyn’s mouth fell open.

“I have plenty of towels. Why are you really here?”

“Um.”

“Did you think I was leaving you?”

“Um.”

He grinned, standing there in his— 
Whoa
.  Just looking at him hurt all over in all the right places. “You should know better than that by now.”

Evelyn could feel the crimson burn spread up her neck to her face. He couldn’t read her mind, so how did he know.

His grin broadened, and he showed no sign of pulling back the curtain to disrupt her view. “Or did you wake with a fierce desire?”

Yes, she was definitely beet red now. “Um.”

In one movement, he scooped her up and pulled her into the tub, closing the curtain. His lips captured hers, his tongue penetrating and playing a game. Evelyn surrendered to the whole thing. He could have her. He could do anything he wanted with her. That’s how much she ached for him.

The hot water streamed over her nightshirt. His thumb stroked her nipple through the wet fabric. “So, my love, have we reached a truth?”

Evelyn gazed up into his glacier blue gray eyes. Next thing she knew, she was kissing him hard and long. He lifted her up, then lowered her slowly kissing her body through the sopping wet shirt, fastening on a nipple and sucking.

“Ahhh.” She threw her head back and wrapped her legs around his waist.

Ending the suck with a kiss, he latched onto the other nipple. Then he kissed her, leaving a blazing hot trail of love on every inch of her skin until they were face-to-face.

“I want nothing between us.” He slipped the soaked nightshirt over her head in one swift move and tossed it over the curtain rod. Then ripped off her panties.

“Max, you can’t keep destroying my underwear.”