William's Tale (14 page)

He let out a sigh, and Jackie thought he seemed nervous. “You believe in equality for all, and I’m a member of a very small minority. One whose numbers are only in the thousands.”

It must have been a large mother ship they came in on
, she thought.

“Several of us protect the President.” He now looked up at the COLONY emblem on the wall behind the desk. “Council Of Legalized Outlanders for National securitY.”

She studied the letters. The round seal had the United States across the top, the word COLONY on the bottom, with an eagle atop a shield with thirteen stars circling it.

“The COLONY,” she read. “Shouldn’t the acronym be COLONS?” It seemed fitting as she suspected he’d be shoveling a load of BS her way.

“No,” he chuckled. “We are a select group, and at the time of our team’s creation several colonies still existed around the world. There were British colonies and even American Indian reservations, which were like colonies unto themselves. We were always just called 'the colony' without any real description as to who we were. Eventually, someone filled in the acronym for us.”

“Several of you are here in the White House?”

He cleared his throat. “We work wherever the President works.”

She noticed him glance up towards the camera. The telltale red light shone brightly. “Who’s watching us?”

“A team member.”

She took a deep breath and tried to remember the names she had heard earlier. “Which one? Sulie or Raymond?”

His eyes widened. “Sulie. She is a good friend of mine. She even came to the party with me earlier tonight.”

Jackie thought of the beautiful blonde and pieced the story together. She closed her eyes and sighed, unable to believe how stupid she had been. “Sulie was
your
date.” Jackie felt like a fool, but also sensed the heaviness of guilt weighing on on her. Sulie must have been the sexy devil from earlier in the evening. Her style was now all prim and proper with a severe bun while she worked at the White House, but it was her earlier at the party.

“Sulie wasn’t my date. She was helping me find you.”

Jackie gasped and her hand went to her lips. “I made a terrible mistake.” When Wiliam paused and stared at her, she added, “Steve was dressed in the same costume as you. I thought he was making time with her.”

She saw the pained expression in William’s eyes. “I know you have feelings for him, and I’m so sorry, but he did hit on Sulie and another woman tonight.”

Jackie waved her hand dismissively. Puh-lease! She didn’t care about Steve; it only bothered her that she had prejudged him. She preached to people about giving everyone a fair shake, and she was acting like a fool. She now looked over to William. Was she doing the same with him?

She took a deep breath. Whatever the truth was, she wanted to hear it. “Tell me everything,” she said.

“I’m immortal.”

Yeah, right.

“A vampire,” he clarified.

She wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh, cry or scream — so she went with the obvious comment. “You were
dressed
as a vampire earlier tonight.”

He glanced down at his outfit. “A sick joke. Sulie rented the costume for me.”

Jackie realized she was holding her breath, and her hand rested on her neck. “And, as a vampire, you bite people.”

“No. Well, yes. Sometimes, when necessary. I inject blood from syringes into my veins because it’s easier to do than drinking blood and having my spleen move it from my digestive tract to my circulatory system.” He sighed, and then continued. “We can’t produce blood, so we need human blood to circulate in our veins. The older the blood is, like the oil of a car, the more circulated it becomes. The blood slowly thickens, changing from red to purple, then to a dark black. Eventually, the blood becomes almost tar–like. Our cells age the older and more recycled the blood is.”

Jackie had wanted the answers as to why Raymond’s age had changed. She shook off her fear, realizing she should be careful what she wished for. She felt her heart pound. Could William hear it?

“Take a deep breath and calm down,” he suggested.

“Don’t you be telling me what to do!” she blurted out, upset he could tell how nervous she had become. She planned to wrap this knowledge around her mind if it was the last thing she was did. At least, she knew where to begin with her questions.

“That man, Raymond,” she said. “I saw him age.”

William nodded. “He took the second bullet through the heart.”

“So he's old one minute, and the next minute he's young?”

“Pretty much.”

“And he was shot through the heart, but didn't die?”

In a soft voice, William answered, “Yes.”

She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I was the only one who noticed him. Can you be invisible?”

“What? No.”

He looked confused, so Jackie explained how none of the soldiers saw Raymond earlier.

William shrugged his shoulders. “We’re predatory creatures, blending into the background. We also don’t have body warmth for the scanners they wore. I guess that’s how Raymond went unnoticed.”

He held up his hand and offered it to her for examination, but she shook her head, not wanting to touch him. Although it did make sense why his fingers were cold earlier.

“So,” she said, gathering her thoughts and pointing to his hair. “You aged tonight.”

“Decades. But I… fed and took care of things.”

“Syringes?”

He shook his head. “Neck.”

Jackie bit her lower lip and took a deep breath. “Who did you kill?”“

His eyes quickly widened. “I don’t kill people to feed. I guess some vampires might, but the COLONY members all took oaths not to kill or compel anyone — well, unless necessary. I fed from the sniper. He’s alive and being interrogated by Raymond right now.”

Wait a minute. Compel? She did not like the sound of that. “Did you ever compel me?”

He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I compelled you in the line of duty, to make sure I could bring you to this house. I then compelled the guards to let us in without any complications.”

Of course. Now it all made sense. The time–lapse she experienced and the ease in which they walked through the most protected home in America now made sense. She could see why a sworn and devoted team of vampires would be useful to protect the President. If a vampire wanted to gain access, would anyone be able to stop them?

She looked over to William. He sat upright, not allowing his back to touch the back of the couch. He seemed uncomfortable.

“You were shot in the back,” she said.

“My shoulder. I’m healed now. Just one of the perks of being turned.”

“When were you…”

“The 1960s.”

Holy crap! He was nearly her father’s age. “Who turned you?”

“Another COLONY agent, not Raymond or Sulie.”

“And
they
had been turned.”

He shook his head. “No. Raymond and his sister Sulie were born vampires. We
can
have our own babies.”

Born? Not turned? It was so much to wrap her mind around. One thing was certain, though, William had died at some point to be turned. “How did you die?” she asked with a softened tone in her voice.

“I rode a bus to Alabama; me and many others did it to protest racial inequality. A riot broke out, as they often did back in the day. Before I knew it, I had taken a bad blow to the head.” His hand reached up and touched the back of his skull. “One of my team members, Ben, turned me.”

A gasp left her throat. A Freedom Rider. My God. She had read about them in her history text books. Her father had told her stories. William had lived through all of that. It wasn't natural that he'd be her, this young, next to her.

William lifted his hands and slowly stood. She flinched and scooted farther away on the couch.

“If you don’t mind,” he began, “I’d like to change into a clean shirt. The director keeps clean clothes in his office.”

Never taking her eyes off him, she allowed him to cross the room to the locked desk. Using a key, she saw him take out a white T–shirt from the top drawer. He lifted his blood soaked costume from his chest, revealing a soiled white T–shirt that was stained nearly black. The costume barely hung by a thread on his muscular form, and the white T–shirt had a big hole in the back, so he tore it from his body.

And what an amazing body it was. Like he had been chisled out of marble.

She stood and walked over to him, touching him gently on his sticky back. Her hand traveled gracefully down his muscular body, her fingers dancing across his powerful, well muscled body. He turned towards her, and now her hand gently caressed his chest. She felt his muscles grow tense under her fingertips.

He felt human.

“Could you have died tonight?” she asked.

His square jaw tensed visibly. “It’s always a possibility. We’re immortal, but only as long as we have human blood circulating in our bodies.”

He looked powerful, his stained chest broad and muscular with no scars or wounds. “Why did the sniper attack the White House?”

“Raymond will get the entire story, but the sniper mentioned something about the bill the President is to sign. I put your petition allowing the funding to be granted once again to inner city schools into that bill. He was one of the protesters outside but decided to use deadly force to get his point across by killing the President — that is, until he saw a black person at the window. He thought it was more in line with the point he was trying to make.”

Jackie grimaced at the thought. William could have died, and the only reason he came to the White House was because of their date. He had stood at that window because she was the one who was looking out of it. “He wanted to kill you.”

William gazed into her eyes. “No. The red tracking laser was on
your
temple.”

Jackie’s heart sank. “Red laser?”

He touched her head where evidently he had seen the tracker. “There was only a chance that I would die, but you would have died instantly. I couldn’t let that happen.”

Her mind raced. A red dot had targeted her. She would have been dead. Not William, but
her
. Her knees gave way, and William caught her as she sank towards the floor. He placed her gently on the couch, but one thing repeatedly came to her mind. She would be dead.

Dead — if it weren’t for William.

The air seemed to have left the room, for she couldn’t breathe. She felt tears trickle down her cheeks as she tried to catch her breath.

“Try to relax, Jackie.” William used the soft t–shirt in his hand to brush the tears from her cheeks.

His hands felt cold to her, but she didn’t care. She reached for him, needing to have him hold her. She noticed she was trembling.

“You’re fine. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you.” He gently held her hand up to his lips and kissed her palm. “You’re fine.”

She stared at her savior, grateful for what he had done. When he smiled back at her, she realized it wasn’t gratitude she now felt. It was as though she now understood how the Grinch’s heart had grown three sizes in just a moment in that children’s cartoon, for certainly hers had grown tenfold for William and what he had done to save her.

He was a good man, and the start of feelings she had for him had nothing to do with reason. He was a strong and brave man, uh, vampire. He wanted the same things in life she wanted. In every way, the two of them matched.

Suddenly, she felt choked up, and she knew she was willing to explore a relationship where she could open herself to someone completely. For all she knew, he could very well be The One for her. Only time would tell.

She saw the concern in his eyes, felt the tenderness of his touch, and saw his lean hips and firm build as he sat next to her on the couch. She bit her lower lip, taking in how gorgeous he was. Knowing what was in her heart, there was only one thing to do.

“William,” she said in a softened tone. “Catch me.”

His hands went out. “You’re already lying down.”

Tears were in her eyes. “No. I’m going to take a leap for love, and I need you to catch me.”

*******

Jackie’s beautiful features held a certain sensuality as she gazed into his eyes. William leaned in and lightly brushed a curl of her hair back from her forehead, just at the spot where he nearly lost her. He nervously licked his parched lips and gently kissed her.

Her hands captured the nape of his neck, her fingers tugging at his short military haircut as she kissed him back. The kiss started slow and thoughtful, but soon became fueled by desire. She moaned as he applied more pressure.

William took a quick glimpse at the camera. The red light was off, allowing them privacy. With the door still locked, he knew no one would come in.

Wrapping his arms around her midriff, he moved his body atop hers, easing her farther back onto the plush couch. His fingers found the row of buttons on her costume and quickly undid the first few, allowing a sexy black bra to show. He eased the lacy cup of the garment aside, revealing a taut perky nipple.