Chapter 11
Finally Comfortable…Almost
After finishing with the cows, Teren showed me the ranch hand’s house that had been empty the last time I’d been here. It was roughly the size of Teren’s place in the city, and seemed “quaint” in comparison to the family home on the hill. It reminded me of a large, log cabin, straight out of Little House on the Prairie. For a moment, I could picture Halina standing on the front steps in a long, old-fashioned dress, watching the sun fade with her husband. As I walked through the doors, I wondered how long the Adams had owned this property.
There was a stone fireplace, dormant in the still warm air of summer, in the center of the large living room. Two long couches sat along either side of a long coffee table, stacked high with “guy-type” magazines: Sports Illustrated, TIME, Sport Fishing, Farm and Ranch…no Good Housekeeping anywhere.
Teren indicated a hallway to our right, which led to a kitchen and dining area for the crew, and a hallway on our left, which led to bedrooms. Stairs on either side of the living room led up to more guest rooms, which looked out into the vaulted living room and had a close up view of the heavy timber beams that made up the backbone of the house. I was looking at the upstairs bedroom doors that I could see over the balcony railing, and counting up the rooms in my head. Four on either side of the living room, plus however many were downstairs. I wondered why they used a separate home, when the main house had two extra buildings, jam-packed full of empty rooms. Then I looked over at Teren, and remembering our near fanging this afternoon, decided the vamps just liked their privacy.
Thinking about my neck wound, I adjusted my hair carefully over my shoulder as the burly workmen shuffled into their house. No need to tip them off. Teren went over to a tall blonde and a shorter, graying man. I was about to follow him over there, when I noticed a man around my age with green eyes and a messy head of brown hair. I noticed him as he walked through the front door, because he winked at me. It caught me off guard. It wasn’t that men never flirted with me, I just wasn’t expecting it from people who worked for Teren’s dad.
I walked over to Teren and laced my hand with his, and he introduced me to the two men he was speaking to. The green-eyed man immediately turned, and left for the hallway to the kitchen. Apparently he hadn’t realized who I was, and flirting with the boss’s son’s girlfriend, was a no-no. I smiled to myself as I shook Jackson’s and Christian’s hands.
I was just finishing meeting the rest of the men, and wondering how long green-eyes was going to avoid meeting me, when Halina suddenly appeared in the living room. It must have fully darkened while we’d been talking. I was pretty surprised to see her out here, mingling with the humans. I was even more surprised that the humans didn’t seem to notice how un-human she was. The men didn’t seem to catch the oddness of her skin or the wisdom in her eyes. I was pretty sure the men weren’t getting past the fabulousness of her body, stuffed into a tight, black skirt, with a blouse that clung to every curve and almost, but not quite, covered all of her toned stomach.
She casually walked up to Teren and me. Her eyes flicked over my neck, like she could see the wounds through my hair. “Enjoy your evening last night?” Her lips curled into a crooked smile that made me flush everywhere. I knew she couldn’t resist mentioning it.
I put on my big girl panties and dealt with it. “Yes Halina…we did. Thank you.”
She chuckled at my response and then proceeded to sling her arms around the green-eyed man, who had come out of hiding at hearing her voice. I guess flirting with the boss’s sister-in-law (which is how Halina’s youth was explained to the outside world) was alright.
Teren looked away from his Great-Gran licking the man’s neck. “That’s our cue.” He grimaced and nodded at the door. We waved goodbye to the crowd, that didn’t care about us at all anymore, and we made our way back to the main house.
As we were bouncing along in the Jeep, I remembered my earlier thought about his pup. “Why don’t you bring Spike here? Wouldn’t he love barking at cows?”
Teren chuckled. “Yeah…he would.” He threw a look back over his shoulder at the guest house. “Great-Gran…she kind of…”
I filled in the blanks that he was being so tentative with. “She eats dogs, doesn’t she?”
He shrugged. “She’s really not too picky. I don’t think she’d hurt my dog…but no need to tempt her.”
Right.
Irritation flashed through me. “Why does your family condone her behavior?”
He looked over at me seriously, and I could tell from the set of his jaw that he knew I wasn’t talking about dogs anymore. “Emma…”
“No, don’t Emma me. Your mom said I should ask you about her, and you promised to not keep me in the dark anymore, so spill it.”
He sighed. “Well, for starters…have you ever tried to stop a full vampire from doing something they want to do?”
I bit my lip at that thought. No…I could barely get my partial vamp to do what I wanted him to do. We drove up to the garage type building and he shut the Jeep off. He hopped out, jumping over his door, and walked around to my side to open mine; always the gentleman. I let him, and he continued his train of thought while we walked up to the house.
“I’ve talked with Great-Gran about it before…but she enjoys it. She’s a predator, a hunter. She loves the thrill of the chase, and the excitement of that first bite.” I clenched my stomach with my hand and tried very hard to stop the images flooding into my brain. Teren grabbed my hand and stroked it with his thumb. “I may have let you believe the worst about what she does.” I looked up at him, confused, and maybe a touch hopeful.
“She’s not a killer?”
He frowned. “No, she kills.” I frowned too. He ignored it and finished his thought. “But not always. Most of the time, she only takes a draw, and then makes them forget it ever even happened. Most of the time, the people live.”
I opened my eyes wide at that and started to feel a little better about her…then he continued. “Occasionally, she’ll run into a person that she believes has served their purpose.” We reached the poolside and he stopped and looked out over the water, at the moonlight, now sparkling in the tiny waves. “The first man she killed…after accidentally taking her husband’s life, was molesting a little girl at the time. She spared the girl and drained the man dry. Every life she takes…offends her in some equal way, usually because they’ve hurt a child.”
He looked back at me, his eyes glowing softly in the darkness, and I swallowed. “She’s what…some vampire vigilante?”
He twisted his lips. “Except she’s not handing them over to the police…she’s executing them.”
I nodded and we both watched each other silently. Shades of gray indeed. I wasn’t sure what to feel about this. Another thing to reflect on later, I guess. As we walked into the house, I at least began to finally feel like Halina wasn’t going to eat me, or my family. One small positive, I suppose.
Halina rejoined us while we were finishing up dessert. She swept into the room and poured herself a glass of still steaming blood from the carafe. No one asked her where she’d been. No one gave her much more than a cursory glance. She’d been licking her lips when I had first glanced at her entrance. I was dying to ask her if green-eyes was still alive, but after Teren’s comments by the pool, I felt pretty good about his chances of survival. And if she had killed him…well, he’d probably deserved it. I still wasn’t sure what to feel about that – except grateful that I’d never be on her hit list.
She sat next to Imogen and calmly sipped her glass of blood. She noticed me trying to subtly watch her and grinned. “Do you need us to go for another walk tonight, Emma?”
I forced myself to not react to her clear goading. Alanna and Imogen looked away from me respectfully and Jack…just looked confused. Teren shot her a nasty look, but said nothing. I guess I was on my own. I swallowed and mentally replaced Halina with my boss. I could talk to my boss.
In my most respectful tone (she was my elder after all), I answered her, “No, Halina…Teren and I are going to watch a movie with the family and then go to sleep. We won’t be trying for a baby tonight.”
I couldn’t believe I’d just said that…out loud…to his family. Halina looked equally shocked that I’d admit such a personal detail to the room. She gaped at me, her bloody fangs visible in her open mouth. Then she started laughing. She shifted her pale eyes to Teren, who was staring at me, looking a little shocked himself. “I like her, Teren.”
Teren glanced over at her and started laughing with her. Eventually the other vampires started chuckling softly, and even Jack laughed once and shook his head. I forced down the blush and laughed with them. Teren grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it. I felt a layer of tension and unease lift from the room, as light laughter filled it. I started to feel as comfortable with this family as I was with my own.
We finished our meal with pleasant, and appropriate, conversations, and then retired to the living room to all watch a movie together. Teren and I snuggled on one end of the massive couch while Jack pulled a large projector screen down from the wall. He pressed a button on a remote and from behind us, a machine built into the wall started projecting the movie ‘Legends of the Fall’ – classic Brad Pitt ranch movie.
As Halina crossed in front of where Teren and I were entwined on the couch, my legs over his lap, his arms over my legs, she leaned down to whisper in my ear, “You really should try tonight…you are running out of time.” She looked at me pointedly as she pulled away and I could only nod lamely at those intense eyes.
Teren sighed under me. “Thanks for the advice.”
She smiled and rumpled his hair, before walking over to sit next to Imogen. She snuggled with her daughter, suddenly looking like a teenage girl at a slumber party. Finished with prepping the movie, Jack went over to sit with his youthful wife, who slung her legs over his lap in a similar fashion to mine. She kissed his neck and sighed happily as he laced his arms around her, not caring in the slightest that her body was cold and her chest was silent. They were definitely my vamp/human relationship role models.
I partially watched the movie. I looked over at Teren after the scene where Brad Pitt’s character bends his hat in greeting and water droplets jump off it, and wondered again if Teren had a cowboy hat somewhere. I partially watched the content vamps in the room. Halina and Imogen were whispering and giggling over something on the screen, and I got the impression Halina was eyeing the horses more than Brad. I partially scanned the impressive room, my eyes most frequently drifting back to the flame-encrusted fireplace – such an amazing piece of work. But mainly, I felt the life and vitality of the man beneath me.
His hands idly stroked my thigh as he watched the movie, and my hand idly rubbed his stomach. I laid my head on his shoulder and occasionally pressed my lips to his neck, feeling the heat of life beneath my skin. I didn’t want to think about this changing. I didn’t want to think about the day he was destined to die. I didn’t want to think about the responsibility of getting him here safely, so when he awakened to his new life, he wouldn’t do something we both regretted. I didn’t want to think about any of those thoughts right now, as I snuggled further into him. And of course, since I didn’t want to think about them, they were forefront in my mind for the entire movie.
I blinked at the screen when credits were rolling across it. Somehow during my brooding, I must have fallen asleep. Teren was holding me close, one hand on my hip and the other gently on my head. I looked around with my eyes, but we appeared to be alone in the room. I stretched infinitesimally and he kissed my head.
“You missed half the movie.”
I stretched more and looked up at him. “Sorry…I guess ranch life wears me out.”
He grinned and ran a hand down my cheek. The room went pitch black as the movie flickered out and his eyes glowed brightly at me. I let the feeling of peace and serenity wash over me. I’d do anything he asked anyway, but the calm feelings his eyes gave me, washed away my fears for our future.
“Teren?”
“Yes,” he whispered, his hypnotic eyes never leaving mine.
“Take me somewhere…anywhere.”
I could see his lips turn up into a smile in the pale glow casted by him. “How about I show you my favorite place here?”
I smiled in return. “I’d love that.”
He stood, and even though he was lifting my weight as well as his own, the move was effortless. Gripping me gently, but firmly, he walked us to the back patio. Then a breeze was blowing through my hair as he ran us away from the house. I didn’t care where we were going. I didn’t care how fast we were moving, that we’d be just a blurring streak to the casual observer. I laid my head on his shoulder and giggled at the enjoyment of moving fast, without feeling like you’re moving at all.
We stopped at the edge of a slow moving, deep creek. I really was only aware of stopping when the wind was no longer brushing past my face; it was that smooth. Teren set me down and I marveled at the moonlit water before me. It was idyllic. Long, tufted grasses lined the banks and an occasional ripple broke the tension of the lazy water, as some creature below it popped up to kiss the sky. Toads and owls filled the air with a quiet symphony, and I could easily picture a young vampire lying in the grass, listening to the sounds of nature around him.
I smiled as I looked over at Teren. I smiled wider when I saw he that was shirtless and working on his jeans. “What are you doing?”
He grinned at me. “I thought I’d go for a swim, want to join me?” I laughed and was about to answer, when he focused those glowing eyes deep into mine. “I could always make you…”
I smacked him away from me and tore off my shirt. “I am immune to your hypnotic ways, vamp boy…but I will join you.” He laughed and we both finished removing our clothes.
I watched his flawless form enter the water and then dive under the deep surface. I crept up to the edge and dunked in a toe – it was freezing. His head popped up near the middle of the easy flowing stream, and he very lightly held himself in place with a casual back and forth motion of his hands.
“Come on. Just jump right in.” He grinned widely at me and I suddenly wanted to be in his arms more than I cared about the cold. I grit my teeth and ran into the water, my toes sticking a bit on the mud at the very edge. Gracefully, I dove under the frigid liquid and swam until I felt his body. I popped up right in front of him and glued my body to his. His hands worked a little harder to keep us both afloat and he laughed.
“Not so bad, right?”
My teeth rattled a little with the chill, but I nodded. Eventually his warmth stopped my chill and my body acclimated to the water surrounding it. I relaxed my death grip on him and treaded water lightly beside him. Seeing me more at ease, he grinned and leaned over to kiss me gently.
“It’s beautiful here, Teren,” I whispered in-between our kisses.
Never taking his eyes off mine, he nodded. “Yes, I know…beautiful.” His eyes flicked down my body and I knew he wasn’t talking about this perfect place he had taken me too. I felt my body flush all over.
He swam us back, closer to the edge until his feet could touch, and then he wrapped his long arms around me and pulled me in for a searing kiss.
“Teren…tell me everything is going to be okay.”
He pulled back to look at me, his face showing none of the doubt and fear that I’d have felt, if I were him. “Everything is going to be fine, Emma.” His voice was low and soothing, full of assurance. He truly sounded like he believed that. That somehow, he knew it would all work out. I wished I felt his certainty. If things went wrong…they could go really wrong.
He leaned back in to kiss me and between our lips I whispered, “Do you promise?” I knew the words were empty and pointless, but I sort of needed to hear them anyway.
He pulled back again to gaze at me, his hand coming up to cup my face. “I promise.” His eyes searched my face, the glow taking my momentary flood of panic with it. “I promise,” he repeated softly, before bending down to kiss me again.
Our kiss picked up intensity and urgency, and just when I was sure our heat would evaporate this idyllic brook, he picked me up and walked me to a soft spot of grass along the bank. Water rolled down our bodies and dripped off our hair, but I felt none of its chill as Teren laid himself over me, giving me his warmth, giving me everything he had. And in return, I gave every piece of myself over to this remarkable man, who had every single blood-pumping corner of my heart, and very quickly, his favorite place soon became my favorite place.
I awoke the next morning satisfied, content, and loving this wonderful ranch. I also woke up alone in our humungous bed – that, I didn’t love. I looked around the empty suite. The fireplace was cold, the candles snuffed out, the curtains drawn tight, so no light would touch my face to wake me up. I wondered if Teren had thought of that little detail before slipping away. We’d considered sleeping out under the stars last night, in that long grass near the creek, but the slight breeze along our damp skin had us redressing and hightailing it back to our plush, warm room in no time. My memory would never forget that stream though…
I stood and stretched my arms high into the air, wondering where my vamp had taken off to, and why he hadn’t awoken me. A small surge of ‘God, what else is he hiding’ panic filled me, but I pushed it back. He said he wouldn’t do that anymore. If he was going to trust me, then at some point, I would need to trust him. I’ll work on that.
I shuffled off to the bathroom, hoping maybe he was just in there, but that room was also empty. I examined my ‘I had sex in the grass last night’ hair, and sighed at the straggly mess before me. After picking out a few long strands of dry blades, that had somehow managed to stay with me for the past several hours, I brushed the rest out into some semblance of order. I examined the pale, red wounds on my neck, now surrounded by a light, bluish bruising (thank you for that, Teren). They were better than yesterday, but still a huge announcement of my boyfriend’s newest fetish, so I left my hair down loose around my shoulders. I started to wonder if I was going to have to wear a fifties looking scarf tomorrow at work. Clarice would love that.
I finished primping myself in the bathroom and headed back to the bedroom to change clothes. I found my last pair of jeans and my last fitted button-up shirt. A last day of vacation feeling washed through me, and I smiled at how different this trip was from last time. I liked it here. I liked being here. I liked watching Teren be here.
Thinking of Teren, I decided to test this hearing of his. I sat on the edge of the bed and looked down. In a voice so low that the fabric of the bed nearly swallowed it, and I was sure there weren’t enough sound waves left to travel to wherever he was, I whispered, “Teren, I need to see you right now. Please come here.”
I began to count in my head. I got to five and then the door was swinging inward. His concerned eyes swept the room before focusing on me in the bed. He was wearing a pair of black jeans that nicely set off the gray button-up shirt he had loose over the top of them. It was a yummy sight to see first thing in the morning. His brow scrunched and his blue eyes sparkled with concern. “Are you okay? What it is?”
I half-smiled, as he closed the door and sat beside me on the bed, his face still looking worried. Very seriously, I said, “I missed you. You don’t get to just leave me alone in a cold bed anymore without saying goodbye first.” I twisted my lips at him. “Especially if there are no roses being left on my pillow.”
He looked at me blankly and then his face relaxed into a laugh. He ran a hand through his black hair and shook his head. “I did try and say goodbye.” He laughed a little harder. “You grunted at me and told me to go away…” he shrugged his shoulders, “so I did.”
I smacked his shoulder. “I did no such thing.”
He laughed even harder. “Go ask my mom if you don’t believe me. She was laughing about it when I went downstairs to see her this morning.”
I clasped a hand over my mouth, embarrassed. Damn those vampire ears. Just when I was feeling so comfortable too… I straightened my shoulders. It was fine. It’s not like I’d asked them to take a walk again.
“Your family needs to work on boundaries.” I blushed a little, knowing that I’d basically just said that directly to his family…but it was true.
He grinned and nodded. “I know…believe me, I know.”
We spent the morning with Jack and Alanna, eating breakfast and having breezy conversations, like no tension had ever filled this little family. It warmed me that whatever awkwardness there had been between mother and son, seemed to have faded…he seemed to have forgiven her. She did cast concerned glances at the both of us throughout the morning, and I knew that she was desperately hoping he’d stay near, that we’d both stay near. I also knew that Teren had no intention of doing so, and there was nothing I could say to make him change his mind. For some reason, he wanted to be on his own, and he wanted to stay in San Francisco.
Later, we went upstairs to Imogen’s room and I apologized profusely for the subject I had brought up yesterday. For crassly mentioning Halina’s eating habits and chastising her for it, therefore also chastising Imogen, who wasn’t entirely an innocent grandmother. She shook her head as I said I was sorry for the hundredth time. “Dear, my burdens are my own. I’m not asking you to share them with me.”
“I know…I just feel really bad for even bringing it up. I’m sure it was hard for you to…” I paused, not sure where I was going with that. Teren grabbed my hand and squeezed it, while Imogen looked over at us from a picture of a blonde-haired, smiling man, who I could only assume was her late husband.
“The act itself was actually very easy,” she said softly, and Teren looked up at her, surprise in his eyes. Imogen didn’t talk about this and after that statement, I wasn’t sure if I wanted her to. She cocked her head at me and her eyes aged as she reminisced. “It was more like letting go of a wall around me. Letting go of struggling to maintain being decent and normal and…caving into the pure passion and aggression of insatiable hunger.”
Teren’s eyes danced as he listened to her describe her level of thirst back then, and I watched his face curiously. Would it be like that for him too? Imogen’s eyes flicked to his and then back to mine. “It’s the watching them die part that haunts me…that forever stops me from caving again.” She closed her eyes and shook her head, a red tear dripping down her cheek. “I can’t do it. I can’t live with the guilt of it.” She opened her red eyes to smile wistfully at me. “I can’t live with any additional guilt, I guess I should say.”
I stood and crossed the room to embrace her. She held me back lightly at first, and then with more pressure. I felt her cry lightly and I rubbed her back. How odd to be comforting a vampire. How odd to be comforting someone who had lustfully killed on more than one occasion. How nice to know that, even after decades, someone can still feel so badly for taking a life that they never will again. I reaffirmed my decision that I never wanted to be a full vampire. I never wanted the temptation to take a life. I never wanted their level of guilt.
We talked with her awhile longer on more pleasant subjects and discovered it was close to dusk when he were through. Teren looked at me as we walked down the stairs. “We should probably leave soon…I’ve got an early meeting tomorrow.”
I sighed as I clutched his hand. “Yeah…okay.” It was so wonderful here I almost hated to leave it. Of course, it would be nice to get back to closed doors that actually meant something. Maybe I should work on inventing vampire-strength earplugs.
Teren cocked his head and look distracted for a second. I stopped on the step and watched his face. He seemed to be listening to something. I strained my inferior human ears, but heard absolutely nothing. Finally, he looked over at me.
“Great-Gran wants us to come down to her rooms.” He indicated the windows by the massive front doors. “It won’t be completely dark for another hour and she wants to say goodbye.”
He must have noticed the startled look on my face, even though I had been trying very hard to keep it even. “She really won’t hurt you, Emma.” He smiled softly at me and pulled my hand down the stairs.
I knew she wouldn’t attack me, but I still wasn’t relishing walking into her domain. “I know that,” I muttered sullenly, while he pulled me through the living room and over to a door next to some built-in shelving, that I’d just assumed was a closet. He opened the door and we entered into…a closet. I looked around, confused, as he closed the door behind him. It was a walk-in closet with shelves along two of the walls. The shelves were full of women’s shoes, jackets and other outerwear. A few of the shelves held mundane home essentials like lamps, matches, blankets, umbrellas, flashlights. There was also a couple of board games, and resting on the very top shelf – a rifle. I swallowed as I looked at that, but then decided that in this house, that was probably the least harmful thing in the building.
As Teren fully closed the door, darkness engulfed us. His eyes glowed brightly in the dark and I had a sudden “Seven Minutes in Heaven” flashback. Laughing, I threw my arms around his neck and giggled as I kissed him a few times.
“And what are we doing in here, Teren?” I asked between laughs and kisses.
He returned both my lips and my humor. “Visiting Great-Gran,” he replied casually. Then he reached out to the blank wall opposite the closet door and gave it a sturdy push. Something clicked and the wall gave way. I gaped at the wall swinging open to reveal wooden stairs that angled down steeply.
Evenly spaced soft lights lined the stone wall that seemed to descend to the middle of the Earth. I shook my head and forced a silent, steadying breath. Teren laced my fingers in his and pulled me gently down the stairs. It wasn’t as long as I’d feared, and at the bottom it turned a corner into a stone hallway.
Now, I’d pictured Halina’s lair a million times in my head, and a couple times in my nightmares. I always pictured rough stone walls, with manacles around the room holding barely conscious men, dripping, bloody wounds on their bodies. I pictured large, dark stains, on a dirt strewn stone floor, that no amount of cleansing would wash away. I pictured a massive, black coffin, lined in blood-red velvet, centered in the room on an obsidian dais. I pictured rats squeaking around the floor, and scurrying away to the darkest portions of the near dungeon. I pictured snow white candles and wrought iron candelabras, straight out of Phantom of the Opera. I imagined a dank, musty odor that reeked of death.
What I had never, ever pictured…was what the room actually looked like.
We walked around the corner of the stone hallway, and entered what I could only describe as a Queen’s bed chamber. The walls were light gray and smooth to the touch. Heavy, beaded tapestries hung around the room, all depicting glorious sunsets. No windows were in the walls (being underground and belonging to a woman who couldn’t handle the sun, of course) and the most beautiful, elaborate gold lamps hung between each of the tapestries. The floor was a smooth, white marble with thick, padded, burgundy area rugs spaced evenly throughout. Her bed (which startled me a bit, until I realized her room was pretty light-proof) was a huge four-poster canopied bed, with sage and burgundy satin bedding and romantic, gauzy white curtains along the sides that were tied in an open position to the bed poles.
The room was lit from the lamps, but she also had clusters of tall and short pillar candles on her mahogany dresser, vanity and the matching coffee table at the base of her bed. The burning candles made the room smell sweetly of cinnamon. A couple plush chairs rested on the other side of the coffee table and three doors opposite the wall of the bed, led to other rooms that she used. I was pretty sure that at least one of those rooms was a massive closet, holding her wide variety of skintight dresses.
The place was beautiful and majestic, and a little heartbreaking, with the multiple reminders of daylight around the room. Aside from the tapestries, there were photos of the sun on her nightstand and dresser, and spectacular canvas paintings that she had created, were drying near an easel set up in one corner of the room. Next to that, was a tall bookcase, with just about every color of oil paint in the world inside of it.
Taking a final sweep of the room, I noticed a black and white photo on her vanity of an old-fashioned couple standing in front of a house, a house that looked suspiciously like the ranch hand’s house. The woman was healthy, happy and obviously pregnant, wearing a long, flowing dress with her hair elaborately twisted on top of her head. The man had his arm around her and was the spitting image of Teren…only years younger. I realized I was looking at a picture of Halina and her husband…when she was human. The photo was a startling contradiction to the vampire, who was coming out of one of the three doors I’d glanced over earlier.
“Thank you for coming down,” she purred at Teren, who walked over to give her a hug.
I flicked again to the photo of Halina’s husband and marveled at the resemblance. I’d originally thought Teren looked like the women of his family, but I was wrong. He resembled his great-grandfather. I watched Halina eye him fondly as they pulled apart from each other, and I clearly saw what Halina saw every time she looked at him – the man she’d inadvertently killed. I instantly ached with sympathy for her.
“Good evening, Halina,” I said warmly.
She smiled over at me with a small half-grin. “Almost, give it another fifty two minutes. Good evening, Emma.”
I sort of had an odd desire to hug her. She seemed to sense that and her half-grin twisted to a wry one. I didn’t feel so much like touching her after that. Sympathy only goes so far after all. She indicated the plush chairs before the coffee table and Teren and I each took a seat. I glanced at Teren and wondered how long he planned on staying down here, but Halina brushing between us and crawling up on the coffee table, to sit next to the candles perched there, distracted me from the thought.
I watched her adjust her short, tight, black dress as she swung her legs behind her, sitting on her hip. I again stared at the picture of her as a modest human woman and marveled at the difference. She seemed to notice my gaze this time.
“Attractive, wasn’t he?” Her voice was layered with sadness and she flicked a glance at Teren with only her eyes.
I had been looking at her in the photo, but glanced back at her husband upon her words. “Yes…very.” I flicked a glance over at Teren as well, before my eyes rested on Halina’s. She had seen my look and she smiled warmly at me, for the quite possibly the first time. She knew I’d spotted the resemblance.
“His name was Nicolis. His family was Russian as well.” She spoke a long flowery sentence in the odd sounding language. I cocked my head and waited for an explanation of the words. She didn’t give them. Teren hung his head down, and a sense of sadness swept through the stone room, making me shiver. The silence lasted for a solid thirty seconds before Halina spoke again.
“I’m glad you came back, Emma.” She raised an eyebrow at me. “Although, I was looking forward to tracking you down, if you didn’t accept Teren’s condition.” My mouth dropped open with an audible sound, as I realized that she indeed would have hunted me down and “wiped my memory” if I hadn’t come back. She smiled at the look on my face. “I do so enjoy the hunt…”
The shiver came back up my spine at her words and Teren beside me, coughed into his hand. “Well, she did Great-Gran and I didn’t need your help this time.”
That made me look at Teren oddly. Exactly how many times had he spilled his heart to unwilling women? How many women had dated Teren that no longer remembered it? Halina seemed to understand my strange expression and laughed. Teren glanced over at me and coughed again.
“Well…we should probably get going…long drive.” He tore his eyes away from my narrowed ones and looked back to Halina, who was rising fluidly from the coffee table. He stood and embraced her. “We won’t stay away so long,” he said reassuringly, as he picked the tiny woman up.
She giggled like a teenager until he set her down. “Good…we do miss you.” She faced me, when I stood from the chair, and placed a hand on my stomach. The sudden move shocked me into stillness. Her face took on a longing look and I remembered her story from the other night…about wanting to fill a farm with black-haired children. I wondered if her wistful gaze was for hoping I got pregnant soon, or wishing she was still able to. Either way it softened me, and I placed my hand over hers; it was chilly under my palm.
She jerked her eyes up to mine, seemingly surprised that I would willingly touch her. Honestly, I was a little as well. Her face relaxed as we stared at each other. “The baby will be strong and healthy,” she said assuredly, as she gently patted my stomach. Tears unexpectedly stung my eyes, as I suddenly hoped she had an unnatural ability to sense these things. She dashed that hope by adding, in a near pleading voice, “I believe there will be time.”
I nodded and finally embraced her. She was hesitant at first to return my hug, but eventually she did, and clasped me back warmly. Teren was smiling softly as we pulled apart. “We should say goodbye to the others. Goodnight Great-Gran.” He briefly hugged her again.
“Goodnight, Teren…Emma.”
We left her, staring absently at the photo of her long dead husband, and made our way to the hallway leading back to the stairs, out of Halina’s throne room. Once back in the closet, Teren pulled a piece of string attached to the inner door frame that I hadn’t noticed before, and yanked the false door closed with a small click. As he opened the other side, I thought over the meeting with Halina. I still wasn’t pleased that she killed, and I really wasn’t sure how often she did that. Teren did make it sound like she merely…hunted, and most humans made it out from under her teeth safely. But the knowledge that she would take a life was a disturbing thought to have when you were around her. Sometimes she could seem so fragile and innocent though…like when she spoke of the sun, or her husband.
“What did Halina say?” I asked Teren as we walked back into the living room.
He understood what I was referencing – the Russian that they all spoke and I didn’t. He gave a sad glance back to the door before answering me. “She said that he was the ray of light that lit her world, and the moment she ended that light, hers died as well…” He looked back to where my eyes were tearing up again. “She said she paints every sun, as a memorial to him…”
That was just too much to bear, and the tears did drip down my cheeks. Teren smiled softly and rubbed them away before kissing me tenderly. I savored his warmth and his strength and fortified my stomach. Darn emotional vampires.
While not completely dark yet, the sun was low enough, that Imogen was in the kitchen with Alanna and Jack. Teren headed straight there from the living room, knowing they were both in there. I wondered what that felt like to him, this odd blood connection, that instinctively told him exactly where his family was. Did he feel it in his body or was it a nagging sense in his head , like a GPS navigator that he couldn’t turn off…turn right at the next corner. It’d be interesting to feel what Teren felt…for maybe a day. After that, I’d be tired of hearing every bump and whisper for a half mile, and having people intuitively know where I was all the time, and of course, the craving blood thing…that still did not sound appetizing at all.
We exchanged hugs and niceties, as we said goodbye to his family. They politely asked if we wanted to stay for dinner and although Teren did eye the empty, awaiting carafe pot on the counter with obvious interest, he said we had to get going, he had an early day tomorrow.
Both women rubbed my stomach, just like Halina had, and I suddenly felt like a good luck Buddha statue. I knew they were all imparting well wishes and hopeful thoughts, but it just made me feel really weird. I dealt with it though. This was important to them and, who knows, maybe their vampire mojo would work on me? I was keeping an open mind on those urban legends. As Imogen rubbed her hand over my stomach a second time, while Teren chatted merrily with his father, I wondered with a slight bit of irritation if he was going to be rubbed. It was a two person project after all.
After a ten minute goodbye session and more promises to return soon, Teren zipped to pack our stuff and load up the car. Three minutes after that, we were bouncing down their long driveway and I turned in my seat to watch the last of the sun wash over the house of vampires.
I sighed and Teren looked over at me. “You had a good time, didn’t you?”
I nodded and sighed happily as I faced back to the front. We passed under the Adams sign and I chuckled again at the odd thought I’d had on my first arrival here. They were still a little spooky, but now they were a lot less creepy. I was starting to love that little Adams Family. And I did already love their son. I rested my head on his shoulder and laced the fingers of his free hand in mine as we hit the asphalt of the highway.
“I had a great time, Teren.”
He kissed my head and we began our sixty mile drive back home.