Angel's Guardian: A Contemporary Vampire Romance (17 page)

CHAPTER
33

They were confined to the house during the day, all windows shuttered against the daylight sun, which really wasn’t much, but it was dangerous to their kind, no matter how dim and murky the day.

Maxim glared at his cousins, his territorial, alpha instincts making it impossible for him to relax when his woman and children were in such close proximity to the overwhelmingly male presence in the house.

The bodies of Pretto’s men were wrapped tightly in sheets and blankets and placed in the garage, ready for disposal miles away when the deep, dark hours of the night arrived. His cousins would take care of that.

Angel bathed and dressed warmly in her new, skinny blue jeans, knee-high boots, and russet sweater. She fed, bathed, and groomed the children, and then spent some time cleaning the room where the carnage took place. Often, her eyes darted to the newcomers, distrust still evident in her eyes, as if she expected them to suddenly turn vicious, hungry eyes on her and her dear ones.

Little Nina was something else. She parked herself by the handsome Luca, watching him in fascination, adoringly even. Max felt a surge of irrational jealousy which he quickly squashed with a good dose of common sense and humor. Luca looked a lot like Legolas in the
Lord of the Rings
movies they’d watched on the TV. Luca’s  silky, long, silvery hair and handsome face were to her child’s eyes, something magical and fairy like.    

Charlie, the traitorous, unfaithful animal, had no trouble accepting the vampires. He quickly made friends and parked his rump at the side of the one called Aurel, whom he seemed to favor for some reason.

“It is a matter of honor, Maxim. You owe us a debt of honor. You would never have arrived on time. As it was, I barely did. If your woman had not been able to invite us in, who knows what would have happened.” Luca paused momentarily to pull his hair out of Nina’s grasp, who often reached out to feel the silky, white stuff. He smiled at the girl nervously and tried to put a few inches of space between them.  

Maxim felt the weight of those words. He had not been able to rescue his female. Someone else accomplished the deed. Now, he was indebted to them and would gladly pay what they asked.

“I don’t understand what you were doing here,” said Angel.

“We have been  keeping our eye on Maxim since word came that Toma’s men tried to kill him. When he sent you away, my uncle insisted that a guard be assigned to you as you could be abducted and used to coerce Max. Aurel here was on the same plane you boarded. We joined him a few days ago.”

“I’m grateful to you for protecting Angel. However, the danger to her is removed, and you can return home. There is no further need for your presence. I’m warned and can well take care of my own.”

“I have named my boon. You must return with us home. Our uncle needs to see you, and it must be now, not ten years in the future.” Luca’s eyes flicked anxiously to the girl child who was now firmly entrenched between him and the sofa’s arm, her fingers still playing with strands of his hair. She smiled at him coyly.

“I can’t right now. I have Angel and the children to take care of. Maybe next year.”

“Bring them with you. We will provide proper escort and make sure they’re safe. It may well be good for your humans to experience the world you come from, to become familiar with those who are your family.” Luca’s gaze fell on Angel as she looked up in surprise.

“I want to go,” piped up little Nina. “I want to go with Luca.” Next to her, the beautiful vamp winced she clung to his arm possessively. He was forced to smile at her condescendingly while patting her on the head with the same enthusiasm one would pat a coiled viper. Little Nina beamed with joy.

“Max, I’d gladly travel with you to meet your family. I’m not afraid,” said Angel.

“It’s not a matter of being afraid. It’s time that Nina start school, and little Marco is too young for the extended travel and changes in weather that such a trip would involve.”

“My children have slept in trash dumpsters and dog houses. Nina has gone days eating nothing but cheese sticks and boxed juices. We are survivors. Besides, we’ll never be truly safe with your cousin Toma sending assassins after you. The same way you dealt with Pretto, you must deal with your enemies.”

“She’s right, you know,” muttered the one called Emil from his seat in front of the TV. He was watching Hercule Poirot in Netflix with  single-minded  concentration, but he was obviously keeping his ear on the conversation. “Toma will zoom in on what ever he can use to get the upper hand. Believe me, that will include your little family here. I’m surprised he has not made a move yet.”

“I will kill him, then!” growled Maxim with simmering fury.

“You might do that,” answered Luca, “but how much damage might he inflict before you accomplish your task?”

   Maxim stood to pace the floor. He thought for a few minutes.  “All right. I will go home. I will take Angel and the children with me. They would not be safe left behind. But when all is said and done, it may turn out that my return isn’t the cure-all our uncle envisions. My return may spell disaster for all involved. I’m not the Maxim you all remember.”

“No,” answered Luca, “we are none the same. Toma especially has become something very different from the young man you knew. Time changes us all.”

That night, shortly before midnight, the wind picked up, and the snow  fell in heavy, shimmering white sheets. Under the cover of snow and driven wind, the vampires made it their business to ensure that the bodies of the dead men disappeared, never to be found again. When Max returned to Angel, he was alone.

“Where are your cousins?”

“They left. We will meet back in my house in a few days. Having so many vamps in such a restricted place isn’t comfortable for anyone.”

“Nina will be disappointed,” murmured Angel with a twinkle in her eye.

“Yes, she will. I believe our little Nina has a crush on Luca. It must be all the silky white Barbie look about him.” Max could not hide the smirk.

“Is someone I know jealous?” Angel came to Max, her arms reaching up around his neck, her laughing eyes gazing at him adoringly.

Max pulled her to him tightly. “Maybe. Luca is a handsome man.”

“You silly man. They all are. You all are. Still, for my money, not one of them holds a candle to you, my gorgeous vamp. They’re too slick, too pretty for my liking. Now, you’re a macho man built to my taste,  strong as a bear, rough as bark, fierce as an alley cat. I would not trade you for all the white elves in the world. I love you, Max, and I will be happy to go where you lead.”

Max felt the deep, warm glow of possession. Angel was in his arms, safe, loving him, and he was happy to be Angel’s guardian forever.

CHAPTER
34

Nina lined up her dolls on the coffee table as she sat on the floor playing with them. The movie running on the flat screen was one about teaching your dragon to fly. Max breathed a sigh of relief. Every time he heard the words “Let it go...” he was tempted to commit vampire suicide.

He watched Angel come down the stairs with the baby in her arms. His heart swelled with joy at the sight. A month had passed since the night she’d faced her enemies. She looked strong, healthy, totally recovered. Her hair fell in glossy waves over her back and shoulders. Her dark, almond-shaped eyes sparked with mischief and joy. Her luscious lips were ever ready to smile.

She chose to remain at his side and return with him to his home in the city. Nina now slept in her own bedroom, but the baby stayed in the room with them. Angel felt he was too young and needed her constant watch. If there was one thing he admired most about Angel, it was her devotion to her children. She was a tender and affectionate mother, always patient, always teaching. She held the cooing baby up to him.

Max held the little tike up above him and made funny faces at him until little Marco laughed, gurgled, and blew spit bubbles. He nuzzled the baby and kissed him as any joyful father would do. He already loved the little bundle of poop-producing joy.  When Angel went to the kitchen, he followed.

“Christmas is only four days away,” she said. “Do you celebrate it?”

“I never have in the past. I know what it is. I have seen it celebrated by New Yorkers for years. The lights, the music, the Santas, the shoppers out late, all are hard to miss. Some of the ethnic groups get pretty wild celebrating it. Back home, when I was young, it was a very solemn and religious time for Christian humans. That has changed here, but I am willing to learn new things if it makes you happy.”

Angel considered his words as she went to fill the kettle to make tea. “For me, it always was a precious time. I was raised Catholic, and my family was big on Christmas. I want my children to grow up with happy memories of the tradition.”

“Tell me, then, what do we do?”

“We buy presents, wrap them, and put them under the Christmas tree.”

“What tree would that be?” he asked, dreading the answer already.

“The one we are going to buy this evening, and you are going to haul and set up in our beautiful living room,” she answered, her eyes sparkling with laughter. “Of course, it has to be the biggest one we find.”

“I should have known it would entail work on my part. Since you came into my life, it’s work, work, work, work, work,” he said with mock annoyance. Angel laughed.

“Don’t complain, vampire. I’m the one who does most of the work around here. Besides, you get plenty of fringe benefits.” She gave him a sultry gaze which set his blood boiling.

“I will expect lots of those fringe benefits later.” His gaze dropped to the creamy tops of her breasts. He loved the blood kiss taken from those sweet mounds.

“You’ll need to pay a visit to Toys-R-Us. They stay open late during the Christmas shopping season. Nina wants a dog, but with our plans to travel to meet your people, that’s not possible. Maybe you can find one of those mechanized puppies that run on batteries. I think she’d love that.”

“Yes, but I think she’d also love her own tablet to play games and watch videos,” he said.

“Yes, she would.”

“What would you like for Christmas?” he asked, knowing that Angel was always last on her own list. She gave of herself without limits but asked for little.

At once, a sad, wistful look came over her features. “Nothing, I want nothing. You’ve given me all I could ever want.”

“Surely, there is something you’d like. Jewelry, if I remember correctly, females love jewelry. You might like a couple of beautiful gowns to wear during our trip. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to wear them since my people love balls and dancing.”

Angel remained silent for a few minutes, deep in thought, considering her options. “Max, my real last name is not Ferrars. Marco was a Ferrars. I used his last name as he’d insisted I do.  My birth name is Angelica Maria Alvarez.”

Max nodded in understanding. He sat down at the table and moved the baby to sit on his lap. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because something weighs heavy on my mind and my heart. Now that my life has changed so much, and the danger that stalked me for so long is gone, I can’t stop thinking about it.” She came to sit opposite him, her cup of tea cradled in her hands.

“Tell me, tell me what’s on your mind?”

“Max, I was fourteen years old when I was abducted. I am now twenty five. For over ten years, I have been dead to my family. They never heard from me and must think I was killed by some serial killer. When Marco took me, we were always just one step ahead of our enemies. It was impossible for me to contact my family as I would have brought death to their doorstep for certain.”

“I understand. Your enemies would have killed them too as a punishment to you.”

“Yes. But now, I am free. I know that they buried me a long time ago, but I have not buried them.”

“You want to see them,” Max whispered.

“Yes, I want to see them. I want them to know I am alive, and that they have grandchildren. Max, I don’t want jewels or gowns. I want to see the joy in my mother’s face as she holds Nina and little Marco. I want to be held in my father’s arms. I want to hug my brother and my sister. Do you understand?”

No, he didn’t. Shamefully enough, he didn’t, and Angel had guessed he wouldn’t. He stood up and handed her the baby. He then proceeded to pace the room in silent agitation.

She had a family, one to which he had not given a thought. She already belonged somewhere that was not part of his world. A long time ago, he chose to walk away from his own family because they were not convenient to him. She had been torn from her own, unwillingly.

It was only natural that once the danger was removed, she would think about them. He thought that having saved her, she belonged to him alone, that no one else had a claim. He was wrong; she had a claim to her past and to the people she’d loved and lost through no fault of her own. How could he deny her the one thing she desired most?

Fear struck at his heart. Once she found herself in the comfort of her family, she would forget about him. Why should she remain at the side of a creature who could not walk in the daylight with her, an archaic, murderous beast? The difficulties of keeping his secrets were insurmountable.

How could she explain to her family that he was never available during the day and only came out at night? When they went out shopping, to the beach, camping, where would he be? When he missed every school function for the kids, how would she explain that?

She would want to live near or with them. Soon, she would start to see the possibilities of finding a human mate, one that would fit perfectly into the human scheme of things. Max felt an incredible fear of losing what he’d fought so hard to keep.

He felt an overwhelming urge to deny her, to force her to stay and not think about the past and the family that had been taken from her. He wanted her to think of only him.

He finally stopped pacing and looked at her. She was watching him quietly, knowing full well what was on his mind. His agonized gaze spoke more clearly to her than words ever could. He wanted to refuse her wishes, but he couldn’t.

She trusted him implicitly. She thought him noble, kind, good, honorable. If he kept her from her family, he was only continuing her abduction. She would have traded one captor for another, never to be truly free.

“Yes, Angel. You will see them. I will have Jonathan make the arrangements. First week of the new year, you will travel to your family. When you return, we’ll go to mine.”

Angel’s face broke into the most beautiful, joyous smile. “We will travel. I want them to meet the man who saved me and brought me back into their lives.”

“That will be difficult, Angel.”

“ We can stay at an upscale hotel nearby. Hotel rooms are well insulated from daylight. We can visit in the evenings. We will stay a few days at most. Please, Max, come with us.”

“All right. We’ll do as you wish, but after the New Year. I want to have a few wonderful days with you and the children here. Teach me to celebrate Christmas. I want to spoil you all with presents,” Max said with a heavy heart, fearing that it would be their only Christmas together.

******

They pulled up to the suburban, middle-class neighborhood in the chauffeured limo. It was ostentatious, but the limo offered plenty of room for the family and the windows were well tinted. The sun had been down for a while, and the street lights illuminated wide pools of freshly-mowed grass and meticulously landscaped front yards.

Where in New York everything was grey and bare, in San Antonio the grasses stayed green through the winter. The house was a single-story ranch that stretched from one side of the generous lot to the other and was probably built sometime in the eighties, but it was well maintained.

Angel squeezed his hand tightly, and he could feel her shaking all over. “Max, I think I’m going to throw up.”

“No, you won’t. You are excited, that’s all. There is no reason to fear.”

“What if one of them has a heart attack? They think I’m dead. They might think I’m a ghost. What if they don’t recognize me? It has been eleven years. I’ve changed.”

“Angel, listen to me,” he stopped and pulled her to face him, kissing her gently. “Love always knows. They will know. Trust me.”

“Ok. Ok. I’m fine.” She breathed deeply several times to calm down. “You take the baby. Nina, stay by Max’s side. I will ring the door bell.”

But there was no need as the porch lights came on and the door opened. A man came out, curious as to the unexpected vehicle that had parked in front of his home. He was of middle height and thickening around the waist. His hair was a mix of grey and brown. Behind him came a woman who, although heavier and older than Angel, looked very much like her.

“Can I help you?” the man asked.

“Poppa?” Angel asked, her voice quavering with emotion. “It’s me, Poppa. It’s Angel.”

******

It was a turbulent night, to say the least. After the initial shock, denial, tears of joy, and welcoming, came the frantic calling of siblings. Angel begged that only her brother and sister be called. There was a great deal of explaining and recounting that was intimate and for no one else’s ears.

Her family wept at the telling of her story. “But how could you never call? asked her younger sister, Rebecca, who was born two years after Angel and was not yet married.  There are telephones everywhere in the world. Surely, you could’ve made one phone call to tell us you were alive.”

“And what would you have done? You’d have gone straight to the police or come looking for me. Pretto would have ordered the entire family executed. He’d done so before. Besides, I was in Japan, not the states. I was isolated and watched all the time. Once Marco and I ran, we knew your phones could be tapped and the house watched. It would have caused you more agony to know I was on the run and not safe.”

“The past is past,” pronounced her father. “You are here now, returned to us from the dead after so many years, an act of God, for sure. It was a miracle that Maxim’s cab was driving by that alley the night of the attack. It was even a bigger miracle that he stopped to rescue you. In the big cities, people are afraid to get involved. ”

“We must now find you a place to live,” said her mother excitedly, “a nice house in a neighborhood with a good school for our beautiful granddaughter. Your brother is a realtor. He’ll help you find the perfect house, and of course, we’ll help you buy it.” Her mother beamed with joy. “For now, you will stay with us.”

Maxim felt his heart stutter. Angel looked at him worriedly.

“Momma, Maxim is a businessman with many financial interests. We left in the middle of a very special project for him, and he needs to be constantly connected to his people. He brought his laptop and papers to the hotel. He feels comfortable working in peace and quiet there. We’ll come over tomorrow evening, I promise.”

“Tomorrow, he can bring all his business papers, and you’ll have the large master bedroom all to yourselves. He can work from there. We’ll make sure he has peace and quiet during the day.” Her mother’s eyes were begging to keep her long-lost daughter close.

Maxim spoke up. “Mrs. Alvarez, I deeply appreciate your offer, but there are also a couple of appointments, business associates that I have in the area who have taken this opportunity to come meet me. However, I think Angel and the children can stay here, and I can come visit in the evenings. That will give you time to get to know each other again.”

Angel looked at him gratefully, her eyes warm and relieved. “Thank you, Maxim. You are so good to me.”

“Mr. Maxim, please, call me Delia. We are family. You have made this miracle happen, and you will be like a second son to me. Please, no ‘Mrs.’ anymore.”

“You can call me Max,” he offered in return, feeling uncomfortable but somehow reassured.

“Max,” Angel’s brother, Tony, addressed the vampire. “The housing market here has been pretty good compared to the rest of the nation. You can find a nice house right here, in this neighborhood, for a fraction of what you’d pay in New York.”