Blood Candy (20 page)

“Did you know he would stop being in my
dreams?” she asked.

Blake turned a blank face to her. “You mean
Rupert?”

Candy nodded, watching his him closely,
wondering if he’d admit what he knew—that he had supplanted Rupert
in her dreams.

“I suspect my mother knew,” he said. “This is
all very new to me.”

Candy’s mind went into overdrive. He’s new to
this? How so? How old is he? Or maybe, because he hadn’t taken as
much blood as Rupert, the dreams were different between them. Both
he and Anastasia had said the bond wouldn’t be strong.

“Oh,” she simply said. “Well, I appreciate it
regardless.”

Blake seemed more interested in the topic than
her, as if he was just as new to it, as he had suggested. “You
dreamed about him, and now you don’t?” he asked.

Candy nodded, finding it strange that it was
him asking the questions now. “It was more than just a dream. It
was like he was really in my mind. I hated it, and now. . . .” She
cut herself off from saying,
and now he’s gone because of
you
.

“I’m glad we could help,” he said, reinforcing
his assertions that that was the only thing he wanted in the first
place. It did make her feel better.

“Why do you hate my friends so much?” she
asked.

“I don’t hate them. They annoy me is
all.”

“They’re trying to help me. You understand
that, right? They’re good people.”

“They are.”

Candy suspected he may have only said that to
appease her. Since she had him out here answering questions, she
figured she may as well ask some more.

“You don’t have a girlfriend?”

Blake laughed. “No, I don’t have a
girlfriend.”

“Why not? You’re handsome and have a ton of
money. I’m sure you could have any girl you want.”

“You know the answer.” Blake shifted his eyes
to the yard as if he didn’t care for the new topic. “You’re
uncomfortable around me because of what you think you know, because
of what you think I am. That’s how most people react. It’s not easy
to overcome.”

“Couldn’t you have a vampire
girlfriend?”

Blake laughed again. “I suppose I could. It
doesn’t exactly work that way.”

Candy thought about asking why and then
decided against it. She looked out over the darkness in the
distance of the lawn. She didn’t know how much she wanted to
understand vampires. Then again, she wanted to understand Blake.
She thought about the small bite he had given her, but it made her
remember Rupert. She shivered.

“Are you okay?”

“What’s it like for vampires to bite people?
What was it like when you bit me?”

“It can be a lot of different things. I think
it depends on who it is and what they are feeling.”

Blake paused and stared out over the yard
again. During the brief silence, Candy had the feeling he was at a
loss for words.

“When I bit you, it wasn’t much. It was a
small bite, but I felt the emotion coursing through your body,” he
said. “It hurt me that you were afraid. Some of the unsavory of my
kind enjoy that. I don’t want you to be afraid.”

“I want to trust you. I want you to beat the
shit out of Rupert and his stupid family.”

Blake took her hand. She liked how smooth and
cool his fingers felt. She liked that sense of security, knowing he
was there and he wouldn’t let anyone harm her. His eyes went over
the clothes she was wearing.

“Why don’t you get dressed into something more
comfortable? You can take a shower if you’d like. My mother sent
Renaldo out to get some stuff for you.”

They went into the mansion together. It felt
strange being there without the Misfits. It also felt exciting
being there alone with Blake. As soon as he shut the door, Candy
heard footsteps on the landing at the top of the stairs.

“Here comes my family. Do you want me to tell
them you want to be alone right now?” Blake said. “Oh, it’s my
sister. You’ll like her.”

Candy lifted her head to the stairs and she
was instantly hit with a jealousy that burned so deep she almost
wanted to yell at the gorgeous woman with glossy black hair. The
tall woman had a face and body to die for, with pouty lips and big
amber eyes. She was dressed in stonewashed jeans and a plain blue
shirt that fit the perfectly slender proportions of her body. Candy
immediately noticed how much she resembled Anastasia, except she
was six years or so older in appearance and a few inches taller,
and their eyes weren’t the same at all.

“This is my sister, Wendi,” Blake said.
“Wendi, this is Candy.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Wendi said as
she took a few hip-swinging steps towards them. “You’re as
beautiful as my little brother described.”

Candy had to avert her eyes because she was
now having the kinds of thoughts about a woman she had never had
before, and had always been told was sinful and unnatural.
Regardless, she found herself wondering what Wendi looked like
without her clothes on.

“Nice to meet you,” Candy said
awkwardly.

“They’re so cute when they’re shy,” Wendi said
with an amazing smile. “You better get into the viewing room; our
brothers are getting carried away with the upcoming
contest.”

“Thanks,” Blake said.

“Well, I have things to do. I’m sure you boys
can take care of all the details for the game. Kisses.” Wendi
winked and headed out the front door.

“She seems nice,” Candy said.

“She takes after Mother for the most part.
Let’s head upstairs. You’ll like the viewing room.”

Candy followed him up the stairs to the
landing above. Two hallways extended out from both sides of the
landing with a set of doors in between. Blake pushed the doors open
and led his guest into what looked like a miniature movie theatre.
Chester was on the stage talking with two other guys. She followed
Blake as he hurried over to them.

“Hey,” Chester said. “I don’t think you’ve met
our other brothers.”

The two new brothers looked to be roughly the
same age as Chester and Blake, which was anywhere between eighteen
and twenty-something. One of them had dark red hair and super pale
skin. He may have been seventeen or even sixteen, he was so skinny;
it was hard to tell.

“This is Chip,” Chester said in regard to the
brother with light hair, blue eyes and, like every other vampire
Candy had seen thus far, a pale face clean of facial hair. Chip
gave her a friendly smile. He had on a button up shirt with a tan
sweater tied over his shoulders. The boy with the red hair stepped
forward.

“My name’s Cooper,” he said. “You can call me
Coop.”

“Nice to meet you,” Candy said, thinking that
this was the weirdest family she had ever met.

“So, we were going over some things.” Chester
inclined his head to a white-board with red marker scribbled all
over it. “We’ve come up with some ideas for the team. I want to
clear it with you before I have the servants get to work on the
jerseys.”

“You’re getting jerseys made?” Candy
said.

“Sure,” said Chester. “The Brits will do the
same I’m sure. Since it’s a team game with standard rules we should
all have jerseys.”

Blake nodded agreement. “Of course. We have to
take this very seriously,” he told Candy. “We need every advantage
we can get. So, what kind of names did you come up
with?”

“Coop was pushing for Mullin’s Marauders, but
I had to veto that,” Chester said, which made Cooper narrow his
eyes and purse his lips. “How about this one for a team name?” He
pointed to a scribble Candy couldn’t decipher. “Balls
Deep.”

“That’s perfect. I love it,” Blake
said.

“Uh,” Candy said. “I don’t think you want to
name your team that.”

Chester looked at her as if she was the girl
who of course didn’t understand the guy stuff. “What? I think we
know more about basketball than you. Blake here could have gone on
to play with a good college, you know. After he became one of us,
he did some moonlighting for a while; took all of the thugs for
their hard earned drug money.”

Blake gave his brother a harsh
stare.

“That was a long time ago,” Chester continued.
“We still toss the ball around out back; friendly games between
brothers. One of the specialties we came up with was full court
shots—the deep balls. Hence, Balls Deep. You get it?”

“Sure,” Candy said to shut him up. “Balls Deep
is . . . a good name.”

“Then it’s settled,” Chester said. “Hey Coop,
go tell Stephanie to get started on the jerseys. I want them ready
by tomorrow night.”

“Fuck you. Go tell her yourself.” Coop walked
off the stage and then disappeared through one of the back doors.
The remaining three brothers went on as if that was perfectly
normal.

“We’ll need to get our strategies down,”
Chester said. “Five on five isn’t the same as what we play out
back. Are we allowed a coach?”

“Why would we need a coach? You’re looking
into this too much,” Blake said. “Mother and that retarded lycan
had a point: I don’t think the Brits know the first thing about
basketball. They may be faster, but we know the game.”

“Medium Dave’s not retarded,” Candy said. “At
least I don’t think he is.”

Blake smiled at her and then continued talking
to his brother. “We can come up with some plays and call them on
our own. I think I still have all of my stuff from high school in
the basement somewhere, some of the old playbooks. I can dig those
out a little later.”

“Just don’t procrastinate too long,” Chester
said with a subtle nod towards Candy that no one missed. They also
didn’t miss Chip making a circle with his finger and thumb, and
then poking another finger in and out of it. “We need to be ready,
Blake. I want to stomp these Brits into the ground.”

Blake slapped his brother on the shoulder and
grinned broadly. “Now that I’ve had some time to think about it,
there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll beat them. Let me get Candy
settled in then we can get started.”

Blake put his arm around Candy’s shoulder and
they went back out to the second floor landing. He started to lead
her down one of the hallways.

“Where are we going?” She couldn’t get the
image of Chip’s vulgar finger animations out of her
head.

“Mother had one of the guest rooms made up for
you. It has a full bathroom so you can shower if you want. I’ll
have Renaldo bring your things up. He should be back soon.” Talking
very quickly as if he had more important things to get to, he
looked at a grandfather clock as they passed it. “If you’re tired
you can go ahead and get some sleep. Just let Renaldo know, he’ll
show you around now or when you wake up in the morning.”

Blake opened a door a little ways down the
hall. The room beyond may have had more square footage than Candy’s
entire house. There was a huge four poster bed, dressers, and
several massive walk in closets. The far side of the room opened up
into a spacious bathroom. They heard the front door downstairs open
and close.

“That’s Renaldo. I’ll have him bring your
things up,” Blake said.

“Where are you going?”

“You heard Chester, we need to practice. I’m
looking forward to putting those Brits in their place.”

Blake stood there for a moment, leaning down
close to Candy. She thought he might try to kiss her, but he
didn’t. He smiled and then walked back down the hallway. She
entered the room, shut the door, and went immediately into the
bathroom. The blue tiles sparkled and all of the bronze faucets
shimmered in the lighting. The walk-in shower had nozzles on three
walls. There was even a digital display for water temperature and
pressure. She set it to scalding hot, threw her clothes off and
stepped in.

If heaven existed, it would surely be in the
form of an amazing shower.

Candy washed with flowery scented body foam
then relaxed beneath the hot sprays for at least an hour. Her skin
steamed when she was done. She strained out her hair and tied a
towel around herself. When she stepped around the corner of the
bathroom she saw several bags on the bed. The door was closed;
Renaldo must have dropped the bags in. She hoped he wasn’t
perverted enough to have tried to look in on her.

The bags contained a plethora of clothing in
her size. One was filled with shoes. She pulled out a plain blue
dress and found a brush and toiletries in another bag. One of
several clocks in the room showed it was a little after midnight.
She wasn’t the least bit tired.

She sat on the bed and pulled on a pair of
socks. Then she looked through the bag of shoes for anything that
didn’t have heels to find there weren’t any. Lying back on the bed,
she thought it should be illegal for anything to be this
comfortable. She must have been more tired than she thought. It
only took a few seconds to fall asleep.

Chapter Sixteen

A knock at the door woke Candy up.