BloodGifted (3 page)

‘Spoke to her this morning. She asked if I’ll be at Mum and Dad’s tonight. Seems there’s something important she needs to tell me.’

‘Any idea?’ Jen asked as she sipped on her iced tea.

I nodded. ‘My… little anomaly.’

‘That could be interesting. Doesn’t she carry the same anti-aging thing as you?’

‘I
t’s not anti-aging, just slower that everyone else. You know something, now that I think of it, she suddenly stopped taking part in any family events after her fiftieth, except for my birthday. She’s never missed one of those. Oh, and when I was in school she always turned up for Saturday sport or any event where I was involved.’

‘Obviously you’re her favourite, Laura.’

‘I s’pose. She doesn’t have any children of her own so it’s nice to think she’s kind of adopted me.’

‘So, she’s what—
ninety now?’

‘Late nineties, I think.’ I tried to r
emember her exact age. Jenny twirled the ice at the bottom of glass with her straw, having just drained the last of her drink as well.

‘Hundred,’ I said.

‘What?’

‘She’s going to be a hundred. Dad’s planning a huge celebration.’

‘How does she look?’ Jenny asked curiously.

‘Easily forty years younger,’ I replied. ‘And still really attractive.’

Jenny looked at me in amazement. ‘Huh! Why can’t I be cursed like that!’ she groaned.

I was beginning to hate this growing difference between us. ‘Jen, you’re only
thirty-four and beautiful. Men give themselves whiplash when you walk down the street!’ It didn’t work. I took a deep breath. ‘Look, I know you can see the physical advantages, but…’ and just as I was about to launch into my litany of disadvantages, Jenny put both index fingers into her ears and began to hum.

I sat back in my seat, folded my arms and waited for her to finish. ‘I hate it when you do that!’

‘I know,’ she replied smugly. Then inching slightly forward to get closer to me, she quietly asked, ‘But if you had a choice, would you get rid of it?’

She
continued to jiggle the ice in the bottom of her glass and waited for my answer. I couldn’t give her one. ‘Thought so,’ she sighed and leaned back in her chair.

It wasn’t the first time this difference had cropped up between us and I had a sense it was only going to grow as the years advanced. How would Jenny feel a decade from now if I still appeared no older than twenty-some
thing and she’d be pushing her mid-forties? I really didn’t want to think about it.

‘Jen, I don’t want this to ruin
our friendship. I’ve got it, I’m stuck with it and I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t enjoy it.’

‘I’m sure.’

‘That’s not fair!’ Given the choice, what woman on this planet wouldn’t give up her soul to have an age-retarding DNA.

‘You’re telling me!’
Jenny smiled and the momentary tension evaporated, yet I was glad when the waitress came to take our lunch order.

*   *   *

Since I was an only child, my parents had always made my birthday a grand occasion. Mum always created an incredible spread with all my favourite foods. As I grew to adulthood they saw no reason to change that, so this evening Matt and I were expected over at seven.

He arrived ear
ly, still in his work clothes—navy trousers and black, grey and white pinstriped shirt, sleeves rolled up at the elbows. The tie was probably somewhere on the back seat of his car. Tonight he looked particularly drawn and it made him appear older than his thirty-six years.

‘Bad day?’ I asked.

Matt didn’t often share his cases with me, but sometimes he just needed to talk. ‘We got a nasty one.’ He rubbed his tired eyes. ‘Twelve year-old kid. Some kind of puncture marks all over the body, entirely drained of blood.’ I grimaced as he continued. ‘Third one this week, too. We’ve got half the department on this case. Got to catch him—or whatever we’re dealing with—before there’s a fourth killing.’

‘It’s been on the news, but not about the missing blood.’

‘Nope, we kept that from the media.’

‘Guess I can understand why
. They’d have a field day. But I have faith in you Detective Inspector Matthew Sommers. You’ll get them.’ I ran my arms around his strong, athletic frame and hugged him.

Matt’s arms encircled me as well. ‘I wish the Commissioner had as much faith in me as you do. He’s been screaming at us to catch this bastard before there’s another killing. The oldest vic was fifteen and they’re getting younger. I had to inform the parents.’

I reached up and brushed a lock of wavy light-brown hair from his forehead. He was always more affected by crimes involving children or young people. The hardest part was informing the parents and loved ones of a death, especially that of a child. To him, it was almost personal.

‘
Look, if you don’t want to go tonight to Mum and Dad’s…’ I bit my lip. I’d been looking forward to this evening.

Mat
t gazed at me. ‘If it was up to me, I’d take you out to dinner, just the two of us, then go back to my place and spend the night together.’ He leaned in and kissed my neck then trailed his lips along my jaw before finding my mouth.

Oh, it felt good and i
f I weren’t expected at my parent’s place, I’d take him up on the offer.

‘Pity your family’s expecting you,’ he murmured against my lips.

‘There’s always after dinner,’ I suggested.

His eyes crinkled up into a smile. ‘All right, then.
Oh, I nearly forget… Happy Birthday.’ He held out a small rectangular, beautifully wrapped package that had been sticking out of his trouser pocket.

I had pretended not to notice when he walked in.

‘It’s why I’m early. I’d rather you unwrap it here than at your parents,’ he said.

I looked up at him with a surprised smile
, took the package from his hands and hurriedly ripped off the pretty wrapping in my excitement. Beneath, lay a dark green velvet box and as I opened it my breath left me. Sitting in its dark velvet lining was a teardrop milky opal pendant with matching earrings framed in a delicate filigree gold setting. They were absolutely stunning. All I could do was stare. ‘Oh, Matt! They’re beautiful!’

‘I remember you once mentioned how much y
ou liked opals. So, I thought—’ Matt began.

Before he could finish I threw an arm around his neck and kissed him. I could feel his mouth turning up into a smile beneath my lips. ‘Mmmm, I guess that means you like them!’ he murmured softly before returning my kiss.

‘Yes thanks,’ I managed to breathe out a little while later.

‘For the present or the kiss?’ he teased.

‘Both.’

‘I should give you presents more often then.’ He cupped my face in his hands and kissed me long and sweetly.

For the moment I forgot we were expected elsewhere, so reluctantly we pulled apart. Matt stroked my throat. ‘Put them on. Let’s see how they look.’

He took the vel
vet box from me and placed it on the hall table. As he lifted the pendant from its silken bed, I turned and gathered my long hair to one side to let him slip the lovely jewel around my neck. He joined the clasp then bent his head and trailed his warm lips along the length of my throat as his hands slid to caress my shoulders. ‘Would you like the earrings now?’ he said softly as his lips nibbled my left earlobe.

‘Uh huh. But I need my ears back.’

He chuckled and released me long enough for me to take the precious little gems from their box and place them in my ears. Then he turned me around to face him. ‘Beautiful. The opals are perfect with your complexion.’ His eyes roamed over me. ‘New dress?’

‘My birthday present to me. What do you think?’

I took a step back and did a little twirl, feeling the soft fabric billow out from my ankles. It wasn’t everyday I shopped for a new dress, but the occasion called for one. And this sapphire and cream chiffon, ankle-length creation with delicate butterfly sleeves beckoned to me as I passed by the store window.

I’d applied a little makeup, just a touch of bronze to highlight my eyes
, and splurged on a new plum-toned lipstick. Instead of my customary ponytail, I let my waist-length hair hang loosely down my back.

‘Very nice,’ he sa
id as his eyes lingered on me, then pulled me close again for another kiss. ‘We’ll leave early. I want you all to myself tonight—all night!’

I smiled as Matt tucked my arm into his and led me to his waiting car.

Chapter 2

Surprise

LAURA

My parents
had always wanted a large family as Mum had been an only child and Dad was the younger of two. Ever the optimist, he constructed a house to accommodate the family he and Mum planned on having.

Sadly, it never eventuated. After having me, the doctors informed Mum she coul
dn’t have any more children. So I grew up in the biggest house on the street. The timber-framed two-storey building boasted six bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large living area spacious enough to accommodate a floor-to-ceiling Christmas tree. Needless to say, my parents encouraged me to have friends stay over whenever I liked. There was rarely a weekend when the house wasn’t filled with squealing girls all through my school life and well into my university years.

H
ere we were and my devoted mother had created an amazing spread for the occasion. She would have made a successful chef and had seriously considered making it her life’s career, but she realised the pressure of working in a well-known restaurant with a volatile prima-donna of a chef while juggling a family at the same time, was probably too much for her.

Instead, my mum, Eilene Dantonville, decided t
o go into business for herself, working from home. Over the years she has successfully supplied select restaurants and cafes with her own brand of designer cupcakes. Her mouth-watering creations have even been featured in
Delicious
magazine.

She always shone at these family get-togethers, basking in the praise heap
ed on her latest offerings. Yet tonight she seemed strangely quiet and every so often I’d catch her casting furtive glances in Aunt Judy’s direction. I wondered whether to follow her into the kitchen and ask if everything was all right, when Aunt Judy caught my attention.

She was still a striking woman, beautiful even, roughly my height with clear and alert lavender eyes. I knew this was a by-product of ou
r shared biological inheritance for, apart from her and Grandad, no other member of my family sported that particular colour.

‘New dress, dear? It looks lovely on you
,’ she said, in her delightful husky voice.

I smiled at the compliment.

‘I’d like us to go for a stroll in the garden later this evening. There’s an important matter I need to speak with you about.’

‘So you said this morning.’

She looked at the opals I was wearing. ‘From Matt?’

‘Uh huh.
Aren’t they gorgeous?’ I smiled at him as he sat opposite me at the table.

‘Yes, they are.’ Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. If anything
, she appeared concerned.

‘So
how was your day, Baby Girl?’ Dad asked. It was his pet name for me.

‘It was excellent!
Jen and I lunched at Coogee and… look.’ I fished the coveted tickets out of my bag and waved them around. ‘It’s to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. They’re actually here in Sydney in February,’ and casting a mock accusing glance at my bagpipe-hating boyfriend, added, ‘Don’t worry, you’re safe. Jen bought two. She and I are going.’

Matt gave me a sheepish but relieved smile. ‘Tell her thanks for me.’

I was glad to see that he’d been able to switch off from the day’s events. His deep grey eyes were bright with animation as he swirled the sparkling white he held in his hand. I noticed how the lights from the candles on the table illuminated the touch of gold in his brown hair. For a moment I had the impulse to lean across the table and curl some of it round my finger. Looking at him now I was again reminded what an attractive man he was. He’d already hinted at us making our relationship permanent, although he never actually came out and said it. I tried to imagine myself as his wife and played around with calling myself, Mrs Sommers—Mrs Laura Sommers—and I liked the sound of it. I was still musing on it when Matt waved his hand in front of my face.

‘Hey,
where are you?’ he asked softly and gave me a dimpled smile.

‘Somewhere nice.
’

Just then, Dad chose to remember t
hat the One Day Cricket was on—Australia versus Pakistan. Ah, the magic word: Cricket. My father suddenly had Matt’s attention as well as Clancy, our border collie. After giving me an apologetic look he and my dad left the table and sauntered into the living room. It was male bonding time. My birthday dinner was officially over. So much for leaving early and going back to his place!

‘Ready for that stroll now?’
Aunt Judy linked her arm in mine and led me through the now vacated dining area while my mum cleared away the dishes. I felt a twinge of guilt as I passed her in the kitchen and mouthed a silent apology.

‘
It’s fine, Laura. You go.’ She abruptly turned away and began stacking the dishwasher.

‘Come on, dear.’

Aunt Judy and I walked out the back entrance of the house and down the narrow brick-paved pathway that led to a low stone wall separating the house from the Council owned park on the other side. Opening the wooden back gate, she led me out and onto the quiet path that ran alongside the gently coursing Cook’s River. A gentle breeze sighed through the upper branches of the weeping willows that lined the sloping bank. It brought the sweet scent of a summer evening as it lazily drifted around us.

She stopped
, released my arm and turned to face me. ‘Laura dear…’ she looked at me pensively, ‘…I knew this time would come, but still it’s hard to know where to begin, especially as—’ she paused, her face flushed and her hands, which lightly gripped my elbows, shook slightly, ‘—you’ll have difficulty believing it. But nevertheless, all I’m about to tell you is the truth. Never doubt it.’

Well, “curio
user and curiouser,” as
Alice in Wonderland
remarked. As a child it had always been my favourite story, that of an ordinary girl who suddenly finds herself in a strange and perplexing world.

‘What do you know about vampires?’ she said, her clear voice nudging me out of my revere.

‘Excuse me?’ For a moment I wasn’t sure if I heard her correctly.

‘Vampires dear. What do y
ou know of them?’ she repeated.

I l
ooked at her dumbfounded. ‘From movies, books, popular folklore?’

‘Wherever.’

‘Well as far as I know, they’re mythological bloodsucking creatures, like overgrown mosquitoes, who ravish hormone-riddled teenage girls and go “poof” in the sunlight!’

I laughed.

Aunt Judy merely smiled. ‘Some of what you’ve said is correct,’ she replied.

‘Which part?’
Surely, she wasn’t serious!

‘Not the teenage girls, dear. They actually prefer the slightly olde
r, more experienced individual of either sex. Nor do they, as you so succinctly put it, “go poof” in the sunlight!’

Then it hit me
—my aunt’s sudden withdrawal from many of our family functions after her fiftieth birthday and her apparent belief in vampires. She’d hit menopause with a bang and went nuts! So this was the payoff for enjoying delayed aging and longevity. I should have known something this good would have a serious drawback. Is this what my aunt’s trying to prepare me for? My run of sanity has come to an end? Somehow I doubted I’d be sharing this particular piece of information with Matt.

‘Laura, I haven’t lost my mind, contrary to what you’re evidently thinking right now.’ She looked at me sympathetically. ‘The look on your face says it all, dear. And I did tell you you’d find this hard to believe, let alone accept.’

‘Well, what did you expect?’ I replied. ‘It’s not something a sane adult seriously discusses. And what does it have to do with me anyway?’

‘Everything dear,’ she said with quiet conviction. ‘Let’s go for a walk and I’ll try to tell you as much as I can. The rest will come from someone else.’

‘You’re really serious!’

‘Yes dear, I am.’

We looked at each other for a moment. She appeared completely sane. ‘All right, I’ll go along with this for a while and only because you’re my favourite aunt. Who is this someone else?’ I asked.

‘A vampire by the name of A
lec Munro. A meeting between you two has been arranged for tonight.’

She had to be kidding
! I looked at her incredulously still willing to admit to the insanity theory.

‘Alec
has been my Guardian since my fiftieth birthday. All those among the Dantonvilles who carry our rare gene have always had a vampire protector.’

She stopped for a moment to gauge my reaction.

I stood there, open-mouthed. ‘Guarded by a vampire!’ I eventually managed to say. There was now no doubt left in my mind, my dear aunt was completely nuts! I began to wonder whether I should be humouring her or having a serious talk with Dad about referring her to a psychologist.

The expression on my face must have said it all, for Aunt Judy laughed and shook her head. ‘Laura, dear, when I was first told, I had the same difficulty accepting it as you. Now, I think nothing of it.’

I couldn’t help asking—sceptically— ‘How long has this been going on?’

‘Over one thousand, eight hundred years,’ she said without hesitation.

I felt my eyes widen. No nutter could possibly be that precise. ‘Anyone else in the family know about this?’ I asked somewhat tentatively.

‘Only your…
parents.’

This time my jaw dropped
.
My parents?
I then recalled the way mum had kept glancing at Aunt Judy during my birthday dinner; the anxious look on her face; almost, fearful.

An awful sense of apprehension stole over me. If all this was true, then why hadn’t
they
prepared me? Neither had dropped a single hint. ‘Why haven’t they told me all this? Why you?’

‘It could only come from me, dear. The person who has first hand experience of these things. There’s a lot they don’t know.’
Her tone was sympathetic.

I shook my head
. ‘I’m sorry, Aunt Judy. I just can’t accept this. It’s ridiculous!’ As I turned to walk back to the house, she grabbed hold of my arm.

‘Laura, please! I’m not crazy.
John and Eilene know all about this and they also know why we’re out here tonight.’

I stopped and stared at her.

‘Please, hear me out. Give me that at least before dismissing me outright.’

‘It
’s not you I’m dismissing, but this… vampire rubbish!’ I didn’t want to listen, any more than I wanted to believe my aunt was going senile.

‘Let me show you something
and then tell me if you still think I’m out of my mind.’

The night crickets chirped as she waited for my answer.
I exhaled and said resignedly, ‘All right.’

She carefully removed the magnificent gold bangle that covered most of her right wrist and held it out for me to examine. In the dim light of the streetlamp, one of several along this walk, I could make out two distinct puncture marks larger than any mosquito could inflict. Satisfied she had shown me enough, the bangle was slipped strategically back into
place. Yet I continued to stare at the spot as if my eyes could see straight through the metal to those distinctive marks.

‘That’s not possible!
’ I exclaimed as my brain sought to find a rational explanation.

‘There’s no such thing. The world’s full of impossibilities.’

I shook my head.

‘Don’t be afraid to say it, Laura. They’re bite marks and they weren’t made by an animal.’ She then did the same with the pearl choker around her throat. ‘Have a good look. Go on, touch them, I don’t mind.’

I swallowed hard and gingerly let my fingers rest on the two slightly raised dark bumps on her n
eck. They seemed so real; felt real. Why on earth would she go to such lengths to convince me to believe in something so absurd? Either that, or—and my skin crawled at the thought—she was involved in some weird cult. Heaven’s knows there were plenty around. But I was surprised an intelligent woman like my aunt would get herself caught up in such nonsense. And at her age!

I really needed to talk to Dad; perhaps he could get her some psychiatric help.

‘Aunt Judy, let’s go back to the house.’

She sighed. ‘
I see you need more proof. Give me your hand, dear.’

‘Why?’
Oh, now what?

S
he held out her own hand and waited, so I obliged and placed my right hand in hers. As I watched, my aunt entwined our fingers and the gold snake-ring she always wore came to life before my eyes. It unwound itself from her finger, slithered toward my hand and wound itself three times around my middle finger.

I yelped and drew my hand away, but by then it was too late. No matter how hard I tugged, it wouldn’t budge. The thing seemed glued in place.

‘Take it off! Take it off!’ 

‘It won’t hurt you, Laura. You’re its owner now. Stop trying to remove it.’
She placed both hands on my wrists.