Bound in Blood 1 Clandestine (17 page)

Which for the record, she totally would have argued. First
of all, she wanted, no needed answers. She had been pretty
patient and understanding about all the Sci-Fi mysteries taking
place. Second of all, his vanishing and storming off in the middle
of a conversation was getting really old. When the going got
tough, Sebastian got going and that just wasn’t going to cut it.
The only thing worse would have been if they were on the phone
and he randomly hung up on her. Emily hated that with a bright
purple passion. Why couldn’t he be nice and sweet like the day
he visited her in the book store? Sure he was still evasive, but at
least he was friendly. Never once was he condescending.
Suddenly all Emily desired was a moment alone. Since the
library she hasn’t had even one minute of solitude. There was so
much going on and she just needed to get her head on straight. It
felt like everything was drastically spiraling out of control.
Nothing seemed sacred anymore and everything she thought was
just make believe was now physical, solid and very much real.
Her mind was so conflicted that she truly thought it would
explode, or at the very least, stop working all together making
her fall away into the darkness. Without Emily’s permission, her
breath began to come quicker and her chest felt constricted. Was
she having a heart attack? That was ridiculous, she knew she
wasn’t. Panic attacks were something she had become very
familiar with when her mom had died but she hadn’t had one for
just about three years. There was no doubt about it. She had to
get out of there. Sebastian nor anyone else could never under
any circumstance see her breaking down. “Hey, is there a
bathroom in this place?”

Okay,
it wasn’t all together true that Emily had to go to the
bathroom. It was stupid to lie,but she didn’t really want
Sebastian to know what she was really up to. If she had been
honest about the fact that she had been about to lose it there, he
would have thought herweak and that wasn’t the case. Her mind
had just reached its full capacity of drama and the paranormal.

The instant that she had been behind the safety of the closed
bathroom door, she willed herself to relax. What she wanted
more than anything else was to call her best friend. Lucy would
understand all the crazy. Even if she didn’t understand, she
would fake it well for Emily’s benefit and just then, that sounded
like perfection.

It put her body in tremendous turmoil that releasing the
information that was plaguing herwasn’t prohibited. None of the
others would have got it. It didn’t matter that Emily trusted Lucy
implicitly. It didn’t matter that Lucy would agree to take the
secret to the grave,and it didn’t matter that it would help Emily
regain some of her sanity.

Emily wondered what they would do if she did tell.
Sebastian alone would more than likely go into tantrum high and
mighty King mode if she had told him what she wanted. He had
made it pretty clear that telling anyone about what was going on
was forbidden.

Did that mean she had to listen? Realistically there wasn’t
any proof that she was a slayer. If she wasn’t a slayer then did
the same rules apply? There was actually no real proof she
belonged in this world at all. Sure, Sebastian could do some
weird mind speak with her, but did that mean she belonged?

How could she not call Lucy? And was it possible that Sam
really wouldn’t know she was gone because of some mind zap
thing? It all just seemed so… well for lack of a better word, not
real. This was like a horrible waking nightmare that never went
away.

Murders, rapists and robbers, those sorts of monsters Emily
understood. Those sorts of crimes were always on the News and
in the daily paper every day. It seemed completely unimaginable
that someday on the News, the Anker would report about a
murder in which the person was drained completely of blood and
the lead suspect was an undead vampire that was thousands of
years old.

Emily walked over to the small bathroom and turned on the
cold water. She cupped her hands and splashed a healthy amount
of the liquid on her face. It helped a little but didn’t take the
feeling of melancholy away.

The bathroom was bright and it allowed her to get a good
look at herself in the mirror. There were deep bruise like circles
under her eyes, just above her high cheek bones. Where her
cheeks were usually flushed there was no color. Her electric blue
eyes looked wild and frightened.

She supposed the fear couldn’t really be avoided. Any
person would be a little freaked after finding everything out that
she had. It would have been strange if she didn’t feel a little
overwhelmed. Who was she kidding? She felt like someone had
knocked all the wind out of her and then twisted her mind into a
pretzel.

After wiping her wet hands off on her jeans, she
contemplated digging her phone out of her pocket. Just when she
thought she had herself convinced that calling Lucy was the way
to go, she squelched the idea. Something deep within Emily told
her that divulging the secrets she had learned was a bad thing. It
would make her feel better but at what cost?

Telling her friend would keep her safe, but it would also
scare her. Emily really didn’t want to be responsible for that.
Lucy rarely was out after dark anyway, so she was probably fine.
Giving her exhausted reflection one last surreptitious glance, she
shrugged inwardly and turned to head out of the small bathroom.

Sebastian
was waiting out in the hall for her. He didn’t
really look impatient, as much as concerned. The second he saw
her the look evaporated like a passing wave. “Are you ready?”

He stood there so firm and tall that Emily wanted to look
around for a commanding officer. She thought about telling him
to drop and give her twenty and thought better of it.“Ready,”
she responded sounding way more confident than she felt.

Emily’s room was absolutely perfect. It was totally surreal
howwell the room fit its new occupant’s personality. If she had
a choice of how she could decorate her room at home, this would
more than likely be the way she would do it.

It was larger than her room at home.
It wasn’t big enough to
seem scary, or echo or anything. The walls were soft brown,
almost tan. The carpet was deep blue and probably the thickest
and plushest she had ever walked on in her life. She imagined
forgetting the bed and just curling up on the comfy floor.

The bed looked just as inviting. It was a queen size with a
dark cherry wood frame that looked like a sleigh. The quilt was a
pattern of black, white and different shades of blue. Her favorite
colors were blue and orange. Between the two though, blue was
higher up on the list. Any shade, itdidn’t matter. There was a
mountain of pillows that looked as fluffy as clouds. They were
all different sizes but arranged meticulously.

The closet was medium sized with mirrored doors. Off to
the side of that, was another door. Emily appraised it considering
if maybe it was a bathroom. She made a quick mental note to
find out how in the heck they got plumbing down there. In fact,
how they got everything down there. Maybe they had a Genie in
a bottle or something. In a world where vampires and their rival
hunters could actually be real, magic must not be that far off.

The pictures on the wall were framed to match the wood of
the bed. All the prints were done in varying stages of night time.
There were cityscapes mostly but also a few sunsets on the beach
type pictures. They were the types of photos she always wanted
to own.

Lucy would seriously have freaked if she knew about this
place. It was underground,but couldn’t be described as anything
other than lavish. The cryptic nature of this world would have
kept her friend guessing for a lifetime. This was exactly the type
of puzzle that she would love a chance to piece together.

“Is this room okay? It seemed like something you would
like. Plus I thought you would like to be close to Tyler. He will
be next door.” His voice was thick with implication. Before she
could comment, he continued. “I will also be a few doors down
the hall,in case you need anything.” Sebastian’s gaze was
piercing. Whenever he looked at Emily the look was always
piercing.

Sebastian had a way of looking deep within her soul in a
way she had never experienced before. Without a single word he
could send her pulse racing a marathon. That unfamiliar feeling
in her stomach was back too. Only this time,it didn’t hurt. It felt
like butterflies were taking flight in her belly. She had heard that
expression a thousand times. Emily never got it, until she met
Sebastian. It almost made it difficult to even answer him. She
knew his comment about Tyler should have bothered her. It was
just so hard to stay angry when he was looking at her like that.

“This room is just right. It’s bigger
than I thought it would
be. The doors in the hall didn’t seem to be that far apart.” Emily
was locked in a staring contest with Sebastian that she couldn’t
win. Unwillingly thanks to her awkwardness she shied away
from his intense blue eyes. She instead focused all of her
attention on picking an invisible piece of lint off the sleeve of her
hoodie.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the expression. Things aren’t always
what they seem?” He waited obviously looking for a response
before continuing.

Emily nodded. As she did her eyes widened and she made a
circle motion with her hand, encouraging him to get on with it.
“Well, you will find that is a phrase very well understood in
our world. Reality isn’t at all what humans think it is. If they saw
for one minute what we see they would be institutionalized.” The
left corner of his mouth tugged a little.
Emily imagined his crooked smile. Tyler’s was cuter
though. It had a boyish charm that you couldn’t help but find
adorable. “Do you always sound like a riddle wrapped up in a
fortune cookie?”
It wasn’t that she wanted to be rude to him exactly. It was
more like she just refused to let her guard down completely no
matter how friendly it seemed like he was being. The niceties
didn’t seem to ever last long with him. Getting hurt or rejected
was not an option.
“Don’t you like to figure things out for yourself?” Sebastian
shot back mirroring her sarcastic tone.
“Yes, but some things are impossible to figure out on your
own.” The intensity of her stare should have burnt a hole right
through him. He was a quick study. There was no way he didn’t
realize she was talking about more than his earlier riddle.
The expression on his face turned blank, exposing nothing.
“There is no such thing as impossible.” Sebastian turned his gaze
to a picture on the wall. “Some things are just better left buried.”
The words were under his breath but still audible.
Enough was enough. Emily decided to cut through the chit
chat. There was way too much supernatural junk going on to
waste time with small talk. It was clear that this dodge ball style
conversation was going nowhere. “Sebastian, why can I hear you
in my mind?” Nervous for his answer, she moved to a small arm
chair by a table. She fidgeted, playing with her fingers, as if she
could remove them one at a time. Then replace them in different
positions like a Mr. Potato Head doll.
Silence. Sebastian wasn’t even looking at her for once. His
eyes moved to a different picture on the wall and he shifted his
weight uncomfortably. His body was rigid and his jaw clenched
and unclenched reflexively.
“There’s no point in keeping it from me. I already know
everything now. What’s one more detail?” Emily didn’t take her
eyes away from her fingers even though she was attempting to
sound strong and firm.
It was important to get the answers that she craved. The
difficulty was in whether or not Sebastian would comply with
her curiosities. It wasn’t likely and she knew it. He wouldn’t tell
her anything he didn’t want to. Pushing him to far would just
make her new life miserable. It was a definite possibility that she
would have to depend on Alexander for the endless amount of
conundrums that had been presented. Not knowing the older man
very well, it was difficult to know if he would be any more
informative.
There was no sound, but Sebastian was suddenly kneeling
in front of her on one knee. His hand untangled one of hers and
clasped it gently. “I’m not really sure. It’s, normal for hunters to
be able to communicate in certain situations. Normally though
it’s only true with hunters. Vampires can communicate like this
also with their victims.” He stared intently up at her jump
starting the contest again.
Emily’s body tensed with a little bit of confusion mixed in
with irritation. “Well I’m neither a vampire hunter nor their
victim. So what am I a freak or something?” Self-doubt was like
a knife into her heart and tears pricked at her eyes.
“I assure you Emily you are far from a freak. You are so
much more than that. You’re… special. You might not be a
hunter fully but you are somehow connected through blood line
or through some other fashion. I think that’s why I’m drawn to
you so much. Hunters are drawn to other hunters so that we can
better locate each other especially when we haven’t met yet.”
His thumb softly rubbed the center of her palm as he spoke.
It felt good to let him do the comfort thing even in such a
small way. Giving up on figuring out what she was, she moved
to a new question. “So are there other hunters here right now?”
Stupidly Emily looked around the room as if one would
materialize suddenly through a magical puff of smoke or
something.
“Yes there are other hunters here but not as many as there
should be. The coven of Vampires in Lakeview seems to be
growing. Before you even ask, there are no good vampires here
and we don’t know their purpose. The leader of this coven is
smart. They know we are here or they aren’t taking any chances.
They cover their tracks better thanI’ve ever seen and I’ve been
at this a long time.”
Emily couldn’t help a small chuckle. “Sebastian you can't
be that much older than I am.”
“I’m ninety years old..” His hand pulled away from hers and
he stood abruptly with indignation.
“What? Really?”
“Yes,” said Sebastian bitterly.
“Really?” Her look was one of utter shock. “Wow.” This
had to be his idea of a joke. Yeah that’s it, a joke. Why did he
have to ruin such a nice moment?
“Wow,what?”
“Um, it’s just, you look good for being a
n old man andall.”
Now she really couldn’t help the laughter that escaped from her
lips. It was a full-fledged laugh that she tried uselessly to
contain.
The look on Sebastian’s face was priceless. She waited for
him to get angry at her for laughing at him but it never happened.
Instead she watched as his eyes twinkled and his lips twitched
fighting back a smile. Huh, looks like there’s a sense of humor in
there after all. Of course though, it was quickly erased and the
mask put back on. At leasthe didn’t look like a rock anymore.
“It’s not that funny.” Even as he said it she could tell he was
amused. “Once I retire I will regain the aging process. A real
ninety year old wouldn’t be much in a fight.”
The idea that aging could be temporarily halted made
Emily’s brain work in overdrive. It was almost as unbelievable
as the reality that vampires existed. As she thought about
Sebastian’s age, another thought moved to the forefront of her
mind. “How old is Alexander?” As she asked her face scrunched
up in confusion.
“That is a conversation you should talk to him about.”
Sebastian smiled slightly. “Alex loves to tell his story.”
“Why can’t you at least tell me his age?”
Sebastian gave her a sardonic look. “You’re a girl. You
know it’s rude to ask someone’s age.”
If that was his attempt at making a joke,Emily didn’t
notice. “I’m not asking him. I’m asking you.” She crossed her
arms defiantly.
“Alright fine, he is almost three hundred years old.”
Emily didn’t even have words for that information.
Sebastian had rendered her speechless. Sure, it seemed logical
that an immortal could live that long,but a slayer wasn’t quite
immortal. Emily couldn’t even fathom how many battles
Alexander must have been in and clearly won, judging by the
fact that he was still alive. She wondered how long he had been
retired from the fighting part of this life.
Abruptly he changed the subject. “Tyler should be getting
ready to break soon. Alexander will want to see us then. Shall I
take you to the training room?”
“Lead the way I’m all yours.” Emily gave him a flirty smile
and in turn mentally scolded herself. What was she thinking?
She never flirted with guys. Well, at least not intentionally and
she never initiated the flirting. Sebastian was simply asking her a
normal question. No flirting was required. This mandatory
hostage sleep over wasn’t an excuse for her hormones to grab
control of her and run. She’s been in co-ed situations before, she
could handle this. At least that’s what she kept telling herself.