Forbidden Days (The Firsts) (11 page)

When Bas entered the room, noise exploded.  Park actually stepped back out of self-defense as two large, loud, brilliantly dressed men came forward and grabbed him.  One of them picked him up and swung him around.  Bas groaned as he squeezed him.

“The usual hearty hello from my oldest friends.  Park, these are Iain and Mick.  They’re brothers to each other by birth, and to me by fate and choice.  We’ve been together nearly three hundred years.”

Iain came forward with his arms out, a bear hug imminent, and Bas intercepted him.

“She’s too fragile for the likes of you.”

“Ah, Bas, ya know I don’t break my playthings.  Vaz told me ya had a new human.  She’s a looker, that’s for certain.  Ya always liked blondes before, but I like this one. Partial to those fiery redheads meself ya know.”  His brogue was thick, so Park imagined he didn’t spend most of those years in America.

And what did he mean by a “new” human.  Park stared at Bas, the question in her eyes.  He read it well and put his arm around her.  “Go sit down, Park.  We’ll talk later.”

She gave him a look that meant, oh, yes, we will, and did as he asked, the vampire Iain still watching her with a grin.  They all had such perfect white teeth.

It was only a second later that she felt eyes on her, boring into her, demanding her attention…and a hostility that she hadn’t encountered here, but I was intense and threatening.   Her eyes shot around the room, searching, and to the right to a striking woman who lounged on a full length divan, lethal looking spike heeled boots hanging off the end where her ankles crossed.  With the dramatic hair and clothing, and weaponlike footwear, she was both stunning and frightening.  She was staring dead on at Park.  Bas crossed the room and kicked the sole of one of her boots, drawing her attention back to him.  She looked up lazily and smiled, widely.  Park felt the heat from her chair across the room.  The spike-heeled woman wanted him.  And she considered Park competition.  Now the hostility was clear.  And then the voice came to her, as clear as if it were spoken.

Yes, I do want him.  And I also don’t like having humans around too much.  You are not vampire.  You don’t belong here.  And you are no competition.

Then she looked right at Park, smiled, then back to Bas.

“Be good, Dez, she’s with me.  You  treat her like family.”

Dez unfurled herself and folded herself tightly against Bas, wrapped her arms around him, their heights almost matched.  Her lips were level with his and she leaned in sensuously.   As she touched her lips to him, he turned his head and took the kiss on the cheek.  She leaned back and laughed.

“Now you know it’s been a long time since you had some Dez.  And you know no one else give good…” she moved in and whispered in his ear.  He smiled and pushed her back gently.

“Take a seat.  We have a lot to discuss.”

She smiled again and sunk back into the divan, and didn’t take her eyes off him again.

Park wondered what she’d gotten herself into.  Vampires, and one of them was telepathic and hostile.  If she could send her thoughts to Park, she could probably read them and that made her very nervous.

Bas went back to the center of the room and made a one hundred and eighty degree turn to catch the eye of those seated around him.

“You all know something is going on.  That’s why you’ve traveled here.  What I’ve pieced together is that my former blood-bond, Bruno Shanks, has been brought over by someone else.  That someone has been converting others.  And they have been killing blood-bonds in at least twelve states that have been reported.  And now we have three reports of vampire kills, two in New York City and one in Vegas.  One of the murdered blood bonds was Maggie.”  The Scottish brothers made sounds of dismay.

“Ah, no, Maggie was such a sweet thing.  Ya must be pissed, Bas,” Mick said.

“Beyond.  I will avenge her death, I owe her that.  She was quietly finishing her life in Florida.  She should have been able to go naturally.   But this brings up the bigger picture.”

“Aye.  This is war.  Someone’s out to kill us wholesale.”

“And you think it’s one of us?”  his brother asked.

“I know it is.  I had a run in in Los Angeles with Shanks.  You guys know I blood bonded him two years ago when he witnessed a feeding party.  Well, he waylaid me one night about a week ago and attacked me.  Grinned the entire time because he said that now he was as powerful as us.  And he was empowered by his maker to take me out.  I didn’t feel the need to inform him that new vampires are always significantly weaker than older ones.  But he’s fucking motivated.  His Sire put the mission to him to destroy me and he damn near succeeded.  So I caught a ride back here to plan my strategy.  But now, this is a great deal more.  Iain’s right.  We’re at war.”

“We’re safe here.  My defenses, as you all well know, are, if not impenetrable, nearly are.  And even if they were penetrated, we would have enough advance notice to escape untouched, so, we don’t have any worries here.  However, none of us wants to spend the rest of our lives here.  And there are others to consider.  I have my team contacting everyone they can.  Desiree gave them an email list as long as her legs, so they’ve sent notices to everyone to secure their residences and blood-bonds.  I feel a responsibility to end this, because one of my own blood-bonds has been turned into a weapon against us.  So do any of you have any idea who could be doing this?  Someone who might have a massive gripe against the vampire community?”

Silence answered him as they all watched each other.  Dez exaggerated a shrug and sighed loudly.  “I don’t much care.  I just want to hurt the son of a bitch to death.  He got my best girl.”

Mick turned to her.  “Not Freda?”

Dez glared at him.  “Yes, Freda.  That little thing has been with me for fifteen years.  He tore her to pieces.  She made more money than ten of my other girls put together.  I plan to tear him apart when we get him, piece by piece.  Only he’ll be alive for it.  Party time!”

“We have to find out who it is first and so far, none of us has succeeded.  He’s clever.  He knows once we know who he is, it’s over for him.  That’s why he’d using new vamps to do his dirty work for him.  He’s well organized, and apparently, highly motivated.  Damn, I wish I could still get control of Shanks.  But he’s a vampire, he has his own free will back.  And he
really
wants me dead.  I think he still feels some draw to me and it’s wreaking havoc on his system.  So we need to find out who the hell this is fast!  None of us are safe outside these walls until he is eliminated.”

Park watched the proceedings, once again wondering why she was there.  She wasn’t super human, or super strong.  At the second she thought it, Dez jerked her head in Park’s direction.

“Bas, why is your human here?

“Because I want her here.”

“She doesn’t have a dog in this fight.”

Park stood up and faced her.  “I do.  I care about what happens to your race.  To Bas.  To all of you.” 
Well, most of you
…she thought.

Dez laughed raucously.  And sent her thoughts to Park.

Well, it seems you do have a backbone after all.  I don’t like you because he does, but I can live with that.  I don’t like humans except where they’re of use to me.  But I say truce until he’s done with you.  Deal?

You can read my thoughts, you can send yours.  Must be your special skill.  Read this.  Stay out of my way.  I don’t like you either.  But don’t mistake that for fear.  I do know what makes you die.

Dez laughed even louder.  The four men in the room looked confused, back and forth between the women, who stood silently staring at each other.  It made it clear to Park…they couldn’t hear Dez and her thoughts.   Hmmm.

I won’t.  You might not have a dog in this fight, but I see you’ll sink your teeth in anyway.  Okay.  I’ll stay out of your way if you stay out of mine.  By the way, you are one of the very few people I can read.  One of the fewer yet who could read me back. What are you?

God, what was it with these vampires?  Park turned around, facing them all.  “How many times do I have to tell you guys I’m just human?”

The men looked confused, except for Bas, who moved forward and put his hand on her shoulder.

“What do you mean, Park?”

She didn’t feel like explaining.  “I’m sorry to disturb your meeting.  It’s important, I know.  Bas, I’ll talk to you about it later.  Just, please continue.  Do you mind if I go get something to eat?”

Bas stared at her and then led her to the door, where Eugene was waiting outside.

“Please take her to the kitchen and let her have whatever she wants.”

He nodded and led her away down the wide corridor that was creatively lit to look like daylight.

The kitchen was enormous, like everything else in this house, with two side by side refrigerators and three large freezers against the back wall.  Eugene pulled out a tall stool near a high counter that went halfway around the kitchen.

“Have a seat.  What are you in the mood for?  I can cook anything.”

Park climbed up and let her feet swing off the edge of the stool.  “You cook?”

“
Mademoiselle
, I am an excellent chef.  It is one of the reasons they keep me around.”

“What’s your specialty?”

“I have many, but I think I would recommend my omelets over other items, especially for this time of day.  They are…”  He put his fingers to his lips and kissed them into the air.  “…perfection.”

“Then, Eugene, please make me your finest, whatever you want.  I can’t wait.”

He smiled.  Park watched him as he turned to begin preparations.  He really did have the warmest smile.  As he worked, she leaned forward on the countertop.

“Eugene.  May I ask you.  Are you vampire?”

She phrased it like she heard Bas do in the meeting a few minutes earlier.

Eugene was whisking four eggs in a large stainless steel bowl.  He continued to whip them as he turned to her.

“No, I am blood-bonded, like you.  But not to Mr. Bas.  I was bonded to a vampire who is now dead, and was left adrift.  That happens when you have been with a vampire for a very long time.  I was with Janee for sixty five years.  After all that time, when the blood bond is broken, it is hard to go on with a normal human life.  But he took me in, and I have been here in his household for six years.  I will die here.  Hopefully.”

“But…Eugene…you’re not old enough to be…I mean, you’re what, forty or so?”

“I have been alive on this earth for one hundred and seven years.  I was thirty six when Janee and I became lovers and she blood-bonded me to her.  When a human routinely ingests the blood of a vampire, they do not age.  So that makes me about forty two now, in terms of human aging.  I have not taken vampire blood for the years I have been with Mr. Bas.  I do not want to live now beyond my human years.”   His eyes were soft, shining with moisture and loving memories.  “My life has been beautiful…I do not need to be greedy.”

He turned to pour the mixture into a large hot pan and added spices and ingredients.  The smell was heavenly.  Park thought she had never heard a more lovely story.

“So they’re good, the vampires you’ve met?  They’re good people?”

“
Mademoiselle
…”

“Park, please.”

“
Merci, bon
… Park.  Yes, they are good people.  And there are bad ones, too.  Like everyone and everything.  You must be careful and judge with your heart and with your mind.  Mr. Bas.  This is what you want to know.  He is a good man.”

Park sat back, her eyes closed for a moment.  She knew that.  But it was all so bizarre and so out of her comfort zone…
anyone’s
comfort zone, that there were supernatural people who were immortal and lived on blood.  In her life, miserable as it had been, no one had ever made her feel as good as that man who most people would treat like a monster.  This was a new world.  And she was ready…really ready, to accept it all.

The omelet was unsurpassable…incredible.  She hugged Eugene and asked him to escort her back to her room afterward.  He did so after making sure Mr. Bas was okay with it.

She was asleep, a peaceful sleep, curled up and breathing easily.  He leaned onto the edge of the bed and watched her.  How was she so beautiful?  He had three centuries of memories of gorgeous women, vampire
and
human.  And yet no one had made his heart beat like this tiny human with extraordinary abilities.  He knew she’d had a horrible childhood, and he knew there was so much more to learn about her past before he could help her forget it.  He had to find the bitch who birthed her…he refused to use the word mother when referring to the hideous creature he had seen in the vision of Park’s childhood.  He had to find out where she came from to try to find out what she was.  He knew one thing for certain…no, two.  That she was not fully human…and that he would never let her go.  She had to be exhausted after having her world turned on edge the last few day…he’d let her sleep.  So he slipped quietly down the hall to his own bedchambers.  Daylight was coming.

Zach was frustrated and that did not happen easily.  He looked at the police tape across the front of Park’s beautiful house on the beach.  He’d waited a while until they finally…
finally
, left.  Dressed carefully in all black with covers on his shoes, he climbed up the back of the house to the balcony door, exactly as the detectives had explained someone had gained access to her house two days earlier.  It wasn’t hard, given the pergola and trellises adjacent to the wall on the back of the house.  He’d gloved up, because he knew so far, they had no real evidence to pin it on him.  He certainly didn’t intend to give them any.  But he had to see the scene of the abduction. 

The theory seemed to go that he’d followed her home from the restaurant, pissed because she hadn’t been interested, forced his way in by climbing the balcony.  Muddy prints had been found all over the back yard and on the light peach colored carpet that ran through the house.  Unfortunately, whoever left the tracks had shoes that had a sole that matched the ones he’d worn and were the same size.  The place was lit by a series of solar lights tucked in with flowers on the balcony.  Okay, he admitted it looked like something had happened there.   The bed was in disarray, the sheet pulled halfway onto the floor as if it had been dragged.  The footprints led from the balcony through the bedroom and into the living room.  A broken crystal vase lay on the floor, the pieces marked by a forensic team that had been there.  Her closet doors were ajar, but there was no discernible evidence she’d taken anything with her.  Otherwise, there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.