VA 2 - Blood Jewel (28 page)

“Call for me if you need anything.
I’m only a streak away,” I said and I leaned over and kissed her
forehead before I left.

“Will do.”

I left Chansey to her soak in the
tub and returned to the painting that just couldn’t seem to get the
attention it deserved. I picked up my brush again and dipped it
into the paint. I started on her eyes again, trying to remember the
way Anna had captured them in her portrait of Chansey as a
child.

As I worked to capture her irises
perfectly, it became quite clear to me that I was too distracted by
Chansey’s distress to continue painting, so I decided I wanted to
speak with Sol further about his plan to leave.

I knocked on Sol’s door, but got no
answer and he suddenly appeared next to me in the hall. “Looking
for me?”

That was weird. Which direction did
he come from? “Umm, yeah. I want to talk to you about your
leaving.”

He shrugged as he looked at me.
“What about it?”

“You should talk to Avery about
what happened.” I suggested.

“No, I’m not going to do that,” he
snapped. “It wouldn’t do any good. She is literally terrified of
me. She would completely freak out if I tried to get her alone to
talk to her.”

“This is your life we’re talking
about and you’re about to disrupt everything you’ve work so hard
for because you’re afraid to talk to her. That’s not at all like
you, Sol. What’s really going on here?”

He wrinkled his brow at me. “If
there’s something you’d like to say, maybe you should just go ahead
and say it.”

Okay. If he wanted to play like
that, game on. “Face it. You want to blame the fear on her, but
it’s you that’s scared.”

He laughed. “Psst. You’re full of
it, dude. I am not scared of some little human girl.”

“You’re lying. I think that...”
And I paused because I suddenly felt something alarming.

“What? Tell me what you think,”
Sol demanded, but I couldn’t answer him.

Then, it came to me immediately.
Something was wrong with Chansey. I felt her struggling to breathe
as she fought to get her head above water. She
was...drowning?

I streaked to our bathroom and what
I saw couldn’t be happening. Her head was underwater while her arms
and legs were kicking violently as water splashed on the floor and
walls of our bathroom. She fought to lift her head above the water,
but something was preventing her. She was being held down by
something I couldn’t see. I rushed to her side and slipped when my
feet hit the wet floor, but I quickly stood and reached for my
wife. I thought I could grab her and lift her body without a
problem, but I couldn’t lift her face above the water as hard as I
pulled and tugged on her.

“Solomon!” I called out. “Help
me.”

He was in the bathroom instantly
and stared motionless at the sight of me struggling to pull Chansey
from the water. “Help me get her out. She’s drowning.”

He snapped out of his daze and
sprung into action. Together, the two of us finally pulled her from
the tub and I fell backwards with her on top of me against the wet,
black granite tile floor.

When we hit the floor, Chansey
fought violently as she gasped for breath. Sol tossed her towel to
me and I wrapped it around her before I pulled her up to sit
between my legs. I rocked her back and forth and said, “It’s okay,
Love. I’ve got you and you’re going to be fine. You’re safe in my
arms.”

Sol stood with water dripping down
his face as he looked down at us on the floor. “What the hell was
that?

I looked up at him while trying to
catch my breath and shook my head. “I don’t know.”

He ran his hand over his wet hair
to push it out of his eyes. “And why did it take both of us to
overpower it? I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Chansey’s head fell back against me
in exhaustion. “It was Marsala,” she whispered.

How could she possibly know that? I
turned her around to face me as she laid wrapped only in a towel.
“How do you know it was Marsala?”

“Know the truth, but whisper lies.
That’s what she said right before she shoved me under the water,”
Chansey said and I felt my heart take off like a helicopter. It was
Marsala’s patented line-the one she always used right before she
killed her prey.

A rigor came over Chansey and she
shook as she said, “I saw her clear as a bell as she stood over
me.”

As if I needed further proof, I
asked, “Can you describe her to me?

“She was beautiful, but in a
sinister kind of way. She had an exotic look about her, like I
couldn’t quite place her race. Her hair was long, light brown curls
that hung to her waist and her eyes...they looked like pale green
ice staring at me. She looked at me like she despised me and I knew
she was going to kill me before she made the first move or said the
first word. It saw it in her eyes.”

There was no doubt. She described
Marsala perfectly, so that meant that she had found a way to get to
Chansey. Given our recent encounter with her, I could only assume
it was the use of Black Magic again.

I could only rock Chansey back and
forth like a baby as I lay on the bathroom floor holding her. I
never expected it to come to this. I thought Marsala would only be
a danger to Chansey if she found her, but I couldn't’ have been
more wrong. She had the power to get to her at any time and there
was nothing I could do to keep her safe. For Chansey to remain
human was risking her life, so the obvious choice became clear. I
knew what I had to do. Chansey had to become a vampire soon or I
risked losing her forever.

24
Start The Clock Now

I spent the rest of the morning
watching Chansey’s chest rise and fall as her weary body returned
to a state of deep sleep, but it wasn’t enough to reassure me so I
lightly placed my ear against her chest to hear the rhythmic beat
of her heart.

I knew in that moment that I would
never rest and there was only one thing that would give me the
reassurance I needed. Chansey had to be death proof. She needed to
made a vampire and the sooner, the better.

I heard a light knock on the
bedroom door and I lifted my head from Chansey’s chest. I sensed
Sol on the other side and I thought it was strange for him to be up
so late because I had already seen light coming through the bedroom
drapes. “You may come in, Sol. It’s unlocked.”

He slowly opened the door and
peeked in as if he was afraid he would walk in on something he
shouldn’t. Once he saw we were not in a compromising position, he
was satisfied that it was an all clear and walked into our bedroom.
“I was getting ready to retire for the day, but I wanted to check
on Chansey first. How is she?”

I stroked a strand of hair away
from her face. “She’s sleeping like the dead.”

Sol found humor in my expression
and laughed as he said, “See, she’ll fit right in with us when she
decides she’s ready to be turned.”

I never took my eyes away from her
as I announced, “I’ve decided I’m ready.”

“And I guess we have Marsala to
thank for your change of heart?” Sol asked.

“I didn’t realize how breakable
she was or how helpless I was to save her until I couldn’t pull her
out of the water. She could have died.” I looked up at Sol. “I
almost lost her forever.”

“When will you do it?” he
asked.

“I don’t know. Marsala could make
another attempt at any time, so I’d like to do it as soon as
possible. Chansey and I will need to talk about it when she wakes
up and we’ll make the decision together. I’m sure she’ll want to
spend some time with her family before we do it since it will take
weeks before she completely transitions.”

Sol nodded in agreement and I
pleaded, “Please don’t go to New Orleans, Sol. I need you here in
case Marsala tries to get to her again. I need you to be with me
through her transition. She trusts you and she will want you to be
with her through it. I know it’s selfish of me to ask, but will you
please stay? We can arrange for Avery and Jenn to go to the New
Orleans compound if you want.”

He looked thoughtful as he
scrunched the space between his eyes and said, “No, that won’t be
necessary. They’re both comfortable here and I don’t want to
disrupt that after all of the things they have been through. I’ll
stay until Chansey’s transition is complete, but I’m out of here
once it’s complete.”

I knew what he was giving up in
order to do this for me and Chansey, but I couldn’t help but think
it was in his best interest as well. I think he needed to face
Avery and the demons that were haunting him where she was
concerned. “Thank you, Sol.”

“I’ve given it a lot of thought
and I think Chansey’s transition will be easy since she is an
Agápe. Wouldn’t you agree?”

The thought of Chansey’s transition
being anything like Jenn’s scared me to death. “I’m scared to go
into it with expectations. I just pray hers isn’t anything like
Jenn’s.”

“God, I hope not either,” he
agreed.

I looked down as Chansey stirred
and Sol looked toward the window, “I need to go. It’s close to
dawn.”

“I hate to be the one to tell you,
Buddy, but you missed dawn a while ago.”

“Huh?” he grunted.

“It’s morning outside. Your
internal clock is on the fritz,” I informed him as I gestured
toward the drapes.

He stood staring at the edge of the
curtains like he wasn’t sure if he believed me or not. “Pull them
back if you don’t believe me. I’d like to see a free show this
morning.”

He cocked his head to the side in
bewilderment and backed toward the door. “I’ll check on Chansey
when I get up tonight.”

Great! Just what I needed-Sol
acting weird on top of everything I had going on in my life with
Chansey and Marsala.

I spent the next several hours
lying in bed with Chansey as she slept and it was noon before she
finally woke. She rolled toward me, opened her eyes and broke into
a big, beautiful smile when she saw me staring at her face. She
stretched and squeaked out, “How long have you been watching me
sleep?

“Oh, it started a few months ago.
After I realized I was dreadfully in love with you, I began
sneaking into your bedroom at night so I could watch you while she
slept. I haven’t managed to stop doing it even though you’re my
wife now. What can I say? I’m a sick bastard.”

She laughed at me, but didn’t
disagree.

“Hey, you’re supposed to tell me
how romantic I am for doing it,” I suggested.

“I think you’re weird for doing
it, but it is sort of romantic...in a stalker kind of way, I
guess.”

She quickly sat up and kissed me on
my cheek. “Bathroom calls,” she said as she slid off the edge of
the bed.

As I waited for Chansey to finish
in the bathroom, I became a little nervous. She and I had not
discussed her being changed since the beginning of Jenn’s
transition and I wondered if it was a bad sign that she had not
mentioned it the past several weeks. No one could blame her for
changing her mind after the things she witnessed with
Jenn.

When she came out of the bathroom,
she wasn’t wearing the long T-shirt I had dressed her in after her
near drowning. She had slipped into a black slip gown and her hair
was down and flowing over her shoulders as she slinked her way
toward me. “Mr. Brennan, your wife has missed being with you
something fierce these past few weeks.”

I couldn’t contain the grin on my
face. “Mrs. Brennan, you just had a near death experience. Don’t
you think you should be in bed resting?”

She crawled up on the bed on all
fours and said, “Oh, I certainly think I should be in this bed, but
definitely not resting when I have such a mighty fine specimen of a
man next to me.”

She pushed me to my back and
crawled over me, letting her hair tickle my bare chest as she raked
her locks back and forth over my chest. “Do you want me to lie down
and go to sleep, Mr. Brennan?”

Intimacy was going to be different
after Chansey became a vampire and I wouldn’t have moments like
these for much longer. “No, I definitely don’t want you to lie down
and go to sleep, Mrs. Brennan.”

The talk about turning her would
have to wait. Right now, I needed to make love to my human
wife.

≈ ≈ ≈

Chansey laid next to me with her
arms and legs wound around me and her index and middle fingers did
a little two-step dance back and forth in the dip of my
chest.

I pulled her closer and said, “You
really believe in making up for lost time, don’t you?”

“I guess I needed my Curry fix,”
she laughed. “It had been too long since we were together and I was
in withdrawals. You’d be wise to remember that for future
reference.”

Her words sparked a reminder in me.
We had to talk about the Marsala incident and what we were going to
do to keep her safe. It was time to talk about changing her.
“There’s something important we need to discuss.”