VA 2 - Blood Jewel (8 page)

“Well, you’re finished with me for
today because the family will be up by the time we finish with
Harvey.”

She gave me a wink. “Only gives me
more time to formulate my next plan of action.”

After we were dressed, we met with
Harvey at the intended construction site and spent the better part
of the afternoon making plans for our quarters at the compound.
When Harvey and his partner weren’t looking, I would mouth the
words, “I love you,” to Chansey just so I could see her
smile.

“Mr. Janson, would it be possible
to draw off where our bedroom will be so I can get a better feel
for the layout?” Chansey asked.

Harvey was taken by Chansey’s
beauty and eager to please her. “Not a problem, Mrs. Brennan. I’ll
do that for you right now.”

We both smiled at his honest
mistake and watched as Harvey chalked the outline of our future
bedroom. She held her arms up at a 90 degree angle and I wondered
what she was doing.

“This is the exterior wall with
the windows?” she questioned.

“I think that is right,” I
agreed.

She continued to hold her arms up
with a rather serious, contemplating expression on her face. She
took about three steps toward the wall and I finally took the bait.
“Okay, you have me. What are you doing.?”

“This is the spot,” she
said.

She loved to play games with me.
“What spot?

She leaned closer and placed her
palms against my chest, then whispered low enough that Harvey
wouldn’t hear, “This is where I’m going to rock your world every
night, Curry Brennan.”

She turned away from me, as though
she didn’t just say the sexiest thing in the world and nonchalantly
spoke with Harvey about a room for my art and photography. I smiled
to myself as I thought about the surprise on her face when she
found out I had secretly planned a room of her own just off of our
bedroom. I didn’t have a concrete idea of what she would use it for
other than her own private space, but I couldn’t shake the nagging
feeling that she would want it for something one day.

After our consultation with Harvey
ended, I knew my family was up and stirring. “Go borrow some
clothes from Lairah or Gia and get ready. I’m taking you out
tonight.”

“How do I need to
dress?”

I had not mentioned her birthday
all day. I wasn’t sure if I pulled off the facade of forgetting or
not, but I had grown tired of pretending. “How about something a 22
year-old would wear?”

“You remembered.” She pretended to
be surprised, but I knew she really wasn’t.

“Of course, I remembered. How do
you think I could forget the most important day in both of our
lives?”

6
Do You Hear Me Coming?

Birthday dinners are usually a
given for humans, but I didn’t want to take Chansey to just any
ordinary restaurant. I took her to one of the finest in New
Orleans. Our dinner was exceptional, but being with her trumped the
food and I was happy simply because I was with the woman I
adored.

Chansey wore one of Gia’s simple
black dresses and it fit like a glove, hugging every one of her
perfect curves. The thick black liner on her upper lid extended
outward into a point and her charcoal eyeshadow had a sexy, smokey
appearance. Her lips were stained her signature deep scarlet like
the skin of a red delicious apple and they pleaded for me to taste
them.

I propped my face in the palm of my
hand and stared at Chansey’s lovely face as the candlelight
flickered upon it as she talked about our wedding and the happy
life we were going to have. Her words sounded like a dream. All of
this felt like a dream and I was terrified I would wake up to
discover that none of it ever existed.

“Curry, are you alright? Am I
scaring you with the things I’m saying about the
future?”

“I am scared, but not of anything
you’ve said.” I placed my hand on top of hers across the table and
confessed, “I’m terrified of losing you. My mind can’t fathom how
you could be mine. I’m petrified of making my next mistake because
I fear you’ll see all of this for what it is and decide you want no
part of it.”

She leaned forward and said, “I
love you, Curry Brennan, and there’s nothing that will change that.
I’m going to marry you because I want to spend the rest of my life
with you and love you until the end of my days. Hopefully, that
will be through eternity as a vampire.”

I squeezed her hand and said, “You
are everything to me and without you, I am nothing.”

“Ditto. Now, I’m changing the
subject to something less serious...something like what you got me
for my birthday?” she hinted.

“Who says I got you anything for
your birthday? Maybe this dinner is your only birthday
gift.”

She laughed and said, “It probably
cost so much I shouldn’t get anything else.”

The anticipation of seeing her face
when she opened her gift was almost more than I could stand. “I
have a gift for you and you are going to love it. It’s been killing
me to not just go ahead and give it to you.”

“Is that where you went this
morning? To buy my gift?” she asked.

“Maybe.”

She was anxious like a child. “Am I
getting it now or when we get back to the compound?”

“I didn’t bring it with me because
I didn’t want to risk damaging it. Something told me that you might
be a little snooper, so I hid it in my room when you were in the
shower.”

“Hmm...It must be somewhat
delicate if you thought it might get damaged,” she said as she
began to narrow down the possibilities based on what I had
said.

“Perhaps, but we have somewhere
else to be before we go back, so you’ll have to wait a little bit
longer to find out.”

I paid our check and we left the
restaurant in search of the driver I hired, finding him on the
street directly in front of the entrance. Already aware of our
destination, he drove toward Bourbon Street where the club was
located.

The driver took us as far as he
could and stopped to let us out of the car. “I’ll call when we’re
ready to be picked up,” I told him as we got out of the dark
sedan.

“Yes, sir,” he
responded.

We walked down Bourbon, passing
some rather questionable looking establishments along the way.
There were people outside the entrances trying to corral potential
customers as they passed, inviting them inside to watch nude
dancers and other unmentionable acts.

“I’m sorry I’ve exposed you
to...this,” I apologized.

“Stop acting like you’ve scarred
me for life by bringing me here. This isn’t my first time on
Bourbon Street. I’ve been here with Shelby and Abby.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help
myself from feeling like I’ve made you vulnerable by bringing you
here. When I found you, this force to protect you was born inside
me and I couldn’t contain it if I tried. It has intertwined with
who I am and the two can’t be separated. We can’t be
separated.”

She stopped walking and turned to
look at me before saying, “I don’t know how to describe it because
it’s hard to find the right words, but I think I feel my inner self
embracing your protective nature for me. It’s like the Agápe in me
tangibly intertwines with you and we melt within one another until
we become one. I want to be closer to you because it’s what I want,
but the Agápe within me drives me to be closer, more intimate with
you.”

I was amazed at how well she
described the sensation I had been feeling for her, but I didn’t
realize she was experiencing the same thing. Although our
relationship was still new, I should have known because the
relationship between a vampire and an Agápe was never one-sided. “I
didn’t know you were feeling that way.”

“I know, it sounds too bizarre to
believe. That’s why I haven’t said anything about it,” she
admitted.

“No, it doesn’t sound bizarre to
me because it’s the way I’ve been feeling about you, too. I just
didn’t know how to describe it.”

She smiled because she was happy
and I understood. “Sebastian didn’t tell us about this
part.”

I thought of what Sebastian told me
about not wanting to place expectations on us. “I have a feeling
there’s a lot more Sebastian hasn’t told us because he wants us to
discover things for ourselves.”

I took her hand in mine. “Come on,
we’re almost there.”

We walked the short distance until
we reached the entrance of Club Infinity. She grinned and shook her
head. “Where are you taking me?”

“Right here.”

She looked up at the flashing neon
sign and looked a little bewildered. I reached into my back pocket
and pulled out my wallet. I paid for our cover charges then took
her hand again and led her through the club until I saw my family
sitting at several tables against the back wall.

My family stood when they saw us
and passed Chansey around as they hugged her and told her, “Happy
Birthday.” When they finished, we all sat down and she leaned over.
“Did they all come here for me?”

She was humbled. I could tell by
the look on her face. “Of course. They love you and wanted to
celebrate with us because you’re a part of our family
now.”

Jett’s band was alternative and did
their own renditions. I recognized a lot of the songs they played,
but none of them sounded like the original artist and I wondered
what they might do with ‘Steal My Heart Away.’ To me, it seemed
perfect the way Van Morrison did it.

Lairah walked up to the stage
between songs and whispered into one of the guitarist’s ear, so I
assumed he was Jett. She returned to our tables and gave me a wink,
letting me know it was a go.

The next song was ‘Steal My Heart
Away’ and I asked Chansey to dance with me. I led her onto the
dance floor and cupped my right hand around hers as my left hand
rested gently on her waist.

Before the vocalist began to sing
the lyrics, he announced, “This next song is dedicated to Chansey
from Curry and he says that every day you steal his heart away.
Happy Birthday.”

Her face lit into a smile. “Thank
you for making me feel so special. How did you manage to pull that
off without me knowing?”

“Lairah, the eternal roadie, knows
the band. She suggested I bring you here after dinner because she
thought you might enjoy the music.”

She nodded and said, “She was
right. These guys are great.”

“Lairah definitely knows music,” I
agreed. “I...”

I couldn’t finish my sentence
because there was something terribly wrong. I heard the whisper of
a female voice as she chanted. I turned to my family to see if they
heard it as well. None of them appeared phased by the soft sound of
evil murmuring, which meant I was the only one hearing
it.

Chansey was panicked by the look on
my face. “What’s wrong, Curry?”

I felt myself break into a sweat,
something I hadn’t done since I was human. My heart started racing
and my head began to painfully pound behind my eyes as my vision
began to blur.

“You’re scaring me. What’s
happening?” Chansey demanded.

And then it happened without any
warning. Twenty-two years without feeling her presence and I
suddenly felt her again. It was Marsala.

My vision was worsening as the
chanting became louder. I reached for Chansey’s arm. “Don’t ask me
why because there’s no time, but I need you to take me to
Sebastian.”

She did as I asked and didn’t
question why she had to lead me toward my family and I wasted no
time getting to the point, “I think Marsala is here. I don’t know
how, but she has done something to me. I have an excruciating pain
behind my eyes and I can’t see, but I hear her voice chanting
something. It began as a soft whisper, but it’s grown louder. It
feels like it’s getting closer and it’s beginning to drowned out
everything else.”

I barely heard Sebastian ask, “What
is she saying in the chant?”

I listened to the repetitive cycle
and then repeated it for Sebastian.

“I use the bark of this white
thorn tree,

To give my eyes freedom to cross
the sea,

I use this spell to conjure the one
I love, yet cannot find,

And like a nail, I drive my eyes
into his mind,

So I may see what it is he
sees,

Do you hear me coming? Soon, it
shall be.”

I felt the slam of someone’s hand
over my eyes. “Shut your eyes, now!” Sebastian roared at me. “Don’t
open them. Someone is helping her use Black Magic to find you. She
is using a spell to bind herself to you so she may take your vision
as her own. That’s why you can’t see; she’s stealing your sight.
She is trying to find you by identifying your surroundings. We need
to look around the club to see if there is anything that would clue
her to where you are.”

“Do you think this means she is
close?” I asked, begging it to not be so.

“I don’t think she’s on this
continent because the spell spoke of crossing the sea, but I think
she will be soon if anything in this place can identify where we’re
at. What were you looking at when this started?”