Borne in the Blood Page 11
Stark just shook the blows off as though he hardly felt them. Grabbing Gunner by the shoulders, he threw him several yards across the lawn. Gunner landed in a crouch and then sprinted back, leaning over and catching Stark around the hips like a football player.
Every time he turned her way, she could see the dim glow of Stark’s red eyes in the moonlight. They fought almost silently except for the sound of their bodies slamming into each other, which sounded like blocks of concrete being smashed together.
Tesa found herself backing away. She couldn’t stop watching but after a few minutes she found herself several feet away.
Finally Gunner looked over his shoulder and saw her. Before she knew it he had broken from his brother. She felt the impact of his arm around her waist before she even saw him running for her, and then felt him carrying her at lightning speed back toward the house.
Terrified she would fall, Tesa buried her head in his shoulder and put her arms around his neck. She pulled her knees up as high as she could and prayed her long skirt wouldn’t trip him. At this speed, it would kill her to be slammed into the ground. But he didn’t seem to be concerned, and held her confidently as he ran at a ridiculous speed. Gunner sprinted around to the front of the house and through the front door.
In a matter of seconds, they were in her room. Gunner set her back to standing. He wasn’t even breathing heavily.
“Did he bite you!” Gunner demanded.
Tesa couldn’t catch her breath. She felt like she was about to be completely hysterical.
“Tesa!” Gunner yelled in her face, which wasn’t helping. He pushed her hair back and examined her roughly, spinning her around and investigating her back, and finally stepping back.
“Pull up your dress!” he commanded.
Stifling the rising tide of sobs, Tesa gingerly lifted her skirt.
Gunner looked her over briefly, then sat heavily on the bed and put his head in his hands. Tesa tried heroically to regain control of her senses.
“All right, all right,” he muttered, mostly to himself. Then he looked up at her. “Tesa, you cannot ever let him bite you.”
Tesa shook her head dutifully.
He breathed deeply for several long seconds. Then Gunner appeared to calm himself and stood, walking over to her silently across the fluffy white rug. He raised her chin and looked into her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said, making an effort to speak softly. “I know this must be very hard for you to understand. But I cannot stress this strongly enough. You cannot let him bite you. ”
Tesa nodded.
“You are mine, do you understand?”
Tesa made a face. This was vampire jealousy?
“No, Tesa, listen to me,” he continued. “We are not just competitive high school boys. I am telling you… something I should not be telling you. If you let him bite you, I will not be able to protect you.”
Tesa stared at him, not comprehending. A veil seemed to fall away from his usually arrogant demeanor and she felt… safe. She nodded, still somewhat reluctantly. But his face showed no signs of an agenda, just naked concern. It seemed so different from the snarling animal she had just witnessed. Was he really defending her? Or just defending his food supply?
How was she supposed to know the difference?
“Tesa,” came a voice from the doorway. Gunner stepped in front of her protectively.
“It’s alright,” Stark said. “I just came here to apologize.”
Tesa stepped out from behind Gunner but didn’t come closer. She realized she did feel somewhat better with him at her side.
Stark slid his hand through his dark hair, smoothing it back against his scalp. He sighed deeply.
“Tesa, I am deeply sorry for frightening you like that. I hope you can believe me, but I would never harm you. I meant only to subdue you.”
Tesa nodded, but the image of his glittering red eyes was still prominent in her mind.
He bowed his head. “But it was not my place. Gunner should have… convinced you to return. When I realized you had left, I wasn’t certain of his location and felt I had to act.”
She glanced at Gunner, who was watching his brother with narrowed eyes.
“I must confess, we have not been entirely honest with you.”
Stark took a step toward her, opening his hands in front of him. Tesa edged closer to Gunner, who was leaning against the carved bedpost.
“In light of tonight’s… discoveries, I feel more disclosure would be advisable. Don’t you agree, Gunner?”
Gunner nodded silently. His arms were folded over his chest. Tesa thought for a moment about how solidly they held her as he spirited her toward the house.
“Tesa,” Stark began again, “your acquaintance, Yvonne, is not as she seems. When did you first begin to communicate with her?”
Tesa thought about it. “I don’t know… A few weeks?”
Gunner looked at her. “Was it around the time you applied for your Clean Blood Badge?” he asked.
She shrugged. “That seems about right, I guess. Wait… How many of you know about this?”
“Tesa,” Stark continued, “the Clean Blood Initiative keeps us all safer. Of course we need information like that. If we could get the information, and we selected you… Well, obviously there will be others.”
“Others?” she echoed. “More than Yvonne?”
He nodded. “You are, to put it bluntly, highly desirable. There will be others. Possibly many.”
“What’s so desirable about me?” She rolled the word around in her mind. Desirable . She had to admit, it had a ring to it.
“Well,” he said slowly, apparently choosing his words carefully, “while we can partake in anyone… anyone healthy, that is… our biologies change over time. Eventually we require… How can I put this?”
He paused with his hand on his chin, as though assembling the words in his mind. “In order to remain completely in control of ourselves, we require some specific sorts of partners every so often.”
“What?” Tesa looked to Gunner for clarification. “In plain English,” she asked.
“We’re practically immortal,” Gunner began, “but if we don’t get a recharge every eighty years or so, we go… dark.”
“What is dark?”
“You don’t really want to know,” Gunner said.
“How dark?” she asked, afraid of the answer.
“We need blood like yours… usually from people who are related to each other, although once in awhile there will be a spontaneous match. It keeps us from becoming… like animals. Out of control.”
She remembered Grant, lying on the floor with his throat torn out.
“Like… that thing? The wraith, you called it?”
Gunner nodded silently, watching her. She saw Stark flinch out of the corner of her eye.
“Yvonne wants me because I have special magical blood to keep her from turning into a wraith?”
“To put a fine point on it, yes. I suppose you could say that,” Stark sighed.
“And what about you?” she asked pointedly, remembering his savage expression, the words he growled in her ear.
He raised his eyebrows but didn’t answer.
“You said you have someone… is that true?”
He nodded.
“Is she… or he… here? In the house?”
He nodded again. “She. Rose.”
Tesa put her hands on her hips. “Well can I meet her?” Something like jealousy bubbled in her heart.
Stark shook his head. Gunner answered for him. “She is not well at the moment,” he said quietly. “So Stark is not exactly at his best either.”
Tesa sighed and turned to the mirror, walking toward it. She gasped at the sight of herself. Rolling across the lawn had left the midnight blue dress in tatters, and her hair was sticking out all over the place. Gratefully, she saw that the sapphire pendant Gunner had given her was still around her neck. She raised her fingers and touched it gently before plucking
a handful of grass out of her hair.
“So, what are you going to do then?” she asked Stark.
He shook his head. “I can’t do anything,” he said sadly. “I have tried, believe me. But you can, Tesa, and that is part of why you’re here.”
Tesa looked at Gunner, who wouldn’t meet her eyes. He sighed through his nose and stared pointedly at Stark. Tesa tried to contain her mounting fear. What exactly did they need her to do?
CHAPTER 10
“Just eat something,” Gunner said, gesturing to the laden table. The silver servingware glittered in the candlelight, reflecting a dozen small bowls and platters that held everything from beef Wellington to candied purple carrots to something that looked suspiciously like macaroni and cheese.
Tesa had to chuckle to herself as she slowly sat in a tufted chair, drawing her robe around her knees. The quick shower had relieved some of the soreness in her muscles and she was grateful for the wide array of food. It looked like a feast concocted by a wealthy pothead.
“I can’t eat all this, you know,” she protested, spooning a savory rice custard onto her silver-rimmed bone china plate. She pushed the sage stuffing over slightly to make room. “It looks like Thanksgiving. Why don’t you have some? Oh… Right, you don’t eat.”
He shrugged. “I can eat. It’s just, after all this time, I choose to only eat the very best.”
Tesa shuddered to remember the way he had leered at the redhead with the pendulous breasts from the garden party as he plucked her wrist from her hip and pulled it up to his mouth. Was she still out there? It was getting on toward 3am and the festivities showed no signs of stopping. A new band had been brought out to provide musical entertainment, and every so often Tesa heard strains of what sounded like uptempo funk and soul music from the 1970s.
She tried to picture what was happening — were they dancing? But all she kept imagining was a macabre version of Soul Train.
“I can’t believe I’m hungry,” she murmured, trying to sound dainty as she sawed indelicately through the Wellington, dunking it into a small silver vat of gravy before closing her lips around it. The fatty, salty juices ran in rivulets down the back of her tongue, landing in her empty stomach. Her belly growled loudly.
Gunner raised his eyebrows at the sound. “Oh, can’t you?” he asked sarcastically. “I imagine running for your life in the dark and then fighting off a maniacal vampire would give a person quite an appetite.”
Tesa kept her lips closed and continued chewing, hoping none of her embarrassment showed on her face. He’d saved her, she was sure. The sound of Stark’s fangs snapping into place had been unmistakable. But she wasn’t entirely sure if she was grateful.
“Where is he?” she asked finally, reaching for another purple carrot, the honey and rosemary exploding on her tongue.
Gunner jerked his head toward the party. “I imagine he is still negotiating your safety with Yvonne,” he said, pursing his lips thoughtfully.
“I guess that’s good,” Tesa chuckled nervously. “I mean, safety is good. Why would Yvonne want me any other way?”
Gunner looked away and Tesa got the impression she was being traded like a property of some value, but minimal intelligence.
“Why don’t you just tell me?”
Gunner stared vaguely toward the kitchen beyond the great, dark dining room where they sat, apparently lost in thought. Tesa chewed her meal and stared at him across the ribbons of smoke that curled up from the candles.
He clenched and unclenched his jaw as though trying to bite back something he wanted to say. His nostrils flared subtly with every breath, and his hand gripped the carved lion’s paw of the chair armrest.
Suddenly he turned to her, his eyes reflecting multiple candle flames. She flinched back in her chair reflexively.
“Tesa, we have to do something.”
She swallowed the last bite of stuffing and dropped her hand to the table instead of reaching for more.
“Well, okay,” she said slowly, pushing locks of shower-damp hair from her forehead and drawing her silk kimono tightly over her chest.
“I don’t know if you really understand what happened out there,” he started, his eyes glittering from under the shadows cast by his knit brow. As before, he spoke with no apparent arrogance and Tesa marvelled how different he seemed when he wasn’t trying to be funny or cruel.
“Tesa, you’re not safe. Maybe not even here.”
She gulped and bit her lip.
“I thought you said you brought me here to protect me,” she muttered, trying to keep her voice calm. “I mean… and the other thing.”
He nodded. “We did… Stark did. But I’m afraid his actions demonstrate that he is… farther gone than I assumed.”
“Farther gone where?” she asked, not sure she really wanted to know.
“Tesa, if I hadn’t heard you out there on the lawn and come to you, I don’t know what he would have done. Well, that’s not really true… I know precisely what he would have done. And yet you seemed… Let me ask you — do you recall the events as they happened?”
Tesa nodded nervously, replaying the sensations and events in fast forward in her mind: Jolie’s terrified exit, her decision to run, pounding across the lawn in her bare feet with her dress over her knees, the sound of footsteps behind her, the incredible weight that pinned her helplessly to the lawn, the sound of his fangs as she bared her neck for him, willing him to take her.
“So you were in control of yourself…” he murmured.
“Well, I don’t know what you mean by that,” she snapped back. “I remember being knocked down and threatened!”
“You wanted him to bite you,” he shot back accusingly.
Tesa furrowed her eyebrows and clenched her jaw. “I was pinned to the ground ,” she retorted.
He spread his hands. “I saw you,” he said. “He didn’t compel you. You wanted him.”
“Gunner, I don’t know what you think you saw, but I remember being chased by a vampire in the dark.”
“That’s not all I saw,” he said, almost petulantly.
“What… are you jealous?”
“I am… no. Not jealous,” he spat back. “You’re just absolutely clueless, and you’re going to make saving your life very difficult. If it’s going to become a full-time job for me, I’d almost rather not.”
Tesa scoffed and sat back in her chair. “Fine! Then don’t!” she dared him.
He shook his head in frustration, staring at the ceiling as though beseeching some kind of higher power. Standing suddenly, he yanked his Italian suit jacket off and tossed it over the back of the chair.
The muscles of his chest strained the buttons of his shirt and Tesa watched the shapes of his body slide under the fabric. Now that she had felt Stark’s shocking strength, she couldn’t help but wonder if Gunner felt the same. She tried to push the thought from her mind.
“You need to see something,” he demanded.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she retorted, crossing her arms over her chest, suddenly aware just how flimsy the gown and robe were.
“Tesa, I have to insist.”
“Ha!” she laughed, and it sounded almost like a bark. “You know what, I am getting tired of all this insisting and commanding that you think you get to do. One minute you’re a complete douche to me, and the next you’re sweeping me off my feet like some kind of prince charming. Well you know what? It’s getting really old. You’re going to have to decide if you want me to be terrified or friendly, Gunner, because I can’t be both.”
He slammed both his hands on the table, making the bowls and trays jump and knocking over the gravy vessel. Tesa flinched back in her chair, then was suddenly furious. The anger flowed into her like a flood, boiling her blood and lifting her to her feet.
“Knock it off!” she found herself yelling, shocked by the sound of her own voice. “Just let me go, Gunner! Let me out of this… madhouse! Or kill me, because those are your options! I’m not going t
o let you play with me like I’m some kind of toy anymore!”
Tesa pounded her fist on the table for emphasis, leaning forward as threateningly as she could. Though she was no match for him, she would rather die than be run around a maze like a mouse until her heart gave out from exhaustion.
Then, to her surprise, he shrugged.
“Okay,” he said calmly.
“Okay what?!” she hissed.
“Okay, I will let you go,” he said.
“Gunner, I mean it. Stop screwing with me.”
He shook his head thoughtfully. “I am completely serious. And you are right — we... I’ve treated you badly. I will let you go, if you still want me to, come morning. But first, I want to show you something.”
Tesa eyed him warily. “What do you want to show me?”
He spread his hands in front of him. “Why you’re here.”
“Why I’m here,” she repeated sarcastically. “Every time you guys supposedly tell me why I’m here, the story seems to change a little bit.”
He nodded. “Well, I admit… I’ve consistently underestimated you. You’re capable of far more than I thought you would be. But Tesa, I swear to you: if you still want to go after you hear what I have to say, then I will drive you to the jet myself, and you can go anywhere you want.”
“Anywhere?”
“Yes… anywhere. Start a new life. I know you’re good at that. I’ll ensure your future.” He cast his eyes downward almost humbly and Tesa could hear the truth in his voice.
She thought about it for a few moments, standing with her fist on her hip. More than anything, she wanted to go back to Vegas and find her girlfriend, Ruby, and explain everything. A fistful of cash would probably help Ruby feel generous about listening.
“Okay,” she said finally, tossing her light brown hair back over her shoulder with some sass. “Show me what you’ve got to show me, because I have a plane to catch.”
Gunner sighed and walked around the table. He held her gaze evenly and though she really wanted to, she couldn’t tear her eyes away. Every few moments she had the distinct sensation a veil was falling away from him, and then another, and another, revealing someone… well, someone who was not nearly the man he had pretended to be when they met.