Darlings of Darkness: A Vampire Anthology Part 181

"Oh, honey. I feel just horrible about your Daddy pa.s.sing on. Are you holding up alright?"

I nodded quickly. Too quickly. I tried to paste a real smile on my face, "We're getting along. You got any of that super strong coffee back there?" I turned over my coffee cup and set it back on the saucer, trying to keep a grip on my emotions. Facing my old friends was not something I had been looking forward to at all, but it had to be done eventually.

"Mike! Come out here! Sarah's back!" Roxanne hollered in the direction of the kitchen.

"I'm comin'," he replied roughly from the kitchen. He came around through the swinging saloon-style doors and strolled up to my booth. "Well, I'll be G.o.d d.a.m.ned."

"You certainly will if you keep on with that kind of talk," his wife replied crisply.

"How you doin', girl? We started wondering if you would ever leave that d.a.m.n farm." He addressed me with his typical grumpy half frown and leaned against the edge of the opposite booth with his big bulging arms crossed in front of his chest.

I shook my head and smiled, "I'm not going to be a shut-in, you guys. I'm going to try to come into town more often. I promise."

"I'm going to hold you to that, honey. I'll be right back with that coffee." Roxanne replied.

Mike shuffled back to the kitchen after giving me a quick and rather awkward pat on the back. I ducked my head in embarra.s.sment because it was completely out of the norm for him to show any affection to anybody except his wife. When Roxanne came back, she filled my cup without spilling a drop.

"You want your usual, honey?"

"You know it. I've missed Mike's BLT's," I answered, my mouth already watering at the thought of crispy bacon.

"Sure thing, hon."

I heard the bell over the door ring and nearly spilled my coffee in my lap when I saw who had just walked in. Holy c.r.a.p, I thought. Not now. Not here. I thought about sliding down in the booth to hide, but it was pointless. He had already seen me. Wonderful.

"Well, well. Sarah Wood."

The man standing before me was all too familiar. Trevor Kincaid. He still had that lazy half smile and those twinkling brown eyes I had fallen so hard for several years ago. I had learned my lesson the hard way from this one about how to be cautious about guys who claim they don't have a girlfriend. This guy was a snake. He was a major player and did not give a c.r.a.p who ended up getting hurt.

"Trevor," I greeted him icily, avoiding eye contact.

Without an invitation, he slid into the seat across from me and leaned forward. "How have you been?"

"That's not really any of your business, is it?"

His face lost a bit of its casual friendliness when he realized I was not interested in conversing with him.

"d.a.m.n, girl. You don't have to be a b.i.t.c.h. I was just saying h.e.l.lo." He slid out of the booth and leaned over the table, his face inches from mine, "You sure you don't want to go another round with me? I was your first, remember?"

I felt the anger rus.h.i.+ng through my veins and tried to get a grip on it before things got out of control. Roxanne had been pouring coffee at a table near the door, but had begun to make her way over toward us.

"Oh, we can definitely go another round, you piece of trash." I growled, starting to rise from my seat with the intent to backhand Trevor across his smug face.

"Trevor, you better think twice about provoking this girl." Roxanne said tightly, "If I remember correctly, you got one h.e.l.l of a right hook from her when she found out you'd been lying to her about Amy d.i.c.kson."

He glanced over at her and rubbed his jaw, "Yeah, she's got a temper." He gave me a little wink and sauntered over to one of the stools at the bar. Roxanne rolled her eyes at him and shook her head.

"He's such an a.s.shole," I said, taking a sip of my coffee.

"Ignore him, honey. A man like that always ends up married to a woman who makes him miserable." She grinned, "You gotta give a hand to Karma."

I hoped she was right. I guess I still hated the fact that I had fallen so hard for the guy. Apparently, my bulls.h.i.+t detector had been running on low batteries back then. It was humiliating, because the entire town knew exactly what had happened. A social b.u.t.terfly like Amy d.i.c.kson who had no job and a grandfather who was totally loaded would always look better when lined up next to me.

The bad part was that Trevor had flirted with me and told me they had broken up. I fell harder than I ever had before. Score one for the bulls.h.i.+t artist. When I did finally find out he was still seeing Amy, I hunted him down at Joe's Bar and Grill and slammed my right fist into his chin in front of every single person there. Broke two fingers doing it, too.

I felt a s.h.i.+ver of revulsion streak through me when I saw Trevor glance over. Instead of taking his bait, I ignored him. Out of respect for Roxanne, I decided to be a good girl. I quietly finished my lunch, wiped my mouth, paid my bill and left.

Oh, so that is what it means to turn the other cheek, I thought as I walked out to my truck. It did not feel nearly as good as the alternative, but I figured that at least I would not cause any further gossip. The truck started with a low rumble and I turned for home, noticing Trevor in my rearview mirror standing outside the cafe watching me leave.

I grinned and turned up the radio.

Chapter Three.

A few nights later after getting ready for bed, I slid the journal off my nightstand and read the first few pages. It all seemed so cryptic and foreign to me. It was not even in my father's handwriting.

July 16, 1945 This is a burden I wouldn't wish on anyone else, but I suppose it is a position that has always been mine to fill. Just as my father before me and his father and so on. It's been a startling and frightening thing, being responsible for this. Until my father showed me the stones in the meadow and I met one of the dark ones, I had no idea. How could I have guessed that any of this was even possible? I had imagined them to be part of some ghastly fairy tales. Certainly not what they really are. Victoria was not here under orders. She was a voluntary guest. My father says that there may be some of them that will be detained here against their will. He warned me that it would be dangerous. I hope that the Council does not send any here. Running the farm is difficult enough without dealing with vampires.

Vampires? I read it again to make sure I had not been mistaken. There it was, though. It was very clear, in black and white. Who had written this? Why had my father had this journal and pa.s.sed it to me? I was not sure I wanted to read any more.

I stared at the fading yellow paint covering my bedroom walls and ran my fingers over the text in the journal. Vampires did not really exist. This journal had to be a joke. I found myself turning the page to the next entry, curiosity overwhelming me.

September 2, 1945 They've sent one. A detainee. His name is Michael. They haven't said what he's accused of doing, but after speaking with him briefly in the meadow, I get the feeling he's very dangerous. Seems to be an arrogant son of a b.i.t.c.h as well. They have a.s.sured me that I am protected. He can't harm me. But if anyone else were to come into the meadow, they may be at risk. I'll need to put up a fence. That d.a.m.ned bloodsucker has been giving me nightmares, too.

Suddenly, I felt completely frustrated and knew I needed to talk to Alex. He knew more than he was telling me and I had to know for sure that whoever wrote this stuff was crazy. Not that I really believed any of it at this point. I grabbed a jacket from my closet, pulled it on over my flannel pajamas, slid the journal inside the jacket, and headed down to the creek cabin.

The moon was just a tiny crescent, barely giving me enough light to make my way down the stone path. In the direction of the creek, I saw a dim light through one of the dingy windows of the cabin. I wondered if it was too late to disturb him until I heard the sound of the little TV Joe had let him borrow spouting out the late-night local news in the background.

Instead of knocking, I opened the door and went in without an invitation. Alex was sprawled on the tiny twin-sized bed in just a pair of pajama pants, his eyes wide with confusion as I approached. I pulled the journal out of the pocket and tossed it on his lap, trying not to notice the way the hard planes of his chest and abdomen glowed in the light from the lamp by his bed.

"What the h.e.l.l is this about?" I flung out at him.

He looked down at the journal on his lap. When he realized what it was, he quickly grabbed it up and began to flip through the pages. His eyes scanned the first few entries before he even glanced up at me.

"How much have you read?" he inquired.

"Enough to know that whoever wrote this is certifiably insane. My question to you is what was my dad doing with this? What's the angle?" I was furious, confused, and nearly panting.

He did not answer right away. The pages had him mesmerized, and he seemed to be reading them incredibly fast. After a few minutes, he looked up at me again with an ironic half smile.

"Sounds kind of crazy, doesn't it?"

"Kind of crazy?" I shot back. I grabbed the TV remote and hit the mute b.u.t.ton so I could concentrate. I threw the remote back down on the folding table he was using as a nightstand and glared at him.

"Alex, what is going on? Who wrote this?"

That smile was still there as he delivered the answer. "Your grandfather, believe it or not."

"My grandfather? Really?"

My grandfather, Jonathon Wood, had died in 1974, years before I had even been born. I knew almost nothing about him. My father had never revealed much about the man other than he had been a hard taskmaster back when the Inn was just a working farm and that he had a drinking problem. After reading the first two entries of his journal, it was not hard to imagine the man had some issues.

But vampires? No way, I thought. It was a ridiculous idea. Alex pulled a T-s.h.i.+rt from the bottom of the bed and tugged it on over his bare torso, yawning in the process as if I had bored him with all this drama. He left the journal open on the table by his bed and settled back against his pillow.

"He wasn't crazy. It's all true," he said.

I searched his face for some sign of a joke. A crinkle of his beautiful eyes, a twist of his lips. Nothing but resignation registered on his face. He sighed and regarded me with an expression that seemed almost apologetic.

"There's no such thing as vampires. I'm not a complete idiot, Alex. Maybe he was just making up stories . But there's no way that journal is based on fact. Give me a break." I crossed my arms and glared at him.

"Selena was counting on you to react like this." He reached back over to the table and picked up a cell phone. He scrolled through it, pulled up a number, and handed me the phone.

"She wanted to talk to you once you learned the truth."

I stared at the phone, uncomprehendingly. Now my mother wanted to talk? She did not bother to call after my father's death to offer any consolation, but now she wanted to talk. Oh, h.e.l.l no. I huffed and grabbed the journal from the table, sticking it back inside my jacket.

"Tell her to kiss my a.s.s." I grumbled, turning away and heading to the door.

Before I even had my hand on the k.n.o.b, I felt his presence close behind me, warming the skin on the back of my neck, and sending odd little s.h.i.+vers down my spine. I did not turn around.

His breath tickled the hairs at the nape of my neck, "I can understand your anger. She should have come forward a long time ago, but she didn't think you would understand it, Sarah."

Shaking off the disconcerting affect he had on me, I opened the door and left, leaving the door open behind me. I started walking, not looking back, but knowing he would still be standing there in the open doorway, watching.

It did not matter. I just wanted to escape. I felt like the world I had grown up in was suddenly falling down around me like some ancient relic, bursting into gray ash and tiny pebbles. I walked without thinking where I was going. My feet moved forward as my brain buzzed with questions and accusations against the woman who had abandoned me.

My grandfather had been mistaken . Vampires were a myth from the dark ages that Hollywood used to make money. I'd read some of the books, of course. I was not immune to the idea of it. However, that was all it was-an idea. They were just stories written to scare people who were into that kind of thing. Alternatively, they were cleverly written teen romances involving vampires as well as werewolves. I preferred that kind. Nevertheless, I knew better than to imagine any of it to be real. I was too old to believe in fairy tales, monsters, and magic.

Looking around, I suddenly realized I had walked farther than I had intended. Although most of the landscape surrounding me was blanketed in darkness, I could make out the sound of a stream gurgling and three huge white shapes in the field before me.

I was in the meadow. Panic pushed through me in waves and my heart began beating savagely inside my chest. No. Not here. I turned blindly to make my way back in the direction of the main house. That is when I heard the voice.

"Ah, Sarah."

The voice echoed around me, unfamiliar and oddly seductive. The voice of a man. It was endlessly alluring, smooth and sent little hot shocks up my spine. However, I could feel the dangerous undertones, the hint of deception as my brain tried to process the way my body was reacting.

"Who's there?" I called cautiously, glancing around. Fear congealed in my gut, rendering my legs and arms powerless. Whoever was calling me seemed to know me on a deeper level than I thought possible. It terrified me. There was a complete and deadening silence in the surrounding trees. A nothingness that brought my fear to a heart-stopping crescendo.

I waited and looked over the boulders in the dim moonlight. I was reminded of the last vision I had had when I had touched Alex. The woman in the meadow waiting expectantly. However, there had been no fear in her as I felt now. Only antic.i.p.ation. What had she been waiting for? Who? Why hadn't she been afraid?

It was then that I saw a figure step out from behind one of the boulders. His movements were as fluid and graceful as a jungle cat. He paused for a moment and then leaned back against one of the boulders, crossing his arms. I could not make out his features in the darkness, only the carefree stance and powerful build. Even without the validation of physically seeing his eyes, I felt them on me just as I felt the ground beneath my feet and the ragged breaths coming in and out of my chest.

Then he spoke.

"At last." There was a breath of a sigh and I thought I saw his lips curve upward in an ironic smile. "My dearest Sarah." Again, that same melodic voice captured my attention .

I found the power in my limbs suddenly and moved toward him, nearly desperate to see his face, "Who are you?"

"I'm sorry. I should have introduced myself." He chuckled darkly, "I am Michael."

Chapter Four.

So this was the one who had been sent against his will for bad behavior. Acknowledging that fact would force me to admit that the whole idea of vampires could be real. I shook myself mentally, still trying to deny the truth that was, quite literally, staring me in the face.

I straightened and raised my chin an inch before I replied.

"Why are you here?" I asked coldly, my chilling tone giving me courage in the face of this unbelievable scenario. I tried to steady my breath, drawing in slow, deep gulps of the cool night air.

He moved. It was a flash in the moonlight, a blur of motion like I had never witnessed. No human had the capacity to move like that. When I found myself face-to-face with him there in the meadow, I knew without a doubt that the journal was authentic. I knew that my grandfather had not been crazy after all.

Because a foot away from me stood a vampire.

My denial had reached its end.

Closer now, I could see the details I had missed before. His body was a solid ma.s.s of muscle, garbed in black jeans and a black V-neck T-s.h.i.+rt that emphasized the size of his biceps. The human-looking frame and face might have brought my disbelief back in a tidal wave if it were not for the eyes. The contrast between his dark slanting eyebrows and pale blue eyes was inhuman. The sardonic half smirk of his hard-looking mouth revealed the nature of the creature before me was far from friendly.

"Why am I here?" He tilted his head slightly and raised a hand to rub his chin. "Hmm. Let me think." Snapping his fingers suddenly, he brightened up and stated sarcastically, "Oh yes! Now I remember. I've been imprisoned here." I watched him move casually away, his dark boots treading quietly in the nighttime stillness. "Either you're not the brightest bulb in the room, or you haven't read the journal yet. Which is it?"

I have had to deal with smarta.s.s people in my past, but considering his position in the world and my inept.i.tude when it came to vampires, I was a little shocked. I waded through my confusion as quickly as I could and recalled my grandfather's words about how he could not be harmed. It was a leap of faith to a.s.sume that applied to me as well, but I was not about to let him get the upper hand.

"My question had more to do with why you were locked up here in the first place. But honestly, it doesn't matter much to me. I'm sure the Council had their reasons." I met his stare calmly when he turned back to me.

"Their reasons," he spat out. "Yes, they certainly did have their reasons." His eyes narrowed suddenly in surprise and he lifted his face, sniffing at the air. The entire posture of his body changed. I watched as his lazy arrogant stance was transformed into a cautionary half-crouch, his startling eyes bright against the pale surface of his elegant face.

"Sarah." A firm male voice came at me from behind. I turned my head to see Alex standing in the field in his pajama pants and t-s.h.i.+rt, his eyes dark and brooding.

His eyes skipped over to Michael and then back to me urgently, "It's better if you don't talk to him."

"Do my eyes deceive me?" Michael's voice was like a blade slicing through the night and then he laughed without humor. "What a wonderful coincidence. I was just about to explain to my new warden the extent of my crimes. It will be helpful to have a witness who was there to back me up, Alex."

Alex remained silent and did not move forward. I turned back to Michael, realization flas.h.i.+ng across my face like a bitter wind. "You know each other?"

"Indeed, my dear." Michael had relaxed visibly, crossing his arms, and falling back into a carefree demeanor that did not seem to flow all the way up to his eyes.