The Vampire's Consort (Undead in Brown County) Page 2

  “I’ll return early tomorrow evening to take them to the airport,” Teddy said. Then she turned briskly away with her narrow chin up, descended the stairs of the porch, and got into her dark SUV.

  Sam and Michael watched her drive away. The red lights faded and then disappeared over a hill in the road. Sam released Michael’s waist and looked up at him with solemn blue eyes.

  “Would you really do it? Become a vampire again?”

  His voice wavered when he answered her. “I don’t know.”

  “Anne won’t go with her, Michael.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She told me that if Teddy ever came back for us, she would run. And that we might never see each other again.”

  He shook his head. “No, Sam. She wouldn’t do that.”

  “She was serious. When Teddy leaves tomorrow, she’ll only have me. Anne will be gone. She may be gone already. We’ve talked about what might happen, Michael. Anne refuses to do anything further for Teddy or the council. After being here with you and Sarah, she doesn’t want any part of the life we used to live. It will hurt her terribly to leave, but believe me when I tell you—she will be gone by the time Teddy gets here tomorrow night.”

  Michael knew that if he was still a vampire, he could easily track Anne if she ran away. He could follow her and try to get her to see reason. He could reassure her that he would never let her be used as a spy or a royal replacement. But, he couldn’t do that as a man.

  The wind was picking up. Sam watched as it whistled through green summer growth and picked up bits of leaves left over from the fall season, scattering them across the clearing in front of the quiet cabin. Then she turned away and went inside the cabin.

  Michael stood alone on the porch and contemplated the question of his own mortality, turning the possibilities over and over again in his head and trying not to wonder what would become of Sarah if he were a vampire again.

  He loved being with Sarah. She made everyday activities into games. She made him laugh so hard sometimes that tears seeped out of his eyes. She was an incredible mother to the girls. The four of them had blended together into a united family. How could he allow Teddy to take them and shove them right back into the world of vampire politics and head games? He wanted the girls to remain with him. But, what kind of protection could he provide as a mere mortal man?

  For forty-three minutes, Michael stood there. His clear blue eyes skipped from the waving treetop branches up into the vast ocean of a brilliantly illuminated starry sky. His breath hitched harshly in his throat, burning inside him. Oh, Sarah. God forgive me.

  Before he went back inside, he stopped in front of the oak door and used his shirtsleeve to wipe the moisture away from his eyes. He looked at the damp spots on his sleeve with a kind of wonder. His first tears as a human in this modern world. Whatever happened next was going to break hearts and he hated that he had to be the one to make that decision.

  Chapter 2

  Inside the cabin, Sarah slept fitfully in the bed she had shared with Michael for over a year. She had trouble staying asleep when he wasn’t there with his arm around her waist and his warm breath in her ear. His presence brought her the kind of peace she’d been searching for since her father had died.

  Sarah Wood was twenty-five years old. She lived a comfortable life. Her cabin deep in the woods of southern Indiana kept the bitter, sometimes painful memories of her parents at bay. It was a fresh start; one that she needed badly.

  The cabin floors creaked and the front screen door was excessively noisy. Sometimes the water heater in the utility room went out of commission and left the cabin’s inhabitants with only cold water for showers. There were water stains on the ceiling in the girls’ room where the roof had leaked. Michael had fixed the leak, but had never gotten around to replacing the drywall.

  It didn’t matter to Sarah. She knew that when she rounded a corner of the cabin, she wouldn’t remember her father ever being there. She wouldn’t have to push through the pain in order get through her day. When she replaced the sheets on her bed, she didn’t have to fight against memories of the bad things that had happened in the bedroom of the house where she had grown up.

  She didn’t have to see anything painful. This home was all new to her. There might have been things she missed about her childhood home—perhaps her father’s clock that always sat on the mantle in the parlor. She could recall with total clarity the sounds it made. Now she kept the time with a cell phone or a digital display on her microwave in the kitchen.

  Sarah had managed to forge a new cocoon for herself that didn’t include very much influence from the outside world. It was a warm happy little home that kept the people she loved the most close to her.

  Michael, Sam and Anne were her world. Nelly came often to visit. She adored the girls and was pleased to spend as much time with them as possible. When Michael and Sarah needed some alone time, Nelly would have the girls spend the night at her little brick bungalow in Greenwood.

  This security brought out a side of Sarah that most had never seen before. Instead of avoiding acquaintances when she went to town, she was more likely to stop and ask them about their family. The smile on her face while chatting with them was obviously genuine and they responded well to the changes they saw. Her laugh was bubbly and fresh to any ear that might hear it.

  She was half asleep when she heard the screen door downstairs open and close. Once, then again. She listened closely to hear the turning of the deadbolt turn with a squeal. A few moments later, there came a light tapping at the bedroom door.

  “Sarah?”

  It was Sam.

  “Come in, honey.”

  Her adopted daughter came into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. Sarah reached over and turned on the lamp on her nightstand. When she saw the dejected expression on the child’s face, she frowned.

  “Sweetie, what’s wrong?”

  It was rare to see such sadness in the eyes of Sam. She wasn’t exactly crying, but Sarah had a feeling she was close to doing so. She wrapped her arms around the little girl and held her for a few moments, smoothing back Sam’s silky blond hair with one hand.

  “Can you tell me what’s bothering you?”

  “Teddy was just here.”

  Michael appeared in the bedroom doorway. “Sam, come here. Let me talk to you for a few minutes.”

  Sarah let her go to Michael and settled back against the pillows. “Michael, is everything okay?”

  “It will be. I’ll explain everything. Just let me get her settled.”

  He guided Sam out into the hall. “How about a cup of hot chocolate?”

  Sarah sat back against the plump pillows and watched as the light from the hallway narrowed slowly as the door closed. She didn’t feel right. She knew that they were both keeping something from her. Sliding her lean legs over the bed, she rose and drew on a peach satin robe that she’d draped on the bench at the foot of their bed.

  As carefully as possible, she opened the bedroom door and tiptoed down the hall. She wasn’t above eavesdropping if it involved the ones she loved. Nobody was perfect. If something was really bothering Sam, she wanted to know what it was. She had a right to know.

  Downstairs, Michael pulled two packages of hot cocoa out of the pantry. Sam sat at the kitchen table. She watched him fill two mugs with water and put them in the microwave.

  As the water was heating, he turned to her.

  “I don’t want this any more than you do.”

  He took a box of tissues from the kitchen counter and brought it over to her.

  “If you need to cry, let it go, Sam. I can tell you’re almost at that point.”

  She pulled four tissues from the box. They both turned as Anne entered the room from the adjoining den. Anne’s short curly dark hair was messy. She had red streaks running down her soft cheeks. Michael noticed and nodded towards one of the other chairs. “Sit down, Annie.”

  He found a soft white cloth under the sink. Whi
le he was wetting it down under the faucet, he studied Anne.

  Will she run?

  The microwave beeped three times. Michael took the cups out and stirred the hot chocolate mixture into the water. He kept a steady gaze on Anne. She was who he was truly worried about. She was the stubborn one. She didn’t cut corners, she never left a project unfinished, and she never changed her mind; especially when Teddy was involved.

  Michael put Sam’s mug down and then put the other one in front of Anne. He kneeled beside her and began cleaning the blood tears off her face with gentle patience. He saw something in that expression that said to him: I’m ready to fly. He stood and leaned back against the kitchen counter. “Sam tells me you won’t be here in the morning.”

  “Tattle tale!” Anne hissed.

  Michael frowned at her.

  “She did the right thing by telling me. We would have all been very concerned about you, Annie.”

  “What is going on with you guys?” Sarah asked, as she walked into the kitchen with her eyes blazing and her peach satin glowing eerily in the low light.

  “What don’t I know?”

  The girls both looked away from her. Michael sighed and reached out a hand. He wanted to gather her up and hold her before she heard what was coming. She was having none of that. She smacked his hand away.

  “No. You tell me what the hell is happening. Now.”

  None of them wanted to say the words. They knew that the Sarah they loved would be transformed into someone else. There would be anger, denial, rage, threats, and probably several broken dishes. Whenever Sarah was confronted with loss, the temper she was famous for quickly made its appearance. But, she’d lost nothing from the moment these three amazing people became her own immediate family.

  Michael took a calming breath and turned to the girls. “Sam, call Nelly and ask her if you and your sister can spend the night in Greenwood.”

  “Good idea,” Anne whispered.

  Sarah threw up her hands. “Why? Tell me what’s happened!”

  “I will tell you everything tonight, Sarah. But the girls need to go with Nelly,” Michael answered gently. “I won’t say a word about any of it until you are totally relaxed.”

  Sarah gazed with soulful blue eyes at Sam and Anne; they had become her daughters over the past year. When they were hurting, she was hurting. She was fiercely protective. Not knowing the reason for their current heartache was incredibly hard for her to bear.

  Sarah looked at Michael. There was an uncommon level of trust between the two of them. They had suffered. Unquestionably. They had fought against ancient enemies and forces unseen. Not only had they survived, but they’d also managed to hold onto each other throughout that tremulous period in their lives.

  Sarah thought of all this as she stood in her little kitchen with her own little family. She knew that trusting Michael was essential to holding onto her peace of mind. It was her faith in his love that meant everything.

  He took one of her hands and brought it up to his firm lips in a gentle kiss. “Alright?”

  Tears were beginning to glisten in the corners of her eyes. but she nodded and tried to smile.

  Trust in the fact that he loves you, Sarah told herself.

  Chapter 3

  It was late. Nelly had picked up the girls and Sarah was on the front porch swing, wrapped in a thick red afghan from the den. Nelly had picked it up at a little shop in town and said it reminded her of one that Sarah’s father had at one time. It was the first blanket she always grabbed if she was going to sit outside. She believed that the spirit of her father was close when the afghan was wrapped around her. It wasn’t his blanket, but it was the only thing she had to remind her of the man who had raised her.

  There was really nothing left after the fire. It had seemed so strange when her sister showed her the journal with the blackened cover. Katie had given it to her the day after Michael had gone with her sister to see if anything was left. Sarah couldn’t really bring herself to go back.

  Sadie had been missing, but turned up wandering the front yard of Mike and Roxanne’s house, where Sarah had been staying since the fire. The horses were found in a cornfield three miles from the house. Whiskers, Sarah’s arrogant housecat, had not been found anywhere. Michael couldn’t be very unhappy at that. He and the cat had never bonded the way he had with the huge golden retriever. Michael had made a serious effort at befriending the dog, with good reason. Of course, Sarah was not aware a shapeshifter had been watching over her for years and had been hiding behind the soulful brown eyes of a dear family pet.

  A year before he passed away, Sarah’s father had invited the creature onto the property. Michael had been awake that night, like so many other nights. He was in the old cowshed, sanding down a large table he had been building when he heard a dog bark. Robert’s only dog had been a Springer Spaniel named Luther who died several years earlier.

  The shapeshifter’s particular scent wasn’t completely unfamiliar to Michael’s distinguishing nose. But, there was no indication the shifter wanted to communicate with anyone. Sarah was thrilled, of course. She’d wanted another dog for years. Robert didn’t tell his daughter about the true nature of their new pet, but he knew what it was and had made a deal with the damn thing, as Michael had discovered later.

  When the man brought his daughter, Katie’s cell phone out to the horse barn to show Michael how it worked, he wasn’t thinking about the possibility of the vampire getting in touch with someone. How likely would it be for Michael to actually get in touch with someone he knew from his past?

  So when Robert turned to fill up the feed buckets in the horses’ stalls, Michael spent two minutes exploring all the features available. He didn’t understand the messaging very well, but he found the search button and punched in the letters from the name of a female vampire he had known for many years. A screen popped up with advertisements and in the center was the name of his most trusted friend. Victoria.

  He memorized the phone number. If he could somehow get access to one of the cell phones in the Inn, he could use it then. But it was more likely every day that he would have no such chance. Robert had been gone for two months. The Inn stopped accepting reservations. Nelly and the older girl, Sarah, would sit out on the front porch on some evenings and talk about the sudden decline in Robert’s health. They had been told about the cancer finally. But the girls were angry that he wouldn’t consent to chemo or radiation treatment. Even the younger sister drove home from college during a regular school week to be there when the oncologist finally gave them the results of Robert’s MRI’s and blood counts. The younger one was Katie. She stayed only a day or so after the funeral and went back to school, leaving the housekeeper and her sister to handle the running of the family business.

  The woodworking had started out innocently enough. Michael was going to build a bird feeder for the cardinals that so fascinated him. Feathers the color of blood. Black eyes patches. There was an eerie realization when he considered the juxtaposition between those little red birds and himself.

  Sarah sighed.

  She listened to the night sounds that had become so ingrained in her memories. A pair of owls was in the trees to the east, calling back and forth to each other in their somber tones. It made her feel sad for some indefinable reason. The cicadas were wildly loud, filling the night with their endless chirping. Sarah swatted at a mosquito that had landed on her wrist. The body of the insect had been filled with blood and left the bright red remains of its dinner on her skin.

  She heard the front door open and the noisy squeak of the screen door as Michael came out. He handed her a hot cup of raspberry tea and leaned against the porch railing. When his eyes found hers in the darkness, she felt a chill travel through her. It started as a prickly feeling in her shoulders and began to drift downwards, leaving each part of her entirely frigid.

  “Michael, what’s wrong?” She didn’t really want to know. Not really. It was obvious from the look on his face. Teddy had b
een there earlier and now Michael was very disturbed. The totality of it rose up like angry storm clouds in his eyes, turning their color to steel gray.

  “She wants the girls back.” He began to move across the porch in slow deliberate strides with his eyes locked to the ground.

  “You and I talked about this before. We knew it wasn’t just possible, but likely.”

  Sarah put her teacup down on the porch rail and unwrapped herself from the blanket.

  “Yes. We knew. Teddy probably thought it was going to be like going to camp or something for them.”

  “That’s what I thought as well, when she first told me she was going to let them stay. It wasn’t just getting back to nature for them or for us.”

  Her eyes were huge in her pale face as she went to him. Michael held Sarah gently with arms that did not have the power to keep this particular hurt from her.

  “Why can’t she understand what she’s forcing them to give up?”

  Michael moved his fingers through her soft wavy hair, smoothing it down against her back as he went on. “She never had that. Teddy grew up just trying to survive. Even after she married, she never found the kind of happiness that we have here. The whole concept of it is foreign to her, Sarah.”

  “And vampire business comes first,” she whispered with her cheek against his chest.

  “Unfortunately, yes.”

  She leaned back a little to look into his face. There was more he hadn’t said. “What else? I know you. You’re holding something back.”

  He sighed. The sound of it rolled through his chest where Sarah felt every vibration. When he spoke, his voice was heavy with mourning. It sent another chill through Sarah’s body. “I’m going to have to go with them, my love.”

  Her heart felt as though it were being pried from her chest. “Just you?”