One Immortal - Tia Louise Page 0,83
go back into that living room and try to stall my death, hoping she’ll say whatever Derek needs to hear. I don’t even know where to begin.
He gives me a warm grin, and it’s like a shot of drugs. I smile through my fear and start to move. Maybe whatever he’s hoping she’ll say is the key to us being together. He’s here in my house, after all. That’s a huge step forward. Derek’s a vampire now. If she tries to hurt me, I have to believe he’s fast enough to stop her.
On jelly legs I walk back into the living room, my trust in him my only strength.
When she sees me, her monster-face twists. “I thought you were getting wine.”
“Ahh…” Looking down, I wring my fingers. “No corkscrew.”
She doesn’t believe me. “You were in there a long time to come back empty handed.”
Faster than I can see, she’s across the room, gripping my upper arms and jerking my body to hers. A little yelp of pain escapes me at her sudden attack. Her grip is like the Jaws of Life, and I know with cold certainty she could snap my neck before the scream left my lips.
“That’s right, princess.” Her nose almost touches mine. “Fear me.”
I’m breathing fast, fumbling for anything to help Derek. “What do you want?”
“We already discussed this.” She throws me onto the sofa so hard it scratches across the floor.
She can hear my heart beating wildly, I know. Derek can hear it as well. I only pray she doesn’t do something he can’t anticipate.
Trying again, I ask. “But why do you want to hurt Derek?”
Climbing onto the sofa, she grabs my hands. “Let me tell you a little story.” Stretching my arms out, she studies the network of blue veins on my wrists. For a moment every muscle in my body tenses, anticipating her bite.
“The scene is seven years ago, Princeton.” She releases me, and I start to breathe again. “You were likely graduating college. I was lamenting turning three hundred.”
Blinking fast, I ponder her statement. Three hundred… she’s very strong. Princeton… I’ve never been there, but it’s where Derek lives. Derek is in my kitchen.
“It was vanity, but alas, I’m a vampire. We’re vain creatures. Remember?”
Her green eyes fix on mine, and with a little gleam my heart stops. She knows I was a hybrid. Her visit isn’t only about Derek. It’s also about Sloan.
Eye-contact broken, she rises from the couch and promenades across my living room in her green dress with her red hair swaying down her back as if she’s on stage.
“I’d never fallen in love.” She pauses at my end table lifting a picture of my mother and me on the beach. “I was alone for eternity. I was about to give up and fade away…”
The clock ticks softly as I wait. Finally, “And?”
“I met him.”
“S-Sloan Reynolds?” My voice is small. I’ve met Sloan’s maker.
Her head jerks around to me. “No. That came later.”
“I don’t understand.” I’m shaking my head. “If not Sloan…”
“Andre was beautiful. Elegant. French.” Her eyes close as if she’s remembering. “He was a DJ, and his music entranced me. I wanted to dance all night to it.”
Vampires are easily distracted, I think. All emotions.
“What happened to him?”
She looks at me as if I’m stupid. “I turned him, of course. We had only just begun our legacy of love… running through the woods, killing at random, pouring their blood on us as we writhed in ecstasy. Did you have sex as a vampire?”
The question catches me off-guard. “Yes,” I say softly.
“Then you know.” Again she circles my living room. “We were in heaven for six glorious months. Six unbelievable months…” She stops, and her voice fills with sadness. “In the span of three hundred years, it was like a whisper on the wind.”
She’s quiet for so long, I begin to wonder if she’s forgotten why she’s here. “What happened?”
In a flash, she’s sitting on me. I scream as she straddles my lap, her hands on my neck, her eyes flashing fire straight into mine. “They MURDERED him! Your fucking great white hunter gunned him down like a dog in the night.”
Struggling for air, I twist beneath her weight. She has me pinned, but she relaxes her stranglehold on my throat. Lowering to my face, she smiles. “Don’t feel sorry for me. I killed his first love. Now I’ll kill his second.”
Her eyes widen hideously, and her mouth opens allowing her fangs to stretch long and pointed. A scream