B007XKEWAE EBOK (36 page)

Persephone had been backed up against a wall when she said, "Can't I share some of yours?"

"I told you, you have to do these things for yourself."

Fulton ignored the desperate look she gave him and roughly grabbed the back of her top catching a handful of her skin at the same time. "Now get out there and get yourself something else to eat."

He pushed her back towards the main road. She started to turn to look back at him but he turned his own back on her first and went over to the woman where he proceeded to feed. He could tell that Persephone was still watching him but he gave no indication of it nor did he invite her to have some.

At last he heard her footsteps retreating back to the main road.

"So that's how you've decided to deal with this by taking it all out on that poor girl. A poor girl who you turned and forced into this lifestyle." Pseudo-Fulton
appeared from behind Fulton shaking his head.

"I never forced her into this, she wanted me to turn her," Fulton retorted.

"You told her yourself that she didn't understand what it meant, what it
really
meant, to be a vampire. But
you
did.
You
knew she wouldn't have wanted it if she knew the truth about what being a vampire would be like. But you went ahead and did it anyway. Not for her but for yourself because you wanted to pretend she was Gabriella. And
she
would belong to you."

"I've admitted what I feel for Gabriella," Fulton said. "We've agreed we need to talk things through."

"Ooh, you're going to talk things through. How exciting," Pseudo-Fulton mocked him. "Fat lot of good that does
that girl out there whatever decision you two wind up making. Not that it's likely that you'll be able to come to a decision. It's taken this long for the two of you to admit to having feelings to each other. How much longer do you think it is going to take before either of you has the courage to admit it to Francesca?"

"I feel like I'm stuck in one of those cartoons where the main character is advised by a good version of himself dressed as an angel and a bad one dressed as a devil. You used to come as me as the devil version but now you've started appearing as the crappy little angel. Why can't both versions appear at the same time? I'd love to watch you kick the shit out of yourself."

"Both versions do appear at the same time, and you've already tried the
shit kicking without success," Pseudo- Fulton said. "And if I'm the angel this time," he paused purposefully, "What does that make you?"

Persephone was upstairs in their room again, sulking about the way Fulton had been treating her and how her new life wasn't living up to her expectations. Francesca was upstairs asleep after having made love to Gabriella, who had fumbled over the words she used to tell Fulton about it. This meant they were alone with only a minimal risk of being interrupted. They had the television set on giving out a low drone to disguise the sound of their voices, but not so loud that
they could miss anyone coming down from upstairs.

Now that they had this time together it seemed that neither one was willing to make the first move and put into words what they were each thinking. They sat there intently staring at the floor, the ceiling, the T.V without really seeing it. Anything as long as they didn't look at each other.

Fulton was the first to give in and turn his eyes on Gabriella. She continued to resist and continued to rigidly look at anything but him. Fulton just sat and stared at her, able to look at her and admit his feelings to himself but finding it impossible to find the words, or the courage, to relay them to her.

When Gabriella gave in as well and regarded him Fulton noted the stress she
wore around her eyes. However hard it was for him to admit to himself that he wanted to be with her and her alone it would be infinitely harder for Gabriella to do the same. Francesca's hold on Fulton was strong and he couldn't imagine betraying her with Gabriella, but her hold on Gabriella would be much stronger having been cemented over two and a half centuries.

"I think I love you."

Even though she had to break eye contact, Fulton was impressed with the strength of will that let her utter those words to him.

He put his hand under her chin and lifted her head back up to face him. "I love you as well."

Almost as if speaking those words had broken the chains holding him to
silence Fulton found himself continuing. "I love you as I thought I never could after being turned."

Gabriella looked relieved. "I thought that was just me. When I was turned I thought that love had ceased to be a part of my life. That what I had with Francesca was as close as I was able to get anymore."

"Exactly," Fulton agreed. "I was willing to accept that I could never feel love and that Francesca's passion was all I could hope for, but then I found myself falling in love with you."

"And I with you," Gabriella said. "That was why I was so hard on you. I thought that if I kept you at a distance the feelings would go away. Can you forgive me for how I treated you?" She looked
terrified that Fulton would be unable to do so.

"Of course I can. But I am the one that should be begging your forgiveness. You tried to reject me to protect yourself, a completely natural reaction as far as I'm concerned, what I did was unforgivable."

This time it was Fulton who had to break contact with Gabriella. "I took a poor confused girl and turned her into one of us as a poor substitute for having you."

Gabriella mirrored his earlier gesture, cupping her hand under his chin to bring him back to face her. "I can forgive you that. I can forgive you anything." She hesitated. "But that is the problem. What can we do to keep from hurting them? Even though I know now
that what I have with Francesca isn't a patch on what we could share I still couldn't bear causing her harm."

"That's the crux of the matter," Fulton agreed. "How can we be true to ourselves and not hurt Persephone and especially Francesca?"

They sat in contemplative silence.

"It can't be done," Gabriella said at last. "It's like the irresistible force pitted against the immovable object. Something has to give."

Tears had welled up in her eyes as she spoke and now the flooded forth. Fulton took her in a tender embrace and let her release her tears on him. "It's an impossible choice," she mumbled after her crying ceased, but she made no move to be freed from his arms.

"I know how I would choose," Fulton said quietly speaking into her hair. "Trying to pretend I don't have feelings for you has made me insane. Literally," he added thinking about the re-emergence of Pseudo-Fulton.

"I know how I want to choose as well," Gabriella said. "But I have been with Francesca for so long. And there is some bond that we have that I don't know if I have the strength to break."

"Then I will give you the time you need to gather that strength," he replied. "I don't want to push you into this until you are ready."

Now Gabriella pushed herself out of his embrace. "Thank you." She tilted her head towards him so their lips met for only the second time.

Francesca woke to find Gabriella's side of the bed empty. A look at the clock on the dressing table told her that she had been asleep for a little under two hours. She could smell and hear Persephone in Fulton's room still cursing and muttering to herself. That girl could really throw a marathon sulking session. If she wasn't so whiny all the time she could be very attractive. Francesca had to give Fulton credit for picking a good-looking plaything. But it didn't sound or smell as though Fulton was in there enjoying his plaything at the moment.

Francesca got out of her bed and dressed herself in her sheer dressing gown. When she stepped outside the bedroom she could just make out the sounds of the television coming from down the stairs. She kept meaning to
have a talk with Gabriella and Fulton about how much time they spent in front of that thing. Judging from the additional voices she could hear both of her lovers were watching at that moment. Francesca decided that now was the perfect time to have that talk.

Padding down the stairs as quietly as only a vampire was able she approached the living room door. She listened to see what type of program they were immersed in. It sounded like one of those talk shows were supposedly ordinary members of the public went on to air their dirty laundry. They had some of the most dysfunctional groups of people on those shows. So dysfunctional that they would make Francesca's little family look like a normal human family by comparison.

Running alongside the noise of the chat show was the constant sound of Fulton and Gabriella talking. Francesca listened as their conversation progressed and her ire rose. They planned to betray her. At least Fulton did and he was convincing Gabriella to go along with him.

She should have known this would happen. Hadn't Gabriella herself told her that the larger a group became the more the risk of betrayal by the members of that group? Gabriella had almost begged her to just let it be the two of them, but Francesca had gone ahead and included Fulton in their family. Then Fulton had gone and taken it upon himself to introduce a new member, and as if   that wasn't enough he was going to steal Gabriella away from her.

Well now Francesca understood what Gabriella had been trying to tell her, and better late than never. But now she had to fix this. She reached out to take hold of the door handle. But no, she couldn't be sure that she could best Fulton in a fair physical confrontation. She would have to be devious in this and make Fulton sunder himself from Gabriella.

The seeds of a plan took root in Francesca's mind. It would have to be devious and subtle but it would also have to work quickly.

She could live without Fulton but he would not take Gabriella away from her. She released the door handle and padded up the stairs as silently as she had come down. It was time to put the first steps of her plan into motion.

She passed the door to her own bedroom and entered Fulton's room instead. Persephone glanced over from her position curled up on the bed.

"He isn't here."

Francesca ignored the other's icy tone . "I know. He's downstairs plotting with Gabriella." Francesca told her what she had heard.

"I don't believe it," Persephone said. "He loves
me
. I'm the one he chose to turn."

"That could be so," Francesca said. "But he is confused. He treats you badly because of his conflicting feelings."

Persephone regarded Francesca. "Why aren't you angry? You should be livid having them both try to turn against you."

Francesca kept her voice in check. "It is my fault for forcing them to live in such close proximity. I propose to you that we should work together to break them apart."

All the time they had been speaking Francesca had moved closer and closer to the vampire girl. Now her hand was slowly stroking her naked thigh, gradually moving higher and higher up under her night-dress. Her fingers had almost reached their goal when Persephone gasped and pulled away.

"Why should we have to work together? Just take your little tramp and leave me and Fulton alone."

Francesca ignored the insult against Gabriella and moved her hand back to work. "That wouldn't work. We need to
destroy the feelings they have for each other."

Now Francesca's hand did reach the prize it sought and she used her free hand to take one of Persephone's and guide it up between her own legs. "Let me tell you my plan."

It had been a couple of days since Fulton and Gabriella had had their talk, and as promised Fulton was giving her
time to make her decision. As far as either Francesca or Persephone were concerned nothing had changed and life was going on as normal. Fulton acted as though nothing had changed as well but on more than one occasion Gabriella caught him watching her and giving her a smile. Gabriella would return the smile and then try to get back to acting normally.

She must have been doing a better job of it than she thought because Francesca hadn't picked up on the change in her. But it was getting more and more difficult to keep acting normally. It helped that Francesca had taken a trip on the first night after the talk to collect some of the funds she was owed from her earlier trip. But even
space apart from her hadn't made it any easier to come to a decision.

In her heart she knew the choice she wanted to make. She had always known. But she was afraid to act upon it. As soon as things were put into motion there could be no going back.

They were alone again for a few precious moments as Fulton gave Gabriella another lesson in looking after herself. Even though their other partners were both close by in their respective rooms Fulton could imagine that it was already just the two of them. But as he had promised he gave Gabriella space to make her decision and to gather the strength she would need to tell either Fulton or Francesca the outcome of her deliberations.