Bound by Blood (Vampire Romance) (30 page)

About to respond, Lucien stopped and turned toward the window. Again, the sound came, and he knew Caroline heard it too. A sound of distress. The sound made him ill, but he knew it had an entirely different effect on Caroline. Indeed, her eyes gleamed bright with anticipation.

“Adrian.”

Rising from his chair, Lucien stood near Caroline, and followed her gaze out the window. “Who else but Adrian?  I’ve never heard anyone wail quite the way he does when he doesn’t get his way.”

“Adrian does not wail.”

Lucien gave her a tight smile. “Of course he does.”

“He’s frustrated.”

“No doubt.”

“You don’t sound all together approving.” Caroline stepped closer to Lucien, allowing only a few inches of space between them. “But then, I forgot. You have a very modern view. You would rather go to the grocery store than hunt.”

“I hardly think I can find what I need at the supermarket.”

“Close enough.” She ran her hand up his arm. “You’ve ignored me, and the hunt, for too long, Lucien. Come with me tonight. Now.”

One word, one signal from her and he recalled how well she used her voice, and her body, to obtain exactly what she wanted.

He ignored her beckoning. “That’s all behind me.”

“You think so?  You can never deny who you are, Lucien.”

Adrian’s cry came again, sharper this time; closer to town. Unbidden, the woman’s image came again. Quickly, he shifted the direction of his thoughts, concentrating on Caroline and forcing the images of the woman he met earlier to the back of his mind, he turned towards Caroline.

“Sounds like Adrian can use some help.”

“I was to go with him,” Caroline said.

“And you chose to come here instead? I’m flattered.”

“You should be, Lucien. Adrian was not pleased.”

“You told him you chose to come here?  Your honesty overwhelms me, Caroline.”

“Don’t rejoice over my reformation just yet. I told him I would bring you to join us.”

Lucien folded his arms across his chest. “Not in this lifetime, Caroline.”

She chuckled. “There are others.”

“Perhaps.”  He would leave her to draw her own conclusions as to what he would and would not do.

She was gone before he finished the thought.

~*~

With the arrival of a new box of inventory from Christian Sable of Sable’s Auctions the next morning, Althea was determined to check on the new delivery, and locked the door against any early-bird shoppers. Running her fingers over the side of the box, she felt for the opening. Her fingers tingled from the activity.

Placing the square box on the table, she looked over the invoice Sable included. The shipment consisted of the smaller items he seldom dealt with yet were Descendents stock-in-trade.

As she unpacked each item, she checked it against the invoice: the several items she had requested lay on top. There were also a few extra shaving mugs, ornamental hair combs and a variety of trinket boxes.

As she cataloged the items, she lost all sense of time and only her grandfather’s presence alerted her that customers would soon be arriving.

“Don’t you think we have enough stock yet?”

“This’ll probably put us over the top, but some of the items are already spoken for.”

“That’s not what worries me – it’s all this other stuff.”

Althea tried not to snort. She motioned to the box. “This is only a smidgen of the stuff you have stashed away.”

“I’ve had more practice.” He walked over to the table and started examining some of the new arrivals. “Some of these are pretty darn nice,” he said, picking up a hefty, leather-bound volume.
“Ghosts, Vampires, and Other Beings,”
he read the title aloud.

Standing, she peered over his shoulder. “I wonder why he sent it here and not to Folio’s?”

“Probably thought you’d be interested. He knows you’re interested and believe all that stuff.”

“And thanks to the newspapers, everyone else knows it too.” She still smarted over the way the reporters played up her psychic abilities and her beliefs. All she had wanted to do was find that poor little boy. And she could have if his parents had believed her abilities were genuine. If they had come to her earlier, before the neighbors, and before the police and the hounds had been through the area negating most of the boy’s essence, she felt she would have been of more help.

“No use being bitter over it. I told you, people will forget.”

Althea agreed. Taking the book from her grandfather, she laid it on the desk. She would look through it later.

Picking up one of the smaller boxes, her grandfather examined it. “Just look at this velvet. They don’t make….”

“…them like that anymore,” they finished in unison.

“Well, they don’t,” he insisted.

Placing the box carefully on the table, he turned his attention to a somewhat larger box.

“The scroll work is gorgeous,” Althea said, stepping closer to her grandfather to examine the box.

He turned away, not letting her see any more of the box than she already had. “After that last crack, I’m not letting you see anything.”

Althea refrained from rolling her eyes. There were times Grandfather was downright ridiculous. “Fine. Then don’t. I’m going to finish up here and open the store.”

She headed towards the front when her grandfather’s voice stopped her.

“Maybe you better take a look at it.”

“Why? Did you suddenly decide it’s plastic?”

“No.” Her grandfather held the box out to her. “It’s silver all right. Even better than anything they made in my day….”

“That’s a switch,” she muttered.

“…But I can’t get the darn thing open. Is there a key in the packing box somewhere?”

“I didn’t notice. Let me open the store, then I’ll look through this stuff again. It could have fallen out during delivery.”

Running her fingers through her hair to tidy it, she headed to the front, unlocked the door, and flipped the sign to read “open.”

After a few moments, when her grandfather still hadn’t appeared, she walked to the curtain, and stuck her head between the panels, peering into the back room.

Standing where she left him, he turned the box from side to side, examining it.

“Do you plan on helping this morning?”

“You forgetting who’s boss?”

Althea grinned at him. “As if you’d let me forget. Come on, the quicker I get everything done, the quicker I can get back to looking for the key.”

Placing the box carefully on the new-arrival shelf, Tom followed his granddaughter to the front. “I suppose you want me to update the invoices?”

“That would be a big help.”

Still grumbling, he sat at the computer and pulled the top sheet from a stack of papers to him. “I don’t know why I keep a bossy young thing like you on the payroll.”

Althea gave him a quick smile and started dusting. Tom was the only one in the family who gave Althea’s “feelings,” as everyone in the family called them, any credence.

“I’m going to take a break and look for the key,” she said after completing the morning’s work. They both understood that she referred to their mysterious box.

Her grandfather nodded in acknowledgment, while pouring himself a cup of coffee.

Looking through the shipping box again brought the same result as the first time, nothing. Walking over to the shelf, she examined the box more closely. There didn’t appear to be a lock or any type of slot for a key to fit into. Picking it up, feelings of despair immediately assailed her. Gasping in surprise, she returned the box to its place on the shelf. She stared at it for a moment, as if it would declare what actually happened.

Whoever owned the box seemingly inundated it with his or her life force. A force determined to make itself known.

Reaching for the box again, she closed her eyes as she held it in her hands. Prepared this time, the life force didn’t startle her. This time, she willingly received the images as they flashed before her mind’s eye. Vague images only, light and dark, shadowy images that she could barely discern as people; they made little sense to her, but the blackness of their desperation lingered.

Opening her eyes, she gently lifted the lid of the box. To her surprise, it opened easily. Nestled in high quality velvet even her grandfather would approve of, lay a leather-bound book. Even before looking at the title, she was certain this was the book Dr. Marquess searched for.

Amazon:
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Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/57047

Apple:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/soul-guardian/id438870433?mt=11

Author Tara Manderino loves to create stories and situations for the people running around in her head. She first began writing in third grade when she realized she couldn't afford her reading habit.

She writes and is published in a variety of genres and finds that each one is her favorite at the time. Her books are available at a variety of online retailers.

Tara resides in her native town in southwestern Pennsylvania. When she’s not chasing Lydia, the boxer, she’s writing her own stories, or reading, Tara likes to bake, watch old movies, and do a variety of crafts.

Find Tara on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/taramanderino

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/TManderino

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