Fate (The Edge of Forever) (4 page)

I returned her smile. Of course it didn’t bother me. Sometimes I felt like she was just going to squat over Anton and pee on him to mark him in order to force all others to stay away from him. She could have him, pee-marked or not. I never wanted him, but his pursuit of me made Ava’s need to claim Anton stronger, along with her dislike of me.

She made her way around me and I continued on my original course, this time making sure that nothing else would distract me or cause me to run into someone else. I definitely didn’t need it to happen a third time in twenty-four hours.

My mother was on the third floor, standing out on the balcony overlooking the busy street below. It took me asking several people where they last saw her, before I finally found her.
 

“Mother?”
 

She turned, I smiled taking in her appearance. Her black hair was layered around her shoulders. Green eyes sparkled with curiosity. She wore a gray sweater over a pale blue top and jeans. She looked more like my sister than my mother. She was eternally thirty-one.
 

“Sweetheart, why aren’t you in bed yet?”
 

I smiled at the gentleness in her tone. “I just got back. Then I ran into Anton,” I sneered. Her lips raised in a soft knowing smile, which angered me. “Will you stop feeding him information about me?” I spat.
 

Her smile fell. “He is a powerful vampire, Gabriella. You could do worse than a master.”
 

I rolled my eyes, “I’d rather live eternally alone.”
 

“Gabriella!” she snapped.
 

I raised my hands up in surrender, “I didn’t come here to argue. Something’s come up.”
 

Her brows furrowed, “What’s wrong? Are you well?”
 

Hearing the worry in her voice, I continued quickly. “No, I’m okay. Work called.” Her eyes squinted, waiting for me to elaborate. I took a deep breath forcing myself to believe what I was about to tell her. “We’ve just landed a big account, which means late nights,” which was true, but I wasn’t the one working on that particular account. A lie that is not truly a lie. Her eyes focused on me. She tilted her head to the side like she was trying to sense something. I just hoped it wasn’t my vague idea of the truth. “I won’t always be able to call. They can spring it on me at the last minute. And let’s face it, no other employees have to call their mommies to get the okay.” All of that was true and I assured myself it would ease any doubt she had about the truthfulness of my statement.

She turned, putting her back to me. Looking out the window, she shook her head. I was worried that she was seeing through my façade. If this didn’t work, I didn’t know what I’d do. I wanted to continue seeing Grayson, but I didn’t how if my mother saw through me. “I don’t like it,” she whispered.

I sighed, almost sagging visible with relief.
Thank goodness.
“I know mom, but it’s my job.”

“No, Gabriella. I don’t like this working business. You are a vampire trying to play in the human world. You belong here.”

This was not going the way I hoped, but at least it was just the same argument we had been having since I decided to start working and not about me lying to date a human. “Mother, we’ve talked about this. I want to work. I need to get away from here and try to have a life for myself.”

“Your life is here.”

“And I’ve told you, I feel like you’re suffocating me,” I practically yelled.

She exhaled a deep breath and took a moment before she spoke. “You’re right. I know you need to
stretch your wings
.” She chuckled at herself, but I wasn’t sure why. It was like she was laughing at her own inside joke. “Just stay out of trouble. And if you can call, please do so. You know I only worry.” She looked sternly at me for a moment when I didn’t respond immediately; then I nodded. “Now go get some sleep.”

Worrying she’d change her mind or add some kind of conditions, I left without another word carrying myself straight to bed. I was just lucky tomorrow wasn’t an early morning.

***

Work the next day was dragging on. My coworker, Rachel, and I were making a few last minute changes to our presentation for a new club opening. Gates and Summers was one of the top party planning agencies in the city. They were always making bids to plan major social gatherings for the elite and famous and I was glad to be working for them. It was an amazing opportunity for me, especially with my lack of a portfolio when I was hired. But since then, I had worked on some amazing accounts and hoped to soon head up an account. However, I knew it’d probably be a couple of years before that happened. There were still several more experienced people that would have their shot first.

“So any plans tonight?” Rachel asked, flipping through options for possible flyers while I clicked away on my computer, typing up a summary for a client.

“No, not really,” I exhaled heavily, ready for the day to be over. “It’ll be late when we get out of here so I was thinking about just catching a quick bite with Shawn before heading home.” She knew about Shawn, well not entirely about him, just our relationship. Seeing as how he was the only real friend I had, he got talked about. A lot.

Rachel sighed contently, “God, if the boy was straight, you two would have the best relationship. You hang around one another and genuinely enjoy the others company. If only you could add sex into the mix, that would be an amazing combination.”

My head shot up from my task while my face contorted with disgust. “Eww, Rachel. I don’t see him like that.”

“You should. He is a yummy piece of man candy that I just want to lick and suck until there is nothing left of him.” I laughed lightly and shook my head at her remark. Man candy? Really? I knew Shawn was attractive, I wasn’t blind, but he was like a brother to me. Gay or straight, I just couldn’t see him any other way. 

We were continuing with our work when the phone rang. I looked at the screen as Rachel answered it. The call was coming from downstairs.

“Hello?” Rachel answered, instead of using the typical “Thank you for Calling Gates and Summers” greeting. She listened and occasionally ‘mm, hmmed’ until the call came to an end. “Alright, send it up,” she hung up the phone and turned, glaring at me.

“What?” I asked, not understanding where her sudden hostility had come from.

“You got something you wanna tell me?” she spat. I slowly shook my head still mystified. “You sure?”

My brow furrowed and I started shaking my head in confusion. “Rachel... I...” The elevator dinged, announcing someone’s arrival. I heaved a sigh of relief. I felt saved by the bell. The elevator doors opened, revealing someone carrying a large display of white orchids. I looked to Rachel who was still glaring. “Gabriella Carmichael?” The person behind the flowers asked.
 

“Her,” Rachel stated snidely. The flowers were set on the corner of my desk. The person who’d carried them left the way they came. “Now do you have something to tell me?”

Ignoring her, I reached for the card while inhaling the sweet smell of my new flowers. I had a pretty good idea who they could be from and as I read the card, my inclination was confirmed.

I look forward to Monday 

G

I smiled as I finished reading the card, just before Rachel ripped it from my fingers.

“Who’s G?” she asked examining the card for some hidden meaning.

“A guy I just met,” I said with a huge grin on my face that seemed impossible to suppress.

“Uh huh. You just met and he’s already sending several hundred dollars’ worth of flowers? You must’ve been pretty rocking between the sheets,” she insinuated, tossing the card back on the table.

“Oh God, Rachel! Can you keep your head out of the gutter for a minute? I didn’t sleep with him.”

“Geez, Gaby. I’m only teasing. So this G, he got a name or is he an initial only kinda guy? That would be so mysterious.”

I sighed shaking my head. Rachel was a reader. She always wanted to find some special allusion in everything. I didn’t want to tell her about Grayson. The fact that we would be presenting to him next week just felt, I don’t know, weird.

“He does.”

She waited for me to elaborate, but I didn’t. I got back to work.

“Really?” she asked. I ignored her as I continued clicking away on my computer. “Fine! I see how it is. Just don’t except me to be sharing details about my love life with you anymore.” I knew that would never happen. Rachel was inclined to tell everyone anything about her relationships. Finally dropping the topic she grabbed the flyer templates and began scrolling through them again. I looked at my beautiful flowers and couldn’t help but grin. I was suddenly even more excited for Monday to come. 

***

Sunday dragged on. During the daylight hours, I was locked inside waiting for our weekly delivery from the blood bank. Luckily, we owned the bank. It raised a lot less suspicion. Plus, I answered the delivery every week. I’m sure the drivers thought I had some really sick people that I took care of, not a building full of blood thirsty immortals that fed on human blood to survive. Afterwards, I headed to our in-home gym figuring I’d go a few rounds with the Wavemaster. Having superhuman strength really didn’t do you any good if you didn’t know how to use it. So I would try to get together with a trainer whenever I could and when I couldn’t, the Wavemaster made a good opponent.

Once the sun set, I was immediately bombarded with Anton and his never-ending flirtation. He found me in the gym just when I started sparring with one of the trainers, an older vampire who made for an excellent sparring partner. Anton refused to leave, telling me he’d wait until I was done. Not really keen on the idea of him watching me, I quickly showered and followed him from the gym. He placed my hand on the crook of his arm. When I would try to pull away he’d squeeze my knuckles with his cool fingers causing my stomach to churn from his increased touch. I stopped trying to fight him off and just let him drag me along with him as he walked through the building while attending to business throughout the nest. We shared breakfast together, of the liquid variety. Vampires could eat food, but Anton chose not to. I think he thought it made him look less like a vampire. It held no nutritional value, unlike blood, but I still enjoyed the variety of flavors of a normal human diet.
 

Around eight o’clock, my phone chirped, alerting me to an incoming text. I looked around for Anton before I pulled the phone from my pocket. He was several feet away, arguing with one of his many helpers, which wasn’t unusual. That was part of what irritated me about Anton. He ran over people and treated them like garbage. I knew if I ever gave into him, which would never happen, that he would treat me just the same as he did everyone else. Look at Ava. But luckily for me there was no attraction from my side.

Grayson:
What time do you work tomorrow?

Me:
I get off at 5

Grayson:
Meet me on the corner of park & 34th at 6

Me:
Ok c u then

I shoved my phone back into the front pocket of my jeans just as Anton made his way back to me. 

“Who was that?” he asked, pointing to the pocket concealing my phone.

“Work. Letting me know that tomorrow is going to be another late night.” I smiled brilliantly.

***

Monday morning I made sure to pack an extra set of clothes for my date shoving them into a gym bag. I was anxious and worried at the same time and yet almost giddy to see Grayson again. There was just something about him that made me want to know more. The fear that my mother wouldn’t buy my lie, that somehow she’d see through it or catch me sneaking around lingered in the front of mind. I guess that was how teenage girls felt when they were sneaking behind their parent’s backs. They had no idea how much harder it was to deal with a mother that continued to coddle you and who was a vampire with superhuman sense on top of everything. I loved my mother and wouldn’t trade her for the world, but sometimes I’d rather deal with a regular human mother when it came to certain matters. At least at twenty three I’d be able to have my own place and date whomever I wanted. Instead, here I was living in an apartment building full of vampires and having Anton pushed onto me like an eighteenth century bride who had her marriage arranged . The only bright thing in the otherwise sea of crap was at least my mother didn’t have a problem with age like some mothers did.
Yippee for me!
Yes, that was sarcasm.

The morning passed fairly quickly. I had my regular lunch date with Shawn. At the beginning of each week, we always tried to get together and share our weekend experiences. At eleven thirty, I left the office to meet Shawn at a deli on the corner near my job.
 I was glad when the time came because my hunger was starting to nag at me.

“So? What are you wearing tonight?” Shawn asked as soon as we took our seats.

I took a drink of my water, taking my time with my response knowing every second was pure torture for my fashion junkie. “That purple number you made me buy last week.”