Roses & Thorns (2 page)

* * * * *

CHAPTER TWO

S
hopping

(Rose)

I pulled the
covers over my head
and
squinted my eyes against the s
unlight
that was
now
blaring in from behind the curtains my mo
ther
had
just yanked open.

"Rise and shine. We're going shopping." Mom's enthusiasm exhausted me. She was so upbeat all the time
,
and while I loved that about her, it was something that got old
really fast. Especially when you'd planned to use Sunday to
recuperat
e
from a sleepless night spent with your friends after a rowdy concert.
"Come on
, Rose
. I want to hit the sales at Kohl's before all the good stuff is gone. They
've
slashed prices on all their swim wear
,
and I'm in serious need of some new suits."

I watched
her dark hair
sway
just below her shoulders
a
s she
bounced
towards my closet
.

"Alright, alright.
But can you g
ive me a few minutes to actually wake up first?"
M
om's
cocked
hip and
the angle of her
head as she spun around and threw a dress onto my bed was an indication that
her answer was no.
I
narrowed
my eyes at her as I jumped out of bed,
grabb
ed
the dress,
and
stomped into the
bathroom.

Fumbling through a rushed version of my morning routine, I
quickly combed through my long blonde hair and stuck a hat on my head. A little mineral powder on my cheeks and some tinted lip gloss
w
as going to be
the extent of my makeup efforts
this morning
.
I
emerged dressed and
ready to go in just a few minutes.

As I made my way
downstairs
,
I heard a commotion in the kitchen and headed in the direction of the noise. I suddenly wished I had taken longer to get ready. Mom and Dad were saying their goodbyes for the morning
,
but
from the way his hands were
grabbing at her and
the intensity of their kiss, you'd think we were leaving for a
yearlong
safari in Africa
,
instead of an afternoon of shopping a few miles away.

I cleared my throat as I slipped on my flip-flops. "Okay, I'm ready."

Mom broke off their passionate kiss and back
ed
out of Dad's embrace with a huge smile on her face. "
Okay, let's hit it
." She
gave Dad a little wave as she headed out the door. It must have been her
who
initiated their dramatic goodbye scene, because Dad stood there frozen in place and then
he
started laughing.

I shook my head and
grabbed my purse from the hook next to the wooden credenza by the door. "Bye Dad, catch ya later!" I said as I rushed to follow Mom to the car.

"Bye
,
honey. Try to keep your mother's spending in check for me, will ya?" he hollered out the door.

I knew he was kidding because he never did anything to "keep mother in check
.
"
My parents loved each other so much
,
and they both had successful careers
,
so money wasn't really a big de
al. It's not like we were super-
rich, but we didn't have to wor
ry about overspending on a sale at
Kohl's
, that was for sure.

"So, what else are we doing today besides shopping for swimsuits?" I asked.

"Well, I thought we could get some lunch and you could tell me all about your concert.
I talked to Adrienne this morning and she said you guys were all pretty excited when you arrived at her house."

"Yes, we
had
a
really good time. The concert was great
.
" I only debated a moment before deciding to tell her about Christian. My mom and I have always had a really close relationship. "
But
I was actually more excited about the guy I met
on the way home.
"

"Oh
,
really?" Her coy smile was the first indication that this shopping trip was
actually
just a reco
g
n
izance
mission. She must have found the business card in my things already.

"Yes. If you don't already know, his name is Christian
,
and he works at The Rising Pit. As a matter of fact, I'm suppose
d
to call him tonight."

She giggled as we turned the corner and headed towards the end of the shopping district that had the best little breakfast café
in it
. "Yes, I found the business card in your things when I was
cleaning
up this morning, a
nd that
's
why I thought we could buy y
ou something nice to wear today.
"
She glanced in my direction, probably to see if I was mad that she had "cleaned" my things, but I wasn't. Like I said, there
was
n't much that I hid from my parents.

"That sounds great. Didn't you just love his little poem?"
I asked.

"Yes, it reminded me of when your dad and I first met and the little romantic thing that he did to win my attention."

"Aha...is that why you practically attacked him before we left this morning? Were you reminiscing?" I laughed as I watched Mom shake her head. Obviously, I had pin-pointed the reason for her behavior.

"Yes!" she declared with a hint of shyness in her voice.

"Well, I think it's cute. I can only hope that when I me
e
t
"
the one
,"
that we will be as in love as you and Dad
are
."

At the mention of
love
, Mom's tone turned
serious.
"I wish that for you too, Rose.
Follow your heart
,
but just be careful
. That's the best advice I can give. You're not a child anymore
,
and the fact that you'll be graduating college this year only adds to the pressure
of
grow
ing
up, but you need to take the time to really live
. E
njoy your life. Meeting new boys and having fun is something that I want for you, but I'm also your mom and that means I worry about you at the same time."

"Don't worry
,
Mom. I'm going to call him after dark like he asked, and then hopefully he'll invite me down to meet him. Will I be able to borrow the car?"

"Yes, that
will be
fine."

"Okay, thank
s
.
I
f I
do
end up going down, I
'll
feel pretty safe since we'll be in a place where there are a lot of other people around.
Plus, I don't know why, but for some reason I just feel like he's going to be a
really
great guy.
"

"Well, I hope you're right. Now how about some breakfast? I'm starving."

"Sounds great." As a matter of fact
,
everything
was sounding great. Mom was on board with me meeting Christian for the first time
, s
he and D
a
d were perfectly happy as usual, and
I was graduating college early this year. Yes, everything was perfect.
Now I just hoped that
things would stay that way.

* * * * *

CHAPTER THREE

Get
Ready

(
Christian
)

Long blonde hair, beautiful
blue
eyes
,
and a mouth I was dying to kiss were the first things that entered my mind as I
a
woke for the night.

Being a vampire c
a
me with a few neat tricks
,
and this was one of them. Whatever
our last thought was
before we
fell asleep
, was also the first thing we thought of when we woke
up
. For the last two days I had
made it a point to think o
f Rose.

Two nights ago
,
I'
d carried
Sari out of the club, trying to sooth her broken heart. As I sat her on her feet
,
I was met with the most delectable scent drifting on the wind.
Wa
nting to be a gentleman,
I focused on Sari
and tried to explain
that Bobby wasn't
trying to be mean, but that she
needed to understand
he was a free spirit and
she was ju
st going to have to accept that if she wanted to remain a part of his life
. But
what I
had
truly wanted to do was search the area and
envelop myself in
what
or
whoever was the cause of that delicious smell.

As Sari wiped her tears
,
I smiled at
her and
was met with the sound of someone taking
a quick breath
e.
There
.
T
here she was. The most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on was practically hanging out the
window of
a
limo
.
She looked like an angel sent straight from heaven.

Just then
,
I caught a whi
ff
of the same smell as a
couple
started to walk p
ast me. I could tell that they'd
been in the car with my mystery woman
.
Without thinking I
reached out and tapped the girl on the shoulder. The guy walked a few paces on and then stopped to wait for her
,
so I thought I'd better make
it
quick. "Excuse me, but could you tell me the name of the blonde woman looking out the window of your
car
?"

After smiling wildly
,
she answered,
"Yes. Her name is Rose
.
"
My informant
continued to look back an
d forth between me and the girl, her heartbeat racing.

I
reached for my wallet and took
out
one of my business card
s
and then s
cratched an impromptu poem o
n
the back of it, adding my phone number
at
the bottom.
"Could you please giv
e her this for me and ask
if she'd call me after dark in two days?"

"Um...sure, I guess," she replied.

The anxious feeling in my chest was the main reason I turned and quickly headed back into the club, but in reality,
I could tell that
this girl w
anted to ask me a bunch of questions
–
questions that I could
n't
and wouldn't answer
.

T
wo days had pas
s
ed
,
and this was the night that I hoped my dream girl would be calling. I had taken the evenings in
between to talk to my sire, Evangeline
, and let her know that I
'd
found someone that I was interested in and would hopefully
be
seeing very soon. I didn't need her permission, but since we weren't allowed to tell humans of our existence, I needed everyone to be aware that someone new would be coming around. Evie
was
happy to hear it.
Her exact words were, "Oh Christian, I'm so happy that you've finally found someone that you want to
share
your
life with.
" She
then proceeded to tear up and ga
ve me a series of smothering hugs as she beamed with pride.

I'd never really had a serious relationship
since becoming a vampire. I fe
d out of necessity and never hurt anyone while doing it
. Vampires have a s
edative that flows from
their
fangs to make feeding ple
asurable, but more importantly...
forgettable. It's
how
we can exist in the human world;
we have the means to make them
forget
.
And yes, I'd dated before, but nothing serious or relationship worthy.

But ever since seeing Rose leaning out of that limo
,
the thought of a relationship was exactly what I had in mind.
I couldn't explain why I was so drawn to this
particular
woman, but I knew from the moment that I caught her scent there was something special about her.
The way it
had taken e
very ounce of strength
I had
not to
dart
over to her car and crush my lips to hers
that first night
was something that had caught me off guard.
She smelled like innocence and sweetness: like fresh cotton and sweet tarts, and sunshine and rain, all mixed together. I
felt as if I was already i
n love with her.
I kne
w that sound
ed
dramatic, but after being alive for
six
hundred and two
years
,
I kn
e
w when
I'
d
found someone special
.

I left the mirror and walked back towards my closet, discarding yet another shirt on the bed. For some reason
even the simplest things like choosing my clothes and what cologne I would wear suddenly
seemed like daunting
task
s.
I'd
essentially
dressed the same for centuries, always
ma
king
it a point to
adapt
to the current
styles
. And since there
was literally nothing I could do to change my appearance
as
I
would look the same for all of
eternity
, picking the right clothes seemed oddly important. But...not as important as the
need to attend to my drifting.

Drifting wa
s something that happen
ed
to vampires when they experience
d
any kind of
strong
emotion. If
they were
hungry, angry
,
or aroused
,
their
physical appearance actually drift
ed
darker and then back to normal once the emotions
had
pass
ed
. It was something that made it easy to tell who was
experiencing heightened emotions
in the vampire community, but
obviously it was something that we had to hide from the
humans
. How would anyone explain their hair and eyes
changing
colors? You
simply couldn't
.

If I fed and kept my emotions tightly reigned in, I should be able
to avoid
drift
ing
in front of Rose
. S
o after dressing in dark navy jeans, a light blue cotton button-up shirt, and
a
nice
pair of hiking boots
,
I headed out to quench my
thirst and prepare to meet
the girl of my dreams. Hopefully, she
would call.