Scent of a White Rose (13 page)

"Evie, if I am the one who's been triggered to
become the next Sire, can you tell me how the consort bond works?"
I couldn't hold back the excitement in my voice. This suddenly had
the potential to become very good news.

"I know what you're thinking Christian, and yes,
you would be able to choose Rose as your consort. But, that is a
very important decision and one that isn't without
consequences."

Just as I was about to push the subject, Dax
opened the door and strolled inside to take the seat next to me.
"Liquor board inspection is done. We're good." He looked between
the two of us, and probably noticed that I was on the edge of my
chair and Evie was leaning forward with her forearms resting on her
desk. "Everything okay? You guys look a little tense."

"Everything is fine. I was just explaining to
Christian that I believe that he is the one being triggered to
become the new Sire." Evie looked at him with a firm set to her
chin.

Dax pushed out of the chair and started pacing.
"Dammit, Evie! I thought we agreed to not bring this up until
everything was settled with Terrance."

"If you recall my dear, I didn't agree to
anything. I know you expressed that you thought it was for the
best, but I never agreed to remain quiet. Plus, after what I have
learned from Balam, I think it's necessary for Christian to
understand what is happening to him. He may actually be of great
use to us in figuring out what's happening with Terrance."

Great. This sounded ominous, and not something I
really wanted to be involved in. Like I had said, Terrance was an
asshole and I didn't want to have anything else to do with him.

Dax sighed, and the look he gave Evie wasn't
exactly a loving one, but then he said, "Okay Evie. Whatever you
think is best." He then quietly left the room, closing the door
behind him.

"Why do you think I'll be able to help figure
out what's going on with Terrance?" I really didn't want to know,
but I thought it would be best if I knew exactly what Evie was
expecting of me.

"I'm not sure yet, but I feel that if we can
keep tabs on your developing powers, especially the
claircognizance, it might be of use in the situation." Evie rose
from her chair and I followed suit. She hugged me then held my
shoulders tight as she looked into my eyes. "Everything will work
out Christian, you'll see. Just please come to me if you experience
any strange sensations or if you have questions about what's
happening to you. Again, I can't tell you how proud I am of
you."

As I headed for the door, I looked back at Evie
and forced a smile onto my face. I wanted her to know that her
pride in me was definitely something I appreciated, but I was sure
that my smile only came off as fake. I didn't share her sentiment
that everything would work out. As a matter of fact, whether it was
my new found
psychic ability
or not, I suddenly felt that
things were going to get a lot worse.

* * * * *

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Head East

(Rose)

I couldn't stand to watch my dad sit there with
that bitch for a second longer. Now that it was obvious there would
be no shopping and no movie in my near future, I pulled out my cell
phone and dialed Jillian. "Hey can you please come pick me up at
the northwest corner of the business district? I have to get the
fuck out of here NOW!"

Jillian started to question me about what was
wrong, but I just didn't have the patience to explain it to her
over the phone. After grasping my level of frustration she agreed
to come pick me up right away.

"I can't believe your dad is actually seeing
someone and didn't even tell you about it." Her shock was genuine,
but I was too mad to discuss it.

"Can we just not talk about it?" I asked. "I
would love it if we could just go for a drive. I'll pay for the
gas. I just need some time to get rid of this angry feeling before
I can process any of this."

"You got it. Where do you wanna go?"

"I don't care. Let's just head east I guess." I
really didn't have a specific destination in mind, but it was
beautiful this time of year, and the idea of taking in a little of
the countryside sounded just about perfect right now.

Jillian hummed along to the radio as we drove
and I stared out the window watching the trees go by. I kept
thinking about all those overnight trips that Dad had made to
Masen. It was pretty damn obvious that he had spent them with her,
and I couldn't help but wonder how long it had been going on. It
still pissed me off to think that he had just jumped into a
relationship right after Mom had died, and I still didn't
understand the statement he had made about me not knowing
everything he'd gone through. What the hell was that supposed to
mean anyway?

I was lost in my thoughts as I tried to process
everything that had happened since Meredith's visit: the way she
had scooted closer to Dad on the couch, seeing him in that
ridiculous "hip" outfit that was obviously meant to impress her,
and then watching her comfort him at the café. But what had really
struck me as odd, was the strange, almost angry look that Meredith
had given me as I ran by her table today.

I could understand that I probably looked a bit
distressed, but then wouldn't you think that she would have had a
surprised or concerned look on her face instead of an angry one?
What the fuck did she have to be angry at me about? She was the one
who was secretly sleeping with my dad, so if anyone had the right
to be angry, it was me! This line of thinking wasn't helping me
calm down, instead I was starting to get even more pissed off, but
then a bump in the road jostled my attention back to the
present.

"Hey, where are we?" I asked Jillian. I didn't
recognize the road we were now traveling down.

"I turned off the highway a little ways back.
It's almost dark and this is the town Justin is from. I thought
that since we were this close, I'd drive through and check it
out."

Jillian's answer surprised me. I had forgotten
all about her new vampire boyfriend. Of course it hadn't surprised
me that he'd made some sort of excuse to be unavailable until after
dark.

Thinking about Justin pulled my thoughts back to
my incident at the apartment complex. After having my melt down at
that pool, all the images from my first encounter with a vampire
had started to replay in my head.

It had been only about seven and a half months
ago, right after I had started seeing Christian, when I had made
plans with Mom to stay late after school in order to get some
research done in the library. She was supposed to come pick me up
after her swim lesson was over, but instead, she had called saying
that her lesson was going to run late and that I should take the
bus to meet her. She had given me the address of the training
facility, and by the time I arrived, it was just barely after
dark.

As I approached the pool, I didn't hear
anything, but instead saw thrashing waves in the pool. Once I
looked closer, I saw my mom and a guy struggling underwater.
Instead of throwing my bags to the ground and diving in like I
should have, I completely froze. I couldn't move or scream, and
after a moment the waves in the water started to clear. What I saw
was enough to scare me into hiding. I ran back around the corner of
the building and watched as the man climbed out of the pool
carrying my mother in his arms with his mouth plastered to the side
of her neck.

At first, I had thought, "Holy shit, my mom is
having an affair," but once I looked closer I could tell that he
wasn't kissing the side of her neck. He had sharp teeth that
appeared to be piercing her instead. I quickly realized that what I
had first thought were sensual kisses were actually long drags of
sucking. This man was drinking from my mother.

I had sunk to the ground not knowing what to do
or think. I remembered feeling like I was going to pass out. But as
I continued to watch, the man finally removed what could only be
called fangs from my mom's neck. He then laid her on one of the
chaise lounges next to the pool and gently brushed the hair out of
her eyes. She sat up with a smile on her face and waved as the man
started to walk away. I was so relieved to see that she was okay
that I sucked in a quick breath. The man's head spun in my
direction and he stared me down with intense, dark eyes.

After a moment, he crooked his finger at me,
indicating for me to come to him. I was still frozen in fear and
literally couldn't move. The next thing I knew he was standing
right in front of me. Only a split-second had passed and I hadn't
even seen him move, but there he was, dripping wet, towering over
me with a cocky smirk on his face.

"Hi. You must be the daughter." His voice was
deep and sexy, just like the rest of him. I couldn't believe that I
had had those thoughts about a man who had just been holding my
mother so intimately, but I couldn't deny reality. The guy appeared
to be in his mid-thirties, with dark brown hair and eyes to match.
He was tan and muscular, and probably about 6' 4". He looked like
sex-on-a-stick.

"Yes, I'm her daughter. Who the hell are you?" I
had finally gotten myself under control and stood up to face
him.

"I think the question you want to ask is 'What
are you?', am I right?" He had a mocking glint in his eye, and that
damn cocky grin was still plastered to his face.

"I'm not stupid. I know what you are." Whether I
wanted to believe it or not, it was obvious that this
man
was..."You're a vampire."

His grin widened. "Are you scared?"

"Should I be?" I tried to bolster myself so that
the fear I was feeling wouldn't come across in my shaking
voice.

He stared at me for a long time then gave a
slight
hmph
. "No, beautiful, you have nothing to fear from
me. One a night is all I can handle."

I hated that his
one
had been my mom, but
I was damn glad that he would be leaving me alone. "Did you hurt
her?" Now that I felt somewhat safe, I had a shit-ton of questions
that I was dying to ask him. Well, maybe dying wasn't the right
word to use.

"No, I didn't hurt her, and she won't remember
anything about tonight," he explained. "What about you? Should I
bite you and make you forget?" He seemed genuine in his
question.

I tried not to shiver, and the goose bumps his
question produced spread up my arms. "No. I don't want to forget.
Actually, I have a lot of questions that I would love to ask you.
I'm a history major and I can't tell you what an amazing paper I
could write with your help." Seriously. I had just asked a vampire
to help me get a good grade on my history paper.

He turned around and saw that my mom had gotten
up from her chaise and was starting to gather her things. "Why
don't you meet me back here tomorrow night and I'll answer some of
your questions."

"Really? Or is this some kind of trick to get me
here so I can be the one you feed from tomorrow?" I was excited but
not stupid. I wondered if crosses or stakes would actually work on
this guy. Not that I'm Buffy, but a girl could try.

"No trick. I do, however, enjoy the taste of
your mother's blood. It's different than any other that I've ever
experienced. So once you spend the evening with her and realize
that I'm telling the truth and that I didn't hurt her in any way,
as long as I can continue to feed from your mom...I'll be willing
to answer your questions. Is that something that you can handle?"
He extended his hand as if preparing to shake on a deal.

"Okay. But if Mom shows any signs of being hurt
or acting weird, then you'll never see us here again." It was a
lame threat because he could probably just follow us home or find
us whenever he wanted, but I had to make sure he understood that if
he had hurt my mom in any way, the deal was off.

"Deal." He shook my hand and then started to
walk away. "Oh. One more thing. What's your name?"

"My name is Rose. What's yours?"

"Terrance. My name is Terrance."

* * * * *

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Bad Night

(Christian)

After we finished closing the club, we all
gathered around waiting for Evie to share what she had learned from
Balam.

"What I have to tell you is going to come as
quite a shock," she stated. "I'm not going to recount the entire
history of the how's or why's, but what we've come to figure out is
that a woman that Terrance fed from, the woman I saw in his
thoughts, is a zôt–or what you would call a demon."

Gasps and curses filled the room. Dax collapsed
into a chair and Evie placed a hand on his shoulder. "The zôt's
blood is the reason behind his odd behavior. It acts like a poison
and literally infects him. It's what is causing his memory loss and
his thoughts to become fuzzy whenever he tries to think of her.
Apparently the demon's blood has something like a built-in
protection feature. It is how they have kept themselves hidden
throughout history. It's also what is causing him to drift
permanently dark." The sadness in her voice was the first
indication that this was going to be a bad night.

"So, if this is an infection, is there any way
to cure him?" Bobby asked.

"No, honey. Not that we know of." Evie's eyes
filled with tears as she took a seat next to Dax.

"Okay. If this woman is a zôt, or demon, or
what-the-fuck-ever, but we can't figure out who she is because of
the automatic brain-fuck her blood causes, then how the hell are we
supposed to find her? I, for one, do not want to accidentally feed
on some fucking demon." Tori's hair was drifting from light red to
a seriously deep maroon color. She was pissed and had never been
one to hold back her feelings.

"Until we get to the bottom of this, I think
it's for the best if we only feed from people that we have
previously fed from before since we know them to already be safe.
I'm thinking that throughout the night we can each take a turn and
invite a previous guest to one of the private rooms. This way we
can remain safe inside the club and not risk running across another
zôt while hunting outside. Just make sure that when you feed from
them you use your sedative to get them to come back again and
again." She didn't look happy about this idea, but continued
anyway. "Also...no one is to go near Terrance from now on.
Apparently, once an infected vampire permanently drifts dark, they
can infect other vampires." She looked at me with a look on her
face that could only be described as disheartened.