The Dark Proposal (The Claire McCormick Trilogy) (13 page)

Shaking his head, he said, “You haven’t been here long enough to spend another hour going back to the Island. What’s the point?”

“Can…can you go out later?” she stuttered.

“No,” he said coolly. “You really need to stop being in denial.” The hand on the back of her neck seemed to tighten its grip. “And when I get back, we can discuss our future more.” Using that same hand he reached up to the back of her head and made her turn to face him. “Hilde will be here until I get back. Just to keep an eye on you.”

Claire slowly nodded, and the two went back finishing up their show. Once the credits started rolling, Daniel got up and put his coat on. A few minutes later he buzzed in Hilde and Michel, who knocked on the door minutes later. Again they gave friendly kisses to Daniel on the cheek and mouth.
 

“Hello Claire!” Michel reached over and gave her a hug. “How was your Thanksgiving?”

“Good, how was yours?” Claire felt like a robot.

“Great, great.” He moved away to let Hilde kiss her on the cheek.

“How are you, dear?” she said to her.

“I’m fine,” Claire answered.

“Fantastic.” Turning to the other two, Hilde said, “All right, are you boys ready to go?”

They both gestured that they were. Daniel nodded at Claire and left the apartment with Michel, leaving Hilde to shut the door behind them. She turned to Claire. “So, just you and me,
mademoiselle.
Need more wine?”

Claire agreed, and Hilde refilled her glass while taking Daniel’s and poured herself some. She joined Claire on the couch and grabbed the remote control from the coffee table. As she went to the channel guide, Hilde asked her, “Anything in mind? News? A talk show? Porn?”

Claire coughed into her glass. Not that she had anything against porn; she wasn’t the type to sit around and watch it, let alone with a vampire who was only starting to be nice toward her now.
 

“No,” she cleared her throat. “I guess channel forty-eight is good.”

“Ah, comedy. Can’t go wrong with that.”

The two women sat and watched a stand-up comedy show, laughing at first occasionally, then frequently. They finished off the bottle of wine and went through another one. It was Claire who got that bottle after Hilde told her to check out Daniel’s refrigerator. It was empty save for several wine bottles. That made her crack up laughing in her drunken state.
 

Claire filled her glass to its brim while Hilde was more conservative with her intake. The two finished the first show and then began watching an animated show on the same station. Claire found herself laughing at every incident on the show, despite not being a fan of raunchy humor. Hilde had to prevent her from spilling her wine glass a few times.

The night wore on and Claire forgot that Daniel and Michel were not back within the time Daniel said they would. Hilde didn’t bring it up and instead allowed Claire to drink more wine, laugh uproariously, blast the MP3 player, and dance around like a crazed woman. While she was dancing at one point, Hilde got up and started dancing with her. The songs playing were from the 1970s, so the other woman showed her dance moves from that era.
 

While showing her some of the moves, Hilde put her arms around Claire and planted her lips against hers. That made Claire burst out in giggles, and then kiss the other woman back. She didn’t know when exactly the two men returned, but when the MP3 player was shut off, it was obvious Daniel and Michel hadn’t just got back.

Claire pulled away and started giggling uncontrollably. Hilde shrugged at the other two and sat back down on the couch to finish off her wine. Michel started to laugh too, and joined his partner on the couch to watch Claire laugh up a storm. Daniel looked amused as well.

Finally, he placed his hands on her shoulders and quietly told her to calm down.

“Calm down?” Claire blurted out. “After all this, you want me to calm down?!”

He smiled and tried to direct to her to one of the dining room chairs but she jerked away. “Oh no! You’re not going to control me now!”

“Claire, you had too much tonight -”

“I had too much of you tonight!” she said loudly. “And the night before that, and the night before that.”

Daniel frowned and glanced at the other two who were watching with confusion.

Claire let out a laugh again. “You actually think I’m going to stay with you? That I’ll forget what you did? What you are? Ha!”

Now Daniel was annoyed. He said her name in an attempt to stop her.

“No!” she shouted, putting her hand up. “No, you will listen. We are over, Daniel! No more of you and your bullshit. No more of you killing people that I know! No more of your lies and games! We’re done!” She turned to head for the door.

He then grabbed her by the arm. She cried out for him to stop and from the pain of his tight grip. It was as if he was pulling her arm out of its socket.
 

He forced her to kneel from the pain. Once on the floor, he continued to pull at her arm as he hissed into her ear, “I know you are drunk. But I will not tolerate what’s coming out of your mouth. You will be quiet and remain so for the rest of the night.”

She was gasping, but she was able to turn her head and spit into his face. Hilde and Michel’s jaws dropped in disgust.
 

Daniel took one look at her and slapped her clear across the face, so hard he knocked her to the floor.

Wiping his face, he asked Hilde to get her a glass of water. While she did, Michel stood up and suggested he and his partner leave. “This isn’t a good night. Apparently leaving her alone with all the wine bottles was not a good idea.”

“Yes, I see that,” Daniel grunted. “Not that she was the type to get wasted; she always controlled herself.”

Michel shrugged. “She’ll get back to her old ways. She’ll have to.” Hilde came around with the glass of water and made Claire sip it. The three vampires watched her carefully to make sure she wouldn’t lash out again.
 

After a few minutes, Hilde and Michel decided to leave. They kissed Daniel good night and headed home. After locking up, Daniel went over to Claire, who lied motionless on the floor. He squatted down and peered at her. She refused to meet his eyes.

“Look at me,” he snapped.

At first she hesitated, but then she obliged.
 

“I left you alone because I trusted you. I figured you could use some female company so you could discuss what you wanted to about us, but that was foolish.” He paused then continued. “Tomorrow morning, we will go over everything.”

“What time tomorrow?” she asked.

“Whenever you get up. I’m free tomorrow, no classes to teach or articles to do right away. But you have to go to work, so you’re the one who’ll have the massive headache tomorrow.” He then put his arms under her neck and hips, picked her up and carried her to his bedroom. He put her on the bed before turning down one half of it and told her to climb in between the blankets. Once she did and laid her head against a pillow, the room appeared to spin. Maybe it was out of drunkenness or fright. But the one way to stop the spinning was to close her eyes for a few hours.

Claire couldn’t tell if a few or several hours had passed when she finally opened her eyes. There was no way of knowing because of Daniel’s thick curtains had blocked out the sunlight from entering through the window. Either or, she was awake and clearly remembered what had happened last night. The throbbing ache not in her head, but in her arm socket made all the memories come back.
 

She lay awake on her side, not moving. She knew Daniel was beside of her, grading papers. She had woken up this way before, only with the excitement at seeing him again. But now, she was filled with dread.
 

What could she do? She was the one who last night wanted to dull the pain of being mistreated by someone she had dearly trusted. She wanted to dull the fear of being trapped in a situation that seemed to have no good solution. She had stupidly thought she confront and could talk sense into him, but she forgot he was a centuries-old creature who knew all the tricks of getting what he wanted.

Claire closed her eyes as if escaping from reality one last time. Opening them again, she stretched and turned onto her back. Daniel was writing a note on a student’s essay which was probably not a friendly one judging by his stern facial expression.

“Good morning,” he said, not looking at her.

“Morning,” she said. “Another bad paper?”

“By someone who does not know how to follow directions.” He finished the note and tossed the essay aside. He sighed heavily. “I guess I’ll give him a C. He comes to class on time, but he rarely participates and doesn’t put much effort into his work. But anyway.” He glanced at the clock on his nightstand. “It’s eight in the morning. Guess you’ve got time before you can go to work.”

“I think I’ll call out sick. I’m not feeling so great today.”

“Well, we both know why, don’t we?”

She nodded. “I guess I got carried away.”

“You guess.” He climbed out of bed. He was still wearing his khaki pants and blue sweater from last night. “Come on, get up. No use lying there.”

She got up and followed him to the living room, where he turned the TV on to the morning news program. She leaned against the wall as she watched him watching the TV. They were both silent before Claire mastered the courage to speak first. “You hit me last night.”

“I know,” he said. “I wasn’t going to put up with your disobedience.”

“Disobedience? Since when was I to obey you?”

“You never had to. But since you know so much about me, you’re going to.” He turned to face her. “And if you agree to follow me, you will have to.”

“Follow you?” Claire got off the wall. “What makes you think I would want anything to do with you? After the way you’ve been treating me!”

“It will stop if you decide to follow me.”

“But how can I trust you after all you’ve been hiding from me?”

“You will realize it would be for the best. You and I will be together and there will be no one else.” He went over to sit on the couch.

Claire took a few seconds to take in what he said. “No one else? You plan to isolate me from my friends and family?”

“Not really. It would just be that you won’t be able to see them, except at night or on cloudy, rainy days. Even that one would be tough.”

“That is isolation!” She began to inch her way closer to him. “You want me away from everyone I love so you can control me, beat me, hurt me -”

“Claire!” he snapped before continuing more calmly. “This won’t be done to harm you. It would be done to protect you from the elements. And the only reason why I want you to be with me is for your company.”

“Company,” she echoed. “Is that it? You’ve been around for centuries and you decide I am best for that?”

“Yes,” he said, stern eyes fixed on her.
 

“Well,” she began. “What if I say no? What if I don’t want to be like you? Be a murderer, be away from the sunlight? Be away from anyone that I love?”

He shrugged, lifting his hands up. “It’s your choice. But I can’t let you wander around knowing what I am and what I do. That would be too dangerous for you.”

“How so?”

“Claire.” He leaned forward, his blue-green eyes growing colder. “Don’t you realize you’ll be saving your life and protecting others if you agree to follow me?”

“I’ll be destroying lives if I do,” she said.

“That may be one way of looking at it. But it depends on which lives will be destroyed.”

She shook her head. “No. No, I will not be like you, Daniel. And I am leaving now and never coming back. We’re through, me and you.” She grabbed her coat still draped over one of the dining room chairs and headed for the door.

“Remember, Claire. You will regret this decision.”

“No, I won’t. I already don’t.” She opened the door and left.

Claire called out sick from work as she headed home. During her travel, she felt numb and fought to get some feeling back into her. She might have ended a seemingly perfect relationship, but it had a quick downturn, and it was best to end it. Part of her felt proud of herself for being so brave, but at same time, she felt as though she were in mourning. But that would soon pass, and she could move on with her life.

She got home to find both of her roommates in the kitchen, unpacking the weekly groceries. She announced in a voice both strong yet sad that she and Daniel were done. He was too pushy about them moving in together and he acted like a real jerk.
 

Monica and Samantha expressed their regrets and gave her hugs. But once they pulled back, they congratulated her for being strong enough to end the relationship. Bittersweet tears rose in Claire’s eyes, but she also smiled at that. Everything she wanted was right there. She didn’t need an abusive boyfriend - vampire or not - to ruin her life.

Later on, Claire removed every photo she had taken of Daniel and threw it in the garbage. She deleted him from her social networking sites and from her phone. He was out of her life.

But she had one more thing to do to him before she could continue on. After dumping the trash bags of Daniel’s photos into the cans outside, she returned to her room and shut the door. She dialed the tip phone number of the police department. Quietly so her roommates wouldn’t hear, Claire told the operator she suspected Daniel Bertrand in the murder of Colin Willis.
 

“He told me he did it, right to my face,” she said. She gave the operator Daniel’s address and hung up. A heavy weight fled from her body.

She kept busy for the remainder of the day by cleaning the apartment, doing research for her assignments and making dinner with her friends. By the time she went to bed, she felt a peace she hadn’t felt in almost a week, and she was glad to have it again. There was no looking back for her. She had done the right thing.

Claire shot up in bed an hour before the sun rose. There screams of terror and agony upstairs where the Palmeros lived. Only Vincent, the husband, was screaming; there was nothing from Theresa.