Safe Hex With a Vampire (19 page)

Aiden smiled. “I love you, Tempest. We’ll
find a way to make it work. I’m not going to let you go.”

As I lay in bed, with my wife sleeping in my
arms, I could almost forget my worries. I smiled as her eyes slowly
opened. “How are you feeling this morning?”

“
I’m still tired,” she said weakly. “I
feel nauseous. I just don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She sounded
so innocent.

I chuckled. “Are you sure you don’t know
what’s wrong with you?”

Her brow furrowed, and then her eyes
widened. She sat up in bed and put her hands over her belly.

I couldn’t help it; I started laughing.

“
How long have you known?” she
asked.

“
Only a few days.” I sat up and placed
one of my hands on top of hers. “Our son is very strong. I’ve never
sensed energy from within the womb before. At first, I thought you
knew, and I was waiting for you to tell me. Then, I was just
amused.”

Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog

Tempest had always loved being outdoors. In
fact, it was one of her few indulgences that she allowed herself
growing up. It was there that she was able to escape from
everything, and truly relax. It didn’t matter what the weather was
like. She loved the hot sun caressing her skin. She loved to stick
her tongue out and catch snowflakes. Not that she had seen a
snowflake since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. On days like
today she liked the feeling of the mist like rain. It was cold, and
slightly uncomfortable, but she was still thoroughly enjoying
herself. Admittedly, she hadn’t found many chances to get out and
hike in the last few years. That was another thing she really
needed to change in her life.

Aiden had taken her to Muir Woods because he
said they wouldn’t get signals on their phones, so the real world
couldn’t intrude. He’d needed to relieve some tension too and this
was something they had in common.

Despite having lived in California for more
than fifteen years, Tempest had never been to Muir Woods. When
they’d first arrived, she’d doubted Aiden’s wisdom. The place was
packed with people. They’d woven through the crowded area just past
the parking lot and made their way up a narrower dirt path. From
there they ran into very few people.

“Are you getting cold?” he asked as he
looked over at Tempest in her jeans and UCSF t shirt.

“A little bit,” she admitted, “but I don’t
mind. I just wish I had my hiking boots with me. It’s a little
slippery today.” Tempest and her family didn’t feel the effects of
the cold as much as humans seemed to. She rarely even wore a
light weight jacket.

“You didn’t tell Ivy to bring them?” he
asked with a teasing smile. “I’m surprised that you had her bring
any clothes at all with as many as you bought with my money.”

“Are you complaining about how much money I
spent?”

He shook his head. “Nope, I just wish you’d
bought some more useful clothing.”

She stopped walking up the dirt path and
turned back to him. “Such as?”

“Maybe a French maid costume,” he said
helpfully.

She snorted. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure Drew would
have liked me walking around in a French maid costume.”

“I was thinking you’d just stay in my room.
A slave girl outfit would have been even better. Maybe some
handcuffs to make it more realistic. I could keep you chained to
the bed as my sex slave.”

“Keep dreaming,” she said and then turned to
continue walking.

“Don’t worry, I will,” he assured her. “In
fact, I think I might just buy you that slave girl outfit.”

He reached out and pulled her to a stop then
nuzzled the side of her neck.

“That sure is growing in fast,” she said as
she rubbed the hair on his chin. “What made you decide to grow a
beard?”

“I didn’t like the idea of your sister
shaving me.”

“Well, you could shave yourself now.”

“Do you want me to shave it off?” he
asked.

She turned and studied him. Aiden had been
attractive when she’d first seen him with his clean shaven
face. With the beard he looked just as sexy, but he had a wild look
to him. It was funny because she’d never been attracted to men with
any type of facial hair before, but she really didn’t want him to
shave it. She shook her head. “I really like it. Just don’t let it
get all scruffy like some crazy old biker.”

“Maybe I should get a motorcycle to go with
the beard,” he mused.

“I don’t think so,” she said and started
walking again. “I’ve seen you drive and you obviously have not
adapted to transportation technology very well.”

“I just don’t like cars,” he argued as he
walked up behind her on the narrow path. “I like flying. Maybe I’ll
like motorcycles.”

She stopped and looked over her shoulder.
“You can fly a plane?”

“And a helicopter,” he added.

She shook her head in disbelief. “That I did
not expect after seeing you behind the wheel of a car.”

Apparently he agreed that his driving left
something to be desired because he didn’t ask her to elaborate. It
wasn’t just the string of profanity that came from his mouth when
he drove that bothered her.
That
she could deal with. It was
the way he insisted on staying just below the speed limit and the
way he seemed almost afraid to merge. Most of all, it was the way
he held the steering wheel with both hands so tightly that his
knuckles were white.

Tempest turned around at the top of the hill
and gave in to the temptation to touch him again. It was funny how
the fact that he drove like an old lady was so endearing. She ran
her fingers through his hair. “Are you going to grow your hair long
again?”

“How did you know my hair is usually long?”
he asked in genuine surprise.

“You keep trying to push it back or run your
fingers through it,” she explained.

He nodded. “I’ve really been regretting
cutting it short. I hate looking like all of my cousins. I always
looked like my father, but that was okay. People occasionally
thought we were twins, which is why I grew my hair long in the
first place. Still, it’s one thing to have one person around that
looks like you, it’s another to be surrounded by a half dozen
or more at any given time.”

She laughed. “I can’t imagine looking like
my mother’s twin. That would be creepy. Obviously, with the slow
aging thing we could be mistaken for sisters, but certainly not
twins. Isaiah has longer hair, but I guess you wouldn’t look like
him because he wears the glasses.”

“Isaiah just gets too distracted to have it
cut. He probably remembers two or three times a year and then it’s
neatly trimmed for awhile,” Aiden explained. “My hair kept getting
progressively shorter in the year that I lived with my cousins. I
had just started to grow it out again before I got kicked out. I’m
not sure what possessed me to cut it after that. I lost a lot of my
identity when I was trying to fit in with my cousins. I started to
dress like them, and I even started trying to hide my accent. I’m
ashamed to admit that now. We moved to this country about a century
ago so obviously my accent wasn’t quite as pronounced as it once
was, but you could still tell I was Irish.”

“How can you remember when you moved here
but be so vague on when you were born?”

“I remember when we moved here, because it
was shortly before prohibition. Mam was fit to be tied when she
heard that they wanted to outlaw whisky.”

His lips curled into a distant smile and
Tempest knew he was seeing his mother’s face clearly in his mind.
He was just too cute when he referred to his mother as “Mam.”

He leaned down and kissed her. Tempest felt
the usual rush of heat from his touch. She started to lean into
him, but he pulled away and grinned at her. “Tease,” she said as
she smacked him lightly in the belly. “So why try so hard to be
like everyone else? You hardly seem like a conformist.”

“I’m not, and that’s probably why I failed
so miserably at fitting in.”

“Maybe you should have just been yourself
instead of a Draksel clone,” she suggested. “You seem to get along
pretty well with Justin as yourself.”

“Yeah, I figured that out, Miss Smarty
Pants. At the time, I’m not sure Justin wanted to get to know me
anyway. He had Isaiah and they didn’t seem interested in expanding
their social circle but that could have been my own insecurities.
Nathaniel was likable. He had no sense of humor, but he was fair.
He tried to take care of everyone. He and his brother were very
close so he didn’t really hang out with anyone else too often. That
left me with Drew and Dominic.”

“I’ve met Drew so I can see why you didn’t
want to spend too much time with him.”

“He’ll grow out of some of it, I hope,” he
said. “Until then, I can’t stand being around him for very long.
That left me with Dominic. We’re about the same age. We don’t have
any siblings. We should have a lot in common. It didn’t take me
long to realize that something was just not right with him
though.”

“How do you mean?” Tempest asked.

Aiden struggled to find the words to explain
what he meant. “I’m not really sure what it was that made me uneasy
around him. At first I thought it was just me. We both liked being
around humans. We both used our accents to get laid.” Aiden flushed
when he realized what he’d said.

“I already knew you did that,” Tempest
said.

“That obvious?” he asked.

“Yes. So let me guess. You figured that you
just didn’t like being around someone who was too much like
you.”

“Exactly!” he said. “I was starting to avoid
him more shortly before I got kicked out. Anyway, after I left I
heard that Dom nearly killed some girl. He was feeding on her
energy over and over again until she nearly died.”

Tempest’s jaw dropped. “You can kill people
with this energy stealing thing?”

“Not normally, but he was really abusing his
relationship with the girl. It was kind of my fault,” he
admitted.

Tempest was having trouble believing that.
She knew Aiden felt guilty, but she was sure he wouldn’t have
allowed something like that to happen, if for no other reason than
self preservation. “Why do you think it was your fault?”

“I met her first and introduced her to
Dominic,” he explained.

“So? Did you know he was going to harm her?”
she asked.

“I knew he was going to use her,” Aiden
admitted, “but I didn’t expect him to see her more than once. It
seemed harmless enough. He needed to feed and it should have been
just one time.”

“I take it that she’s okay now?” Tempest
asked.

“I guess so,” Aiden said. “It’s another big
secret in the family so I only have a few details that Justin let
slip.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Tempest
said. “You can’t blame yourself for other people’s actions.”

Aiden smiled down at her. “I get the feeling
that you need to take that advice more often too.”

She gave him a sheepish grin.

“This is nice,” Aiden said. “We should do
more stuff like this. I mean not just hiking, but going out places
and spending time together.”

“Like dating?” Tempest asked.

“That is how it works, right?” he asked with
a teasing grin. “I mean normally I just use the kidnapping
technique with women, but we could try dating too.”

“What sorts of things do vampires do on
dates?” she asked. “Stalk virgins?”

“Nah,” he said, “we leave the virgin
stalking to the witches. They need them for sacrifices and things
like that.”

“True,” she said thoughtfully. “Sadly,
virgins are hard to come by these days.”

“I’m glad you decided to stay,” he said as
he pulled her to a stop.

Tempest sank into his arms and sighed. “Me
too.”

“
I don’t want to leave you,” I
said.

“
I know,” Claudia said, already dozing
off again, “but you need to do this for Viktor.”

She was right.

“
Fine, I’ll travel with him part of the
way.” When she opened her mouth to argue, I interrupted. “You’ll
need me to help you. This isn’t a human pregnancy, and you need one
of our kind with you.”

She nodded her agreement, most likely
because she was just too tired to argue.

Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog

Tempest was glad that Ivy had thought to
pack her Kindle. It had actually been a joke. Ivy had attached a
little note telling her that she could always read if she got
bored. Today, she had about eight hours to herself. The company
that Aiden had accepted a contract with needed him to do some
preliminary sketches and then be on a two hour conference call.
She’d started the day in the gym. Drew had been disappointed when
he’d made it down too late to work out with her. She’d declined
when he’d offered to help her shower.

Now she was seated in the family room,
reading a trashy romance novel on her Kindle. It had been a free
book that she’d had on there for weeks, and she was already
thinking about buying the next book. It was a terrible storyline,
but great sex.

“What are you reading?” Drew asked from
directly behind her.

At that moment, she was glad that she’d
settled into a chair instead of the sofa where Drew could try to
sit next to her. That relief was short lived when he settled
onto the arm of her chair. Tempest stifled the groan, remembering
what Aiden had said about Drew being immature. She decided to treat
him like a fourteen year old human.

“It’s just a romance novel,” she said
patiently.

He plopped down on the sofa closest to her
and held up his tablet. “What’s it called?”

Tempest gave him the title and two hours
later he was still reading intently.

“This is fucking awesome!” Drew said out of
the blue.