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Vampire Romance

Bronze and Blood

Secret Blood Gate World Series Book Three

Natalia Hunter

Vampire Romance: Bronze and Blood

E
liza ran her finger from Levi’s belly button to the waistband of his boxer briefs. He glanced over the book he was reading to smile at her. Those eyes always turned her insides to goo. As a vampire, he didn’t have much color in his skin or hair, but his eyes were the color of melted caramel. He shouldn’t expect that he could lie in repose half-naked on his bed and be able to read unbothered. The title of the book was something in Italian. She leaned down to kiss him in the same spot, hoping to distract him from his book.

The skin of his abdomen was slightly cool, but she had grown to love the taste. Being with him was like skinny-dipping in a cool, bubbling spring on a hot Louisiana day. She loved the contrast of his cool, pale skin against her warmer, darker body.

Now that they had been together for four months, she had spent countless hours in conversation with Levi, learning all about his long life. She knew now that he was born in Maryland…back when it was one of the British colonies. But he had lived all over the world--Italy, Russia, Africa. And he had picked up several languages as well.

She had never met anyone so fascinating--although she supposed that wasn’t fair to the other men she had been with. Before Levi, her oldest boyfriend had been on the planet for a mere twenty-five years. Levi has had three hundred years to collect stories, skills, and experiences. She could listen to him for hours…or for as long as she could stand to watch his lips move without kissing him.

Eliza gently tugged on the waist band of his briefs with her teeth, and felt him harden against her chest. His erections always made her feel warm and ready. It was so simple, but she couldn’t think of many things hotter. It meant he wanted her as much as she wanted him.

With her half-dead senses, she didn’t have any trouble hearing a knocking on the front door downstairs, but she chose to ignore the sound, much more interested in the sound of the blood coursing through her boyfriend’s mid-section.

However, Levi sat up and reached for a pair of paints. She pouted at him.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” he said. “I don’t want to give anyone an excuse to come in and look around.”

Half-deads—people who had tasted vampire blood but never died—were not allowed in the vampire world. Technically, they were not supposed to be in the human world either. The vampire Queen had put a kill-on-sight order on Eliza. Fortunately, the Queen has many subjects who weren’t as loyal as they pretended to be. Many of them knew, or at least suspected, that Eliza and Levi were still together, but they didn’t go out of their way to try and lure her out. However, she knew it wasn’t smart to test their tolerance by walking around outside in the vampire world.

“It’s probably nothing,” Levi said, pulling up his jeans. “Just wait here.”

Eliza sighed and wrapped herself in his Italian silk bedsheets. His bed smelled of lavender and sage. It seemed like everything in his house smelled amazing. Although it probably helped that her half-dead senses made every sensation more vibrant. Every touch. Every taste. It was like seeing the world for the first time.

“Eliza,” Levi called from downstairs. “Could you come down here please?”

Eliza hadn’t been expecting that. And she didn’t like the ominous tone of his voice. If the Queen had come to collect her, he wouldn’t give her that up that easily, would he?

Eliza pulled on her own pants and ran her fingers through her hair. She couldn’t understand why she used to be so self-conscious. She used to think her hair was too frizzy, her butt was too big, and her skin wasn’t clear enough. None of that seemed to be an issue anymore. It did help that the vampire blood kept her skin clear and her hair shiny. Even the whites of her eyes were more vibrant. But that wasn’t the real reason why she had more confidence. It was Levi. She had never realized how beautiful she was until she saw herself through his eyes.

Eliza walked down the stairs toward Levi’s voice and she stopped in her tracks half-way down. Eliza’s mother stood in the living room. Well, the creature that used to be Eliza’s mother stood in the living room.

Eliza had seen her—or she thought she had seen her—when the Queen had kidnapped her sister. But it had been so long, and the memory had been so painful and violent, that Eliza had decided that she must have been seeing things. If her mother really did live in the vampire world, why didn’t she come say hello sooner?

Now that Eliza saw her face-to-face with no vampire attacks to distract her, she was one hundred percent sure that this was her mother. This was the women who had abandoned her family over ten years ago.

She smiled at Eliza, but her brow remained furrowed as she did. It was an apologetic look, and Eliza didn’t like it. She didn’t want apologizes. She wanted an explanation. Just the fact that her mother was standing here now and hadn’t aged a day, was a pretty good explanation already, but Eliza needed more.

Eliza pursed her lips, and took the last few steps slowly.

“Is it all right that I let her in?” Levi asked.

“Yeah,” Eliza said, although she was tempted to ask him to throw her out.

“You look so beautiful,” her mother said. “I’m so proud of the young woman you’ve become.”

“But you don’t really know the young woman I’ve become, do you? I might be a horrible person. You really don’t know for sure.”

“I understand why you’re angry.”

Eliza approached her mother. Yes, she was angry, but that seemed like an overly-simplistic way to describe it. She felt hurt. Abandoned. She felt like she was nine years old again, kneeling by her bed in prayer until her knees ached and her blanket was soaked in tears. Begging God to being her mommy back. She still felt that fear as each day passed, thinking that maybe her prayer would never come true.

“You really are her, aren’t you?” Eliza said. Her mother—Vivian—looked almost the same age as Eliza. She hadn’t aged a day. In fact, she might look younger than she once did. Her dark skin had lightened and her hair was streaked with white, but her face was nearly wrinkle free.

“I’ll give you two a moment,” Levi said.

Eliza grabbed his hand. “You don’t have to leave.”

“Thank you Levi,” Vivian said. “I’d like a moment to speak with my daughter alone.”

“I’ll just be in the other room,” Levi said. He kissed her on the forehead and headed toward the kitchen.

E
liza looked back at her strange milky, far-too-young, mother, and hugged her arms around herself protectively. Her lower body temperature usually didn’t bother her, but right now she felt like she might not be able to stop shivering.

“May I sit?” Vivian asked.

Eliza shrugged and sat on one of Levi’s vintage couches and glared at her mother while she took a spot across from her.

“I thought I would never be able to speak to you again,” Vivian said, with watery eyes. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’m not sure I believe you,” Eliza said. “Have you lived just a few miles away from me this whole time?”

“Of course. I wanted to keep tabs on you. And I’m glad I did. Because I watch you, I was able to help save your life. You would have never survived the crash without the curative effects of my blood.”

Eliza nodded with pursed lips. At least that part made sense now. Vampires don’t go around donating to blood banks. Her mother must have donated at the hospital just for her. She would have known that her vampire blood would have turned Eliza into a half-dead. But she did it anyway in the hopes of saving her life.

“What happened to you?” Eliza asked, but what she really meant was, why did you leave me? The obvious answer of, ‘Duh, I’m a vampire’ should be a good enough excuse, but Eliza didn’t think so. Yeah, so that might have caused some complications, but it didn’t seem like reason to disappear quickly. Eliza would never do that to her own children, not for any reason.

“Well, I suppose you’ve realized what I am now,” Vivian said.

Eliza didn’t reply and waited for her mother to share more explanation.

“I made a terrible mistake,” Vivian continued. “Twelve years ago, I was unfaithful to your father. I fell in love, and unfortunately for me, the man I fell in love with was a vampire. Once I was under his spell, I allowed him to drink from me. It felt so important at the time. I would do anything to offer him by blood. By the time I realized I had made a mistake, it was too late. One day, he was feeding on me and I passed out. When I woke up, I was just like him. Once I was no longer human, he had no use for me, and I never saw him again. But I would pay for my mistake for all eternity.”

Eliza scowled at her. She realized that her arms were still crossed over her chest. She had known that she had betrayed the family, but hadn’t considered that she had cheated on Dad.

“It was the biggest mistake of my life,” she said. “But I was young…”

“Not that young. I’m younger than you were then, and I wouldn’t do that.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t,” she said and Eliza thought the tone was a bit patronizing.

“Okay, so maybe your marriage wouldn’t exactly work out because of the adultery, but you didn’t have to abandon Rachelle and me. Just get a freaking divorce like a normal person and share custody.”

“I had turned into a vampire, Lizzie.”

“So?”

“I tried to keep living my life, but vampires can’t pretend to be human for very long. The hunger was…painful. I couldn’t be around you and Rachelle, or your father. The longer I was a vampire, the more powerful my urges became. I knew I would break sooner or later, and I wasn’t going to let myself hurt the people I love.”

“You still could have come back,” Eliza said. “If not right away, why didn’t you at least come talk to me as soon as you saw me in the vampire world?”

“Well…I was alarmed to see you there. I was scared for you. I decided to continue protecting you from inside, instead of making things more complicated and dangerous by approaching you.”

“You mean, you didn’t want the Queen to know that you had a half-dead for a daughter.”

“No. I’m not afraid of the Queen.”

Eliza figured that she had at least proven that when she attacked her to save Rachelle. Eliza didn’t think she’d ever forget watching her long-lost mother pounce on the Queen like a rabid animal.

“Well, why come now then?” Eliza asked.

“Because even if you don’t believe it, I love you, and I can’t hold my tongue any longer. You’re right, I’ve made horrible mistakes. I threw away my life and lost everything I loved because I fell for a vampire, and I don’t want you to do the same thing.”

Eliza scowled deeper. She had been frowning so long now that her forehead hurt. “You can’t possibly be saying that my relationship with Levi is anything like what you’re describing. Levi and I are in a relationship. It sounds like you weren’t your vampire’s girlfriend at all, you were his bedtime snack. Levi doesn’t feed from me. Well, the one time…but that was an emergency. And most importantly, I’m single. I can sleep with whoever I want. I don’t have a husband and children…”

“And you never will,” Vivian interrupted.

“What?”

“I’m sure I’m telling you something you already know. Vampires can’t have children. You would never be able to have Levi’s children. And if you continue on this path, you won’t be able to have children, period.”

Eliza had thought about this. She and Levi had only been together for four months, but of course she had thought about her big white wedding and the two daughters she had always wanted to have. Becoming a mom and having a family had always been one of the most important things she wanted for her future, so she considered the possibility of marriage with pretty much every guy she thought was half-way decent looking.

“Can half-deads not have children?” Eliza asked. The tone of her voice had changed significantly. She was still furious and hurt, but she had also been desperate to ask someone these kinds of questions.

“I’m honestly not sure,” Vivian said. “Perhaps you could, although I imagine that it would be difficult. Your body temperature is low, and your heart pumps slower. I don’t know if you could support human life. It might not ever happen for you, and even if it does, you’ll probably have to go through several miscarriages.”

Eliza felt like she had been kicked in the gut. One of her greatest fears had always been not being able to have children. As a healthy young woman, it has always seemed like an irrational fear. Maybe, deep down, she had predicted something.

“But a healthy pregnancy is the last thing you should be worried about right now,” Vivian said. “How long has it been since you have eaten?”

“What?” Eliza didn’t appreciate this random mothering. She had no business walking in here and telling her to eat her vegetables and floss twice a day.

“How long?” she prodded again.

Eliza thought about it. Not since she had been at Levi’s house. She had Sunday dinner with her father and sister…four days ago? That couldn’t be right.

Vivian nodded smugly, as if Eliza’s silence had proven her right.

“I don’t need as much food,” Eliza said defensively. “It’s not like I’m anorexic or something. I’m just not hungry. Like you said, my body runs slower. I don’t need many calories. I could understand Dad and Rachelle giving me grief, but you should understand.”

“Oh, I do understand. Have you thought about why there are so few half-deads in the world?”

“Well, because vampires don’t go around making them. And the ones that do get made are probably killed by the Queen.”

“Or they die,” Vivian said. “It happens slowly. You don’t feel the human needs as much as you used to. Hunger. Thirst. The need for sleep. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have those needs. Then one day, half-deads realize that they have no human needs at all. Their humanity simply slipped away. They died of dehydration or malnutrition without even knowing it was happening.”

“I think I would know if I was starving to death.”

But would she? She hadn’t considered that it could happen. If she wasn’t hungry, then she must not need food. But what if she was wrong?

“Why did you leave school?”

“It’s none of your business,” Eliza said. “You lost the right to act like my mother.”

Vivian wiped a tear from her eye. “I know. But that doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped loving you. I may be a horrible person who’s made horrible mistakes, but I’m your mother, and I love you. That’s just the way it is.”

“I didn’t leave school,” Eliza said. “I’m taking a semester off. I was in a serious accident.”

Vivian nodded sadly.

Eliza knew as well as she did that she was full of shit. Serious accident or not, her vampire blood helped her hear quickly. She was perfectly capable of going to class. But she had taken the excuse to skip a semester to spend more time with Levi. But it wasn’t just about him. Her entire perspective had changed. Becoming a lawyer no longer seemed interesting. She couldn’t bring herself to go to class and actually care.

However, she hadn’t realized that she had also begin to forget about her far more important goal—to become a mother. She had known that it might not be possible anymore, and assumed it definitely wouldn’t be possible with Levi, but it hadn’t bothered her as much as it should have. Was she losing her humanity?

“When you were little girl, you had two baby dolls named Josie and Faith. Do you remember that?”

Eliza remembered it perfectly well, but she didn’t respond.

“You took them with you everywhere and took such good care of them. You fed them with their little plastic bottles at every meal and sung them a lullaby and tucked them in every night. All while your sister could barely keep track of her doll’s arms and head. You always wanted to be a mother.”

“Little girls like dolls,” Eliza said in a constricted voice.

“Just think about what I said,” Vivian said. “I love you, and I want you to have the life that you wanted.”

“You saved me and Rachelle. You even helped save Levi. I’m thankful for that. But I’m not ready for you to give me advice on my love life.”

Vivian nodded with her lips pursed. “I’ll leave you alone,” she said and then stood up and let herself out of the house.

As the door closed behind her, Eliza had to stop herself from calling out for her to stay. As much as she had wanted her to leave, it still stung to watch her mother leave her once again. And again, without saying goodbye.