In Darkness We Must Abide: The Complete Second Season: Episodes 6-10 (12 page)

“
Go away, Armando.”

“
No more running, Vanora. It’s time to go home.”

Vanora stopped walking and pivoted toward him, her eyes steely. “Armando, you shouldn’t have come here. I have a life!” She was trying to be calm but she nervously fingered the cross beneath her dress.

Armando seemed more sinister tonight than she ever remembered him being in the past. He had not changed that much, other than his hair being longer, but there was an edge to his movements, a dark passion in his eyes.

“
So, who’s your boyfriend?” Armando asked, eyebrows drawn over his beautiful eyes.

“
No one you need to worry about.”

“
Ah, you’re lying to your
old
friend
Armando. You’re planning to marry him, but you don’t love him.” His voice was rough, his amber eyes not looking directly at her, but angrily at some far off point.

Vanora started to protest, but Armando cut her off.

“You think you do, but it’s only infatuation. I have lived a very long time. I know the difference.”

She absolutely hated it that he could read her so easily. “Get out of my life, Armando.”

“Aren’t you curious to know
why
I am here?” Armando asked, drawing uncomfortably near.

Vanora moved away from him. “You already said that you want me to go home.”

“Something dire is going to happen if you don’t. You need to come home.”

At last he looked fully into her eyes. The magnetism within them held her transfixed for a moment, then she pushed back against it. “You can’t do that to me like you did Dan.”

Armando smirked. “I should have known.”

The nightmare about her brother’s death haunted her every waking moment since she’d had it. In the dream, Armando had told her to go home to Houston. This was no mere coincidence. “Armando, who is trying to kill Roman?”

Armando stepped back in absolute shock. “What?”

“
Don’t play games with me, Armando!” Vanora said fiercely. “You don’t do anything without a reason. You play so many damn games. You hide so much. Don’t hide this from me.”

To her fury, Armando became utterly still and silent.

Vanora could feel hot tears welling in her eyes. “Who is planning to murder Roman? Answer me!”

Armando peered into the darkness, then said finally, “You have to come back because Roman needs you. The other vampires are declaring him a king, and the ranks have swelled to nearly two hundred vampires across the country. They see the house as a Mecca and seek him out for guidance. Roman is overwhelmed and losing himself. He needs to feel the mortal world again. You are his only connection to that world. His ideas have spread too far and have changed too much not to have attracted enemies. I fear that if he continues to teach his Roman Law, he will be killed.”

“By a vampire who believes in the old ways. Like killing humans for blood,” Vanora said. “So you don’t know who’s trying to kill him?”

Stepping closer to Vanora, Armando inclined his head so he could gaze directly into her eyes. “You need to go back and convince him to move on. He has to get away from the house and out of Texas. He needs to hide for a while. Alisha should go also.”

“Haven’t you warned him?”

“
I tried!” Armando snapped, surprising her with his vehemence. “He feels safe in that damned house. He's foolish enough to believe most of the vampires have switched over to his ways. He has grown too confident in his own power! He’s in danger and he can’t even accept that! You can help him, Vanora. You can make him see the truth.”

Vanora felt an emptiness growing inside her. The dream lingered ominously her thoughts. “He may not listen to me, Armando.”

“You can try,” Armando insisted. “You have to.” He had dropped his previously menacing demeanor. Now he looked tired and worried. Sitting down on the diving board, he clutched his hands together. “I have tried to warn him and I failed.”

The impulse to reach out and comfort him was overwhelming, but she somehow refrained. “Armando, do you know who’s trying to kill him?”

Armando averted his gaze. “Just come home.”

“
This
is
my home.”

It startled her to see the hurt that sprung into his eyes.

“You told me the night I left to never go back,” Vanora reminded him.

“
I know. I thought you would be safe here.”

“
Aren’t I?”

Armando gestured distractedly. “Roman needs you.”

Vanora considered of mentioning the white-haired vampire in her dream, but that thought froze her inside. It felt
wrong
to speak of him somehow. “I’ll call my brother.”

“
You need to go home!”

“
I’m afraid to! What if that’s what kills him? Me going home?” Raw, burning fear encompassed her. What if she went home and that would be the portent of Roman’s death? What if the albino vampire followed her? All at once, every decision she’d made for the last few years of her life felt wrong. What if she was just doomed? What if her presence was death to all she loved?

“
Vanora,” Armando said. “You must go home and make him see reason. You can’t hide from this.”

Shaking her head, Vanora fought back the tears filling her eyes. “I’ll call Alisha. I’ll call Roman. But I can’t go back.” The image of her dead brother clasped in her arms was too strong in her mind. “Go home, Armando.”

Walking briskly away, she hoped he wouldn’t follow.

Of course, Armando caught up with her, matching her stride.

Before he could say anything, she said, “Just shut up, Armando.”

He ignored her. “I’ve missed you.” His tone was softer now, the earlier testiness gone.

“What we had is over. I’m seeing someone.” The words hurt to even say them, and she didn’t dare look at the vampire walking beside her.

“
He’s so
normal
,” Armando said with distaste, as if this was the ultimate insult. “But then, maybe that’s good. Maybe you should marry him, have lots of kids, grow old, die.” Jealousy filled his voice and manner. The anger had returned and he was mocking her.

“
Armando, listen carefully. I don’t want you in my life ever again. Do you understand that?”

“
Too late. I’m here,” Armando said with a taunting smile, throwing out his arms dramatically. “Let’s be friends, shall we? We were such good friends when you were a child.”

Vanora snorted. “All you want to be with me is friends?” Crossing her arms over her breasts, she stopped and stared at him.

Leaning toward her, hands behind his back, his amber eyes peered into hers. “Don’t believe me?”

“
I know what you are, who you are. You don’t want to be my friend.” Vanora hated to admit it to herself, but she had missed their sparring.

“
I know you have that little cross around your neck, and I promise to be a good boy.” Armando extended a hand to her.

Vanora glanced disdainfully at his long, slender hand, then walked on.

“Such a small gesture of friendship and you deny me,” Armando taunted as he matched her strides.

“
If I give you an inch, you’ll bulldoze me,” Vanora replied, keeping her hands firmly tucked into her coat pockets.

Armando stepped in front of her, forcing her to stop. Slanting his upper body toward her, his lips tantalizingly close to hers, he said, “You don’t even dare touch me. Maybe you’re afraid of what you’ll want if we do.”

Vanora tried to look away from his handsome face, but found it difficult.

“
Or are you too busy playing the virgin?”

“
Bastard!” Vanora struck at him.

Armando caught her wrist with unexpected ease, his smile sly. “I knew I could get you to touch me.” He forced her hand open, pressing his palm against hers before intertwining their fingers. “Wearing the ring and bracelet I gave you, I see.”

Vanora tried to jerk away, but his grip was unyielding. “Let me go, Armando.”

Eyes fluttering closed, he raised her hand to his face and rubbed her knuckles against his cheek.

Vanora’s breath caught in her throat and she lost the ability to speak.

Opening his eyes, he stared down at her. “You are going to need me more than you know,” he said darkly, the mockery abruptly gone from his eyes and voice.

Vanora felt weakened. The thrill that was lacking from Dan’s kiss pulsated through her with just the simple touch of Armando’s hand. She was so angry at her weakness. “Let go!”

“
Only if you want me to,” Armando responded, his tone soft and seductive. “And I don’t think you do.”

Trembling as his cool lips barely traced over hers, Vanora fought the urge to respond.

“One kiss,” Armando whispered, the lightest brush of his mouth against hers.

“
One kiss is never enough,” Vanora whispered.

Armando’s amber eyes glowed slightly in the lights around the pool. “Not between us. No.”

The darkness was swallowing her whole. Already her body was craving his touch, the memory of his kisses making her lips tingle. How easy it was to remember how hard and thick he had been inside her. Yet, how impossible was it to forget all that had followed? The blood, the killing. He was a vampire. He was darkness, death, and desire.

“
Let go of me, Armando!” Vanora ordered, finally finding her voice.

Dropping her hand, he stepped sharply back from her. “Go home. Warn, Roman.”

And then he was simply gone.

With his presence still sizzling on her skin and his hazel eyes still haunting her thoughts, Vanora pondered the words that Armando had spoken in his silky Spanish accent.

Hugging herself, she gazed into the darkness surrounding her, wondering if Armando still lingered in the shadows, observing her. That he had sought her out both thrilled and terrified her. When she had first seen him standing on the lighted path of her apartment complex, the mere sight of his enigmatic smile had set her heart aflutter. But now that he had slipped back into the darkness, her heart beat with fear.

Could she go back to Houston and face all she had run from? Could she forget the evils she had beheld on her eighteenth birthday? Could she just abandon the life she had meticulously created for herself over the last two years and return to the mansion that was haunted by death and pain?

You must go home.

Armando’s words echoed in her mind.

Vanora lifted a hand to brush away her white-blond hair and turned to face the dark waters of the swimming pool that glimmered in the moonlight.

To go home meant she would at last cast aside her trepidation and face the monsters of her nightmares. Was she strong enough to do so? Was she strong enough to go home and save the ones she loved?

With a surrendering sigh, she admitted to herself that it was time to return to her childhood home. It was difficult to concede, but her reluctance to return was partially because she feared allowing Armando into her life once more. Though the creatures that dwelled in the darkness were terrifying, it was Armando who surely frightened her.

Only he could truly steal away her heart and soul…

Armando watched from the balcony of his apartment as Vanora finished her trek home. He had been overwhelmed by Vanora’s presence and acted foolishly. She was so lovely and strong. When he had looked into her lavender eyes, he’d felt her power calling to him. It had weakened him and made him impulsive. Looking down at his hand, he could still feel her soft skin pressed against his.

Anger still pricked at him. He'd been entranced by Vanora, seeing that at last she had fully embraced her beauty and become the woman he always knew she would be. In a daze, he had almost not moved swiftly enough to avoid her seeing him. He’d always watched Vanora and Dan from afar, confident that their relationship would peter out and die, but tonight, watching them in the restaurant had been hell. The couple had looked so happy together, it had made him feel utterly wretched. It had been his intention to stay out of sight until he’d heard the ridiculous conversation between Dan and Vanora. That Dan would put so much value on something as insignificant as Vanora's supposed virginity instead of all the other wonderful things about her had agitated the vampire. Dan could be with Vanora in a way Armando never could, yet he appeared more interested in a check list for a future bride than Vanora herself.

At last, Vanora unlocked her apartment door, looked about with her keen lavender eyes, then slipped inside to the safety of her home. With a grunt, he opened his balcony door and stepped into his own apartment.

Lorelei sat in his desk chair with it positioned so she could see him enter. Blond hair framing her tiny face, her eyes were cold and deadly. “Where were you?”

“Performing my duty,” Armando answered in a calm voice, attempting not to show his surprise at seeing her. She'd been gone for weeks, helping Aeron in his war against Parthenia.