Min's Vampire (34 page)

Excitement bubbled through her veins
as she turned the doorknob and let herself into her room. She
leaned against the door and it shut with a click. Her eyes widened
and her breath caught as she took in the sight before
her.

On the fly, she took the opportunity
to bring her cell phone up while he wasn’t looking and snap a
picture. She licked her lips as she clicked the button, taking the
picture. Though ridiculous looking, the sight of Jeff Haas in her
bedroom naked, except for the short, green and blue plaid
Catholic-school-girl skirt she’d coerced him into wearing, was
starting to turn her on.

Guys will let you do
anything to them if they think it is foreplay.

“
What are you doing with
that?” Jeff said when he caught sight of her.

She froze for a moment before she
said, “Tara texted me.” And since they exchanged texts roughly
every half-hour, she silently blessed plausibility and
routine.

Jeff’s expression lightened,
but then his brow furrowed.
Oh no, he’s
having an actual thought.

“
But it didn’t
ring.”

She held up the razor-thin device and
gave it a dainty shake. “Got it on vibrate.”

He suddenly had that “Oh”
expression on his handsome face.
Flimsy
excuse bought, thank god.

I wonder… will he fall for
it again when I ask him to kiss my Zac Efron poster?
That would be a hilarious shot to text everyone
when she ultimately tired of stringing him along and broke up with
him. She wasn’t about to sleep with him, not now or
ever.

She was saving herself for when she
married a multimillionaire, a prince, or for her senior year in
college. By then she’d know whether she would be a kept woman, or
if she’d be the one doing the keeping. She had plans: places to go,
things to buy.

But if he’s a good boy, he
might make it to second or third base in that get up.
She’d told him to ditch the underwear, and she was
now dying to see if he had. An “accidental” grope would tell
her.

Jeff was captain of the football team
in the fall and captain of the wrestling team in the winter. To say
he was buff would be a waste of the language. Jeff’s shoulders were
huge, broad, and marble hard, as was his smooth, hairless chest,
and bulging arms. All of it wrapped up in the dreamiest tan skin. A
strict diet of cheddar-chili fries, cheeseburgers and pizza had
failed to obscure his washboard stomach with even the thinnest
layer of fat.

His hair was short and brown, and
could never, ever be messed up—she’d tried, in earnest. And with a
face like his you’d think he wouldn’t have to play dress-up just to
get some action. This, most of all, amused her. Jeff Haas could
have any girl in the school, and yet there he was, letting her
degrade and humiliate him, all for the chance to get in her
pants.

Well, he is in my
skirt,
or at least my mother’s skirt from
when she actually was a Catholic school girl. What more did he
really expect tonight?
Jeff really looked
great shirtless, and his legs were not only strong but rather
shapely, accented by a thin dusting of brown hair.

She had to give herself snaps. Not two
weeks into her senior year and she had the captain of the football
team in naughty school-girl drag.

She could feel heat rise up
under her skin and lick up her spine and ribcage. Her cheeks
burned. She looked into the mirror of her vanity; she
was
starting to blush. She
smiled into the mirror. Ever since she could remember, the mirror
had always been her friend: she had yet to find one that
wasn’t.

“
Oh, dude...” She looked up
to see that Jeff had caught his reflection in the looking glass,
and from the panic in his eyes he didn’t like the view.

Just then two men with guns drawn and
bulletproof vests with FBI emblazoned on them smashed through her
bedroom door. Their guns were big, sinisterly shiny, and pointed
right at her.

She shrieked and dropped her cell
phone, and shot up out of her chair.

The two agents moved in forcing Lucy
and Jeff back to the opposite wall.

“
I wasn’t really going to
have sex with him…,” she blurted. “I swear!”

From behind her Jeff muttered, “Oh
shit...”

The two FBI agents shot Jeff an ugly,
disgusted glance, both agents moving their big shiny firearms
between Jeff and Lucy. They seemed unable to discern which was more
of a threat: the muscular, nearly naked seventeen-year-old boy in
the skirt, or the girl who’d gotten him into it.

“
I can’t believe you’re
going to arrest me for maybe having sex.” She shook her head, as
tears welled up in her eyes. “It’s so unfair!”

Thoughts rushed through her head, none
making much sense, a few making her want to throw up. Then suddenly
she screamed a hysterical, “Daddy!”

The agents gave each other a look, and
then one shook his head bitterly as he pressed the button of his
walkie-talkie. “The girl has been found, and there’s an
unidentified teenaged male... will detain both until told
otherwise.”

The other agent, with silver hair at
his temples, told Jeff, “Son, put some clothes on.” And Jeff leapt
at the chance to get out of the skirt. Thankfully he pulled his
jeans on under the mini skirt before pulling the skirt off. Hopping
around, he tried to stuff himself into his jeans.

Her head began to spin, her
breathing quickened…she was starting to hyperventilate.
Get a hold of yourself…

Jeff was buttoning his fly when Lucy’s
mother gave out a blood-curdling scream, and they both turned to
the bedroom door.

Her mother’s screams turned to sobs of
crying, and suddenly her father appeared in the hall by her
doorway, his arms handcuffed behind his back, and another FBI agent
pulled him to a halt in front of her door. His usually perfectly
pressed clothes were rumpled, the shoulder of his silk dress shirt
was torn, and buttons had popped off. A thin line of blood ran down
his chin from his mouth.

She stared with bewildered eyes at her
father, not able to comprehend why the FBI was taking him away in
handcuffs. He looked in through her door, his face angry one moment
and then horror-stricken the next. He looked on the verge of
tears—but then he caught sight of Jeff, still standing there, still
shirtless, with his jeans still open.

Her father’s gaze turned steely, and
red hot anger jerked back into his eyes. All he said was “Lucy...”
The anger and disappointment in his voice was
staggering.

It said:
You’re not my good little girl. Not you!
Not anymore...

She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak; she
couldn’t even breathe. She just stood there, staring at the angry
stranger who had replaced her father. A moment later another FBI
agent joined the one with her father, and together they pushed him
down the hallway in front of them.

Her panicked scream made Jeff and the
two FBI agents flinch. She ran toward her bedroom door, but one of
the agents grabbed her around the waist and kept her anchored to
the spot as she cried out, “No, Daddy... no!”

She didn’t know how many
times she blubbered and bawled this, or how long the agent held
her. She finally got control enough of herself to say, “Please... I
have to see him. I have to explain.”
I have
to tell him nothing happened. Please, please, please!

“
Miss,” the other agent said
and lowered his firearm. “He’s already gone.”

Gone?
The word echoed in her head as her human restraint slowly let
her go, and then sat her down on her bed like a rag
doll.

He’s gone... he’s just
gone... Daddy’s gone...

She pulled her knees up to her chest
and pushed her face into them. She couldn’t remember the last time
she’d sat like this. When she was younger she’d sit like this when
she was upset or unsure of herself. But she hadn’t let those
thoughts touch her in so long. Those feelings were so foreign, and
so suddenly painful, that she shuddered when she finally took a
breath. The hot rivulets of her tears cascaded effortlessly down
her face, yet she refused to utter a single sound.

She did not register it when the
agents sent Jeff away, or when they searched through her room,
checked the air conditioning vents, and pawed through her private
bathroom. She also didn’t realize when they’d left her sitting on
her bed in her room. She sat there with her tear-wet cheek pressed
against her knee, alone.

~*~

Across town, high above the city in a
building still being built, Delia waited for him. Standing at the
edge of the scaffolding she peered out into the night. Nothing
separated her from the winds that whipped through her long blonde
hair. She did not turn as he approached, yet he was certain she
knew he was there.

Gabriel strode toward her, breathing
heavily from the climb—the service elevator was disabled when the
construction crew vacated for the night. He ignored the sinking
feeling that threatened to plummet him to his death, and moved up
behind her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against
him.

“
Why always so high, Delia?”
he said breathily. “Are you trying to kill me?”

He could tell she was smiling.
“Testing you, maybe… or maybe I’m testing your love.”

He gave a little bark of laughter.
“How much more must you test that? By now you should know how much
I want you.” He turned her around and gazed into her cool blue
eyes. Her arms were bare, her flesh cold to his touch. He hadn’t
gotten used to that enough to ignore it. But someday he hoped he
would.

She purposely closed her eyes. “Want
and love are not the same thing.”

Gabriel’s hands moved up and caressed
her face, and then gently pulled her to him. When their lips made
contact a cool thrill sparked through his entire body. She gasped
as she fell forward, against his broad chest. Even through the
shirt he wore he could feel the chill of her touch. He kissed her
long and true. There was no other woman on earth he desired, only
her.

Delia pushed away from him and held a
hand to her lips, the other outstretched to keep him at arm’s
length. “As I said, want and love are different.”

Gabriel took hold of her wrist and
pressed her hand against his chest, right where his heart pounded
with strong, hard beats. “I love you... you know that!”

Her eyes glinted coldly as she
appraised him with her gaze. “But we’re stuck.”

“
Don’t start that again. I
love you. I’ve proven that time and time again. I defy my own
family to be with you.”

Delia hissed. “They know nothing of us
being together. How is that defiance? It’s cowardice!”

Gabriel still had her hand held to his
heart. “Does this heart beat the song of a coward?”

Her eyes bored cold and brutal into
him. “But your heart can’t tell your family about me. Only you can
tell them how much you love me.” She glared at him, not blinking.
“That you choose me.”

Gabriel groaned and shook his head.
“And what would happen if I did? What would happen if either of our
families found out about us?” He gently took hold of her chin and
drew her face up until her eyes met his. “If they had even a clue,
there would be war, and you know it.”

“
We could make them see!”
Her eyes flashed haughtily. “Change their minds.”

“
Our families? Changing
their minds after all this time? The word impossible comes to
mind.”

“
You won’t even consider
it?” She pushed away from him. “Even if it was the only way we
could be together?”

“
I think about us being
together every day.” He pulled her to him again, buried his face in
the cool, smooth flesh of her neck and inhaled her intoxicating
scent. “And I want nothing more than to tell my parents about us.”
He sighed, conflict storming inside him. “Being in love should be a
happy thing, something to celebrate. Not something to hide at all
costs.”

“
If we were brave we would
tell them, force them to accept us.”

“
Because that worked so well
for Romeo and Juliet.”

Delia’s laughter was bitter as it
rattled in her chest. She pushed away from him again and rolled her
eyes. “I would have to fall for a freaking bookworm.”

Gabriel held out his hands
beseechingly.

“
I am a warrior,” Delia said
flatly. “In six centuries I have neither run from a battle, nor
hidden who I was. I am vampire. The strongest warrior of my people,
and they would listen to me.”

“
But would your father?” he
said.

Delia’s expression faltered as Gabriel
continued.

“
He’s King, not you. Would
he listen to another word you said if you told him I was your
man?”

For a brief moment Gabriel thought he
had gotten through to her. But then her back straightened and the
steely resolve returned to her features. “He would listen to me. I
would make him listen.”