Promise Me Anthology (22 page)

We followed the man out to a small group of
similarly dressed people. One couple was clearly some colleagues of
Mary Ann, as she said hello to them and introduced me, something I
was not keen about. But when she added I was only a friend, I
relaxed a bit. Another man strode in as we were exiting the now
empty reception room. He was both anxious and also clearly angry
about something, though he stayed silent. I surmised his date had
stood him up, then promptly ignored him.

The tour commenced, and lasted about a half
hour. It consisted of most of the upper floors of the house, save
the attic and master bedroom, and did not include the basement or
kitchen either. Most of the rooms were done in antique furniture,
and the dressings were authentic, so much so that the smallness of
the beds made my back ache again, remembering how for years I’d had
to sleep on my side to avoid my heels being off most beds. I had
been a tall vampire in a time when not very many men were tall, and
furniture was much smaller than its current modern gigantic
proportions.

The two women exclaimed about everything, and
took many pictures with their phones. The two men with us seemed as
bored as I was, though that did not prompt us to converse.

At last, it was over. On our way back to the
others in the reception room, I glimpsed servants carefully laying
out the china for the dinner to come next, and knew I did not have
the patience to last another hour in silence, let alone polite
conversation. I wanted the blood I’d been denied, if not also a
quickie in one of the upstairs rooms.

“Let’s slip away,” I whispered in Mary Ann’s
ear.

“No,” she replied. “I’m hungry. I need to eat
something. Besides, all my colleagues are here, Dev. They’d want to
know where I was if I disappeared. I’d have to answer questions
later.”

“Let them wonder,” I teased, kissing her
neck. “Come on. I want you—”

“Don’t you ever want to do anything but have
sex?” she accused sharply. The couple who was just within earshot
stiffened and turned, staring at us, before they hurried into the
reception room.

Not now, I don’t.
“Go have dinner,” I
said grumpily. “I’ll meet you at the dance.” Without a word more, I
left her there, and snuck back upstairs, avoiding servants.

The master bedroom wasn’t hard to find. I
took off some of my trappings like my gloves, hat and jacket, then
set them aside, stretching out happily on the modern bed which
could accommodate all of me with plenty of room to spare.

The silence stretched while I thought about
the night and how to salvage it so I ended up between Mary Ann’s
thighs again, and not on the end of a slap. At this point, the
latter was looking very possible, and the former close to
impossible.

Why are you in such a mood? Because that man
stopped you from feeding? You could have fed before you came. Why
is it such a big deal to have her blood here tonight?

Because I wanted to do it, and now I have to
wait. I was never good at waiting, especially when I’m so
bored.

But what did you expect? This is how humans
have fun, by dressing up and pretending they are great lords and
ladies. They don’t know how it was, that half the time the clothes
were too hot or too cold, that with no lawful rights there was the
constant threat of being out of favor and having lands and title
stripped away, that just the base necessities like enough clean
water or unspoilt food were usually not met, that disease was so
terrible with no vaccines or modern medicine. They think of the
good only. The ugly truth is consigned to history books...and your
memories.

I know. I just....I wanted...

What?

“Something different,” I said aloud in the
stillness. “Something new and intoxicating, something to make me
feel alive.”

Why? Mary Ann is fun, but she’s the same as
so many before her. There is nothing new. There is nothing left you
haven’t done. There is nothing left, period. Just drinking blood
and meetings and sleeping alone and thinking stupid thoughts like
these in empty bedrooms.

I had no response to that except
melancholy.

Why not end it?

Because then that would be the end,
I
thought, afraid to give voice to the words.
Then there is no
hope of anything new. There can never be, because there are no
options left.

What do you have to live for?

I felt myself clawing against the sides of a
steep decline, sliding further and further into despair.
While
there is life, there is hope. I have to hold to that. I let that go
and it’s over.

There was a sudden bang on the door, as a
figure barged in. “What are you doing here?”

I blinked and sat up, shocked to see Nate,
his costume that of a pirate complete with a huge hat and a
feather. I’d have laughed, if his expression wasn’t so angry and I
wasn’t feeling so desolate. “Contemplating suicide,” I said with a
false smile. “Care to join me?”

“No,” he said, grabbing my arm and yanking me
to my feet. “Get up and stop being a jackass.”

“Why the hell are you here?” I said, latching
onto my own anger as I pulled away from him. “Are you haunting my
footsteps?”

“I’m the one funding this damned party,” he
said angrily. “Where’s Mary Ann? You came with her, didn’t you?” He
scented the air. “I smell her scent on your skin.”

Thank goodness for that stupid tour or he
would have smelled more than that. “She asked me to come. Her
fiancé is history.” I put my jacket, gloves, and hat back on, then
studied him. “Did you have something to do with that?”

“No, but I’m glad to hear it,” Nate said as
we exited the room. “Now I won’t have to kill him.”

“Why don’t you leave her alone?” I said
incredulously. “This ridiculous pursuit is not helping her to love
you.”

“That’s my business,” Nate countered. “You’re
in my home state, remember? I can do anything I please here, as
long as it’s within vampire law.”

“All of America is my territory,” I said
dangerously, redness bleeding into my gold eyes. “I don’t answer to
you, Nate. You answer to me. Now why are you doing this?”

He expelled a breath in frustration. “Why
can’t you just butt out, Dev? This isn’t your concern.”

I took a breath to yell again, then stopped,
watching my friend standing there. An odd scent was in the air.
“You’re in love with her,” I said taking in a long breath. The
scent was unmistakable: lust, hope, happiness, satisfaction, and
just a touch of fear.

Nate didn’t answer.

Fury filled me, hot on the heels of
knowledge. “Why in the hell would you ask me to seduce a woman you
love!” I shouted at him. “You had to know it would come between
us!”

“You weren’t supposed to like her!” Nate
shouted back at me. “You were supposed to seduce her!”

“And then what?”

“I don’t know,” Nate admitted, rubbing his
eyes. “I just didn’t want to feel this way anymore, that there was
something I couldn’t have, no matter how much I wanted it. I was
tired of being angry and tired of trying and getting nowhere.”

“You didn’t think I’d seduce her,” I said
slowly. “You thought I’d fail. That was why you set me those ground
rules of not using my voice. You wanted me to fail because you knew
I’d be furious if I did.”

Nate didn’t reply.

“What did you want me to do, in my fury?” I
purred, circling him and seething with my anger. “To lash out and
kill her, to drain her dry? To do myself what I’d forbidden you to
do to anyone else?”

“No!” Nate shouted. “I just wanted her!”

“Wanted who?” a female voice inquired.

I looked over slowly, terrified that it would
be Mary Ann standing here. But it was instead Colette, Nathan’s
sister.

She advanced to me slowly, her slow pace from
an old injury she’d sustained at an overseer’s hands before being
turned vampire. Her dress was that of a Victorian lady, with plenty
of ruffles and almost none of her beautiful dark skin showing. But
Nate had always dressed her fancily since the day I’d turned her
for him, years ago. He had always sheltered her, too, keeping her
far from me and all other vampires except when it was absolutely
necessary.
Had he been afraid I’d seduce her?

“Colette,” I said happily. “It’s wonderful to
see you. You look well—”

“Wanted who?” she repeated, not dissuaded in
the least.

“Your brother is in love,” I said lightly,
making sure to stand beyond Nate’s reach. “Though he has an odd way
of showing that emotion.”

“A human woman?” she said to Nate, clearly
surprised. “That one you were watching earlier?”

“Yes,” he admitted. “Her name is Mary
Ann—”

Colette shook her head lightly, then turned
and went back the way she’d come. Nate followed, and I went after
him.

Colette strode down several flights of
stairs, then moved through the reception area to the dance floor.
Greeting several of her guests, I saw her make a beeline for Mary
Ann, who was sitting talking to an older gentleman in a corner of
the room. For close to ten minutes they talked. Mary Ann glanced
over us at a few times, her expression ranging from angry to
curious then back to irritated.

“What are they saying?” Nathan asked me.

“How should I know?” I retorted, as I watched
them talk. “There is too much noise in here to hear properly.”

Colette finished talking to Mary Ann, then
came back to us. “That is settled,” she announced. She turned to
me. “I’d like to dance.”

I offered her my hand. Nathan made to stop
us. Colette turned on him. “I am your elder sister, not your
younger one,” she said with maliciousness. “And I am tired of your
wasting your time on this matter. Now stay here and be silent.”

I moved away with her in my arms, awed by her
treatment of him. Nathan was as fearsome as myself, and she had
practically emasculated him.

“Cat got your tongue?” she said finally.

“I’m afraid you will,” I teased.

She blushed prettily. “I would not dare such,
Lord,” she said demurely. “In fact, I must apologize for this
entire situation. Nathan should not have let this get so out of
hand.”

“How so?”

“Because it was I who led Mary Ann to meet
Nate,” she said with a sigh. “I thought that it was good they knew
one another, with my interest in history and patronage of the
history program at the college. I never guessed he’d gotten
infatuated with her.”

“And now?”

“Mary Ann had no idea he liked her, only that
some secret admirer was sending her gifts. She did not feel she
could accept them, and so returned them. I also understand there
was a human she was seeing at the time that is now no longer part
of the equation.”

“So she does she like him, then,” I asked,
slightly jealous.

Colette nodded happily. “Look. They are
dancing even now.”

To my surprise, Nate did indeed have Mary Ann
in his arms. He was positively beaming as he swept her around the
dance floor. She didn’t have the worship in her eyes for him that
she’d had for me—which pleased me more than slightly—but she was
talking to him with an excited expression, clearly happy.

“You may have to do another turning before
the year is out,” Colette said with a smile. “My brother is
smitten, like I haven’t seen since his mortal days.”

“Would you welcome that,” I asked curiously.
“Having Mary Ann as part of the family?”

“Of course,” Colette said evenly, without
missing a beat. “I enjoy the girl’s work very much.”

That wasn’t really an answer. But looking
into her solemn brown eyes, I could see that was the best I was
going to get.

* * * *

At the stroke of midnight, there were many
kisses out on the dance floor. Sadly, I did not participate myself.
But Nathan and Mary Ann did share a chaste first kiss. After he
escorted her to his limousine, as Colette and I followed at a
distance.

“You needn’t worry,” she said, offering her
hand for a farewell kiss. “I’ll make sure he treats her correctly.
Nathan has a great deal to learn about women.” She laughed. “And I
have great things in store for Mary Ann. She seems a smart capable
woman who knows opportunity when she sees it.”

While I was pleased to know that Mary Ann
would not come to some gruesome end, I was still sad to lose her.
“Please keep me informed, if you would. I would be happy to turn
her, if that is the choice she makes.”

“Good,” Colette smiled broadly. “I’ll also
see that my brother honors his side of the bet with you, Dev.”

“How did you know about that?” I asked,
staring at her.

A knowing expression I’d never seen graced
her lovely features. “Mary Ann heard your talk, that night you came
in with Nate to see her sleeping. She knew about the bet, Dev.
That’s why she left that morning, because she was upset over what
you had done, what she had let you do. She felt used.”

Another hundred years could pass and I
probably still would not understand the female sex completely.
“Then why did she ask me to come with her here?”
Much less have
sex in the carriage several times?

“Because she knew Nate was throwing the
party,” Colette said. “She knew appearing with you here would make
him jealous. She smiled. “She did not show the invitation to you,
with his name at the top, did she? She hoped you would come to
blows. She felt it served you both right.”

The woman had deceived me.
I made a
face, Mary Ann’s actions during the carriage ride suddenly
attributed not to my sexiness, but her own motives of revenge. “It
worked.”

“You should not underestimate women, Dev,”
Colette said over her shoulder, as she walked to the limousine.
“Most of them want more than a sonata and sex in exchange for their
hearts.”

“Then what do they want?” I called back
jokingly.