Riding the Storm (10 page)

Kendra took another deep breath, as much to steady herself
as for the air needed to speak. “In my long life, I’ve had a number of
relationships with humans. Some lasted a few years and we went our separate
ways as human and vampire. A handful of times, I’ve stayed with someone until
he died, took care of him in his old age, and eventually buried him when his
body gave out. And, of course, several times I have turned them and we had many
decades together, sometimes centuries, before we grew apart and it was time to
go our separate ways. It’s unusual for a human man to be thinking this far
ahead so soon into the relationship. It’s like you aren’t going to let it get
started until you can see a way for it to happen, but love doesn’t always work
out that way, Eric. Sometimes you have to take the plunge and just see where
you end up. There are a variety of ways a relationship could be fulfilling for
both of us, but only if you decide it’s something you want. I can’t remember
anyone
ever
making me feel this alive. I want to spend time with you,
want to see where we can take this, but I’ll respect whatever decision you come
up with.”

And then she left. Not the slow walk-out-the-door kind of
leaving... but the super-fast thing vampires do so it looks like they
disappear. If she had to kiss him and say goodbye, she’d cry, so she just went.

She was crying before she left the parking lot, but at least
she’d kept it together in front of him.

She couldn’t handle questions from her housemates right now,
so she couldn’t go home.

Abbott?

Yes, Kendra. What’s wrong? Are you crying?

Yes, dammit. Stupid mortal men.

What happened?

He wants kids. Wants someone who can watch him in hang
gliding competitions.

He broke up with you?

No. Yes. I don’t know. He needs time to think. Can I stay
at your house on the mountain tonight? I can’t deal with questions from the
coterie tonight.

Of course. And knowing you, you’d like something to keep
you busy. I’m shorthanded at The Carnival if you’d like to stop in and get
things running smoothly.

That’ll be great. I’ll run by there and handle things,
and then see you on the mountain later tonight?

Would you like me to see if I can round up some male refreshment
for you, straight from the source?

Don’t go out of your way, but if it’s convenient, yes,
please.

Kendra pulled over, cleaned her face, and used her touch-up
kit from her purse to fix her face. Thank goodness the whole bloody tears thing
was a myth.

The Carnival was another of Abbott’s night clubs, this one
was set up with jugglers and girls overhead on trapeze bars. Well, not so much
a trapeze, as a bar hanging from the ceiling, so when they flipped around on
it, the bar moved back and forth a few feet. The girls and jugglers were only
there on the weekends, though, so tonight there was only the virtual game
section and the decor to give it the carnival look and feel. Kendra arrived to
discover they were short one doorman and one bartender. The manager was capable
of tending bar, but was trying to handle the door, which left the remaining
bartenders in a bind.

Kendra sent the manager to bartend and set herself up at the
door. The doorman also doubled as bouncer for the front of the club, but Kendra
could handle anything that might come up. The place was packed, and she
appreciated the chance to keep busy and not think of Eric, but watching a few
of the couples come in made her miss him, which was ridiculous because they’d
only just met. But, last night had been special, and she’d thought he’d handled
the whole ‘I’m a bloodsucking vampire’ thing fairly well, considering.

She helped close, and finally drove up the mountain to
Abbott’s house. She phoned Gavin on the way to let him know she wasn’t coming home
tonight — she could’ve used telepathy, but the phone was considered more
polite amongst people who weren’t close friends. When he asked her where she
was staying she changed the subject, and he thankfully didn’t push for an
answer. Not that it was any of his business, but they were friends even if they
weren’t close, so the question wasn’t out of line.

Abbott’s housekeeper let her in, and Kendra smiled at Carla,
Abbott’s hairstylist, as she stepped into his living room. Carla knew Abbott
was a vampire, and had been bound as an employee so she couldn’t tell the
secret — she came to his home to cut his hair since he couldn’t very well
visit her during daylight hours. Abbott also occasionally drank from Carla, and
the hairstylist thought it was pretty cool.

Carla sat beside a man Kendra didn’t know. A quick sniff
told her he was human, and smelled of Carla.

“Kendra,” Abbott said as he rose to greet her, “you’ve met
Carla, of course. I’d like you to meet her husband, Tom. They’re newlyweds, and
Carla asked me last week for permission to tell her husband about me, since she
didn’t want to keep secrets from him. He’s here so she can tell him and I can
bind him, which we’ve already done. Tom would like to be bitten, to see what
Carla experiences, and I thought you might enjoy showing him.”

No orgasmic bite, please. Just a blissfully pleasant and
non-sexual experience.

You got it. And thanks. You’re the best.

She looked at Tom and gave what most humans chose to see as
a warm smile. “Hello, Tom, it’s nice to meet you. I can sense you’re nervous,
but there’s no reason to be. I’ll be gentle. You’ll feel a microsecond of pain
when I first bite, but then it’ll turn into a pleasurable experience.”

Kendra looked to Carla and asked, “Do you have a preference
for where I bite him?”

“I think probably his neck?”

“Is that good with you, Tom?”

His hand went to his neck, covering where he imagined she’d
bite. “I don’t want to have to explain bite marks.”

“They’ll be completely healed before you leave, as there’s a
healing agent in our saliva. But, Tom, you don’t seem too sure of this. Let’s
all have a drink, and sit and talk for a bit, and then see if you still want to
be bitten.”

“No, I’m sure.” He let his hand go back to his lap. “I need
to understand what Carla experiences. She says she wants to keep letting Abbott
bite her when she does his hair.”

“Okay, then. You haven’t given blood recently to the Red
Cross, have you?”

“Not in a few months.”

“When you give blood, how tired are you afterwards? How long
until you feel back up to speed again?”

“I’m okay as soon as I leave, it’s never made me feel dizzy
or weak or anything.”

Kendra smiled. “Good, because I’m hungry. I won’t take as
much as the Red Cross, though. They take sixteen ounces, and I’ll only take
around twelve. I usually take six or eight at a time, but... since you can
handle it, I’ve had a rough day, and twelve would make me feel much better.”

He grinned back at her. “If you’ve had a rough day and it’ll
help, take sixteen if you want. I was thinking you’d take more than the Red
Cross, not less.”

“Okay, lean against the back of your chair and relax. I’ll
come around behind you.”

Abbott didn’t want Tom to grasp the intimacy of being
bitten, and taking him from behind avoided most body contact, as well as eye
contact.

Kendra drew his head to the right at an angle to expose the
length of his neck. He was incredibly tense, so she massaged the muscles and
talked him through a few deep breaths. As he relaxed, she moved her left hand
down and across his chest to hold him in place, and finally let her teeth sink
into his neck, injecting the numbing agent first and then the right combination
to give him bliss without sexual ecstasy. She gave his bloodstream a second to
carry away what she’d injected, and then she drank. And drank. She monitored
how much she took, and stopped at around twelve ounces, paying special
attention to use her tongue to put saliva on the two marks before she pulled
her mouth away. She relaxed her hold on his head, but otherwise stayed where
she was until he raised his head on his own, and then she slowly moved her hand
off his chest and backed away.

She walked behind the bar area in Abbott’s great room,
poured a glass of orange juice, set it on the table beside him, and then sat in
a chair across from him while he figured out how he felt, and how to begin
talking again. Most people didn’t recover as quickly as Eric had the other
night, but Eric had filled his life with new experiences and was used to
dealing with large adrenaline dumps.

After a few moments Tom’s eyes started to focus and he said,
“Wow.”

Carla laughed, sounding relieved. “Yes,
wow
is a good
word for it. Drink your juice, Tom.”

“No, not yet. I want to sit here with this feeling another
couple of minutes.”

* * * *

When Carla and Tom left, Abbott thanked Kendra for giving
Tom the right kind of experience.

“No problem, he was lovely, just what I needed. You really
are the best.”

“We have some time before dawn, let’s open a bottle of wine
and talk.”

Once they were seated on the sofa, Kendra leaned against
Abbott with her eyes closed. Abbott’s arm wrapped around her protectively and
he asked, “Do you want me to fire him and find someone else to do the job?”

“No, he said he’d follow through because he wasn’t sure
about things, and if he decided to pursue something with me he wanted the
proper protections in place. Plus, I think he’s just an honorable kind of guy.
He said he’d do it, so he will.”

“No, Kendra, that wasn’t my question. If I keep the contract
with him, he’ll be in and out of the house working on the security system and
teaching classes. If you were to see him right now, the other vampires would
smell your hurt and sadness towards him, and know something was up. They don’t
need to know he’s hurt you.”

As usual, Abbott was right, but she’d already taken it into
consideration, so she told him, “It shouldn’t be too hard to avoid him, and if
it gets bad I’ll take a vacation. Or, if you need to send an emissary for
something, I can go. Speaking of which, you’re correct about my wanting to stay
busy. A while back you mentioned possibly opening a small bar close to the
University. If you still think it’s a good idea, I can start looking for a
location, maybe something within walking distance of the new dorms? We could
serve cheap food aimed at college kids for lunch and dinner, and then revert to
more of a bar atmosphere after dark. When I lived in, oh, I forget where, but
there was a bar near a college campus called The Library, and kids thought it
was cool to tell their parents they went to The Library yesterday, because it
made their parents think they were busy studying instead of partying.”

“Sure, see what you can find, and get the contractor and
decorator involved if you locate a suitable spot. Take it from concept to
opening night all on your own and you’ll get twenty-five percent of the net
profit as long as it remains in business, same as always. Keep me updated on
things — I’ll want a walk through, a plan from the decorator, and a cost
estimate from the contractor before we sign papers to buy or lease, but the
rest will be all yours.”

“Cool, I’ll send an email to the new Realtor and see if she
can meet me tomorrow evening after the sun goes down. I have my laptop in my
car. I’ll run out and get it, and then head downstairs. Can I have the yellow
room for my rest today?”

“Of course, I’ll see you when we rise.”

The next few days went by in a blur, and Kendra tried to
keep busy. She met with the Realtor and found three possible locations, though
none were perfect so she was on hold with her project. Meanwhile, she’d put
herself on the ‘on call’ list at all of Abbott’s other establishments, so when
they were short someone she could go in and help. She didn’t waitress, but she
could handle doorman and bouncer duties, and was more than capable of
managerial responsibilities.

So, five nights later, when Abbott warned her Eric would be
coming at eight o’clock the following night with his proposal, she made sure
she was up and gone before he arrived. She’d told Eric he was going to have to
call her, and she meant it. She kept her cellphone in her pocket and on vibrate
all night in case it rang, but it didn’t. She was almost in tears when she
headed home after helping to close up the restaurant she’d helped with that
night. She went to her room and read for a while, and checked her email just
before dawn to see if the Realtor may have sent something before she went to
bed for the night.

She was surprised to see an email from Eric.

I hoped to see you at the house tonight, but you weren’t there.
Can we talk? Without you just disappearing on me again? I miss you.

She hit reply.

Sure, we can talk. I’ll be going into TBC around 9:00 tomorrow
night to help, since the regular manager’s wife just had a baby. Sunset is around
7:15, so I should awaken around 6:00 if you want to call and let me know where
you’d like to meet. I can be ready to leave the house by the time the sun goes
down so I can drive somewhere to meet you, but I don’t want to talk here, at
the house.

There, that let him know she was going to have to work him
into her schedule, but also told him she was willing to do so. She read it over
a few times and finally hit the send button, and then powered her laptop down
and fell backwards into the mattress to think until the sun came up and she
died for the day.

She awakened the next evening a little before six, took a
quick shower, and then checked her email. She saw something from Abbott, the
Realtor, and Eric. She opened Abbott’s first and saw that he liked Eric’s
plans, and was calling for a meeting with his inner circle the following
morning at four o’clock at the house. She could do that, no problem.

Next, she opened the email from the Realtor — a
promising unit was coming off its lease in a month, and Gen had access to show
it. Kendra emailed her back to let her know she could meet the following night
at sundown to look it over. As Abbott’s Realtor, Gen was used to dealing with
vampires, and would email back with an appropriate time.

Finally, she opened Eric’s email.

Please come to the marina after sundown. There’s a trail leading
up the hill to a large rock outcropping overlooking the river. I’ll bring a
blanket so we can sit up there and talk.

Damn, he wasn’t good at following instructions. She’d said
he’d have to call her, and then she’d emailed him to call her. Since when is an
email the same as a phone call? But, he did make the effort by sending her an
email, and she guessed it would have to be good enough. If she insisted on a
phone call at this point, she risked looking petty. She dressed for TBC, but
put boots on instead of heels, which she carried with her, to change into.

When she arrived at the marina Eric was standing below the
parking lot at the water’s edge, throwing what looked like dog food to the
ducks. She got out and went to him, and he handed her the bag. She took it and
looked at it questioningly, “Dog food?”

“No, it’s duck food. I buy it at a farm supply store. Most
people feed them crackers or bread, but human food isn’t good for them.” He
beamed his warm, magical smile, and her knees threatened to go weak. “Toss the
rest of the bag and we’ll walk up the hill.”

They made small talk as they walked up the hill. She told
him she was looking for a place to put a small bar in town by the University,
he told her the whole vampire thing had given him a great idea for a project,
and he’d asked Abbott for permission to write vampires into a video game.
Abbott had given him tentative consent, as well as a list of things to make
wrong, and another list of abilities he couldn’t include. The Master Vampire
wanted people to continue to think stakes through the heart killed them, for
instance, and he didn’t want anyone to know how to successfully restrain a
vampire with rappelling rope.

“During the dark ages,” she explained, “a friend was about
to be killed by hunters. However, when she started crying watery tears, they
decided maybe she wasn’t a vampire, since the myth says we cry tears of blood.
Instead of taking her head and heart, they decided to stake her outside, to see
if she burned in the sun when it rose the next morning. We managed to rescue
her before dawn, so the blood-tears myth saved her life.”

“Apparently, he has to go to someone higher than him for
official authorization, since it’ll sell outside his territory?”

Kendra nodded, but didn’t give details. Going to the Vampire
Media Council was a big deal, and she’d rather they not be introduced to Eric.
She’d need to talk to Abbott about it, later.

When they reached the top of the hill he laid the blanket
out, and she took her boots off and sat with him. Eric pulled her to him,
tucking her under his arm as they both looked out over the river. Against her
better judgement, she let him hold her, let his warmth soak into her until
their hearts beat in rhythm, because it felt so, damned,
good
.

Of course, if he wasn’t prepared to tell her he was good
with her being a vampire, then pulling away again would hurt, but she was
willing to give herself a few more luxurious, decadent minutes in his arms, and
hoped the fact he was holding her meant he’d come to terms with everything.

“Kendra, I missed you.”

She didn’t say anything, and after a few moments, he said,
“Now you’re supposed to tell me you missed me, too.”

“Eric, I told you how I felt. I told you I wanted a
relationship with you, and that whatever kind of relationship you’re interested
in, we’ll find a way to make it work. I told you I like you, and I want to
spend time with you. You make me feel
alive
, and it’s been a long time
since someone made me feel like this. Knowing that, it should be obvious I’ve
missed you, shouldn’t it? The ball is in your court, now. Do something with
it.”

He pulled away, taking away his warmth. “You sound angry.”

She realized he was right. She
was
angry. She liked
him, and he didn’t know what to do, and that put her out of control and made
her heart hurt.

But being angry with him wouldn’t solve anything.

She hugged her knees to her chest, wrapped her arms around
her legs, and looked out at the water. “I’m sorry. I’m angry at the situation,
I guess, but not you. Sometimes it sucks to be a vampire.”

He spoke in short sentences, as if he wasn’t really sure of
himself, or wasn’t sure of what he was saying. “I want to see you, do things
with you. I want to date you. But, I can’t be exclusive. We should both
continue to date other people. I don’t know where we’ll end up, but this is as
good as I can do, for now. I can’t stand the idea of saying goodbye to you, but
I’m also not ready to say goodbye to the idea of a traditional wife and family.
This is the best I can come up with that lets me be true to how I feel.”

She couldn’t fault him for being true to his own wants and
needs, but she also couldn’t fault herself for doing what was necessary to
protect her heart. She took a breath, slid her emotions to the side, and fell
back into the logical place in her mind that’d served her so well. “Fair
enough, I guess. Thanks for being honest with me. The Realtor thinks a place
about to become available will work for my project. Once we find the location,
I’ll be busy for the next couple of months from sundown until around eleven
o’clock as I deal with decorators, contractors, the application for a liquor
license, hiring people, ordering supplies, coming up with a menu, and, well,
there’s a lot to do. I’ve also put myself on the on-call list, to fill in when
Abbott has someone call in sick somewhere, but on the nights I don’t get called
to help, I should have free time from probably midnight until dawn most nights,
so call or email me if you want to see me, I guess.”

“No, Kendra, I’m not going to let you leave it like that.”

“What do you mean you aren’t going to
let
me
leave it like that?
You
are the one who’s still unsure about a
relationship. I absolutely will not push you into something you aren’t certain
of, so yes, you’re going to have to come up with date ideas and then ask me
out. I need to know you’re at least invested enough in our rela—” No, not
a relationship. Without missing a beat she continued, “…whatever this is to do
that
much.”

Dammit, she was getting emotional. What was it with this
man? She hugged her legs harder and thought about disappearing on him again.
They’d probably said everything they needed to say — he knew he needed to
call her and ask her out on a date, what more was there to say?

“Kendra, here, let go of your legs and let me hold you.” He
touched her shoulder, stroked her hair, caressed her arm. She didn’t move,
though. Couldn’t move.

“I seem to have hurt you by taking so long to try to figure
things out,” he continued, his hand at the back of her shoulder now, his body
turned towards her as she looked out on the Tennessee River without seeing it.
“I’m sorry. I should’ve called you sooner. I worked on the proposal and tried
to give myself time to think. I figured I’d see you when I got the proposal put
together and met Abbott and Josef at the house with it, but then you weren’t
there. I’m sorry, you’re so strong, so confident, so...
worldly
, I never
imagined I could hurt you. Please don’t shut down on me.”

Finally, he sounded as if he wanted her. Everything he’d
said up until then had been spoken as if he wasn’t sure of what he was saying,
and now he sounded certain. But, for how long? Just until something freaked him
out again?
Stupid mortal man.
She should just walk away from him, save
herself the heartache. Sure, he could make her feel alive now, but what
happened when he met some cute hang glider and they started dating and decided
to get married? There was no way to compete with that, and the cute hang glider
would be what he really wanted, so Kendra shouldn’t even
try
to come
between them. She’d be as pathetic as Jake, thinking Angel would be his if only
Kye would go the fuck away. She felt her eyes threatening to water, and no way
was she going to let Eric see her cry. She needed to go.

“I need to get to TBC. Call me if you want to do something
and I’ll have to see how busy I am.”

And she disappeared on him. It’d taken them five minutes to
walk up the hill, and she was in her car with the key in the ignition in less
than fifteen seconds. Her cellphone rang as she pulled out of the marina onto the
street.

“Dammit Kendra, stop doing that!”

“Are you just calling to give me orders, Eric? Because if
you are then I’m not interested.”

“Please stop disappearing on me. I said I was sorry I hurt
you, and then you were just
gone
. I didn’t even get to kiss you. Come
back, please, and let me kiss you goodbye, at least, before you go to work.”

“No, Eric, I’m not coming back to kiss you. Like I said
before I left, if you want to ask me out then call me.”

“I’m calling you now. Come back here after you get off tonight.
Please.”

“No.”

“No?”

“Eric, we’re open until three in the morning, and then I’ll
have to stay and lock up. I told you to call when you want to ask me out. On a
date
.
Showing up on your boat at four in the morning for a booty call isn’t a date.
Sorry, not interested.”

“If you aren’t going to be available until after midnight
for maybe
months
, then how am I supposed to ask you out on an official
date? I can’t take you to a movie after midnight, or to the theater. And you
don’t eat food so I can’t even take you to a restaurant. You aren’t leaving me
many options here, Kendra.”

He was right, time to give a little. “My Friday and Saturday
nights will probably be open. While I might meet with the decorator or the
Realtor on a weekend night, I won’t be meeting with the contractor or
attorneys. So, come up with something on the weekend we can do after sundown.”

“Okay. I miss you. I wanted to hold you, kiss you. Please
stop disappearing on me.”

If he missed her so damned bad why the hell had he taken so
long to want to see her again? But instead of saying that, she told him,
“Goodnight, Eric.”

“Goodnight, Kendra. I hope to see you again soon.”

She hung up, drove home, went straight to the workout room,
and took her anger out on the punching bag before changing clothes, touching up
her hair and makeup, and driving to TBC.

Luckily, it was a pretty uneventful night. As she was
driving home, her phone rang — Eric again.
Shit
. Days without
hearing from him, and suddenly he wouldn’t go away.

“Hello again, Eric.”

“The community theater is doing a production of Lost in
Yonkers, the show starts at eight. I’m online now and can get us good seats for
either Friday or Saturday night. Which is better for you?”

“Saturday.”

“Okay, I’ll knock on your door a few minutes after sundown
to pick you up.”

“Great, I’ll see you then.”

“Kendra, that’s almost a week away. If you have some time
between now and then and you’d like to see me, let me know. Okay?”