Survivor (9 page)

I pressed my lips together.  I still felt all dreamy
and unreal.  “This was…I mean, wow,” I said awkwardly.

He chuckled, the deep sound reverberating through
me.  “Yes,” he said, smiling.

I cleared my throat nervously.  “Really?”  I looked
up at him, embarrassed beyond belief.  “I mean,” I stammered, “I’ve only had
sex once before, and that was… well not a big deal.”  I had no basis for
comparison.  I was making this up as I went along.  I suddenly realized that I
was babbling, and shut up.

He frowned down at me.  “Did I hurt you?”

I tried to keep a straight face, but failed.  “Um…no.”

He smiled and rolled onto his side to kiss me.  “Good,”
he said huskily.  He deepened his kiss and I melted into him.  He drew my hand
downward and I sucked in a surprised breath.  
Already?
 I felt my body
responding to him, without his even touching me, thanks to thousands of years
of evolution.

I
stretched out on the blanket and gazed
up at the big branches of the oak above us.  The leaves swayed in the breeze
and wispy white clouds occasionally drifted across my field of view.  Peter had
brought some work with him and he leaned against the tree trunk and leafed through
a thick pile of papers.  I tilted my head back, smiling at the sight of him. 
He looked exactly like a legal professional- young and handsome but in that
bookish sort of way (though he was a bit too fit to be a true nerd).  All he
needed was a pair of glasses and a few pens in his pocket to complete the image
of intelligent competence.  No one would imagine that he had superhuman
strength and a penchant for drinking blood.  That all sounded too edgy for the
composed, serious man studying the papers in front of him as if they held some
golden nugget of truth.

“How did you end up being a vampire?”  

He glanced up at me in surprise, losing that serious
look and becoming my Peter again- an enigmatic combination of bookworm and
seducer.  Setting the paperwork aside, he moved closer and I scooted over to
rest my head in his lap.

“A long time ago, about the turn of the century-ah,
the previous one- I was a banker.”  His voice fell into a comfortable cadence
as he reached back and became a storyteller.

I rolled my eyes.  “Of course you were.”  It sounded
suitably nerdy.

He gave me an affronted look.  “Banker was a
perfectly respectable occupation.  In fact, it was a family legacy.  I had
worked my way up to managing one of the banks my uncle owned.”  He sighed
wistfully.  “I think one day I would have been his heir.”  He pulled his pocket
watch out, running his thumb over it, as he did when he was deep in thought. 

I arched my eyebrows.  “But then, one dark and
stormy night you were attacked by a vampire in the alley outside the bank.”

He snorted.  “You read too much.  I was very good at
what I did.  I gained a reputation for handling my clients’ affairs with skill
and tact.”  He shrugged depreciatingly.  “I started attracting very wealthy
people who at times wanted their transactions to be…quiet.  Nothing illegal,”
he rushed to explain, “but just not wanting to draw attention to themselves. 

I nodded and he continued.  “I had a client, John
William Thomas- at the time I was sure the name was an alias.  Anyway, he came
to me several times over the years.  He often had me complete large purchases
or sales on his behalf.  Things like buying a ship, selling a piece of
ancestral hunting land.  Very large endeavors.  He never wanted to deal with
large companies or well-established, wealthy families in person.  I thought he
was just eccentric.  I assumed he was an old recluse, holed up in a mansion
somewhere.”

I absorbed that, wondering what it would be like to
be able to buy a ship, or own
ancestral hunting land
.  I couldn’t even
imagine.

“Finally, one day I met him.  He had come to ask if
I would travel with him to purchase a large amount of land from some English
nobility.  Since it was overseas, he wanted me there to speed up the process so
he wouldn’t have to send documents and things like that.  I was stunned- and
immensely flattered- by his request, but it made sense from a business
standpoint, especially knowing as I did how reclusive he was.”

I looked back at him, wide-eyed.  “You ended up like
Renfield,” I said, thinking
Dracula: Dead and Loving it
.

He gave me an exasperated look.  “Do you want to
hear this, or would you rather make up your own story?”  I made a zipping
motion over my mouth, and he shook his head.

“I was shocked when I met John.  He was a little
blonde thing, pretty as a girl, and even younger than I was.  When he first
walked into my office, I almost asked where his father was.”  He grinned.  “But
the man was hard as nails.  I guess he had to be, looking like that.”  He
shrugged.  “So I went to England with him.  He bought the land for a terrible
price.  It was just bits and pieces of land scattered all over the U.S.  I
thought he was insane, but I did my job.  When we got back to the States, he
had me sell most of those little bits and buy up areas around the remaining
plots of land, so that he had fewer, larger pieces.  Somewhere along the way,
he clued me in to what he was doing- and what he was.  He found my
professionalism and my tact to be invaluable when he was dealing with others,
vampires and humans alike.”

He paused to tuck my hair behind my ear.  “What was
he really doing then?  With all that land?”

Peter gave me a Cheshire-cat grin.  “He was
consolidating so he could build a coven.  The little pieces he bought were
other coven territories.  He basically owned the smaller covens by controlling
their land.  When one of those areas was without a leader, he finally took over
and started his own coven.  The coven house now sits on about four hundred
acres.”

I sat up and stared at him.  “Four hundred acres?”  That
would mean the coven probably owned most of the town. 

Peter nodded, grinning.  “It was the smallest of the
territories he owned, but he wanted to be here.  He never did tell me why.”

I shook my head in disbelief.  “So this was your old
master?”
He nodded.  “I worked with the vampires as a human for a long time.  Somewhere
along the way, I picked up a passenger.  When I realized what it was, I knew I
couldn’t keep working.  If anyone knew I had TB- or consumption, as we called
it at the time- they would send me to a sanitarium.”  He shrugged.  “I figured
at least I couldn’t infect the vampires.  So, I started working for them full
time.  I was trying not to let consumption stop me from living.  John and I
were good friends by that time, and I felt reasonably secure with them, since I
was already dying.  It’s not like I had to worry about my life being in
danger.”

I bit my lip.  He talked about dying as if it was
nothing.  No big deal.  But he had been secretly suffering through a pretty
nasty disease.  What’s more, he hadn’t went to his friend and asked to be cured. 
He simply asked for a job, and kept on trying.

 “John kept you when you died.”  I could see it
now.  Not some dramatic attack or a love affair with an undead seductress. 
Just a very good friendship built on a professional relationship.  It sounded
dull, but I was touched.

“None of us knew at the time, but John was building up
the coven, getting us ready to go on without him.  Looking back on it now, it
was obvious.  He brought in certain types of people, not only personality, but
those with particular skill sets.  I have always managed the finances and legal
planning for the coven, among my other talents.  Leah can soothe anyone and
bend them to her will.  We have a handful of varied military experts,
government officials, and people with good connections, medical experts,
anything we could possibly need.  Our coven is small, but we never need to rely
on the larger covens for anything.”

There was a deep sadness in his leaf green eyes, and
I reached out and hesitantly took his hand, eliciting a brief smile.  “What do
you mean, getting you ready?  What happened to John?”

Peter gazed out at the sunny countryside.  “He
faded.”  He said softly.  “Sometimes it happens.  We are said to be immortal,
but living requires some kind of vital spark.  After hundreds- hell maybe even
thousands- of years, it fades.”

I squeezed his hand.  “What happens then?”  I didn’t
want to ask, but I had to know.

He gave me a soft smile.  “Then, I expect that spark
moves on.  Our souls were never meant to be tethered here forever.  They have
other places to go.”

*****

I picked out a new pair of dark jeans and a white
bohemian style top, nice, but casual.  Mom and Chelsea had taken me shopping
last weekend and I actually chose real clothes- something other than sweats or
comfort clothes.  I even bought a pair of earrings, big dangly things with
wooden disks and shiny wire coils.  It took me forever to get them in my ears,
but when I finally managed to get them in, I shook my head experimentally,
liking the weight.  I felt feminine, something I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Peter glanced at me as I emerged from my bedroom,
and his eyes lingered.  For a moment, his face was blank, but then he blessed
me with that glorious smile.  “You’re beautiful as always,” he said seriously. 
I would have wondered how to take that- I mean I was usually pretty frumpy
looking- but his eyes had just a hint of silver in them and his voice was just
a smidge lower than usual.  He liked my new clothes.

I was very nervous about meeting Peter’s friends.  He
had woven his way into my life with ease.  He visited me at work, he stayed at
my place on occasion, and he had met my rather unusual friends.  He had even
managed to survive an evening with my family.  But I knew almost nothing about
his life.  I always had a very real sense of
him
, but those other
details were missing.  I had never been to his house and I hadn’t met his
friends.  In fact, I kind of assumed he didn’t
have
any friends among
his kind since he was apparently breaking some big rule of theirs.  Tonight
wasn’t just us hanging out with his friends.  It was me finally being invited
into his life, his world.

I gave Taz a farewell pat, struggling to keep the
beast from climbing onto my lap.  He wasn’t used to being left alone at night. 
Peter seemed thoughtful as we made our way out to his car. 

“Are we going to your house?”  I tried not to sound
too hopeful and pathetic.  I doubt I was successful.  I tried to cut him some
slack, since a vampire’s home is his sanctuary and therefore never seen by
humans, but it was hard. 

Peter just shook his head, distracted by his own
thoughts.  He stowed my things then came around and slipped behind the wheel. 
He looked good there.  But then again, he looked good anywhere.  “The coven
house is a sort of communal gathering place.  It’s a house that belongs to the coven
as a whole.”

I pursed my lips.  The idea of belonging to a coven
was foreign to me.  It sounded like a cult.  “You all share this house?”

 He nodded as he merged into traffic.  “Our master
owns it, and all of the coven’s property, but we are allowed free use of
anything the master owns.”  He sighed, “My master is not pleased with me right
now, but when Leah is the one having the party, everyone is expected to attend.”

I frowned at him, “What is it you are doing that makes
everyone so angry?”  He always seemed to skirt the issue.  I was tired of the
secrecy.  Peter didn’t look happy.  He didn’t want to tell me, but he wouldn’t
lie to me when I asked him a direct question.

“I passed my one hundred year mark about five years
ago,” he said slowly.  I’d guessed his age, but I never had the guts to ask.  I
mean that seems like something you don’t really tell a human- even if you are
sleeping with her.  I tried not to think about the things I had done with a man
who should have died a good twenty or thirty years ago.

“So what does that have to do with it?”  He sighed
and glanced at me, swerving around a pothole and breaking at a red light
without even looking at the road. 
Creepy
.

“Vampires can’t have children- not in the usual
way.”  He returned his gaze to the road.  “We have to turn a human to continue
our line, so to speak.”  He shrugged uncomfortably.  “It’s kind of an unwritten
rule that we turn a human every hundred years- no more, and no less.  “He
gripped the steering wheel tighter and I was afraid it might snap.  “I refuse
to do it.”

I considered that for a minute.  “I guess that makes
sense.”  I imagined having to drink blood for the rest of my life and thought I
might throw up.

We drove on in silence for some time.  I’m sure
Peter was stewing over the demands of his peers.  I was thinking about what it
would be like to be a vampire.  “If you made me like you, would I be healed?”  Obvious
question.  He had to have seen it coming.

He shrugged, slowing as we crossed a small bridge
over a little offshoot of the river.  We were heading out into the country and
the lights and signs of civilization were thinning.  “It might.”  His voice was
flat.  I started to speak, but he cut me off.  “Of course there is also a very
good chance you would be just the way you are, only immortal.”  He tapped his
head.  “There have been some instances where the turn went wrong.  Usually when
the human had a mental disorder.”