The Turning (21 page)

She nodded to me, and I could see her trying not to laugh now either, the idea was so strange to us. Just as I’m sure the idea to shop for office supplies was for centuries old vampires.

When we got to the store Andre and Charles were checking out every detail like a couple of kids, while Nicole and Julie went off with Nicole’s list of things she needed.

Brian and I wandered around holding hands until we got to the back of the store with all the boxes of paper… He attacked me, pushing me up against the boxes hard enough to knock one over as he inserted his body between my legs while moving his hands to my ass. Feisty!

“God, Kelly, I could not wait to get you alone and taste you,” he groaned in between his barrage of kisses. “I cannot help it. I want to constantly touch and kiss you. Watching you have fun with your friend and smiling, it is like an insight into who you really are every day. All I want to do is be a part of that and I cannot keep my hands off of you.” We exchanged another few heated kisses before Nicole discovered us.

“Well, hell, you guys. Do I have to break out the bucket of ice?” she asked, tactfully as ever. We all laughed and rejoined the group after Brian picked up the box we’d knocked over, my body and skin tingling in response to his kisses. “Come on now. Let’s go pay.” We followed her to the front and watched her and Julie argue over who would pay. Of course, Julie won.

“We should have placed bets,” Brian whispered to me. “I would have never thought Nicole would lose.

“Really?” When he nodded I shook my head. “I think you see Julie differently than most people. She can be very scary and intimidating and not someone who I would ever want to disagree with. I do really like her, though, she’s so much fun. She’s experiencing all the things I find as normal, but I’m the same way, like the club, that was normal for her.”

Julie fell in step with me as we all headed back to the limo and gave me a brilliant smile making me understand she’d heard every word I’d said. I returned the gesture. Everyone piled back in the limo, the volume loud as everyone chatted away excitedly.

I was thinking of where else we should take them after picking up our cap and gowns, when it hit me that I would have to tell Nicole my plan while we were inside alone. We pulled up to the university and got out of the limo.

“Okay, children, behave while mommy and mommy are gone,” I cooed before closing the door.

I waited until we were almost to the main office of the medical college before I turned to Nicole. “We should take them to Marshall Field’s. I mean talk about things that would be fun if they’ve never been shopping before.” She nodded sadly. “If that’s not okay, tell me, Nicole. Do you not like them?”

“No, it’s not that at all. I really do like them. Julie’s amazing! It’s just I feel guilty that Brian paid for all my supplies,” she admitted, letting her hair fall in her face to hide behind it.

“Don’t even. Brian really wanted to. He likes you and knows you’re my best friend. They didn’t grow up like us, Nicole, and it took me talking to Andre to really get that. Money isn’t to them, like it is to us. It’s not an issue. I know it’s weird, and I’m still trying to adjust to it to. And Julie’s never had a real friend before. She’s like some kind of New York royalty so people are just nice to her because of her money and position.”

“That’s awful,” Nicole admonished. “I can’t even imagine that. She’s so sweet.”

“I know, she’s only like two years older than us, and she dresses like she’s sixty, because that’s what’s expected of her. I had to teach her how to use a curling iron, how to put on makeup, and I gave her some of my new lingerie. She had never worn anything like it before. She’s having the time of her life.” I was handed my cap and gown, then we headed back out to the limo. I stopped by the driver’s door to tell the driver the change of plans.

“What are you up to, you little vixen?” Brian drawled as I got in the limo and sat next to him.

“Nicole and I figured out a fun surprise for you guys.” I smiled innocently. “Vixen might be pretty harsh, but accurate.” I started laughing, “The boys can go off and do their own thing while we do some girl shopping. I figured it was a better idea than just dumping you back at your place like we planned earlier.”

He nodded and took my hand. I leaned on him, still feeling weak, and he kissed the top of my head gently.

The limo arrived at Field’s… Well Macy’s but I hate that Macy’s bought the store so I still called it Field’s. We all got out and there was a wave of gasps. “This is all one store?” Andre asked me, and I nodded back to him, smiling. “Oh hell ya! This is so cool.”

“Just wait until you see the inside,” Nicole said, grabbing his hand and leading him to the door. “They don’t have anything like this in New York? I mean, what do you do that you don’t know what shopping is even downtown or seen something like this?”

I practically saw smoke coming out of Andre’s ears as he quickly thought of an answer. “I own a large software design company. I’m a computer geek. My mom bought my clothes when I was younger and then my assistants handled it. If it’s not a tech store I’m normally not interested.”

Good answer. Complete bullshit but good answer.

We wandered around as a group for a bit, showing everyone where they would have to go for what they wanted to check out. I gave Brian a quick kiss as we sent the boys on their way, and went back by the cosmetics for Julie. “Kelly and I wear Clinique sometimes when we splurge, but normally we wear stuff from drug stores. What is your price range?”

“Money is no object,” Julie said flippantly, shocking Nicole. I tried not to laugh. I was just glad that Nicole was taking the lead on this. She was more the makeup girl than I was. Plus, I was getting so tired the more we did. I’d forgotten my limits and what I’d just gone through.

“Okay, then we’ll go to the MAC counter. They have the best stuff. Now I figure you are looking for sophisticated but fun too, for when you go out?”

At her nod, Nicole started picking colors and holding them up to Julie’s face. The woman at the counter looked annoyed that Nicole was basically doing her job. How could she sell her extra stuff Julie might not need if Nicole took care of it all? I laughed to myself that this was Nicole’s kind of element and sat down on one of the stools.

About twenty minutes later, they had bought a huge bag of stuff, and I guess Julie had purchased a few things for Nicole as well. I hopped off my stool and fell in step with them as we headed to the escalators.

“Thank you so much for your help, Nicole. That woman behind the counter was dreadful. I would have hated to leave my face in her hands,” Julie praised. “I was hoping we could go look at some evening wear like we wore last night.”

“Ahh, so we liked the club wear after all?” I teased, glancing at the store sign to see what floor we should get off on. “Well, you looked fab. Nicole you should have seen her. She was a sexy thing. She was catching every guy’s eye.”

“I meant to ask you how the club was,” Nicole inquired. “I’ve been dying to go there. I hear it’s really exclusive.

“It was not as exciting as you might have heard. It is members only since there is a lot of high stakes gambling,” Julie replied smoothly. “Some of the men there have no scruples either. One man smacked poor Kelly’s rear end. Then there was that revolting woman who was all over Brian and called Kelly some unsavory names.”

“Really?” Nicole’s eyes went wide as she turned to look at me. “Did you kick her ass? What did she call you?”

“She called me a fat ass. Very original. No, Jules here got in her face before I could even do anything,” I explained, looking down at the escalator we were riding up, trying to choose my words carefully. “I thought the wench was going to pee her pants by the time Jules was done with her! Oh and she said she was twice as good in bed as me and Brian should find out, all as I was standing right there.”

“Kelly came up with a very clever remark about how she had enough practice being a call girl,” Julie interjected, laughing again. “It was very entertaining. I would have just laughed at her if she had not been so offensive.”

“Shit, I’m sorry I missed that,” Nicole said, pouting as we got off the escalator. I led the way to dresses, having shopped there before with my mom when she’d travelled downtown to visit me. “Besides, I know from some of the guys she’s dated that Kelly rocks in bed. I’ve tried to get her to tell me her secrets, but she gets embarrassed.”

“Nicole!” I gasped, completely mortified.

“It’s true! Remember that guy at U of I you dated. Greg? Every time he drank too much, he would tell everyone as soon as you walked away about how you rocked his world. That was one of the reasons so many of the guys asked you out when you broke up. Greg had given away lots of your juicy moves.”

I wanted to melt into the floor by that time, but I couldn’t help laughing too, because I knew Nicole meant no harm. Maybe I could just hide behind the dress racks? I ended up going with rerouting the conversation path.

“Here, Nicole, try this on,” I said as I threw some skimpy dress at her. “How about we each pick out dresses for the other to try on?”

We all agreed and went on our mission. I knew we would probably pick out the most bizarre dresses for each other. We met back at the dressing room, and sure enough, Nicole and I had, but Julie had picked out really great dresses for each of us. I laughed so hard.

“Sorry, Jules, I forgot you might not get it. When you pick out stuff for each other, it’s kind of a joke to pick out ugly stuff that you know the other person wouldn’t be caught dead in.”

Julie laughed too then, getting the gag. We each went into a different stall and came back out in our assigned dresses. We all looked at each other and fell into a fit of giggles, but I’d started to feel really crappy by then. I looked at Julie and before I could even tell her something was wrong I went down like a rock.

Shit
.

“Nicole, run get Brian,” Julie ordered, using her scary authoritative voice no one smart would argue with. As soon as Nicole left, she gently laid my head in her lap. “Kelly, when was the last time you fed?”

“I’m okay, Jules. I swear, just got dizzy.”

“Answer me, when was the last time?” she demanded in that same tone.

“I had a glass this morning before we got ready.”

“Well that’s not nearly enough,” she chastised. “Here, drink quickly before Nicole returns or someone else comes in.” She offered her arm. I did not want to do this in public, but I was too weak to fight her. I sank my fangs in and drank a good deal, but quickly, and about two seconds after I was done the wound was completely healed. “You will be okay, my dear. Lie still another few moments before you move.” She stroked my hair as I lay there in her lap.

A few minutes later Brian burst in the room followed by everyone else. Since Nicole was there with them, I knew they had run at a speed that humans would think was normal. Brian picked me up in his arms, and I put my head against his shoulder, almost getting used to being carried by him.

“What happened?” Brian asked Julie.

“She just fainted. She is fine Brian. I believe she is still weak from being so sick. Plus I do not think she ate enough today. You really should talk to her about eating better,” she added, trying to be subtle, and it worked because Nicole came to Brian’s aid.

“Kelly’s a doctor for god sakes. She knows how she should be eating but she just never puts herself first. Pain in the ass, you scared the shit out of me. Don’t do that again,” she yelled at me. “I don’t even know what I would do without you, Kel.”

“I’m sorry, Nicole, I’m not going anywhere. I just felt better today and forgot I should be taking it easy after being sick. I’m okay. Just set me in the chair over there, and if someone wouldn’t mind getting me some water or something. I’m very thirsty,” I hinted, trying not to be obvious.

“I will,” Charles offered as he moved closer. Then he shook his head and backed off. “Andre, come with me. We should not be in the ladies dressing room anyway. We will be back shortly.”

Brian doing one better, of course, sat on the floor with me in his lap. With the excitement over, Julie and Nicole went back to their dress hunting, checking on me every so often.

“Julie, gave me some blood quickly before you got here,” I whispered in Brian’s ear so Nicole couldn’t hear.

He nodded but then leaned towards me. “I do not know what I would do without you either, my love. How much blood do you think you need to drink a day? Julie is right, I should have explained all this to you. I am truly sorry.”

“I figured a pint or two a day.” I shrugged half-heartedly. He was right but it was still an odd conversation to have with my boyfriend. “I’m not really sure. I should have asked.

“You need at least three or four pints a day. For the next week, while you are getting better, it needs to be more like seven or eight. If you overwork yourself, like working all hours at the hospital, you need to have at least four, probably five pints a day,” he explained in a whisper.

“Oh shit, I never thought about the hospital,” I hissed, annoyed with myself. “How am I ever going to do that there? Just leave pints in my locker?” I knew the idea was absurd, but I was trying to make my point.

“I will get you a special cooler, it looks like one that lots of people carry their lunches in. There are dark throw away containers that I will also get, just make sure no one sees what’s in them,” he instructed. Apparently he had already thought about this. “But make sure you still go to lunch with your friends. Just always get something small, and if anyone asks about the cooler, tell them you have some special diet or something. We have never known a vampire that was a doctor, but many in other professions. There is always a way to hide the blood.”

“Wow, you really are handy to have around,” I teased with a smile. Just then Andre and Charles returned with a drink for me. I thanked them and took a sip. It was blood… It was their blood. I looked up at them with wide eyes.

They must have snagged a drinking cup from somewhere and made sure I had a dark straw. I blew each of them kisses, thinking how adorable it was of them to do that. Nicole was pretty much oblivious anyway, completely into her dress shopping.