Unrequited (14 page)

“Where are we going?” Ashton asked as his car drove down a dark and winding road.

“My place. I thought we could talk.” He drove the last few miles until finally, they arrived.

“We could have stayed in town and talked,” she pointed out.

“Yes, but I want you all to myself. We haven't seen each other since May. I think that calls for a little privacy.” He placed his hand over hers as he pulled his car into the long drive leading to his house.

The place was grand, to say the least. It had been built with Old South money, but in new economic times, hadn't found a buyer. Griffin had made a very generous offer to the sellers for use of the house over the summer.

“This is your house?” Ashton was awestruck.

“For now. It was the only place around here that felt right.” He led Ashton through the large, carved wood door into the foyer. Griffin loved the grand scale of the place. He was even tempted to buy it and add it to the collection of homes he had started gathering centuries ago.

He showed Ashton into a sitting room and asked her to sit on a deep burgundy sofa.

“Can I get you something to drink?” He stood before her.

“No, you know we don't need drinks.” She laughed at his suggestion, but seemed a little nervous.

“I was thinking of something full-bodied.” He could sense her pulse quicken.

“You mean…” He could tell she didn’t want to say the next word, so he did it for her.

“Blood.”

Ashton looked at him, her eyes large, and she pushed herself away from him into the back of the sofa.

“You drink…you drink blood?” she finally asked, her voice a whisper.

“Not regularly, but I always keep some on hand just in case. Don't worry, no animals or people are harmed. I have other means.” He watched her, unwilling to acquiesce to her discomfort.

“I don't, I don't drink it ever. I never will. Please, don't ever bring it up again.” Griffin watched as Ashton looked around for a way to escape, but there was no escape, and eventually she would realize that. He would never let her escape him, but for now he needed to put her back at ease.

“Shh, don't worry, I would never ask you to do that. Like I said, I don't drink it very much myself, but sometimes you need the extra strength it supplies. That's why I have it.” He finally sat down a few inches away from her. Griffin took her hand in his and rubbed her palm with his thumb. He felt her tensions begin to disappear.

Ashton was opposed to everything “vampirish,” and he would have to remember that if he was going to succeed. There was time to bring her around on the topics of blood and other things later.

***

Ashton felt like she had stepped back in time. She had felt that way in Will's house, but this place Griffin had brought her to was more of a leap to another era. As he sat beside her, rubbing her hand, she had the same dizzy feeling she'd had in the funhouse. Something about Griffin blurred the lines of reality. For brief moments she could focus and have some clarity, but then she would fall back into the fog.

She fleetingly wondered if her reaction to the blood had been extreme; they were vampires after all. Still, she did gather her wits enough to flatly refuse the slightest hint of blood. The thought disgusted her, and if he thought she would ever be all right with it, he was gravely mistaken. Even as she replayed his repellent offer in her mind, it was hard to stay upset with Griffin. Something about him constantly drew her back in. There was something in the far reaches of her mind that had forged a connection to him, and it was a connection she knew could never be severed.

He continued to gently rub her hand, and the motion made her drowsy. She sank lower on the sofa.

“Why did you come here, Griffin?” Ashton asked as she felt herself become more and more sleepy.

“Isn't it obvious? I came here for you, Ashton.” She felt something cover her, and realized he had placed his jacket over her.

She couldn’t keep her eyes open, but she needed to know more. “We hardly know each other, but for some reason that doesn't bother me.”She yawned and curled her legs up on the sofa. “I really should be going home.”

“Not yet. Just rest.” He spoke softly.

“I'm sorry, I'm not being good company.” Ashton was almost completely asleep.

“We'll talk later. We have all the time in the world.” Griffin was still speaking to her, but she didn’t hear anything after that.

***

Griffin smiled down at his sleeping beauty. She was so pure and so…unexpected. He'd encountered a few other women of his realm, and they were all as devious as they were beautiful. He had momentarily considered trying to plan an eternity with one of those women, but soon realized there was no possibility of a future with a woman who couldn’t be trusted. Centuries of loneliness and torment were finally going to pay off. He'd done a lot of bad things in his life; some of those things were unforgiveable. But right here, and right now, he thought maybe God had forgiven him, and Ashton was the symbol of that forgiveness.

Many times he'd shaken his fist in rage to the sky. He wanted to blame anyone that would listen for his monstrous existence, and it seemed as if someone had finally heard him. If there were such a thing as redemption in his soulless existence, Ashton was the one who could bring it.

His mind was occupied with Ashton and the next step he needed to take, and he also thought about that teacher. He would definitely have to keep that guy in his place. Griffin walked out of the sitting room and into his study. If he had stayed a moment longer and focused on Ashton, he would have heard her make one final remark.

Like a sigh hanging on the breeze, one word floated into the atmosphere.

“Will.”

Chapter Eighteen

Ashton woke with a start. It took her a minute to remember she was in Griffin's house. She was still on the sofa, but she was now covered by a blanket instead of a jacket. Slowly she rose to her feet. The whole house was quiet and dark. The only light was a slice of moonbeam that had made it through a crack in the otherwise heavily draped windows.

She walked carefully through the room and into the foyer. Undoubtedly, Griffin was somewhere up the stairs sleeping. Ashton wondered if she should go find him and ask him to drive her home. The thought also occurred to her to call her parents to come and get her, but her own sense of embarrassment drove the idea away. Even though she was an adult¸ the idea of her parents picking her up from a man's house in the middle of the night was too much.

“Griffin,” she whispered too quietly for anyone to hear and realized she was hoping he wouldn’t appear before her. The previous comfort she had felt with him was gone, and she was now more than a little afraid of being in his house alone. That was the problem with Griffin; he brought her to emotional extremes. In the space of an instant she could go from trepidation to dependence, with little in between.

The keys to the car were on a small table by the door. She could grab them and be on her way in a matter of seconds. Even so, Ashton decided to walk home. She couldn’t recall how many miles out of town they were, but she would walk anyway. Quietly, she opened the door and left the house.

***

Griffin watched as Ashton made her way down the long drive toward the road. He had known the moment she woke from her slumber. He'd heard the confused thoughts in her mind as she tried to decide what to do. More than one of those thoughts had made him smile. Though only for the briefest moment, she had considered climbing the stairs to find him. He could have had some fun with that, but now she was walking home in the middle of the night.

The gentlemanly thing to do, he knew, was to go fetch her and take her home. Griffin had never professed to be a gentleman, not for many years. Where Ashton was concerned, he needed to let her think she was calling the shots. He had read her enough to know his appearance tonight would alarm her, so he would allay her fears and stay at a discreet distance. He would ensure she made it home, but he would let her think she had done it alone.

***

Ashton was scared. At least it wasn't as late as she had feared. She could see that the fair lights were still on, which meant it still had to be some time before midnight. As long as she could make it home before too long, her parents wouldn’t start to panic. Silently she reprimanded herself for failing to carry a purse or a phone. She hadn't planned on going anywhere tonight, so she'd left everything at home. Even her shoes were inconvenient. The thin slippers didn’t protect her feet from the large chunks of gravel on the road.

“You'd think a vampire wouldn’t be stuck in this type of situation,” she mumbled to the night sky. She couldn’t recall a darker night. The waning moon was in the sky, but the stars had disappeared. The world around her seemed to drop off into darkness, and the fair lights were her only guide.

In vain she tried to use this time for thoughtful reflection, but all of her thoughts were interrupted by the nighttime sounds. Even as an immortal, she was frightened by the same things mortal-Ashton was frightened by. That included anything that howled, and something nearby was definitely howling.

“Please, please, please go away,” she called out.

“Well, if you'd really prefer to be alone,” a male voice said behind her.

She screamed.

***

Will hadn't meant to frighten her, but clearly he had. She was screaming as though she had been attacked.

“Ashton, it's me. It’s Will.” He moved closer and saw that she finally recognized him. She started to calm down and catch her breath. He grabbed her and pulled her close until she could collect herself.

“I'm sorry. Shh, it's all right. I knew you were out here and just wanted to make sure you were okay.” He caressed her hair and tried to soothe her. After a few moments she regained her poise and was able to talk again.

“You knew I was here?” Her voice was full of surprise, and a little bit of joy. If he wasn't mistaken, she was actually glad to see him.

“I can always sense where you are and what you are doing. I knew you needed some help, or at least some company, so here I am.” He decided to leave out the part where he had followed her and Griffin in an attempt to figure out Griffin's game. She didn’t need to know that he'd planted himself at the end of the drive, just in case she had found herself in a situation that needed rescuing. Will was just glad he had followed his instincts, because his worries had been justified the moment she snuck away from the house.

They walked along in silence for a little ways.

“Aren't you going to ask me why I'm out here?” Ashton asked after what seemed a long time.

“Nope. I know why you're out here. What I want to know is why you went in the house in the first place.” Even as he said the words, he knew he'd made a mistake.

Ashton's shields went up, and she was immediately on the defense.

“Why I went in is none of your business, and just so you know, Griffin was nothing but a perfect gentleman.” Her words bordered on shouts.

“Does a perfect gentleman leave a woman to walk home in the dark?” He couldn’t help himself; he wasn't going to let this go, and she really had no choice but to continue walking with him and listen.

“He doesn't even know I'm here, and he doesn't deserve your criticism. You don't know him.” She was right. Will didn’t know Griffin, but he knew enough to know the guy shouldn't be trusted. Ashton was the most untrusting girl he had ever met, yet she had been drawn in by a total stranger. What was this hold he had over her?

Changing tactics, he decided to let it drop for the time being. Having her mad wasn't going to solve the situation. Will would simply have to continue to watch her and keep her from harm.

“You're right, I don't know him. But I do know you.” Will said no more. He simply walked beside her, all the way home.

***

The moment he left the house, Griffin knew the teacher was out there in the darkness, lurking. He had planned to follow Ashton himself, but the plan changed when Will showed up. The closer Griffin got to the teacher, the more of his thoughts he could read.

The teacher was suspicious of Griffin and felt that Ashton was attempting an “escape.” If only the teacher knew that Griffin was in control of the entire situation, he wouldn’t be so proud of himself. Right now, Will believed himself to be some sort of hero. He could think that, for now, but eventually Ashton would see him as a weak and unremarkable man.

Not wanting to alert Will to his presence, he decided to go back into the house. He knew Will would get Ashton home safely, and Griffin wasn't afraid this little walk would change her feelings. If anything, he was counting on the teacher digging himself into an even deeper hole than he already was.

Griffin walked through the darkened house. He smiled as he remembered how she had left the teacher for him at the fair. He paused at the sofa where Ashton had so recently been resting. A few gentle touches to the hand and she had drifted away. It was so easy to bring her under his control; he'd hardly used any effort and was already getting agreeable results. With a little more time and finesse, Ashton would be his forever. It was inevitable; he had made certain of that long ago.

***

After leaving Will at the end of her driveway, Ashton walked into the house with little fanfare. She hoped her parents hadn't yet wondered where she was, and to her relief they seemed unaware that anything strange had happened.