VA 2 - Blood Jewel (18 page)

She rolled her eyes. “Sorry to
disappoint you, but we were being...very human.”

“Tell me how we were being very
human.”

She laughed as she said, “I’m
warning you not that it was silly.”

“Okay, tell me already,” I
pleaded.

“I was pregnant. Like really big
pregnant and you were so stoked about it. You were so convinced it
was a boy and you wanted to name him James after yourself and your
father, but she ended up being a girl. We named her Claudia after
your mother.”

Coincidence? It had to be. I had
never told her that I would have wanted to name my son James. How
could she possibly know that? I guess it wouldn't be that hard to
put the pieces together considering James was my first name and I
was named after my father.

“So, did my dream prove your
theory?” She smiled expectedly and waited for my answer.

“What theory?” I dumbly
asked.

She huffed dramatically. “Whatever
kind of experiment you were conducting about our bond?

Luckily, I avoided having to answer
her because we heard the overhead boarding call for our flight.
“That’s us.”

Once loaded, we were seated on the
plane and I couldn’t stop thinking about the happiness she felt
during her pregnancy dream. I felt a renewed sickness with myself
because I was reminded of how I would never be able to give her the
child she so clearly would love to have.

After the plane was in the air, I
turned to look at Chansey and her head was rested against the back
of the seat and her eyes were closed. She was tired. We both were
because we had taken advantage of the last night of our honeymoon
well into the morning.

I wondered if she would fall asleep
and dream of swollen bellies and babies, but she opened her eyes
and looked at me. “You’re anxious about something.

I wanted to say something, but I
didn’t know what, so I shook my head and said, “It’s nothing.” I
leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Why don’t you take a little
nap? It was late when we finally went to sleep.”

“It was late for both of us, so
maybe you should take a nap, too. I’m sure you and Solomon will be
up late talking rescue strategy.”

I was certain she was right, but I
was too disturbed by her dream to go to sleep, but I couldn’t tell
her that. “I’ll try.”

She reached for my hand, rested her
head against the seat again and closed her eyes. She was quiet for
several minutes, but I knew she wasn’t asleep because I had learned
to feel the difference over the past six days.

She lifted her head from the seat
and looked at me. “What has you so rattled? Please, don’t tell me
again that it’s nothing because that would be a lie.”

I
wasn’t loving this part of the bond. I admit I had a small habit of
occasionally lying to Chansey, but it was always for her own good.
I was sure she didn’t think that would make it alright, but what
was I suppose to say in this situation?
‘I’m sorry that you’ll never know what’s like to be
pregnant or have a baby because of me.’

I mean...there were always medical
interventions if she wanted a baby.

She sat up and twisted toward me.
“You’re scaring me. Tell me what’s wrong.”

I stroked my thumb across the top
of her hand. “You know I would move heaven and earth to give you
the things you want, right?”

“Yes,” she slowly
drew out because she was so afraid of what I was going to say
next.

“I’m sorry I can’t give you a
baby, but there are ways to make that happen if you want to
try.”

I felt her mood change instantly
and it wasn’t one of happiness. She shifted her lower jaw and shook
her head at me. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I felt her anger rising, but I
needed to say these things. “No, I’m quite serious.”

“Is this about that stupid dream?
How could you propose something so absurd based on a dream I had no
control over? How do you even know I would want a baby?”

“You told me you wanted children.
Two or three, as I recall,” I reminded her.

She looked lost. “When did I tell
you that?”

“When we were taking care of
Lorelei and Lily,” I said to jog her memory.

“Things were different then. I
didn’t know what we were when I said that,” she argued. “I was just
a girl thinking about making beautiful babies with you because you
were so hot. Girls imagine stuff like that.”

“But I felt your happiness when
you were dreaming of being pregnant. I felt it again when you were
watching those little girls in the airport,” I argued.

“You are reading way too much into
all of this. You were happy in my dream and that made me happy.
When I saw those little girls at the airport, they reminded me of
myself and my little sister when we were small. They were thumb
wrestling and that’s something we used to do all of the time. It
was a happy memory for me. That’s all. I wasn’t sitting there
pining for babies.”

Shit! I felt like a total jackass.
“I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions. It’s this bond thing. I’m still
trying to figure all of this out.”

“Curry, my body being able to
conceive and carry a baby means nothing to me unless it could be
your baby. If you can’t have children that means that I can’t have
children. It’s that way for a reason. Kids don’t fit into the whole
vampire/human equation.”

“You’re right. Forgive me?” I
leaned over, hoping for a forgiveness kiss and she didn’t let me
down.

She laughed as she said, “Now, I’m
super tired because some wild, sex machine kept me up all night, so
I’m going to shut my eyes and take a much needed nap.

≈ ≈ ≈

We found my black Lexus sedan in
the parking lot of the airport, just where Solomon said it would
be, and Chansey was surprised when I unlocked it with the keyless
remote and opened the trunk to put our luggage inside.

“Let me guess. Solomon’s car,
right?” Chansey asked.

I began transferring our luggage
into the trunk and replied, “No, it’s mine. Do you like
it?”

She laughed and said, “Uh,
yeah...just a little bit.”

“Then, it’s yours,” I
offered.

The shock registered on her face
and I loved the way she could be so easily pleased. “What? You’re
just going to give me an expensive car like this?”

I put the last bag in the trunk and
closed it. “I’m not a stranger, I’m your husband. It’s not unusual
for a husband to give his wife a vehicle.”

She continued to admire the car.
“Most husbands don’t provide their wives with cars that cost as
much as this one.”

I walked to her side of the car. “I
can afford it. Besides, I like my truck. It’s a classic, sort of
like me.”

“You mean antique, not classic,”
she laughed.

I opened the passenger door for her
and kissed the corner of her mouth. “I’m like a fine wine, Love. I
only get better with age.”

I shut the door to walk around to
the driver’s side, but I heard her whisper from inside the car,
“Yeah. I don’t know if I’ll be able to take it if you get any
better.”

I laughed to myself as I opened the
door and got into the driver’s seat because I wasn’t sure if she
meant for me to hear her comment or not.

I backed out of the parking place
and we began our drive toward home. “Is the compound far from
here?” she asked.

“Maybe about 20 or 25 minutes if
traffic isn’t bad.”

The sun was shining directly in
Chansey’s eyes, so she reached for her purse and put on her
sunglasses. “This fledgeling at the compound...she’s mine to
follow, right?”

I wasn’t expecting that, but I
should have. I was disappointed she brought it up so soon because I
thought she would want to wait a little while after the things we
discussed on our honeymoon. I wasn’t ready to give her up the way
she was.

While I was thinking of how to
answer, she said, “You promised, Curry.”

I reached for her hand. “I know
what I promised. I just didn’t want...” Wrong choice of words. “I’m
just surprised because I wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon.
We’ve only been married six days,” I tried to explain, but it
wasn’t going to make her happy anyway I put it.

Her eyes were on me as I drove and
I felt her disappointment rising. “Are you going back on your
word?”

There was no way for me to win. If
I didn’t allow her to follow this fledgeling, she was going to be
pissed. If I did allow it, she would get what she wanted and I
would pay the cost of losing her as human. “I’m not going back on
my word. It was my idea and I made the agreement, so I’ll stick to
it even if it is much sooner than I wanted.”

She leaned over and kissed the side
of my face. “Thank you.”

I couldn’t bring myself to reply. I
couldn’t give her a cordial ‘You’re welcome,’ because I wasn’t glad
to do it for her.

We rode in silence the rest of the
way to the compound. She could feel my sour mood and she didn’t
want to provoke it any further by discussing the
fledgeling.

I felt her relief when I turned off
of the road and we saw the gates to the compound. I stopped to
enter the pass number on the keypad and then we watched the gates
slide open.

I felt her surprise when she saw
the large stone house at the end of the drive and I wanted to put
our recent discord aside, so I said, “Welcome home, Mrs.
Brennan.”

“It’s so different from the
compound at New Orleans. I think I expected another 200 year-old
plantation.”

Sol didn’t enjoy living in the
past. He embraced change and a plantation would never be his first
choice. “Sol likes modern things as you see from his choice of
design.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

I parked in the garage with our
other vehicles and we got out of the car. Chansey studied Sol’s
eclectic collection in the garage and said, “Let me guess. All of
these belong to Sol?”

I nodded and she said, “A boy and
his toys.”

“Sol has this way of trying to find happiness
in
things
. When he
doesn’t find what he’s looking for in one thing, he moves on to the
next. It’s one of his many character flaws.”

“It appears as though it’s been an
expensive search.”

“You have no idea,” I muttered as
I took our luggage from the trunk.

We entered the door leading to the
kitchen and Chansey stopped just inside. “This kitchen is huge. Why
did he want this? He’ll never use it.”

“Resale value.”

“Really?”

“If we decided to sell, no one is
going to want to buy a house without a kitchen. Besides, it would
seem a little weird to the builders to not have a kitchen. It might
bring up issues best left alone.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

We walked down the hall off of the
living room where Gia and Lairah told me our quarters would be. I
opened the door and stepped back for Chansey to take the lead in
seeing what my sisters had created for us.

“Oh. My. Goodness. Curry. It’s
incredible.”

The king size canopy bed was what
grabbed my attention first. It was facing us as we walked in and it
was covered in ivory and deep red bedding with sheer ivory fabric
hanging from the top of the canopy frame. I couldn’t stop the smile
from forming on my face because it reminded me of our wedding night
at the Bed and Breakfast.

The wood plank flooring was a rich
brown, but a deep red and gold wool rug lay in the center of the
room covering most of it. The walls were deep red with a dark
glazed overlay finish and the windows were covered with layers of
long, deep red luxurious drapes that blocked all sunlight. I had to
give it to my sisters; they might be vampires, but they knew
ambience and romance.

“They did a good job,” I
understated just to see how she would correct me.

“Are you kidding me? They did a
fantastic job,” she said as she walked toward one of the closed
doors. “What’s behind this door?”

She opened the door and we saw all
of my art supplies on one side of the room and the other was set up
as an office with a desk and computer. She turned and looked at me
smiling. “Gia and Lairah are so awesome. They remembered the studio
for you. I told them Harvey was building one for you at the New
Orleans compound.”

I was worse than a child at
Christmas. I couldn’t wait for her to see her room. “I saw some
other doors. Want to see what’s behind them?”

“What else could there be besides
a bathroom and closets?”

“I don’t know. I guess we’ll have
to see,” I hinted and she eyed me suspiciously.

After we inspected the bathroom and
closets, I opened the last door for Chansey and she walked into the
sitting room designed with her in mind. Its decor was an extension
of our bedroom’s minus most of the romance. A plush gold couch
stretched against a red glazed wall and it faced two built in
mahogany cabinets from floor to ceiling. Her guitar rested on a
stand next to the couch and I watched the smile form on her face as
she realized the room was hers.