VA 2 - Blood Jewel (29 page)

She waited for several seconds and
then said, “Sounds like something serious.”

I turned my face toward her. “I’m
afraid it’s very serious.”

Her fingers abandoned her playful
dance and she sat up, pulling the sheet under her arms with her.
“You’re scaring me, Curry.”

“We need to talk about Marsala.”
Just saying her name aloud made me want to throw up. “Sure, I
expected her to make another attempt at getting to me, but you...I
never expected her to go for you, but I guess I should have. She
almost killed you, Chansey. Another minute and she would have
succeeded, so we have a decision to make. Our first choice would be
to sit around and wait for her to try again, which she will, and
possibly succeed.”

I steeled myself to say the words
that I could never take back. I drew a deep breath and eased it out
slowly before I said the words to connect us forever, but condemn
Chansey to eternity as a vampire. “Or I turn you.”

I braced myself to hear her
response. I didn’t want her to disagree because it put her in too
much danger to remain human, but I didn’t want her to agree either
because I wanted to keep my human Chansey, the one I met and fell
in love with.

She reached for my hand. “It’s not
what you want.”

I brought her hand to my lips and
placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles. “It’s not, but I don’t want
to risk losing you and she is a serious threat.”

She leaned forward to put her
forehead against mine. We sat that way for what seemed like
eternity and I could hear her heart racing the whole time. “When
will you do it?”

“As soon as possible, but I want
you to spend time with your family and friends first.” I didn’t
mention the fact that it was because she would be debilitated for
weeks.

“Yes, I would like that very much.
I’ll call Granna and let her know we’re coming for a visit. I
should probably tell everyone that when we return home, you are
being sent on a job assignment and I’m going with you. I’ll say
your assignment is in some third world country without much in the
way of communication. That should cover my MIA status for a couple
of weeks while I’m transitioning.”

I shut my eyes and lay back against
the bed.

“Curry, look at me,” she
pleaded.

I opened my eyes to see her
hovering above me. “It will be bad for a while. We know that going
in, but then it will all be fine. When it’s over, it’s over and
you’ll be glad we did it because we can get on with the rest of
lives together. For eternity.”

I could hear the countdown of the
Chansey’s human timer clicking away. I had a week, tops, with my
precious human Chansey. I knew she was about to enter eternity with
me, but I felt like I was losing a part of her. It was a part I
didn’t want to give up yet. I hadn’t had her human long enough.
Damn Marsala for always ruining everything.

25
Weird And Cryptic

Naturally, Anna and Grady’s
backdoor was unlocked when I opened it for Chansey. We walked
inside and Chansey called out, “Granna, we’re here early because
Curry drove like a maniac.”

Ugh! “Don’t tell your grandmother
that. I did not drive like a maniac and I got us here in one
piece.”

“Yes, by grace. It takes a normal
driver almost nine hours to get here from Savannah without
stopping. We stopped and still made it in seven. That qualifies as
driving like a maniac.”

Anna came around the corner
smiling. “Oh, heavens. I thought you wouldn’t be here until after
six.”

Anna gave Chansey a big hug as she
explained, “Well, my Nascar driving husband got us here a little
quicker than I anticipated.”

Anna looked at me over Chansey’s
shoulder as she hugged her and I gave her a wink. “Keep on, Mrs.
Brennan, and you’ll drive on the way back while I lay the passenger
seat back and sleep the whole way.”

Anna stepped away from Chansey to
look her over. She grabbed her hands and lifted them out to each
side of her. “Are you feeling poorly?”

“No, Granna,” Chansey laughed. “I
was just really sleepy on the drive over.”

Anna ran her eyes over Chansey
carefully. “You’re pregnant, girl. Fatigue is one of the first
signs.”

Chansey looked at me embarrassed
and then back at Anna. “I’m not pregnant, Granna.”

“Time will tell us who is right,
so I’m not going to argue about it. Get yourself in here to see
your Granddaddy. He has missed you so much.”

Anna pulled Chansey by the hand
into the living room. She shrugged at me as Anna led her and
mouthed the words, “Sorry.”

I mouthed back, “It’s okay.” I
didn’t know what else to say.

We spent the next hour catching up
with Anna and Grady about our honeymoon and ‘faux’ lives in
Savannah before Chansey went into the kitchen to help Anna cook
dinner. I wanted to learn some tips on cooking since I ate food
now, so I joined the ladies in the kitchen which Grady found
humorous.

Anna put me to work on peeling
red-skinned potatoes while Chansey battered the chicken and Anna
rolled out dough for the biscuits.

“Mrs. Emerson, Chansey doesn’t
cook like this for me at home. She’s been holding out on me,” I
laughed.

Chansey spun around and gave me the
look. It was the one that told me to not get her grandmother
started on what she thought about women being undomesticated, but I
already knew what Anna thought about the subject. Although she
worked as a teacher for years, she was old-fashioned and I liked
it. She believed in being a good Southern girl that cooked for her
husband and gave him lots of babies.

“Don’t let him fool you, Granna. I
cook. It’s not fried chicken and biscuits, but I make sure my
husband is fed well,” Chansey explained and then whispered under
her breath for only my ears, “And he has an insatiable appetite at
times.”

I laughed and said, “She takes very
good care of me, Mrs. Emerson. She is a wonderful wife.”

“I never doubted she would be, but
enough of this Mrs. Emerson business. I want you to call me
Granna.” She opened the oven door and put the biscuits in. “You’re
part of our family now and you’re giving me my first
great-grandchild.”

We both saw that it was useless to
try to convince Anna that Chansey wasn’t pregnant, but it was
almost nice to play along and pretend, so neither of us tried to
correct her the second time she mentioned Chansey’s fairytale
pregnancy. I hoped she wouldn’t be terribly disappointed when she
saw she was wrong.

≈ ≈ ≈

After staying all week with
Chansey’s family and friends, we failed to prove to Anna that
Chansey was not pregnant and it became a running joke between us.
When Anna’s back was turned, we acted out charades of her being
pregnant and miserable. It was incredibly juvenile, but so much fun
and it took our minds off of the inevitable.

I drove slower on the way home and
it was late when we made it back to the compound. I sat our bags
down in our bedroom and I was glad to be home even though it meant
my time with my human Chansey was almost over.

Chansey took a shower while I
caught up with Sebastian and was already in bed asleep when I came
back to our room. So much for our last night with her as a human.
Maybe she was just catching a little nap before the nighttime
festivities were to begin. A guy could be hopeful.

I got into the shower and stood
under the pellets of water thinking about the turn of events my
life was about to encounter. Tonight was Chansey’s last night as a
human and I felt like I was stuck in the denial part of the stages
of grief. It didn’t feel right to me and it didn’t feel like this
was happening to us. It wasn’t fair. There was so much we had not
gotten to do and now we would both be condemned into the darkness
of the night without ever having the opportunity to experience life
together.

I would not be finished grieving
the loss of Chansey as a human anytime soon. Although I was going
to get to keep her as a vampire, it wasn’t the same. We were
supposed to do this when the time was right and tomorrow was not
it.

I reached for the shower faucet and
turned the water off. I ran my hands over my hair to squeeze the
excess water out and reached for my towel. I put the towel to my
face to dry it and I held it there to catch the tears I felt
coming.

Tears! I hadn’t felt tears in
almost two hundred years and I liked the way they stung my eyes,
but there would be no more tears, daylight, food or sex after
tomorrow. There would only be darkness and blood
drinking.

I wasn’t just losing Chansey as a
human. She would be losing me as a human as well and I struggled
with the fact that she might not love me as a full-on vampire. I
would be different, not the Curry she knew and loved and I hoped
she didn’t love me less afterwards.

I finished drying off and I stepped
out of the shower with my towel around my waist. Chansey was
standing in the bathroom and something was off with her. Our
connection was off. She felt...asleep as she stood right in front
of me. Was this her version of sleep walking? She was looking right
at me. She didn’t look asleep.

“What’s wrong,
Chansey?”

She continued to look at me, but it
felt more like she was looking through me. I didn’t like the way it
felt and it scared me. “What is wrong with you? Tell me now,” I
anxiously said to her.

“Now is not the time to turn
Chansey. She has things to do before she is to fulfill her destiny
as a vampire.”

Why was she referring to herself
like that? “I don’t understand, Chansey. Are you saying you’ve
changed your mind? You don’t want me to turn you?”

“There will come a time when
Chansey becoming a vampire will be right, but it will never be
because Marsala’s hand forced the decision. It will be when both of
you are ready and after she finishes what it is she must
do.”

Again with the strange references
to herself. She turned without another word and walked to our
bedroom. What was she doing? She couldn’t say bizarre things like
that to me and then walk off without an explanation.

I followed her to our bedroom. “Why
are you acting so strange?” I asked as I walked through the doorway
and I saw her lying in our bed.

She didn’t answer and she looked
like she was asleep, but that couldn’t be the case because she was
just standing in the bathroom with me being all weird and
cryptic.

I reached over and touched her arm.
“Chansey, why are you acting so strangely?”

She was undisturbed by my voice or
touch and I realized she was asleep. I looked at her clothing and
she wasn’t in the white dress I just saw her wearing in the
bathroom. Impossible.

I had officially lost my mind. I
sat on the bed and watched Chansey sleep as I tried to rationalize
what had happened, but I came up empty handed. I had absolutely no
idea what was going on.

Maybe it was one of Marsala’s Black
Magic tricks to scare me out of turning Chansey. It wasn’t that
farfetched to think she could make it happen and it made more sense
than anything else I could think of at the moment.

Chansey looked so peaceful as she
slept, so I decided to take advantage of Sebastian’s presence at
the Savannah compound to quiz him about what had just
happened.

I found him in the living room with
the others. “Sol, would it be alright if I used your office for
minute. I’d like a private word with Sebastian.”

“Sure, no problem.”

Sebastian followed me to Sol’s
office. He had a seat across from me and looked at me expectantly,
waiting for me to speak.

“I just had a strange experience.
I’m not sure, but I think it could have been some type of trick by
Marsala with the Black Magic.”

He leaned back in his chair. “Tell
me everything and don’t leave out a single detail.”

“I had just gotten out of the
shower and was standing in the bathroom with a towel around my
waist. I saw Chansey standing in the bathroom, but it didn’t feel
like Chansey. I’m still learning things about our connection, but
it didn’t feel right. She didn’t feel right. I always know when
Chansey is asleep and that’s how it felt, like she was in a deep
sleep.

I asked her what was wrong and she
says, ‘’Now is not the time to turn Chansey. She has things to do
before it’s time for her to fulfill her destiny as a vampire.’ I
thought it was strange how she referred to herself, but then she
tells me, ‘There will come a time when Chansey becoming a vampire
will be right, but it will never be because Marsala’s hand forced
the decision. It will be when both of you are ready and after she
finishes what it is she must do.’

I followed her out of the bathroom
to find out why she was behaving so strangely and I found her
asleep in our bed. She wasn’t wearing the white gown I has seen her
wearing when she was in the bathroom.”

I watched Sebastian's face and
waited for his wise words to calm my nerves. “I don’t think this
had anything to do with Marsala because it’s too benign in nature.
She doesn’t have the control in her to reach out to you or Chansey
without evil actions. This would have been a missed opportunity for
her and we both know she would have taken advantage.