VA 2 - Blood Jewel (3 page)

“I humbly accept your offer and I
will do my best to make you proud,” Sully professed.

Sebastian was pleased by Sully’s
acceptance and said, “I am placing the sole responsibility of
training you on Lairah.” I saw the pleased expression on Sully’s
face and suspected it suited him well to be paired with her.
Sebastian laughed as he added, “That is, if she can tear herself
away from planning a wedding.”

“I heard that,” she unnecessarily
yelled from the direction of her bedroom and I felt the sting of
how Lairah’s outburst might alert Chansey to the fact that nothing
went unheard by this family.

“It’s was my intention you hear,
my dear. Otherwise, this conversation would have taken place in my
office,” Sebastian said.

His words struck a notion and
reminded me there was a way to live here without our every word and
action being heard. “Sebastian, I would like to have a word with
you in your office when you are available.”

“I’m available now if this a good
time for you join me?”

“It’s actually perfect,” I
replied.

We walked toward his office and I
felt a rush of embarrassment as I thought about why I needed to
speak with Sebastian in private. I reminded myself that he was
familiar with my situation and I tried to push the awkward feeling
aside as I entered his office. With our voices shut off from the
others in the house, he curiously asked, “What is it that I can do
for you, Curry?”

I started with the easy part first.
“Chansey and I will need to make a decision about where we will
live once we are married. I need to know if we are welcome to live
here.”

Sebastian warmly said, “Of course
you are both welcome here. This will always be your home if it’s
where you choose to live.”

“Thank you for your hospitality,
but I have an issue with bringing my new wife to live here,” I
confessed. “Not an issue of safety.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “An
issue of privacy, perhaps?” he questioned.

I was relieved by his
intuitiveness. “Exactly. Chansey and I have not discussed it, but
I’m certain she suspects that nothing goes unheard around here. I
need a solution for that problem because we will not be able to
live here if we lack the privacy that a husband needs with his
wife.”

Sebastian smiled and said, “Your
dilemma is easily alleviated by having soundproof quarters built
for you and Chansey. If you choose to live elsewhere, you’ll still
need your own quarters when you visit. I’ll have my contractor
start on that immediately since I assume you will not have a long
engagement.”

“I’m not planning a long
engagement and I hope Chansey isn’t either.” I hesitated briefly
and searched for the courage to ask the question that had tormented
me since discovering what Chansey was to me. “I know this probably
isn’t my business and I don’t mean to pry, but you’re the only one
I can ask.”

“You can always ask me anything,
Curry, ” he encouraged.

I felt like an immature adolescent
asking about the birds and the bees. “When you explained about our
physical relationship, you were vague about what to expect. I was
wondering if you could expand a little-maybe give me some kind of
idea about what to anticipate.”

“I was purposely vague because I
didn’t want to place any type of expectations on you or Chansey,”
he explained. He saw my lack of reassurance and added, “I don’t
mind sharing my experience with Ella if you believe it would help
your feelings.”

“I feel terribly intrusive for
asking you to do that. I know it must be painful to speak about
her.”

He smiled and said, “No, I love to
talk about Ella because she represents the most spectacular time in
my life. She’s been a secret I’ve kept all of these years, but now
I get to share my memories of her with you.”

His face lit up as he continued to
speak of Ella and I saw his love for her was as strong today as it
was when she was in his life. He laughed as he said, “It’s
fascinating how much Chansey reminds me of Ella. I have to tell you
to be prepared because it’s going to be a wild ride. She is a
fighter just like my Ella and I learned a valuable lesson I feel
required to pass along to you. The stronger the fighter, the
stronger the lover. Without doubt, our passion was the most
powerful and wonderful thing I have ever known. Your first taste of
blood as a newly turned vampire doesn’t hold a candle to it and I
strongly suspect it will be the same for you and
Chansey.”

Sebastian’s experience with Ella
was encouraging, but not a guarantee that everything would go well
for me and Chansey. “I have this overwhelming fear of disappointing
her. Although she’s my Agápe, she’s still human and I’m not. What
if I don’t meet her expectations?”

Sebastian seemed to be choosing his
words carefully. “Tell me how she makes you feel when she’s close
to you, when she touches you or looks into your eyes.”

I thought about my answer for a
second before saying, “The simple graze of her hand against my skin
is the most splendid thing I have ever felt. It’s addicting. A
little is never enough. I feel drawn to be a part of her because
being close simply isn’t enough for me.”

Sebastian’s face took on that wise,
fatherly smile I was accustomed to seeing whenever he advised me on
an issue troubling me. “I want you to think about the words you
used to describe your physical attraction to Chansey and tell me
how you could ever doubt your ability to be intimate with her.” He
gave me a minute to reflect on my description before he added,
“Now, if I understand things correctly, marriage vows must be
exchanged before you are agreeable to proceeding with the only act
that will finally eliminate these concerns. My advice is to set a
wedding date sooner, rather than later.”

“Thank you for speaking so openly
with me about your relationship with Ella. I know you miss her
terribly.”

“It is my hope and prayer that you
never experience the pain of missing Chansey the way I miss Ella,”
he said and sparked a change in the topic.

He didn’t want me to repeat what he
considered his mistake with Ella. “I have promised Chansey that I
will think about turning her, but not until after we are married
and only after she has followed the complete transformation of a
fledgling.

He laughed like I was in the dark
about something. “She will see your promise of consideration as an
agreement.”

“Knowing her, she probably will,”
I agreed.

“Be ready, Curry,” Sebastian
warned. “She will probably want to spend your honeymoon right here
waiting for the first newly turned vampire to come through the
doors of the compound.”

It might be what she wanted, but it
wasn’t what I wanted. “What can I say, Sebastian? I’m a selfish
bastard. I want to be married to Chansey, the human. I love her the
way she is now-breakable and all.”

He wove his fingers together and
placed them on top of his desk. “Allow me to give you forewarning.
If she is anything like my Ella, she will be persistent in her
pursuit for you to change her. She won’t be afraid to use her power
of persuasion on you. And by her power of persuasion, I mean she
will use your newfound sexual desire to her advantage.”

I wasn’t opposed to that kind of
scheming on her part. It sounded like fun to me.

I drifted back from thinking about
how Chansey would use her power of persuasion over me and heard
Sebastian continue, “I know you have your reasons and I support
your decision completely. I think it is a fine idea to let Chansey
see what vampirism is all about before she becomes one of
us.”

“You mean
if
she becomes one of
us,” I corrected. “Have you considered the possibility that it
could be too much for her?”

He shook his head at me. “No, I
haven’t and I highly doubt she has either. In fact, I believe you
are probably in that category by yourself. Gia and Lairah would do
it tonight if you’d allow it.”

Although I might not have one
family member on my side, I had one weapon in my corner-Chansey’s
lack of knowledge. “She doesn’t know how bad the transformation
is.”

“Don’t you think you should warn
her?” Sebastian questioned.

“My goal isn’t to make it easy or
comfortable for her. I want her to see it for the hell it is so
there is no misconception about the process,” I
explained.

“She is going to be terrified if
you don’t prepare her,” he warned.

“Good. That’s what I’m counting on
and the way I want it,” I openly confessed, but only because we
were in a soundproof room, out of hearing range of the
others.

Gia and Lairah forewent going to
bed as the sun rose as they held Chansey hostage for several hours
discussing wedding plans. I wanted some time with her that didn’t
include my family’s eavesdropping. The sun was high in the sky and
I took this opportunity to ensure we would be alone.

“Would you take a walk on the
grounds with me? I’d love to show you the rest of the
property.”

“Sure, I’d love to see it,” she
happily accepted.

I tucked a blanket under my arm
before we walked outside and I took her hand in mine, as we started
our journey on the compound’s property. She wore a short, slightly
gothic, black baby doll dress. Her apparel told me it was Gia’s day
to dress her and despite her dark apparel, she was the brightest
light in my life.

“It feels like we’re in the middle
of nowhere,” she said as we strolled toward a forest of trees
behind the house.

“We sort of are because the house
is in the middle of about 5,000 acres. As you can imagine, we don’t
need curious neighbors,” I explained.

“There’s no chance of that,” she
agreed.

“We wanted to be close to New
Orleans without being in the middle of it, so we were quite pleased
when we found this place for sale. It was built by a manquadroon
for his legitimate family.”

She wrinkled her brow in confusion
and laughed, “A man-qua what?”

“A manquadroon. He would have been
a french creole man that took a light-skinned, free woman of color
as his mistress. He would set her up in a home and have children
with her before he married a French woman. The family he raised
with his wife was referred to as his legitimate family.”

I saw the outrage on her face as
she said, “That’s a terrible thing to do.”

“Terrible or not, that’s the way
it was. Most of the daughters born to a manquadroon and his
mistress were raised to be the next generation of mistresses for
Creole men, while the sons were often sent to Paris to be
educated.”

“How could a mother raise her
daughter to become a mistress?” she asked with disgust on her
face.

“It was the only life they knew,”
I explained.

“My father’s family is French
Creole from New Orleans,” she whispered. She shook with a rigor.
“Can we change the subject? I don’t want to think about how my
ancestors were part of such a heinous practice. It creeps me
out.”

I stopped walking and said, “Your
wish is my command.”

She smiled and said, “Well, in that
case...kiss me.” She reached up onto her tiptoes and lightly
brushed her lips across mine and then reached for the blanket under
my arm. “Here, let me help you,” she said as she took the opposite
corners of the blanket and helped spread it on the ground under a
large live oak.

I sat with my legs outstretched;
leaning back on my palms and Chansey mimicked my position. She
reached for her dress and scooted it up her thighs until she was
satisfied with the amount of sun exposure on her legs. She enjoyed
being in the sun and I wondered if she had given any thought as to
how she would miss it if she became a vampire.

I didn’t want to think about it, so
I shoved the thought aside and asked, “Are Gia and Lairah being
overbearing about the wedding plans?”

“They have some intense ideas
about our wedding,” she laughed. “I think I might want to
elope.”

Now, she was talking my language.
“You don’t have to convince me. I’ll take you to Vegas and make you
my wife right now if it’s what you want.”

She quickly said, “Nope. I’m not
ready to give up my dream of marrying you at the top of the open
arms staircases.”

I wondered how I could be so lucky.
How had I found enough favor with the gods to be given such a
beautiful gift as Chansey?

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she apologized.
“I didn’t even ask you if that was what you wanted.”

“I’ve already told you that I
thought it was perfect,” I reminded her.

She appeared puzzled. “I don’t
recall you telling me that.”

“We didn’t exactly discuss it.
When we were at Rachel and Christian’s wedding reception, you told
me how you pictured your wedding and I told you that I thought it
was perfect. We didn’t get far into the conversation because that
jackass, Evan Finley, interrupted us.”