SIX
Around noon, an older woman named Clara, who was one of Nick’s female employees from the day before, came up to my apartment bearing a basketful of fresh fruit, and also a bag full of odds-and-ends that she’d forgotten the day before and thought I might need. She gave this bag to me with a smile, and I couldn’t help but be grateful that my new “food bringer” was a woman who was much warmer than Nora at the secret government prison had been.
Frankly, I was grateful that clothes and food were even brought to me in Everglen by anyone at all. While Nick and I had driven to the city, I had been slightly afraid that I might have to endure some serious mistreatment before I’d get a chance to execute my revenge plan. After all, all I’d ever heard about the people of the Everglen Coven was that they were unspeakably cruel, more like wild monsters than any kind of vampires.
Now, after having met a few of Nick’s employees, I could clearly see that this wasn’t exactly the case. Yet, anyway, I told myself. I realized that the vampires of Everglen might just be the type of monsters that could go from zero to evil within a second. I figured that anyone who could kill an entire coven of innocent “good” witches almost had to be like that. At any rate, I knew I was going to have to be somewhat on guard at all times around Nick and his people until I was able to kill Nick. For whatever good being “on guard” would do me without my supernatural powers.
I’d tried to almost force them to return to me that morning, attempting to shoot fiery beams of light at nearly every object in my apartment. I’d had no success, though. For a quick second, I had thought that my “light trick” had finally worked when I’d tried to shoot a beam of light at a potted fern, but then I’d realized that the flash of light I’d seen had only been the reflection of my silver bracelet on the brass planter that the fern was sitting in.
Eventually, I’d given up. I still felt like my powers would return someday; it was just a matter of time. I decided I’d try not to force things anymore, or at least not force them as hard as I had been. Instead, I’d just spend a minute or two each day “testing” to see if my powers had returned. In the meantime, I’d just have to resign myself to being without powers, come what may.
After I’d spent a fairly pleasant day arranging all my new things in my new apartment, Nick showed up at exactly at eight, knocking on my door a little less forcefully than he’d done the day before at my government prison apartment. When I opened the door, which had been unlocked, Nick stood leaning against the frame, looking so handsome that it nearly took my breath away.
He gave me one of his small, vaguely sly-looking smiles, while at the same time straightening up from the doorframe and extending a single rose to me. “This is for you."
With a blend of pink and red petals, the rose was unlike any I’d ever seen before. It was perfectly unique. It was gorgeous. Exquisite. However, it was also a rose from a wolf in sheep’s clothing, of that I was certain, no matter how handsome, and sexy, and spell-inducing that wolf was. This was exactly what I was going to have to be “on guard” about, I suddenly realized. It was one thing to share pure, physical pleasure with Nick, I figured, but I couldn’t let little things like roses sway my heart toward him.
Committed to spending the night acting like a regular woman with no plans of assassination, I took the rose from Nick, returning his little smile. “Thank you so much. It’s beautiful.”
“It’s exactly like you. Although gorgeous might be an even better word to describe you.”
My face flamed, and I couldn’t think of anything to say in response.
Sparing me, Nick lifted a covered plate he held, gaze on me. “May I come in? I brought you some dinner in case you haven’t already eaten. As for myself, I ‘ate’ beforehand, so as not to make you lose your lunch. I figured that seeing someone sucking blood from a live deer on the dining room table might just have that effect.”
Nick gave me a sheepish little grin, and surprising myself, I laughed. It was just a brief chuckle, just for second or two, but enough to make me think that my acting job of getting him to trust me that evening might not be such a tough one. It also made me think that I was a terrible human being for laughing at a little joke made by the man who’d killed, or had at least helped to kill in some way, the only real family I’d ever known.
Now grinning, obviously pleased that he’d gotten a chuckle out of me, Nick strolled on into the apartment. Somewhat to my chagrin, he truly looked even more handsome than he had the day before, which I wouldn’t have thought possible. However, that had been before I’d seen him in dress pants and a collared Oxford shirt, which he wore with the top button undone, allowing me a tantalizing peek at his chiseled chest.
I myself was a little more dressed up than I’d been the day before, wearing a knee-length, pale blue sheath dress with a neckline that was somewhat low-cut, though not outright plunging. I’d decided on this fairly conservative look after trying on two other new dresses from my closet, not really sure at all what kind of look I should be going for.
The first dress I’d tried on, a rose-print one with a below-the-knee hem, had seemed a bit frumpy, while the second, a short magenta one with a neckline that was definitely plunging, had seemed far too sexy. Especially since I couldn’t quite decide if my goal was to get Nick very worked up before we entered my bedroom or not. After all, even though I wanted him badly, it seemed somehow just plain wrong to intentionally want to arouse the man that I was fairly certain was an evil man just pretending to be otherwise.
My footwear was also a bit dressier than what I’d been sporting the day before. Instead of just a single sock and fuzzy slippers, I was now wearing a pair of silver ballet flats that Clara had brought up to me that day. She’d also brought up a pair of heels, but like the magenta dress, they’d just seemed far too sexy.
After Nick had escorted me into the dining room, seated me, and set the covered plate in front of me, he said he’d be right back. “I’ll get a vase for your rose, and some glasses for our drinks. Just one minute.”
I saw that under one arm, he held a bottle of white wine and another bottle of some amber-colored liquid, maybe whiskey. I had to wonder just exactly how drunk he was planning on getting me. I wasn’t going to allow that to happen, though. I’d have a glass or two of wine, but I was determined to remain more or less “on guard” at all times. Something just told me that it was going to be all too easy to fall “off-guard” that evening, even without an excess of alcohol.
Alone in the dining room, I allowed myself to relax a little, noticing little details about the room that I hadn’t before, because I hadn’t yet eaten in the dining room. This was because since arriving in Everglen, I’d only ever eaten by myself, and the spacious dining room had seemed a bit too formal for just a meal for one. A granite-topped island in the kitchen had seemed more suitable for my casual meals.
Above a long, polished oak table in the dining room, a glittering crystal chandelier hung suspended by a shiny gilded fixture, and a few tall floor lamps in the room looked to be of polished brass. Two oil paintings that flanked a single enormous, wide window on the east wall added to the room’s air of elegant, effortless sophistication. Making for an interesting juxtaposition, one of the paintings was a woodland scene with lots of greens and blues, and the other was a cityscape, Everglen itself by the looks of it.
In contrast to the other areas of the vast apartment, which were decorated, painted, and furnished in shades of creamy beige and white, the dining room was all color, with walls painted a vivid burgundy, although a burgundy that was very much on the red side. In fact, as I surveyed the walls, I thought that if I’d had to pick a name for the paint color, I probably would have gone with red-burgundy. The shade seemed perfect for a dining room in a building apparently owned by a vampire leader. It was almost the exact same color as blood.
Nick soon returned from the kitchen, with the bottle of whiskey and the bottle of wine still under his arm. In one hand, he held a few glasses, and in his other hand, he held my stunning, unusual rose in a clear glass vase.
Seemingly determined that this evening would have all the trappings of romance, he soon returned from another quick trip to the kitchen carrying two brass candle holders with tall red taper candles, already lit.
Along with the vase, he set them in the middle of one of the far ends of the table, near where I sat at the left of the head of the table. I wondered if he’d sit across from me or sit at the head, in the position of most authority and power.
He quickly answered this question, sliding into a seat across from me. He then began pouring our drinks, his expression unreadable, which was somewhat typical for him, I was starting to think. Even though he was quick to give me little smiles every so often, he seemed like the type of man to keep all emotions and thoughts close to the vest, which troubled me. Maybe because I knew that this was going to make it hard for me to tell when he was just “acting” and when he wasn’t.
After handing me a glass of wine, he poured a glass of whiskey for himself. With his dark gray eyes twinkling, he then looked from his glass to me. “I usually like to enjoy a glass of wine when I’m in the company of a beautiful woman who’s drinking the same.
“However, tonight, I think I’m going to have some whisky neat, no ice and no water. See, you have to do something to assert your masculinity when you voluntarily forego your usual spot at the head of the table just so you can directly look into the eyes of the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen.”
For the second time that evening, I laughed before I could really think about it or stop myself. However, like the previous time, I only chuckled for a second or two before I caught myself. Clearly, Nick had a good enough sense of humor to tickle my funny bone, but I was determined not to disrespect my deceased family members by engaging in a full-out chuckle fest with the man who was surely responsible for their deaths in one way or another.
After smiling in response to my chuckle, Nick took a sip of his whisky and set the glass on the table. “Let’s finish our talk from yesterday at the government prison. I’d like to answer your questions, and any others you may have thought of, while we enjoy our drinks and dinner.”
Lifting my wine glass, I gave him a polite nod. “All right. Well, question number one, I guess, who painted the dining room this color? And was there a particular reason for it?”
I wasn't exactly sure why I was asking this question or what I wanted to hear. Maybe some confession or admission of guilt that the Everglen Coven was made up of all dark-hearted vampires who were so bloodthirsty that they even liked their walls to be painted the color of blood. I didn't know why, but I felt like it might give me a little satisfaction to know that Nick at least felt free to hint that they were evil. I wasn't going to get that satisfaction, though.
This was because Nick simply answered that a non-vampire interior decorator had picked the color. “I guess she just thought it was a good choice for a formal dining room.”
“Oh.”
Sipping my wine, I asked him several other general questions about the apartment and the building before once again trying to get him to reveal something of his true nature in a response.
“So, what about the name of your coven? How did you come up with the name Everglen?”
After taking a drink of his whisky, Nick set the glass down with his eyes twinkling. “Well…I’ll answer that. But get ready to laugh.”
*
Uncomprehendingly, I looked at Nick. “What do you mean? Why should I get ready to laugh?”
He took a long drink of his whisky and set the glass down, smiling. “Because the explanation behind our coven name is just funny, or at least, it’s become funny to me all these years later. See, I didn’t really choose the name. Back in my very much younger days as a new vampire, when the coven was just a hundred or so members, I was kind of a hothead, and I liked to gamble and drink to excess.
“One night, this led to me betting another young vampire, who wasn’t even a member of the coven, that I’d beat him in cards, or else he would get naming rights to my coven and the city I hoped one day to build. Things didn’t exactly go the way I’d planned, though.
“This other young vampire, whose name was Glen, beat me at cards, and shortly thereafter, he christened my small coven Everglen, as an eternal reminder that he’d beaten me. Because I’m a man of my word, I kept the name. Now it serves as a daily reminder to me of how far I’ve come since my days as a new vampire and a complete hothead.”
Nick grinned, revealing his perfect white teeth. Having finished my glass of wine and feeling the effects of it at least a little, I did laugh at his anecdote, as he’d thought I might. However, unlike the previous two times he’d made me laugh, I laughed longer than just a second or two. It just felt good for some reason. It almost felt soothing in a strange way.
And, I had to admit, Nick’s explanation for the coven’s name was pretty funny. Or it would be, if it were true. Part of me thought Nick might just be “acting,” determined to reveal a light side to me and keep hidden the evil that I was fairly certain had to be in his heart.
Once my laughter had subsided, I studied Nick’s face while he refilled my wine glass. “Well, that was funny, but is it really true? Did you really name the coven what you did because you lost a bet?”
With his expression of amusement not changing in the least, Nick dipped his head in a nod. “I did…that’s the truth, and I’ve never been ashamed to say it. There are times, though, when I wish I’d named the coven something a little more threatening. Something that would continually remind the Dormio Coven that we’re a strong group, and we’re never going to give in to them.
“That’s something I always want them to remember. I want them to remember that each time we do battle with them, we kill a few more of their members. Someday, we will kill them all, and then all the people in this city can finally live in peace."
Immediately sober, at least as far as my laughter was concerned, I wasn’t sure how Nick had been able to say what he had about peace with a straight face. After all, it wasn’t exactly “peaceful” to slaughter an entire coven of innocent witches for no good reason other than just the thrill.
Afraid that I was going to blurt out something about how murdering a coven of innocent witches fit in with his idea of peace, I immediately asked Nick another question in an attempt to control myself. “Please answer me this question from yesterday. How is it possible that you have so many children here in Everglen after being such a small coven a hundred years ago? And also, speaking of that, how did the community here go from a tiny group to thirty thousand people, anyway?”
In spite of myself, I was genuinely curious to know the answers to both these questions.
Nick knocked back a gulp of his whiskey before responding. “To answer your first question, we have so many children here simply because of dumb luck. The first stroke of that luck was that hundreds of years ago, we original Everglen vampires discovered that we had the ability to produce regular human children with regular human women. This was a stroke of luck because not all vampire groups can reproduce.”
Back when we were dating, James had already explained all of this to me, and I now recalled that he had. But of course, not wanting Nick to know exactly how close I’d been to the Dormio Coven, I had to pretend I had no clue about any of it.
So I widened my eyes just a degree, as if surprised. “Oh.”
Apparently seeing nothing disingenuous in my response or expression, Nick continued. “The second stroke of luck came when the children of these first unions reached adulthood and were turned into vampires themselves, and we learned that they could also reproduce, and not just with humans, but with other vampires, too.
It didn’t even matter if it was one of our vampires with a human, or two of our vampires together. The baby born from the union would still be fully human. This led to quite a baby boom for our community. I even thought a few times that I might like to have a few children of my own, but I never did.
“Instead, I decided to wait because I was always so busy dealing with the Dormio Coven. Now, since I’ve found a woman with the were-gene to hopefully have a child or several with, I’m glad I did. I’m glad I decided to wait for a different reason, too.”
Beginning to really feel the effects of the wine and really liking them, I took another sip, almost unconsciously. “And why is that?”
With his thick, dark eyelashes casting shadows on his face in the candlelight, Nick looked into his whiskey glass for a moment before setting it on the table and looking up at me. “Well, in short, creating new life gives us Everglen Coven vampires increased strength and power. We don’t know why this is, or how it works; we just know that it does. The child doesn’t even have to be born yet in order for the vampire father to experience the benefit.
It happens within weeks of a vampire father impregnating a human female. Because of this, when you become pregnant, we’ll likely find out simply by me recognizing that I suddenly have vastly increased strength. This is also why it was such a stroke of luck that most of the members of our coven were able to have children.
Aside from the natural wanting for children that most people have, even ‘supernatural people,’ like vampires, our coven needed to have children to give us male vampires of the coven a strength increase so that we can take out the Dormios once and for all. Hopefully soon. The Dormios are a particular strain of vampires, possessing incredible strength, so even with our increased numbers, we’ve never been able to fully deal with them. However, in the past few decades, since our baby boom really began happening, we’ve made good headway, and once I gain the vastly increased strength that will come with getting you pregnant, I think it will be a done deal. At that point, we’ll be able to finally do away with John and all his vampires.”
I could have laughed out loud. I could have actually full-out howled with laughter because the irony was just too much. Nick thought that I was going to be something like his savior, when in reality, I was going to be his downfall.
He thought that through being impregnated, I was going to help him take down John and the Dormios, when the truth was that it was John who’d advised me years earlier to get revenge for what had been done to my coven.
It really was too much. And, having finished my second glass of wine, I felt as if I might be overcome by mirth at any moment, giving myself and my intentions away; so once again, I quickly changed the subject.
“So, Nick, you’ve explained about the children in here in Everglen, but I still don’t know how all the adult vampires came to number thirty thousand or so over the years. That just strikes me as such an astounding number.”
Nick, who was refilling my wine glass again, answered with a shrug. “Well, knowing that there’s strength in numbers, and wanting to help us establish not just a coven, but an empire of sorts, I had some of my elite coven members travel all over the continent for years, as a Everglen Coven ‘recruiters’ of sorts, and they found a lot of nomadic vampires who were ready to join a coven.
“They also found many humans who wanted to be turned into vampires. After all, how many humans are really content living a normal human lifespan? Many humans find it more desirable to live ten to fifteen centuries, like we Everglen Coven vampires do, than just one century, like a regular human, and that’s if they’re very lucky.”
After a long sip of wine, I set my glass down, thoroughly intrigued. “You Everglen Coven vampires aren't completely immortal, like the Dormios are? And by immortal, I mean immortal except for being stabbed and decapitated.”
For a long moment, there was complete silence at the table. Then I realized what I’d said. If I were just a regular woman, I shouldn’t have had such specific knowledge about the Dormio’s immortality. However, before I could cover for myself, before I could even think of any kind of a cover, Nick spoke, cocking one dark brow at me.
“Did Clara already tell you about that difference between us and the Dormios?”
Immeasurably relieved, I nodded. “Yes. Either her or one of the other women who work for you. I don’t even remember specifically who. But, yes, one of them did, and I just found it very interesting.”
Nick smiled, once again revealing his perfectly white, straight teeth. “It is pretty interesting. None of us Everglen vampires have actually died yet from this ‘old age,’ but the lore book given to us by our first vampire father, who was a vampire that came here from Ireland and then returned there, tells us that this is what will eventually happen, though even the oldest of us still have hundreds and hundreds of years to go.
“I don’t think anyone's really brokenhearted over this ‘immortality light,’ though. Most of us feel that our lifespan is actually preferable over the Dormio’s true immortality. After all, eternity without end could be wearying, and knowing that our days, though many, are still numbered, helps us Everglen Coven members appreciate things more, I think.
“So, dying of ‘old age’ after a millennium or so honestly seems preferable to me. That’s still an awfully long time to live. As for you personally, Tiffany, after you have all the children you want, you can have that long length of time to live, too, if you want.
“See, after a human woman is done with childbearing, we give her the option to become a vampire herself, so that she can live for hundreds of years with her chosen vampire mate if she desires. Then, when the children born to vampire fathers become adults, they’ll be given that choice, too.”
I finished a sip of wine and gave Nick a small smile. “I see. Well, as for myself and whether or not I'll ever become a vampire after having children, I think I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.”
Which would be never. Unless, perhaps, John decided to offer me immortality once I’d completed my mission to get revenge by killing Nick. Even then, though, I wasn’t sure I’d take it. I’d always been squeamish, grossed out by the very sight of blood, and I wasn’t sure I could ever actually drink it.
From an animal, possibly, like how Nick said he and his people fed. If I really forced myself. But not from a human being, which was how the Dormios fed. Not only had this always struck me as disgusting, but morally wrong, too. Sometimes Dormio members asked permission before drinking from a human, finding a surprisingly large number of humans who said yes just for the thrill. However, more often than not, they just attacked and drank from whomever they liked, sometimes killing their victims in the process, whether by accident or intentionally.
I assumed that despite what Nick had said about drinking from animals, the Everglen Coven members fed the same way, since surely any group of people who killed women in cold blood wouldn’t have too many moral compunctions about drinking from anyone and everyone they wanted.
Soon, after Nick had told me a few other things about the lore book from his “first father,” nothing really of great importance, I realized that I’d somehow finished my third glass of wine without even realizing it. Wanting to stay “on guard,” I certainly hadn’t meant to.
My head was really beginning to swim, but in a very pleasant sort of way, a way that was drawing my focus to Nick’s handsome, strong-jawed face, his broad shoulders, and his hard, muscular chest. I suddenly couldn’t stop thinking about how I wanted to touch his hard, muscular chest, maybe while he kissed me.
I knew I shouldn’t want to do these things, though. I should have just been suffering through my time with Nick, and then suffering through the physical intimacy that was to come. Yet when Nick made me laugh about something, then swiftly pulled me out of my chair and onto his lap while I was still laughing, I didn’t resist.
I again didn’t resist when he lowered his mouth to mine and began kissing me. In fact, I sighed, running a hand across the hardened planes of his chest, just like I’d wanted to do. I didn’t even care that he’d likely been responsible for killing all the members of my coven, because at present, I could barely even remember that.
It wasn’t long before I felt my nipples stiffening in response to a few caresses over my dress while he continued kissing me, playfully nipping at my lower lip every so often. Beneath me, I could feel that I wasn’t the only one becoming aroused. I could feel that Nick’s cock was large, and it felt like he was already rock-hard. This made my sighs quickly turn to moans, and when he slid a hand beneath my dress and bra and began toying with one of my stiffened nipples, I broke our kiss involuntarily, moaning the loudest I had yet.
“Please, Nick. Don’t stop doing that.”
He didn’t, and he spoke in a low voice near my ear while he continued his caresses. “Why don’t I carry you into your bedroom now and start on some other kisses. Kisses from the arches of your delicate, pretty little feet, all the way up to your gorgeous, pouty lips. Then I’ll trail the kisses downward and revisit a certain spot...and I promise that I’ll give that spot all the slow and careful attention it deserves.”