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Chapter Sixteen
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2021-08-31 02:06:15I woke up to find a note on the pillow where Nevi’s head usually lay. I rubbed my eyes to focus and began to read. It was another of his apologetic notices of absenteeism and the usual request for me to make myself at home. He reassured me Sasha had been removed from the premises hours earlier. Marie–the woman who brought the tomato bisque—and Paul, the snow removal man—were there to assist me with my needs and to make sure that I would be safe until he returned. There was no mention of where he’d gone or when he intended to return. There was also no indication of when he’d left.
What constituted soon?
I felt unexplainably and intensely annoyed, impatient, and antsy. I wanted to jump out of my skin, or punch something or someone, or run somewhere… something! This was a new and unexpected change in attitude. I was at a loss at how to handle it.
As I climbed out of the enormous bed I’d been sharing with my vampire l
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True to his word, Nevi stuck by me over the weeks that followed. In fact, he never left my side. With his help, I learned to tolerate and correctly use my new and heightened abilities. Every night, he returned me to the comfort of my own home at bedtime. He was incredibly gracious about the step down in comfort and conveniences. During the daytime, he took me back to his place to use the gym in the west wing of his home. It was beautifully equipped and a pleasure to use. I didn’t mind in the least.To my surprise, Nevi had far more staff than I was aware of. Little by little, they surfaced as the need for them arose. I worked with his trainer, Mitch—a delightful middle-aged Irishman who came to the United States when he was a young adult. We focused on skills such as boxing, martial arts, and even fencing. We put in long, hard hours. I had no idea why I’d ever need to know these, but I enjoyed the exertion required by my body to learn them.I’d
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I was in heaven. After the bitter cold of winter, the sun felt marvelous against my pasty white skin as I stretched out on an expensive chaise lounge, nestled in the sands of the private beach belonging to the gorgeous hotel we were staying in. Geoffrey reserved adjoining rooms for us—something I greatly appreciated. Kissing was one thing, but I wasn’t quite ready to be sexually unfaithful to Nevi. Nevi and I had settled into a pleasingly comfortable relationship. I wanted to keep it that way.It wasn’t until I lay basking in the sun’s rays that I remembered Nevi. I hadn’t called to tell him that I was leaving town or for how long. We’d agreed to a small separation for at least a week to help me readjust to life, but he would still expect me to call him. He would have definitely expected me to inform him of my leaving town. I know I would have expected it of him.I needed to give him a call.I sat up and grabbed my cell phone
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Incessant, loud knocking yanked me from my fantasy dream land back into the reality. Something was off… missing. It took me a moment to focus on where I was and why I was there. I surveyed the room. Everything looked in place. What was off? What was missing? What was I sensing?The last thing I remembered was listening to Geoffrey’s steady heartbeat. As my head cleared, I realized that what was missing was Geoffrey. The source of the knocking also registered. Someone was knocking on the door.I slithered off the bed, feeling energized enough to have been sleeping twenty-four hours instead of the mere seven I actually had. I placed my eye to the peep hole in the door to get the identity of the person on the other side. It was Geoffrey.“Good grief. Don’t you have a key?” I demanded—a little too gruffly—as I pulled the door open and made my way to the sofa.“Actually, no. This is your room, remember?” h
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Nevi was waiting for me at the airport.Shortly after checking in for my flight, I’d come to my senses and realized that I owed Nevi an apology for hanging up on him like I had and offered it as soon as I stepped into the terminal. He accepted it with the usual class he displayed in most situations and suggested that we put it out of our minds. He emphasized that he understood completely what kind of shock the news about Frank must have caused.As he held me in his arms and kissed me with gentle passion, I could feel his yearning for me. He was telling the truth. He had missed me; in more ways than one.I couldn’t help comparing Nevi’s kisses to Geoffrey’s. Nevi’s kisses relayed more of what he was feeling for me. They seemed very real. Yet, Geoffrey’s kisses were the ones that brought me to an instantaneous height of passion. Nevi’s kisses hinted of the exotic spices that flavored the gourmet vegetarian dishes that he a
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We stayed in bed until the following morning; waking up once or twice to make love and then returning to blissful nothingness. The world didn’t exist beyond our room. There were no vampires, no handlers, no dead people, no police, and no businesses to tend to. There was just us. Lovers in love.When morning came, we grudgingly joined the rest of the world. Nevi had business to tend to at the convenience store where we’d met. I had to meet with Geoffrey. Nevi shared his intentions and whereabouts with me. I kept mine to myself. I felt a little guilty about it, but I saw no other option.I met up with Geoffrey at the local coffee shop. He looked exhausted, but greeted me with relative enthusiasm. We moved through my apologies for leaving like I had relatively quickly and got down to business. He wanted to know what I knew so far about Frank. I explained that Nevi investigated my house the day before and found signs of at least three —possibly more&mdash
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I found discussing my experience with Sasha horrific. I didn’t need Geoffrey to know that bit of information, even though he seemed to believe he did. In fact, he seemed far too interested in getting the minutest details of the experience out of me. I suspected it was more for him than for the job.Men!I agreed that it was probably best not to tell Nevi about Geoffrey or what I’d become for the time being. That meant more secrets and lies between us, but I just didn’t see another option. Especially after hearing Geoffrey’s story.Nevi worked at night and slept part of the day, so my schedule would be pretty flexible to train and work with Geoffrey. I gave it considerable thought. If there was a way I could help to rid the world of nasty, evil, bloodsuckers, then I was all for giving it a try.We agreed to meet the following day at a small, out-of-the-way gym that he liked to train in. He wanted to get a better idea of the skills t
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There was no more mention of the vampire that I encountered between Nevi and me. It may have been a dead subject between us, but I was positive he had not forgotten it. He disappeared longer than usual that night when he thought I was sleeping.I called Geoffrey while I knew it was safe.Unlike Nevi’s cool reaction to the news, Geoffrey went into a total frenzy. It took me a considerable amount of time to calm him down enough for it to register with him I had not been touched and was fine. Perhaps it was because I sat before Nevi and he could see firsthand that I was well and happy, or maybe it was just the difference in personalities that caused such a drastic gap in their reactions.“Where’s lover boy now?” he growled.“If you’re going to be like that, then I’m hanging up,” I huffed.“Okay, it’s just that I don’t like the idea of him leaving you alone night after night when there a
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Geoffrey was calling again.It had been a week since he’d talked me into sneaking out to fight vampires with him. It had been a week since I’d allowed my lover to laden himself with guilt over the false assumption that he’d been controlling me. It had been a week since Nevi and I had a heart to heart talk about freedom and what it meant to me. Yes, I’d shamefully fallen into step with his assumption of guilt. I justified it by reminding myself that I was an independent woman and it wouldn’t hurt for him to realize this.I felt awful about my participation in lie after lie after lie where Nevi was concerned. It had to stop. I just didn’t know how to stop it. I saw the anger, hate, and pain in Nevi’s eyes the night Geoffrey drove me to his doorstep and I heard the growling and shouting that went on behind closed doors the following afternoon. Grant it, when they surfaced from those closed doors they acted amiable enough. I knew i
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I didn’t have to wait long for Nevi to return home. Marie and Keona worked out a reversal for the witch’s protection the rogues enjoyed all those many months. My three hundred-year-old vampire’s strengths had been amplified by an enormous amount of handler blood and his wrath was unleashed. Combined with the allegiance of a thousand-year-old handler and a fifty-year-old, incredibly bitchy vampire and Frank and his cronies didn’t stand a chance.I made an anonymous call to the police on Geoffrey’s behalf. They reached him just in time to save him. I will probably wonder if it was the right thing to do for my remaining days.It took several days for Nevi to come down from his handler blood high, and even longer for Marie and Keona to cleanse him enough with their herbal concoctions so that his hunger was once again satisfied by vegetarian food; not to mention becoming tolerable company. During this time, the two women did their best to calm
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We trained for another week. Marie created a tea for me to help dry out my milk. With all the demands placed on my body, we agreed that it was probably for the best. Besides, Bobby was starting to teeth and fangs were inevitable. I had little knowledge of babies, but I was sure he was teething early. Was there going to be anything normal in my life? Marie admitted that working with the human mother of a vampire baby was a new twist for her skills. This was one of the main reasons she’d sent for Keona.My body was becoming a lean fighting machine. More than once, I’d actually taken Justin down. His toothy smile of approval flooded me with confidence.I learned age-old techniques of fighting that I was certain Geoffrey was not aware of. Justin admitted he encountered Geoffrey a few years back at a hunter’s convention in Asia Minor and he’d thought the man a bit haughty. I could see where he was coming from with that remark and giggled my agreement
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Marie barely waited for Paul to park the car before she hustled over to my car and took possession of my son. I didn’t try to stop her. This was an exciting occasion for Nevi’s fiercely loyal staff. They had not seen the innocence of new life come into the home in over fifty years. The fact that this new life was Nevi’s son and heir had to be thrilling for them.I learned that the entire staff consisted of humans who kept themselves alive by occasional tiny doses—every twenty-five years or so—of vampire blood. Marie and Paul were actually new comers to the mix. Many had been with Nevi since he discovered what his blood would do for a human in his early youth. He never imposed his blood on any of the staff. They willingly asked for his vampire blood in exchange for the gift of a lengthy life. He proved to be a fair, kind, and generous employer, which won the iron clad loyalty they had for him. They became more like Nevi’s family than his hel
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I explained where I’d been and what happened since I’d thought Nevi abandoned me. When I told them about Bobby, they looked at each other quizzically. It was then that I knew I could no longer keep who and what I was a secret. I came to the conclusion that, although Nevi may not be able to impregnate a human, I was not a mere human. Not only did I have an excessive amount of vampire blood in me, I was a handler. The truth needed to come out. Besides, since I’d lost Nevi anyway, I saw no reason to withhold it.Instead of being appalled by my being a handler, they were relieved. After a lengthy discussion, I learned that, although Nevi hated handlers, most good vampires appreciated them and often worked alongside them. Nevi was just holding a grudge because of what happened to his wife. Actually, the only handler Nevi hated was Geoffrey.Both Paul and Marie were given vampire blood years ago. I now knew vampire blood alone would elongate my life. Even i
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Robert Dugal Ewing was born a healthy, premature baby in the wee hours of a crisp fall morning. Although he needed to remain hospitalized for a week longer than I did, he eventually came home to the doting and loving arms of his family.I was thankful that I decided to remain with my parents until after the baby was born. The unexpected premature birth of my son sent me into a tailspin of worry, along with a little postpartum depression. I doubt I would have been able to cope though this time had it not been for my rock of a mother. She took over the care of little Bobby as if he were her own son, leaving me the time I needed to regroup and heal.I checked Bobby for signs of vampire on a daily basis in the privacy of my room. Since he was toothless, I had no way of really knowing. Geoffrey said he smelled of vampire. To me, he smelled of baby power and spit up. On an occasion or two, I’d picked up the faintest smell of Nevi. It was the scent he had after a night
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After pregnancy month number five, I decided to accept, as sad as it was, that my relationship with Nevi was over. Geoffrey remained persistent with his pursuit. I finally relented enough to start dating him. I’d admitted that, if Nevi hadn’t been in the picture, I would have been happy to date him and… well… Nevi was no longer in the picture.Geoffrey was surprisingly understanding as I processed the fact that I’d been left high and dry and pregnant. He sat quietly during outbursts that seemed to spring from nowhere. He held me when I needed holding and gave me the space when I needed space. This was a time when his telepathy sure came in handy. I didn’t complain.It was the fourth month anniversary of my doctor visit—the night Nevi disappeared—when I finally agreed to date Geoffrey. He was still pushing marriage, as were my parents, but I just didn’t feel it was the right thing to do. I didn’t love Geoffre
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Geoffrey was calling again.It had been a week since he’d talked me into sneaking out to fight vampires with him. It had been a week since I’d allowed my lover to laden himself with guilt over the false assumption that he’d been controlling me. It had been a week since Nevi and I had a heart to heart talk about freedom and what it meant to me. Yes, I’d shamefully fallen into step with his assumption of guilt. I justified it by reminding myself that I was an independent woman and it wouldn’t hurt for him to realize this.I felt awful about my participation in lie after lie after lie where Nevi was concerned. It had to stop. I just didn’t know how to stop it. I saw the anger, hate, and pain in Nevi’s eyes the night Geoffrey drove me to his doorstep and I heard the growling and shouting that went on behind closed doors the following afternoon. Grant it, when they surfaced from those closed doors they acted amiable enough. I knew i
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There was no more mention of the vampire that I encountered between Nevi and me. It may have been a dead subject between us, but I was positive he had not forgotten it. He disappeared longer than usual that night when he thought I was sleeping.I called Geoffrey while I knew it was safe.Unlike Nevi’s cool reaction to the news, Geoffrey went into a total frenzy. It took me a considerable amount of time to calm him down enough for it to register with him I had not been touched and was fine. Perhaps it was because I sat before Nevi and he could see firsthand that I was well and happy, or maybe it was just the difference in personalities that caused such a drastic gap in their reactions.“Where’s lover boy now?” he growled.“If you’re going to be like that, then I’m hanging up,” I huffed.“Okay, it’s just that I don’t like the idea of him leaving you alone night after night when there a
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I found discussing my experience with Sasha horrific. I didn’t need Geoffrey to know that bit of information, even though he seemed to believe he did. In fact, he seemed far too interested in getting the minutest details of the experience out of me. I suspected it was more for him than for the job.Men!I agreed that it was probably best not to tell Nevi about Geoffrey or what I’d become for the time being. That meant more secrets and lies between us, but I just didn’t see another option. Especially after hearing Geoffrey’s story.Nevi worked at night and slept part of the day, so my schedule would be pretty flexible to train and work with Geoffrey. I gave it considerable thought. If there was a way I could help to rid the world of nasty, evil, bloodsuckers, then I was all for giving it a try.We agreed to meet the following day at a small, out-of-the-way gym that he liked to train in. He wanted to get a better idea of the skills t
