Blood of a Red Rose (12 page)

Now I had a plan
.

* * * * *

CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE

The Voices

(
Christian
)

I couldn't stand to be upstairs a m
inute
longer. Not with all the voices in my head. As I sat there listening to Evie explain
what Renard and Loni had found
, I started to hear everyone's inner thoughts. I wasn't
scanning them
, but I think my clairaudient ability was on overload. I could hear their panic at Evie's announcement. Dom was questioning whether she should take Tori and just run away. Bobby was giving himself a pep talk about how we could
"
take these demon fuckers out.
"
And
Renard and Loni were reliving everything they'd discovered and their conversation regarding what they thought they sho
uld do
once s
hit hit the fan.

I didn't want to be hearing any of these things, because for one, it was confusing
and was making my head hurt. And two
, because it pissed me off to think that anyone in my clan would even think about ditching Evie and the rest of us. I knew
t
hey were
all
scared because this was something that none of us had ever faced before, but damn it...you don't just run off and leave your clan behind.

As I reached my room
,
I decided I'd try to gain some control over my new abilities
.
But the instant I entered my room
,
I caught the scent of Rose's lingering passion from before
and my mind once again shifted to her.

I wished I
could
've
convinced her to come back downstairs with me. But I understood that she needed to talk to Renard about her dad.
I knew she still wan
ted to reach out to him and was
desperate to find a way to get him away from Meredith, but I
was getting desperate for
us to have
some time to ourselves
. Desperate to be happy again, l
ike we were before.

I walked over to my desk and pulled out a piece of old tattered station
e
ry and decided
to put my thoughts to words. I'd never been shy about expressing my feelings to Rose,
but I needed another outlet to
show her how much I still loved her
, even if things were chaotic at the moment.

As I concentrated on Rose and though
t
of the words I wanted to
write
, I started hearing a whisper in
my
mind. It sounded like a female voice calling Rose's name. "Rose. Rose?" I looked around and found nothing out of place
. S
o
,
after pouring my heart out on paper
,
I finished my letter and put it back in my desk for safe keeping
. T
hen
I made my way over to the bed and laid down. I
t was time to do some meditating and get a grip on these voices...whoever they were.

* * * * *

(Loraine)

Once again I felt myself being pulled back into my ghostly form. But when I opened my eyes and found myself in Rose and Christian's room,
and
Rose
no
where in
sight, I started to panic. "Rose. Rose?" I called out, knowing she couldn't hear me, but I didn't understand how
I could
be here if she wasn't.

I quickly noticed that Christian, who was
sitting at his desk,
turned around and examined the room, loo
king straight in my direction.
Suddenly, I was filled with the knowledge that he was now a Sire and was gifted with extraordinary psychic powers. I floated over to him and looked down at what he was writing and found that it was
a love letter to Rose. It must have
been his thoughts of
her
,
combined with his psychic abilities that pulled m
e
into form. How interesting.

I continued to watch as he finished his letter and returned it to a box within his desk. Then he laid down on his bed and began to drift into what I recognized as a meditative state. Since I had no control over when I appeared and disappeared, I was stuck watching as he began his deep breathing and relaxation technique
s
.

Within moments, I felt a chill brush across me.
Since I was a ghost
, I wasn't sure how that was even
possible.
S
uddenly, Christian opened his eyes and looked directly at me. "
Loraine
?
"

I think if I still had the ability to faint
,
there would have be
en
a shiny ghost
laid out on
the floor
.
"Christian. You can see me?"

"Yes. And apparently hear you
,
too."

I was so
excited
that I could finally communicate with someone that I flew up to the ceiling and spun around. I hoped this meant that soon I
'd be able to t
alk to Rose and Jeremy again. What a blessing this was.

"Not that I'm not happy to have someone to talk to, but how are you able to see me and hear me when no one else can?"

"I'm sure it has to do with my he
ightened abilities now that I'm
..."

His sentence trailed off and I realized he didn't know the amount of information I'd obtained since being dead. He probably wasn't
even
sure if I knew what he
truly
was.

"It's okay. I know everything. You're a vampire
and the new Sire
, you
r
clan is preparing to fac
e
that demon bitch who killed me, and you love my daughter more than you've ever loved anyt
hing in all of your six-hundred-
plus years.
" Suddenly I was the one leaving out information. I was well aware that the vampires didn't know about Rose and Jeremy's demon side, and I also knew it wasn't time for that information to be shared.

"Yes. That's right. Now how exactly is it that you
'r
e here on this plane?"

"It only started happening recently. I was first pulled into this very room while Rose was crying on the bed. I believe her grief
,
combined with her thinking specifically about me
,
pulled my energy to her. I was able to use
my
psychic gift
to calm her. I've visited Jeremy too, and had the
same e
ffect on him. There seems to be a pattern
;
they have to be either very angry or thinking specifically about me, then I appear and my ability soothes them."

"Rose never mentioned
you had a psychic ability. Did she know about it?"

"No. Neither did Jeremy. But it wasn't something I had to activate or try to use on people
;
it was just something that happened whenever I walked into a room. People who were upset would calm, and anyone feeling fear would relax when around me."

"Damn. That's a handy ability to have. I wish I'd developed
that
during my triggering."

By now Christian had pushed off the bed and was walking in my direction. I didn't feel the need to move as I knew he'd just pass right through me. Surprise again. He bumped into my arm as he made to step around me.

"Whoa. That's never happened before. Every time I try to touch Jeremy or Rose
,
my hand just mists through them."

"This whole situation just keeps getting stranger and stranger. I know I'm the new Sire, but honestly, I don't have a clue wha
t to do about any of this.
And a
ll I really care about is getting things back to normal with Rose. You probably know this
already
, but we've been fighting
,
and there's been some real tension building between us. I just wish there was something I could do to make her happy, if only for a small moment within all this craziness."

As I floated over to the vampire who loved my daughter, I thought of the perfect thing to help get these two back on track.
R
egardless of Rose's plans, I
somehow
knew
it was vital that she and Chri
stian remain together.
I assumed this was more cosmic information the gods felt I needed to know.
S
o, I laid
a hand on Christian's shoulder, still amazed that I could do so, and tol
d him just what he needed to do
.

* * * * *

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR

Perfectly Perfect

(
Rose)

Though talking to Renard hadn't taken long, I still wasn't ready to head downstairs to find Christian. I'd already made up my mind not
to
be selfish and allow any more intimacy between us, so I'd wandered around for the next few hours talking and dancing and wasting time with
Dominique
, Tori, and Loni. Currently we were upstairs in one of the private rooms talking about how Loni
ha
d
been turned into a vampire.

"I
met Renard when he was visiting
Hollywood
. I was working
at
Grauman's
C
hinese Theatre and he ca
me in
doing the tourist thing. He was this cool Euro
pean
guy
with spiky hair. He was
so hot
I wanted to jump him that first night. From th
en on
,
we spent
every night together for two weeks straight. Of cou
rse at the time, I had no idea
he was a vampire. He told me
he had to spend his days with his family but that his nights were mine." Loni giggled and continued to reminisce.

"
A
fter spending those two weeks with him, I found out that he wasn't just a pretty face, but that he was also really smart and shared my love
of
architecture.
By the end of his vacation
, I'd completely fallen in love with him and him with me. He petitioned Evie to change me and she
agreed. He told me what he was and that if I accepted to join his clan, we could be together forever. And so I
did
. That was
about eight
y
-six years ago
."

It amazed me that it was
that long
ago,
yet
she
gushed
about him like the
y
'd just met.
But,
I sup
pose for a vampire, eight
y
-six y
ears really
was just a drop in the bucket w
hen
it came to forever.
I almost asked why they waited so long to formally wed, but I didn't want to be rude. Plus
I
was suddenly
depressed
because this perfect dream of spending an eternity with the man you loved had almost been mine as well. I
excused myself and headed back downstairs
. As I reached the
main floor
, Evie came out of her office and looked around
the club. "Rose, c
an you please go down
stairs
and
ask Christian to join me in my office?"

"Sure, Evie."

I ran down the spiral staircase and descended into the pit
,
wondering what Evie wanted to talk to Christian about now. Hopefully she'd heard from Balam and would soon be sharing the news with us all.

When I reached the door to our bedroom I listened for a moment before turning the knob and walking inside. The lights were off and I couldn't see a thing
. I
t was dead quiet. But suddenly there was a click
,
and the entire room was lit up with sparkling moon and star crystals hanging from the black ceiling.

I fell to my knees and started
to cry
as I stared up into
a
replica of my old room.

"I hope you like it. I wanted to do something special to
show you how much I love you.
"

"Oh, Christian." I could
n't
even speak as I was wracked with emotion. The sigh
t of this had me missing my mom
and
falling in love with Christian all over again.
I looked up
at him sitting on the bed
,
saw
him looking at
something off to the side of me a
nd
then
I flew into his arms. "I love it. I can't tell you how much I love it."

"I'm so glad
. When I got the idea a few hours ago, I snuck upstairs through Evie's office and out of the club
to go grab everything
. They aren't the original ones from your house, but it's all I could do in a rush."

"It's perfect. Perfectly perfect." I couldn't stop crying as I buried my head in hi
s chest. He kissed my hair and
continued to hold me. I thought I heard him whisper thank you to someone but was
n't
sure
as I couldn't hear much over the sound of my sobs.

Once I was able to get myself under control
,
I looked at all his hard work. He must have used his vampire speed to paint the ceiling because there were little splashes of black paint on the walls where it had splattered from the rushed brush strokes. The crystals were just like the old ones in my room, and they were s
parkling
in the artificial moonlight that Christian had rigged to shine on them from
a
new l
amp
in the co
rner.

"Christian,
I'm
sorry for being so distan
t
and angry lately. It's just with everything that's been happening, I've been really sad and
emotional
. Even though I love you with all my heart, I still miss my mom and dad and my friends. And then when you told me about my dad moving and the other stuff, I just felt angry
and betrayed. I know
it wasn't your intention to keep things from me
,
but
it
'
s how I felt at the time. Can we just start over, please? I
hate fighting with you and I
don't ever want to be without you."

Talk about a one-eight
y
. I knew it w
as a big risk to change my plans of leaving, but honestly, I didn't care. No matter what happened, I couldn't leave Christian. He was
truly the love of my life and whatever we faced, we'd face it together. N
ow and forever...however long forever ended up being for me
. It was worth it.
He
was worth it.

His passionate kiss was all the answer I needed. I started to fall into his arms when I remembered the reason I'd come to find him in the first place.
I j
ump
ed
up from the bed
,
wiped my face
,
and pulled myself together. "Wait. Evie sent me to get you. She wants you to come up to her office."

He stood up, grabbed my hand,
and kissed me once more. "Alright. Let's go see what Evie h
as to say. I think we're about t
o find out exactly how to put an end to Meredith and her fledgling army."