Cherry Blossom (Vampire Cherry Book 2) (3 page)

Fast as lightning, Alex pinned me to the door, his body hard against my back, his arms framing my shoulders. “I only want
your
blood,” he whispered harshly, his face in my hair. His erection digging in my back was the least of my concerns.

“Okay, the mood swings? Not doing it for me. You go from mellow to seeing red in no time. Is something bothering you? If you want to talk about it, I can call Sheena and cancel.” I prayed he said yes and finally talked to me about how he really felt about being a vampire. He’d told me how powerless he’d felt when Willoughby drained him—how he hated the fear, and the nightmares that followed—but not a word about what he’d become.

He pumped his hips against me. “It’s bothering me that you’re not naked.”

Trying to fuck issues away was my thing. Alex usually insisted it solved nothing. Seeing him resort to the same cheap trick raised a wave of anger inside me.

Let go,” I said. “I have a show to catch.”

He stepped back, and when I turned, his arms were up. Whether in surrender or resignation I couldn’t say. Something clenched in my gut. His lack of a heartbeat wasn’t the only thing different after his turning. I wanted to believe the rest of the changes I saw in him would smoothen out, as he got used to his new reality.

I pulled him down by his shirt and whispered, “Be good.” Then I touched my lips to his once more, and went to find my friend and ex-manager.

Chapter Three

The movie was nothing noteworthy, but mind-numbing and jolly was exactly what I needed for my head to clear. By the time the ending titles rolled, I’d decided to let things unfold as they would. I’d meet Alex’s mother and bring him to my childhood home. My lifespan would be too long for me to worry about every little thing.

My stomach clenched at the thought of facing my parents, but I put on a huge smile. “You up for ice cream? I’m buying!” Actually, Constantine was. Since he’d achieved council member status for something we’d both done, he was giving me half of the stipend that came with the position.

Sheena arched an eyebrow, her dark eyes glinting. “How very generous of you.”

Pretending not to notice the sarcasm in her voice, I smacked her ass. “You want lobster, you got to gimme some sugar.”

She kept a straight face, but I could see a grin tilting the corner of her lips. “Tempting though it may be, I’ll have to refuse. Ice cream will do.”

By now, we’d reached the ice cream stand. “One of those.” Sheena pointed at the largest cups available. “I’d like two scoops of caramel, and one each mocha and vanilla.”

“I want a cone, straight up chocolate, please,” I said.

The teen behind the counter asked if we wanted any toppings. I refused, but Sheena hid her ice cream under thick layers of whipped cream, and added a cherry on top. How the woman remained slim was beyond me.

“You’re a cheap date.” I indicated her cup with a tilt of my head.

She shook her head, glossy black curls bouncing. “And you’re using cheesy lines that send the feminist movement decades back. How you got not one, but two gorgeous vampires to fall for you is beyond me.”

“They’re old fashioned. I just smiled and nodded a lot.”

“I see. Now it all makes sense. Hey!” She batted my hand away when I tried to pinch the maraschino that crowned her humongous dessert. “So, you and Alex are meeting the in-laws, huh?”

“Don’t wanna talk about it.” To stress how
much
I didn’t
want to, I stuffed my face with more ice cream.

“Wanna talk about how your new and old beau are disconcertingly civil with each other?” So she’d noticed too. If I were still human, those two would give me heartburn.

“Would such a discussion entail hypotheses of a future threesome with said beaus?”

She took her time cleaning drops of vanilla from her hand with her tongue. “I doubt it.”

“Then no.”

“Okay, you choose the subject.”

I gave it a moment of consideration. It had been a long while since Sheena and I had last had a girls’ night out. Hell, it had been even longer since we’d been friends.

She’d shown up at the bakery I worked for when I first moved to LA, and offered me a job. She helped me lose weight, managed my career, and soon became my only friend.

She’d also been the one to hand me and the three vampettes now living with us to Willoughby and his associates. She’d been afraid for her life, and her remorse was genuine. Since she’d moved into Constantine’s mansion, she’d been doing her best to help the fledglings. I’d finally accepted her apologies, and we were rebuilding our friendship from scratch. That night in the city was supposed to help us bond over silliness—and possibly alcohol.

I didn’t want to be a party pooper and ruin the fun mood, but I had nobody else to talk to. “I’m worried about Alex,” I finally said. “He insists everything is fine, but won’t touch human blood.”

“Isn’t that just a dietary choice?”

I shook my head. “It’s more than that. It’s like he resents having to feed off humans—which is totally rational, only he has to get over it at some point. I’m not saying he should go killer-sucker. I just wish he’d seem more at peace with his new nature. Being with him is like riding a roller coaster.”

“Are we talking about the crazy vampire sex?” She stuffed a spoonful of caramel in her mouth, but not before I saw her smirk.

I glared. “I’m serious. Lately he seems ready to snap at the smallest thing, and I believe it’s because he can’t accept himself.”

Her gaze softened. Lost its teasing edge. “And you feel guilty.”

“And I feel guilty.” I forced that new nature on him. He never had a chance to refuse it. Not having consented to my own turning, I hated that I hadn’t given him a choice.

“My poor idiot.” Sheena held her ice cream away from her body with one hand, and pulled me into an awkward hug with her free arm. “You saved his life.” I started to protest, and she shushed me. “So he’s brooding a bit. Beats being dead. If he can’t deal with his current existence, there are always exit strategies.”

I pulled away. “I’m not killing him!”

“I’m not saying you should. I’m saying he’s a grown man who knows his options. If he doesn’t feel like being the evil dead, he can take a nap on a park bench right before sunrise. That he hasn’t so far means he’s dealing. It’ll just take a while until he’s fully there. Now let’s go see Blood Guy and get home. I need to pee.”

“You have such a way with words.”

“It’s a burden, but I carry it with elegance.”

“Obviously. But maybe you should sit somewhere and wait for me? Somewhere with a ladies’ room, so you don’t have a little accident? The meeting place is more than a couple of blocks from here.”

She shook her head. “Better idea—you fly me home, I make Margaritas and wait for you?”

“Only if you’re sure you won’t pee on me.”

“Oh, shut up. I’m a lady!”

Laughing, we walked into an alleyway, and I did my vamp-lift-off thing. It’s really nothing more than willing your body to rise above the ground, but it only works if you believe you can win a fight against gravity, and not all of us are open-minded enough to manage it.

Sheena made a run for the bathroom as soon as we landed at home, and I took off again for my meeting.

****

Blood Guy, known to his friends as Frank, was a blood bank employee and my first success story in compelling. He was the first person I’d ever managed to use my vampire gaze on without turning him into a complete puppet or making him think I was crazy. In his mind, I worked for a hazardous materials disposal unit. I called, and we met behind the bank, where he handed over bags of blood that needed to be destroyed for whatever reason.

I’d only been using him sporadically in the years since Constantine had taught me how to feed from live donors without endangering them. With four fledglings to keep fed and happy, however, I’d recently added Frank’s number to speed dial.

“You’re late.” He checked his watch, as if to make sure he had it right.

“I know. I’m sorry. You know how it is.”

He nodded, even though he had no clue how it was, or what
it
meant. He always nodded, because we always had the same dialog. I hadn’t compelled him to greet me that way every time he saw me; I guess creating a pattern in our transactions reassured the rational part of his brain.

“You park close by?” he asked. “Bag is heavy.” That too was part of our usual rapport.

“Round the corner.” I took hold of the dark blue duffel he carried. “Thanks.”

“Sure you don’t need me to help with that?”

“Nope. Got it. Thanks again.”

“See you next month.”

I gave him a little wave, and waited until he was back inside the building. As soon as I was certain I was completely out of his field of vision, I kicked at the ground and was airborne.

I entered the mansion from the basement, and stowed the blood in the freezer Constantine had installed in the en-suite I shared with Alex. That floor housed our room, the gym, and the huge-ass bedroom and white-marble bathroom Constantine shared with the three fledglings, while the upper floors of the mansion boasted two living rooms, four and a half bathrooms, a kitchen, and a
parlor
—let alone Wesley’s apartment. When I asked Constantine how come he didn’t want a more livable basement apartment for the daytime, he said we weren’t supposed to live during the day. Bleak, huh?

I pulled my red hair back in a ponytail, secured my annoying fringe to the side with a bobby pin, and rushed upstairs. The whirring of the Margarita maker acted as a homing beacon, leading me to the kitchen.

“I’m home,” I said as I entered the room. “Bring on the booze!”

“Thought you wouldn’t be back till later.” Alex leaned against the stove, arms crossed over his chest.

“Oh, hi! Yeah, didn’t Sheena tell you? We decided to do the alcohol-binge part of the night here.” I approached and rose on my tiptoes to plant a kiss on his lips. He didn’t return the greeting. “Is something wrong?” I looked around. “Where’s Sheena?”

“Needed to get something. Asked Wesley to drive her. She’ll be back soon.”

I took a step back. He looked tense, and there was some sort of menacing wave coming off him. His eyes seemed cloudy, like he wasn’t really seeing me. I wanted to touch him but refrained. I’d never before felt unsettled in his presence. Now it was as if he’d raised some sort of force field around him.

“Alex? Everything okay? Are you hungry?”

He shook his head and smiled, but the sense of wrongness was still there.

I wasn’t afraid of him. He was my Alex. He was just dealing with things his way.

I was relieved to hear footsteps behind me. “I heard the car,” Constantine said. “Sheena is back, so let’s leave the ladies to it, Alex. We can spar, if you feel up to it.” He was training Alex to control and utilize his superhuman strength, but the two never let me watch.

“Yup, you should go,” I said with false cheer. “I won’t be too late. Just wanna catch up on some girly stuff.” And maybe shake off the weird feeling suffocating me.

Constantine placed his hand on the small of my back, and I let out a sigh. Whatever his reason for doing it, to me it meant he realized I was uncomfortable, and reminded me he was there for me. Little things like this made up for his snark and his occasionally sour disposition.

Alex grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me to him. Before I could react, he closed his lips over mine, and pushed his tongue into my mouth in a kiss that felt more like raw hunger than love. “See you in bed.” His eyes were clear now, and the roughness of his voice sent goose bumps of the nice kind down my spine.

Lust and unease fought inside me, making my gut clench. “Yes, Mr. Caveman.” Once I regained my balance, I turned and followed the two men out with my gaze, enjoying the view. Even the compounded yumminess of their broad shoulders and narrow hips didn’t calm my nerves, though. Something had really been off there for a while, but as long as Alex was crazy about me, nothing was beyond fixing.

Sheena ducked inside. “Is it safe to enter now?”

“When wasn’t it?”

“When male bravado had replaced the oxygen in the room.” I arched both eyebrows, and she went on. “Remember how your beaus were insufferably polite to each other?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, you can forget it. Don’t know exactly what they were talking about, when you dropped me off, but they seemed a heartbeat away from pulling their cocks out and measuring them—not that it’d be an objectionable sight, but you catch my drift.”

“They were fighting?”

“More like posturing, and trying to stare each other down. I asked if we had any fresh strawberries, and they all but growled at me. I found what I was looking for, and started making our drinks, but then Alex pushed Constantine away, and Constantine grabbed him by the throat, and I had to sneak out and beg Wesley to drive me around for a while. Even the vampettes stayed away, and you know how they go gaga over topless Constantine.”

“Constantine was topless?”

“Because that’s what you need to focus on?” She flicked my ear with one long, lime-green fingernail. “Those boys are playing nice when you’re around, but they need to realize they’re both parts of your life now. Either that, or one of them has to stop being part of it.”

I didn’t want to even think about the latter, but starting a conversation out of the blue about how they both meant a lot to me—
in different ways
—seemed stupid. “Maybe the field trip will do us all some good?”

“Field trip?”

“Ah huh.”

“The three of you?”

“Yuppers.”

Sheena cracked a smile. “You really are trying for that threesome, aren’t you?”

Though it wouldn’t be the worst possible outcome I could fathom, as far as the three of us were concerned, my hopes for the trip were simply that the two men in my life would do some bonding, and I’d get some peace of mind.

Sheena didn’t seem very convinced when I said so.

The first Margarita mix had turned into watered down slosh, so we made a fresh one, and proceeded to consume it with the fervor of college kids on their spring break.

****

Alex was already in bed, when I turned in for the day. The smell of his shower gel wasn’t strong enough to disguise the smell of blood. His blood. I guessed his sparring with Constantine hadn’t exactly been tame. Maybe that was good. If they resolved their issues on the training mats, everyday unlife would run more smoothly.