Immortal Coil: A Novel (Immortal Trilogy Book 1) (15 page)

              “The first time Grover showed up at my door after the trial, I flew into a rage. Eventually, however, I just didn’t have the strength to fight it anymore.

              “One day he showed up and found me going through old pictures of Molly. I was crying and didn’t know he was standing there until he spoke.

              “‘Look on the bright side,’ he said. ‘She’s in a better place.’

              “‘She’s in the ground,’ I growled. ‘How is that a better place?’

              “‘She’s not suffering,’ he said.

              “‘She wasn’t suffering before you killed her, either.’

“I expected a beating for that, but Grover wasn’t into the physical abuse after what happened to Molly: he was going for the emotional kind now.

              “He said, ‘Now everyone knows you killed her, and you’re trying to blame it on me to ease your guilty conscience.’

              “I turned red. My vision clouded. It was the first emotion besides utter despair I had felt since losing my baby girl. I just started beating on him as hard as I could. ‘You did kill her!’ I screamed as my fists pommeled him. ‘You killed her, you bastard. You!” During the entire tirade, he was laughing—laughing! The more he laughed, the more I attacked him.

              “When I had had enough and was too tired to keep up the attack, I tried to force him to go. He left, eventually. But he came back. He always came back to torture me.

              “Luckily his visits were few and far between, and I would manage to pull my life back into some semblance of order.

“It was about a year after Molly’s death that the reporter started coming around asking questions. I thought:
what fresh hell is this? First I lose my daughter, and then they try to pin her death on me; now they want me to relive it?

“When I was a child, I sometimes had dreams that would come true. I also had waking visions that would turn out to be things that were happening at that moment. I had a gift.

             
“It was during this time when the reporter was snooping around that I started honing my different skills. I wanted to use my ability to see the future. I wanted to astral project. I wanted to use my gifts to fight back at this mob of sensationalists who wished to do me harm. I started paying attention to my dreams again. I was looking to see which dreams were coming true and which were fizzling out.

              “I wanted to know what the reporter was going to write about me. And as it would turn out, it wasn’t in my favor. Apparently, someone was out to try and reopen the case and get me back into court. I was ready to jump out a window. I couldn’t believe how low my life could sink.

              “Amazingly, it was Grover that managed to get the reporter out of my life.

              “The newspaper ran the story Where Is She Now: The baby killer that got away? It rehashed the trial and my subsequent mistrial. It ended with a plea to see justice done for Baby Molly. The reporter happened to come around while Grover was in the middle of another of his psychological torture sessions. Grover chased him off and the last thing he said to the reporter—and which I believe killed any future stories calling for my arrest—was: ‘leave now or I’ll kill you just like I killed Molly.’ Then he pretended to shake the reporter until his head exploded. He laughed at his own gruesome pantomime.

              “I asked Grover to leave after that, and he did without complaint.

              “The reporter never returned and to my knowledge never penned any other stories about me.

              “But the one article he did write caught the eye of a certain hunter: David. I was marked for death. And I knew it was coming. In a way, I was happy that it was coming.

              “In my vision I saw a stranger straddling me in bed. He had red eyes and fangs. He reached down and bit into my neck. As I lay there listening to him suck out my blood, Grover shows up with a stake and kills the vampire that was attacking me. At first I didn’t understand what this vision meant. I had no idea vampires existed. I thought it was like the dream of Molly cutting my throat. But something of it did ring true. I was attacked in my bed by a vampire, and Grover was there to save me, but by becoming Antony’s next victim. Turns out, stakes won’t even kill a vampire.”

Maggie smiled, and Randal smiled, too.

              “And although the real events were different than in my vision, the dream did come true. And how I cherish the day I was attacked by that vampire in my dream. It was David who tracked me. It was Antony who was about to feed on me when Grover walked in. It was Grover who gave Antony an alternate blood source that allowed me to live. David and Antony took me in, and I have proven my worth to them. I don’t know what would have happened if Grover hadn’t shown up when he did. Would Antony have taken me? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. Grover did show up, and I thank him for that. If nothing else, he did that one thing right. He was more useful as a source of blood for Antony than he had been in all his thirty-two years on earth.

              “You can trust David and Antony,” Maggie said in conclusion to her story. “They are good men and I love them both dearly. I am the happiest I’ve ever been since I’ve been with them. They love me too, and that above all else is worth staying alive for. Their love and companionship make up for all the horrors I have seen at the hands of an unforgiving and ignorant public, and at the hands of a violent despicable man who fathered a child then removed her from the world. I hope that one day you, too, will overcome the horrors visited upon you and will feel what it’s like to love someone again, like the way I feel for David and Antony.”

Randal didn’t feel love, though; and he didn’t know when—if ever—he would be at that place in his life. But he did feel gratitude, for her, and for them, as well. He was happy that Antony had done for him what his creator had not. Antony had shown him how to feed. He would forever be grateful for that.

              “David and Antony will help you through this, do you understand? They will hunt for you and keep you from taking innocent life. Will you accept their help, and their way of life?”

              Randal nodded, and this time, he hugged
her
.

When morning approached, Randal laid back on the bed and closed his eyes. David had come to stand in the doorway. She turned to David and they closed the door on the way out.

“I think he’ll be okay,” Maggie said.

“Me too,” said David.

While the vampires slept, David and Maggie hunted. It was the first time David had ever captured prey with her assistance, and he had to admit, watching Maggie fight aroused in him feelings he had never before felt. Whenever Maggie saw him looking she questioned him with a look. He just smiled, blushed and turned away. They completed the day’s catch quickly. Maggie’s gift of seeing red auras around evil men ensured them that their day’s catch was authentic. They deposited the four men—Antony’s usual three and one extra for Randal—in the panic room. They could kick and scream all they liked, they couldn’t get out, and no one could hear them. They had all the oxygen they needed to breathe pumped in through a very sophisticated aeration system. Once the lock was in place, Maggie and David climbed the stairs to the living room to relax.

“That was amazing!” Maggie said and shook the neck of her blouse to fan herself.

She spotted David staring at her again, and she could see where his eyes were landing and it wasn’t on her face. She smiled. It also didn’t escape her notice that David’s jeans were tighter than normal. When he saw she had caught him looking at her chest, he blushed and turned away.

“We make a great team. Who knew teaming up would be so much fun,” she said.

David looked down and realized his own body was betraying him. He squirmed.

She giggled playfully at his distress.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Maggie told him. She stepped closer.

“I’m not ashamed,” he said. “It has a mind of its own. I don’t know why it’s coming out now.” He immediately regretted his words.

“I do,” Maggie said reaching for him playfully. He backed away, still trying—and failing—to hide his erection.

When David moved to the right, Maggie countered the move, anticipating it. She latched onto him and pulled him into her embrace. She looked up at him. In a soft, tender voice, she said, “It’s a natural part of being human.” She kissed him then. Feeling his body shivering in her grasp, she led him toward the bed and began to remove his clothes. Resistant at first, David soon reciprocated her advances and helped her peel off their clothes. They fell into the bed naked. David moved his hands over her body, feeling her soft skin and exploring her curves. His light touch sent shivers through her. He thought of telling her that he had never been with a woman before, but somehow he felt she already knew. He kissed her erect nipples. She arched her back as he entered her. He pushed against her gently, shuttering at the immense pleasure he felt at being inside her. He kissed her neck, her ear, her mouth. He plunged his tongue into her mouth and felt her lips accept it. He moved slowly and rhythmically against her. Their moans melded together. David found a warm spot inside her. He touched that spot again and again until Maggie started to cry out, as if in pain. When David tried to pull away, Maggie pulled him back. He pressed against her, driving his erection deep inside her. Maggie gasped and dug her nails into his back, dragging the nails across the flesh and leaving long red welts. She didn’t seem to be aware of what she had done. David cringed, enjoying the pleasure in the pain. He dove deeper into the pleasure of her flesh, and his movements began to grow more frantic. She wrapped her legs around his, wanting him to release into her. Just when she thought he was about to release and finish, he backed off and slowed into a new rhythm. No other lover had ever brought her to this level of ecstasy. His stamina was maddening. She wanted it to end—needed it to end—but prayed that it would not. It didn’t.

It took David several hours to finally reach his own climax, and with a gasping shuttering heave, David lay still. Maggie tensed as the explosion of an orgasm ripped like white hot fire through the core of her being. She panted, needing water. He pulled out of her and rolled to the side, soaked in sweat and exhausted. They lay silently entwined in each other’s arms, their glistening bodies wrapped into one form. David drifted into sleep first; and Maggie, honored to have been his first, held him tightly until she too glided down, down into blissful exhausted sleep.

David woke first. He slipped away from her quietly, stepped into the shower and let the scalding water wash over him. He didn’t leave the shower until he had scrubbed every inch of himself red and raw. When he stepped out of the bathroom, a wave of steam escorted him into the cooler air of the bedroom. He walked naked over to the dresser and retrieved fresh clothes. He was sitting on the sofa in the spot where they had made love when Maggie woke. They didn’t speak and he didn’t look at her. The sun shone in through the window, heating up the house and causing sweat to break out on their foreheads. David thought he should say something, but didn’t know what.

As she sat in the recliner with her eyes closed, a bead of sweat formed in the hollow of her throat. David was suddenly worried about her. He felt strong feelings for her, and he wanted her to know that, but what he wanted for himself would not bode well for her if she were to fall in love with him. If he got what he wanted—and that was to be a vampire—he would have to leave her behind. She would grow old and die, and he would live on. Also, Antony had told him vampires do not feel love or lust in the same way that humans do. It would not be fair for her if he did not have the same feelings she felt. She would want to satisfy her sexual urges and that wouldn’t be possible with him once he turned. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them to get into a relationship. So he concluded he would not allow it to happen again. For the rest of the day, David could not look Maggie in the eye. He didn’t know what he would see. He was grateful when the sun set and the two vampires in the house rose.

With Maggie’s gift, they began devising a plan to track the murderous vampire. Through his victims, Maggie was able to hone her visions into concrete locations, but they always seemed to arrive too late to do any good. The vampire was able to cover his tracks too well. Maggie couldn’t get an emotional lock on him. There was a moment when she thought she had sensed fear on a street not far from them—a street in Allentown where ladies of the night frequented, but when they arrived there they found nothing. They decided it wasn’t their killer since that wasn’t his modus operandi. He didn’t kill single victims, and besides, there was no corpse. When Maggie felt the same woman’s fear later that night, she felt a pang of regret that they couldn’t help her, but she didn’t bother telling the others. The only consolation she had was that eventually the girl’s killer would cross their path and Antony would dispatch him. Maggie took comfort in that much at least.

“Do you have any ideas?” David asked Maggie.

Maggie looked up from where she was sitting with Randal and shrugged.

“How about you, little man, do you have any ideas?”

Randal looked at him but didn’t respond. David thought as much, but had to ask anyway. He, himself, had nothing either: deadlocked.

“Astral projection,” Maggie said.

“What about it?” David asked.