In Darkness We Must Abide: The Complete First Season: Episodes 1-5 (27 page)

“
I’m seventeen!”

“
Yeah, she’s seventeen!” Alisha agreed.

“
How old is this
boy
?” Armando asked in a very neutral tone.

“
Twenty-one,” Vanora answered.

“
Too old,” Roman declared.

“
I agree,” Armando chimed in.

“
You don’t get a vote,” Vanora said darkly to Armando, brushing past him to sit next to her brother again.

Alisha smirked. Her little sister was definitely jabbing at Armando, but Roman was too obtuse to realize it. The frown lines on his face said it all as he glared at the screen of Vanora’s pink digital camera.

“I’ll call Uncle Nicolau about this boy tomorrow.”

“
Oh, God, Roman.” Vanora rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I had sex with him.”

“
Good!”

“
Though if I did, it wouldn’t be any of your business,” Vanora continued.

“
I’m your fa-brother!” Roman glowered.

Vanora giggled. “Will it make you feel better if I said he was a bit of a jerk and I didn’t like him?”

“Yes. If it was the truth.” Roman fretfully studied Vanora’s face.

“
It’s the truth, Roman.” Alisha slung her legs over the armrest of her chair and grinned at him. “Vanora obviously has eyes for someone else.”

Both Vanora and Armando looked at her sharply.

“What’s that boy’s name? The one from school, Vanora?” Needling Armando was almost as much fun as needling her brother.

“
There’s a boy at school?” Armando arched his eyebrows.

Vanora rapidly blinked at Alisha, confused, then caught on. “Oh,
him
.”

“
Much better. Age appropriate. Plus, you’re leaving in December.” Roman irritably looked through the pictures on the camera.

“
There’s a boy at school?” Armando inquired in his oh-so-casual tone.

“
Uh huh,” Vanora lied.

“
Uncle Nicolau let you wear a bikini?” Roman sounded horrified.

“
Have you seen the Speedo he wears to the beach?” Vanora rolled her eyes. “Felicia loaned me that one. That was for the night swim we had on the Fourth of July.”

Roman muttered under his breath. Alisha knew Roman was struggling with the concept of Vanora actually being a young woman. “I want to see it, Roman. Hand it over.”

Roman gave the camera to Armando, who took a second to look at the photo, before passing it on to Alisha. Biting her bottom lip, Alisha tried not to burst out laughing. She could see why Roman didn’t like the photo. The bikini definitely revealed that Vanora was a young woman with a slender frame that was nicely rounded in all the right places.

“
Get me a print of it. I like it. I want it for my photo album.”

Vanora grinned, reclaimed her camera, and playfully stuck out her tongue at her brother. “See, Alisha likes it!”

Armando remained perched on the armrest, arms folded over his chest, eerily still and thoughtful.

“
You’re encouraging her!” Roman protested.

“
She’s seventeen, Roman. Seventeen! I lost my virginity at seventeen!”

“
I didn’t need to know that, Alisha!” Her brother looked completely chagrined.

“
You’re just lucky she hasn’t been into dating before. She’s gorgeous and soon a lot of young
men
are going to start noticing. If they haven’t already.” Alisha met her brother’s glare defiantly.

Armando didn’t move a muscle.

“I should tie you up and keep you in the attic,” Roman grumbled, but he nudged Vanora with his arm affectionately.

“
One day I might even have…dum dum dum…a boyfriend!” Vanora laughed at her brother’s discomfort.

“
I’ll eat him,” Roman decided. “That’s what I’ll do. I’m a vampire. I’ll eat him.”

“
Yeah, go all Dracula on him. Uncle Nicolau says we’re related to him anyway.” Vanora snuggled into her brother’s side. She looked child-like next to him and the sight tugged on Alisha’s heart strings.

“
By marriage. Not direct descendants.” Roman looked peeved. “Nicolau loves to throw that little bit of family history around.”

“
Was Dracula really a vampire?” Vanora asked Armando pointedly. “Did you know him?”

“No.
He was mortal and the Turks killed him.” Armando shrugged slightly. “Bram Stoker didn’t actually base his vampire on Vlad Tepes originally. It was a last minute change before publication. Or so I heard.”

“
Was Stoker a vampire?” Vanora poked Armando.

“
No, no. He was not.” Armando seemed amused by the line of questioning. “Now another ancestor of yours
was
a vampire.”

“
Don’t bring up Elizabeth Bathory,” Roman growled. “We’re related to her by marriage as well. Not a direct descendent.”

“
And she’s dead. The hunters killed her long ago,” Armando said, shrugging.

“
Uncle Nicolau says our family could claim the Romanian and the Hungarian crown if we wanted to.” Vanora yawned, looking very bleary-eyed, but was obviously having fun riling her brother.

“
There are several families that could,” Roman said dismissively. “Our family decided it was best to keep a low profile. Far too much conflict.”

“
Is that why your family changed its name?” Armando asked.

That perked up both Alisha and Vanora.

“Our family name changed?” Alisha gave Roman a questioning look. “Really?”

Roman sighed, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “Yes. A very long time ago. And no, it wasn’t Dracula. We’re related to Matthias the First, a Hungarian king. His sister married Vlad Tepes. Later our branch married into a Wallachian family and altered the name. It’s a bit of a soap opera.”

“So what was our original name?” Vanora appeared as keenly interested as Alisha. On the Welsh side of their family they were descended from farmers who happened to have the sixth sense. Their Romanian side was wealthy, aristocratic and shrouded in a bit of mystery.

“
Corvinus,” Armando said to Vanora. “Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. He pushed back the Ottoman Empire invasion of Eastern Europe. Not a history to disrespect.”

Roman shrugged. “The past is the past. It has nothing to do with the present. Besides, our family is descended from the wrong side of the bed, so we were denied the throne after Matthias died. Our family was thought to become extinct, but we are descended from a secret child that was hidden away.”

Alisha liked the sound of that. “Oh, scandalous!”

“
Very.” Roman smirked. “But there’s a reason we never claimed our legacy. Nicolau loves to talk about it, but I respect the decision our family made to keep ourselves apart from the political intrigues.”

“
Though it does explain why you’re a natural leader,” Armando said teasingly.

Roman waved his hand dismissively.  “I’m no prince, but Vanora is my princess.”

“Your sleepy princess,” Armando pointed out.

Vanora’s white lashes fluttered as she fought to stay awake. “Do I get a tiara?”

Alisha climbed out of her chair and reached for her sister. “C’mon. Time for you to go to bed. You’re not on vampire time.”

Vanora groaned, but held out her hand to Alisha.

Tugging her sister to her feet, Alisha snuggled her. “So good to have you home.”

“
I’m glad to be home. I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed!”

Roman stood and hugged his sister, kissing her on both cheeks. Alisha felt a pang of sorrow at the sight. Roman had seemed even more lost than she had in Vanora’s absence. Alisha couldn’t imagine how he’d react to Vanora permanently moving out of their home and lives to establish her own home and life.

Alisha scooted her sister past the pensive Armando and winked at him. His reaction was priceless. He looked flustered.

“
After I get Snow Pea to bed, I’ll be back down.”

The sisters trudged up the stairs to Vanora’s room. Roman and Armando had carried Vanora’s things up earlier, but her younger sister ignored the prospect of unpacking and fell face first onto the bed.

“So tired,” Vanora’s muffled voice said.

“
Too tired to tell me what’s up with Armando?” Alisha asked coyly.

Vanora’s head snapped up. “Uh, what?”

“Don’t play innocent with me. You’re both acting really weird.”

 
Rolling onto her back, Vanora let out a long, exaggerated breath.

“
So? Spill it, Snow Pea.”

“
You know I have a crush on him. I’ve had it forever.”

“
Yeah, but tonight’s the first time I realized it might be going both ways. It must be a new development because Armando never acted this way before.” Alisha sat on the edge of the bed and leaned toward her sister. She was a little unnerved by the idea of Armando, a dear friend, actually having interest in her sister, but tonight Alisha had realized what maybe Armando already had noticed: the truth. Vanora was a young woman now.

“
You think so?” Vanora sat up, her purple eyes wide with surprise. “Really?”

“
Yeah, but he’s like four hundred years old.”

“
He was changed when he was twenty-two.” Vanora’s tone was slightly defensive, but also had an edge of defeat to it.

Alisha gently combed her fingers through Vanora’s hair and gave her sister a small smile. “I have no idea how age affects vampires. I’m forever twenty-two, too. I’m supposed to be dreading my thirtieth birthday this year. Yet, here I am frozen in time.”

“Do you feel different? Like older inside?”

“
Yes and no. I mean, I have seven more years of life experience under my belt, but I…” Alisha faltered. It was hard to describe, but in some ways she felt unchanged despite everything that had happened. The woman she had been when she had died was the woman she still was. “I’m the same, but I’m not. I can’t explain it. But in four hundred years, will I still be who I am tonight? I don’t know.”

Vanora sighed and rolled onto her side. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Armando is not for me. I’m not for him.” She plucked at the silver bracelet that rarely left her wrist since her birthday. Vanora had claimed a school friend had given it to her, but now Alisha knew better. Armando had given it to her sister.

“Who said that? Armando?”

Vanora gave a curt nod of her chin.

Alisha lay beside Vanora so she could see her face better. The sadness etched in her sister’s features said it all. “He’s right, you know. You’re going to go to UT, you'll have a fabulous career, get married, have kids, all that wonderful normal human stuff.  You get to have everything Roman and I won’t. Armando is right. Your forever is out there somewhere.”

Vanora visibly winced.

A startling shiver of ice slid through Alisha and she frowned slightly. Her words had felt somehow prophetic, yet cruel. “That’s a good thing, Vanora.”

“
I know. But it’s hard to tell my heart that. This feels worse than any old crush. Like an ache inside of me that just hurts whenever I’m around him.”

“
You two haven’t…”

Vanora pretended to pull something out of her jean pocket and hand it to Alisha. “V-Card intact.”

“Has he, you know, given you any indication of being romantically interested in you?”

Plucking at her lips, Vanora stared at her canopy before finally lifting one shoulder. “I don’t know.”

“The bracelet…” Alisha faltered when she realized how close her sister was to tears.

“
It doesn’t matter, Alisha,” Vanora said at last. “It doesn’t matter because I’m leaving in December and doing all that stuff you said. I already feel guilty about leaving you and Roman as it is. I don’t need this…” She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. Seriously. Armando made it very clear that we’re nothing more than friends.”

“
So I don’t need to talk to him?”

“
Oh my God! I would kill you!”

Alisha grimaced. “Okay. Sheesh. Back off, homicidal sister!”

Vanora covered her face with her hands. “Just let it go. Let it be. That’s what I’m doing. Besides, now Armando thinks there’s a boy at school who’s into me. He’s probably relieved to have shucked me off.”

Alisha considered telling Vanora that she seriously doubted that. She had sensed great discomfort within Armando throughout the conversation earlier. Plus, she had seen his face when he had seen the picture of Vanora looking very much like a sexy young woman. Yet, if she told her sister her suspicions, it would probably make things worse for her. It was best if Vanora wrote off Armando just as Alisha had written off Sin. Even if it hurt like hell.