The Caretaker of Showman's Hill (Vampire Romance) (7 page)

Chapter 9

Cassie's scream brought Basil back into his right mind. What the hell was he doing? He looked at her body, limp in his hold, his hand tightly covering her mouth, and his heart raced. What had he done? He didn't see his puncture wounds on her neck, but still the girl looked like she was dead.

A hoard of memories flooded his mind. This whole situation was just too familiar. It was his own damned fault. He'd taken a swig from that blasted bottle and knew he was going to end up doing something he'd regret. Just like he'd done before.

His acute hearing made out Antonio and the boys running up the basement stairs. They had to have heard Cassie's scream. He didn't want anyone to know about this until he was sure she was all right. He never should have challenged her to follow him up into the attic.

He pressed his hand to her neck and could feel her pulse. Then, to his relief he realized she was still breathing. He hadn’t killed her after all.

He raked his hand through his hair wondering how to avoid the others. He had to get Cassie out of there. If the others saw what he'd just done, he'd never be able to escape the accusations of the past. One more mess up was all he needed before he'd have his caretaker rights taken from him. He was already on probation so to speak, and this wasn't going to look good.

He threw Cassie over his shoulder and stuck one leg out the window. Vines climbed up the side of the old Victorian house all the way up to the roof. He grabbed on with one hand and in lightning speed lowered himself and Cassie to the ground, hoping none of the Bat House's customers would see him as they approached.

Business hours were starting. La Roux should have the girls ready by now, and Andre should be in full swing getting the bar ready for a busy night.

Just as his foot hit the ground, someone emerged from the driveway.

"Basil?" came a voice in the dark. "Is that you?"

Basil recognized the voice as Jack's. Thank goodness Jack's eyesight wasn't that of a vampire's.

"It's me, Jack. Go on inside. I'll talk to you later."

As Jack disappeared, Basil was sure he saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye. He sniffed the air, but he was upwind of whomever it might have been. Cassie still hadn’t moved, and Basil actually found himself getting worried. Another emotion he wasn’t used to.

He took her to the only place he knew everyone would leave him alone. He turned and ran up the hill to the cemetery. He was breaking his own rule, but he had no choice. He was taking Cassie into his home.

With a touch of his hand the padlock to his mausoleum fell away. He threw open the grate and then the wooden door behind it. It was pitch black inside but vampires didn't need light to see. His eyesight as well as his hearing and sense of smell was a hundred times better than a human's.

With a kick of his foot he managed to hit the lever that opened his vaulted bed. It sprang out from the wall, and he laid Cassie down into the pillows gently. She stirred once and mumbled something he couldn't quite make out. He flipped open his personal bar, and poured himself a good stiff drink. His hands were shaking and his fangs as well as his manhood were still engorged. He took a sip of brandy but it did nothing to calm him. He hadn’t felt emotions like this since the last time he’d sipped from the bottle. Only this time, they were much stronger. He paced back and forth, not knowing what to do.

If only she hadn't said to go ahead and do it. It was her permission to bite her neck that had put him in a frenzy. He could just taste the sweet nectar that ran through her veins. She had the blood of a virgin. The kind of blood a vampire would die for so to speak. Sweet as honey and twice as satisfying.

The liquor was doing nothing for him. His hand reached for the bottle with the blue cork. He knew how satisfying that liquid would be. No. He wouldn’t let himself do it. He was supposed to guard that bottle with his life. If only he had a life to give for it. At this very moment he wished he was dead, what a comfort that would be.

His fingers closed around the neck chain hanging inside his shirt. He pulled it out and looked at the charm. When his mother had given it to him nearly two centuries ago, he had no idea he'd have to take the meaning literally. The Egyptian cross with the rounded top was the symbol for eternal life. It was a symbol now he wished he'd never laid eyes on.

"Where am I?" Cassie's sweet voice filled the small room.

"You're safe," he answered and poured himself a small amount of the blood La Roux had given him the night before. He swallowed it down and his fangs immediately retracted. His other engorgement didn't seem to change any.

"Basil?" she asked. "I can't see a thing. What happened?"

"You fainted." He put down the glass and came and sat on the foot of his bed.

He watched the thoughts flash through her mind as she recalled the incident in the attic. She feared him now. Her body stiffened, and he felt the racing of her heart as the quickening pace drummed in his ears. He knew he'd have to explain things before she screamed or fainted again.

"You followed me up to the attic to watch me feed my vampire bats."

"Vampire bats?"

"They're my pets." He hoped she'd buy the explanation. After all, it wasn't really an all out lie. He felt her heart slow, but just a little.

"Strange choice for a pet."

"I'm a strange kind of . . . person." He had wanted to say man but he knew it would be far from the truth. Someone like Cassie didn't deserve lies.

"What kind of a place is this and how did I get here?"

"It's my home. I brought you here when you fainted."

"Oh."

He read the thought in her head that they were alone. She was confused and scared, but at the same time she liked it. Even after the attic incident, she still felt trust toward him for saving her in the cemetery from Antonio.

"Can't you turn on a light or something?" she asked. "I can't see a thing."

"I don't have any lights. And there's nothing to see. You're in my bed and the house is really tiny."

Being in his bed had her mind racing to ideas that only made matters worse for Basil. He stood up and blocked her thoughts from his mind. "Get some sleep, Cassie. You've had a long day."

"I need to talk to you about some things first," she said.

"I'm sure it's nothing that can't wait until tomorrow."

"I'm trying to track down . . ."

"Shhhh." He held his finger against her lips and used his mind powers to make her sleepy. "We'll have plenty of time to talk later."

"First thing in the morning?" she asked with a yawn.

"Later," was all he said.

She smiled tenderly before falling off to sleep.

Basil sprang from the bed and paced the floor of his small quarters. He had to get out of there before he did something else he'd regret. This woman was trouble. And that kind of trouble he could do without.

He closed his liquor cabinet and was about to close up his bed when he remembered Cassie was human. She needed air, unlike when he closed himself in for the night. He left the bed open and went out the door, padlocking her in for her own safety.

He headed off to the Bat House to try to make his explanations.

Throwing open the door, he expected to find Antonio, Louie and Sefu waiting to rifle him with questions. Instead, he found the three of them at the table leaning over the open half gallon of strawberry ice cream.

Louie and Sefu were finishing it off, Antonio was staring at them with a look of disgust upon his face.

"What's this?" asked Basil slamming the kitchen door.

"It's called ice cream," answered Louie. Sefu nodded his head and pointed to the picture of the strawberry on the carton.

"Oh, yeah," added Louie. "Sefu says to tell you it's strawberry."

"You idiots! I know what it is. I meant, what are you doing?" Actually, it had been a long time since Basil had food, and if Cassie hadn't told him what it was he wouldn't have remembered. Still, he didn't need to tell the boys that.

"They're eating the cursed stuff, dear cousin." Antonio spat the words in disgust.

Basil looked at Sefu and Louie licking their lips from the ice cream and it brought back a flood of memories. It'd been so many years, that he'd stopped thinking of the boys as brothers long ago. Only when Antonio called him cousin did it trigger off the sentimental memories. Sentiments were something vampires learned to live without. All vampires were basically one family. Only these two were his blood brothers in a related way.

"You two look like you've raided the butter churn. What's gotten into you? You're eating human food now?"

"It's good," remarked Louie. "Tastes a little like blood . . . but sweeter."

Sefu nodded in agreement.

Antonio grabbed the empty carton and threw it across the room. "You two are sick! Start acting like you should. In our profession there's no in between. You either suck blood or you leave the family."

"Take it easy, Antonio." Louie walked up alongside Basil. "After all, our big brother has been eating that human soup for years now."

"If it was up to me," Antonio growled, "I'd have done something about it by now."

Sefu waved his arms and Louie translated.

"He's the caretaker, Antonio. He takes orders from no one except the guardians."

"Enough of this." Basil put his hand out and touched Louie's shoulder. "Do you feel alright after eating that?"

"Just fine," answered Louie.

"And you, Sefu?"

Sefu nodded.

"Something strange is happening to us," remarked Antonio.

"It's been happening for a long time now," said Basil. This worried him as well.

"What is it, Basil?" Louie looked bewildered. "Are we turning . . . human or something?"

"I'll explain everything I know," said Basil. "Tell the rest of the vampires we're having a meeting tomorrow just before dawn. Right after the business closes for the night."

"What about that snoopy reporter girl?" asked Antonio.

"Don't worry, I'll handle her."

"Like you did tonight, cousin? Where is she anyway?" Antonio looked around the room.

Basil felt relieved that vampires could only read human minds and not the minds of each other. Like hell if he'd tell them where he hid her.

"You keep away from her, Antonio. I'm warning you. I'm warning all of you to keep your hands and fangs off that girl. She’s mine."

Chapter 10

Cassie wasn't surprised to wake up in her sleeping bag in La Roux's room. Somehow she knew Basil wasn't going to let her spend the night at his house. He must have carried her to La Roux's room while she slept.

Never had she been a sound sleeper, but lately, she almost seemed to get tired on command. Hmm. An interesting thought. She wondered if Basil had some sort of trancelike powers. After all, the man was able to read her mind. She'd have to be careful around him from now on.

She dressed without waking La Roux and slipped from the room. Nobody was anywhere to be seen in the house and somehow that didn't surprise her. She figured she'd use this time to snoop around a little. After breakfast she planned on driving to town and asking around if anyone had seen her sister. After that, she planned on slipping back to the cemetery and checking out that strange little mausoleum that she'd seen the first night she visited the place. Hopefully she'd pick up something that might prove any truth to the vampire myth. She still didn't believe vampires existed, but after last night she was beginning to doubt herself. She especially doubted her sanity for following Basil into the attic, and then wanting to give herself to him completely.

The thought still flitted in her mind that he may be a sex-starved murderer. Then she realized if he had been just that, he would have done his deeds when he took her to his abode. No, her heart told her he was a good man. Odd, but still trustworthy. After all, he had saved her from Antonio.

She walked down the steps and noticed the sunlight streaming into the windows of the front room that was used as the bar. So, Basil didn't hate her as much as she thought. He'd left the windows uncovered. She smiled and headed off toward the kitchen.

The kitchen still had last night's dinner remnants sitting on the plates, and Cassie noticed the half gallon of ice cream was empty and lying in the middle of the floor.

"Wow. La Roux must have really liked it." She picked up the garbage, thinking the girl wasn’t very tidy.

She reached inside the fridge for a yogurt. Her hand brushed against a jar of blood and she pulled it back and slammed the door close.

"Forget the yogurt. I've just lost my appetite."

She toyed with the idea of heading up to the attic, but after last night, couldn't bring herself to do it. If there really were vampire bats up there, she wanted nothing to do with them. She grabbed the dirty dishes off the table and started to clean up the place. It was Sunday and the people in town probably wouldn't be doing much until about noon anyway. She had noticed a fabric store near the hotel and hoped they'd be open. There was a cute daisy print in the window and she could really see it as curtains for the kitchen.

She'd just finished cleaning up the kitchen and was heading for the front room when she heard footsteps from upstairs. She pushed open the swinging door and grabbed a rag, wiping off the bar as she waited for whoever it was to come downstairs.

"Good morning, Cassie." La Roux came bouncing down the steps with a smile on her face.

"Well, you're looking better today."

"I feel much better thanks to you. I got up early to clean up the kitchen."

"Already done." Cassie gathered some of the empty beer mugs and loaded them onto a tray.

"Let me help you with that." La Roux started to gather up glasses as well.

"La Roux, there are some things I just don't understand around here."

"Oh?" Cassie sensed her hesitancy. "Like what?"

"Do you have a moment?" Cassie pointed to one of the tables. La Roux smiled uncomfortably and followed her to sit down. "I'm new to this town and I don't quite understand what goes on here at the Bat House. Maybe you can tell me."

"Maybe you should ask Basil."

"I don't see him long enough to ask him anything. And when I do see him he's usually in a huff about something. I'm asking you La Roux. Is there some reason you don't want to tell me?"

"No. I just . . . just don't know how to explain it, that's all."

Cassie could see she wasn't going to get answers out of the girl and figured she'd try a different approach.

"Are you ashamed of what you do?"

Her eyes shot up. "No. Of course not."

"Is your job the same as the other three girl's that I saw here the past two nights?"

"Oh, no. Not at all."

Strike that idea. Getting La Roux to say anything was like trying to squeeze water from a stone. She'd have to find things out on her own.

"I'm looking for my sister who left home three years ago." She pulled a photo from her back pocket. "I only got one letter from her the entire time she was gone. It was postmarked from this little town."

Cassie held the photo out for La Roux to see. The girl's face went pale and Cassie thought she was about to faint.

"Her name is Didi. Do you know her or maybe happened to see her around town?"

La Roux looked the other way. "I . . .I can't be sure. She looks like a lot of the women I've seen around here. You may want to ask Basil."

Basil again. Did the man own her or just frighten the hell out of her that she referred all the questions back to him?

"You and Basil seem to be pretty close." She slid the photo into her back pocket.

La Roux smiled and nodded her head.

"Are you his lover?"

Her eyes widened and she jumped from the chair. "No. It's nothing like that at all. Cassie, if you don't mind I think I'll go lie down for a while. I'm not feeling quite well." She headed for the stairs, and Cassie felt a little guilty for having changed the girl’s mood so quickly.

"So how'd you like the ice cream?" she called after her. "I can pick up some more if you'd like."

"Don't bother, Cassie," she called back. "I haven't had a chance to eat any of the ice cream you picked up yesterday yet."

Cassie wondered who ate the ice cream if it wasn’t La Roux. She glanced at the clock on the wall noticing it was later than she thought. She threw down the rag on the table. If she left now she'd get into town just as church was letting out. With any luck at all she'd find someone who'd seen her sister.