VA 2 - Blood Jewel (25 page)

I slowly crawled up her body and
kissed every inch on my way back up to her mouth. When we were face
to face again, I lay against her and felt her heart beating against
mine as she pulled her legs up around my waist as she had grown
accustomed to doing since our wedding night.

I stroked her cheek with my fingers
and she turned her face into my palm and kissed it. I leaned down
and softly whispered, “I love you,” against her ear.

She turned her face to mine and
kissed my cheek. “I love you, too. I was so scared last night. I
don’t know what I would do if anything happened to you.”

I felt tears rolling down the side
of her face as I brushed my nose across her temple. “Shh...Don’t
cry. It’s over and I made it out fine,” I whispered.

“I need you, Curry. Now,” she said
as she pulled me closer with her legs and I recognized that
wonderful direct line to all of her emotions as we made love. Her
fear, relief and passion unraveled beneath me and I felt something
new as well. The new sensation was simultaneously beautiful and
frightening, but I couldn’t give it a name because I didn’t know
what it was, but I loved it.”

≈ ≈ ≈

When evening arrived, I knew we had
to formulate a plan to reunite Jenn and Avery, so I went downstairs
to check on Sol and found him in a far more improved state. I
leaned against the wall when I got to the bottom step and said,
“You look much better, not so loathsome. How do you
feel?”

He smiled at me from across the
room in a way I had never seen from him before and he said, “I’m
great. I feel...much less loathsome.”

I heard myself sigh with relief. “I
knew it, Sol. I never doubted your strength and ability to resist
for a minute.”

He leaned forward on the couch with
his palms on his knees. “I knew you didn’t and I appreciate your
faith in me. You had faith in me when I wasn’t sure I had any in
myself.”

“You are the victor over the
temptation and it’s behind you, so let’s talk about the Jenn and
Avery situation. This is a new one for us, so how do we handle
this?”

Sol motioned for me to come sit
with him on the couch. “I have spoken with Jenn and she doesn’t
trust herself with Avery. She refuses to see her sister without me
by her side. She trusts herself with me for some
reason.”

I sat on the opposite end of the
couch and asked, “You have that effect on people whether you know
it or not, but how do you feel about that? Are you ready to see
Avery?”

He nodded confidently. “I’m over
it. I can handle seeing her. In fact, I’m ready to show her how she
doesn’t have control over me.”

I reached over and bumped his arm
with my fist. “Now, that’s what I’m talking about. You ready for me
to bring Avery into the living room?”

“Yeah. Jenn and I will be up in
minute after I reiterate protocol to her.”

I stood from the couch. “Okay.
We’ll meet you there.”

I climbed the stairs two at a time,
ecstatic about Sol’s quick recovery from the effects of Avery’s
blood, and found all of the girls already in the living room. “I
just spoke with Sol. He is bringing Jenn up to see
Avery.”

I heard the sudden acceleration of
Avery’s heart. “Avery, it’s alright. No one will let Jenn hurt
you.”

She laughed sarcastically as she
replied, “It’s not Jenn I’m worried about.”

I tried to reassure her of her
safety. “He doesn’t crave you, Avery.”

She appeared shocked by my words.
“How can that be? None of the others could resist wanting
more.”

“After much thought, I believe Sol
is able to show more restraint because he is older than the young
vampires you encountered at Vincent’s. He is a master of
self-control. It’s his job to teach others how to restrain,” I
explained.

“I mean no disrespect, but I think
I need to see it to believe it,” she replied.

I looked to the door and saw Sol
escorting Jenn through it with a tight grip on her arm. “Here they
are now, so I guess you’ll get the proof you need.”

Avery began walking toward Jenn and
I reached out to stop her. Her eyes darted to me and I said, “No.
You can’t touch her and you must keep your distance for the time
being. No closer than this.”

“Jenn wouldn’t hurt me,” she
explained.

She moved to take another step
toward her sister and I gripped her arm tightly. “Your sister
wouldn’t hurt you, but the vampire transitioning inside of her
would rip out your throat without hesitation.”

Jenn called out from across the
room. “Curry is right. It is for your own protection, so you
shouldn’t come closer. I’m unpredictable.”

“Are you being treated well?”
Avery called across the room.

Jenn smiled and answered, “I’m
being treated very well. They’re helping me sort through
this.”

“I’m sorry,
Jenn,” Avery apologized. “I shouldn’t have asked it of Vincent, but
I couldn’t bear losing you after he killed Mom and Dad. I didn’t
want to be alone,”

“It’s okay, Ave. I wouldn’t have
chosen this for myself, but I’m not angry with you. I understand
why you asked for this.”

I watched the expression on Jenn’s
face change and I recognized it well. “It’s time for Jenn to go,
Sol,” I called across the room as I acted as the barrier to prevent
Jenn from getting to Avery and Chansey behind me.

Jenn struggled to free herself from
Sol so she could charge toward Avery and Chansey, but Sol held a
firm grip and pulled her down the stairwell to the
basement.

Avery stifled her scream with her
hand over her mouth as she stared in disbelief. When Sol and Jenn
were gone, she turned to me. “What have I done to my
sister?”

There was a time when I would have
coldly told Avery that she had condemned her sister to a life of
misery because of her own selfishness, but being with Chansey had
softened me and I restrained. “Don’t worry. We will help her learn
to control it.”

Her tearful golden brown eyes
stared up at me and I couldn’t help but think about how the golden
flecks around her irises reminded me of those in Chansey’s. “Thank
you,” she murmured softly.

“No thanks needed. It’s what The
Coven of Landra does.”

I could still feel Chansey’s fear
and surprise and I was glad she got to see the unpredictability of
a transitioning vampire willing to kill her own sister. Maybe it
would be enough to halt this ridiculous desire of hers to become a
monster.

Sol reappeared at the top of the
stairs. As he bolted the heavy metal door behind him, he spoke to
Avery with his back to her. “Jenn won’t always be like that. She
will be the sister you once knew, but it will take a little
time.”

Avery’s heart had calmed after Sol
and Jenn went down to the basement, but the sudden sound of his
words directed toward her ignited another run of acceleration in
her heart rate.

He turned from the door after
checking it and casually strolled past Avery. “You can calm down.
I’m not going to hurt you. Your blood doesn’t control
me.”

She stared at him and stepped
behind me as he passed. Sol huffed at her gesture and I saw his
sour mood resurface before he sat on the living room
couch.

The tension was thick in the room
and Chansey took a chance on lightening the mood. “Gia and Lairah
will be returning to New Orleans soon. I think we should have
dinner together tonight. I think it would be nice and it will give
Avery the chance to get to know us better.”

“That’s a great idea,” Gia called
out from the back of the house.

“I agree,” Lairah
followed.

Chansey turned to Avery. “Will you
join us?”

She shrugged and timidly answered,
“I...guess so.”

Chansey winked at me and turned to
Solomon, “What about you? Think you can get your panties out of a
wad long enough to join us?”

I heard Gia and Lairah cackling
from the back of the house and one of them yelled out,
“Ooh...Burn!”

Sol narrowed his eyes at Chansey as
he crossed his arms. “Count me in, dear sister.”

21 Expect The Unexpected

When Chansey and Avery finished
cooking dinner, we gathered in the dining room for the first meal
to be shared at the Savannah compound. Solomon and I each sat at an
end of the table. Gia and Lairah sat together on one side and after
Chansey took her place by my side, the only seat remaining was the
one between Sol and Chansey.

Avery grimaced and reluctantly took
her seat next to Sol, but didn’t dare to make eye contact with him
as she looked at everything not in his direction.

“Sebastian always leads the
Sacrament,” Lairah said.

Sol cleared his throat. “I am the
leader here, so I will lead the Sacrament. Let us all join hands,
even those not partaking of the Blood Swan.”

I reached for Chansey’s hand on one
side and Lairah’s on the other, noting the difference in
temperature between the two. I lowered my head in respect although
I would not be partaking from the Blood Swan as Sol said, “We, the
Coven of Landra, give our humblest gratitude in recognition of the
Blood Swan, Julia, for her selfless gift of sustenance.”

Sol, Gia and Lairah voiced in
unison, “Thank you, Julia, for your gift of The Life, which
sustains our existence and gives us strength to do the needed tasks
before us.”

Avery slowly lifted her face and
appeared stunned as she looked at Sol for the first time. He met
her eyes, refusing to lose the stare down. She looked down at his
hand cupped around hers and abruptly jerked it away as though she
had been burned. Sol slowly took his hand from the table where it
remained and said, “Miss Ferrand, I easily recognize your fear and
anxiety around me, but it’s unnecessary. I’m not going to hurt
you.”

She refused to meet his eyes or
answer him, so he reached for his goblet as he scooted his chair
back across the dining room floor. “I should check on
Jenn.”

“Am I sensing a little romance in
the air?” Lairah asked when Sol was gone. “Is that what has him
acting so strange? I mean...stranger than his usual
self.”

Avery squirmed uncomfortably in her
chair. “Definitely not.”

“Oh, no. I meant romance with
Jenn, not you,” Lairah laughed. “That kind of thing doesn’t happen
with vampires and humans, except Agápes, so you don’t have to worry
about Solomon being interested in you. Count it as a
blessing.”

Avery looked down at her plate,
embarrassed by her assumption. “Of course, I wasn’t thinking. Is he
interested in my sister?”

“Who knows with his brooding
ass?”

“Take it easy, Lairah,” I warned.
“He’s had a hard couple of days.”

Gia lounged back in her chair with
her goblet and changed the subject. “Chansey, have you chosen to
follow Jenn’s transition?”

Avery quickly turned to Chansey to
hear her explanation.

Chansey looked at me and then laid
her fork down on her plate before she turned to Avery. “You
understand that Curry and I aren’t...normal, but there is much more
to our complicated story. Eventually, I will die and he won’t, but
I want to become a vampire because I want to be with my husband
forever. This is where we disagree. He wants to keep me human
because he doesn’t want me to become like him. He thinks vampires
are monsters.”

Avery looked around the table for a
reaction from the others and Chansey continued, “I have chosen to
follow Jenn’s transition because observing the transformation of a
new vampire is a prerequisite for Curry to consider turning me. He
thinks he can scare me out of wanting to become a vampire.” She
leaned closer to Avery and whispered, “But, he’s wrong.”

I cringed at her words.

“What’s going to happen to my
sister during this transition?” Avery asked.

Gia and Lairah looked at me to
explain.

I drew a deep breath while I chose
my words carefully. “Life is going to be very unpleasant for Jenn
over the next several weeks. The transitioning process is painful
and frightening, but she must face the difficulty of learning to
control her hunger if she wants to live among humans, which makes
it twice as bad.”

“She is strong. She can do it,”
Avery said.

“I don’t doubt that for a minute.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have made it out of Vincent’s coven,” I
replied.

“When does Chansey begin her
observation?”

I smiled as I thought about Jenn’s
reaction to Avery and Chansey earlier. “Tonight,” I answered and
Chansey swung her head around to look at me.

“Tonight? Why didn’t you tell
me?”

“I assumed you knew we couldn’t
wait. The process is happening rapidly. If we wait, you’ll miss it
and we’ll have to start over with another fledgeling.” When she
didn’t have a response for me, I added, “We’ll go down after
dinner. Gia and Lairah can keep Avery company.”

≈ ≈ ≈