Vampires and Vixens (Psy-Vamp) (11 page)

How could Lydia think such a thing? She
and Noah were friends, nothing more.

Finally, Hannah headed toward her
bedroom. Her shoe hit a small button and it slid across the hardwood floor. It
was strange to find a button that looked like it belonged to a man’s shirt, but
she assumed it must belong to Nathaniel or Noah. She placed the button on the
end table and went to bed.

As Nathaniel and Noah neared the end of
their run, they both picked up their pace. Nathaniel looked over at Noah and
grinned. They had been doing this since they were kids. It was never a race
until the last stretch of the run. Then it became a contact sport. He swerved
toward Noah, leaning in with his shoulder.

Noah dodged it with a laugh, and then
ducked under to slam his head into Nathaniel’s mid-section. They both
went down into the grass, but Noah quickly rolled to his feet and took off at
full speed.

It didn’t take Nathaniel long to make it
to his feet and take off after him, but he wasn’t sure he would catch up.

Noah hit the steps of the veranda and
turned to gloat. “What’s wrong? Are you getting too old to keep up with me?”

Nathaniel pointed an accusing finger. “You
cheated!”

“Ha! You know the rules of the game.”

Nathaniel nodded. “There are no rules.”

“Got that right, big brother,” Noah said
as he started to stretch.

Nathaniel began to stretch too and then
casually asked. “So how was your date with the lovely Trish?” He couldn’t
resist teasing Noah.

Noah stopped stretching. “You knew that
was a set up?” he asked accusingly.

“Are you trying to tell me that you
didn’t know it was a set up?”

“I knew it was,” Noah admitted, “but I
didn’t want to hurt Hannah’s feelings.”

Nathaniel slapped him on the back. “You’re
a good friend to her. So how did it go? I called Hannah yesterday to ask about
it, but she wouldn’t tell me. She just kept mumbling something about breasts.”

Noah laughed at that memory. “I have to
admit that it was entertaining, but I felt a little bad for Trish afterwards. I
probably should have said no.”

“What happened?” Nathaniel was more than
a little curious.

“If Hannah wants you to know, she’ll
tell you,” Noah replied. “So how are things going between the two of you?”

“Great!” Nathaniel’s smile turned
wistful. “I met her for lunch last week, and got to watch her at the daycare
for a little while before her break. She is going to be an incredible mother.”

“She’s more than a brood mare,” Noah
practically snapped at him.

Nathaniel was taken aback by his tone. “I’m
aware of that. Do you really think I’m only interested in Hannah because she
can give me children?”

Noah felt bad for putting it that way.
He knew that he was letting his feelings for Hannah make him suspicious of his
own brother. Nathaniel was several years older than him, but they had always
been close. They told each other everything, well almost everything. His
brother was a good man, and he felt like a jackass for insinuating otherwise. “I’m
sorry. That was a completely fucked up thing for me to say.”

“It’s okay,” Nathaniel said with a wave
of his hand. “I shouldn’t have jumped down your throat. I did make it sound
that way. Hannah is perfect for me. She understands the world I live in and
likes so many of the same things.”

Noah had seen them together and they did
seem happy.

“Are you feeling okay?” Nathaniel seemed
concerned. It was then that Noah realized he’d been silent too long.

“I just got a little lost in thought,”
Noah said. “Have you talked to her about what we are yet?”

They both headed into the kitchen
through the veranda doors.

Nathaniel shook his head. “We did have
an interesting conversation after she went to see that new vampire romance
movie with Trish and Caitlin.”

Noah grinned. “That must have been
entertaining. Was she feeling amorously inclined for the undead hero in the
movie?”

Nathaniel frowned. “She didn’t find the
idea of vampires romantic at all. She wasn’t impressed, and couldn’t figure out
why any woman would find a monster sexy. It was not very encouraging.”

“We aren’t anything like what they
portray in those movies. Why would you care how she feels about them? The guy
in that movie was dead, and I can see why she might be turned off by the whole
necrophilia thing.”

“I’m still worried that when I tell her
she’ll freak out,” Nathaniel admitted.

Noah put a hand on his brother’s
shoulder. “You know as well as I do that Hannah isn’t the sort to just freak
out. I’m not saying you need to tell her now, but you know that you need to
tell her before things get too far.”

Nathaniel didn’t answer for a long time.

“You have to tell her at some point,”
Noah continued, “and you’d better do it before you do anything that could get
her pregnant.”

Nathaniel’s expression became thoughtful.
“It would make things easier to explain if she was already one of us. Then she
wouldn’t be so afraid.”

Noah was so shocked that he couldn’t
even speak.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Nathaniel said
defensively. “I didn’t say I was going to try to get her pregnant. I just said
it would make it easier if she was pregnant.”

Noah relaxed some, but still warned. “Keep
your pants zipped until you tell her. Despite what you might think, pregnant
women are not the most reasonable creatures. She might freak out if you tell
her then.”

Nathaniel nodded. “I need to ask you
about something.” He looked a little uncomfortable.

Noah took a bottle of juice out of the
refrigerator while Nathaniel grabbed two glasses and the pill bottle off of the
counter.

“I thought we already had the talk,”
Noah teased. “I guess I can go through this with you again. It’s only natural
for a man to have certain urges when he’s around an attractive woman. My advice
is to take a cold shower until you’ve talked to Hannah about what you really
are.”

“Are you done mocking me?”

Noah pretended to give the matter a lot
of thought. “I’m done for now.”

Nathaniel stared down at his juice glass
uncomfortably. “I know this isn’t something you want to discuss, but I just
don’t feel comfortable asking anyone else.”

Noah waited.

“I need to feed,” he finally admitted. “I’m
starting to notice the hunger too much when I’m with Hannah. I know you think
less of me because of this, but I need advice and I don’t know who else to
ask.”

Noah put a hand on his brother’s
shoulder. “I don’t think less of you. Why would you think that?”

“You stopped taking energy from humans,
and you think it’s wrong.”

“No, I think it’s wrong for me.” Noah
felt bad that his brother had thought he felt somehow superior because of his
decision. “If you need energy then why not just find a host and take it?”

“That usually involves a trip to a club,
dancing with a woman who finds me attractive, and occasionally a little fooling
around. If Hannah found out about that she’d probably leave me.”

Noah was a little annoyed to realize
that getting caught was at the top of his brother’s list of reasons why he
shouldn’t pick up a woman at bar.

His annoyance faded when Nathaniel added.
“Of course I wouldn’t fool around with the woman now that I’m with Hannah, but
she wouldn’t be happy about me going to a club to meet a woman anyway.”

Noah saw his dilemma. Once Hannah knew
what Nathaniel was he could explain it to her and they could find a solution
that worked for them both. “You’re going to tell her soon?”

“Yes,’ Nathaniel assured him, “but I
need to find a solution now.”

“How about using me?”

“Using you for what?” Nathaniel asked.

“Your host,” Noah clarified. “Just this
one time. You won’t need to feed again for at least three months, and by then
you had better have told Hannah or I might just do it for you.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “No, that is
not an option. It’s bad enough that I see you aging now. I can’t stand the idea
of making it worse.”

“It’s one time, and you know it won’t
cause any lasting damage. Just let me shower and finish grading some tests
first. Come by my place in a couple of hours.”

Nathaniel looked miserable over the
idea, but he nodded. “Thanks Noah. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Noah turned around and gave him a
teasing grin. “Just so you know up front, I am not fooling around with you.”

The last thing Hannah wanted to deal
with today was a long walk from her car to the condo. Lydia used their single
car garage which left Hannah looking for an empty guest parking space every
day. Most days it wasn’t a problem but on Fridays, like this one, there were
few guest spaces left. A woman shouldn’t have to walk this far on her birthday.
She knew that she shouldn’t be feeling sorry for herself, since it had been a
pretty good birthday. Okay, so her parents hadn’t called, her boyfriend hadn’t
called, and her friends hadn’t called. Her coworkers had given her a very nice
card, and a cupcake. She was sure the cupcake was delicious, but she hadn’t
felt much like eating it after an overzealous toddler had helped her blow out
the candle. It had never occurred to her that one child could get a cupcake
quite that wet.

As she approached the stairs she looked
behind her at the flock of wild turkeys that were trailing her. “I don’t think
you should come up there,” she warned the turkeys. “The cats may not react
well, and I’m sure Lydia won’t be pleased.” Her entourage dispersed and she
walked up the stairs.

Lydia was waiting on the front porch. “Finally!”
she almost shouted.

“Sorry,” Hannah said as she fished out
her keys. “I had one heck of a time finding a parking space tonight. I still
can’t believe you lost your keys.”

“I’m just glad you answered my call, and
came home. I was worried that you might have a date with Mr. Perfect tonight.”
As usual, Lydia sneered when she referred to Nathaniel.

“He had some big plans with Noah.” Try
as she might, Hannah couldn’t disguise the disappointment in her voice. She
should be used to people forgetting her birthday. It had been happening most of
her life, but she’d expected this year to be different. This was her new life.
People in her new life were supposed to remember her birthday.

She turned the key in the door, pushed
it open, and jumped back when the lights came on. A room full of people
shouted, “Surprise!”

With one hand over her heart and her
eyes wide with shock, Hannah looked around at the little crowd in her living
room. Nathaniel and Noah were both grinning like idiots. Trish and Caitlin were
also there, along with Nathaniel’s cousins Justin, Isaiah, and Drew.
Thankfully, Dominic was absent. Lydia had just started to perk up, and seeing
him seemed like a bad idea. Two of the ladies that worked at the daycare were
also there. The room was fully decorated in pink and white party decorations.
There were balloons, streamers, and signs.

Hannah looked at Lydia. “You threw me a
surprise party?”

“Duh!” was Lydia’s response.

Nathaniel reached out a hand. When she
took it he pulled her into his arms, and kissed her forehead. “Did you think we
would forget your birthday?”

“No, of course not. Well, maybe I did,
but the day was almost over and no one had said anything.”

“We wouldn’t do that to you,” Lydia said.
“We just knew how much you wanted someone to throw you a surprise party.”

“How did you know that? I always tell
you that I hate them.”

“We watch television together,” Noah
explained. “How could I not realize that you wanted a surprise party?”

She looked confused. “What does that
have to do with anything?”

“Whenever we see a show with a surprise
party, you make that cute little sound.” He looked at Nathaniel. “You know the
sound? She makes it when she sees a baby or a puppy.”

Nathaniel hugged her closer. “I love it
when she makes that sound.”

Lydia made a gagging gesture. “That
sound always makes me want to puke, but go on with the story, Noah.”

“Well,” he continued, “after you make
that cute little sound, you usually comment on how lucky the person is to have
such good friends. So we decided to show you how lucky you are.”

“I can’t believe you went to all of this
trouble for me.” Her eyes were still wide with excitement.

“Getting Nathaniel to pretend he’d
forgotten your birthday was the hard part.” Noah added, and then he reached in
his pocket and pulled out a phone. “Here’s your phone back.”

Nathaniel took it and put it in his
pocket. “It was
really
hard trying to keep this secret.”

Hannah touched Nathaniel’s cheek, and
pulled his head down to kiss him. “You did a good job.”

Lydia grabbed Noah’s arm. “Let’s give
the lovers a little private petting time.”

“Maybe you should take him back to your
room after the party.” Trish teased. “Then he can give you something really
memorable for your birthday.”

Hannah buried her face in Nathaniel’s
chest. She needed to stop complaining to Trish about the sex she wasn’t
getting.

Drew put his arm around Trish, and
looked down at her. “I’d like to go back to your room sometime. I could give
you the best memory of your life.”

Trish pushed his arm off, and shook her
head. “Keep dreaming lover boy.” Then she walked off with Caitlin.

“I love a girl who plays hard to get,”
Drew said quietly as he leaned toward Noah. “The thrill of the hunt is a major
turn on. Don’t you agree, Noah?” He tapped Noah on the cheek, and followed
Trish.

Noah’s fists were clenched tightly at
his sides. Hannah knew that Noah didn’t like Drew. She had to admit that Drew
wasn’t her favorite person either, but Noah seemed to really hate him.

“I’ll give the two of you some space.”
Noah turned, and surveyed the room before walking toward the door leading to
the kitchen.

When Noah walked into the kitchen, he
found Trish seated on the counter, with Drew in front of her, holding both of
her hands. Trish liked to flirt, liked the attention, liked the game, but this
was a game with rules that she couldn’t possibly understand.

“You should come by the house,” Drew
suggested as he leaned into her. Noah saw the look of confusion in Trish’s
eyes. Drew was still young and not very skilled at using mind control. She
obviously felt the push. It wasn’t enough to make her agree, but strong enough
to take away some of her initial resistance.

“And what would we do?” she asked
flirtatiously.

He leaned in closer. “We could relax in
the hot tub, drink champagne.” Then he gave another mental push. “That would be
fun for you.”

“That would be fun,” she whispered
seductively, leaning closer until their lips almost touched.

“Baby, I’ll make it
very
fun.” He
ran his tongue across his lower lip. “Did I tell you how tasty you look in that
dress?”

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything
here,” Noah said casually. “I’d hate to ruin your plans for the evening, Drew.”

Drew dropped his head and smiled as he
stared down at Trish’s breasts. “Did you come in to watch us, Noah? I never
took you for the kinky type.”

“I just wanted to have a word with you,”
he replied forcefully, “in private.” His gaze never left Drew as he moved
closer.

“Sorry, Noah, but I’m in the middle of
something important at the moment,” Drew replied, as he leaned in closer to
Trish.

“Sorry to hear that, but this isn’t a
request.” Noah’s voice was cold, and he took another step forward.

“I’ll talk to you later.” Trish said as
she kissed Drew softly on the mouth, and climbed off of the counter. On her way
out of the kitchen she smiled at Noah. When he reached out his hand, she took
it without hesitation.

Noah leaned in close and spoke softly as
he pushed the compulsion into her mind. “You should stay away from Drew. He’s
not right for you, and you don’t really like him.” It didn’t matter that he was
out of practice; he was still much more skilled than Drew.

Trish continued to stare at him for a
long moment, her lips parted, her eyes wide, and then she finally nodded and
left the room.

Drew continued to stare at the empty
space on the counter where Trish had been sitting. “What the fuck do you want?”
He spun around to face Noah.

“Stay the hell away from Hannah’s
friends.” Noah made no effort to mask the anger in his voice. He moved forward
to stand toe to toe with Drew.

“Or what, Noah?” Drew scoffed.

“Or you will be very sorry,” Noah said
softly, and then turned to leave.

Justin walked into the room, delighted
by the tension. “What’s going on in here?”

“Noah was just pretending that he isn’t
one of us, again.” Drew sneered, moving up behind Noah slowly. “He doesn’t want
me to feed on sweet little Hannah's friend.”

Without warning, Noah spun around and
shoved Drew against the counter, holding him by the throat. His arm was pulled
back, ready to strike. With great effort, he stopped, and moved back.

Justin chuckled. “See Noah, you still
have that killer instinct. Someday, it’s gonna overcome you, and you’ll embrace
the lifestyle that you were born to live. It’ll be just like the old days.”

Noah didn’t turn to face him. He looked
down at the floor, trying to get his temper under control.

“You can’t deny who you are forever,
Noah.” Drew taunted from directly behind him. “You’re a predator just like us.
I saw the look in your eyes, you wanted to kill me.”

Noah turned slowly. “What can I say,
Andrew, to know you is to hate you.”

Justin interrupted. “You should have
seen the old Noah. It was before your time, Drew, but Noah was one of us. Don’t
you remember the fun we used to have, Noah?”

Justin savored the memory, and showed more
emotion than he usually did. Justin was the closest to Noah in age, and at one
time they had been friends. That had ended when Noah had stopped taking energy,
and started spending more time with humans. Both were unforgivable in Justin’s
opinion.

Drew looked delighted. “Is that right?
Is that why you don’t want me to have Trish, Noah?” he asked. “Do you want her
all for yourself? Can I at least watch?”

“I will never be like you.” Noah shook
his head.

“Then you won’t mind if I have her. I
can tell that she’s gonna be more than a onetime deal. She just radiates
energy, and that body will make the job a lot more fun.”

Without warning Noah punched Drew,
knocking him against the counter. Justin quickly grabbed a knife, caught Noah
from behind, and held the knife to his throat.

Drew stood up, lips curled into a smug
grin. His eye was already swelling. “Maybe we should just slit your throat.”

The kitchen door opened, and Nathaniel
walked in. Justin dropped the knife quickly and backed away from Noah.

“What in the hell possessed you to put
your hands on my brother?” Nathaniel growled.

“He hit me first.” Drew whined, and
pointed at his eye.

Nathaniel grinned at Noah. “You did
that?”

Noah had his hands in the back pockets
of his jeans, eyes fixed on his boots. He looked up just long enough to nod.

Nathaniel slapped him on the back. “I
didn’t know that you still had it in you.”

Unable to disguise his anger and
disgust, Noah glared at Nathaniel. “Don’t you even care why I hit your cousin?”
he asked quietly.

Nathaniel shrugged, and replied
nonchalantly. “Not particularly. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to
hit him.” His voice lowered and his gaze shifted to Drew. “What I want to know
is why Andrew here can’t fight his own battles?”

He tapped Drew’s swollen eye, and Drew
cringed. Nathaniel smiled sadistically. “That must hurt. Why don’t you explain
to me why it takes two of you to win a fight?”

Drew’s cocky expression had changed to
one of cowardice. “We were just messing around.” His voice was shaky. “I wouldn’t
hurt him.” Drew knew that Nathaniel could kick him out, or worse, if he wanted
to. In truth, no one would question Nathaniel if he decided to kill Drew.

“I wasn’t really going to cut him.”
Justin broke in calmly.

“In the future, I suggest that you think
before you act or you might have an unfortunate accident.” There was a
terrifying darkness in Nathaniel’s voice. Noah rarely heard that tone. “Neither
of you will ever lay so much as a finger on my brother again. Is that
understood?”

Both nodded.

Justin put out a hand to Noah. When Noah
refused it, he merely shrugged.

“And stay away from Hannah’s friends.”
Noah ordered quietly.

Drew stepped up to Nathaniel with his
hands clasped together. “I need to feed.” He pleaded. “I can’t wait much
longer, and she’s perfect. I did you a favor by taking Aiden to the airport the
night of the party when everyone else got to feed. Aiden probably even fed on
the flight. I need it!”

After silently watching Drew sweat and
pant like a junky for a short time, Nathaniel’s face softened. Drew was still
young, and he couldn’t control his urges very well yet. Noah knew that it was
Nathaniel’s responsibility to take care of him, and he had failed. Drew needed
to feed on energy more than the rest of them and he was long overdue if he
hadn’t fed since before the party.