
The Soul of A Vampire

Book 1

By Rachel E Rice

Copyright 2017 by Rachel E Rice
Copyright

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Copyright (C) 2017 by Rachel E Rice

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Please do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. No reproduction of this book part or whole is permitted. This book should not be scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without the author's permission.

# Table of Contents

Copyright Page

Copyright Page

The Soul of A Vampire #1

Chapter One-Zoey

Chapter Two-Zoey

Chapter Three- Zoey

Chapter Four-Zoey

Chapter Five- Sebastian

Chapter Six- Sebastian

Chapter Seven- Zoey

Chapter Eight-Zoey

Chapter Nine-Zoey

Chapter Ten-Sebastian

Chapter Eleven-Zoey

Chapter Twelve-Zoey

Chapter Thirteen-Zoey

Chapter Fourteen-Zoey

Chapter Fifteen-Zoey

Chapter Sixteen-Zoey

Chapter Seventeen-Zoey

Chapter Eighteen-Zoey

Chapter Nineteen-Zoey

Chapter Twenty-Zoey

Chapter Twenty-One-Zoey

Chapter Twenty-Two-Sebastian

Chapter Twenty-Three-Sebastian

The End
Author's note: This is the first book in my new vampire series. If you enjoy the book, sign up for my Newsletter for the latest news and I have more paranormal romance books you may be interested in reading. And I have a new website coming this year (2017). Book 2 coming soon.

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# Chapter One-Zoey

You can wake up, look outside and see the sun shining for the first time in months and think this is a great day. And then you wake up the next day and it's a cold, dark, rainy, patchy, "What the F happened day?"

The only problem with that short sighted analysis was, it wasn't the next day for me, but three months later. Three months of my life had just sunk into darkness. It's like losing your paycheck after you've put in a grueling two weeks of work at a soul sucking job, only to drop the money on the sidewalk, coming out of the bank.

It was like that for me, only worse.

My memory came back slow and uneven. I glanced around the room and I know I'm not in a hospital, but someone's home. Not even my home if I remember correctly. This place is a mansion compared to the dingy apartment I shared with my roommate Terry in Central Seattle on Twenty-Third Street. Apartment 2 B.

All I'm thinking about now is it's all Terry's fault. What I wanted to do during semester break was relax. Maybe drive to California and bathe in that sunshine I hear so much about and can only see in movies or television.

Terry was the one who convinced me to go to this bar. I should have fucking known better. She said it was to relax and have a drink and maybe play a game of pool. I can hear her now, "Zoey, get your ass in gear, and let's hang tonight."

"Why? You don't need me for what you want to do. I need my rest," I said putting on a tee shirt and ready to jump into the bed with a snack and my IPhone. I wanted to browse the social sites and see what the world was doing because there was no way I was doing that shit tonight.

"You can rest when you're dead," she said pulling the covers from me. "We're too young to just go to work and school and never do anything that's exciting." I closed my eyes and huffed my breath into the air.

For once I needed her to leave me alone. But she never did. She made an art form out of begging and nagging to get what she wanted from me. Like when she was short on rent because she spent it on a night out with her boyfriend or boyfriends. She knew I saved every dime I could get my hands on and worked in the school library to pay for my rented used books.

I decided it was easy to give in this time.

"OK, but just this once," I squawked at her with a furrowed brow, "and stop being a pest. If I wanted to be nagged I'd stayed in my mother's house. It feels like I never left with all the junk you've been hoarding. Look at this, what the fuck is that?" I said. I held up a stuffed squirrel or large rat neither she nor I knew what to make of it.

She grabbed it from me, held it like a baby and then threw it in the corner with a box full of stuff animals collecting dust.

"What's this?" I picked up a piece of iron that had feet. "You spent our food money on that I bet. You're not borrowing another dime from me," I said.

"This is expensive," she said with narrow eyes and ripping it from my hands and then placing it carefully on a table which looked like something she carried from my grandmother's house during the estate sale. The table another useless piece of rubbish. It took up needed space in this small apartment. It just sat there for collecting dust, and piles of future junk.

"I'm going to sell it at an auction and make a lot of money and then let's see what you say then."

"Yeah, an expensive piece of garbage no doubt. And no one's going to give you a dime for it. You can eat it next week," I said mumbling to myself, as I stepped into my one pair of old worn jeans, which had been resting on a hanger in my closet.

Reaching for my leather jacket, I threw it over a blue sweater. I knew Terry's taste in bars, men, junk, and they were about the same, a lot of trash and a little bit of flash, so who would notice me? I didn't fit in with that crowd. I just didn't fit.

Terry wore her brown hair short, when she wasn't experimenting with the colors black, blond, purple or pink. Her blue eyes were large and expressive. She wore a ready smile for everyone. Me, I was the picture of sadness.

I wore my auburn hair long to hide behind.

Terry I thought of as being a smart girl and fearless, at least that was my impression before she announced she was having her nose and nipples pierced. Then it came to me. I had given her more credit because of her seemingly matured outward appearance. I knew something wasn't right when she said, "Guys like this kind of shit." Then she tried to show me her pierced nipples.

"I'm not interested. I have a pair."

"Yeah, but they don't look like this and she flashed me."

"Save them for someone who cares if your breasts are gigantic," I said.

"I bet you're jealous with those little virgin tits," she said to me. I rolled my eyes because she wanted me to be an exhibitionist like her.

We were now ready to leave the apartment to go to that place I didn't want to go to or be caught dead in. Terry led the way outside as I locked the door. We would take her broken down yellow and black Volkswagen Bug with the torn convertible top, as opposed to walking in the rain because I didn't own a car, and as Terry said, "Beggars can't be choosers."

She cranked up the car and we took off in her Beetle and I could swear they were still making these cars when my grandmother was a teenager because it looked just like hers.

Arriving at the "Stick and Balls" around eleven was perfect. I glanced up at the title as we passed by. "Just perfect," I mumbled. Terry acted like she didn't hear me. There was no way I would spend more time than I had to at a place call stick and balls. The title conjured up all kinds of mind movies.

I imagined we could get in a game of pool, have a drink, and be home before midnight. Terry found a parking space behind the bar. "It's dark back here. Do you think we're safe?" I asked.

"You're always worried about safe. A life isn't worth living unless you've come close to death." I rolled my eyes at her. She was always throwing out little pearls like this when I first met her. Maybe that's why I came to believe she knew something I didn't know. Now I know better after living with her.

"What the fuck, Terry. You're now a philosopher? You barely passed your first year class and now you're throwing words around like you know something about life. For fuck sake I'm twenty one and you're twenty three and I want to live to see my next birthday which happens to be in two months."

"I was just trying to relax you and cheer you up." She shrugged turning the car motor off.

"How about doing it a different way and back this thing up and park near a light."

"Ok. Ok," she huffed. "If it will make you happy," she said with an impatient dry tone to her voice.

"Yes it will." Terry started the car and backed out of the parking lot and found parking space near the club.

"This must be our lucky day, what do you know a parking space right in front," Terry said as if she had anything to do with it. Her front of the bar and my front were two different things. Her interpretation of things were the opposite of mine.

Glancing over at her as she carefully parked her piece of junk, I said, "This isn't exactly right in front and it looks dark here."

"I can't do anything about that. Now let's get out and have some fun for once before it's midnight. And before you find something else to complain about."

"What about midnight?"

"That's when I turn into a pumpkin if I can't get a man on top of me." I glanced at her and rolled my eyes again.

"Is everything with you about men?" I said.

"Yes. What else is there in life?" She said smiling and looking into the mirror and putting on another coat of red lipstick and black eyeliner.

We hopped out of the car, but the parking space wasn't exactly in front of the bar where I thought she should have parked. We still had to walk a long block to get there. Good thing I wore flats. Terry on the other hand wore her spike heels even with jeans.

"Don't walk so fast, Zoey. I need your arm."

"No one told you to wear those high heels." I stopped and she grabbed my hand. "Now someone will think we're lesbians."

"Let them think whatever they want. We know better." I wish I was as confident as Terry was but I'm not. I have all kinds of insecurities. Maybe it's because of my childhood.

There wasn't a problem getting into the club. No lines or a bouncer at the door. We walked in because it was the middle of the week, and eleven o'clock. Usually you can't move inside the club or get a pool table, but tonight was different. It had just the right amount of people inside, not too crowded, and the music was intense, but low, and you could talk to someone if you wanted to without screaming.

When Terry entered she waved at the bartender and he shouted, "There's a table in the back for you." He pointed and she looked back.

"You're not leaving me yet, are you?"

"What, am I a twin? I don't need you to play a game of pool. There are plenty of hunks on the prowl." She smiled and I gave her a quick closed smile back. "Not yet. I need a beer first." And she gave the bartender a wave.

Terry turned to me and rolled her eyes, and I shrugged at her. So what? I didn't want to be here in the first place to play pool or have a drink. All I could think about was getting home and getting in my bed. And check Twitter.

I sat on a bar stool because no one was near me, except Terry. If I had spotted a man sitting there, I would have chosen a table.

Turning nervously, because I felt eyes staring at me, I turned to my right. That's when I spotted a figure of a man dressed in black. I narrowed my eyes to get a better look because of the dim lights in the club. I still couldn't see him well. Not with two men standing in front of him. But he was taller than they were and I saw his eyes. They appeared to be green or blueish. He peered at me with an intense erotic glare as if he could devour me with just that look.

I felt weak. My hands trembled, my breathing accelerated. I found his invading stare tortuously disturbing. I wanted to run. I wanted to cry. I wanted to jump into his arms. All these feeling came at me at once flooding my body with intense desire for him.

But who is he and why does he have that control over me?

His hair dark, his face pale, set off those bluish-green eyes. He wore a black turtleneck sweater under a black leather jacket and dark pants. He commanded the room. Tall and confident with his head erect like most Alpha males.

Sitting like a statue, I turned my head to look at Terry. She on the other hand had her eyes on someone sitting at a table with his girlfriend. I turned back to see if the guy was still standing in the same place. He was, but the two men in front of him talking and drinking beers, were now gone. I had a clear view of him. He wore an expression of satisfaction with his small closed smile.

I lowered my eyes when our gaze locked and I felt his forceful look. Why did I feel as if I had seen those eyes before? He had a profound effect over me. My unstable pulse wouldn't let up. I couldn't control it. I felt in a daze as if I could faint.

That's all I needed was to faint and fall to the floor. Maybe that wasn't a bad thing. Then he could pick me up and whisk me away to his place and we would live happily ever after and I would have his babies. He looked like he could make beautiful babies. 

# Chapter Two-Zoey

It had been unsettling knowing his eyes were fixed on me and affecting my body until I couldn't move if I wanted. It was unsettling to know that someone could stare at me and I would feel compelled to follow after him if he desired.

Not many men could stare me down in that profound way and have me fantasizing about him controlling me. Taking me. Owning me. But maybe I never noticed. But I'm noticing now, and somewhere between liking it and hating it, I find I enjoy his powerful presence.

Thinking he would leave, he stood there in one spot watching at me. His face pale and handsome but it seemed familiar none the less. My eyes locked on his and when I tilted my head to wonder why me, I felt a touch.

Terry tapped me on my shoulder. I jumped because I was surprised and I had forgotten she was sitting near me drinking her beer. I hadn't notice when the barman brought the beer because my mind was on that handsome intriguing man standing in the corner observing me.

"I'm going in the back to get in a game of pool. Want to come?" she said. I barely heard her over my own thoughts.

"No. I'll stay here and drink my beer." My voice sound as if it was a mile away and I had just awaken from a sleep. For some reason I relished his response. I glanced up deciding to meet his gaze. I finally made up my mind that I would challenge him. I can play that game too, I thought. He never changed his expression or his gaze. My skin shivered from his intense green eyes never leaving mine and never really telegraphing what he really wanted.

What do most young man want you fool? To get you in bed.

I couldn't believe I was flirting with him. I put my finger in my glass of beer and then opened my mouth and sucked it, then eased it out, and then slithered my tongue across my bottom lip. It wasn't something Terry had taught me, but I think she did say something about an open mouth attracting men. I just hoped this time she was right.

What is this about, I wondered. He didn't say anything to me, he just glared at me and the longer he looked, the more I couldn't handle his stare and once again I tried to become invisible.

He won the game of stare. I put my head down again and watched at the beer. I poured more into my glass and tried to drink it without my hands shaking. But I couldn't control my hands and thoughts, and the more I tried, my hands trembled violently. I pushed the glass around to try to hide how he had affected me.

"Can I buy you a beer?" I glanced up and looked in the mirror to see someone standing behind me--a young man who looked to be about twenty. He moved to my right blocking my view of the dark haired stranger with the bluish green eyes. This guy's hair blond and his eyes grey. He wore a strange closed smile as if he could read my mind. But if he could, he would know I get nervous around strangers standing close to me.

His smile opened to a wide grin and his eyes brightened. Sensing my uneasiness he took a step back. I felt better, but still I didn't feel comfortable around him. It wasn't what he said, but something about him had ignited the fight or flight instinct. I felt that once before when I was a child coming home from school.

"No, thank you," I said my lips trembling. "I'm having a hard time trying to finish this one," I said raising my glass, and giving him a small closed smile.

I wished he would go away because he stood in the path of the stranger with the green eyes, and if I would take a drink from anyone it would be from the one watching me with the serious look on his face.

"When you do need a drink and you want another, just raise your hand and the next one is on me." I was impressed for a few moments. A place like this and there are still gentlemen in the world. He didn't harass me like some of the guys did whenever I tried going to a bar after classes, and that's one reason why I never go out much.

"But you can't meet a man if you stay in all the time," Terry had said every Saturday night since I met her.

"And you can't meet them in a bar," I shot back. But surprise. I managed to attract two handsome men in less than an hour. I felt good about myself. My self-confidence was at an all-time high.

When the blond with the grey eyes stepped aside and walked away, he headed in the direction of the pool room. I immediately looked to my right, and the tall handsome guy with a mysterious predatory gaze, was no longer standing in a corner gawking at me. Making me feel needed. I missed him and I didn't know why. Maybe I didn't attract many good looking men and I wasn't attracted to too many men, and so far I had attracted two all in the span of a second and lost them both because I was frightened to take a chance.

The bartender a tall burly red head with red patchy skin, came over and stood in front of me, after replacing a bottle of liquor on the shelf. "Do you want another drink? Your friend in the pool room paid for drinks for you and Terry early on." I looked and wondered how he would know we would be in here. I chalked it off to Terry making a date with him.

"Do you know him?" I asked.

"First time I've seen him," The bartender said.

"I'm good," I said.

The way I behaved, I can't blame men from walking away from me. You come to a bar to socialize at least that's what Terry does. When I glanced to my left, trying to decide if I should join her, Terry was strutting out of the room with her arm thrust under the blond guy's arm. They looked good together. She was smiling, and it looked like he had charmed her with that handsome face, and that incredible young hard body wearing jeans that fit him in all the right places.

She strutted up to me with a wide grin. "I found this Scandinavian god to escort us to our car." She winked at me. I know what that meant.

I shot him a quick smile. He had not too long tried to pick me up. He could have spent more time to get to know me, I thought. However, this is the era of speed dialing, speed dating, and texting. Why would he waste his time with me? A girl that's hard to get, but easy to keep. That sums me up.

Some men who want a quickie don't want to spend their time on girls like me. I guess he spotted that the minute I refused a drink from him. Too complicated. Too intense. Too needy.

I knew it was impossible to tell Terry anything about men. And this one was to die for. Maybe he thought he could have us both the way he eyed me. When he walked up standing behind me the first time his eyes had roamed my neck and breasts the entire time he talked to me.

By the look on Terry's face, her eyes darting around his body, her speech rapid and smooth, she knew, and I knew she wanted to fuck him like yesterday. And looking at him with his tall youthful strong body, she was going to have the best fuck of her life.

Terry nudged me in the side. I glanced up at her, and she directed me with her chin moving up, signaling for me to get the hell up from that seat. Reluctantly, I stood and followed her.

"I thought we were going to stay a little longer. I thought we came to shoot pool," I said. She stopped and directed the blond to wait for her at the door.

"We came here not for the pool but for the men, remember," she said coolly with a tight mouth.

"Do you know anything about him?" I whispered.

"What is there to know?" Her voice high and tone angry. "He's tall handsome, young, virile, and naive. And when he looks at me I want to do anything for him. It's something about the way he looks at me that gives me chills." And she smiled and quivered.

I could see her mouth salivating at the thought of him being virile and inexperienced. That way she could teach him what turned her on.

"Are you sure of that. Look in his eyes, he looks like he's been around," I said. How would I know? She didn't ask that and if she had, I wouldn't have had an answer. It was just a feeling that I had seen that look once before, but I couldn't remember where and on whom.

"Well you can never be sure of anything, but I'm not going to question a gift from the gods." She turned to walk away and I held her arm.

"We can't bring anyone to our apartment. You don't know anything about him," I said trying to plead with her to stay a little longer.

"Do you even know his name?"

"Aare. Now are you satisfied."

"What kind of name is that?"

"For fuck sake, Zoey, I'm leaving." Trying to stall her wasn't working.  I wanted to be in this seat in this bar when my gift from the gods came back if he ever did. But I knew I would be back again with Terry, in hopes that I might see him again. I just wanted to lay eyes on him, not tomorrow, not the next day, but now.

Not too many handsome men like him comes along and shows me that kind of attention. I didn't get the same feeling about him as I did Terry's date. The feeling I got from my admirer was warm and nurturing.

# Chapter Three- Zoey

"The way you're behaving, all nervous and looking around, you don't want to leave this bar. What is it?" she said. I wrinkled my forehead and gave a closed smile. "Oh, I know. You met someone. I can tell. You can't fool me," Terry said in a low sing song voice. That brought on a large smile. I rarely smile as wide as I am doing now.

"No. Not really," I twirled my hair like a little girl who had just met the boy of her dreams, "but I saw him for a few minutes and I'm hoping he comes back. He looks like the kind of man I could like."

"Like? We don't have time for like. Like takes too long. You need one you could fuck," she said.

"Please, someone will hear you, and there's more to life than fucking," I mouthed looking around.

"Who's going to hear me and this crowd doesn't care who you fuck or if you use the F bomb a hundred times. It goes with the territory. Look around you. Nothing but desperate men and women. Why else would they come to a bar on a weekday? They're looking for the same thing we are. Someone to take us through the night and make life worth living. "

I threw my hands up closed my eyes and gave way to her absurd logic.

"Just one more drink. Please." I raised my hand to the bartender and Terry spiked it down.

"I'm leaving now. You can come if you want, or drive my car back. But I'm leaving with that hot guy," and she waved at him and he smiled back at us. "We can't wait around here hoping this man comes back. I bet you didn't even try to talk to him or give him your number." She didn't wait for me to respond because she knew and I knew she was right.

"Zoey why would he come back? He's probably fucking someone else at this time. You missed your chance," she said shaking her head, "you know what they say when you're slow you blow. Maybe I didn't use that in the right context. But I'm turning around and I'm walking out with that hunk and you're not going to ruin it for me. I'm going to wiggle my ass over to him before he decides to leave." Terry turned and waved and strutted in the blond guy's direction with a smile on her face, and I followed with a scowl.

The blond opened the door and Terry and I walked through and when we were outside, Terry stopped and turned to make sure he was behind us, and no woman had snatched him. He trailed behind us until we were in the dark, away from a street lamp, and then he caught up and placed his arm around Terry's shoulder.

"Where is your ride handsome?" she asked. He pointed to a black Porsche Carrera. "OMG," Terry leaned in and whispered to me. "I found a good one. No more cheap piazzas for us."

"Where is your ride?" He said to Terry and she pointed to her piece of valuable junk. "Since we both have small cars, then you should ride with me, Terry." He knew her name. "And Zoey, you drive Terry's car back to your apartment." He had a commanding tone to his voice which he didn't have before. He appeared to be used to being in control of women.

How did he know my name? I hoped Terry didn't discuss my life with him. I warned her about letting strange men know all about us. But of course she had to have said something.

Despair over took me at the thought that she could have discussed my childhood. I hoped she wasn't that careless as to reveal what happened to me when I was five years old. I didn't want anyone to know about that. I was just accepting it myself.

"I think we should ride together. I don't drive that well," I said to Terry. I needed to know how much she told that stranger and I didn't trust him. It was something about him. Oh he was likeable enough and extremely handsome, but then so are some serial rapist and killers.

Terry and the blond glanced at me. It was as if I had committed murder. They appeared to be hot for each other the way she was leaning her hips into him and he was holding her too close. I was the only one standing in their way. They didn't say anything to me and I kept walking to Terry's car which had been parked in the dark a block away.

When I reached the car, I turned and Terry and the blond were grinding against each other and kissing. Terry appeared to be taking the lead. She had both hands on his butt and squeezing it.

And then I watched as he grabbed her by her neck with both hands and licked the side of her face only stopping at her neck. It looked embarrassing and it was as if I was watching a dirty movie with the loud sucking coming from him and moaning and groaning coming from Terry.

The blond had one hand around her neck and he began kissing her breasts through her shirt, and then her hands dropped to her side and it looked as if she was being held up by his large hands. Her body became limp when his mouth moved back to her neck.

With the darkness and the shadows, I wasn't sure of what I was witnessing, so I strode in their direction to see what had happened to Terry. It was so strange and eerie I didn't know what to think.

I hollered at her, "Terry, I think I'll drive the car back and you and your man can have time together." She didn't respond or turn to answer me and as I walked closer, the blond raised his head and I saw blood dripping from his mouth.

"What are you doing to Terry?" I wanted Terry to turn and give me a snarky remark. I stood looking at him and he never reacted except to hiss at me. And place his mouth on her neck. I stayed on that one spot watching as he appeared to be feeding on her. I must have been in shock. I had never seen anything the likes of that before.

Terry's body looked small and white as if she was shrunken and when he let go of her, what was left of her body, cascaded down to the ground like a wrinkled bed sheet. Her face pale and her eyes closed. All I could say was "What the fuck? What did you do to Terry?"

I pivoted around and began running. And in a second, the blond was standing in front of me with a strange look in his eyes. His eyes were no longer grey, but icy and glaring at me merciless and cold. Then they flashed red to match the blood dripping down his mouth. I don't know where the scream came from, but I opened my mouth and nothing came out but a muffled weak cry for "Help."

But someone heard me. When I turned the man from the bar, the one I saw staring at me, the one I thought so handsome, was standing between me and the raving lunatic who had just killed my friend. There was no doubt about that. Terry was dead and I was standing afraid to move, and shivering, and ready to pee on the spot like a scared puppy.

"What are you doing here?" I heard a soft cold voice ask the blond killer.

"Vesper wants to see you."

"Tell him I'm not coming back. I'll never go back."

"But you have to," the blond insisted with emotionless patience. "You know how he hates to wait on anything. That's why he sent me for you."

"He should have sent someone who could bring me back, not you. Remember the last time you came for me, I took pity on you. This time I won't," the cold voice said.

"This time you won't have to because this will be the end of this and our father won't have to worry about you any longer," the blond said flexing his hands.

And the blond rushed to the cold voice and they gripped each other by the shoulders. They stood looking in each other's eyes for a moment. Then there was a gnashing of the teeth and sound of hissing like a snake would before it struck.

When they pulled apart they rushed at each other with closed fist and pound each other in the chest. Neither one affecting the other nor gaining any ground. When one would land a blow it was as if the thunder had struck and the sound rumbled through the street.

When the cold voice struck the blond in his chest, the sound and reaction was that of lightning. It was quick, it was hot like blue fire and it was deadly. I saw the blond slump forward, but then like someone had poured water on a dead plant, he rose and attacked the cold voice as he walked to me, spinning him around.

I stepped backward away from the cold voice trying to get away from them both.

They fought and pummeled and beat each other and whirled around as I stood in one spot unable to move and unable to speak.

I didn't have the good sense to move out of the way of a freight train, and that freight train of two strong powerful beings, came rolling in my direction, and I saw the pain in the cold voice's eyes when he knew he and that killer blond would hit me like a bullet from the barrel of a gun, sending me sailing into the front of that chrome bumper of that little indestructible car. 

# Chapter Four-Zoey

I'm waiting for Terry to come into the room and tell me she or I won the lottery. Why else would I be in a place like this. The room is bare, just a bed, and one dresser with no mirrors, but it's elegant with heavy silk off-white drapes. If I were to guess, I'd say whoever decorated this room was a minimalist, so that rules out Terry because she's the bag lady of Seattle.

There wasn't an old couch she couldn't pass up or a broken table lamp she didn't need. By the process of elimination, I ruled out that this was my place or Terry's. Then who is it? And where am I? I tried to stand and my weak legs wouldn't cooperate. I held on to the bed, as the room moved around and around. Not wanting to fall and cause another injury to my body I planned to get to the nearest wall and try to make my way to the door. I touched my head and it had a bandage wrapped securely around it.

Then it came back to me. Something had happened to Terry. Tears welled in my eyes and then fell hard on my cheek when I realized she had died that night. When I remembered how she looked when that thing got a hold of her, all I could think about now was, I warned her about strangers.

It was a stranger who had befriended me when I was a child. It was a stranger who took me and brained washed me where I no longer knew who I was. Now it was a stranger who saved my life. But from whom and why?

What kind of dangerous world had I found myself in? I'm remembering now. The stranger knew that blond. He said something about father so that would make him his brother. Searching around with my eyes, what happened to him, and where am I?"

I concentrated and put my legs down and managed to step out of bed. I had to do it. I couldn't stay there forever waiting until someone came. I put one shaky weak foot in front of the other and held on to the side of the bed trying to make my way to the door. It appeared so far away. And I was so weak.

Then I looked down and I had on a gown. A white gown. Not the kind they give you in a hospital, but a gown if you're going on your honeymoon kind of gown. My hair had grown long but it didn't appear unkempt. Someone had tended to me and groomed me. Cut my nails but didn't take off the nail polish. Looking at my nails, I came to the conclusion I had been here a month or more.

Pulling at my hair and running my hand over my face it appeared I had to have been here maybe two months. In a coma? I questioned. But how could I stay here so long and no one came for me? I managed to finally get to the door and touch it and then open it. I looked out at the stairs that led to the downstairs foyer and out the door.

How am I going to get down those stairs? I wondered. I turned around looking at a series of closed doors, but there was one that had the door ajar. I hobbled to it holding on to the wall for support. When I reached the door, I pushed it open and in the large room, there set a large grand piano and paintings hung on the walls. Old masters and books and newspapers strewn everywhere.

And then I spotted it. A computer on the desk in a corner. I stumbled over to the computer, sat in the chair, and turned it on. When it came up there was a news bulletin. Still no sign of Zoey Miller. I continued reading for my own interest. I wanted to shut down the computer but my curiosity wouldn't allow me.

Zoey Miller has a long history of being kidnapped. It started when she was just a child. At age five she had been abducted and presumed dead after years of her parents and Detective Cole leading the search for her. She showed up in England at the age of fifteen with no memory of what had happened to her. Zoey's family got all the help she needed and she appeared to be adjusting nicely where she went on to college and was due to graduate this fall. However, another unfortunate incident occurred.

From what we can piece together, she disappeared outside of a club with her roommate. No signs of her or the roommate since.

I clicked the arrow and a video came up. The detective, Ryan Cole, who handles my case, a young looking man in his late twenties with light brown hair and a handsome face spoke about my kidnapping into the local news' cameras.

"I was just a teen when I heard of the kidnapping of a young child by the name of Zoey Miller. I will never forget this case. It defined my life from that day forward. I knew then I wanted to be a policeman and solve the case of these missing children. I will not rest until I find out who took her." He looked directly into the camera. "Whoever you are and wherever you try to hide, I will track you down and I will find you. There aren't enough holes for you to hide in and you can be sure that I will be there."

Detective Ryan Cole turned without answering any questions and walked away. Clearly he was upset. I recognized him as one of the men who brought me home from England. He comforted me through the twelve hour ride into New Jersey and then on the flight to Seattle.

That was six years ago. And now he's searching for me again.

Finally, I sat up not knowing how to feel. I couldn't feel. I just stared at the computer hoping this wasn't my life they were writing and talking about, but it was me, Zoey Miller and I was going through another nightmare. "Terry is dead," I kept mumbling. It was true because I saw her die, and I saw the terrible fight that had ensued between the blond and the cold voice. I wondered who had won and who I would belong to next.

It was as if I was reliving my childhood once again. But my childhood was something that I knew little about. It was as if someone erased it from my memories, and I started to live again at age fifteen when Detective Cole returned me to my parents.

"Have you read enough, and have your questions been answered?" Jumping with fright, I glanced up when I heard that cold voice again and I turned with a jerk to my left. Standing in the doorway was a man in his early twenties. Now I could see him clearly.

His hair dark and his eyes blue with green specks. Suddenly his eyes took on a warmth that hadn't been there before, but the sadness prevailed in his face. His face spoke of beauty and power and his body spoke of strength. He stood tall, dressed in a black sweater, and black slacks. His shoulders wide, his arms long with large powerful hands.

"It's you," I said with relief burning through me. I let out a sigh and breathed through my teeth. "You saved my life." His mouth barely opened but fell into an unconscious smile. His teeth white and dazzling, but I felt angry and uncertain about what I remembered about him and what I had heard.

"Your brother killed my friend. Why didn't you come sooner and she would have been alive," I said pounding on the desk.

"Do you want to know? If I tell you, you will never be able to go back home or be the same person again."

"Yes, I want to know, and I will be able to go back home. There's a detective looking for me. He will not rest until I'm found," I said looking up at the cold voice with the beautiful white teeth. It was the first time I had seen a man as handsome as the one before me. I couldn't control my feelings for him and it showed in my face. There was a sudden flush of heat causing a blush on my cheeks which gave me away.

"Don't do that. When your temperature rises, you give off a scent and I can't control myself."

"Control yourself from what?"

"I said you don't want to know and you shouldn't. It's too soon."

"When do you think I should know? When another one of your family members come to kill me. I think it has to do with my kidnapping when I was a child."

Tilting my head and locking eyes with him, I watched closely at his face when I made that statement. I thought maybe I could read something in his gestures. He showed no expression. All I saw was satisfaction and peace. He just looked at me the way a man looks at a woman when he loves her. But how could that be? I had never laid eyes on him until that night at the bar.

"Your father has a ring where he kidnaps children and then brain washes them or keeps them drugged where they can't remember anything?" This was like a shot in the dark, hoping to hit something, what I didn't know. I was probing to get a reaction.

"No. It's not that," he said with a furrowed brow.

"Then tell me. Tell me why I'm here."

He gazed at me with those sparkling pool of bluish eyes and stone face. "You're here so I can protect you."

"From what? What the fuck are you trying to protect me from if it isn't from a kidnapping ring?"

"Now isn't the time to tell you. And you shouldn't curse." His tone flat but with authority.

"Why do I care what you think?" But I did care. "You're the one breaking the law by keeping me here. The police would protect me from your family." I knew throwing the police out there was a waste of time because after a few years they gave up on me and considered me dead. That's why when I showed up with Detective Cole, my family didn't believe I was Zoey Miller.

My father said that the police had evidence that I had died. I had to take a DNA test to prove who I was. Detective Ryan Cole was the only one who didn't stop looking for me and he knew who I was when my own mother and father didn't.

"You need something to eat. You've been in a coma for months. I fed you intravenously."

"How many months?"

"Months." And he walked to me and pushed the chair around and with one quick move he had me in his arms and carrying me to the room with the bed. I glanced up at him and I felt happy and secure for the second time in my life. The first time was with Detective Cole on our long trip to Seattle.

Because of my separation from my family at a young age, I always felt vulnerable and in danger from everyone. But now I feel that I will be safe as long as the cold voice is around. I glanced up at him as he laid me gently down in the bed.

"What's your name?" I asked.

He glanced down at me as if he didn't want to answer. He pulled the sheet up to my chest and said, "You're going to get sick. I can't have you sick."

"Why not?" I shouted. It was my angry voice that no one paid attention to but my cat. Then I remembered there were cats in our apartment depending on us to feed them and to snuggle up with them at night when it was cold.

"What happened to my cat? And Terry's cats?"

"My name is Sebastian," he said his voice hoarse but reassuring. "Cats are not like helpless little girls. They don't need anyone to protect them or feed them."

"How do you know? Have you ever had a cat? You look like you could put fear into animals. I bet you never had an animal when you were a child," I shouted with a weak voice which broke each time I uttered two words.

He stopped walking and watched at me a few seconds, and then gave me a small grin, and then he strutted with his long legs out of the room, and closed the door behind him. I lay there upset and wondering why I can't remember anything before I turned fifteen. Was I raped? No. When the police found me wandering the streets, they took me to a hospital and had me checked out.

What was the purpose of them kidnapping me and leaving me intact unless they had another reason, but I can't remember that? The ordeal left me frightened and afraid of strangers. At some point I didn't want to go outside after my mother died.

My father said that the stress of me being kidnapped, took its toll on my mother, and weakened her heart. 'She cried night and day until that detective brought you home,' he had said to me.

After time past and my father convinced me that I could have a life, I was able to go on to college. I must have been taught by someone because I had no problem passing tests and my IQ was above average for my age. It wasn't like I was a child genius, because I wasn't, that's why someone had to teach me and I wondered who it was.

Somewhere in-between the wondering and trying to remember my childhood, I fell asleep. Then I woke when I smelled a bowl of soup.

"Eat. You have to get your strength. We have to leave here soon." I reached for the spoon and a large bowl of chicken soup. After taking several spoonful of noodles and chunks of chicken and eating like a starving man marooned on an island, I took a breather.

"Did you cook this?"

"I warmed it. I don't cook."

"So it came out of a can?"

"Yes."

"Do you expect me to eat canned food and gain my strength to leave here?" I glanced up at him. I slanted my head after shoving a mouthful of noodles in my mouth.

"Did you say we have to leave here soon? I don't know where here is and why would I leave with you? I have to contact my father so he doesn't worry about me."

"You can't contact him until you are out of danger. If you contact anyone they will find us and kill us." I sat up in bed. My eyes wide. Chills running through me. The roots of my hair blazing as if I had a fever.

"Kill me. Why does your family want to kill me? I won't tell anything. I don't know anything. I was a child."

"It's not what you don't know. And our deaths will be completely different."

"Death is death. You don't exist anymore," I said not knowing what I was saying. What did I know about death? I'm twenty-one and I haven't had children yet. My life was just starting and now this person is talking about death. He's maybe twenty-three if a day.

"Death is not death. There are different degrees of death. Yours will be different than mine. You will no longer feel. You will be cold the way I am."

"You aren't cold. You have feelings. I know it. I feel your soul. It's as if I know you."

"There is no way for you to know me." He raised one eyebrow. "Now eat and get well." I touched his hand and he pulled it away. Immediately he stood and looked down at me. His forehead furrowed as if he didn't want any part of me. Then why was he taking the time to protect me and make sure I lived.

His hand cold to the touch. Is that what he meant? I meant something different. I meant that he had feelings. He wasn't cold like a snake or lizard. He pulled his hand from mine as if being next to me would sear his skin. I know I ran hot sometimes more than the normal human, but that was no reason for him to have that reaction to me.

Reading my body language and surprised expression, Sebastian softened. He put his hand on my forehead.

"Your body is too warm. You must have a fever," he said. "See, you're getting sick. Don't get out of bed unless I tell you," his voice warm, but his tone full of authority. He walked to the door and paused staring at the door waiting for me to reply.

I didn't want to disappoint him so I said, "My body temperature is always higher. My mother said when I was a child I felt as if I had a constant fever. But that was the way I was. Not everyone is alike. Look at you. You're pale, and every time you've touched me, you feel cold."

Sebastian listened for a few and he slanted his head to the side, shook his head and walked out after closing the door behind him. I gulped down the food, but I wasn't going to lie in bed when I needed some answers. I needed answers about him and me and he wasn't cooperating.

When I glanced outside it was still dark and I could see nothing but trees all around. I heard birds and I knew it wasn't a dream, or I had died. Since I recognized beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was indeed alive, a sense of relief crept over me, but that knowledge didn't make me happy, but being around Sebastian did.

# Chapter Five- Sebastian

How can I continue with Zoey the way it is? Her life and my life is at stake. I should have told her when I followed her into that bar. But she had never gone to a bar or placed herself in danger before. All she did was stay in the house and go to school. I could watch her at school and at home without her seeing me.

I'd follow her to her evening classes and sit in the back row among hundreds in a lecture hall. She had few friends and no boyfriends she liked. That was relief to me. It made it easy for me because I didn't trust any man with her because I didn't want to share her. Not now. Not ever.

When I spotted Detective Cole trailing her, I thought it was him being curious and protective. But I recognized an obsession because I was obsessed with her and in love with her. She was vulnerable and warm and giving. She gave me happiness I never hoped to experience. As the years passed Cole stop trailing her and parking in front of her house at night. I was relieved because I thought he would call attention to Zoey and perhaps that's how they found her.

When she decided to go out that night with her friend, I wasn't expecting to see Aare. As usual he put up a good fight, but he was never as strong as I was because he was much younger than I. As I pulled a wooden spike from my jacket ready to thrust it into his heart, he read my face and my intentions to kill him. He decided he would fight another day. He left with blood on his lips and anger and spite in his cold heart for me.

I waited too long to show myself to Zoey. But it's still too soon to tell her everything. If we are to leave Seattle, then I have to feed tonight. It's becoming more and more difficult trying to stay away from her. She's warm and her body is so appealing. I can smell her and taste her blood in my mouth. I need her warmth and yet I don't dare get close to her.

Her smell is too alluring. I can see her now and feel her. I can't get away from her, but one day I will have to do just that, because if I fall in love with her, I will have to kill her or change her into a vampire.

I can't keep reminding myself of how much I desire her. I might be tempted to feed on her and I don't want to do that. She's the only one standing between me and my humanity.

Leaving Zoey in the house so I can feed wasn't a problem before because she was unconscious, but now I'm afraid to leave her for even a short time. I will have to capture a large deer so I can feed and satisfy my thirst for a longer periods of time.

I look up and the large elk is standing in front of me. He has no notion that I am hunting him.

"There he is. I knew I would find him drinking at the river. I've been chasing you for months," I murmured to the stately creature I'm about to kill.

I creep behind him. I could spring up and catch him but I want him to know he's being hunted. I need to give him a chance to run. To feel as if he's in control, when in fact, I control the dark universe. I have dominion over life and death.

The elk didn't hear me coming. Was he concentrating on something else? He raises his head because he senses danger. He can't smell me because I have no scent that he is familiar with.

This beautiful animal reminds me that I have to keep vigilant. This deer is distracted by his need to mate. He doesn't realize that his life is coming to an end and in that way he is admired by me. For a moment I hesitate because I'm tired of killing. I watch at him and he relaxes, and my instincts are reinforced by my hunger.

It's too late now. He lets his guard down, I pounce on him and my fangs drops and breaks through flesh and the blood is flowing in me, and now he's dead. I killed it with one thrust to his vein and he crumpled to the ground. His heart is still beating, but not for long.

Holding him I feel his fear, I feel his longing for life, and I feel his despair when he releases his last breath.

Crouching on the ground I'm gazing at his lifeless body which strengthens my respect for life. But not my own anymore. That's over. It's the life of Zoey that I'm trying to protect.

I placed my teeth on his neck and plunged the points of my fangs into his vein once more. The warmth of his blood flowing in my mouth has a bitter taste. Zoey's blood is sweet, I thought. The deer's blood is nourishing, and I take comfort that his blood is keeping me strong. I've been reborn from taking a life. I raised my head and blew out a full breath.

One last ounce of his blood should satisfy my thirst and keep me strong for a week. Not as nourishing as taking it from a human, but that's why I separated from my family, so I could live like a man, and not a cold hearted animal.

Raising my head with blood dripping down my short beard, I murmured, "I'm not like my brothers or my father. I don't have to feed on humans." Had I misled myself into thinking I was different from them?

"But you are. Don't you know that?" I jerked my head around. I recognized the voice. It's another one of my many brothers, Aare, but the most dangerous one to me. How had he found me? I guess that wasn't hard. This is the closest place that have wild life.

He stood over me, my knees planted on the ground, blood dripping from my mouth on to my sleeve. I unconsciously wiped my mouth as if I were a human and didn't have a napkin to catch the bits and pieces of food I may have eaten too hurriedly.

I looked like the animal I had become, the one I didn't want to be. I'm on the low ground and I'm at a disadvantage. Now I'm like the elk that I had just slaughtered. The very thing I scold the deer for, I fell into. My mind not concentrating, my senses full with the smell of Zoey's scent, arousing me, distracting me from engaging the dangers surrounding me.

Aare stepped in front of the animal. His eyes lowered. He possessed the greed of a human who could never be satisfied by money, love, or food.

"Let's not let a meal go to waste," he said. Then he stooped crouching down in front of me, to the right of the elk's neck, with his eyes never leaving his focus--me. He's totally concentrated on my every movement. He opens his mouth. His young fangs protruding. When I left my father's home, he was a teenager like Zoey. He worshipped me and he thought I would be the one to change him. But he was always a destructive boy. Always a destructive child.

All he enjoyed doing was killing things. I made the mistake of taking him to the fair with me and Zoey, and three children went missing that very night. He swore to mother that he didn't do it, but I knew he had because he loved to take souvenirs. I found dolls and a watch in his bedroom soon after. I knew one day he would either kill Zoey or turn her.

Aare took a bite and raised his head and his cold eyes glared at me.

"How can you stand to eat this?" he said still watching me. Still sizing me up. Still feeding on the animal's blood.

"I have no taste for human blood any longer," I said to him expecting a response but none came and even though he detested the blood of animals, his greed was insatiable and he didn't stop until not a drop of its blood remained. The animal lay, its body only few minutes ago a splendid animal, now, a dried up carcass.

That's how I envisioned Zoey if Aare ever got his teeth into her. Her blood smelled of youth and so sweet that he would feed until nothing was left of her. I could never allow him to do that to her.

Trying to find the good in him where he wouldn't pose a threat to Zoey, I tried reasoning with him. "You don't have to be like you are. With a little self-control, you can be a vampire like me. If you want," I said eager to convince him of my new found preference, and the freedom from the nightmares of having to live with all the souls I've consumed in my hundreds of years of being a vampire.

"But I don't want to be like you," he said with a teasing tone.

"Once you did. Don't you remember?" I asked looking into his face. His expression changed to one of sadness. Perhaps for that second he saw what was possible. His fiery red eyes jolted to me.

"I enjoy the pleasure that warm blood from a human brings me," he said with an irritated voice. "It makes me strong to know I can take a living human in my hands, with its warmth," his eyes fell to his hands, "and suck the life from them, and make them cold like me." He raised his hands as if he was holding the neck of a person and a smile crept across his face. His eyes lit up and his inhumanity was never as overriding as it is now.

"I enjoy my death. I enjoy killing and savoring the blood of my victims. I can have all the women I've ever wanted forever, and when I'm finished with them, then I can feed on their bodies. Some I let live, some I turn, and some I just discard like trash. He opened his hands and waved them to his side. His expression unchanged. It was like looking at a piece of concrete with eyes.

"Now where is our sister?" He said with a huff. "Mother wants her back and father is beside himself because you've killed one of our brothers, and you have disobeyed him," Aare said with a smirk. Aare never liked that brother who tried to molest and turn Zoey when she was a child. If I hadn't heard Zoey screaming, and killed him on the spot, he would have harmed her later. And as for Aare, he would have killed him himself because he had his eyes on Zoey, too.

"Father demanded that I bring you back to him. He said not to return without you. Do you see what I mean? I can't go back unless you're with me." His voice is calm. But Aare is most dangerous when he's calm.

"You could go to him and say you couldn't find me, and he would stop looking."

"Why would I do that?" Aare said standing.

"I just want to live like a human again."

"But you aren't a human, and you will never be that again. Even if the world comes to an end, there you will be all alone, and the human females who fall in love with you will die, or you will consume them, or try to save them by making them immortal, and you will still be what you are--a vampire who roams at night and turns everything into lifeless dead creatures."

It was painful to hear.

"I'm going to marry Zoey," I said out of anger and truth. I didn't want to hear anything from him. I didn't want to have my brutality laid bare before me where I would have to accept who I am. I had been running from that since Zoey came into my life.

"What do you know about love or marriage?" He said.

"I know that even now as a vampire, I still have a soul because I'm still able to feel emotion. I'm becoming less of a monster because I no longer feed on human blood. And I know Zoey is in love with me."

"Does she know what you are? Of course not," he said answering his own question. "She never knew what we were when father kidnapped her on her way to school. Mother saw this little innocent creature and she wanted something to play with. She wanted what she couldn't have. A human child. Something inside her longed to be human like you're doing now. Father would do anything for mother then, their love was still young and strong for each other, but after a thousand years together, he was just operating on instinct. Then he brought Zoey home, and me, and then you and I had a sister to play with. Why didn't you release me with Zoey? I wouldn't be here now, tracking you to this god awful place."

"I didn't release you because I knew you wanted to be what you are. You're a killer and you were going to kill Zoey one day." Aare shifted his head to the right. He shot me a closed smile as if to acknowledge that I had been right all along. He would have either killed her or turned her.

"I haven't revealed anything to Zoey because I wiped her memory before I released her. I'm going to tell her everything. I'm going to ask her to marry me," I said breathless.

"Do you hear yourself?" He raised the broken neck of the deer, took a bite and threw the body into a tree. There was nothing standing between me and Aare. "I guess you can get to like anything," he said. "Acquired taste I suppose. Why don't you just turn her, and have her serve you for eternity?"

"I can't do that. If you could see how beautiful and warm she is then you wouldn't want to harm her. She was a child and now she's a woman," I said to him trying to ignite some feeling of empathy for Zoey who was then his sister.

But there was no light in his eyes. He was as cold as the day he was turned when he became eighteen. I should have known better, Aare is a born killer. I saw it when he was young when father first brought him to live with us. He killed Zoey's cat and he began killing all the little animals and some children where we lived. It was because of him we had to constantly move about.

Aare became quiet as if he was wondering what to do with me. I didn't want to have a confrontation with him. I needed to get back to Zoey. She needed me more now than ever. I quickly turned and bolted down the path, but I wasn't as fast as Aare.

The blood of humans gives you inhuman strength. The blood of animals gives you only strength to exist.

He stood in front of me with a grin. "Where do you think you're going?" I was always faster than you. Do you think you can out run me?"

My hands balled into a quick fist, and I rammed it into his chest and it threw him backwards and I started to run once more. I needed to get back to Zoey before more of my family discovered my safe haven.

He caught me. "Do you think that little blow will stop me? But this will." He carried something in his hand and threw it at me. It was a ball of silver net with a wooden handle which unraveled as he threw it in my direction. It dropped over me burning my hands as I held them over my head to protect my hair and to lessen the umbrella effect of covering and burning me completely.

My hands threw it off and I rushed away leaving Aare to deal with the blow I had dealt him. He didn't look like he was coping well from the shock to his chest. If I wanted I could have reduced him to nothing, but I couldn't because I still thought of him as a brother and my little human brother. That was my humanity, and it may prove to be the end of me.

# Chapter Six- Sebastian

When I arrived at the house the moon was still out, but the chill and dew of morning had settled on the grass and trees. The sun would be returning soon. This place had been perfect for me and now I would have to change locations because sooner or later Aare would discover my whereabouts if he didn't already know. I stood at the foot of Zoey's bed and she was still sleeping.

I turn to walk away satisfied that she's OK. "Where have you been?" She said in a small voice. I spun around to face her and walked to her bed. She watched at me with an innocent smile which reminds me of when she was five.

"Where have you been? You look like you've been in a slaughter house." Glancing down, blood covered my shirt, and dry blood mixed with dirt smeared on my pant legs appeared to be just that--I could have been in a slaughter house. It wasn't too far from the truth so I gave her some of the truth.

"Hunting. I like to eat deer meat and I have this camp where I make sausage and cut the meat up for later."

She stared at me as if she didn't believe me, but not saying a word. "Next time try not to burn yourself." My eyes fell to my hands, but they were healing as she spoke. I cupped them behind my back. I pivoted around, happy I had distracted her, and she didn't ask too many questions.

"Tomorrow I have to see my father. I need him to know that I'm alive and to tell Detective Cole that he shouldn't look for me," Zoey said.

"Have you accepted that I can protect you from my family?"

"No. I'm not fully convinced." Her eyes flashing to me. Her long lashes covering the bluest of eyes.

"You cannot see your father," I said my voice demanding and urgent. I strode to the bed and sat near her. Her eyes glowed with anger.

"Why not? I've agreed to go with you, a stranger, and put my life in your hands, and you can't allow me to have one day with my father?"

"What if someone tracks you to your father's home? You will be putting him in danger and he could die as a result of your childish desires." She twirled a strand of hair as she did when she was a child.

Her gaze turned to me. "You know something you haven't told me." She narrowed her eyes. I turned away from her gaze to prevent her from reading me.

"What good would it do to tell you? You won't understand," I said to her.

"How about trying to make me understand."

"Because you're just a..."

"A woman."

"That's not what I wanted to say. I have to get some sleep and I need you to stay in the house while I get some sleep." She crossed her arms and I thought I could rest because there was sure to be a retaliation from Aare. He wasn't the type to let this go and this time, he would bring someone with him to help capture me.

When I left to go into my chamber, Zoey was pouting but roaming around the house. Maybe I should get her a wide screen television and stream movies to keep her entertained. I understand young women like those things. Maybe take her shopping. I amused myself with thoughts of doing some human things as I fell into a deep sleep.

I woke and the darkness had surrounded me with thoughts that something had gone wrong. I didn't hear Zoey's heart beat. I didn't smell her scent. I sat up. She wasn't here. How had I managed to sleep all day and part of the night? Never had I permitted myself to do that.

Knowing I was forever hunted, I allowed myself an hour of sleep during the day even if I remained in my chamber hidden away in the walls.

I stood looked around and searched for a sound, and rushed to where Zoey had been sleeping, and she wasn't there. Where had she gone I questioned myself. And it came to me--to her father's home.

For seven years I had hidden in the shadows never revealing myself. Hunting in the forests and parks surrounding Seattle never leaving her side, and now she has put both of us and her father into untold danger and everyone in his neighborhood.

I had my fill of the elk and I wouldn't be hungry for a few days. Because I wasn't around Zoey and covering her scent, Aare would soon find her. I wasted no time in getting to her.

When I stood at her doorsteps, I could see through the picture window into her home. She was sitting at the fire in a chair across from her father. Her father had been reading and he held a book on the blanket which covered his legs. He leaned forward, and then sat back with an uneasy tightness in his body as if Zoey had given him bad news.

Then I realized she probably told him she had to go away.

When Zoey looked up I was standing in the dining area. "You should lock your doors," I said looking at a startled Zoey and her father.

"What are you doing in my house?" her father asked. A youthful looking man with worry lines dotting his face and a full head of white hair. When he tried to stand the youthful face belied the age of his body. His reflexes slow and his knees weak. His body showed the wear and tear of working out in harsh weather. His face showed many sleepless nights with large bags settling under his eyes.

"I came for Zoey." I looked to her. "It's not safe here." I think she understood. I had warned her and she disobeyed my wishes.

"But she just got here. I worried myself over what had become of her. Just like when she was a child, and now you've come again to take her from me."

"I came to protect her not take her from you. I would never do that," I said. He sat back, his face smooth with relief.

"When will I see her again?" Her father asked. Zoey stood and walked near her father and leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. She sensed that she had to leave with me.

"Do you understand that she will never be safe in your home? She may never be able to visit you again." He ignored my plea and Zoey's eyes wandered from her father to me. Zoey's father turned on the television as if that would drown out his thoughts and the memory of her disappearing on her way to school.

It had been his job to see that she got to school and because he was sleepy from working all night, he let a bright little girl convince him that she could walk to school alone. For that he blamed himself and caused resentment between him and Zoey's mother. But he wouldn't know that he was dealing with a force much greater than just a sleepy inattentive father.

Nothing would have prevented my father from kidnapping Zoey.

I looked away to the television. The nightly news was reporting on a series of murders. I recognize the lake house where I had hidden Zoey. The news reporter and cameraman panned to a shot of two people lying on the floor of their home. A blood trail leading from the upper bedroom down to the foot of the stairs and ended with the death of their dog.

"There are no footprints. Just blood everywhere," the police chief said to Detective Cole who paced around out of camera range. Then back again into frame, as he kneeled to examine the woman's neck and then he said, "There are two bites on her neck. And then he stood and kneeled beside the man and checked his neck, "The same kind of bites here," he said into the camera.

"And the dog too?" the sheriff asked.

I turned to Zoey as she watched at the television with her father. "We have to leave now." "Your father will have to come with us."

"I'm not going anywhere," Zoey's father said. I handed Zoey my hand. She glanced at her father.

"Please come with us. Sebastian will take care of us," she said to him.

"This is my home, and this is where your mother died and I'm staying here," he said to Zoey as she rushed to his lap holding him, and he held her.

She stood looking sad. "Take care of yourself, Father," she said with tears welling in her eyes and then streaming down her cheeks.

"Where is the car you took? We need it to get away from here, now and it has our passports."

"I hid it in my father's garage. You said passports?"

She led the way through the kitchen looking back hoping her father changed his mind. We stood out back and I raised the door to the garage. It had no automatic door opener. That wasn't a worry. I could raise it with my finger or just looking at it, but I didn't want to frighten Zoey. She had been through enough. She hopped into the Land Rover and I started it and backed out. I jumped out of the car, and pulled the door down.

When we were on the highway headed out of town, she asked me, "What next and where are we going?"

I had scouted out a place just for this occasion. "We're going to Canada."

"Why Canada? Don't we need passports?"

"I have them in here. They're in the car." I reached for them and handed one to her.

"You think of everything. Well, have you thought that I don't want to be with you?"

"You don't have to be with me. But you do have to live with me."

"Isn't that the same thing?" She asked her eyes fading on me and then turning looking out the window into the night.

"We will have to act like a couple. You don't have to be in love with me, but you do have to pretend we're married." She glanced at me with a furrowed brow.

"Why would I marry someone like you? You have no warmth. You don't have a personality. You don't laugh, and from what I've seen of you and it isn't much, you have no sense of humor. And besides you're a night person and I'm a day person, and if you think you're going to keep me in prison while you sleep all day you can go fuck yourself."

"I don't curse. It's a nasty habit." She eyed me.

"But I do," she said with a huff and crossed her arms over her chest. "I guess adding cursing to all your nasty habits would be too much for even you." I shook my head and didn't respond. She was looking for a fight.

"That's why they say opposites attract," I smiled trying to dispel her notions of me, "now can you at least accept this situation for now?"

"And another thing, I'm not eating that deer meat."

"You don't have to. There will be enough for me." I said glancing at her with a smirk.

"You don't look very prosperous, except for this SUV. Did you steal it and that house?"

"Is that all you want me for, my money?"

"If I can't have anything else, I guess settling for money would be nice."

"Do you mean that you aren't attracted to me?"

"You are handsome and you're tall. You have a nice nose and a hard body and ass, but aside from that you are just a pretty box with ribbons and bows and nothing inside."

She didn't know just how true that was. I couldn't answer her because I had nothing to counteract what she had just said. I kept my eyes up front and somehow she felt my pain.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I say things when I'm hurt."

"I know. You were like that when you were a child." Her eyes shot to me and she turned.

"How do you know that? What part did you play in my disappearance?"

"None." She sat back and relaxed because she did want to believe me. But I had played a great part. I didn't have to wait until she was fifteen before I took her away from my mother, father and brothers. It was just that I loved her from the time I met her. First as a sister and then as someone I wanted to protect. And now as a woman I fell in love with. 

# Chapter Seven- Zoey

When we arrived in a small town in Canada, the snow fell silent, but the noise of the silence in the car and the coolness between us was greater than what was happening outside. It had been in the middle of the night when we entered the quiet little town of Burnsville. I woke from a light beaming on my face after driving through miles of darkness.

I looked up and saw one street light. Oh great. I thought. This was a small town indeed. I wondered how long I would have to live with Sebastian here in this isolated village. And under the circumstances we didn't talk much to each other. We didn't even like each other, I thought. He wasn't the kind of man I would like. I was looking for something, but nothing like him. A brooding, gloomy, miserable authoritative man I didn't need.

I had enough gloom and doom in my personality to last a life time.

However, if I were looking for a man to make me feel safe, he was the one. I felt too safe. I was like choking on safe.

When we first started this ride, he said when we got to Burnsville, I would have to pretend to be his wife. "Why can't we be brother and sister?" I asked after turning that over in my mind the entire four hours of travel.

"Because we can't." He had raised his voice at me for the first time and it was unsettling. I didn't like that and I didn't like him being dominating. I glanced at him. Just what was his problem, I thought, as I took a good look at him?

Why was he so grumpy? He's a handsome enough guy. He probably has women all over him, if he would just smile for once. Maybe when he's had a good fuck he will be more agreeable. But something is messing with his mind and I'd like to know what. Taking a good look at him, I chuckled at the thought. Maybe if he'd just lighten up someone could get near him and want to fuck him. I bet he wouldn't know what to do with it, I thought as I smiled to myself.

"What?" He said. "Why are you so happy?"

"Someone has to be. You're not exactly Amy Shumer, or Jerry Seinfeld, or Kevin Hart." I watched his face change, totally confused. Just as I thought.

"Who are those people? And what's so funny that you have to laugh? The reason I sound short was because I didn't think you would be so combative when I said I was trying to protect you. I thought maybe you would be grateful."

"Grateful for what? For you and your family kidnapping me off the street and holding me hostage while you did who knows what to me."

"I would never touch you. I would kill anyone who would have tried to harm you." I frowned at him and bit my lip.

"See it's what you say and do that makes me angry. All I'm trying to do is help you. The passport says you're married. I wasn't thinking when I had those made. You're a stay at home mom, and I have a clinic."

"If I'm a stay at home mom?" I turned to him, "Then where are the children?"

"I mean wife. I don't want my wife to work. That's what I told the townspeople who hired me. You can work in the clinic alongside me if you need to get out of the house."

"That's great. What are you some kind of animal doctor like a veterinarian?"

"I'm a general practitioner."

"Meaning you are a doctor. When did you become a doctor?" I asked him with a look of disbelief. How can someone go around saying they're a doctor? Don't they need to know something about medicine, I thought.

"When you became a nurse."

"But I'm not a nurse."

"But I am a doctor. Who do you think took care of you those months you were in a coma?"

He drove up this driveway on a hill and pulled up to a house hidden by trees, and the house was just beautiful. It stood off in the middle of a forest surrounded by high pine trees blocking out what little sun existed. You couldn't see the house if you were driving on the highway. You couldn't see that house if a plane past over. It was in a secluded and expensive part of town where houses were divided by acres and acres of land.

Maybe that was an understatement. I don't know how anyone could afford a house like that in any part of town.

"Do we need something that large with just you and me? And can you afford it?" He smiled now.

"There will be children," he said to me with a grin. And he hit a button and drove into an underground parking garage which had spots for several cars but he only had one.

Sabastian helped me out of the SUV and led me to an elevator which took us to the first floor.

"How many floors do you have here?"

"It's our home and we have four. You need to know that but don't tell anyone."

"But it only says three on the elevator," I said curious. Why not say four floors I wondered, and as if he could read my mind he answered.

"That's because it's there to confuse those who are looking for you, and looking to harm you and me. I won't allow that to happen."

"You never told me why someone is looking for me or want to harm me. I said I can't remember anything after I was taken home to my parents. It's like someone erased my memory of that time." Sebastian turned to me and stared.

"I'll reveal everything to you, but it will come later. You must be hungry." He took my hand and when the elevator opened he led me out.

I remembered the feeling that came over me whenever he touched me. His hands were cold, but it was like they were heated like dry ice. I felt the scorch yet I wasn't burned. The heat rippled under my skin and I felt the heat of sexual desire flush through me. I felt aroused as if he had been making love to me.

It was all in my mind. And for that moment, I enjoyed being close to him.

My mind had been tormenting me lately. Since I woke up from the coma, I have felt different. Since that accident where I had been in a coma, I've been having dreams and visions of my childhood. But nothing I could remember past waking up.

"This is your room." Sebastian opened the door. I had walked through the house and up the stairs with Sebastian holding my hand, and never saw the house and saw only him. When he dropped my hand, my body still craved his touch. I could now see the room which he called mine.

The furnishing were modern with chrome and glass. The house of steel and glass structure, which look as if it had leaves painted on it hiding it in plain sight. A camouflage in the middle of a forest and hidden from the world and I was to be a prisoner in this house with Sebastian, and I knew nothing about him except he thought that he had to protect me from someone, but I didn't know whom.

All I knew, it had to do with his family, and me being a child when all this started.

"What? We don't sleep together?" I said as a joke because the bed was a single bed. Just as I thought, he didn't have a sense of humor. His face turned pale and stone like.

"When are you going to drop that sour look? I've known you a few days and all you've greeted me with is a stone face. Lighten up, you might live longer," I said to him and he raised an eyebrow.

"When you're safe, then I will relax and we will go our separate ways. My room is next door, but never come into it unless you let me know first. I will work at night and sleep during the day." I glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. "I'm a night person, too."

"I thought you said you were a day person."

"Well that does it, we're certainly not compatible. We won't be marrying none too soon. And if opposites attract, then we will have a short future. I stay up at night and sleep during the day and therefore I will be up with you. I can go to the clinic and help you," I said, "anything to get out of the house. Although I couldn't have dreamed of a place like this," I said looking around.

"I don't need any help. I have a doctor who I can call if it gets busy." Somehow I felt slighted as if he didn't want me around. I turned away from him.

"Sulking again. Fine, come to the clinic. Now who will do the chores during the day? Like buying groceries," he said.

"We can go together like a married couple when we close the clinic. It will do well for the town people to see how happy we are," I said making another joke.

"Does this town look like they have any place to shop at night?" He said quick and with an annoyed tone.

"Well you won't be busy every day. You will have some days off?" He watched at me with hooded eyes.

"Very well. I'll make do. I don't eat very much." I jumped into the bed and sat up. I kicked off my boots which had been bothering me all day.

"I took it upon myself to stock the place with food for a year. That's how long I expect us to be here before they catch up with us."

"A whole year. I have to be stuck with you pretending I'm your wife for a year," I whined. "I don't particularly like you."

"You're not my favorite person either." I frowned. He had hurt my feelings. I guess I hurt his but he acted so cold that I didn't think he had feelings to hurt.

"Show me the kitchen," I said jumping to my feet. "I want to cook us something to eat. What do you want?"

"Nothing. I'm not hungry." I took his hand. I liked holding on to his hand. He looked down at me. It was the only time he acted as if he was human. The warmth of his cold hands bothered me and I didn't know why. It just didn't seem natural for him to be so cold to the touch. This was the first time I saw warmth in his face.

"Let's go. Which way to the kitchen?" He dropped my hand and walked down the stairs and made a left and opened the door to a luxurious kitchen. "Wow. With something this fancy you need servants."

"We can't have people around."

"You may not be able to have them, but I need someone besides you in my life." He stopped in front of the kitchen isle and stared at me as if I had just stabbed him.

"It's for your own good," he said with a quiet voice.

"How do I know that? How do I know you're not trying to take advantage of me? I know nothing about you, and you won't tell me anything, except you will tell me later, and 'this is for your own good,'" I said mocking him. "In the meantime, I need something to eat and I need to make friends."

"You never had but one and that was Terry." He shot back. How did he know that? He must have been stalking me. I was too hungry to confront him. I would save that for later.

By saying him mentioning Terry reminded me of her, and how I last saw her all pale and lifeless. I didn't want to think about her and how she died. I was trying to put that out of my mind. Months went by since I was in a coma, and I thought my ability to forget had cured me of my pain.

I didn't understand what that monster had done to her and Sebastian wouldn't explain it. I stood looking at him and my breathing grew loud. For some reason I couldn't speak but tears fell from my eyes.

Grabbing on to a chair, I felt weak and didn't want to cry, but I couldn't hold back the tears. They fell hard and easy, and as I tried to pass my hand over my eyes, the water pooled on my cheeks. I lowered my head and brushed my hand over my nose.

Then I felt a cool hand and a pull. I had my head buried in Sebastian's chest and I was drooling and crying on his cold body. His hand brushed over my hair twice. The gesture was a comforting one and the tears stopped.

"Don't cry. I'll be here and take care of you." I had heard those words before. Soft and gentle. It didn't come from my mother. It came from someone who saw a scared five year old and held me to keep me from crying.

Was this the voice I heard in my dreams? I tried to dismiss it. How could that be because Sebastian wasn't but a few years older than me now, and then how could he become a doctor and work in a clinic. But then he wasn't a doctor. I inhaled and moved away from his comforting chest. It was all in my silly mind. I couldn't trust my mind since I had an accident. But that wasn't no accident. There was a fight between Sebastian and his brother, and because I didn't run fast enough, they plowed into me and bang, I hit Terry's car.

Right into the bumper. I always thought that car was a piece of junk but it didn't give when those two strong men fell on me and I was pinned under the wheel. That I do remember up until I blacked out and woke months later.

"I'm alright. I'll cook something." I tried to sound as if I had it all together, but I was fraying at the seams. One hanging piece of thread you can't help but pull at it, and if someone dared pull, I would disintegrate into nothing.

I felt Sebastian watching at me as I walked to the large double door fridge and opened it. "Just what a growing girl needs. Frozen pizza." I turned to him and smiled and trotted with a smile intact and humming, and popped it into the microwave. Seconds later I had a fresh pizza pie. I took it out and found a soda in the back of the fridge.

"Holding those back are you?" I said showing him the can of cola.

"They're bad for you."

"What's happening to me now is bad for me. Not a pizza and cola. That's good for me," I took a large bite, "I'd prefer a beer, but I don't see any beer in here. If you want me to stay here you will have to buy me some beer or I might be tempted to go to a bar. Now you wouldn't want that?"

"Are you threatening me?"

"Yes. You bet. If I have to stay here with you and don't have friends and spend a year around sick people, then I need something to make this a little easier."

"I've never known you to drink." My eyes left the pizza and gazed up at him.

"What do you know about me? What I've gone through from meeting you will make anyone a drinker. So if you want peace in here, then get me something to calm my nerves."

He stared long at me with his bluish green stone for eyes, and then he made a fluid swift turn as if he was a dancer, and out of the kitchen he strode sulking. Glancing at his quick departure, I opened the door to see him headed up the stairs and I shouted, as I bit into another heavenly piece of pizza, and drank my cola, "This isn't easy for me and it want be for you. So get over it."

There was no way he could have heard me, but the next evening when he departed his room I gave him more of the same.

# Chapter Eight-Zoey

I passed his room once I woke after trying to sleep, but too many cokes and caffeine had me up most of the night and day, and now I was feeling drowsy. I guess that worked out fine. I won't accompanying him to the clinic tonight. Looking at the clock it's seven pm.

Stepping lightly down the stairs, I marveled at the beauty of this home. If I could furnish it, it would be more beautiful than it is now. After all I am a doctor's wife and if he expects me to welcome the townspeople it should have furniture.

Reaching the kitchen, I didn't expect to see him sitting in a chair at the isle in the kitchen staring into space. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for you. I have to go to the clinic tonight. Tonight is my first night and the way you look you're not ready to go with me."

"I can go. I don't want you to say I didn't carry my weight. I want to work. I need to do something or I will go crazy."

"How about during the day you try to spread good will with the people in the town. It's expected of a physician's wife," he said angling his head to the side.

"What doctor are you talking about?" I glanced around as if I'm looking for someone.

"Me of course. If you can't play the part..." He said angry and taking large breaths.

"You're going to get someone else I suppose. Your threats don't work on me," I said.

"What will work?"

"How about telling me what we're running from and who's likely to show up to harm me. Maybe then I might be less hostile and want to cooperate with you."

"I think I said in due time I will tell you." He stood. I walked in front and planted my feet, and looked into his beautiful face, put my hands on my hips, and stood in his path. He reached for me, held me by the arms and lifted me, and placed me to the side.

He shot me a closed smile and headed for the door.

"You can't bully me. I won't be put off. I've been through hell and I won't stand for you sidelining me like I don't exist," I said.

Sebastian kept walking and I followed behind him carping about everything I didn't like about him and the house. "You need to tell me something if you want me to remain here."

He turned and for the first time I saw into his soul. His eyes fixed on me and his jade eyes turned to stone and I became frightened. Had I needle him, pricked at him to the point where he would show me this part of him.

"You want to know. Then I'll tell you. You don't know what you're dealing with. There are men, no, that's a stretch," he took a full breath, "to say men will come for you and they will destroy you, and they will kill you in ways you can't imagine, and then try to destroy me because I haven't killed you yet or changed you, is to speak mild. You just don't know. "

Touching him I said, "What do you mean change me?"

"I have to get to the hospital. I don't like to be late." He looked at his watch.

"You can't go. I need to know more."

"Why do you need to know? All that will do is make you more nervous and you will do things you shouldn't do." He kept walking and got into the elevator and took it down to the garage. I stood breathing hard and questioning everything.

I needed to eat so I walked back to the kitchen to see if there was anything I could cook. Once again nothing that wouldn't give me a heart attack at an early age, but what the hell, the way Sebastian talked, I'm a walking corpse anyway.

Opening a can of chili I ate that with some crackers and trotted out of the kitchen to take a bath. My life was upside down, and my body clock was fucked up. As I was getting ready to climb the stairs, I saw a figure of a woman standing outside the front door.

She rang the bell and I turned. From her silhouette she looked pretty. Her hair long and she wore a dark dress and boots. When I opened the door, she stood smiling. She had a plate in her hand and Saran-wrap covering what looked like a plate of brownies. My eyes stayed on the brownies for a while. I needed some sugar. When Sebastian stocked the house he conveniently forgot cookies, candy, and ice cream. To hell with what's good for me.

"Does Dr. Sebastian live here?" she asked with a soft accent. I think she must have been English but I wasn't sure.

"Yes, he does. Please come in." She walked two steps into the foyer, turned her nose up as if she smelled something rancid, and didn't go any further.

"I'm not going to be here long. I would like to welcome Dr. Sebastian to our little town. I mean I'd like to welcome you and him," she said looking around. She was a beautiful looking woman with dark hair and black eyes. She wore a dark dress with a shawl covering her and a pair of black boots.

"Are you his wife?" I stumbled a bit with my answer but I managed to get it out.

"Yes of course," I said as my eyes measured her.

"I envy you. Your husband is so handsome and young for a doctor." She had a sparkle in her eyes as she described him which was a bit unsettling because she was in her twenties which worried me more.

"Are you married?" I asked her.

"I haven't been as fortunate as you. In a town like this, all the young men leave to go to a city and all we're left with are the middle age and elderly. We are fortunate to have Sebastian, I mean Dr. Sebastian here with us." She shot me a wide closed smile.

Then she remembered that she had a plate in her hand. It was filled with brownies. "Oh here. I almost forgot to give these to you." She appeared nervous but delighted when she handed me the plate.

Taking it from her hands, I was happy to get some fresh baked sweets. Clearly Sebastian hadn't loaded the kitchen up with cookies and potato chips. Not good for me.

Happy to get the gift, I asked her, "Do you want to come in and talk, maybe eat a few of the brownies with me?"

"Sorry, but I can't. I have to go. There's something I need to take care of." She gave me a wide smile with her beautiful white teeth, and looked at the brownies again as she walked to the door. I walked with her. She opened it and stood on the outside and said, "I hope you enjoy them and tell Sebastian that Samantha stopped by when you see him."

I watched as she walked down the steps and it occurred to me that I hadn't seen a car. Maybe she parked it down the path instead of the driveway leading up to the house, but why would she do that? I wouldn't be caught dead walking down that path if I didn't have to.

And I didn't get any information from her. I think I was taken aback by her brazen nature and how she seem to salivate when asking about Sebastian. Just her very nature put me off. I could see her going to his office wanting him to examine her.

Walking back to the kitchen to put the brownies in the fridge to eat later, I decided to dump the plate in the garbage pail. "There," I said. "No one's going to eat your stupid brownies. You probably brought them for Sebastian and not me. That was just an excuse to see him, bitch," I murmured to myself.

And I dumped them into the garbage with the Saran-wrap tightly covering them.

Oh. I forgot. I needed a bath and I turned and headed for the stairs after locking the door behind Samantha. "What kind of name is that?" I mumbled.

I wouldn't be answering the door or letting in any nosy hot young women who really want to get a look at Sebastian, I thought. I passed Sebastian's room and saw another door. Opening it I decided to peek in. There, I found one of the largest tubs in a bathroom that connected to my room.

Stepping into the bath after turning on the cold water, I eased myself down and exhaled. Throwing my head back, I closed my eyes to think about what had just happened. A woman shows up at your door at eight at night looking for your husband with a plate of brownies in her hand. Her entire discussion is about how handsome my husband is.

"He's not my fucking husband and I doubt that will happen," I murmur. When I open my eyes and reach for a towel, standing looking down at me is Sebastian.

"What are you doing here? And how did you get in here without me seeing or hearing you."

"That's not important. Did you eat any of Samantha's brownies?"

"What kind of question is that and how did you know her name is Samantha? And what the fuck are you doing looking at me naked. And no, I didn't eat any of her fucking brownies. She probably brought them for you not me."

"Which question do you want me to answer first?" he said.

"How about why are you looking at me naked in this tub."

"I have seen naked bodies before. Who do you think took you home and washed you and took care of you as you lay in a coma for all those months? It was me. I've seen and I know every freckle on your body. You have one between..."

"Stop it. I don't want to know if you did anything to me while I was unconscious. I don't want to be confronted by a necromancer."

"I think you used the word wrong," he said.

"Never fucking mind. How do you know Samantha?" He didn't say anything at first as if he was measuring how much he needed to tell me. He walked over to the linen closet and pulled out the largest towel I'd ever seen and held it to the side as he turned his back to me.

Turning to face me, he placed a towel on my hair and wiped it. That was a memory I had when I was a child. Someone bathing me and then drying my hair. The touch of his hand was so light and loving that I thought it was my mother's hand. But it wasn't. His hands gave me the same feeling I received as a young child, and I became confused.

Looking at him all the hostility I once felt faded with his touch. "What is this about, Sebastian? Why are you here and not at the clinic?"

"Because I can't leave you for two minutes without you putting yourself in harm's way. Didn't I tell you not to answer the door?"

I walked away from him. Just when I warmed up to him he becomes aggressive. "No you didn't. You just said I would be safe here and that I should make myself known to the people in this town. So I did." I gritted my teeth at him.

"She's not from here," he said standing in front of me.

"How the fuck should I know." I looked up at him and he appeared to smile and then he calmed.

"No. I guess you wouldn't know." I walked away from him and walked into my bedroom and sat on the bed and crossed my arms in defiance. He sat near me with his mouth open and blowing out a large breath through his white teeth. His mouth distracted me. With him being near me distracted me to no end. His closeness made me warm as if we were in an embrace.

"Do you drink coffee or tea?" I asked him. I didn't know what to say to him. That was to distract me from craving his touch.

"No."

"Thought so. No one with perfect white teeth like yours ever ate or drank things that weren't good for them. Do you at least drink wine or beer?" I was trying to relax him and myself where he could tell me about Samantha.

"I know what you're doing." I'm glad he knew because I didn't.

"I have to tell you about Samantha. Things I think you shouldn't know I won't tell you," he said his voice low as if he expected someone to hear him.

I shifted to face him, "But why?" I asked in a small whining voice. "Why won't you tell me everything?"

"Because you can be harmed by knowing these things." His look trailed off. He no longer looked me in the eyes, but he was somewhere I couldn't follow.

"And I can be harmed by not knowing, too," I said trying to get his attention.

"That's true, but there are things your mind can't grasp or understand."

"How about telling me and let me decide." He leaned over and kissed my lips. I felt my heart beating wildly. I wasn't aware he would affect me the way he was doing. His kiss warm and gentle. He grabbed my shoulders and brought me to him. I heard his breath. I heard a moan. I heard the silence in the room, and I heard the loud beat of one heart.

That heart was mine. 

# Chapter Nine-Zoey

The coldness of his body suddenly heated up as if someone had built a fire in dead embers.

Breathless from his kiss, and trying to get answers before he would do something else to make me forget, or make me angry, I said, "Tell me now. I want to know all about you and Samantha," I said my mouth open and on his. We were comfortably exchanging breaths.

My lips close, with me breathing into his mouth and him holding me in his arms, not wanting to let me go, and I'm not wanting to go, pleading with him to tell me what I had to be fearful about.

In his arms and with his mouth on mine there was nothing I would fear now, but what about later?

Looking into his eyes, I noticed a change of color. The once hard stone green became a warm blue with only flecks of green color remained. I moved away from his arms. I moved away from his lips. And I put a barrier between us. I didn't want to fall in love with this beautiful man because somewhere deep inside I knew that it wouldn't last.

"Tell me now. Tell me about Samantha."

"She's a witch." I broke into a loud laughter.

"A witch. How stupid do you think I am?" He didn't answer and that furrowed brow and sour look returned to his handsome face. And he shook his head.

"It's impossible to tell you anything if you go on like this. How can I tell you about me or my family if you think the way you do?"

"It's only because I never believed I would hear such nonsense from someone like you. Aren't you a doctor? Then how could you believe such a piece of garbage." I stood and walked to find something to cover my body. I opened the closet as if searching for a robe and there was one. Surprised at how he had attended to detail, I tied the belt and slipped into a pair of slippers and then pulled the towel from my body and let it drop.

"I guess you thought about undergarments," I said as if I was certain that he couldn't have bought them. I pulled open the drawer and there lay panties and bras of every color scheme. Black, white, brown, green. I turned to him. "How did you know...?"

"You wore that size. That's not hard. You are a size six. Not quite as small as I had pictured you, but close enough." When I left the room to put on my panties, I returned to find Sebastian still sitting in the same place as if he was a statue.

I sat on the side of him. "Now tell me about that witch. Are you sure she isn't after you?"

"She is after me."

"I didn't expect you to be so revealing and up front. I thought at least you would try to hide your girlfriend from me. Why would you take me away from my father and to this wilderness and have your girlfriend come here to size me up."

"She isn't a girlfriend. You're right about one thing she does want to possess me, but she can't. I won't let her." He placed his hand over mine. I calmed. I wanted to believe him but it was hard.

"She's a real witch, I said, now what is her real name?" I was being playful.

"The kind that puts spells on people and kill them," he said.

"I suppose she came to kill me."

"Yes. She did. If you had eaten those brownies you would have died." He finally got my attention, but I wasn't convinced yet.

"Why are people trying to kill me?"

"These are entities that aren't human. They are beyond anything human. There are things humans don't understand. Like you. You have refused to recognize what I'm trying to tell you. There are witches, males and females that walk among humans and cast spells that can destroy humans or their love ones. There are powerful sorcerers and werewolves and even vampires."

"Now you're worrying me."

"You should be worried. She's a witch of the highest order. She can cast spells over you and me. She can disappear and return. There are good witches but she isn't one."

"It seems she has already cast a spell over you."

"Can't you take what I'm saying seriously? It may save your life," he said.

He stood. "This is impossible. I knew you were too young to discuss this and that you haven't seen enough in this world to expose you to this. It may be too late for both of us now that Samantha is bent on killing you. If she does that, then I won't have any choice but to track her down where ever she hides and kill her."

"Where are you going? I was just enjoying your fairytales about witches and werewolves." I snickered and his face turned pale once more.

"Back to the hospital. I have patients to care for."

"This time of night? Everyone should be asleep in this town."

"We have hunters coming in who have been bitten by werewolves." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Did you say werewolves, you must have meant dogs?"

"Yes. Dogs. That's what they want to hear. They don't want to know that they were attacked by a werewolf just like you didn't want to hear about Samantha being a witch."

"When will you be back?"

"Before the sun rises."

He walked to the door leading to his bedroom and closed the door behind him. Nothing rang a bell with me. I waited until I heard him open and close the front door and heard the car motor turn over, and I watched out the window as the car drove away.

This was a great time to see what he was hiding in his room. I tiptoed to the door as if I thought someone was watching or I might get caught. But how could I, when there was no way for him to get back without me hearing him.

Biting my fingernails, I opened the door to his room. A big empty room with only a piano. But there must be more. I wondered, where does he sleep. No bed. "What the fuck is this?" And then I let my mind construct an excuse. "He likes to rough it. He sleeps on the floor. He looks the type," I said as I crept to the large double door closet. "I wish my closet was that large," I murmured carelessly as I opened it up.

"There isn't anything inside," I said with a careless look. Nothing but one black suit, black pants, and black shirts. I let my fingers trail over them. "I need to go shopping and buy him something with color. He's taking this a little too far. "Look at this. This wardrobe looks like something from the eighteenth century," I murmured as if I would know what they wore. I almost failed history if it wasn't for a tutor.

"Well he wants me to act like a doctor's wife then I'll show him." I turned with a smile and that's when something caught my eye. There were several drawers built inside the closet, next to it shelves, with his shoes and boots lined up neatly.

Standing in front of the drawers, "While I'm here why not?" I shrugged. Pulling open the top one, it was filled with newspaper clippings. I took a hand full and sat on the floor. The newspaper started in April of eighteen sixty one. The clipping were yellow and stained as if someone read them over and over them while drinking tea or coffee.

I had taken a class in American History and I didn't want to relive the US Civil War again so I thumbed through that paper only taking a look at the ones that mattered. There was a headline of a dentist who had discovered anesthesia for soldiers during that war.

He was on the front page of the New York Times. The picture looked eerily like Sebastian. "Probably his great grandfather," I mumbled. I couldn't help thinking about that picture or the black suit and white shirt with a black tie.

What a handsome man. His hair a little longer than Sebastian, he's smiling and has a sexy smile. There's those Sebastian teeth. Had to be some relative. At that moment I wished I'd lived during that time and could have met his great grandfather. He appeared more likeable than Sebastian who enjoyed cultivating a dry stubborn look.

After dreaming about the great grandfather for a moment, I threw those papers aside for something closer to my time. I fingered through the papers and found one for year two thousand. I was five years old then. That thought came racing through me like a hot poker had been placed on my skin, searing it leaving only the bone.

The headlines read: There have been a rash of children who have disappeared in Seattle on their way to school. All have been found except one child, Zoey Miller, five years old, dark hair and blue eyes who was taken by someone in a van only a few feet from the school door. She disappeared into a sea of children unloading from a bus.

A classmate called out to Zoey but she didn't turn around. The classmate said Zoey had been holding a man's hand she thought was Zoey's father. Apparently it wasn't.

Ryan Cole, a young first year graduate of the police academy in his interview with us, stated that he would not rest until he brought Zoey home.

I couldn't read any more. There were mountains of clippings of me. I forced myself to read the rest though, and then I found one recent article. I remembered that picture. I was fifteen years old when it was taken.

A young girl standing on Fleet Street near St. Bride's Church in London, England looking frail and scared, said she hadn't eaten in days when she asked a stranger for food. When the woman asked her name, she said Zoey Miller. The woman who didn't want to be identified said she recognized the name if not the face because it was the name of a child believed to be taken years before and presumed dead.

This was me and why did he have all those clippings and what connection did he have to these papers, I wondered.

It took all night for me to read the rest of the papers and still I couldn't figure out what was going on and how and why did he feel the need to help me. Sebastian's answers were weird to say the least, and there would be no way I would believe there were werewolves, witches, and vampires.

Even the one about Samantha being a witch was laughable. I can see a disgruntled woman trying to get rid of her rival, but poisoning me was a little over the top. If she wants that handsome bitter cold man then she can have him, I thought. I'll gladly turn him over to her, as if I've ever had him.

But I couldn't deny what I saw with my own eyes. My best friend Terry mauled and torn apart by something. Before I could see or know what he was, I had been knocked unconscious by the fight between Sebastian and his brother. Even that was a little unbelievable. Brothers fighting like two animals intent on killing each other.

Then I heard someone enter the house. My heart fell to the floor. We're going to need an alarm system. With all the talk about witches, werewolves and vampires, how does Sebastian expect me to function? I'm a fucking nervous wreck.

Looking around I found something I could use to defend myself. It was a small statue, but what could that do? I tiptoed out of the room and made my way to the kitchen without seeing anyone. When I opened the kitchen door there stood Sebastian looking tired. He still wore his white doctor's coat.

"You look like you could be a real doctor." His eyes caught the statue of an old man in my hand.

"What are you going to do with that?" He said breaking into a small smile.

"I was going to defend myself."

"From who? There's no way to defend yourself from a witch or a vampire."

"Then why not give myself up to him or her and stop all this running and hiding." I set the statue down on the kitchen isle and leaned close to Sebastian, pushed the collar of my sweater down and leaned my neck to the side.

Looking up at him, "Are you one of them? A vampire?" I said in jest, "Then take me and make me an undead. Do whatever you want with me. I give in." I snickered.

Turning away in horror, his eyes shining like polished jade, he inhaled as if the air was taken from the room and he couldn't breathe, and he exhaled and said, "You don't know what you're saying or doing, don't do that again." His voice cold as ice.

"I thought you would stay at the hospital until morning? Give me some time to myself."

"I took off early to bring you a bottle of wine." His voice softened. "And to make sure you were alright. I can't be too careful with Samantha running around."

"Your girlfriend. Thanks, but I can handle Samantha."

"How many times do I have to tell you she will kill you?" He reached for my shoulders and brought me close to him.

"But you won't let her. Will you?" I smiled.

"I could kill you myself," he said looking at me with a long erotic tortured gaze. The sound of his voice, a broken whisper, a sensual rasp of excitement, which made me tremble with anticipation in his arms.

Staring back at him I had to admit to the attraction I felt for him, and his for me. I didn't want to acknowledge that this man thrilled me and filled me with desire.

"Go ahead. It would be better than dying of boredom in this fucking place," I said and turned my back on him to reach for the wine. I needed to get some space between us. He placed his hands over my hand and looked at me as he turned me around.

"Say you don't want me to kill you."

"I don't want you to kill me. Does that make you happy?" He let my hand go. We stood looking at each other.

"What now?" I said.

"Nothing," he said. And he turned to walk away, and then he turned back as if he had a second thought, to meet my eyes.

"What?" I said.

"Marry me."

"Are you out of your mind? I don't want to marry anyone. Well not yet. But I do know this handsome guy in school I might want to fuck." His hands tightened on me. "You're hurting me," I said. He released me quickly and looked at me as if he had injured me. I walked around to get the wine opener.

Turning to him I said with a smirk, "Are you jealous?"

"You have to be in love to be jealous," he said. And I threw the opener at him. He caught it. Some reflex, I thought. His gaze never left mine and he walked around and held me again. "Why are you angry? Did you want me to be jealous when you made that remark? Why do you have to say those things to me? One day you will go too far," he said his voice heated, and simmering with unrestrained passion as his eyes met mine.

I couldn't control my heartbeat. I couldn't control my need to be held. I couldn't control my attraction to him.

His body close to mine where I could feel his coldness because we were meld together and I gave him my heat. He leaned giving me a heart stopping kiss. The kind that made my body shudder. I lay my head to the side and before I knew anything he lifted me in his arms, and was climbing the stairs two or three steps at a time. 

# Chapter Ten-Sebastian

Zoey took nothing serious. Maybe it was because of her youth. I should have turned her when I had a chance, but she was too young. She was only fifteen when Aare wanted to change her. I saw what he had done to the younger girls when they became teens, and so I took her and fled with her.

We hid out in Spain and Italy for a while, but all she had known was my family. And many nights she cried herself to sleep. I know she thought I was cruel for separating her again from a family she thought she loved. But she knew nothing of what was waiting her.

My mother and father and brothers and one of them would have eventually turned her into a lifeless creature where they could control her forever. I could never see her like that because she was too warm and full of life, but that was the future of all the children who walked through my father's house.

They were to be changed after they reached eighteen.

I thought of those days when I lay her across her bed as I helped her disrobe. I looked down at her. Her body supple, warm and youthful. Her skin flawless. Her mouth slightly parted where I could hear her breathe.

Zoey was a beautiful living being and I envied her. I needed her. She reminded me of all that was innocent in the world, and that life was precious, and there was no way I could take it from her.

The darkness in the room masked the cold white of my skin. But it would be sunlight soon. "Tell me you want me as much as I want you?" I asked her. I needed to hear her voice her affection for me.

"I think I want you more than you want me," she said as I leaned down to kiss her soft lips. Her lips swollen and red with lust. Her eyes warm and trusting. And her neck. It took all my control to kiss it without plunging my fangs into her. Maybe I could just taste her sweet blood, I thought. I wouldn't draw more than I need to satisfy my need for her.

I couldn't trust myself. It had been years since I taste and savored the blood of a human I loved and wanted so much.

The last time I tried at the insistence of the woman I met and thought I loved, the rapture of her blood overcame me, and I didn't want to stop feeding and I didn't stop until it was too late. I see her eyes now. It went from bright to exciting. She laid her neck to the side like Zoey did, waiting for me to kiss her, and then her eyes went dim and the light left, and all that was in front of me was a shell.

Had I stopped at one point she would have been like me and even then I could have lived with what I had done, but the smell of her sweet blood sent me into a feeding frenzy, where I had no control.

That's why I will never tempt myself again, especially with Zoey.

I smelled Zoey's body and my want and need swelled in me. I touched her soft hair and sniffed it as I closed my eyes remembering how she grew into the woman I know today, and how much I want her now.

Raking my fingers through her scented washed hair, the sweet fragrance of fresh rain water and roses took me back. I closed my eyes and I see her as a teenager sitting in front of her parents' house. I remember that spring day and the smell of the air. And I remember what it felt like to be a young man in love when I saw her as a young woman. It's like that now with her.

"Would it be terrible if I were to lay with you like this for a lifetime and never want to leave you?" I asked Zoey.

She turned and pushed her leg across me and lay on top of me naked. The feeling of lust and then love claimed my thoughts and then my body.

"How are you going to love me if you're fully clothed?" she said and she helped me take off my shirt. And then my shoes and pants.

I lay there bear with her watching intently at me. "You're so pale. You need some sun," she said trailing her finger across my chest and up to my mouth. I took her finger into my mouth and she pulled it out and placed her lips where her finger once lay.

Then she kissed my chest and kissed my mouth. Her lips closing on mine. I smelled her fresh breath and kissed her with the passion and hunger I reserved for only her.

My tongue in her mouth. My breathing hard and my need ready to burst.

She was taking everything from me as if she was the vampire. She owned me. My soul and my body.

I could never be the same from the time she walked into my life. But now how could I explain to her what I am, and that my life is long and hers will be short. And if I don't change her then I will have to spend an eternity without her love.

"You are the only woman I've ever loved." She looked me in the eyes as if I had given her the most precious present.

"No man has ever said that to me. You love me?" she questioned with a small voice. "You are the first. No," and she giggled, "my father was the first to say that, but I doubt you have the same intentions as my father," she said to me.

"No. My intentions aren't honorable. I want to make love to you. I want to feel your warmth and smell your lust for me." I gently turned her on her back and lay over her. I wanted to hear her tell me she loved me too, but she didn't say it then. But I could wait. I can wait a lifetime and then some.

Leaning over her she placed her hands around my neck. "I was wondering when you would want to make love to me. I thought maybe I had to rape you," she said to me with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

"So what you said about wanting to fuck a man was all a joke?" She placed the tip of her finger in her mouth and shook her head yes.

"The man was you."

She smiled and I kissed her nipple and she raised her hips to me and I placed myself inside of her. At first it was difficult. I kept trying as she lay there smiling until the smile was replaced by a painful moan.

She grimaced because of the coolness of me entering her and I smiled because of her heat covering my flesh.

"You're a virgin," I said not out of surprise. I had watched her from the time she was fifteen until now and I knew her habits.

She was a homebody, cooking, and cleaning for her father. Going to school and never accepting a date. I didn't know what I would have done if she had gone out on a date, but then I did know, but I didn't want to admit that to myself. I couldn't have her and I didn't want anyone else with her.

What would I have done if she didn't end up here with me? I didn't want to think about that so I placed those thoughts away, with the rest of all the thoughts of hundreds of years crowding my tormented mind, because today, I have beautiful memories to add to them.

"I was hoping I didn't stay a virgin forever. Who wants to be an old maid?"

"You know that expression?" I asked.

"Some things are universal." She kissed me and I felt her heart beat wildly.

"You're no longer a virgin," I said remember what happens to a virgin. I had to control myself more now than ever since the smell of her sweet blood could make me wild with blood lust.

"You're the culprit," she said kissing me and bearing down on my hips pushing me farther into her. "And now you have to make me an honest woman." She smiled and somehow I knew she was kidding.

We were two people who needed each other for warmth and love. She needed my protection and I needed everything she had to offer whether it was a lot or just this one night to be with her until the sun came and I had to enter into my room and sleep alone. But I wanted to sleep with her. I wanted to sleep with Zoey for all of eternity.

Zoey's tongue moved across her mouth, her eyes shut, her head to the side as I kissed her neck. Her scent was overpowering as I merged my body into hers and she raised her hips to meet me. I sucked her neck and concentrated so that I didn't make a mistake and draw blood.

Once I did, I may not be able to control myself and I needed control.

As I fell deep into her, I felt her warmth, I felt her love course through me. I knew then what it felt like to be human again. I wanted this feeling, I desired this feeling over all the years of waiting for her.

I sought this feeling from her, and now that I have it, I can't let it go. I can't let her go. I can't live without her.

When my orgasm came, it was like the breaking of light over my body. I wanted to scream not from pain, but from the joy of knowing that I had found love. That I had found what I had been searching for all these hundreds of years.

# Chapter Eleven-Zoey

I wasn't sure what came over me. One minute I can't stand him and the next I can't live without him. When he placed me in his arms and carried me up the stairs, I lay my head on his cold hard muscular chest. I was burning up. Having a temperature that's high all the time, which stayed with me constantly night and day, his body became a relief from that everlasting warmth.

The doctors said that they didn't know why I lived this long. No one can keep a temperature like that forever.

"The heat from your body is mesmerizing," Sebastian said. "I know now why I love you. I know now why I can't stay away from you." I didn't know but I welcomed him to enlighten me.

"Because of my unusual warmth?"

"You can say that. I feel more human than I have ever. With you of course more than with any human I've been with."

"You constantly say that. You talk about being human as if it's something foreign to you."

"But it is. I'm not what you call human. At least not anymore." I narrowed my eyes and his expression changed as if he misspoke, or had a slip of the tongue.

I sat up away from him. Pulling myself from his body as I glanced at him confused by his bewildering words. Had it finally dawn on me what I was hearing. I had heard him say this before, but never paid attention and thought he was trying to scare me the way a child is afraid after reading Hansel and Gretel. And that thing about a witch.

Sebastian didn't just mention witches and werewolves, he threw in vampires. They were the most hideous and loathsome of tales, where vampires can creep in your bedroom at night and drain your blood and you will become one of them.

Of course there are no such things as vampires my mind said to me. I slanted my head and raised an eyebrow and cut a glance at him.

"After you've made love to me, this is what you're revealing to me that you're a werewolf of some kind?" I questioned.

I was ready to give him one of my barefaced grins. What a silly idea. What a nut I've found among all the nuts I had to pick from. Of all the idiots I've come across and ass holes that I could have fallen for, I've fallen for the biggest wackiest one of all. I shook my head and closed my eyes for a second in disbelief.

"I'm not a werewolf," he said with cold sarcasm. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe there was help for him after all. He's a doctor and quite handsome and not a bad catch. I could do worse. I lay back into his arms feeling a sense of profound relief.

"I'm a vampire." His voice rang with a distant sadness.

"Oh for fuck sake. Did you have to tell me something like that just when I was beginning to like you? I could accept it if you said you were a werewolf, and you could have been taunted as a child where you were unusually hairy. I can see that, because you have a head of hair a werewolf would envy. That is if I believed in werewolves. But I don't, and now you want me to believe in something more outrageous. Like the kind that sucks your blood, kind of vampire."

His eyes wavered to me and then around the room as if he had to leave, but he didn't want to go just yet.

"Yes. The kind that sucks your blood." I glanced at him and laughed. Not a huge laugh as before but a small laugh because I really didn't want to know all this. There's a saying that ignorance is bliss and there is a reason for it. I moved away from him as if he had a plague. I put one foot on the floor and then the other as if I would run, but if he was really a vampire, where could I run?

I just had terrific mindless sex with a vampire, and now I wanted to run away from him. Not because I didn't like him or because he wasn't my idea of a boyfriend, but because I was scared out of my mind and I finally believed him.

"Where are you going? I'm not going to harm you. If I wanted to harm you, I would have done it the night I found you outside that club."

"What are you going to do to me?"

By asking that question I had almost fell into the trap of accepting that he could be a vampire. I had to stay with reality and not fall into fantasy land.

Standing with my hands to my side trembling and shaking, I turned and reached for my robe. What did I think I could cover up because he had seen everything there was to see and been with me half the night kissing my body. And he had taken care of me for months. As he said before, he knew every freckle on my body. I wished I had paid attention before tonight.

He turned to answer my question. His eyes locked on mine. "I'm going to love you forever." Chills rose on my skin from the finality of his words, and his tone, and the warmth of his voice.

"Well if you are talking about making love to me, I don't think that is possible anymore." I made a dash to the bathroom to take a shower to wash away the unholy love I had engaged in. I scrambled to lock the door behind me. Rushing for the shower, I felt his cool breath on my back. He placed his finger lightly there. I jumped and turned to face him.

"I know every freckle on you. And that small strawberry birth mark under your arm near your breast."

"You scared me I didn't hear you." I breathed out loud through my teeth. "How did you get in here? The doors are locked."

"Why should you be afraid of me? I have touched all of you and now I know what I want and that is you." He had this serious stone face and cold eyes watching at me.

"I don't know what I want. I'm too young to devote my life to you. Anyway, if you are a vampire how old are you?"

"More than five hundred years. I don't really know."

"See what I mean. You're too old for me." I shot him a weak smile. I tried to lighten the seriousness of his words, but he wasn't laughing, and I was more afraid of him than I have ever been. It's a strange thing that once your eyes are open, and you can see the light, and the light is too glaring, then you beg for darkness.

I was begging to go back to the point where I thought everything coming from him was a joke. I knew someone was trying to kill me and I thought it was the people who had kidnapped me as a child. It was, but I thought it was his family who operated some kind of human traffic ring to kidnap young children, and sell them. Maybe try to kill me because I knew too much, but I knew nothing except now I know they are inhuman creatures. They are vampires.

But I'm still not convinced because I can't wrap my brain around the idea that vampires exist.

Pushing against Sebastian's chest, he never moved. "Can I take this shower without you around? I just want to be alone with my thoughts and you're making that very difficult."

"I have to go." He opened the shower door and I stepped inside, and he stood looking at me in the shower with cold water reigning down on me.

"I have to sleep. And I would hope you do the same because tonight you have to accompany me to the hospital."

"What if I don't want to go?"

"I would have to insist. Until you understand what you and I are up against, I have to keep you near. You can't be trusted to not bring witches into our house."

"Our house? What the fuck are you talking about," I yelled, "she is your friend not mine. If she is a witch. And they don't exist either," I said pouting.

And he closed the door to the bath room. As soon as the door shut, I rushed out of the shower and into my room and locked my door. Who am I kidding? Who was I locking out? But if he is who he said, then I would know for sure. He would be able to come in here with the door locked. At that moment the logic set in. He had come in on me in the bathroom and that door was locked.

Preparing to sleep, I dropped my towel and scurried under the covers, it was dark in here but the sun was rising. My body clock will be totally confused. Turning back and forth in the bed I said, "There are no such thing as vampires," I said that over and over. "There are no such things as a vampire."

"Don't be so sure of that." I shook when I heard his voice and pulled the covers over my head. I could feel Sebastian standing over me.

"Can't you leave me alone?" I shouted at him.

"Only when you admit that I am who I am."

"You are Sebastian my lover and my tormentor. Now get out and leave me alone."

"I'm going to bed now and don't disturb me until the sun is down," he said. And he disappeared. Maybe being in a coma had affected my mind more than I imagined. 

# Chapter Twelve-Zoey

I slept through the day and woke when the sun set and the entire house was dark when I opened my eyes. Stumbling around to find the lights I flicked on the light switch. Sebastian said don't disturb him until the sun had gone down. Well the sun was down. I threw on some clothes, a pair of tight jeans I found in my closet. Obviously he had clothing for him but not me. What did he expect me to do, walk around naked all day? Or was that his way of keeping me in. I opened the door to his room.

Looking around, there was nothing I hadn't seen before. He wasn't there. I crept to the large closet afraid to turn the lights on. My hand came across a switch and I flicked it and nothing happened. He had removed all the bulbs from the light fixtures.

"Did you find what you're looking for," I heard a deep serious voice behind me. I jumped and swivel around on my heels. There he stood close behind me looking more handsome if that were possible. He wore a black turtle neck sweater something from the seventies and a pair of jeans I had overlooked.

"Kept those as your time as a hippie in Berkley? I asked with a smirk, slanting my head to the side, waiting for an answer that would come.

He looked down at me and said, "As a matter of fact I did." He looked me over. "I will be ready to leave as soon as you're dressed."

"I'm already dressed. What's wrong with my jeans and sweatshirt?"

"They're too tight."

"What do you expect when you bring me here and I didn't have a chance to pick up something? I got this shirt from my father. Threw it into my purse. Obviously you weren't preparing for me."

"I just didn't expect you to wake up so soon. This place was supposed to be the last place that my family would have thought to look. But you must have done something to bring Samantha here."

"Me? She's your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend and I wish you wouldn't entertain that idea. Now if you would be so good as to change into something else."

"I have nothing else." I put my hands on my hips. "Now you are telling me how to dress. I listened to my father, and you're not my father Mr. five hundred year old vampire and Mr. Seventies. Times have changed and I was born in the new millennium. You can't dictated to a woman how she should dress, and why do you think my jeans are too tight?" I said turning around and watching as Sebastian's eyes shot to my ass. The sparkle in his eyes were obvious.

"Because the young men who work with me will be paying more attention to your assets than to their work. I don't want you leading them on. It's bad for men to work around a woman that takes their attention from what is important."

"Well I guess that leaves you out, Mr. Freeze." I taunted him with my snarky remarks because I didn't like being told what I should and should not do. He had years to live without anyone controlling him. Because he's running from his family proves he doesn't want anyone to dictate to him what he should and should not do. I should at least have that same respect.

And I craved the same amount of freedom he was trying to take from me. He had passed the word around that we were married. That alone made men think I was off the table. And here it is when I'm finally becoming confident that men are attracted to me.

"Make sure you change into the blue uniforms we have for our nurses. You'll find them in a locker."

"I had planned on doing just that." I rolled my eyes and smacked my lips in defiance. "Anything else lord protector I should be aware of?"

"You are my wife and you should conduct yourself as my wife."

"And what does that mean?" Another reason why I should get the hell away from him.

"Don't accept any dates from these humans. They know I'm at the hospital all night and for some reason they may try to date you."

"You don't have much confidence in your staff. Or me."

"No. I don't have much confidence in humans. Especially the men. They function with their hearts and you know the rest."

"What are you, too cold, or not human enough to understand?" I watched at his face and realized that I had hurt him. I didn't know he had a feelings to hurt. But apparently he does especially since I was the recipient of that heart in more ways than I cared to admit.

I didn't want to acknowledge that Sebastian was a vampire. He had been so warm in bed when we made love, but he was creating this rebellion within me and my feelings where I didn't want to surrender and admit that he was indeed a vampire. I didn't think I could handle the idea. He didn't behave like I had read about. But everything else fell in line with the traditional vampire legend. No mirrors. Cold to the touch. A creature of the night.

He wasn't a creature but a marvelous looking man. Maybe that's why I can't be certain of what he says he is.

"I'll wait for you downstairs." And before I could blink he was gone.

As I stepped down the stairs, I could see the car through the panoramic glass which surrounded the home. He waited for me in the car in the cold snowy night. The snow falling made it bright and cheery as if I was a child waiting for the snow and rush out to create snow angels.

As a child I had been happy when I forgot that I was never to go home. But I did go home and somehow I missed the family I thought I had and can no longer remember. It was that feeling inside me that longed for that snow and that family Sebastian belonged to.

Why can't I remember my relationship with Sebastian? I get these shattered pictures sometimes where he's holding me and singing to me. I would look up at him and smile and he would tickle me and I would laugh.

But there wasn't much to be cheerful about any more. Now that family I lived with is trying to kill me for some reason. If only I could remember why. My feelings were conflicted about Sebastian and the family who raised me until I turned into a teen.

I thought my mind was confusing me and now I didn't know what was real from fantasy. I felt none of the unhappiness with Sebastian's family. I felt returning to my mother and father was the worst thing that could happen to me. Was it him I didn't want to leave which made returning to Seattle so painful?

Every few minutes I would glance at Sebastian and he would look back at me, but the silence between us drifted over and between both of us. Neither one of us wanted to admit that we were wrong and therefore that heavy silence would remain there until we arrived at the hospital.

The Land Rover came to a stop at the emergency ward. I glanced around, "You're working in the emergency ward on a Saturday night. That's just great." I had an idea of Seattle's emergency ward but later discovered that it wasn't like that. But worse.

Sitting looking out, I hoped he would forget about me, but he came around to open the door. Stepping out, I walked ahead of him, but I wanted to run and not have to face anyone. I didn't know how to behave like a married woman simply because I wasn't one. I had just been made love to for the first time in my life, and before I could get over that, I had to face the idea that he was a vampire and some witch wanted to kill me because of him.

"Hello, Dr. Sebastian. We have a lot of clients waiting." The woman who greeted him spoke in a small nasal voice, as if he had walked into a law office. These weren't clients I wanted to say, they are patients, and if you can't tell the difference then you shouldn't work here. But these were just thoughts. I was probably reacting to the way she looked at Sebastian. All doe eyes looking at him as if he's a God.

He's a fucking blood sucker I wanted to say. Give him half the chance and he'll drain you of all your blood. Why else was he claiming to be a doctor? The blood. I had an, ah-ha, moment. He was hanging around blood like a drunk hangs around a liquor store.

Sebastian grabbed my hand and stopped me from walking. "This is my wife. Can you find her something to wear, and have her wash up because I'm going to need her in the emergency ward?"

"Of course Dr. I know it's difficult when we have so many wolf attacks lately and we can't get a nurse to drive here." We three started walking to the ward and the receptionist continued talking, "Our town is so small. Our population is mainly made up of the elderly so when you came here and agreed to man our small clinic we were grateful."

I looked at Sebastian. I bet she was. They probably didn't check his credentials. Sebastian walked ahead of me and disappeared into the swinging doors.

The receptionist walked around the corner with me following her. "You're lucky to be married to a doctor and he's so handsome. What does it feel like?" She asked as she showed me the area where I would change into the hospital's uniform.

"I never really thought about it, but it's difficult being his wife." She glanced at me not able to comprehend how that could be difficult. "The night work is killing," I said as a joke for me as well as to satisfy her.

"Sorry, but I didn't introduce myself, Mrs. Sebastian," the receptionist said.

"Call me Zoey. Mrs. Sebastian is so formal."

"And call me Ann. We'll probably be seeing a lot of each other since I work the night shift."

"Are you married?" I asked her.

"No. But I live with my boyfriend, he's such an animal," she whispered and gave me a full tooth smile. "If you know what I mean. It helps in these cold months." She left me wondering what she meant by animal.

I had heard my friend, my now deceased friend Terry talk about men being animals and she was kind enough to elaborated on how they seem to be animals when it came to sex. I knew Sebastian wasn't the kind of animal Terry had endless nights discussing.

He had been very considerate with me although I felt as if he was holding back when we had sex. I hung up my clothes and walked outside in a blue cotton pant set.

Following Ann's instruction before I could enter the ward, I washed up and when I finally headed for the ward, I pushed the doors open. I saw Sebastian working from one patient to the next. I jumped in there and he directed me on how to take a pulse and temperature. I learned quickly and soon I could tell who was in need of intensive care and who wasn't.

How could he stand all that blood if he was a vampire? That proves it, he's a doctor and not a vampire.

It was a nonstop job for Sebastian and I didn't know how he did it. When I looked up it was six am and we needed to get home. "Sebastian. It's time for us to leave." He had one patient left that he was placing bandages on.

"I can't leave until my replacement gets here."

"The sun is rising in an hour and it may take that long to get home if the roads are unpassable. You can't push it that close." I couldn't believe I had accepted the shit about him being a vampire.

"Just listen to me you stubborn man." I had bought into what I had just thought was crazy, insane, and stupid. To believe there was such a thing as vampires, maybe I had something unwired in my brain from that knock on the head.

"Look around Sebastian. It's empty in here. Go. I'll stay here. It appears all the action is at night. I'll get someone to take me home."

"I don't want to leave you alone."

"I'm not alone. Ann and the people who clean-up are here with me."

"I'm worried about you. Samantha is still waiting somewhere."

"I can handle her. She's just a woman like me."

"How I wished that were so, Zoey." We were standing in front of Ann's desk and although she was busy talking to someone, her eyes were on me and Sebastian.

I thought that I should give her something to talk about so I gave Sebastian a warm kiss. "See you in the morning, darling," I said.

When I pulled away from his wonderful embrace, it didn't feel like a staged kiss. It had the emotion and warmth of two people who loved each other and were hot for each other and were enjoying the best sex of their lives. Which we had just hours ago until it turned cold by the mention of witches, werewolves, and vampires.

Sebastian walked out reluctantly holding on to the tips of my fingers and then letting go. As he ambled out with a worried look on his face, he constantly looked back at me, and then he disappeared out of sight. 

# Chapter Thirteen-Zoey

After Sebastian left the corridor on his way to the emergency room where the SUV was parked, there stood just me and Ann in the small clinic looking at each other. I thought it appropriate to start the conversation seeing that I was the doctor's wife and ask for a ride home. She probably wouldn't refuse me under those circumstances.

"Do you think you can drop me home when that doctor gets in to relieve Sebastian, and how long do you think he will take?" I shot her a half smile. She looked pleasant and I felt comfortable with her. I had no deadlines to meet but I asked because I was dog tired staying up all night.

Conveniently I had lied to Sebastian. I wanted him to think I was like him. At the time I thought he was just a night person and I wanted to fit in. I liked him a lot, but I had this feeling of love more, but that vampire stuff was so weird, and I just didn't know how to react.

"Oh David's always late," she said looking at a paper. "I heard Dr. Sebastian telling him not to be late because he needed to get his rest, and he could only work at night. I know because I'm a night person too. I love sleeping all day and I come alive at night. My boyfriend is a day person." It appeared unnecessary for her to add that, but since we were bonding, I thought nothing of it.

"So how do you make it like that?" She glanced at me as if it was a stupid question. I asked because I needed pointers. This could be a long relationship I've entered into with this vampire. I guess I was getting used to the idea of him being a vampire because the thoughts of this was getting easier to accept, and it didn't scare me half as much as before.

"You have to work together," she said sharpening pencils and arranging pens in a coffee cup. "You have to complement each other. You do things during the day that he can't do. I do all the shopping and he does the housework." She glanced up at me. "You seem to be working together. Dr. Sebastian said that the only way he could work here was if he had to be out of here at no later than six am. I hope he doesn't leave us because of David."

"That's his name David. When he gets here..." When I glanced up waltzing through the door was a handsome young man in his late twenties who didn't look like a patient and he didn't look like a doctor. He looked more like someone going on a holiday or had just come from a tropical island.

He was blond with a small nose and clear tanned skin. When he spotted me and Ann he gave us the warmest smile. "Two of the most beautiful young women I've seen in years," he said gawking at me. He had a mysterious smile and his eyes beamed like two flashlights in the dark. He enjoyed delighting women and complimenting them.

"That's because we are the only ones you haven't slept with in this town." He kept staring at me. "Please don't give that beautiful woman the wrong impression of me," he said holding my hand and never taking his eyes off of me.

"She's Dr. Sebastian's wife and he's already pissed with you."

"No one can stay pissed with me. I'll apologize and it will be over. And I feel truly sorry for you."

"What do you mean, David?" I said.

"You know my name and I don't know yours."

"It's Zoey."

"What a beautiful name."

"Thanks, but why did you say you felt sorry for me."

"I mean to be married to a workaholic like Sebastian, when he has a lovely young wife where he can't snuggled up with her at night in this cold weather." His blue eyes locked on my eyes.

Taking my hand from his, I said, "There are more important things to devote yourself to other than..."

"Sex. As a doctor nothing can be more important than getting my daily dose of sex."

"As a doctor, do you think it's appropriate to talk like that?"

"You aren't one of my patients..."

"But I'm married to the head of this clinic." I wondered why I made a point to say that.

"You are a young woman whose husband is a workaholic, and there are no patients in here."

"How do you know he's a workaholic?"

"Why, Sebastian told me. He says he has to leave here to go to another township to work." I wished he had told me so our lies could match. I was saved by another hunter brought in with a wound to the leg.

"Come," David said. "I need your help." He took my hand and led me through the doors.

"What happened to you, Fred?" David ask the man who had wounds to his arms and legs.

"Don't know. Went ice fishing, and I'm sitting in my little cabin and a knock came to the door, I opened it and before I could blink, a large wolf of some kind grabbed me by the arm and bit into me. Good thing I had on my old goose down otherwise he would have taken my arm off."

David cut through his jacket. "Geeze did you have to do that. That's my best coat," Fred said looking disappointed. David examined him and I put something on his wound, and David put stitches in the cut, sowing up the wound he gave him something to sleep.

"You can rest in the back, Fred." David pointed to the room. Then he placed his arm around my waist. I pulled away from him and started walking.

"I need to get home."

"What for, Sebastian won't be there until later."

"I have to catch a ride with Ann."

"I can take you home," he said.

"Don't you have duty here?"

"No one comes here during the day. We have a nurse practitioner for that. We hired only one doctor because we didn't need any. I ran this store front operation alone for years. With the help of maybe two other people, but when Dr. Sebastian came in and said he would be moving here permanently, I said why not."

"But don't you have a need for a doctor. From what I saw last night, you need to hire more people."

"That's because we've gotten a rash of wolf bites in the area. Before your husband came to this town, it was quiet. Now we're averaging ten bites and wounds of different degrees on weekends."

"There seem to be quite a bit for a place like this," I said. "All wolf wounds?"

"As a matter of fact I had a few came in with wounds to the neck. Didn't look like a wolf attack, but it will calm down when hunting season is over, and hopefully I can go back to my vacation. So what do you say?"

Glancing at him with a raised eyebrow and tilted head, I had forgotten Ann offered me a ride home. By that time Ann stuck her head through the door.

"I'm leaving now. My replacement is here. Coming?" Ann had her coat, boots and mittens on, and her purse slung across her shoulder.

"I'm behind you." And I began walking in her direction with David at my side. "I guess I won't see you again unless you're late. And I don't think working in a hospital is my thing. I'm not too fond of blood."

David walked me out to Ann's car. She drove a jeep and had it all warmed up when I jumped into it, and she took off, leaving David standing ready to start a new conversation.

"He talks too much and dates all the eligible and married women in this town. Everyone knows all about him, but because he's a doctor they seem to tolerate it. They don't want him to leave. But since we have your husband, the town folks are beginning to tire of David's arrogance and disregard for the men's wives with whom he sleeps with. I bet Sebastian doesn't know his reputation, otherwise, he would never let that wolf near you."

"Why do you think that?"

"Doctor Sebastian looks like the type that nips it in the bud."

Ann was full of information. I guess that's all they had to do in a town this small was mind someone else's business.

"David's father owned this town and when he died suddenly, David took over. They say David is rich and he could be anywhere in the world, but he rather stay out here in the middle of nowhere and take care of the good people of this little village."

"I guess you could say it's honorable," I said looking at her.

"I guess you could say that," Ann said shrugging her shoulders as if she didn't want to commit to how honorable David appeared. "Or you could say that he likes the idea that he can have sex with every woman between the age of twenty one and forty and no one bats and eye."

"Did he try with you?"

"No. Because he knows my guy and he knows what he would have done to him. I suspect Dr. Sebastian is the same kind of guy but he doesn't show that side of him."

That ride home was great to find out all that I needed to know about everyone in town. Or though I thought I knew everything. I was just beginning to learn something about the town people when she came around the bend and she stopped talking. 

# Chapter Fourteen-Zoey

After giving Ann directions to the house she turned down a narrow highway with trees darkening the way on each side of the road. "I didn't know they built houses out here."

"I'm as surprised as you," I said keeping my eyes on the road in case I spotted a deer or werewolf, I thought shaking my head. Even now I can't believe it.

"Isn't it dangerous to be out here alone?"

"I don't think so. Sebastian never would have bought this house if he thought it was a dangerous place to live. We're planning on raising a family." Since she was the town gossip, I gave her a bit of talk to pass around. That would fit into Sebastian's scheme.

"I guess so. But my boyfriend says these woods have strange creatures running around."

"Stranger creatures than David?"

"I guess you have a point there, Zoey. Good thing the sun is up. I never want to be out here in the dark. You should talk to Dr. Sebastian about moving into the city. Well, it's not really a city. Not with thirteen hundred people. But we are close to large cities." Ann glanced my way, "We have to take a ride into Vancouver or maybe go across the border into Seattle for some shopping."

"You're on," I said giving out a smile.

She continued driving up the driveway until she saw the house setting on a hill and alone.

"Oh wow. You're rich."

"I never thought of myself as being rich." The house was a large prison I wanted no part of. I would rather be in my father's home in Seattle than hiding away in a forest with a vampire.

"When are you going to invite me over?"

"Soon, when I'm settled. Have to buy some furniture." I opened the door. "Thank you." I stepped out and waved. Ann took off in her old jeep shooting fumes out of the exhaust and a bang from cheap gas.

By now I was dead tired when I saw something out of the corner of my eyes. It was like a fog. It didn't look right so I rushed to the door and before the fog could reach me I was safely behind the door. And then I heard the bell. I was holding on so tight to the door it jarred me and I lean to the side to look out.

"Can I come in?"

"No. What do you want, Samantha?"

"I thought we were friends." She had a hardening of her voice.

"You tried to kill me," I shouted holding on to the door, and making sure I had turned the locks.

"If I wanted to kill you, I had my chance. I didn't really want to kill you. I just wanted you to suffer a little because Sebastian loves you and not me." Well she got that off her chest early.

"Just open the door and let me in so we can talk. I know Sebastian is sleeping and he won't wake until tonight. So invite me in," she said her voice low and impatient. She could charm any man by the sound of that voice. Samantha was in her late twenties or early thirties. A beautiful dark haired woman with black eyes.

"How do you know Sebastian?"

"Sebastian promised to marry me and he never did and then I learned about you. I guessed you were the reason for his betrayal."

"What did I have to do with him not marrying you?"

"You stood in the way of my happiness."

"How can he marry you, a witch?"

"Because I'm the only one who could marry him. Do you know who and what he is?"

"Yes. He told me."

"Then you know you never can be happy with him. Let me in and we can sit together and come to some understanding. I can explain how you a human can never hope to keep him," she said, "Only I can do that. Only a witch of my magnitude will be able to hold him. All you will do is get him killed."

"I thought vampires can't die."

"They don't die like you. Even I won't meet my end the way you will." Her voice dark and sinister with a trace of irony.

"If you are a witch like he says you are, then you figure out how to get in," I said. I had enough of her predicting my death. Besides, I hadn't plan on dying yet and not by her hands. She began pulling on the door and banging loud and screaming. Making a shrill ear splitting sound with her voice as if she had whistled and the tone kept getting louder and louder until I couldn't stand it.

"You're no witch. You're just a disgruntled girl friend who can't stand to see him with me. If you were, you would find a way to get in here," I taunted her. Then I heard a low moan and it kept increasing and increasing until it reached a shrill high pitch, and the outside glass cracked and split. A crack traveled from the top of the window down the front glass.

Looking at the bottom of the glass, I saw that the window was double thick. Sebastian must have known this would happen, and that's why he built this house and out here. But how did she find him?

I stood riveted behind the iron door, my heart beating loud unable to move. Trying to catch my breath. What has Sebastian gotten me into? "Just let him wake up. I could kill him if he wasn't already dead," I murmured. "I sound like an idiot," there's nothing wrong with him that a good psychiatrist can't cure. Just face it, you've found yourself with a nut you happen to love. And a jealous woman is trying to kill you for him. That's all there is," I murmured.

"Maybe I can get him help," I mumbled. But what about that witch of a bitch trying to destroy me. If she continues, I'm going to the police. I was determine this time.

By now I wasn't tired, but wide awake, and her screaming woke me, and messed up my body clock. I really needed to get some food I can cook. Not the canned meat and frozen pizzas in the pantry.

I would need all my energy to deal with that bitch. 

# Chapter Fifteen-Zoey

Finally Samantha must have known something I didn't know about that house, and she left. I walked into the kitchen. Does he think I can exist on this every day? I threw another frozen pizza into the microwave oven.

After scoffing down a small pizza for breakfast, I was determined to get out of this house and find a grocery store. I needed real food. I'm eating pizzas every day, before nothing could be more real than enjoying a night out with a slice of pizza in my mouth. However, if you eat anything for too long your body rebels.

That was the one food I cherished as a child. How did I know that? It seems my memory of my childhood is coming back. Why now I ask. Why not when I needed it when I was fifteen to be able to remember who the people were who kept me hostage since I was five years old.

In a way I was happy and frightened at the same time. There were things I didn't want to live through again. Like the day I was taken by these people.

My stomach was full and I yawned. I had to get to bed. Climbing up the stairs had me tired and by the time I reached the second floor and my room, I dropped in bed with my clothes on.

When I woke it was dark in the house and I saw two eyes staring down at me.

"Why are you looking at me like that? You can't come in my room and go around here whenever you want. You frightened me to death. Say something. And please get some light in here."

"I can go wherever I want," he said.

"You are such an ass and too arrogant for me."

"It's not that I'm arrogant, I'm stating a fact."

"Well I haven't accepted your facts yet."

"Would you rather I lie to you."

"Well no, but some of what you are saying and doing is making me afraid. You're making me fearful of everything around me. I have this problem since I was kidnapped and I can't get over the fear that something terrible is about to happen."

"Not with me. I will never do anything to harm you," he said.

"But what about all those people who's trying to hurt you and me?"

"It's not me they are trying to harm, but you. I'm trying to prevent them. I need to have you around me because only I can protect you."

"Where were you when that she devil came to the door?"

"You didn't let her in?" His bluish green eyes grew large. There was a raise of his voice.

"No. I probably wouldn't be here today if I had. You could have said how crazy she is and she's planning on killing me to get to you, and when did you get engage to marry that witch?" I said with a hint of jealousy in my voice.

"I didn't know she was a witch then. It was before I became a vampire, and she's been following me and killing the women I've been in love with."

"I thought you said you loved only me. I thought I was your first love."

"That was years before you. What? Are you jealous?"

"No. I'm not jealous. Well yes. Didn't you say you have to love someone to be jealous?"

"Something like that," he said to me with a wide smile. I had never seen him smile like that before.

I placed my hand across my chest and let out a small huff. "I'm just concerned about my life. I'm the only one in this triangle who can die."

"We all can die. But it's harder to kill me or her."

"Just as I said, I'm the one who is vulnerable. Why did you choose me?"

"I had no choice. I fell in love with you. We don't choose who we fall in love with."

"I wouldn't know about that. I'm still young enough to know that good sex doesn't equate to love." When I made that statement, I could see the sadness of his eyes in the dark. They no longer had this brilliant glow about them, but had a dullness as if the light left his eyes.

"Sooner or later you will have to make a choice," he said his voice settling on coolness. He had lost that warmth he had in his voice before I made the statement about sex.

"Well I choose, and I don't want to be in love with you. I have a lot to lose by being in love with you. Just bring me back to Seattle and I will take my chances. I must have been crazy to listen to you." I stood and tramped to the light switch and turned it on.

The dimness had Sebastian standing in a kind of darkness, the kind of darkness where you are sitting at a restaurant with a date you are enthralled with, and the lights are dim, and the atmosphere makes the person you're with more beautiful, and in his case, he was more handsome than I have ever seen him.

His face carrying me away. His eyes glowing with a fierce inner fire striking me like summer lightening. I wished he didn't look at me that way. I felt the warmth of him, and was reminded of how he lay over me and seduced me, and I opened my body to him, and he took me and left me weak and wanting more of him.

Now I felt angry because of how much I knew I needed him and desired his body. When my body is next to his, I forget that I am burning up with this constant fever. But I looked at him with contempt.

"Can't you get brighter lights in here? This isn't going to work out. I can see that. I want a man I can love and I want a family. There's no hope for us. I'm human and you're dead. I'm warm and you're cold." I turned away from him to hide my tears of love and despair. My breathing shallow, and I stiffened when I felt the coolness of his body behind me.

He turned me around and wrapped his arms around me. Held me close to his chest. With my head to his chest, somehow I felt I had been in this position before. Not recently, but when I was a child, and I was crying for my parents. It was that cool chest that I had sought to protect me and calm me to sleep.

Angry about all the mystery of my youth, I hit him in his chest and hurt my hand. I kept hitting him. Finally he grabbed my hand. "You will hurt yourself."

"What difference does it make," I said. "I'll be dead soon."

"Don't say that." He gritted his teeth and a wave of annoyance covered his face.

"I could have turned you, but I couldn't bear to, just like I can't bear to be away from you." He held me. "Can't you understand? Can't you stay with me for a while and I will let you go. I have to make things right so you can live without being hunted."

"Why am I being hunted? Why can't you tell me?"

"I can't discuss that now. I have to go to the hospital." He turned and I walked down the stairs behind him.

"Tell me why your family is hunting me. Make me understand. I need to know." I screamed at him.

Pivoting around on the stairs he said, "I can't tell you now." Before he walked into the underground garage he said, "Don't go out. It's not safe without me."

Rushing down the stairs behind him, looking at him as he walked to the car, I shouted, "It's not safe with you. You just bark these commands at me and you won't tell me what I'm against. Why do you think I act the way I do. You are the reason," I shouted.

He never turned around he kept walking and got into the car, started the motor, open the garage door and zoomed away with me standing there.

# Chapter Sixteen-Zoey

Showering was the best part of living here. I could stay in it as long as I wanted. I had forgotten about school, everything. One more semester and it would have been over. I had planned on leaving Seattle but then I wouldn't have met Sebastian. Which is good and bad. Good because I wouldn't have to be confronted with this nightmare. Bad because I've never met anyone like him.

In the shower I could lock out all the bad memories and the feelings of loneliness for fifteen minutes.

In this secluded place, I didn't have to worry about nosey neighbors peeking through the windows if I hadn't bothered to close the blinds or curtains. The panoramic windows extended all around, but it was as if I was sitting in a forest with no one around.

I could look out into the forest and see birds and squirrels scurrying about. As the water released a spray of warm water down on me, I watched out the window at a small colorful bird. It looked like a humming bird or woodpecker, but I couldn't be sure. I wasn't into birds or anything that had to do with nature, but now I think I will find the time because it's giving me a sense of peace.

The bird flew back and forward and hung around the window as if looking at me wanting to come in. I tapped on the window a few times and it zoomed away.

It was time to get dress and surprise Sebastian. I didn't care what he said, I needed to get out of the house. I called Ann. She mentioned that today was her day off.

"Ann."

"Who is this?"

"It's Zoey." There was a long silence. "Mrs. Sebastian. The new doctor's wife, remember."

"Oh yes. What's going on?"

"Is it possible for you to pick me up and take me to the hospital?"

"Sure, but it will take me a half an hour to get out to that hide-a-way of yours," she said munching on something which made me hungry just listening to the sound. Food. I needed meat and vegetables.

I thanked her, hit the red button and placed the phone down. I wondered why she used that word--hideaway. In actuality it was just that. Did she think we were in the witness protection program? Well close.

I guess I'm too suspicious. Things were making me crazy. This house was making me crazy. My whole life had turned upside down since Sebastian barged into it, and he was making me crazy. I couldn't help thinking that it was because of him that Terry died.

Taking my time to dress, then I threw my coat on, and stood at the door. When I saw Ann's jeep take the road to the front of the house, I stepped out and glanced around. There was that pretty bird again but with the brisk wind and rain, the little bird flew into the trees to take shelter.

The door opened and I hopped into the jeep.

"Thanks, you don't know how much I appreciate this," I said to her.

"Why are you going to the clinic? The doctor doesn't need you tonight. It's the slowest time not that we were ever busy," Ann said smiling at me.

"But the beds in the emergency ward was full last time."

"And the doctor can handle it. I've never seen anyone who could work that fast. He probably wants you around him twenty four seven. But I say let's go to the bar and have a drink," Ann said with a ready smile.

The last thing I needed was to go to a bar. For one thing because of Terry and because Sebastian said not to go out. But then that was the perfect reason to go.

"Sure, let's go. I was just going to surprise Sebastian anyway. He won't know I've been out. We stay an hour, and you can drop me home," I said with a sly grin.

Ann made a u turn and headed down a street with two lamp posts. She passed the front of the clinic and a mile down the street set a bar with a large four leaf clover hanging above it. She parked in front under a lamp. That was good.

When we walked into the bar everyone looked up. "Hey Ann where's that boyfriend of yours," the bartender said.

"Left him home," she said with a giggle. "He's probably got bored and went hunting."

"Does he know you're out without him?"

"No. And I won't tell if you don't." She grinned at me.

He made a gesture with his hand to his closed mouth and twisted his fingers as if it was a key and he was locking a door and throwing away the key.

"This is my friend, Zoey. She's married to the new doctor."

He wiped his hand on his soiled apron and then extended his hand to me. "Your husband is a great guy. He came here years ago when we needed a doctor. Not many men would come to this secluded place, and there's no money here. He said it wasn't the money he was looking for but peace. Now he's brought his wife back. You're a cute one," he said with a pleasant smile. "You must be a solid woman to follow your husband to a place like this."

I smiled and shook my head. "The drinks are on me," the bartender said. And then he made a big announcement, "This here's the doctor's wife." There came a cheer from the back and someone said, "I'll drink to that."

Oh great. That's all I needed for Sebastian to discover that I went to a bar when he warned me and then cautioned me about my standing in the community. Looking around at the men and women, I figure if this is the community, then my position didn't take a hit.

"Thanks Charlie for the drinks," Ann said as he set two beers in front of us.

"I pay for the next round," I said and then I reached for my purse, and I didn't have it and if I did there wasn't enough in it to pay for a coke-a-cola. I would have to take money from my vampire and come back to pay for the drinks. I wondered if he had any, but of course he does. I wondered how much.

In the corner of the bar stood an old fashion juke box, and two couples were dancing to Dolly Parton's "I'll Always Love You." I looked at Ann as we sat at the bar.

"Now what?"

"This is all there is on a weeknight, but there is a bar on the edge of town that me and my boyfriend goes to and there's always action there. Remind me to take you there on a Saturday night."

"I think I'll pass for now because Sebastian has to work. He works seven days a week."

"Does he ever get tired?"

"Yeah. Every morning," I said with a closed smile.

We drunk the beer we ordered, and as usual, I was ready to go when David walked into the bar. He stood at the entrance as if looking for someone and when our eyes locked he smiled at me and strutted over. He wore a dark jacket and leather pants.

"That's a strange look for a doctor," I whispered to Ann.

"Well he is strange. We hadn't seen David since he was a teenager and he was always a strange kind of person. The whole town is full of strange types. My boyfriend for example..." She looked up and didn't finished her sentence, "Oh hi, David. I was just telling Zoey how strange and unusual this town is."

"Why would you want to do that? I suspect she will find that out on her own one day, if she hasn't already." He sat down on the stool near me.

He put his hand over mine and I pulled it away. Ann watched as I leaned away from David and moved closer to her.

Looking at Ann I said, "Don't you think you should drop me at the hospital? It looks like David will be late another night." He looked at me and raised his hand for the bartender.

"I can drop her at the hospital. I need to be on time. After this drink. Don't worry Ann, stay here with your friends." Ann watched at me and then David, not knowing what she should do. I could see she was eager to stay.

"I'll have David drop me home," I said to Ann, "There's no need for me to go to the hospital now. You're going to relieve Sebastian."

"Of course," he said. "You have my word."

# Chapter Seventeen-Zoey

"I thought you were taking me home," I said glancing over to David. His face a new gloominess, a clenched jaw, no emotion. His body language signaled to me he was dangerous. He didn't say a word, he kept his eyes straight and hands on the wheel, and stepped on the accelerator and the car zoomed down the dark road. I didn't get upset until a few minutes had passed, and he turned down the highway that took us by and pass my home.

Then the car drove three miles to a secluded area with a large fence and a decorative black iron-gate. I planned my getaway if I were ever kidnapped again. There wasn't any plan for friends and acquaintances. Only strangers.

People who are upstanding and appeared to be leaders in the community had been left out of my plan.

It was too late to think about that now. I hushed a moan and pushed back a tear. Wanting to cry for Sebastian, I realized it was too late. He was the one who warned me to stay in the house and don't let anyone in. I didn't take him serious. How could I because he didn't tell me what I was up against, and if he had, I probably wouldn't have payed attention to him anyway?

I had to blame but myself.

David stepped out and opened the gate. My plan was to get out and run but when I looked around, I didn't know where I could run to. Where the hell was I anyway? So I sat there like a fool thinking I could reason with him.

"Where are you taking me?" My voice was calm and light. Not like before where you could hear panic.

"Didn't your parents tell you never to get into a car with a stranger?" And all the nightmares of my childhood came rushing back to haunt me. I was five years old and all I had to do was walk around the block to school, climb the stairs and walk through the doors, and I would have been safe.

But just as I turned the corner the school gate was there when someone, I think it was a man, strode up to me smiling and said that my father was sick, and I needed to go with him, and I climbed into the van and that's all I remember.

However this time, I'm not a five year old, I'm tough, and I won't let him control me and make me afraid of the dark anymore.

"What do you want with me? Is it sex? Then you don't have to kidnap me to get that. I will give it to you freely. You're handsome enough man, and my husband is always working. Not like you. I will gladly fuck you. And I won't tell my husband," I said soft and low.

I looked at him and shot him my most seductive smile. Who was I kidding? Seduction wasn't my strong suit. I was more the timid type who tried to act tough by throwing a fuck you out to make me fit in. And seduction, I wore blouses that button up to my chin to keep men from looking at me.

Everyone except Sebastian because he doesn't count. He's dead anyway.

I told David everything I thought he wanted to hear, and still he didn't respond. He just drove on and didn't say a word or turn to look at me.

He drove up to a rundown mansion. There were no lights in it when he stopped the car and got out and walked around to my door. I sat looking at him through the window.

"Get out," he shouted with a hoarse cold and unfeeling voice. Not like Sebastian. Sebastian voice remained warm no matter how he tried to harden it. David extended his hand and gave me a heartless smile. He didn't smile with his eyes. They appeared lifeless and just as unfriendly as his voice.

He glanced at me with a raised eyebrow, "I don't want any bull shit from you. Now get out." I didn't say much because he appeared capable of hurting me. It was then I decided to cooperate. Stepping out on the rain soaked leaves, all I heard was the beating of my heart, and my shoes crunching through piles of wet dead leaves.

"Is this your place?" I said with a tremble of my lips. I had to try to get him to warm up and talk to me.

"Yes, my father left it to me and mountains of debt," he said scowling. His eyebrows meeting and slanting downward.

He opened the door and we walked inside where candles were lit and I saw a house in disrepair. Thrown to the side was mountains of newspapers and wood near the fireplace. He walked away from me as I watched at him. He left me standing in one spot as I tried to gage should I run. He looked back at me when he picked up the logs and threw them in the fire place. He lit them and stepped back.

"Sit over there." He pointed to a large old brown worn leather wingback chair. There were two of them and he sat across from it and stared into the fire. "Are you hungry?"

"No," I said. What an absurd question. He behaved as if we were on a date. What did he expect from me? He takes me against my will to his home and now he's offering me food.

"It's not like I'm your guest." He watched at me. I shouldn't have said that.

"But of course you're a guest." He smiled. "And there are other guests who will come to get you and all my worries will be over. I can leave this forsaken place and never have to see it again. Maybe I'll burn it down."

"What guest are you talking about?" My voice showed my panic. Not anger.

"The ones who will bring me money and take you."

"Who are you?"

"Someone who needs money," he said.

"If you're looking for money, we're rich. I mean Sebastian is rich and he will pay whatever price you ask."

"He doesn't have enough money for what I need."

"How do you know?" I said to him. I had to talk him out of this insane idea. "I can get the money from him. Whatever you need. Just tell me what it is you need." Now my voice showed panic.

"Why would I take your word for anything when Samantha promised me a fortune?"

"Samantha, did you say Samantha, she's a witch."

"I don't give a fuck what she is, she promised me the world, and I'm taking her up on it."

"The only thing she will give you is nothingness. She will suck the life out of you," I said looking at him with horror because he didn't realize who he was dealing with. I didn't know if she had money, but I did know women wouldn't give up a dime if they didn't have to.

"What Sebastian will do you will be far worse." He laughed at the notion. "Did you ask Samantha why she wants me?"

"I don't care. Stop talking. You make my head hurt." And his eyes began opening and closing and he rubbed his head. He stood and wavered. His legs appeared weak as he strode near me. "I'd better tie you up." I jumped up and started to run and he caught me and held my hands behind my back and forced me down to the chair.

"You're not going anywhere. I could kill you, but she wants you alive."

When he was trying to hold me to tie my hands, I bit his shoulder and kicked him and then bit his hand as he held me. "Stop being difficult. I don't want to hurt you."

"What do you expect me to do? Sit there as you sell me to someone. Do you know what she will do to me and you?"

"As long as she brings me my money, I don't give a fuck. I don't want to hurt you now shut up and stop trying to get out of the ropes because you can't. All you're going to do is bruise your body. She doesn't want you bruised."

"If you don't want to hurt me then let me go. I promise I won't say anything about this and I'll get you the money Samantha promised you."

After he tied my hands behind the chair, my feet were still flailing around. I wished he would stand in front of me so I could give him a swift kick in the balls. But he knew that trick.

"I can't let you go. I've gone too far," he said breathless.

"When are your guest coming for me?" I needed to know how much time I had left. I didn't know the time, but the way he was acting he expected them soon.

That's when I got the bright idea of mental-telepathy. If I could focus on Sebastian then maybe he could find me. I calmed my body and placed my head down and breathed soft and low. I tuned out everything and everyone and I focused on Sebastian in the hospital.

Find me Sebastian, I'm in trouble. Help me Sebastian. Come for me. Then I repeated it in a low voice. "Find me Sebastian. I'm in trouble. Help me Sebastian. Come for me. And I threw in what I thought would make him find me if he was a true vampire. "I love you, Sebastian, only you can save me," I murmured.

"What are you whispering about? No one knows you're here but me and Samantha, and she should be here soon," David said with a light happy airy tone.

As the time grew near for Sebastian to get home, I began to realize that things may be futile with my rescue. Then I began to doubt Sebastian's story about the vampire, werewolf, and witch thing.

A small bird like the one I had seen outside my window, flew into the large dusty room and flitted over where David had fallen asleep, near my chair, as he held tight on to the rope. Whenever I twisted around in the chair, he woke.

It had been an exhausting few days and it became hard to keep my eyes open. I teetered between asleep and wake. When my eyes focused, standing before me was Samantha. This time she stood in front of me close where I saw her dark eyes. She was dressed in black and smiling.

"What's with the black dress Samantha and who died?" I figured she was a woman like me and I still didn't buy in to the witch thing.

"The question is who is about to die. You have summoned Sebastian and when he comes for you, he will die with you. Two star crossed lovers, but instead of committing suicide together, I will kill you and cause his demise at the same time."

"You can't kill a vampire," I said not too sure of that but still holding on to my notion that Sebastian isn't a vampire because if he had been he would have been here by now. And how did Samantha get in here? I thought maybe David left the door open.

"Yes I know I can't kill him that easy, but you can, and you just did with your mind games. I never could contact him, but you managed to do it."

"Huh? Why are you talking when I'm trying to sleep, Zoey?" David said as he wiped the sleep from his eyes, then looking up at Samantha with a ready smile.

"Because you're important guest has arrived." David stood up and passed his hand over his face and eyes and then wiped the drool from his mouth with his sleeve.

"Samantha, how did you get in here?"

"A little bird let me in," she said. I glanced at David and he gave me a slanted confused look.

"She's a witch you dummy and no one is walking out here alive," I tried to get him to understand, but he was like me until now--a non-believer.

Samantha walked up to David, and put her hands to his face to kiss him as he stood directly in front of me. He leaned in ready for the kiss of a lifetime with a beautiful receptive woman, and they locked together in a heated kissed.

It was erotic. Their bodies meld together and his tongued extended into Samantha's mouth and his breathing became intense. At one moment I thought David would lay her at my feet, rip her clothes off, and fuck her in front of me as I sat bound in that chair. His mouth roamed over her shoulders, down her breasts, and back to her open mouth.

What I thought was sheer lust with the moaning and heavy breathing coming from David was Samantha sucking the life out of David literally. His body turned an ash grey and then it shrunk and she threw it to the side like a dirty piece of paper.

My eyes followed his stiff corpse as it landed near the fireplace. "You are dangerous to men," I said narrowing my eyes. She took it as a compliment. She reveled in her dominance and cold heartiness.

"That's only if there is nothing I want from them any longer. What good are they?"

"What did you want from Sebastian?" She looked away. Her dark eyes soften as if she had remembered a time when she was in love with him, and he had loved her as well. I didn't know because he didn't speak about her in a loving caring way. When he mentioned her name it was as if she was someone he wanted to forget.

"His love. I wanted his love," she said her voice weak as she turned quickly to face me. Now her eyes were cold. "He gave it to you, and that's why I will see you dead in the most horrible way. But first Sebastian will die, and you will witness it very soon, and when he can no longer protect you, I will be back for you. When you have forgotten me and gone on with your life, I will be there to take your life from you. Now call your lover."

And she disappeared into thin air with a wisp of cold air remaining after she left. I shivered from the cold, but then I noticed that the fire had gone out.

It was too late. She knew I had summoned Sebastian and she knew he would come. It was almost daylight. I watched at a grandfather's clock tick away and now it was seven o'clock, and at seven-ten the sun would rise. I hoped he wouldn't come for me.

I wished I didn't have the power to summon him. Why should I think I have that kind of power over a vampire? Who do I think I am? And there was no way Sebastian would commit suicide just to save me.

Placing my head down, I wished him away. He could find another woman like me. It's not like Samantha harmed me. "Don't let him come. Please don't let Sebastian come for me," I found myself pleading into the air.

When I looked up he was standing before me. My heart fell and broke into a thousand pieces.

# Chapter Eighteen-Zoey

"How could you be so stupid as to fall into Samantha's trap?" I shouted. "Didn't you hear me wish you away?" I said to Sebastian. He had a look of relief and one of contempt for me.

"It doesn't work that way. I heard you beg for me to come for you." He waved his hand and the ropes dropped and I stood. "Now how are you going to get home in five minutes?"

"I can't."

Tears poured down my face. "You have to. I can't make it without you. I need you," I said. He just stood and watched at me with this sad look on his face as if he would never see me again.

Sebastian took me in his arms. "There is so much I want to tell you, Zoey. But I can't now."

"You're giving up. Isn't there something you can do? What am I going to do without you?" I questioned looking up at him. I looked in his face and then it came to me. I began remembering that I had seen that face when I was a teen.

"You're him. You're the one." And I watched as the sun crept into the large room and soon the room will be filled with blinding light.

Taking his hand, "Follow me."

"Where are we going?" he said.

"Down. There must be a basement or cellar some place. Try the doors," I said rushing to the first door I found. That wasn't it. Just a closet.

"Not enough protection," he said. I ran to the kitchen and then I saw a door. I pulled at it but it was locked. "It's here Sebastian, but it's locked. It's a cellar."

Standing behind me he pulled at the door and the old lock fell to the floor and we stood looking into the dark cellar. Sebastian turned to me, his eyes wide and smiling, and he walked down. I followed.

"Where are you going?" he questioned.

"With you."

"There are probably rats down here."

"Then I'll wait for you until it gets dark." I closed the door and looked at the kitchen. Thinking about the body of David lying in the room caused me to lose my appetite. I walked slowly back to the living area and sat in the chair. My eyes closed. One moment I wondering what to do with David and the next I'm asleep.

When I woke, I didn't know how long I had been out. But when I heard a knock at the door, I didn't rush to open it. I stood behind the door and listened for a voice.

"Zoey, are you there?"

It was Ann. I unbolted the locks on the door, and opened it a little, and peeped out.

"Oh thank God you're ok," she said. "Can I come in?"

"Yes." She looked at me. "Is everything ok with you?"

I opened the door wide. By now I had calmed down and wasn't walking weak legged. But how could I explain David's decomposing stiff corpse. When she walked passed the foyer and into the large room I heard a gasp.

"Did you do that?"

"No. Of course not," I whispered into my hands.

"Who did it?"

"A witch." She didn't act as if she was surprised or confused, or thought I was out of my mind. It was as if it was natural to speak of witches with dead bodies.

"Serves him right. Every time a woman dates him, she disappears, and he comes up with some kind of excuse. We suspected something. He just came across the wrong woman, that's all." She inhaled and exhaled staring down at him.

I wanted to agree with her, but I wondered how she knew I was still at David's house. "How did you know I was here?"

"When Dr. Sebastian was waiting for David to arrive, I told him that David met us at the bar across town and that he drove you home last night. If you had seen the Doc's face?"

"I can imagine," I said.

"He tried calling you but you didn't answer, and he left out without David covering for him. I asked the girl at the desk to stay there so I could check on David. I get here and see Dr. Sebastian's car. You can imagine what I thought. Someone was dead or hurt. Out here if a man finds his wife in another man's house, and with David's reputation, it doesn't end well."

She walks around me and stoops to look at David. "What a mess and he was kind of cute before this." Ann glanced around at me, "Where's the Doc?"

"In the cellar."

"What's he doing in the cellar?" She didn't flinch when I said David was killed by a witch, but she cringed when I mentioned the cellar. So I decided to come clean with her.

"He's in the cellar because he's a vampire."

"Oh. That makes perfect sense then. With the sun up, I can understand." She blew out a deep breath. That was smart," Ann said.

"Did you hear me?" I said puzzled and looking at her with my mouth ajar.

"Yeah. Now what are we going to do about David? You can let him lie there and stink up the place. I know. Or I can call Robbie."

"Who's Robbie?"

"My boyfriend of course. It won't take him long to get over here. He likes jobs like this. Kind of weird like that," she said wrinkling her nose.

I'd say he is, but beggars can't be choosers. My mother would say. "Do you think he would do that for me?"

"No, but he would do anything for me." She reached in her pocket for her cell phone and walked to the side and called Robbie. Then she turned to me, "He's coming."

Before I could turn and say anything, the bell rang and then a knock. I looked to Ann. "That's Robbie."

"Already?"

"He was nearby." I walked behind her be sure it wasn't the police she had called. It wasn't because he was dressed in a leather vest and jeans with tattoos all over his body. Robbie stood over six feet and Ann barely four feet. They looked like an odd couple. More odd than me and Sebastian only in a different way.

"What's the problem, Ann?" He reached down to kiss her and she smacked his face. "Where've you been all night?"

"You know I wouldn't fool around on you precious," he said. "You're all I've ever wanted." That was a wonderful picture of him declaring his love for her after she slapped him silly, but I needed David gone like yesterday.

"Ann, please," I said, "Let Robbie do what he came to do."

"You want that thing out of here?" He pointed to David's shriveled up body but looked at me."

"Get rid of it, Robbie," I said. "I'll see that Sebastian takes care of you later. When he wakes up."

"Did she do this?" He said to Ann. Then taking a look at me.

"No. She's a human. The only way she could kill him would be to shoot him or another type of lethal weapon. This dude was killed by magic. Black magic. A witch." Robbie walked to examine the body.

"Yeah. She sucked the life out of him. Which makes her twice as dangerous." He looked at me. "You have anyone to protect you from that bitch?"

"She has her boyfriend," Ann said.

"Where is he?" Robbie asked turning to me, but Ann answered.

"He's in the cellar."

"Tell him to come up and help me with this. We either have to burn him or bury him."

"He can't come up," I said, "he's sleeping. Not until dark." Robbie hoisted David over his shoulder and dropped him inside a sheet which earlier had covered an old tattered sofa. Then he wrapped him in it.

Turning to me he said, "When he wakes up, you can't be here. You have to go on with your routine as if nothing happened."

"Don't you want to know why he's sleeping in a dark rat infested cellar?"

"Not unless he isn't a vampire, and he just likes to sleep in a cellar, then in that case I don't need to know." He lifted the body up and headed out the door. He kissed Ann and then headed into the rear of the mansion.

"Does Robbie know what Sebastian is?" I asked bewildered.

"Of course he does," Ann said.

"And that doesn't bother him?"

"Nothing bothers a werewolf," she said. Does that bother you?"

"Of course not," I said straightforward. Why should I be worried about a werewolf when my pretend husband is a vampire, and the woman trying to kill us both is a witch? There was no way I would let a little thing like a werewolf affect me.

After we cleaned up all signs that I had been there, Ann drove back to the hospital to report that she couldn't find David, and I drove the Land Rover home amidst the pouring down rain. When I reached home, I rushed upstairs and took a shower and dropped into bed. Before I fell into a deep sleep, I wondered when this was going to end.

I woke when I felt a cool body next to mine. When I turned he was staring at me. "Do you know what I should do?"

"No. Tell me."

"I should put you in time out the way I did when you were a..." He didn't complete his sentence.

"Did you mean when I was a child. It was your face I remember. You were the one who took care of me."

"It wasn't me, you're wrong. You're just projecting it on to me. How could you remember something that long ago?"

"I meant when I became a teenager. I remember your face now. I remember living with you in England after you took me away." He stopped talking and watched at me. Did I uncover something I shouldn't have? Why did he react when I said I was a child? Was it him who stole me away from my parents and he didn't want to admit it?

"Why did you take me away to England and abandon me in front of a church? I searched for you for days. I didn't eat or sleep." His face changed when he heard the truth from me.

"You want to know too much." He made a gesture as if he would step out of the bed but I reached for his arm and that stopped him.

"I want to know why you wouldn't let me live with you. I remember being in love with you when I was fifteen. It was just a crush, but it was real." Sebastian glared at me. "When are you going to tell me?" I said to him.

"I can't tell you. I want to make love to you. It will ruin everything between you and me right now."

"I thought you were angry with me and now you want to make love to me. Well until you are truthful with me, and I can learn the truth about what happen to me when I was a child, and you reveal to me who's trying to kill me and why, then I don't want to be near me." I pushed him away.

Releasing his arm, he stood and watched at me, but he still wouldn't tell me what I needed to hear.

# Chapter Nineteen-Zoey

Somehow I fell asleep. I can't say when, but it was after I insisted that Sebastian leave me alone. When I rose only to eat, I decided to search his room. I had been there before and found nothing. Maybe this time I could do a more thorough search with more time on my hands.

Where had he gone now? I wondered.

Stumbling into his room tired of eating canned food and no meat, no carbohydrates, I felt light headed and a little weak. I needed some real food. Fresh food anything for digestion. I glanced at my stomach and it appeared bloated.

After this search I had planned to call Ann. I glanced around, nothing. I pulled open the double wood doors and my eyes fell to the last drawer of the handmade chest. Stooping down, I made myself comfortable and sat on the floor and eased the drawers open.

Staring down at nothing but old photographs, I smiled. Some of a bygone era. Men in top hats, bowler hats, and women wearing hoop skirts. I smiled at the idea of long skirts and then the skirts got shorter and the suits turned into jeans and tee shirts as I thumbed through the pictures.

"Is that Sebastian in all those pictures?" I murmured. I took a better look and tried to get some light, but the light was too dim. It sure as hell looked like him. He had all those women. What happen to them I wondered, and then it occurred to me, either they died of a natural death, or was killed by Samantha.

The drawer filled with pictures as I pulled them out and placed them in front of me. I needed to see them. Pictures tell everything. But the eyes are the mirror to the soul.

These were pictures of a time when women had a place and men were kings. Now all the pictures are on phones. All the pictures on his phone were of me, but these were of women I didn't know. And I'm glad because I would have been so jealous. I could have been like Samantha wanting to kill them if they were with him. My Sebastian, but where is he?

Now looking at these pictures I can accept that he once had a life before me, so I was able to gaze at them and smile knowing these women were dead.

What stories would the women in these pictures tell me?

Reaching for a handful, I lay them before me on the floor and skimmed through them looking for something more telling than a bunch of black and white photos, and a few colored prints.

And then I stopped at one. It was a picture of him in a bowler hat in his hand and holding on to a pretty girl of twenty-two. This photo looked over a hundred years old, but it was as if it was in good shape. I became jealous of the photo and I threw it back in the drawer.

Then there were more pictures of young women and each girl looked as if they were one in the same, but they weren't, because although they resembled each other, they were indeed different. However, on a closer look it was as if I was seeing myself in those pictures.

Sebastian had never changed. He said he was frozen in time and he was. He stood tall, proud, a beautiful specimen of a young man full of life but pale. He had become a vampire then like he is now with me, but he was happy then. In all his pictures you see a fresh ready smile.

Not like he is now each time I see him. Have I done this to him? I questioned.

Then I came across a photo of a child about five and he and the child were at a carnival, and the child held cotton candy in her hand, and a large stuffed Panda bear and she was holding on to Sebastian's hand and looking up at him.

They were both smiling and then it dawned on me. It was me. I was the child he held by the hand, carried in his arms, against the backdrop of a large Ferris wheel filled with children and mothers and fathers.

"He took me to a carnival." At first I was upset and then it was a lovely picture. He looked like a father taking his young daughter for an outing. They looked so happy together and he looked like he truly loved her.

It wasn't me anymore. I had grown up and I didn't remember any of it. And I'm glad I didn't because I wouldn't be able to handle it now. I looked to him as a father figure or big brother, and now he was my lover.

It was enough. I threw the remaining pictures into the cabinet and closed it. I pulled my phone out to call Ann. I hadn't seen Sebastian for two days and I'm tired of eating pizza, I called Ann.

"What are you doing today?"

"Why, what do you want this time?"

"It's nothing like that."

"I should hope so because the sheriff is beginning to ask questions about David," Ann said to me.

"Did you see Sebastian?"

"We haven't seen him for a few days. He came in and said that he was resigning, and he would stay for a week until we got someone to replace him, and he would recommend a doctor. Well yesterday we got another doctor and he brought his nurse with him and a replacement staff. They gave me two weeks off with pay. I haven't had a day off in six years."

"That's great, but has anyone else seen Sebastian?"

"One of the hunter's came in after a routine gunshot wound. He got it from a fellow hunter," Ann said. I waited until she finally got around to telling me about Sebastian. "He's hanging out at this bar. It appears he has troubles and he's drinking."

"I didn't know vampires had troubles and can drink like people," I said.

"They can do almost anything a human can do. And some have feelings. I got that from being around Sebastian. I had never had the experience of knowing a vampire only werewolves. We heard all kinds of stories about them, but he appeared different. Like he had a soul. And one thing I do know, and that is he loves you." Ann's voice warm and genuine.

"Can you take me to that bar?"

"I'm not sure. I have to ask Robbie. It's where shifters hang out."

"What's a shifter?"

"It's like a werewolf, but it could be anything. A cat or a lion any kind of animal that changes from one form to another."

"Robbie just came in from his hunt. I'll call you back." She didn't say anything else so I carried the phone and waited. Then she called back.

"Zoey, Robbie said it was ok, the only thing, he wants to go with us. To protect us. You know how that is."

"Yes. That's great," I said and I rushed to microwave the last of the frozen pizza. I swallowed down a coke a cola, and when I had finished two slices and two cans of coke, the bell rang. This time I looked around and it was Ann, and Robbie was driving her beat up jeep.

I opened the door, "Does it always rain around here? I thought I would see some snow."

"When we get an occasional blizzard but not now. That's a once in a lifetime thing. But it would be nice to have some snow."

We ran to the car and I hopped into the back. "Zoey, you know Robbie, Robbie, Zoey."

Robbie grunted and turned his head in the direction away from me. He took off and headed for town.

"What's wrong with the doctor?" Robbie finally asked after watching at me in the rearview mirror. "We hate to see him go?" he said.

"Where is he going?" I asked.

"Don't you know? He told Ann and she said that he was thinking of leaving town. You would think he would have said something to his wife. You are his wife?"

I didn't answer his question even as his dark brown eyes met mine. Finally Robbie took his eyes off me and watched the road.

"We need him here. He's the only doctor that came here and didn't look down on us because we were shifters. Did Ann tell you the whole town is made up of male shifters with female human mates, and one vampire and that's Sebastian? It's nice to have a vampire in town," he said as if that gave him comfort and prestige. "Keep some of the bad shifters under control, and the witches away."

Vampires can control shifters? All this is new to me. Why would Sebastian find it necessary to go to a bar to solve his problems? Since when does that ever solve anyone's problems? Not unless he was looking to break something, or kill something. Like a hunter who gets angry and goes out and shoot something.

It didn't take Robbie long to drive up to the bar. Looking around I spotted Sebastian's black Land Rover sticking out among a sea of motorcycles parked outside along with a few old pickup trucks.

We stepped out of the Jeep. In my rush to see Sebastian, I took off ahead of Robbie and Ann. "Hold on. Don't open that door." His large hand resting over my hand reaching for the handle. I dropped my hand. There were too many things I didn't know and by the sound of Robbie's voice, it was something I shouldn't do.

Walking up close behind me, Robbie moved past me, I stepped aside, and he grabbed the handle and opened the door and stepped in. "What was that about?" I questioned Ann.

"If a woman opens that door without a shifter or in that case our own vampire, then they would assume that she's a witch. And they would have attacked without thinking. Witches are forbidden in this town, and if she kills anyone from this town like Samantha did David, even though David was a human, then she will be hunted down and killed. They already have a bounty on her head. Robbie is looking to make some extra money, and he's looking for her, too."

I felt somewhat relieved but not much. Samantha had proven to be a man killer because of her powers of seduction.

As we stepped behind Robbie, and he made a gesture that I wasn't a witch, and therefore ok, he searched around the bar and spotted Sebastian sitting at a table in the back alone. His head down a drink in his hand and pain on his face.

Robbie and Ann stood aside as I walked up to Sebastian. "Why are you here and not at home?" Slowly he raised his head and he looked pale. His eyes sunken. "When was the last time you ate?" He glanced up at me.

"Why does that matter to you? I know you're going to leave me so what does it matter?" And he took a drink.

I reached for the drink and took it from his hand. He watched at me as if he was a spoiled child who had never been told no by his parents.

"I'm not going anywhere. I have no one but you." I sat near him put my warm hand over his cold hands. "You brought me out here in the middle of nowhere, and now you want to starve yourself to death."

"I wish it were that easy. It would take too long to kill myself like that." He looked up at me and his eyes had dark circles underneath. His magnificent eyes were now dim and dark.

"So you come to a place like this in hopes that Aare finds you and does the job for you?"

"I've been too long on this earth without love. And now that I found you, you don't want to return my love. I don't blame you. I just want to be finish with my cold empty existence." Leaning close to him, his body heated, and there was a light in his bluish green eyes. He glanced up at me and he felt it too.

We balanced each other. Me with my overheated body and him with this cold hard body which didn't seem to have a light or a soul beneath his amazing heated eyes. But there was a soul and I felt it.

"You made me angry, Sebastian. Whenever I wanted to talk to you about me and what you knew, you would never tell me anything."

"Since you're choosing to kill yourself, then I should at least know the truth about my life so I can continue without you." He raised an eyebrow. There was no way I meant that. It seems I had no life until Sebastian came into it and saved me from imminent death.

"If you're planning on ending my life, I can understand because if you leave me now, Samantha promised me that she would come for me in the future when I was happy in my life, and I had forgotten about her. Then she would end my life because of you, and because you love me, and I love you." Sebastian eyes lit up and he gave me one of his warm closed smiles.

He wrapped his hand around mine. "I never wanted to tell you about your life as a child. I never wanted to interfere in your life again, but I made one mistake and that was to reject Samantha because I couldn't bear to live my life without you."

Sitting and gazing into his eyes, I felt his pain, but I wanted to know. I wanted to know what was causing his hurt, and what it had to do with me.

"It was my father who kidnapped you from school." I waited. My breath came in waves and I stared at him. I had to breathe but I didn't want to. I didn't know if I wanted to hear anymore. But that was why I asked.

Somehow I knew it was someone in his family who had taken me, but it was difficult putting together the face and what had happened. I thought my memory was faulty because I was too young or because everything had been too traumatic.

"My father had been your father for ten years of your life and hundreds of years of mine. My mother could never have children because my father fell in love with my mother and turned her too soon. I think she was seventeen or eighteen when he fell in love with her, and turned her into a vampire because he couldn't bear for another man to marry her. She wanted children and so my father would kidnap them, and when they reached the age of a teenager as in your case, I would, or my siblings would turn them into vampires. And like that we would have a large family."

But in your case, I couldn't bear to do the unspeakable to you. I took care of you. I protected you like a big brother." He put his head down. I placed my hand to his chin and pulled his head up and looked at him.

"It's not like we were brother and sister."

"But I looked at you as a sister, but when you grew into this beautiful warm creature, I couldn't stand to be away from you. Neither could Aare. And it was him I had to get you away from. He just wanted you to serve him. He wanted your blood as well as making you his concubine for his pleasure. I wanted you because I loved you. But there was no way a vampire and a human could be together. I would have to change you to keep you from Aare and to please my mother and father."

When you were fifteen, I disappeared with you, and we lived in England. When the temptation of your blood became too strong, I knew I had to send you home."

"You didn't tell me how Samantha fit into this."

"Before I had become a vampire, I was to marry Samantha. That was before I knew she was a witch. I discovered that when I was courting a beautiful innocent girl. I had just returned from a voyage as a ship's mate from South America and the ship was filled with treasure.

With my portion of the treasure I was able to buy a castle in Liverpool. I was rich and had my choice of young women. But I would have married Samantha. I had been in love with her before I set sail. When I discovered she had used black magic and turned the girl into a hideous old woman, I wanted no part of her.

Every time I found someone to love, she would destroy them with her magic. Year after year. Finally I cared about nothing and I would walk the streets. My father turned me into who I am now. A soulless creature of the night. Someone who frightens little girls and will eventually cause their deaths.

Samantha has followed me century after century to make sure she kills and destroys my happiness with any woman that dare see me differently.

"I see you differently. You aren't a soulless creature. You happen to be the gentlest person I know."

"That's because you don't know me," he said watching up at me. His eyes turning dark. If I find I can't control myself around you, you could discover how cold I can become. I would drank your blood and because it is sweet I wouldn't be able to control myself. When I've loved you is the time when you are vulnerable and I'm at my weakest.

"That's not true. You could never harm me or lose control with me. I remember somethings about you even if you think you have erased my memory. I remember how you took care of me when I cried for my mother and father. I remember how you would play the piano to calm me when there were terrible lightning storms. I remember how you held me in your arms and rocked me and sung to me and told me how much you loved me and to not be afraid."

My eyes locked with his and I saw a tear fall from his face. This cold creature had a heart and soul.

He stood. "Let's go home and tomorrow we will figure this out."

# Chapter Twenty-Zoey

We left early that morning after saying goodbye to Ann and Robbie who apparently waited because they didn't want to leave us in the bar without backup. Robbie seems to think that we could have been in jeopardy from a bar full of shifters, but it was unlikely a pack of shifters and werewolves could frighten a vampire.

Vampires bring the darkness that many fear to tread in, but Sebastian had lost his darkness because of his love for a human, but Robbie feared he may have been one of the first vampire causalities at the hands of werewolves looking to make a name for themselves in the world outside of men.

Sebastian drove us home and at first there was silence between us. Then he glanced at me, "Do you think you can live with me the way we are now?"

"No," I said. He furrowed his brow into three rows. I smiled and said, "No. I won't live with you and without the benefit of marriage. If I'm going to be hunted by a multitude of vampires and a witch for the rest of my life, at least I should be married, and you said you were rich." I winked at him and watched at his surprised expression. "If for some reason you should expire before I do, which I doubt, I should at least inherit that gold you brought from South America."

He watched at me with narrow eyes until he realized I was kidding. "I wanted to ask you to marry me when you became twenty-one, but it seemed a little inappropriate, and I was afraid you would say no," he said reaching and placing his hand over mine.

"Why didn't you ask? Of course I would say no to a stranger."

"At the time you were no stranger, but a child I had taken care of since you were five. It was when you were fifteen that you looked at me differently. I told you then that we weren't natural brother and sister. And you asked me if you were adopted, and I answered you. You didn't like the answer and you became angry at me. I calmed you and as we lived together because I was trying to protect you from Aare, and we developed a bond together. I felt it and I didn't want to turn you and have you become my slave."

"Why would I become your slave?"

"You wouldn't be the Zoey I know. The sassy snarky Zoey with her own free will. You would be at my beck and call. Like a prisoner or slave is the best description. You would have to do as I wished."

"And you didn't want that? Most men would kill to have a woman like that. No more telling you no. I would have to do whatever you wanted sexually." He smile and turned his eyes back to the road.

"That wasn't you and I didn't want that. I didn't want a cold unfeeling child who had been turned too soon. I didn't want that at all."

Listening to his explanation, I knew now what he wanted. "You want a human lover."

"No. I want a human wife and lover. But I was afraid of you."

"A vampire afraid? Not likely."

"It's something you do to me that makes me unsure of myself when I'm around you. I worry about if I'm enough for you."

"Oh you are more than enough for me." I held his hand. "Why don't you go to your father and tell him about you and me and that we want to go far away and never have to look over our shoulders?"

"That is wishful thinking on your part, Zoey. We exist in an outside world devoid of human feeling and desires. We use humans only as a food source and to bridge us with day and night. No vampire has ever lived with humans without him or her eventually turning them into the lifeless soulless monsters we've become."

"Why do you refer to yourself as soulless? You're not that. You will never be." When I looked to Sebastian's face, it was blank. No expression I could read.

Sebastian drove into the garage, parked, open my door, and helped me out of the car. He took my hand and said, "We will have to leave here soon. All your fanciful ideas are good, but my father would more likely kill me than listen to me. He will find us and therefore we have to leave and soon."

"But I just discovered a new friend, well friends. I sort of liked Robbie. He's a cool werewolf." I tried to reason with Sebastian, but I got nowhere.

"When word gets out about David, the hunters, mostly humans who suspect that we exist, will be looking for me and you, and maybe Ann and Robert as well. His name is Robert and he's a notorious fearless lone werewolf. Men have been tracking him for years. Calling him Robbie will not make him any less. My father put a bounty on my head and Robert's. He was the only werewolf who wouldn't try to bring me in. The forest is littered with a pack of them I killed before you came into that bar, and the members of their pack will look for me when they are found."

I glanced at him as we entered the elevator. The door closed behind us.

"Can't you reason with your father? After all you are his son. Make him understand that we're in love."

"In his world there can be no love between a human and a vampire."

Looking at Sebastian with a confused look, I asked, "Can't there be? We can be different. We are different." I was trying hard to convince myself.

"I don't know, but I want to try," he said in a soft smooth voice.

The elevator opened and we stepped into the glass house which had been my jail, but now it's more like my sanctuary. He held my hand until we walked up the stairs and then he stood looking at me. I had seen that look in his eyes before.

"Are you coming to my room? We have an hour before the sun rises," I said.

"Go and prepare yourself for me. I'll be there soon." When he said prepare for him, he meant to mentally prepare for his body. But I didn't need to prepare for what had been the best sex of my life.

After taking a shower, I walked out naked and lay in the bed, closed my eyes and thought about Sebastian, and what he had said to me about protecting me from Aare and when I was a child. Sebastian was my brother then, and now he's my lover. The question is: can we have a future.

The answer came back "Of course not stupid. There's no future with a vampire." One day you can cut your finger and ask him to get a band aid, and the next thing he will be sucking the life out of you.

I didn't want that kind of answer. I wanted my mind to lie to me. At least this once. I'm tired living in the real scary world where little girls can get kidnapped on their way to school, and big girls die at the hands of handsome men.

When Sebastian made love to me it was as if I had been floating weightless on clouds traveling around the universe and when we reached our orgasm it was like a blast from a dying star that gave out the most brilliant light before it faded. I felt completely engulfed by his love and devotion to me, his human.

My vampire.

Had I gone mad? Maybe. I had never been touched like that. His cool skin complemented mine. His cold body fell into the fever of my body. His immortality against my mortality raised an unnatural desire in me. Death and life together living with each other and loving every minute of it.

Opposites do attract.

He left our bed as I slept happy and relaxed. He left for his hiding place, and now I was free to roam around the house and go on a shopping spree. I knew what I wanted foremost and that was food for now.

What could be better than food after having sex?

Now Sebastian trusted me enough where he gave me a credit card to buy food and clothes for our journey to wherever he had in mind to take me. I had no choice but to follow him because of my love and devotion to him. Today I would make the best of my shopping experience. Before I never had enough money to buy the things I enjoyed. Jeans and boots and a nice leather jacket. And anything I wanted to eat.

Since Sebastian would be sleeping, I thought what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. I wanted to say goodbye to my father and we could pick up some food and clothes for me. He said to buy heavy coats with hoods.

Ann and I would make a day of it since we wouldn't see each other again for a while. We would travel to Seattle, which made me happy. I promised Ann she could pick up a few things and I would pay for it, and we were going in the Land Rover. That brought a smile to her face because she must have been sick of ferrying me around in her jeep.

After a shower and dressing in my usual uniform of jeans, sweater, and leather jacket for cool rainy weather, I headed downstairs and stopped at a table and picked up a pencil and paper. "No. I'll text him. He probably won't see the note," I murmured. I turned back. "Oh what the hell. Better to be safe." So I scribbled him a note.

Gone shopping in Seattle, took the Land Rover. Get around like most vampires. You're not human. Stop trying to be one. Stop driving cars. An SUV is for your wife. Love and Kisses, be back by sundown.

Zoey

Dashing out of the house, I wasn't thinking about a thing when I started the car and drove up to Ann and Robbie's small wood frame home. Ann was looking through the window when I parked the car in her driveway. By the big smile on her face, she liked the notion that I would be driving and in my car.

She rushed out and in the passenger side and exhaled. "This is some car. It looks like we'll be traveling in style for a change. I've never been outside of this small town. Where are we going?"

"Seattle." Ann started clapping her hands as if she was a child waiting for her mother to give her a favorite toy or her favorite food.

Then her smiling face changed. "Do you think we should?"

"Why not?" I knew there were so many reasons not to go, but I didn't want to think about them now. Ann looked to me as if I knew something she didn't know, and she gave me that same ready smile she had for everyone she met.

"I have my enhanced driver's license even though I've never been to Seattle. Do you have everything, because if not, we can't go." Her smile faded as she glanced over at me.

"I have a passport. Will that do?" I said showing her.

"Of course that's better than what I have," Ann said sitting back and enjoying the scenery flashing by. It was nine am.

As I drove along I had never seen that part of the country in the day time because when Sebastian and I left Seattle it was at night. "We should be back home by eight tonight."

"That's perfect," Ann said with another similar smile.

"Perfect for me too. I can stop to see my father."

"You have a father?"

"Everyone has a father," I said. And then a sad strange look came across Ann's face.

"I guess so." And then she brightened up and she began to tell me about how she and Robbie got together.

"I was running from an abusive husband when I went into that bar we were in the other night. I needed a drink. My husband had just beat me and left for his job or his girlfriend's house."

Looking at the pain on her face I said, "You don't have to tell me. I can see this is a memory that caused you agony."

"Only if I don't tell someone about it," she said. I nodded for her to continue. I was listening. I was a captive audience for a young woman to bear her soul and for some reason she chose me. Maybe she saw the same pain in my face that I saw in hers.

# Chapter Twenty-One-Zoey

"I walked into that bar and didn't realize that it was a bar of shifters. I saw the men watching at me, but I didn't know why. I ordered a beer because I wasn't really a drinker and it wouldn't take much for me to get drunk. That's what I wanted to be, drunk, where I could handle the morning beatings and the shouts of slut and whore when I returned from the hospital," Ann said. Her voice soft and broken.

"Was Sabastian working at the hospital then?"

"No. It was a year later when he came. By that time Robbie and I were a pair. A pair of misfits. Him a werewolf and me a human. They say opposites attract."

"I think I heard that somewhere myself," I said. "Finish your story."

"Well my husband got off early and tracked the car to that bar and rushed in expecting me to be with some man. I was all alone and none of the werewolves or shifters came near me. That's because Robert, I call him Robbie most times, but Robbie had said that no one should touch me or come near me because I was his."

Ann smiled remembering the incidence but her smile turned and she had a hurting look on her face. "When my husband grabbed me by the hair and pulled me down on the floor, Robert stepped forward and told him that if he touched me again he would kill him and my husband pulled me up to my feet and slapped me."

Robbie's human's face changed from a smile to that of a roaring beast on two legs in a few seconds, and he ripped my husband's face off with his claws. Can you imagine how surprised I was? My tormentor of a husband bigger than life, who made my life miserable, was no longer alive. No longer able to frighten and abuse me."

When I came out of shock, Robbie was standing with me in his arms. He had changed back to that handsome man I had seen about town but was afraid to look his way. Later he told me he had been following me and looking at me when I didn't see him. At that moment standing over my husband, Robbie said that I was his. That he was claiming me and that he would take care of me. I had no objections. And we are still with each other and I love him more each day."

"I hope Robbie knows how much I appreciate what he did for me."

"I think he does. Sabastian thanked him and tried to pay him but Robbie is like that, he didn't want money. He did it for me. But I'm not opposed to taking money." She smiled. It was a closed smile, but her eyes lit up, and she turned and faced the door looking at the surrounding area of tall trees, to the sound of windshield wipers swishing back and forward.

"Whatever you need you have it?" She gave out a sigh of relief and relaxed her shoulders as if there was something weighing on her.

"Let me think," she said turning and looking pensive at me with her finger under her chin. I thought Ann would ask for a new car or home and I was prepared to pay for one with Sabastian's money of course. Me, I didn't have a dime. But as Mrs. Sabastian Vesper, I would be rich and could give my friends presents.

"All I want is for you to buy me some lingerie."

I turned my head slightly from the road and said, "Is that all you want? If you need anything more, text me. "We're moving you know."

"When? Where are you moving to?" Ann asked with a raised panic voice.

"I don't know. I hope it isn't far. The way Sabastian talks it will be soon." The silence grew between us and words became fewer. Ann's face took on disappointment and sadness. She held her hand in her lap and twisted it as if nervous.

Maybe it was the loss of a friend that made her react that way because I felt the same panic and uneasiness when told I had to move again.

What started out as a bright cold sunny day turned into a dark and gloomy, rainy midday as we drove into Seattle. But I refused to let that put a check on the day. "We're going to have lunch first and then shop," I said to Ann.

She seemed to brighten up a bit. "Ok."

"There's this restaurant I've always wanted to go to but was never able to afford it. You and I will have the time of our life on Sabastian's credit cards. "Let's go spend some money." I drove up to the restaurant to valet parking. We exited the car and both she and I looked around as if we had never been to a five star restaurant before. We glanced around as if we were tourist and we were.

Ann pulled out her phone and started taking pictures. When we got to the door, the guy at the front said that we had to put our phones away. We weren't allowed to take pictures because there were very important people inside.

Looking at Ann, I made a decision, "Maybe this isn't the place for us." Surprisingly Ann agreed. We both felt uncomfortable, not because the people walking around were looking at us as if we had no right to enter a place like that but because it wasn't our kind of place. We were fast food junkies.

We didn't want to go where we had to feel we were using the right fork or spoon or have numerous people stand over us watching how we placed the food in our mouths. Or asking if we needed anything every second.

"Let's go Ann." I took her arm and we turned around and retrieved the car and headed to a small bistro. There we could talk and enjoy our food without the trappings of being too wealthy.

As we drove along Ann questioned, "How do those people at that restaurant do that? How do they eat with people standing over them?"

"They are used to people taking care of them," I said to her.

We got to the bistro and ordered our cheese burgers, had a glass of wine, and after we finished eating, headed for a mall where we could buy food at a market, as well as the lingerie Ann needed to make her werewolf howl.

Walking with our hands full with bags of groceries, and laughing about Ann's underwear, and how Robbie will be surprised, we didn't observe our surroundings, otherwise we would have seen the two men following us to the car in the parking garage.

After loading the bags in the back, and closing the rear door, Ann said, "There are werewolves around." She stood in one place shaking. Her arms and hands quivering. She appeared terrified.

"I don't see anyone," I said looking around and around. "Where are they?" I shouted.

Ann looked behind us. "I can smell them. Run. Run," she said. And she bolted for the door to get to the inside of the mall. She screamed as the door to the garage opened, and a security guard stepped inside the garage. I watched at Ann unable to move.

"What's wrong Miss?" he said holding on to her arm.

"He's one. He's a werewolf, Zoey. Run!" When Ann called out my name, the security guard a young dark haired man with dark skin looked across in my direction. She took out something and raked it across his face and chest and he let her go and rushed in my direction. As he neared me he had changed his appearance.

He was a wolf on two legs with a hairy beard. He wasn't handsome like I had read, but hideous with hair all over his body and flashing red eyes. When it dawned on me that Ann was right about a werewolf, I tried to run, but by that time, it was too late.

Someone came behind me, sprayed something in my face, held my arms behind my back as I kicked and screamed for a second, as the werewolf placed masking tape over my mouth, and the other werewolf placed a cotton hood over my head.

In a matter of minutes, I became weak not wanting to fight. My arms became limp and my legs heavy. I slumped into a pair of hairy arms. They had subdued me and I fell quiet. I became no threat to them, and no one would know what had happened to me if Ann didn't get away.

As I wondered what had happened to Ann, my ears rang and my mind scattered and weak, sent me back to when I was a child sitting in the back of a van wondering if I will ever see my mother and father again.

That was then, now I'm wondering about Sabastian and Ann and who are these people who would do such a thing. They loaded me into a van, but it had reinforcement on the sides and where I lay was cushioned and comfortable.

The werewolves climbed in and started the car. The last thing I remember them saying was, "I didn't have time to go after her friend. This one is the important one. She will bring a lot of money."

"But not as much as the bounty on that vampire," one of them said. "He will come after her and his weakness will show, and then we will get out chance."

"Do you know what it would take to catch him? I'm not greedy and I'm not stupid," the smart one said. "We wouldn't have caught this female human, if it wasn't for the tracker that witch put under his vehicle."

"She didn't want a split. She just wanted her dead, but we can get more money for her if we bring her to the vampires."

It was then I faded away. Not waking for what seemed like days or hours. Maybe it was days because I had a hunger inside of me I had never felt before. When I woke, somewhere I had been bathed and placed in a white gown.

Looking around the room, I knew it was nowhere I had ever been or would want to be. It was a cold huge stone room with white pillars and only a bed. Nothing modern. It was a holdover from the dark ages where men were kings. The only light and warmth was from the large fireplace setting before me burning large pieces of wood.

On a table set fruit in large bowls. I rushed to eat it because I didn't know how long I had been without anything. Now a great pizza would have hit the spot.

I padded over to the window which was high. I would have to stand on tiptoes just for my eyes to reach the ledge. I could smell the sea air, but I couldn't see it. I could smell flowers. I wanted to get a look at what was enticing my senses and making me feel at ease and safe. Maybe because it was the middle of the day and the smell of death wasn't in the air which gave me a false sense of security.

Then the door opened. 

# Chapter Twenty-Two-Sebastian

I woke thinking I had finally found the peace and meaning of my existence. I now had love, something that had alluded me for over five hundred years. If I were to die today, I couldn't have been happier in these few weeks with Zoey.

Today I will look for a home where we can live together in peace. I have made up my mind that when she dies, I will submit myself to my father and ask for death, too. But now I have to protect her from an untimely death because there is so much I need to show her. I want to show her the world and give her a life that was taken from her at an early age.

Although it was unusually quiet, I didn't question anything. Zoey had been through a lot with me and if she needed to sleep when I wanted to make love to her, I decided to let her rest. There will be time for that. I dressed and drifted down the stairs only to see someone climbing the outside stairs to ring the doorbell.

It was Robert, and I readily opened the door. He stepped in with pain in his eyes that were etched in a stone face. He had no expression on his face but his eyes spoke volumes and I knew something had happened to Ann. At that moment I felt a sense of relief that it hadn't been Zoey.

"What is it, Robert?"

"Ann said she and Zoey were going to Seattle to shop." My hands clenched into a fist. Hadn't I warned her against going out without my permission and protection?

"What?" I turned and hit a marble table and shattered it. I saw Robert's expression as if he wanted to turn and flee. "Don't go. Tell me what happened. I promise you I'll get this under control," I said my voice unsteady.

Robert knew once anyone made a vampire angry, a vampire was able to do all kinds of unspeakable damage. Therefore, I had to calm him. "Tell me what you know."

"Ann was on television saying that werewolves kidnapped her friend. Of course the humans thought she was out of her mind and sent her to a hospital. Everyone thought so until Detective Cole interrogated her. He said he knew the case and he knew the woman. He called Zoey's name."

"Yes. Ryan Cole. I know his name. He flew to England to bring Zoey back and he has had and unnatural interest in the case ever since," I said to Robert blowing out a hard breath and clenching my teeth.

"I know Ryan Cole also. He knows things about our world that everyone wants to deny. That we exist. That werewolves and vampires exist. He wrote his thesis on the existence of paranormal occurrences. He has been shouting about it to everyone who will listen. He devotes a podcast to the existence of werewolves, and vampires."

"No one will believe him."

"He has over ten million listeners."

I looked at him. "Are you serious?" He didn't have to answer because by the look on his face he was dead serious.

Detective Ryan Cole was the one who found your Land Rover and traced the registration back to you, Sebastian. The FBI wants to talk to you. Cole mentioned that he knew where you were and was getting a warrant for your arrest. They think you had something to do with Zoey's kidnapping."

Robert paced back and forth and stopped, then turned to me, "You can't go in there. They will keep you all night and day and then they will discover what you are." I placed my hand on his shoulder.

"I have no intention of going to see them. And as far as Detective Cole, I will deal with him later. He has only suspicions. He knows nothing about this world we travel in." I tried to make Robert feel relaxed but I don't think he believed me.

"But they will think that you are involved in the kidnapping and will hunt you down."

"Let them," I said. "I have to find Zoey and you need to have Ann released before they give her drugs to make her tell them what happened to Zoey."

Robert looked over to me and said, "I need your help."

"What can I do?"

"You're a doctor. Have her released to you and send her home."

"I can do that. What else do you need?" He glanced down on the ground.

"We need to get away from this town, but we don't have the right kind of money." He appeared ashamed that he wasn't able to make a new life for him and Ann. I understood. I had been ashamed of my existence as this unholy creature, but I could now make amends for that by doing something for a friend.

"Whatever you need to get you away from here, I'll do it. I'm looking for a place to take Zoey." And then I said to Robert. "I know who has her, but my father and mother will not harm her. They want me to change her so the family can be complete. I took her from them and now they finally have her back and I know who's behind Zoey's abduction."

"Who was it?"

"My brother and that witch Samantha." When I glanced at the glass door, Samantha and Aare were standing in front of my door. It surprised me and Robert. The last thing I thought would be those two making an alliance.

Robert stepped back. He wasn't afraid because I was there, but he knew his limitations with a witch and a vampire, and he didn't want that fight unless it became absolutely necessary.

I glanced at him with a raised eyebrow, "I got this," I said as I opened the door. Samantha stood looking youthful, but she and I knew that her young look was due to the years of serum she made from young women and their fetuses. She would find a two month pregnant female and snatch the unborn from the wound, and then make her serum in her lab.

She was once a respected doctor until she decided that she wanted to follow me into the world of mortality. Over the years she became proficient at making potions to stay young and beautiful.

"Come in Samantha. You look as beautiful as ever," I said. She liked the fawning over her beauty. She took one step into the foyer. But she wouldn't go any further. I left my brother standing at the open door.

"Where is that child?" she asked me with a jealous mix in her harsh tone.

"She's where you can't touch her."

"There's nowhere I can't touch her," she said. "You are the only one standing in my way and that won't be for long."

"Then come all the way in," I said backing up and holding my hand out to her. She knew better. I could lock her in this house and she would never get out. And she knew there was a werewolf standing nearby. It wasn't Robert she was afraid of, but he was afraid of her and she knew it. Even if she won the fight with Robert, she wouldn't be beautiful after it was over. She would probably avoid that at any cost.

"Aren't you going to invite me in, brother," Aare questioned.

"Only to kill you."

"Very well. I came with Samantha to bring you a message. Father needs to see you tonight."

"I can't come tonight. I have something to take care of. Tell him I'll see him tomorrow."

"You know how he doesn't like to wait," Aare said his voice deep his tone commanding.

"He has waited this long to see me, then he will have to wait longer."

"Father said for me to bring you."

"What about mother?"

"She doesn't make any demands on father anymore." I didn't know how to interpret his words. He appeared to take delight in that about mother, and he sound somewhat gleeful.

"I can bring myself. No need to wait for me. Now please leave before it gets more complicated than I want it to be."

"Do you think that dog of yours," he gestured to Robert, "will keep you from the inevitable. Dying at my hands."

"It's not you I'm worried about. You could never anticipate what I would do next. You haven't lived long enough," I said to him hoping he didn't know the truth.

"I may have a few tricks you haven't seen," Aare said with an agitated smile. His lips quaking from anger.

"Enough of your talk and of Samantha. I don't want to waste any more time than I have to," I said.

When I turned to Samantha she and Robert were eyeing each other and they appeared to be at a dead heat. Both knew that the wrong move would end this soon for all. But nether wanted to see this end just yet.

Robert no doubt wanted a life with Ann, and Samantha couldn't feel vindicated unless Zoey was dead, and I had to be dead as well in order not to prevent that from happening. She wanted the best revenge she could assemble.

Samantha turned with a whirl of her cape and marched to the door. When she stepped out she disappeared and all I saw was a beautiful bird swirling through the trees. She had learned through her five hundred years to conjure up spells of illusions. She could be a beautiful bird or a creature of the forest, or come to me as a beautiful seductive woman.

She had done that many times until it didn't work any longer on me. When they left I turned to Robert, "I'll get Ann. Prepare to leave and never come back here. Go somewhere where you think my brother and Samantha can't find you. Stay in the forest if you have to, but get away and stay away."

I made arrangement to transfer money into his account and left to bring Ann back to him safely.

Arriving at the hospital proved easy. This time I traveled alone and I traveled at the speed of light. I managed to get Ann out of the hospital in an hour. They were eager for me to take her. It appeared she had been insistent that Zoey had been kidnapped by a pack of werewolves. I took Ann by the hand and looked at her, and she knew to stay quiet until we got out of the hospital.

Pulling Ann to the side as we stepped outside the hospital, I notice Ryan Cole entering the hospital. I knew he was headed to the nineteenth floor to see Ann. I watched as he entered the elevator. Before he entered, he looked around as if he thought he was being followed. A suspicious and careful man, I thought. Someone to watch.

I handed Ann some money and instructions. "I've charted a plane for you to Vancouver. Robert will meet you there."

"What about Zoey?" Ann said somewhat sad.

"I'm going to get her now."

"Where will you two go?" She asked. I glanced at her. I knew, but I couldn't tell her just because Samantha might find her one day and make her tell.

"Will you be alright?" I asked her. She looked up at me and shook her head yes. And I left walking down the street. I turned to see her climb into a cab. I didn't have time for goodbyes. I had to make it to my father's castle.

When I reached Sorrento, Italy, I rented a car because I would have to figure out how to get Zoey out or that place. I drove up to my father's estate. It was two hours from daylight. I knew no one would harm Zoey because of my mother.

She saw Zoey as her baby and felt contempt for me when I took her away. She forbid anyone to change her until she reached eighteen, but after I disappeared with Zoey, I became an outsider to my mother. She sent word that I would no longer be welcomed. I was no longer her son, and I would be like all the other vampires serving the Vespers who hadn't been turned by them.

I would have to carry my first name because I couldn't say I was a Vesper. Vespers were a noble name and revered throughout the world of vampires. Now I'm Sebastian a vampire whose family disowned him and is trying to kill him.

Driving up the cobblestone road to the castle, I watched around at the guards. Times had changed, but it would come late to my family. The castle overlooked the Mediterranean. It looked barbaric with its design of towers extending upward many floors into the clouds. I knew what went on behind those doors and inside.

Humans, men and women and young children were kept for the newly changed vampires to feed on. Cannibalism served to keep the humans alive. Too many humans had been caught to feed them, and like garbage, they were scattered around after being drained of their blood, waiting for the hungry to consume them. The children were the first to be eaten because they were tender. Then the women who were pregnant.

It occurred to me that this was one reason Samantha made an alliance with Aare.

The barbaric things that occurred behind those walls were all too present in my mind. I had nightmares of the killings and the draining of blood to bottle it for times of vampire famine. The feeding on young virgins and then turning them into slaves.

Vampires weren't supposed to have dreams after they transferred into the other life, but I had constant nightmares of this happening to Zoey after I set her free.

I trudged up the concrete walk passed the garden and up numerous steps to the double iron doors. My hand cautiously picked up the knocker, and the sound it made, earsplitting as it came into contact with the door.

Two zombie like men, dressed in long robes with hoods opened the door. Their faces pale, their eyes black with dark circles underneath. They were the ones who couldn't wait to be changed. But for some reason, this became a slow death for them. "What do you want here?"

"I'm Sabastian."

"The master isn't expecting anyone by the name of Sabastian."

"I'm his son."

"He has no son by the name of Sabastian there is only Aare."

"What happened to the others?"

"They no longer reside behind these walls. It's only for the heirs."

"Where is my mother?"

"Who is your mother?"

"Elizabeth Vesper," I said to him. Exasperated at this point with all the questions and answers.

"She's no longer here."

"I demand to see my father. Tell him Sabastian Vesper is here." He turned, and as the other walking human zombie stood guard watching me, I could have overpowered him with one hand and drained him completely of all the few ounces of blood left in his body.

I was hungry, but not for human blood. I had become accustomed to animal blood and developed a healthy taste for vegetarian hoofed animals, like deer and cows. There was no way I would go back to that medieval diet we vampires had cultivated because of our own inhuman choices.

It was a choice made long ago and I stepped away from that when I fell in love with Zoey. It was because of her that I will meet my father. It's because of her that I will beg for her life and give mine, such as it is, to whatever punishment he desires.

When I saw the zombie walking down the long corridor, I felt weak. In my rush to find Zoey, I forgot I needed to feed. The animal blood wasn't as nourishing as human blood and because of that I had to feed often.

Not knowing whether the forest had any animals and unable to hunt because I wouldn't have the time, and the day was breaking, and I had to sleep, I suspected that the zombies would care for all the vampires here, but not me.

I would have to find a safe place to rest until daylight. Then I remembered a hiding place I had kept secret from everyone. It was where I hid Zoey when I planned our escape. It was near my mother and father's chambers. It was a wall no one knew existed but me. There I would rest away from those who would try to kill me. And that was perhaps everyone in this castle.

Walking behind the young zombie, I passed humans waiting to become vampires. They stood in a line waiting to get into the large room. More like a reception room for visitors, where my father held court to dignitaries and kings who readily traded their mere lives for immortality.

Some did it for the riches they could amass, the others had more carnal desires where they could spend their lives with different women over the ages.

My only desire was to spend my life with only one woman, Zoey.

After meeting with my father and he determining who would receive the ultimate wish, the vampires would feed on them, and finally they would pass into the world of the undead.

The humans who had been caught and brought here against their will, accepted their fate gladly. The other humans who couldn't accept it, asked for a quick death, and every vampire behind these walls were more than willing to give them what they wanted.

We had to travel down a long passageway. We trod up the stairs and down stairs and then more corridors and doors. The zombies never looked behind them because they knew there wasn't a way to escape.

But what they didn't realize, I had been here over five hundred years, behind these walls. And I knew every corner and opening of this dark medieval monstrosity of a castle.

When I saw my chance, I disappeared down a dim lit corridor which led to my mother's chambers. As I passed each door, leading downward, I couldn't help but wonder about the statement from the zombie. I ducked into the catacomb and hurried down to where my mother slept. She was early to her bed and early to rise.

I had never noticed the smell before--dirt and rotting flesh filled my nose and lungs. Perhaps the blood of animals, I had been consuming, made me more sensitive to decay.

Walking to where she lay, there were two vaults, she had a glass cover over her crypt, and I was eager to see her face. But when I approached her vault, and leaned to look at her beautiful youthful face of eighteen, she lay there with her hands crossed resting, with a wooden stake plunged into her heart. I stood riveted to that spot unable to breath.

The only one who could influence my father and she is gone with all her lost beauty. I blew out a sad breath. However, I couldn't bring myself to cry because of all the pain my mother had caused with her selfish desire to have children.

Someone had killed my mother and no one knew about her except maybe my father and Aare. "Why would father kill mother? He was in love with her," I murmured. Then I remembered that I had to find Zoey, but first I had to sleep, and ultimately search for food. I didn't know what would lie in wait for me once I woke.

Now I feared for Zoey's life. I couldn't do anything without rest. I found my hiding place between the walls where my mother took her last breath. I lay back, and closed my eyes. My dreams of Zoey made for a restless sleep.

I woke to the setting of the sun, I pushed open the wall and stepped out. My pace feeble, my legs trembled as I took each step, and I knew why it had been that way. With failing strength, I pushed the wall back to where it faded into the scenery.

Walking over to my mother's resting place, I leaned over to kiss the cover and bid her soul peace. When I strode to where my father lay, it was then I heard a strong voice.

# Chapter Twenty-Three-Sebastian

"So that's where you've been all along." He walked closer to me looking at me. His eyes roving about from my head to my feet. "I didn't think to have my guards search mother's grave. But then it's so typical you. I should have known."

Aare stood before me with red eyes and pale skin. His skin white and almost translucent, but like the marble and granite statues decorating each floor of the castle.

"What happen to mother?" I said. My voice breaking now that I realized that I will never see her or talk to her again.

"What happens to all vampires when they've served their time in this world?" Aare said casually with icy abandonment. It was true we did have a coldness in us, but I had thrown away that bondage of indifference and brutality when I chose to feed on the blood of animals and not humans.

"Be careful, you maybe next," he said. And he let out a chilling laugh. It had a sound of pure evil as he watched at me with his glowing red eyes."

"Where is Zoey? And where is father?"

"Father is indisposed. He sleeps more lately. After all, he is thousands of years old. I don't exactly know how old." He evaded the question of Zoey and didn't answer me.

"Where are the others?" I said looking around for vaults. "Our brothers and sisters. Where are they?" I demanded to know. Aare raised an eyebrow as if to say, how dare you ask me.

"They have gone to establish their own covenants," he said not because he feared me, but because he liked the game of making me ask questions, and he only giving me pieces of the answers I was seeking.

"You haven't mentioned Zoey." I stumbled walking to him and Aare's eyes opened wide and a smirk of satisfaction crossed his lips.

"You need something to eat, brother. I didn't ask you about your long trip. Come. Tell me about it as you feed. I'm a bit hungry, too."

He held out his pale hand. I reluctantly took it. If I had any chance of rescuing Zoey from wherever he had hidden her, I needed something to eat.

"I don't feed on humans anymore," I said to him stumbling down the dark dank corridor, and up to the first floor, as I leaned on Aare wondering why he hadn't taken his chance to end my life. Maybe he couldn't be sure of how fragile I had become. But then he knew he would get only one chance.

When we arrived in a large room where father and mother held court with visiting vampires, and humans, I remembered my father's stately manner when he resided over all vampires and humans who came and who were brought to serve the vampire king. He sat in a large chair resembling a throne. He wore a colorful robe with the sun designed on the back to soften and contrast the black robes mother wore.

Looking around for a place to lie down, I fell on the nearest large cushion.

The chair which belonged to father, now Aare strutted to that chair and sat. The one mother sat in had been removed.

Placed around the throne, to his right and left, and facing him were large silk black cushions at his feet. And on the cushions lay young men and women looking up at him. Now I lay helpless at his feet, too.

Aare glanced over at me and said with a taunt, "We don't have animal blood here. That's for humans who can't make the change and can't take the pain. Those we turn into zombies. Half dead and half alive and they stay that way. And as you see, we no longer have humans. We have willing subjects who are passing through the change. They are between human and vampire. "Like the one over there," he said licking his lips, and pointing his long white fingers at a young girl trembling at his feet, "they are the most delectable of humans."

"I don't want to feed on them."

"Then you will die," his voice filled with pleasure at the thought. He clapped his hand and the door opened and young women and men of every race and color, and every nationality filed into the room and stood before him."

"Make your choice. I've already chosen the ones I want to feed on. I'll save the others for a morning snack before I retire." He rubbed his hands together at the thought and smiled. His voice cheerful and light as if he was going to eat his favorite desert.

I watched as he summoned two young men and three young women to kneel down beside him. They were all naked and their bodies were budding and maturing with the bloom of youth. The women's breasts were hard, their nipples protruding and erect from the chill of the room.

I watched as Aare's fangs slid from his lips, and like trained dogs these young men and women went to their knees and bent low as they placed their necks for him to feed on. When he rose from one of his snacks, he made a groaning sound as if he wasn't really satisfied and went on to the next victim.

He glanced over at me as he taste one after the other leaving them writhing in pain and weak from his gorging on their once healthy young bodies. He had an enormous appetite for blood since he was a teen when he was changed, and because he lacked all amount of self-control.

"What will it take to get you to feed on these insignificant beings? If you don't eat you will be too weak to stave off one of these ambitious young vampires looking to make a name for him or herself. Maybe they will want to feed on Zoey, and you with your selective taste for blood will be too famished to stop them. Do you want to die and never see your sweet Zoey again?" Then he clapped his hands and the youngest of his women came and sat beside me.

She looked into my eyes. She had marks all over her body. More than one vampire had fed on her from her neck to her thighs. And on her back to her ankles. She was weak and pale but her heart was strong, and the way she was being fed upon, it would take a long time for her to die.

Leaning forward at my feet, she put both hands on my thighs and looked up at me, begging me take her blood and put her out of her misery. "Kill me," she whispered to me.

Watching her and all the puncture wounds on her body, my mouth salivated at the thought of feeding on her. I didn't know if it was because I needed food, or because I wanted to taste the sweetness of human blood once more, which caused me to entertain the idea.

I had seen the look in her eyes once before when Aare would get hold of a young girl the way he wanted to have Zoey, and he would drain her slow, then he would have sex with her and when he finished he would feed on her again, and when he no longer liked the taste of her blood he would give her to the lowest of vampires.

They were the ones who savored their food and it would be months before they would kill these women, or throw them into the towers to become food for the starving humans they kept there until later.

Because he chose the very young ones, she could last for years and he would torture her by feeding and then having sex with her. His sexual activities were not really sexual, but more of torture where he was the only one to derive the pleasure he sought.

When the young women or men were unconscious, after he drank their blood, he left them almost comatose, and that's when he enjoyed their bodies more.

I knew that's what he wanted to do with Zoey when she became a teen, and mother stopped him. Zoey was to be her human child she could never have. I don't think my mother really wanted to change Zoey. But as Zoey grew older she began to ask questions and wander around the castle alone.

Gazing down on the girl who had to be about eighteen, I placed my hand on her head and rubbed her dry hair that was probably once shiny and full with life. I placed my hand to comfort her.

She whispered to me, "I want to die. I don't want to be an undead." Her voice soft, her dark eyes opening and closing. Her face beyond pale and lifeless. Her body emaciated from the constant feedings by others.

Then I leaned over. The smell of her, the lack of food excited me, and my fangs automatically sprang and my head lowered and I sunk my teeth into her neck. The feeling was more than I could explain. I felt a surge of energy and vitality I hadn't known in years. I didn't know it could feel this wonderful. I had forgotten.

She held my legs tight with both hands as I sucked hard on her frail neck. Her pain reached its peak, her face twisted. The pain became more than she could stand. Her blood sweet, her smell sweet, but not like Zoey's blood. As I'm feeding on this young girl, the vision of Zoey is haunting me. What would she say or do if she saw me this way, I thought.

But I'm doing this so Zoey can live, I rationalized. She would understand wouldn't she? I questioned.

Remembering Zoey as I'm feeding on the young woman's blood, it reminded me of the smell when Zoey first had her cycle. I can't get enough of this young woman's blood because I'm thinking of Zoey as I feed on this innocent lost woman.

The taste is exhilarating and exciting. The blood is making me strong and I'm reliving every moment with Zoey when I first smelled her blood.

I close my eyes as I feed and I can think of something pleasant as I commit this unthinkable act.

I had taken Zoey from the castle to keep Aare away from her, and we were living in England, and one night she woke with blood all over her gown, and she began screaming not knowing what to make of it. I rushed to her room to comfort her only to find her lying in a small pool of blood.

At first I thought something had crept into her bed and fed on her and left her bleeding. I thought Aare had found us. I pulled her up to examine her. Then I realized it was something natural for a girl her age. I had forgotten because it had been years since I had been with a human female.

The sweet smell of her blood was the reason I sent her away. I couldn't be sure I would be able to control myself because I loved her more than my life, and I couldn't allow anyone to turn this innocent child. Not even myself. She had been like a young sister to me where all I thought about was her protection.

I never wanted to make her a vampire. I needed her to live out her life and I would be with her eventually.

"I see you're taking to your old ways. You were the strongest of us and that's because you couldn't get enough of that young blood. I eventually followed in your footsteps," Aare said watching at me. I raised my head, and let the memories of Zoey as a child, fade from my consciousness at hearing his voice.

"I only fed on the women who wanted this kind of existence. The ones who wanted to live forever and keep their youth," I said raising my eyes to meet Aare's sinister eyes. I lowered my head and continued feeding because it would take longer to drain this young woman. If I didn't drain her completely, she would become like me. And she didn't want that.

When I felt her heart slow, her grip release from my legs, and her blood dwindling in my mouth, I lifted her cold body into my arms and cradled her, she weakly glanced up at me. She still had life in her eyes. I sank my teeth deeper. She gave a gasp and she was no more.

A tear fell from my eyes because that could have been Zoey.

Then I heard another loud gasp and when I looked at Aare he was laughing, and Zoey was standing at the door in a white gown and watching at me.

I looked like the killer I was. Blood dripping from my mouth down my robe. A dead woman in my arms. I tried to wipe the blood on my mouth with the back of my sleeve. But there was so much blood.

On hearing Zoey's moan with obvious pain at seeing me, I placed the young woman down and rushed to her.

"Get away from me. Do you see yourself? I expected that from him but not you," she said her blue eyes dark and seething with hurt and disgust. "You are just like him." Her voice fragile and shaking as she breathed through her teeth in a broken whisper.

She stood shaking her head side to side with her eyes closed.

"But I'm not, believe me." My voice quiet. My tone forceful. I reached for her. I wanted to feel her warmth about me to make me feel as if I were human again. The way she had made me feel before when I entered her body and became one with her.

"How can I believe you now?" She pulled away from me and rushed for the door and then she turned to me.

"I would rather marry Aare and live in this hell. At least I don't love him and he knows it. But you had me believing that our love could have been different. I know I will never be rid of this life no matter where I go, but I can choose which devil I want to be with, and it's not you."

She rushed out of the door. I turned and looked at Aare. "You did this on purpose."

He looked at me with a gleam in his eyes and said, "All's fair in love and war. This was your choice to make. Zoey made her choice to marry me. We will be married in two nights. Be happy for me brother. Maybe she can change me the way she changed you."

And all I heard was the ring of Aare's laughter throughout the room.

I watched at the door Zoey disappeared behind, and I turned to look at Aare and I knew that only one of us would leave this castle. I should have sensed, I should have known that I had damned myself when I took Aare's bait and gorged on human blood.

# The End

Book 2 and Book 3 of "The Soul of A Vampire" coming soon.

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