I watch the vampire pressure Danika: “You told us you would come and party with us after your formal.”
“I know, but my sister’s boyfriend was attacked that night by some cult member,”
she naively replies, not knowing he is a member of the cult and is all too aware of the attack.
“That is horrible. Why don’t you come tonight?” he tempts in a snarky tone.
“I will soon, but my family has lots of holiday plans. Soon. I promise.”
I make note of the sincerity of her voice.
I am realizing she really is not aware of whom she is getting involved with. I sense the family heading back to the area. They must have noticed her missing. The cult vampire takes off quickly.
“There you are, Danika. We have been worried about you. What happened?”
Constance asks as she approaches.
“Sorry. I was just exploring the woods a little. I thought I was close enough to home that the wolves would not come near,” she answers, trying to hide her plans.
“You can’t be out here like this by yourself. You are not skilled enough if another vampire attacks, and we know they are around now,” Elijah reasons.
“Sorry. I was not thinking. I will be more careful from now on.”
The family heads back to the house, and I move on my way to Boston. I need to offer myself to the cult at the club. It is the best way to protect my family.
Chapter Thirty Two
Relief
“I am so glad you are alright, Danika. Don’t you ever do that to us again, young lady!” Florence throws her arms around our youngest member.
“I’m so sorry, Mother Florence. I was not thinking straight,” Danika says with remorse.
Walking toward Danika, I open up, “I know you are new to this family, but we care about our members very much. I am sorry for always being so hard on you. I am just taking my fears out on you. I’m sorry I was so mad at you tonight. I am going to try to let go of the anger and show you I care.”
“Thank you, Sophia. That means so much coming from you. I will try to make you proud.”
I notice her bite her lip at the end of that sentence. I have to wonder if that is earnestness or guilt. It doesn’t matter, as long as she understands that the family was worried about her.
Everyone takes their turns informing Danika of how we feel about her and what our family means to each of us. She sits in front of each of us, and I can see her pain. She has only been a vampire for about a year and a half now, and in this time a new vampire goes through all the emotions of a person diagnosed with a terminal disease. Being that she is also a teenager, she is bound to act like one.
Florence brings in some blood tea infused with a little rum. “We had a little scare tonight, and I think a little relaxation is in order. Everyone needs to let go of these emotions we are having.”
“Each and every one of us is so lucky to have you in our existence, Florence. Thank you for everything you do.” Elijah leans in and kisses his wife.
We nod in agreement and enjoy our tea.
“I think it is time we turn in for a little rest,” Florence encourages.
***
I decide to go upstairs and clean up a bit. I take a shower and get into my most comfortable pajamas. I turn on my stereo and lie down on the bed, trying to relax and enjoy the music. It is classical tonight. I do not need much sleep, but tonight I am mentally exhausted. As I lie there in bed, I begin to picture the music, the notes dancing across the bars. It is beautiful to imagine the music coming alive like this. Music is an amazing thing, from the first note to the final melody. Until I met Nathanial, the arts were my one true passion. It has always been consistent and has always been there for me to turn to. I slowly relax and enter a deep meditative state, drifting off to sleep with the hope of seeing Nathanial in my dreams. “Nathanial, NO! Please! I beg you...don’t ever be like us. I want you to experience everything I never could,” I plead.
“I want to be with you forever, Sophia, and this is the only way. I will find someone to turn me. We will be happy and will always have each other,” he argues.
“I will leave before I ever let you be Embraced,” I threaten.
“I will never let anything tear us apart, my love. I will love you forever and always. Even if you leave, I will find a way to Embrace and walk the Earth searching for you. This is what I want and nothing more. How could I ever miss out on anything if I have you?”
“How can you do this to your family? To lose you would destroy your mother.”
“My family would understand and support my choice.”
I awake and sit up in bed, wondering if what I just dreamt could possibly happen. I do not want this for him. Being a vampire has it perks, but it is treacherous never growing or changing, cursed to walk the Earth forever. He won’t do it. Nathanial would never do that to his family. I calm myself from the dream and drift back to sleep. As fast as I fall back asleep, the dream is forgotten.
Chapter Thirty Three
Welcoming
I go to pick up Nathanial at eleven o’clock, just as planned. He gets in the car giving me that wonderful grin I love so much. I’m nervous. It is just like the first time I met him, waiting for him to speak.
“I had some time to think about things last night.”
My heart plunges into my gut as I wait for him to continue.
“And I want you to know that no matter what, I am still completely in love with you, I know it will all work out the way it is meant to be,” he reassures me and leans in for a kiss. “Now I want you to teach me and show me everything,” he says eagerly.
“Just remember...you asked for it.” I say with an evil little grin. I hammer down on the accelerator of my Porsche Cayenne. “Buckle up, buttercup.” I laugh.
We arrive at my house in no more than a minute or two.
“Holy crap! That was faster than Mario Andretti,” he chokes out with a little shock in his voice.
I remind him that he asked for it. “Well, lesson one, I have superior reflexes and have been driving since cars were made.” I smirk. “And you are right. That was faster than Mario Andretti. I could smoke his butt any day.”
We get out of the car sharing a little giggle. Even though I am in the driver’s seat, he still walks around to open my door for me.
“This is not a house. It’s a freaking hotel.” he gasps.
“It was actually a bed-and-breakfast years ago,” I explain.
The acreage we live on is perfectly manicured, the drive is cleared of all snow, and the frosted trees glisten in the sun. The driveway circles around a fountain that is situated in the middle of a grassed area. Off to the right is a large attached garage that would make Jay Leno jealous. I park in front of the main steps that lead to the front door. We begin to walk up the marble stairs that lead to a beautiful wrap around veranda with marble roman pillars holding the roof above.
When we enter through the large French doors, my family is waiting to welcome Nathanial. Each member of the family lines the grand staircase at the back of the large front foyer. There are two sets of stairs, each in the shape of a semi-circle leading to the second floor. The décor has been collected throughout our years of travel, and the furniture has a contemporary feel.
“Your home is breathtaking. I could have never imagined anything so amazing,”
Nathanial compliments. “Thank you for welcoming me into your home.”
“Nate, it is great to finally have you here.” Alexander greets him with a handshake.
Matilda comes down next. “Looking good. I trust you are feeling better?”
“Much, thank you.” He smiles.
“Nate, I would like to formally introduce you to my Aunt Constance and Uncle Isaac, the doctors that cared for you,” I announce.
“We met playing pool before the winter formal,” Nathanial reminds me.
“Oh, that’s right. I can’t believe I forgot I guess I have had so much on my mind.”
&nbs
p; “Nate, it is a pleasure to see you under better circumstances,” Isaac says.
“Thank you for stitching me up. I just wish Sophia could have healed it completely.
Now I am going to miss Christmas day scrimmage with my brother,” he jokes.
“And last are my mother and father figures, Florence and Elijah. I guess you also met Elijah at the pool hall, but I don’t believe you met Florence formally.”
“Welcome, Nate. Our home is your home.” Florence gives him a hug.
“You better take care of yourself. I don’t think our girl could handle if anything else happened to you,” Elijah says, shaking Nathanial’s hand.
He smiles and says, “Thank you so much. It is an honor to spend the day with the family that brought Sophia to me. I am forever indebted to you.”
“Well, why don’t we go and relax in the family room? The girls have prepared some refreshments and baked some blueberry scones. They did very well, if I may say so myself,” Elijah announces.
“Thank you. That sounds wonderful, but you really did not need to go to any trouble for me. I am just happy to be here,” Nathanial replies with all the manners of an aristocrat.
“So, Nate, do you have any questions for us or any concerns we could help ease?”
Elijah asks, breaking the ice.
“I do have lots of questions, but I know they will all be answered in time. I would really enjoy getting to know all of you and what your lives have been like as a family.
You know the normal stuff, before we get to the other stuff.”
“That would be lovely!” Florence agrees.
We sit and visit with my family for a while. We cover all the usual things like embarrassing stories from over the years, school, and Christmas, which is fast approaching.
“We should host a New Year’s party. We could invite everyone and try to get to know the townspeople,” Matilda suggests.
“What an excellent idea! We could invite the families from work and school,”
Constance agrees, always up for a good party.
“You better invite me.” Nathanial jokes.
Everyone has a good chuckle, and he looks around.
“It wasn’t that funny,” he defends.
“Nate...” Elijah places a hand on his broad, thick shoulder. “The thing is our family takes love very seriously. Love is very important, and when you add soul mates to the mix. Well, what I am trying to say is that we already consider you part of our family.
You are with Sophia and we all believe you to be soul mates. You never need an invitation around here. I hope that doesn’t scare you away.”
“Let me get this straight. You are worried that you just scared me by inviting me into your family? Let’s recap the things that could have and should have scared me in the last few months.” Nathanial begins his reflections on the past few months, and we all listen to the events as he sees them. “The first day of school, I literally bump in to the most amazing woman in the world. Falling head over heels in love. . I experiencing feelings I have never thought I would have. I know I can’t live without her and everything I know is about to change. That was a little scary. Then, once I found the courage to ask her out, I get stabbed and have memories of unbelievable events surrounding the stabbing. That was a little more than scary.” He takes a deep breath and continues. “Then there was finding out the love of my life and her entire family are actually a clan of vampires and that she wanted to drink my blood. I even found out that witches are real, yet not one of these things compares to the fear I felt when—”
“You came here?” Matilda interrupts.
“No. That was not scary at all.” He smiles and looks over at me before continuing,
“Telling Sophia I am in love with her and opening my soul to her was the scariest moment of my life because I was terrified she would reject me since we just started dating,” he confesses. “So by comparison, being considered part of your family is a relief. My only hope is to make it official one day.”
In shock, we all look at one another. Does he really mean or even understand what he just said?
“What? What could you possibly mean by that?” I frantically ask as the dream I had last night comes rushing back to me.
“Maybe we should save that conversation for a later date.” He smiles.
I look at Alexander.
Nathanial says, “Let’s keep this one between us, bro.” Clearly, he has already figured out what Alexander’s gift is, and Alexander only chuckles.
“Well, thank you for sharing with us. It was nice.” Elijah smiles at Nathanial.
Chapter Thirty Four
Planning
“Enough serious talk. Let’s get back to party planning. Constance and I can handle the decorating. Nate, can you assist Sophia with the invitations and guest list? Since you know almost everyone in town, you would be best at deciding who to invite,” Matilda says excitedly.
“We can take care of the menu,” Florence volunteers, and Elijah nods in agreement.
“Can I handle the swag?” Danika asks excitedly.
“Swag? What the heck is swag?” Isaac makes a goofy, confused look.
We girls all laugh, and Danika explains, “Swag is like a loot bag, a party favor bag filled with nice gifts.”
Florence’s smile reaches from ear to ear. “That is a wonderful idea, Danika. I would love to go shopping with you.”
“Mother and daughter shopping spree. It’s a date.”
“I guess that leaves us with the entertainment.” Alexander gives Isaac a nudge.
“Well, alright then. We all have our to-do lists, so we’d best get started. There is not much time.” Matilda jumps up and runs to the other room with Constance in flow.
“So, Nathanial, shall I give you the tour?” I offer.
“Please do,” he says eagerly.
Hand in hand, with our fingers intertwined, I begin to show him the rest of the house. Since we are in the family room, I decide to lead him to the library next, just off the family room and quite impressive.
Walking through the double doors of the library, we both look around at the room lined with mahogany shelving that slide on rails, revealing even more shelving. The ceiling is about twelve feet high. Every shelf is filled with books of every kind. A lovely hand-carved old wooden rung ladder is available to allow anyone to reach any book in the collection, even from the highest shelves.
“I have never seen anything like this before. It is magnificent.” Nathanial starts gushing. “I know where I am coming to study from now on.”
I laugh at his enthusiasm. “This is only the second room you’ve seen. Just wait!” I tease.
We move throughout the remaining rooms. The gourmet kitchen, the office, theatre room, game room, exercise room, and indoor pool. We continue on to visit all eight bedrooms, all ten baths, and the study.
“The art room is one of my favorites in the entire house,” I admit as I show him the various instruments, painting, and other art supplies.
“Can you play any of these?”
“Yes. I can play all of them quite well.” I grin. “But I prefer painting.”
“Did you paint any of these?” Nathanial politely asks.
“Yeah, most of them.”
“They are magnificent ,” he gushes while examining the wall of art. “Why don’t you play something for me while I look around?”
“Sure. What would you like me to play?”
“Whatever. I just want to see some of your talents,” he replies.
I decide to strum a little tune on my guitar. I begin playing a song I have been working on since my family moved here. “This song expresses all the feelings I had in the beginning until now–hate, love, fear, remorse, and everything under the rainbow.”
Near the end of my piece, it becomes very soothing and caring with a sense of acceptance.
“Wow! That was extremely moving. Who is it by?”
I can tell he feels all my emotion in the song. “
I wrote it. It is a compilation of my feelings from our move to Wenham to meeting you,” I admit.
“Well, I could feel how torn you were about us, but I may even understand a little better now.” He leans over and gives me a hug and adds, “I am sorry I caused you such distress.”
“It was not you that caused the distress and anguish. Being a vampire is what caused it. I did not think it was possible to love a mortal,” I assure him.
We head back downstairs and to the garage, a place I know he will enjoy.
“This is my kind of garage.” He begins to examine each and every car.
We have many different sports, luxury, and foreign cars, along with a few classics and average cars. It is any man’s dream, and I knew he would love it here.
“I never knew homes such as this actually existed.” He said flabbergasted.
“Let’s go to my room and start the guest list,” I suggest.
We head back up the grand staircase to my room. It is a large room, painted white with a large bay window and window seats that overlook the garden. I have a hand-carved oak king-sized bed draped with a bright red duvet. Across from the bed is a matching armoire, and on it is perched a beautiful silver frame with a picture of Nathanial that I took that first day inphoto shop. The other side of the room is a walkin-closet and private bath. Just to the side, two small steps lead to my private reading room that boasts a small octagon-shaped window and a small scrapbooking area covered with photo albums, papers, stickers, and so on. Open on my table is my newest project, pictures of Nathanial from our first day.
In typical man fashion, he starts admiring my top-of-the-line electronics and massive music and DVD collections. We both crawl on the bed with a notepad in hand and flip on the TV.