Page 15 (1/2)

The rest of that week started the beginning of a new routine for us Teren would leave me after dinner to do research with the family Usually one or two of them would stay upstairs and occupy me, while the rest scoured over the books I helped on occasion, but Teren liked me to stay away from it He told me it was horrid stuff, and I shouldn&039;t have to deal with it in my condition, like somehow I&039;d stress myself to death if I poured over the journals with him I told him not to be ridiculous, and he toldabout hoas handling the horrors I sighed and left hi butabout any criainst the mixed childrenand there were a lot of the" that he&039;d used to force Teren&039;s conversion He was curious to see on how young of a child it would work He&039;d practiced on a lot of children He ue with names and places, but he was quite descriptive on all the horrendous details Just reading about it had ot tired, to lie me down in bed and try and reassurespecific enough yet, he was sure they were on the path to so the ht oil with Halina He either slipped back into bed when I was unconscious or stayed up all night, but in the earlyoff to the city for his job, where hefast and spent the rest of his tiet up and trail Alanna, offering to help at every possible opportunity only to have her cal under control and I should just rest or callthat I h they weren&039;t that far away, and even though if I were home I wouldn&039;t see the forced apart from them that was lonely But I wasn&039;t apart fro

My sister ca off school and spending the afternoon with hed when s distended without my permission, mid sentence Once I told her that I had to concentrate on keeping them up twenty-four seven, she spent the next several hours helpingability By the tied to keep them hidden away for most of the day

That turned out to be helpful, sincethe plu her there was stressful For one, I had to wear a brace around my neck A whiplash strain was a convenient way to hideBut not as annoying as never getting out of bed and my mom took bed rest very seriously If I hadn&039;t protested vehemently, she would have made me use a bed pan

But even with those annoyances, it was the fear that made her visit stressful The fear that I&039;d slip up - that I&039;d s would pop out, or I&039;d answer a question that Alanna asked h the walls By the tiht, I was exhausted, and hoped she stayed away for a few days I hated thinking that

Hot Ben ended up coht, which surprised the hell out of ured he was done with the whole lot of us, but after a couple of days sequestering hi, usually around the time I was headed off to bed, and then headed doith the others to pour over notes and journals

I couldn&039;t have been o, he would have had adown into Halina&039;s rooms, deep under the earth From what I could hear before I zonked out, Halina seemed to have shifted into a level of respect for hi banter that she used to use on him The conversations that flowed around that room were all business

And all about me How to save me How to save the children And how to find more mixed like them, in the hopes that so week plotted out in ht never seeto saveless and less ofho it back until the time I was ready for bed He&039;d always call or textaveinto a lead from the journals

They&039;d been able to pinpoint a few places in the State that were cryptically referenced in the ht questions, payouts, and from what I&039;d heard, some of Halina&039;s unique roup of vampires, albeit pureblood vampires, just outside of Santa Rosa He called around lunch, to letit out after work, once the sun went down

"Teren, no, don&039;t go walking into a strange vampire&039;s home alone Be smart about this, please?"

I scratched hed in a way that was supposed to relax h; he was nervous, even if he&039;d never admit it "I&039;ll be fine, E to a human&039;s house They won&039;t harive them one I just need to knohat they know, about va the phone toit were hio with Halina" I was hoping the sex part hts for awhile now

And he did pause as that sunk in "It will be quicker if I just go after work Besides, I&039; belly, feeling a trestling for space with the other "Huh?" I could hear Alanna and I out the remnants of the sun downstairs I didn&039;t knoho he was talking about

"Ben is cohed at that, part out of nerves, part disbelief Hot Ben was his backupseriously? I swear I could hear Teren frown into the phone "Why is that funny? Between the two of us, he&039;s the one that has actually staked a vahed Because, confident or not now, all I picture when I think of Hot Ben is the guy who begged me to not let Teren eat hi in there with a meal? You kno that jerk-off reacted to Ben and hed too "One bad seed doesn&039;t make them all bad Look, I&039;ve met vampires before On rare occasions, when so, they&039;ve come across our scent and have come out to the ranch to say hello They are not all like him He wasoff" I wanted to protest, but honestly, the only vampires I kneere Adams vampires He took my silence as acceptance "We&039;ll be fine I&039;ll see you before bed"

"Fine, you better," I hed and I closedhis location, so incredibly far from me that it felt like the other side of the Country Tears started slipping down my cheeks and I sniffled, just once "Hey, E this for you I love you"

"I know I just ain, since he&039;d already heard it

He paused and I heard hih his hair, torn "I tell you what, when I get hoo upstairs and I&039;ll stay with you I&039;ll give youas you want I&039;ll be your husband, over and over again"

Desire shot right through ot home, had continued to be heated ones, but he always pulled himself away from me Always let duty clear his mind and calm his body I wanted, just once, to let that crazy passion just run aith us "No stopping?" I asked slowly

He laughed, a s"

I sue question I wanted to feel that intensity My body was already burning with the need for it, but first, he&039;d be doing soerous "Be careful, be safe Come home to me"

"I will I love you"

I repeated his sentihed and sank down tohe was hoet even further After a couple long sighs, Alanna asked if I was alright I told her I was, not having to elaborate on my mood since she&039;d heard that entire conversation I wasn&039;t as embarrassed about that as I would have been, probably because I could hear everything too, and in this house, so an intiot used to it

Later in the day I s aroma of fresh blood from a recent kill It compelled me to walk downstairs to the kitchen, where the scent in the house was the strongest Alanna s as she cleaned herself up She and Jack had been outside,the coas Alanna&039;s favorite part, for obvious reasons, and she was freezing containers of it for her fa cow

I momentarily felt bad that I used up so ular food too, but Alanna brushed off irls ate less and less every year Halina could even go a few days without even noticing it She said they&039;d o a few hours before he needed a quick fix

I sat and talked with her about so to hear about the non-evil kind, so I would stop picturing bad things happening to Teren She sat a slass of plasma in front of me, and told me a story about a very nice fely told me that they&039;d been quite taken with Teren, when he&039;d come up to visit over the weekend while they were there She started to explain how one of them had tried to bite him and my eyebrows shot upmy face, she quickly shook her head and said, "Oh, no she wasn&039;t attacking hi and bit her lip,that perhaps Teren&039;s ouldn&039;t want to hear about this

I flushed, realizing that she was talking about foreplay I re me that vamps did feed off each other, and I remembered his devilish smile when he&039;d said he would like it I kneas his first bite, but had he been bitten? Curious, I peeked up at Alanna "Did she? Bite hi up the kitchen, her hands ly fast "I don&039;t think so," she said lowly "Anyway, they left soon after that Nice couple" She started huht, she didn&039;t think so Teren and I were seriously going to have to have the exes talk I could see that now Taking lass, she iuests The sun went dohile she was talking and Halina sauntered into the roo in the conversation she&039;d walked into She went into graphic detail on a couple of the male vampires that had crossed paths with her I blushed furiously and studied anything but Halina&039;s face as she toldthat I was afraid Teren had done with that fehed as I felt his location It had shifted a few hours ago, when he&039;d gotten off work and headed to the vampire&039;s home And it unfortunately hadn&039;t shifted any closer to me; he&039;d headed miles north, towards Santa Rosa I hadn&039;t felt the distance lengthen or shorten since it had stopped; he was still there I hated it, knohere he was but not "how" he was I wondered if it would just stop if he died Would the GPS binging in my head vanish the second he was staked, or would it continue to go off until his dead body was disposed of? I closed en&039;s cool hand went to my shoulder, as she&039;d coht, dear"

Halina stood up, adjusting her short skirt "Yeah, it&039;s just a vamp nest, a small one even He and Ben will be fine" She smiled crookedly as she mentioned Ben, and I wondered how she knew all the details She&039;d been asleep when he&039;d called That could only ht

Irritation at that flowed throughleft out of loops "Why aren&039;t you with him? Aren&039;t you the protector? Isn&039;t that your role?" I snapped that at Halina and the entire rooenerally talked to Halina like that

She cocked her head as she stared at h, or knockto her hips Her ageless eyes burned with a sudden anger "You know nothing, about what I ahtened and sot all the way out there" Blinking at her sudden mood shift, I watched her turn to leave the room "It would be a waste of my time," she said before she left

Still dazed by the display, I turned randmother intently When I felt Halina leave the house and then the property, going for a run apparently, Alanna&039;s eyes caed "It&039;s sort of a sore point"

I cocked my head "He? Why would he do that?"

Alanna bit her lip and looked over at I a little lost as to how to explain it She tried anyway "Motherht know these vampires, and they may notreact well, if she showed up"

I tilted my head at her, even en shook her head, a dark lock of hair escaping from her loose bun "No, this was before he was born" I raisedfor an explanation, and she eventually sighed and shrugged "We think it&039;s this woman vampire, who may or may not have had this mate, who Mother may or may not have slept with, at some point, when she and her ain "It&039;s all very vague, and we&039;re not really sure Teren just didn&039;t want to start out confrontationally, if it really was the woman we think it is"

I droppedto see the scorned woen shared a look and then they both shrugged "Possibly," Alanna answered

I shook my head, irritated at the little va to stake him when she realizes who he is"

Alanna quickly shook her head "He won&039;t tell her"

I groaned and ran hadvertise that in , but I really was not a fan of being left out of plans

Alanna looked at I the resehed and rolled my eyes "Hmmm," Alanna muttered "You do have a point" Quickly she turned back tosmile "It will be fine The nest was only her and her newdinner for Jack andover her shoulder, she added, "Rumor is, she staked the old one"

I closedany better

I didn&039;t feel any better during dinner either, as I felt each long minute that he was north of me, tick by I didn&039;t start to feel better until Alanna was clearing away everyone&039;s dishes Then I started to feel a lot better It happened like it always happened Thein my direction, I started to feel it It was faint as first, since he was so far from me, and I only closed my eyes and inhaled deeply

Halina across from me chuckled as I felt her eyes onho a little on the end

I stayed in ht, with et stronger and I was starting to prepare myself This was just what I did when Teren came back to me every day I found so That usually worked for awhile

He was farther away from me than usual, and I sat in that chair for over an hour as the other va downstairs with I seated across froot closer, my mouth dropped open and my breaths ca onto the edge so hard that I was probablyfast That&039;s when things really intensified It was like ere two hugeas ere kept apart, but start bringing us closer to each other, and you could practically feel the energy crackle between us The thought that eren&039;t going to do anything to stop that unbelievable energy, wasn&039;t h my hair and down my suddenly dry throat, I heard Halina&039;s curious voice across fro closer to you, drives you into a frenzy" I heard her plop her elbows on the table, but didn&039;t crack my eyes open to look "And he feels it too, so it&039;s not the pregnancy" I heard her sit back in her chair as she continued to speculate "It has to be the blood It has to be because he spawned you"

Near panting now, I finally opened my eyes and looked over at her She had her head tilted to the side as she watched ot out between shallow breaths

She shrugged, her brow bunched "I don&039;t know I didn&039;t exactly keep rinned coldly and I shuddered, re her She&039;d never wanted this life She&039;d let hi the buildup in me, Halina spoke in an oddly serious voice "I know that I may seemstandoffish to you at times, but I do care about your fate, about the children&039;s fate" My eyes widened at her rare sincerity, especially towards me Her pale eyes took in my startled expression She shook her head, her youthful eyes sad "ButI&039; time And while the others may share so pureblood means The constant desires I push back The alieness I feel inside of me"

Her voice trailed off as she looked away fro two different ways, desire and anxiousness over Teren approaching, sympathy and compassion for the reluctant vampire before le, her eyes slid back to h this, I pray for your sake, that you end up ht to reply to that, but instead,to the front door when I felt Teren hit the driveway Before I knew it, I was standing, ht Halina laughed and walked over to fix it I glanced at her, at all the traces of her previous coone and the return of her sultry self, but the fire inover too quickly to worry about her any in frustration, I letfeebly to end the ache It didn&039;t do anything, but it gaveelse to concentrate on while I waited This is when it got really bad, when he was super close I got the feeling that if soht noould literally explode It would not be pretty