Breach (The Blood Bargain) (18 page)

“Makes me wonder if I should just turn you.”  He murmured, running his index finger along my jawline, trailing down over my jugular.  “You know so much about us already.”

“No!”  I spat out immediately.

“No?”  He let me fight his hold, pushing back so that I could look him in the eye.  Staring into that icy abyss my thoughts poured from me unchecked.

“When death no longer follows our step the importance of living the life we have is lost. I do not want to lose sight of today for countless tomorrows.  For that to me is not a gift, but a curse.”

His hands, his body left my own.  In an instant he was seated across from me again, his forearms resting on his knees. Swallowing hard I felt a lump in my throat, at the words I had spoken.  Pain shimmered briefly in his eyes, it appeared as frail as I was I had found a way to crack stone.

“I will consider your words this eve.”

“Caius...”   He raised his hand to silence me.

“Leave me with my…thoughts.”  His head turned to the painting above the mantle at the far end of the room.  A grassy farm scene, an old red barn surrounded by children clothed in a nineteen forties style, an old farmer standing proudly by his tractor.  I drank in his profile for a moment as I rose from the sofa; back straight, shoulders squared under that designer shirt, dark waves pouring over his shoulders, strong jaw kicked up ever so slightly in pride, and expression unreadable like a living portrait from Raffaello Sanzio.

Although he had pretty much just attacked me-after feeding from me for months I might add-threatening to turn me into the ranks of the
vampiric everlasting I was the one who felt horrid leaving his home.  Surprisingly, hurting Caius’ feelings made me feel like an ass.  A pain that reverberated in my chest with each step I took down the stairs from the porch.  What was even more frustrating is I didn’t understand why.  The old dinosaur was a heavy-handed self-absorbed expletive inducing pain in my rear who had threatened my life and robbed me of tiny bits of it. Yet I felt like I knew him, like I owed him something.  An unexplainable debt of sorts that I couldn’t describe.

In a way I suppose it reminded me of a celebrity relationship.  In the old world we’d see these people on television and read about them in magazines, find ourselves privy to so many details about their private lives’-favorite foods, childhood trauma stories, vacation spots and lovers-that we would develop a one sided kinship with them.  In truth I knew very little about the once man no matter what I felt I knew. Extrapolating from there I reminded myself that I didn’t owe him shit and he needed to respect my boundaries.  He was an aggressor, I didn’t need to be a sympathetic victim regardless of the amount of vampire voodoo that made me want to snuggle up with him.  That was that.  I would not allow myself to be attracted to Caius no matter the
-

My eyes flipped up right as I banged into the chest of
Adam King, bouncing back I fell square on my ass scraping my palms on the sidewalk.

“Damn
Liv.  You alright?”

“Adam, ah hi.  I’m sorry I didn’t see you.” With a wince I scrubbed at my left palm with my right hand, digging the little bits of gravel out of my skin.  On habit from when I was just learning to ride a bike, I blew on my wound trying to lessen the sting.

“Yeah I noticed....I said hi about three times but you were too busy staring at your feet. You sure you’re okay?”

“Was just thinking I guess, it has been such a long day.”  Adam reached over to me, pulling a dry dead leaf out of my hair with a smirk.

“You’re a dork.”

“Stop, I’ll blush.”

“Walk you home?”

“Only if you tell me why you were being my human roadblock.”

“Hey, you popped by my house and missed me. I just wanted to say hi as you were rude enough to leave without so much as a how are ya.”

“I was there to see Caius.”

“About?”

“Going to Lake City.”

“Wha-”

“
We need a doctor Adam, medical supplies...”  Adam grabbed at tufts of his dark hair, groaning.

“You should have come to me, we could have approached this together.”

“I asked him to let you go with us, he said no.”

“No shit he said no.”  Adam sighed.  “Damn it, for once in your life could you please coordinate rather than rushing into something halfcocked?”  Frustration seeped into his voice.

“I’m not cocked at all thank you.” I snapped.

“Figure of speech.”

“He said he’d think about it anyway.” I informed him, as I kicked up my chin, arms crossed with indigence.

He just laughed.

“Bullshit, Caius doesn’t think about anything.  He acts as though decisions are bestowed upon him through divine guidance.”

“Well it is what he said...”  I chewed on my lower lip.  “So did you know that Antonia killed Zhang
Qi’s lover?”  I knew he did before I finished the question.  He may be a vampire now, but I knew Adam King’s facial expressions better than I knew my own fathers.  Adam would never have been a good poker player, he wore his mind on his sleeve.

“I see.”

“Liv-”

“No. You know what?  No. You want us to be a team and do things together but you keep stuff from me.  You are no different than my father,
Dimitri, hell every other damned person in this town.”  I was yelling, not giving a shit about the scene I made or that he held his hands up in defense.  Screw this.  Screw all of it.

“
Liv-”

“I mean do I
look
fragile?  Do I look like I can’t handle things?  Is that why you put me in the distressed damsel routine?  I’m telling you I’m so over it, it isn’t even funny how over this I am.”

“Evelyn
Younger! Shut your damn mouth and listen!”  He snapped, the harsh tone having the same effect as the back of his hand across my cheek.  I was stunned to utter silence.

“You walk around here with this sense of entitlement like you have special security clearance to know the innermost workings of the universe.  Well you don’t.  There are vampire matters that are not your concern and not your business.  Judging by the way you react to things I’m fully within my purview to not tell you things you are not entitled to know.  We are friends, we will always be, but if you turn me into your verbal punching bag one
more time I am not going to socialize with you further, no matter what mandates my elder has bestowed upon me.  I will guard you, but only from afar is that clear?”

By the time Adam was done with his rant I felt worse than I had since Candice ripped my head off.   Shrinking into myself I felt two feet tall, my horrid temper....

“Yes.”  I replied meekly.  My vision blurred, his back turned to me as he started to walk away.  “I’m sorry Adam. I just feel so lost in this Stepford world of ours.”  I gestured to all the little well cared houses in their neat little rows.  Most of these people kept to their day jobs, a beer or two at the garage at night on occasion and only whispers of our vampire companions.  They were blissfully unaware of the current state, remembering the dead in their homes in nightmares, traumas from a lifetime ago.

“The world has always had two sides, always will.  Those that face the shadows are masochists, suffering truth so that the innocent can dance in the light of lies.”

Shutting my eyes, I thought about his words while attempting to force my emotions back into a little box inside my brain. Lock them up with a key so none could find them.

“Accept your role my dark friend, only then will you no longer feel tortured.”

“I never asked for this.  I just wanted to help.”  My fingertips flicked away the tears streaking down my cheeks.

“And help you do, you bear the burden so they don’t have to.” “I have to save him, his pai
n is killing me.”  I whispered.

“You and me both sister.”  He linked my arm, turning me to walk towards my house.  His other thin lukewarm hand patting my forearm gently as we strolled along.  “You and me both.”

The town square-with its old shops turned into warehouses, restaurants converted to housing, the city hall/police headquarters as our own council chambers-was completely transformed.  Where cozy old fashioned street lamps stood torches had been hung to carry us through the night.  Fake floral arrangements in a variety  of spring blooms decorated building fronts, tied back with ribbons of green, purple, blue and yellow that was reused year after year. Decorations were courtesy of the large craft store that had once existed a block south of the square.  A banquet of preserves, meats-a rare treat-baked goods and vegetables was set up at the north end, next to the large collection of kegs that flowed freely. The opposite side of the square was a different harmony; voices attempting good conversation were drowned out by the strum of a guitar.  The beat of the drum kept everyone moving, the singer lost in the waves of music by the lack of amplifying equipment.  Still we all heard the words in our minds,
songs carried down from generations retooled in a bluegrass fashion.

The citizens of Junction were dressed in their finest, flowing dresses and polo shirts intermingled through the crowd. The red hues of the setting sun intertwined with the glow of the lit torches, the whole atmosphere washed in the scent of burning woods.

Smiling, I took a deep breath; this was what it was to live.  Right here, right now.  The living intertwined in the celebration of simply being, a true testament to our resolve. Smoothing out my aqua blue tank dress I scanned the crowd for familiar faces.   I had been late to the party due to an overflowing in pile from my new position.  I had tried to talk to Dad a few times about the medical issue, planted a bug in Richards’s ear as well, and even brought it up to Zack as much as I disliked talking to the little worm.  None of them seemed overly concerned about it, said we had enough supplies to get through the next year, that it would give the citizens of our northern sister more time to cool down before we renegotiated.  My father stressed they needed our crop trade more than we needed their medical.  All in all I was just wasting my words on persuasion, so I focused on the paperwork; spending an entire week in that little office processing this and counting that left me about ready to crawl out of my own skin.

There are those bred to be bureaucrats, filling forms and correlating with glee, and there are those who were born to run free.   I was not built to be caged.

Taking a step into the crowd there was no pull of pain in my legs even in the low sling back black heels I had borrowed from Zoe’s closet.   Every heel toe became a silent testament of my broken chains.

One drew my attention immediately.  A tall slender blonde in her late twenties, bright hazel eyes gleaming as she laughed at a joke from the man next to her.  Long blond hair swept back in a tight ponytail causing her already defined cheekbones to scream perfection.  Her
dress was cream colored, sleeveless but square necked, flared at the bottom but ended at the knee.

The perfect combination of skin and modesty.

Working my way through the crowd towards my target I paused to shake hands with a few familiar faces; Lauren from preserves, Frank from the east wall, Anna who worked on the farmland.  When I got close enough to my destination I heard Mark going on about something to the crowd. Talking animatedly with his hands he was such a sight, his thick dark hair a tousled mess, eyes wide and smile five miles wide.  He seemed out of place in the khaki slacks and white button up shirt-which he had already spilled something on-Zoe had probably forced him into.

The proverbial clown in the tuxedo.

“So there’s these two men are driving through Southern Iowa when they get pulled over by a State Trooper. The cop walks up and taps on the window with his nightstick.  The driver rolls down the window and WHACK, the cop smacks him in the head with the stick. The driver asks, what the hell was that for?  The cop answers, you’re in Iowa son. When we pull you over, you better have your license ready when we get to your car.  The driver says, I'm sorry, Officer, I'm not from around here. The cop runs a check on the guy's license, and he's clean. He gives the guy his license back, walks around to the passenger side, and taps on the window. The passenger rolls down the window and WHACK, the cop smacks him on the head with the nightstick. The passenger asks, what’d you do that for?  The cop says, just making your wish come true. The passenger asks, making what wish come true?  The cop says, I know that two miles down the road you're going to say to your buddy, I wish that asshole would've tried that shit with me!"

Everyone within earshot let out a hearty laugh; Kyle-one of Mark’s work buddies-clapped Mark on the back and demanded he tell another.

“Alright alright…A man was sitting at home one evening, when the doorbell rang. When he answered the door and a 6 foot tall cockroach-ugly mean son of a gun cockroach-was standing there. The cockroach immediately punched him between the eyes and scampered off.

Now the next evening…”

Taking the opportunity as I had heard this one, I snuck up beside the pretty blonde who was nursing the red plastic cup of ale in her hand. “Hey Zoe!”  She gave me a big hug.

“Livy there you are!  I was starting to worry you weren’t coming tonight.”  She looked me over from head to toe. “Those shoes look better on you it seems.”

“They do not.  Either way, thanks for letting me borrow them.”

“Then the doc said, there is a nasty bug going around!”  Mark hollered at the crowd beside us, causing another wave of drunken laughter. Zoe joined in the merriment, her angelic bells ringing loudly with the rest.

“It was nice of the Shannon’s to watch the twins tonight for us.”  She commented to me.  “I admit, after that little episode after the thaw I was quite nervous with letting them out of my sight.  Your Dad talked me into it.  Said we rarely get the equivalent of a date night any more.  Plus this really is our only party of the year.  Not like we can catch a new movie every other Friday.”

“Every once in a while he does have really good advice doesn’t he?”  I smirked.  Hadn’t seen Dad around yet but I knew as I got over towards the far side he’d be there.  The old fed wasn’t much for mead or banquets, but he loved the strum of the guitar and a good beat on the drum.

“And now I’ll give you some, let’s get you a drink.”  Zoe declared, locking her arm through my elbow she led me towards the keg line.  We made small talk about the food spread, the music, even a giggle at some of the poorly sewn dresses.

Speaking of, there was one pretty in pink I couldn’t
wait to find.  Soon as I got Candice on that dance floor with Rylie I could start to enjoy my evening.  It was something I had been thinking about since I put that needle to thread the first time.  I could just picture her face, eyes lit up as he took her hand leading her into the crowd.  The band would play a slow song, one of those perfect movie rip offs, and the sky would clear.  Under the stars they’d twirl by the torchlight until cupid stuck his arrow square in their rear.

“Zoe, have you seen Candice around?”  I asked while we waited our turn.

“That’s not funny.”  Her hard tone brought my gaze back to her face, her light had dropped completely, the small wrinkle lines of motherhood showing around her eyes and mouth from her frown.

“I didn’t mean it to be funny; I wanted to see if she liked her dress for the party.”  I tried to explain casually.

Zoe slapped me so hard I saw stars.

“How dare you!  Have some respect for the dead.”  With that Zoe stalked away from me, her blond ponytail swaying back and forth in a fury.

Utterly confused, I blinked repeatedly fighting back the reflex eye watering from her strike.   What the hell just happened?

“
Here.”  Someone shoved a cup full of ale in my hand.  “Happy Spring.”

“Happy Spring.”  I parroted back to the smiling man.  He paid me a simple compliment on my dress, trying to strike up a conversation.  I smiled and made small talk while my eyes scanned the crowd, nerves still settling from the sting on my cheek.  I found Zoe again, peaceful Zoe was hugging Mark in the shadows while he rubbed small circles in on her back. His mouth moving, probably speaking words of encouragement to her.

How could she think Zoe was dead?  I had just seen her not…five hours before at lunch?

No, she hadn’t been at lunch today.  Candice was at
work.

I had seen her last night though, before bed.  We had talked briefly about how excited she was for tonight.  It was her expert hand that had selected my own dress for the evening after all.  Zoe had been there, in the room.  She had given me the shoes, Candice had been sitting on my bed and-

“Liv.”  The man approaching me was not Cole, but Rylie.  He had traded his typical army greens for a pair of slacks and a light grey short sleeve dress shirt that he had skipped the top two buttons on.  It was the first time I had seen him out of uniform in a decade.  He stopped a casual distance away from me, just out of arm’s length.

Brushing my hair out of my eyes I forced a smile. “
Rylie, hi.”

Pausing to take a drink from his cup he scanned the crowd along with me.  “I admit, I believe
I was wrong to avoid hanging about the festival in years past.  It does remind me of summer’s back home.”

“Where were you from?”  It had never dawned on me that
Rylie had a family or a life...having known him only in service it seemed odd to think of him as a child, but I suppose even Dimitri was a child once.

“Louisiana.  In the spring and summer we’d have barbeques, get the whole town together out at my uncle’s place.  He was a big wig in town, owned a construction company. Lots of bonfires like this with country music and moonshine.” 
Rylie smiled, his eyes distant, reliving an old memory. “We’d dance until we passed out.  Wake up covered in hay or mud on the poach with a roaring headache, but it was worth it every time.”

I laughed.  “I’d never have guessed you could dance.  Or that you’re from the bayou for that matter.”

“My accent may have faded, but I still have the moves.”  He took my now empty cup from my hand, setting it on the curb along with his own.

“Mind if I show you?”  A big open palm extended to
me, his tan skin puckered by a faded scar along his index finger.

Butterflies in my stomach jumped as I took his hand.  Not that I could right out refuse him, I was the one who requested his presence tonight.  It wasn’t his fault that Candice was a no-show and Zoe was pulling a twilight zone on me.  Forcing a smile I looked up at his dark face while he pulled me close, his thick arm snaking in around to the small of my back. Bluegrass music poured from the band, but we weren’t clogging it up in western boots.  He led me around in a lighthearted country dance, spinning me a few times for effect.   The stress in my back and tightness in my chest faded away, my grin transformed from forced to free will.

“Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler.” He said with a smile as he spun me around, the creole rolling over his tongue with velvet finesse.

“What?”

“Let the good times roll.” And they did.  In fact, we had so much fun the band had played three songs and we were still twirling hand in hand.  In a small corner of my mind I felt bad, one dance was friendly, two was pushing it, but three…three meant a pattern had certainly been established.

The fourth had just started up when my boyfriend apparently decided he had enough of it.  Standing behind us, appearing from nowhere, was Cole Marshall.  Dressed in a head to toe black with his dirty blonde hair pulled back he looked like something that fell out of GQ.  Well, if GQ had a pissed off edition.

“Mind if I cut in?”  Cole tapped on Rylie’s shoulder, his lighthearted tone not matching his eyes.

“Sure.” 
Rylie responded impassively, like whatever macho posturing Cole was doing didn’t faze him in the slightest, he didn’t even glance in his direction, those calculating eyes remained fixed on me.  “Thank you for the dance tifi.” 

“I’ve been looking for you all night.” I gave
Cole a light hearted smile, kissing his cheek. “Where have you been hiding babe?”

“What was that about?”  Cole hissed while
Rylie sauntered off towards the kegs.

“He asked me to dance,
nbd.”  Cole’s hands found my hips, his grip a bit tight, our movements to the music mimicking the frustration in his voice.