Passion For Hire (Passion #5) (12 page)

Faith

It had been an interesting day my first day in Adrian’s home with Lucas and as a vampire. Surprisingly my blood lust was controllable and for some crazy reason I was craving food, real food, not just blood.

“I think I’m like you Lucas. Not a full vampire. I want food, or I think I do at least.”

“Well when father gets here we can test that theory.” Lucas grinned.

I looked at him, studying his features for a moment. “Has it been lonely locked up here like a prisoner for so long? Do you resent him for doing what he did to you? He took your life from you and you’ve been trapped here for two years. It can’t have been easy.”

“I hated it at first. The blood lust wasn’t that hard to deal with due to me also eating food, but the sex, or lack of it.” He averted his eyes from mine briefly. “Not having the sex that is as powerful in its need as the need to feed, that’s the hardest part.” He looked a little embarrassed when his eyes met mine again. “I had plenty of time to do what I love though and I wrote.”

That piqued my curiosity. “What do you write and what do you love?”

“Come with me.” He took my hand and although initially surprised at him doing so, I made no attempt to pull my hand from his, and followed him down the hall and into a living room. He released my hand and walked to a tall, narrow cabinet pulling the door open. He reached in, and when I saw what he pulled out I gasped. It was a guitar.

“You play?” I asked and he nodded.

“I play and I sing a bit plus I love to write songs too.” He lovingly slipped the guitar strap over his neck and looked at me again. “Do you have any requests?”

“What do you know?” I asked him.

“You tell me what you want to hear and I’ll tell you if I know it.” He strummed the strings of the guitar, filling the room with the sweet sound.

“Well I am a Ronan Keating fan so how about ‘When you say Nothing at All? Do you know it? You know it’s in the movie Notting Hill?” I raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you need me to sing part of it for you?”

Lucas chuckled. “I know it but perhaps I should have pretended I didn’t and let you sing to me.”

In a very non vampire like reaction to his teasing, I stuck my tongue out at him. I liked Adrian’s son but the more time I spent with him, I knew I wasn’t interest in him; he was more like a brother to me. I could tell he wasn’t really that interested in me either. Not like that, not sexually, despite us being vampires. Natural attraction for one another shouldn’t have come into it, but our human emotions seemed to be stronger. With no spark there was no desire and with no desire, we had no interest in one another sexually.

I guess technically since he’d instigated my change, that made Lucas my brother. So maybe our reaction was normal? I didn’t know. I thought vampires just wanted sex with anyone and everyone but then I should have realised, that wasn’t the case necessarily. Getting Adrian to take my virginity had been as difficult as trying to swim up a waterfall. He’d resisted to the point where I’d wondered if I was ever going to break him.

Maybe the lack of desire to have sex between Lucas and I was simply because we’d both been sired by my dark and brooding vampire. Of course since Adrian completed the change, did that make him my father? If he was, there was no way in hell I’d ever call him dad.

“Do you feel very different now you’re vampire?” I asked curiously.

He frowned briefly as he strummed his guitar. “What do you mean? Are you asking if I feel like a vampire?”

I nodded. “I guess I thought I’d feel very different, that I’d be strong and a bitch like Francesca. She’s one of the vampires that live with Adrian’s father, well, Fabian sired her too. I thought I’d be crazy for blood but I’m not. In fact I don’t feel much different to how I felt as a human.” I sighed. “Seems I can’t even get turning vampire right, and I’m going to be some lame half assed one.”

“Like me you mean?” Lucas’s voice was soft.

I groaned. “No, no that wasn’t what I meant. Why is it that any vampires Adrian sires aren’t full blood ones I wonder? I need to either stay up until daybreak or wake early so I can see if the sun is going to make me burn. You are affected by it aren’t you?”

“Yeah, not as bad as if father walked out in the sun without his tattoo but it still hurts badly and I do start to burn. We’ll never get tattooed either being locked up in here.” There was a hint of sadness in his eyes as he spoke and I realised that although he could deny it bothered him to be held prisoner in Adrian’s home, it really did. Or maybe it was just me and my talk of a life outside here that had made him unsettled, no longer satisfied with his life inside this house.

I put my hand on his arm, wanting to distract him from the path his thoughts were on. He wasn’t going to be locked away in this house much longer if I had anything to do with it. Well, it would have everything to do with me. No way would Adrian ever come clean to his family, and I had no intention of living out eternity within the confines of these four walls.

“Please, sing for me Lucas. I’m sorry.” I smiled encouragingly at him, needing to lift him out of the semi depressed state I seemed to have put him in. “I’m not trying to make out we’re inadequate as vampires. I guess I’m just wondering when Adrian will get here, I’m hungry.”

“If you need blood, you can take some of mine.” He said. “It’s not offered as a way into your pants either. I think we both know, despite you being beautiful, there’s no spark between us. I can’t use you just for the sake of it, plus I know you love my father, our father.” He corrected himself.

So I’d been right, Lucas wasn’t attracted to me either but the rest of what he’d said surprised me. He was wrong. I didn’t feel that way about Adrian. I cared for him but love?

“I don’t love him.” I shook my head as if to reinforce my denial. “It would be pointless to love him because he will never love me. He’s done nothing but push me away. He tells me he can’t have a relationship, not just with me, but with anyone. He can’t have a relationship with anyone because of his job. Maybe he’s lying and he says he can’t have a relationship with anyone because he’s trying to spare my feelings. Perhaps he just doesn’t want me.”

Lucas gave me a look which clearly indicated he didn’t believe anything I was saying. “My father loves you Faith, don’t give up on him. He may not know it yet, but I’ve seen the way he looks at you. That look in his eyes and the look he had when you told him off last night. He looked so hurt, so devastated. He pushes you away because he loves you too much to risk hurting you. That is what I believe. He is not pushing you away because he’s not interested and trying to spare your feelings. He’s different since he met you. Oh he tries to hide it, but I see the changes. They’re subtle. Father has learned the art of hiding his emotions well. But every now and then, I see past his mask, past that front he puts up to the world. I see the angry, hurting, guilt burdened man beneath. I see the pain but most of all, I see that spark in his eyes when he looks at you. That light, that brief moment that he allows himself to feel what it is like to be happy. ” Lucas turned his head until his eyes were locked on mine. “I can feel these emotions in father, Faith. I’ve always felt people’s emotions. Becoming vampire hasn’t taken that ability from me. I merely haven’t had much opportunity to use it lately. I’m what some might refer to as an empath, which simply means, I feel the emotions of others.”

Of course I’d heard of empaths and looking into Lucas’s eyes, he did seem to have an aura about him that was calming, gentle, and sympathetic and definitely not what I would have expected from a vampire.

Still, his words in relation to Adrian’s feelings for me were not something I could easily accept. I think it was more a case of Lucas trying to give me false hope, not wanting to hurt me. Like father like son, now he was trying to spare my feelings. I snorted in a very unladylike fashion and probably didn’t seem much like a big, bad, scary vampire either. “He doesn’t love me. He will never love me.” I spat out angrily. “Now, enough talk of Adrian. Let me hear you sing, please.”

Lucas gave me a long searching look before finally turning his attention to his guitar, and beginning to play. He could certainly play the instrument beautifully, but then he started to sing and I gaped at him. My god but his voice was amazing. It was kind of rasping, gravelly and incredibly sexy sounding and I found myself getting turned on just listening to him.

I closed my eyes and began to sway, my body moving to the music and as Lucas continued to play and sing, I got more and more caught up in the beauty of his voice and danced my way around the room.

Abruptly the music stopped and I faltered briefly, stumbling. Strong arms closed around me as that scent, that beautiful scent filled my nostrils and my eyes shot open, my fangs descending.

It was Adrian of course and he looked good, really good. In fact he looked good enough to eat and that was exactly what I wanted to do to him. With a husky low growl, I buried my fangs in his neck and began to feed from him, hungrily.

Adrian stifled the moan that rose up his throat at the feel of Faith’s fangs in his neck. Damn she looked so beautiful and smelled so fine. Instantly he wanted her and his cock responded by pressing urgently against his leather pants, but no matter how badly his body might want her, he wasn’t going to fuck her, not now, not here with Lucas looking on.

He started peeling her off as his eyes met his son’s and he searched Lucas’s face for something, jealousy maybe, something to indicate that they had been intimate during the night. He wasn’t sure what he expected to see. It wasn’t like they’d have neon flashing signs over their heads and even when he subtly sniffed the air he couldn’t smell sex on Faith or his son.

“Sweetheart, enough now, I need to bring you blood so you don’t feed off me all the time. Vampire blood doesn’t fill you as well as human blood.”

“You know what I’d really like about now Adrian?” She turned those stunning eyes on him. “Pizza, I’d love a pizza with anchovies, the works.”

He gaped at her in shock. “Are you telling me you’re a hybrid vampire like Lucas? What the hell is it with me? I can’t make a full blood vampire?” Even he could hear the slightly whiny tone in his voice. The reality was he didn’t want to make any vampires but now he had two. As much as he wished things had been different, it still kind of dented his ego a little to realise something about him produced these half bred or hybrid vampires. It was almost like validation that he failed at everything.

“Why don’t you ask your father?” Faith’s comment was said quietly and the sly note in her voice brought his focus back on her.

“I can’t ask him and you know that. You can stop with the constant pushing to make me reveal all to my father. I can’t. You know I can’t. He will kill me if I come clean about Lucas and now you. I will have to think of some excuse to justify your disappearance soon though. I ran into Flame and Damien last night and your sister grilled me about you. In fact she grilled me about both of us. Did you tell her there’s something going on between us?”

Faith rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t be so stupid. Of course I’ve said nothing to her. She knows my feelings regarding you but I haven’t been running around telling her we’re in love or anything foolish like that. I know you have no interest in me, so I’m not going to tell anyone something different. I haven’t even told them we’ve had sex.”

“They already know I took your virginity Faith and believe me, your sister is not happy with me. Her and Damien heard us and couldn’t wait to tell me that in the hallway when I ran into them tonight. I was able to make up an excuse for you not being around this evening but I’m going to have to find some excuse to give her to explain why you don’t come back. You can’t go back to the house. There is no way you can pretend to be human around them. If they find out you’re vampire, my life is shot to shit and my father will kill me. I have no doubt of that.”

“Isn’t your life already shot to shit Adrian? Are you going to spend eternity caring for Lucas and me; keeping us locked away like your dirty little secret? Is that fair to us? Is it fair that your son has been a prisoner? Did you know how beautifully he plays the guitar and how well he can sing? I bet your mother would love to meet him.”

Adrian felt pain lance through him with every word she spoke. He knew inside that she was right. It wasn’t fair to them to expect them to live out eternity in his house because he just wanted to protect his own hide from his father’s wrath, and basically that’s what it was all about. He was hiding them to save himself. Still, he was paying for what he’d done because he was stuck having to work forever to make enough money to keep his mistake covered up.

‘Liar’ that voice in his head said. He already had a lot of money. Despite the initial purchase price of his home, he still had money and caring for Lucas and Katherine didn’t really cost him that much. If he was honest with himself he worked because he needed that escape from his family. If he was away from them most of the time, they couldn’t question what he got up to. Plus there were perks to the job, all the sex and blood he could ever need. Of course the downside was no relationships for him. He would never get involved with anyone because his secrets would end up coming out. He’d be exposed for sure and he couldn’t risk that. It was a huge mistake to have taken Faith’s virginity despite the way she’d thrown herself at him. Her and her damned visions, her insane, reckless decision to come here and get herself turned vampire had only complicated things even more.

Still Faith’s words stung. They tugged at him, escalating the guilt which already felt like an enormous burden upon his shoulders. He might take care of Lucas and Katherine but he’d never really taken the time to know them, to understand them.

“I’m sorry.” His voice was little more than a whisper. “I’m sorry for what I’ve put you through my son, and I’m sorry that in two years I had no idea how beautifully you played the guitar and how well you can sing. Did you ever perform before you…while you…when you were human?”

Lucas shook his head. “I wanted to. I intended approaching some venues, just pubs or some small places to begin with and see if they’d let me sing there. I write songs too and hoped to one day produce an album but I guess….” His voice trailed off.

Again, Adrian felt the familiar guilt reminding him how much he’d fucked up. He had to get out of here. He had to get to work and he had to be away from Lucas. He couldn’t look at him and he realised that’s why he knew nothing of his son’s talent. He didn’t know because he didn’t want to know. To learn anything about Lucas would only remind him of what he’d done to him and he already wore that shame, that burden of guilt like a heavy chain around his neck.

“I have to go. I’ve brought food for Katherine and she’s eating now. I don’t have pizza but I have chicken and chips. Will you try that and see if you truly can eat human food like your brother?” He asked Faith hoping that if he referred to his son as her brother it would somehow be enough to stop them fucking. He didn’t want to think about them fucking. He couldn’t claim Faith as his, despite her being so confident that she belonged to him, but he was selfish enough to not want her fucking his son. Damn her, she was changing him. He would have done anything to see her happy with someone else and not fixated on him, but somewhere along the way his feelings had changed. He couldn’t have her, but he didn’t want anyone else to have her either.

“Chicken, you brought chicken?” Faith’s excited voice drew his attention away from his tortured thoughts. “Where is it? I’m starving.” Her eyes lit up and Adrian walked out of the room, returning with a plastic bag of take away food.

Faith descended on the bag like a crazed woman and ripped open the box of chicken pieces, hastily stuffing one into her mouth, bones and all. While she tore at the food, Lucas began to eat in a far more relaxed manner than she was, his eyes fixed on her.

Adrian watched her in amusement. She hadn’t been joking when she said she was hungry, but it appeared any table manners she once had, had disappeared when she became vampire.

“Um sweetheart, you might want to spit out the bones.” He tried to warn her, but she didn’t stop, and he watched almost nervously as she devoured the chicken, finally spitting out the bones, cleaned of all traces of meat. Damn she ate like an animal now.

“Well, human food is obviously agreeable with you. I don’t know how you and Lucas can stand the smell of it let, alone the taste of it. It is quite disgusting to me, and the smell is extremely unpleasant. Still, it makes it a little less complicated feeding you now I can supplement your diet with human food as well.” His eyes briefly lifted to the clock on the wall. “Now I must leave. I have clients waiting for me. I will come back at dawn to test if you can go out in the sun. Lucas can’t without it starting to burn him. Not as fast as a full blood vampire would begin to burn, but he still would need the tattoo like I have to be safe in daylight. I need to see if you are going to be the same as him but of course I need it to be light before I test that theory. Now try to behave.” His eyes met hers. “I will see you both later.” He turned to leave but Faith threw herself at him, her lips brushing over his.

“See you later Adrian. Don’t work too hard.” She grinned at him but he could see the shadow in her eyes, the pain she tried to hide because she knew what he would be doing when he left for work.

Hating her pain and unable to stop it his hands shifted down her back, cupping her ass. Gently he pulled her body into his holding her for a few moments before reluctantly letting her go. With one final soul searching stare into her eyes before breaking contact to say good bye to Lucas, Adrian walked from the room and quietly let himself out of the house.

Faith

When Adrian was gone, I turned to Lucas. “We’re getting out of here tonight. Well I am. Are you with me or not? I’m not going to become a prisoner like you have been. Your father is never going to change things. He doesn’t know how to cope with what he’s done and I know I’ve complicated things for him, but I will not have him tell my sister I ran off, or whatever crappy bullshit excuse he intends giving her. Like it or not, I’m forcing his hand. We are going to see Fabian, his father and Sirene, his mother. It’s time they knew what was going on, and I’m hoping that I’m right, that they won’t immediately want to execute him. He may have broken one of the rules but he was young and he made a mistake. He might not be able to change what he did to you, but he can change things now so you don’t have to be stuck in here for eternity. It’s not right. You must resent him for that surely?” I met his eyes, searching for the truth in them.

“I did in the early days but then I just became resigned to my fate. Father takes good care of us and sure, it gets lonely at times but it’s all I know. I’ve never been outside these four walls since I was changed.”

“Well tonight your life will change Lucas. We’re getting out of here and we’re going to see Fabian. He is Adrian’s father and like the head vampire. I have to tell him what happened and make him understand that he can’t punish his son for this. I know it’s changed your life so dramatically, but if you could be free of here and given a chance for a life, wouldn’t you want to take it?” I asked and after a moment of staring intently at me, he nodded.

“Come on Lucas, we’re busting out of here right now.” I walked down the hall to the door Adrian locked to keep us separated from Katherine. I turned the door handle in the hope that he might have forgotten to lock it on his way out but no such luck, it was locked.

“Father always keeps it locked Faith. He’s concerned I might attack my mother but he doesn’t understand my blood lust is not that strong. Since I can eat human food too, I don’t have that all-consuming need to bury my fangs in a warm human body. I suspect you feel the same?”

“I do Lucas. Of course I love the taste of the blood but I like the human food too. Do we have to have a mix of both or can we largely live on one without the other?”

“We have to have a balance. We can survive on a diet of mostly blood but I’ve learned from experience that too much human food makes us ill. Well it did me. I got quite sick when I ate a lot of human food over several days not that long into my change to vampire. We…we don’t need to go to the bathroom anymore as I’m sure you’ve discovered. Since we don’t use the bathroom anymore, that doesn’t change if we consume large amounts of human food. Controlled quantities of human food are burned up by the body same as the blood.” Lucas was starting to look uncomfortable as he struggled to describe the effects of too much human food in our diet, and I tried not to grin at his discomfort. He was so sweet and I found his embarrassment endearing. Oh he was going to be so good for her, the one I saw him with in my visions. “If we largely live on a diet of human food, we can’t eliminate it from our bodies as we once would have so it leads to very unpleasant vomiting Faith.” He shuddered. “I’m talking a lot of horrible, turn you inside out or it feels like it, kind of vomiting.” Lucas’s attempt to explain the workings of the hybrid vampire digestive system were making it harder and harder for me to keep a straight face. “I guess, what I’m trying to say is our bodies don’t work the way they used to work. We don’t digest human food the same way. I think our bodies absorb it like we do the blood but too much of the solid food and it causes extreme nausea.”

I patted Lucas’s arm. “I got it.” I grinned at him. “We need to balance the blood and human food. Now come on, help me get the hell out of here.”

With an expression of relief which told me he was glad to be finished with that discussion, Lucas tugged hard on the door handle and although we heard some creaking of the timber surround, it still held fast. “How about on the count of three we kick it down?” I suggested.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “You do know the door is supposed to open inwards and you want to kick it out?”

“I know that but do you have a better suggestion?” I crossed my arms over my chest glaring at him.

He shrugged. “Fine, we’ll do it your way, on the count of three then.”

I began the count and on three we both kicked hard against the door. It made a loud splintering sound and basically disintegrated before us. I stepped through the remains of the broken doorway where the last few jagged pieces of wooden door hung precariously and waited as Lucas followed me through.

“Lucas, Lucas is that you? What on earth happened? I heard a really loud noise.” Katherine rolled into view, her expression filled with concern.

I watched him crouch down by the side of her wheelchair taking her hand in his. “It’s ok mum. I heard something outside and had to break down the door to get out. I have to go out for a little while ok?”