“You owe me, Racker. I didn’t have to come back. But I did.”
“And?”
Brandi lifts her shirt and shows me her breasts. No, friends, it is not what you think. This is not a request for Mardi Gras beads. The soft fleshy mounds are covered with bite marks, and there is a tattoo of a black bat right across the left breast. It covers the entire nipple and extends several inches in both directions.
I know what it means. She does not have to tell me. Julia intended to keep her. It also means that Brandi is correct in being afraid because Julia will hunt her down. I myself have the same mark on my arm, a gift from Narcissismo. Most days I cover it up or apply makeup over it—the mark did not fit with my Mr. Nice story.
I clear my throat and push back the bitter memories of being sipped on repeatedly to the edge of death. “You may come with me to Arizona, then. But only until your family can safely retrieve you.”
“Thank you, Racker.” Without warning, she lunges forward, and I think she is going to attack, perhaps attempt to claw out my liver. Instead, she wraps her warm arms around my waist and buries her face in my chest, crying with the sort of vicious despair only someone like me could understand.
Slowly, my arm moves up to stroke her long soft hair. “There, there,” I whisper, feeling oddly at peace offering her comfort. “All will be well.”
An odd sense of ownership washes over me, but it is unlike what I felt with any of my human or vampire slaves in my past life. It is a sense of obligation I have never known. She is mine to care for and protect, for no other reason than I should. I want nothing in return.
What is happening to me? Maybe I am coming down with the flu.
CHAPTER SIX
Apparently, I have spent too much time in this modern human shell, and the supplements are beginning to affect my ancient mind. During the long drive back to Arizona, I noted water coming from the corners of my eyes each time I thought of returning to that big empty house, where I intend to rest, regroup, and re-strategize. No one on my list of allies will dare turn me now. Not until I prove I am still, and always will be, the notorious Mr. Nice. Ruthless, bloodthirsty, and all powerful.
The challenge is that I cannot provide the pudding until I am immortal.
“So whose house is this exactly?” Brandi asks as we pull up to the southwestern mansion situated in the Phoenix hills. The front yard is filled with a cactus garden that blooms with shades of hot pinks, reds, and oranges in the spring. The main part of the home is two stories tall with exposed wooden beams and large windows, modern but still very southwest.
“It belongs to friends,” I say. “They are out of town. You will be safe here until your family comes for you.” The home has a state-of-the-art security system, an iron fence around the perimeter, and a massive vault in the basement. Miriam, who was trained by her parents to kill vampires—a profession she turned away from obviously, considering her marriage choice—has an arsenal of weapons, too. Crossbows, knives, and chocolate-filled bullets. Chocolate is a narcotic for vampires. If Julia comes for us, we will have ample warning. We will be prepared.
Brandi’s inquisitive eyes scan the impressive façade and tall fence as we drive through. “Must be some well-off friends.”
I remain silent and park in the garage. I feel a bit foolish returning here, but out of the four hundred plus homes I own, none are fortresses. I never had the need for security as Mr. Nice.
I exit the car and head inside. “Hungry?” I say as Brandi follows.
“Yes.”
“Too bad. Because I don’t cook. Help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge.”
I head straight for the kitchen and grab a bowl, which I fill with cereal.
A warm hand stops me. “I make a mean steak. Or burger? If you have spaghetti, I can do that, too?”
Oh, how I miss spaghetti night. Miriam is an excellent cook. My mouth waters. “There is ground beef in the freezer.”
“You got it.” Brandi gets to work exploring the cupboards in the kitchen—a modern space with a large gas stove and granite counters. “I’ll get dinner going and then call my parents. May I use the phone?”
“Help yourself.” I jerk my head toward the other room. “There is a landline in the study, just through that door. I will make up the guest room for you.”
I go down the hallway to one of several rooms in the home. The guest suite is a small chamber, thirty by twenty with a private patio, jet tub, and king-sized bed. Nothing compared to the nursery with the full-sized gym and sauna, but what can I say? I suppose I am a mama’s boy.
Was a mama’s boy. I push back the memories lingering in every corner of this house, but then my mind drifts, wondering where they are now.
What are they doing?
Vacation in Greece?
Perhaps they rented a villa in Italy.
As a vampire, Michael is required to obtain a visa before entering another society’s territory, so I am certain the office here in Arizona knows where they have gone. They would have assisted him with the paperwork.
No. I will not go and inquire. I do not care. They are gone.
I pull a clean set of sheets and a comforter from the closet so Brandi can make a fresh bed for herself. I check the bathroom to ensure there are supplies—towels, shampoo, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste.
I will go upstairs and borrow some clothes from Miriam’s closet. I am certain Brandi will want to wash the stench of Julia off her skin and wear something clean.
I enter the grand master bedroom upstairs and note the emptiness in the room. The bed looks like a grave where my memories are buried. Gone and buried.
So many good times in that bed. I loved when Vanderhorst would be in the mood and realize there was a crying infant in his spot. That look on his face when he knew he’d be spending yet another night with his hand in the shower. Alone.
Hehehe…
Afterward, he would come to bed and move me to the middle. I often unfastened my diaper and peed on him. He would lose his temper and accuse me of doing it on purpose, but Miriam would always come to my rescue. “You’re letting the past get in your head. The old Nice is gone,” she would say.
“I’m telling you, Miriam, he is a bad apple,” Vanderhorst would argue.
“Don’t say that. We are good people, and if he’s raised right, he will be, too.”
Looking back, Vanderhorst always knew what I was. He could smell my blood. So why didn’t he send me away? Why not tell Miriam the truth?
I wonder if he did not wish to break her heart. He knew how much she loved me. My mind drifts to the video she left. I have yet to hear it, and I miss the soothing sound of her voice.
I pull out my phone and tap on the message.
Miriam’s red face comes into view. “Hello, Nice. I’m sure you’ve read the note Michael wrote, but knowing you, you’ve come up with some delusional story in your mind about why we left. I want to set the record straight, in case you have any thoughts about coming to look for us.” She draws a slow breath and blots her puffy red eyes with a tissue. “We are leaving because if we don’t, Michael will kill you. And as silly as it sounds, I still can’t accept what’s happened, that you would deceive me like that.”
She shakes her head in disgust. “I mean, after I took the cure, I had no memory of you or Michael or Stella. In my mind, I was twenty. My parents were still alive and still furious with me for becoming a librarian and refusing to be a Keeper.” The Keepers are a group of human vampire hunters her parents belonged to. “So when Michael showed up one day, imagine my shock when he told me everything that had happened—how you took me from him, how you turned me into a vampire against my will—but worst of all, I couldn’t remember my own daughter. I lost the memory of her growing in my belly, of holding her and feeding her. All that was taken from me, Nice, because of you. Because of you and your games.” Miriam straightens her spine. “But you know what? When Michael introduced me to the man who’d robbed me of everything, all I saw was a tiny, innocent baby. All I saw was a chance to get back something I’d lost. I decided then and there that the past was the past. I figured I had my daughter back, and I already felt a special connection with Michael. I knew with time, I would feel love for them again. But with you, I loved you from the first moment I held you.” Miriam begins to break down, and I see Michael’s arm reach for her shoulder from off-screen.