Woman King Page 14

  “I did, but I haven’t had the wild life you may imagine. Anyway, I was turned right there on the battlefield. I had been lying on the ground for a while, having been shot several times in my leg. It must have hit an artery because I started to bleed out. There was no doctor in the camp and no medics to come and help me. Believe me, as bad as war is today, at least soldiers have the proper tools and support in battle.

  “My second father was a Union officer. I mistook him for a priest because he came so close to me. I thought he had come to take my confession. Of course he had something different in mind. He told me that I was minutes away from dying, but that he could save me. He asked if I wanted to see the world, live a life of endless travel and immortality. I felt my limbs growing cold as the blood left my body and I knew I had little time left to live.”

  “Were you scared?”

  “Of course,” he said. “I was human like you and as afraid of death as anyone, but I was also intrigued. As a poor man in Tennessee, my life’s prospects were limited. What my new father offered was a life beyond what fate had in store.”

  “So you agreed?”

  “I did, and I walked out of Baton Rouge the next day and on to a new life.”

  “Where did you go?”

  “Paris. It was an interesting time to be abroad and my new father was convinced that the United States would never evolve into a civilized country.”

  “So you speak French?” I asked, feeling odd at the way our lives seemed so neatly connected.

  “Oui, je parle français, et toi?”

  “Oui. Bien sûr.”

  “Bon,” he said. “If you’re nice to me, maybe we will visit France together.”

  I was ready to be very nice to him. I was also very tired. I looked at my watch and realized that it was after midnight. I didn’t want to go home, though. I didn’t want to leave William. Once again, he was not far behind my thoughts.

  “You can sleep here tonight. As you can see, I don’t have a bed in my room. I don’t normally sleep, but you can use one of the guest rooms.”

  I suddenly had a vision of being one of many who walked down that path. I must have made a face, because William took my hand.

  “I am flattered at how popular you think I am, but the fact is I’ve never brought a woman home with me. You’re the first.”

  His confession was my undoing. Baton Rouge, dysentery, never being kissed; I considered that maybe it was all a fabulous lie to seduce me. But I was holding out hope that it wasn’t. Regardless, my emotions got the better of me and I burst into tears, overwhelmed. I knew I was in serious danger of falling in love with an old Southern gentleman. OK, an old dead gentleman, but there was no doubt he was different then anyone I’d ever met. I managed to get out an “I’m sorry,” before he picked me up and carried me to one of the guest bedrooms. He pulled down the sheets and laid me on the bed. With little difficulty he pulled off my boots and tucked me in.

  “You see, Olivia,” he said gently. “I told you there is a lot to consider when you bring a vampire into your life.” I nodded, but said little else. I was asleep in seconds.

  When I opened my eyes the next morning, it took me a few minutes to realize where I was. I was still in my clothing from the night before; everything was buttoned and snapped into place. I glanced at the watch on my wrist, horrified that it was already 9:30 in the morning.

  Horribly off schedule, I jumped out of bed and opened the door of the bedroom. I padded down the hall to the bathroom and freshened up. When I came out I heard the sound of guitar coming from upstairs. Slowly, I climbed the steps and walked into the loft. It was a lovely image, and I worked hard to keep my mouth from hanging open.

  There, sitting in one of the leather chairs was William, shirtless, a guitar in his lap. His red hair was loose around his shoulders, and as he leaned forward to play his guitar, I could see more of the tattoo work on his back. There was an enormous angel with its wings outstretched across his shoulder blades. It was magnificent work, and I wondered whether the angel was in honor of the man that saved him that day on the battlefield, or for something else.

  “Good morning,” I said, knowing he was aware of my presence.

  “Hello, sleepy head,” he drawled. “I was beginning to worry you would snooze the day away.”

  “It seems I might have. I don’t remember sleeping so deeply for a long time.”

  “You got an earful last night,” William said. “I can imagine it was a bit of a shock. How are you feeling?”

  “I feel great,” I said, and I meant it. I was happy to have found William. I knew it was going to make all of the rest of what I had to do more complicated, but I didn’t care.

  “Mind if I come over and say hello?” I asked.

  William set down his guitar and opened his arms. I came and sat on his lap and lay my head on his shoulder.

  “Do you sleep?”

  “Not so much,” he said, adjusting his body to accommodate me.

  I was eager to feel his skin against my body. He smelled delicious, lemony, like a very sweet sugary lozenge, with a hint of rosemary. I sat there for a while not saying anything, sitting in the cocoon of his body. I’m not sure how long we sat in the chair together. Time stopped. We kissed, but it was nothing urgent. After a few moments, we paused to talk, revealing the small details of our lives.

  I told him more about my campaign and described Levi and explained how I had worked for him before. I didn’t mention the Council. I’m not sure why. I had a feeling that maybe this thing between us was too fragile to be laden down with such complicated issues. In fact, it all felt a little complicated. I’d never spent the night at a man’s home before where we didn’t have sex. I’d never spent the night at a vampire’s house. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was out of time to wonder. I looked at my watch and thought of the long list of obligations I had pending. I was long overdue at work.

  “I have to go,” I said. “I don’t want to, but I am really running late for what will be a very busy day.”

  “Can I see you again?” was his reply, which sounded so normal that I laughed.

  “Forgive me,” I said. “It’s just that this sounds like the conversation any man or woman would have. Are you asking me out on a date?”

  “I am asking you on a date,” he said, crossly. “Please keep in mind, darlin, that I’m not a character in a pulp-fiction novel. I won’t be using mind control to lure you to my side.”

  “Bummer,” I said. “What about bats? Will you be flying in my window like Gary Oldman?”

  My remark seemed to defuse the moment. I had no desire to offend him and I was relieved when he shook his head and smiled.

  “No bats, no flying. I have none of those tricks up my sleeve. I meant what I said last night. I’m simply a man who wants to date a pretty woman.”

  “You are a man who drinks blood,” I said looking him in the eye. “That does seem like a topic worth discussing.”

  To his credit, William did not break our gaze. “I might take a taste, but I will not drink your blood unless you offer it to me, and even then I might refuse.”

  “How do you survive if you don’t drink human blood?”

  William turned away slightly from me as he spoke. “I do not need to eat as often as young vampires do.”

  “Yes, well you are 181 years old,” I cut in.

  William smiled. “I can see you’re good at math. So when you are as old as I am, you do not need to feed daily.”

  “But when you do feed, what do you drink?” I asked. “And why wouldn’t you drink from me if I offered?”

  “When I first became a vampire, my hunger was overpowering, but now I can survive for weeks without feeding. When I do need to eat, I drive up into the hills and search for wildlife. Deer are plentiful nearby so I never have much of a problem.”

  “I saw you drink alcohol last night.”

  “Interesting, isn’t it? All of the myths about vampires and most of them are as untrue as we ar
e undead. Alcohol is something I’ve grown accustomed to over the years. Newly made vampires require a lot of blood to survive. Alcohol is too disruptive to their nervous system. But later, as you are able to feed less, you can introduce other forms of pleasure back into your life. For me, its whisky, sometimes wine. I like to eat raw fish and meat occasionally. It’s good to blend in with people and eating and drinking makes it easier to disappear in a crowd.

  “As for you,” he continued. “You might offer your blood to me for all of the wrong reasons,” he continued. “Drinking your blood would bind you to me, and that, darlin, is a permanent thing.”

  “But if I offered?” I said, a hint of pleading slipping into my voice.

  “I would have to be certain,” he said. “It’s a different life, a complicated life. Unless I was convinced you understood the responsibility, I wouldn’t accept. Vampires don’t share, Olivia. We don’t compromise, and we’re not very patient.”

  I wasn’t ready to let him drink, but being stubborn by nature, his lecture was igniting a challenge within me.

  “Then why are we doing all of this?” I asked.

  “I can see I got your back up a bit,” he said. “Don’t mistake my intentions. I want to be with you, Olivia. But after 180 years on this earth, I have had my share of heartbreak.”

  He meant it. I felt his sadness, really, his disappointment. To be alive for almost two hundred years must have meant a few bad relationships. I nodded, and kissed him gently to convey I understood.

  William quickly dressed and dropped me at my house. I would have invited him in, but I knew Elsa might be there and I really needed to get to work, so we said our goodbyes. As I walked in the door, he sent me a text asking me if I would join him in two nights for a paddleboat ride at Stow Lake. It was so old-fashioned and romantic, I accepted right away. Unfortunately, my exuberance at being in the midst of a full-blown romance ran straight into a wall of disapproval standing in my kitchen. Elsa was there, decked out in black leather pants with an actual silver dagger stuck in one of her boots. Lily was standing next to her.

  “Lily, what are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Elsa texted me when you didn’t come home last night,” she said, looking sheepish. Being a mother hen did not suit her at all. I turned to face my housemother.

  “What’s this all about, Elsa? What did you think had happened to me?”

  Elsa was angry but also relieved. I’m not sure what she thought had happened to me, but she was experiencing real relief that I was home safely. I hadn’t told either of them where I was going. I didn’t want company, and I had not wanted anyone to try to talk me out of being with William. Looking back, my secrecy was probably impractical.

  Elsa didn’t reply, so I posed another question. “I suppose you both want to know where I was last night.” Two heads nodded in unison.

  Elsa spoke first, “Why didn’t you leave word where you were going?” Lily looked pensive, as if she knew bad news was coming. She was worried about a conflict between the three of us.

  “I should have left a note, or texted one of you,” I said. “But can I ask why you were so worried? What did you think happened to me?”

  Elsa didn’t want to tell me exactly. Her fury was dying down a bit, but she continued to restrain herself. “Olivia, you are the only human agent working at the Council and you’ve been the target of a demon attack. Gabriel, errr, I mean, you report directly to the director. Anything could have happened to you. There are plenty of people who would be interested in your talents and connections.”

  It sounded reasonably plausible. I wasn’t alone anymore. I was a part of a team. “Look,” I said raising my palms up in surrender. “I am sorry. I should have checked in. Next time I will be more considerate.”

  Lily was relieved. Fairies didn’t like conflict. But Elsa wasn’t finished. “Are you going to tell us where you have been?”

  “I was with William,” I said, my chin up slightly in a defiant pose. Now we were back to two against one. Lily and Elsa were exchanging glances that spoke of serious handwringing.

  “You spent the night…with a…vampire?” Elsa asked.

  “Yes and no,” I said, resenting the tawdry emphasis. “I slept at his house, as in a pillow and a blanket, not with, you know, him.”

  Lily was craning her neck to get a good look at mine.

  “No, he did not drink my blood.”

  This was met with more raised eyebrows and sideways glances.

  “Really. He did not ask, and I did not offer.” This caused them both to calm down, but I resented the image they had painted. “I need to take a shower and jump in my car to get down to Palo Alto, but I want to tell you both something before I leave. William isn’t the villain you imagine. I scanned the newspaper advertisements every Sunday looking for a listing for his band. I took the taxi, unannounced, to his show. And I am the one who pushed to have sex…and he turned me down. I chased him.”

  This seemed to catch Lily by surprise. “Olivia, honey,” she said gently. “Are you sure you want to go for something so complicated for your first serious boyfriend?”

  Ouch. Leave it to my best friend to state the obvious. Of course, I hadn’t planned on having a boyfriend. I hadn’t planned on a century-old vampire catching my heart.

  “William is different,” I said, sounding like a cliché. “He’s not like anyone I’ve ever known. He is intelligent and funny…”

  “He’s dead,” Elsa said, interrupting me. “He drinks human blood. Can I ask where you see this thing going? Did you tell him about the Council, about your work?” It was clear Elsa didn’t like vampires. She didn’t seem to trust them. It was a deep-set feeling that I didn’t think I could change at the moment. So I didn’t try.

  “I’m not sure where it’s going,” I said. “He doesn’t know about the Council. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to a campaign meeting.”

  ****

  CHAPTER 20

  Once I was in my car, I phoned Levi and Gabriel. Despite being thrown off my regular routine, I managed to check in with them by phone at a time that was still within my normal schedule. It was thrilling to have the first part of my day occupied by a make-out session with my boyfriend, rather than campaign duties. I hoped I wasn’t overstating things too much by calling him my boyfriend. Maybe a human man would have said we were dating, but I’d been the first woman to sleep at William’s home. I didn’t believe a vampire would compromise his privacy for a date, especially one that hadn’t involved the removal of clothes.

  I quickly put all of my giddiness behind me as I set out on Highway 101. My calls to both men were brief, but important. We were opening a new campaign office in Palo Alto, a wealthy quasi-suburban community that also is home to Stanford University. We were going to open the office with a kick-off party that evening where volunteers could come after work and celebrate with a glass of wine before picking up their supplies. Gabriel and Levi would be arriving at 5:30. The party began at 6 pm

  I hung up with both men just as my office called and patched me through to Patrick Wright, the day-to-day manager of the campaign.

  “The first shipment of door hangers has arrived,” he said.

  “What about window signs?” I asked in response, hoping they too had been delivered.

  “Yep, they’re here,” Patrick said. “All 2,000. Now all we need is an army of volunteers to deliver them.”

  “Amen,” I said. “I hear you. I’ll be there in thirty minutes and we can go over the rest of this.”

  As promised, thirty minutes later, I pulled into a parking spot on University Avenue and walked toward the headquarters, which had already been decorated with “Levi Barnes for Congress” and “Barnes for Seat 15” campaign signs. As I got closer, I noticed a man peering in the window, his hands cupped around his eyes to shield out the glare.

  “Can I help you?” I asked as I approached the front door. A set of brown eyes focused on me with suspicion. He was human, I detected very quickly
, and very curious.

  “Is this Levi Barnes’s campaign office?” he asked.

  I nodded, glancing at the dozen posters in the window. “It is but we don’t officially open until tonight,” I said. “Can I help you?”

  “I’m JP Ellington,” he said, grasping my hand tightly. “I’m a reporter with the Silicon Valley News. I’ll be covering this race.”

  I responded in kind. “I’m Olivia Shepherd,” I said. “I’ll be managing the campaign.” I’d had this kind of conversation dozens of times before, but never when I could read a reporter’s emotions. JP was surprised, about what I wasn’t sure, but I had a few ideas.

  “You seem surprised,” I said, deciding to see what would happen.

  “I am,” he said, showing no hesitation. “I guess I expected to see someone I know.

  “You mean a man?”

  “Yes, ah, I mean you’re not from the Valley,” he said, sounding a little sheepish.

  I ran through my resume and let him know I had been part of Levi’s staff previously. He seemed satisfied, or at least a little less skeptical.

  “Can you come back at 6:15 tonight?” I asked. “I will make sure to introduce you to Levi right away.” I was trying to sound casual, but the truth was that I wanted to begin on a positive note with a reporter who would be covering the campaign. “We’re not open yet,” I said smiling. “I need a few more hours with my staff to get ready.”

  JP agreed to return in a few hours. We exchanged business cards and I wrote my cell on the back of mine. We shook hands to seal the deal, but as I turned to leave, he held on to my fingers a second longer than I expected, causing me to look up into his brown eyes. His face was framed by dark, curly brown hair that had been cropped short. He was wearing a blue-green plaid shirt with a navy sweater vest and Levi’s.

  “OK, so I will see you in a few hours then,” I said, pulling my hand away.