Our relaxing outing together had quickly been ruined by my stubbornness, but we were greeted by Ezra when we returned home. That temporarily made me set aside the feelings I had over Salem’s lack of agreement with my plans and his outburst at the lake.
“How are you, lovely Alexis?” Ezra asked and gave me an unexpected hug.
“I’m…okay,” I replied, hoping he couldn’t tell I had been crying. “Where’s Hannah?”
“She left abruptly to see someone at the restaurant…I was sort of hoping you would be willing to stop and check on her. I don’t feel comfortable entering such an establishment; otherwise, I would do it myself.”
I glanced at Salem, and he looked away. Neither of us wanted me to return there. “Do you think something is wrong?” he asked, obviously concerned about his sister.
“She has been behaving unusually after seeing someone there that she felt some sort of unfamiliar connection to.”
“I know who she’s talking about. There was a woman there earlier, and Hannah was almost in a trance when she saw her,” I explained. “I’ll go check on her, just to make sure everything is okay…do you mind taking me there, Ezra?”
“Of course not,” he said and smiled. I was very relieved that Hannah had taken the time to teach Ezra how to operate a vehicle. I never understood why Salem refused to.
“Salem, I will be back soon. I promise.”
“That isn’t a promise you can keep.”
“I will come back.” I kissed him on the cheek and followed Ezra out the door and into the car.
When we arrived at the restaurant, Ezra stayed in the parking lot while I entered the building. The man at the door no longer needed to identify me, but he still cast a shield over me to protect me from being sensed as a mortal among the vampires. The place was a lot more cramped than usual—there were guests occupying every single available table and chair.
I scoured the room quickly, glancing over every customer until I spotted the familiar woman in the red cocktail dress. Sure enough, sitting across the room at a different table was Hannah, her eyes locked on this stranger. My feet led me directly over to my sister-in-law’s table, and I waved my hand in front of her face to get her attention.
“What are you doing here, Alex?” she grumbled and tried to push me out of the way.
“Ezra is worried about you and asked me to check up on you.”
“He has nothing to worry about. I’m a big girl; I can take care of myself. Besides, I’m not doing anything that’s going to get me into any trouble. This woman…she’s just…I don’t know. Something about her is so…familiar. I just can’t figure it out.”
“Why don’t you just go say hi?”
“I can’t do that…”
“Of course you can. Tell her she looked familiar, and if it turns out you don’t know her, then apologize and come back over here.”
Hannah considered the thought for a moment and shrugged. “I guess it couldn’t hurt.”
I watched her leave the table and stride over to the unfamiliar woman. Their voices were almost mute, but I could make out a few words here and there. Her name was Viola, and she had come here from her hometown to experience the ‘famous restaurant known as Varias’ after hearing so many great things from fellow vampires. As soon as they touched hands in a simple handshake, Hannah’s eyes glazed over momentarily, and I knew at once that she was experiencing a vision of some sort. She drew back her hand and stumbled backwards. I took the opportunity to move in closer in order to hear them more clearly.
“You…” she said in a hushed voice and shook her head in disbelief.
“Have we met somewhere, doll?” Viola asked, and my brain tried to register why her voice sounded subtly familiar.
“No…I’ve never met you, but I know who you are…” Hannah was physically shaking, and I couldn’t understand why—just what had she seen?
Viola laughed and smiled brilliantly up at Hannah. “Please, dear, relax and have a seat. We wouldn’t want to upset the owner, now would we?”
Hannah obliged and sat across from the woman. “How long…” she paused and attempted to steady her voice. “How long have you been alive?”
“I have been around since the 1600’s,” the woman replied calmly. “You, however, are quite younger.”
“A bit,” Hannah said as she steadied her hands. “How many vampires have you Sired over such a long span of time?”
“There have only been a few, actually,” Viola replied, seeming to be intrigued by Hannah’s questions. “I tend to get caught up in it, you know? I mean to say that it is extremely hard not to bleed them dry. You must know what I mean. The blood running fresh from a vein, filling your body with the warmth of the living….mmm.” Her tongue traced across her rosy red lips as she relished the idea.
“Do you remember them all?”
“I do. Let’s see…there were the twin girls in London. They were my firsts. I always wanted sisters. After they turned, though, they fled off on their own, can you believe it?” She looked annoyed but soon continued. “Then there was this one man in Wales. I can still see him so clearly—drunk and stupid, lying there in the alleyway. He practically begged me to kill him. I hadn’t planned to turn him, honestly…but was interrupted half way through that meal. He no doubt recovered to a shocking realization.” She laughed loudly
Her laughter made Hannah cringe. “He did.”
“Oh? And how would you know that?”
“The man’s name was Daniel Winter. He was the father of a three-year-old girl…you took his happiness away from him. You killed a potentially wonderful father and turned him into a monster, who in turn turned me into this.”
“I don’t even know what you are blabbering about, dollface. The man I was killing wasn’t happy. And if he was a father he looked like a piss-poor one to me.”
“He was my father!” Hannah clenched onto the edge of the table, her long nails sinking into the wood.
The woman laughed lightly. “How is it you have come to know all this? And how did you find me? You couldn’t have even known what I looked like.”
“Daniel kept me as a human child until I was old enough to be Sired. He held onto his love for me to keep me alive, despite the constant urge to kill me. We could have had a happy, normal life together…but instead, we became murderers…and it’s all thanks to you.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing…but the more I focused on Viola, the more I could connect her to the vague memory I had from Raziel sharing it with me. Her voice was a definite match. What surprised me most was that Hannah was being so open about her true feelings—things that even I wasn’t aware of. I had thought for the longest time that she enjoyed her life as a vampire, that she didn’t care about losing her mortality like Salem had…was this all simply a front to conceal her real feelings from us? She was just playing tough when, deep down, she was still a hurt little girl who needed comfort.
“That still doesn’t answer everything.”
“He shared visions with me. It has been so long…I could barely remember where I knew you from until we touched. Then I saw everything.”
“Well congratulations, you found me. But so what? The past is done, doll. We can’t relive it.”
“I relive it every day!” she growled and launched herself on top of Viola, knocking over the table in the process. Her hands firmly gripped onto the other vampire’s and I knew at once that she was sending images into Viola’s mind. Imagining what she was seeing sent shivers down my spine—it reminded me all too much of the night Raziel nearly took my life and shared with me the memories of Hannah and Salem’s childhood—the day they lost their home, their parents, and essentially their lives.
My eyes cast down upon my expanding stomach, and I wondered about the child’s future. There would be no more hunting for me after it was born, there would be no talk of vampires or hunting…none of those details had to be known. I wanted the child to live a happy life without conflict. I would not let my baby’s life turn out like Hannah’s…or mine. The more I looked down at myself, the more I realized that the vampires here would no doubt be aware of my mortality by the fact that I was pregnant and vampires were infertile…did the shield surrounding me prevent them from seeing this?
Viola tugged away from Hannah, and none of the surrounding vampires seemed to care or notice that there was a feud going on beside them. It was probably fairly normal for fights to occur, considering the temperaments most vampires possessed—the only thing that surprised me was that no one was whisking them away from the restaurant for disturbing the rest of the customers. Then again, they really weren’t disturbing anyone.
“I didn’t know!” Viola shrieked as Hannah slid a slender, sharp nail across her cheek. “He was just a drunk! He wanted to die!”
“He was my father!” Hannah repeated again and exposed her fangs.
“Now, now, Hannah…we wouldn’t want to cause a scene, and you are tempting my patience now,” Viola said with a sneer. “Can you not just take an apology and accept that what’s done is done?”
“No,” she growled. “Apologizing won’t give back everything I have lost.”
“We all lose things, dear, there is nothing anyone can do about that. If it hadn’t been for me, you would have lost him years ago.”
“That isn’t the point!” Hannah slammed a hard fist into Viola’s cheek, and I heard something crack.
The scream of agony was ignored by everyone else. Viola spat blood onto the floor beside her and pushed Hannah off of her. “You just couldn’t leave it alone, could you? You will beg for death just like your father did—I am not one to mess with!”
The words hit Hannah just as she had hoped, but it only infuriated her more. I hadn’t witnessed many vampire-on-vampire fights, as most of them were quickly ended because the opposing vampire was always stronger than the other. I couldn’t determine who was the strongest in this fight—Viola was clearly experienced and wise and had the potential to do a lot of damage if she put her mind to it. I knew Hannah’s strength firsthand and wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. She was a dangerous woman, especially now that she was consumed by rage.
Viola’s hands encircled Hannah’s throat tightly as she pulled her up from the ground. She slammed her opponent’s body into the nearest wall, and I watched in astonishment as particles of the stone chipped and fell to the ground from the sudden impact. Hannah grasped at the other vampire’s hands and pulled them away with impressive strength.
“Your father must have taught you well,” Viola noted with a sly grin. “Where is he now?”
Hannah leapt over Viola and tackled her from behind, pinning her firmly to the ground. “He’s dead,” she seethed.
“Good,” the woman replied with another grin. “It’s fortunate for him that he won’t be here to witness what a failure you’ve become.”
There was something nagging at me, telling me that I should be in there intervening, protecting Hannah from this woman…yet I also knew that she wouldn’t want me to. This was her battle. And besides, I could not risk the life of my unborn child.
“I am just upset he won’t be here to see me killing the bitch that ruined his life!” Hannah snarled and pulled Viola’s head up by a chunk of her hair. She exposed her fangs again, leaning into her opponent’s throat, ready to strike.
My eyes were wide in awe until the sound of cracking bones reached my ears and Hannah was flung across the room. Viola had reached back and hit her hard in the ribs with her elbow. Hannah writhed in pain on the linoleum, but she wasn’t about to give up. Viola sprang to her side and grinned sinisterly down upon her.
“What was that you said about killing me?” she teased.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a figure descending from the stairs, but I paid little attention to whom it might be. My focus was solely on Hannah and her enemy.
Hannah gasped as Viola revealed a thin dagger from underneath the folds of her dress.
“Did you know that I like to play with my food before I eat it? I had parents once too…and they always told me it was a bad habit. But mommy and daddy aren’t here for either of us now, are they?”
Hannah struggled underneath Viola’s weight, thrashing her head back and forth as the vampire attempted to strike at her. I winced as the blade of the dagger caressed the side of her throat and a gush of blood streamed out of the open wound. She held back her cry of agony by biting down on her own lip and attempted to push Raziel’s sire off of her, but it was no use.
“Say hello to your drunkard Daddy when you see him in Hell.” Viola laughed darkly and bent down, licking at the blood on Hannah’s throat before baring her own fangs.
“NO!” I shouted and ran to them. Attempt after attempt, I pulled against Viola’s body but failed to move her away. She laughed in amusement at my failure and turned on me. I was glad to have at least gained her attention, despite the glare that Hannah shot in my direction. “Can’t you two just settle this in another way?”
“I’m afraid not,” Viola answered and looked me over. “I didn’t know they let humans who weren’t on the menu in here—this place isn’t nearly as classy as I had imagined.”
“You can see through my shield?”
Viola laughed once more. “Your little fortune teller friend here isn’t the only one with gifts.”
This was bad—no, it was more than bad—I had exposed myself to a vampire for what I really was, and there was no doubt in my mind that the other undead in the restaurant could hear her, regardless if they had been ignoring the raging battle or not.
“It’s a shame to have to kill you both,” she said, eying my stomach. “But I am hungry, and fresh food is always better than blood served in a cup!”
I didn’t have much of a chance to make a move before Viola had me in her grasp. Interfering had been a bad idea, but I couldn’t just stand aside and let Hannah die. Despite what we had been through in the past, we had gotten over all of that—as far as I knew, anyway. I was a weak human, in no state for fighting…easy prey for a hungry vampire. Her cold breath tickled at the back of my throat as she pushed my hair out of the way with her dagger, exposing my jugular to her eager mouth.
This was it—I was sure that I was done for. Hannah was lying on the ground a few feet away from me, healing slowly but not quickly enough to help me. Salem was at home with no idea what was going on, and Ezra was in the parking lot waiting patiently for my return—just as unaware as Salem was. I could feel her lips against my throat; feel the light pinch of her fangs piercing my tender skin…
“Get your hands off of my Queen!” I heard Malik bellow fiercely from across the room. My heart beat quickened when I saw him and suddenly he was beside us. He had moved so quickly it was as if he had teleported.
“I did not know she was yours,” Viola replied quickly, wiping the blood from her face. She had barely made an indent in my skin, fortunately. “I…I apologize.”
“Your apology is wasted here,” Malik growled and slammed the vampire woman into the nearest table, sending the customers scrambling away from their chairs; his hand tightly wound around her throat. “Who are you?”
“She’s…nobody,” Hannah said as she regained her strength, “an enemy of mine, if you will. Alexis was trying to protect me.”
Malik eyed her for a moment and then looked back at Viola. “Why were the two of you causing a scene in my restaurant?”
“The woman in your arms killed someone that I loved. I wanted revenge.”
There was no doubt in my mind that Malik could relate to Hannah’s story, because the one he loved was taken away from him. It may have been under completely different circumstances, but he knew how it felt to lose something precious and irreplaceable…
“Is this true?” His question was directed toward Viola.
“Excuse me, sir, but this is none of your concern.”
“Being as this is my restaurant, I would say that it is of my concern. Now, tell me, is this true?”
“What does it even matter? I Sired her father centuries ago.”
“Does this upset you, my Queen?”
I looked from Malik, to Viola, and then finally to Hannah. She looked ashamed and distraught. Considering who Malik was, I knew he could put this woman in her place—make a slave out of her, something to ‘make up’ for her bad deeds. “Yes, it does, my Lord. The woman she was fighting is my sister, after all.”
“So be it.” He turned from me, and his eyes turned crimson with fury. Everything went so fast, I wasn’t sure if it was even real: he swiftly pulled Viola to her feet, his eyes piercing straight into hers, and with a sickening crunch, blood spurted everywhere. It took a few seconds for my mind to register the fact that he had just beheaded the woman. She hadn’t even had a chance to react. Her head was detached from her body, rolling across the slick linoleum until it knocked into the foot of a table a few feet away.
Gawking at the decapitated corpse leaning limply by one of the chairs, Malik pulled me into what I assumed he thought was a reassuring, comforting hug. Rather, it made me squeamish. This man was far more dangerous than I had ever given him credit for. I had seen the strength of vampires that were said to be ‘incredibly powerful’, yet nothing compared to this. Raziel didn’t have the ability to tear another vampire’s head off in one twist, not even Hannah possessed that fearsome power. The Vanatori had no idea what they were up against!
“You are safe now, my Queen,” he whispered into my ear and ran his hands through my silky hair. “Someone shall come clean up this mess, in the meantime, would you accompany me upstairs?”
“I can’t right now, Malik…I’d love to, but I have someone outside waiting for me.” I tried to clench my eyes shut and look away from the gruesome scene, but it was mirrored in my mind and my stomach began to churn.
“Welcome them inside,” he offered.
“He’s not comfortable here.” Could this man not take a hint?
“Then we shall make him comfortable! Whatever it takes, please, we have been apart too long…”
Hannah stepped in and tapped him on the shoulder. “Look, ‘my Lord’, I appreciate your gesture of…assisting me with my problem, but my sister and I need to leave for a little bit. Can’t you see that she is sick?”
He considered it for a moment, undoubtedly noting my sweat dotted, clammy face and my quivering stance. “Very well. I am sorry you had to see me like that, and this sort of scene is not one for a soon-to-be mother, but I could not allow such filth to remain here.” I wondered if he cared that Cassius possibly had ruined the love of another couple. “Don’t stay away for too long, my love.”
His lips brushed against mine softly and I flinched, pulling away slowly. Suddenly, my sickness vanished and for a brief moment I wanted nothing more than to stay here. Luckily, Hannah nudged me and I slipped out of whatever trance I was falling into. “I’ll be back before you know it…”
Hannah grasped onto my hand and quickly led me out of the restaurant as the guests continued dining, seemingly oblivious to all that had occurred.