Chapter 8

 

 

 

The plane was from Cam’s personal fleet, which meant the interior was protected from sunlight. Good thing since we didn’t leave Jamaica until four o’clock in the morning and wouldn’t arrive back in Chicago until well after the sun rose. While the human crew prepared for takeoff, I made arrangements for our landing by ensuring the plane would be guided straight into a bunker where it would sit for the day while I slept, confined in the sheltered interior.

The aircraft was custom designed for a vampire’s comfort. Separated into lounging and sleeping quarters, there was a grouping of white leather furniture clustered around a flat-screen television screen, next to which was a wet bar stocked with an excellent variety of wine and even a few fine blended scotch options. In the back of the cabin was a king-sized bed and a fully functioning bathroom as large as the one in my home.

After the fasten seatbelt sign blinked off, I said, “Would you like to shower? I’ll check with the crew to see if they have any food for you.”

Abigail didn’t respond, but she did get up and disappear through the door leading into the bedroom. Twenty minutes later, we hit a patch of turbulence, and I rushed back to ensure she hadn’t slipped and injured herself. She stood on the fluffy mat outside the shower, clutching a towel around her midsection and glaring at me. I retreated into the main cabin and poured two fingers’ worth of scotch. If only it would get me drunk. But that was no longer possible. Liquor enhanced the taste of blood, but it no longer provided that buzz like it did for humans.

One of so many reasons it made sense for Abigail to get away from our world and fully enjoy whatever path she might carve as a human.

She entered the cabin a short time later, dressed in a simple, pale pink dress, her hair braided and draped over her shoulder, her face clean of makeup. She was so young, so beautiful, so full of life, despite the edge of sadness that clung to her like a stubborn leech.

I pulled a plastic container out of the fridge underneath the bar. “Sandwich?”

She dropped into one of the leather chairs and shook her head.

“Wine?”

“Just water.”

I returned to her side and handed her a bottle of water.

“Thanks.”

I sat across from her and watched while she drank the clear liquid with her eyes closed. “I expect you’re tired,” I said after a few moments of silence.

“Yes, but I’m also keyed up, so not sure I can sleep right now.”

I nodded. “When Hollis has been contained again, I want to do something for you.”

She opened her eyes and quirked one brow.

“I want to send you to Hollywood.” I lifted my hand when she opened her mouth to speak. “I want to pay for acting classes. And I’ll provide you a monthly stipend so you can go to auditions and try to realize your dreams without worrying about where your next meal will come from. Which I believe will happen. You can do whatever you set your mind to.”

“Really? Because I set my mind to winning you back and that certainly didn’t work out.”

“Luckily, I’m more stubborn than you.” I tried to smile to make light of my words, but there wasn’t a trace of humor in her face.

“Why? Just tell me, Parnell. Why are you so determined to keep me at arm’s length?”

“Because I care for you. And it’s dangerous for a vampire to care for a human. You are so fragile and your lifespans are so short. It isn’t fair for me to expect you to cater to my needs instead of living out your life.”

She leaned forward in her seat. “What if that’s what I want to do?”

I shook my head. “It shouldn’t be. There is nothing in my world for you.”

“Except you.”

“No.” The word tore from my lips. I stalked to the bar to refill my glass. “If you chose to stay with me, you would regret it, eventually. When you realize you gave up your life, your chance to carry on your genes, your family name.”

She cocked her head to the side and gave me a considering look. “Is that what happened to you?”

I drained my glass. If only it were blood. But if I asked, Abigail would offer me her vein, and her blood was so intoxicating, I’d want more, more of her, her body wrapped around me, one of those orgasms that were so spectacular because they were with her. Since I sent her away, I’d deliberately hired courtesan after courtesan, fucking and drinking from them, trying to convince myself that was the lifestyle I wanted: nothing more than a warm body and the blood it provided. No emotions, no feelings. Like it was before I met Abigail.

“Before I was turned, I was what today would be termed a ‘manwhore.’”

I glanced at her. She met my gaze steadily. “Perhaps a glass of wine is a good idea after all.”

I chuckled humorlessly as I took her the requested drink and then sat down across from her again. “I had a standing room at the local inn. Woman after woman, night after night. But that lifestyle was never supposed to last.”

“You were sowing your wild oats.”

I nodded. “But every time I conquered another woman, I told myself, ‘One of these days, you need to settle down, Parnell. You need to find the woman you’ll want to lay with every night, who will bear your children, give you a son to carry on your name.’”

Ironic that I may have found that woman after I became a vampire. A hundred years after I should have died. I could practically envision the child Abigail and I might have created together, had we been born in the same century.

“I am Parnell Everett Charleston III. And while my grandfather was on his deathbed, I’d promised to provide a Parnell Everett Charleston IV to carry on our family name. But I thought I had plenty of time to make good on that promise. Until the night I met my maker.”

“He convinced you living forever was a better option?”

I shook my head. “She, actually. One of my conquests, or so I thought. When we met, she told me she was bored with her current children and was looking for someone else to distract her for a while. I laughed and told her I wasn’t a family man, that this would be for a night only, and if she wanted more, she should seek her pleasure elsewhere. I had no idea she was a vampire and was referring to those she’d already turned.”

I paused. The only other person who knew this story—besides my maker, of course—was Cam. It wasn’t a memory I was fond of reliving.

“When did you realize she was a vampire?”

I pursed my lips and lifted my gaze to the ceiling. “Not until after I woke, after she’d turned me, in truth. She bit me while I was in the middle of my climax. At the time I thought she was just kinky. But she drank and drank and drank, draining me, and just before I blacked out, she ripped open her own wrist and put it to my mouth, to ensure I ingested her blood, thus beginning the transition from human to vampire. Even when I woke up a week later, I didn’t understand at first. She brought me a young girl from the Far East, and while she and some other vampire watched, I fucked her and drank from her without even comprehending what I was doing. And then my maker took me to her bedroom and we fucked.”

Abigail’s eyes widened, but she didn’t look put off by my story, like I hoped she would be.

“It was a decade before I truly comprehended what I’d lost. What I would never get back. My life. My family’s future. I was the last Charleston. I failed my grandfather. For nine years I put off my responsibilities, and after one night with a woman I didn’t even know, my life was gone.” I glanced at the nearest window, covered by a protective shade to shield me from the sun rising on the other side.

“Had you been given a choice, would you have let your maker turn you?”

“No. I had absolutely no experience with vampires at that point in my life, but I knew enough to understand I couldn’t sire a child if I was one, and all else aside, that was important to me when I was human. Had my maker given me warning, it might very well have been the trigger to convince me it was time to settle down.”

Not that I’d ever know. There was nothing I could do now. I was a vampire, an immortal being without the capacity to carry on my family’s name. But Abigail still had a chance.

“This is why you keep pushing me away,” she said, her voice full of awe. “Why you get so upset every time I suggest turning me.”

Slowly, I nodded. “I do not want you to regret not having lived your human life, Abigail. I do not want you to make the same mistake I did.”