House Wyndham Vampires: Half Light Part 13

"He never answers his cellphone." He unhooked his own seatbelt and got out.

I got out as well, making sure to grab my bag, and followed him into the house. "You think he's mad?"

"Why-because you're s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around with a human behind his back?"

"Oh come on," I said as I set the bag on the un-used stove. "That is not fair. You know for a fact that a.s.shole's screwed and drank from hundreds of women since our engagement. He does what he wants." I put my hands on my hips as Jared grabbed a blood bag from the fridge. I looked at it and waited for my hunger to peak. I hadn't really drank since giving blood to Jared and Craft. And I still wasn't thirsty. "How come I can't? Why is it that I have to be chaperoned, and cloistered like some d.a.m.n high priestess virgin?"

"You are still a virgin, right?"

The question was so out of left field, and the fact it was Jared that asked it, I actually stumbled. After several minutes of staring at him, I held up a finger. "Whoa. Crossing the line, Jared."

"No." He set the bagged blood on the counter. "It's part of my responsibility to make sure you're pure for the Prince. That's the deal. You have to remain untouched, both physically, and s.e.xually."

"Physically? You mean no one can bite me?"

He sighed. "No one can drink your blood."

"But you did. So did Craft."

"I'm already a vampire." Frustration played over Jared's angelic features as he picked up the bag, ripped a hole in it and then poured it into a large mug. "Craft-is another issue. One we're going to have to deal with once Michel realizes through his link with him what happened last night."

"Link?"

"The control of a Ghoul through the vampire's blood," he said as he moved to the microwave and heated the blood. Once it was done and the bell rang he took it out and held the cup with both hands as he drank it. Jared made a face when he brought the mug back down. "Okay, after drinking from you, this is nasty."

"I already think it's nasty," I said and leaned against the refrigerator. "Jared-let's pretend I don't know Ghoul stuff-"

"You don't."

"Then work with me. Michel can read Craft's mind?"

"Michel can do anything he wants to with Craft. Craft belongs to him, body and soul. Nothing can sever the link Michel's blood has over Craft. As a Ghoul, Craft has to drink that blood, not only to maintain his life, but because Michel commands it. And if I know Michel right, he's probably made it a command that Craft can't drink from anyone else. His punishment of me when I helped Craft was proof that he's a jealous p.r.i.c.k-even of his Ghoul."

"So...Michel will be able to tell through that link that Craft drank my blood?"

"Yeah. I'm thinking Craft's not long for Ghoulhood."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean Michel'll probably lock him in a room and deny him blood. One month later, after nearly going mad from the withdrawals, Craft'll return to his true age."

"He'd do that to Craft-just for drinking my blood?"

"Does Michel strike you as a nice guy?" Jared held the mug to his lips but didn't drink as he watched me. "Brandon, for the moment, is protected because of two facts."

"Which are?"

"One, Michel likes to drink from women, not men. He won't drain Brandon dry or even try to turn him. And the second reason is because Brandon's already drank vampire blood. Which means he's spoken for."

I heard the loud sound of squealing tires in my head as all my thoughts came to a stop. My jaw hit the kitchen floor as I stared at Jared, who took another gulp of the blood and then made a face. It was the face I'd seen in the coffee shop when people took a big swig of bitter coffee. "How...what do you mean? Brandon's had vampire blood?"

Abruptly Jared threw the mug in the sink where it broke into three big pieces. The blood that'd started coagulating around the interior looked dark like shadows there. "What the h.e.l.l do you think I am, Carly? Stupid? You think you can hide things from me?"

"You haven't even met him. How did you know?"

"Michel told me."

Oh....d.a.m.n. I drew back into myself. "He knows."

"He knows the boy's had vampire blood. He does't know for sure it was yours."

"How did you?" I eyed him as he leaned against the stove.

"It was just a guess. You just verified it for me. But it didn't take much to puzzle out. You came home that day smelling like jock, remember? You saw the attack on him. When Michel told me this human you were dallying with had vampire blood inside of him I jumped to the conclusion you lied to me. You did give him your blood."

I didn't say anything. What could I say? He was right. I expected he was going to yell at me next. Threaten to call Father. Instead, he looked down at the floor and crossed his arms over his chest. "But...that was over a week ago, Carly. Your blood should've left his system by now. Is he still showing influence?"

"Showing what?"

"Is he attracted to you? I mean, is he dreaming of you? Are you in his waking thoughts?"

I opened my mouth to say yes, but then shut it. Disappointment crashed into my heart again as I realized my first instincts had been right. Brandon's crush on me, his infatuation, was all because of my blood. Not because he looked at me like a normal person.

With a lowered head I bit back the tears. I knew this.

"He is, isn't he?" And Jared was there, taking me into his arms. I put my head on his shoulder and let the pink tinted tears fall. He put his hand on my back, and then stroked my hair. "I'm sorry, Carly. It's what your blood can do. You initiated a bond."

"I know...I realized it then. When you told me about it..." I sniffed into his sweater.

"That's why you wanted to leave for those days. To let the bond dissipate."

"Yes," I leaned back to look at him. "But it didn't, Jared. It's still there. And I think...I think I like him."

My brother laughed. It was a nice sound I hadn't heard in the past two days. He reached up and tucked my hair behind my ears. "You think you would feel this way even without the blood?"

"I...I don't know. What if it's not the blood in his system that's causing us to be attracted? I mean...it has been over a week..."

"But Michel said he smelled it-"

"Michel could be lying. But, if you met him. If you got close enough, you'd be able to tell right?" I wiped at my eyes and plowed on ahead, talking as my thoughts spilled out. "What if the blood really is gone? Then how he's feeling would be his own thoughts, right? If I know this stuff even a little, then I know that when the blood is gone, the influence goes away too."

He watched me for a few agonizing minutes. "You want me to check him out-see if Michel was just a.s.suming as much in order to get information."

Well, I didn't really care why Michel said what he said. I just wanted to know if Brandon's thoughts were his own. "We're meeting tomorrow at the coffee shop. If you could come with me-you could tell me."

He smiled. "I'll come. I need to meet him anyway. Just in case Father gets wind of this."

Uh oh. Panic seized my chest and I put a hand on his. "You don't think Michel will tell Father do you?"

"Honestly?" Jared smiled. "I do."

d.a.m.n. "Then...there's one more thing I need to tell you, Jared."

He put a hand on his head. "Oh G.o.d don't tell me you did sleep with him."

"Oh...no. No. This is about Craft."

"Craft?" He rubbed his chin. "What?"

"He drank from me."

"I know that."

"And...he said it did something."

"Oh no...what?"

I looked at his face. "He told me that his bond with Michel was gone, Jared. That he couldn't hear Michel in his mind anymore." I put my hands to my cheeks. "You just said nothing can sever a link between a Ghoul and their maker. How is it possible that drinking my blood, can?"

Jared seemed to shrink on himself. He reached out to grab my forearms, as if to steady himself. "Are you sure Craft said the link was severed? Is he sure?"

"He seemed pretty sure-and happy about it." I checked his expression and matched it with a frown of my own. "What? Why you look like that?"

"I...it might be nothing. I need to check on a few things."

"Is this bad?" I narrowed my eyes at him. "Does this have something to do with why I wasn't hungry after I fed you and him? Does it have something to do with why you all of sudden wanted to leave?"

"I-I don't know. Maybe. I need to get back to the library at home."

Wait. What? "At home? You mean Father's home?"

"The Wyndham estate, yeah. I need to check the information there."

"Can't you just Google what ever it is you need to know?"

He straightened and let go of my arm. The look he gave me could have wilted metal. "You can't Google this stuff, Carly."

Probably not. Which meant it was blood related. "So this has something to do with the Wyndham bloodline?"

"Yeah..."

"And it all has something to do with why you were saying we needed to get back to father? That I couldn't be in the open?"

"Yeah..."

If that was true, how come he didn't look convinced? In fact, he looked panicked.

In our history, there were five distinct bloodlines still existing today from the original pool. Exactly how many were part of the original broods, no one remembered. And anyone old enough that might have remembered was long gone in the making sense department.

That was one thing about age that the movies and books got wrong. Getting older didn't always mean getting wiser or more powerful. Most of the time, it meant going insane. Living life, the experiences, and being a creature like us, often caused the mental state to break down. Many elders, like Father, saved themselves from the breakdown by sleeping for centuries. Before finding me, Father had slept for over three hundred years. He'd recently stepped back into the society before he found Jared.

And then me.

Bloodlines bore specific gifts, much like the one I mentioned earlier with the Babineaux bloodline. Their family possessed the gift of Bewildering. The five Families are Babineaux, Wyndham, Loewe, Montague, and le Senechal, though the last one, from what Father's tutors had taught me, had all but disappeared. The largest of the families was the Wyndham, my Father's. His gift was that of knowing minds, or what we called Seeking.

The second largest was the Babineaux, then the Loewe. The Loewe lived in Europe with only a few family homes in the states. They were known for their mind's ability to move objects. Father called it Willing.

The next in strength and numbers was the Montague bloodline. Their gift-if I remembered right-had something to do with their ability to know the future. Father mostly called them nuisances. When asked, he'd told me with the thinning of the blood came the fogging of the sight. Their predictions in the past century had been completely wrong. He didn't think there was a real Montague left among them.

The le Senechal I knew the least about. Father didn't often speak of them-but when he did it was with reverence. I always got the feeling he'd known a le Senechal in his youth. They were destroyed by the Babineaux.

Why? Father never said.

What I did remember was that through the centuries the bloodlines had thinned, and fewer and fewer new Children showed any of the gifts of their forefathers. Michel Babineaux was considered a very unique Childe because his Bewildering was nearly pure. Of his house of over a hundred members, there remained only eleven with this power, and Michel's was the strongest.

My Father was the last of his house to possess the Seeking. Neither Jared or I had ever shown any inkling of it.

"Jared," I chewed on my lower lip. "Can you at least tell me why you look like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you've just learned something really bad."

His expression straightened and he forced a smile. "I'm sorry. It's just that...I've heard of this happening. Of one blood severing another's hold. But I can't remember if it was a myth. Or where or how. I need to talk to Father."

"No!" I didn't mean to shout, but the last person I wanted brought into the mess of things here was him. "You can't."

"He's going to know. Eventually. If Michel hadn't already told him. Which is why I'm worried about where he went."

I felt my heart fall to my knees. "You don't think that's where Michel went, do you? To Father?"

"No," Jared shook his head. "They don't really like each other. And if Father knew what was going on, he'd have been here already, as protective as he is with you. I think for now, we need to just wait and see. Brandon's safe for now. No one will touch him-"

"You said that was true only if another vampire sensed vampire blood inside of him. What if I'm right and it's gone?"

It was obvious he hadn't thought of this. "Then there is a problem. But I don't think Michel would hurt him."

"Then why say that?" Something was nagging at me about all of this. "I mean why say he sensed another vampire's blood there when there isn't?"

"To cause trouble? That would be Michel's style."

"Maybe." I checked the clock over the stove. It was just after ten o'clock. Earlier than I thought. "Can you meet him now? Just so I can stop worrying?"

"Now? He's probably already in bed."

"At ten? I doubt it. I dropped him off at his house-" I moved past Jared to my bag and pulled out my phone. "Call Brandon," I said into the speaker. In seconds I heard the ringing sound.

"Hey-you still up?" He sounded wide awake and I thought about how he'd look just out of bed. Probably adorable.