Gran was walking down one set of stairs as we were walking up the other. She glanced over at us, sighed and then looked away. She seemed really sad. I watched her glide down the stairs and wondered what vampires got depressed about. Teren wasn't watching her and didn't appear to be too concerned over it. Once we were at the top of the stairs and heading down the hallway, I asked him if she was all right.
Not looking at me, he said, "Yeah, she'll be fine."
"What's wrong with her?"
"You know, I am feeling a little grimy after the long day. I think I will take a shower." He kissed me on the cheek and then blurred into our room.
He left the bedroom door open for me, but I'd felt the proverbial door slam shut right in my face on the conversation I'd been trying to have with him. It stung as much as an actual door would have. Forcing calmness into my body, I decided that he just didn't want to openly talk about her problems here, with super ears everywhere, but surely he would tell me later. A voice in the back of my head screamed that that didn't excuse the rudeness, but I tried very hard to ignore that voice as I changed back into my jeans and shirt.
We came back down the stairs just as the final rays of sunlight were calling it quits for the evening. Teren led me to the kitchen, where all the women were talking around the table. They all stopped and looked over at us the second our feet entered the room.
Halina had an eerie smile on her face. "Good evening, Emma. Did you enjoy the sunshine today?"
I swallowed and made myself smile back at her. "Yes, very much." I turned my head to Alanna. "Your home is very beautiful."
Alanna smiled and took my hand from Teren's. Her much cooler hand led me to the chair I'd used last night. "Have a seat. Everything is ready." She pulled out the chair, plopped me into it, and effortlessly tucked me under the table. Teren sat beside me and rested his hand on my thigh. Jack entered from the kitchen, licking his fingers, and Alanna smacked him on the shoulder, making an affronted noise.
"Jacob Nathaniel Adams! You better not have been sampling that cake. That is dessert." She smacked him again on the shoulder as he grinned and kissed her cheek. I tried to make the mental image of a vampire baking a cake, but I just couldn't quite get there.
"I would never..." He gave her a wounded look and then grinned again, "...but if I had, it was wonderful, dear."
She shook her head with a soft smile on her lips and Teren chuckled beside me. Jack kissed her again on the cheek and she flitted into the kitchen. He took his place at the head of the table and Imogen and Halina sat in their respective seats across from me. Halina and Imogen talked in whispers while Imogen flicked glances at me. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but Teren was frowning and staring at the table in front of him...and I swear he was blushing. Curious, I tried to listen harder. Focusing more on trying to hear their quiet conversation than being courteous, I was blatantly staring at them. I stopped the moment Halina met my gaze. She looked very displeased. I thought I heard a low growl escape her throat...but maybe I was just hearing things.
Alanna broke the tension in the room as she flitted in with the fresh fish the boys had caught earlier. She brought in large bowls of a cold pasta dish and a veggie-filled green salad. Everything looked cool and refreshing and wonderful. She set a glass of red wine in front of Jack and me, and gave us glasses of water as well. She heaped up plates for the humans and then brought out the obligatory carafe of blood for the vampires in the room. I immediately dug into my food and ignored what Teren and the women were doing. In my head I kept repeating-"It's just wine, really thick, red wine." It was a little easier to stomach that way.
When Teren finished his "thick wine", I looked over at him. I watched him smile in satisfaction, retract his fangs and dig into his fish. And just like that, he was a normal, human guy, enjoying food he himself had caught, quite possibly with his own hands. I smiled at him and, noticing me watching, he smiled back and squeezed the hand still on my thigh.
His grandmother sighed and I looked over at her. Her fangs were out and her glass was still half-full, but she was looking at Teren and me so wistfully, that I didn't turn away from the sight of her. "The two of you remind me of my husband." She sighed again. "He was the sweetest man." I smiled at her recollection, until she continued. "And dumber than a box of rocks."
I sputtered a bit on the sip of wine I'd just taken and Imogen laughed at my reaction-a beautiful, rhythmic sound. "He never figured out what I was, and he never asked for an explanation. He thought I never showed my age because I had good genes, and I never ate because I watched my girlish figure." She sighed again, as her wistful look returned. "He never asked about the teeth. He never asked about the blood. Maybe he was smarter than I give him credit for. Maybe he just loved me for me, and it just never mattered to him."
"What happened to him?" I asked hesitantly.
Imogen smiled sadly and Halina, in a show of affection that I had yet to see, placed her hand around her daughter's shoulders. "He got real sick, not long before Teren was born. He didn't make it..."
Imogen dabbed at her eyes with a napkin and my heart squeezed for her. Suddenly, I wasn't seeing a vampire with a red tongue and sharp fangs. I was seeing a human woman still in mourning over the loss of the man she had loved deeply. It was a heartbreaking realization, that she would mourn him much longer than the average human would mourn their spouse...quite possibly forever, I wasn't sure.
"I'm so sorry, Imogen...Gran."
Collecting herself, she patted Alanna's knee. "Well, he gave me my daughter...before it was too late." She said the last part oddly, and gave Teren a look that definitely meant something. He shifted in his seat and it seemed like he was stifling a sigh.
"Teren..." she said in a pleading voice.
Teren's face got tense and he said something to her in a language I didn't recognize. Whatever he was saying sounded a little heated, and I could only stare at him in shock, both for his tone to the sweet woman across from us, and for the fact that he was clearly fluent in another language.
Imogen spoke back in the same language, her tone nearly matching his. Halina firmed her lips and nodded at whatever Imogen had said. Teren looked about to stand and shout at the two of them, when Alanna silenced the room.
"Enough!" Alanna looked at Imogen and Halina, and then over to Teren. Jack continued to eat his fish, ignoring what was most definitely an argument. "Emma is a guest and you are all being rude." She looked across the table at her husband. "Jack, how is the fish, dear?"
He smiled at his wife. "It's perfect as always, love."
They gazed at each other in adoration and, feeling the tension slipping from the room-and wanting to change whatever the subject of the fight had been, which, I had a feeling was me-I asked Jack, "How long have the two of you been married?"
He tilted his graying head and looked up at the ceiling. "Well, it's got to be over twenty-six years?" He looked back down at his wife with a clear question in his eyes.
She smiled. "Twenty-seven years, three months, twenty-two days and forty-two minutes."
He laughed and shook his head before turning to me. "As you can see, vampires retain things a bit better than us humans...especially as we age." He tapped his head and the entire table laughed, like this was really funny. I found myself laughing as well.
Still chuckling I asked, "So, no one questions the fact that she looks..." I didn't quite know how to finish that question.
Alanna did. "Half his age?" She giggled like a woman half his age. "We have a couple of other ranches across the country. We stay a decade or two in one, before moving to another, and although we try and keep to ourselves, when we came here, it was quite the scandal-the old man with his twenty-something wife and her sisters." She indicated herself, Imogen and Halina. "Being siblings is the easiest way to explain how we look. I think some may have thought he had multiple young wives though."
Again the entire table laughed and I shook my head at the thought. When Jack's laughs settled down he added, "It's pretty humorous since she is older than I am."
Alanna made an affronted noise. "Only by two years...that's not so much."
Wondering at the oddity of her smiling at him so lovingly, with her fangs clearly extended as she sipped on her glass of blood, I asked a question that I probably shouldn't have. "It hasn't been difficult for you to be married to a human? You've never bitten him?"
The entire room silenced, and I had the horrible feeling that I'd just asked something really, really inappropriate. Jack scratched his head and looked away, Teren fidgeted in his seat and Imogen grabbed her glass and took a long drink. Halina made no efforts to hide her glee-she openly laughed at me. Alanna shot her a look and she silenced.
"It's all right to ask. You're new to this. I'm assuming what you're really asking, is if it's difficult to not kill him?"
I felt heat rush into my face. "Yes. I was just wondering about the...thirst part of being a vampire."
Alanna smiled and laughed once. "Yes, we do seem to be portrayed as bloodthirsty savages who can barely control ourselves, don't we?" All the vampires laughed at that, and a shiver went down my spine. Alanna regarded me for a moment before answering. "Let me put this in human terms for you. If you're hungry and you go to a grocery store, would you lose all self-control and start shoveling food into your mouth?"
I grimaced at the image. "No."
She smiled. "It's the same for us." She looked over at him affectionately. "He may be astoundingly tasty, but I'm not about to end his life. I'd miss him too much." Jack gave her a warm smile. I focused on my plate, giving them some privacy for the clear love fest that was going on, while at the same time, suppressing another shudder that wanted to run down my body.
Imogen sighed, and I looked up to find her watching Alanna and Jack. Meeting my gaze, she said, very quietly, "Do you not find Teren attractive, dear?"
I blinked and my mouth surely hit the table. Do I what?
"Gran," Teren growled at her, and her youthful eyes regarded him before returning to mine.
"We know he's trying, young one, but you seem to be rejecting him. We don't mean to eavesdrop, but...he's such a good looking boy, surely you feel some desire for him?"
I could not even speak. Words could not fully describe the horror flashing through my body. I had no idea why my love life was being brought up at the dinner table, of all places, by Teren's grandmother, of all people. I didn't even know where to begin feeling offended. There was not one thing about the situation that seemed appropriate. Teren seemed to agree-he spat something wicked sounding to her in another language. Alanna looked upset, but I couldn't tell who she was upset with. Jack went back to studiously finishing his plate.
"If she is not willing to lie with him, she must be replaced," Halina said, rather coldly. I turned to gape at her, and suddenly knew exactly where to begin feeling offended.
"It's one weekend!" Teren switched back to English and sounded very exasperated as he glared at the both of them. "Back off!"