Mom and Ashley laughed as they discussed Mom's ongoing battle with her neighbor's yappy dogs that kept her up at night. Mom was considering secreting them away to the vet to get them debarked. I told her to go for it, but Ashley stuck up for the dogs and convinced Mom to try earplugs first. I smiled inwardly that I could always have Teren stop by for a little midnight snack...but then I remembered his aversion to the very idea of eating dog. Honestly, who'd imagine a vampire being squeamish?
Ashley caught us up on school. She would only say it was going well. I took that to mean that her classes were going well, but as per usual, the relentless staring and whispering wasn't stopping. She was in the last semester of her first year at San Francisco State University. She was taking the nursing course, and had noble dreams of working in the burn unit ICU at San Francisco General Hospital. The students weren't used to her yet, and she was a constant source of wonderment for them. I was grateful that college students were slightly more mature than high school students, and at least the relentless teasing that used to bring her home in tears had stopped. Well, mostly stopped. She had run into a group of frat boys once that had acted like they ran the school...and were still thirteen. I'd received a tearful phone call after the encounter, and spent the night comforting her with a quart of Haagen-Dazs. Maybe I'd sic my vamp on the frats? Surely he had no compunction about a**holes.
I briefly considered telling my family about Teren, about what he really was. Ash would think it was cool...she wasn't one to chide anyone on being different. Mom...would act like a Mom though, and panic about me dating a man who, like some rabid dog, could turn on me at any moment and drain me dry. I was pretty sure Teren would never do that. But I'd never be able to convince Mom, and she'd only see his vampirism after that, not the amazing, smart, funny, brilliant man that he also was. I decided that maybe I'd tell Ashley later, but we'd have to keep it a secret from Mom. Much like the time I'd dated a member of Hell's Angels. At the time, he'd been thirty-five, covered head to toe in tattoos, and had some questionable extracurricular activities. Like I said, I had made some poor choices in college.
At the end of the evening, I gave my mom a big hug, and she rubbed my back and told me to be safe in the generic way that I knew meant, I love you too much to handle anything happening to you, so lock every door, never go outside after dark, and don't eat the unlabeled tin can in the very back of your pantry. I hugged her back and wished her well, then turned to Ashley and gave her an even bigger hug, and a big wet kiss on her bare scalp.
"Oops, I almost forgot." I gave her one more hug and a kiss. "That's from Trace, she misses you."
"Oh, she's so nice. Tell her we'll get together soon, maybe next week." She kissed my cheek and then grabbed Mom's hand and walked stiffly from the cafe.
I lingered a few steps behind them, watching the amazingly strong women of my family. That thought brought up thoughts of my upcoming weekend. I hadn't mentioned it to Mom or Ashley. I'd tell them later...after I'd survived meeting the amazingly, and supernaturally, strong women of Teren's family.
Teren had his meeting the next evening, so when I got home from my second kickboxing class of the week, after a long day of Clarice scolding me for not exactly lining up the corners of the pages I'd copied before stapling them (she was a little OCD), I drew a nice warm bubble bath and picked up a nice long book-an Anne Rice novel, no less. I may have lied about the whole vampire fantasy thing. I did not lie about the disinclination towards pain though, and biting was still a no-no.
The next morning, I felt refreshed and recharged-and lusty as all get out for some vamp loving. It made the day go by achingly slowly, but it had been two days since I'd seen him, and I missed him. The jet-black hair that set off his startlingly pale blue eyes, the just right fitness of his athletic frame, the strong capable hands, the set of his stubbly jaw, the smell of his cologne, the curl of his full lips as he smiled at me...and yes, even his pointy fangs, that he so very rarely let me see.
By the end of the day I was a little riled up, so I had Tracey cover for me and snuck out of work thirty minutes early. Teren usually left, and started, work an hour before I did, so I wasn't too worried that he wouldn't be home. Maybe I'd even catch him in the shower. Geeze, I really had missed him.
I pulled into his drive and wondered if he'd heard me. If he did, he didn't come out. Maybe since he thought I was at work, he assumed I was a neighbor pulling into their drive. I approached his door and, since I felt like after we'd been intimate, I had the right to-and honestly since I was a little anxious to be intimate again-I opened it as I was knocking on it.
"Teren?" The house sounded empty as my voice bounced back to me.
"Come on in. I'll be there in a minute." His voice was calling to me from a distance. He had heard me and responded, but I still didn't know where he was.
I took a couple steps into the entryway and closed the heavy door behind me. The wrought iron and glass door had matching windows on both sides of it, and there were solid looking brass pots before them that were holding sculpted, three-foot-high mini trees. If Teren ever strung lights on them, the light would show through the windows and the effect from the outside would be quite pretty.
I put my jacket and purse in the closet to my right and wondered where my boyfriend was in this large spread he called a home. An archway to my left led to a formal dining room with a massive mahogany table, complete with six intricately carved high-backed chairs. The chairs at the head and foot of the table had padded arm rests, and sitting in them made you feel like the King or Queen of this tiny fiefdom. Continuing on through that room led you to the kitchen.
An archway on my right led to a smaller room with a baby grand piano tucked in the corner. Teren didn't play, I'd asked, so I wasn't sure why he had one. Maybe someone else in his family did. I wasn't too excited about the fact that some vampire in his family frequented so often, that he had brought in special furniture to appease them. Or maybe a house this large was just expected to have one...like an extra bathroom or something, it was just built right into the floor plan.
I decided to go straight through the entry way, or was it a foyer in a house this size? It did have a chandelier swinging high above me in the vaulted ceiling. Anyway, I walked straight through the room (passing the first of his four bathrooms) into the living room. The west wall of the living room was glass and all you could see was the ocean, you could even just make out the Golden Gate Bridge through the very right window. The sunsets from this room were spectacular. In the middle of the glass wall was a sliding door that led to the backyard. The slider was designed in such a way that it seamlessly matched the windows, and until you saw it opened, you wouldn't even realize it was a door. Teren's house was on a slope and you couldn't actually see his yard unless you went outside and looked off the decked patio. There were a couple of chaise lounge chairs out there, for relaxing, and a six-foot long metal table, with a set of matching, padded swiveling chairs, making a comfortable spot for an evening meal while enjoying the amazing view. Maybe we'd eat outside tonight?
Not wanting to search for him, since he knew I was here and he'd find me, I sat on his long, leather couch to wait. I looked over at the spiral staircase in the corner of his living room that led to a loft upstairs that he used as his office. I wondered if he was up there, working late on an article. His office was positioned over the kitchen and it had bookcases that lined the far wall and looked down into the living room. Following the wall of bookcases took you to another glass wall, with a slider that led to a second-story patio that slightly overhung the first, creating a nice shaded spot on the table below. That patio had a couple more chaise loungers for sunbathing. That's right, my vamp liked to sunbathe.
As my eyes were still on his office above me, Teren surprised me by coming in through the living room slider. He was still in his nice work clothes-light khakis with a black leather belt, matching black dress shoes and a crisp, navy blue shirt that looked amazing against his dark hair and tan skin. They'd look even more amazing, crumpled on the floor next to his King-size bed. But I was too entranced by what he was holding, to tackle him like I'd wanted to all day.
"What is that?"
He lifted up what he was holding. "It's dinner."
"It's a chicken."
His smile widened. "Yes...we're having chicken for dinner."
"It's alive."
The small, white chicken clucked stupidly at me in the mesh cage Teren was holding up. Teren twisted his lips and walked through the open space in the wall that led into the kitchen. Insanely curious, I followed him. He set the cage down on a granite island in the center of the spacious area. He looked up at me with his lips still pursed.
"This is how I prefer to buy them. I picked one up last night after my meeting."
I was fascinated. I didn't even know there were stores where you could "pick-up" live chickens. This city really did have everything. He was still looking at me oddly and I finally realized why he bought them alive.
"Oooooohhhh. You're gonna..." I pointed at the doomed chicken and he nodded.
"You're not usually here for this part...you're early." He seemed a little disappointed, like he'd have to forgo his snack or something.
I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back against the counter. "Don't stop on my account...go ahead."
He furrowed his brow at me. "Are you sure? You might think of me differently after you see this. It's not the sort of thing you can un-see." He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "I could go somewhere else. You don't have to watch."
I shook my head and smiled. "I want to see all of the different pieces of you...and this is a pretty big piece." I made a go-ahead motion with my fingers. "Go on...just don't spoil your dinner."
He rolled his eyes and then smiled with just one edge of his lip. It was a cocky, self-assured look that made my heart speed up a little. Then he opened his mouth a little wider and his fangs snapped down into place right before my eyes-my heart sped up a lot. I wondered if he could hear that, but got distracted by the thought from him opening the cage door. The stupid chicken didn't move, other than to flick its head rapidly here and there. What it was looking at, I had no idea, for it certainly was unaware of the danger approaching from behind it. I had a sudden, strong desire to shout at the dumb animal-"Don't you know that death is stalking you? Run!"
I watched in silence though, too fascinated with the hunter versus prey scenario playing out before me, to make a peep. I held my breath at what the poor chicken didn't know was coming, but I did. Then, lightning-quick, Teren grabbed the chicken and sunk his teeth into its neck; it feebly clucked once. He drained it in three seconds. I counted. I didn't breathe for any of those three seconds.
He pulled the chicken away from his mouth and set the lifeless carcass on a chopping block set on the counter. He wiped just a spot of blood from his lip and stared at the dead beast. Then, very slowly, he turned his head to face me. He looked very worried.
"That was..." I struggled for the words to summarize just what I was feeling at that moment, "...kind of hot."