Hunting My Vampire (Immortal Vampire #3)

Chapter Four

Jack

As soon as I came through the door I was confronted by Charlotte.

“Where have you been?” she asked me in her clipped, British voice.

She was draped over my living room couch, elegant limbs arranged artfully for maximum effect. She wore a white pant suit, her golden hair cascading in perfect waves over her shoulder. Everything was a drama production with Charlotte. I was used to it by now and didn’t fall for it, walking straight past her to my dresser, for some of my special refreshment.

I was on a high following my encounter with Kaya. I wouldn’t let anyone bring me down.

Not even Charlotte.

“Did Natania not get hold of you?” I asked casually. “I asked her to let you know that I had other plans.”

I heard Charlotte walk up to me.

“I hoped you would change them,” she said in a pouty voice I hated. She put her arm around my waist, leaning her head against my back. I had to resist the urge to shake her off like a wet towel.

Gently extricating myself from her, I said, “I thought you couldn’t come this weekend?”

She gave an exaggerated sigh “Oh, Jeremy said he wanted me to meet some producer friend of his but I decided to blow him off. I would rather be with you.”

She looked at me expectantly but I did not respond.

“I thought we could go to Molton, book the penthouse and the spa, have a party?”

No, I thought, that wouldn’t work at all.

All I could think about was Kaya and seeing her again.

After our wonderful coupling she had rushed off mumbling something about having to go. It didn’t give me cause for concern, really. I was aware of some women being emotional afterwards, wanting their own space, being overwhelmed by the intensity of these experiences. They usually came round rather quickly. I was anticipating the same behavior with Kaya. Once she replayed our tryst in her mind, I had no doubt she would want more and come back to me wanting.

This had always been the case in the past.

It is intoxicating to experience so much pleasure, such incredible intensity. The human mind cannot fathom it, does not know how to process it. Even our minds struggled with it sometimes. The truth was that because so few physical pleasures were still available to us, sex became almost of paramount importance. But finding someone that could light that fire was not as simple.

Our tastes become more eclectic as the years go on.

We become particular about the kind of person we are able to be with, that we want to become intimate with.

For me, it had been a long stretch of being alone.

Too long.

I met Charlotte at a party. We started talking and found we had a lot in common. She was not the typical Hollywood starlet; she didn’t want relationships and commitments, and didn’t trust anyone from her world. She liked that I had my own life, my own money and an entire world that was as far removed from her world as possible.

She also hated daylight, which suited our arrangement.

She liked to stay up at night, sleeping until late into the day.

She was a demanding actress, known as a diva and many producers refused to work with her. But her beauty and star power was unaffected. Her mere name was enough to draw huge crowds to the cinema. Ironically, she played a vampire in one franchise. It was a ridiculous fiction in which the vampires were either monsters or pathetic romantic types. The reality was more complex, I tried to tell her. Vampires where as diverse as people were. Some were evil, others were not. It wasn’t as simple as the old stories made it out to be. She wanted to know details but I wasn’t keen to tell her about it. This was my life, not material for some Hollywood show.

“Do you have no feelings at all?” she’d asked me.

Oh, we have feelings.

As I stood there, my head was in turmoil, all I could think about was Kaya. I wanted to get over to her house and check in on her. Something was telling me that I needed to be with her.

“I’m afraid this weekend won’t work,” I said to Charlotte. “I have to go out again now.”

“Now?” She frowned.

“And I’ll be busy all weekend. I’m sorry you came out all this way. You should have warned me.”

She put her hands on her hips.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you weren’t happy to see me,” she said in a low voice.

I was in no mood for games, though.

I walked past her. “If you like, go to the Molton andtake the penthouse suite. I’ll let Natania make the arrangements.”

I didn’t wait for her response.

It was time to end things with her, I thought.

Now that Kaya had arrived in my life, I had no time for anyone else.

The night air was delightfully cold and I enjoyed gliding through the darkness, finding Kaya’s house on the street behind the woods. I walked up to the house and when I saw the dark windows and drawn curtains, I wondered if she was home.

I had hoped to find her awake, to perhaps surprise her.

Women liked to know you were thinking of them afterwards.

I couldn’t leave anything to chance with her.

I sensed that Kaya was not like other women, she did not look or dress like them and she had been very hostile to me initially. Our sexual attraction had been strong enough to force her to drop her guard but perhaps she would put it up again. I was prepared for that. I was willing to work on this relationship, to wait for Kaya.

She was worth it. I had no doubt about it at all.

She was that rarest of creatures that came into your life only once, perhaps twice in a life. A true partner who could be a mate in every way. Unlike Charlotte, who was superficial and artificial, Kaya’s beauty came from inside, from a fierceness at her core. There was a natural wildness to her that spoke to my more animal side, the predator in me recognized that she was not a victim or a weakling but a potentially strong ally. She could be more than a lover or a girlfriend. She could be a wife, a true companion.

This was what I wanted most of all.

I already knew that we were sexually compatible and well-suited to each other, able to sate each other’s needs. I was almost sure this was no infatuation that would burn itself out either.

“Can I help you?” I heard someone say behind me.

I turned to see an old lady coming up the street with a small dog on a lead. The dog was shivering badly but growling at me.

“I was coming to see Kaya,” I said.

“At this time of night?” the lady asked disapprovingly.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“It’s after eleven,” she said, lifting her chin haughtily.

I could have snapped her neck with my left hand, while snuffing out the life of that little mutt of hers. Easily. But I was above such petty behavior.

“We look out for each other around here,” the old lady said. She walked up to me, as close as the little dog would allow her too. She was staring me down, willing me to leave.

“That’s nice,” I said with a big smile and walked off.

I called Zoran and told him to get all the red roses he could find, in this town and the next and bring them over to Kaya’s house. I gave him the address and waited for him in the shadows.

I wanted it to convey the depth of my feelings while at the same time the extraordinary nature of our relationship.

I knew a normal bouquet wouldn’t do the trick.

It took Zoran a few hours, but he arrived with a small truck, packed to the brim with red roses in vases.

We stacked Kaya’s porch with vases filled with red roses, even placing some on the narrow steps leading up to the house. It took hours but I had nothing better to do.

Winning Kaya’s heart was the most important job I now had. Something told me it was necessary to pull out all the stops, do whatever was necessary. This was a first step. I would give her a call tomorrow, maybe stop by the workshop and pretend the Lambo needed an oil leak fixed. It hadn’t leaked a drop since I bought it a year ago after our successful acquisition of the ski lodges in Canada.

That deal had sealed my succession in terms of our family business. My father had said as much when I came to see him to report on the outcome of the negotiations. I was already running the business by then but he liked to be kept informed. He passed away soon after, at more than three hundred years old. In his life, he had weathered many foes and enemies, had built and lost fortunes, and had seen lovers come and go. This wasting disease he had contracted a few years ago was probably the result of contaminated blood. This happened sometimes. It could have been accidental or intentional. I was not quite sure. I had wanted to introduce him to my future wife but, unfortunately, the time for that had passed. I had never been married which had bothered him. He had wanted to see me settled, like my so-called brother Simon. But he had come to see that this could also work against us, especially if, as in the case of Simon, the family that he was married into had an agenda of its own. I had always been more focused on the business and had been able to help him raise the profile of our brand. Especially, over the last fifty years since the war had ended, when vampires were often seen as enemies of humanity. I projected a warmer, friendlier image. Simon was haughty and superior, never even pretending not to find humans boring.

When Zoran and I had finished arranging the roses, I stood back to admire my handiwork.

Surely no woman could resist such a sight, I thought.

Of course, I did not yet know Kaya or how much she was able to resist.