“It is necessary. I want something to go right for your birthday and this is the only thing I can give you that’s right at the moment.”
She didn’t reply, but I heard the sound of paper tearing again and then a moment of silence except for the acceleration in her heart rate.
“Oh, my goodness. How did you do this?”
“I came back to the house twelve years ago after I took an interest in photography. I thought it was the house drawing me closer, but it was you all along. It was a strange day because I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you and your family, but now I know why. Even then, you were my Agápe.”
I felt her arms wrap around me. “This is without doubt the best gift I have ever been given. I love you so much and it’s not because Anteros says I have to. I would have loved you regardless.”
The chanting was getting louder and the pain behind my eyes was increasing, so I reached to rub my eyes. “I knew you’d love it.”
“It’s getting worse, isn’t it?”
I didn’t want to admit it because she would realize she didn’t have the undivided attention she deserved, but I wouldn’t lie to my Agápe. “Yes, it’s getting much worse. It sounds like she’s screaming in my head and it feels like stakes driving into my eyes from the inside.”
Chansey was quiet and I felt her lightly trace her finger over Marsala’s ownership mark around my upper arm. “Do you trust me, Curry?”
“Why would you ask me that? Of course, I trust you, Love.”
“If I asked you to do something for me without question, would you? I mean if I believed it would put an end to this?” she asked.
“As long as you remain safe, there’s very little I wouldn’t do to make this stop.”
I felt her reach up and remove my blindfold. “I know exactly how to put a stop to this.”
I reached up and grabbed her by the wrist. “What are you doing?”
“Nope. You agreed to no questions asked and I can go to the living room and have the others verify that if I need to. I don’t have to be a vampire to know how to solve this problem, but I need you to trust that I know what I’m doing.”
I sat on the edge of the bed with my eyes shut, wondering what Chansey was doing. I heard her rummage in one of my drawers and then walk into the bathroom. She shut the door and I was briefly amused because I wondered what she thought I would see with my eyes squeezed shut.
A few minutes later, the bathroom door opened and I heard Chansey’s graceful steps cross the wood floor. She stopped walking toward me when her feet met the rug. “Are you ready?”
“I guess I am, but I don’t know what it is you want me what to do.”
I heard some slow, seductive jazzy music playing and then a woman’s voice began to sing. I recognized the voice, but not the song. “You only have to do one thing. Look at me.”
Had she lost her mind or did she just not grasp the severity of this situation? “I am not doing that, Chansey. What kind of music is that?”
“It’s called Nasty Naughty Boy and yes, you are going to look at me. I am not wrong about this and we’re going to beat her at her own game. I’ve got this.”
“Why the sexy music?”
She laughed and said, “It sets the mood for what I’m going to do.”
Chansey believed her plan would work and even if it was difficult, I had to put faith in her. That was how I needed this relationship to work because I had already experienced the alternative and maybe I was curious about what was up with the seduction music. “Okay. I’m going to do it because I have complete faith in you, but I want you to look around first to be certain there isn’t anything that could identify our whereabouts.”
“I’ve already done that, Baby. We’re clear.”
I felt like I was on the edge of a cliff ready to jump, but I suddenly discovered I had a fear of heights. I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly as I eased my eyes open.
Chansey stood in front of me wearing the sexiest black lace bra and panties I’d ever seen. As I looked at her, she slowly slid one of the straps off of her shoulder to tease me. She turned around and slid the other strap down her shoulder before taking it off and tossing it in my direction over her shoulder.
She was only wearing black lacy panties when she turned around and started walking toward me. I swear this would be the most perfect moment in my life right now if I didn’t have Marsala screaming viciously in my head.
Her screaming grew louder as Chansey came closer and I realized the motive behind Chansey’s moves. “I understand now and to say it’s driving her crazy would be the understatement of the millennium.”
She smiled as she shoved me back on the bed and crawled over me. She lowered her face to my ear so Marsala couldn’t read her lips and whispered, “Touch me.”
She leaned back and waited for my hands to seek her body as she straddled me on the bed. I reached out to stroke her cheek and she said, “Not my face.”
I stopped my hand in midair as her words registered with me and I looked at her eyes. She slowly nodded and reached for both of my hands to bring them to her breasts.
I felt Chansey’s breasts against my palms as her chest heaved up and down, but I knew it wasn’t enough. I had to show Marsala what I was doing and that meant looking at my hands on Chansey’s body.
I lowered my eyes toward my hands and I heard Marsala’s fit of rage in my head. At the moment I thought my head would burst from her high pitch shrill, it suddenly stopped. There was no more chanting, no more screaming and no more pain behind my eyes.
I felt my body instantly relax and Chansey said, “She’s gone, isn’t she?”
“How did you know to do that?” I asked in amazement.
“It doesn’t matter if she’s a vampire or a human. There’s not a woman on this earth that is going to sit back and watch the man she loves make love to another woman.”
She reached for her black lace bra on the bed and regretfully said, “She didn’t have to know we weren’t. She just had to think we were.”
I partially sat up and propped on my elbows to watch the back of Chansey as she sashayed to the bathroom to get redressed. She closed the door and I fell back against the bed and let out a frustrated groaned.
She thought I didn’t want her, but nothing could be further from the truth. She was all I wanted and I needed to reassure her.
She came out of the bathroom and I sat up on the bed. I patted the bed and she granted my request by sitting next to me. I put my arm around her and pulled her close. “I can’t tell you how much I want you, but it’s important to me that we do this the way we were intended to do this. It will only make it better when it does happen.”
“I know, but I don’t want to wait. Something inside me constantly pushes me to just go for it. I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t make it easier for you.”
“I hope this didn’t entirely ruin your birthday.”
She rested her head against my shoulder. “I wouldn’t give her the pleasure of ruining anything for me, but I do have a birthday wish and I think I deserve it after what Marsala just pulled.”
I was afraid to ask, but I did anyway. “What is it?”
“I can’t do it as a human so I want you to change me so I can kick Marsala’s ass.”
8 This Isn’t Rocket Science
Chansey’s move was successful, but one that would enrage Marsala even more, so this attempt definitely wouldn’t be her last. Successfully reaching me through Black Magic was Marsala’s first taste of contact with me in almost 22 years and it was only going to ignite a renewed desire in her to find me. Now that the love of my life had bested her, she wouldn’t be satisfied until she saw her dead. Of this, I was certain.
I leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Come on. We need to talk to Sebastian and the others about devising a plan to keep you safe.”
I wasn’t wearing the blindfold when Chansey and I entered the living room, but no one mentioned it because they knew what had just taken place in
my bedroom. Solomon got up from the chair where he sat and crossed the room toward us. He held his fist out to Chansey for her to bump like they were high school pals. “I guess you showed that crazy bitch who was in charge.”
Chansey bumped her fist against Sol’s. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
Sebastian stood by the fireplace with his hands on his hips. “Chansey’s plan was a great one and I’m glad it worked, but we need to decide how to keep the two of you safe now that she knows you are in New Orleans.”
As hard as I tried, I couldn’t feel easy about sticking around in New Orleans any longer than we needed to, so I wanted to get Sebastian’s opinion. “I thought we should leave New Orleans immediately, but Chansey doesn’t want to change our plans. She thinks that we are safe to stay until tomorrow.”