Microsoft Word - TheStormyLoveLifeofLauraCordelaisSusanCfinal Page 2

"I'm sorry I slapped you."

  Surprised, David smiled. "I'm not sorry I made you a vampire."

  He kissed her eyes, her nose, and then captured her lips. For the first time in over a century, David felt love radiating into him. Every part of his body filled with energy. He wanted her, not just for his bed, but forever. Was she the one he longed for?

  ***

  When night fell, she woke eager to learn being so new. She was so vulnerable it scared him.

  David took her to the club to meet everyone, and what a mistake that was. All the vampires wanted to dance with her, inhale her sweet, palatable fragrance. She was on the dance floor and he could sense the onslaught of potential lovers overwhelming her.

  David felt her fear escalate, and then came the unexpected. She used mind talk without knowing how.

  David, I wish you would dance with me.

  He heard her and cut in. She immediately rested her head against him as they danced, and he felt something he had never known.

  15

  When Laura raised her face to look at him, their lips came together. Their fangs knocked against each other. She laughed nervously.

  "With practice, we'll get that right."

  She nodded.

  He tilted her head slightly and moved it for a long kiss. Something inside of him cried out, this was the woman he could love for eternity, this was his one.

  After dancing the hours away, lost in each other's embrace, they left for home.

  When David arrived at his apartment, he handed her the keys. "I'm giving you my apartment. Tomorrow I'll make sure, you're set up financially."

  Laura shook her head. "You don't have to give me your apartment. Where will you stay?"

  "Oh, it doesn't matter. With friends. Out at the cemetery." Then he left. David laughed as he walked down the street, realizing how ridiculous he was to give away his place, not a small gift in Manhattan.

  Then she mind talked again. David, come back.

  He returned and knocked on the door.

  She opened it immediately.

  "You don't do that in New York City. Did you even look through the peephole?"

  "No. I knew it was you." Then she took his hand. "I'm afraid to be here by myself. Can't you just stay?"

  "Okay. You take the bedroom and I'll sleep on the couch."

  Laura went into the bedroom to get him a pillow and blankets. Then she came out with a sad expression on her face. "Um, David, there's only a coffin in there."

  "Yes."

  16

  "I can't sleep in a box."

  "Okay. I'll take the coffin, and you take the sofa."

  She sat down next to him on the sofa looking all adorable wearing only his white pin-stripe shirt with her pink panties. "Maybe we could both sleep on the sofa?"

  "I guess. You stretch out here, and I'll be your blanket." As soon as he was in position, he knew that this would lead to something.

  Then he heard her soft voice in his head. I want you, David. I want you so much.

  His eyes snapped opened. "Laura, do you realize you're mind talking?"

  "What's mind talking?"

  "We have a blood connection because I'm your sire. You think things to me or about me and I hear them."

  "Oh." Her sweet face went from surprise to a shy smile, when she realized what he heard. "Well?"

  "Are you sure?" He caressed her face, as he whispered. A strand of blonde hair had settled on her mouth. He moved it, his fingers lingering there, tracing her lips.

  "I'm very sure."

  "You haven't known me very long." The lower part of his body pressed against hers. He was getting harder by the second.

  "It's a funny thing." She paused, one hand resting on her breast. "When you're near me, my heart feels full. It never felt that way when I was mortal." Laura tangled her hands in his hair. "I feel like I have always known you. I've missed you forever."

  He smiled. It was such odd thing to say, but it felt true. "I've loved you forever."

  He didn't know how she'd take that admission. How could you love someone you hadn't 17

  met yet? But in the darkness of his life, he had loved the thought of her, the hope of her, and the dream of her. Her expression was so enigmatic. Then she smiled and pulled him down to her face. They kissed tenderly at first. Then each breathless caress of the lips became frantic and hungry. He pressed his mouth against hers and his tongue invaded. She moaned. Her hands moved down to his shoulders. He ripped the buttons off the shirt, and his tongue lavished one breast and then the other. Tiny pants shuddered throughout her body. He kissed her stomach and she giggled. He did it again. She giggled like it hurt. David couldn't help but add his tongue.

  "No." Laura pulled his hair. "You're breaking the mood."

  He tickled her again, and she giggled. But her eyes smoldered begging him to continue. Please. He loved hearing her voice in his head.

  Pulling off her panties, he flung them to who knows where. She gasped, as his head disappeared between her legs. Each sweet taste of her led to another. Laura cried and whimpered. Please, I need you.

  Not to deny her, he caught her up into his arms and plunged into her. Then stopped. Her entire body shook. He brushed his lips against hers. She opened her eyes, those beautiful pale blue eyes.

  "Laura, I love you."

  She kissed him and pushed her body against him, arching into his every movement. He rocked in and out of her in a soothing way like the surf moving in and out. Then he became fierce and she matched him. Her breath grew ragged and desperate, and he drove into her with frantic energy. Then the force of their climax rushed over them, throwing her into a dark, warm, peaceful place. He caressed her and closed his eyes.

  18

  David didn't know how much time had passed when he woke. Laura was on top of him sleeping. Pulling down the afghan from the back of the sofa, he covered her. She murmured, "I love you, David."

  He could never be happier than in this single perfect moment. Laura's love was all he needed and he now he knew he would have her always.

  19

  Chapter 2

  One year later

  "Oh, Mama, I wish I could have my life back." Laura sighed. Tiny, blue veins flowed just below the surface of her opalescent skin, as her slender fingers traced the name on the engraved marble panel on her mother's crypt. The hurricane raged. But the rain fell without touching her. Her long blonde hair barely moved in the wind.

  David watched her but dared not interfere. He remained hidden from sight between the mausoleums of St. Louis #1 Cemetery in New Orleans. Something white flashed between the crypts, blurred by the rain, then melted into the darkness. It distracted him for a moment. Then his attention returned to Laura who leaned against the tomb and wept.

  "Din't ya hea the annuncemets? Ya suppose to be outta the city." His filthy clothes and greasy hair were drenched. The young man stared at her with wide, crazy eyes. His words ended with the continual hiss of the storm. Then he laughed in that unbalanced sort of way that freezes the heart.

  "What do you want?" Laura's words echoed through the storm as if part of the wind.

  "Ya money!" he yelled, crouching against the crypt. The scent of desperation 20

  dripped from him.

  "No," she said without emotion.

  David remembered the warnings about thieves in the cemeteries, but thought they were smart enough to leave the city when the hurricane began. Apparently not.

  Sticking his knife against her ribs, the man licked her face. "Then spen sum time wit me, cher!" He chuckled, clearly on the edge of insanity.

  "Run away," she whispered, "before it is too late."

  He plunged the blade into her stomach. Blood poured down the front of her short, blue dress.

  She stood stoic, unchanged. "You don't know who you're messing with."

  He laughed and yanked out the knife, poised to stab her again. Shoving him out of the way, the wind caught him, and he disappeared into the gale.

  Laura s
traightened her dress. After a few seconds, the blood stopped dripping.

  ***

  "Need any help?" A gentle baritone voice echoed in the darkness. The tall man with dark, curly hair stepped out from between two crypts. He walked through the storm as if it were a mild summer day, decked out in a dark blue suit with his white shirt open at the neck.

  "I don't need your help anymore." Laura didn't want to look at him. Gazing into his wonderfully, dark brown eyes would weaken her resolve. Just as his touch had a way of melting her anger into desire. He walked up to her. She put up an arm to ward him off. "Go away, David. We're over."

  "I don't understand why?" He sounded like a hurt child, and Laura's anger reached its boiling point.

  21

  "You can have any woman you want, just not me." Laura tried to ignore her fierce attraction to him. The passion she knew with him excited her beyond measure, and the more he talked the more she was in danger of just forgiving everything and falling into his arms. Laura made herself remember the pain. She bit her lower lip and closed her eyes to the sight of him.

  "I haven't done that since we met. You can't really fault me for my past, Laura."

  She glared at him. "What about Rhea?"

  A pained wince came over his face. "She's just an old girlfriend. That's all!"

  "Well, it didn't look that way to me. That red-headed slut was all over you."

  "Things got carried away. I don't want her. I only want you, Laura."

  "Well, you can't have me."

  "Please, Laura. Don't do this to us," he pleaded. "I've never loved anyone but you."

  "Love?" she screamed. "Vampires can't love anyone. Now leave me alone. I want my life back."

  "It isn't possible."

  "David, we're over." Laura walked away from him into the storm.

  "You will remember that I love you," he whispered. Even in gale force winds, she heard every word.

  He followed her. She knew he would. Closing her eyes, she surrendered to the wind and let it take her. It was easier, of course, when the wind blew in the right direction. That way she didn't have to concentrate so hard.

  ***

  Her feet touched the ground again on Bourbon Street, which was unusually 22

  empty. She turned the corner down the familiar alley then opened the second door. No sign hung above it, for all the city's undead knew Marchon's place. He was the tall, dark hunk with the mustache, who tended the bar. Laura took a stool at the end.

  "So, cher, find the crypt you wanted?" he asked.

  "Yes, thank you, Marchon."

  "And the room upstairs is to your liking?" Marchon had been good enough to put them up since their arrival.

  "Yes, thank you. The room is lovely."

  "Don't know why you won't stay downstairs with us? We have plenty of room." A thought crossed her mind that David could move downstairs, but she didn't voice it.

  "Aren't you worried about the water coming in?"

  "Oh, no, cher, we're bone dry." He laughed. Everyone overhearing the conversation laughed at that. "Did I ever tell you the time David . . .?”

  "Marchon, thank you, but I've heard enough David stories." She held up her hand in dejection.

  "Ah, here's David now."

  Laura didn't turn around. She didn't have to. She could feel him walk to the back of the room. She could feel him watching her.

  "A Bloody Martin, please," she said.

  A young, blond man wearing glasses took the stool beside her. "You mean, a Bloody Mary, right?" He chuckled.

  Laura flashed her pearly white fangs. Marchon raised the black bottle with the red rose to pour. She stopped him. "The plain one, please."

  "Are you sure, cher? The Red Rose tastes so sweet."

  23

  "The plain will be fine." Marchon poured her drink and placed it in front of her.

  "So you're a vampire," said the man.

  "And you're a tourist." Laura sipped her drink.

  "So are you," he said. "That's a Northern accent, if I'm not mistaken. Where are you from?"

  "Manhattan."

  "What would bring a New York vampire to the Big Easy during a hurricane?"

  His pick-up line amused her. "For the feast, of course." She took another sip.

  "Why are you here?"

  He gulped. "To become a vampire."

  Laura choked. "Are you crazy?" She looked at the stranger in disbelief.

  Obviously he had some romantic delusions about vampires.

  A dark and exotic-looking female vampire named Catalina purred into the stranger's ear. She rubbed against him from the stool on the other side. "Can I take this one off your hands, Laura?"

  "No, he's with me." Laura pulled him from the stool and dragged him to the door. In the back of the room, a crowd had gathered around David. In her head, she heard snippets of their conversation.

  "It's with her, David. I don't trust it. Should we kill it now?" asked the female vampire, who only seconds before had been at the bar. "She doesn't know."

  They watched, as if the tourist was the last, red rose bottle in the world. Laura pushed him out the door into the torrential rain.

  "Now listen, whoever you are . . .,” her voice reverberating on the wind.

  "I'm Thomas Barrie." His voice and manner reflected a peculiar naiveté.

  24

  "Okay, Thomas. You're in deadly danger. No one's going to make you a vampire.

  Got it? They're going to make lunch out of you and dump your carcass into a canal."

  She hurried down the street, pulling him with her.

  Out of the rainy gloom, another vampire approached. Quickly Laura slammed Thomas against the wall of a building and put her mouth against his neck. The vampire walked by uninterested.

  When they were alone, Laura pulled him around the corner. Then grabbing him tightly, she flew straight up. He embraced her, undoubtedly afraid to let go. He didn't have the strength she expected. Too skinny and scrawny. Laura was used to being held by a man with real strength, beyond that even of a vampire's muscle. David was strong even when gentle with her. David's embrace made her feel so . . . Laura shook her head to drive those thoughts from her. She didn't want to remember his tenderness. All she could think about was how it was all happening again like it did before with her lousy, human ex-boyfriend. Like that night on the bridge.

  Laura let the winds take her, and they landed several streets away. This wasn't safe enough, and she knew it. She walked briskly down the street with Thomas in tow.

  After choosing a door, she pushed it in just enough to break the lock but not enough to destroy the hinges. Once inside the dark room, she shut the door.

  "Now, tell me what this is really all about!"

  "I want to live forever."

  "What is wrong with you? It's not what people think it is. After the initial thrill is gone, a pervasive sadness engulfs you that won't let up. You realize all the things you can never have again. You can't build a sandcastle with your nephew at the beach at Coney Island or take him to the Central Park Zoo or the top of the Empire State 25

  Building. You can't go to your sister's picnics in Connecticut. You miss the family, whose generations forget you. You miss the friends you outlive. You drink blood, when you'd rather have shrimp gumbo, hot dogs with sauerkraut, and chocolate cake. You can only manage a taste of real food. And believe me, you'd give anything for more than a taste. Anything to be like everyone else. Don't you realize!?" she screamed. "Once it's done, your life is gone! You're an animal of the night, like a rat or worm." Laura put her face in her hands and started to cry. "You don't understand. No one does. You lose any chance for love, and that's losing everything."

  Thomas sat in the dark room with her. After a long time without a word, he said,

  "You're not like the other vampires. You saved my life. Why did you do that?"

  She shook her head. "Maybe I saved your life, so a part of me will live too.

  Maybe I'm just so depressed, that I'
ve lost my mind." The world outside grew suddenly quiet. Her fangs extended as if in anticipation of a fight.

  The building creaked. A very bad feeling shivered through her. Laura took Thomas's hand and pulled him out of the house seconds before the storm ripped it apart. A liberated stop sign flew past them. They ran down alleyways, ducking more flying debris. A dead man lay on the street clutching a crushed trumpet. A faded sign announced, "Jazz Tonight!" Laura turned a corner and ran. A house on the next street looked solid enough. They went in and sat down. The storm howled through New Orleans.

  "There's something weird about you." She paced, glaring at Thomas. "When we were flying, you appeared afraid, but now you don't seem scared at all."

  "What should I be afraid of?" He straightened his glasses. "The storm or you?"

  "Both, and you're not." Then she noticed that he wasn't even wet. "Who are you 26

  really?"

  "I can't tell you just yet. I can say that I've been testing you, and based on my tests of your character, I know I can help you. There are only two ways you can get your life back."

  Laura laughed bitterly. "I don't believe you. It's not possible."

  "It is possible."

  In the distance, a car's brakes squealed. Gunfire. It came closer.

  Laura flew across the room. She put her hand to Thomas's mouth. Quiet. She placed the word inside his mind. His eyes went wide. He nodded. The car roared past the house. Guns fired. Laughter. Then the noise grew further away, until it disappeared.

  "What was that?"

  She smiled. "Not all thieves and killers are undead." She laughed to herself. If David were there, he would say that the city had fallen into the hands of those without any mercy. He could be so eloquent at times. "Let's get back to what we were talking about," she insisted. "How can I get my life back?"