Authors: Maya DeLeina
Anya just smiled and shook her head.
“Of course not! I’m falling apart, breaking down. My extended warranty expired long ago on this body. I am human, honey. Weird…yes, but human, nonetheless.”
“Then how do you know all of this stuff with remembering, recalling your human past?”
“I live in Manitou Springs, I hear things.” Michelle dusted the remnants of the brownie crumbs off of her hands and then reached for the cup of cocoa. “So, can you do everything possible to assure you remember me? Keep our pictures around as a reminder of our friendship?”
“I could never forget you, Michelle. I promise. I won’t forget you. Steffan said we’re supposed to retain things that were close to our heart. I love you. So I don’t think there is even a chance that I would not recall you.”
“And have you mentioned anything about Ryan to Steffan?”
“Michelle, shh!”
“What?”
Anya ran to the entry of the great room. The delicate coins on her belt made it sound like a horse-drawn sleigh was in the room. She stopped abruptly at the doorway, rested her hand against the wall and leaned forward, to peer around the corner. After a brief second, Anya turned around and ran back to Michelle.
“No, why should I?” Anya whispered.
“Nice way to start off your relationship. You’ve got a big lie hanging between the two of you.”
“Look, I just don’t want to open that whole can of worms. Besides, I won’t remember him after I turn.”
“Well, that is a good point.”
“But why are you so accepting? You don’t believe in mortality. You believe we embody new forms and our spirit never dies. It will go against everything you believe in.”
“And you believe in mortality. You’ve been surrounded by death your entire life. Belief is personal and individualistic, Anya. I understand your need for this and I think it’s a right choice for you. For me, I have my beliefs, and I have Chloe. I couldn’t make the same choice as you. This is why I never spoke of Dominic to you.”
“What! Dominic was a vampire?”
Michelle nodded. “Yes. In fact, he was once a part of Steffan’s family. This is how I first met Steffan. He saved my life, Anya.”
“Hold on! Start at the beginning, Michelle! And don’t leave anything out!”
Chapter Eighteen
Ryan lay on his back, eyes shut and arms folded behind his head.
It had been almost a month since he had last seen Anya in the flesh. After the unexpected exchange with Steffan in the dining room that evening, he’d never attempted another visit. Any thoughts on a strategy to steal Anya away had fallen to the wayside. He was left with no feasible options. Steffan’s hold on her was too strong, and he was too powerful a force to face on his own. Anya would remain his torment and obsession. She consumed him, and the only connection he had with her was his imagination and this place.
The air turned heavy as the smell of chalky earth alerted his senses. He opened his eyes. The sky was alive in frenzy. A mass of ominous clouds swirled in shades of gunmetal and black. They plagued the blue sky, overpowering its tranquility and suffocating the light.
Ryan got up and kneeled at the headstone as he made a final adjustment to the flowers he’d placed at the grave. He stood over the grave to say his good-byes before the thunderstorm hit. He shook his head. “Anise, I will never understand why I cannot remember a beautiful woman like you.”
“Maybe it’s because she didn’t belong to you,” a voice rang out behind Ryan.
Ryan turned around to find a woman standing behind him. She wore sunglasses even though the sun’s light had been fully extinguished by the thunderclouds rolling in.
“Excuse me?”
“It’s Ryan, Ryan Evans, correct?” the woman responded as she took off her glasses. Her round face was framed by wavy, shoulder-length hair in a reddish-brown tone. She was a bit unflattering for Ryan’s taste. Her hair lacked any natural color qualities, too obvious of a straight-from-the-bottle dye job. Everything about her seemed overdone, makeup, clothes, perfume, and nail polish. She lacked the sophistication that he demanded of his women.
“Yes. I’m Ryan. Do I know you?”
“I’m Madeline Doyle. I’m sure you would’ve known who I was if Steffan bothered to introduce you to the rest of the family here in town.”
“You’re one of us?”
Madeline nodded.
“Yes. I’m the one who works in the police department as a detective. I am the one who reports to Steffan on rogue vampire activity near our town. I am also the one who supplied him with background information on a human he recently turned.”
“Are you talking about me?”
“Yes, Ryan.”
“So what do you mean, Anise didn’t belong to me? Was she married and I didn’t know it? Or did I know it? What do you know?”
Madeleine sidestepped Ryan’s question. “Tell me, how is Steffan these days? The rest of the family hasn’t seen or heard from him in quite some time. I hear he took a mate recently.”
The thunder cracked through the sky and jolted Ryan and Madeleine. Heavy rain drops began to fall.
“Ryan, we need to get out of this weather! We can have lightning at any moment now! Come to my car, we need to talk.” Madeleine turned to make her way down the hill.
“No!” Ryan grabbed Madeleine’s arm. “You didn’t answer me. What do you mean she didn’t belong to me? Tell me!” Ryan demanded. The wind gained strength and tossed his long bangs across his angry face. Rain cascaded along his jawline.
“Anise never belonged to you. Steffan lied! He lied to everyone.”
“What? Steffan lied to me? I never had a relationship with Anise? This doesn’t make sense. Why would he make up something like that?”
“Think!” Madeline screamed.
Ryan searched Madeline’s eyes. Full of frustration, her eyes pleaded for understanding.
“Ryan, once I told him all about your past and he saw her, he wanted her for himself. He has special powers to enthrall our kind. He erased your memory of her. He erased her memory of you.”
Ryan grabbed Madeline at the shoulders and shook her violently. “What are you saying? Say it, damnit!”
“Anya. She was your wife! Anya is yours! Steffan took her from you. This is why you have no recollection of Anise. You never had a relationship with Anise.”
The wind and rain pelted Madeline’s face, sending her heavy mascara to carve deep-black rivers in her face.
Ryan released Madeline’s shoulders and stood still. Horror gripped him as he processed all that Madeline had just revealed to him.
He felt his eyes burn with fury.
“No!” Ryan wailed. “It was Anya all this time? I’ve watched him fuck my own wife?” Ryan’s eyes grew wild with anger. “This is why he’s kept me from meeting her. Everyone said I couldn’t meet her until after their claim was complete!”
Ryan’s heart sank.
He fisted his rain-soaked hair. “Goddamnit! Steffan’s probably already claimed her. You have to come with me. Confirm this with the rest of the family. I have to get her back!”
Ryan started to run off to his car as he dragged Madeline by the wrist behind him.
Madeline pulled back from Ryan’s hold. “Wait, Ryan! Wait! Come with me. We need to talk and think this through. I have the evidence you need to formally present this to the entire family. Don’t you see? He broke the law. Even Steffan is not above the law.”
“I don’t care about the fucking law. I want what is rightfully mine. I want Anya!” Ryan took off again with Madeline in tow. She dug her heels into the ground and punched his arm relentlessly with her free hand.
“Listen to me! Be smart about this!” Madeleine screamed as Ryan continued his run down the hill. “Stop!”
Ryan released her, and she fell to the ground abruptly. Ryan continued toward his Mercedes.
“He’s too powerful. He will kill you, Ryan! He’ll stop you before you ever get to see her. You need the help of this entire family to conquer Steffan!” Madeline screamed as she sat on the ground, drenched by the rain.
Ryan didn’t stop. He had made it to the car and opened the driver’s door.
“I’m the only one who can break the spell of Steffan’s enthrallment on Anya!” she screamed.
Ryan was just about to start the car when he stopped. Madeleine’s words rang in his ear. She was right. If he just barged in to Steffan’s house, he would kill him. Steffan had already warned him of his protection instincts over Anya during the claim. And even if he got to Anya, she wouldn’t believe him. She was deep in Steffan’s enthrallment.
He needed Madeleine.
Madeline made her way to the car, opened the passenger door, and got in. “Drive. I’ll take you to my cabin. You can see the evidence for yourself,” she said softly as she caught her breath.
* * * *
Sheets of lightning burned through the sky, illuminating the deep-violet clouds above the darkened highway. Punctuated crackling fractured the silence between them in the vehicle. The relentless wind and rain made it difficult to see all of the twists and turns in the pavement. The sound of the raindrops slowly turned into a deafening staccato drumbeat against the metal and glass.
“Fuck! This hail is going to ruin my car! Where are we going? How much farther is it to your cabin?”
“Woodland Park. It’s not much farther.”
With Madeline’s directions, Ryan pulled off of the highway and turned onto a dirt-and-gravel road. The incline of the road was steep and narrow. “Swing a left right after you make it to the top of this hill.”
Ryan took a left into a tree-lined driveway. An A-frame cabin appeared in the distance. “Why do you live all the way out here? I thought Steffan said all of the families lived in Manitou?”
“I do live in Manitou. This is my weekend retreat.”
Ryan slowed the vehicle as he reached the cabin and looked around. “Great, no garage?”
“Nope.” Madeleine opened the passenger door and looked back at Ryan as he sulked in his seat. “Look, deal with it. You live in Colorado. You’re bound to get stuck in a hailstorm or two. Let’s go inside.”
Ryan sat on the faux bearskin rug, staring down at the contents that sat in a cardboard box. The crackling of the fire was the only sound in the room.
The cabin’s interior was cozy. Rustic accents filled the room. Above him, an antler chandelier washed the room with ambient lighting. Pine-and-cinnamon-scented candles perfumed the air.
“I just can’t believe this!” Ryan said, rummaging through the box full of photo albums, newspaper clippings, marriage certificates, and documents, anything and everything that linked Ryan and Anya together. “He erased my entire life, my entire existence. I don’t remember any of this. I’m looking at myself in these pictures, but it doesn’t feel like me.”
Madeline sat on the couch opposite Ryan.
“Steffan came to me after turning you. He wanted to know everything about you. I reported back to him about your wife. I told him how distraught and devastated she was after you disappeared. I told Steffan to release you so you could reunite with her immediately. He was about to do just that, until I did the wrong thing by mentioning how beautiful Anya was and that she was a cellist. His face lit up. ”
Ryan eyes began to burn with rage again. “Then what?”
“He seemed obsessed. He demanded that I collect all I could on Anya and bring it to him. I took things from your office, the music studio, and your home.”