Surviving Paradise (Full Draft Version)

CHAPTER 19

"I don't know who you guys are but I'm sure you can respect this"
"Pretty bracelet Whisper. But it's stench don't scare us."

CHAPTER 19

Even as she eyed the distance back to the outside door, she knew it had been relocked. Going mental was not on the agenda, and she pulled herself together just as the door opened, and the shaky beam of her flashlight fell on Ashton’s shirt, then his face.

“Sacrebleu, put that away.” Ashton grumbled of the light, and reached for her hand. "Why didn't you take your shortcut? Thought we talked about this?"

"I had errands, and it just seemed easier to drive over since I was already in the car--"

Hands gripped her thighs from the back, and although it was pitch black, she knew that he was hunched over in front of her when he interrupted her to say, "Piggyback."

"Um okay..."

It happened so fast, like that night on the stairs, coming home from vacation, the weightless feeling. Only this time her eyes were open to the blackness that was the interior of this building, and the sensation was more of falling. Releasing her so that she slid from his back, he transferred his hold to her arm, and when she heard and felt the stirrings around her, she instinctively grabbed his hand. Only one other time had she ever come through the building to get to Gabrielle's office, and Gabrielle herself had been her guide. That time it had been dim but not all the way dark as now.

Ashton, rapped a perfunctory knock, opened a door, and she squinted in the artificial light of Gabrielle's office. The elder vampire’s eyebrows raised ever so slightly, and Allisa released her death grip on Ashton's cold hand. Gabrielle made a sweeping motion with her hand, encompassing the chairs, and Allisa sat, noticing that Ashton continued to stand.

“Firstly,” Gabrielle began, “Your work at the lab.”

Immediately Allisa recalled the excitement she had felt last night, and just as fast tamped those feelings down. Casually she replied, “This last week has not been the most productive week, but there is something that we are looking closer into, that looks promising.”

“Do tell.”

Allisa gave a short summary, enough to impress on Gabrielle that she and Sayer were making strides, but deliberately not yet revealing the totality of what she had discovered last night. If Gabrielle had recognized by heartbeat or any sign that Allisa was withholding information, she gave no indication of it.

Next the vampire turned to Ashton. “And to what do I owe the pleasure?”

Stepping in closer, Ashton discussed Jane’s car wreck and the implications of it being vampire related. Gabrielle listened intently, responding that although she had known of the wreck, she had not known of Jane’s version, that included vampires pulling her to safety, then leaving her, and the possible thunk of being pushed off of the road.

“Is she certain of this?” Gabrielle finally asked, and the inflection of the inquiry resolved any of Allisa’s last doubts that Gabrielle herself might have ordered or orchestrated the act.

“Very.” Ashton’s answer might have been one word, but it’s tone sent a trickle of icy liquid down Allisa’s spine. Ashton was all vampire at the moment. And Allisa knew he had to be when among his kind.

Gabrielle sank into the chair behind her desk. Allisa knew it wasn’t fatigue, it was centuries of learned emotion that caused her to do so. Ashton being a new vampire would forget to be human like if startled or upset, but Gabrielle had just done the opposite. In her own office where she did not have to pretend, she had accidentally slipped into immediate human facade, a trait that could only become ingrained from years of having to blend in and hide within the human race.

“I see.” Gabrielle said, and it was apparent that she did, from her next words. “A cavalier will be assigned to Allisa until this mystery is solved. He can stay in the attic room?”

Waves of happiness went through her heart. A bodyguard. She could move back into the house with Will and–

In a flash, Ashton was in front of her, between her and Gabrielle, bending to her chair. Confused her eyes locked with his, her last thoughts lost, seconds before his lips touched hers, ever so briefly. Fuzzy, hazy, her brain clouded, and she looked to him again, and this time a warm, happy, cozy feeling washed over her. Ashton smiled sweetly, and she naturally returned it, instinctively catching his cool fingers as he moved away.

Turning he addressed Gabrielle, “Allisa is back at her own house. Her parent’s wishes under the circumstances.

A blip of confusion spotted on her warm fuzzy radar, and Ashton squeezed her hand pulling her gaze back to his. “They will get used to things though, and you will be back before you know it–right?”

His smile was so angelic, an answering one curved her lips, without any conscious effort on her part. Eyes that were melting deep into his beautiful brandy colored iris’ reluctantly turned to the room’s other occupant, who had pushed back her chair and was standing again.

Gabrielle’s measuring gaze was sited on Allisa’s face for a span of several seconds, after which she said simply, “I will have you a new car delivered?”

Before Allisa could shake the fuzzies enough to gather a clear thought, Ashton interjected, “I am worried about her.”

“She is in the best hands with me.”

“And that is your word?”

“That she will be safe and unturned, yes.”

The weight of Ashton’s hand cooled her shoulder and he said, “About Jane and Will, I will take them.”

“As expected.” Gabrielle returned, then her voice gentled somewhat. “It is time you begin the responsibility of your own taxes. There has been leniency with your situation, because of the circumstances in which you were turned. And there always will be, as long as I am here to see to it. But I may not always be here.”

Ashton tilted his head in a short formal nod. Allisa had a brief flashback image of a vampire death they had all witnessed several months ago, a dangerous adversary of Gabrielle's that had tracked her to this town after three centuries.