Blood Martinis: The Gypsy Vampire's Curse

Ch. 3 ... Head Wrecked

"Not supposed to be where?" Brianna replied while turning around. Her soon-to-be eldest brother in law, Kilian, appeared behind her. The sound of people on the other side was louder here at the door.

"The maze is an easy place to get lost," he said. "Do you even know your way back?"

"Well, no, but it's still light out. I didn't hear you behind me, why didn't you say anything?"

"I just did," he said.

"What's this door go to?" she asked.

"It's one of the gardener's tool sheds," he said, shutting the conversation down. "Let me walk you back to the house." He put a hand on her back and pushed, not waiting for her to agree.

"No!" she said. "Who's back there? Don't you hear the voices?"

"No. I don't," he said. Kilian was a strong man, and he looked it. He was slightly taller than Bennet, far wider and without a bit of fat on him. His muscle mass came from constant training in parkour and hunting. All the Blackburn brothers possessed talent in these skills, but Kilian was the hardest working. Bennet hardly worked at all. Despite this, Brianna never cared for Kilian as she did for Bennet. There was a wickedness to him, that she couldn't put her finger on. She didn't feel comfortable around him. He treated her like a party favour- something to be locked away on a shelf after it had served its purpose.

"I don"t feel so well," she said. Her head started spinning and her knees buckled out from under her. Kilian grabbed her around the waist before she hit the ground, and threw her over his shoulder.

"I don't have time for this," he said. Unexpectedly, the ground felt like it was shaking underneath them. Brianna couldn't focus her eyes on the ground it seemed to be moving so fast. Is he running? Why is he running?

It seemed like not more than a minute before they were back in the house. Kilian set her back on her feet in front of the staircase where Bennet was standing. The familial resemblance between the brothers was undeniable. They both had chocolate brown hair. Their piercing blue eyes matched Dylan's. Kilian's jaw was squared, while the others were both heart-shaped, but there was something in their delicate features that flagged a hand's down familial connection. It was also apparent in the deep bond and friendship they had with one another, which is why the serious concern she saw in Bennet's eyes right now disturbed her. Is that jealousy?

"Are you okay?" Bennet asked her, flipping his eyes between the two.

"I'm just not feeling myself. I didn't need or want to be ran inside like a sack of potatoes," she scoffed, sneering at Kilian.

"She was passing out. She's running a fever," Kilian remarked, staring at Bennet like there was something more to say.

"Sweetheart, why don't we take you up to bed?" Bennet asked.

"I'm fine now, I'll go myself," she said. Everything was silent in the house until she made it to the top of the steps, into her bedroom and shut the door. Then she could hear the two men talking. She sat in a chair beside the window, and looked out to the maze. Before today, she hadn't spent a lot of time gazing in that direction. She hadn't noticed how, from that height, there seemed to be more than just green hedges, grass and dirt out there. It was too far away to tell what exactly, but it didn't look like a gardening shed. It looked like… cages?

Kilian closed the door behind him and walked back out. She watched him step back into the maze. She watched as he navigated informedly and then disappeared through the red door.

"I can't believe how many things I found," Kate said.

"I can," Dylan replied, trailing behind her with two arms full of bags. "You're lucky I came with you…"

She turned the key in the lock of her penthouse apartment door. It had seemed like fate to her when she realised who Dylan was- her ex boyfriend's hotter, younger brother. He had just flown in from London; yet they met at the same pub (albeit she didn't remember), he had a room at the same hotel, and they were headed to the same wedding. It was kismet. What better date to bring to Brianna's overpriced self-congratulation party? The door swung open and Kate's thoughts were interrupted- torpedoed by the state of what she saw.

"… Very lucky," he continued, after seeing the wreckage.

"Oh my God, I've been robbed," she said. She dropped what little she was carrying and ran in. The tufted linen and steel button studded couch had been stabbed through and its stuffing pulled. The matching chaise lounge beside it was pushed on its side and the solid oak with glass topping coffee table knocked over- its glass scattered in shards across the plush carpet. In the kitchen her dishes were smashed and covered the countertops and, now, heavily marred wooden flooring. She ran around searching all her hiding spots to see if anything important was taken. The bill checks, although pulled off the refrigerator and dropped onto the floor, were still in their envelopes. In her bedroom, her jewellery was strewn across the bed. Clothes obscured the floor (although most of that was her fault). Relieved, she settled down and walked back out toward Dylan.

Only glancing in the bathroom, did she realise the true objective of this criminal. He had left everything of value, just moved it around to cover his trail. In the bathroom, at the makeup mirror, that's what he had taken. Her mother's picture was gone, and her strength along with it. She collapsed to the floor and closed the door behind her. Why? Who would want that? This must be father's doing… he must have gotten involved in something and now, whoever is trying to hurt him, wants to hurt me. This isn't fair.

A knock came from the other side of the door. "Kate, darling? Are you alright?"

"No, I'm not. I'm really not," she whimpered.

"Don't cry, precious. Let me in," he soothed.

She moved away from the door, put her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. He sat beside her and dried her tears with his thumb, then held her in his arms. Time passed, and neither moved.

Eventually, when he felt her breathing and heartbeat calm, he asked what she wanted to do.

"I want to go," she said.

"I'll go with you."

Kilian hadn't come back out of the red door by the time Bennet called Brianna to dinner. She made her way down the steps guided by the smell of roasted duck with a blood-orange glaze, pork sausage in cranberry-sage stuffing, mashed potatoes and Brussel sprouts. He was spoiling her. He pulled out a chair at the end of the table as he heard her approach. She sat in it, smiled at him, and he poured her a glass of red-velvety Bordeaux from 1990.

"Are you feeling any better?" he inquired as he sat in his own seat and put a cloth napkin in his lap.

"Yes, a bit. If I didn't know better, between the way I felt this morning and the way you've been looking after me, I'd think I was pregnant," she laughed. Bennet had insisted they keep separate rooms until the wedding night. She figured he was being protective of his family's fortune, waiting to sleep with her till she had signed a pre-nuptial. Her family had money too, but it was new money. His family had lots and lots of inherited wealth.

"Maybe soon," he said, and went about digging into his plate. He always ate a crazy amount of meat.

She didn't mind waiting, in truth she hadn't slept with anyone either (though she wouldn't tell anyone that). She had wanted to, but she had wanted it to be like a faery tale. It never seemed quite right. The boys she dated were just that- boys. They either weren't mature enough, weren't handsome enough, or something would happen to drain the romance out of the room. So, she waited. Then herself and Kate met Bennet and Kilian in university. The group spent so much time together their first year in Trinity, at the college bar or in the girls' off campus apartment. Until the year ended and Kilian, who was two years older than Bennet, graduated. When the girls went into their sophomore year and Bennet his junior, the threesome started feeling a little crowded. Kate and Bennet started dating, and Brianna couldn't keep herself together. She was losing her best friend. She had to do something. So, she did something. Something she regretted for a while after she fell out with Kate, until she realised that Bennet really was the love of her life.

She knew what he was. She knew how hard it was for him to stand up to his father or his brother, and the look on his face when he came home from hunting without a deer. The way he had just ghosted Kate instead of breaking up with her, because of his shame. It didn't matter to her. She was strong and could pick up the slack where he couldn't. What was once an act, no longer felt that way. He gave her the love that her parents never had. Even if he couldn't protect her, even if he never learned how, she believed her love was enough to protect them both. That she would protect him. The world would always be right, just so long as he stayed by her side.

Dinner seemed to be settling well in her stomach. After they watched a film together, laughed at all the funny bits and he kissed her forehead during the romantic bits, he took her up to bed and laid there beside her. She kissed his lips and pulled him close to her, wrapping her leg around his. He smelled of Clive Christian cologne and Bvlgari shampoo. He pressed himself against her and kissed a line down her neck. "Why are we waiting?" she asked, caught up in the moment. Unfortunately, that killed the mood.

Separating himself from her, he whispered, "I need to know you won't back out."

Kate didn't leave Dylan's hotel room once. A sort of agoraphobia had set in. She was waiting, not so patiently, for Dylan to let the police and the cleaners into the penthouse. She couldn't be there another second, knowing someone had touched all her things. Try as she might to pull up the events of the previous night, there wasn't enough of it left in her memory to mould coherently. She needed to know what he looked like. She had heard his voice, after her face hit the pavement, but didn't recognise it. He stole her mother's photo. It must have meant something to him, but it couldn't have meant as much as it did to her. She was seething. Too tired to pace, too scared to fall asleep. She was haunted.

She ordered dinner up from the Balfes Bar and Brasserie downstairs. When the bellhop came knocking at the door with a cart of seaweed-cured salmon gravadlax, a Castletownbere crab salad, and a champagne sabayon with mixed berries, she looked out the peeping hole at him for a second before answering it. Is that what he looked like? She shouted for him to leave it at the door, and waited till he was down the hall to open it to bring the cart in. She stirred the crab salad around the plate with her fork, devoured the sabayon, rooted through the luggage she packed an hour ago for a sneaky bottle of Smirnoff Green Apple Martini, then drew a bath which shortly after lulled her to sleep.

Another knock on the door woke her, this time it was Dylan. Coming out of the bath, with nothing but a towel wrapped around her, she answered the door. Kate watched his eyes scroll down her slender figure. If they didn't get in the town car soon, they wouldn't be making it to Donegal tonight. "I'm almost ready," she blushed.

"The festival isn't until tomorrow, let's sleep here tonight," he said. "I'm too tired to drive."

She couldn't bring herself to speak, but nodded in agreement.

Visibly trying to keep his eyes level, he moved around her and sat in the desk chair. "Where should I sleep?" he asked.

Again, she didn't have words for him. Retreating into the bathroom to put on clothes, she thought about. She wanted to walk straight up to him and pull him onto the bed on top of her. She didn't want to tell him to sleep on the floor, when there was a perfectly sized bed for two in the room, but her mouth didn't want to let the words out. Shyly she snuck out of the lu, rounded the corner while looking at the floor and got into the bed. She put the extra pillows down the middle, indicating he could sleep on the other side, and went to sleep.

The next morning, she woke to Dylan hustling around the room. "I'll take the luggage down and pull the car around," he said, grabbing her keys.

"Can you stay?" she asked. "I don't want to walk down alone, and it won't take me long."

"Of course," he said.

It took her two hours before she was ready to walk out the door. He sat patiently, took her bag and his own to the car when she was ready, and drove her toward the Blackburn Estate. She regaled him with stories about her childhood as they drove. He watched her light up like a sparkler. It made it difficult for him to keep his eyes on the road.