A Vampire Named Rose

Chapter Fifteen

After I screamed, I broke down in tears. I have not cried like this since those bitter cold days that I spent as a stowaway in the cargo ship destined for Alaska.

Svetlana was there to hug me as I cried. "That bastard. We need to restore his soul and make his world come crashing around him. Let's consider this as step one of payback."

"What are we going to do?"

Pavel had an answer. "We need to learn to full history of your sire from the day that he was turned up to the present. Finding his sire will help too. Once we know who his friends are, we kill them. We destroy them all.

One of the things that torments a vampire the most is loneliness. You can not get close to humans and come across other vampires does not always happen, even if you are in a big city.

It is even worse for us who have souls because most of us when turned will lose their soul. Discovering the hockey playing vampires was unusual, but Alaska is basically a safe haven for those of us who escaped the Soviet Union."

"Where do we start Pavel? The book in the Vatican City only had a page on him. He has ties to Philadelphia. We know he was an officer during the Revolutionary War."

Svetlana had an idea; a plot, a scheme. She only has that look when it is something that truly matters. "We will start with his history in Europe. We go through his life in Europe, it will lead to who he has associated with. We also need to find books on the American Revolution to see if he is mentioned anywhere."

"What about Erik and Ophelia? They are down right now. Now would be the time to get rid of them."

"We have time Rose. Erik will be down for several months. Information is key. We all need sleep right now. He will try to get into your head. You need to keep your calm and do not let him play mind games with you."

That night I went to sleep, but it was something I dreaded. I need to learn how to shut him out of my head for good. Naturally, Gabriel would not leave me alone. It was time for him to learn why I was called the Wicked Bitch of Los Angeles.

"Gabriel, do you know what sleep is? Some of us sleep at night."

"I would sleep if you were at my side Rose. I see you discovered my little surprise?"

I need information from him and blowing up at Gabriel is not going to work. However, a little sarcasm never hurt anyone.

"What, you have married an imaginary woman?"

He laughed at me and I suppose I deserve it. "Rose, we both have to give aliases. Lying, it's something you have to master. Victoria Quale was the only other name I had on you. You did a good job at not leaving a paper trail.

You are my mate and it is common practice that mated vampires are legally married in the eyes of the humans to keep them from becoming suspicious. I did not mean you any harm."

I scoffed at Gabriel's words because he fired the first true shots of a war. The war is for my freedom. "Nice try Gabriel. You forgot one thing. You did not have my signature on the papers for the bank. The account manager voided it. You may be my sire but even they have rules about legal documents being submitted.

Frankly, I believe you did mean harm by it. I know it is a means of control. You might want to be reminded that it is 1951 and not whatever year you are mentally stuck in."

"Rose, I know many of our kind are mentally stuck in the year they were turned in. I am not mentally stuck in the eighteenth century, unlike what you believe.

Rose, you are still very sick. You are going to get even worse without being claimed. How you are fighting through the pain, I will never know."

Gabriel, you underestimate me. I have a pain tolerance that makes most grown men look like cry babies.

"Gabriel, you underestimate me. You are talking about the girl who played through a national field hockey tournament with a torn ACL and meniscus. Then there is the fact that when the bullet grazed my leg, I was not able to see a doctor for nearly a week. If you think I am some flower that will fall apart when a gust of wind blows by, you are wrong."

Let the swearing begin because I ended up going to a civilian hospital to get it treated. Penicillin shots are nasty and they are painful.

"Jesus Christ, you are lucky you didn't get a damn infection from that. I know we have antibiotics now, but it still should have been looked at sooner.

No normal woman should have that type of pain tolerance. There again, you are a squid. The squids are also known for picking fights in pubs. Didn't your family have any common sense than to let you pick the Navy?"

He is antagonizing me I do like a nice verbal spar. You will earn a verbal spar with me if you pick on the Navy.

"Gabriel, you may want to get it through your Grunt brain that females generally have a higher pain tolerance than men.

Now for the Navy remarks, the sailors who I had to stitch up from bar fights have had a little too much to drink. You know there is a thing called being court-martialed.

My family would have supported the Navy automatically. It is the only branch my family has ever been in."

Take that jackass. I imagine if we dated and we were both human, my father would have given him hell. There again, him being the youngest chief of police in Los Angeles history probably would have something to do with it.

Just keep at it. Dad always says suspects will slip up. I know he will feed suspects little pieces of information, sometimes false to get them talking. It also gets them off guard.

"Rose, give me a chance. I will find you and I will have help finding you. You meet quite a few vampires over a one hundred sixty-five years. I do know a few with souls.

See, I know your two Russian friends are very young in vampire years. They may think they are keeping you safe from me, but they are hurting you. They just do not know any better.

You will be better off once I claim you. When you are going to live forever, it has its drawbacks. You feel alone, isolated, hollow. Many vampires have to wait centuries to find their mate even if they are fortunate enough to find them.

It will catch up with you eventually. Eventually, you will feel that dreaded feeling that all vampires have. It took me ten years Rose to feel that way. Do you want to go through eternity feeling like that out of spite?"

That is a good question. That is a question I can answer only. Being on the run will get old and if he has help, it complicates things.