Blood Ties

10. Thirst

Marcus: Quinn, what’s going on? Is everything okay? Who is this person you met? Speak to me…

Marcus: Honey, it’s been hours. Please call me. We can talk this out. You can’t leave like this!

Marcus: Quinn, if it’s something I’ve done, I’m sorry and I love you.

There were a few more texts, but Eli didn’t look at them. He only checked the phone, and the banner with the message had popped up. They would read as delivered on the young man’s side, but it didn’t mean that they were read. Not at all. Eli stopped looking over when the phone vibrated with a message. He turned the thing off completely so it wouldn’t bother him while he worked.

Even though he didn’t live full-time in Beverly Hills anymore, he still had real estate in his name which, on paper, was in a fake name. It was all local, though he usually had a real estate agent on his payroll and was buying off more and more property in the area. With prices skyrocketing, he was thinking of divvying up some of his Southern California buildings and try his luck in construction. North Dakota might see some pretty harsh winters, but the land was cheap and more people were moving into the area. Simple folk who lived in double-wides could finally afford a decent house instead of a shoddily-made one that could travel.

In the other room, he could hear his son talking in a low voice to Quinn, who was slowly eating her dinner. They hadn’t known what she liked as of yet, so they went with spaghetti and meatballs, since they knew that she at least ate meat.

It was good Adam paid attention to her eating habits, as well.

“I don’t know. Last time I checked, my father turned off the phone. It kept vibrating, though my mom sent your message to your mother and waited long enough to get a response. She understood, it sounds like.”

It sounded like Quinn shifted in her chair in the dining room and took a sip of water. “Did the tone of the text sound worried? I would hate for her to be upset with me when I finally give her a call. Next week should be good.”

“Of course. I would say that it could be sooner, but I’m scared you would slip and say something and she’d become more concerned. I hate holding you almost hostage here, but I am glad you are coming around to the idea.”

Quinn sighed. “I hate lying to her about this, but I understand after talking to your mom a little more. She told me the whole story over a boiling pot of noodles. Your dad chimed in as well.”

Eli smirked. Cassie had been patient and told Quinn everything in their mating—that is, up until the s*x part. The younger woman was very aware of what was expected from the future, and was cognizant of the repercussions of her “change”, as they put it. Makeup and hair dye only went so far as far as the human population was concerned, which was why they all kept out of the limelight and stayed far from Hollywood as a whole. Quinn had taken all the news with aplomb, especially since she’d blacked out after seeing Leandra sucking on a vein earlier.

He shouldn’t have been surprised. Every human mate had been skeptical at first, but once they’d been convinced with proof or through deep, thorough analysis, they seemed to be on board all the way.

It was the same with Quinn, thankfully. He would have hated for his son to be having to struggle like he had, even if he sort of deserved it.

“f*****g kidnapping. Where did I go wrong with that child?” he muttered to himself. He closed his eyes, trying hard to be completely irritated with his only son. Eli wasn’t beyond praying to hope his two girls were a little smarter when they found their mates. Neither was as eager as Adam had been, though, and he just hoped that Quinn wasn’t averse to a quick change and mating. If she was, he didn’t know how well Adam would handle it. He honestly wished he’d waited a couple years to find her since she was still in college.

It was almost ironic, because Cassie had been basically the same age when he’d met her, and he wondered if it would be the same for Adam’s children, if and when he had them.

He sat up from a slouch and headed into the living room. Cass was on the couch with her feet propped on an ottoman, the latest MacBook on her lap as her eyes wandered over the screen at lightning speed. Nibbling her lip, she typed out a few words before using the backspace bar and shaking her head. Eli knew she was working on a new script and that there were a few plot holes she was trying to work out in her head.

“How’s it coming, love? Figuring s**t out?” He leaned in and dropped a kiss on her temple before her face lit up in a smile.

“Just about. I both hate and love that this new book is a futuristic love story, but there is so much work when building worlds for this type of thing.” She licked her lips and nodded to herself before going back to typing something up.

It took a lot of imagination to write up a possible far-distant future, and this storyline was also quite political. It ticked off a lot of boxes on genres for movies. Action, romance, futuristic, drama, and a bit of suspense. It was good for the movie, because many people who primarily liked one genre would be tempted to give it a shot. In this early stage, it was too soon to think about production or promoting, because it was still just a slightly structured idea in Cassandra Payne’s head.

He was certain she’d be able to work through the difficulties, as she always had before.

She quietly typed away with the sound on the television low. How she could concentrate with that racket was anyone’s guess, plus they had Charlie talking on her phone to work and Adam and Quinn in the next room talking at normal volume. When his mate was in the zone, there was nothing that could claim her attention besides her writing.

It didn’t bother him any that the TV was so low since he had excellent hearing, but he was uninterested in watching the news and turned it on another channel before it put him to sleep. Unless it was the real estate section in the e-mag newspapers he had subscriptions to, he scanned it only briefly.

Hollywood hadn’t changed really; only the need to be slimmer had somehow morphed into a need to have exaggerated curves—the perfect, over-the-top, hourglass figure instead of the willowy, stick-thin obsession of thirty some-odd years ago. Big breasts were in vogue now, as were the wide, silicone-enhanced implants helping with the overemphasized flare of the female’s hips.

Southern California had gone full plastic, and it was only to the detriment of society in general. Everyone wanted to be what they were not, to be different or unique, but what they didn’t understand was that with all of them craving their undeniable singularity, they were really all the same. It was an enigma. A glitch in the matrix. Nothing was really sacred, but you owned what you wanted to own in your way.

A chair scraped quietly across the carpet in the other room, and Eli could tell that Quinn was done with her dinner, and not only because he could hear her getting up from her spot at the table.

“I’ve got it, Adam. I know where the kitchen is, you know.”

“Love, I f*****g kidnapped you and flew you 3,000 miles from your home. I think I can get your dirty dishes. Besides, I need to put the rest of the spaghetti in some Tupperware, and even I don’t know where we keep it. I’ll have to search.”

There was a pause where she blew out an exasperated breath that made him smile. She muttered, “fine,” to Adam before scooting the chair back under the table. He was glad to hear that she walked after him, talking quietly the whole way.

“How has it been?” he murmured quietly to Cassie. It was hushed enough so that the younger couple wouldn’t hear over their own chatting. “I heard a little of them talking about her mom earlier, but before that I was busy going through some paperwork. The taxes are due soon, and I was thinking of signing off some of the properties to the kids. Except Nia. She told me she’d burn those buildings down if I gave any of them to her. What do you think?”

“About Nia?” Cassie looked over at him. “I think she probably would, but why, I can’t fathom. Her head’s too high in the clouds for a true Payne. She must have gotten that attitude from me. I loathe real estate with a passion. I’m glad you didn’t sign over the properties to me when you supposedly died. I would have thrown a hissy fit and you would have had blue balls for weeks if you had.”

Eli smirked before putting his arm around Cassie’s shoulders. They sat like that for a while as Adam and Quinn fussed about in the kitchen, looking for the Tupperware containers that probably hadn’t been used in a few years.

“Got it!” Adam waxed triumphant, and Quinn sounded a little put-out that he was able to locate them. Maybe it was because he was a guy and she was a girl and it was the kitchen, or more likely it was because she was a human and he a vampire, a being that didn’t even eat food that would go into a storage container.

They were fairly quiet as they put the noodles in one receptacle, the meatballs and sauce in another. The door to the fridge had just opened when Eli heard a gasp, and sat up a little higher when the strident, braying tone of Quinn’s screech was heard.

“What the hell is that?” the young woman sounded appalled, and Eli got up to go into the kitchen.

“It’s blood packets,” Adam explained quietly. “Nothing to fear. It’s easier than finding a willing human donor, and most prostitutes you could pay for their time have too many chemicals in their body. Drugs like heroin, crystal meth—even pot don’t always give the best nutrition for a vampire. Plus, it makes you less sharp. Ironically, alcohol can give a pleasant high if the human has been imbibing, but hard drugs like I mentioned before or m*******a taste so tainted, it’s not even worth feeding. You have to feed again before the week is out for a full-grown vampire.”

“Wait… You guys don’t eat, like, three times a day like humans?” The information seemed to quell her squeamishness at the many blood packets stacked neatly on the top shelf, her curiosity fed by the strangeness of this situation.

“When you are a newborn vampire, you will be thirstier than a grown one, but you can still be sated with smaller meals, you could say. It’s like being a human baby, and you may get enough nutrition out of more frequent, lighter feedings. It differs from person to person. Since my mother got pregnant with me and my twin so quickly after becoming a vampire, I don’t know if her hunger was because of being pregnant or because she was maturing faster than other ‘made’ vampires. It’s not exactly a science you can read about in books. We’re not even supposed to exist.”

“You kids okay in here?” Eli walked into the room, concern knotting his brow.

Adam turned and looked at him. “Fine, Dad. We were talking about vampire feedings.”

“Well, it’s not something that you’ll have to worry about for now.” He sauntered further into the room. “You guys in the mood to watch a movie, or are you going to lay down?” He looked at his watch and saw that it was already 8 PM.

Adam looked to Quinn, eager to hear her opinion.

“What movie?”

Eli smiled at her. “Honey, I have every movie you could ever want to see except some of the s**t they pass off as film. Think of something you want to watch, and I’ll make it happen.”

She mulled that offer over for maybe all of three seconds before speaking. “What about Cassie’s first movie? I think I’d like to see that.”

Eli’s grin got even wider. “Excellent choice, if I do say so myself.”