The Reluctant Miss Van Helsing (24 page)

Asher shook his head. He liked his women pale,. whiter than himself if he could find them that way. Yet there was something about Jane, some indomitable spirit that resided in her eyes and soul. Some mystery lurked around the corner to be solved. He had to admit that she looked quite fine standing below in his garden, as if she hadn’t a care in the world.

Why should she care that she hasn’t seen you in four nights? Asher thought sardonically. He certainly hadn’t cared to see her. He had thought distance would clear his head, would lessen his desire. Instead, his longing for her had grown to a fierce need, an aching need, which was utterly despicable. “Lusting for a Van Helsing!” he snorted.

He scowled. He had a right to be angry about this forced marriage. He didn’t want to solve anything about Jane. No, in fact, he didn’t even want to have dinner with her tonight. He had been avoiding her, Jetting his anger ease gradually as he returned to his old haunts, feasting on sensual delights.

Just last night he had gorged himself on a five-course meal at the Birds of Paradise Club. The club was an exclusive brothel catering to the more exotic, perfect for the hedonistic supernatural predator. It was an exciting place where gentlemen both mortal and otherworldly could find plucky whores of their choice, dressed in feathers and plumes, like sitting ducks in a row—or laying ducks in a row, as the case might be. Asher had sampled a tasty black-haired warbler, a delicious brunette partridge, a delightfully redheaded wagtail, a plump feather-headed goose and a silvery-blond soiled dove.

Yes, he had filled their bodies with his hunting cock and sipped the full-bodied blend of their blood. It had been a night to remember, to reminisce about at the Dead Poets’ Society: an exclusive vampire haunt where the more literate and clever of his kind met in secret, as gentlemen are wont to do. At the Dead Poets’ Society vampires discussed all subjects of the night, placed bets, conversed about upcoming events, discovered who was biting whom, played cards and discussed, naturally, all the supernatural gossip of the ton.

Yet, the past two times he’d gone to his club, he’d been silently quoting Coleridge: “7 feel ‘as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.’”

This melancholy feeling had only deepened today, causing Asher some concern. He was growing older. He had seen too many sunsets to count. He had felt too many dawns dragging him down to deathlike sleep. He had seen a score of kings come and go. He had been friends with a few, and disposed of a few others. Ennui was dogging his heels.

Changes. Many changes had come and gone, places and people, as the centuries crept past. Inventions, like Babbage’s analytical machine, and Fulton’s harnessing the power of steam. Art had become more dreamlike in quality, while music became more uplifting. Everything moved toward the future, even the changing seasons. He had loved so many women that they all ran together in a formless image of red lips, slender necks and white thighs. As of late, his pleasure was harder to seek, and boredom was his ever-present enemy perched upon his shoulder.

Lately there had been a small but insistent voice in the back of his mind calling Jane’s name. Asher knew he owed his unwanted wife little to nothing, certainly not his loyalty or fidelity. Yet, he had made that solemn vow in church to love and protect her. In the three-hundred-plus years of his life, he had only broken two vows. Both had been life-and-death situations.

Cocking his head, he studied Jane closely as she walked about the garden, her misbegotten mutt following her. She was certainly no beauty in the eyes of the ton, yet she drew him in a way he could not dismiss.

Despite the marital vow he had sworn, last night’s feast of flesh and blood at the brothel had been solely to get back at his wife, and to help expunge his anger. Still, her face remained firmly lodged in his head. Suddenly every sodden jacket, freckle and sight of a swan gracefully gliding across the lake in Hyde Park reminded him of Jane. It was strangely sweet, yet disconcerting, how thoughts of his wife clung to him like twining vines of honeysuckle.

“I will not feel guilty. I will carouse at all hours of the night and sleep with whom I wish. Bite as many beautiful women as I wish,” he told himself angrily. He was a male vampire in his prime, and he had every reason to seek his lusty diversions. He was the master of the undead of London. Other males, both dead and alive, envied him, and all manner and species of female threw themselves at him. No one could tell him what to do with his life. Certainly not a back-stabbing Van Helsing. It had been that way for centuries. So why was he feeling so downcast tonight?

Intrigued in spite of himself, Asher observed as his wife approached that enormous freak of her big bird. He arched a brow as the avian lowered its huge head to be petted. His wife stretched up on her tiptoes to carry on a conversation with it, unaware that she was being observed. It was true: She wasn’t much of a vampire hunter if she couldn’t feel his hungry eyes upon her.

She spoke confidently, in a tone too low for even Asher to hear, gabbing away at the bird. The big ugly beast lowered its head again, and Jane placed a kiss on its fuzzy head. The ostrich shoved her lightly, and Asher could hear Jane’s laughter ring out. She had a marvelous laugh, he admitted. His breeches tightened further.

“Damnation!” he snarled to his empty bedroom. Jane was an albatross around his neck. Just because she was intelligent and witty was no reason to want to bed the wench. Lusting after her was insane! But she did have the most incredible breasts. And her eyes were fascinating, not to mention the silken waterfall of her long burnished brown hair. And her neck was to die for.

The image of Jane brushing her hair, and how Asher wanted to see it spread all around his bride as he spent himself inside her, stiffened his erection further.

“Bloody bride! Bloody breasts! Bloody hell!” he cursed. Pie had awakened hard in his coffin, wanting to sink his fangs into Jane’s neck and his arousal into her virgin body. Yes, he had been having wet dreams about his wife, fool that he was. He wanted to take her and she wanted to stake him. No matter Jane’s sweet words of loyalty, nor Clair and Huntsley’s assurances, Asher couldn’t trust Jane any further than he could throw her.

Well, much less than that, as he could probably throw the short mortal pretty far.

Frustrated, he cursed a red streak for several moments, venting his spleen. He apparently had a voracious hunger for his bride, yet she was oblivious to the pain he was in, walking stiffly and having trouble sitting down comfortably with the bulge in his breeches. What a breach! A good wife would show concern for her husband’s pants. In his fit of pique, he didn’t reason that he hadn’t seen Jane recently for her to help.

Instead he grieved for Clair. For Clair, he would have been willing to be married for eternity… eventually.

“ ‘Alone, alone. All, all alone, alone on a wide wide sea.’” Asher quoted Coleridge. He had been solo so long, sitting in the silence of his crypt. He had no one to share laughter or jests with, to discuss the gossip of the ton. He had no one to share his coffin or to pledge his scarred and bleeding heart to. He had few close friends, only acquaintances, and only one or two loves.

Part of the problem was that he was an earl. Add to that the fact that he was a creature of the night with supernatural powers. Few would interact with such a superior being.

World-weary, Asher shook his head, amazed that he had finally married after centuries of being extremely particular about who would bear his name. This was what fate had in store for him; a bizarre female who was having a one-sided conversation with an ostrich?

Below in the garden, unaware of her husband’s surveillance, Jane petted Orville.

“It’s a different world here,” she said to the bird. “And it can be rather lonely.” She glanced around at the massive gardens. “I’m glad you’re here. You’re a piece of home. A wonderful piece of my past. Now, we are all here together—you, Spot, Bert and me. We have a new future to make as bright and loving as we can. If only I can be strong and brave enough to storm the castle walls that hide the earl’s heart. The reward would be a love that I’ve only dreamed of in my deepest dreams.” Jane scratched Orville’s beak, picturing a good life with Asher. Bringing his slippers to his coffin at night. Sharing his love and his thoughts. Laughing with him over the day’s events. Waiting for him to come home from the cemetery while she worked on her bird sketches. Could she be bold enough to make such a dream come true? Could she brave the vampire’s lair and survive?

Orville nudged her gently, almost knocking her over. Jane laughed, and her heart told her to reach for the stars. “I am a Van Helsing. We are used to storming walls and are rather expert on working our way into hearts. Well, in one manner of speaking,” she qualified, thinking her strategy should be a little less pointed than her father’s.

Finally Jane hurried away, butterflies filling her stomach. She vowed under her breath, “Tonight I will have dinner with my husband. Our very first dinner as vampire and wife.”

Jane
hurried down the large marble staircase, her heart pounding in her chest. Her husband had agreed to have dinner with her. Smoothing back the soft wisps of hair that framed her face, she warily prepared her fortitude, uncertain what kind of greeting she would receive from the moody groom.

To say she was surprised would be an understatement. Entering the lush, massive drawing room, Jane halted abruptly. Shock made her mouth round into a perfect O. Asher was adjusting his cravat and studying his profile in a large oval mirror.

Jane gasped. Her husband was a vampire. She knew that. She had seen his fangs, felt them pressed against her neck! Yet, he had a reflection, and a very attractive reflection at that.

Observing Jane’s reaction, Asher laughed—a wicked sound that sent her toes curling. “Don’t believe everything you hear or read about us,” he said, guessing her shock.

He couldn’t help but be pleased by the surprise he saw on her face. He had decided to put his short wife on her toes tonight and try to discover any hidden agenda she might have, such as early widowhood. He knew it wouldn’t be easy, since the Van Helsings were a tricky lot. As treachery was their family middle name, Asher well knew that getting info out of a Van Helsing wife would be a slow dance, with steps cunning and cagey; he’d have to keep her off balance with wit and charm. But the end result would be Jane as butter in his hands, and he would get her pathetic plans down pat.

Staring at her husband in bewilderment, Jane blurted, “But… I can see you in the mirror. How can this be? Vampires don’t have reflections. I learned that in vampire class.”

Asher smiled wickedly, engaged in a deadly deception with his deceitful companion. Tonight his deft illusions in this daring encounter with the damnable stranger who was now his wife must be done with decided charm if he didn’t want to be dead and buried. And he had no death wish.

“You can see you in the mirror. Everyone can’t be wrong,” Jane said, her brows furrowed.

“Yes, they can. And glad I am. What a waste it would be to miss this” he replied, gesturing vaguely at the face staring back at him in the gilt-framed mirror. Elegantly he turned, a small sardonic smile on his face. “What a tragedy that would be, if I couldn’t see my own smiling face each sunset when I awake. How would I know if I’m getting gray hairs, or if my cravat is crooked?”

Jane smiled, her stunned reaction fading. Her husband seemed approachable tonight, even teasing her. She liked this lighter mood much better than his usual caustic self. “And how old are you? Did you help Noah with the ark?” she joked.

“You knew I was old when you married me,” he replied.

“Ah, but not bow old.”

“That’s a question you never ask a vampire,” Asher said, making a dismissive gesture with his hands.

Jane retreated, not wanting to spoil the mood. “Then let me ask you what it’s like to live forever,” she said curiously. She really wanted to know. “Did you know Henry the Eighth? What was Anne Boleyn like? Did she often lose her head? Did you ever get to see a Shakespeare play in person, with the playwright in the same theatre? How exciting, to not only be able to read history, but to have lived it.”

He shrugged, his expression enigmatic. “Eternity can be very long. ‘Men may come and men may go, but I go on forever,’” he quoted.

“Tennyson?” Jane asked, thinking she recognized the words from a volume of poetry she had kept upon her bookshelves back home. Her husband nodded, and she could see a faint hint of approval in his eyes.

“It seems I have married a bluestocking.”

“I strive to be well-read and well learned. The Van Helsing heritage, you know. Learn everything.” Jane left unsaid that her ancestors believed in knowing everything about their enemies. Although she didn’t think any had ever gone as far as marrying one.

“Lessons which no doubt included the killing of my race,” Asher said. He couldn’t seem to resist getting in a jab at her heritage, despite his plan to ferret out her deadly agenda by being witty and charming.

Jane’s lighter mood dissolved. “I learned many things, my husband.” Seeing a hint of disgust in his eyes, Jane tried again to reach him with words. “It is not easy being a Van Helsing, a protector of humanity. When you are a Van Helsing, the dark at the top of every staircase could be a vampire or demon hiding there to kill you. Our journeys are dark, our victories darker. Of course, we work at night,” she admitted.

Asher’s face remained coldly detached—a death mask, Jane thought. But why wouldn’t it? He was one of the walking dead.

“You murder my species,” he accused.

“Your species eat my people,” Jane argued calmly, without wholesale condemnation.

“You Van Helsings judge without a trial,” Asher continued.

“And you, my lord, have a hard head to match your stubborn heart.”

“The better to withstand you, my dear little wife.” Asher found himself speaking curtly as he stared at Jane’s luscious chest. He was again envisioning his unwanted wife opening her thighs, beckoning him to have a taste. Would she have freckles on the flesh there? He would kiss them, savoring the sweet flavor.