Turning as one, they faced Seth, eager to continue their life together as husband and wife.
Literary Escapism invited me to participate in an event they were holding to celebrate the start of the school year in fall 2012. If I remember correctly, anything school related was welcome. Alas, no Immortal Guardians had children at the time. Fortunately, while I was pondering what to write, I received an invitation of another sort in the mail. And this story slowly formed.
After another long night of hunting psychotic vampires, several immortals and their mortal Seconds gathered as they often did at the home of David, one of the eldest and most powerful Immortal Guardians in the world. Sparring sounds wafted up from the large training room in the basement and warred with the large-screen television at one end of the living room.
Sarah Warbrook, formerly Sarah Bingham, watched the men and women lounging on the sofas as they chatted and jested with each other.
Her prey had not arrived yet. If he didn’t come soon…
The front door swung open. Marcus Grayden—an elder British immortal—strode inside, his long black coat and black shirt glistening with blood.
The others called out a greeting.
“Psst,” Sarah hissed.
Stopping short, he turned toward her and raised his eyebrows. “Hi, Sarah. What’s up?”
She waved him over. “We need to talk. Fast. While Roland is showering in the quiet room and can’t hear us.”
“Okay. Shoot.”
This man had known her husband for over eight hundred years and was like a brother to him. He—better than anyone—would understand her dilemma.
She drew in a deep breath, then blurted the horrible news. “Roland wants to take me to my high school reunion.”
He stared at her for a full minute without blinking.
“Marcus?”
“Hold that thought.” He strode past her into the kitchen.
Sarah watched him open the refrigerator door, draw out a bottle of tea, and return to stand before her.
“Okay,” he directed, opening the lid. “Say that again.” Tilting his head back, he partook of the tasty liquid.
“Roland wants to take me to my high school reunion.”
Marcus spewed tea in what even Sarah had to admit was a truly impressive spit take.
She eyed him balefully.
Marcus shrugged. “I thought it the most appropriate response.”
“Dude,” Darnell called from the living room, “I’m not cleaning that up.”
Sarah ignored him. “Marcus, this is serious.”
“Hell yes, this is serious. Remember what happened when you took him Christmas shopping?”
“What happened when you took him Christmas shopping?” Tracy called.
Marcus turned to her. “He flashed his fangs and glowing eyes and threw a guy across a toy store. In front of children.”
Several laughed and shook their heads.
“The children weren’t scared,” Sarah mentioned hastily. “They thought it was cool. It was the parents who freaked out.”
“Why’d he do it?” Tracy asked with a grin.
“Because the guy bumped into her,” Marcus replied drolly.
Sarah rubbed her forehead as it began to pound. “That guy didn’t even know me, Marcus. What do you think Roland is going to do when he comes face-to-face with one of my old boyfriends? Or if someone makes some snide remark to me?”
“Hell.”
Darnell whistled. “It’d be like prom night in Stephen King’s Carrie.”
“Exactly. So, Marcus, I need you to talk him out of it.”
“What put the fool idea into his head in the first place?”
“You did,” she accused and motioned to the others. “All of you did. If you didn’t razz him so much about being antisocial, he wouldn’t insist on taking me so I wouldn’t miss out on whatever it is he thinks I’ll miss out on if I don’t go.”
Marcus frowned. “Do you want to go?”
“Of course not. I don’t want to see any of those people again. You know what my teen years were like. My mom was always borrowing my clothes and hitting on my boyfriends. It was humiliating.”
“Then tell him you don’t want to go.”
“I did! Thanks to you guys, he thinks I’m just saying that because I think he doesn’t want to go.”
“Hmmm.”
Silence reigned.
“Well,” Tracy said, “it would be totally cool to show up at your reunion with a six-foot-two-inch-tall, well-muscled, gorgeous immortal warrior who hunts vampires for a living on your arm. I mean, seriously, who could top that?”
Sarah sighed. “You aren’t helping, Tracy.”
Marcus pursed his lips. “We could round up a dozen or so vampires and sic them on him that night.”
“Really? That’s the best you can do?”
Sarah heard the door to the quiet room open down below. A moment later, her husband strolled into the room, hair still damp, looking irresistibly handsome.
He crossed to her side. “Hello, sweetling.” He gave her a brief kiss. “Marcus. How was tonight’s hunt?”
“Same old, same old.”
He nodded, then belatedly noticed that every eye in the room was trained upon him. “What’s up?”
Marcus cleared his throat. “You can’t take Sarah to her high school reunion.”
Roland glanced at Sarah.
Shrugging, she gave him an innocent I-don’t-know-how-he-heard-about-it look.
“Why not? High school reunions are important gatherings in the mortal world.”
“Because you’ll kill any guy who hits on her,” Marcus pointed out.
Tracy held up a finger. “Or you’ll kill anyone who says anything snarky to her.”
Darnell nodded. “Or you’ll kill anyone who accidentally bumps into her.”
Marcus shrugged. “The bottom line is… you’ll kill someone.”
Roland scowled at them. “Oh, come on. You’re exaggerating. I wouldn’t kill them. I’d just… maim them a little bit.”
All stared.
“What? I’m supposed to just let them get away with it?”
“Sweetie,” Sarah said gently, “you know I can take care of myself.”
He sent her a sensual smile. “I know. I love that about you. But protecting you is a knee-jerk reaction.”
Marcus drew out his cell. “I know what to do.” After dialing, he held it to his ear. “Seth?”
Sarah bit her lip. Seth was the exceedingly powerful leader of the Immortal Guardians.
“Just thought you might like to know that Roland is planning to take Sarah to her high school reunion.”
Seth appeared out of thin air beside Marcus, a look of utter disbelief on his handsome features as he stared down at them. “The hell you are. After what happened when she took you Christmas shopping?”
Roland opened his mouth to protest.
Seth pointed at him. “No. Absolutely not. I have too much on my plate right now to have to stop and erase a gymnasiumful of people’s memories because you can’t keep a cool head. Besides, Sarah doesn’t want to go.”
Roland frowned at her. “Because of me, right?”