Vampires Need Not…Apply? (Accidentally Yours #4)(50)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

She was about to leave but had a last-minute thought. “Hey, can I ask you guys another question?”

No response.

“I command you to nod.”

They nodded.

“Thank you. You’re a fantastic group of people. I really mean that.” Ixtab talked through her rather confusing feelings for Antonio, as well as the fact that he’d said he was meant for this other woman.

“So, what do you guys think? What should I do?” Ixtab asked. “Be honest,” she added, compelling them to speak the truth.

“You must tell him, and for God’s sake, take that stupid curtain off your face. It looks like you’re going to give a puppet show on your head,” said the elderly man.

Okay. Maybe the compelling thing wasn’t all that great.

“Just… take it off? Like that?” she asked.

Everyone nodded.

“Now?”

Maybe they were right; she’d been wearing the damned thing for a few centuries. At first, she’d said it was to pay penance for the horrible things she had done and to keep the world at arm’s length. Perhaps the real reason was that she was a coward. She’d used the veil to keep everyone away, not because she feared for them, but because she simply feared becoming attached to anyone only to lose them. Yes, perhaps her sister Fate had been right. Ixtab was a coward. The funny part was that it took a vampire to show her that.

She looked down at her toes. Though it was winter, she wore her pink flip-flops and her toes were painted her favorite pearly pink. She chuckled at herself. What was she doing wearing this ridiculous costume? This wasn’t her. In fact, all this time, she’d never been able to give up the sundresses and sandals she wore underneath.

I never could let go of who I am on the inside.

She loved laughter, though she clearly sucked at making jokes; she loved warm, sunny days and watching flowers bloom. She loved how she could create happiness by removing the darkness from a poor soul’s heart—a young mother with depression, a spouse who’d lost his or her partner, or a kid who felt left out in life. She loved that she could make their pain simply vanish and allow them to see that tomorrow was another day filled with hope and the possibility of a good life, a happy life.

No. She wasn’t death or darkness or evil. She was good. She was also complex and imperfect. Like any one of the Creator’s creatures.

She looked up at the eager faces before her. “Actually, I love happiness. I adore it!” Yes. Happiness was her biggest power. Her true gift. Why hadn’t she ever seen it before? From this moment forward, she would be known as the Goddess of Happiness. Okay, sure, she would still need to do something with that negative energy she extracted from nice people, and that meant the unlucky country-club members would be stricken with the urge to jump out a window or something of the like, but that did not discount the fact that she saved many, many deserving souls.

She reached for her veil and stopped. Could she do this? Show these people her face? Yes, it was time to move on and turn over a new leaf.

“Go ahead,” said a nice woman with a red sweater and a bright smile. “We are waiting.”

“Okay, here goes.” Ixtab slid off her veil and murmurs of approval erupted from the crowd.

“You see,” said the woman, “that wasn’t so hard. Now was it?”

Ixtab shook her head. “It feels good.” She took in the sensation of being bare and exposed. How would if feel when she showed herself to Antonio? What if he still chose this other woman? “What if he doesn’t want me?” she mumbled.

“Love is always a risk,” said the elderly man. “But a life without love is a life not worth living.”

Wise words.

“All right. Time for me to face him and whatever else awaits.” She stopped. “Oh, and… everyone here now hates alcohol—so you’re free to live a happy life if you choose—and you’ll forget I was ever here. ’Kay?”

The crowd nodded absently with smiles plastered on their faces.

Goddess of Happiness strikes again!

Thirty minutes later, Ixtab arrived back at the estate, but there were no signs of anyone. She’d returned the veil to her head, wanting Antonio to be the first to see her, and right now, it was time to have a chat with Antonio’s father.

Ixtab went upstairs and heard a small rustle coming from the hallway. She followed the noise and saw one of the doors ajar. She pushed on the dark-stained cherrywood, but found the room empty. Empty of people that was.

Ixtab sniffed the air. It was a large study with dust-covered, floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with antique leather-bound books. To one side of the room was a large desk—also made of stained dark wood and equally old as everything else in the study. Yes, though innocent looking enough, darkness stuck to everything.

Ixtab’s eyes roamed the shelves. From the look of the books’ ages, they’d been purchased at the time the estate had been built. She plucked a copy of the Divine Comedy off the shelf and thumbed through the pages, then replaced it. Amateur…

The faint sound of voices shouting began pouring into the room. She spun around and noticed the sounds came from the other side of the bookshelf. She leaned in, realizing there was a hidden room.

The yelling grew louder, and though the voices were muffled, she heard Antonio speaking in Spanish to another man who sounded weak and old. His father.

“You f**king bastard,” Antonio said. “You can’t do this to us.”

“I can, and I will,” the man replied. “It is the way of our species.”

Species? What the hey?

“You’ve lived more centuries than you can count; perhaps it’s time for el Trauco to die—you wouldn’t be missed by anyone. That I can promise.”

The man laughed. “This coming from a vampire. Why don’t you come and see me in a thousand years and tell me if you’re ready to give up your life?”

“I am nothing like you. I would rather die than take the life of my child to survive.”

Ixtab crept away quietly. This was a like an immortal Spanish soap opera. A mystery woman trapped on the other side of the portal? El Trauco—why did that name sound familiar? Antonio’s father’s comment about species? Vegetarian vampires? Okay—that part was more like a Haight-Ashbury immortal soap opera, but still. Could things possibly get any more confusing?

Ixtab went downstairs to her room and dialed Penelope on her cell.

“Ixtab. Thank the gods!” Penelope yelled. “Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”