A Vampire's Embrace

A Vampire's Embrace


Chapter Two

        Trina stepped from the shower and reached for a towel. Just at her hand closed around a large, fluffy, white towel, a sharp yell from the other bathroom snapped her to attention. Carlos! Her heart had barely had time to begin to feel the dread setting iforefore she had raced from her bathroom, wrapping her towel around her as she did so.
        Having left a trail of water behind her as she had raced through the house, Trina reached the bathroom just in time to see Carlos backing out, his face darker than usual. "Where's the fly swatter?" he asked her without tearing his eyes away from the huge spider hanging down with its beady, red eyes fixed directly on him.
        Trina burst out laughing at his question. He turned to look at her, and his mouth dropped open in surprise. Her long, blonde hair lay limply behind her back, and the white towel, though large, still gifted him with quite a view. As she laughed, her baby blue eyes sparkled, and her bosom shook slightly. Despite himself, Carlos found his eyes drawn to the drops of water that glistened on the tops of her luscious breasts that peered out from the top of the towel. Realizing that he was beginning to stare, he shook himself and then demanded, "Just what do you find so damn funny, Malloy?"
        "We got you," she informed him between chuc, sh, shaking her head as she did so.
        "What do you mean -- you got me?" he questioned her. "It's not real?"
        Finally managing to compose herself, she moved past him and into the bathroom. Reaching up, she popped the plastic spider, causing it to swing backwards and forwards just as his figure filled the doorway. He looked at her with a clearly aggravated expression as he folded his arms over his chest. "Why didn't you tell me you finally got it to work?" he demanded.
        She turned to face him and found that their bodies were less than an inch apart. His delicious smell filled her nostrils, but she was careful to not allow the effect his closeness took on her to show in any way. She held her chin up high as her eyes met his. She shrugged one slender shoulder carelessly as she replied calmly, "We wanted to see how realistic it looked to others. I figured you'd be the perfect guinea pig." She smiled teasingly up at him, her blue eyes twinkling.
        As he looked down at her beautiful, smiling face, he found himself swimming in her baby blues. His hand suddenly itched to caress her cheek, but a voice shattered the mood just as his hand began to rise. "What's going on back here?"
        Trina looked over Carlos' shoulder at her brother. "It's nothing, Trent."
        "What do you mean it's nothing? Trina, I wasn't born yesterday as you very well know! This isn't nothing! You're standing in the bathroom with Carlos while wearing nothing but a towel!" Trent exclaimed, his blue eyes flashing.
      p Trp Trina smiled reassuringly at her twin. "It is nothing, little brother! I mean, come on, it's Carlos we're talking about here!"
        "Hello!" Carlos exclaimed. "I'm standing right here, you two!"
        "We know," Trina told him uncaringly. She glanced to him as she spoke but then immediately returned her eyes to Trent. "Carlos just found the spider, Trent, and nearly freaked. That was all."
        "I did not -- " he began to say only to be interrupted.
        "Please, Carlos, we both heard you. Your yell was loud enough to get me to come running, thinking something was actually wrong, and to actually pull Trent away from the comp." ." She then once more looked back at her brother, her blue eyes narrowing dangerously, as she demanded, "And just what are you doing still up?"
        Trent backed up into the hallway to give Carlos and Trina room to get out of the bathroom. Carlos slid past Trina to immediately return to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. Trina turned expectantly to her brother. "Well?" she asked.
        "I was working on the computer," he admitted. "I can't just let it stay like it is."
        "Trent, it's not going anywhere, and you've got to get some sleep, little brother."
        "Trina, you were born only a second before me, and that . . . "
        "Doesn't give me any right to constantly lord being older over you," she finished for her twin. "Yeah. Yeah. I know all that. I've heard it a thousand times before, and you know I'm just looking out for my brother. Now," she continued, placing her hands on her hips and staring him down, "why don't you go to bed and get some sleep while I call Trivette and see if he can do anything about it?"
        "I already called him," Trent told her, "and he doesn't have the first clue what's wrong except for it being a virus or maybe a spike."
        "A spike?" she asked, looking at him quizzically.
        "Lightning," he explained.
        "Oh. I told you we should have gotten one of those switch protectors. What can we do to save it?" Trent shrugged. "Trivette couldn't tell you anything?"
        "He said it was probably already too late," Trent admitted with a heavy sigh.
        "It's never too late. You go on to bed; that computer's not going anywhere."
        "But, Trina, I --" Trent started to protest.
        "No but's, Trent. It's not often the three of us manage to get a day off together, but we still need our rest. Plus, tonight's Halloween, and we've got plans to have some real fun. Carlos and I have gotten our sleep, but you still have to get yours." She shook her head as she pleaded, "Don't make me force you, little bro."
        Trent sighed. He knew she would if he didn't comply with her order, and he also knew she was right though he hated to admit it. "Fine," he muttered before turning and stomping off for his bedroom.
        Trina's blue eyes flitted between her brother's retreating back and the closed bathroom door. Shaking her head, she muttered underneath her breath, "Men," and headed back to her bathroom.

~*~*~*~

        "So, Trina, what do you want to do while Trent's sleeping?" Carlos asked, turning off the TV as the blonde entered the room. His eyes slowly trav her her body, admiring her every curve. Her clothes were simple -- merely a red tank top and black jeans, both deliciously form-fitting --, but ever since his teen years, Carlos had found her to be the type of woman that could make any outfit undeniably sexy.
        "First, stop looking at me like I'm a juicy bone, and you're a dog that hasn't eaten in weeks," she teased him with a playful wink. Her modeling and acting work was reknowned globally, and she could not walk down a single street without some guy staring holes in her. She was used to all of them except for Carlos; his admiring gaze still threatened to melt her to her very core. "Secondly, I was thinking about just driving around town and seeing the sights."
        Carlos qed aed an eyebrow in question. "You haven't done that yet?" He knew how much she loved Halloween and enjoyed the holiday's decorations. She'd never before put off her annual sight-seeing around Dallas this late.
        shooshook her head in a movement that sent shimmers cascading through her long, blonde hair, causing his fingers to itch to run through its silky strands. "No. I've been too busy with everything else to be able to. I was going to do it last weekend, but you know I ended up going undercover to help you boys kick those smugglers' butts."
        "Yeah." He chuckled at the memory, his dark eyes dancing. "I don't know how you do it, Trina, but every time we pull something like that, the perps are more and more astonished when they find out we've had a hot ba --" He broke off abruptly as she glared at him, her blue eyes narrowed dangerously. He swallowed and then continued, "A beautiful woman underneath their noses the entire time."
        She smiled, nodding her approval. "It's a gift," she then said with a careless shrug.
        "I know. A wonderful gift. Trina, I know modeling doesn't really interest you, and you're so good at kicking butt and detective work. Why won't you consider joining us full time?"
        She looked away from him as she violently shoved back against the memories that threatened to float to her mind's surface. He caught just a glimpse of the angry mask he knew actually hid an aching heart and instantly regretted his question. "You know why, Carlos," she said softly.
        "Trina, I . . . It's not as if it's the police force."
        "I know," she agreed, "but I'm not going back to that part of my life again. Besides," she said with a shrug as she picked her head back up and returned her gaze to him, her blue eyes hardened and her face perfectly hiding the emotions that warred in her heart, "I couldn't even if I wanted to. Do you really think a world-famous model and actress could ever get away with holding down a normal detective job?"
        "Trina, folks around here already know you're much more than a pretty face."
        "I know," she said softly. He opened his mouth to say something, but she shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it, Carlos."bsp bsp       Silence reigned for a moment, but then he whispered softly, his dark eyes full of compassion that she couldn't bare to face and so turned away from, "I'm sorry."
        "I know," she told him, "but you shouldn't be. There's nothing for you to be sorry about. Now are you coming or not?" she asked him curtly as she began to head out the door.
        "Right behind you, beautiful," he said with a smile that hid his true feelings. Standing, he grabbed his coat, and for just a moment, he remembered the feel of his hands closing around that bastard's throat. He hardened his eyes against the fury that boiled within him at the memory of the man that Trina had come so close to marrying only to have her heart shattered. She had always deserved so much better than Markus. He had never regretted having ran him out of town after what he had done to his beloved; the only things that he had regretted was that he had not been able to save Trina from the miserable heartache and suicidal thoughts that had followed their terrible break-up and, every now and again like he was at the present moment, that he hadn't killed him.
        "Carlos," Trina's voice called, shattering his memories and thankfully returning him to the present, "are you coming or not?! I don't have all day, you know!"
        "I'm coming," he answered as he rushed after her, pausing only once more to turn off the light and shut and lock the front door.

~*~*~*~

        The tension of that moment soon dissolved into admiring smiles and happy laughter as the two life-long friends traveled the streets of Dallas and its nearby suburbs. Eventually, however, noon began to arrive. "Look at that one!" Trina suddenly exclaimed with a chuckle as she pointed to the right side of the road.
        Carlos looked in the direction where she pointed and couldn't help his grin growing even bigger. "Whoever lives there really knocked themselves out," he agreed, his dark eyes sweeping the lawn.
        Grinning pumpkins lined the driveway, and drops of a red substance led all the way up to the house's front door. Goblins peeked out from bushes, and a beautiful Witch peeked around the edge of a tree, watching a Vampire's open coffin where the Count looked out. Skeletons kept watch on the porch as ghosts hung from the trees. Black cats were scattered about, including one with a paw that moved repeatedly as if scratching wildly at something.
        As they continued on down the road, Carlos asked nonchalantly, "Are you getting hungry?"
        Trina shrugged ae ane answered only, "A bit. Are you?"
        "I could eat," he admitted.
        She laughed, and her laughter was music to his ears. "I've never seen you when you couldn't," she teased him.
        At first, he only grinned in response. Then, he asked, "Would you mind letting a friend treat you to lunch?"
        "Depends," she answered. "Who's the friend?" She winked playfully at him.
        "Well, he's not Brad Pitt, but he is some one who cares a great deal about you."
        "Yeah, you," she said with a soft laugh. "I'd like that," she admitted, "but only as friends."
        "Just friends," he agreed. "CD's?"
        "Where else?" she answered with a grin.


To Be Continued . . .