ristian sat on the couch despondent as the elevator opened and his parents came inside the loft. “What’s wrong, Son?” his father asked with concern. “You’ve been acting odd since the night of the presentation. What’s going on?” Cristian took a deep breath.
“Mom, Dad, do you believe in fate?” he asked, looking at their baffled faces. “Well, I believe that sometimes things happen that we have no power over,” his mother replied. “I believe in fate, Son,” his father said.
“Sometimes things in life are predestined, and it will happen no matter what.” He stared at Cristian with a questioning look in his eyes. “Does this have to do with the woman in your painting?” he asked, stroking his chin. Cristian’s mind flashed to the pain he could see in Sage’s eyes and the need to know the reason behind it.
“I have to cut this visit short, Dad,” Cristian said apologetically, jumping up from the couch. “There’s something I need to do,” he said as he gave his mom a quick kiss and his dad a hug, and got on the elevator, leaving his parents standing in the living room flabbergasted.
“I need to know what happened in Sage’s past that she doesn’t want to tell me,” he thought.Sage stood in the window in the moonlight staring at the newspaper clipping while Pedro stood in the shadow of the doorway wordlessly watching her in her satin gown with longing. He marveled at how, in the translucent light, her skin shone like a star and her hair shimmered like strands of silk, her gown clinging to every inch of her body as if it had been painted.
“Te quiero, mi reina,” he said as he made his presence known to her. Sage stood silent still looking out the window. He took his hand and swept it softly against her hair inhaling her jasmine scent.
“Pedro, por favor,” she said, turning and staring into his eyes, seeing the desire that burned in them.
“Mi corazón, pertenece a Cristian y que ya no será ningún cambio.” She could see the pain in his eyes at her words. “Lo siento, Pedro. Pero te quiero sólo como un hermano.” He grimaced as if he had been stabbed in the heart. Silently, he turned and disappeared from the room. Sage, her lips quivering, held the newspaper clipping in her hands and silently wept.
Cristian ran into the art gallery nearly knocking down his manager. “Whoa,” he said, stumbling back. “What’s the rush?” he asked. “There’s something I need to do,” Cristian said.
His manager grabbed his arm. “Wait,” he said. “That guy that came in the other day that spoke to you…” his eyes flickered nervously, “he’s back.”
Cristian nodded his head. “Thanks for the heads up,” he said, walking toward the painting and finding Rafael staring at the portrait nearly trancelike. “May I help you?” Cristian asked while Rafael whipped around, giving him a once-over. “I was just wondering if by chance you got to meet the inspiration behind your portrait?” he asked grinning like a Cheshire cat. “No,” Cristian said with a slight grin.
“I can use this to my advantage to find out about Sage’s past,” he thought slyly. “You seem to know a lot about the queen,” he said. “What can you tell me about her?” Rafael smirked.
“She is a special woman,” he grinned. “Special how?” Cristian asked, knowing that Rafael was toying with him. “She comes from a royal family—that’s all I meant,” Rafael said, trying to stifle the laughter in his belly. “She is a very reclusive woman,” he said. “The only thing I know about her was that she was in love with a carpenter, and it ended badly. His father had a business called Thomas Furniture.”
“Thomas Furniture,” Cristian mouthed, intrigued. “I have to say that you really made this portrait look so realistically like her,” Rafael said.
He handed Cristian a business card that contained only his name and phone number. “If you need to talk, you know where to reach me,” he said with a flash in his eyes that suggested that he knew more than what he was implying and walked with a swagger from the gallery.
While Cristian looked at the card curiously, Pedro watched him from the entrance with hatred in his eyes.
“Thomas Furniture,” Cristian said, walking into his office and turning on his laptop. He found out the business closed some ten years prior and was demolished. He also found out that after the tragic death of the owners’ son, a distraught Jonathan Thomas turned the business over to his brother who ran it until his death, and it passed on to the next generations until the death of Gerald Thomas, the last owner of the business.
“Jonathan Thomas,” Cristian said as he typed the words into his laptop. “Jonathan Thomas had a wife named Carolyn and a son named Cristian.”
Cristian was shocked that they both had the same name. “No wonder Sage looked at me like I was a ghost,” he said feeling a tremor in his spine. He looked at the business card that Rafael gave him, took out his cell phone, and began to dial a number. Rafael stared at his ringing phone and grinned with amusement. “Like clockwork,” he said.
“Where’s Queen V?” Pedro asked, looking around franticly.
“She’s in her room, I suppose,” Lisa said.
Billy came out into the living room with his new wave music blaring noisily through the hallway. “What’s going on, dude?” he asked.
“It’s that artist,” Pedro said, his eyes a flaming red. “He’s been talking to that vampire killer. He’s going to betray Queen V.”
“Only a daft person would betray, Sage,” Anna said angrily.
The coven enraged, spoke of concocting a plan to go after Cristian. Sage appeared in the room, her eyes a glowing yellow. “We’re leaving tonight before there is any betrayal,” she said firmly.
Rafael shook John, who was asleep on the bed, awake.
He jumped awake, brandishing his stake in his hand. Rafael flashed a wide grin.
“We got a big break,” he said. John began to put on his shoes. “I know where that vampire is, and tonight we’re making our move,” he said, packing up his silver stake, crossbow, and hunting knife. “How’d you find out?” John asked.
“A little bird told me,” Rafael grinned.