Free The Vampire's Curse, A Paranormal Romance (Undead in Brown County #2) by S.J. Wright Page B

left, she looked at me with a measure of hatred, “You do bad things. I not like that. Meekah good woman.”
    “ I will not force you to do anything.”
    She sat on a crate full of oranges, “I see new woman. She good to you. Victoria. You change her into blood drinker.” Pausing, she held out the remnants of her soiled shift and shook her head, “Big trouble soon. New woman help you.”
    I leaned forward, “What trouble?”
    “ I no say. You wait.”
    Fighting the urge to curse and throw things, I nodded shortly. There was little doubt in my head that what she saw would come to pass. She had been accurate about other things.
    So when we got off the ship in Boston, I found her a house with an expansive flowering garden. There were statues and fountains positioned perfectly between the shrubs and carefully tended flowerbeds. I offered the owner three times what the property was worth. His wife cried and pleaded with him to deny me. In the end, Meekah came forward and grasped the woman’s hands. She murmured gentle words in her native language while I compelled the husband to sell everything to me for the price I originally offered him.
    The very next day, I saw Victoria coming out of a fabric shop. I wasn’t positive it was really her in the beginning. She was a slender woman, garbed in threadbare clothing that hung loosely around her petite frame. She had come out of the shop with tears shimmering in her eyes. I remember touching her sleeve and asking if she needed a carriage.
    When she turned those eyes on me, I saw that she suffered. It was a raw grating thing that had come up on her over the course of several years; nothing she could correct or control. I discovered later where the pain came from, although it is not a story for me to tell. It is hers alone.
    I turned Victoria into a vampire a few days later, after she gave full consent. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. She was unfailingly loyal, grateful for my presence in her life, and incredibly intelligent. Meekah adored her from the first moment they met. I worried occasionally that my seer would try to turn my newest recruit against me. It was unwarranted. Victoria looked upon me as her savior, having rescued her from a life that had ultimately been miserable.
    It was a pity that Meekah did not feel the same towards me. But I learned over the decades to placate her, give her what she asked for without too many questions, as long as she told me about her visions. There were times when she refused to reveal what she saw. Back in those days, her gift was so precious to me that I often laughed away her refusals and walked away. Only later did my patience come to its end.
     

 
     
    Chapter 10 – Sarah
     
    Alex had tried to see me only once, but his respect for Nelly’s word was absolute. She had told him that I did not want to see him. He had disappeared into the woods while I watched from my bedroom window. Gone like a dark spirit.
    In a few days, I had regained most of my strength. One gray afternoon as I was mucking out the barn stalls, Messenger came walking in through the main barn door. I had not seen much of her at all recently, so I propped the shovel up against the wall and smiled when she stretched her neck forward to sniff at my shirt.
    “ Have you been staying out of trouble?” I rubbed her forehead in short circling strokes, “Did you finally realize that you missed me? Or did you miss the grain?”
    Her ears flicked forward at the word, and I laughed.
    “ I think I know the answer to that one.” I pulled open the half door that led into her stall, “I’ll give you a little extra if you get in there without me using a halter on you.”
    I could have sworn she rolled her eyes. Swinging her head around towards the entrance to the barn, she seemed to consider her options. She gave me another look that conveyed a sense of intense boredom and then stepped lightly into the fresh sawdust of her stall.
    Sighing in relief, I pushed the