Vanessa watched as Veronica ran back toward home and worried about her. This wasn't like her at all, she was the one who always followed through on the pranks and had to convince her to go through with them. Vanessa looked back toward the house and knew that they were being watched. There was no sense of danger or that the watchers-there was two of them were angry, they were curious about her and Veronica. Without wasting another second, Vanessa took off after Veronica arriving at the house just a minute or two after she did.
She sat on the beach next to her and put an arm around Veronica.
"Ronnie, you need to tell me what's going on with you right now."
"I.... I don't know." Veronica said.
"Was it the house?"
"Nessa, if I tell you something, will you promise not to think I'm crazy?"
"I promise, now talk to me."
"I think I know who the voice belongs to."
********
Rik kicked himself for adding the part about needing her and then the "I found you." she had no way of knowing who or what he was. For all she knew he could be dangerous! He felt her confusion and the spike in her heart rate and pulled back. He looked over at Luc who had a very pensive look on his face and knew what he was thinking.
"They belong to us." he said softly.
"Yes." Rik replied.
"Fuck!" Luc cursed.
"What is the problem?" Rik asked confused by Luc's reaction.
"I was ill prepared for this; I should have listened to you."
"That is water under the bridge." Rik said, "Perhaps now you can keep your dick in your pants."
"What are we going to do?" Luc asked.
"We?" Rik asked, "I do not know your plans but I plan to meet my mate before this week is over. You can do whatever you wish although if I were you I would work on telling her why you've been with so many women."
Rik looked down the beach and wanted to go to his mate right then but he waited, he wanted to enjoy the feeling of finding her. The thought that soon he would no longer be alone buoyed his spirits as nothing else could. Soon..... He thought to Veronica. He turned to see that Luc had already gone to his room, he felt sorry for him but he did try to warn him but to no avail.
"You worry too much!" Luc said, "We probably won't find our mates for centuries."
"We have no way of knowing that." he would tell him, "You must exercise more restraint!"
Luc would laugh at him and call him a prude but he wasn't laughing now.
********
Veronica's head jerked up, he was here somewhere.... The house, he was in that house. She didn't understand her fear, wasn't this what she wanted? She looked over at Vanessa who hadn't seen her jerk.
"Soon......"
"Nessa, I .... Hear him."
"Hear who?"
"My.... My mate, I hear him."
"Ronnie......"
"He's in the house and Nessa? Your's is there too."
"Mine? How do you know?"
"I don't know but I do, can't you feel him?"
Vanessa didn't know how to respond, she knew that there were two vampires in the house and knew that they weren't dangerous but their mates?
"Ronnie....."
"Don't you feel him?" Veronica asked again interrupting Vanessa.
"I felt that there were two of them but that one of them was my mate? No, I didn't get that."
"I don't understand how I know but you don't." Veronica said softly looking down the beach.
"Maybe because you're mistaken." Vanessa replied rubbing Veronica's back.
"I'm not wrong! He's there with the one who is my mate; maybe he's blocking you or something."
Vanessa kept rubbing Veronica's back until she calmed.
"Let's go inside." Vanessa said standing and then holding her hand out to Veronica.
Veronica hesitated, took Vanessa's hand and allowed herself to be led indoors. Before going inside she took another look down the beach.
********
Luc's stomach roiled, while he was fairly certain that both he and Rik had mates he hadn't expected to find them anytime soon.
"What the fuck?" he asked himself, both he and Rik were over four hundred years old, "What was I thinking?" he asked aloud. "With your little head." he answered himself. As soon as he realized who the two women were he blocked himself off, he wasn't as anxious to meet his mate as Rik was to meet his. He was reminded of the line that Ricky Ricardo said to Lucy when she fucked up, "Lucy you got some splaining to do."
"Yes Luc you got some splaining to do." he said softly.
Of the two of them he had always been the more adventurous and didn't think too much about the future whereas Rik was always thinking ahead and about the possible consequences of everything that he did. He always told Rik that he needed to relax and have fun and now he was only beginning to understand Rik a little more and wished that he were more like him.
Even now that he had just found his mate Rik was more relaxed, he would always be quiet and reserved but once he met his mate another part of him would come forward. The part of him that hated violence would no longer hesitate to use it to defend and protect his mate and any that belonged to her. He would do the same that went without saying but the joy of finding her was marred by the fact that he had to tell her that he fucked anyone who would let him because he thought that she would understand.
Luc found himself feeling a little bit envious at Rik's happiness and then felt guilty. He was the one that chose to disregard Rik's warnings and he was one who would have to lie in the bed that he made. Luc swore under his breath and went to his room.
*******
Rik took a hot shower before lying down to rest. As he closed his eyes he wondered what his mate looked like, it didn't really matter to him she would be beautiful no matter what. He wondered what her name was, what she did for a living, what she liked to eat assuming that she could eat, what her hobbies were..... He wanted to know everything about her.
He remembered that the grounds keeper would be coming during the day, he might know. Rik got up, wrote a note asking the man to come into the main kitchen when he got there. He vanished outside and put the note where he was sure the man would see it and went inside to wait for the man to come. If the man knew who the women were there wouldn't be a problem with him divulging the information unless he worked for them too.
He lay back on the bed and carefully reached out to his mate. He could feel her nervousness and sought to sooth her.
"Rest easy, I will not harm you."
********
Veronica lay on her bed, eyes wide open and her heart pounding. Vanessa had gone downstairs to make her a cup of chamomile tea to help settle her nerve. She hated the taste of the stuff but Vanessa like their mother swore by the stuff. Once again she questioned why she was so nervous and wondered if the fact that Vanessa couldn't feel her mate had something to do with it but she was nervous before that.
"Why am I so nervous?" she asked herself again, "I wanted to be found and now that I am....."
Then she heard him, "rest easy, I will not harm you."
By the time Vanessa returned with the tea, Veronica had turned on her side and was sound asleep.
*******
Vanessa took the tea to her room and drank it. The fact that Veronica was so nervous made her nervous, of the two of them Veronica was the kick ass one who flinched at nothing. Veronica was also sure that Vanessa's mate was there as well but if that were true, why didn't she feel him? The thought that they might not recognize each other unless something horrible happened crossed Vanessa's mind but she reminded herself that Patrick found his mate before he raped but then he still almost raped. She was now as nervous as Veronica was and did something that she hadn't done since they were children; she went into Veronica's room and crawled into bed with her.
*******
The groundskeeper saw the note and wondered what the problem was, he hadn't old anyone about the brothers as they had requested .... That wasn't exactly true, he told one of the Sinclaire girls, the one with the blue eyes that someone had moved into the house but that was all that he said. He hadn't even told his wife of thirty years anything about the brothers.
Even as he went into the house he was trying to figure out what if anything he had done wrong. He was fully prepared to beg for his job, this one job allowed him to cut back on some of the others and to buy his wife a necklace with her birthstone in it for her birthday. He ran down a mental checklist of all that he could have done wrong and came up empty handed.
Rik was sitting at the table waiting for the groundskeeper to come in. A pot of coffee was brewing, the aroma filling the kitchen. Two coffee mugs along with small plates were sitting on the counter next to the coffeemaker in anticipation of the groundskeeper's arrival.
Rik's intent was to make the man feel comfortable and to allay any fears that he was in trouble. When he heard the tap on the door signaling the man's arrival he called out.
"Come!"
When the man came in, Rik offered him a seat.
"Please, sit down." he said, "May I offer you coffee?"
"That would be..... Yes please."
"Your name is Arnold, is that correct?" Rik asked the man attempting to put him at ease.
"Yessir."
"Arnold, you may call me Rik, what would you like in your coffee?"
"Nothing sir, I mean Rik." Arnold replied nervously.
As Rik poured the coffee Arnold wondered what was happening, in all of his years he never had an employer that insisted that he address then by their first name.
"We have muffins, would you care for one with your coffee?" Rik asked.
"N....no sir.... Rik." Arnold stammered.
Rik poured the coffee and sat a mug down in front of Arnold before sitting down.
"How long have you been in this area?" Rik asked as he took a sip of his coffee.
"A long time." Arnold replied not touching his coffee, "Forty years or so."
"So you are familiar with the people who live in the area."
"Yessir, I tend to many of the yards."
"You do good work; I can see why people ask for you." Rik said meaning the compliment.
"Thank you." Arnold now was relaxing now that he was sure that his job was safe.
"Do you work for the people who live about three miles down the beach?" Rik asked.
"No sir."
"Please, you must call me Rik; do you know who lives there?"
"Yessir, Rik."
