Deanna Kinney - Raven's Rose

She reached over and hugged him. “Oh, Dad. I love you.”

“So you’re not mad at me?”

“Mad at you for protecting me? No—at least not this time.”

They both laughed as he turned their car toward home.

Rose threw her covers back and climbed out of bed. It was ten o’clock anyway, and she couldn’t sleep. When she emerged from the shower and was fully dressed, she went into the little kitchen hoping that her mother had something fixed for her to eat, of course she did. Her father was sitting in his usual chair, reading the paper. She plopped down on the old, blue sofa with her pancake in hand.

“Hey, Dad, what’s up?” she asked, studying him as she took a huge bite. He was still very handsome for a man in his fifties. His hair was thinning, but just barely, and his hands were big and strong. She had always admired them as a young girl when he would hold her hand, or pick her up and twirl her around.

He peeped at her over his paper before sitting it down in his lap. “Not too much, but I hear something’s up with you.”

She shrugged, taking another bite. “Oh—yeah, I guess there is.”

“And when were you going to tell me you hooked up with the only vampire in this place. All these cute, young werewolves and you choose the vampire.”

She would have been alarmed if it weren’t for the smirk on his face. She sighed in relief. “Well, he seems to be a good guy, and he knew great-great grandmother Rose, so we spent a lot of time talking about her.”

“He’s that old, huh?”

“Yeah—I guess,” she said with a shrug. “He says I look like her. Do we have a picture of her anywhere?”

“You’ll have to ask your mother. I think she’s got one somewhere around here, but she’s still unpacking.”

“I think I’ll ask her.” She stuffed the last bite of pancake in her mouth and headed into her mother’s room.

“Hey, Mom,” she said, bursting into the room. Her mother jumped and spun around, startled. “Dad says he thinks you have a picture of great-great grandmother Rose.”

“I sure do. Let me see—I think it’s in this box here.” She fumbled through the boxes stacked in the middle of the room.

Her mother had been unpacking by the look of things. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun with pieces falling down and around her face. Rose thought her mother was a pretty woman; petite with dark hair splashed with grey.

“Ah, yes. Here it is. You know, Rose, you look an awful lot like her.”

“So I’ve heard,” she said, accepting the picture. She wasn’t quite prepared for her reaction as she looked down at the photograph. The woman that stared back at her was very beautiful. She was laughing, her big, brown eyes full of amusement. Her hair was dark and pulled up behind her head with a few little strands falling loose to her shoulders. Her dress was cut low, revealing a very well-endowed young woman.

Everyone had been right—she looked just like this woman in the photo. And Rose wasn’t sure how she felt about that. This was her relative after all. She should be happy to resemble such a beautiful woman, and yet she wasn’t sure that was the emotion she felt at all. She found herself wondering if Raven was the cause of this woman’s happiness, or was this after he had abandoned her and she fell in love and married her husband, Carter Jameson—the werewolf.

How ironic that Raven felt he couldn’t return to his love after being turned into a vampire, causing her to end up marrying a werewolf. Rose wondered what Raven thought of that. When she’d asked him the night before, he was quiet. It had to hurt him, but not as much as it must’ve hurt Rose; abandoned by her fiancée just when they were planning their wedding. Waiting for him for years and finally forced to marry someone else before she was too old to be asked anymore. Of course that may not have been how it happened at all, but Raven wouldn’t talk about that, so her imagination was underway.

The hours passed very slowly as she waited for her date. Rose had spent a little time with Eli, who filled her in on a few things about the facility, took her on a tour, and introduced her to some of the others. Most of the guys were young for her, but Jordan, Jared, Ian, and Cody, some of Levi’s elite, were close enough to her age and still unattached. Except she just didn’t feel drawn to them. She could sense their interest in her though, especially Jordan. He was her age, a senior in high school. He was very handsome, with spiky, blonde hair and very green eyes. But she still felt nothing—not like when she had looked at Raven, with his black hair and even blacker eyes, standing in dramatic contrast against the canvas of his pale, white skin. And those full, red lips were too inviting to resist for long.

She shook off her thoughts and headed back to her bedroom to start getting ready for her highly anticipated date.

Raven took a deep breath, though it wasn’t necessary, and knocked. He felt like a nervous teenager, and if he could sweat he would have. It had only been a minute but it felt like ten when the big oak door swung open.

Mr. Jameson, a huge but kind looking man, answered the door and smiled. “Let me guess. You must be Raven.” His voice was deep but welcoming.

“Yes, sir. It is nice to meet you.” He extended his hand and Mr. Jameson took it eagerly.

“Please come in. Rosebud will be out in a minute.”

“Please don’t call me that in front of guests!” she yelled from another room as Raven stepped inside.

Raven peered at her dad and they both laughed.

“She gets embarrassed when her mother and I call her that in public.”

Raven smiled as he imagined just what Rose would look like embarrassed; her cute face flushing an adorable red. He wondered if Rosebud was a combination of names, or just an endearment and he asked, “What is her middle name, if I may ask?”

“Of course. Well, actually Rose is her middle name, and Sophia is her first. Her mother always preferred to call her Rose.”

An endearment then . Raven thought about that and decided instantly that he liked it—he liked it very much. He would have to ask Rose if he could call her Sophia from now on, and if she said yes, that would be the beginning of his separating this new Rose from his old Rose. It was a necessary process if he was to win her heart and learn to love her for her very own uniqueness. He had no doubt he would love this Sophia more than he had ever loved his Rose. He could feel it as strongly as he had so many years ago, maybe even more so.

“You know, Raven,” her father began, crossing his arms over his chest—his face tight, “normally I’d have a big problem with my daughter going out with a vampire. You must know how we’ve been raised to hate you. But I trust my son very much, and he tells me you are an honorable man and one he’d be glad to have at his side under any circumstance. That says a lot for your character. I like to consider myself as an open-minded man.” He paused for a moment, and a long gusty sigh fell from his lips. “I only ask that you treat my Rose with gentleness and respect. If you hurt her then we may have a problem. Understand?”

Raven did. He respected her father very much for having the boldness to express his concerns. “Yes, of course, Mr. Jameson. I understand completely.”

“Great,” her father responded, his expression softening.

When Rose finally entered the room, Raven felt a sudden shiver at her remarkable beauty. She was dressed simply, in a red and white sundress with a thin, white sweater draped over her arm. Her hair was straight and cascaded in layers over and down her shoulders. Her makeup was light except for the darkness on her lashes that Raven thought accented her big, brown eyes wonderfully. Her lips were a soft pink with just a hint of shine. She was breathtaking.