Blood Curse

by Rheanon Nicole

“Do you know what it’s like to wander this earth for centuries upon centuries, to relive your life over and over again, watching the people that matter most to you die around you while you keep on living in this hell hole people call earth? To have your brother take everything that you want away, every fucking time, yet it’s your duty to stand by his side through thick and thin?”

  Rage flashed in his eyes, but underneath the anger I could hear, and feel, the sorrow that surfaced somewhere deep within his voice. He was jealous of Davin and had kept it in, deciding I was the best candidate to unleash on.

  “N…no,” I squeaked. I didn’t know how I was supposed to respond to him.

  “I changed first; yet he has more power than I do. My parents go to him for every little deed that needs to be done, and I’m just there to tag along if he needs me. Don’t get me wrong, I have more power than you can imagine. But him, he still has more. One more step on the pedestal for Davin.” His eyes were getting darker as the seconds passed.

  “Like Batman and Robin.” Did I really just say that? The blank look on his face told me I had. “I’m sorry Sully, I didn’t mean that.”

  “Marcella was supposed to be mine. I wanted to marry that woman. I truly thought I had found whom I was supposed to be with throughout the ages, but Davin came along, and Marcella was mine no more. Then he threw her away, deciding there was something better out there. No one ever knew how I felt about her because I never had the chance; nor did I ever express it to anyone because I am supposed to be the arrogant brother that doesn’t give a shit about anyone, and Davin is the heartthrob who sweeps women off their feet.”

  I really didn’t want to hear about Davin’s past, but I wasn’t about to cut into Sully’s fit. So I continued to sit there listening to every word he had to say.

  “And now here you come, and there you go; right in to Davin’s little web. He swears you’re his soulmate, and maybe you are, but he wasn’t the only one having visions of you before you arrived in Hanover. I was too.”

  And here was the doozy that I knew was coming somewhere in his tantrum. I didn’t know it was going to be to the extreme that he was in love with me too. I just knew there would be one.

  “I felt that you were here for me, but once again I am beaten to the punch. So, instead I screw around with your annoying ass little friend, and act like I don’t give a damn. You see, Davin and I are more than just vampires that were changed together. We share the same blood; we’re true brothers. With the change, we are more in tune than you could even imagine, sometimes it’s like we are the same person. I feel every emotion he feels when he is with you, even during your most intimate moments.”

  I blushed. “Gretchen is not annoying, she really likes you.”

  Okay, maybe she was a little over the top. But she was very outgoing and bubbly, which calmed some of her annoying traits. Also, replicating a delicate pixie made her even cuter.

  “And now I have to watch you every second of the day and control myself not to touch a single inch of your body. Because once again the prize isn’t mine.”

  “I’m not a prize Sully. I’m just a human.”

  “Being human doesn’t make you any less of a prize to me. The scent of your blood drives me crazy, more than any human I’ve ever encountered; which makes these urges I have that much harder to ignore.”

  I sat there stunned, unsure of anything I could possibly say that would make the situation any less awkward. I wished now more than ever that I had gone with Gretchen. Before I could react, he had his lips on mine, in a chilled kiss similar to those I shared with Davin. As much as I knew this was all wrong, I couldn’t push myself away from him. A part of me may have actually liked it.

  He pressed his lips into mine a little harder for a moment, before pulling away in a loud smack. His eyes seemed to instantly lighten, as he shook his head in a manner that looked like he was clearing any thoughts out of it.

  “I have scared you. I’m so sorry, Adelay. I don’t know what came over me. Please forget that I have said anything to you. I let my emotions take control which was very naïve of me, and out of my nature.” He turned back to the road pulling off of the shoulder.

  The car was silent the entire ride home, and we couldn’t have gotten there fast enough. I swung the Mustang’s door open, yanking my bag out of the back seat before closing the door behind me. When I turned, Sully was in front of me, blocking my retreat into the house.

  “I’ll be by to pick you up for this thing around 8:00. Please forgive me, Adelay. I didn’t mean to be so forward with you. This has all been wearing on me, and the urge was too strong to handle having you in the car by ourselves. I hope this won’t dampen any friendship we may have.”

  “It’s okay; everyone makes mistakes.”

  I didn’t really consider him my friend anyway, he’d barely ever spoken to me before now. With that I turned away from him hastily getting to my front door to avoid any more sudden urges. What I didn’t know was if I was running from his urges, or my own. Hmm, that was a weird feeling that I wasn’t going to have twisted up in my brain. I wanted Davin back, and I wanted him now! Sully was very handsome -- actually handsome didn’t even put to justice what the Ashford boys looked like -- but the kiss between Sully and I only reminded me of how much I loved Davin and proved that with him being gone anything could happen. And the night wasn’t over yet; it was in fact only just beginning.

  I pulled my cell phone out of my jacket pocket once in my bedroom, struggling with whether I should place one more call to Xander and his mother. It was one more final attempt to prove that this was all one big misunderstanding.

  Sully had told me not to do it, but technically Sully wasn’t the one in charge of this operation; Davin was; and he hadn’t said one word about not trying.

  Scrolling through my list of numbers, I closed the phone just as I got to the name Carla Farnham (Xander’s mom).

  Maybe it was best to not bring any attention to myself until Davin got home. Not because Robin said so, but because common sense was weighing heavy right now, and I wasn’t able to call for my Batman if something went wrong.

  There were still a few hours to spare before Sully was due to arrive, so I decided a hot bath might allow me to relax some before tonight. What had taken place in the car with him had me a little tense, not to mention every other disaster that had been happening for the past few months, that was weighing heavy on my shoulders.

  Hot water steamed from the bathtub faucet, filling the bathroom with moist air and misting the bathroom mirror. I watched the old-fashioned bathtub fill higher and higher, looking more inviting as the water rose slowly to the top, making me more ready than ever to soak in the warmth.

  Testing the water with my foot first to make sure it wasn’t too hot to handle, I submerged my body in the steamy water, splashing some of it over the side. I wet the rag that I had put over the ledge of the tub, closed my eyes and placed it across my face, inhaling the soothing heat from it.

  Ahhh... this was just what I needed.

  “I couldn’t wait, I had to come here sooner.”

  I jumped at the male voice that echoed in the bathroom. The rag fell off of my face with a plop into the water.

  “What in the hell are you doing here?”

  “After that kiss in my car, I can’t get you out of my head. I couldn’t wait Adelay, I had to come now; 8:00 seemed so far away.”

  Sully’s eyes were dark once more, and there was distress in his husky voice. How he had managed to get into the bathroom and past my parents was a mystery, but I didn’t care to ask, and I really didn’t want to know.

  “You need to leave; you don’t belong here. Your job is to make sure nothing happens to me until Davin gets back, not make moves on me and sneak in to my house when I’m bathing.”

  Within the blink of an eye he was next to the tub on both knees. I pulled the towel from off of the floor, covering my body to keep his wandering eyes off of me.

  “You are meant for me no
t him. I could feel it the second I kissed you. You may not believe me, but there is no question in my mind that what I say is true. Fate has spoken.”

  “In case you didn’t notice I didn’t return your kiss.” Even though I had wanted to for some strange reason. “So, there’s proof enough it isn’t happening, sorry Sully. Now leave.” I pointed toward the door.

  He pushed his forehead to mine, holding the back of my head with his cold hands. Small points peered from underneath his upper lip. My heart raced inside my chest, doing a rapid dance up and down my throat making, it hard for me to swallow. He continued to hold onto me tightly.

  “Don’t tell me you didn’t feel anything, I know you had to! Tell me you felt it too!”

  His words demanded an answer, but my mouth refused to respond. I couldn’t lie to him by admitting to false feelings that I didn’t have for him, but his hands on me made me question myself. The anger that had surfaced in his tone made my body freeze, so that I couldn’t reciprocate to his desperate pleading even if I had wanted to.

  My head still rested in the palm of his strong hands, where he now grasped my head with more pressure from the tips of his icy fingers. My voice refused to answer. I didn’t have any feelings besides fear right now for Sully, and those weren’t the ones he wanted me to admit.

  “If this is how you want it Adelay, then I will show you just what a mistake you have made.” In frustration, he forced my head away from him exposing my bare neck to his waiting fangs that extended further past his bottom lip, no longer the almost hidden points now that he was in full attack mode.

  I cried out as he brought his mouth to my neck, piercing the tender skin. The pulse of my vein ticked inside his moist mouth with each passing second that his teeth were embedded into my jugular, slowly taking as much life from me as he could.

  Cold rushed my face. A few more moments, and my body slumped into dead weight like putty in his hands. He released his hold, letting my body fall back into the water with a heavy splash. Water surrounded my face as my head hit the bottom of the porcelain tub.

  Water clouded over my eyes from the blood that leaked out of my fresh wounds, and my lungs burned from the breath I desperately needed to take. But I didn’t have enough strength left to lift myself out of the water. I knew I was drowning, but all I could do was scream silently in my head, hoping Sully would realize what he was doing and save me before it was too late.

  BANG BANG BANG!

  I opened my eyes to loud pounding on the bathroom door. Ripping off the rag that was draped across my face, I inhaled a huge breath of moist air.

  “Are you okay sweetie? You’ve been in there for over an hour.”

  I cleared my throat before answering. “Yeah mom, I must have fallen asleep.”

  I looked around the empty bathroom. It was just me, myself and I inside. The water was chilly, but clear as ice; no blood tainted it. I felt my neck for any lesions and was happy to find nothing but smooth skin. Sully had been no more than a dream.

  At least for now that’s what I was telling myself it was. I refused to believe that it could have been a vision. I pulled the towel off of the floor, getting out of the cold tub. I heard my mom wrestling with the doorknob, so I turned the lock so that she was able to come in.

  “You really shouldn’t fall asleep in the bathtub honey, especially if you’re going to lock the door. You know how dangerous that is?”

  I nodded. “Sorry mom, I didn’t even know that I was tired. I must’ve relaxed a little too much.”

  “Your friends tried calling you a couple times. I told them I would have you get back to them as soon as you were done.”

  “Who was it?”

  “Gretchen and, oh let me remember for a second, it started with an R. Ro…”

  “Robbie?”

  “Yes, him.”

  I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t going to be calling him back anytime soon. I tucked my towel a little tighter around me and scurried past my mom to my bedroom to get some clothes on. As soon as the door shut behind me, my cell phone began twinkling on the nightstand with an incoming call. Gretchen was persistent.

  “Hey Gretch, sorry I was in the bath when you called earlier.”

  “It’s okay Adde, I tried calling your cell a couple of times, then decided to try the house line which obviously didn’t work either. You will never guess who called me as soon as we got to Sarah’s?”

  I was clueless and wasn’t in the mood for guessing games, so I hummed an “I don’t know” sound to her.

  “Andy!” she laughed. “He was begging me to give him another chance and let him take me to the Fall Harvest Dance tonight. I actually think he sounded like he was going to cry when I first told him no!”

  “When you first told him no? What did you tell him after that?”

  I hoped she still planned on going with Sully tonight. “I told him yes! Well, I actually said I’ll think about it, and maybe meet him there, but that meant yes.”

  My stomach sank. “Wha…what about Sully?”

  “I dunno, he has been acting really strange lately, and today he just completely blew off all of my phone calls. He barely even told me goodbye after school.”

  “So, go on a date with Andy before finding out why he’s blowing you off? Maybe he’s just got some other things going on, that hardly calls for breaking it off with him.”

  “Adelay, he’s not my boyfriend. He clarified that a long time ago. I thought you knew that.”

  “I guess there are a lot of things I didn’t know about.” I had meant to think that comment, not say it.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing. I was just thinking out loud. I wish Davin would hurry and come home.”

  “Oh, he’ll be home soon Adelay, and until then you have us to hang out with.” She hushed her voice. “And to keep you safe.”

  I smiled, knowing that even though she was no heavier than a wet noodle she was still loyal until the end, and would try her hardest to fend off whatever she could. Another thought came to mind.

  “Gretch, you do know that no matter what happens between you, Sully, and Andy, that you don’t mention one word about what the Ashford’s are, and what you’ve witnessed, right?”

  “Of course I do. Trust me, Sully has been very clear about what the outcome would be if I said one word.”

  Hopefully gossip didn’t get the better of her in the future. “So, if you’re going with Andy to the dance, who is taking us there?”

  “Well, I offered for me and Sarah to pick you up on the way there. But Sully insisted he needs to be the one that takes you, so that he can have you under his watchful eye at all times. He said Davin would kill him if he let you do otherwise.”

  I let out a sigh that was quiet enough for Gretchen to miss. Being stuck with Sully alone again was not sitting in my stomach well.

  When eight o’ clock finally came, I needed to remind myself that what had happened earlier in the bathroom was nothing more than a dream. I was worked up from the car ride still, and subconsciously my brain channeled into that when I fell asleep. Sully and Davin were the good guys. That was the only explanation I was going to let myself affirm. My mind received visions from Davin, not from Sully. He was nothing more to me than Davin’s next of kin, despite what he felt, or how the kiss made me feel.

  I was dressed in a strapless black silk baby doll dress that rested above my knees, bowing out slightly at the bottom, paired with black peep-toe platform heels with a cute bow detail on the toe. I was dressed to kill tonight, even if I was the one to be killed. A swipe of cherry red lipstick finished off my dark Barbie look. Wasn’t the old saying: Die young and make a good-looking corpse?

  Having Davin so far from me made me feel completely alone. Sully was powerful, as was Eli. But Davin just had that special something about him that I trusted with all my heart. When he said he wouldn’t let anything happen to me, I believed it. I knew I wouldn’t get an answer, but for the hell of it I tried Davin’s cell phone before Sul
ly arrived.

  “Hello, love. Is everything okay?”

  I hadn’t expected to hear his voice on the other end and fumbled with my words.

  “Yes, uh everything is fine. I didn’t think you were going to answer.”

  “Then, why did you call if you thought that?”

  “I don’t really know, maybe because I had hopes that you would. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I can’t wait until you’re finally home. This doesn’t feel right without you. You’ll be here soon won’t you?”

  “About that…I am planning on being there, but not as early as I had hoped. Tommy wasn’t being very cooperative, so I had to demonstrate why it was wise to change his mind and work with me. It kind of set me back a little bit, but I will still be there before the night is over. Sully will be with you, so you should have no worries, and if worse comes to worse remember my father is only a mind channel away for Sully.”

  He didn’t realize he was leaving me in the hands of not just his brother, but also a vampire that was lusting after me, who was convinced I was meant to be with him instead.

  “Your mind is blocking me, yet I can feel you’re troubled about something else, what’s going on?” He sounded genuinely worried. I liked that he couldn’t fish around inside my head for once.

  “Nothing more than what should be wrong given the circumstances.”

  His cell phone began to crackle, and his voice was breaking in and out.

  “Ever…y…thing will be…okay. I have to go now. I…l…ove…you and remember, don’t leave Su…lly tonight.”

  The other end clicked, leaving only dead air on the line now. With the flip of my thumb my phone closed, leaving me in utter silence for a few short moments before the doorbell chimed down the hallway. Sully had arrived and not a minute late.

  My mother had already answered the door before I made it down the flight of stairs. She looked to me, then back at Sully with a peculiar expression strewn across her face.

  “And you are?”

  “Sully, ma’am.”

  He shot his arm out towards her gesturing a handshake. She obliged but pulled back still curious. He slid his fingers through his hair pushing the strands that had fallen back into place.