“I won’t,” I ground out with force, though her words surprised me.
I can still turn into a vampire again?
“Oh.” She smiled. “You will.”
“Leeya,” I said, trying to soften my voice. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. I am. But I want this. I want a human life. I don’t want to be a vampire again.”
And I didn’t.
I didn’t want to slink back into the dark. I wanted the sun on my face, to feel the warmth of the rays on my skin, and hell, the taste of McDonald’s in my mouth. The thought of giving it all up sent a wave of pain through me. Now that’d I’d tasted life I couldn’t bear the thought of going back.
“You’re only saying that because that thing over there bewitched you.” She glared at Emilia who squirmed against her restraints. “You can either drink her blood and turn back before it’s too late, or you can watch me slit her throat, I’ll feed you her blood and then you’ll turn back again. Your choice.”
With a flash Leeya stood behind Emilia. Red nails pressed into Emilia’s throat, drawing a drop of blood with the grip she held on her.
“Emilia!” I stepped forward but Leeya stopped me with a stare. I reached inside myself, clawing into my strength to reignite my powers so I could part her head from her neck before she took her next breath.
But they denied me once again.
“Don’t,” Emilia said, staying me with a look.
Heaving a deep breath, I raised my hands in submission. “Leeya, please... don’t hurt her. We don’t even know if drinking her blood will turn me back.”
“Oh, but we do. It’s been done before.”
“It has?” I asked.
“Yes. But you don’t have much time. Your powers are faltering. And if you don’t... you’ll die anyway!”
Emilia’s eyes widened, and we exchanged a glance.
“You’re lying,” I said, though I lacked certainty in my voice.
“I’m not lying, Aiden.” She huffed. “You’ll die.”
“You don’t know that, Leeya,” I argued.
“I do!” she shouted, her hand tightening around Emilia’s neck. “I’ve seen it happen! Someone from my clan tried.”
I took a step back when I saw rage flash through her eyes. Leeya was unpredictable at best and I knew her threats weren’t empty. Real danger wrapped around Emilia’s neck and if I didn’t play my cards right, I wouldn’t care if Leeya’s prediction about my mortality was real... I would want to die beside her.
“Leeya,” I said, soothing my angry voice. “Let’s just talk about this.”
“We don’t have time to talk, Aiden. You’re running out of time! I won’t let you die!”
“Just take a breath, Leeya. We will figure this out. Just you and me. You don’t need to kill her for us to do that.”
She shook her head and I saw the frazzled tethers of her sanity shredding. “You need to drink her. Now.”
“Leeya.”
“NOW!”
Her sharp nail slid into Emilia’s skin. The pain caused Emilia to cry out and seeing her in pain created a lump in my throat. I swallowed hard to push it back down.
“Okay, Leeya. Okay.” I stepped toward her. “I’ll drink from her. But you need to promise me you won’t hurt her.”
“You will?” she asked, surprise shaking her already trembling voice.
“Yes. I will. And it will just be me and you. Okay? Just let her go and you and I will go find someone else for me to drink. I don’t want to taste her again.”
Leeya raked me over with suspicious eyes. “You don’t?”
“No, Leeya. You’re right. She’s not nearly good enough for me. I made a mistake. Can you forgive me?”
I couldn’t look at Emilia. If I did, there would be no hiding my love for her and Leeya would see straight through me. I only hoped that Leeya was crazy enough to believe me.
“Do you mean it, Aiden?” Leeya asked, her grip on Emilia’s neck loosening.
“I do. I’m so sorry, Leeya. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Neither do I.” She sighed.
Glad my plan had started working, I tried to move toward her, careful not to spook her. She may be crazy enough to fall for my lies, but she also had a set of fangs that could end my love’s life in a second if I screwed up.
“When Mark said you’d turned human, and you were in Bora Bora, I had to come see for myself. I just couldn’t believe it. I had to save you. I couldn’t believe you would really leave me. I thought you were coming back to me. And then you met her.”
The anger returned to her face and her grip tightened again. I stepped forward once more. “I know, and I was so stupid. All I was trying to do was forget you and it didn’t work. I still love you, Leeya. Let’s just leave her and go. There’s a really nice bartender I would prefer to drink. He smelled delicious. Much better than her.” I crinkled my nose.
Leeya cast a hesitant look to me and then to Emilia. “You promise? You promise you’ll turn back?”
“I promise,” I said, holding out my hand. “Let’s go.”
Leeya took a happy sigh and let go of her grip on Emilia’s neck.
I struggled to hide my relief. “Come on, Leeya. Come with me.”
She stepped forward and then stopped. “Before we go, I need to erase her, so she doesn’t tell anyone about us. Don’t worry, I’ll make her forget she ever met you.”
My heart plummeted to my feet when she spun to face Emilia, leveling her eyes to meet Emilia’s wide ones. Flashes of our time together collided in my mind, and I knew that even our love couldn’t protect her from Leeya. With just a few words those memories racing through my mind would be forever ripped from hers. It would be like I never existed... like we never existed. I couldn’t let her erase us. No one would take Emilia from me.
The panic surged through me as she opened her mouth to speak. I felt my powers spark and crackle to life as they flooded through me. I shot across the room, my fury channeling into the hands that moved to Leeya’s neck. Her eyes shot open as I lifted her into the air.
“I warned you,” I growled. “I told you if you touched her again, I would part your head from your neck.”
She struggled against my grip and I saw fear flicker through her eyes. “Aiden,” she sputtered out. “Please. Don’t.”
Rage caused my grip to tighten and I choked out the words she struggled to say. Words I didn’t care to hear. I’d left the life of death and destruction behind me a decade ago, but I could step back into my old position as judge, jury, and executioner one last time.
Anything to protect Emilia.
“Goodbye, Leeya,” I snarled, and I saw the recognition of her impending end register in her wide eyes.
“Aiden! No!” Emilia cried out. “Don’t kill her. Please. I don’t want to be the cause of someone’s death. I’d never, ever forgive myself.”
Leeya’s eyes shot to Emilia and then back to mine again. Pink hues colored Leeya’s ivory skin and deepened to red as I squeezed again and cut off the last of her oxygen.
“Please, Aiden,” Emilia whispered, and I heard the tremble in her voice. “She doesn’t need to die. I can’t watch her die.”
“Then I’ll do it outside.” I leaned into Leeya’s face and listened to the hiss of air trying to make it past my unyielding grip around her throat.
“No. Let her go. She won’t hurt me again. Will you Leeya?”
Leeya tried to shake her head but I pressed her back into the wall.
“Aiden,” Emilia begged. “Don’t.”
My shoulders lifted with my heavy breaths, and then I felt my powers fizzling out.
No. They’re going. Not yet. Not until Emilia is safe.
Before Leeya could become aware of my dwindling powers, I slid her to the ground and pressed my nose against hers, my stare boring through her eyes. “There will not be a third warning. If you come near us again there is no amount of begging that will spare your life. If you or anyone from your clan harms Emil
ia, I will have Lothaire wipe out every last one of you. We will decimate everyone you’ve ever known. Is that understood?”
Leeya nodded as best she could within my grip.
Curling my lip, I narrowed my glare. “Now go. And I never ever want to see you again.”
I released my grip, but not because I had a choice. As quickly as my powers had come, I felt them sputter out again. Leeya didn’t hesitate and whooshed out of the hut, leaving me leaning against the wall for balance. The last of my strength gave out and I dropped to my knees. Not only had my powers left, but I felt weak... frail.
“Aiden!” Emilia shrieked while I crumbled into a heap. “Aiden!”
I lay there for a moment, my body trembling as I convulsed on the floor. Pain radiated through every inch of my body and stole the breath from my lungs. It felt like flames consumed me from the inside, a fire raging through my veins and searing through my skin.
“Aiden!” she screamed again, fighting against her restraints.
A powerful release washed over me, causing a violent spasm that wracked my whole body before I went limp.
“Oh my God, Aiden!” Emilia kept screaming.
The ringing in my ears subsided, and I took a sharp breath, struggling to regain my senses. Something happened to me and I didn’t understand it, and I didn’t have time to. I needed to get Emilia free and get us out of here before someone discovered us. Without my powers I’d have no way to compel this memory away if someone stumbled onto us here.
With a groan I pushed myself to my knees. I looked up and found Emilia’s terrified eyes searching my own. The fear behind them pushed me through the ache that tore at all my muscles. I stood up, and moved behind her, fumbling with weak fingers to undo the knots securing her to the chair. The last one finally let loose and she sprang out of it, knocking the chair aside and launching into my arms.
“Emilia,” I whispered as she sobbed into my shoulder. I lifted my heavy arms and wrapped them around her.
“I thought you were dying,” she cried. “On the floor, I thought you’d died.”
“I’m right here, baby. And I’m not going anywhere. And neither are you. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Ever.”
The fear I had been fighting finally settled in when I felt her lips press into mine. I’d been so close to losing her. So close to watching her die. So close to watching our love wiped away, sweeping my existence from her memory and leaving me alone in the world with her... but without her. Squeezing my eyes tight, I tried to savor every second of her touch and her taste. Twice today I had almost lost her, and I knew if I ever did, I’d plunge into a darkness deeper than I’d ever known. And one I’d never recover from.
“Are you okay, Aiden?” she asked, between kisses.
“I think so,” I said, though it wasn’t an honest answer. I felt different. Weak. Like something had happened to me when that last surge of power left me, and this time I knew it had gone for good. But I couldn’t worry about that now. All that mattered was keeping her safe. “We need to get out of here before someone finds us.”
I dug into my resolve and forced my legs to move. Each step out the door got a little easier, but it felt like sand filled every inch of my body. I couldn’t let her see me falter, so I forced my muscles to keep moving. We ducked out into the darkness, looking around the empty beach before making our way toward our bungalow.
Reaching the safety of our sanctuary we collapsed on the bed. I lacked the energy to pull her close, but she crawled into my arms. It took all my power to wrap them around her, but I closed her in my embrace and pressed my lips to her head. I held her against me, and for the first time since finding her missing from our bed, I breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe in my arms again... and I’d make certain she remained that way. Leeya may still be lurking around the island, but I knew she wouldn’t dare come after us again and put her entire clan in danger... even though she had shown tonight she lacked even a modicum of sanity and common sense.
No. She’d seen the promise in my eyes... the promise of the death I’d wanted to give her. The one Emilia had begged me to spare her. Because of her human nature, I understood Emilia’s aversion to murder, but that didn’t inhibit my vampire nature to want to finish Leeya off and assure she’d never again threaten what belonged to me.
But I’d let Emilia’s pleas stay my hand, and Leeya had been spared a well-deserved death tonight, a death I had no doubt she understood would come swiftly if she disobeyed me again. With Emilia safe back in my arms, I let my concern turn to myself.
Leeya’s words about my death echoed through my mind and I wanted to know what she’d meant when she’d said she’d seen it happen before. Though I didn’t have those answers, I did know one thing.
Something is wrong... very wrong.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Emilia
“TRY THIS,” I SAID, offering Aiden a bite of my ice cream. He smiled and let me slide the spoon into his mouth. I waited for his signature ‘mmm’ sound, but it didn’t come. Ever since the tragedy two nights ago, it seemed his newfound zest for life had been left behind in that hut.
“Thank you,” he said flatly, and his eyes moved to stare back out at the sea.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” I asked for the hundredth time in the past couple of days.
“I’m fine, baby.”
His answer remained the same, but I sensed the truth. A darkness sat over him now. A sadness weighing him down that seemed to suck the joy right out of his body. It left me in knots trying to figure out the cause. I sighed and pushed my ice cream dish away. “Want to go for a swim with me?”
He scoffed. “And have you get eaten by a shark? I don’t think so.”
“Aw, come on, Aiden.” I reached across the table and rubbed his arm. “I’ve got you to beat them up if they come circling around. You can wrestle a Great White for my afternoon entertainment.”
“We’ve had enough life and death fun for one vacation, don’t you think?” he answered with no hint of sarcasm.
“I was joking,” I said, making no attempt to hide the hurt in my voice. “You may be able to knock a shark out of the ocean with one blow, but you bleed now. I don’t want you to get in a scuff with a shark, either. But Aiden, the chances of us getting attacked by a shark twice in one lifetime, much less in one week, is literally slim to none. One could argue that we’re actually safer in the ocean now than anyone else.” I smiled at my own creative logic.
“It’s not worth the risk.”
The sharpness in his voice stung, and I stopped before I said something else to irritate him. I barely recognized the man in front of me, and even though he sat just a few feet away, loneliness settled over me while I ached for the old Aiden.
We sat together on the deck all afternoon. I read a book on my Kindle and he just continued his silent stare. The silence between us hung like a heavy fog I couldn’t see my way through. It’d settled around us when he found me in Leeya’s grasp and showed no signs of dissipating soon.
Leeya..
Not only had she tried to kill me, she’d tried to steal Aiden and erase my memory. If that was what female vampires were like, then I was thrilled I wasn’t one of them. She was like Annie Wilkes from Misery and Alex Forrest from Fatal Attraction all blended into a new kind of super crazy. A powerful lunatic vampire crazy. But even still, I hadn’t wanted to see her die.
“Are you mad I didn’t let you kill Leeya?” I finally spit it out. “Is that why you’re angry with me?”
“What?” He whipped his head around and stared at me. “Angry with you?”
His response was the most animated I had seen him in days.
“Well? What else would make you mope around like your dog just died? You’ve barely said a word to me since that night. Are you mad at me? I mean, the bitch deserved to die, I get that, but it’s still murder and I’m not going to apologize for asking you to not kill a messed up chic in front of me.”
He shook his head and a soft
ness flickered inside his eyes. “I’m not mad at you, Emilia. How could you think that? Of course, I’d have preferred to kill her and remove any chance of a future threat against you, but I’m not mad you asked me to spare her life. You’re a good person and I understand your aversion to violent death. So no, I’m not angry with you. I don’t think I could ever be angry with you.”
A small smile lifted his lips for a moment. Seeing that smile, even just a small one, sent a shiver of relief through my body. My Aiden was still in there.
“Well, I’m glad you’re not mad at me for stopping you, but I need you to tell me what’s going on.”
His smile faded, and he turned his attention back to the spot in the sea he had been fixated on.
“Aiden.” I grabbed his hand and pulled it into mine. “We’re in this life together. You and me against the world. We’re supposed to be partners. I can’t be your partner if you won’t talk to me. I can’t fix it if you won’t tell me what’s wrong. You need to talk to me, Aiden. That’s how relationships work.”
I watched the breath fill his chest, and he held it there for a few seconds before blowing it back out. “I lost my powers.”
“What?” I stumbled over the word.
He nodded and finally turned his attention back to me. The truth of his admission weighed heavy in his eyes.
“The day with the shark. It started then. When I punched it my powers seemed to run out. It’s why I had to swim to you, and it took forever.”
I was so scared that day it hadn’t even registered that he didn’t flash to my side like he could have. He was right... he had swum. He was fast for a swimmer, a human one, but he didn’t appear at my side like Aiden would have knowing danger loomed close by.
“But you had powers when you found me with Leeya.”
Shaking his head, I saw the sadness swirl inside his eyes. “They were gone... all of them. Then when I woke up and found you missing, the fear and anger I felt triggered them again, but only in small bursts. And it triggered something else... I could see you.”
Into The Light (Immortal Hearts Book 1) Page 25
