Relief flowed through her. The redhead released her arm, spinning away from her as Stefan seized hold of him, ripped his head back, snapped his neck and ripped out his heart. Isabelle stared in amazed surprise as the man fell lifelessly to the ground. She couldn’t believe how quickly Stefan had managed to kill him. Marveled at the amount of strength that it must have taken. The man had been much stronger than her, much stronger than anyone she had ever known. Except Stefan, she realized.
Swallowing heavily, Isabelle struggled back to her knees, cradling her wounded arm as she lifted her head to meet his red filled, furious gaze. The ferocious snarl on his face vanished instantly, and his eyes turned back to black as he knelt before her.
“Where’s the other one?” she gasped out.
“Dead. Are you okay?” he demanded.
“Yes.”
He brushed the hair back from her face, his eyes intent as he studied her worriedly. She flung herself forward, wrapping her good arm around his neck as she clung to him, tears of relief and joy flowing down her face. “I’m sorry!” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”
“Shh,” he whispered gently as he enveloped her tightly in his strong embrace. “Don’t cry Issy. It’s okay.”
“No it’s not.”
He held her tightly in his arms, savoring in her sweet scent and comforting warmth. She lifted her head from his shoulder, her eyes bright with tears as she glanced behind him. “Is everyone ok?” she asked.
“We’re all fine,” her mom said as Brian burst through the door.
“They’re dead already?” he asked, sounding highly disappointed.
“Yes,” Stefan replied. He stood slowly, pulling Isabelle up with him. Brian’s eyes landed on her, a soft smile curving his mouth. Stefan stiffened as he drew her tighter against his side, his eyes narrowing dangerously on Brian. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
Brian shrugged negligently as he turned to survey the destruction of the room. Isabelle pulled away from Stefan, scowling at Brian as she ran over to hug her family. Stefan watched her for a moment, his tension, fear and anger still simmering just beneath the surface. She had been placed in too much danger for his liking, way too much. He couldn’t seem to shake the beast in him as his emotions swung wildly out of control. He shot Brian a glaring look as he strode past him, and grabbed Isabelle as she turned away from hugging Vicky and Abby.
He tucked her back against his side, ignoring the confused glance she shot him as he allowed himself to be comforted by her presence. He closed his eyes, letting her heat envelope him, and soothing the raging tension that lingered within. “Sera!”
Liam burst into the room, his eyes wild and frenzied as he raced past Stefan to his family. The others came slowly forward, picking through the rubble, and bodies, that littered the room. “I’ll take care of this,” Brian said. “You guys should get out of here. I’m sure someone’s called the police by now.”
Stefan nodded briskly. “I’ll get Kyle and Julian,” Doug said.
“They’re in the room next to mine!” Sera called out.
“Damn kids sleep like the dead,” Mike muttered as he turned to follow Doug.
“You sure you can handle this?” Stefan asked Brian.
Brian snorted as he raised an eyebrow. “Are you kidding me?”
“Remember what I said.”
“I know you’ll kill me if I come back. Trust me I’ve had enough of Oregon. Now, get out of here.”
Stefan nodded as he led Isabelle forward. She was still cradling her arm, but he didn’t have the time to look at it now. They needed to get out of here as soon as possible; he could already hear the distant wail of sirens. “Take care of him,” Brian said softly.
Isabelle stopped before Brain, her head tilted slightly as she studied him. He smelled off, but it wasn’t like the others, not like she had first thought anyway. There was a lingering odor of death around him, but it was different, it wasn’t as bad. There was also a lingering loneliness and despair in him that reminded her of what had existed in Stefan when she had first met him. For some reason, she didn’t think that Brian was a truly bad guy. Although, she wouldn’t mind punching him in the face for all of the trouble he had caused.
“You’re not as far gone as you think, or you like to pretend you are. You can come back,” she told him.
His mouth quirked in wry amusement as he studied her. “And how would you know?”
Stefan’s arms tightened around her, but she ignored the subtle hint as she met Brian’s gaze. “I just know,” she answered.
Brian studied her for a moment more, the smile slipping from his mouth as he turned toward Stefan. “Never thought I’d see you like this, guess that damn soul mate thing is true after all,” he said softly. “Take care of her.”
“I intend too,” Stefan replied. “Take care of yourself.”
The amusement was instantly back in Brian’s eyes as he nodded sharply. “Of course.”
Stefan tried to lead her away, but she remained where she was for a moment more. She wanted to help Brian, to assure him that he wasn’t the bad guy that he obviously thought himself to be. “Remember what I said,” she whispered softly.
Brian glanced back at her, his face hard, and his eyes cold again. Isabelle sighed softly and turned away from him. There was nothing more that she could say, or do. He would make his own decisions; she could only hope that they would be the right ones. Mike suddenly appeared in the doorway, Kyle slumped over his shoulder.
“There’s a crowd gathering, Doug’s taking care of the ones that have come outside but we have to go.”
“I’ll take care of everyone,” Brian said. “They’ll never know what happened.”
“Does he have the power to do that?” Isabelle asked Stefan as he led her out to the idling cars.
“Yes,” he said, opening the backdoor of Jack’s car for her.
She waited for him to slide in beside her and close the door. “Do you?”
“Yes.”
She frowned as she leaned against his side, absorbing his warmth, and comfort. “Will you tell me everything?”
“Yes.”
CHAPTER 23
Isabelle woke slowly the next morning, instinctively snuggling closer to Stefan as she drifted awake. She didn’t remember being placed in the bed, or losing her clothes, but both had occurred. She smiled softly, almost purring as Stefan ran a hand lightly down her back, causing shivers of delight to course through her. She moved closer to him, savoring in the warmth of his body as his hand dipped between her legs.
She gasped and jerked as pleasure coursed through her. His mouth seared into her neck and back as he left a trail of hot, lingering kisses across her skin. Trembling with need, Isabelle was swept away by his touch as he continued to make slow love to her with his hand. Isabelle moaned her displeasure when his hand slid away from her. She was about to roll over, when he slid on top of her, his hard body pressing against her back.
“Stefan,” she gasped in surprise as his strong thigh parted her legs.
“Shh,” he soothed, lightly nibbling upon her ear.
Isabelle forgot all about her fear as he slid slowly into her, enfolding her as he moved over her, his hands clasping hold of hers. Isabelle was whimpering with pleasure when he seized hold of her waist and pulled her to her knees. She was swept away by the feel of him, the delicious sensations that flooded her body as his movements became fiercer, more demanding. His hands encircled her, fondling and caressing her breasts as he lightly teased her nipples.
Isabelle cried out with the force of the orgasm that ripped through her, shaking her legs, and causing her entire body to convulse with pleasure. His arms held her up as he drove fiercely into her, groaning loudly as his trembling arms tightened around her and he spilled into her.
She collapsed onto the bed, panting for air, and trembling from the shivers of delectation that still wracked her. Stefan fell beside her, pulling her on top of his chest and entrapping her tightly against hi
m. She sighed happily as she nuzzled his chest, relishing in the feel of him against her. Her hands curled tightly around his neck, lightly playing with the soft hair that curled at the base of it.
The memory of everything that had happened yesterday, and the day before, crashed back over her. Her hands tightened as a soft whimper escaped her. She buried her head in his neck as she tried not to think about it, tried not to recall the fear and horror that had filled her. He gently soothed back her hair as he lightly stroked her back. Isabelle didn’t want to move, didn’t want to think about anything, but she knew that she had too. She had to know the truth, and she couldn’t put it off forever, no matter how much she wished too.
“Stefan...”
“When I was eleven my family and I were coming back from the theater when we were attacked,” he said softly, knowing what she was going to say before she even spoke. The time for the truth had arrived, and he wanted to get it over and done with as soon as possible. His hold tightened on her as he opened himself up to memories that he had been trying to forget for a long time. Memories that he had never wanted to return to, and had never wanted her exposed to, but she had to know, and he was going to tell her.
“There were three of them, two men, and one woman. Vampires. They trapped us in an alley, and killed my mother and father instantly. My brother was sixteen at the time, and my sister had just turned fifteen. My brother tried to stop them, he went after them, but he was useless against them. My sister grabbed me and started running toward the street. I tried to go back, but she wouldn’t let go of me. My brother’s dying screams followed us out of that alley.”
Isabelle shuddered against him; tears welled in her eyes as she continued to stroke the back of his neck. His voice was hard and cold as he spoke, it revealed no emotion. If it weren’t for his hands tightening upon her waist, she would have thought that the death of his family had had no effect on him. But his hands, and the stiffness in his body, belied the coldness that radiated in his voice.
“We were sent to live with my aunt and uncle in Wales. Neither my sister, nor I, ever spoke of what had happened, not even to each other. I think we were both scared that we would end up in Bedlam; at least I knew I was. She married three years later and moved back to London. I didn’t see her again until I was eighteen, and by that time, she had a son. That was the only time I tried to talk to her about what had happened, she screamed at me, telling me that they were just thieves, and that I was crazy. When I pressed the issue, she told me to get out of her house, and to never come back. I never did.
“After that, I searched London. I knew what I had seen, what they were, and I was determined to seek vengeance for my family. When I couldn’t find them there, I went to the continent. I spent a long time searching France, Spain, and Germany before moving onto Italy. That was when I met up with a group of vampire hunters, and joined them. I was twenty one at the time.”
Stefan paused to take a deep breath. Isabelle remained silent, her hands curled tightly into his neck as she fought back the tears that wanted to flow. Tears she instinctively knew would cause him to stop speaking. He didn’t want her tears, but her heart was breaking for the boy that he had been, for the cruel twist of fate that had ripped his family away from him and caused him to grow up in an instant.
She couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose any of her family, it was like a knife in the chest just thinking about it. She couldn’t imagine what it had been like for him to see them murdered, and so viciously. She wanted to cry for the man that had gone to his sister, only to be turned away by the only family he had left. If the woman had still been alive, Isabelle would have ripped her to shreds for being so cruel to him, for hurting him in such a way.
“For the next five years I searched the continent, destroying any vampires I came across. I found the two men in that time, both in Greece. With the help of my new friends, I was able to overtake, and destroy them, but the girl still evaded me.”
“I ran into her again two years later, in Dublin. Her name was Brenda.” His voice was hard and strained, his hands dug painfully into her soft skin. She knew that he wasn’t aware of it, and she made no sound, no protest to let him know. “She recognized me, remembered me. I was alone against her, consumed with vengeance, and hatred. It wasn’t enough. She won the fight, but thought that it would be more fun, more amusing to turn me into the one thing that I had hated for the last sixteen years.
“She changed me, instead of killing me. I fought like hell against it, but as you know, the harder you fight, the more it hurts and the harder it becomes to fight. She forced her blood into me, and disappeared. After that, I had nowhere to go, no idea of what to do. I couldn’t return to my friends, they would have killed me instantly, so I left Europe and went to Canada.”
Isabelle could no longer hold back her tears; they slid down her cheeks to wet his shoulder. Pain engulfed her for the man that he had been, for the man that he could have been if things had been different. She bit back a sob as his hands eased on her waist and he began to stroke her back again. She was the one that should have been offering comfort, not the other way around. She snuggled closer, pressing herself tighter against him as she stroked his neck, hoping to ease some of the anguish that radiated from his body. He sighed softly, nuzzling her neck for a moment before speaking again in a softer, less cold voice.
“I spent the next fifty years traveling between Canada and the states. A lot of our kind had come here. It was a wonderful place for them to feed. People could just disappear into the wilderness with no questions asked.
“I hunted the killers amongst our kind, feeding off of them, growing stronger. I couldn’t go for the most powerful ones; they would have destroyed me so I bided my time, destroying the newer ones until I grew stronger. I met Brian in Boston when I was seventy eight. He had been changed twenty years earlier, his wife, and children were murdered at the same time.”
Isabelle shuddered as she bit back a fierce sob. “He was just as determined as I was to avenge their deaths. He had been doing his own hunting, destroying any vampires that he came across. We fought, I could have killed him, but I didn’t. I could sense that he wasn’t evil, wasn’t like the others. Brian’s powers hadn’t matured enough for him to sense the same thing about me. When I explained to him that not all of us were evil, that we aren’t all cold blooded monsters, we joined together to hunt the ones that were.
“With Brian’s help I was able to kill even more, to go after ones that were even stronger. After a hundred years, we found the two that had killed Brian’s family. They were the strongest we had ever come up against, but we were able to destroy them. Both of us left the battle severely wounded, but much stronger from their blood.
“That was when we decided to go back to Europe. Most of the older ones had remained on the continent, not wanting to travel to a new land because they were content where they were. Our strength steadily grew as we moved through the continent, hunting and destroying everyone that we could find.
“I never found Brenda, and after thirty years we decided to return to the states. By this time, I was beginning to fear that I was never going to find her, that maybe she was already dead. It was twenty years later that I ran into her in New Orleans. By that time, I was stronger than she was. I had been feeding off of some of the most powerful of our kind, absorbing their strength and powers. Brenda was a monster, pure and simple, she lived off of humans, took pleasure in destroying families. But their blood wasn’t as strong as the blood that I had been surviving on, thriving on.
“The battle was short and brutal, and when it was over, I was left with nothing. For the last two hundred years I had been consumed with a need for revenge. It was the only thing that had driven me, the only thing that had kept me alive. After Brenda was dead, there was nothing left to fuel me.
“Brian and I continued our mission, but it wasn’t the same. I was just going through the motions, just surviving. I began to realize that all my existe
nce had ever been, and ever would be, was nothing but death and destruction. There was nothing left to drive me, except for survival, and the need to try and make sure that no other families were destroyed, but it just wasn’t the same.
“I wasn’t much better than the monsters that I had been killing. I had also thrived on it, for the same reasons that they did, for the power. Granted, I didn’t destroy families, I didn’t take innocent lives, but I was a brutal killer all the same.”
Isabelle shuddered, her eyes closed as she clung tightly to him. Never had she thought that this side of Stefan could exist. Never had she ever dreamed that it could be possible. It frightened the hell out of her.
“Two years ago, we ran into a group of human hunters. I killed one of them, Brian killed two. Neither of us had ever killed a human before, and it rattled us both. I vowed then that I was done, that I would never kill anyone, or anything, again. Brian was more determined than ever to destroy everything in his path. He hasn’t been killing humans, but he has taken everything to a darker place than he ever had before. He relishes in the kill more than he used too, thrives on it. It gives him a purpose, something to live for.
“I lost everything that day. Brian and I went our separate ways, the idea of killing anything again made me sick. I had done the one thing that I had vowed never to do, the one thing that made me exactly like the monsters that I had been killing for centuries. I hated myself for it. I no longer felt the urge to destroy our kind. I realized that I was becoming too similar to them to hold any kind of judgment over them.
“I just wanted to live in some semblance of peace, but I never found it. Everywhere I went, I was alone. That’s when I started settling down with just one girl at a time, for a couple of months at a time. It was at least someone to have around for a little bit so that I wasn’t completely alone, but it wasn’t enough. I was still alone, no matter what I tried to do. Until I came here, until I met you, and felt alive for the first time since I was a little boy. Felt as if I had found a place where I belonged, and had a purpose other than death.”
Destined (Vampire Awakenings) Page 31
