by Nelson, Dara
She took Sophia from me. “Thank you so much, I really appreciate this,” she said.
“I was happy to do it, Carmela. Anytime you need a babysitter, I’m available,” I said. Matt stopped the swing and helped Juan climb out while I handed the diaper bag to Carmela. We both waved as they started walking towards the gate. Suddenly Juan dropped his Mom’s hand and ran to me. I squatted down and he threw his arms around my neck, giving me a big hug. “Bye, bye, Sarah,” he said.
“Bye Juan. You be a good boy for your mom. I’ll see you soon,” I said, trying not to sound choked up. Matt wrapped his arms around me as I stood up. “I’m fine,” I said as my head rested on his chest.
“You sure?” he said, clearly concerned. He knew that even though it had been years, I still felt the loss of my young son as if it were yesterday – and I always would.
I looked up at him and smiled. “Absolutely. Although I am missing being with you, it’s been a little while. But I know Stefan and Penelope are probably waiting for us in Carlos’ room. I can wait.”
Matt’s eyes darted around the compound, then he looked up and he smiled. “You’re right,” he said. “You game for a quickie?”
“Always,” I said. I definitely liked where this was going. He tightened his arms around me and crushed his mouth down on mine. Our tongues danced around each other as I felt us rising off the ground. His mind reached out to mine, and I gladly let him in. ‘We need to be quiet,’ he thought, ‘if someone hears us up here, they might come to investigate.’
‘Up here, where?’ I thought, as I tried to suppress a groan.
‘The roof,’ he thought, as we touched down. We quickly moved away from the edges, toward the pillar on the side of the access door. Within seconds, our shirts were off, his pants were around his ankles and mine were off. My legs were wrapped around his waist as he held me up, pressing my back against the wall as he pounded into me. ‘Oh my God… I can’t… I can’t… I can’t keep quiet,’ I thought as my climax threatened to unleash. Just as I opened my mouth to cry out, I managed to sink my teeth into his neck and muffle my scream.
“Sorry about that,” I whispered into his neck afterwards, licking the large bite marks I had left there.
“Dear God, don’t be,” Matt said, as he grinned. “I love it when you can’t control yourself.”
‘So do I,’ said a sinister voice in my head.
Matt felt me tense up immediately and he looked into my eyes. I pointed to my head. “Jonas,” I said. Matt growled. We quickly pulled our clothes on and I linked with Matt. ‘What the hell do you want now?’ I thought.
‘Nothing,’ Jonas thought, ‘just amusing myself while you’re enjoying yourself. Although, if you thought that was out of control, just wait until I get my hands on you. You’ll be begging me, pleading with me, for more.’
Matt growled again. ‘The only begging and pleading will be from you, begging me to let you live, which I won’t.’
Jonas laughed. ‘Oh my, but this is too much fun. The pure satisfaction I’m going to get as I force you to watch me pleasuring your wife is just… oh my… I get aroused just thinking about it.’
Matt was about ready to blow a gasket. I reached out my hand to calm him as I thought, ‘Pleasuring me? You don’t have the right equipment or technique to pleasure me. The only reaction you could possibly get out of me is laughter. Now get the hell out of my head, you disgusting, silly, little man.’
Jonas tried to sound calm, but I could tell that I had touched a nerve, exactly the reaction I wanted as he thought, ‘Fine, I’ll go now, but you’ll see, Sarah. One day soon, you’ll see.’
“I am going to kill that asshole,” Matt said through gritted teeth.
“You and me both, baby,” I said, then I turned his face to mine. “This one’s going to be tough. You’re reaction is just what he’s looking for. He obviously wants you so furious that you can’t think straight. We, no, you, have to find a way to not let him get to you like that.”
“That easy for you so say, Sarah. I just got you back, not just physically but your heart too, and now he’s talking about trying to mess that up again,” he said.
I stepped back and glared at him. “I cannot believe you just compared this to what happened with Carlos. If you honestly think that someone I despise can force themselves on me and I’d fall for them because of that… then you must not truly believe that I love you, which means that you’re not over what happened before and you might never be. I can’t spend the rest of eternity swimming upstream, Matt. Am I fighting a losing battle here?”
The panic was in his eyes instantly. “Oh shit, no. I didn’t mean it like that. I know you love me and I know you’d never fall for him Sarah. I just meant that if he did get a hold of you and did the things he’s talking about doing… well… it would probably mess both of us up, to say the least.”
“Then we’ll just have to make sure that never happens, won’t we?” I said.
He nodded and pressed his forehead to mine. “I’m sorry, Sarah,” he said. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I said as I brought my mouth to his and kissed him. “Now, let’s get back to work, okay?” He nodded and we rose into the air and lowered ourselves into the back corner of the yard, where we wouldn’t be noticed. We clung to each other as we walked inside and into Carlos’ room. Stefan and Penelope were already there – they were two of the original Elders, but they had helped us and I knew in my heart that they were good people, so we had asked them to join us – and they were now part of my cabinet. “Hello, all, sorry we’re late” I said.
“No problem, we just got here ourselves,” Stefan said.
“Great, now were either of you here when Jonas was?” I asked.
“Stefan wasn’t but I was,” Penelope said. “Victor brought me and Paolo in right after he found this place. We were a group of three for a long time. He didn’t expand it to five until about three hundred years ago.”
“Tell me about Jonas when he was here,” I said.
“He was brutal. We had a hard time controlling him. Many times he would go overboard with punishment, killing many that we didn’t want killed. He never failed when we sent him to hunt down missing vampires, which was never an issue. But it got to the point where, if we wanted the vampire found alive so we could extract information, we’d send someone else to find them, because we weren’t sure we could count on Jonas to bring them back alive. We had just begun discussing firing him when he left on his own.”
‘I knew it,’ came the voice in my head.
“God, Jonas, why do you always pick me?” I groaned. Penelope’s head whipped around. “He’s here? In your head? What did he say?” she said, her panic clear on her face.
‘Cause your mind is the sexiest,’ he thought and I cringed.
“He said he suspected you were going to fire him, and now you just confirmed it,” I said.
‘Let me talk to all of them,’ Jonas thought.
“He wants us to link,” I said. They all looked at each other then nodded.
‘Get it out quick, Jonas, I’m too busy for morons,’ I thought.
‘Temper, temper. My, but you are a feisty one, Sarah. I really like it,’ Matt’s hand squeezed tighter in mine as Jonas went on. ‘Hello Penelope. Miss me? I’ll bet you miss the things I used to do to you in your room, don’t you?’
Penelope squeezed her eyes shut, blushing, as Stefan turned to look at her. “He was your lover?” Stefan said. Stefan and Penelope had married right after we had defeated the Elders, something they weren’t allowed to do when the Elders were in control. Love was a foreign emotion to most of them.
“Very briefly,” she mumbled.
‘Ahhh, you didn’t tell him? How interesting,’ Jonas thought.
‘Truthfully, it was pretty forgettable, so I didn’t bother,’ Penelope thought, as I smiled and thought, ‘Good one, P.’
‘Oooh, ouch. That’s not what you told me at the time, you said I was the best you’d ever had. No matter, tho
ugh, my sights are set elsewhere now, to that feisty auburn-haired beauty standing next to you, the one who has these amazing full-body orgasms.’ Now it was my turn to squeeze my eyes shut and blush as he went on, ‘They’re quite spectacular, but they’ll be even more spectacular when I get a hold of her.’
‘Not a fucking chance,’ I thought, not caring that everyone was listening, but I peeked at Matt and saw him smiling. ‘You’re boring the hell out of me Jonas, would you get to your point?’ I thought.
‘My, but you do arouse me, Sarah. Very much. Especially right now.’
‘Shut the hell up, Jonas,’ Matt thought as he growled. Then every face in the room turned to me. My eyes were closed, I was smiling, and I was thinking the alphabet song… over and over again… hoping that the repetition and annoyance of it would make Jonas want to leave. I was right.
‘Alright, alright, I’ll go,’ Jonas thought. ‘You win, this time, Sarah. But don’t get too cocky. It’s going to take a lot more than a stupid song to beat me in person.’ And with that, he was gone. The rest of us quickly disconnected.
“Okay,” I said, “when we talk, everybody be thinking the alphabet song.”
Carlos chuckled from his bed. “That’s going to drive him nuts, Sarah.”
“I hope so, Carlos,” I said. “Now, Carlos needs to eat and sleep. Why don’t we all meet back here tomorrow morning at eight? Does that work for everyone?” Stefan and Penelope said their goodnights and I went to the kitchen to grab dinner. Carlos’ nose still wasn’t healed, so I helped him feed again. “I’ll stay awake first, Matt,” I said. “You can take–”
“Uh-uh,” Carlos interrupted. “No way. I’m fine, Sarah. The pain isn’t too bad. I’ll sleep, and if something wakes me up, I’ll wake you. So please go, okay?”
I hesitated. “You promise you’ll wake me?”
“Scout’s honor,” he said, holding up two fingers.
“Okay. But if I get word that you woke up screaming and you didn’t wake me, then I’m going to be in here until you’re released, understand?” I said.
“Okay, okay. Now go, so I can sleep, please?”
Matt’s arm went around my waist as he began to pull me toward the door. “Night, Carlos,” he said. “See you in the morning.”
“Night you two,” Carlos said.
As we approached the door to our room, Maria’s door opened. “Sarah?” she whispered.
“Yes, Maria, what is it? Is something wrong?”
“No, not at all. I was just wondering, well, I was wondering if I could help you with the vampire patient tomorrow,” she said.
“Really? You want to help with Carlos?”
“If that’s okay, yes. I’d like to learn so I can help with all the patients.”
“That’s great, Maria. We have a meeting with him first, but I’ll come and get you after that, okay?”
“That’s fine. Thank you Sarah, and good night.”
“Good night Maria.”
I turned back to Matt, who was waiting for me at our door, smiling. “Ready for bed, Mrs. Pearl?” he said, holding his arms out to me.
I loved the surprised look on his face as I ducked under them and walked into the room. “Not quite, Mr. Pearl,” I said as I began to strip while I was walking through the living room. “We need a shower first.” I smiled as I heard the door slam behind me and his clothing falling to the floor as he quickly followed after me.
Chapter Eight
“I so do not want to get up yet,” I groaned. It was seven thirty, but we’d only gotten a few hours sleep… we’d spent most of our night enjoying each other.
“Me neither,” Matt sleepily mumbled as his caressing fingers moved from my arm, to my chest, then down my belly.
‘Me neither,’ Jonas said in my head.
I quickly sat up. “Go to hell Jonas,” I said and thought.
“Damn it,” Matt spat, “that guy is on my last nerve.”
“Mine too, sweetheart, mine too.” I started to climb out of bed, but then stopped. “No,” I said.
“No?” Matt said.
“He doesn’t get to come between us. We can’t allow him to do that. Either we start singing in our heads when we’re together, or we just learn to ignore him. Either way, he is not going to stop us,” I said.
“Seriously, Sarah, how am I supposed to get aroused when I’m singing the alphabet song in my head?” he groaned.
I looked at him and smiled. “Link with me. I’ll sing it. You just need to relax and enjoy,” I said as I ducked my head under the covers and began kissing his belly, and slowly moving lower. I felt his mind link with mine, and I started singing in my head, ‘This is the song that never ends… yes it goes on and on my friend…’ over and over as Matt groaned and his body quickly began to respond to me. Pretty soon he growled, sat up and grabbed me, pulling me on top of him as his mouth crushed down on mine. It was getting way too difficult to concentrate on the song. I began skipping words, forgetting sentences. Eventually I just thought, ‘Oh forget it,’ and my body began squeezing and convulsing, causing Matt to bite down on my neck as he, too, finally let himself go.
My head rested on Matt’s shoulder as I tried to catch my breath. “No one is going to ever stop you from doing that to me,” I said.
“Stop me from doing that to you?” Matt said, as he gasped. “I’m pretty sure you meant that the other way around.”
I looked at him and smiled. “Now we can go to work,” I said. He smiled and nodded then we climbed out of bed.
We made it to Carlos’ room just after eight. As soon as we walked in Stefan handed us notepads and pens, then held his finger up and mouthed ‘Shhhh’.
I nodded. “Okay, what can you tell me about Jonas? Any idea what his plans are? Any thoughts on how we can beat him? Capture him? Get him the hell out of my head – which he is in right now. Go away Jonas,” I said and thought.
‘Well, good morning Sarah, everyone. Good guess on me being in your head,’ he thought.
“He says good morning and that I made a lucky guess that he was in my head listening,” I said as I wrote on the notepad ‘it wasn’t a guess, I’m starting to be able to tell when he’s there’ which I held up and showed to everyone.
‘How?’ Matt mouthed.
I wrote ‘it makes me feel kind of, nauseous, is the best way I can describe it.’
Matt and Carlos both laughed when I held that one up.
‘You going to let me in on the joke?’ Jonas thought.
“He wants to know if I’m going to let him in on the joke,” I said then I thought and said, “Maybe later Jonas.”
That made him angry. ‘Do not cross me Sarah. I can do other things when I’m in your head,’ and with that the room started spinning then went black.
The voices sounded miles away. “Sarah? Wake up, Sarah. Oh God, what’s wrong with her? What happened?”
“Lay her down, Matt. Let me take a look at her,” Cameron said.
“Dr. Cameron, what can I do to help?” Maria said, sweet Maria. I tried to wave at her, but I couldn’t see her. I was still in a pitch black cave or something. But how could anything be pitch black for me? Nothing was ever pitch black. I could see perfectly in the dark. But why could I hear their voices but I couldn’t see them? I felt someone try to come in to my head, so I let them.
‘Sarah? Honey? Are you there?’ Matt thought.
‘Course I am baby, but where are you? Is it time for hide and seek?’ I thought then I started giggling. Something definitely wasn’t right. Not only was everything black but I felt, well, I felt like I was drunk. That’s when the fear kicked in. My adrenaline began furiously pumping through my body. Something was definitely wrong, and that something was— ‘Jonas!’ I thought, ‘you’ve made your point. Let me go.’
Matt started to growl, but I blindly reached my hand out to stop him. He grabbed it and held it tight in his.
Jonas began laughing. ‘But this is so much fun, Sarah. Look at them fumbling around trying to
figure out what’s wrong with you. I must confess you’re pretty amazing, Sarah. Nobody’s ever figured it out before by themselves, nobody. All right then, I’ve had enough fun for now.’
And with that my head was clear and I could see again. I blinked, focused on Matt’s face and smiled. “Hi,” he said, smiling back at me.
“That was seriously messed up,” I said. “Did anyone know he could do that?”
“Not exactly,” Penelope said. “I think we’ve all had that happen to us.” She looked around and Stefan and Carlos nodded. “We never knew what, or who, caused it.”
“He did that to me a lot when he was trying to get me to join him,” Carlos said, “but I had no clue it was him. I thought I was having blackouts from the stress and starvation.”
I noticed Penelope standing in the corner, biting her lip, a look of pain and fear on her face. She met my eyes and barely shook her head. I tried to get in to her head. At first she shook her head no, then took a deep breath and let me in. ‘What’s wrong?’ I thought.
‘I don’t want Stefan to find out,’ she thought. I could see her hands shaking.
‘Find out what?’
‘If I tell you, you can’t tell anyone, not even Matt. Promise me you won’t tell anyone.’
‘I promise.’
‘Jonas used to do that to me to force himself on me. He never spoke, so I didn’t know it was him, but now I do. At first I tried to fight him off, but, being blind, I wasn’t very effective, so eventually I just gave up. I’d just lay there until he was finished, waiting for him to go away so my vision could return,’ she thought, then squeezed her eyes shut, as if trying to make the memory go away.
‘Oh, Penelope,’ I thought as I tried not to let my emotions show on my face.
‘Don’t, Sarah. Please don’t feel sorry for me. Just help me figure out how to get rid of him once and for all.’
‘You have my word.’
“Honey?” Matt said, and I smiled.
“I love you,” I said.
He beamed and leaned down to gently kiss me. “I love you too,” he said as he smiled at me, a smile that lit up his face, the same way his smile lit up his face the first night he spoke to me, the same way his face lights up every time he looks at me. “You think you’re feeling good enough to stand yet?” he said.
