The Return of Jonas (Pearl Vampire Chronicles #4)

by Nelson, Dara

  “So are you, Carlos, so are you,” I said as I laid my head on his shoulder.

  He linked with me again. ‘Do you still think about it, Sarah? About us? About what it would have been like? Be honest.’

  ‘Shit. You had to add that ‘be honest’ didn’t you?’ I thought and he chuckled.

  ‘Honestly? Yeah, I guess I do, sometimes. We have a connection, Carlos. An incredibly strong connection. I can’t deny that anymore. But I also can’t give in to it either. I have to fight it.’

  ‘What did you feel when I kissed you, Sarah?’

  ‘Don’t ask me that, Carlos. Please?’

  ‘Sarah, I have to know.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I have to know if it was the same thing that I felt, or if my imagination is just blowing it all out of proportion.’

  My heart was racing as I thought about that kiss again. I hadn’t thought about it in a long time, but once I did, that feeling came back as strong as ever. I squeezed my eyes shut.

  ‘Sarah?’

  ‘I felt a desire, a yearning, unlike anything I’ve felt before. With Matt, I want him, I crave him. But when you kissed me, I felt like it was something that I had to have. Something I needed. I felt helpless to stop it.’

  ‘But you did.’

  ‘If we’d been in a bigger room, I wouldn’t have.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Really.’

  ‘Do you regret that we weren’t in a bigger room?’

  ‘Yes and no.’

  ‘Sometimes I hate that you’re so strong. But that’s also why I love you too.’

  ‘I know. And I love you too. But can we please stop talking about this? It’s easier for me if I don’t think about it.’

  ‘Yeah, I know. Me too.’

  He nodded, kissed my temple, and then we both drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter Eleven

  The seaplane landed at midnight, and Aduviri was waiting for us on the dock. Aduviri was the son of the Peruvian chief who had given us our matching scars that are part of the process needed to create a vampire. He had helped us when we needed to create several new vampires at one time when we were preparing to do battle with The Elders. We had called him from the plane, and since he was already on Paradise Island, he hopped into his boat and made the half-day’s journey right away. “Hello Sarah, Matthew, Carlos. It’s nice to see you again,” he said.

  “Hi Aduviri,” Carlos said. “I’d like you to meet Maria. Maria, this is Aduviri.”

  Maria shyly stuck out her hand and smiled at him. He shook it. Suddenly Aduviri’s eyes went wide and shock filled his face. “Wait! The linking ceremony,” he gasped, “it’s for you, Carlos?”

  A huge goofy grin filled Carlos’ face as he nodded. “That’s right,” he said. “I’ll bet you never in a million years expected it to be me, did ya? Well, neither did I, my friend. Neither did I.”

  We all decided to forgo feeding and stay in the main house tonight. Aduviri would do the linking ceremony in the morning then he would head back to Paradise Island, leaving one less human here for me to worry about. I snuggled in to Matt’s arms to sleep. “I think there’s something wrong with me Matt,” I said.

  “Why, Sarah? What’s wrong?” he said.

  “I absolutely hate it when I can’t make love to you,” I said. “I shouldn’t be this… addicted to you, should I?”

  He grinned. “It’s only fair, since I’m that addicted to you.” Then he sat up, pulled his shorts on, stood up and stuck out his hand to me. “Come with me.”

  “Where?” I said as I pulled on my nightgown.

  “Just come with me,” he said as he grabbed the blanket off the end of the bed.

  I happily took his hand and he led me down the stairs and out the front door. We walked down to the beach and along the water until we were about a mile away from the house. He spread out the blanket, dropped his shorts and lay down.

  “Better?” he said as he grinned at me.

  “Oh, much,” I said as I peeled off my nightgown and joined him.

  I was still asleep but I began to realize that something was wrong. In the dream I was having, the waves were lapping at my toes. And I swear my feet really were wet. But that wasn’t possible. We had spread out the blanket way up by the tree line, even at high tide the water didn’t reach that far. So why did my toes feel wet? I frowned in my sleep. I was laying on my right side facing Matt, who was on his left side facing me. Our limbs were entwined. I opened one eye, looked at Matt, smiled… and then I felt it. Water was dripping on my feet. As if in slow motion, my head turned. I gasped and pulled myself tighter to Matt, trying to cover up. “Well, good morning sleepy head,” Jonas said.

  “Jonas, what the hell are you doing here?” I said as I frantically glanced around looking for my nightgown. “Where is my…” I started to say, but then I saw it, in his hand.

  “It’s a nice, warm morning, Sarah. You don’t need this,” he grinned.

  “Jonas you are such an ass,” I said.

  “And you have such a nice one,” he said.

  Throughout this exchange, Matt hadn’t moved, hadn’t made a peep. Suddenly his arm moved and he shoved something into my hand. “Put these on, Sarah,” he growled.

  “But you won’t have anything,” I said as I slid his shorts over my feet and pulled them up while Matt kept my chest covered.

  “Sarah, it’s you he wants to see. I could care less if he sees me. Now, cross your arms, cause I’m going to stand up,” he said. Suddenly my nightgown fluttered down over both of us.

  “That I definitely don’t need to see,” Jonas said.

  I turned my back to Jonas, slipped it on, and handed Matt’s shorts back to him. I turned back, couldn’t find Jonas, then looked up and saw him hovering above us. Matt moved to jump up, but I grabbed his hand and held him down. I knew Jonas would tear him apart if he did. “You didn’t answer my question, Jonas. What the hell are you doing here?” I said.

  “Well, I came by last night to check the place out, but, lucky me, I got treated to an awesome show. Thank you very much, Sarah,” he sneered.

  “You… you… you saw us?” I whispered as I squeezed Matt’s hand tighter when I heard the growl in his chest.

  “Oh, absolutely. And I must say it’s much better seeing it than just feeling it in your head, much better.”

  “Go to hell, Jonas,” I mumbled.

  “Sarah, please let go of my hand,” Matt said through clenched teeth as he glared at Jonas.

  “No, Matt. He’ll kill you.”

  “Relax. I’m leaving now. But I’ll be back soon,” Jonas said and then he flew off. I stared at the sky where he had just been.

  “Matt? How far is the nearest island from here?” I said.

  “About sixty miles,” he said as he too stared at the sky.

  “He can fly that far?”

  “Apparently.”

  “Do you know any other vampires who can fly that far?”

  Apparently Matt had reached his breaking point, because he did something he’s never done before… he snapped at me. “No, Sarah. Damn it. I don’t know any vampires who can fly that far. I don’t know any vampires who are as strong as he is. And I don’t know how in the fuck we are going to beat him, okay? Happy now? This is friggin’ hopeless.” He threw his arms up the air and started walking, by himself, toward the house. I didn’t move. I was too stunned to move. Too stunned… and then too pissed off. I crossed my arms across my chest, glared at Matt… and waited. He walked about half a mile, slowed, then finally stopped. He hung his head, turned and looked at me, then covered the distance back to me in two seconds. He wrapped his arms around me, but mine stayed firmly across my chest.

  “Oh, Sarah, I’m so sorry,” he said. “I’ve just never felt this… scared before.”

  I stepped back, put my hands on his face and looked into his panic-filled eyes. “Yes you have, Matt. Before you changed me, remember? You were scared shitless. But we made it through tha
t, and we’ll make it through this.”

  “But that time, I was in control and my fear was that I was going to kill you. This time, this time it’s different. This time my fear is that I’m going to die and I’m not going to be able to keep him from… keep him from… touching you,” he groaned.

  “If you don’t think we stand a chance physically, then you have to let me try to get through to him. You have to let me try, Matt,” I said.

  He stared at me for a few seconds. “Do you really have any hope that you can, Sarah?”

  I nodded. “Yes I do. I’ve seen him hesitate. I’ve felt his confusion. I think with the right person and the right words of encouragement, he could change.”

  He pressed his forehead to mine. “Well, you’re definitely the right person, Sarah. But this scares the shit out of me too.”

  “I know, Matt. It scares me too. But I have to try. To give us a chance, I have to try,” I said.

  “I’m a little disappointed though.”

  “Why?”

  “I was looking forward to feeding time, with both of us feeding on the good blood,” he said.

  “Oh, well, we’re still going to do that,” I said.

  He tilted his head as he looked at me. “But why?”

  “Because I need him to believe that we’re still planning on trying to beat him physically. If I asked him to come here so he and I could ‘talk,’ I don’t think he’d be too receptive. I need him to come here believing it’s for a fight. Which means, all of us need to act like we’re preparing for that fight.”

  “But won’t that make it harder for you? You’ll be going through withdrawals while you’re trying to help him.”

  “But so will he, and his will be much worse. I’ll be fine, Matt. Trust me, okay?”

  He nodded. “I love you so much, Sarah.”

  “I love you too, baby,” I said. “Now, let’s go wake the others so we can do the linking ceremony. Then Aduviri can go home and we can feed,” I grinned.

  I picked up the blanket and we slowly made our way back to the house. As we approached the steps, we heard worried voices from inside. “I don’t know where they are,” Carlos said. “You don’t think he came and took them do you?”

  I turned to Matt and said, “Uh-oh.” We sped up and burst through the front door.

  “Oh, thank God,” Carlos said, “where the hell have you two been? You had me worried sick. And why are you still in your nightgown, Sarah?” Then he spied the blanket across my arm and raised his eyebrow.

  “What?” I said. “It was too hot in our room last night, so we went down and slept on the beach. We planned on being back before everyone was up, but Jonas delayed us.”

  That got Carlos’ attention. “Jonas! He was here?” he said. “What happened?”

  I told him about Jonas showing up to ‘scope out the island,’ leaving out the part about what he’d seen while he was here.

  “How did we not hear his boat?” Carlos said.

  “Because he didn’t bring one,” I said.

  “Then how…? No!” he gasped. “Please tell me he didn’t fly here,” he whispered.

  “I wish I could, Carlos,” Matt said.

  Carlos sank down onto the couch. “There’s no way,” he said. “We can’t beat him.”

  “Not in the way we want to, but Sarah here has an idea. Something she’d like to try,” Matt said.

  “What?” Carlos said.

  But I shook my head. “Later. First go do the linking ceremony. We’ll talk later, okay?”

  Carlos looked a little nervous, but he stood and held out his hand to Maria. Aduviri followed them into the den and closed the doors. I looked at Matt and smiled. “We should probably go get dressed,” I said. He took my hand and we headed up the stairs.

  Two hours later we were saying goodbye to Aduviri on the dock. Carlos and Maria were still asleep on the floor in the den… and I knew from experience that when they woke up from their trance… they’d be needing privacy. Sex with the scars is mind-boggling, to say the least. “What do you say I go grab us some breakfast and we feed in the guest house?” I said.

  Matt grinned at me. “He’s going to get really pissed when he finds out, Sarah.”

  “Oh, please,” I said, “like he’s not going to be having sex in our house. He’ll get over it.”

  I quietly snuck into the house, down the stairs to the basement, grabbed eight pints of good blood and one bad one for Matt, then met him back on the porch… and we couldn’t seem to get to the guest house fast enough. But as soon as the blood was warming in the microwave, my nerves kicked in… big time. “Maybe I shouldn’t, Matt. I’m scared. I don’t want to become a monster.”

  “You? A monster?” Matt said. “I’m not seeing any chance of that, Sarah. Look, if you start going crazy in the streets, you have my word that I will chain you up until you come back to your senses,” he smiled with a twinkle in his eye.

  I smiled. “Well, that sounds like it could be fun.”

  I turned back to the microwave to grab the blood, when Matt wrapped his arms around my waist and began kissing the side of my neck. I moaned and brought my hand up to his hair, then spun around and brought my mouth to his. As I kissed him, he reached behind me and grabbed two good pints and one bad from the microwave. He pulled away and handed one to me. I was terrified, but he locked his eyes on mine and helped calm me. I nodded, closed my eyes, dropped my fangs… and sank them into the sweetest liquid I have ever tasted. I groaned as every nerve in my body ignited. I opened my eyes just as Matt finished his pint. His mouth crushed down on mine and I suddenly had to feel his skin on mine, but I wasn’t letting his lips leave mine. I grabbed hold of his t-shirt and tore it off his chest. He groaned and did the same with mine, then he grabbed two more pints, and handed one to me. As we fed again, I felt him pressing tighter to me. A shiver rocked my body when we locked lips again. His tongue danced around mine and I groaned as his hand slid between my belly and my pants…. and he tore them off. He quickly grabbed two more pints. We drained them and locked our mouths together again. I undid the top button on his jeans, then tore them open the rest of the way, sending buttons flying everywhere as he groaned. I jumped up, locked my legs around his waist and took him inside me as he handed me my last pint and he drained his. I threw it onto the floor and crushed my mouth down on his just as my first body-shaking climax hit. The waves of it rolled through both of us, until they crashed into his equally epic climax… and it was hours before we were able to stop.

  We lay in the middle of the kitchen floor, little spasms still occasionally coursing through us, threatening to get us going again, when we heard footsteps approaching. “Oh shit!” Matt said. We jumped up. He threw open the fridge door to hide himself, then pulled me behind him to hide me, just as Carlos and Maria came through the door. They were laughing, until they saw us.

  “Oh, there you guys are… what the heck?” Carlos said as he realized we were naked. “Oh, come on. Did you have to? Here? In my house? Please put your clothes back on.”

  “Ummm, we can’t Carlos… they’re kind of torn up. Could you go get us a couple of towels please?” I said.

  Carlos just stared at us, his mouth hanging open. Finally, he shook his head and went to the bathroom. He handed Matt the towels, then he sat at the kitchen table.

  “Look, I’m sorry Carlos. It’s just that we knew you and Maria would need… um… privacy when you woke up,” I said and Carlos grinned and winked at Maria, who blushed, “and Matt and I needed to feed, so we came over here.”

  Carlos’ eyes snapped open and he was at Maria’s side in a flash. “You fed, Sarah? On the good stuff? Why didn’t you tell me? How are you feeling? Are you tempted?” he said as he stood protectively in front of Maria.

  I smiled and shook my head. “Yes I fed on the good stuff. I did just tell you. I’m fine and no I’m not tempted at all. But this was my first time. I’ll let you know if anything changes, I promise.”

  He relaxed… a littl
e. But he was watching me like a hawk. And he watched me that way for the next four days, and I was glad he did. We fed three times a day, morning, noon and night, and every time we did, Maria’s scent became stronger and more desirable to me. I was jittery. I kept bumping up meal times… by ten minutes, then twenty, then thirty. And the guys noticed it. I could feel both of their eyes on me at all times… and I could feel my eyes on Maria every time she was near. The pull to drain her was so strong… and I was fighting it every second of every day.

  I woke on the morning of the fifth day tense and irritated. I wanted to get through the morning, that’s all, just through the morning. We were going to change Maria this afternoon. As soon as we did that, she would be safe from me. So until then… tense and irritated it was. The only time I relaxed was when we fed, which also meant more incredible sex, but once we were done with that… it was back to tense and irritated.

  “I’m going for a walk on the beach,” I said.

  “You want company?” Matt said distractedly, his nose was buried in his computer, trying to stay current with work.

  “No, that’s okay. I just want to think. I’ll be back in a little bit, okay?”

  “Okay, sweetie. I love you.”

  I couldn’t help but notice the worry in his eyes as he looked at me over his computer. I tried to smile, “I love you too,” I said, then I headed out the door, having no clue that all hell was about to break loose.

  Chapter Twelve

  I made it about a half mile down the beach when I felt him behind me. I didn’t turn around. “Hello, Jonas,” I said.

  “Hello darlin’. Miss me?” he said.

  “Not really, Jonas,” I sighed.

  “Oooh. You changed your diet, Sarah. You smell absolutely delicious,” he said. “It’s time, now, Sarah. I can’t stay away any longer.”

  “Yes you can, Jonas.”