She had to let him into her life again, she had to forgive him and start trusting him once more. As much as he didn't like to admit it, Isabelle was right; he had to have Emma in his life if he was going to stop killing. He wouldn't have her in his life unless she was willing to be there though, and unless she loved him too.
"Do what?" he asked as he'd forgotten what it was they'd been talking about.
"Take control of people's minds?" she inquired.
"Yes." He had started to turn away but her brisk inhalation brought his attention back to her. His eyes narrowed on her paler face and now trembling lower lip. "No Emma, I've never done it to you."
"How do I know that?" she inquired.
"Because I wouldn't be lurking in the shadows outside your house if I had, I'd be in your bed where I belong." He hadn't meant to be short with her, but the hideous events of the past two nights were pushing him toward a breaking point he wasn't sure he could survive. "And they," he thrust his finger at her friends. "Wouldn't remember any of this. Everything I've done is for you, and I will not violate your mind or the mind of anyone else. Believe whatever else you want about me but know that much."
He turned away from her but her tiny hand on his arm stopped him again. "Thank you," she breathed.
It took everything he had not to seize hold of her and kiss her, but he forced himself to step away from her. Getting closer now, when she was still so hesitant about having him in her life, was a bad idea. "Anything for you Emma."
Her mouth dropped open but she didn't try to stop him again as he turned away from her. She didn't understand any of this but his words had left her speechless and her heart aching even more than it had when she'd first woken up. "What are we going to do about him?" Isabelle nodded toward the body.
"I don't know," Ethan answered. "Weight him down and drop him in the sea."
It wasn't a prospect that pleased him, not even a little bit. The man had injured Emma, he would have taken her to Tristan but he was an innocent in all of this, one that had probably been corrupted against his will.
Emma turned toward Stefan and Isabelle. "You can both come in."
Ethan's head shot up at Emma's words, hope filled him as she seemed to have decided to give them at least a little more of her trust. Isabelle and Stefan exchanged a glance before stepping into her bedroom.
Isabelle gave Emma a small smile before hurrying to Ethan's side. "You didn't have a choice," she murmured. "Even if he was under someone else's control, you didn't have a choice."
He knew she believed her words but this was something he had always wanted. Guilt was beginning to eat at him as he stared at the motionless body on the floor. Emma started to walk toward her friends, without thinking he reached out and grasped hold of her hand. He needed the connection with her and the tranquility she brought to the tumultuous seas that ran through him. He expected her to recoil but her eyes shot to his and her fingers briefly brushed over his. More of the bloodlust and strain eased from him as his flesh remained in contact with hers.
"Stay close," he told her.
She bowed her head and pulled her hand away to wrap it within the sheet. Her eyes were darker due to the shadows under them, there were lines around her mouth that hadn't been there yesterday, but she was alive and that was all that mattered. He watched as she walked over to join her friends, they enveloped her in a hug and hovered around her.
"He wasn't so innocent." Ethan's attention was drawn away from Emma by Stefan's words.
"What makes you say that?" Ethan inquired.
Stefan held up the man's arm to reveal a trail of faded bite marks from his wrist to his elbow. "There are enough here to make me think he has been allowing at least some of the vampires to feed off of him on a daily basis. I don't think he was under anyone's control, he came here on his own free will as a way to ingratiate himself further with them."
"Why would he do that?" Emma asked.
"There are some people in this world that will do anything to be closer to a vampire, who will allow themselves to be used as food if there is even the slightest hope that they could one day be made vampire. We call them Feeders," Stefan answered.
"Why would anyone allow that?" Jill looked as if she had just been told to suck on someone's toes as she asked the question.
"The promise of immortality is extremely enticing to a lot of people." Stefan dropped the gardener's arm away in disgust, wiped his hands on his jeans and rose. He pulled Isabelle away from the man and moved her over toward the bed.
This revelation helped to ease some of his guilt over killing the man and he found himself no longer disliking the idea of just tossing his body into the sea. "At least we know who was leaving you presents during the day," he said. "Though there could be others." The color faded even further from Emma's face, her eyes shot to the open French doors and then the hall behind her. "We will keep all of you safe."
She bowed her head but the anxiety etched onto her features didn't ease. "We have to get rid of him, now," Stefan said stridently.
"The sun has set, Tristan and his friends will be out again," Isabelle said nervously. "We can't move him now."
Ethan studied the darkening sky before turning his attention to Emma. Her eyes were riveted upon the body beneath the sheet and then she looked at him. "He's going to have to stay here tonight isn't he?" she asked.
In answer to her question laughter drifted in from outside and something clattered across the balcony. Ethan leapt to his feet and hurried toward the doors. "Ethan don't!" Isabelle cried and scurried over top of the bed toward him.
Without thinking, and driven by concern for Ethan's safety, Emma left her friends behind and ran toward him. Stefan made a move to grab her, but when Ethan turned toward him with a low growl, he dropped his hand down and stepped aside. Emma glanced between the two of them as confusion rolled through her and she stopped a few feet away from Ethan. She would like nothing more than to throw herself into his arms in order to keep him from stepping outside, but if she threw herself into his arms now she knew she would never look back.
She could forgive him one day though, she realized, not everything was black and white in this world, sometimes the colors were the most frightening part of it. Even though she realized that now, it still didn't mean they could be together. There was too much she didn't understand and was scared of, he was part of a world that she'd never even known existed yesterday. He belonged to a world that she wasn't a part of.
When he looked at her like he was now, she found herself not caring about any of those things. He'd risked his life for her, he had killed for her, and he was staring at her as if she were the only thing in the world he could see. No one had ever looked at her like that; it was a look that made her feel loved in a way she never had before.
Then a new sound resonated from outside and he was turning away from her as more laughter echoed through the night. "He'll call the police to try and set us up, I know he will," Emma whispered.
"We can take care of the police," Stefan said. "They'll never even remember they were here when we're done with them. He won't call them though; he's here to torment you and to taunt Ethan into responding. They have to be taken care of before anyone else dies."
Isabelle grabbed hold of Stefan's arm, stopping him before he could leave the house. "There's more of them than you think," she hissed. "I can smell them."
Well that was the oddest statement Emma had ever heard but she wasn't about to question them on it. For now, there were some things she would prefer not to have elaborated on. "How many are there?" Stefan asked.
"More than last night," Ethan murmured. "At least eight, maybe more."
Stefan's forehead furrowed as he frowned and looked toward the doors. "Eight? Why are there eight of them together?"
Emma pulled the sheet closer around her when Ethan stepped in front of her and pushed her back a step. "Is that unusual?" she inquired.
"That many together, yes. What they're doing, and why, is something
I don't understand," Stefan answered.
"The ones last night were young, and judging by the smell of them and the way they're moving, these ones are young too." Ethan's nostrils flared as he scented the night. "Tristan created them."
"What?" Emma blurted out.
"These vampires are Tristan's creations."
"Of course they are," Stefan said with a note of realization in his voice. "Young, impetuous, and eager to please the one that made them."
"But where is his creator?" Isabelle asked.
"Not all of those created are willing to stay with their creator, I certainly wasn't," Stefan said bitterly.
Isabelle wrapped her hand around his arm and stepped closer to him. Emma glanced at Isabelle and Ethan as a new thought occurred to her, how were they both vampires? Had the same person changed them at the same time, or around the same time? But he'd talked about his parents and his numerous siblings; were they all vampires too? It was just more questions to add to the growing heap of them, but the heap was going to have to wait until later as laughter drifted in from outside again.
"We need to think about this before engaging with them," Isabelle said and stepped forward to close the doors. "But neither of you are going out there without me..."
"You're not going out there," Stefan said briskly.
"So it's settled that we're not engaging with them tonight," she said with a falsely sweet smile.
Emma's gaze drifted back to the man lying next to the bureau. Her stomach twisted, she had to look away before she spilled what little contents she had in her belly as the eerie laughter continued to drift in from outside. "They'll stay out there all night," she whispered.
Ethan stepped closer to her; he went to rest his hands on her shoulders but dropped them down before he could. "I think you should get dressed." She frowned up at him and then at the sheet wrapped around her. "Please Emma."
She gathered the clothes she'd set out on the bureau before getting into the shower and stepped into the bathroom to change. When she came out of the bathroom, she immediately noticed the room had been straightened and the body had been removed. Emma frowned at the bare spot where the man had been. A life had been lost there, and yet there was nothing to mark that fact, not even a drop of blood.
"Where is he?" she asked.
Ethan turned away from the doors and folded his hands behind his back as he studied her. Even with clothes on, she was still the most enticing female he'd ever laid eyes on and she was the only one that could save him. She was also the only one that could completely drive him over the edge.
"Stefan moved him into the bathroom down the hall," he told her.
"How are we going to get a body out of here in the daylight?"
"We'll figure out a way to take care of it, don't worry about that."
Emma fiddled with the frayed edges of her cut off shorts. "I feel like there's far too much for me to worry about lately."
"I'm sorry Emma, I..."
"Don't apologize Ethan, please. There's nothing that can be done to change it, and I'm not sure I'd even want to."
"Really?"
She hated the hope in his eyes. "It's not like that, I'm not ready to sit and talk about us. I'm not ready to continue this relationship. We've known each other for two weeks and you've already met my crazy ex and killed someone. It might just be me but I'm pretty sure that's a bad omen. Like even worse than the groom seeing the bride in her wedding dress before the ceremony, or a black cat crossing your path kind of bad omen. I'm not one for superstition but this goes beyond that."
He moved away from the doors. "I'll kill anyone that tries to come after you again. Anyone."
Emma swallowed at his words and her gaze drifted to the curtains he'd pulled over the doors. She could hear the other vampires out there, still running around and laughing like a group of patients that had just escaped the asylum. He took a step closer to her and despite all the words she had just uttered, she found herself instinctively swaying toward him and her skin came alive at the prospect of being able to touch him again.
What was this influence this man had over her? She fisted her hands at her sides in order to resist touching him. "I can't stay in this room, not anymore," she said as a way to distract herself.
A jolt of electricity shot through her as he rested his hand on her elbow. "Understandable. The others are in the living room."
She couldn't help but move closer to him as he led her from the room and down the hall. "He was human when I knew him. Tristan was," she clarified at his questioning look. Ethan frowned as he thought over her words. "I mean I realize I didn't know what you were, I thought you were human too, but he had to have been human."
"I'm sure he was," Ethan assured her.
"If he wasn't," she stopped abruptly and tugged on his arm. "Do you think he twisted my mind, or changed my memories in some way?"
Ethan pulled her a step closer to him. "I think he was human when you knew him Emma, if he hadn't been I don't think you would be here. When you first walked out of his life there was nothing he could do to try and get you back but harass you. He would have changed your mind then, if he had been a vampire. I think he disappeared from your life because he was changed and he was with the creature that made him. He's returned now because he's stronger and he has a way that he can get you back by bending your mind to his will."
Cold horror spread through her at his words, there was nothing in the world she could think of that would be any worse than what Ethan had just described. "That is why he's here isn't it? To change my memories and make me do what he wants me to do."
"Emma." He took hold of her hands and held them loosely before him. "I'm not going to let him get to you, I can promise you that much. Whatever happens between us, you have to know that I will never let anyone hurt you. Not him, not me, no one."
She found she couldn't breathe as his fevered gaze burned into hers. There was so much between them but as she searched his eyes she couldn't think of one reason why she wasn't kissing him right now. Then again, he had just killed someone and probably still had the taste of their blood in his mouth. That was reason enough, or at least it should have been for any sane person, but she still found herself longing to touch and taste him right now.
Instead, she forced herself to take a step back in order to keep some distance between them. No matter what her heart and body desired, her mind was screaming at her to maintain her distance.
For a moment Ethan had thought that she was finally going to come to him, finally going to let him hold her again, but it wasn't to be. He sighed as he thought over their conversation. "Did Tristan go out in the daytime when you were together?" He had to fight the urge to drive his fist into the wall at the mere thought of that man touching her, holding her. If he lost his temper in front of her now though, he knew he would officially be driving the final nail into what would become the coffin of their relationship.
She frowned as her gaze ran over him. "He did, but so do you."
"I can because I'm not a killer, or I wasn't," he said as his gaze drifted toward the bathroom at the end of the hall. "The sun will be tougher for me to handle now, but I haven't killed so much that I won't be able to withstand its rays. It's when murder becomes a part of you, a constant daily thing that the sun's rays become impossible for us to withstand. For some of our kind, killing someone is something they partake in daily. The more a vampire kills the stronger it becomes and yet the weaker it will also become. The vampires with Tristan have gotten to a point where they can't tolerate the sunlight, that much was made clear this morning when they fled as soon as the sun came up. If they continue on this way, it will become increasingly difficult for them to cross bodies of water too."
"You mean to tell me they could become trapped on this island, terrorizing these people?" Emma couldn't think of anything worse, and it was something she wasn't about to let happen. She'd go to Tristan before she ever let innocent people suffer because of her.
Ethan couldn't st
op himself from grabbing her shoulders at the panicked and appalled look that crossed her face. "No, they'll leave before that's possible, believe me. Tristan was sick and twisted before all of this began, but I doubt every human he found to change was the same way. Self-preservation is key in almost everyone; it's even stronger in our species. Once immortality is gained, it's not something that is willingly given up. Keeping themselves trapped on an island with a growing pile of bodies, and missing people reports, will arouse suspicions amongst the humans. It is almost a sure way to guarantee that their immortality comes to an end. They'll leave before they become trapped here."
"Even Tristan?"
Ethan thought over her question before shaking his head. "No, I don't think Tristan will go with them if they leave and you are still here. What he's become has done nothing to ease the madness that resided in his mind before he was changed. His safety isn't his number one concern, his obsession is."
"And I'm his obsession."
"You are," he confirmed.
"And what am I to you?"
Words tumbled through his mind so fast that he didn't know what to say. There was so much that he had to explain to her, so much that he had to tell her, but he wasn't sure where to begin or how to start to make her understand what she was to him. In the end, he settled for the simple truth. "You're my everything."
His words melted her heart. "Ethan..."
"I didn't say that because I expect a response from you, because I expect it to make everything better. I said it because it's the truth and you have to know that."
How could she possibly stay mad at him when he was saying things like that to her? She didn't even have time to process that question or how to answer it before Isabelle appeared in the hallway.
Untamed (Vampire Awakenings, Book 3) Page 19
