“Please. Just leave, Portia,” he said in a tight voice, never turning to look at me. “We are no good together anymore. Things have changed, and the feelings we’ve had for each other are being affected differently now. I think this would be the best thing for us to do.”
I felt my insides grow cold at his words, as if they were turning to ice then breaking into a million pieces. I had to search hard for my voice.
“Fine,” I said, pushing away from the wall, trying to maintain my composure. I walked over, reaching into my jacket pocket to pull out the box which held the ring my grandma had sent to him, placing it on the floor next to his feet, and then I turned and walked down the hall toward the door. Over my shoulder I said, “By the way, please keep in contact with the coven at least. They’re waiting to hear from you so they can come help you with your father. They sent that to you.” I gestured toward the box. “Don’t be stupid and try to do it alone.”
He didn’t look at me or even say anything more as I left the building and walked out into the bright sunshine.
I passed Brad and Shelly, who were standing outside the door, and walked over to get into the Mustang. They exchanged puzzled glances before they joined me.
“What’s going on?” Shelly asked with a worried look.
“Let’s go back to the hotel,” I replied and leaned back against the seat, closing my eyes to signal the end of the conversation. They climbed into the car after me.
I managed to keep things together until we reached our room.
“Do you two mind if I have a minute alone?” I asked them, trying to control the slight tremor in my voice.
“Not at all,” Shelly said, eyeing me with another concerned gaze. “We’ll go down to the restaurant and get some tea. Can we get you anything?”
I shook my head.
They whispered together as they went down the hall, while I fumbled with opening the door. I walked inside and went over to the desk to place the room keycard on it.
I peered at my stricken face in the mirror. It was pale and tight. My whole body started shaking, and I turned, stumbled over to the bed and fell onto it.
“He left me!” I cried out, the sobs racking my entire being. “He left me!”
I grabbed a pillow, burying my face into it and cried. My grief took complete hold of me. My body convulsed, and tears streamed down my face.
I didn’t want to live. There was no way I could go on. I wished for death right there on the spot. I wished he had killed me. Death had to be easier than this.
I had no idea how long I lay there, but I didn’t move when Shelly and Brad came back to the room. Shelly took one look at me and rushed to my side.
“Tell me,” she demanded. She sat next to me and lifted my head, putting it in her lap.
“He left me!” was all I could say, and the fresh sobs came even harder.
I cried for hours, Shelly holding me, stroking my hair into the darkness of the night. I hoped numbness would finally overtake me, but it never came. I couldn’t stop.
Brad sat in one of the chairs, occasionally jumping up to pace the room back and forth.
“Sit down!” Shelly finally snapped at him. “You’re just making her more nervous!”
“I can’t,” he said and grabbed for his jacket and put it on. “I’m going to go out to find that jerk, and then I am going to beat the crap out of him!”
“Don’t go!” I pleaded with him, sitting up a little. “He made it very clear that he needs me out of his life.”
“Well, then after I kill him, he’ll have his wish,” Brad said through clenched teeth, his hand on the doorknob.
I was still crying when he opened the door to step out. I blinked my swollen eyes in confusion for a moment before I realized my brain wasn’t playing tricks on me, and Vance was actually standing on the other side of the door.
Brad’s reflexes acted quickly: He cocked his arm back and threw his punch.
Vance was quicker. He grabbed Brad’s fist in mid air with his hand, stopping it completely.
“I need to talk to Portia,” he said, with a deadly look. “Alone.”
Chapter 4
“Don’t you think she’s had enough already?” Brad yelled at Vance and yanked his fist away from him. “She can’t take anymore!” he added angrily. He stood square in the doorway, trying to block the entrance.
“Let him in,” I said softly. Crying hiccups overtook me.
Brad glared back and forth between the two of us before he stepped out of the way and allowed Vance to enter the room.
“Come on, Shelly,” Brad said, nodding his head toward the door, not acting too happy about the situation.
Shelly turned to me, her face full of concern.
“Are you sure you want me to go?” she asked gently.
I nodded.
“I’ll be fine,” I said, swallowing the large lump in the middle of my throat, feeling thankful to have friends who cared about my well being so much.
Shelly grabbed her coat on the way out and paused in front of Vance.
“Don’t you dare hurt her anymore,” she commanded, staring him in the eye. “Do you understand me?” she added when he didn’t respond.
Vance still said nothing, flatly returning her gaze, not acknowledging he had heard her in any way.
Finally, she just pushed past him and out the door.
When they were gone, Vance locked the deadbolt and the latch behind them. He stood there for a moment, staring at the door before he turned around and walked over to sit on the other bed in the room, across from me.
I didn’t say anything to him, watching him as he rubbed his palms together, moving them back and forth slowly.
He didn’t look at me, appearing to be lost in thought, just staring at his hands, and I sat patiently, waiting for him to speak to me when he was ready.
We sat there in silence for several long moments, only the sound of my hiccups filling the air, and I was beginning to think he wasn’t ever going to say anything when he finally lifted his head and gazed intently at me.
“Portia,” was the only thing he said, and he shook his head slightly from side to side, giving a deep sigh.
He thrust a hand through his hair, before standing up suddenly and shrugging out of his leather jacket. He placed the jacket on the bed and sat back down.
I watched his muscles rippling under the tight t-shirt which did little to hide the muscular physique beneath. My physical reaction to him would never change, I realized as I felt my pulse leap up in tempo.
“I can’t do it,” he said, looking into my eyes.
“Do what?” I asked, trying to follow.
“Leave you,” he answered. “It’s tearing me up inside, and it’s obviously doing the same thing to you.”
“Listen, Vance,” I said pushing myself up to sit cross-legged on the bed. I moved my disheveled hair back from my tearstained face. “I can’t do this anymore. You have some decisions to make right now. I will not play this game with you. Do you understand me?”
“I’ll do anything you want. Just tell me what to do,” he replied with a dejected sigh.
I looked at him hard, trying to gauge his emotions, knowing he had never been one to handle ultimatums well in the past.
“You have to make a choice right now, this minute,” I continued. “You either commit to me here and now, or you leave. I know you’re in pain, but I need to know I can trust you.”
“I understand,” he said, his gaze not moving from my face.
I paused for a second, feeling more than a little melodramatic at the moment, along with also experiencing a need to let him know how badly I had really felt about all this.
“And if you think you can’t abide by that and you need to leave me, then I have one request,” I added.
“Which is what?” he asked, confusion lighting his face.
“I would rather that you just kill me next time, if you decide to go. Drink every single drop of my blood please and let me die, beca
use this hurts too badly.” I pointed to my chest and my eyes welled up with tears again.
He was instantly over to my bed and kneeling on the floor in front of me, softly placing his head in my lap.
“Portia, stop. Don’t talk like this. I don’t want to hurt you, ever,” he said, reaching his arms around me.
“You already have,” I replied, and ran my fingers lightly through his hair, unable to help myself. “I just want you to understand if you need me so badly that you’re willing to leave me for my protection, then I’m offering myself up as a gift to you. I’ll even be with you physically if it’s what you truly desire, and I’ll give you every drop of blood that I have. Just please let me know that it’s the end so I can savor each and every moment I have left with you. The choice is yours. Whenever you want it, all you have to do is ask. I will give it to you freely; just don’t leave me behind again.” I knew I sounded crazy, almost hysterical.
“Portia, stop it!” he said, and grabbed me by the arms, shaking me slightly. “I’m not going to take your virginity and then drink you dry.”
He was exasperated with me now. I could feel it coursing through him before he released me. He rose to his feet and paced the room.
My eyes never left him.
“I wouldn’t have come here tonight if I thought I wouldn’t be able to control myself. When you walked out the door, and out of my life, I thought I was going to die. I could feel the pain that I’d caused you, and I felt horrible.” He sat back down on the edge of the bed. “I realized then that your life and your happiness mean more to me than anything else. I thought I was doing the right thing by sending you away. Don’t get me wrong. I second-guessed myself a lot. I’ve had to do quite a bit of soul searching over the last few hours, and it was brutal. All I could hear was your crying.”
“You were still listening?” I was surprised to hear this.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself. Your grief was overwhelming me,” he said, looking at me with sad eyes.
“Why did you wait so long to come to me?” I asked, thinking of the torment he had put me through.
“I had to be sure. I had to know it was the right thing for me to do, the right thing for you.” He looked away from me then for a moment, took in a slow breath, and moved his gaze back to me. “I’m being totally selfish here. You’d be much better off without me.”
“Vance. That is not possible.” I lifted my hands to the sides of his face. “I’ll take you any way I can. Even if it means you become a raving demon lunatic. I just have to be with you.”
He stood up then and walked around the bed so he could crawl up behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me up against him, while leaning back on the pillows behind us.
We laid there in silence for several moments, and I reveled in the feel of being back in his arms.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered into my ear.
“I love you,” I said, rolling from my back to my stomach so I could look at him closer.
“I love you, too,” he replied, reaching out to run his fingers through my hair.
“Then kiss me.”
I knew I was tempting fate with this request, but I had to know how he would react.
He hesitated for a moment before he finally pulled me to him and kissed me gently.
I didn’t close my eyes. I wanted to see his reaction, and I found he didn’t close his eyes either, instead choosing to look deep into my mine.
He rolled me over suddenly, so I was on my back and he was leaning over me. He just looked at me for a minute, stroking my hair, and then he brought his mouth down to mine and kissed me like he was starving to death.
I felt the passion between us heat up quickly, but still I didn’t take my eyes off him. I saw the red color flash through his irises, signaling that his desires could be getting out of control.
He didn’t move from me, though, continuing to kiss me. As his fervor began to grow his eyes became redder still.
I watched him, until he left my face to trail his kisses down my throat to the purple mark that was so clearly visible on my neck. I closed my eyes and let him nibble slightly at the spot before he moved back up to my lips.
I reopened my eyes to stare into his flaming ones.
“You’re playing with fire you know,” he commented casually, brushing his lips against mine.
“Yes, I know.” I stared up at him.
“Why tempt fate? Or me for that matter?” He pulled back a little bit from me so he could look at me.
“Because, if you were going to lose it and do something awful to me, you’d have done it by now. You have more control over yourself than you think.”
“So you’re testing me then?”
“Yes.”
He started kissing me again. This time a little more roughly, passionately. His hands tangled in my hair, occasionally leaving to run up and down my arms, stroking them.
I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him down against me tightly, kissing him back with everything I had.
I heard him let out a small groan, and he pulled back away from my mouth so he could kiss my cheek.
“We need to stop this,” he said and moved back down my neck to suck on that same spot again.
“No. I don’t want to.” I held him against me even harder.
I knew I was supposed to be just testing him, but I could feel that control slipping as he sucked at my throat.
“Don’t stop,” I said, breathless.
He sighed, and then it was over. He got quickly up off the bed and walked to the window where he stood staring out at the night sky.
I really was sad to see him go, but as my senses cooled I felt a moment of triumph. I had been right. He loved me too much to take me. He could control it. He just had to know he was the one in control.
“Did I pass?” he asked, offering me a small smile in the dim light.
My heart did little flip-flops at the sight. “You did.” I smiled back. “I might have failed however.” My smile turned to a small frown.
I heard the latch on the door begin to jiggle. Shelly and Brad were trying to get back into the room with their key.
“Portia?” Shelly’s voice called through the door.
Vance walked past me, picking up his jacket and slinging it over his shoulder, before opening the door for them.
Brad and Shelly both careened their heads around it, looking into the room, trying to check on me.
“I’m fine, you two. Come in.” I smiled reassuringly.
“So, Brad. How about you and I see what it would take to get checked into the room next door?” Vance said with a small grin.
Brad gave him a puzzled look before looking over to me.
I just smiled and nodded my head.
“Okay,” he answered, with a shrug of his shoulders, and turned to follow Vance out the door and down the hall.
“So, what happened?” Shelly asked, coming in and closing the door.
“Nothing and everything,” I replied, my smile growing soft with the memory of it all.
“Are the two of you good then?”
“We’re good,” I said with a nod. “Now let’s go to sleep.”
In the morning I called my dad to let him know we had found Vance and the four of us would be continuing to search for any information that might lead us to his father’s current location.
Afterward, Shelly and I met up with Brad and Vance, and we decided to go to a local pancake house for breakfast.
I hardly tasted my food. Vance held my hand every second he possibly could, and I loved every minute of the simple connection with him. Never again would I take such a sweet gesture for granted.
We chatted over breakfast, and I informed everyone I had called home to catch the family up to speed. I also told them my dad had been in contact with some other covens and they had pledged to help in any way they possibly could if we should need it.
After we were finished eating, we set a plan for the rest of the mornin
g. There was still one warehouse that hadn’t been searched. We would go there to see if anything turned up.
We decided to leave Vance’s motorcycle at the hotel and piled into the Mustang together. It wasn’t exactly the most comfortable way to travel since Mustangs aren’t really built to be a passenger car, but we made do. Brad scooted up his seat as far as he could so Vance could have a little leg room, and I sat sideways in the seat next to him with my legs slung over his lap.
Shelly, being a cautious driver, insisted we all have our seatbelts on, and once the buckling up was done, we were on our way.
I noticed Vance kept absently patting one of my legs as we drove through town, visiting with one another. I enjoyed the familiar contact, happy that he had really missed me, too.
Shelly soon turned off the road and drove down a smaller street until she pulled into an empty parking lot.
When we drove up to this address, I was surprised to find it was a much smaller building than the others we had visited. Upon entry we discovered the reason why.
It wasn’t a warehouse at all but an office building. There were two floors in the building, so Shelly and Brad said they would look through the bottom floor if the two of us wanted to take the top.
We split up, and Vance grabbed my hand as we made our way to the second story. Most of the offices looked abandoned on this floor, wiped pretty clean actually. There was the odd piece of office furniture here and there, the occasional metal desk, along with some empty filing cabinets with the drawers still open, as if someone had emptied them in a hurry.
“I don’t think we’re going to find much here,” Vance said in a discouraged voice and magically popped open each door on the floor before we went inside.
“It’s kind of looking that way,” I agreed. I brushed past him to study the last room.
I was turning to leave the room when something that seemed a bit odd caught my eye, back behind Vance.
“What is it?” he asked, turning to follow my gaze.
“It’s this wall sconce,” I said, walking up to look at the fixture. “I didn’t see anything else like it in the building. Why would it be left here, in this odd place by itself?”
I reached out to run a finger over it. It was then I noticed the slight scuff marks next to the light. I placed my hand firmly on the lamp and pushed on it, surprised to find that it turned to the right in my hand.
Of Witches and Warlocks: The Demon Kiss Page 4
