Scorned

by Tyffani Clark Kemp

  We stood between our cars. I leaned back against mine. Pierce stood in front of me, his amber eyes carefully empty.

  “You sure you don’t want to come over for a little bit and hang out?” he asked. He took a step forward so his right knee was between my legs, and he brushed some hair from my face. I expected him to drop his hand back down to his side, but he didn’t. He cupped my face in his hand and stroked my cheek softly with his thumb. It sent a shiver down my spine, my insides melted, and my eyelids drooped. I pressed my face into his hand, desperate for his touch.

  God I missed you!

  Pierce leaned in and kissed me, soft and slow, but with an urgency I didn’t quite understand. There was pain in that kiss, guilt and pain. I kissed him back because I wanted him to know nothing had changed. I still loved him but I was hurt and confused. When he pulled back, neither of us was out of breath. Neither of us really turned on. Pierce rested his forehead against mine.

  “LeKrista.”

  I think that’s what he said. It sure sounded like it, but he said it so softly I couldn’t be completely sure. Then, he stepped away, his fingers trailing off the end of my jaw like he didn’t want to relinquish contact yet.

  “If you need your space, I’ll give it to you. I can understand how you would. I love you, Babydoll.”

  I smiled in spite of myself. “That’s a new one.”

  Pierce smiled back. “Yeah. I like it though.”

  I nodded my agreement.

  “Get home, babe. It’s supposed to get nasty later.”

  “Okay.” I kissed him one more time before I got in my car. “I love you,” I told him before he closed my door.

  “I love you too, Staci.”

  The door slammed and I turned the key in the ignition. I don’t remember much of the ride home. My mind was in other places, dealing with things much more important than driving. I didn’t speak to anyone when I got home. I changed clothes and climbed into bed. I didn’t have any tears. I just went to sleep.

  Everything was disjointed like an out-of-body experience. Perdita primped her long, thick hair in a gilt gothic mirror. Her makeup was dark against her milky pale skin and her eyes stood out so bold they almost glowed. She wore a red and black dress that looked like something out of an Alice in Wonderland film. She had her long, thick hair tied off to one side so it trailed over her shoulder in a fall of dark, wavy curls and she ran her brush through it, only to have the curls pop back into place.

  A girl entered the room and I recognized her as our waitress from earlier. She came in and knelt by Perdita’s chair and handed her a small vial of dark red liquid. I knew it at once to be blood. I guess after all the blood today it only made sense to dream about it. The blood loss probably didn’t help either.

  “Thank you,” Perdita said in her sultry voice. She unscrewed the top of the vial and tipped it up, downing every bit of it within seconds. Perdita sat back and closed her eyes...

  Everything changed. I was back in my bed, laying in the dark, but only for a moment. I lost consciousness quickly, lulled deeper into a place I didn’t know.

  “Hello, stupid girl.” Perdita’s voice saturated the air like thick perfume. I could almost taste it and feel it coat my skin. It was so hard to breathe. Distantly, I felt myself gasping for air. I could feel that little niggle at the base of my skull and knew something bad was about to happen.

  “Perdita.” I didn’t mean for it to sound like an accusation.

  Perdita chuckled and the air grew even thicker, intoxicating now, like a very rich wine. “You remember me. How sweet.”

  This couldn’t be good. “How could I forget you?” I gasped. The air steadily grew thicker and there were spots in my vision. In reality where I lay in my bed I was suffocating, dying, and Perdita had everything to do with that.

  “I’m going to kill you, one way or another. I respect that you had to protect yourself. Nothing wrong with that, but you killed my lover. I can’t let that go.”

  I gasped, but got no air. “I understand,” I tried to whisper, but it came out so choked it was a wonder she understood. Apparently, not being able to breathe in real life had an effect on how I spoke to people in my head. “I hope you’ll understand,” I tried to continue, “that I’m going to do everything in my power to keep that from happening.”

  “Oh really?” she laughed. “You can hardly control your own thoughts. How do you plan to do that, exactly?”

  “Let me show you. Roman!”

  I hadn’t tried to contact him since I told Pierce about him, but the connection was always there, ready and waiting for me to make the first move. So I made a move and felt the connection fly open in alarm. I caught a glimpse of blonde hair and a room decorated in reds and golds before they were shut off to me. In my head I felt Roman roar in anger.

  “You weren’t invited to this little foray,” Perdita bitched.

  “LeKrista invited me,” Roman answered back. “You do realize that by harming LeKrista you bring the full force of my wrath down upon you.”

  “I don’t fear you, old man.”

  Roman chuckled.

  I wasn’t dead yet. Perdita was killing me slowly. As it was, even though she was trying to put me through as much agony as she possibly could, I knew I was about to go. I felt my body preparing for a grand mal seizure. I’d only ever had one of those before in my life but I would never forget what it felt like.

  “Roman,” I gasped. “Roman, I’m seiz...” I couldn’t get the rest of the word out. My body convulsed. Perdita’s maniacal laughter echoed in my skull. She was deliberately keeping me conscious.

  Thunk!

  I’d fallen off the bed. Roman was saying something, but I couldn’t concentrate on the words. He wasn’t making any sense.

  “LeKrista?!” My aunt must have heard me hit the floor. It was chaos. Roman and Perdita screamed in my head, my aunt and uncle panicked in my bedroom, and I was caught in the middle with no way to make it stop. I heard myself whimper, attempting to make contact with someone, and then pain. Something snapped inside my brain, I felt it as well as heard it. A sharp pain split my head in two and spread until I thought my brain would explode.

  “I’m sorry, my sweet.” It was Roman’s voice in my head now, sweet and smooth with that accent of his. The shouting had stopped.

  I had stopped seizing and I couldn’t feel Perdita.

  “I don’t want to go to the hospital,” I told Roman. “Can you wake me up?”

  My eyes fluttered open a moment later, but I had to close them against the brilliance of the lights in the room. I groaned and clenched my eyes as tight as I could.

  “LeKrista?” my aunt asked. “Oh, my god! LeKrista, what happened?”

  I shook my head gently. I didn’t know what to tell her, so I tried not to tell her anything. As long as I didn’t have to lie any more than necessary, because heaven knows I’d done plenty of that in the last three weeks.

  “Would you like me to run you a bath with Epson salts?”

  I nodded. Wasn’t like it could hurt, right? Anything to not have to deal with the muscle pain.

  “LeKrista. Would you like for me to see what I can do for you? I fear causing another seizure.”

  “You can try." What would it matter if I died? If Perdita knew how to get to me so thoroughly, I was a goner anyway.

  I let my aunt help me to the bath, but I insisted she go back to bed once I was comfortably settled in.

  “Are you sure, Kris?”

  “Yes, I’m sure,” I told her sharply at the use of my hated nickname. “I’m fine. I’ll call if I need help.”

  “Alright.”

  Roman woke me when he knocked on the bathroom door.

  “LeKrista? Are you decent?”

  “No,” I told him firmly. “No, I’m in the bathtub.”

  You idiot.

  I wanted to add that last part, but I refrained. He’d just saved my life. Again. I could hold off on the name calling for a day or two. Maybe.

&nb
sp; “LeKrista, I think I’ve come up with a safer solution. One that may require less risk. If I were to transfer my healing into the water, perhaps you could absorb it second hand, yes?”

  It was a good plan, there was just one catch. “But, I’m naked.”

  “Yes, well. I’ll close my eyes.” The humor in his voice was unmistakable and infuriating.

  “Bastard,” I muttered under my breath. He heard me anyway.

  “LeKrista, when did your language become so filthy?”

  “When you made my boyfriend leave me.”

  “I did nothing, LeKrista.” And the accusation in his voice was clear.

  “Just fix me, so you can go.” The humor left Roman as quick as lightning strikes.

  “Cover yourself, LeKrista.” His accent grew thicker with his anger and I threw my arms across my chest and crossed my legs as best I could.

  Roman stepped around the corner of the wall dressed in a pressed pair of blue jeans and a black long-sleeved, v-neck shirt. It fit him snugly so I could see the outline of every muscle in his upper body. I couldn’t help but stare. I like muscles.

  Dear God in heaven.

  “You’re sick, Roman. You know that?” He’d purposefully dressed this way so I would be attracted. He’d just shown me that. The grin that spread across his perfect teeth, lifting his full lips up into a smile that showed more fang than he’d ever shown before, proved just how cruel he could be. The scary part wasn’t the fangs, however. It was how sexy those fangs actually looked with the entire package. He wanted me and I thought he was sexy. Yeah, I was pretty much screwed.

  Pierce!

  Roman knelt by the tub and rolled his sleeves up slowly before he plunged them into the semi-warm water. He touched my leg deliberately and I scowled. “Please, Roman. No more games. Please?” I was begging pitifully, but I meant it. I just wanted to feel better. I was so tired.

  Roman nodded. “My apologies.”

  The water began to froth and bubble. Slowly at first, until it grew into a makeshift hot tub. It wasn’t long before I was asleep, again, which wasn't too surprising. As I slept, I dreamed, but not images stirred by my own subconscious. Roman was projecting. Images from his life and experience swam around in my head. Beautiful places that no longer existed, places I would have loved to see and experience for myself, but he woke me way too soon.

  “LeKrista, my sweet.”

  “What?” I moaned groggily. I did not want to be awake.

  “At the risk of you being angry...” This couldn’t be good. “I’ve wrapped you in your robe and put you to bed.”

  I looked around. “You saw me naked?” I asked, feeling very embarrassed.

  “I looked as little as possible.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure you did. Just go, please. I’m tired.”

  “As you like. I will...keep an eye on you though? I do not want Perdita bothering you again.”

  I didn’t argue, not because I didn’t want to, but I didn’t want Perdita bothering me again either. “You’re going to hang around or you’re going to keep surveillance in my head?” I asked.

  That made him chuckle. “I will go home,” was all he said before he kissed me on the forehead. I could have done without that. I frowned and said crude things in my head, hoping he was listening. He just laughed and shook his head before he walked out the door.

  I lay back on my bed and waited, but as tired as I was, I couldn’t make myself fall asleep.

  “Are you alright, LeKrista?” Roman asked in my mind. I growled audibly and wished I had a way to lock him out. “Why are you angry with me?”

  Was he kidding? I didn’t answer right away, because I didn’t have anything nice to say. When I did answer, I tried to keep my explanations short. “My mind is private. You’re not supposed to be in here.” I felt him chuckle at the back of my mind. “Besides, you promised you wouldn’t snoop.”

  “I’m not snooping.”

  “You’re lurking. It’s the same difference, especially if I don’t know you’re there. It’s not fair and it’s not right. You have instant access to my most private thoughts and, need I remind you, the ability to kill me at will. As does Perdita. So you’ll forgive me if I’m not so comfortable with you swimming through my brain.” So much for keeping it short.

  “You’re right,” Roman said after a moment. “You are right and I apologize for making light of it. I didn’t pay attention to how scared you are. I will fix this problem by morning.”

  “And you’ll get out of my head?” I wanted to know.

  “Yes, as you wish. But I can help you sleep, first. If you’d like.”

  I didn’t notice when Roman slid my mind into sleep. Again I dreamed of places that I could never see but for Roman’s projections and I woke up serene until I realized that he’d been in my head all night. But the damn vampire didn’t give me a chance to get angry. The doorbell rang not thirty seconds later. I was careful getting out of bed and slipped into some clothes as quickly as I could, but I wasn’t as sore as I thought I’d be. Roman’s “osmosis bath” had actually worked.

  “Hi, I’m a friend of LeKrista’s.”

  I walked around the corner to find Tate standing in the door talking to my aunt. I stopped dead in my tracks. All I could see under her Red Riding Hood style cape was her pale white face and pink eyes. She turned to me and smiled. Her dainty features lit up and she stepped over the threshold without being invited in. “There you are. Just wake up?”

  I nodded as she tossed back her cape and I was shocked again at how starkly her burgundy-red hair stood out against her porcelain white skin. She came over to me and wrapped me in a tight hug like we’d been friends forever.

  “So good to see you!”

  I couldn’t help smiling. I liked her, even if she was associated with Roman and a little on the eccentric side.

  “Beautiful weather, isn’t it?” Tate asked. “Grab a jacket and let’s go for a walk, yeah?”

  Over Tate’s shoulder my aunt stared rudely.

  “Yeah, wow it has been too long!” I said, playing along and Tate’s eyes lit up even more. She followed me to my room. “You’ll have to forgive my aunt,” I said.

  Tate waved it off. “I’m used to the looks, as you can imagine. Oh how cute!”

  My dog bounded in and put his front paws on Tate’s stomach. He’s always been partial to women. His tongue lolled to one side and he looked like he was grinning. He was shaggy right now and his thick, curly black fur made him look like he was ten pounds heavier than he really was.

  “That’s Bermides. Don’t ask. I made it up a long time ago.”

  Tate chuckled. “I’d love to hear that story one day. Ready?”

  I finished tying my shoe and nodded. “Yup. Come on Bermy.”

  “That is so cute!” I hooked his leash and the dog came outside with us on our walk.

  “What did Roman tell you?” I asked Tate when we were alone.

  “He told me about Lucretious and Perdita,” she answered. “He also said that you’re under his protection.”

  “Yeah, well,” I said bitterly, “that only seems to matter if the other vampires feel like abiding by the rules.”

  Tate didn’t argue. “There’s more,” she said, “that he hasn’t told you. He thought it might be better coming from me since... Well...”

  “What?” I asked. “How could it possibly be worse than vampires in my head trying to kill me?”

  “There may be a way for you to protect yourself. No, let me rephrase that. There is a way for you to protect yourself, but you have to be willing.”

  That sounded ominous. “I’m not becoming a vampire.”

  Tate laughed at that like she hadn’t heard a joke so funny in her life. I just frowned at her until she was done. “I’m sorry,” she finally said as she caught her breath. “I don’t mean to laugh.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “Yes, I do, but not like that. I wasn’t suggesting that you become a vampire, though,” and she was complet
ely serious now, “it’s not too far off as a guess.”

  “Fantastic. Just give it to me quick and straight. Get it over with.”

  “Roman thinks you have Mage potential,” she complied. “It’s why Lucretious targeted you in the first place. You have the same potential as Vivian.”

  “You know about Vivian?” I asked.

  “No, but Roman said you would.”

  I nodded. “Am I hearing you right? You said Mage. Like, the same kind from fiction novels?”

  “Yeah. Just like vampires.”

  I didn’t have anything to say to that. I nodded again and turned as a car drove up the street and pulled into the driveway. “That for you?”

  “Yeah. Listen, think about it.” Tate handed me a card that read Vamp-Lightenment in red Gothic lettering and a website. “You can find me online just about anytime and there are others who can help find out if what Roman thinks is true, okay? Even if you decide not to take that road, get online and talk to me anyway, kay?”

  Tate gave me a huge smile. “Yeah, I’ll find you. Oh, where can I get one of those capes?”

  She grinned. “I’ll get you one.” She climbed into the black sedan and they drove off. I nudged Bermy with my foot. “It’s cold,” I told him and we went back into the house.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  I don’t know if it was a weird side effect from Roman’s healing or simply because of the magnitude of the seizure the night before, but I slept most of the day. My body wasn’t sore like it usually is after a seizure, but I was ridiculously tired. Bermides knew there was something wrong and was cuddled next to me every time I woke up. I don’t think he moved once. By midnight, I was wide awake, so I went to my computer and punched in the website Tate gave me.

  The title across the top of the page read “Live! Chat with vampire experts now!” I clicked the “Enter” link and went inside the web page.