The Awakening: A Witch-Vampire Romance: Feel the Heat.

by Anastasha Renee

  I can tell from the glint in his eyes that he needs a reminder that we are both alive and well as much as I do.

  I enter Jessa’s room and almost jump out of my skin when she isn’t quite alone. Sebastian is standing next to her bed looking down at her intently. I am so startled to see anyone else in the room that I yelp.

  “Shh, little niece, I’m just getting a look at my bride,” Sebastian tells me as quietly as he can.

  When I look at him blankly he continues.

  “You see, only once in a Vampire’s long existence do we find our destined bride. I had no idea that you would be the one that would lead me to her. I was stalking the hallways looking for the blood bank in this ghastly place and I caught a slight hint of her essence,” he continues on.

  I move over to the bed and grab his hand. I can see the look of adoration on his face, as well as the sadness and frustration in his eyes.

  “Seb, I can heal her. You don’t have to worry. She’s going to be fine.” I am trying to comfort him.

  “There is no need to use your unique gifts here. I will heal her, as is my right, for she is mine,” his tone is commanding.

  With that cumfuggled, confusing statement he brings his wrist to his mouth.

  I see his fangs slide down out of his gums and he bites into his flesh. Blood begins to flow and he quickly presses the bleeding flesh into Jessa’s mouth. She fights the liquid flowing into her mouth at first, but then she moans and latches tightly onto his wrist, suckling.

  I feel as if I am witnessing something very much private, so I turn around with a blush staining my cheeks. I might not have been able to see, but I can still hear her moan as she suckles at his open wound.

  Finally Seb says, “It is done.”

  He reaches for my hand and I turn around.

  “When she wakes she will be completely healed. She will also be different from who she was before,” he warns me.

  “Have you turned her then,” I ask, secretly hoping that he has. Jessa is a norm. Eventually I will have had to leave her completely behind.

  “Yes, her injuries were more severe than the doctors in this butcher’s shop were letting on. The only way to heal her was to turn her. When she wakes she will be confused. She will crave my presence because I am her maker, but I am also her destined. I will be here when she wakes,” he tells me with confidence. There is a happiness that is glowing inside him that wasn’t there before. Seb leans down and kisses Jessa gently on the mouth.

  “Sleep well, my love. For when you awake the real fun will begin.”

  He looks over at me with a feral light in his eyes that matches the one in my own.

  “The norm will be no more after this night. I know you want revenge for this, but by right, it is mine.”

  I nod my head in understanding but I am actually confused. Damn all of these unanswered questions. I don’t know how I feel about Sabrina dying, but then I look at Jessa so still and small in the hospital bed with wires attached to every visible part of her and I know the bitch has to die brutally.

  “I want details Seb. If I can’t do it myself, then I deserve to know that she suffered for this.”

  “You have changed, haven’t you little niece? I like this side of you. Never let anyone fuck with you. That is lesson number one.” With a quick kiss on my cheek, he slips silently out of the fourth floor window.

  I just shake my head, telling myself to just take it in stride. I jump slightly when I feel Jaxx wrap his arms around me from behind.

  “Everything that can be done here has been done. Let’s go home, pretty eyes. I have a need to be close to you.” His voice is pure torture.

  Even with my best friend lying hurt in the same room, he can still bring me to love this new life.

  I turn to look at him.

  “Seb was here,” my voice is full of reverence at what I witnessed.

  “I know. I heard everything, but we must go now. Jessa will be fine for now, but she needs her rest. And I need to have my arms wrapped around you.” He grins his wicked grin at me.

  I smile back. The first real smile that I have shared since I heard about Jessa’s accident. Everything is going to be put to rights. I’m not going to eventually lose the sister of my heart. Sabrina is going to be getting hers, and I am going home with the only man in the world that can make me smile after the terrible day I’ve had.

  He squeezes me to his side as we walk out of the room. He brushes his lips to mine.

  With that we walk out of the hospital hand in hand, get into Seb’s fancy smancy car and drive quietly home, both of us lost in our own thoughts.

  Chapter 11.

  When we pull into the drive of Jaxx’s home we are in a strange mix of elation and exhaustion. Jaxx opens my door for me and helps me out of the car.

  “Let’s get you inside and into a bath. You need to relax a little.” The man is always trying to take care of me. I chuckle to myself.

  We enter the house and I call out for Gavin. I didn’t even notice if his bike was parked out front or not. He doesn’t answer, so I figure he must still be out. Thinking about his bike makes me wonder about mine.

  “Have you heard anything from the body shop about my bike,” I ask Jaxx as I trail behind him up the stairs. I can’t help but to ogle his ass. It is damn fine, after all. He looks back at me and smirks.

  Damn I was caught, I think with a blush.

  “They haven’t called yet, but I will make the call in the A.M.,” he says, checking his watch. “Which is in just a couple of hours. Damn, it has gotten late.”

  I yawn at being reminded of the time.

  “Okay, I know it’s a private matter, but I have to ask. What will happen with Jessa when she wakes up? I mean, Sebastian turned her. He hasn’t claimed her yet. So she is going to freak the fuck out! And what happens when she can’t stay with her parents anymore?” I am slightly overwhelmed with worry.

  “Slow down. I’m sure Sebastian will answer your questions in the morning.”

  We walk into the main bath on the second floor. It has a huge sunken tub. You can fit a football team in that bitch.

  “Why don’t you get something to wear after your bath while I get it ready for you?”

  I nod, slowly trying to hide yet another yawn from him. I leave the bathroom and head for our room to grab his robe. I run it over my face, taking in his scent. MMMM! Fresh fallen snow, I think, my most favorite scent in the world. He has become very important to me in a very short amount of time. Most people would think it was crazy that we have become so close. But most people aren’t Trues. And they definitely aren’t us.

  I strip out of my two-day-old clothes and slip on his robe, then head back to the main bath. Stepping through the door, I let out a little giggle of wonder. He’d lit a few pillar candles and the enormous tub is almost overflowing with bubbles.

  “I’ll get out of here and let you have some time to wind down.” He brushes his lips across my forehead on his way out the door.

  Closing the door behind me, I slide the robe down and off my shoulders. It makes a whisper of sound as it hits the floor. I walk to the tub, climbing in and settling against the back, and then sinking below the water.

  The bubbles smell like him. I realize that he’d used his body wash to make me a bubble bath. I sigh, sinking in deeper, completely relaxed. I wash, then decide to get into the shower in order rinse off once the water starts to turn tepid.

  After I am finished with my bathing ritual, which is awesome, I find that Jaxx has left some more of his clothing for me sitting on the vanity next to the sink. I slip on my jammies and then run his brush through my hair, wishing that I had already gotten my new things from my uncle’s home. I seriously miss my flannel pajamas. When I walk out of the bathroom and into the main bedroom Jaxx is standing in the closet messing with something. I can’t exactly see what.

  I practically run and jump into the bed, diving under the covers and cocooning myself.

  “A bit chilled, Ella,” he l
aughs at me.

  “A bit. Why don’t you get your hunky ass in here with me?”

  Jaxx once again laughs and then crawls into bed with me still fully clothed, protecting my virtue and my beliefs. He lifts me so that I am laying half on his chest with my head resting beneath his chin. He wraps me tightly in his arms and I listen to his heart beat as I drift off. Right before sleep takes me, I hear Jaxx murmur a prayer of thanks.

  “Thank you Goddess, for bringing her into my life.”

  I dream that night of someone chasing me through a labyrinth of thorns. The person chasing me doesn’t have a face. It is a mass of shadows hidden from my view. I run faster and faster. So quickly that I can no longer feel the ground beneath my feet, but still they are gaining ground. I can feel their rancid breath on the back of my neck right before I stumble into a bush made of thorns. I thrash and try to fight my way out, but the thorns tighten around me, holding me captive.

  “Aww, poor little bird,” the specter of my night terror taunts me.

  “Still held against your will in a nest of your own making,” he sneers out with a grating laugh.

  I hear his heavy footsteps on the dead leaves that are littering the ground. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Coming very close to where I am still fighting the tangles of thorns. I struggle still, even as the thorns start to rip and tear at my skin. I see the glint of a knife as it flashes toward my face. It is already dripping with old blood. I wake with a blood curdling scream.

  Jaxx is up and out of the bed in a flash, searching for the source of my fear.

  “Ella, what in the Goddess’s name is wrong with you,” he is panting from the adrenaline rush.

  “What is happening,” he demands.

  I am still panting out quick breaths as I answer…

  “Nightmare. Just a bad dream. Come back to bed. I feel safer with your arms wrapped tightly around me,” I plead with him. I feel like I have been frozen from the inside out.

  Jaxx quickly complies, wrapping me up tightly as is his nightly ritual.

  “Do you want to talk about it,” he whispers now as I listen to the beat of his heart start to level out.

  “No. I don’t remember. Just the feeling of being trapped. It must have something to do with living with my adoptive parents,” I shudder as the lie slips past my lips. I lay still and breathe deeply as I stare at the ceiling, waiting for Jaxx to return to his slumber. The dream had really fucked with my head. I don’t know enough about this new world or my gifts to know if it is just a regular run of the mill nightmare, or if it is some sort of premonition. For now I just want to keep it to myself. I don’t want to worry Jaxx over childish things if it was just a night terror. It takes a long time before I feel relaxed enough to close my eyes once more. I fall slowly into darkness, praying that I won’t dream again that night.

  I wake when the light that is peeking through the gaps in the curtains hits my face. I roll over and see that Jaxx is still snoring softly. I struggle out from under the covers as quietly as I can so I don’t wake Jaxx. I hear my phone ringing from the inside of my purse where I dropped it on the floor the previous night. I reach it and hit the talk button as I hurry out of the room, hoping that I am quiet enough not to wake the man still snoring in his bed.

  “Hello,” I answer in a whisper.

  “What the fuck is wrong with me? I woke up wrong! FUCK! I have extra teeth,” the person on the other end of the line is yelling into their phone.

  “Jessa? Is that you,” I ask in a rush of air.

  “Fuck yes, it’s me! Who the fuck else would it be,” she screams back at me in hysterics.

  “Just slow down and tell me what is wrong.” I take a deep breath. I don’t know what to tell her or how to answer any of her questions. I thought Seb was going to be there to do that shit.

  “I WOKE UP WRONG,” she starts sobbing into the phone.

  “Take a deep breath. Just breathe, damn it! I can’t understand a word you are saying.” Her words are all garbled.

  “I’m trying,” she sounds calmer.

  “God this is hard. I don’t know what is wrong with me,” she continues to slur into the phone.

  “Okay slow down and gimme the 411.”

  “I woke up in the hospital with the doctors and nurses here running tests on me. They told me that I might not walk again because I was in a car accident.” She takes a deep breath and I know she is trying to remain calm.

  “They did the tests and told me how lucky that I was. That the tests were all coming back positive, and shit, but I feel all wrong! Cold. So cold Ells! And I was hungry. When I told them I was hungry they tried to shove that nasty shit they serve here down my throat. I threw it all back up. And the hunger just kept getting worse,” she is back to garbling her words but I don’t dare interrupt her.

  “Okay, what else? You said you had extra teeth,” I am trying to lead her to get to the main reason she is freaking out. I slump down to the floor outside the door of Jaxx’s room. I need the support of the wall. I am so out of my depth here.

  “I’m getting there bitch,” She snarls at me through the phone.

  Whoa, that’s new.

  “Like I said, the hunger just kept getting worse and I started smelling something really good. I mean, double cheese burger with bacon good. I walked out into the hall and told them that I threw up and I needed something else to eat since I was still hungry and the nurse told me that I would have to wait for the doc.”

  I take a deep breath, hoping against hope this isn’t going to go the way I think it is going.

  “Anyway, when I was talking to the stuck up skank, I saw her neck. I mean, what the fuck was I staring at her neck for? Then I heard her heart beating. No one else was around in the hall or at the nurse’s station, so I knew it was her,” she starts to sob.

  This is going to be bad. I just know it.

  “I looked in her eyes and just knew that I could control her if I wanted. So I told her that I was hungry. SO damn hungry! I told her to come around the desk and lean her neck to the side for me. Then I BIT THE BITCH!” She is loudly crying now.

  “Jessa, please tell me where you are. I’ll come and get you. We can fix this, I promise,” I plead with her.

  Jaxx and Gavin are now standing in the hallway, listening to our conversation.

  “I have extra sharp fucking teeth! How can you fix that? I sucked on a stranger’s neck and I loved it! LOVED it, Ells,” she is back to snarling and hissing at me.

  “Jessa tell me where you are now! I need to come and get you,” I demand in my own anger. Not anger at her, but for this whole fucked situation.

  “Fuck you! I don’t want to be around anyone! You can’t fix me now. I’m some kind of monster!!”

  I grip my phone harder.

  “Trust me, Jessa. I can help! Please just let me come to you. I promise I can make it better if you let me try.” Pleading with her is all I can think to do at the moment.

  “No,” she whispers into the phone in an eerily calm voice.

  “I’m going to disappear for a while. I’m not safe to be around. I don’t want to hurt anyone else, especially not you,” with that she hangs up the phone.

  I look up at Jaxx and freak the fuck out.

  “Where the fuck is Sebastian? He was supposed to be there when she woke up! He swore he would take care of her! She is his bride or some shit. WHERE THE FUCK IS HE,” I scream, shaking with pent up violence.

  Gavin takes off like a bat out of hell down the hallway and up the stairs to the third floor. Jaxx kneels in front of me and puts his hands on my shoulders.

  “Ells you aren’t helping Jessa by freaking yourself out. Calm down, we will fix this. I swear it to you,” he is talking to me as if I am a child. I hate that.

  Gavin comes sprinting back down the hallway toward us, alone. This is so not good. Before he can get a word out, my phone starts ringing again. I answer it right away, thinking it might be Jessa. It isn’t.

  “Yeah,” I answer.

&nb
sp; “Ells,” Devon seems out of breath.

  “Have you seen or heard from Jessa this morning,” he sounds just as freaked as I am.

  Jaxx is shaking his head no at me. So I lie.

  “No, honey, I haven’t. Why, what’s wrong,” I try to sound calm, but there is a tremor in my voice.

  “I came to visit her early this morning, hoping to catch her awake before they doped her up on pain meds and the whole floor was in an uproar. She’s gone Ells. No one knows where she is. If she left on her own, or if someone has taken her. Her parents are freaking the hell out.”

  “What do they think happened? Was anyone hurt,” I ask this thinking about the nurse that Jessa had nibbled on.

  “No. No one was hurt. They just don’t know where she is. She has just vanished. Disappeared. The cops are swarming and asking questions. They think it was foul play because of the nature of her accident.”

  “Fuck,” I breathe out. That’s the only response I can think of.

  “Baby boy, we will find her. I promise. They couldn’t have taken her far. If someone actually did take her, you know how Jessa is. She probably woke up mad as hell, knowing that Sabrina caused this shit. She’s probably on her way to her house to kick her ass. Even if she is limping and hurt,” I chuckle, wishing that was the truth of it.

  “You’re probably right. She’s a tough little munchkin. Okay, I have to go. The police want to talk to me again. Don’t be surprised if they want to talk to you too sometime today. Please call me if you hear from her. And I will do the same. Love you!” He drops the call quickly.

  I throw my phone against the wall opposite me. It shatters from the strength of my anger. I look from Jaxx to Gavin then behind them. The pictures on the walls start to sway and the house’s foundation rumbles.

  “WHERE THE FUCK IS HE,” I scream at the top of my lungs.

  “Calm yourself, Ella. I’m not Jaxx and I’m not going to placate you like a child. I’m your brother, your blood. I know anger like you can’t even imagine. I know for a fact that you can control this shit.”