by Sia Wales
“Do you feel you can trust me?” he asked gently, his voice an icy whisper in her ear, squeezing her reassuringly in his embrace, not realizing he was holding his breath for her answer.
She refused to give in, at first, to the sound of his voice. Her breath caught in her throat as she tried once again to see his face. He lifted her shirt and placed his hands on her skin, and Stella finally let herself go, relaxing her body in his arms.
“Yes…” she whispered, and the sweet sound of her assent spread through him.
“Then that’s all you need to know, Stella,” he said, crushing her shirt in his fists then uncurling his fingers to let his fingertips lightly skim her skin, electrifying her with his touch. He was so close that his icy body made her thighs start to shake slightly.
Aaron, just about to exit Starbucks, paused as he saw them from the window and decided to give them some privacy.
“How come you know my name?” She felt his fingers play with her hair and slide down her cheek.
“That’s easy, I’m your eternal shadow,” he said, unable to resist brushing his lips across her ear, tracing its contours and then kissing her shoulder, sucking a drop of rain from her skin. Stella’s thoughts chased each other through her mind. She closed her eyes for a second, took a deep breath, and then opened them.
“Jason…” Her heart raced and she could hardly breathe for excitement. The hope she had been trying to dampen inside of her was suddenly rekindled.
“No, not Jason.” Desperately trying to control his emotions, he bit his lip, and then let it go with a sigh. Steeling himself to leave her, he made his face impassable, still trying to convince himself that it was better to lie to her. His eyes dull, he took his arms from her and slipped quietly away while her back was still turned, melting into the cascade of raindrops that glittered like diamonds on the horizon.
Stella, oblivious to the sounds around her, had moved from feeling pain to an empty vacuum that transcended the cold, the rain, the wind; she didn’t even notice the sharp, throbbing ache of her injury anymore. She felt only him; he was the only thing that existed for her in that moment as a tiny smile of incredulity spread across her face. Then she saw Aaron come out with a coffee to-go in his hand.
“Here, Stella, sorry I took so long, but it was super crowded in there,” he explained, slowly letting the cup slide into the cradle of her hands until he felt her grip it safely.
“Thanks, Aaron,” Stella said, still cold and shivering as she wrapped her hands around its comforting warmth.
“Go on, it’s good and hot, it’ll warm you up,” he urged her gently, a sweet smile on his face.
“You’re a sweetie, Aaron,” Stella said, feeling a rush of pleasure as she sipped the steaming drink.
“No, I feel bad I have nothing else that could warm you… Oh, but I can give you my jacket…” He started to shrug it off his shoulders when she stopped him with a friendly gesture.
“No, I appreciate the thought, but I feel much better now.”
“I saw you talking to someone when I was inside before…” he prompted, anxious to know if she still thought it was Jason.
“Yeah… I didn’t even get to see his face,” she replied with a puzzled expression.
“So I guess you don’t know who it was?” His eyes bored into her.
“Yeah, that’s right.” She sipped her coffee hesitantly, her eyes blanking as she stared into the empty space in front of her. Her brain was spinning: could it really have been Jason?
“Hang on, you let a guy you don’t even know approach you like that?” he asked, with a polite yet warm smile, seeing Jason not far away and giving him a knowing look.
“Yes, no, I don’t know who it was, so please stop the questions, you’re wearing me out,” she said bleakly, sipping the deliciously hot coffee, ignoring the big question mark that had taken root in her mind: was it Jason or not?
“Strange day, this,” he said, leaning against the wall next to her, his eyes sparkling like the light that pierced the clouds.
“You said it… I just hope it doesn’t get any stranger,” she laughed wryly, the memory of Jason tormenting her with each sip of coffee.
“Don’t count on it, Stella,” he frowned, his features flooding with sadness as he attempted to reassure her anyway in his velvety voice.
They both lapsed into silence as each followed the flights of his own thoughts. Then Stella finished the last drop of coffee and decided to join Jamie in class, even though it had already started.
“Sorry, Aaron, but I have to go to class now,” she said, a smile flickering hesitantly on her face. She didn’t want to miss class, and she was also anxious to get somewhere she could indulge her most private, secret thoughts.
“So soon? But I hoped you wanted to hang out with me for a while.” He straightened up quickly from the wall and caught her arm to stop her going.
“I’d like to, Aaron, but Jamie’s waiting for me, at the lecture.” Stella smiled, embarrassed at his overreaction to the mere mention of her leaving.
“Yeah, sure… Later then.” He resisted the seductive effect she had on him and slowly released her arm.
Still in a state of confusion and feeling torn, Stella managed to walk away, her figure parting the sheets of rain as she hurried to the COM to catch the rest of her afternoon class, unaware that Ian still had her in his sights and was tracking her every move. At the same time, Drake was doing his best to distract Jason and Aaron in an attempt to separate them from the girl they were on a mission to guard.
Stella entered the building, still shaken by the events in the cafeteria and the scene outside Starbucks. As soon as she put her foot on the stairs, she thought she heard heavy, ponderous footsteps behind her. She quickened her pace and hit the top of the last flight of stairs running, swerving into an empty corridor only to hear silence descend as the footsteps stopped when she was midway down the hall. Her heart lurched, her breathing accelerated. Now she was even more terrified.
Suddenly she felt someone seize her from behind and pin her arms to her body. It was Ian, and he fastened his grip on her with one hand then whipped a handkerchief soaked in chloroform out of his pocket with the other, holding it over her nose and mouth. Jason and Aaron, who had managed to outwit Drake, followed the trail of her scent on the stairs and then raced down the hall. They heard the sound of whimpering and found her semi-conscious in the arms of the werewolf.
Stella felt as though she were floating off to sleep with her eyes wide open, seeing the images before her unspool like a silent movie, then freeze into an old black and white photo, its edges frayed by the slow passing of time. Everything blurred. Aaron pulled her from Ian’s clutches and passed her to Jason, who cradled her lovingly in his arms. She heard the faint echoes of people’s voices, saw them moving against an opalescent background she couldn’t bring into focus … “Oh, I must be dreaming,” she thought drowsily but was then fulminated by the thought she’d been struggling to formulate through the swirling haze: “But what if this is really happening, what if it’s really Jason holding me?” Finally, the drug took effect and her eyes closed heavily.
“J., stay with her!” Aaron urged, pushing Ian roughly along the corridor and down the first flight of stairs.
“Hurry up, Aaron, or she’ll come round.” He looked at Stella, helpless and defenseless in his arms, desperately in need of a safe haven, of his protection.
“Stay with her J., I know you won’t hurt her. Gotta run, hate to keep a wolf waiting!” he grinned wickedly and disappeared down the stairs.
Clasping Stella tightly, Jason leaned against the wall and then slid down into a sitting position, the girl in his lap. He peered curiously up and down the deserted corridor but there wasn’t a soul in sight.
“Jason…” Stella forced her heavy eyelids open but her vision was still foggy, a blur of meaningless nothing, except for the gorgeous light that radiated on his face.
“No, it’s not Jason,” Jason sighed, his face twistin
g with the pain it caused him to deny his own name. It was like he was not only rejecting his true self, but also the only girl he had ever loved in the truest, purest sense of the word. His mesmerizing dark eyes suddenly turned a bright red, revealing his werewolf side, influenced by the moon when it was haloed or seemed to glow red.
“I wish I could believe you, but I just can’t. So all I ask of you is this: if it really is you, don’t forget me,” and she felt herself float away again, this time sucked into his seductive, pale red gaze. Using her last drop of energy, she reached up to lightly caress his cheek.
Jason looked deeply into her. He felt the force of her feelings for him hit him like a brick in the stomach. He also felt the chloroform taking hold and realized that she would not remember this conversation afterwards. He opened his mouth, let out his breath, and admitted the truth.
“How could I, Stella? Every breath I take is yours, you fill the empty chasm inside me, make me complete… You are the memory and the voice that keep me alive. The only constant in my life… If it wasn’t for the thought of you, I could never get up to face the world every day.” He lifted his hand to cover hers as it stroked his face and drew her closer so their breaths could mingle.
“Your eyes, your lips… Before, they were just dreams or memories…” Stella said as, like an unwitting prey, she was drawn ever closer to the hunter, lured into his snare instead of fleeing in the opposite direction.
“Maybe it was another time, another place, another world, Stella. Sometimes you thought you were dreaming, but the moments you lived with me were very real, my darling.” Matched only by the flame of desire that was burning deep inside him, Jason felt his craving for her blood grow mercilessly, his fear of hurting her slicing through his soul.
“Will you be there when I come to?” she asked throatily, melting his heart as she touched her soft fingertips to his mouth like she was urging his lips to form the magical word ‘yes’.
“Don’t ask me to lie to you, Stella,” he said, distracted by the trail of her fingertips, thinking it was like the mirage of a trickle of water to a parched man. Just one drop of her blood was all he wanted but he knew it would be like offering whiskey to an alcoholic. One taste would be all it took to set him on that catastrophic path of inevitability.
“Stay with me, Jason.” She put her hand on his chest, but this just served to stoke his desire. He suddenly tightened his grip on her waist and twisted her shirt in his hands as he tried to tame the frenzy of desire that impelled him to pierce the smooth, translucent skin of her neck, to kiss the throbbing pulse he saw there. He so wanted to fill his mouth with her, to kiss even the darkest part of her soul.
“Maybe one day, Stella, but not today. You don’t know how much I wish I could, my darling, but I can’t and I hate it.” Jason’s new life as a vampire had only just begun, and he was too young, too inexperienced and too unstable to risk being intimate with her. He might hurt her or, even worse, kill her. Stella closed her eyes, she felt Jason drifting away.
“Where are you going?” she snapped, struggling to raise her eyelids but seeing nothing except a dense, sinister darkness as a chill snaked up her spine.
“Nowhere, Stella, I’m here to watch over you. Now rest.” He slowly raised her up from where she had slumped, one arm cradling her head, guiding it toward his, his breath catching as he stroked her face, his hand grazing her cheek, his fingers gently combing through her thick, silky hair.
“I thought you’d slipped away and left me for a second there, I couldn’t feel you close anymore,” she whispered, terrified at the mere thought.
“And where would I go, Stella? I’m nothing without you, just an empty shell,” he tried to reassure her, but felt his breath stick in his throat as a powerful craving for her flared deep inside his body.
“Jason, I’m so cold, please hold me tighter,” she implored, curling lovingly into his chest, running her fingers through the undulating folds of his shirt. With her eyes closed, it felt like the fabric of Donn’s shirt, but the thought dissolved as quickly as it arrived.
“I’m holding you as tight as I can, Stella, it’s just that I seem to have lost the ability to produce the heat I need to warm you.” He let the heady sweetness of her breath envelop him and mingle with his. He placed his hands behind her head and slowly approached her lips, desire flaring through him. Stella was immobile, her gaze fixed on his mouth. Suddenly Jason felt the desire for her blood erupt within him.
Then, drained by the effort it took to lock down his lust and desire, he bent his head swiftly to brush her lips with his own, but suddenly his mouth turned as dry as a bone, parched from the insane thirst he had for her blood. He clenched her more tightly to his chest, trying to stop himself from springing at her throat. His eyes burned red. Oblivious to Jason’s inner turmoil, Stella felt the burning tingle of his cold, immortal skin lessen as her eyes grew heavier and heavier under the effects of the chloroform.
“Tell me you love me, Jason, before sleep steals your voice away from me.”
He kissed her on the corner of her mouth. “I love you, Stella. I’ve never loved anyone like I love you, I love you more than life itself. Now go to sleep, angel,” he murmured as two solitary teardrops squeezed out of the corners of his eyes and rolled silently down his cheeks at the unbearable thought of spending the rest of his immortal life without her. They were tears of blood, tears of pain, and the tears of a now impossible love.
“Jason…” Stella murmured an instant before she let herself melt into his arms and roll off the edge of consciousness into a deep, compelling slumber. She had never felt so complete.
While all this was happening in the upper hallway, Ian had managed to wrench himself free of Aaron and sprint down the corridor below, the elf vampire hot on his heels. Closing the gap between them, Aaron grabbed the wolf from behind and immobilized him in a headlock.
“Taste of your own medicine, huh? Is this what you did to Stella, creep up behind her, you sadistic bully?” And he slammed Ian through the door of the rest room, hurling him against the back wall before turning to tear the stall doors off their hinges and pitch each one at him. Mad with fury, he grabbed Ian and threw him against the mirror, shattering it into a thousand glittering pieces.
“Get a thrill out of scaring people, do you, sicko? Are you scared now?” demanded Aaron, almost losing his cool completely, unable to mask his anger and contempt.
“You don’t scare me, half-vampire,” Ian sneered as his fingers found a jagged splinter of mirror on the floor and, folding them around it, he plunged it deep into Aaron’s arm. But Aaron just laughed as the wound swiftly healed itself.
“Strange, I thought I did, but then I forgot how stupid you are…” Aaron mocked as he then proceeded to finish the job he’d started.
Grabbing Ian’s shirt with both hands, he slammed him furiously against the stall partitions, repeating the action one stall at a time until he got to the end and the only thing left to hurl him against was the wall where the remaining shards of mirror still clung, the impact sending a cascade of silvery pieces flying into the air. But if Ian thought the worst was over, Aaron, not even winded, was only just warming up. Yanking him up again from the floor, he threw him violently back out into the hall, then straddled his prone body before the wolf even knew what had hit him. Reaching down to jerk Ian to his feet, Aaron spun him round to face the window then lifted him bodily and threw him out, his gaze following his trajectory down to the COM entrance. In a flash, he leaped out after him to land neatly next to the ball curled up on the ground that was Ian, who was gasping painfully for breath, his knees dragged up to his chest.
“Now, stay the hell away from the girl, you piece of shit. We’ll never let you have her so you might as well forget it. Now, get out of my sight before I change my mind about not killing you…” Aaron threatened, the hardness of his eyes only making his beautiful face more striking. Dismissing Ian contemptuously, he swiftly returned to Jason, relieved to find him still propped
against the wall of the empty corridor, his arms wrapped protectively around an innocently sleeping Stella.
“Is everything ok?” he asked.
“What happened?” Jason asked, his dilated eyes fixed on Stella, his body still feeling an implacable thirst for her blood.
“Just discouraged the jerk from giving her any more trouble.” Aaron saw the fatigue etched on his friend’s face from the effort it was taking him to check his instincts, and his expression turning sympathetic as he remembered how he’d felt exactly the same with Charleen all those centuries ago.
“Why did you defend her? You don’t even know her…” Jason said, a puzzled frown wrinkling his forehead.
“She’s just like Charleen. Anyway, it only took me a minute with her to realize she is well worth it. Don’t thank me, the pleasure was all mine.”
“Why did you leave me alone with her when you knew I might’ve hurt her?” he asked uneasily, stroking her face tenderly.
“And did you?”
“No, obviously not. But now I don’t know if I’ll be able to tear myself away from her again.” He tightened his arms around her, flooded with emotion.
“Why, because it’s too hard emotionally, or because it’s too painful physically?” he asked, crouching down understandingly beside Jason, brushing Stella’s hair and body with his hand.
“Is there a difference?” Jason asked gloomily, tormented.
“No, not really, but both are rooted in the more sensitive, human side of you. You have to sever yourself from that side to block your feelings.” He saw Jason’s face darken as he gazed at Stella, saw his eyes grow bleak, how he pressed her to him fiercely and showered her forehead with loving kisses, and how his body started to quake at the thought of leaving her and the need to eradicate his feelings for her.
Then, ignoring Aaron’s advice, Jason said “I’m going to stay with her,” in a tone that brooked no argument.
