The blood moved closer to his face. He clamped his lips closed and turned to the side.
I turned to Carlos and said, “Why the hell is he fighting so hard? What is it that he doesn"t want to give her, Carlos?”
Carlos just shook his head and I turned back to watch just in time to see her pull her dress over her head. She was standing there totally naked as she pressed the bag to his lips.
“Himself,” Carlos whispered behind me as I watched. My fingers dug into his hand as I squeezed it tighter.
I watched as Matt fought to keep his mouth closed. I saw him grimace as his fangs forced his lips to open. I cried out as I saw his eyes open and knew that he had lost his fight. Just before his teeth sunk into the bag, he whispered, “I"m so sorry, Sarah. Please forgive me.”
As he drank, my hand caressed his image on the screen as I whispered, “It"s okay, baby. I understand.”
I wanted to, but I couldn"t look away as she climbed up onto the table and took him inside her. She left the camera going for several minutes then she picked up a remote and pointed it at the camera. “This is going to take a while, you don"t need to watch the whole thing,” she said just before she pushed stop.
The screen went black for several seconds and it took me a moment to realize that I had stopped breathing a while ago. I took a deep breath as Carlos brushed his hand down my hair. Suddenly I jumped when the next scene began playing. Thankfully they were both clothed this time. The time stamp showed that it was several hours after the last shot– it was last night at six p.m. Matt was passed out on the table and I could see that she had a needle in his arm and had drained his blood again. That bitch!
She looked at the camera and said, “I can see why you"re with him, Sarah. Even tied down we me doing all of the work, he performed very well. I lost count of how many orgasms I had. And his, when he finally released, was amazing. It shook the whole table. Quite impressive. I really wish I could keep him around for a while for more.” She held a lighter up to the camera. I gasped and choked as she flipped the top up and flicked on the flame. Then I screamed and my world went black when I saw her light the table on fire.
I don"t remember anything that happened next. I don"t remember Carlos taking me into his arms as he pulled the DVD out and stuck it into his pocket. I don"t remember him locking the house and running back to the car. Don"t remember him putting me on the seat and driving back to the dock. Don"t remember the ferry ride back, the drive to the airport, him telling the pilot to change the flight plans to take us to Miami. Don"t remember him calling Stefan and asking him to go to Musetta"s to pick up the formula, or the call to have the boat fueled and ready in Miami, or the four day boat ride to the island. I was gone and that was where I was staying, thank you very much. There was nothing left to bring me back and I was glad for that. Carlos carried me up to the bedroom of the beach house, talking to me the entire time, but it didn"t matter anymore. There was nothing he could say that I could grab hold of to bring me back. The only words that I needed to hear, he couldn"t say. He couldn"t tell me I had to find him, he couldn"t be found anymore, he was gone and so was I.
Carlos kept trying for the next month as I withered away, easily refusing to feed even though I was starving. He tried to talk about anything, trying to find something to bring me back. He begged me. “Please, Sarah. Please don"t leave me.” My heart fluttered. I didn"t want to leave him alone, but I didn"t want him to get hurt either. It would hurt, but it was safer this way, for him. I felt a flicker when he said, “Sarah, Malina"s still alive, she"s still out there. I need your help to stop her.” I pushed it back; they"d have to find her for me. I was so weak but I struggled to stay where I was when he pleaded with me, “Please, Sarah. Ilove you and I don"t think I can survive without you. Please come back.”
I slept more and more, dreaming often of being with Matthew. I lived for my dreams. But they also confused me too. Because, as often as these erotic dreams were of me and Matt, they were just as frequently of me and Carlos. And even though I was sleeping, I knew that there were physical signs of these dreams. Things that Carlos would have definitely noticed if he was in the room with me, which he was most of the time. I know I groaned frequently. I know my legs squirmed. And I know that my hands moved under the covers and between my legs. But what I didn"t know was if I called out any names in these dreams when I was peaking, and, if I did, whose name did I say? These dreams scared me, but I also loved having them. But it was because of one of these beautiful, peaceful dreams that I said three words I never, ever thought I"d say. In the dream, Matthew and I were walking along the waterfront in Bremerton. I leaned down to smell some roses, and quickly realized that they smelled like blood. Suddenly the scent of blood was all around me. In my dreams, my eyes changed and I sank my fangs into the roses, surprised as I felt the sweet warmth of blood flowing into my veins. Suddenly I blinked and I was in Aaron"s house on the island, staring at Carlos, with my fangs sunk into an empty pint of blood. I growled at him and pushed him off the bed as I scurried and crouched in the corner of the room. “You son of a bitch,” I spat. “You promised, Carlos. You promised me that you„d let me go. I hate you.”
Surprisingly, he tried to hide a grin. “I know you do, but you"ll thank me someday, soon,” he said as he crept towards me with another bag of blood.
“Get the hell away from me,” I said through gritted teeth.
He shook his head. “Can"t do that Sarah,” he said. I jumped up trying to go over his head, but he grabbed my ankle and pulled me down to the floor. I was face down on the floor. He sat on my back and pressed the blood toward my face. I pressed my face hard into the floor like a child refusing to eat their vegetables. “Don"t,” I growled weakly. Now that I"d had some it was so much harder to refuse it.
“Sorry, sweetheart, but I have to,” he said as he pulled my head up by pressing his palm on my forehead. My fangs were already down, so he just pressed the bag onto them. I whimpered as I gave in. I emptied it and he tossed it aside. “Why Carlos? Why? I thought you were my friend. I thought you loved me,” I mumbled.
“I do love you, but I have my reasons,” he said as he climbed off me and stood me up. “Now, please go shower, Sarah, and then I"ll explain everything.”
“He has his reasons… he has his stupid reasons… he has his…” I muttered under my breath then I stopped in the doorway to the bathroom and turned around. “Please tell me you"re not that shallow and selfish,” I said, knowing full well that he wasn"t. “Is that why you did this?” I said as my anger started to return. I ignored the fact that from the look on his face he obviously had no idea what I was talking about. Right now, what I desperately needed was to be pissed off. I reached under my dress and pulled off my underwear as his confused look turned to shock. My voice shook with anger, as I pulled my dress over my head while saying, “Is this why you brought me back? Is this what you wanted? Is this why you couldn"t let me go? Because you just had to have me? You had to fuck me? Is that it? Well, you can have my body Carlos, but I can never give you my heart. I can"t ever do that again. Everyone I"ve ever loved has died, Carlos, everyone. I can"t ever let anyone into my heart again. If I do, they"ll die. I can"t lose you too.” I stood there naked and gasping. He stood there gaping for a moment, then walked over to me and tilted my chin up. I braced myself for the kiss I thought was coming, the kiss that I wanted, but wasn"t ever going to be ready for.
Instead, he softly kissed my cheek and said, “Hun. I"m going to ignore what you just said because you"re emotionally devastated right now. My dear friend Sarah, if she was in her right mind, would know without a doubt that I would never have brought you back just to, as you so eloquently put it, fuck you. I"m shallow, but I"m not that shallow, Sarah. Hell, if sex was all I wanted I could have gotten that when you were in a coma, couldn"t I? Now, will you please just go and shower? I"ll explain everything when you get out, okay?”
I nodded and leaned my head into his chest and began sobbing, I was emotionally and physicall
y exhausted. It was too much of an effort to even try to say„I"m sorry." But he knew. Finally I turned and slowly walked into the bathroom. My head hung down. I was dejected, crushed, heartbroken and alone, utterly alone. I climbed into the shower, willing the wave to come at me. I wanted to go back to the solitude of where I was, where I couldn"t hurt anyone ever again. Carlos" voice next to me shocked it away, “Don"t do that Sarah. You"re going to want to hear what I have to say, really. If you need to go back after that, then I won"t stop you, but you need to hear it, okay?”
I stared at him for a minute, my eyes begging him to let me go now then I finally nodded. My legs started shaking then. I no longer had the strength to stand up. The effects of lying in a bed and not feeding for so long were catching up to me. I sank down in the tub, pulling my knees up and resting my chin on them. Carlos took the shampoo from me after watching my fingers fumbling as I tried to open it. I let him wash my hair as I struggled to wash my body in its crouched position. It would have to do.
“How long was I out?” I whispered.
“A month, Sarah. A little over a month. And it was the longest month of my life,” he said. I nodded slightly, not long enough, I thought. I closed my eyes and tilted my head back as he rinsed my hair. He held a towel out for me and I stood and walked into it and his arms, resting my head on his shoulder. He"d seen me naked enough that I no longer bothered trying to hide.
“I can"t do this anymore Carlos,” I said, I was so tired, so overwhelmingly tired.
“Do what?” he said.
“I can"t fight to stay alive anymore. It"s just too much. I"m totally exhausted,” I whispered.
“I know,” he softly replied. “Look Sarah,” began said as he stepped back and looked into my eyes, “give me ten minutes to try to change your mind, just ten minutes, please? If you"re still too tired after that and if I"m not enough for you to stay awake, you can go back to sleep and I"ll do my best to try not to wake you again. I can"t promise you that I won"t, but I can promise that I"ll try, okay?”
I cringed at the hurt in his voice. “Of course you"re enough, Carlos. I just don"t want you to get hurt. I don"t want you to die, too” I mumbled.
“I"m not going anywhere, Sarah,” he said then he walked to the dresser and pulled clean clothes out of my bag. I slowly dressed as he went into the bathroom to grab a brush for my hair. He sat behind me on the bed and gently brushed the tangles out of my hair. He was so sweet and so loving. I sighed and leaned back into him. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my cheek. For a moment, an image flashed in my head: an image of Carlos and me, on this very island, laughing, kissing and making love. I quickly sat up and forced the image out of my head. He set the brush down, stood up and held his hand out to me. “Please come downstairs with me, okay?” I nodded and took his hand. He secured his hand around my waist as he helped me downstairs. “Will you feed again first?” he said at the bottom of the stairs. I nodded and he set me down on the couch then he went to the kitchen to heat up two bags, which I quickly drained. Then he was suddenly standing in front of me, holding his hands out and grinning the goofy Carlos grin that I loved so much.
“What are you grinning at you big oaf?” I said. “You look like the cat thatswallowed the canary.”
“I feel like him,” he said with laughter dancing in his eyes. “Come with me please.”
“What the hell, Carlos. I thought you were going to tell me something,” I said as I stood up.
“Well, not exactly,” he grinned. “Actually I"m going to show you something,” he said as he led me out onto the porch. He stood behind me resting his chin on my shoulder, his left hand secured around my stomach, pulling me tight to him. I closed my eyes for a second. This feels nice, I thought. I felt my resolve to die weaken slightly. I pushed that away and remembered why I was here. It was storming outside, the sky was dark and raining with flashes of lightning breaking through.
“What? You woke me because it"s raining?”
He grinned on my shoulder. “No Sarah, I didn"t wake you to have sex with you, although that"s very tempting, because, God knows I"ve been going without it for longer than I ever have while I"ve been taking care of your ass twenty-four-seven. And, no, I didn"t wake you to show you that it"s raining. I woke you to show you that,” he said as his right arm rested on my shoulder and pointed towards the beach.
“Show me what?” I said, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
“That,” he said. “About two miles out, at your 1 o„clock.”
I followed his finger and looked out on the horizon. It took me a second, but I finally saw the small boat coming towards us.
“A boat,” I said sarcastically. “You woke me to show me a friggin" boat.”
He looked at me and his serious tone spooked me. “Sarah, it"s not just any boat. Keep watching. Trust me, you want to keep watching.”
I stared as the tiny speck grew larger and larger. It was coming toward us fast, riding up and down on the waves. Whoever it was definitely knew how to handle a boat, I thought. They pulled up to the dock and cut the motor. Wearing a rain slicker with the hood up, I stared as they jumped off and securely tied the boat. What happened next took my breath away
- at the very second that a huge bolt of lightning lit up the sky, the mystery person dropped their hood and looked at me. In one fell swoop, my eyes squinted, my head tilted to the side and my legs gave out. Carlos caught me and helped my down, then sat next to me on the porch. Anger flashed in my eyes as I turned to him. “It"s not him,” I spat. “It can"t be him, Carlos. We watched him die, Carlos, it can"t be him, it"s not him, it"s not him, it"s not him.” I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to look anymore.
Carlos whispered in my ear, “What we saw wasn"t him, Sarah. It was a trick.” The second he finished saying that, my body jerked on the porch as my scar sprang to life, sending a jolt through me. I looked from my hand, to Carlos, to the man walking up the dock, back to my hand, to Carlos and the man, still not able to believe what I was seeing.
“But how? Why?” I suddenly turned and punched Carlos" arm. “Why the hell didn"t you tell me?”
“I just found out myself a few days ago. And, would you have believed me if I had?” he said as he grinned and rubbed his arm.
I shook my head.
“No, you never would have. Now, why the hell are you still here? Go to him Sarah, go and grab hold of him and don"t ever let go.”
Knocking Carlos backward as I jumped up, I bypassed the stairs and jumped out onto the path, running full speed the second my feet touched the ground. I made it halfway down the beach before the overwhelming emotions I was feeling made my body give out. I sank to my knees in the sand, sobbing, as he ran toward me and scooped me into his beautiful, wonderful, loving arms. He spun me around then sank to his knees, as his emotions and weakness overtook him too. I wrapped my legs tightly around his waist as we kissed and sobbed. Breathing him in revived my dying lungs, it made my sputtering heart race, it made me whole again.
Chapter Six
I have no idea how long we stayed like that, clinging so tightly to each other with our heads resting on each other"s shoulders. We were drenched to the bone as the rain cascaded down. Carlos" voice finally broke through the silence. “Uh, guys,” he said, “you really should come in out of the rain. Are you going to come inside or do I have to carry both of you? „Cause that"s really something I"d rather not have to do, ever.” I reached up, grabbed Carlos" arm and yanked him down on the sand next to us, wrapping my arm around him as Matt did the same. We held him with us, unable to move.
“Umm m,Sarah?” Carlos finally said.
“Mmmm?” I replied.
“If you guys don"t come inside right now, I"m
going to have to tell him what you did in the bedroom,” he said.
My eyes popped open as I remembered me standing there, naked, offering myself to him. My mind reached out to him instantly. ‘Please, no!’ I thought.
‘ Relax,’ he thought back.
/> Matthew mumbled. “Why? What did she do?” I untangled my legs and started to stand.
“Don" t, Carlos. He doesn"t want to hear about how stupid I am rightnow,” I tried to say without the panic in my voice. “Come on, let"s go inside.”
Matt stood, but didn "t move. “Tell me,” he whispered.
I looked to Carlos, begging, pleading with my eyes. ‘Not now,’ I thought. ‘I’ll tell him, but, please not now.’
“She told me she hated me,” Carlos said, as he winked at me.
Matt turned and looked at me.
“What?” I said as relief flooded through me. “I was mad. I didn"t mean it.” I turned to Carlos. “I"m so, so sorry I said that.”
“Hey, don"t sweat it, kiddo. I know you didn"t mean it. I mean, how could anyone possibly hate me, I"m just too lovable,” he grinned. “Now, can we please go inside?”
I put one arm firmly around Matt, the other around Carlos, and we slowly walked inside.
The two of us sat on the couch, while Carlos ran and got us towels and then heated up several pints of blood for us. He sat in the chair across from us and watched us. “You are two sorry-looking vampires,” he said. “I can see it"s going to take a lot of work on my part to get you two back into fighting shape.”
Confusion filled my head as I stared at him. I was still too out of it to remember what had brought us here in the first place. Carlos" face softened as he said, “Malina, Sarah. She"s still out there.”
My whole body tensed and my eyes darted around the room. I turned to Matt. “How? How did you get away?”
Matt slowly shook his head. “Not tonight. I"ll tell you both everything tomorrow, but right now I just want to hold you in my arms and sleep,” he leaned in and kissed me then, softly, tenderly, and I felt my heart swell. He stood up, pulled me into his arms and we turned to head upstairs.
Malina's Revenge Page 6
