Suddenly Carlos flashed past us and up the stairs. We walked into the room and saw him stocking the little fridge in the corner with pints then he reached down and plugged in the microwave. He turned around. “I"m gonna go sleep in the guest house. I"ll be back tomorrow at, ummm, let"s say noon, okay?”
“Carlos,” I said, “there"s no way I can sleep that late.”
“Oh, I don"t expect you to be sleeping,” he said as he started to walk out.
“I think we"re both too exhausted and weak for that right now,” I said.
Carlos grinned. “Yeah, you say that NOW, but I know you two too well, it won"t be long before you"re going at it like monkeys.” He grinned as he started to close the door and back out.
“Wait!” I said.
“What?” he said.
I hesitated as I started to walk over to him, realizing I"d have to drop Matt"s hand, not something I was capable of. Finally I pulled Matt with me as I walked over and hugged Carlos. “Thank you,” I whispered, “for everything.”
He wrapped his arms around me. “Don"t mention it,” he said into my neck, then he turned to Matt. “It"s good to have you back, man.”
“It"s good to be back,” he said. “Now, not to sound selfish, but Sarah, would you mind letting go of him? I"d like to hold you in my arms.”
I kissed Carlos on the cheek and couldn"t help but notice the look that passed between us. „No, Sarah. You"re just imagining it," I tried to tell myself. I turned and happily went into Matt"s open arms as Carlos quietly closed the door. Matt started slowly walking us toward the bed. His hands touched the bottom of my shirt but then stopped. I saw complete sadness in his eyes. “What"s wrong, honey?” I said.
“I"m so sorry, Sarah,” he whispered.
“Sorry? Matt, you don"t have anything to be sorry for. Don"t,” I said.
“No. You"re wrong. Sarah. There"s something I have to tell you.”
I put my hand to his lips. “No you don"t honey. I know. She filmed it. I saw it. It"s okay. You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“You saw? Oh God, no. I didn"t want to do it. Please know that. She made me. I was starving. I feel like such a weak piece ofshit.”
“Sweetheart, stop it. When I saw how starved you were, I was begging you to do whatever she wanted in order to get that blood. Anything. You did what you had to do to survive and I"m so proud of you for that. You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Matt looked at me for a few seconds then he reached down, slowly pulled my wet shirt over my head and dropped it to the floor and I did the same for him. He leaned down and kissed my neck as he unbuttoned my pants and pushed them and my underwear down. I used my feet to work them down the lower half of my legs, undoing Matt"s pants while I did. And I felt the fire inside me flicker, then burn brightly. Hotter and stronger, I found his mouth with mine. He leaned back and looked at me, holding his hand up to me. I weaved my fingers through his, then pressed my scar onto his, moaning as he began kissing my neck again. “I think the goofball was right,” he groaned as he pressed me back onto the bed.
We stayed that way the rest of the night. Making love, then sleeping, still joined together, waking and making love again, then falling asleep in each other"s arms, still connected. Over and over, throughout the night and into the next morning. Neither of us able, or willing, to break the connection. He even carried me, with my legs wrapped around his waist, to the fridge when we needed to feed. I smiled when I woke again. I looked down and saw Matt sleeping on top of me, his head resting lightly on my chest. I ran my fingers through his hair then groaned as I looked at the clock. It was 11:45. “What?” Matt mumbled.
“He"s going to be here in fifteen minutes,” I said.
He leaned down and began kissing my neck. I felt both our bodies responding as he mumbled, “He"s just going to have to wait.”
We finally managed to stop and emerge from the bedroom at 1:30, but only because we were hungry and the little fridge in our room was empty. I saw Carlos" shadow through the front window, sitting on the porch swing. I hesitantly let go of Matt"s hand as he went into the kitchen to heat up blood, and went out to sit next to Carlos, resting my head on his shoulder. “I wouldn"t be here right now, with him, if it weren"t for you Carlos. enough for that.”
“You would"ve done know,” he said.
I can"t ever thank you
the same for me, you
“I know,” I said then I lifted my head to look at him.
“What?” he said.
“Do you know how close I came to sleeping with you?” I whispered.
He grinned the huge goofball grin, pulling my head back onto his shoulder. “I would"ve rocked yourworld, you know.”
“I know,” I said.
“Epic, Sarah. It would have been epic, mind-blowing, earthshattering.”
“Let"s not go overboard there, stud.”
His voice got very serious. “It would have been something special, Sarah, for both of us.”
“I know,” I whispered, fighting the longing feeling to find out that was stirring inside me.
Matt walked out onto the porch then, carrying eight pints. Three each for the two of us, and two for Carlos. My head changed shoulders as he sat down next to me. We fed and then sat there silently for a few minutes, staring at the ocean. Finally, Matt quietly said, “You two ready?” We turned our heads to look at him and both nodded. “She tried everything she could think of to break me. Everything,” he said as he looked down at his palm. “She beat me, she blocked me from connecting to anybody, she withheld food and sleep, she strapped me down so I couldn"t reach my scar. She was trying to turn me against you, to get me to join her.” He paused and took a deep breath. “She has cameras in our rooms,” he said, then watched our reactions.
I gasped slightly then said, “Ramon?”
He nodded. “I think so, but I"m not certain. She made me watch as you two slept in the same bed, trying to make me believe it was something more. She made me watch when you, Carlos, were holding Sarah on the bathroom floor, and she was barely covered with a towel.” I opened my mouth to say something, but he held up his hand and shook his head. “No, you don"t have to explain anything, Sarah. I understand. I know nothing happened and it"s what I told you to do in my letter, but that doesn"t mean it was easy to watch it. You were suffering Sarah, and it was killing me that I couldn"t be the one to help you feel better. She kept telling me that you didn"t need me anymore, that you didn"t care that I wasn"t there.”
“That bitch,” I hissed.
He smiled slightly at my reaction. “Easy tiger,” he said, “you"ll have your chance.” Then he grew somber as he continued, “She kept coming to me as you, Sarah, trying to make me want her that way. But every time she did, I told her to show me her palm. One day she was trying to copy my scar then all of a sudden she flew into a fury, screaming and yelling and nearly destroying everything in the room.”
“My scar started to bleed,” I said. “I figured out what she was trying to do. Luckily, Musetta was there and was able to whip up something quickly that made your scar invisible to her,” I smiled.
Matt continued,“She made me watch as she strapped poor Jason to the table, telling him she wasn"t going to hurt him. I had to watch his horror when he realized that the fire was real. She showed me the DVD, the one that had my head on Jason"s body, the one that she said you saw. She tried to tell me that you saw it and then you ran off with Carlos, like you were happy I was gone. But I kept telling her to prove it and she couldn"t, she doesn"t know about this place. She kept telling me that you two were gone, together. I tried not to show it, but as time went on it was getting harder and harder not to believe her. I mean, you thought I was dead, Sarah, and you"ve already suffered more loss in your life than anybody should. I would hope Carlos would do everything in his power to give you a reason to live, everything.” He stopped and looked down at his hand again. I walked over to him and lifted his chin, meeting his eyes with mine.
I shook my
head, then turned looked back at Carlos, who shook his head too, then added, in typical Carlos style, “Not that I wouldn"t have wanted to, but, dude, she firmly stood her ground, she"s as stubborn as a mule.”
I looked back at Matt and saw the relief flood through him. He smiled as he nodded and looked into my eyes. “Yes,” he said. “Yes she is.”
Matt returned to his story, “So, Malina became more and more angry and frustrated that she couldn"t break me. She started disappearing for days at a time. I started to get through to Bobby, another one of Malina"s followers who was there to feed and watch me. It turns out that Jason was his cousin, and I finally convinced him that Malina was the reason for Jason"s „disappearance." Malina took off five days ago and Bobby released me. I tried to reach you, Sarah, but I couldn"t. I couldn"t find you and that scared the hell out of me. Next I tried Carlos and he told me where you two were and what was happening with you. I told him to try to find some way, any way, to wake you, to bring you back. Then I headed this way. Bobby and I stayed together until we got to Texas, then he went north and I continued east to Miami. I was completely panicked until this morning, when Carlos said he was finally able to get you to come around.”
I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his chest.
After a few moments of silence, I finally said, “So, does anybody have any idea what she"s up to now?”
“Not really,” Matt said, “but, whatever it is, it will be big. She"s all about drama. She"d want to make a huge statement.”
I stared at him for a minute, and an idea began building in my head. “Carlos, what"s the date?”
“What?” he said.
“The date,” I said. “What is today"s date?”
“Oh, July 25 I think, why?” he said.
“We have to get back to the compound right away,” I grinned at both of them.
“You gonna fill us in?” Matt said.
“Well,” I said, “I don"t know exactly what she"s going to do, but I think I know when she"s going to do it. September second. Our anniversary. She would love nothing better than to humiliate and defeat us on our anniversary.”
Their eyes went wide. “You"re right,” Matt said. “How the hell do you do that? Are you psychic or something?”
I shook my head. “No. I"m just good at reading people, I think.”
“A celebration,” Carlos said and we stared at him. “Plan a big celebration, a combination welcome back, anniversary celebration. Even if she has second thoughts, she won"t be able to resist.”
“Perfect,” I said.
Carlos walked off the porch. “I"m going to get the boats ready. You want to leave tomorrow morning?”
“Yes,” I said, looking at Matt. “But do we have to take both boats?”
“Are you kidding?” Carlos called from the sand. “Four days stuck on a small boat with you two, when you"ve been apart for a while and I have gone without longer than I ever have? Uh-uh, no way, not a chance.”
I grinned at Matt. “I think he knows us pretty well,” I said, then I noticed the odd look on Matt„s face.
He looked at me like he was going to eat me. “Let"s eat, now, a lot,” he growled as he pushed me into the house.
“Are you sure we"re both strong enough for that?” I panted as he began kissing me.
“We"re going to have to be, „cause it"s going to happen, now, and nothing"s going to stop it,” he groaned. My hands were shaking as I turned around to open the fridge. My knees threatened to give out as he pressed himself against me and kissed the back of my neck. I felt him groan as he felt the shivers he was sending down my spine. His fangs were already down and scraping along my neck. I grabbed as many pints as I could and spun around to throw them in the microwave, thinking„there"s no way we"re going to make it upstairs." Sure enough, I felt his hands on my thighs as he reached under my dress to pull down my panties.
In a brief panic, I quickly reached out to Carlos. ‘Don’t… come… in,’ I thought, then I quickly pulled my mind back as I felt Matt enter me from behind, my fangs sink into a pint, and his fangs sink into my neck.
Chapter Seven
“Wow,” I gasped. We weren" t in the kitchen anymore, we had moved from there to the living room, then onto the stairs, the upstairs hall then finally the bedroom. He had been a man possessed, and I was happy to go along on the ride. “Not to look a gift horse in the mouth,” I said, “but where the hell did that come from?”
He grinned as he looked down at me. “Do not get sassy Sarah Pearl,” he said. “I"m not sure I"m done yet.”
“Uh, guys?” Carlos called from downstairs . “Are you ready to go?”
Matt and I stared at each other then started laughing. “Seriously?” I said. “We"ve been going at it all night? Like I said „wow." We"ll be down in a second,” I called down to Carlos. “Heat up some breakfast for us, would you please?”
We got up and quickly dressed and packed. We were laughing as we emerged from the bedroom. Carlos took one look at the dozens of healing bite marks on our necks and shook his head. “Did you two sleep at all?” he said. The grins on our faces told him everything he didn"t want to know. He rolled his eyes and turned to head out. “I"ll meet you down on the dock. Do you think you can stop long enough to get on the water?”
“We"ll try, but I"m not promising anything,” I called as he walked out, shaking his head.
I turned and smiled at Matt. “I hope you can drive a boat with me on your lap.”
He reached out and pulled me tight, squeezing my backside. “Baby,” he said, “I can do anything you want me to do with you on my lap.” I forced myself out of his arms and handed him breakfast from the microwave. After I ate, I put the rest of the pints in a cooler for the trip while Matt made a quick sweep of the house to make sure we hadn"t forgotten anything.
“Hey,” he called from upstairs, “did you find out about your birthday present while I was gone?”
“Nope,” I said. “Carlos knows, but he said it didn"t have anything to do with finding you, so he wouldn"t tell me.”
“Really?” Matt said from right behind me, making me jump. He was trying unsuccessfully to control his excitement, “You really don"t know? That is freaking awesome.”
“I"m sorry, but did you just say „freaking awesome"? What are you? Twelve?” I grinned as I picked up my bag, the cooler and pulled him out the door.
“Sometimes” he said as he tossed me onto his back, sprinting toward the dock. He didn"t break stride as he jumped onto the boat. I dropped the cooler and my bag on the deck, staying firmly on his back. He walked over and started the engine, then kissed my forehead. “You"re on the wrong side,” he said as he reached around and pulled me to his front side. “Much better,” he said as he kissed me.
Carlos" voice crackled over the radio, “Look, I"m putting my foot down here. I"ve already contacted Stacy and there"s going to be someone waiting for me in my room when I get back, so, believe me, I am in a hurry here. And don"t tell me to go on ahead, cause you two would not be paying attention and you"d veer off course and get lost and I"m not coming back to look for you. So, what I"m saying, is, if I have to, I will take Sarah by force and make her ride with me, if that"s what it takes to get us back to Miami. So help me, I"ll do it.”
Matt and I stared at each other for a moment then I pressed my forehead to his. “I really do owe him,” I said as I slowly unwrapped my legs from his waist and moved around to stand behind him. “Happy now?” I called over to Carlos.
“Only if you stay that way,” he said as he revved the motor and took off. Matt quickly did the same and soon we were side by side, laughing and flying through the water. It was a long trip though, and our moods were soon serious again, as thoughts of what was coming permeated our minds. I reached my mind to Carlos.
‘Hungry?’ I thought.
‘Yeah, I could definitely use a break too,’ he thought.
I whispered to Matt, “Let"s stop for a little bit, okay?” He nodded and cut the m
otor. Carlos spun around us and came to a stop next to us. I quickly tied the boats together then I picked up the cooler and raced down to the galley. I tossed nine pints into the microwave then put the other nine in the fridge. Coming back up, I handed three to Carlos and three to Matt. Straddling the two boats, I sat on the edge and drank. As I finished my last one, though, I felt a small drop of blood that fell from my fang, landed on my chest and slid down my cleavage. They both saw it too and Carlos quickly jumped up.
“I"m going below to sleep for two hours. Please try to be quiet… and for God"s sake, be done when I come back up.” I waved an acknowledgement to him as Matt wrapped his arm behind my back and tilted me back. I arched my back and leaned my head back as his tongue followed the trail that the blood had made.
We met his demands, but just barely. We made one more stop, to eat and rest (and this time we behaved ourselves by actually sleeping). We pulled into the dock in Miami at ten p.m., grabbed a cab and headed over to the airport where Stefan"s plane was waiting. Once we were safely on the plane, we huddled together and planned. “Do you think Ramon might be one of Malina"s?” I said.
“I"m not sure, but we need to assume he is, just to be safe,” Matt said.
My head whipped up. “The formula, from Musetta, to block the pain,” I said. “Did anyone ever pick it up? Was it successful?”
“Stefan picked it up,” Carlos said. “We"ll get ours when we get back. But we won"t know if it works though, not until she shows up.”
“Can we trust Stefan and Penelope?” I asked.
Matt shook his head and closed his eyes. “Honey, I think we should only trust each other right now. We have no idea how long her reach is or who she may have gotten to. Truthfully, the two of you probably shouldn"t even trust me.”
I stared at him. “You"re kidding me, right?” I said.
He looked at me and the pain and guilt was written all over his face. “No, I"m not. I can"t even trust myself. I don"t remember every moment. What if she planted something in me, what if she brainwashed me, what if she hypnotized me. What if I freeze up when I see her, or she says some code word and I turn against you? I have no idea what I"m capable of,” he groaned as he dropped his head in his hands.
Malina's Revenge Page 7
