by S. J. Wright
The look in Nelly’s eyes nearly broke my heart. Sending her away was necessary for her own safety, but by doing this, I also felt like I was telling her that her support and love were not enough anymore. The tears in her eyes cut into the heart of me and left a gaping wound somewhere inside that I feared might never heal completely. I took her hand, kissed it, and helped her rise from her seat.
She raised a hand and patted my cheek softly, managing a weak smile, “You’re a good girl, Sarah.”
I curled my lip, “Sure I am. Now get going. I’ve got vampire crap to deal with.”
An hour later, I watched the tail lights of her car disappear over the hill that led to the main road. It would take her at least another hour to get to her sister’s place. I stood on the front porch, leaning against one of the big posts. With Nelly gone, I suddenly felt very much alone. Alex had not shown back up at the house since the shotgun incident. The two vampires were settling into one of the guest rooms. They had brought a box full of black tarps and made it clear that they would be sealing up the windows with it. I was too tired to argue with them about the nail holes they would be leaving in the walls.
I smelled the rain before I heard the first drops. The scent of it always made me feel like everything that was wrong in the world was about to be washed away. The tapping of raindrops began shortly after that, slowly coating the steps that led down to the brick walkway. The moisture was invigorating and soothing. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
There was one tiny moment when I thought that maybe all my problems would just be rinsed away, down into the earth and easily forgotten. Then I opened my eyes and realized that I was not alone out there anymore. I was being watched. A tiny little shiver shot up my spine. However, when I realized who I was looking at, an oddly familiar warmth stole through my limbs.
Michael stood before me in the rain. Every inch of him seemed to glisten and shine. He was wearing a simple black men’s tank that emphasized the muscles in each arm and the width of his shoulders. He wore the same type of black jeans I had seen him in before. However, what startled me more than anything was the dangerous wash of emotions evident in the firm line of his mouth and the heat in his narrowed blue eyes.
“You are unharmed?” His voice caught me completely off guard. The strain in his tone was palpable. He was standing about twenty feet away from me in the grass of the lawn.
The rain had picked up and was beating an unending symphony on the roof of the porch, but there was something that was drowning out everything in the background. A hammering that resounded through me faster and faster. My heartbeat. I glanced down at myself, expecting that particular organ about to burst through the fabric of my shirt.
“I’m not hurt.” I said, trying not to look at him.
However, it was hopeless. Because even if I did not let my eyes feast on his body, that voice of his was bound to break through my reserve. I should have known. If I had pressed my hands over my ears and closed my eyes, I might have had a chance. But it was too late.
“Come here, Sarah.” It was almost as if he was drawing me to him with a steel chain. There was no breaking this. Running away was not an option. The lack of warmth in his tone when he spoke that order did not deter me. I did not feel any hint of anger coursing through me at the way this undead creature was summoning me.
The rain was cold on my skin. My feet moved steadily toward him. I craved his warmth and would not be denied. Somewhere in the space that separated us, there existed some heavy veil of the unknown, and in my mind, I ripped it to shreds that scattered in the violence of the rain. I was tired of being the good girl.
The moment I was within reach, he snatched me up into his arms. The feel of him was so contrary to every myth and story I had encountered about the undead, I had a hard time grasping the idea that this was not a real man clutching me to him with such desperation. He was incredibly warm and smooth. Only the depths of his eyes held any hint of frost.
Looking up at him, I felt like a little child about to be reprimanded for some unknown transgression. He held me away from him for a moment, his stare skipping over my face, arms, and chest. Then he grabbed a handful of my hair and held it away from my neck, a fanatical gleam of suspicion in his eyes. Finding nothing incriminating, he released my hair.
“They haven’t had your blood.”
I was still far too engrossed with the warmth of his muscles against me to understand who or what he was talking about. It took me a few seconds to realize that he meant Luanna and Gunter. Of course, he had known they were here. He probably had known they were coming for days.
Gathering my self-esteem with a hiss through my teeth, I stepped back from him, “Of course not. They’re from the Council.”
“They’re dangerous, Sarah.” Again, his amazing eyes were narrowed in disapproval.
“Of course they are. So are you. So what?”
His deep chuckle seemed inappropriately timed, “Fearless girl. No wonder I can’t get you out of my head.”
“Get away from her now.”
I turned and saw Alex standing at the corner of the porch. He held the same big shotgun that Nelly had brandished with such haste earlier. The gun was not pointed at Michael. It was pointed at me.
“If you don’t get away from her right now, I’ll shoot her in the leg.”
A feral snarl split the air around me as Michael reacted to the threat. It only took a fraction of a second for him to neutralize Alex and empty the shotgun. He had tossed the shells so far into the tree line that I never heard them hit the ground. Alex was flat on his back on the rain-soaked ground, and Michael had one booted foot on his chest to keep him in place. The movements had been so fast that my eyes could barely keep up. It had mostly been a blur of motion and sound that ended as quickly as it had begun.
I approached the two of them and stared down at Alex, “You were going to shoot me?”
He glared up at Michael with pure malevolence, “Shooting him wouldn’t have done a bit of good. I had to do something before he bit you. Or worse.”
“So shooting me would have been better?” I threw my hands up in the air, wondering how in the hell I had ended up in this situation, “You acted like a complete idiot.”
“He wouldn’t have allowed you to be injured.”
Michael turned his eyes to me quickly and then looked away with a roll of his eyes, “I’ll bet you’ve been a real pill since you became human again, Alex.”
I stared at Alex, “Human again?”
He tried to push Michael’s foot off his chest, “Get off me!”
After a brief moment of hesitation, Michael complied and took a few steps back. He grinned at me and waved a hand at Alex, “Go on. Let loose on him. I have a feeling you both have a lot to talk about.”
When I looked to Michael again for an explanation, I realized he had disappeared. A little spot of emptiness burned in my chest when I found him gone. That was not good. It was also completely unlike me to get that attached to a guy. Very unusual.
Alex struggled to his feet, “I’m sorry.”
“You were really going to shoot me, weren’t you?”
He looked wounded for a moment at the thought, “Of course not. I just needed to pull his attention away from you for a second.”
I drew my fist back and then pushed it forward with every bit of strength I could muster as fast as I could. My knuckles slammed into his cheekbone up by his left eye. The contact produced results, but not exactly what I was hoping for. Before I could enjoy the expression on his face, I had another vision.
A light seemed to strike me, filling me and nearly burning me in its brilliance. I saw a figure in the light—something feminine in shape yet featureless. It floated above the ground effortlessly. Before the figure of light stood a young man who was instantly familiar—Alex.
This version of him was something altogether different from the man who had shown up injured and powerless on my doorstep. This was a powerful being with strength bey
ond measure. He was not nearly as powerful as the creature of light before him, but something far beyond human, nonetheless. He was also excessively easy on the eyes.
Kneeling before the light, Alex bowed his head and began speaking in a voice filled with urgency, “Please. I’ll do whatever you want, but please just take this immortal horror away from me. I can’t do this anymore.” His brilliant eyes were swimming with tears of bright red blood that began to fall, staining the smooth perfection of his face.
The heat of the light began to center itself, glowing as bright as a star. My hand was burning, I realized. The image cut off abruptly once I connected the physical pain to myself. The rain had slowed into a light drizzle. I felt wet grass beneath me except for one leg, which was lying across the walkway that led to the steps of the porch.
I pushed myself up into a sitting position and realized that Alex was only a few feet away, kneeling on the wet ground with his hands buried in his hair, cradling his skull as if in extreme pain. I could have kicked myself for hitting him. I scrambled over to him and reached out to touch his arm.
He jerked away before I could make contact, “No! Don’t touch me.”
“Are you in pain? I’m so sorry, Alex. Is there anything I can do?” I pleaded.
He slowly stood up and half staggered over to the porch steps. He slid down onto the top step and again pressed his hands against his head, “You had another vision.”
“Yes.”
“What did you see this time?”
I cautiously sat next to him on the steps, “A figure made of light. And I saw you, but you were…” Hesitating, I tried to come up with a word that could accurately describe it, “You were beautiful.”
He glanced over at me, shortly making eye contact, before he fixed his stare on the forest beyond the front lawn, “Ironic that you should think so. I hated what I was then.”
I tried to get a grasp on the idea that Alex had actually been a vampire, but it defied everything I thought I had known about the undead. I guessed there were many myths that were not even slightly accurate when it came to their kind. However, for him to have been a vampire and then been changed back to a human?
“How is it possible?” I whispered.
“Only she knows that.”
“Who?”
“The Breath-Giver. She has sort of kept an eye on vampires for a long time. She occasionally will grant requests like mine, but it doesn’t happen often.” He smiled slightly, “She’s pretty picky about who she does favors for.”
“What is she?”
He shrugged, “A fairy? An angel? I don’t know. But she was kind enough to help me.”
I considered that carefully. Nobody gets a favor like that for free. What exactly could he have promised her? I glanced at him for a moment and ran my hands through my hair. It was completely drenched. I squeezed some of the water out of it with a twist and watched the liquid pool beside me on the step.
“She told me that I had to come here and help you.”
My eyes shot back to his face, “I thought my mother sent you. Wait a minute.” I went over everything he had said about my mother. Our conversation in the barn.
“Alex, were you lying to me about my mother?”
His emerald eyes were locked on some distant spot in the trees, “She told me that my relationship with you had to remain platonic.” He turned back to me, his gaze sweeping over my face, looking for some sign, “I had to say something that would keep you at arm’s length.”
“You were never with her? You two didn’t have sex?”
He shook his head slowly, “No. It was never about that. She wanted me for one specific reason, and that was to protect you. She brought the Breath-Giver to me and explained that I could have my humanity back as long as I spent the rest of my life protecting you and helping to keep the detention zone in operation.”
“Detention zone? You mean the meadow?”
He nodded, “That’s what it is, essentially. It keeps vampires in and it can keep vampires and other supernatural creatures out.”
My thoughts ground to a halt. Other supernatural creatures? Holy crap. I shuddered at the idea of what he might mean.
“Alex, please tell me you’re joking.”
He turned to me, a deadpan look on his face, “Unfortunately, none of this is a joke.”
“Oh, my God.”
Chapter Nine
Still reeling from the events of the previous evening, it took me a good ten minutes to even get the coffee started. I kept stopping in the middle of what I was doing and going over the conversation with Alex. There were more than just vampires out there. I did not want to believe it, but somehow I sensed that he had not been lying to me.
With my brain still contemplating the idea of werewolves and shape shifters, I switched on the coffee maker before I even added the water. When the machine started sputtering unnaturally, I cursed and flipped the power back off. I grabbed the water pitcher from the cabinet above the coffee maker and filled it at the sink.
I wondered if there was not something else that Alex might be holding back from me. Pouring the water into the back of the machine, I decided to corner him sometime this morning and demand more answers. I hit the power switch again and stood there listening to the water hissing through the pump.
“Good morning.”
I jerked in surprise. Alex was standing in the doorway to the back porch. He was wearing a practical plaid work shirt and a pair of rather tight blue jeans. He was also sporting a large purple bruise near his left eye. I groaned in embarrassment and lowered my head.
“It doesn’t hurt very much.” He said lightly, settling into a stool in front of the kitchen bar. He gave me a funny little half grin, “What’s for breakfast?”
I sighed and shook my head, “Alex, I feel horrible about hitting you. It was totally out of line.”
“You were a little emotional at the time. I did point a gun at you, you know.”
“Yeah.” I got out a couple of coffee cups and sat them by the coffee maker, “But you were trying to help. Sort of.”
Although, I reminded myself, I had not needed the help at the time. It irked me that Alex had interrupted my time with Michael twice now. Wait—my time with Michael? Where had that come from? I made a mental note to not think about it in that connotation anymore. Stupid, sexy vampire. He was making me all… girly.
Alex had risen from his stool and was taking things out of the fridge, “How about I make us up a couple of Denver omelets?”
“Sounds delish,” I replied, trying for a real smile, “Although I feel like I should be cooking for you.”
“No way. I love to cook and it’ll be nice to whip something up in this kitchen without having Nelly ordering me around constantly. This is the perfect opportunity.” He poured me a cup of coffee, gestured at the bottle of creamer he had left on the counter and grinned, “Take it out on the porch and chill out. I’ll yell when the food’s ready.”
I smiled back at him, feeling a little burst of happiness ignite inside of me. It was so nice to have somebody besides Nelly do something sweet for me. It felt so domestic. It felt right somehow, seeing Alex so much at ease in my home. That was a little frightening, in a way. What exactly was this thing I was feeling for Alex? It certainly seemed different than just friendship. However, with everything going on with Michael, it felt odd to be even considering anything besides friendship.
Making my way to the back porch with coffee in hand, I tried to suppress a frown.
After breakfast, I tried to call Katie’s cell again. It went straight to voice mail and I hung up without leaving a message. It was not like her to shut me out like that for such a long period. I was starting to get really worried about her. I called the dorm and her roommate Paige picked up the phone.
“Yeah?”
“Paige, this is Sarah, Katie’s sister. Is she there?”
There was a slight pause and an audible sigh, “Oh, Sarah. I was hoping you might know where she had
gone. As far as I know, she hasn’t been here for a couple of days.”
My heart began hammering against my chest painfully, “When was the last time you saw her?”
“She took off on Wednesday. She said she was going home.” Another pause, then she said softly, “Sarah you think something’s happened to her? Did she make it down to your house?”
“Yes, but she left a few hours after she got here.” I sputtered as panic began setting in, “She hasn’t returned any of my calls or texts at all.”
“Should we call the cops?”
That was the last thing I wanted to do, but I needed to say something to placate Paige before she flew off the handle and went to the police on her own, “I’ll call them. If she shows up there, please have her call me right away, okay?”
