by Celia Crown
“He’s good, very sexy too.”
A throat clearing can be heard over the phone, and Vlad wonders how annoyed Kane is for him to make a noise so loud.
“Not as sexy as Kane, of course. You’ll meet him soon and be nice to Vlad.”
“I don’t want to meet him,” Mavis scoffs before blinking, “Hello?”
Vlad can hear the dial tone and takes in the gasping face of Mavis, he wants to smother her with a kiss.
She turns back around and observes him in silence. They sit in the quiet room until a shudder wrecks her again and she sneezes.
He stands and strips off his shirt. The cool air biting his chest as he tosses the shirt to the side, her indignant squawk of surprise reaches to his ears as she covers her face with small hands.
“What’re you doing? I don’t know you, we can’t do this! Please put the shirt back on!”
He pauses on the zipper of his pants, “There’s no other source of warmth and higher heat changes the alcohols at the bar.”
She doesn’t peek from between her fingers as she uses one hand to blindly search for the blanket and throws it over her eyes.
Her muffled words came later, “This isn’t a hypothermia situation, there’s no need for that!”
“You’re coming down with a cold and it’ll get worst,” he replies smoothly, stripping the pants off his toned legs while leaving his briefs on.
“I’m fine!” she stubbornly voices underneath.
He ignores her protest when his weight dips the bed and alerts her of his presence. She shrieks and hides further in, his strength easily rips the cover away to meet her flustered face.
“You’ll thank me later.” he ignores her stammering.
Vlad lays down with his chest on her back, an arm slipping between the bed and her waist to curl it around her. He drops his leg over her own and tucks her head under his chin while she’s frozen in his arms.
“You’ll catch my cold later,” she said, unconvincingly.
Her body’s trembling, hands and feet are cold. She lets out a little sigh of contentment as her shoulders drop from their tense position.
Mavis can’t resist him, just like he can’t resist her.
“I have a strong immune system.”
She doesn’t argue any further as his heat surrounds her in a comfortable embrace that makes her drowsy. What little fight in her left as soon as he got his hands on her, and he’s reeling on the influence he has over her.
Self-preservation kicks in as she presses her back against him.
He adjusts his body, providing her optimal warmth while sticking every inch of his body on her with his hard cock nuzzling on her luscious ass.
He’ll have to deal with that later.
What he doesn’t know is that a critical problem would soon arise that will strike fear in his heart.
Chapter Six
Mavis
It’s early afternoon when she wakes up crying.
Scared, panicking, and hysterical.
Mavis is unbearably cold with her heart squeezing every beat painfully against her ribs as her entire body shakes violently.
She’s sobbing with ugly hiccups as she unconsciously wails into the chest of Vlad. He’s rubbing soothing circles on her back and it doesn’t help as she is still trapped in the remnants of her nightmare.
Confusion and fear weaving through her mind as blood kicks up adrenaline in her veins, black dots forming in her vision as her body responses to another presence in her bed.
She struggles; arms pushing against the hard surface that’s suffocating her and her cries unease the man whose voice doesn’t reach her ears.
Tears glazing over disoriented blue eyes as it tips over the corner and falling on the pillow.
“No, no, no—” she sobs, voice pleading brokenly as syllables crack with the plea of him letting her go and don’t touch her.
She doesn’t want to be touched. It makes her sick and scared.
Don’t touch. Don’t touch.
Mavis chants, in her shattered conscious and whimpering voice.
Hands holding her face still, making her look at a man’s concerned expression. She sees him, but a dissonance between her eyes and jumbled mind isn’t connected so she also doesn’t see him.
“Mavis.”
A flicker of something in her dazed blue eyes but she’s still in a trance. Her brows pinch together, her brain is too broken down to comprehend the heavy breathing coming from her own lungs. Hiccups jolt her body as she mumbles protests at him, terror latching firmly in her heart.
She tries to get his hands off her face by shaking her head, but he holds on adamantly. Her nails scratching and digging painfully in his as she begs for him to let go of her, the determined tightening of his hands on her face strikes a new level of fear in her.
The constant feeling of eyes on her made it impossible to settle her jumpy nerves as blinding distress cripples her remaining control of reality.
“Stop, stop! No!”
The upsetting nightmare fading into distant memories where she hardly remembers what it’s about, but it ignites persistent agony in her that she hasn’t felt in years.
“Look at me.” his voice is deliberately slow and soothing her thumping heart with low timber.
She can hear him over the rushes of blood pounding in her ears. Slowly, piece by piece, the black dots fade away that leaves a somewhat familiar face that grounds her to reality.
“Breathe.” he reminds her.
She coughs, air prickling her lungs as she gasps unevenly.
A distress noise tumbles out, she shuts her eyes tightly together and opens them again when the blurriness got too much.
“I’m here,” he said, thumb brushing her wet cheek.
“It’s just a nightmare.” a reminder that does nothing to settle her nerves, but she appreciates that he tries.
Excruciatingly slow, her heart begins to fall back onto its natural rhythm.
“I’m sorry,” she croaks.
Vlad holds himself over her trembling form, “Don’t say sorry.”
“It’s just that winter gets to me.” her rambling indicates she’s not fully back to her normal self yet.
She’s still shaking, her fragile body protesting in exhaustion as a forced hiccup escapes her throat.
Her head tilts to the side and searches for something through the space he claimed and now is stretched over her.
“Honey—” she whines, pupils dilating as she feels her heart constricting again.
“Where’s she? Is she okay? I need Honey—”
“She’s fine.” Vlad sits up, his eyes never leaving the frantic girl as he lifts her up into a sitting position.
It allows her to breathe properly while he laces his fingers with hers and presses it to his heart. The steady thumps under her palm make her own heartbeat aligning with his in a way that’s not even scientifically possible, but it happens.
Small hand trembles in his bigger one as he instructs her to breathe with him.
She obediently does and it’s a shaky start, but it becomes a smooth tempo seconds later.
Mavis thinks back, searching her memories on what the dream was about. A dream, a nightmare, or her locked memories; Mavis knows it has something to do with the extreme snowstorm that’s still happening.
Winter is the only season that triggers unwanted memories.
There are things she needs to know, things she has to know to understand that Honey is safe.
“Vlad.” it’s the first time she calls his name, and she likes how it rolls off her tongue.
Her overheated back is cooling through the cold headboard. She twists the blanket in her unoccupied restless fingers as she looks up at the shirtless man.
“Can you tell me about Kane?” her palm lays flat on his heart as her nails scratch the inked surface.
She draws her hand back when he tips his body forward and twists so that his back is on the headboard with her shoulder pressing on his defined
arm. She finds that she likes it when he touches her, like how he gently intertwines their fingers with palms together.
Mavis hates being touched, it makes her cringe with surging anxiety, but Vlad doesn’t provoke that reaction from her. Not when he initially cuddled her for warmth, when he calmed her down from the nightmare, or now where his fingers trace random patterns on her knuckles.
She feels the callous texture of his hand as she looks down at it, and then looking at the other hand where there’s tightly wrapped bandage on it.
“What do you want to know?” he asks.
Her heart skips a beat as she involuntarily squeezes his hand. Her thoughts are all over the place; she’s scared for reasons that perplex her, confused as to why she feels safe with Vlad, and the general need to be assured of the unknown that plagues her heart.
“I just need to know if Honey is safe.”
Vlad’s voice doesn’t have a speck of hesitation or lies when he speaks.
“Kane makes your sister happy.”
“Please,” she swallows thickly, “She tells me he’s the one for her, but please. Anything.”
Reassurance is what she needs, she wants to know that her sister is protected like a dragon guarding a princess.
“He loves her.” it’s what he says, and nothing else.
She doesn’t know why those words make the straining muscles in her neck relax, but they calm the raging anxiety in her gut that demands to swallow her whole.
She nods, lips pursing with a shuddering breath.
Mavis feels her heart slowing down.
Honey is what’s left of her dysfunctional childhood. She doesn’t want her sister falling into the hands of a monster because Honey may have moved passed the haunting memories, but Mavis can’t afford that.
She can’t afford to let go of the past and bravely step into the future when she knows that danger lurks in every corner.
She’s been protecting Honey for as long as she can remember, and she will continue to do so.
Mavis closes her eyes, head slipping on his supportive arm as she nestles closer to him, for warmth and comfort.
“The nightmare.” he begins, “What was it?”
Her black hair brushes her neck as she shakes her head, an air of silence covers the room with dull howling wind knocking on the window. Blue eyes open to watch uncoordinated snowflakes banging on the glass and at each other.
“Talk to me,” Vlad said, his lips offering a kiss to her hair.
She mutters, “I can’t.”
Her mind is reeling in unwanted fragments of the nightmare, she tries to think of something else to stop the inevitable.
She decides that if she can’t distract herself, she can use his daunting gorgeousness to keep her brain busy.
“You’ll feel better if you talk to me.”
Mavis turns her body to him, glancing up to his dark eyes that holds unyielding patience. She must be drooling at how ridiculously handsome the man is. He could have been sculpted by Aphrodite for all she knows because he is sharp jawline and defined beauty, tense muscles, and an aura of a force to be reckoned with.
“Take your time, I’ll wait.” he drops down and pecks her cooled cheek, lingering there with another chaste kiss.
His scruff pokes her smooth skin in a way that she wants more, want to feel her own lips on the roughness.
“I’m not leaving.”
Mavis blinks, her eyes clouds with unshed tears as her unruly emotions are surging through her mind again.
She’s such a mess.
Tears running down her cheeks as his hand wipes the flowing teardrops, it’s not exactly the context she hoped to hear those words in, but they impacted her just as much.
“I don’t know where to start,” she mumbles, her body seeking the heat his body emits.
Vlad swipes her plush lips, “Wherever you feel comfortable.”
Mavis wonders what the little double skips of her heart mean, or the serenity she feels when he looks at her with such intensity while his body instinctively shields her from everything.
He makes her feel young.
Mavis is young, only twenty years old with a youthful appearance. However, the burden she keeps buried in a six-foot hole takes a toll on her mental stability that has her questioning her maturity.
Vlad takes those feelings and transforms it into pure and unaltered tranquility. The energy in her tummy vibrates energetically, dancing to a song of delirium.
It’s new, and she likes it.
“I had a brother.” she begins, hollowness reflecting in her blue eyes as she chews her bottom lip.
“He hated me, probably still does from his grave.”
Mavis feels his hand kneading the base of her head, a sign of silent support as she takes in a tentative breath.
“Nothing I did made him happy. I was used to it; mom and dad didn’t want me either so it’s okay.”
Her teary smile tugs on Vlad’s heart.
“I don’t love them, Honey’s the only one I care about.”
Mavis thinks, uncertainty whispers negativities in her ears.
Words are coming out of her mouth, and she likes that he doesn’t ask questions. Just attentively listening to her as her heart lightens with every sentence.
“I don’t know if that’s true. Love is something I’ve never felt before.”
Recalling the buried memories feels easier with him beside her.
Chapter Seven
Mavis
She hadn’t always hated being touched.
Mavis liked physical contact, she craved it even more when it came to her sister because she was the most important person in Mavis' life.
But things changed.
Ever since kindergarten began, Mavis felt that her grip on Honey faltered when a girl came into the scene with her boisterous voice and red tracksuit pants rolled up under her frilly yellow dress.
Her name was Maxine. Dark hair and crazy eyes.
She could tell why her sister was so drawn to Maxine. She was obnoxiously energetic, outgoing, and warm. Similarly, Honey was also bright and friendly. She fit right in with Maxine, all sunshine smiles and quirky personality.
She protected Honey against bullies in a way Mavis could never.
“You turds even think about hurting her again and I’ll papercut you between your toes!”
All Maxine had to do was raise her voice and spew out some colorful profanities for the bratty boys to back away while muttering about a gorilla. The dark-haired girl stood tall and proud, a complete opposite of the meek and cowardly Mavis who could only comfort her sister at home when the bullying came to a stop and restart the next day.
The time Honey spent with Maxine became more frequent and Mavis was left in the dark for months. She did not want to count but a part of her envious mind remembered every lonely day at school.
Mavis had not spoken to anyone in those days and was content that when she got home, she could be with Honey again—just the two of them. Those family times became less, and Maxine suddenly became an older and protective sister to Honey.
The bullying continued when Maxine was away from Honey, but it would immediately stop when they got a glimpse of fiery eyes and dragon flames out of a venomous mouth.
Of course, one cannot get special treatment.
Bullies picked on Mavis for the ugly and washed out imitation of Honey, something she was well aware of and had come to accept that nobody wanted seconds.
Not her drug addict mother, not her alcoholic father, and surely not anyone else.
A day of bullying resulted in a fall accident that caused a linear fracture on Mavis's wrist. It was nothing major and the ache was tolerable because she had suffered far worst hits than a fall on the ground. Her mother's open hand slaps and her father's closed fist punches were much more painful along with the occasional kicks and bitter insults.
Honey had cried until her eyes were puffy and red while Mavis comforted the girl with soft caresses into blonde hai
r. Maxine had shouted something in the background, but she was too tired to hear beyond the raised volume and far too used to the disappointing gaze her older brother gave her in the infirmary room.
The message in his eyes was a dead giveaway hint of how much he disliked her and the unnecessary responsibilities that came with taking care of her. He knew that if he showed the monstrous side of him, he might risk Honey hating him.
He loved Honey too much to be separated from her.
Her brother made her never mention the bullying to Honey because it would have made her worried and it was not good for her health. A promise that the fall was a pure accident and not the result of a forceful push down the stairs.
That night when Honey got cleaned up before dinner, his tone was cold and distant while lecturing Mavis about the misfortune around her and the nuisance he felt had tugged on her little heart and shattered whatever hope of a family she dreamed of.
She thought that maybe if she got perfect grades and stayed a good girl that it would change his mind about her, but nothing she ever did would get him to turn his head and smile proudly at her like he always did with Honey.
Mavis had always been that odd child out; never loved, never held, and never good enough.
After the incident with the man their mother brought home who tried to sexually assault Honey, Mavis protected the girl with a knife to the back of the man’s neck.
They can only protect themselves.
Then, legal guardianship of the sisters went to their brother.
Mavis made the decision to sleep in a different room, she doesn’t want to touch her sister with blood on her hands. Honey had whined and pouted as she thought that Mavis didn’t want to spend any more time with her and how it would be weird to not have her twin beside her.
Mavis made a half lie and half-truth reason—to be more independent.
They still ate together, all three of them. A dysfunctional family of a responsible big brother, favorite bubbly sister, and a baggage of the other half. Honey did most of the talking; talked about her day, her friends and how much stronger she became with Maxine’s help. Her brother would nod with a fond smile on his lips, never once curious about Mavis' day.
