Blood Ties (22 page)

She laughed. She was spread-eagle on her bed, arms out wide.

“What time are they headed out tomorrow?” I was pissy he hadn’t given me a goodnight kiss. It wasn’t as if I wanted him to fawn over me but hell, I wanted to know what was so important for him to ignore me.

“It will be very early, before dawn.”

I slid under the heavy comforter. “So what exactly are they doing?”

She yawned
, stretching. Hadn’t I read somewhere that lions yawned when they were hungry – not that I compared them to animals, but hey, they had fangs and Michael did that growly thing. If her dainty mouth sprouted fangs, the lamp next to me was going airborne.

She shrugged. “They’re just hunting up an old friend, wrapping up unfinished business.” She saw my expression. “You know the typical business stuff, real boring.”

Hunting and unfinished business. It sounded ominous, hardly boring. On my only trip to Sydney, it had been all he could do to rush back to St. Germaine. “Does this have to do with our trip to Sydney?” I asked, feeling something hovering in the back of my mind. It was odd, I still had a few missing pieces.

She shrugged with an almost feigned disinterest. “He didn’t say anything to me. They’re just doing business, nothing else, nothing interesting.” She jumped off the bed and planted a kiss on my forehead. “It’s getting late. I’d better let you get some sleep so you can hit the books early tomorrow.”

It was a quick escape if it was anything. I might be part of the “family” but I wouldn’t be in the inner circle. It’s probably just as well. I’d pass on the scary vampire shit.

***

I woke to the sounds of raucous laughter. I followed it downstairs and stood poised on the bottom step, gawking at the bizarre scene. They sat around the gaming table with cards in their hands, motionless, staring at each other. Xavier had an unlit cigar hanging out of the side of his mouth. Matt wore a baseball hat, backwards with dark sunglasses.

Xavier
shifted in his seat. “You’re up,” he growled at Matt.

“Give me two.” Selene threw him two cards in a blur. They disappeared before they hit
the table.

“Shiiit.”

They all laid down their cards. Michael had a satisfied smile on his face.

Matt snorted in disgust. “That’s the fifth hand we’ve lost to you. What are you doing to keep us out this time?”

He hiked his head towards me. They groaned and slouched back in their chairs.

Mathew called out
, “Hey Liz, sorry we woke you. Wanna join us?”

Michael responded, “Not a good idea, she has a weekend of studying ahead of her. She needs her rest.” My hackles went up. Nice that he seemed to think he could answer for me. Who cares if he was right.

He pushed back from the table and stood up. “I’m out, boys … and girl. You’ll have to continue without me.”

“Come on Selene, it’s your turn to beat us,” Xavier growled. She smirked and shuffled the cards. All I could see was a blur in her hands.

Michael led me back upstairs.

“Poker, huh?”

“They’re obsessed with beating me. It’s a rare occasion they can get past my shields.” He smirked. “I’ll have to give them another hundred years or so of practice on keeping me out of their heads.”

“No doubt,” I said as I rolled my eyes. Arrogant as ever.

He sat down on the bed and pulled me into his lap. “So how’s your paper coming?”

“It’s coming … along,” I replied, distracted as he brushed my hair away from my face with his cool fingers. He began caressing my cheek with his lips, slowly moving them to the hollow behind my ear. “I’m almost ... halfways done …
,” I trailed off. He continued to work his way down my throat. “Michael …,” I said in a shaky voice.

“Hmmmm?”

I suddenly couldn’t remember what I was going to say as he trailed his fingertips down the other side of my neck. He leaned over, kissed the hollow of my throat and worked his way down below my collarbone. I braided my fingers into his hair, panting, his heavy scent touching my skin like a thousand soft seductive strokes. What was it about his scent?

He
brought his face up to mine and ran his cool tongue over my lips, tasting me. He kissed me softly at first and then abruptly, began to kiss me roughly, forcing my lips open, probing their depths, bruising them. The muscles at my core seized up. It was almost painful. I dug my fingernails into his arms. I whimpered. The thought of getting all naked and sweaty seemed like an excellent plan.

He tore himself away, his breaths labored. He moved off the bed to stand against the wall, head down, fists clenched.

I watched him, my breaths coming in gasps. “Michael …”

He groaned and forced himself to move
farther away along the wall. He raised his head, his black eyes burned into mine, torn with conflict.

He took a deep breath. “It’s time for sleep, my love.”

I opened my mouth to protest but was paralyzed. My eyes closed against their will. I felt him place me under the covers, tucking them in. Before my mind let go, I felt a soft brush against my forehead.

***

I wasn’t alone in the dark. I floated on thoughts so alien, so different – so wrong. I felt the thought’s confusion as it turned its attention to me. It watched me, as if it were a physical thing.

“Curious,” it said, t
hen it pushed me gently aside as if I were a slight breeze. Then I was frozen, trapped behind a wall of thoughts.

I opened my eyes, wincing at a bright light overhead. Above me, thick white padding covered the ceiling. More of it covered the walls. I tried to move but couldn’t. My limbs felt so heavy, so very weak. The scent of blood filled the air, a sour stench, the smell of a man who had gone over the edge.

Jensen.

I tried to raise myself up but couldn’t. I looked down
the length of my body and was shocked to find myself strapped to some sort of surgical chair. I strained against the restraints. My God – what had he done to me? A growl rumbled out of my chest.

There was a rustling of cloth, then footsteps and the scrape of wheels. The fool had tracked me for almost twenty years on the misguided belief that I had murdered his wife and child. He was a devious son of a bitch and somehow again, despite my repeated attempts in wiping his memories, he had recovered them.

“I see you’ve come to,” he said. He held a syringe filled with luminescent blue fluid. My teeth extended with the familiar ache. I struggled to lift my head and the strap cut into my forehead. “You fool. What games do you play now?” I hissed.

He stabbed the needle into my arm and pushed down the plunger. Liquid fire began to
run through my veins. I convulsed, bucking against the restraints as it spread like hot molten steel through my body. Blinding rage seethed through me. I tried not to scream as the poison seared my insides.

Hatred burned like cold grey ice in his eyes. “Go ahead and try reaching your friends, feel free to scream if you’d like, they won’t be able to hear you.” He smiled cruelly; the smell of his fetid breath filled the air. “Struggle all you want, it won’t make a difference. You’ve been pumped full of my inhibitor, leaving you as helpless as a human.” He held out a blade, peering at it closely as he turned it back and forth to catch the light. “No ... no one will come for you, you might as well relax, save your strength. I want to enjoy this as long as possible.” He leaned in slowly. “So Michael, shall we begin?”

I screamed with Michael as he struggled wildly against his straps, molten lava torching his insides, the blade slicing though his chest.

I heard a voice shouting over the sound of screaming. “Liz! Wake up!”

I fought, struggling to get free, seeing Jensen leaning over me as he cut, stroke after stroke into my chest. Then suddenly the sight of
him faded. I saw Selene, hovering over me. I fought off the covers and tore at my t-shirt looking for wounds.

“You’ve got to help him! Michael … someone’s hurting him!”

“Liz,” she reassured me, “He’s fine, it was just a bad dream.”

“No! That man, he … I could feel …hear Michael screaming!”

“Liz, he’s fine, I just talked to him on the phone.”

“What?”

“They’ve arrived in Sydney.”

“Just now?”

She nodded. A dream? Michael was safe? She held me, rocking back and forth, as I told her what I had seen. When I had finished, I relaxed into her arms, numb and confused.

“All better?”

I nodded, wiping at my tears.

“Good. Now Liz, you won’t have any more nightmares. Sleep.” With an overwhelming sense of relief, I sunk into nothingness as she laid me back down into the bed, tucking the covers around me.

***

I heard a faint clink of a glass. “Wake up sleepy head, I’ve brought you lunch.” I opened my bleary eyes. Selene stood holding a tray. She sat it down on the nightstand. It looked like some sort of soup, along with a daisy in a small vase.

“What time is it?” I croaked.

“It’s
two o’clock in the afternoon,” she responded cheerfully.

“
Two o’clock?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Oh …” I looked blankly towards the window. Suddenly, last night came rushing back, the white room – the hand with the blade and Michael screaming. I began to cry. I looked down at my chest looking for gashes, not quite believing it hadn’t been real.

She frowned. “Liz, my darling, it was just a bad dream.” I ignored her and looked at my arm checking for a needle mark. “Liz
. Look at me,” she said sternly. I looked up into her hazel eyes through a film of tears. “Push it away, it wasn’t real. Michael is fine.”

I nodded, wiping at my eyes. “Have you heard from him
again?”

“Yes, he called again around noon to check in. He’s told me to tell you … he’s ordered you to not have any more nightmares.” Ordered? He sure got bossy when he went out of town. Oh wait, he was bossy last night. Guess it didn’t take a trip.

“So, no more nightmares right?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I muttered under my breath. She placed pillows behind me as I scooted to sit upright. She placed the tray over my lap. “You make me feel like a princess, pampering me.”

“I want to pamper you. Quit worrying about becoming spoiled. Just eat.”

I tried the soup. It was cream of tomato with rosemary. Last night it
had been lasagna. I wondered if there was a reason why everything she had made had a red hue. It hit me as hilarious and I snorted, spilling my soup down my front.

“So Selene, how much do you want to pamper me?” I asked as I wiped the soup off with a napkin. “I could put a list together ... facials, massages, pedicures,
...” Her face lit up. Oops, not a good sign. I was a low-maintenance-kinda-gal.

“You know I’m only joking.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You only think I’m kidding. What would you like first my little princess, a pedicure or massage?” I just shook my head and went back to my soup, scowling as she badgered me about her plans for spoiling me.

I was out of bed, showered, and dressed before she returned from cleaning up lunch. “So, what’s on the agenda for today?” she asked, hoping I’m sure, it didn’t require her leaving me alone.

“English, social studies, and perhaps a heinous sprinkling of statistics.”

She trailed behind me as I went downstairs. I spread my books out on the kitchen table. Selene unhappily wandered off, looking for something to distract herself. I diligently kept at it, making good progress. Every hour Selene would place a drink in front of me – lemonade, apple juice, Chai Tea – she was experimenting. Apparently, she thought I was going to pass out from dehydration.

Come dinnertime, she made a steak, baked potato, and green beans. She grimaced at the steak as she poked it in the pan. I couldn’t resist. “Not fresh enough for you Selene?” She stuck out her tongue.

Her cell phone rang. In a blur, she pulled it out of the back pocket of her jeans. “I see …
,” she said. She walked into the other room. After several minutes of a quiet conversation, she came back and held out the phone.

“It’s Michel,” she said in a singsong voice.

I tried not to squeal with delight as I took it.

He laughed softly. “Miss me?”

“Of course,” I said, embarrassed. “When will you be home?”

I could hear the smile in his voice. “It’s taking us a little longer than expected, I’m sure it will wrap up soon.”

His voice became serious, “Liz, don’t worry about me. Nothing has or will happen to me. There’s no reason to have any nightmares, okay?”

I stood there, not responding, trying not to think about my nightmare.

“Liz?”

“Sorr
y, yeah okay.” I didn’t think I had much say on what danced around in my subconscious at night but what the hell, somebody had to be driving the bus.