Blur (12 page)

We stared at each other for what seemed like forever and then he pointed to the door.

Swallowing hard, I stepped over and unlocked it.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” he asked softly.

My heart was hammering in my chest and I bit the side of my lip, trying to decide what to do.

“Well?” he asked, smiling devilishly. “I promise I won’t hurt you, Nikki. In fact, I imagine you’ll enjoy my company tremendously.”

I let out a ragged sigh and nodded.

He stared at my mouth. “I’d like to hear you say it.”

“Come in, Ethan.”

Ethan stepped into my bedroom and I instinctively took a step backwards.

“Are you afraid of me?” he asked with a sardonic grin.

“I… don’t know,” I whispered, as the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Obviously I was lying. He scared the hell out of me.

He took another step towards me, his eyes probing. “Nikki, seriously, you have nothing to be afraid of.”

“Uh, why me?” I squeaked, surprised that I was able to ask any questions at all when what I really wanted to do was run like hell.

Ethan’s lips curled up. “Why not you?”

“I…” I stared at him as my panic began to change into something else entirely – an achy need to be closer to him; to touch and be touched by him.

What is wrong with me?

He walked over to my bed and sat down. “Come here.”

I moved towards him and he grabbed both of my hands, kissing them with his soft lips.

“Why you? Because we belong together,” he murmured.

Earlier his skin had felt cool to the touch. It had been the one thing that had surprised me. Now, his cheeks were warm and he held my hands against them, nuzzling them, lovingly.

“But I don’t even know you,” I said. “How can you say that?”

He shrugged. “You do. You just don’t remember.”

“That doesn’t make sense. I just moved here,” I said.

He looked up into my eyes. “Let’s just say we knew each other in another life.”

My eyes widened. “What… like reincarnation?”

His hands tightened on my wrists and he pulled me onto his lap. “Something like that.”

“Seriously?”

Instead of answering me, he leaned forward and captured my lips with his. I closed my eyes, abandoning all logic and caution. Soon we were kissing with as much heat and passion as earlier, this time without fear of being interrupted. When his fingers opened up my robe and began touching my naked body, I gasped with pleasure.

“Ethan,” I breathed, my heart pounding in my chest.

“You’re mine,” he whispered into my neck, making me shiver. “Forever.”

“Sure,” I whispered back as his tongue slid down to my nipple and began teasing it. “Whatever… you… say.”

His hands caressed my breasts and I closed my eyes as his hot mouth continued to make me quiver. Soon, I was making mewling noises and he was breathing as heavily as I was.

“What?” I whispered when he suddenly pushed me away.

“Come with me,” he said in a ragged voice. “I can’t make love to you here. It’s not safe.”

“No, it’s okay. Nobody will know,” I whispered, surprising myself with my own eagerness to give myself to him.

He closed his eyes. “You’re a virgin and I’m…”

How did he know? Obviously, not from my actions.

“What? It’s okay.”

“Come with me now, Miranda,” he said, opening his eyes and pulling me to him. “It’s time to leave everything else, behind.”

I pulled away. “Miranda?”

He blinked. “Nikki, come with me and we can be together forever. I’ll never let you go, again.”

“What? I can’t leave my family,” I said. Sure, he was hot and I wanted to feel him touch and kiss me again, but I wasn’t about to leave my family.

He stared into my eyes, and soon I was willing to go anywhere with him. I just wanted nothing more than to be lost in his arms forever. “Come with me,” he prodded, touching my face, lovingly.

I nodded. “Oh, God. Yes.”

Just then the bedroom door was thrown open and my brother stood in the doorway with a shotgun. “Hands off of her, pal. She’s not going anywhere with you!”

Ethan growled and moved away from me as I struggled to adjust my robe.

“Did you just
growl
at me? Get the hell out of here, Cujo, before I use this thing!” demanded Nathan. “I’ll fucking do it!”

Ethan took a step towards my brother and I yelled, “Ethan, don’t hurt him! Please!”

Somehow deep down, I knew that Ethan had the power to rip Nathan apart with little effort. Even though both of them were similar in size and stature, you could almost feel the power and strength emanating from him. It was both frightening and exciting at the same time. At least for me. 

Ethan looked at me and for a second, I thought he was going to carry me off into the moonlight. Instead, he let out a frustrated groan, and then in a flash, was gone.

“
What
in the hell was that?” hollered Nathan as he dashed towards the balcony.

“Um, that was Ethan,” I answered, touching my bruised lips. I couldn’t believe how much I wanted him to return. To finish what he’d started.

Nathan stormed back into my bedroom and ran a hand through his brown hair. “What were you thinking, Nik? That has to be the
thing
trying to fuck with us. That certainly wasn’t a normal dude who was trying to feel you up, which, by the way, wasn’t at all fair to Duncan!”

A wave of shame spread through me as Duncan’s face popped into my mind. I did love him, didn’t I?

“Listen,” I said firmly. “He has this power to make me do things… I can’t control myself around him,” I shook my head incredulously. “Nathan, God, I seriously think I’d do anything for him if he asked.”

“What?”

“I know,” I said, my eyes misting over. “I couldn’t help it, either. One moment I was fine and the next, we were making out and I did nothing to stop it.”

His eyes narrowed. “Mind control?”

I wiped a tear from my eye, my emotions all messed up. “Yes.”

“So, do you honestly believe he’s a vampire?”

“Yes, Nathan, I do.” My mind was beginning to clear, and now there was little doubt in my mind that he actually was a vampire.

He leaned forward. “Did he suck your blood or anything?”

I touched my neck. “He didn’t bite me. At least… not that I remember.” I ran over to the mirror and checked my neck. “See, it looks normal.” Remembering our mother’s neck, I covered my mouth in horror. “Oh, my God… mom! She has that thing on her neck! Remember?”

We both flew out of the bedroom and began knocking on her door.

“Come in,” she called.

Her room was dark except for a candle burning slowly on the nightstand.

“Hey,” I said, in a low voice. “Um, sorry to bother you. We were just wondering if we could check those bites on your neck. To make sure they aren’t infected.”

She rolled over and gave us an exasperated sigh. “You woke me up in the middle of the night to check my neck?”

“Sorry,” said Nathan. “Um, we saw this news report about these mosquito bites that get really inflamed if you don’t care for them correctly.”

“Yeah,” I said. “If you don’t clean them good… um, eggs will grow in your neck.”

She sat up and shrieked. “What?! Eggs! Look and see if anything is growing in my neck!”

Nathan bit back a smile as we stepped closer to examine mom’s neck.

“Fine, I’m convinced,” he whispered, looking at me. “Check it out.”

I was, too. The swelling had gone down but the two holes could have definitely been caused by a vampire. Not that either of us were experts, but we’d watched enough horror flicks to know what we saw.

“Mom, we have to talk to you,” I said, stepping back. “I know this is going to sound crazy but you have to believe us.”

She looked at both of us. “Okay, spill it. What’s on your minds?”

We started over from when we’d spoken to Amy, her warnings, and how she’d killed herself. Then, I told both of them how I met Ethan and how he’d called me Miranda and had almost made me run away with him.

She threw her head back and laughed.

“It’s not funny, mom,” said Nathan. “This Ethan guy looked like he was ready to attack me tonight and I had to use a gun to scare him away.”

“Nathan, I doubt the gun would have killed him, anyway,” I said. “He only left you alone because I told him to.”

“Whatever,” he snapped. “This guy is some kind of monster. Whether it’s a vampire or demon. He flies, he growls – he isn’t normal!”

She threw her hands up in the air. “It’s… I don’t know how to react to this. I can’t just accept the fact that you both think this kid is a vampire. As far as my neck goes, I’ve never met Ethan, so if you think he bit my neck when I was having a cup of coffee and didn’t notice, you have another thing coming.”

“Do you feel different at all?” I asked.

She glared at me. “For Heaven’s sake, Nikki! I’m not going to turn into a damn vampire!”

Nathan and I looked at each other. We knew it was pointless to keep trying to convince her that there were vampires in Shore Lake. Unless she saw it for herself, there was no way she was going to believe us. Nathan had reacted the same way.

She rubbed her temples and then stared at us, again. “Look, I’m going back to bed and I suggest that the both of you do the same thing. In the morning, you’ll both realize how crazy this sounded.”

I sighed. “Okay.”

“Goodnight, mom,” said Nathan.

“I love you both, but if you wake me up to talk about vampires again, I’m getting rid of cable!”

“Okay, I’m not leaving you alone anymore,” said Nathan as he paced back and forth in the kitchen. We were both too shook up to sleep.

“Fine,” I said, taking a sip of coffee.

He wagged his finger. “We should talk to mom and see if she’s willing to move back home, too.”

My jaw dropped. “But what about Duncan and our new jobs?”

“What about… there’s a vampire after you, Nikki? Or should we call you
‘Miranda’
?”

I sighed. “What if he follows us anyway? He said he’s been looking for me and now that he’s found me, we are supposed to be together.”

“How romantic,” snickered Nathan. “If you ask me, I think he just wants to get into your pants.”

“He almost did,” I mumbled.

“Good thing I heard those groans and whimpers coming from your room, which was gnarly, by the way. Do you know how disturbing it is to hear your sister getting it on with a vampire?” He shuddered. “It’s sick.”

I smiled. “Thank you for being a nosy brother, Nathan. You probably saved my life. At least, my virginity.”

“Thank my stomach. If it wasn’t for mom’s leftover pasta salad calling to me in the fridge, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Probably not.”

He sat down by the counter. “I just don’t know what else to do. You know, I wonder if we should see if Abigail is still in town. She might have some ideas. She’s the only other person who’d believe us.”

“We should probably go and pay her a visit in the morning,” I said.

He looked at his watch. “The sun will be up soon. I’m going to grab my sleeping bag and camp out in your room for the next few nights. Hopefully, that horny vampire gives up and decides to go after someone else.”

“Oh, my God,” I whispered in horror. “What if he killed all of those girls in the paper? You said they were all similar looking. Maybe he was looking for me?”

He snorted. “Or worse yet, you are not the real Miranda and he decides to kill you when he figures it out.”

I glared at him. “Oh, thanks, Nathan. Just when I think it can’t get any worse.”

“Hey, I’m just trying to keep everything in perspective. I mean, we shouldn’t rule anything out,” he said with a yawn.

His yawn triggered one from me. “True, but I hope you’re wrong,” I said as we headed out of the kitchen and back upstairs.

Ten minutes later, Nathan was snoring on the floor but I was still awake. I stared at the door to my balcony, which was now closed and locked. Part of me still longed for Ethan and I wondered if I’d have the strength to say no if given the chance to surrender to him again.