Feral: Part One (12 page)

“Sofia,” Grace spoke patiently as she released me and slid onto the stool next to mine. “What Cole did was wrong, and now he has to face the consequences. I’m sure it won't be easy, but hopefully in time, he will get over it.”

I knew Cole. He wouldn’t.

I was certain that a few of my friends would laugh if they knew I was guzzling down chocolate milk, but it was my comfort beverage, and by George, after the recent insights, I felt I damn well deserved several ounces of comfort!

I finished my pancakes and was starting on my second glass of milk, eyes taking in the deep red of the kitchen, when another thought came to me. I voiced my concern, or rather my curiosity, about something that had been niggling at the back of my subconscious to Grace and Maymūna.

While it was true I’d become more and more involved with Simon over the passing months, I was still a bit surprised to have also had such a change of emotions in the span of only a few hours. Fortunately, they both calmly explained more of the intricacies of “vampiric mating habits” to me.

The term had my lips twitching, and I had the sneaking suspicion Maymūna used it on purpose to try to get a reaction from me. It almost worked.

Between two vampires, the pull was apparently instantaneous and almost entirely irresistible. Under normal circumstances, the draw between a vampire and a human was almost as equally intense. That Simon struggled to resist his own nature for so long had put a strain on the spiritual thread that connected us, and the natural emotions evoked in both parties when one found their mate was, in our case, only intensified by the awakening sensations Simon felt. In short, where I would’ve been drawn to him and fallen for him quite quickly under regular circumstances, his heightened emotions were directly effecting my own, progressing them more rapidly than normal.

When I questioned them about what would’ve happened had Simon ignored the pull, Maymūna's expression turned grave. All she would say was it would have ended disastrously. The look in Grace's unseeing eyes told me 'disastrously' was the other’s tactful way of saying Simon would have died, and I could only presume that a broken heart would’ve led to him having someone take his life.

I went to voice my opinion on this, but just as I opened my mouth, the sound of a door opening and slamming shut stopped me. I turned to see him blur to a stop only a few feet from me, where he then took in my relaxed appearance and bright smile. I watched as he made to step forward, but froze. He didn’t pause like a human, but genuinely
froze
. He was totally immobilized, as solid and as unmoving as a statue, and that made me nervous.

When I started to stand, Grace heard my movements and stopped me with a hiss. "Don’t move."

"What's wrong?" I questioned. "Is he okay?"

"He is in shock," Maymūna supplied in hushed tones as she ever-so-slowly turned her head to look at me. Her eyes cut toward my mate, regarding him silently, then darted back to me, catching my incredulous expression. "Yes, Sofia, vampires can go into shock. It does not occur often. It only happens during times when they are just overcome with too many emotions. Emotions are more intense for vampires, and when they are overwhelmed, they go into a type of sensory overload. I personally have never seen any vampire shut down before though."

"Shut down?" I could feel the panic growing inside me. "What's going to happen to him?"

"Nothing is going to happen, Sofia,” she assured me with a shake of her head. “When a vampire goes into shock, it is in essence our body's way of forcing us to stop and let our mind have time to comprehend and absorb everything.

“Vampires have an eidetic memory. Every single thing we do, say, think, see, smell, feel
—any
input we encounter—we remember forever. Normally, our brains can keep up, but sometimes when you add to all that stimuli enormous waves of emotions, it becomes too much. Our bodies just shut down temporarily to keep us from doing much of anything while it sorts through all the input. We cannot speak. We cannot move. We cannot breathe. The only thing we have left is our hearing and vision.

"However," she drawled, "instinct is the strongest force within a vampire. If you were to make any sudden movements, his distracted brain would see it as a threat. Because you are his mate, he cannot directly hurt you, but that unfortunately does not mean that he cannot hurt himself or anyone else indirectly by pulling the house down around our ears."

I glanced at Simon, still frozen like a statue. "So he can see us and hear us?"

"Yes," Grace replied. "They're protective measures. If we lost all our senses during shock, we’d be vulnerable to attack."

"What triggered it?"

“You,” Maymūna answered bluntly. “His instincts have been building and building, then after you were attacked… You are not the only one this situation is overwhelming for, Sofia. Despite being a vampire and the leader of this clan, Simon has never really experienced life as a vampire.”

She shrugged. “All night he was fretting about how you will handle this entire situation, and that has pretty much been the only reason he has not gone into shock in the past twenty-four hours. He was previously concerned about telling you, so I can only surmise the strain of the attack and your state of mind put so much stress on his systems they overloaded. And I can tell you that while he knows you are safe with us, he still was not entirely comfortable with the decision to leave you in order to hunt.

“I imagine seeing you relaxed and unharmed was a trigger in his mind that you are okay. In knowing you are both physically and emotionally well, for the largest part at least, his mind gave his body permission to shut itself down to compute all of the sensations he has had to deal with this past day."

I let my eyes drift back to Simon, who had obviously dressed before coming downstairs. The black slacks hung low on his hips and a perfectly tailored, periwinkle, button-down shirt hugged his chest and mouth-wateringly broad shoulders. I thanked every god and goddess I had ever read about that the sleeves were rolled up, revealing his powerful forearms.

God, he was gorgeous. Then again, given what he was, I guess it came with the territory.

I resisted the temptation to look up into his eyes, because I felt a bit guilty sitting there discussing and ogling him, especially since he could see us and hear every single word. Not that it would’ve really mattered, I guess. There probably was no place in the house we could go and not be heard. "It’s probably rude to talk about him when he's like this."

"Probably," Maymūna commented with no small amount of glee, "but it is not as if we can go anywhere if we do not want him to destroy this part of the mansion. Of course, even if we could leave, we can hear for a good mile or two. And what were we supposed to do, Sofia? Not tell you what is happening and let you sit there and panic?"

I sighed. "Good point. But, well, it's got to be uncomfortable, don't you think? I mean—" I barely waved my hand in his direction "—look at him! He can see and hear everything we do. It's got to be awkward."

"I know! It is quite hilarious, is it not?" she chuckled.

I looked to Grace for support, but her lips were twitching with a suppressed smile. "Grace!"

"Oh, c'mon, Sofia! It's funny, you’ve gotta admit,” she said with a wink. “He's stuck there. He can't move. We could tell the most embarrassing stories we know about him, and he can't do anything about it." She laughed before cutting the sound short, throwing a bemusedly apologetic glance up to my mate. "I'm sorry, Simon, but it
is
kind of funny."

"Oh my god!" I stared at them both, trying desperately to keep my expression under control. "You two are terrible!"

Maymūna gave me a big smirk. "Then why are your lips twitching?" When I mumbled ‘are not’, she burst out laughing. "You know that you want to laugh, Sofia!"

I could feel my face turning bright red. I felt bad, really I did, but they
were
right… kind of. However, I couldn’t let my mate see me laughing, so I dropped my head into my hands as my lips curled into a grin.

"I know you are not laughing at my expense,
cara mia,"
he whispered in my ear.

I let out a blood-curdling scream and jumped from the stool, nearly losing my footing when my feet touched the slippery wood floor. I glared at the two succubi who practically rolled with laughter and wadded up my napkin, throwing it at Grace as she was the closest. "That was
not
funny.”

EIGHT

It wasn’t until after I finished my breakfast, when Simon went to kiss me, that I realized something very important. I had come straight down to breakfast without taking a shower or even brushing my teeth, so when he leaned in to kiss my lips, I smirked and kept them tightly pressed together, ignoring his arched eyebrow.

He seemed thoroughly baffled for a moment, but when I continued to grin, my lips firmly shut, he shook his head at me with a heavy chuckle.
"Gioia mia,
my joy, certainly you are not denying your mate the pleasure of your divine lips simply because you are worried about a little morning breath?"

My eyes went wide at his humorous words, probably comically so from one of the other’s perspectives, and I struggled to control my smile. I lifted my hand to shoo him away, but he only shook his head. I rolled my eyes, and deciding to rectify my mistake, slid off my stool but was bemused at finding the doorway blocked. I growled as menacingly as a human possibly could at him, and he growled right back, grinning the entire time.

I stared at him for a few moments, before coming up with an idea.

With a bright smile, I turned on my heel and took two steps toward the dining room entrance, watching him blur by to block me from leaving. I instantly spun and dashed for the main entryway, only to be caught firmly around the waist.

I shrieked in protest when I went soaring through the air in his grasp and huffed when his lips came down on my mine, parting them with ease. I noticed as I held his gaze that his eyes twinkling with the laughter that vibrated in his chest and that he was very careful how close he pressed his face close to mine. I figured he was being careful not to touch the bruising, and was grateful.

“Wow,” I murmured, stepping back and taking a few moments to catch my breath when he released me. “I, uh, would you mind if I used your bathroom to, um, wash and clean up?” A thought struck me, and I cursed. “I don’t have any other clothes.”

His kissed my forehead, reaching up to stroke my upper arms. “Well, if you can assure me your mother will not be home and you are not entirely opposed to breaking and entering, I can have Maymūna go to your home and retrieve some of your clothes.”

“Or you can borrow some of mine,” Grace supplied. “From your footfall, it sounds like you’re about my weight, give or take a couple of pounds. I can tell from your gait that your legs are about an inch shorter than mine, and I have an idea of how long your arms are from their movement. From there, I can take a fairly good guess at the length of your torso.” She nodded, her eyes darting to mine but never focusing on them. “You sound about my size.”

She was right.

Living life as a sighted-person, I’d never imagined someone could measure another simply from sounds, but for someone like Grace whose main sense of input was aural, it made sense. I thought it amazing.

I thanked the red-head, and before disappearing from the kitchen, she assured me she’d have something appropriate for me in the bathroom by the time I reached it. I caught Simon’s self-satisfied smirk and muttered
'compiaciuto bastardo'
underneath my breath, knowing full well he’d hear me call him a smug bastard before making my way up to the en suite.

I stood there for a few moments, taking in the utter opulence of the bathroom, something I hadn’t been able to appreciate the night before.

The floor was made of eggshell-white porcelain tiles and the walls were a pale, mint cream color. A large, glass walk-in shower was in the far right corner, and along the back wall was a shelf covered in the fluffiest towels I’d ever seen in my life. To my surprise, a flat-screen television was mounted between the far left corners. I could not, for the life of me, figure out why a television was in the bathroom. I mean, I knew several humans who did the same thing, but humans regularly took baths and showers.

Did vampires need to take a shower? Clearly, they had the plumbing, which to me indicated they indeed utilized it, so I could only assume the presence of the t.v. meant Simon at least indulged in bathing. I supposed on the occasions they supplemented feeding from humans with animals, they likely got dirty and would need to clean off, but I couldn’t imagine any other reason they would
need
to shower. I mean, given their cool body temperature, I doubted they’d sweat or anything. Of course, like many humans, they could just enjoy the sensation for the pure pleasure of it. Why not? I did quite regularly.

The actual tub was a Jacuzzi that I swore could fit four people at least. It was surrounded with white and matching mint-colored marble, or at least it was on three sides. I was sure there had to be at least one false panel in case something malfunctioned and it needed repair. There were small steps leading up to it, and four white pillars, with ivy and wisteria curling around them, stretched from the floor to the high ceiling. The ivy and wisteria, one of my favorite flowers, was a delightful addition. It was beautiful, but I knew for a fact it had not been there previously, and I couldn’t imagine Simon allowing his bathroom to be decorated with vines and flowers under normal circumstances.

I made my way to the sink and was surprised to see a toothbrush with a note attached to it.

Don’t worry. The toothbrush is brand new, and if you look in the wooden cabinet to your left, you’ll find some clothes on the top shelf and a basket of shampoo and stuff on the bottom. (I didn’t think you’d wanna walk around smelling like man spice.) The wisteria is from my bathroom. I wasn’t sure if you’d like it or not, but I thought it would be a nice touch for you, since Simon’s bathroom is so damn boring. I hope you like it. Relax and enjoy! ~Grace