NEVER FALL FOR THE FORBIDDEN (NEVER FALL SERIES) (7 page)

             
“I was not using you.” He said. Annasara walked around him heading towards the bus stop then stopped. Turning around she strutted back to him looking him in the eye, carefully choosing her words. “Unless you were in a coma, I think you could have taken five seconds to return my calls.”

             
“But I was, you would not understand, it was my illness. I was under an experimental treatment. I am sorry.”

             
Her mind fought the urge to rush to and away from him, the later won as she backed away.

              “Can you tell me that it was not amazing?” he asked. His question made her stop on the spot where she stood.

             
“No.” she said and started walking again.

             
“No?”

             
Almost twenty feet away he heard the faint words fall from her lips, “It was incredible.”

             
The whisper sounded like a horn blasting in his acute hearing range. Both raced towards on another in a heated frenzy sprint. Lips and bodies crashed together as their passions united into one. They shared a lasting passionate kiss, wanting lips and hands searching each other, in fast needing bursts of lust and hunger. His words begged her. “Oh, Sara, please forgive me. I never wanted to hurt you.” She panted between kisses. “Take me home.”             

             
Practically falling into the house, never releasing lips from each other, jackets, shirts, shoes and underwear peeled off in fumbling attempts to strip each other all while lips locked and mashed in the marathon of make out session. Pinning her up on the door, Triton plunged into her. The sex was raw, sweaty, and much needed. The kind of sex that made you blush for days after having it. Fast and hot, against the wall, over the chair, ending up on the carpet with a rug burn badge of glory.

             
“Say my name, call my name when you come.” She demanded in the final throws. He obeyed her command, “Annasara!”.

              Basking the afterglow of sexual gratification, she smothered him with kisses and he tried to shake the fogginess from his brain. For the next three weeks straight, they spent every night together, fucking hard, making love slow, and having sex in every position, everywhere from the gallery’s backroom, in his car, even once in the dark corner booth of the bar. After one partially wild session in her bedroom, she sat up staring at him, “Are you married?” she asked, making him sit up to meet her gaze.

             
“No, I told you I was a widower. Why ask this?”

             
“You never stay, I only see you at night. I can’t reach you during the day.”

             
“I have to sleep sometime.” He joked.

             
“I’m serious, what is with you?” she said.

             
“I have a rare condition. I am allergic to sunlight. It could be potentially fatal if I am exposed to it, so I live on an opposite schedule than most of the world. I sleep during the day and work at night.”

             
“You’re not working now.”

             
“You think this isn’t work?” he said taking her down to the mattress and tickling her until she gave up and they resumed the sex and after resumed the talking.

             
“You should have told me sooner, it all makes sense now.”

             
“Well it’s not that I go around announcing it.” He said. Guilty feeling crept in as he told her the distorted truth of his “condition”.

             
“Does it make you feel like an outcast?” she asked.

             
“No, there are others like me out there.”

             
“What about a cure?”

             
“None yet, someday perhaps, I’ve tried several radical therapies, none have been successful.” He said. He thought about the vast difference his immortality and her humanness, two worlds forbidden to be together. Rules that his kind enforced with no tolerance for reasons or explanations, members that would kill them both if they were ever to be discovered. He looked at his watch and kissed her forehead.

             
“I have to go.” He said standing and pulling up black Levi’s, a stark contrast to his perfect white skin which sported red track marks down his back. Annasara rolled over propping her self up on one elbow and asked,

             
“Coming over tomorrow?”              

             
“Sorry, I can’t, but the next day I will have something special for you.”

             
She climbed to her knees and put her hands around his neck playfully, “Tell me what is it and I’ll give you a kiss.”

             
“Kiss first.” He said and she gave him one. “It’s a surprise.” She tisked at him and went back under the covers. Pulling them slowly back, he crawled over her and kissed her goodbye properly.

             
“Maybe I will have one for you too.” She said. “You will.” He said reading her mind, her surprise the same as his, telling each other I love you.

              “Love between humans and our kind is never allowed!” The elder Rohian said pounding his fist on the wooden table the convention sat behind. Triton hung his head and lifted it when Nala spoke ordering him to keep telling his tale. His voice distant and sad, Triton continued. “We never got to say those words to each other that night.”

Chapter Twelve

             
As Triton slipped quietly from Annasara’s warm sheets careful not to awaken her, he dressed and left. Pretending to be asleep, Annasara kept her charade until she heard the front door close. She could not let another night go by without knowing where he returned to every time he left. If she knew the truth, she could sleep better after he left nightly.

             
Red taillights illuminated her face as she drove the rental car behind Triton’s, keeping a safe distance as not to alarm him. Triton’s sedan pulled to a stop at the lone street light. The drive seemed far from the city, tucked just out the limits and in a desolate wooded area. Annasara pulled the brim of the ball cap down to conceal her identity as Triton looked into his rear view mirror. The late hour never brought out to many motorists and he always checked his surroundings in case anyone was following him. The red light turned green and the cars started lurching forward. Triton sped up as the following car obeyed the limit. In the pre-dawn darkness, Triton considered the remoteness, the single driver, his thirst.
It’s too close to the compound, and where would you stash a car this time of night, besides, this is new suit and blood is so hard to get out. Oh forget,
he told himself and approached the turn to the road that lead to the mansion.

             
Annasara passed the road as not to lead on. When he was clearly out of sight, she turned the car around and followed him.

             
Large wrought iron gates opened as his car approached, the guards waived him in, and Triton gave a slight gesture as he drove through. Annasara killed the engine glided the car off the side of the road and exited quickly. Running to the fence well out of the sight of the gate, she peered into the trees on the property.
If I can get closer maybe I can see more
, she thought. Rocks crumbled under her feet as she scaled the five-foot stonewall. Her hands gripped onto the wrought iron fence on top of the wall as she pulled her self up. Sliding between two old rusted bend bars, she slipped onto the grounds landing ungracefully on her rump.

             
Triton entered the foyer only to almost run over by a guard. He stopped the vampire to ask what happened.

             
“Intruder!” he told Triton and ran outside after him. Following behind, Triton ran to the guard shack and viewed the monitors. The figure small and dark slipped from the sight of the camera as the excited guards loaded weapons. Triton took hold of the controls and viewed from another camera angle. The figure moved again, a ball cap concealed the identity but for some reason the movements seemed familiar. The body padded softly across the clearing between the woods and mansion. He zoomed in revealing the worst-case scenario someone followed him. Walking out of the shack, Triton breathed in deeply as the newer less scent sensitive vampires waited with baited breathe for him determination.

             
“Cat.” Triton informed them. The vampires looked embarrassingly at each other for arousing such suspicions. With quick strides, Triton walked towards where he thought the intruder would now be. Following on his heels the guard wielding his German sheppard, tried to explain his mistake.

             
“I swore I saw someone.” The subordinate said.

             
“It’s just that old stray cat again, look you be in worse if anyone finds that guard post unattended, so get back to your duties and we can forget this all happened.”

             
The vampire and his barking dog hustled back to gate as Triton stood taking a deep breath. The scent permeated his senses. The human, a female approached closer to the mansion walls. Moonlight lit up the side of the building, illuminating a spotlight on figure, giving Triton a very clear view. Quietly he rushed behind the woman, threw his arms around her, and the two tumbled to the ground with a resonating thump. Ripping the ball cap off the squirming woman, Triton cursed as the blonde locks tumbled out of the cap and around her face. Annasara’s eyes grew wide as Triton cupped his hand over her mouth when she screamed. In the distance, the barking dog sounded off.

             
“Quiet or you will get a both killed!” he told her and she shook her in agreement.

              Umbriel turned his head away from the camera monitor’s in the guard shack as the guard approached. The guard became nervous, afraid he would be reprimanded for leaving the post unattended.

             
“Is there a breach?” Umbriel questioned.

             
“No, just that damn stray cat again. Rex here would like to get a hold of him, wouldn’t ya boy.” The vampire said to his dog as it whimpered and barked at the prospect of chasing the cat. Umbriel being head of security and centuries more experienced did not buy the guards story and went back to look the monitor again. The camera zoomed across the outside of the mansion and revealed what Umbriel’s suspicions felt. Umbriel zoomed in on two figures arguing in the moonlight. He watched Triton shake the woman by the arm, then look around for any watchers and clearly, she was unwelcome but familiar guest. Umbriel turned as guard tried to get a view of what Umbriel saw on the screen.

             
“Just that mangy cat again.” Umbriel said blocking the guard.

             
“Seek!” the guard commanded his dog and let him off the leash. Umbriel looked back at the screen and saw Triton and his female companion start to run. With forceful command, Umbriel shouted to the guard, “Call the dog back solider!”

             
“What? it’s just a cat.” The guard instinctively said then regretted his outburst.

             
“Need I remind you of the punishment for disobedience of you elders?” Umbriel berated the guard.

             
“No.”

             
“Call the mutt back now!”

             
The solider fumbled for the whistle around his neck.

             
“Run!” Triton shouted as he heard the guard dog fast approaching. Annasara sprinted forward as Triton followed behind her. He could not use his quickness to speed them away, so he raced at human velocity keeping pace   and they ran together into the forested area. Triton heard unintelligible shouting as Annasara tripped to the ground.

             
“Get up!” he shouted as he stopped to help her to her feet. He took her hand lead her through the brush. Looking over her shoulder Annasara spotted the dog quickly approaching.

             
“Triton! The dog.” She shouted so out of breath from the hurried pace.

             
“Come on, this way!” he yelled back and their clasp broke.

             
As the clearing opening up, Triton looked back. Annasara’s pace slowed. The dog gained speed as it saw the shadow moving. In split second, Triton thought he had two choices: turn in a vampire and whisk himself and Annasara over the fence revealing his secret to her or let the dog attack him. If he tangled with the dog Annasara could make it to the fence, but vampires could be seconds behind the canine, then Annasara and he would be caught, brought to trial, she would be killed for what she witness and Triton certainly would meet his fate for allowing a human on the grounds. Torn by what to do, he wasted precious time as the dog came rushing out of the wooded area into the clearing. Starting to turn himself, he stood between Annasara and the dog.

             
“Get to the fence!” he shouted as she ran past. Annasara didn’t look back. Triton could not complete his change before the dog leapt into the air, mouth opened and clamped onto Triton’s arm. Annasara nearly slipped through the bars when she saw Triton trying to shake the dog off.

             
“Triton!” She shouted.

             
“Keep going!”

             
“No, I can’t leave you!” she started to climb back through into the compound.

Suddenly, a whistle blasted in Triton’s ear. The dog instantly released,
turned, and ran back into the woods.

             
This can’t be good
, he thought as Annasara, helped him to his feet. As their feet pounded along the empty dark road, Triton looked back but saw no one following them. No vampires, no flashlight beams, all was quiet, too quiet.

             
The lights flashed as Annasara pointed the remote at the car, unlocking it.

Bent over, breathless, her heart pounded and pumped blood quickly through her veins.
Triton could smell the blood in the damp early morning dawn. Angrily he watched her from his bent over position.

             
“What the hell were you thinking coming here?!” he said huffing the words.

             
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to see where you lived.”

             
“I told you, you could never come here, you nearly got us both killed.”

             
“What is this place? You live here?”

             
“I told you never to follow me! Oh my god, Annasara.” Triton said and cupped his hands to his temples. “You have no idea how dangerous these people are, this organization does not allow outsides near here.”

             
“I just wanted to see for myself, that you were telling the truth, that you were going home to a wife and kids.”

Triton’s anger flushed
so hard he used all his restraints not to change and drink her dry.

             
“I am married to the organization, okay! I cannot have children. And don’t you ever doubt my word again. Do you under stand?”

             
Tears streamed down her face from the berating. “How can you be a part of this?”

             
Believe me if I could change it I would, but my existence is due to them and there is nothing I can do.”

             
“This is a family thing? Like the mafia?”

             
“In a manner of speaking yes, Goddamn it Annasara, why did you have to…” His tirade cut short as his cell phone rang. Annasara’s flushed face turned pale. Triton’s anger dissipated into fear. They stood frozen staring at each other. Triton ordered her into the car as he pulled the phone from his pocket and answered.

             
“Yes.”

             
“My queen.” Umbriel spoke loud enough that all the guards froze awaiting punishing words for allowing a stray cat to cause such commotion. Triton’s blood turned to ice as Umbriel’s voice filled his ear.

             
“Everything is alight.”

             
“Umbriel, what…”

             
“No worries, we had a false alarm, just that old feline riling up the dog. No need to leave you quarters, your highness.”

             
Umbriel motioned to the guards an all clear and he smoothed everything over. Umbriel began to walk away from the shack and spoke again in private.

             
“I trust you will handle this brother?”

             
“Yes, I owe you one.”

             
“More than one.”               Umbriel growled and slammed the phone shut.