Hyde (9 page)

She laughed, "Yeah my bedchamber. Roland you're
so crazy."

He closed the door looking shocked, which made
her laugh harder. She wondered if she'd stayed in bed for too long.
She wondered if she had finally lost her mind from boredom and lack
of stimulation. Before she knew it, she too would have her own
series of crazy journals.

In the week she'd been in bed Andy had been by a
few times to check on her. She had told Roland she wouldn’t see
him. She wasn’t ready yet, he reminded her of the bad things she
didn’t want to deal with. She wasn’t ready for those other things
just yet, her pity party was still a full-fledged rager.

Roland opened the door looking flustered. Hanna
leaned on her elbow, still fully covered in blankets and snuggling
her pillow.

"Miss Hanna may I introduce Aleksander. He is in
a similar situation to you and I felt he might be able to help you
understand your new life."

Hanna gasped as the sexiest man alive entered
her room. She watched as Roland frowned at her and walked from the
room, leaving the door open. She yanked the covers up nearly to her
chin.

He was a god. He was a beautiful god. Dark blond
hair cut short and styled slightly messy. He had the whitest blue
eyes that she had ever seen. She imagined he could see into her
soul with them. He had perfect lips and to top it all off, he was
massive. He looked like a huge sexy Viking but in jeans and a
t-shirt. Her thighs burned just seeing him across the room.

"Hanna it's nice to meet you." He sat in a chair
on the other side of the room. His words were like listening to a
song on the wind, like they spoke only for her. Everything about
him was sex. He could have bottled it and sold it.

She watched him talking but she didn’t know what
he was saying. She liked watching him speak, noticing the way his
jaw flexed.

She closed her eyes for a second, she imagined
him touching her. She knew it would be amazing, life changing. His
touch would set her on fire just as his voice had.

"Hanna."

She opened her eyes seeing him frowning at her
with a sarcastic look on his face. She sat up dropping the covers,
not noticing she was in a flimsy pale blue tank top. She crossed
her legs with the covers floating over her legs and listened as he
said her name again.

"Hanna." It was as if he sang it. She wondered
if he was an angel. His beauty was easily worthy of it.

Chapter Eight: I like my Viking shaken, not
stirred

Aleksander

He had come as a favor to Roland, who had always
been more than kind to him in his moments of inner turmoil. He
hadn’t realized what he was dealing with when he had agreed. Roland
had called her a child many times. Aleks had assumed she was twelve
or thirteen, not nearly nineteen. He felt it completely
inappropriate being in her room. He tried speaking to her but his
effect on her seemed to be beyond difficult. He too was drawn to
her. He stood up and walked to her bed.

As he sat down he felt the error in his ways.
Something about her drew him in.

He spoke her name softly, "Hanna." It sounded
different than it had across the room.

She looked at him and as if snapping out of a
daydream, she frowned, "Sorry, I don’t know what's wrong with me. I
just don’t think I can be around you."

He laughed, "I feel the same way."

"I want to feel you."

He blushed, "Okay well I will go and tell Roland
we probably can't do this."

The smile left her face, "I want to do it."

He couldn’t stand looking at her sad. He wanted
to kiss her pink lips and wrap his hands in her silky thick
strawberry blond hair. He felt mesmerized by the long thick lashes
and honey brown eyes. She was gorgeous. He forced his eyes to
remain above her neckline. He tried to ignore her chest, which was
barely covered by the thin flimsy cotton fabric of the tiny tank
top.

She leaned in kissing him. Her lips brushed
against his softly. He felt his own lip's betraying him, kissing
her was unacceptable.

He tried to push her back but her hands reached
up grabbing at him, pulling him onto her.

His hands gripped her shoulders, as if to push
her away but they followed instinct over orders. They slid up her
arms and ran along her back instead. He felt himself sliding her
body against his, her flimsy tank top riding up as they kissed.

He pulled himself away, flashing across the
room.

She looked confused, "How did you…how did you do
that?"

"Please excuse me." He left the room suddenly,
leaving behind nothing but the warm wind.

He gasped for air standing outside Lydia's
house. He hadn’t felt anything like that before. How had the girl
made him feel desire that strong?

He paced, looking up at the house ashamed of
himself, he walked up to the front door.

He pushed away the feeling of her warm skin
against his, her soft luscious warm skin. He shivered and went into
the kitchen.

"Mister Aleks, you be needing something to drink
I think. You look all hot and bothered about something."

He frowned at Annabelle, the ghostly maid at
Lydia's, "I'm fine."

She shook her head, passing him a cold tall
glass of lemonade, "Nuh uh, I seen it before. Someone has got you
inside out. Annabelle's lemonade be fixing that."

He growled taking the glass and looked at Lydia
who was smirking at him from the other side of the kitchen, "Oh my
Aleks. Talk about the wrong girl and the wrong time."

He lifted the glass into the air toasting her,
"I'd hate to go against tradition."

Lydia burst into laughter, just as Aimee walked
into the kitchen smiling.

"Hey guys."

Aleks raised his eyebrows taking a long cold
drink, "Speak of the devil."

Aimee smirked, "Nice. You look weird."

He nodded, "Thanks."

She blushed, "Not like that, just you look. Uhm
Different." She looked at Lydia, "You rang masta?"

Lydia rolled her eyes, "Yes. I need you to go
and get the Jekyll girl. Her name is Hanna."

Aleks choked on his lemonade, feeling his face
flush, "She's staying here?"

Lydia nodded, "What did I say about timing? Yes
she is staying for a few weeks. Marcus Dragomir has been trying to
help her."

Aimee sighed, "Oh great, not only is she
possibly going to turn into a monster who I will no doubt have to
kill, but she has Marcus Dragomir after her? Great! Lydia I was mid
dungeon when you called."

Lydia frowned, "I've been meaning to talk to you
about that Aimee. You've got Danny addicted to World of Warcraft.
Yesterday I went in his room and he looked as if he hadn’t blinked
in a day."

Aleks felt heat fill him as he jumped to Hanna's
defense, "She's no different than you or Ari. Why shouldn’t she be
allowed to come here and get helped? You were allowed even after
you murdered that girl." He felt sickening regret as he said
it.

Aimee's face turned ashen, "I-I d-didn't mean
t-to." She winked away quickly, but Aleks saw the first of the
tears rolling down her cheeks.

He slumped, "That was an asshole thing to say."
He didn’t know what was wrong with him. He didn’t love being near
Aimee, but he had tried not to be rude to her.

Lydia sighed, "It certainly was Aleks. My word,
what's gotten into you? You will have to apologize to her."

He nodded, "Yes mother." He left his glass on
the counter and flashed away, feeling the warm wind filling the air
around him.

His heart still hurt when he saw Aimee, there
was no fixing that sad fact. Suddenly however, he desired Hanna. He
had only been with her minutes but his heart craved her over Aimee.
After two years of watching Aimee pine over the human it was a
refreshing change, alarming and refreshing.

He looked, realizing where he was, the beach. He
walked along kicking the sand where he'd brought Aimee, the night
he'd explained everything. Well nearly everything.

He put his hands on his face rubbing them back
and forth. He wondered how things could have gotten so out of
control. It was as if his curse had worsened when Dorian had it
broken. He thought about the medicine man and shivered, his
soulless black eyes bearing down on him and his red lips speaking
the words. The words that ruined everything.

He had never wanted to be a Rose. He'd never
fought against them but he never planned on joining. The curse had
been his out with them.

Lorri had let him live out his existence in
peace because of it. He was no use to the Roses when the only bad
guy he followed was his father. Not to mention that the only time
he showed up was after the deed was done.

He didn’t blame Dorian for having his curse
broken in a trade to save Aimee. At least with no curse he was able
to hunt everyone equally. It even benefited his hunt for his
father. He had nearly tracked him twice in six months, which was
more than he had ever done in six hundred years.

Chapter Nine: Secret Agent Man

Hanna

The shower had felt amazing. She needed to find
out who he was. She blushed thinking about the way she'd attacked
him. Something about him had bewitched her. She blushed thinking
about his fingers touching her, his lips caressing hers and their
bodies sliding against each other. She felt her skin lighting on
fire again. She wondered about how he'd crossed the room in the
second it didn’t even appear to take him?

She walked into her room sad he was gone, but
happy to still smell him in the air. She wondered if he was
downstairs, but she blushed imagining he didn’t want to hang out.
She didn’t want to have Roland realize they had never talked. She
became curious about what Roland had thought he could help her
with.

She changed and left her room, feeling more
alive than she had in ages.

Her head was filled with millions of questions,
stemming from the visit with Lydia more than a week before.

She walked down the stairs to see Roland leaning
over a gadget he had pulled apart on the table in the entryway.

"What are you doing?" She asked quietly, trying
not to make him suspicious.

Roland laughed, "Oh just fixing the toaster
oven, so how was your visit with the ever handsome Aleksander?"

She felt her face flush, "Interesting. Anyway
who is he?"

Roland looked at her raising an eyebrow, "Oh you
didn’t cover that while you were up there?"

She put her hands on her hips, "I thought it was
Lydia wanting to see me again. I didn’t know it was some huge blond
guy. You could have let me in on that."

He laughed, "You wouldn’t leave the room. What
could I do? At any rate, your nineteenth birthday party is in a
week, I've arranged for a ball as it's your last birthday."

She frowned, "What?" Her stomach fell. "Am I
dying now? I actually was just thinking I feel pretty good. That
elixir isn’t making me feel sick anymore."

"I should have said last birthday as a human.
Lets not dwell on it now. I have dresses being brought to the
mansion, I want you to choose which you'll wear. It’s a
masquerade."

She laughed, "Who will we invite Roland. I have
no friends any more and no family left. My cell phone has over a
hundred texts from my friends. Honestly I don’t know what to say to
anyone. Rebecca's death is the only thing buying me time with them.
Everyone thinks I'm lost in a depression."

He winked, "Leave it up to me. First things
first, Lydia wants you to go see her."

She frowned, "You seem weird, why are you being
all funny again and not telling me stuff?"

He sighed, "Lydia, dress, then we answer
questions dear." He looked back to the toaster over he had pulled
apart on the small table.

She frowned and walked out the front door, "Will
you at least tell me how to get there?"

He nodded, "She'll be here any moment."

As if on queue the blond girl who murdered her
father was at the front door. She looked different somehow, less
distant and frightening. She looked vulnerable as if she'd been
crying.

Hanna couldn’t pity her, she hated her instantly
upon seeing her, "What are you doing here?" She seethed.

The girl looked at her empathetically, "I have
to bring you to Lydia."

Hanna looked back at Roland who smiled and
nodded, "Aimee is much faster than a car. Now go."

Hanna crossed her arms, "I want answers before I
agree to anything."

"Death Dealer."

Hanna looked up to see Marcus Dragomir walking
up the front step with a curious look on his face.

The girl's face twisted, "You have no right to
be here."

He laughed, "I have every right to be here.
How's Lorri? Last time I saw her she seemed to be under some pretty
heavy fire."

Hanna gasped as the girls hand shot out gripping
Marcus by the throat. He smiled wickedly as if not afraid of
her.

The girl pulled her hands back, looking at it as
if she were mystified.

Marcus laughed harder, "You didn’t think I
brought my soul with me everywhere now did you Aimee. Tsk Tsk Tsk.
Foolish girl. Now if you will excuse me." He looked at Hanna making
her stomach flip, "Shall we?"

Hanna looked at Roland and the girl called Aimee
and nodded. She walked away from them both taking Marcus's arm.

"Hanna go with Aimee. I need to speak with Mr.
Dragomir myself."

Hanna looked back at Roland and frowned, "I
won't be going any where with her. If you want me to see Lydia I'll
get Marcus to drive me there. I'm sure he knows the way."

Roland looked angry but he kept his mouth shut,
thankfully. Hanna felt Marcus squeeze her arm.

She looked at him and frowned, "Just because I
chose to come with you doesn’t mean you aren’t going to be doing
some serious explaining. I want answers and I'm done with the shit
explanations."