Love Nip (14 page)

“I’ve tr
ied to show you how much I care about you, but you still won’t let me in. You’re done with Ezra, and trust me he’s done with you, but you still have some excuse why you won’t let me in.”

“How do you know Ezra’s done with me?” I asked. The aching in my chest was causing my eyes to fill with tears. 

“I talked to Ezra when Riley showed up and asked him about you two. I wasn’t going to pursue you if he was still interested. He’s in love with Riley, but he couldn’t tell you because it would hurt you. I tried to offer you a reason to let him go, and I think you wanted to, but then that would mean you would finally let yourself be happy. Stop punishing yourself. Robert wasn’t there for you and your mother never gave you affection or love, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn how to let someone love you. I want to love you, but you have to stop pushing me away.” He stood at my door and waited. He had practically admitted that he was in love with me and he wanted a response.

The tears that had
clung to my eyes finally fell. I couldn’t lose Axle, but what he said was true. I sabotaged my relationship with Ezra, I found every excuse to be mad at him. I couldn’t let a man in my life because I was still waiting for my father to love me. I had never told him how I had nightmares growing up. I would wake up crying out for my dad, but he was never there. Or how I would sit at home when it was father-daughter dance night at school and cry myself to sleep. My mother was a single parent, she had to work so much that I never saw her. That was only an excuse, I honestly never once heard her tell me she loved me. Love was a word I knew nothing about.

Axle sighed and opened the door giving up hope. I thought I could see tears in his eyes as he left. I wanted so badly to run after him and tell him how much I cared for him but I was trapped. My body wouldn’t move, my mind was on overload.
I collapsed onto the floor and the tears began streaming down my face. I needed Axle. I wanted him to come back, scoop me up into his arms and tell me everything would be fine.

That night was a hazy memory. I couldn’t remember sleeping
, but I woke curled up on my couch. I looked at my cell phone and it was eight am. I was late for work. Motivation had escaped me as I showered and dressed. My body moved with an unfamiliar sluggishness. I walked into the office at ten and set my things down on the desk. I went straight for Robert’s office, not glancing at anyone as I walked. He looked up as I enter and shut the door behind me

“Bad morning?”
he asked as he sat back in his chair.

“You could say that
.” The depression in my voice was difficult to ignore.

“How are things with Axle?”

I looked up at him with sorrow filled eyes. “Axle thinks I’m damaged, and I think he is right.”

“Why?”

“I have daddy issues.” As I said it I couldn’t believe that I had just admitted my problem to my father of all people.

“Daddy issues?”
he asked shortly.

I had to think about what to say next
before speaking. I knew it would hurt Robert to hear that his choices had caused me so much harm and damage. “Among other things. I can’t love anyone, because growing up no one taught me how.”

“Emily, I’m really sorry I wasn’t always there for you
, but I did what I thought was right to protect you.” His voice became remorseful.

“You weren’t always there for me? Robert
, you were never there for me,” I snapped. How dare he downplay his absence from my life.

“Just because you never saw me doesn’t mean I w
asn’t there. I came to every important event in your life. Your first ballet recital when you were six, I sat in the front row. When you had pneumonia I stayed the entire time in the hospital to be near you. I was even at your high school graduation. I didn’t raise you, but I loved you all the same. I still love you and I’ve never stopped,” he admitted.

Shock overtook my body. It didn’t make it better that he wasn’t in my life but to h
ear that he actually loved me was more than I could have hoped for. Tears filled my eyes and my chest began to ache.

“I love you
, too,” I cried out. The man behind the desk was practically a stranger to me, but I felt a strong fatherly connection to him.

Hi
s blue eyes became moist. He stood, stormed over, and pulled me into a tight embrace. It felt right to be in his arms. I was a child again crying on my dad’s shoulder. My life was now the nightmare and he was finally there to make it better. After a minute we sat back down both mopping away the fallen tears.

“Sorry about this, I’ve had a lot on my plate
.” I smiled.

“Emily
, don’t be sorry for coming to me with a problem. That’s what I’m here for, anytime.” He smiled back with reddened eyes.

“Hopefully Axle will give me another chance.”

“I’m sure he will. He’s a good guy,” he stated as he folded his hands in his lap.

“I mean
, we haven’t even had sex yet.” I slapped my hand over my mouth. My throat felt like it was closing in. “Robert, you promised you would never do a truth spell on me again!”

“I know
, and I’m sorry that we just had that moment while you were under a spell, but I needed to talk to you and hear the truth.” He held his hands up, attempting to calm me.

“You couldn’t just ask?” 

“I had a talk with Axle this morning. Apparently, he has an informant who stated the witches are being used as vampire slaves.”

This caught my attention. I figured Axle would tell Robert
, but I wondered if he would tell the entire truth. I had a bad feeling about this. “Go on.”

“Axle wouldn’t tell me who his informant was and I wanted to know if you knew
.” His eyes studied my every move. It wasn’t enough that he had me with a truth spell, now he was analyzing me?

I gulped. It was impossible to lie and I could feel the words creeping to the edge of my tongue. I willed them back with everything I had.
My pulse increased as I attempted to shake my head back and forth. I smiled at him nervously.

“So
you just aren’t going to tell me?” Robert finally said for me. He sighed and shook his head. Had he given me just another minute or two, I would’ve cracked.

I smiled
again.

“Emily
, please tell me you’re being careful,” he fussed.

“See
, you’re getting better at this father thing,” I joked.

“Who is the informant?”
he asked with determination in his eyes.

My head fell back in annoyance
. “Robert, I have no idea.” I was shocked to see that I had just lied.

The look on his face matched my feelings
. “So, you have no idea who knew about the vampires?”

I smiled
, feeling more confidence in my lie. “Nope, I was completely unaware of whom Axle spoke with.” I laughed.

“
I know your lying and I don’t care, but I would like to know how you’re doing it,” he stated confused.

I laughed harder and sounded like a maniac
. “I have no clue.”

Robert tapped his chin and looked me over a few times
. “Interesting.”

I wasn’
t sure if that was a good interesting or a bad interesting, but I didn’t want to stick around to find out. I left his office quickly in case he decided to try testing the spell some more. I walked down to see Ezra; I didn’t want to talk with him because I was still upset and ignoring the problem sounded much easier than dealing with the drama. I knocked on his door and walked in. Shirtless, he sat on his bed, hitting the remote on the side rail of his bed. As soon as I walked in he smiled at me.

“You would think
with how far this world has come with technology they would invent a power source that actually lasted,” he said, giving up and setting the remote down on his side table.

“Hmm,” was the only intelligent thing I could say
. I regretted coming.

“So, how is the investigation coming?” he asked after a long awkward silence fell between us.

“Not so good. We have zero leads, we’ve questioned just about everyone. Now we’re finding out that the witches are vampire slaves,” I rambled.

“Like love slaves?”
he asked with disgust on his face.

The thought of Richie in black leather made my stomach curl
. “Eh, no. Anything that the vampires need that they can’t get on their own they use the witches. I don’t know exactly what they would need them for, but that’s what I heard.”

“You want my advice?” he asked.

“O great Ezra won’t you please enlighten me with your vast knowledge of all things vampire.”

“Ha ha,” he stated sarcastically. “I’m serious, I can actually help you right now.”

I studied him intently while I waited for his expe
rt information. His chiseled abs couldn’t dare compare to the muscular structure of Axle’s body. And although Ezra had a pretty face it held no comparison to the artwork of Axle’s stone expression. I realized as I waited for the half naked man to continue that I was never in love with him. Axle was right; I never truly wanted Ezra. I wanted the idea of Ezra. That is a man to love and cherish me. He was the first man who had walked into my life and sent chills down my back. Any girl would feel lust for a man like Ezra.

“Ezra, I’m glad that Riley is back in your life. I should tell you I’m a little upset that you led me on. If you didn’t have feelings for me any more you should have just said something. Instead you told me the reason you wanted to stay human was for me. We both knew it was over between
us, but neither of us could say the words,” I announced.

He seemed relieved and yet slightly sad as his eyes fell to the floor
. “You have every right to be upset with me. I told you what I wanted to feel for you. When Riley turned me I thought that she had given me the greatest gift, but I was wrong. You gave me back my humanity and I’m so thankful for that. Maybe there was a time when I felt something for you, but I just don’t feel it anymore.”

I smile
d as I walked over and wrapped my arms around him. I felt as though all of the pressure and stress was released. I could finally be with Axle and not feel guilty or afraid of what Ezra would think. I began to walk out but stopped when he cleared his throat.

“Don’t you want to know my advic
e?” he asked with a raised brow.

I laughed
. “Sure.”

“If there is a group of vampires turning these witches into slaves, I can
guarantee you that one of the witches is in charge,” he stated with a proud smirk on his face.

“In charge?” I wasn’t quite getting his point.

“Meaning, they aren’t what they seem,” he tried again.

I still didn’t understand. Ashley was in charge of the witches and she wasn’t really a witch. Or at least I didn’t think she was.

“I have to spell it out for you?” He sighed. “Meaning one of your witches is not a witch at all. One of them is acting like a witch but is really a vampire.”

It clicked
. “Why would they do that?”

“Because the vampires can’t always be there to make sure the witches are doing what they are supposed to. So they send a vampire in disguised as a witch and, viola, they have all the information they need,”
he stated as he leaned back, clearly proud of himself.

“You are so arrogant
, but thanks for the advice,” I said, leaving his room.

It didn’t take me long to find Axle. He was pretending to be completely consumed in hi
s computer. I sat down on his desk and crossed my legs. He had a small bowl filled with an assortment of candy next to his pencil holder and I helped myself to a cotton candy flavored lollipop.

“Did you happen to get any undead vibes from any of the people we questioned?” I asked as I opened the sucker.

“Undead?” he repeated as he gave up on his computer and gave me his full attention.

“Was anyone missing something?”

“Like what?”

“Oh, I don’t know maybe like a heartbeat?” I smiled as I shoved the sucker in my mouth.
I was having way too much fun.

“That is a pretty important bit of information, you really think I would forget to tell you something like that when we questioned them?” He made a good point.

“I have some information that makes me believe the witches have an insider planted within.” After I received a blank expression from him I broke it down, “One of the witches is really a vampire pretending to be a witch so they can report back to the vampires.”

“Let me guess, Ezra told you this?” He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his massive chest.

“For his protection I cannot release any information about my informant,” I stated as I attempted to keep a straight face.

“
That’s funny since that is the same thing Ezra told me this morning,” he explained, crushing my dreams.