Malina's Revenge (13 page)

‘ Carlos, six, Billy, four.’
“Stacy, eight, Matt, six, Bahiti, up! Maggie,
two.”
‘Billy, seven, Carlos, nine.’
We were making progress, but we couldn"t stop
them completely. I had to be able to get into the
crowd to bite. I spotted Trevor closest to the wall,
fighting with his invisible foe. I heard the snap when
he connected perfectly with the invisible jaw,
snapping the young vampire"s neck around. “Now
Trevor!” I yelled. He looked at me then he quickly
spun around and pulled the fire alarm. Instantly the
sprinklers came on, raining down, not water, but
blood. The smell completely distracted her newer
vampires. And all of it covered them in red, red that
everyone could see. Red that wasn"t invisible even
though they were. I smiled at the shocked look on
Malina"s face as she hovered in her spot above it all.
I watched her glance up in horror at the steel plates
covering the skylight that she had used to escape last
time, and obviously was planning on using this time.
She"d be able to get through, but it would take her
some time, and that gave me some time. I flung myself into the crowd, landing on an invisible back and instantly severing the invisible spinal cord. I sprung to the one Stacy was fighting with and killed
him, then I moved to the two Matt was fighting with. “Thanks, baby. God, I love watching you fight,”
he grinned.
Billy got a good grip on his invisible foe and
snapped its neck. I groaned when two go a hold of
Jared and killed him but then I pounced on them and
ended them. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Anne
crumpled on the floor and not moving. I jumped on
the one Maggie punched, broke his neck, then out of
anger, ripped off his head and threw it at Malina, who
was still invisible – or so she thought– in the top
corner of the ceiling above the sprinklers. She shot
toward the skylight, rammed it with her shoulder and
screamed when she realized that it wasn"t just steel
plates keeping her in. There were also bars over the
plates. We were down to seven, including Matt, and
Malina was down to eight.
“Can you handle the rest?” I called to Billy, and I
heard a crack as Matt snapped another neck. Good,
seven on seven, I thought.
“We got this, Sarah, go,” Billy called. Yeah,
easier said than done I thought. Then I didn"t think, I
just flew. I flew up and grabbed her ankle when she
was distracted. The shock on her face as she looked
down and realized that I could see her even though
she didn"t have any blood on her was priceless. “Always trying to run from a fight, Malina. You
big chicken shit,” I said then I spun around and flung
her head first into the wall, knocking a huge chunk of
stone down to the floor. Below me, Carlos started
rising up to help me, but Matt put his hand on his
shoulder, and stopped him.
“She"s okay right now, let her do this on her
own,” he said. Now, the only fight in the room was
between me and Malina. The others were all dead. “You fucking bitch. You ruined everything!”
she screamed as she flew at me. She began pushing
me toward the back wall. At the last second before
we hit, I spun around and she was the one who hit. I
grabbed the top of her head and smashed it again and
again into the wall.
Below me, Matt and Carlos were side-by-side,
watching me. Ready to help in an instant if it looked like I needed it. With his eyes locked on me, Matt
said, “You over her yet?”
Carlos whipped his head around to Matt and just
stared at him with his mouth gaping open, wondering
what the hell he should say. He couldn"t read Matt"s
eyes because they were still locked on me. Finally
he took a deep breath and decided to go with the truth.
“I"m working on it,” he said.
“Good,” Matt said, “because it"s been a hell of a
struggle trying to get her over you.”
Carlos" mouth fell open. “You knew?” he
whispered.
Matt"s eyes finally broke away from me to look at
Carlos and the answer was written all over his face. “Of course, you knew,” Carlos said as he
squeezed his eyes shut and hung his head. “God,
man, I"m so sorry. We really didn"t mean for this to
happen.”
“I know you didn"t and don"t be sorry,” Matt
said. “I wasn"t surprised that it happened, after what
Malina put her through. And I can"t fault you,
because she has that affect on everyone, once you
know her you can"t help but love her. But the compass in her heart got messed up, it didn"t know which way to point, and that made me realize how much I loved her, how much I wanted to
fight
for
her.”
“So, all this – the romance, the new and exciting
things in the bedroom, the sweeping her off her feet
every night– that was you
fighting
for her?” Carlos
asked.
Matt smiled. “I had to do whatever I could to fix
that compass, Carlos. I"m helping her heart find its
way back to me.”
“There"s nothing wrong with her heart, Matt.
She loves you more than ever and she"s so torn up by
this. She blames herself, which is so wrong. But
why didn"t you get mad at me? Why didn"t you fight
with me? Throw me out? Hate me? The way I
hate myself right now,” Carlos groaned.
“Because that would"ve made her compass point
straight to you, Carlos. You know as well as I do
that if I had done that she would have wanted to take
care of you because you were hurting. And I think
we both know what would have happened then,” he
said.
Suddenly I dropped down in front of them with a
beaten and unconscious Malina in my hands. I
reached one of Malina"s arms out to Matt. “Here,
hold this,” I growled, then I handed her other arm to
Carlos. They held her tight as she groaned.
“Malina?” I spat. I patted her face with my hand,
trying to revive her. “Malina, look at me.” “Please, no,” she rasped as her eyes fluttered
open, trying to focus on me. “Please. I give up.
You win. Please, just let me go.”
“Let you go? Sure. Of course I"ll do that.
Because I trust you, Malina. I trust that you"ll just
go away and never bother us again. I trust that"ll you
accept that you lost this fight and you will never try to
harm us ever again. You"ll do that because you"re
okay with being a loser. You"ll do that because you
have no revenge in your heart, right?”
Anger flickered in her eyes and for a moment the
old Malina was back. “I"m going to fucking kill
you,” she spat.
I smiled and nodded my head. “That"s what I
thought. Before you go, I just wanted to make sure
you enjoyed the party Malina. You had a good time, right? Because, now it"s time for you and me to dance, bitch,” I said as Carlos and Matt both grinned. I jumped over her head, flipping in the air and landing on her back. Relief flooded through every part of me as my teeth wrapped around her spinal cord and snapped it.

I yawned and stretched my arms over my head. Matt crossed the room and swept me into his arms. “Good morning sleepy head,” he said. “The car"s out front. It"s time to go.”

“What?!?” I exclaimed. “Time to go? Now? I haven"t even packed.”
He smiled. “Relax, my sweet. I"ve already packed for you.”
“But, I thought you said Carlos needed time to „get things ready."”
“He"s got a two day head start on us, honey. That should be plenty of time for him. And he"s going a faster way, we"re going to take our time,” he said.
“It really happened, right? She"s really gone, isn"t she?” I grinned.
“Yes, baby. Yes she is. Three days ago it was your birthday, it was our anniversary, and it was the last day of Malina"s life,” he grinned. “Now, would you please put these on so we don"t miss our flight?”
“But, did you ever find Ramon? And how is TJ doing?” I said. TJ had been outside Ramon"s cell, guarding him, on the night of the party. He never saw who attacked him, but it was swift and vicious, and he almost didn"t make it.
“Never found him. But he"s young and not very strong. And he"s a follower, not a leader. We won"t have to worry about him. I"m sure he"s long gone. And TJ is doing better, but he"s still got a lot of healing to do. He"s going to be in the hospital for a while.”
“Do I get to know yet where we"re going?” I said as I threw on the jeans and t-shirt he had set out for me.
He smiled and shook his head. “Nope. Not yet.”
We grabbed our bags and walked hand-in-hand out to the car. I snuggled into Matt on the flight, enjoying the feeling of complete calm, of complete peace, that I was feeling. It had been a long time since I felt this relaxed. I once again felt hope for the future. I didn"t fear an end anymore. The pilot interrupted my thoughts with his announcement of our descent into Miami. I looked at Matt and raised my eyebrow. “Miami?” I said. “The island?”
“Yes,” he grinned, “the island, but there"s more, a lotmore.”
“More?” I said as I raised an eyebrow. I kept wanting to ask, but didn"t. I kept trying to get it out of him, but couldn"t. Four days on the boat turned into five as I kept forcing him to cut the motor, drop anchor and come below with me so I could try another way to get it out of him, but even that didn"t work. He was steadfast in his resolve this time. He was a rock. He wouldn"t budge, damn it. But it sure was fun trying.
He slowly pulled up to the dock and cut the motor while I tied us off. I jumped back onto the boat to grab our bags and came back out. Matt was standing on the dockwaiting for me. “Not yet,” he said as I started to step off. “Hand me the bags first.”
“Okay,” I tentatively said, as confusion filled me. “What the hell are you up to, honey?”
He grinned and held out his hand. I took it and started to step off the boat. Suddenlyhe said, “Let me be the first to welcome you to Pearl Island.”
My foot slipped off the boat and I would have tumbled end over end if Matt hadn"t caught me.
“Excuse me?” I said. “Did you just say „Pearl Island"?”
He grinned, “Yes, I did.”
“What the hell does that mean, Matt? This is Aaron"s island. Why are you calling it Pearl Island? You"re kidding right? You did not buy us an island,” I whispered.
“Yes, I did,” he said, holding me tighter.
“No, you didn"t.”
“Yes, I did, and there"s more,” he said.
“More?” I gasped. “More than this? What do you mean there"s more than this? This is insane, Matthew.”
“But you love this place,” he said, looking down as hurt and confusion clouded his eyes.
“I do love this place, but you bought it? What about Aaron?” I said.
“Actually, he came to me. He"s owned this place for a long time. He wanted to find something new. And the timing was perfect for your birthday,” he said.
“But, honey, this is crazy. Awesome, but crazy,” I said. “Wait, you said there"s more?”
His grin grew huge again. His hands rested on my shoulders as he pointed me toward the house. “Look on the porch,” he said.
I gasped and clamped my hand over my mouth. Standing on the porch were Carlos, who, of course, had his huge, goofy grin on his face… and next to him were my sisters, all of them. I wanted to scream, I wanted to run to them, I wanted to hug them, but I didn"t move.
“Honey?” Matt said.
“They"re going to know I"m different,” I whispered with the panic clear in my voice.
“They"re your sisters, Sarah. They love you and they"re not going to care, and besides, Carlos has explained a lot to them already,” Matt said.
I gasped. “They"ve been here for over five days? Alone? With Carlos?”
“Well, yes,” Matt whispered, “but…”
“You"re kidding me right?” I said. “Matthew Pearl, are you friggin" insane or what? You let Carlos spend five days alone with three women, my
sisters
, and you think that"s okay? Really? I know you"re not stupid so you must be the most naïve person on the face of the planet.”
“Honey, I"m sure he"s been wellbehaved,” he said.
Carlos popped into my head,
‘He’s right, Sarah. I’ve been a perfect gentleman. I promise.’
“It"s not him I"m worried about,” I said. “It"s them, or more specifically the affect he"s had on them.”
“Oh,” Matt whispered and Carlos grinned and blushed.
‘Well, I can’t control my mojo, darlin’. Even you have first-hand knowledge of that,’
he thought.
I rolled my eyes.
‘Can your ego take a vacation, please? For me?’
“Yeah, oh,” I said to Matt. I took a deep breath and grabbed his hand. “Come on, let"s go see how much damage I have to undo,” I said.
“Wait,” he said, then he swept me into his arms, once again staggering me with the amount of passion and love he could put into a kiss. I could hear my sisters whispering on the porch.
“Wow, do you see that?” Amanda said.
“See it? I can
feel
it,” Cindy said as her eyes went wide.
Matt released me and I took a few deep breaths, trying to recover quickly.
“Okay, now we can go,” he said.
“Easy for you to say,” I mumbled. “You"re not all stupid at the moment.”
He laughed, put his arm around my waist and we headed toward the house.
After several days, I was exhausted from laughing so hard. That"s what my sisters and I do, we laugh when we"re all together. We laugh until our stomachs hurt. We laugh until we almost pee our pants (at least the human ones do, not me anymore). Yes, it was a little uncomfortable at first, they had tons of questions but I told them that it was okay to ask me anything, anything at all. And they did. They didn"t leave one gory rock unturned. They asked every question they could think of and I answered every one. They even asked if I felt any urge to feed on them. Nothing was held back. And it wasn"t long before they realized that despite the immortality and the blood drinking, I was still me.
We acted as goofy as we always do. We played cards relentlessly like we always do. They ate while I watched and tried not to cringe or wrinkle my nose (though I did sneak down to the basement to feed – I wasn"t yet ready to do that in front of them). It was perfect, even though they all had huge crushes on Carlos – which he loved, by the way. His ego must have been on overdrive. Any chance he had, he would tease me about it.
“Any one of them, Sarah. Any one of them would hop into bed with me in a second if I said the word. And they"re all beautiful. If I didn"t love you so much, I would have said that word days ago,” he said to me one day. So I knew that I"d have to deal with their crushes over the next few days.
“Don"t you even think about seducing one, or more, of my sisters, Carlos. You will never survive my wrath if you do.”
“Jealous, Sarah? Trying to keep me all to yourself?” he grinned.
“Shut up. Just don"t, okay? Please?”
“Don"t worry, Sarah. One Stafford sister has already stolen my heart. That"s enough for me,” he said.
I smiled and kissed his cheek.
And I even weathered it when Cindy, the one who knew me so well, asked me to take a walk on the beach with her. The moment we were out on the sand, she didn"t hesitate,“You want to tell me about it?”
“Tell you about what? Becoming a vampire?”
She shook her head. “No. Honestly, I really don"t think I want to hear about that anymore. I"m talking about the insanely strong attraction between you and Carlos. I know you adore Matt and he"s crazy about you. But, hell Sarah. I"ve never met two people who were, ummm,” she hesitated, but I urged her on. I needed to hear this.
“Who were what, Cindy?”
“Well, who were so meant to be together, but weren"t.”
“Shit,” I whispered. “Is it that obvious to everyone else too? Or is it just you?”
“As far as I can tell, it"s just me. Nobody else has said anything to me. So? Are you sleeping with him?”
I emphatically shook my head. “No. Absolutely not. I can"t do that to Matt. Carlos can"t do that to Matt. They"ve been best friends for hundreds of years, Cindy. And Carlos became my best friend the first time I met him. We can"t ruin that for a few hours of passion. We just can"t.”
“So you"ve stayed away from each other so far?”
“So far, yes.”
“Wow. That is some incredible restraint you two have. You both must really love Matt a lot.”
“We do. But it hurts, Cindy”
“Loving Matt hurts?”
“No. Staying away from each other hurts.”
“Oh. So what are you going to do about it, Sarah?”
“I"m going to find someone for Carlos. Someone to keep him distracted and occupied the way Matt does for me.”
“Sounds like putting a Band-Aid on a leaking dam to me,” she said.
“I know. You may be right. And I know that I probably should, but I just can"t tell Carlos to leave, Cindy. I need him to be a part of my life, even if it"s not in the way I"d really like it to be. I just need him.”
“Okay. Well, it sounds like you"re playing with fire, but I hope for your sake it works, Sarah. What do you say to another game of cards now?”
“Sounds perfect. Thanks Cindy,” I said as I hugged her. “I love you.” We headed inside for yet one more fun game of cards and laughter.
At two a.m. I decided that sleep wasn"t coming and I put on my robe to walk down to the beach. I quietly walked down the stairs, down the path to the beach and sat on the sand next to Carlos. I wasn"t a bit surprised to see him down here too. I leaned my head down on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around my waist. We shared the silence for a few minutes, watching as the waves reached for us and the moon glowed brightly overhead. “I have to go away for a little while, Sarah. Try to get my head straight. My heart is a hopeless cause. I will always love you. Even if I fall in love with someone else, I will still love you. But I have to try to stop wanting you so much. I have to stop wishing you were in my arms every time you"re near me, Sarah. That"s my head, well my head and another body part,” Carlos finally said, smiling.
“I know,” I said, “but I"m going to do something for you while you"re gone.”
“And what"s that?” he said.
“I"m going to find someone for you,” I said.
“Sarah,” he started, but I stopped him.
“No, Carlos,” I said. “You"re ready for this. What happened with you, with us, it showed that you"re ready for this. You"re ready to try commitment. You"re ready to open yourself up. You"re ready to love somebody.”
“I already do love somebody,” he whispered, “that"s the problem. God, it"s so like me that the first person I ever fall in love with would be my best friend"s wife. It"s par for the course that I would screw something up that bad.”
“It is not. Stop it Carlos. You did not screw this up. This just happened. It was out of our control. I know you love me, Carlos. And I love you too. I do. But I have to love you as a friend, nothing more. Even if that"s not what I want, that"s how it has to be. For him, Carlos. I can"t hurt him and I can"t lose him. So, please, for my sake, please let me try to find someone else for you. It"ll make it easier for us to be just friends if you have someone else in your life. Please?”
He turned and stared at me, opening and closing his mouth at least half a dozen times before he finally settled on an answer, “She"s going to have to knock my socks off to make me get over you, which, honestly, I don"t think is really possible, Sarah. Not completely. You do know that,right?”
“She will and yes, I know that. It"s going to be hard for me too, Carlos. I have no idea what this is between us, this connection. It"s strong, it"s so fucking incredibly strong. But he"s my husband and he"s your best friend, so I have to keep fighting it.
We
have to keep fighting it,” I said as I snuggled into him.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and sighed, “You"re right, Sarah. I know you"re right. But it is strong and it"s so goddamned hard to fight it. It hurts, you know? Truthfully? I"ve felt it since the day I walked into that restaurant in San Diego and met you. But I wrote it off to the fact that, well, you are so hot and I"m a horndog. I know now that that wasn"t it. This is something else. It"s something much bigger. It"s bigger than both of us. But we can"t do anything about it, can we? No, we can"t. So, I guess I"ll just have to settle for what happened in the broom closet, won"t I? That"s gonna be the closest I"ll ever come to sleeping with you, isn"t it?” he said.
I felt anger flash in me, but when I looked at him and saw the goofy Carlos grin, it instantly vanished. “Yeah, it has to be, Carlos,” I said.
He stared at me for a few seconds.
“What is it, Carlos?” I finally said.
“I know you were pissed about the broom closet when it happened. But what else were you feeling? Were you as turned on as I was? Did you want more like I did?” he said.
I turned and looked at him. My first instinct was to lie – because I"d been lying to myself for a while now– but I stopped myself. But I couldn"t look at his face when I answered. I turned back and looked at the water as I said, “Carlos, if there had been any more room in there, hell, if I had just been wearing a skirt, then nothing would have stopped me from giving myself to you completely. Absolutely nothing. And still, even though I know how wrong it is, there is still part of me that completely regrets that it didn"t happen. I wanted it then. I still want it now. I"m like a moth to a flame around you, Carlos. But I"ll get burned. We"ll all get burned if I get too close.”
“It would have been epic, Sarah. For both of us. You know that, don"t you?”
I couldn"t stop the shiver. “Yes, I know that, Carlos.”
“I love you, Sarah,” he said.
“I love you too,” I whispered, knowing he was going to tell me to leave, but hoping, praying, that he wouldn"t. And wishing that I didn"t have to.
“Don"t,” I whispered.
“I have to, Sarah.”
“But I"m not ready, yet. I"m not ready to leave you. It hurts too much,” I groaned.
He took a deep breath and then he turned and kissed my forehead. “Go back to your husband, Sarah,” he said. “He"s waiting for you. It"s where you want to be. It"s where you need to be. And you and I both know it"s exactly where you belong.”