Malina's Revenge (9 page)

I emerged into the evening air two hours later feeling completely refreshed, completely hopeful about the future, and most definitely, thanks to Matthew, completely satisfied. But I still couldn"t help my heart from doing a little flip-flop when I saw Carlos waiting for me. I smiled now that I knew the reason (at least I hoped I did). I knew what I was dealing with (again, I hoped). I knew what I needed to do to fix it (or I thought I did). Until then, I could cope with a little flip-flop now and then. I held my hand out to him, which he happily took. “Fly with me?” I said. He nodded and we both closed our eyes and rose above the courtyard.

I didn "t want anyone to hear, so I thought,
‘The lake?’
He nodded and we headed off in that direction. He flew while I checked all around us to make sure we weren"t being followed. He pulled me closer and wrapped his arms tightly around me as he landed a few minutes later. I tried to ignore the fact that I really liked feeling his arms around me and I just didn"t want him to let go. He hesitated for a second before releasing me.
‘What?’
I thought.
‘We’re only here to plan, aren’t we? That’s it. That’s all we’re here for, isn’t it?’
he thought.
I nodded and felt my heart sputter when I saw the disappointment on his face.
‘Carlos, I,’
I thought, but stopped when he shook his head.
‘No, don’t,’
he thought.
‘I get it. You’re right. It’s the right thing to do, Sarah.’
‘No, you don’t get it, Carlos,’
I thought,
‘but I’m going to try to help you to understand, just not right now, okay?’
He nodded and we sat next to each other on the shore. He wrapped his arms around his knees, resting his chin on them. I slipped my arm through his and lay my head on his shoulder.
‘Okay,’
he thought,
‘what’s the plan?’
‘She’s mastered invisibility,’
I thought.
“WHAT!” he yelled.
“Shhhh,” I said.
‘Sorry,’
he thought.
‘I thought you said it was something we could beat.’
I grinned.
‘It is,’
I thought.
‘But how?’
he thought.
‘How can we possibly fight something we can’t see?’
‘Maybe you can’t see her, but I can,’
I thought.
‘You can? But how?
" he thought.
‘When I go into predator mode, when my eyes change, all I see are heartbeats. It’s a different level of vision, and it’s something that means that her heart isn’t invisible to me.’
‘Are you sure?’
he thought.
‘Yep,’
I thought.
‘It’s something I suspected when she first became invisible, but I had to wait for the right opportunity to be in predator mode to check. She gave that to me when she got mad and started beating the crap out of me.’
‘And she doesn’t know that you can see her?’
he thought.
‘How could she?’
I thought.
‘As far as we know, I’m the only vampire who can enter predator mode at will and I’m pretty sure Ramon never thought to mention it to her, he thinks she’s invincible so why would he?’
‘But Sarah, you can’t beat her alone,’
he thought.
‘I know,’
I grinned.
‘That’s where you come in. You’re going to have to learn to take direction from me.’
He rolled his eyes.
‘Oh great,’
he thought then he smiled. Suddenly his eyes went wide.
‘But what if it’s not just her?’
he thought.
‘What if there are others who can become invisible?’
‘I’ve got that covered too,’
I thought.
‘Stacy, Rashidi, Bahiti, Billy, Anne, Maggie, Trevor. The ones we know we can trust, I’m going to teach them too. We need a large basement or something where we can train in private. And we need a good plumber that we can trust,’
I grinned.
His head whipped over to me.
‘A plumber? What the hell do we need a plumber for?’
he thought, and I grinned.
We stayed there for the next hour, planning, strategizing, and trying to ignore the elephant in the room (our attraction to each other)– we would tackle that after September second. We both were stuck, though, when we finished planning. Neither of us wanted to move. I kept my head on his shoulder as we watched the moonlight dancing on the water and the small waves lapping to the shore. How I wished I could be two people. I could feel the pull between us growing stronger, if we didn"t go back soon… I stood up. “We need to get back,” I said.
His eyes were closed. “I know,” he said, “but I don"t want to, you know? But can I ask you something first? How do you do it? How can you be so strong? How do you fight this so easily? Or is it just me? this thing. Maybe I"m the only one who is feeling Maybe I"m not reading you right. Maybe you"re not having such a hard time with this.”
I laughed out loud. “Believe me, I"m struggling more than you are. This is really freaking me out too. I mean, where did this come from? I"ve know you for a few years now. You"re my best friend, my big brother. Where was this feeling then? And you think I"m strong?” I said. “You have no idea how badly I want you right now, do you? How I want you so much that it hurts. How it"s taking every ounce of self-control I have not to throw myself into your arms. That kiss, in the closet, it completely pissed me off, but holy shit, Carlos. It was amazing. I wanted more, so much more. Me, strong? Hardly. I"m weak and a horrible person.”
“You? A horrible person?” he said, clearly getting angry now. “What about me? He"s been my best friend for two hundred years, Sarah. Do you know how long that is? You"re his wife for Christ"s sake. How can I possibly even think about doing this? What kind of person does that make me?”
I walked toward him, careful to look down, avoiding the incredibly strong pull to kiss him. I put my head on his chest and he wrapped me in his arms. “We"ll fix this, Carlos. I promise. We have to. You know we have to. We can"t act on this. As much as we might want to, we just can"t.”
“I know, Sarah. And you"re right. But you"re going to have to figure out how because, with the way I feel right now about you, I can"t. I"m sorry, but I just can"t. You have to figure out how to stop us,” he whispered as he pulled me closer and I felt the shift from comforting friend to longing lover,“because I"ve tried and I"m definitelynot having any luck.”
I gritted my teeth and pushed away from him. “Home, now, please?” I begged. He nodded, held his hand out and we rose into the air. He wrapped his arm around me, pulling me close as he descended into the courtyard, staring into my eyes the entire time. It took me a second to realize we were on the ground. “I"m sorry, Carlos. I don"t want to hurt you and I don"t want to leave you, but I have to go. You know I have to.” He nodded and I saw the sad resignation in his eyes. I winced and felt my heart break a little as I turned and walked away, once again leaving him all alone as I went willingly to the arms of my husband.
Matt was waiting for me in our room. “I"ve missed you,” he said as he took me into his arms. I closed my eyes and tried to get my head straight, melting into his chest. I kept thinking„I have to fix this, I have to fix this" over and over in my head. I must have taken a little longer than I thought to respond, because Matt whispered, “Sarah?” as he tilted my chin up.
“Sorry,” I said. “Just a little tired, that"s all.”
“I"m not surprised, after what you"ve been through today,” he said. “How"s the head?”
I reached back and winced slightly. “A little better,” I said.
“You hungry?” he asked and I nodded. We walked down the hall to the kitchen. My heart sank when we walked in and I saw Carlos sitting by himself at the table. I felt so sad for him, all alone like that. I had to fight the urge to wrap my arms around him and tell him everything"s going to be alright. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me?
“Hey dude,” Matt said. “What"s up?”
“Oh, hey guys,” he said. “I was just thinking about grabbing some dinner before I head off to bed.”
“What, no company tonight? No pretty girl waiting somewhere to have her heart broken by the notorious Carlos?” Matt said.
“Really, Matt? This is me we"re talking about. Of course I won"t be alone,” he said as his eyes met mine.
I squeezed mine shut.
‘Do not tell me that,’
I thought.
‘What?’
he thought.
‘Tell you that I’ll have a friend with me or tell you that I won’t, that I’ll be in your head?’
‘Please let it be the first one, Carlos,’
I thought.
‘Call Stacy, have a friend over.’
‘I tried that the other night, remember? I couldn’t do it. Me! That’s never happened to me, Sarah. Ever. I was horny as hell, but I just wasn’t feeling it, you know what I mean? It just felt so empty. I felt bad, but I ended up sending Tracy home. Poor girl, she thought she had done something wrong,’
he thought.
I sank down in the chair closest to me.
‘Stop it, please. This isn’t happening, it can’t be,’
I thought.
Suddenly Matt was in both our heads and I jumped.
‘Uhhh, guys?’
he thought.
‘I hate to interrupt your little pow-wow, but your dinner’s getting cold.’
“Sorry,” I mumbled as I picked up a pint, “just going over a few things.”
“Uh-huh,” Matt said as he eyed both of us. Clearly he wasn"t buying my explanation. Great.
We all drank, then sat in silence for a few minutes. Matt and I were sitting on one side of the table, Carlos on the other. I could feel the anger growing in me. Anger at Carlos, anger at myself, anger at Matthew (though I had no reason for that), anger at Malina, anger at everything. Matt turned sideways on the bench so that his legs were straddling me, and wrapped his arms around me as he began nuzzling my neck. I locked eyes with Carlos and fed on my fury.
‘Maybe I’ll just lock you out,’
I thought.
‘No you won’t,’
he thought, smiling slightly.
‘That sure, are you?’
I thought, as my hand began caressing Matt"s thigh then it slowly moved up towards his crotch.
‘Yes, I am that sure,’
he thought,
‘because you want me in there. Deny it all you want, but deep down you know it’s true, because it’s the only way that you’ll allow yourself to share this with me.’
His grin grew larger, but I saw the hurt in his eyes. The son of a bitch was right, and that pissed me off even more.
Matt"s kissing on my neck became more urgent then, as my hand reached the top of his thigh and moved toward the center. I grabbed his other hand and allowed our scars to join, sending shivers down both our spines. Matt was in my head then, thinking,

‘Sarah, Jesus, you… need… to… stop.’
I already knew that, of course. I could feel his excitement building. I was excited too, but I was also still angry. I didn"t want to stop, not until Carlos was mad at me. Right now what I needed was for him to be totally pissed off at me, but I could see it wasn"t working.
‘Sarah… please,’
Matt thought and I finally tore my eyes away from Carlos and looked at Matt.

I pulled my hand away like I had been shocked and released his hand.
‘Sorry, honey,’
I thought to him. He was panting and his heart was pounding, poor guy.

‘ Hell, don’t be. It’s okay, we just need to take this to our room,’
he thought.
‘Just give me a second ‘cause I can’t stand up right now.’
I nodded and put both my hands on the table. Matt rested his forehead on my shoulder as he tried to calm down. Without thinking my hand reached up to his hair.
‘Uhhh,’
he thought,
‘not helping, honey.’

My hand slammed down a little too hard on the table, making both of them jump. “Sorry,” I mumbled.
“Tired honey?” Matt said. “Ready for bed?” I nodded, staring at Carlos again. “Oh, I am

definitely ready for bed, sweetheart,” I said. “Night, you two,” Carlos said with defiance in his
eyes. “Sleep well. I"m hitting the sack too. I"ll
see you in the morning, Sarah. I"ll show you the
locations I have in mind for training.”
Suddenly I didn"t want to leave him again.
Damn it. This can"t be happening.
“Okay, „night, Carlos,” I mumbled.
Matt held me tight and stood up with me,
pressing into me. I could tell instantly that he wasn"t
calmed down and he was trying to hide the bulge in
his pants from Carlos. He turned quickly putting his
back to Carlos, and pushed me out the door. Once
we were safely in the hall, he scooped me into his
arms, ran to our room and threw open the door. He
dropped me onto the rug just inside the door,
slammed the door shut behind him and ripped his
shirt off. Not over his head, but tore it. Right down
the middle. His chest was heaving as he wrestled
with the button on his jeans – and I was completely
grateful for this reaction. This – this angry, rough, urgent need from him was exactly what I needed right now, this would definitely keep my mind on him and no one else. I reached down to pull off my shirt. “Don"t,” he growled and I smiled, showing him my teeth. I shivered and I was gasping now too. I leaned back and stared at him, marveling again at his perfection as he slid his pants down and kicked them off of his feet. “You started this, Sarah Pearl. Now I"m going to finish it.” He leered at me and then pounced, crushing his body onto me. His mouth crushed down on mine and his tongue moved like lightening around mine. I groaned as he moved and his fangs sank into my neck. Now I was the urgent one, as I again reached down to try to get out of my damn clothes. “Don"t!” he growled again and he grabbed my wrists and pinned my hands above my
head.
“If you don"t get me out of these clothes soon,
I"m going to lose my mind,” I groaned. I felt him
grin as he scraped his fangs down my neck. “I know,” he said. His fangs tugged at the neck
of my shirt and I groaned at the anticipation.
Instinctively I tried to release one of my hands. “Uh-uhuh,” he said as he grinned and moved back up to my neck.
hurting
me. throbbing. My god, I thought, my clothes are Absolutely everything on me was

“Matt… please?” I begged and then I looked down at him. I could feel every ounce of him pressing into me, but I wanted to feel it pressing into my skin, not my clothes. He smiled at me and kept his eyes locked on mine as he, again, scraped his teeth down my neck and caught the edge of my shirt. My eyes rolled back in my head, my chest heaved and I groaned as I finally heard the fabric begin to tear. I squirmed, trying without success, to wriggle out of my stupid pants as his tongue, teeth and mouth awakened every part of my torso. As he moved down to my lower belly, he finally released my hands. I reached down and grabbed a handful of his hair, and pulled him up to me, crushing my mouth down hard onto his, growling as I tasted the blood from his split lip. Pressing my pelvis into him, I silently cursed the denim that still kept him from me. Suddenly he pressed himself off of me and stood up. He was staring at me and panting. I started to sit up.