Scorned (7 page)

“What the crap,” I murmured to myself.
“There’s no way. I just filled it up. Unless...” I wouldn’t allow
myself to voice my fear of a cut gas line because my only option
was to hike back to the gas station a few yards back in complete
darkness.

I unbuckled myself and looked up. Where
there had been nothing but an empty street a moment ago a man now
stood, illuminated by the car lights. He wore nothing but a pair of
black jeans and his sculpted chest glowed white in the brilliance
of the lights. There was a sneer on his face, a cross between
hatred and triumph, and I knew him immediately.

Lucretious.

His mind opened to me and my blood rolled in
my veins. I wanted to go to him and I started to roll down the
window.

“LeKrista, no!” Roman shouted in my head,
but it was too late. I’d already given Lucretious the leverage he
needed. He was at my car faster than should have been possible and
yanked the glass from the window with a strength I had never seen
before.

Lucretious gripped my throat like a vice and
I struggled to breathe. I thought I would choke to death but he
pulled away from me with such force that I thought my throat had
been torn out. I screamed, raised a hand to my throat to find too
much blood. When I could breathe again, Roman and the half naked
Lucretious were fighting in the street.

I couldn’t see any of the blows, but I saw
the results. Lucretious flew into the icy water of the quarry with
a splash. A moment later he was back in the street to deliver
several blows of his own until he finally sent Roman flying into
the woods on the other side of the road. I heard trees snap and a
loud thud as Roman hit the ground, and Lucretious was at my window
again. He sneered at me, said something in a language I didn’t
understand, and then my car and I were in the air.

This is it. I'm going to die.

Roman rushed back like a blur and stopped
several feet from Lucretious. Roman said something pleadingly to
him in another language, something that was meant to calm, but only
made Lucretious more angry. Lucretious said something back, and
then my car was tumbling. It landed on the top, crushed the car,
and pressed me into my seat. I just knew my neck was broken. I
rolled down the hill, hit my head several times on the roof, and
landed in the icy water. Vaguely, I could feel someone in my head
watching. My last thought before I passed out was, “Don’t worry,
StaciDoll. I’m coming for you.”

I woke up in the hospital. Voices whispered
softly so as not to disturb me. My first instinct was to make sure
I had movement in all of my limbs. I tested my toes and found that
they wiggled. I moved my legs and gasped. It hurt, but not much
different from the hurt of an overused muscle. I was sure I had
bruises and scrapes, but no broken bones there.

“You’re awake,” my aunt said. “You don’t
have any broken bones, thank God.” She turned away and came back
with a mirror, and I knew it wasn’t pretty. “We can wait to do this
if you want. I just thought... I thought you’d want to see.”

I reached for the mirror and whimpered as I
snatched it from her and held it up to my face. I didn’t give
myself a chance to back down. It took a moment for the image to
make sense. There were white bandages around my neck covering the
finger gouges and I worked my way up, noting a split on my chin
where I must have hit it on the steering wheel. The right side of
my face was purple and my eye swollen, but not shut completely. My
hair was bloody from a gash across my forehead that was butterflied
shut. I was hideous, but not disfigured. I let out a sigh of relief
and settled back against the pillows.

“Staci?” Pierce’s soft voice brought a faint
smile to my lips, but it hurt too much to smile. His beautiful eyes
shone with worry.

“You’re here.”

“Of course I’m here, love. Nothing could
keep me away. You know that.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, baby.” Pierce rested his
head on the bed for a moment. When he looked back up at me, there
was a look of fear on his face like I’d never seen before. “I saw
you,” he whispered.

My eyes widened. “What did you see?”

“Two men fighting in the middle of the road.
One threw your car in the quarry lake.”

I didn’t know what to say so I asked, “How
did I get here?”

Pierce smiled like I should have already
known the answer. “I called 911.”

“Hold my hand.”

“Of course.” His touch made me feel safe and
I drifted back to sleep.

Someone was speaking French as I came out of
the stupor of the pain medication. Roman sat beside the bed, an old
book propped against his crossed legs. He closed the book he was
reading and smiled.

“LeKrista.”

I turned my head and smiled back the best I
could.

“I am so sorry,” he began. “I underestimated
his strength and ability. I failed to protect you as I should
have.”

“You should have told me who he was when I
asked.”

“I should have protected you better.” He
came to stand beside me. His furrowed brow matched the pain I saw
in his eyes and he took my hand. “Please, I cannot change what has
happened, but I can take some of your pain. Please.”

“Fine,” I told him, “but you owe me some
answers.”

“Ask me anything. I will answer.”

“What are you?” I asked.

“LeKrista.” He sounded like he was going to
chastise me. “What I am... I fear I will lose you when you find
out.” He shook his head and sighed. “LeKrista, I’m a vampire.”

I shook my head vigorously so the pain would
keep me from going into shock. “There’s no way,” I whispered.
“Vampires don’t exist.”

“On the contrary, my dear. We are very much
in existence. We just prefer to keep it a secret.”

I knew my face was a mask of disbelief that
I didn’t try to hide from him.

“Give me your hand.”

I offered it without thinking and he lifted
one finger to his parted lips. They were soft and warm and there
was something so sensual about the act. My finger slid over his
lips into his mouth, across his teeth until I felt the point of one
very sharp canine. My eyes widened in surprise and I gasped when it
pricked me. I jumped and Roman gripped my wrist loosely so I
wouldn’t jerk away. He pulled my finger from his mouth slowly,
tasting my blood as he did. His eyes slid shut as if to savor the
taste and I tucked my hand under the sheet and under my body,
pressing my bleeding finger into the mattress.

Roman said something that sounded like Latin
and then I knew was telling the truth. “I am sorry, my sweet. I
forget myself. I hope I have not frightened you.”

I shook my head.

“Ah, LeKrista. Why do you lie?”

“Lucretious is a vampire?”

Roman nodded that stiff nod that seemed to
mean there was information coming that he did not particularly want
me to share with me. “Yes. One of mine.”

“You mean, you turned him?”

“Yes. He wanted it, but could not handle it
once the deed was done. He is so far out of his mind that I cannot
control him. He resents me for what he has become.”

“Why did he attack me?”

“To hurt me.”

“He thinks I mean that much to you?”

Roman frowned. “You do mean that much to me,
LeKrista. That is why you are in so much danger. He would see you
dead just to cause me great pain.”

“He wants to kill me?” I whispered, my voice
completely gone. “I haven’t done anything to him.”

“I know. That is why I must protect you at
all times until I can figure out what to do with him. I won’t let
anything more happen to you, LeKrista. This I promise. Now, let me
take some of the pain away.” Roman caressed the good side of my
face and heat poured through me. It poured from Roman like warm
water and spread through my body. When it hit the injured places it
began to burn like fire.

I gasped, “Roman, what’s happening?”

“I don’t know, my sweet. I’ve never-"

"It feels like I’m burning from the inside
out! Make it stop!”

Roman pulled his hand from my face, but the
burning only grew until my back arched and I thought I would
scream, but the sound caught in my throat and I choked.

“LeKrista!” I heard Roman calling me, but he
sounded so far away, standing at the end of a dark tunnel that grew
longer and longer until he was gone.

“Pierce?” He was leaning over me when I
woke.

“Hey, baby.”

“What happened?” My throat was dry and it
hurt to talk. “Can I have some water?”

“Your heart rate went way up,” Pierce said
as he turned to get a cup of water off the night stand, “and you
lost consciousness. We were worried about you. You don’t know what
happened?”

I shook my head and noticed that it didn’t
hurt like it had before.

“Some of the swelling has gone down in your
face,” Pierce said. “So has some of the bruising.”

I felt Roman’s eyes on me, keeping close
watch.

“You have a visitor,” Pierce said, and his
voice held so much disdain that I knew it could only be one
person.

“Seriously?”

He nodded. “He’s putting on a good show for
your family.”

“I’ll bet he is.” I pushed myself up and it
didn’t hurt like it should have.

“Don’t try to move. I’ll put the bed
up.”

“I’m fine,” I told him, but he put the bed
up anyway. I smiled. “Can I have a kiss?” I asked.

Pierce seemed to consider this. I guess he
was trying to figure out how to do it without hurting me. Finally,
he leaned over me and brushed his lips against my own sore,
swollen, bruised ones.

When he pulled back I smiled. “All better,”
I whispered and, he chuckled.

There was a knock on the door and a head
peaked around the wall in true Edgar Appleton fashion.
“LeKrista?”

“Hey, Eddy.” I tried to sound pleasant.

“How are you feeling?” He stalked into the
room on graceful feet.

“Well, they say I was in a car accident, so
not so great.”

Eddy smiled one of the most charming smiles
and motioned to someone out in the hall. Bomani the African
princess walked in with a lovely arrangement of flowers that I
could hardly believe was for me.

“Wow.”

“It was the girls’ idea. They felt bad and
wanted to do something for you.”

I knew that was a lie. I nodded acceptance
nonetheless and said, “You can put the flowers on the table.
Forgive me if I don’t get up.”

Eddy nodded. “Well, we’ll be going. We just
wanted to bring the arrangement by. You take your time getting back
to work, alright?”

Yeah, I’m sure you’d love that.

Out loud I said, “Thanks.”

Eddy and the Princess said their goodbyes
and took their leave.

“Well, that was nice,” my aunt said.

“Yeah, whatever. He’s so full of...it.” But
part of me wondered if they hadn’t been for real.

I was discharged from the hospital the next
morning and spent the day watching movies with Pierce. He left by
eleven, though he was technically allowed to stay until
midnight.

I had no trouble falling asleep, but I woke
up about one a.m. I was so thirsty and I attributed it to all of
the pain meds. Walking hurt, but my overwhelming thirst got me to
the kitchen. The first glass of water somehow slipped past my
tongue. I was dizzy, my tongue dry and scratchy like sandpaper. It
was almost as if I hadn’t even drunk it. The second was better. I
felt the wet in my mouth, but it didn’t slake my thirst. The third
helped, and by the fourth I was feeling better.

I walked across the kitchen to the back
porch. My feet moved of their own accord, even though my brain was
telling them to take me back to bed. I opened the door. My feet hit
cold tile and jarred me from the vision.

My feet were freezing and I looked down.

When did I get out here?

I was on the back patio. I saw my hand reach
for the lock on the screen door as if I was having an out of body
experience. This wasn’t another vision. Someone else was in
control. My hand pressed the latch and pushed the door open. I
wrapped my arms around myself and shivered.

He was waiting in the shadows and I went to
him.

“Hello, my sweet,” that time-branded accent
beckoned. “I trust you are well.”

Coming back to myself was like standing in a
desert and suddenly having the sun turned off, or instantly being
incased in fog. I didn’t immediately realize where I was, how I’d
gotten here, or who exactly this man in front of me was. The fear
hit me then, sharp like the panic from before and my breath came in
gasps. The nausea was next and I gagged.

Strong arms grasped me around my waist as I
went down and cool fingers brushed my cheek. Warmth spread through
me as it had before and the nausea faded. My breathing returned to
normal, and I pushed the arm away opting to stand on my own.

“Why do I always panic when you’re
around?”

Laughter wasn’t the reaction I’d hoped for
and I scowled in the darkness, even though he couldn’t see me.
“Because you fight me, my sweet. Come. I want to show you
something.”

“Are we going to fly again?”

Roman chuckled. “Yes.”

He whisked me away, but we landed on
concrete a few moments later in front of a Tudor-style house not
far from my own home and one I’d always wanted to explore.

“Then let us go inside.”

"Are you reading my mind?"

"Yes," was his cautious reply.

"That's going to get old quick."

"I will take that into consideration."

No, he won't.

Roman led me into the front hall and to a
room off to the right decorated tribal from the ceiling to the
floor.

This must be the African Room.

“I will be right back.”

Roman left and I stood to examine the relics
on the walls. I skimmed over spears and knives and jewelry and
pottery, and eventually came to a leathery, serene looking head.
Long dark hair was still attached and the eyes and lips were sewn
shut. A little bit of tooth showed on each side of the mouth.