Devour (15 page)

“Hmm,” he hummed and nodded. “Are you ready to go in?”

“Ready when you are.”

He then bent his head to kiss me. I immediately felt warm all over and heard him groan as he turned us to press me to the wall. He kissed me for a few long seconds. “Oh, wow,” he whispered against my lips. “You are exquisite.”

I was just about to think about how strange he was acting when I heard my name. I peeked around Eli and saw...Eli. He seemed confused, then hurt, then angry. He glared at the man with his arms around me.

I looked up to the one with his arms still around me tightly and he grinned deviously and winked, making my fear spike as to what was going on. It was then I noticed that his eyebrow ring was missing. He opened his mouth, licked his lips and leaned forward to kiss the side of my mouth as he groaned in delight.

“Aww,” fake Eli crooned. “Brother has come to spoil my fun, now hasn’t he?”

Seven

“
C
lara,” Eli said and reached his hand out to me, beckoning. “Come away from him now.”

I wondered if the fake Eli would try to stop me but he lifted his hands, as if in surrender, and let me go freely. I heard him laugh as Eli pulled me behind him.

“Brother.”

“Enoch,” Eli spat. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”

“You’re not that hard to find anymore. You travel to these pitiful little towns and buy those quaint old houses. So pathetic and predictable.”

“Eli,” I asked. “What’s going on?”

He sighed and took my hand behind him, almost as if to hide the fact that he was trying to comfort me.

“Clara, this is my brother, Enoch. My twin.”

“One of your family that you were telling me about?”

“Yes.”

“Tsk, tsk, brother,” Enoch mocked. “You didn’t introduce your little cupcake
to me
. How rude. Especially after I’ve tasted her lips and her fright, her want.” He licked his lips again and smiled at me. “All were delicious.”

I blushed and covered my cheek with my hand in embarrassment. I knew something had been off with Eli when I saw him there on the wall. But Eli didn’t mention that his brother was a twin. How could I have known?

“Don’t, Clara. You have nothing to be ashamed about,” Eli whispered. He looked from me to his brother. “You thought you were kissing me, after all.”

His brother laughed and pushed off from the wall.

“Ouch.” Then he shook his head in mock disappointment. “I can’t believe you told a human about what you are. I’m in delightful shock - both by your actions and her reaction. She still wanted to kiss you after you told her you siphon off her emotions. Fascinating.” Eli just continued to glower. “Goodbye, brother. Bye, Clara. Nice, uh...meeting you. I hope we can meet again. Maybe next time, you can leave the stick in the mud at home.”

Eli growled and Enoch laughed again as he disappeared around the corner of the building.

Eli’s visibly relaxed and turned to me.

“Are you ok?” he asked as his hands roamed my arms and face. “He didn’t hurt you did he? What happened?”

“I saw you - I thought it was you - waiting here. So I walked up to you and said I was wondering if you’d be here. Then you kissed me...” I shook my head. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“I kissed him back,” I confessed.

“It was me you were kissing.” He smiled and ran his thumb over my bottom lip. “I should be happy you want to kiss me at all. What happened to thinking it over? I didn’t think I’d see you here tonight.”

“I’m still thinking but...I can’t seem to keep away from you. I was hoping you’d be here,” I admitted. “Can we just take things slow? I’m still not sure what’s going on...with everything but I want to still be friends.”

“That’s sounds really good, actually.” He glanced behind us. “Do you still want to go in or…”

“Yeah, we might as well. We’re here.”

Eli bent down to kiss my forehead, holding my face gently. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Patrick.

“You both made it. Awesome.” He hugged me and told me I looked great in my ear. “Let’s go in. You can suck face on the inside of the club too, ya know,” he said grinning and bumped fists with Eli as he chuckled.

The bouncer asked for all our I.D.s and I started to wonder when he asked if they were going to let me in or not. I hadn’t thought it would be a problem.

“You can’t come in,” he confirmed my fears. “Eighteen and up only, kid.”

“You’re not eighteen?” Patrick asked. “But you’re a senior.”

“I have an early birthday. I don’t turn eighteen until May.”

“Dang.”

“Let her in,” Eli said, looking at the bouncer closely. “Let. Her. In.”

The bouncer blinked a few times and looked around. Then he looked back to me.

“Go ahead. But if someone asks, you snuck in, got it?”

“Yes. Thank you,” I answered.

“Eli, dude. Awesome. You got come Jedi mind tricks working for you, man,” Patrick praised as we followed him in.

I looked at Eli but he wouldn’t meet my gaze. Inside, the music was so loud it actually vibrated through me, making my vision bounce and it was impossible to hear. So much for talking anything out with Eli tonight. We went to the bar and ordered a few sodas. It didn’t escape my notice how Eli’s protective arm stayed around me the entire time.

The announcer said that the first band of the night, Blue Ashes, was about to take the stage. Eli pointed to the balcony, asking if I wanted to go there with him. I nodded. Patrick and his boys followed us and Eli leaned me against the railing and caged me in with his arms from behind me.

It made me smile because he was protective in a fierce way that was unlike Tate. Tate had been protective like I was a possession of his. Eli was protective like I was something precious.

I turned to look at him and found his face right there over my shoulder. My cheek touched his lips and nose. He kissed it and I shivered. I felt him exhale on my face and realized I was feeding him right that second. I tried to calm down, taking a deep breath. It was kind of chilly inside the smoky club actually, which was weird. I took Eli’s arms and put them around me without even thinking.

“I promise I’m not playing some stupid girly flirting game. I’m just cold. Is this ok?” I asked loudly.

“Are you kidding me?” he said into my ear and kissed my cheek once more. “And you look stunning, by the way. I didn’t really get a chance to say that before.”

“Thank you. So do you.”

He laughed.

“Never been called stunning before.”

“Well, you are.”

He smiled and chuckled silently, but I could feel him shake slightly. He put his head against mine for a few seconds and then the lights went out completely. The show was starting.

The band was terrible, but in the strobing and laser lights Patrick and his friends seemed to enjoy them. Then another band came and played a small set, then another. I wasn’t too impressed with any of them but it was still fun to watch and entertaining. And Eli’s arms around me made it even better.

Finally ten o’clock rolled around and I really wanted to talk to Eli. I pulled him to me and yelled as much in his ear. He must have gotten the gist because after he motioned to Patrick that we were leaving. He held my hand tightly and towed me down the stairs and out the door.

“Where’d you park?” Eli asked looking around furiously, for the car or Enoch I didn’t know, and I showed him.

“Where are you parked?” I asked.

“I walked. I’ll just ride with you if that’s ok.”

“Yeah, of course. I’m sorry if you wanted to stay, I just really wanted to talk to you.”

“No,” he opened the passenger door to my car, put me in and then got in the driver’s seat, “I wanted to leave too. I need to explain some things to you about my brother.”

“Ok, good, because I have some questions.”

“Where to?” he asked as he pulled a swift u-turn onto the highway.

“Not home. Let’s go to the dock, out past the warehouse district.”

“Alright. Buckle up.”

He drove us quickly and I decided to start the questioning.

“So, I thought you said your kind couldn’t feel? If that’s the case, then why did Enoch kiss me?”

“Our bodies feel, just not those kinds of emotions. Not love but lust. Not friendship but competition. My brother has always been somewhat of a female conqueror,” he said and I could tell he thought it was disgusting.

“So he seduces girls just to feed off them? And then leaves?”

“Pretty much. He gets what he wants and needs. He’s not made to care about the person. I’m not making excuses for him,” he said quickly. “I’m just saying, Devourers don’t have relationships, even with each other. It’s all twisted and dysfunctional. It’s not real. It’s all a game, a show.”

“So what’s he doing here?”

“Good question,” he muttered as he pulled into the dirt road and I showed him where to park. “I haven’t seen him in about five years.”

We sat in the car and looked out at the water. The long list of things I wanted to ask were a jumbled mess in my head. I couldn’t seem to make sense of any of it.

“Ok. So, what happens now? You skip town because he found you?”

He looked at me with a face of horror.

“No, Clara. No. He’ll leave soon enough on his own. He bores easily. I’m not leaving you,” he took my hand, “unless you send me away.”

“I don’t want you to go away.” I gnawed my lip as he rubbed my knuckles with his thumb. “So what’s up with him? Why does he follow you around?”

“I told you, it’s a game. And if we see him again, which I’m hoping we won’t but if we do, I’ll have to pretend like I’m just using you so he’ll leave you alone.”

“What?” I said not understanding.

“If he knows how I really feel about you, he’ll just try to torment you and I can’t have that. He’ll know that something is different about you. I’ll have to be with you at night, in your Reveries, so he can’t get in. We’ll just keep a low profile until I know he’s gone.”

“Low profile. Sounds very 007.” He laughed and I smiled, loving hearing it. “Ok, so you ignore me and hope he leaves, that’s taken care of. Now. How old are you?”

He seemed surprised by the question and I bet he’d never been asked before where he could actually tell the truth.

“Uh...three hundred, plus some. I lost count.”

I gulped and fidgeted with my ring.

“You don’t remember the year you were born?”

“Mother wasn’t too keen on keeping records,” he said and laughed without humor. “My brother, sister and I were just a means to keep our race going after all.”

“That’s terrible.”

“Not really. We just don’t view family like humans do. Trust me, if you knew my parents you’d be glad they cut me loose.”

I thought about that and felt like he was being a little ungrateful. At least he still had his parents. I missed mine so much. My face must have shown my sadness, or he felt it maybe.

“Ah, I’m sorry, Clara. I didn’t mean to be so callous. I just meant that they are a ruthless pair, nothing like I’m sure your parents were with you.”

“It’s ok.” I absorbed that, trying not to shudder. “So, you came to the club. I didn’t think you would.”

“I didn’t think you would either but I didn’t want to miss the chance that you might.”

“I’m glad you did.” I shook my head. “I can’t believe I couldn’t tell that wasn’t you.”