Love's Challenge (Pearl Vampire Chronicles #5) (19 page)

Carlos nodded.  “She was in your head and she is trying to tell me where
she is.  She thinks they’re going east.”

“Then why the hell are you still here, damn it?  Why aren’t you going
after her?  What the fuck is wrong with you?” Matt hissed.

“There’s nothing fucking wrong with me.  There’s something fucking wrong
with you, that’s why I’m still here.  She made me promise that I wouldn’t go
looking for her until I could tell her with one hundred percent certainty that
you were going to be okay.  That’s why I’m still here, Matt.  I’m here because
she told me to stay here,” Carlos said.

“Okay.  I get it.  I’m sorry I snapped.  Please figure out a plan to save
her Carlos.  I need to go back to sleep now, I’m tired as hell.  So please
figure this out.  Save her, Carlos, please.  Save her.  And have her wake me
up,” he said, then he closed his eyes and drifted off, not to sleep, but into what
Dr. Cameron soon confirmed was a deep coma.

Chapter
Fifteen

I groaned in my sleep.  Where the hell did this pain come from?  Other
than not feeding, I had been fine since Aquila had grabbed me.  He had flown us
every night for four nights until we reached the cave we were currently in. 
The last landmark I had seen, and been able to show Carlos, had been two days
ago when we flew over Moscow.  I was pretty sure we were somewhere in Siberia,
because the last few times I had woken up I hadn’t seen much in the way of
towns or cities anywhere, just snow and mountains.  Aquila hadn’t touched me in
the four days, other than to carry me.  He hadn’t hurt me.  So where the hell
did this pain come from, I thought as I came closer to waking up.  Terrible
pain in my mid-section, and, what was that?  Motion-sickness?  Nausea?  I swear
I felt like I was going to… I leaned my head quickly to the side and vomited
blood onto the cave floor.  “What the hell?” I gasped as I lay my head back
down.  What was wrong with me?  My mid-section was achy and I just threw up. 
Was this some new flu bug that affected vampires?  What else besides the flu
made you achy and nauseous?  “Oh my God, no,” I whispered as I squeezed my eyes
shut.  Don’t look down Sarah, please don’t look down, I thought.  I opened my
eyes and stared down at my chest.  It was bare.  “Oh God, no,” I said again as
I propped myself up on my elbows.  My pants were gone too, and there were a few
trickles of dried blood on the insides of my upper thighs.  That’s where the
pain was coming from.  He had had sex with me.  “You son of a bitch,” I growled
at Aquila.  I tried to lunge at him, but stopped short when I started vomiting
again.  Aquila stood, picked me up and moved me to a cleaner spot in the cave. 
While he did, I pounded my fist on his chest a few times, almost breaking my hand. 
I rolled onto my side and curled into a ball, quietly sobbing. 

Aquila moved to the far side of the cave and sat down, leaning against
the wall and watching me as his hand drifted to his obviously aroused shaft and
began stroking.  Really?  I thought as I squeezed my eyes shut.  You really
have to do that now, right in front of me?  After a long time of trying to
ignore the sounds of his hand and grunts, I drifted off to sleep again.

Someone was poking my arm.  I tried to brush them away.  “Leave me alone,
I’m tired,” I groaned.  The poking started again.  “Damn it, I’m tired,” I
growled as I opened my eyes and sat up.  I gasped when I saw Aquila’s face.  I
pulled my knees up and tried to cover myself the best that I could.  “What the
fuck do you want?”

He pushed a pint of blood toward me.  It was warm.  “How the hell did you
get it warm?”

Aquila pointed towards the back of the cave.  There was a hot springs
running against the back wall.  “Oh.  Well, no thanks.  I’m not going to be
eating anymore, ever.  I’m not going to feed this thing that’s inside me,
asshole,” I spat as I shook my head at him.  I saw the anger in his eyes.  He
reached out and grabbed one of my wrists.  “Ow, ow.  Yes that fucking hurts,
but no I’m not going to fucking eat.  Break every bone in my body.  I don’t
give a shit.  I’m not going to eat.”  He growled and moved like lightning until
he was behind me.  He pinned my arms against my chest and brought the pint
toward my face.  Oh Jesus I thought as I smelled it; this was good blood.  No,
not that.  Please not that.  I’ve been addicted to that before – and the
withdrawals when I got off of it were brutal.  The scent embraced me like an
old lover.  I shivered.  I felt my teeth tingling.  I clamped my jaw shut.  No,
no, no, please, no.  My mouth was watering.  I tried to turn my mouth away from
it, but Aquila put his hand on my forehead and held it tight.  I clawed at his
other arm, trying to get this fucking sweet smell away from me.  My fangs
forced my jaw to unclench.  “No,” I groaned weakly.  Aquila forced his thumb
between my lips, parting my teeth.  I knew my fight was over then.  I gave in
and sunk my teeth into the bag.  My eyes rolled back into my head as the fire
from the sweet elixir ignited in my entire body…

A few weeks later, I screamed as the pain flared in my abdomen. I wrapped
my arms around my belly and whimpered.  Suddenly I gasped as I felt an
unmistakable feeling; a feeling that I had felt before.  I felt the baby move. 
I screamed again as the unbearable pain hit me again.  Aquila touched my arm. 
“What?” I screamed.  “You fucking did this to me.  What did you expect?”  He
motioned with his hand and pointed to the pool of warm water at the back of the
cave.  “You want me to get in the water?  Why?” I hissed then I grimaced again
from the pain.  He nodded and lifted my hand, gently stroking the back of it. 
“You’re saying the warm water will soothe me?  It will help with the pain? 
Fine,” I said.  I stood up, took two steps toward the water, then fell to my
hands and knees as another sharp pain filled my belly.  “I can’t.  It hurts too
much,” I groaned as I fell to my side and curled into a ball.  Aquila moved
around behind me and scooped me into his arms.  He walked to the edge of the
water and gently stepped in.  He slowly submerged me into the water.  I
immediately began to feel relief.  I tried to push myself away from him,
something that wasn’t possible but he understood what I was doing and he let go
of me.  I moved to the opposite side of the pool from him, watching him. 

After a few minutes of silence, I heard his voice for the first time
since he had grabbed me, and what he said shocked the hell out of me. 
“Better?” he said.

My mouth fell open.  I started to feel uncontrollable anger.  I could
feel myself shaking in the water.  My hands were clenched into fists.  “Are you
fucking kidding me?  You speak English?” I spat.

“Enough,” he said as he smiled.

“Enough to understand what I’m saying right now, asshole?  Enough to
understand when I say that you raped me, you son of a bitch.  You raped me and
got me pregnant and now I’m going to die when this things rips out of my
belly.”

“Please try to calm yourself.  It can feel anger.  If it believes you
hate it or if it believes you are weak, then, yes, it will kill you when it’s
ready to come out.  If you are strong and you show it love, it will let you
live.  And I didn’t rape you.  There’s no such thing in my species.  I chose
you to be my mate.  I chose you to bear my child.  It’s as simple as that,” he
said as his hand began stroking his shaft…
again
.

“It’s as simple as that, he says.  Fuck you, Aquila.  It’s not as simple
as that.  It is most definitely not as simple as that.  And love this thing? 
How am I supposed to do that when I didn’t want it?  You forced this thing on
me.  I do hate it,” I whispered.

“You need to learn to love it or it will kill you,” he said then he
grunted through another orgasm.

“Do you have to keep doing that in front of me?” I spat.

“Doing what?” he said as he wiped his hand on the floor of the cave and
then climbed into the water with me.

“Masturbate.”

He looked annoyed with my question.  “My kind requires release at least
four or five times a day or we will die – after going insane and becoming
incredibly violent first.  Since I figured that you’re not an option to help me
with that release then I need to do it myself.  I didn’t realize that your species
were so repressed.  It bothers you?”

“We’re not repressed, it’s just not something that we do so freely in
front of each other.”

“But you need release too, yes?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“But, what?  I don’t understand the problem.  If you’re body needs it
then why hide it?  If you need release and can’t reach because of your belly, I
can help you if you’d like.  I’m quite good at pleasing the females with my
fingers.  And your release will help alleviate the pain.”

“By release, you mean my, um, orgasm?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

Suddenly I grabbed my head.  “More pain?” he said, and he started to move
toward me. 

“Stop!  It’s not more pain.  It’s my friends trying to talk to me again.”

“So you don’t want my help with your release?”

“No.  Um, I’m fine right now, thanks,” I said, blushing as Carlos was
trying to get into my head.  I had kept him out the last few days, just giving
him short bursts of, ‘I’m okay but can’t talk now.’  Enough to keep Carlos from
panicking, but not enough to satisfy him apparently.  This was the second time
today that he was trying to come in.  I had to talk to him now, but I couldn’t
let him know what was happening.  I closed my eyes and leaned my head back,
trying to relax in the soothing, warm water.  
‘I’m here, Carlos.’

‘Jesus, Sarah.  You are scaring the shit out of me.  I’m
leaving tonight to search for you, I have to.’

‘Is he out of danger yet, Carlos?  Did he wake up from the
coma?’

‘Well, no.  But Sarah, this is too dangerous for you.  He
could hurt you.  He could, he could…’

‘Yeah, I know he could,’
I thought as I tried to choke back my sobs.  How the
hell am I going to tell him what happened?  How is he not going to know? 

‘Sarah?’
 Uh-oh, too much silence.

‘Look, Carlos.  We’re in a cave.  See?’
 I quickly opened my eyes and looked
around, avoiding Aquila, the hot springs, and myself.
  ‘I have no idea
where this cave is.  I can’t see outside at all.  I can’t give you landmarks. 
I can’t hear anything.  I don’t know how I can help you find me.’

‘
But, what is he doing with you?  Has he hurt you Sarah?  Has he
touched you?  Do you know what he wants?’

‘I don’t know what he wants or what he’s doing with me,
Carlos.  He hasn’t told me yet.’ 
I was afraid to answer his other two questions.  He knew me
so well that I was afraid that he would hear the lie in my voice.  There was a
slight hesitation before he spoke again.  Crap, he knows something is wrong. 
‘Sarah? 
You’d tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you?  You know you can tell me
anything, honey, right?’

I swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump in my throat. 
‘I
know, Carlos.  Look, he chains my ankle so I can’t move around much when he
leaves to get blood.  But the next time he’s gone, I’ll test the chain again to
see if I can get close enough to the mouth of the cave to see out, okay?’ 
Hopefully
that will throw him off of what he was thinking.

‘You’re sure you’re okay, kiddo?’

I couldn’t help it, a small sob escaped when he called me by my favorite
nickname. 

‘What was that?  You’re not okay, are you?  Something’s
wrong.’

‘
Chill out, damn it.  Nothing’s wrong, other than the fact that I’m on
a hard floor and it’s a little uncomfortable.  I was just shifting and it hurt
a little but now I’m fine, got it?  I’m perfectly fine.’ 
Silence again. 
Damn it.  I completely suck at lying.  I tried to change the subject.
‘Tell
me more about how Matt’s doing, please?’

‘His wounds are healing fine.  Cameron’s flying with him back
to Peru tomorrow.  He’ll keep watching him.  He thinks he should wake up from
the coma soon.’

‘You’re going with him, right?’

‘What?  No, I’m not going with him.  I’m going to stay here
and look for you.’

‘Carlos, please listen to me.  Until I can give you some sort
of landmark or something, there’s no point in searching for me.  You’ll exhaust
yourself.  You’ll get hurt.  Matt needs you right now.  People in comas need to
hear the voices of their friends and family to help them wake up.  I’ll try to
get into his head to talk to him, but I’m not sure he’ll hear me that way.  He
will hear your voice if you’re in the room with him.  Please, Carlos.  I love
you so much and I need you to do this for me.  Please stay with him, Carlos. 
Please?  For me?’

‘God damn it, Sarah,’
he whispered in my head.  
‘Please don’t do this to me.’

I didn’t respond.  I couldn’t.  I could only hope that he’d say yes. 

‘I’ll do on one condition,’
he finally thought.  I grabbed my
chest.  This was hurting too much already.  And I was pretty sure I knew what
he was going to ask now.  Not yet, please, not yet.