Awakening (The Magic of the Black Forest Book 2) (33 page)

“Is Jess telling the guys?” I asked.

“Yep. He’s so excited.”

“Did Brad tell you he and I used to live together?” Boy, this chick doesn’t know when to call it quits. Margaret spoke maliciously, trying to upset me. That was what he wanted to tell me earlier but I wouldn’t let him explain. He tried to prepare me for this, for her. The frantic gaze he had meant that whatever it is, it’s bad, real bad.

“No, Bradley didn’t say anything.” I knew I’d regret it the moment I asked but, “Why, should he have?” I laughed as the words went flying out of my mouth.

“Well I would want to know who my boyfriend dated or lived with before I moved in with him.”

Cheryl was about to come to my defense when I put up my hand slightly and replied, “I don’t really care who my
husband
dated or lived with before
he
moved in with me. What happened before me doesn’t matter. What happens now and in our future is what matters.”

“It doesn’t bother you that he loved me enough to live with me?”

“No. Why does it bother you that he loves me so much that he married me?”

Colleen and Cheryl started cracking up. Margaret growled. Cheryl and Colleen returned the same gesture in unison. It had been a little scary.

“Did he ever tell you that he attacked me one night because I wouldn’t move back in with him? That he forced himself on me?”

Rage, unlike ever before swept through me. I demanded that she leave immediately. The napkins flew from the table, our hair whipping in the breeze.

“What the hell was that,” Cheryl asked.

Ignoring her, I concentrated on Margaret. My instincts told me to run, find Bradley. Rays of hate and revenge radiated from her body, she wanted to hurt us, confirming my intuition.

In the past, before my twenty-fifth birthday, I had to touch someone to see inside them, to see them for who they really were, but not anymore. Now, to see their deepest darkest secrets that they have hidden in their inner psyche, all I had to do was to concentrate. .

A desperate need to figure out what Margaret was up to, I decided to venture into her mind. Standing behind Colleen, feeling safe and protected, I searched Margaret’s thoughts.

Fear, followed by regret, washed over me when I saw her and Bradley together. He looked happy but not, like he was under some sort of spell with her. Her next memory threw me for a loop. I saw her with Anthony and Andrew. Thinking I saw wrong, I looked again. She had slept with both of them, but it was Anthony who she truly wanted. Anthony felt the same way about her, he liked her wickedness. She’d been with Andrew in hopes of getting Bradley back. Feelings of hatred surrounded her thoughts of Jess and Colleen. Bill wasn’t anywhere in her mind. A chill shot down my spine when I saw her murderous thoughts about Bradley and I being married… Being happy. She was planning my death and on comforting Bradley after my murder. Seeing them together in the future, he appeared to be happy with her. None of it made sense. Another vision of them making love in our bed made me gasp and grab hold of Colleen.

I’m not sure what happened to make Colleen alarmed or her body to stiffen for a moment but both her and Cheryl grabbed me before jumping off the porch into the middle of my driveway.

“Leave now Marg.” Colleen’s body started trembling. “Back away, Nat. Go stand by Cheryl.” Even though I didn’t trust Cheryl, I did as Colleen requested.

“Don’t tell me what to do, bitch. Or should I call you a pig since the bear is related to the pig?” Standing defiantly, she gave Colleen a challenging glare.

I ran past Margaret, into the house and out of the back door.
“Hurry!”

To delay my return I sauntered slowly around the side. Margaret had a plan of her own. Turning the corner, along the side, she practically just appeared in front of me. Startled, I stumbled a few steps back.

“They’re on their way back.” I walked around her towards the grizzly that came barreling towards us. Right next to her there was a blurry line. Within seconds Cheryl stood right next to me. Margaret hissed but stood her ground.

“Screw all of you. I’m not leaving without Bill.”

An hour passed by while the four of us just stood there sneering and glaring at each other. Things were getting really tense waiting for our men to return from their run. So I thought I should try again.

“Bradley. Where are you?”

“A few miles north of the property line. Sorry we went a little further than usual. What is that, are you scared?”

“No, but hurry anyway!”
Technically I didn’t lie. I’m actually ticked off she’s ruining the day. Plus Colleen remained in her grizzly form so I felt safe.

Minutes after talking to Bradley, I saw the guys leaping over the creek. Seager used the bridge. Jess phased, roaring as he came barreling towards us. He slid to a stop in front of Colleen and I, his challenging roar was deafening. I just stood there staring at him. He looked huge, I mean huge… gigantic!

“Wow, Jess…  You’re huge.” The last time I saw him must’ve been about a year or two ago. “Boy you’ve grown since the last time I saw you.” Questioning eyes, he looked confused by my reaction. He looked at Colleen. She grunted and looked towards Margaret.

“What’s wrong, Natalia?” Bradley’s eyes frantically searched my body.

“I’m fine. However, Bill…” Quite fed up with her behavior I faced Bill to tell him about it. She quickly ran over and stood by his side. “…please take your date home, or wherever. She is no longer welcome here. Oh and if you continue to date her, neither are you.” Furious that this chick was ruining my beautiful day, I thought I’d call her out in front of everyone.

“Bradley, Margaret says that you attacked her one night because she wouldn’t move back in with you.” Just the thought of someone lying about such a thing freaked me out. I knew how it felt to be held against my will. I knew that Bradley would never do such a thing.

“Can’t deny it, can you, Brad.” Voice flirty and seductive she stood there smiling at him. I can’t deny it, she’s sultry.

When he didn’t deny attacking her a shock of fear surged through me. He smiled at her sheepishly. To me he looked like he had been remembering a tender moment between the two of them. Why else would his eyes seem caring and loving? My heart felt like it ripped down the middle. An agonizing pain filled me. To try and ease my pain I grabbed hold of my chest. Her hold on him broke the moment he felt the pain of my heart breaking in two.

“Wait, Natalia, it’s not exactly the way she’s making it sound. Please let me explain.”

“Not exactly?” He took a step closer so I took a step further. Frustrated by what’s become of our day I turned to Bill and demanded, yelling angrily, “Why is that bitch still on my property? Get her off of it now.” Fed up, I felt the anger rushing through my veins. The wind picked up and there were little whirls whipping around us. My hands were clenched into fists. I had to get away from them both before I did something I’d regret.

“Party is over.” I yelled before turning and heading back into the house. Slamming the door behind me I could hear the branches hitting the side of the house and knew my anger caused the sudden change in the weather, bringing with it the wind. I needed to get a grip.

I watched as Bill and Margaret got into his car. She made eye contact with me and smirked. Then she blew a kiss in my direction. I already felt Bradley behind me so I knew it had been for his benefit. It took everything I had not to pop her The Finger.

“Did you catch it,” I asked sarcastically, the pain still fresh from witnessing their tender moment.

“Natalia, we’ll need something for Jess and Colleen to change into,” he said as Bill finally drove off. Raising my hand in the air, spinning my wrist, I cast a spell. Two outfits, one for Jess and one for Coll, appeared in his hands.

“Ask if they’d like to come in for desert. I made strawberry shortcake earlier.”

“Okay. Natalia…”

I sighed. I’m really tired of this happening to us.

“Why don’t you see if anyone would be interested in a game of cards or Pictionary? I need to have a human moment. I’ll be right back out.”

As Bradley invited our guests in, I took a moment to try to figure out what kind of hold she had over him. I should have sifted through her mind some more. When I came out of the bathroom, I had been deep in thought.

“Nat, would you mind taking a walk with me?” Dave stood in front of me concerned. Although I didn’t respond, he gently took my hand and led me out the front door.

“Wait, what about Bradley? I need to tell him where I’m going.” I knew I could trust Dave but fear still ran through me. Confused by the recent events, I felt he was forcing me to do something. “I need to talk to him.” I tried pulling my hand from his. When he didn’t release me I started feeling terrified, “Please let me go, Dave,” and he did. I turned to run back into the house into my Bradley’s arms but I didn’t need to go far, he’d been right behind me. He wrapped his arms securely around me.

“It is okay, Natalia, don’t be frightened.” Even though I was confused, the fear disappeared when he embraced me. Knowing he was going to ask me to go with Dave, I let my shield down so that we could remain connected.

“You’re right, Natalia. Please go with Dave. You’ll be okay, I promise.” Chagrined, he turned and went back into the house.

“Why can’t you just tell me?” I hollered to him.

“He’s too embarrassed, Nat. Come on, I’ll explain everything and answer any questions you have.”

Chapter 16

Following Dave to the creek that flowed in the front of our property my body became overheated, tired. We came upon a fallen tree and he gestured for me to have a seat.

“Natalia, it’s true, Brad did attack her, but only because she wanted him to.”

She wanted him to attack and rape her? Clutching my arms to my chest, curling my shoulders forward, the dread consumed me and I wasn’t so sure I wanted to hear anymore.

“Look, Nat, you know how some vampires have special abilities. Well I guess you could say that Margaret has the ability to seduce men, to make them do anything she wants. She was a very bad influence for Brad. For whatever reason she was able to maliciously seduce him, to make him do whatever she wanted. She doesn’t have any magical powers like you. She just has the ability of persuasion.”

That sort of explains what I saw in her mind, but how could my Bradley still fall for
that
?

“I don’t understand, Dave. Are you saying he only moved in with her because she persuaded him to?” My heart tore again at the memory of how he looked at her today, adoringly, with sparkling eyes “So what was going on earlier? He was looking at her like he wanted her still.” Tears were filling my eyes, blurring my vision.

“Stay away, Brad.” Dave said out of the blue. I looked around but didn’t see anything. I could feel him but that wasn’t anything unusual, we aren’t that far from each other.

“He’s on the front porch. I think he was going to come to stop us from taking this conversation any further. Nat, I know you think Brad walks on water but he doesn’t. He was part human when she so easily seduced him. He was lonely, Nat.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Let me start from the beginning. Before Margaret… No. This is more difficult than I thought it would be.”

Frustrated, I walked over to him and grabbed hold of his head. Searching through his mind I found all the answers I sought and them some.

“That bitch!” Furious, the wind picked up again.

She used Bradley for sex and nothing more. He was her boy toy. She had no respect for him what-so-ever. It was all about controlling him, to prove to both Anthony and Andrew that she could control him, by using his loneliness against him.

After telling her that he knew his true love was out there searching for him she used it against him by leading him to believe that
she
was his true soul mate. He fell for her ruse, hook, line and sinker.

“Eww! And she liked to be attacked? To be forced?” My body trembled with the thought. Fear started to take over again at the memory of my last encounter with Andrew.

“Do you want Brad to come now,” Dave asked.

“No.”

Dave’s brows furrowing, eyes narrowing, he appeared puzzled, at a loss for words so I grabbed hold of him again and concentrated.

What I saw next warmed me inside. I let go and embraced him. “Thank you for saving my Bradley. You have no idea how relieved I am that he has such a good friend like you in his life.”

“What was that?”

“Oh, when needed, I can read people’s minds and my power is even stronger when I touch them. Typically I block it out to respect their privacy, but you were having too much difficulty spitting out what I needed to hear.”

Stunned he asked, “And that is?”

“That Bradley gave his heart to a woman he trusted and she stomped all over it. Apparently her sex was ‘out of this world.’ I believe that’s how he described it to you. That’s really the only hold she had on him.” I slammed up my shield and sealed it tight.

We heard a loud roar and what sounded like the wooden patio chair being shattered into pieces. I ignored it.

“Unfortunately it appears she still has a hold on him,” I mumbled. “So you finally get him to snap out of it, he sees the error of his ways and spends the next year or so being miserable. Is that right?”

“Then he found you Nat. The first day he saw you he knew and his world changed. He became the old Brad, the one he was before Margaret messed with his head.” Gently Dave grabbed a hold of my arm, guiding us towards the house. “Nat, try to see this from his point of view. You know how he prides himself on being a man, a -- what do call him – oh yeah, your ‘knight in shining armor.’

“To fall for her lies, he was hoping you would never have to know about that part of his life. He feared that you’d think less of him.”

Again, my heart ached, but this time it was for Bradley, to comfort him, to let him know that nothing had changed between us, but I wasn’t quite sure that that was true anymore.

“Dave, do you think I have to worry that he’ll fall for it again? I mean, you saw the look he gave her back at the house. For a brief moment he wanted h-her.” Saying it out loud made the sting even worse.

“I’m not sure what happened there, Nat. I was taken aback with that as well. You’ll have to ask him about that. Listen, Nat, he loves you. The two of you belong together.”

“It seems like something or someone is always trying to tear us apart. If I were a vampire maybe no one would fight us.” I looked at him and he was shocked with where the conversation was going. “He doesn’t want me to be a vampire. How can I compete with the Margaret’s? I mean it’s just a matter of time before she wins and takes him from me. I have nothing to offer him. He always has to hold back a piece of himself to avoid hurting me.

“With her he doesn’t. A piece of him must have wanted her otherwise he wouldn’t have fallen for her.” My tears spilled over the rim of my eyes.

“Wow, Brad was right. Your mind doesn’t always work right.”

“What did he say,” I asked angrily, hurt by the comment, leaves swirled at our feet. “Don’t bother, Bradley!” I felt him getting closer and didn’t want him to find us just yet.

“Settle down, Nat. Think about it. You just said that he was better off with that bitch than with you. He only fell for her because he thought she was you. I’ve known him longer than you have and I’ve never seen him so happy before.
You
were the missing piece in his life. It cracks me up and grosses me out to see him with you. I’ve never, ever seen him act so carefree, to be himself in front of anyone, even complete strangers.

“I heard how the two of you acted at that fancy restaurant. Jess told me about it. We’re his friends. Trust me we know how happy and
free
he is. He was never that way with her. She owned and controlled him. When he tried to have fun or go for a run with us she would always manipulate the moment and he would stay with her. We didn’t have dinners or a get together like we do now. We, the three of us, weren’t allowed to hang out with him. The only time we saw him was when we were working. Finally, one day her job called for her to be out of town for the weekend. Just a weekend away from her and I was able to get him to see what she was doing to him.

“When he’s with you, Nat, he’s in control. You know he thinks that’s an important part of being a man, being able to be in control of his destiny. With you he has that freedom. You complete him, Nat, but I think you already know that.” Dave made it clear that he was finished with the conversation. “I think it’s time for me to leave and for you and Brad to talk things over.”

“Go ahead. I’ll be up in a bit.”

Knowing that Bradley would soon appear, I tried a spell that I’d been practicing just in case I needed to escape from being captured. I found it in the book after Andrew attacked me and have been practicing ever since.

Closing my eyes an image of the bridge in our back yard formed in my mind, chanting the spell, I twirled my wrist around in the air, and when I opened my eyes I was there.

Awesome!!

Using my craft I jumped from place to place on my property until I found myself sitting on the huge boulder on the edge of my property. I needed some time to think things through.

Recalling the images of him in her mind, clearly he felt trapped. But why did he look at her the way he did back at the house? He’s never looked at me that way. I’m pretty sure she intrigued him. I lay there with my eyes closed, thinking. I must have drifted off because when I opened my eyes it was dark, pitch dark. I heard Bradley and Seager telepathically calling me.

I let down my shield
, “I’ll be right there.”
I heard a low vicious growl.
“Oh no!”
I closed my eyes and pictured being in Bradley’s arms. Fear started to consume me as I felt my unknown attacker quickly approaching. Surrounding myself with a protective shield, I concentrated harder on getting myself into his arms. Once I felt the security of his embrace, I opened my eyes and laughed.

Bradley was stunned.

“Neat isn’t it?” I giggled. His lips were on mine. There had been so much love and devotion poured into his kiss.

“Natalia…” He breathed my name between kisses. “I was weak then. I love you. I wasn’t a man but a boy. The day I found you I became the man I wanted to be.” He kissed me again as we fell to the ground.

Before we could go any further I had to ask, “Why then? Why did you look at her that way?”

“Another weak moment?”

I had the feeling that he was not telling the truth, like he was keeping something from me. Again, I put up my shield. He winced from my shutting him out. I started to get up but he held me to him.

“Please let me go.” Reluctantly he released me. I stood up. Looking down at him I asked, “How can I trust you when you won’t even tell me the truth? How do I know that the next time it won’t be more than just a look? You wanted her, Bradley, I saw it.”

Jumping up, he took my hands in his. I yanked them from his grip.

“I’m sorry you saw it that way. I don’t know why…  I love you, Natalia!”

“But a piece of you still wants her. I think you need to figure that out before we can move forward.” I hurried, running towards the house.

“There you are. Where have you been? We have been searching everywhere for you, Nat!” Jesse sounded furious.

“Sorry I worried you but I needed a few moments to myself.” I shrugged and kept walking back to the house. When I turned Bradley stood right where I left him. I think a small piece of him wanted to run to her. I hugged everyone while apologizing for my rudeness. Turning towards Seager then Bradley, “Brad, please take care of Seager while I’m gone. Take this time to figure out who you truly want.”

He ran to me saying, “I want you,” as he wrapped his arms around me. “Please don’t do this, Natalia. This is what she wants.”Again he kissed me in a way that should have been illegal leaving me breathless.

I heard Cheryl laugh and became annoyed. If he thinks that a kiss will make me forget what happened earlier he’s wrong. I may be gullible but I’m not stupid.

“Stop!” I demanded, pushing him away.

“No, then you’ll leave me. Please let me show you…” Pain and anguish filled his eyes. He put my hands on his head. “Please try to see my thoughts, please.” Panic and fear poured out with every word. “Don’t, Natalia,
you
complete me. How can you not see that? We belong together. Please you’re misunderstanding.”

Hurt and frustrated, confused with why he couldn’t just tell me the truth I yelled, “I saw the way you looked at her, Brad! I saw it. You know I did. Had you not felt my emotions, who knows what would have happened? Well now we’ll find out because I’m leaving.”

I heard both Cheryl and Colleen gasp. Jess started swearing and cussing up a storm.

Brad grabbed me and started speaking so fast I could barely understand what he was saying, “The look I gave her wasn’t for her it was because we were together. I looked at her that way because I knew I was free of her. You, Natalia. You put that look on my face. I was thinking about how much better my life has been since I met you. How I wanted to take you to our room again, screw the guests. Ask the guys, the entire time we were gone my mind was on you. I was even so rude as to ask them to leave when we returned…” He felt my body relax a little in his arms. Slowly relief spread across his face as we both realized I wasn’t going anywhere.

“No one has ever made me feel the way you do. I’ve never wanted to please someone more than the way I want to please you. And not just sexually.” A devilish grin spread across his face making me blush. “When you smile and laugh, I’m happy. When you’re sad my hollow chest feels your sorrow. The day I met you… that was the day I began to live. Please, Natalia, don’t leave. There’s nothing for me to figure out, I’m where I want to be.” He leaned in to whisper but hesitated. “Would you guys mind giving us a moment,” he asked as he growled rudely.

“Can you be any ruder,” I snapped.

“Please give us a moment”

The moment he felt they were out of hearing distance, which by the way was out of eyesight, he said, “I love you.”

“Twice I have showed you how vampires make love. Twice I have lost control without killing you. You have given me the ultimate gift and continue to use it when I least expect it. You are unlike anyone I have ever met. Every day my love for you grows and grows. Not because you manipulate me but because you give yourself so freely to me.” He cupped his hand on my neck. “I could kill you, yet you trust me. I’ve put you in the most dangerous situations and still you trust me. Right now for instance, the love you have for me, I can feel it. If I could cry, I would right at this very moment. I have never felt anything so beautiful before, well…” His eyes grazed my body before returning to mine. “…except for your body.” He laughed. “I wish you could hear my thoughts and feel my emotions, just so you could know…”