Born Again (8 page)

They were quiet for a few moments, the air charged with
something thick and heavy.

“I’m scared,” she whispered and felt Beau at her back,
lifting her hair aside to kiss her neck, comforting her also. He murmured into
her ear, “We’d never hurt you. Neither of us would.” And he looked over her
shoulder into Aric’s eyes.

Aric gave the tiniest nod.

Beau began to caress her back as Aric fondled her breast,
his thumb rubbing erotically over her engorged nipple.

Then, from behind Beau’s hand slowly slid up the back of the
robe to feel the sleek skin of her buttock beneath.

She caught her breath and looked up into Aric’s eyes.

His jaw was tight, as though he gritted his teeth. Still, he
asked, “Feel good?”

“Yes,” she said and then inhaled sharply when Beau’s fingers
separated her thighs and delved into her swollen labia.

She made a tiny sound of acquiesce and turned one knee
upright, encouragement for more.

Aric looked down at her spread legs and watched the darker
skin of Beau’s fingers coming up around her, rubbing against the red hair.

Sara caught his chin with her hand, forcing his face back up
to her. “Tell me about vampires. And werewolves. We were married?”

He nodded. “I loved you then. I love you now. I have waited
and searched for years, watching for you to be reborn.”

Beau let him speak, but he wouldn’t let Sara forget he was
behind her. He inserted a finger into her wet sheath, pushing forward to stroke
her G-spot. The sensations were incredibly erotic, pleasuring her in front of
her lover.

“You were a vampire then?”

“Yes, I was to turn you. But I couldn’t. Beau had tried to
turn you werewolf and your blood was flooded with the wolf virus.”

“So…I died?”

There was a pause and even Beau’s finger, buried deep inside
her, stilled.

“Yes.”

Beau’s finger resumed its slow, easy stroking. He pulled it
out long enough to spread her silky moisture over her clit and when she moaned,
he circled over it again.

Aric bent his head, catching her nipple in his mouth.

“No blood,” Beau said sharply.

Aric’s head raised long enough to stare at Beau over her
shoulder and his eyes burned with the reddish glow of a vampire. When Sara
shivered, Aric closed his eyes.

When they reopened, they were normal again.

He bent his head again to her breast and teasingly tongued
her nipple. It swelled and hardened and he tenderly scraped it with his teeth.

She reached out and lovingly caressed his jaw. She wasn’t
aware of the love in the caress, but Aric was. She might be scared of them
right now, but the love was still there underneath it all.

“Neither of us would hurt you, baby. We just want to love
you, that’s all.”

“You’re not going to turn me into a wolf or a vampire?”

Each man stilled, knowing he had planned to beat the other
to it.

“Because I don’t want that,” she continued on a whisper.

“Sara,” Beau murmured, his voice soft in her ear. “Don’t you
want immortality? To be with us always?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Aric asked.

“If it didn’t work out so well in that other lifetime, there’s
a reason why, a lesson to be learned for this lifetime. Besides, I don’t think
I can choose one over the other. I’d give up daylight to be a vampire and I’d
become violent to be a wolf. I was born human and I want to remain human.”

“You were born more than that, sweet,” Aric said. “You’re
psychic, not just plain vanilla human.”

“Still, I’m human.” Her voice sounded a tad agitated.

“Yes,” he soothed. “Still human. Very human,” he said, his
hand reaching for her nipple again.

He plucked it gently and it elongated, then he bent his head
and laved it. Sara watched as his cheeks sucked rhythmically and Beau stroked
his finger in and out to the same beat as Aric’s long pulls.

A lovely, heavy feeling was growing deep in her body again,
closer to the surface now with all the emotional turmoil and the previous
foreplay.

She was liquid inside, her nipples on fire. She felt naughty
at being pleasured simultaneously, but then Beau’s finger moved faster and
faster. She moaned when she was flung over the edge, quickly without defenses.

Her body stiffened, her back arched and her inner sheath
tightened around Beau’s finger.

She could feel his erection pressed against her buttocks, as
her breathing slowed.

Beau removed his finger and spooned her while she rested. Aric
had released her breasts and his head was buried between them, letting the
heaving globes act as his pillow.

“Sleep, baby,” Beau whispered into her ear. “We’ll be here
when you awaken.”

“I’m not choosing,” she murmured, before she closed her
eyes.

“You have to.”

She woke alone, panicking for a moment until she heard the
murmuring of voices in the kitchen.

She flung an extra-large t-shirt over herself and wandered
to the kitchen. She leaned in the doorway, watching her men.

Both Aric and Beau turned to look at her. The look in their eyes
told her every desire they were feeling. She knew what she must look like with
her red waves sleep-tousled, falling over her shoulders helter-skelter. The
soft cotton shirt molded itself over her curves, outlining her stiff nipples
where they poked through.

“We think you should move in with us,” Beau rasped, his eyes
hot as they roamed over her body.

“You don’t live together. How would that work?” she asked
wryly.

“You’ll spend time at Aric’s place, then at mine.”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?” Aric asked, astonished.

“No. I just found out that you two are something I had no
idea even existed. I need time to sort all through this and you guys decide
between you that I’m supposed to up and move in with you? Change my whole life?
I like my own apartment and I like to spend time with you two when I choose. Isn’t
the real plan for the two of you to get me to choose one of you to spend the
rest of my life with?”

Their silence said everything.

“What was this? A contest? Both of you would be on your best
behavior while I was taking my turn at your house?” She laughed, but it wasn’t
humorous. “Forget it. I told you I wouldn’t choose and I mean it.”

“Sara,” Beau began.

“I mean it, Beau. I need time and I have other issues to
deal with besides this.”

“Sweet, surely you cannot want to stay here alone when you
could be with us?”

“For a while, yes. It’s what I need. Time to deal with all
this. Please, just give me a break and leave.”

“We’ll go for now,” Beau said. “But this isn’t over. We’re
just giving you time to rest and think about it.”

She walked them to the front door. Beau turned and grabbed
her, pressing a hard kiss to her lips. The power behind his kiss forced her to
step backward into the wall, until she could move back no more. He ravaged her
mouth, his tongue masterfully sweeping her depths and reaching every hidden
spot inside her.

He pulled away and looked deeply into her bemused face and
apparently what he saw satisfied him. With a nod to Aric, he turned and left
them alone.

Then Aric was in her line of vision. He’d stepped just as
close to her, his broad shoulders blocking the light from the front entryway. One
long, lean finger found her cheek and traced her delicate cheekbone. It trailed
down to her lips, where he rubbed gently on her reddened lower lip.

“Call me if you need me?” he asked.

She nodded and watched, entranced as his head lowered to
her.

His kiss was soft, so unlike Beau’s. He teased her and she
opened willingly for him. His tongue stroked hers, dueling gently, before he
broke away and trailed kisses down her cheek and along her jaw.

He rose back up to her mouth and he sought her more deeply
this time. His forearms were up against the wall on either side of her and in
her peripheral vision she saw his fists clench.

Finally, he pulled away to say, “I’ll leave while I still
can.”

He was gone in a flash and Sara locked the door. Dimly, she
wondered if it was the smartest move to ask them to go, or if she was cutting
off her nose to spite her face.

Once she was alone, she prayed she was doing the right thing
when she searched through her jewelry box for pure silver chain necklaces,
hooking them together and draping it over the top of the door. While she
worked, she muttered several times how she revoked all vampiric invitations to
her home.

She waited a half-hour to make sure they each arrived home. Then
she called Beau and Aric on a three-way connection.

“I’m taking a break to think about things,” she told them. “It’s
not every day that you find out vampires and werewolves exist and that you love
them.”

“How long will this break be?” Aric asked, amused.

“Yes, how long, Sara?” Beau didn’t sound so amused, she
could almost feel the anger emanating from the phone, a tangible force thick
and strangling. As if he somehow knew about the barrier of silver around her
door, but she knew that was impossible.

“I’m not sure, but I’ll call you guys when my brain has
sorted through my emotions. In the meantime, I’m just going to laze around and
meditate.”

She called in to work, using the excuse of the flu, so she
could sit around her apartment and mope. Because she really didn’t plan on ever
ending the break. She just couldn’t pick one over the other, so she’d have to
avoid them both and go back to the way life was.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Alizo thought she was a lot more
compassionate than one gave her credit for when she sent Mike to Sara’s
apartment with crackers and chicken noodle soup.

Mike was the perfect choice, for an apology was definitely
in order. He was abominable to Sara and she let him know in no uncertain terms
that she preferred Sara as an employee to him. He was given a choice, get along
or move along.

He had made the right choice, his eyes wide and his voice a
frightened squeak, like a child’s toy.

“But she won’t see me, I know it.”

“If you value your job, Mike, you’ll make sure she does. You’ll
do anything to get in her good graces, for that’s the only way you’ll stay
employed.”

He was properly chastised when he left the shop and Mrs.
Alizo felt sure he’d smooth things over appropriately.

When the doorbell rang, Sara peered through the peephole and
refused to answer. Instead, she yelled through the locked barrier to just go
away.

Mike Johnson wouldn’t leave. He apologized through the door
and was causing a scene out in the hallway, desperately calling out her name. Wasn’t
it enough that the neighbors knew about two men dropping her off and picking
her up, now he was practically announcing a third?

“Look, Sara, I’m really sorry about our fight. Can’t we
still be friends?” he moaned plaintively from the other side of the door. “I’ve
heard things about you, Sara. That you know things, scary things about the
other side.”

Sara opened the door quickly, yanking him in. The last thing
she needed was his whiny voice scaring away her clients.

“I’m just a psychic, Mike. Nothing scary about it, I feel
things. Information about previous lives, information about what’s happened,
stuff like that.”

“Ooh,” he said, excited. “Can you do a reading on me? Like
with real live tarot cards and everything?”

“I’m really not in the mood…”

“Please, please say you’ll forgive me. I really am sorry for
the way I acted.”

“Honestly, Mike, I need you to go away.”

“Sara, I just want to make things up to you. Please, can’t
we be friends? I’m going to lose my job if you’re not happy and I really need
it.”

Sara sighed. “Sit down.”

“Really, I apologize for everything I did. I know Beau wasn’t
my property and I really wish you the best of luck with him.”

“Sure, it’s fine,” she said automatically. “Thank you.”

He looked over at her cards in the center of the table. “Please,
Sara? I thought we were friends once. I volunteered to bring you this soup
while you’re so sick…”

“Okay, a quick reading and then I must get back to bed,” she
lied.

He got up to put the soup on the counter and noticed a
bottle of wine left there. Smiling easily, he poured two glasses and brought
them to her kitchen table, where she spread out her cards. She wondered at the
stupidity of the man, getting her a glass of wine when she was supposedly sick.
Still, it was probably the best way to deal with him.

She downed half her glass immediately and spread out her
cards. She was quiet for a couple of minutes, concentrating. For once, his
constant babble ceased and he let her think.

“That’s odd. I’m not feeling anything,” she muttered,
rubbing her temples with her fingertips.

“Maybe I can help,” he said slowly. “I didn’t tell you that
I can sense some things, too, Sara. That’s why we clash. Your genetic makeup
senses an adversary.”

Sara looked at him and suddenly the light bulb in her head
turned on. “You’re the other psychic in town.”

He nodded. “I recently came out of the closet, so to speak. I
hadn’t before, because I wasn’t sure how you’d react, knowing we knew each
other once before.”

“We did?”

“Yes. I knew you back in another life and I tried to help
you then, but it didn’t work out so well. And in this lifetime, they found you
again. The vampire and the werewolf.”

“You know about Aric and Beau?” Sara said, surprised.

“Of course I know. You would have too, had you opened your
eyes to other worlds, instead of hiding all the time,” he chided, but his eyes
were friendly.

“You tried to help me how?” Sara asked, her voice wary.

“I was your friend, Sara. You were crying, torn in two. They
wanted you to make a choice, love one and leave the other. You knew the other
would die without you and you couldn’t possibly choose for one to die. I told
you to hold on, things would work out, because that was my gift. I could see a
version of the future, but then…” His voice trailed off and he didn’t continue,
triggering Sara’s impatience.

“What? What happened?”

“You died, Sara. You died and didn’t have to choose. Then
they realized how awful it was for you to be put in that position.”

“But I died?”

“Hey, we all die sometime, right? But the point is…you didn’t
have to choose. Think about it. No one made you choose. See, that was my gift
then. And I shared it with you. Still, even now I can look into the future.”

“What did you see?” she whispered.

“I saw which one you would have chosen, an alternate reality
so to speak. I saw which one died from your choice.”

“Oh God. Who was it?”

“Not the one you’d expect. See, you chose one, but the
other, in a jealous rage, attacked. So the one you chose actually died. You
were devastated, inconsolable. And you ended up with no one. Then you decided
to end your own life, because you knew you could be reborn, but Aric and Beau each
gave up their own reincarnation with immortality. You were so distraught, your
only hope was to be reborn without a memory so that you could have a chance at
love again. Love with a stranger. Love without Aric or Beau.”

She was shaking, her brain trying to comprehend either Aric’s
or Beau’s final, permanent death.

“And you know how you can prevent it this time, Sara?” His
voice was sweet, cajoling and she took a sip of her wine.

“You can end your own life again.”

The blood drained from her face, surely she didn’t hear what
she thought she might have. But Mike looked serious enough.

“What?” Sara continued to stare at Mike, at the whispered
words that felt so thick she could nearly taste them. “What did you say?”

“Do you want to follow the same pattern?” he asked harshly.
“Or do you want to end it once and for all? Take your own life, don’t let them
make you choose again.”

“I can’t…”

“Of course you can. It’s one simple leap from your balcony. If
you can’t finish it, I’ll help and give you a push. I helped the last time, for
all the good it did me. But you need to be strong enough to break the cycle. Because
forever more, you’ll be born, found by those two, forced to make a choice and
lose one, then the other. Get it stopped already, because what if I’m not here
to help next time?”

“But I can’t possibly…”

“Oh, come see how easy it is,” he said, grabbing her hand
and pulling her to her feet. “Come stand in the night air, feel the breeze on
your face.”

They’d made their way to the balcony, the dots of headlights
so far down below.

“Just relax,” he said. “Feel the peace. That’s all. Don’t
think of anything else. Close your eyes. Just…peace.”

The night air whistled around her, whipping through the
material of her clothing to her skin beneath. Way down below, she could faintly
make out the sound of horns honking, of brakes squealing. This was unreal. Desperation
clouded her thinking. She felt so confused.

The confusion lifted when Mike gently massaged the tight
muscles of her shoulders, round comforting circles, ‘round and ‘round.

“Think of how easy it would be, Sara. To break the pattern,”
he cajoled. “Once and for all. You’d never feel a thing, never remember a
thing.”

Sara looked down over the balcony and the wind swished
through her thin gown. It caught the ends of her hair, lifting them gently on a
swirl and Mike pushed.

She screamed as she toppled over the edge, only to be caught
by strong arms and held into a muscular chest. She grabbed for the lapels of
his shirt, burying her face in the familiar scent. Sobs racked her chest and
tears flowed onto the expensive material of his shirt.

She wasn’t aware of Aric flying, but suddenly he lifted her
through the chill in the air and took her right back up over her balcony, where
Beau now stood with Mike.

“Bastard,” Beau said.

“She jumped,” Mike was saying.

“I know why you look so familiar now,” Beau said, using his
werewolf strength to lift Mike up off the floor by his throat. “You’re the same
troublemaker we had issues with so many centuries ago.”

Mike gasped, unable to answer as he was suspended at least
six inches above the floor.

“Sara.” Aric shook her, tearing her horrified concentration
from the sight before her. “Sara, look at me, love. Look into my eyes.”

She couldn’t resist if she wanted to. His eyes were safety,
a haven like no other. Magnetic and appealing and she didn’t even mind that he
was about to entrance her.

“You’ll rest tonight, as soon as we leave here. You’ll lock
all the doors and windows and tuck yourself in bed. Okay?” His voice was
hypnotic, soothing and warm. It made her want to follow his every wish.

So Sara nodded.

“Are you all right, sweet?” Aric asked and she nodded,
bemused still.

“We will take care of this, then. Go inside and lock your
door, love.”

Sara walked dazedly into her apartment and shut the French
doors behind her.

The sounds of morning awoke her. Real birds chirping outside
on the balcony, horns honking, the radio blaring.

Beau had changed the alarm setting from the nature sounds to
the radio, she realized. Then her mind replayed the events of last night and
she wondered what happened to Mike after she’d left them.

She remembered the pounding at her door when Aric and Beau returned,
but she was too exhausted to wake fully.

Since the men had once burst in on her during her bath, she
now had a silver chain around the doorframe, preventing Beau from passing
through until she physically removed it.

And with the revocation of her vampire invitation whispered
at the same time as she hung the chain, Aric was not able to penetrate it
either.

There was a soft knocking at her door now, however.

She rose and opened the door, blinking at the sudden light. Two
uniformed police officers stood side by side, looking intimidating and
powerful.

“Yes?”

“Sara Michaels?”

“Yes.”

“We’d like to talk to you about a missing coworker.”

“Please, come in. Who is it?” She wasn’t a very good liar,
she had to look away as she asked, leading the way into her dining room.

“Mike Johnson. He didn’t report for work this morning and
your boss,” the officer checked his notes, “Mrs. Barbara Alizo, said that she’s
sent him here yesterday.”

Sara’s heart raced at his words, like a bird beating its
wings frantically in a cage. Still, she forced herself to act innocent.

“Yes, I have flu. Mike came last night, dropped me off some
chicken soup and left. He didn’t say where he was going. In fact, I was too
sick to ask.”

She motioned to the chicken soup container that was still on
the counter, as if she was too exhausted to refrigerate the leftovers.

“How long did he stay, ma’am?”

“Not very. He just dropped it off and left. I don’t even
know what time it was.”

“He made no mention of where he was going?”

“None. We didn’t really talk much. I think he was afraid of
catching my bug.”

The officer stood, nodding his head. “Well, I think that’s
it, then. Here’s my card, you’ll call if you hear from him?”

“Sure.”

She walked then to the door, locking it securely and winced
as she caught a glimpse of herself in the hallway mirror.

They definitely believed the sick story.

Come to think of it, she actually did feel sick. Beau and
Aric killed a man. For her.

They committed murder. Granted, he was going to kill her
first, but she still felt sick.

She loved both Beau and Aric. She’d just lied to the police—she
knew about Mike’s death, did that make her an accomplice? Did she pretend it
didn’t happen?

Just sleeping with Aric and Beau made her an accomplice. One
more proven point that she attracted violence.

The missing man was the talk of the building. Sara went
downstairs to the basement to retrieve her laundry and caught the tail end of
the conversation between Mattie and another tenant.

“Yes, the officers certainly did interview me. He was an
excellent psychic, too. Much better than her. In fact, I wonder if she had
something to do with—”

Mattie stopped abruptly when she noticed Sara. Sara
retrieved her laundry and didn’t even take the time to fold it. She tossed it
into a basket and headed up to her apartment, leaving the snickers of amusement
behind her.

She sat down at the kitchen table and remembered her tarot
cards. Would the reading be different now that she knew she had been
reincarnated?

She spread out her cards.

The first one she flipped was death.

Startled, Sara stood up abruptly, upsetting the table and
knocking several cards to the floor. One of the cards lay face up. The
redheaded woman.

Sara left the cards wherever they fell and lay down on the
sofa. She was shaking, her breathing harsh.

Death could mean anything. It didn’t have to mean anything
scary at all. It could be as simple as a message telling her that her episodes
with the redhead were over. It could be telling her that Serra was dead, which
was already obvious since her era was another century.

She laughed out loud, although even to her ears it sounded
false.