Dark Realms (20 page)

What is wrong with me?

He walked over to my bed and sat down. “Come
here.”

I moved towards him and he grabbed both of
my hands, kissing them with his soft lips.

“Why you? Because we belong together,” he
murmured.

Earlier his skin had felt cool to the touch.
It had been the one thing that had surprised me. Now, his cheeks
were warm and he held my hands against them, nuzzling them,
lovingly.

“But I don’t even know you,” I said. “How
can you say that?”

He shrugged. “You do. You just don’t
remember.”

“That doesn’t make sense. I just moved
here,” I said.

He looked up into my eyes. “Let’s just say
we knew each other in another life.”

My eyes widened. “What… like
reincarnation?”

His hands tightened on my wrists and he
pulled me onto his lap. “Something like that.”

“Seriously?”

Instead of answering me, he leaned forward
and captured my lips with his. I closed my eyes, abandoning all
logic and caution. Soon we were kissing with as much heat and
passion as earlier, this time without fear of being interrupted.
When his fingers opened up my robe and began touching my naked
body, I gasped with pleasure.

“Ethan,” I breathed, my heart pounding in my
chest.

“You’re mine,” he whispered into my neck,
making me shiver. “Forever.”

“Sure,” I whispered back as his tongue slid
down to my nipple and began teasing it. “Whatever… you… say.”

His hands caressed my breasts and I closed
my eyes as his hot mouth continued to make me quiver. Soon, I was
making mewling noises and he was breathing as heavily as I was.

“What?” I whispered when he suddenly pushed
me away.

“Come with me,” he said in a ragged voice.
“I can’t make love to you here. It’s not safe.”

“No, it’s okay. Nobody will know,” I
whispered, surprising myself with my own eagerness to give myself
to him.

He closed his eyes. “You’re a virgin and
I’m…”

How did he know? Obviously, not from my
actions.

“What? It’s okay.”

“Come with me now, Miranda,” he said,
opening his eyes and pulling me to him. “It’s time to leave
everything else, behind.”

I pulled away. “Miranda?”

He blinked. “Nikki, come with me and we can
be together forever. I’ll never let you go, again.”

“What? I can’t leave my family,” I said.
Sure, he was hot and I wanted to feel him touch and kiss me again,
but I wasn’t about to leave my family.

He stared into my eyes, and soon I was
willing to go anywhere with him. I just wanted nothing more than to
be lost in his arms forever. “Come with me,” he prodded, touching
my face, lovingly.

I nodded. “Oh, God. Yes.”

Just then the bedroom door was thrown open
and my brother stood in the doorway with a shotgun. “Hands off of
her, pal. She’s not going anywhere with you!”

Ethan growled and moved away from me as I
struggled to adjust my robe.

“Did you just
growl
at me? Get the
hell out of here, Cujo, before I use this thing!” demanded Nathan.
“I’ll fucking do it!”

Ethan took a step towards my brother and I
yelled, “Ethan, don’t hurt him! Please!”

Somehow deep down, I knew that Ethan had the
power to rip Nathan apart with little effort. Even though both of
them were similar in size and stature, you could almost feel the
power and strength emanating from him. It was both frightening and
exciting at the same time. At least for me.

Ethan looked at me and for a second, I
thought he was going to carry me off into the moonlight. Instead,
he let out a frustrated groan, and then in a flash, was gone.

“
What
in the hell
was that?” hollered Nathan as he dashed towards the
balcony.

“Um, that was Ethan,” I answered, touching
my bruised lips. I couldn’t believe how much I wanted him to
return. To finish what he’d started.

Nathan stormed back into
my bedroom and ran a hand through his brown hair. “What were you
thinking, Nik? That has to be the
thing
trying to fuck with us. That
certainly wasn’t a normal dude who was trying to feel you up,
which, by the way, wasn’t at all fair to Duncan!”

A wave of shame spread through me as
Duncan’s face popped into my mind. I did love him, didn’t I?

“Listen,” I said firmly. “He has this power
to make me do things… I can’t control myself around him,” I shook
my head incredulously. “Nathan, God, I seriously think I’d do
anything for him if he asked.”

“What?”

“I know,” I said, my eyes misting over. “I
couldn’t help it, either. One moment I was fine and the next, we
were making out and I did nothing to stop it.”

His eyes narrowed. “Mind control?”

I wiped a tear from my eye, my emotions all
messed up. “Yes.”

“So, do you honestly believe he’s a
vampire?”

“Yes, Nathan, I do.” My mind was beginning
to clear, and now there was little doubt in my mind that he
actually was a vampire.

He leaned forward. “Did he suck your blood
or anything?”

I touched my neck. “He didn’t bite me. At
least… not that I remember.” I ran over to the mirror and checked
my neck. “See, it looks normal.” Remembering our mother’s neck, I
covered my mouth in horror. “Oh, my God… mom! She has that thing on
her neck! Remember?”

We both flew out of the bedroom and began
knocking on her door.

“Come in,” she called.

Her room was dark except for a candle
burning slowly on the nightstand.

“Hey,” I said, in a low voice. “Um, sorry to
bother you. We were just wondering if we could check those bites on
your neck. To make sure they aren’t infected.”

She rolled over and gave us an exasperated
sigh. “You woke me up in the middle of the night to check my
neck?”

“Sorry,” said Nathan. “Um, we saw this news
report about these mosquito bites that get really inflamed if you
don’t care for them correctly.”

“Yeah,” I said. “If you don’t clean them
good… um, eggs will grow in your neck.”

She sat up and shrieked. “What?! Eggs! Look
and see if anything is growing in my neck!”

Nathan bit back a smile as we stepped closer
to examine mom’s neck.

“Fine, I’m convinced,” he whispered, looking
at me. “Check it out.”

I was, too. The swelling had gone down but
the two holes could have definitely been caused by a vampire. Not
that either of us were experts, but we’d watched enough horror
flicks to know what we saw.

“Mom, we have to talk to you,” I said,
stepping back. “I know this is going to sound crazy but you have to
believe us.”

She looked at both of us. “Okay, spill it.
What’s on your minds?”

We started over from when we’d spoken to
Amy, her warnings, and how she’d killed herself. Then, I told both
of them how I met Ethan and how he’d called me Miranda and had
almost made me run away with him.

She threw her head back and laughed.

“It’s not funny, mom,” said Nathan. “This
Ethan guy looked like he was ready to attack me tonight and I had
to use a gun to scare him away.”

“Nathan, I doubt the gun would have killed
him, anyway,” I said. “He only left you alone because I told him
to.”

“Whatever,” he snapped. “This guy is some
kind of monster. Whether it’s a vampire or demon. He flies, he
growls – he isn’t normal!”

She threw her hands up in the air. “It’s… I
don’t know how to react to this. I can’t just accept the fact that
you both think this kid is a vampire. As far as my neck goes, I’ve
never met Ethan, so if you think he bit my neck when I was having a
cup of coffee and didn’t notice, you have another thing
coming.”

“Do you feel different at all?” I asked.

She glared at me. “For Heaven’s sake, Nikki!
I’m not going to turn into a damn vampire!”

Nathan and I looked at each other. We knew
it was pointless to keep trying to convince her that there were
vampires in Shore Lake. Unless she saw it for herself, there was no
way she was going to believe us. Nathan had reacted the same
way.

She rubbed her temples and then stared at
us, again. “Look, I’m going back to bed and I suggest that the both
of you do the same thing. In the morning, you’ll both realize how
crazy this sounded.”

I sighed. “Okay.”

“Goodnight, mom,” said Nathan.

“I love you both, but if you wake me up to
talk about vampires again, I’m getting rid of cable!”

Chapter Nineteen

“Okay, I’m not leaving you alone anymore,”
said Nathan as he paced back and forth in the kitchen. We were both
too shook up to sleep.

“Fine,” I said, taking a sip of coffee.

He wagged his finger. “We should talk to mom
and see if she’s willing to move back home, too.”

My jaw dropped. “But what about Duncan and
our new jobs?”

“What about… there’s a
vampire after you, Nikki? Or should we call you
‘Miranda’
?”

I sighed. “What if he follows us anyway? He
said he’s been looking for me and now that he’s found me, we are
supposed to be together.”

“How romantic,” snickered Nathan. “If you
ask me, I think he just wants to get into your pants.”

“He almost did,” I mumbled.

“Good thing I heard those groans and
whimpers coming from your room, which was gnarly, by the way. Do
you know how disturbing it is to hear your sister getting it on
with a vampire?” He shuddered. “It’s sick.”

I smiled. “Thank you for being a nosy
brother, Nathan. You probably saved my life. At least, my
virginity.”

“Thank my stomach. If it wasn’t for mom’s
leftover pasta salad calling to me in the fridge, we wouldn’t be
having this conversation.”

“Probably not.”

He sat down by the counter. “I just don’t
know what else to do. You know, I wonder if we should see if
Abigail is still in town. She might have some ideas. She’s the only
other person who’d believe us.”

“We should probably go and pay her a visit
in the morning,” I said.

He looked at his watch. “The sun will be up
soon. I’m going to grab my sleeping bag and camp out in your room
for the next few nights. Hopefully, that horny vampire gives up and
decides to go after someone else.”

“Oh, my God,” I whispered in horror. “What
if he killed all of those girls in the paper? You said they were
all similar looking. Maybe he was looking for me?”

He snorted. “Or worse yet, you are not the
real Miranda and he decides to kill you when he figures it
out.”

I glared at him. “Oh, thanks, Nathan. Just
when I think it can’t get any worse.”

“Hey, I’m just trying to keep everything in
perspective. I mean, we shouldn’t rule anything out,” he said with
a yawn.

His yawn triggered one from me. “True, but I
hope you’re wrong,” I said as we headed out of the kitchen and back
upstairs.

Ten minutes later, Nathan was snoring on the
floor but I was still awake. I stared at the door to my balcony,
which was now closed and locked. Part of me still longed for Ethan
and I wondered if I’d have the strength to say no if given the
chance to surrender to him again.

Chapter Twenty

“Wake up, Princess of Darkness,” teased my
brother the next morning.

“Very funny,” I mumbled. I looked at my
alarm clock to find it was already after eleven o’clock.

“I talked to Duncan already,” said Nathan,
between bites of a banana. “We’re supposed to meet him at the
marina around four o’clock.”

I yawned. “Did you tell him about last
night?”

“I told him some things but left out the
part where you were sitting on Ethan’s lap, panting away.”

I groaned. “It was pretty bad. I’m so
disgusted with myself.”

“You were certainly enjoying it last night.”
He grimaced. “Heck, I was the one disgusted.”

“Come on, you know very well that it wasn’t
me, last night. Aren’t I typically the frigid and shy twin?”

His lips curled up. “True. I’m usually the
one fighting off the opposite sex.”

I got out of bed. “I’m taking a shower now.
At least you don’t have to follow me everywhere during the day.
Vampires don’t like the daylight.”

“As far as we know,” he said. “But this is
real life. I wouldn’t count anything out.”

“I’ve only run into Ethan at night. In fact,
he usually hangs out at the diner after dark.”

His eyes narrowed. “What in the hell does he
order? Steak Tartare?”

I grimaced. “Gross, no, he only orders
coffee; he and his five friends.”

“Oh, hell, more vampires?”

“I think so, although the others never say a
word. They just sip coffee and stare at the rest of the
customers.”

“Probably planning a strike.”

“I wouldn’t doubt it. Look, I’m taking a
shower. I’ll meet you downstairs in a little while. Is mom
awake?”

His face darkened. “No, that’s another thing
that’s still bothering me. This isn’t like her, at all.”

“I know. We’d better keep an eye on her.
Maybe give the sheriff a heads-up, too,” I said.

“He already thinks we’re nuts,” said Nathan.
“Can you imagine if we tell him about last night?”

I bit my lower lip. The
sheriff would
never
believe us. “Let’s keep it to ourselves, for now.”

“We’re going to have to.”

Nathan left my room and I took a hot shower.
When I was done, I slipped on a white sundress and a pair of
sandals. After I dried my hair and added a little makeup, I stared
at the results and frowned. I definitely looked like I was going on
a date.

I’m doing it solely for
Duncan,
I told myself.

“You getting dolled up for Duncan or trying
to catch a vampire?” joked my brother when I stepped into the
kitchen.