Destined (Vampire Awakenings) (17 page)

   Isabelle closed the thought off as her face grew even hotter. She didn’t want to think about what could have happened, what she would have willingly allowed to happen if Jess’s s
cent on him, and
in
him,
hadn’t assaulted her. It didn’t matter
anyway;
it was never going to happen again. Isabelle closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steady her
nerves
. It was too damn early in the morning to have to deal with Jess on top of everything else.

   “Hi,” Jess greeted coldly.

   She opened her eyes to find Jess staring at her, anger radiating from her, as she stood with her hand on the handle of the fridge. For a horrifying moment, Isabelle feared that she still smelled of Stefan, still
wreaked
of him. It took her a m
inute
to recall that Jess was human, and wouldn’t be able to smell him on her. Sagging with relief
,
she sighed softly as her fear vanished. Jess’s hostility had nothing to do with last night
.
F
or some reason
,
she simply didn’t like Isabelle, and Isabelle didn’t particularly care.

   “Hey,” she forced herself to mumble in return.

   Jess’s blue eyes narrowed slightly as Isabelle moved toward her. “Have you seen Stefan?”

   Isabelle looked at her in surprise, a fierce wave of guilt rush
ed
through her. Not only had she acted like a wanton whore last night, but she had done it with Jess’s boyfriend. She may not particularly like Jess, and Stef
an may not care about Jess’s
feelings, but Isabelle did. Never had she thought of herself as a careless, hurtful person, but her behavior last night proved that she was. And that was his damn fault too!

   “No,” she managed to say. “Why?”

   Jess’s eyes narrowed on her for a moment and it took every ounce of control she had to keep her face as impassive as possible. Inside
,
she was a seething mass of guilt and horror as she blandly returned Jess’s gaze. Jess finally shrugged and turned away from her. “He wasn’t in bed when I got up this morning. He usually doesn’t get up until late.”

   “Hmm,” Isabelle grunted in reply. Now she could add lazy to his ever growing list of faults.

   The scent of Jess’s blood suddenly assaulted her, causing the fierce burning in her veins to become almost unbearable. She closed her eyes, willing the beast to go away as she leaned against the long counter, trying to get her breathing under control. She never should have gone this long without feeding, and she never would have if she hadn’t been so preoccupied with trying to avoid the idiot living with them.

  
In the past three days he had managed to turn her world entirely upside down, and she greatly resented him for it. She fed the flames of her anger and resentment, determined to use them as weapons against him if he
ever
tried to come near her again.

   Jess’s startled cry caused her to jump in surprise, and her eyes to fly open. “What is it?” Isabelle demanded.

   Jess spun away from the fridge, her mouth gaping, and her eyes wide as she held up a bag of blood. Isabelle had only a moment to blink in surprise before Jess started making awful, strangled cries, and flung the bag across the room. Isabelle moved quickly, snatching it out of the air as Jess’s cries echoed loudly in her ears. “Jess, calm down! Just calm down!”
she urged.

   “What is
that
doing in the fridge?” she yelled hysterically.

   The smell of the blood suddenly wafted up to fill
Isabelle’s
nostrils. A wave of dizziness
,
so fierce it
nearly
knocked her off her feet, slammed
painfully
into
Isabelle
. She stumbled back as her veins seemed to burst into flames, and her body was consumed by a raging inferno of hunger and pain. Her stomach cramped agonizingly. She gasped as sh
e doubled over, her arm wrapped
around her stomach as the beast within burst forth. Panting with pain, her vision blurred as she spun to get as quickly out of the room as she could.

   She slammed right into a massive chest
and
stumbl
ed
back from the impact of it. Hands seized hold of her arms, quickly righting her and dragging her against the massive wall. Soft mewls of pain issued from her as the strong hands wrapped around her head, pressing her face firmly against the solid mass of warmth and comfort.

   “Jess, it’
s all right, everything is fine.
T
here is no problem. You saw nothing this morning, not me
,
or Isabelle. Now, make some pancakes for breakfast.”

   Shudders wracked
Isabelle
as Stefan’s voice washed over her, his hands gently sooth
ed
her hair. The amount of power that flowed from him, and into her,
eased
the fire burning thro
ugh her veins. It
eased the trembling in her body as the demon slowly receded. The amount of powers they
possessed
truly could not compare to his. They had to touch people in order to change their memories, but Jess was on the other side of the kitchen, and Isabelle could
already
hear her opening and closing cabinets as if nothing had happened.

   Holding her firmly against his side,
Stefan
hurried her from the room. He could feel the weakness in her body, the tremors that shook her as he led her swiftly down the basement stairs. Gritting his teeth, he fought back the anger, and worry, that were growing in him as he crossed through the weight room to the door in the wall. He thrust the door open and was immediately enveloped with Isabelle’s fresh scent. He inhaled deeply
, savoring in the wonderful smell
as he closed the door behind him and led her over to the bed. She slumped gratefully onto it, the pathetic bag of blood clutched in her trembling hands.

   “Eat,” he commanded.

   She looked up at him, her eyes flashing rapidly
between
violet
and
red. “Could you please go away?” she asked tremulously.

   Scowling down at her, he planted his hands on his hips and refused to move. She looked absolutely miserable as she gazed back at him. For a moment he was almost swayed by the pleading look in her eyes, but he was determined to show her that he was the dominate one, and he wasn’t about to back down. It was the only thing he had managed to sort out through the long, aggravating night. He would have her, and the sooner she realized that, the happier they would both be.

   “Now is not the time to fight,” he told her coldly.

   “I’m not fighting!” she snapped. “I don’t want you to watch me!”
   “I’m not going anywhere!” he hissed.

   His eyes widened in surprise as tears suddenly filled
hers
. She blinked them angrily back as her eyes flashed a violent red. “If you don’t leave, then I won’t feed!” she spat. “I don’t do it in front of anyone!”

   “Not even your family?” he
retorted
sardonically.

   “
Especially
not my family!”
she cried, her lower lip trembling slightly as she fought back tears.

   For a moment he was about to argue with her, but the distress and agony in her eyes was enough to sway him from his stand. Arguing with her was pointless, especially when she was wildly unstable, and in desperate need of sustenance. He couldn’t say what he had to say to her when she was obviously in pain, and determined not to ease it as long he was standing there. “Fine,” he grated reluctantly.

   He turned and walked back out the door. Standing impatiently on the other side, he angrily tapped his foot as he waited for a few minutes. When he was sure that enough time had passed, he walked back into the room. She was still sitting on her bed, her head in her hands so that her long hair cascaded forward to shield her face. “I knew it was too much to hope that you had left,” she muttered bitterly.

   “Yes, it was. When was the last time you fed?”

   She lifted her head to glare at him through dark violet eyes. “Why the hell do you care?”

   She was the most infuriating woman he had ever met! Why did she constantly have to fight with him?
Stefan took a deep breath as he struggled to control his temper.
“I care because there is a human living in this house. I don’t need you losing control, and killing her,” he replied coldly, deliberately being just as nasty to her as she was with him.

   The color drained from her face as she gaped at him. “Get out of my room!” she hissed.

   “I am not leaving until you tell me.”

   She leapt to her feet, fury radiating from every inch of her body. “I’ve never fed off of a human, so you can trust me not to lose control and kill your precious girlfriend!”

 
She was nearly screeching like a banshee by the time she was finished speaking, but he was so damn infuriating, so damn arrogant and condescending that she couldn’t take it anymore. The fact that he would even remotely think that she would hurt someone, was more than she could stand. She was tired, and overworked, and the hunger that had wracked her had taken a big toll on her body. She’d had enough.

   Stefan’s jaw clenched as he stared back at her, a muscle twitch
ed
rapidly in his cheek from the force of his locked jaw. This conversation was not going at all the way that he had planned. He never should have baited her, never should have been deliberately cruel to her, but she brought it so easily out of him with her maddening attitude.
She
pricked his temper j
ust as easily as she brought out his arousal, and earlier in the kitchen, a fierce surge of protection. He had needed to get her to safety, needed to make sure that she was shielded from Jess’s horror, and her own pain. A pain that had radiated from her
,
and
sh
ook
him fiercely.

   He took a deep breath to calm himself before he spoke again, determined to try and keep a hold on his temper. “That was not what I asked you.”

   Isabelle folded her arms over her chest as she inhaled a shuddery breath. “And I told you that it was none of your concern,” she replied more calmly.

   She never even saw him move, never even saw the blur that her father, mother, Ethan, the stooges, and herself made. She never even had time to blink before he had hold of her arms. She gasped sharply as his onyx eyes filled her vision with black fury. “And I told you that it was!”

   Isabelle gaped at him, her eyes wide in amazement before she snapped her mouth closed, tilted her chin up, and stared defiantly back at him. “Let me go.”

   He didn’t release her as he stood
,
towering above her, dark and dangerous. His hands burned into her flesh, and his chest brushed lightly against hers, warming her from the inside out. She wanted to shudder from the force of the heat that wracked through her. The new feelings that he had managed to awaken in her flared to the forefront, melting away some of her anger. But she forced herself to remain still, and not to let him know how he affected her.

   “When was the last time that you fed?” he grated.

   Despite the fierce set of his jaw, the anger burning in his eyes, the st
rength of his body, and the shee
r power that radiated from him, she was amazed to discover that she wasn’t afraid of him. That she wasn’t the least bit scared of him. For some reason, she was certain that he wouldn’t hurt her.
Try to i
ntimidate her yes, but he wouldn’t harm her. She knew it with every ounce of her being, and the realization shook her more than the feelings he had awakened in her ever could have. Some of her defenses melted
,
as for the first time she began to see him as a man, and not just her enemy. It was a scary comprehension that dissolved some of her resistance against him.

   Stefan was very close to shaking some damn sense into her. She was absolutely the most aggravating, annoying woman that he had ever encountered. He didn’t understand why she wouldn’t just answer his question. Why she couldn’t be like every other woman he had ever met that had tripped all over themselves to get near him, and relent to him just a little. Instead, it seemed that she purposely went out of her way to avoid him, or exacerbate the hell out of him. He forced himself to take a deep breath, and not to rattle some sense into her thick skull.

   “I told you that I wouldn’t hurt her,” she replied softly.

   That was it. He had officially
had it! He pulled
her up so that her face was a mere breath away from his, and only the tips of her toes touched the ground. To his surprise, and admiration, she didn’t flinch. Hell, she didn’t even stop glaring at him as her eyes spit
violet fury. “I didn’t ask that.
I d
on’t care about her.
I care about
you
, and I don’t want to see you like that again!”