Eternal Ever After (18 page)

“Holly, it felt so good my teeth hurt,” he said with a pause. “I guess it’s hard for me to remember not to compare you. But after the week I spent digging through her genealogy I couldn’t find a link. In fact, you’re different from her in almost every way. How about you?” he asked with one eyebrow raised.

“You’re the first person who I’ve been able to orgasm with, because every time I’ve tried to have sex before I’d have visions during it. And I’m still not sure why that didn’t happen with you, because I’ve had visions when I’ve touched you before. I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow, but I wish we could just stay like this. But maybe next time in a bed.”

He inhaled and I could feel his body stiffen at my disclosure. “Maybe because we’re both supernatural—sometimes supernatural beings are bonded on a deeper level.”

Did he think I expected something now that we had sex? His eyes moved to the portrait on the wall that hung above us.
Damned elephant in the room again!
Maybe mentioning my visions reminded him of Katarina, since she had the Sight too. I thought about what he said and found it highly possible. It wasn’t like I’d experienced sex with someone supernatural before. I’d never met anyone with the Sight, and I’d certainly never met anyone like Arie. Although, I thought it was the pleasure-pain from his spanking that overloaded my senses and kept the visions at bay.

“Holly, we should go. Are you hungry?” he asked as he slid out from beneath me. He distanced himself from me not just physically, but emotionally, as he rose to his feet.

I didn’t understand how one minute we could be lying together and the next it felt like he’d thrown the same wall between us as if it meant nothing. And that stung.

“No, Arie, I’m not hungry. You’re pulling away. You wanted it, I wanted it. What’s the problem?”

He ran a hand through his hair and tossed my sweater at me, ignoring my question. “Get dressed.”

“A vampire with baggage. Just what I need.”

Arie looked like he wanted to throttle me, but I refused to back down.

“Just get dressed.”

“It’s not like there are any strings attached. I didn’t ask for anything,” I said, hoping my voice conveyed only anger and not how hurt I felt. “We’re two consenting adults. It’s not a big deal.”

He slammed the door to the apartment on his way out.
So much for it feels so good your teeth hurt.
I felt angrier by the minute as I pulled my clothes on and grabbed my army satchel. He waited in the hallway, and without saying a word, he walked toward the elevator while I followed his footsteps.

Neither of us spoke a word all the way back to the loft but every once in a while he looked at me as if waiting for me to break down and cry. I curled into the leather sofa in his living room and winced. Arie arched his eyebrows outwards and his mouth drooped into a frown. I crossed my arms in frustration.

“You’ll feel better if you take a bath,” he said.

Without a word, I walked upstairs and retreated to the bathroom. I peeled off my clothes and kicked my underwear across the tile. Unclasping my locket, I tossed it on the counter by the sink. I filled the tub and submerged myself in the sanctuary of its warmth. I didn’t want to face him. I just wanted to get cleaned up and curl up in bed with a book.

Sinking beneath the water to wet my head, my hair fanned out around me like a forest of kelp. I washed my hair and rinsed it with the handheld shower fixture. Using a washcloth, I lathered suds across my body and submerged up to my neck to rinse the soap away. Water splashed over the edge of the tub as I jumped at the sharp knock on the door.

“Holly?”

“Yeah.”

“Dinner’s almost ready.”

Shit—So much for avoiding him.
“Okay, be down in a sec.”

I hopped out of the tub, towel-drying my hair, and threw on a t-shirt and a pair of sweats. I slid onto a bar stool and he poured me a glass of wine. I felt like downing the whole glass in one long gulp.

“Do you feel better?”

“I feel fine.” I took a sip of my wine. “I’m not this fragile thing that’s going to have a mental breakdown.”
Like your ex.

The corners of his mouth lowered. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are
you
sorry? For making me feel like an idiot, or pulling away? Just so we’re clear.”

In that moment, Arie looked as vulnerable and hurt as I felt. “It’s hard for me. There hasn’t been anyone in my life since Katarina. I couldn’t do anything to change what happened then, and I don’t want to hurt you now.”

“Then don’t. You’re hurting me every time you pull away and shut me out.”

“Holly, I can’t give you what you want.”

“And what is it that you think I want?”

He looked angry, hurt, and a little tired. He didn’t answer as he placed a steak and a side of green beans in front of me. Arie turned to grab a bowl filled with salad and slammed it onto the counter by my plate.
Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my fork and knife, cutting a piece of steak. I forked a bite as Arie’s cell phone rang and he pulled it from his pocket. He walked across the living room toward the wall of glass before speaking.

“Hello?”

I listened while he spoke to someone in hushed tones.

“No, I didn’t see it.”

“I’ll check it. How bad is it?”

He looked at me before walking toward the coffee table where a pile of books and his laptop resided. And he looked even paler than usual—if that were even possible.

“I understand.”

“Well perhaps she will come to us. She seems to be interested in–” he said.

A momentary pause lapsed while the person on the other end spoke but I couldn’t hear them.

“I have her staying with me at the loft.”

“No, you will not use Holly as bait!”

“Just wait. Let me handle this.”

“Agreed.”

I had stopped eating to listen to his side of the phone conversation. He turned to me, ending the call, and I blanched at the expression on his face. Somehow I knew it was vitally important that I hear this. I only wished I could have heard the whole conversation.

Without saying a word to me, he sat on the sofa and flipped open the laptop. I stood and walked to stand next to him, looking over his shoulder at the screen.

“What is it?”

“Katarina. Apparently, she made headlines on some tabloid website.”

Shit. This is bad.

Waiting beside him in silence, I watched him surf to the tabloid’s website. The headline of the first featured story read:
A Vampire is Loose in Chicago Suburbs – Lock Your Doors
. My jaw hit the floor and Arie clicked on an image of a man in a heavy coat holding a bicycle while talking to a reporter. A page containing the story along with a video popped up.

This is so bad.

I bit my lip, leaning forward to watch the streaming video. The story gave me chills.

“I’m reporting to you live from La Grange with an eyewitness to this bizarre breaking story. This is Troy Anderson, a local resident and longtime neighbor of Peggy Johnson, recent victim to this vicious attack. What can you tell us, Troy?”

“I live next door.” The man in the video pointed to the houses behind them. “And when I rode my bike home I saw an ambulance and two cop cars pulled up in front of her house. I saw them bring her out on a stretcher with her neck wrapped but I’ve never seen so much blood…”

“And why exactly do you think this is a vampire attack?”

“I’m not sure that I do. She’s always been a little high-strung. Peggy, I mean, but she’s good people. She would do anything for anybody. I overheard those cops talking…” The man trailed off, looking down at his feet.

“Can you tell us what they said?”

“They were saying she had puncture wounds in her neck and that maybe some animal mauled her.”

“The victim remains in the intensive care unit at Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital in critical condition. Thank you Troy.”

The man with the bicycle retreated into the background toward his house.

“Well folks, there you have it. A vampire or an animal is on the loose here in La Grange,” said the reporter, finishing the report in a chipper voice.

Arie closed the laptop.

“Do you think anyone will take that seriously?” I asked.

Arie turned to regard me, his face solemn. “It’s a tabloid, but it still doesn’t bode well. You need to call your boss and take some time off.”

I shook my head. “I can’t lose my job, and since you’re so dead-set against me working for Tessa, it leaves me little choice.”

“It’s fine. I’ll dazzle your boss and tell him that it’s in his best interest to keep you.”

I nodded. I didn’t have the energy to argue with him about how I thought dazzling people was unethical.

“I don’t want you going anywhere without me,” he said.

I swallowed the protests threatening to surface when I saw the grave look in his eyes, which were the color of a winter sky. “I won’t.”
Unless I have to.

CHAPTER 13

It hurt every time I moved, but in a good way, and when it hurt I thought of Arie. For just a moment we had held each other, and in that moment the darkness seemed a little brighter. The nightmares were still out there, waiting, lurking in the shadows. And when they struck, it was almost crippling—like having your heart carved out and handed to you.

I kept looking over my shoulder and jumping at nothing. My nerves were on high alert while we were unable to locate Katarina. The door of the loft banged shut as Arie entered, and I flinched. He’d been gone all day. After watching the tabloid video last night, the stillness of the loft made me nervous.

“Hi,” I said, my voice faltering.

“Get ready. You’re coming with me.”

“Where are we going?”

His face looked ashen. “It’s dark now and I’m very tired.”

“No sign of Katarina?”

“No. We’ll go to the club and see if Victoria can help us. I should have asked her at the club before, but between her planning the gala and helping guard you while I was doing some digging, I didn’t think there was time. With Katarina making headlines, tabloid or not, it needs to end. But we have to stop by the hospital first.”

I didn’t understand why Arie wanted Victoria to help us, but was more curious about our hospital trip. “Why?”

“I want to see what Margaret Johnson remembers from the attack.”

“Do you think it will help us?”

Arie sighed. “Possibly, if she’s even conscious. But I may need to dazzle her. Damage control goes with the job description of being Chief Justice.”

“She probably wouldn’t want to remember being attacked anyway. I wouldn’t.”

I put on my boots and threw on my brown suede coat, grabbing my satchel before heading out the door. Arie could barely look at me since we had sex. The obvious cliché of ‘it’s complicated’ had defined our relationship from the beginning. Sex had put it somewhere past complicated and into the land of fucked-up beyond all recognition. And there’s one thing about complicated—it hurts.

That’s why I’d promised myself to stop doing complicated things, but since I met Arie I kept breaking my promise. The last thing I needed right now was to fall for someone with a boatload of baggage. Was he hung up on having sex with someone who looked like his ex? I chanced a sideways glance at him, summoning the courage to be upfront as we drove in my BMW toward the hospital.

“Arie, you don’t have to feel bad about what happened. I don’t regret it.”

“You’re very direct. Right now, let’s just focus on finding Katarina and making sure Margaret Johnson doesn’t remember anything from the attack.”

“I don’t know why you’re so hung up on having sex with me. I’m not chaste-souled or modest.”

“And how would you know? You haven’t had anyone do it to you properly.”

Part of me regretted sharing that having visions during sex kept me from having an orgasm and I decided to taunt him. “Good point. So, you want to try the backseat then and have another go?” I asked with a grin.

When his mouth flew open, I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Never in the short time that I had known him had I ever seen him look surprised.

“We have to visit Mrs. Johnson and enlist Victoria’s help.”

“I’m sure you’d rather I make it easy on you and accept your change of subject as a logical excuse for ignoring my proposition. And I may have made things easy for you last night but I’m not going to make them easy now.”

Arie swore something under his breath. “You did not make things easy on me last night, nor are you doing so now. I do not like forward women and I don’t want to have this discussion.”

I scoffed incredulously. “No, I imagine you don’t like forward women, or any woman unless they are led around by a leash, dancing in a cage, or letting you tie them into pretzels and submit to you without any sort of challenge.”

“You certainly submitted to me last night.”

I opened my mouth and then shut it again. “Maybe I should just stick to taking care of my own needs. No bad ideas or repercussions ever came from a vibrator.” I snapped.

Arie fell silent. “I certainly hope there will be no repercussions from this.”

“Oh, don’t worry. You won’t have any vampire babies running around. If that’s even possible, I don’t know. But I’m on the pill.” I rolled my eyes. He said nothing and kept his focus on the road. “Can’t you look at me? Can’t you look at me and tell me why the idea of sleeping with me is so repulsive to you?”

“Repulsive?”

“Yes, that’s obviously it.”

“You are ridiculous.”

I could feel my anger mounting as my nails dug crescents into my palms. “Well if I’m wrong, tell me. If you’re not repulsed then tell me why you’ve been looking at me like I have leprosy. That’s if you’ve been able to look at me at all.”