Melabeth Forgive Me, For I Am Sin! (8 page)

Michael had let go of my hand right before we reached his room. I knew he d
id this to spare Lea's feelings, that really bothered me. Not that I have any right to him, I just wanted her to realize he was mine anyways, because I am a shellfish bitch. I can't help it, even if I were to try.

Michael had barley started opening his door when Lea yanked it open. She looked disheveled, like she had been having rough sex and just pulled her clothes back on. Lea in a
shrieked voice, "Michael thank God you're back. What the hell have you been doing?"

Michael
, with concern asked, "What's wrong Lea? What's going on?"

I quickly added before Lea could an
swer him, "And what's his name?"

Lea gave me a funny look,
it took a second for what I said to sink in. Between being upset and angry, "There's no man… Michael, Alice is here! She has been waiting for Melabeth. She wouldn’t stop screwing with me… she's being a fu…"

Mich
ael pulled her into his arms, "Calm down Lea. It's alright I'm here, you're going to be fine." He looked over his shoulder at me, "Would you go find out what she wants?"

I nodded my head, "Y
eah, no problem. I'll check on the little monster."

I slipped around Michael and Lea and went inside. There sitting snuggled on the couch was Alice. She had a wicked grin, so I knew that she had been sc
rewing with Lea while she waited for us. Alice was wearing modern clothes. She had been since coming to Vegas. When we were all living in that mountain house in California, Alice had worn these really old dresses. Now that she was in Vegas she dressed more modern than me. Today she was wearing tight blue jeans and a white blouse. I had come to find out that Alice’s hair was not white, that is the way she wanted me to see her. In truth, her hair was black and today she had it pulled up in pig tails.

I spoke first, “W
hy don’t you just kill her?”

Alice smiled, and then she tried to put on an innocent face, “Oh she's over excited, that's all.”

I laughed. Alice rose swiftly and came over to me to give me a hug. I was already whistling and half closing my eyes. Alice giggled, “Afraid of seeing the truth?”

Grinning to myself
, “Is that what you’re calling it these days? Lea makes it sound like you were looking for me, not just coming over to brighten up her night.”

Alice twirled and spun across the room to where the radio was, “Music?”

I nodded my head, “Sounds good to me.”

Alice spoke up as she turned on the stereo, “Would you be a dear, and dance with me?”

I smiled, “No problem.” Michael came in the room with Lea under his arm, comforting her. I watched him move toward the bedroom as I danced with Alice, I yelled out, “Michael,” then motioned for him to join us.

Michael stopped and with a grumpy voice, “No thanks, Lea and I are going out.”

Alice danced over to Michael and in a child like tone, “Afraid not dear, I need you.” She pointed at Michael, then she pointed at me, “And her.” Then she pointed at Lea, “But not her.”

Lea quickly added with a shaky voice, “I’m fine Michael, don’t worry I have places to go.”

With that Lea hurried away, Michael chased after her. The front door shut and they were both gone.

Alice beamed at me, with confidence and announced, “He’ll be back soon, but until the
n, tea time?”

I had a love/hate relationship with Alice’s tea time ritual. It was magical, funny and scary all rolled into one. It ended up being short lived, because Michael was only gone for a few minutes.

When Michael returned, I could tell he was really put out by Alice’s badgering of Lea. Michael was upset  and started scolding Alice like she was a child, “She's going to snap one of these days and it will be your doing. What’s so important that you feel the need to hang out at my place and torture Lea?"

Alice answered with a sweet voice, “It doesn’t have to be important to torture Lea.”

As she spoke, Michael’s clothes melted off his body.

He was standing before me naked, but his dick was so small I could barely see it. I knew that this was just Alice screwing with me, but I couldn’t help myself when I burst out into
an uncontrollable laughter.

Michael looked at me angrily, “What… what is so funny, is it funny that she is torturing Lea? I know you don’t like her, but you…”

I waved my arm back and forth trying to stop him as I was having a fits of laughter, “No… no, that’s not what I’m laughing at. Alice made you naked in front of me, but she made your junk about this big.” I held my thumb and my pointer finger about a half inch apart to illustrate.

I started to laugh again, and I could tell Michael was holding back a smile. I looked over at Alice, “I know it's bigger than that!”

Alice's mouth fell open and she went into mock horror, “You do! When did this happen? And how long did it happen for?”

I quickly defended m
yself, “That’s NOT what I meant! I’ve never seen it before, but I know it would be bigger than that.”

Michael loudly cleared his throat, “Enough already. Stop trying to change the subject Alice.”

Alice got serious, it wasn’t something she did often, but I noticed that people who knew her best reacted like soldiers when she spoke this way. “You're right Michael, we have a real problem to deal with. Ezra and Charlotte are on a field trip for me. They are on a plane to New York as we speak. We do not have time to wait for them. I need to make arrangements, but you need to get Melabeth ready. I have a feeling we will need someone of her skill set, once we get there.”

Michael
's anger faded away, as he became serious, “I will take care of it.”

Alice ju
st simply responded with a, “Good.”

I didn’t have the foggiest
idea of what they were talking about. “Where are we going? What problem?”

Alice smiled, “D
on’t worry. Michael will explain, and Melabeth…”

“Yes?
”

“Bring a nice dress. T
here will be time for tea and dancing.” Alice skipped out of the room at a high rate of speed.

I looked over at Michael who had a thoughtful look on his face. Here we were all alone. And a few steps away there was a bedroom, with a bed. David,
I kept reminding myself to remember David, it's not like I had broken it off with him.

太陽

I went to my room to pack, and then went over to see David and Carrie. After a long kiss goodbye, a very worried David finally let me go. He didn’t want me to go without him. I wasn’t sure if it was because he would miss me, or that he didn’t want me alone with Michael. Most likely both reasons, at this point of my relationship with David, things had been stressed.

I remembered the long flight over and how tired I had been. The flight was during the day, and it would be unsafe for us to sleep on the plane. Me Michael and Alice spent most of the flight planning.

I found out that what had been stolen was a book…not any book, of course, but a magic one. The government had kept this book under lock and key. Fifteen years ago the book had been stolen. They had shipped it by boat, and it was supposed to travel through the Panama Canal, arriving on the West Coast. When it arrived in California, it was suppose to be taken to some maximum storage facility, but it never made it. The ship was attacked by pirates in the Caribbean, and the book was stolen along with other items.

They believed that the thief was indeed after the book. Alice was talking about evidence the CIA had found that a wizard going by the name Shbam was behind it. Of course I couldn’t help but think… how could someone with such a stupid name, pull off such a heist?

Alice’s information indicated that this wizard, who had stolen the book, was in Jamaica. He was traveling with at least two vampires, a boy and a girl. No names or photos, just descriptions. They believed they were in Montego Bay, Jamaica as of the discovery of the location of the book. Alice was being called in a hurry; they needed her expertise right away. They needed someone who could handle a wizard and two vampires. Alice sounded wary of our new foes. She didn’t like not knowing who she was up against. Vampires’ range of power and ability was only second to wizards. You could never tell how powerful or well equipped a wizard was until it was too late.

Michael and Alice came up with a theory on how the wizard may get out of Jamaica unnoticed. They believed that he would board the cruise ship and slip away in the crowd. Alice came up with the great idea of me and Michael going as newlyweds. My fake ID said that I was twenty one, and my name was Melabeth White. I asked
her how we would explain her. She simply said, “Your little sis, that you couldn’t leave at home.”

I snorted, “No one will buy that. I’m supposed to tell people that I brought my little sister on my honeymoon?”

Alice giggled, “No, silly, I don’t want anyone but you two to know I’m aboard. The Wizard we’re looking for is most likely trying to sneak this book back into the states. They may also know what I look like. We are boarding in broad daylight so my powers are very weak in the sun. Plus there will be hundreds of passengers. Even I have my limits as to how many people I can hypnotize at once.”

Michael added, “To answer your question, Melabeth, Alice will be hiding in luggage. We have a second room on the other end of the ship where the luggage will be delivered. I will make sure that all goes well on that end. This way we can search the ship
at night, and if all goes right we will spot this wizard before he spots us.”

I shrugged my shou
lders, “Sounds like a plan. Just point out who you want me to kill.”

Alice laughed, but Michael gave me a disapproving look as he shook his head. I couldn’
t help but feel a little uneasy. I would be facing an unknown wizard with unknown vampires… I would also be sharing a room with the hottest man alive. I could see myself heading for disaster… and I could be killed too.

I was walking up the gangplank with Michael. I
t was only seventy five degrees, it felt like a hundred. Wearing black from head to toe, I wore dark sunglasses and a big black hat with a large brim. Still the sun felt as if it might kill me at any moment. Michael was struggling as well. He was wearing tight blue jeans with sneakers. He wore a white turtleneck sweater and, with the big sunglasses and a ball cap. He looked like he was on the run. Then again, we both probably looked like we were wanted.

Michael reached over and pulled me to his side. In a grumpy voice I barked, “Hey, what’s the big idea? Not enough room for you?”

Michael whispered in my ear, “We’re supposed to be newlyweds. We stand out enough without you acting like I’m a stranger trying to grope you.”

“Whatever,” I
bitched. I was in such a mood. All I wanted was to get to our room. I would take a shower and get some sleep, and then we could start searching for this wizard and our book.

My mood improved as we headed inside the boat and into the lower levels. Once on the boat, the air was cool and m
ost of all there was no sun. One of the over the top, happy stewards showed us to our cabin. I threw myself on the bed. As I did I could hear the girl saying to us, “Enjoy your cruise aboard the Atlantic Sun.”

I think she was about to say more, but Michael shut the door on her. He pl
opped on to the bed next to me and gave me a little shove. He commented, “For such a small thing, you sure do hog the bed.”

"What?  I didn’t leave enough room for your ego?" I quipped.

For the next few minutes me and Michael lay quietly upon the bed. The sun had wiped us out. Michael had taken a chance of bursting into flames. He couldn’t handle as much sun as I could. Our blood was like kerosene and would burn if subjected to flame or sunlight. Still, we were creatures of the night, and the sun took a lot of our strength away. We couldn’t fly or flash and the sun was so bright, vampires couldn’t see if it weren’t for really good sunglasses.

In many ways I have still not come to terms with being a vampire. I had only been a vampire for less than a year. In that time I spent most of it with David, who was a Necromancer, not dead and a ghost named Carrie, who disappeared during the day. I didn’t spend a lot of time with my undead family, and, when I did, they were awake. Staring at Michael’s unmoving body, I felt like crying. I felt like he was dead… what does that make me?

I got up and took a shower and put on fresh clothes. My choice of attire was black tights with a blue dress over them. Black boots that came up just a few inches above my ankle completed the look. I had a knife in each boot as well as a leg holster holding my  40 caliber Glock.  On the other leg, I had a holster to hold two more magazines. Wrapping a thin cable around my waist, and, to top it off, I put a small revolver in my little black purse. I worked my hair into a tight ponytail, leaving two loose strands hanging from the sides of my forehead.

Our cabin was below sea level so there was no porthole, yet I
knew it was almost night time. In fact, I could tell that the sun was starting to sink into the ocean that very moment. I don’t know how I knew, but I did. My stomach always knew too, even if I didn’t really need to eat. Wherever I pull this separate power from, it does nothing to help with the blood lust. I may not need to eat, I felt strong and had fed the night before, but still, the call for blood is great. Michael would awaken soon then we would get out of our room. I would get a chance to hunt. The thought alone brought excitement to me, like addicts waiting to get high.

Michael woke with a start. W
hen his eyes found me, he became calm. With a smile he said, “You look good, I better get ready too.”

I gave him a small smile, “Don’t keep me waiting.”

He slipped into the bathroom and started the water for a shower. I didn’t mind looking at him now that he was awake and moving. In fact I could stand looking at him all night long… bad girl, we’re with David. The fact I was arguing with myself was a bad sign.

Half an hour later I was tapping my foot against the floor impatiently waiting for Michael. He finally came out, and I discovered the wait was worth it. His blonde hair hung around his head to perfection. He was wearing a pair of khaki colored slacks that somehow made his ass the highlight of the show. But not to be undone, he wore a charcoal colored shirt. The shirt was a button up with long sleeves and a collar. The fabric clung to his chest and around his waist, reminding me of what he looked like without a shirt on.

I had been staring too long. With an arrogant smile, Michael teased, “I am glad that the wait was worth it.”

Embarrassed for getting caught checking him out, I stammered over my words. “I… I wasn’t impatient… you look ok, I guess. Are you ready?”

Michael smiled then gently took me by the shoulder, “Oh, my misunderstanding. I thought the foot tapping was your way of saying hurry up.”

Still embarrassed and a little defensive, “I wasn't staring.”

Michael laughed as we headed out the door and into the hall. He took my hand and I let him lead me down the hall. If I could blush I would have, because even though he had not called me out on it, he had never accused me of staring. I hated the fact that when I looked at him I lost control of my wits.

The next few hours felt like a date. I fell into my role pretendi
ng to be his new wife with ease and a little bit of guilt. We wandered the ship, went to the casino, the bar and then to the disco. We danced, we danced like professionals. David didn’t like to dance. The way I danced with Michael, the way I rubbed against him, yes I was in trouble. After we finished dancing, we went to a restaurant and sat down to eat. Of course all we ordered were drinks. I kept forgetting we were looking for a wizard. Michael thought we should at least check out the restaurants because wizards need to eat too.

I sat across from Michael. Empty plates with a bottle of wine and two half empty glasses sat between us. His eyes wandered the restaurant looking for our bandits, but I was looking at Michael, maybe for the first time. In front of me was a level headed man, calm, loving and forgiving. He was also hot as hell, but there was so much more to him than that.

In that moment I realized something… I needed more wine. As I drank, I remembered my David. I remembered David on the bus. I recalled when he was an innocent boy trying to help a very lost girl. If not for me, his family would be alive. I stopped looking at Michael, and started looking for the bandits. It was time to get serious.

We moved on from the dining area and went to the casino. There we found some slot machines that overlooked most of the casino and the main hallway. I knew Alice was also searching, but I had not seen her. The sh
ip had hundreds of people on it and there was a good chance that the wizard was sleeping in his quarters.

“Are you winning?”

I realized Michael was talking to me, “Oh, yeah… I mean no, not really. Sorry I was daydreaming.”

Michael flashed his award winning smile, “I noticed, you have  been staring at your machine for ten minutes. What’s up? Can you talk about it?”

“Not really,” I admitted.

He elbowed me, “Cheer up, we’re newlyweds after all.”

I laughed, then I got serious, “I know why I fight. I fight for revenge. I fight to put The Order in its place. I owe Alice, she has taken care of me, so now I fight for her. Why do you fight? Don’t get me wrong, I'm glad you’re here. It’s just that Alice has many warriors she can call on… do you
have
to fight for her?”

Michael's face was thoughtful. He was quiet for a second, then in a serious tone he spoke. “I do not have to fight, not for Alice, not for anyone. I’m helping Alice… well, because it’s what’s right. Alice is wicked, and so are you, but I am no better. You see
, we are vampires. We will never be “good”. I believe that, but I also believe that as long as I still exist that I should try to do some good. Balance… I try for balance, I strive to be better. And maybe, just maybe, if I save hundreds, it will make up for the few I have killed.”

I was quiet for a second. Not looking at him, I asked,
“Do you believe that? Do you really believe that if we do things for the greater good, it will undo our past sins?”

A weak smi
le crossed Michael’s face. For the first time I could see a great pain in him. He answered in hushed tones, “No, I do not believe it will undo our past sins, but it couldn’t hurt.”

Michael started to gamble, but I wasn’t finished, “What we’re doing now, it’s for the greater good?”

A dark chuckle came from Michael, “A book of dark magic was taken.  It was under lock and key, taken by God knows who. The book itself is a weapon, that much is obvious. It is also obvious that whoever took the book did it with the purpose of using it.”

I simply responded, “Oh.”

Michael went back to gambling. Have I become such a blind follower that I do not even stop long enough to find out what the quest is? Alice says,
come along
and I do, but I never asked why.  I trust my friends.  I sneaked a peak at Michael. He was still busy gambling. Have I become such a killer that I don’t even care why?

This line of thought was depressing. I need some blood, “Michael, I’m going to grab a bite, be back in a few.”

Michael didn’t look at me as he answered, “I’ll be here. Be discrete and hurry back.”

“Of course,” I replied as I walked away.

Lost in thought, I found that I had walked away from the crowds on the ship. I was heading toward the bow moving along the deck. I walked past a boy and a girl bickering about football teams. I only glanced at them for a second. They were teenagers. I headed to the very crest of the bow, then looked over the railing. There I could see the ship cut its way through the ocean. The sound of the water mixed with the wind, and the smell of the ocean, it was hypnotizing.