Vampires and Vixens (Psy-Vamp) (13 page)

It was almost dawn when Isaiah made it
to his room. On his way to the shower, he caught sight of his reflection in the
mirror and noticed the streaks of Mary’s blood on his right cheek. With a shaky
hand he reached up and tried in vain to wipe them off. When he peeled off his
clothes, he noticed that her blood was also on his chest. “Yet here’s a spot!”
he shouted at the mirror, feeling more than a little hysterical.

As he stepped into the shower, and let
the hot water run over his body, he began to mutter, “Out damned spot! Out, I
say!” A hysterical giggle slipped from his lips. The water from the shower
mingled with his tears.

The hot water washed away her scent,
washed away her blood, washed away the dirt from her grave. His trembling hands
made it nearly impossible to turn off the water. He wrapped the towel around
his waist, walked into the bedroom and collapsed onto his bed, wanting nothing
more than to escape into sleep.

Something was cutting into the back of
his head so he reached around to pull it off of his pillow. It was Mary’s
medical alert necklace. That was when he felt the last remnants of his sanity
slip away.

“No!” he screamed. “Mary, where are you?
Mary!” His mad shrieks continued.

The door to his room slammed open. He
felt his hands being pulled to his sides, and heard the distant voices of
Nathaniel and Justin. Looking down, he saw the chunks of flesh under his
fingernails, felt the stinging on his cheeks, and the blood streaming down his
face.

“Mary!” he screamed again and again, as
Nathaniel and Justin held him down.

Justin’s voice was a blur of barely
audible words. “Isaiah, calm down. It’s okay.”

Isaiah began to weep uncontrollably.
Nathaniel straddled Isaiah and held his arms down. Justin tore the top bed
sheet and used the strips to tie him to the bed.

“What the hell happened to him tonight,
Justin?” Nathaniel demanded.

“I don’t know. I wasn’t with him. Get my
bag, while I tie his legs down.”

“Mary!” Isaiah screamed out, as he
fought against the restraints on his wrists.

Justin snatched the necklace from
Isaiah’s hand and slipped it into his pocket before Nathaniel returned. As Justin
spoke more inaudible words to Nathaniel, Isaiah saw him preparing the syringe
and began to struggle wildly.

“No! I have to get Mary! She’ll be
scared in the dark.”

When the needle went into his arm,
Isaiah stopped struggling and waited for the darkness to come.

Nathaniel slammed his fist against the
wall. “Damn it!”

“We’ll move him to the east wing until
he’s better,” Justin suggested without taking his eyes off of Isaiah. “No one
goes there anyway.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “He has to go
or he’ll ruin everything.”

Justin moved to Nathaniel’s side. “It
would be too risky to move him like this. Besides you know I can’t leave. He’s
my brother, please let me take care of him. What would you do if it was Noah?”

Nathaniel considered Justin’s plea
without taking his eyes off of Isaiah, who mumbled groggily to himself. Unless
he was mistaken, Isaiah was now muttering quotes from
Macbeth
. Justin
was right; he would do anything for Noah. He couldn’t force Justin to send his
own brother away. With a quick nod, he walked out of the room.

Justin was by Isaiah’s side again,
cleaning the wounds on his face. Justin was talking, but the darkness was
coming, and it didn’t matter anymore. Isaiah knew he would be safe in the
darkness.

“No!” he whimpered. “Not my doll. Take her
blood off of me, Justin. It’s all over me.” Finally, the darkness enveloped
him.

Hannah sure hoped that no one asked her
about the movie she’d just watched, because she had been too distracted to pay
attention. Her mind kept wandering back to the dream she’d had the night
before. She had woken up so aroused that it was almost painful. She’d had sex
dreams before, but there were sex dreams and then there were super hot sex
dreams about your boyfriend’s brother. The worst part was that she was getting
aroused just thinking about the dream. She couldn’t stop picturing him looking
down at her with his blond hair falling over his eyes as he moved inside of
her.

As they walked out of the theater Hannah
decided to try talking to Caitlin about the dream. Lydia hated Nathaniel so she
would just think it was a sign that Hannah should leave him. Trish would have
been her first choice, but she had a big paper to work on so she wasn’t even
taking calls.

“Have you ever had a sex dream about
someone you weren’t with?” Hannah tried to make the questions casual.

Caitlin gave her a sly smile. “All the
time, but I’m single so I’ve got way too much pent up sexual frustration.”

“I mean someone who you know you
shouldn’t be having sex dreams about.”

Caitlin shuddered. “I’ve had a couple
about Justin, if you can believe that.”

That actually didn’t surprise Hannah at
all. There was a lot of sexual tension between them, but she knew Caitlin
wouldn’t appreciate her observation. “So what do you think it means when you
have a sex dream about someone who you shouldn’t think about that way?”

Caitlin stopped. “Who have you been
getting hot and heavy with in your dreams?”

Hannah blushed. “You have to swear you
won’t tell anyone about this.” Hannah couldn’t believe she was trusting Caitlin
with this.

Caitlin waited until they were far
enough from the crowded theater to avoid being overheard. “So who was it? It
wasn’t me was it? I don’t think I could keep that a secret.”

“No, it wasn’t you.”

“Noah?” Caitlin asked.

Hannah’s blush was answer enough.

Caitlin waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t
stress about that. You spend a lot of time with Noah, and the subconscious is a
strange thing. Besides he is pretty damn hot.”

Hearing it from Caitlin made her feel a
little better. Caitlin wouldn’t have resisted the urge to make fun of her if
she thought it was a big deal. Hannah just wished that she could get the images
out of her mind. She’d seen Noah pretty close to naked, so it hadn’t taken much
effort for her subconscious to fill in the rest of the picture and it had been
a very nice picture.

“So,” Caitlin started in what Hannah had
come to refer to as her gossipy tone. “I saw Nathaniel leaving your place when
I dropped Lydia off last weekend.”

“He stayed to help clean up after the
party,” Hannah explained without meeting Caitlin’s gaze.

“Must have been a very vigorous clean
up. His hair was pretty messy and his shirt was buttoned wrong. I guess it got
hot while you were cleaning up, and he had to take his clothes off.”

Hannah blushed, but she was smiling. “It
was a very passionate clean up.”

Caitlin laughed. “Did he do a good job
cleaning up? Were you satisfied with his performance?”

“I was very satisfied with the job he
did cleaning up.”

“Then I take it you will be having him
help you do more clean up around your house? Perhaps even around his house?”

Hannah laughed. “He has been helping me
clean up more often.”

“I was wondering when you were finally
going to do it. Seriously, what were you waiting for? He’s so hot that he could
melt the batteries in my vibrator. I’ve got to admit that I’m a little jealous.
It’s been a long time since someone’s cleaned up for me. I’ve been taking care
of things myself so long that I think I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have
help in that area.”

“Justin looks a lot like Nathaniel, and
I’m pretty sure he would help you clean up any time you asked him to,” Hannah
teased.

“Justin is a prick,” Caitlin reminded
her.

“So you really don’t think I should
worry about the dream? I feel a little like I cheated on Nathaniel.”

Caitlin started to speak and then
stopped herself. She studied Hannah for a long moment before asking. “Do you
love Nathaniel?”

Hannah answered honestly. “I don’t know.
He wants to get married, but I just couldn’t tell him yes.”

“Maybe your subconscious really is
trying to tell you something. I’m not saying that it’s telling you that you
should be with Noah, just maybe that Nathaniel isn’t the right guy for you.”

“Now you sound like Lydia.”

Caitlin shook her head. “No, I’m not
telling you to break up with him. In fact I think that you should continue to
enjoy his sexy body as long as you want it.”

“I do enjoy his sexy body.”

“Were you ladies talking about my sexy
body?”

Noah’s teasing voice startled Hannah and
she let out a little scream.

“Why do you and your brother have to
sneak up on me?” Hannah complained with a hand over her heart.

“Sorry.” He gave her a sheepish grin and
rocked back on his heels. He needed a haircut and his blond hair was falling
forward over his eyes.

Hannah reached out a hand to push it
back. Her hand lingered on his cheek, and she found herself staring at him. It
was hard to read his reaction, because his eyes were covered with dark
sunglasses.

“What are you doing here?” Caitlin asked
in her usual bored tone.

“Seeing a movie with Justin,” he replied
with a teasing smile that Caitlin missed.

Caitlin grabbed Hannah’s arm. “Hurry
before he sees us!”

Both Hannah and Noah started to laugh,
and the uncomfortable moment was over.

“That was not funny,” Caitlin complained.
“I really do have to get home and study so we had better go. I am so tired of
hearing that prick gloat about his test scores being higher than mine.”

Hannah hugged Noah, and felt relieved
that the awkwardness was gone. Caitlin was right. It was just a dream. She just
wished it wasn’t such a hot dream.

“I’ll see you later,” she said with a
wave, and headed back to her car.

“
I
hear someone coming up the stairs!” Hannah’s bare feet pounded against the
floor. “It must be the pizza delivery guy.”

“It is unbelievable how much you've
eaten lately,” Lydia murmured, as she rested on the couch. Her face was pale
and gaunt. Her eyes, which had once sparkled with life, appeared dull and
fatigued. “Every time I turn around you've got something shoved in your mouth.
Do you have a tapeworm or something?”

Hannah pushed out her lower lip, as she
reached for the front door. “I just wanted to have pizza. Is there something
unusual about ordering pizza?”

Lydia stared at her wide-eyed, and
shook her head in disbelief. “You had a double cheeseburger with fries, onion
rings, and a banana milk shake as a mid-afternoon snack two hours ago.
Now you’re going to have pizza with ham, pineapple, jalapeno peppers, and
anchovies? You hate fish, and I have never heard of a more disgusting
combination.”

“I do not hate fish, and I asked for
Canadian bacon, not ham.”

Lydia laughed weakly. “You don’t have a
tapeworm; you have a pregnant tapeworm with really bad taste.”

With her nose in the air, Hannah turned
away. “I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.” The doorbell rang,
so she opened the door and tried to mask her disappointment. “Oh, hi Trish. I
thought you were the pizza guy. You didn’t happen to see the pizza guy parking,
did you?”

“No.” Trish answered. She looked a little
distracted.

“She has a pregnant tape worm,” called
Lydia from the couch.

“That’s actually why I came by,” Trish
said as she held up a small paper bag.

The doorbell interrupted them and Hannah
raced to answer it. “Finally, the pizza is here!” She paid the driver quickly,
then dropped the pizza on the coffee table, and ate directly from the box as
she sat on the floor. Her eyes darted from Lydia to Trish. “Did you guys want
some,” she asked around a mouthful of pizza.

“Ummm . . .” Trish paused
as she eyed pizza dubiously. “I think I’m going to pass on that.”

Hannah moaned as she savored her food.
Never had she been quite this hungry. Her appetite faded some when Trish
dropped the contents of the paper bag onto the coffee table. Staring back at
her were two pregnancy tests.

“Holy crap!” Suddenly Lydia showed more
energy than she had in the three weeks since Hannah’s party. “You don’t have a
pregnant tape worm, you
are
pregnant.”

“Why would you think that I’m pregnant?”
It was a dumb question. Hannah knew the answer, and wondered why she hadn’t
considered it herself. Still, she argued, “I can’t be pregnant. We use a condom
every time.”

“Condoms are not one-hundred
percent effective,” Trish said patiently. “You puked three times when we were
out yesterday. You eat like you’re starving, and your boobs are bigger.”

That was not something that had escaped
Hannah’s attention. Her bras were much too tight and her nipples hurt. Still
she stared at the tests without moving.

“You need to take a test,” Lydia said
gently.

“You too,” Trish pointed to the second
test.

With her hands in front of her as if to
ward off an attacker, Lydia shook her head. “Oh, no. Dominic always uses
condoms, and I’m on the pill. I’ve got a timer on my phone to remind me.
Besides, I just had my period two weeks ago.”

That slip made Hannah’s gaze snap to
Lydia. No longer was her mind consumed with the pregnancy test. “You and
Dominic broke up months ago,” she said slowly.

Lydia leaned back into the couch, and
blew out a long breath. Her eyes wouldn’t meet Hannah’s. “We never actually
broke up.”

Emotions flashed across Hannah’s face,
confusion, hurt, and anger. “Why would you lie to me about something like that?
I kept thinking that you were depressed about the break up,” Hannah’s voice
rose. “I was worried about you, and you were lying to me the whole time. You’ve
been lying to me for months.”

“Nathaniel told Dominic to stop seeing
me. He threatened to kick Dominic out if he didn’t end things.” No one could
mistake the venomous way Lydia said Nathaniel’s name. “I just don’t get what
you see in that jerk, and now you might be pregnant with his baby?”

“Don’t turn this into one of your
Nathaniel hating rants. What you said doesn’t even make any sense,” Hannah
argued. “Why would Nathaniel care if you were dating Dominic? Did it ever occur
to you that Dominic might be the one lying?”

“Why would Dominic lie?”

“Maybe he’s cheating on you,” Trish
suggested.

“Maybe Nathaniel is cheating on Hannah,
and he was afraid Dominic would tell her,” Lydia shot back.

“Then wouldn’t he want Noah to stay away
from her too?” Trish had her hands on her hips and she was practically yelling
at Lydia.

With a trembling hand Hannah grabbed the
pregnancy test and escaped to the bathroom. Better to deal with this reality
for now. The instructions said to wait five minute. It wasn’t easy holding the
test in her urine stream, because her hands were trembling so badly.

Through the door she could hear Trish
and Lydia arguing.

“I thought we were friends!” That shout
was Trish. “You don’t lie to your friends like that.”

“I promised that I wouldn’t tell
anyone,” Lydia’s much weaker reply.

Their voices were suddenly drowned out
by the loud humming in Hannah’s ears. The test hadn’t taken five minutes to
give her an answer ‘PREGNANT’ blared back at her. She just stood there staring
at it, not sure what to do.

The sound of the doorbell gave Hannah
something to do. Lydia and Trish were too busy yelling at each other to answer
it.

Hannah walked out of the bathroom,
opened the front door, threw herself into Noah’s arms, and burst into tears.

It was hard to make out anything Hannah
was saying. Between the screaming match Lydia and Trish were having, and
Hannah’s hysterical weeping, Noah was more than a little confused.

“Hannah, try to calm down,” Noah
soothed, as he rubbed her back.

“Now look what you’ve done!” Lydia
shouted. Sweat ran down her face and she began to shake violently.

“Are you okay, Lyd?” Trish looked
concerned.

“Hannah, sit down so I can take care of
Lydia.” Noah led her to the couch.

Hannah obeyed without a word.

“Lydia,” Noah said, taking her arm, “I
think you should lie down for a few minutes.”

“I don’t need any advice from you!”
Lydia snapped. As soon as the words left her mouth she looked ashamed. “I’m
sorry for snapping at you, Noah. Hannah, I’m sorry for upsetting you and lying
to you. Trish . . .” Her trembling hand reached out to Trish,
and then she collapsed.

Noah knelt on the floor to check her
vitals. “Call 911!” he shouted urgently. “She’s not breathing and I can’t find
a pulse.

As Trish called 911, Noah performed CPR.
Hannah begged, prayed, and cried. The plants wilted further, and the last petal
from Lydia’s Drift Rose bush fell to the floor.