Brother Blood

Chapter 28: starting over

The text got duplicated for some reason; it's fixed now. 

My three friends gave me hugs and goodbyes, but they didn't linger. They were gone in minutes and I was left as the sole werewolf in nest of vampires. Stefa pulled me up onto the bar to stand. She whistled, piercing noise that seemed to echo off the walls in a haunting fashion. I didn't see anyone in the pools of light by the lamps, but I could hear that the room was fuller.

"This is Conor," she said, kissing me after she said this. "He is mine. No one is to touch him. If he needs something, you get it for him. He will be staying with us more or less indefinitely. You may have heard that his blood keeps us from burning in the sun. This is true, but if I catch anyone ever taking any of his blood for any reason, I will throw them out into the daylight myself. Now get some rest, we're headed out at sundown."

She smiled at me as her unseen audience departed. "Old habits. We don't actually sleep."

"I do," I yawned.

She pulled me down off the bar and I followed her up a flight of stairs.

"This place was a theatre," she said, gesturing at the ornate, but broken stained glass. "I bought it, but obviously we haven't done much with the place. Once we leave I'm gong to call in some contractors to fix it up. I didn't want to meet somewhere nice in case you called the hunters. Drones tend to mess up the woodwork."

"I did call Mr. Danube," I said.

She snorted. "Peter told you to stay away, didn't he? I'm glad you didn't. Did you tell him where I was?"

"I didn't know," I answered. "Daria was the one to find that out. Ralph and Mel didn't want any of us going after you and Grant at all."

She sighed. "I'm not evil, Conor. Demanding, sure. Needy, maybe. I didn't hurt Grant, whatever he told you."

"You did order him though," I pointed out. "People find the loss of control upsetting."

Stefa barked out a laugh. "Grant has never had control of a second of his life. Peter ran it before he was turned, and then you ran it until I took him out for a spin. He's a hunter, a soldier. I don't think he would know what to do with free will if it hit him in the face."

Stefa opened a door, beyond which I could dimly see a bed. She went to one of the boarded up windows and with grimace of pain peeled back an edge. The sunlight pooled on the ceiling so I could see, but so she wouldn't burn. She licked her burned knuckles and I took her hand and kissed each knuckle before sitting on the bed. Stefa sat next to me and I laid my head in her lap, sighing as she ran her fingers through my hair.

"Why did you tell me to go?" she asked. "I would have stayed, Conor. I would have stayed and given the rest up."

"Grant was scared of you and my pack didn't trust me anymore," I replied. "I made the right decision, you're the one who freaked out."

"I've lived most of my life with the idea that relationships were like foil wrapped caramels," she explained. "You unwrap one, it's new and interesting. You enjoy yourself for a brief moment and then you reach for another candy. I can't stop thinking about you. I couldn't function without you, and the horrifying part was that I didn't want to function without. I don't like feeling out of control."

"I can tell," I commented.

"What made you change your mind?" she questioned. "You didn't seem as upset as I thought you might be when I said you had to stay. Actually you didn't seem upset at all." Stefa touched my face with her cold fingers. "Not that I mind at all."

"Mel gave me an ultimatum," I said. "Come back or Daria and Aidan weren't welcome home. As if they were somehow personally responsible for me. Mel said I didn't care, that I was hurting the pack and that I should come back unless I was going to stay for good."

"I mean, I gave you an ultimatum," Stefa remarked. "Same thing, only with Grant on the line."

I snorted. "I expect that sort of thing from you. You don't apologize for who you are. I told Mel the first day you were there that I couldn't take sides anymore. Things couldn't be continually the pack or you. I chose the pack and you took Grant. Aidan tried to beat me into a pulp. I got yelled at and lectured for doing the right thing. So I came to fix it and I still..."

I sat up suddenly. "I'm naïve about human things. But I'm not stupid, Stefa. I'm tired of being treated like a simple child."

"I know," Stefa replied. "You are many things, Conor, but you have never been simple. You feel more than ten humans. You care more than anyone I know. And that's what I liked about you first. You would be dumped into the cell beaten and bloody, couldn't talk, couldn't shift, and you were still the best friend I had had in years."

She curled up in my arms, as if she was the one about to sleep. I ran my fingers through her long hair, wondering what color it would be next month.

"Where are we going tonight?" I asked.

"Eh, probably Missouri," she said. "I want to pick up a few things in Kansas City and then we'll head east. Oh, and I have this adorable cabin by a lake in Illinois where we'll spend the winter; you'll love it. My whole schedule is planned with long hours of watching you chop wood shirtless."

"I just came from a farm, I don't need another," I remarked with a grin.

Stefa didn't respond, but just beamed at me. Her eyes seemed so much bluer in this light. I wondered briefly if Aidan and Daria were going to be all right, but there was nothing I could do for them. They hadn't wanted to stay, but they didn't know Stefa like I did. They would have been safe here.

"What?" I asked.

"Now we can actually date, sorry, court," she told me. "Though Conor, truth be told, courting implies that it's a just a trial period for the sake of discovering compatibility. This isn't a trial period."

"I know."

"And courting implies a slow moving relationship that I don't know if I can endure," she continued. "I haven't slept with anyone since I met you. That's a record for me."

I frowned at her. "I thought vampires didn't sleep."

Stefa laughed, sitting up. "No, we don't, but you know, it's euphemism for sex."

I leaned forward to kiss Stefa, caressing her soft cheek with my calloused fingers as I pressed my lips against hers. She leaned back, her hair falling against the pillows in a fiery puddle of color.

"I know what it means, I was teasing you," I murmured.

Her skin was cold compared to mine as I slowly undid each button of her shirt, kissing her exposed skin. She giggled and ripped my shirt open in a fluid motion, buttons flying everywhere. I tossed the shirt to the floor as she grabbed me by the belt loops of my jeans, pushing me to the bed as she sat on top of me.

"You've been hustling me, haven't you?" she said, between kisses. "I rather thought you'd be a little awkward at this."

I smiled, pulling Stefa closer to me.

"I'm a fast learner," I said. 

___

 hopefully I have cleared up some of Stefa's motivations. I love her. I think she's obsessive and scary, but I love her.

Thanks for reading!