Austin's P.O.V.
I woke up to a growling sound. My eyes snapped open and I immediately glanced around me, looking for danger. I heard the growling again and I looked down at Carmen. It seemed to be coming from her. I froze when I looked down at her. Carmen's lips seemed to be blue and her skin was so pale. Tears ran down her cheeks. She must be having a bad dream. The growling sounded and I glanced down at Carmen's stomach. I put my ear against it. Sure enough, a moment later, it growled. She must be hungry, I thought. When was the last time she ate. Hmmm. I actually can't remember her eating at all, ever since the day she bought me from that auction house. Things have been so crazy lately that I forgot about it. How could I forget about feeding her?
"Carmen, sweetheart, wake up," I whispered, unwrapping one of my arms from around her so that I could stroke her face. She didn't respond. More tears rolled down her face. "Wake up, love. Come one, we have to get you back home," I said a little louder, kissing her forehead. She still didn't move. Again, tears spilled from her eyes. I started to get worried. I shook her shoulder gently and called her name a few more times, but when she still didn't react I scooped her up and flew towards the house.
I wonder if she's sick. I wouldn't be surprised if she was. She's been lying outside all night, soaking wet, crying her eyes out, sleeping on me, which is pretty much the same as sleeping next to ice. She had dirt stains all over her and her clothes were bloody and torn. She looked like hell. I burst into my house and took her to my bed. She was still unconscious. Running through the halls quickly, I raided the kitchen. It was stocked with human food. Just because we're vampires doesn't mean that we don't have to eat, too. We just didn't have to eat as often as humans. Maybe twice a month. However, we had to drink blood way more often than that.
I quickly heated up some chicken noodle soup and grabbed some crackers. I downed a few bottles of blood quickly and then ran back up the stairs. I sat the bowl down on the bedside table and crawled into the bed beside Carmen. She looked so tortured, even in her sleep. Her face was wet and every now and then I heard her whimper. I wonder what she's dreaming about.
"Carmen," I said softly. She didn't respond. "Carmen!" I called, shaking her shoulder gently. "Sweetheart, wake up." Her head rolled to the side and then her eyes started to slowly flutter open. I sighed in relief. I was starting to think she was never going to get up. I stroked her beautiful face, wiping the tears off of her cheeks, while she looked around her in confusion.
"Austin?" she asked uncertainly, looking at me. I smiled at her and then wrapped her in a warm hug.
"Thank god you're awake," I whispered, still holding her.
"How did you find me?" she asked in a raspy voice. I laid her back down on the pillows and moved to retrieve the still steaming bowl of soup. I helped her sit up against the headboard and then handed her the food. She accepted gladly.
"I traced your scent. It led all the way to that hill you were sleeping on." I noticed her face twist when I mentioned it, but it straightened out quickly. I was hesitant to ask her this next question as I watched her tear into the crackers like a wild animal. She must really be starving. I felt so horrible. "Carmen, there were two graves on the hill." She stiffened. "Do you know who they belong to?"
She looked down and stayed silent. A few more tears spilled down her cheeks. She didn't answer. I reached my hand out and wiper her tears away, then pulled her chin up so that I could look her in the eye.
"It's alright. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I assured her, though I was dying to know. She sniffed and looked down again, then glanced back up to me.
"They belong to my mom and sister," she choked out in a broken voice, the tears falling freely now. It was my turn to freeze. I was so surprised. Why would her mother and sister's graves be all the way out here? It was a very long way from where she lived. Or used to live. And could it really just be a coincidence that they were buried so close to my house?
I glanced at Carmen again and saw that she was practically bawling. My own pain started again as I thought of the reasons for her tears and I removed my hand from her chin. After setting aside the food I pulled her into my arms and rocked from side to side. She sobbed into my chest and a few of my own silent tears fell onto her shoulder. We stayed this way for hours, just crying with each other, rocking gently or not moving at all. I would murmur a few soothing words in her ear every now and then, but they never helped. Her sobs only seemed to increase and that worried me, but she had to do this. She had to let it all out. Keeping her emotions bottled up would never help.
It surprised me when she started to stir and then reached up to grab my face, pulling it down to hers. Her lips met mine and they were so fervent, so desperate, that I didn't pull away. I kissed her back, trying to be gentle and call her, but her kisses were so passionate and needy that that was hard to do.
Carmen started to lean back, pulling me on top of her. I could still feel her tears against my cheeks, but she continued to kiss me deeply, letting her hands run down my chest, to the buttons on my shirt. I froze and pulled back, forcing her to break the kiss and her hold on me.
I can't believe she wanted this. She just lost her baby and now she wants to have sex with me. I couldn't do it. I didn't want that. I mean what if she got pregnant again? Wait.... what if that's why she's doing this. Maybe she wants to get pregnant again. No. I had to talk some sense in her. She doesn't want this. I'm not just going to have sex with her so that she could get pregnant again. It would have to mean something. She wasn't thinking straight right now either. She was distraught, in pain, and traumatized. It would practically be taking advantage of her.
She looked at me with hurt, teary eyes. "What is it?" she asked me, trying to reach my lips again.
"No, Carmen," I said firmly, holding her shoulders and looking her dead in the eye. I was serious. If I did this she would surely wake up in the morning and hate me forever for what I did. Once she was able to think straight she would probably blame it all on me and then want to leave me. And it would be my fault for letting it happen. So I wasn't going to do this.
"Why not?" Carmen asked in a wavering voice. My resolve wavered just as much as her voice upon seeing her face. I struggled to keep it in place.
"You're not thinking straight right now. We shouldn't do this. It would be wrong," I tried to reason, searching her face warily as it grew angrier and angrier with each word I uttered after that first sentence.
"I'm not thinking straight?! What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, outraged. Uh oh. I've offended her.
"Carmen, I didn't mean that.... I-I" I stuttered, trying to find words. "I just meant that you are hurt and broken. You need to take sometime to heal before you do anything major. What if you got pregnant again?" I asked her. My suspicious gaze quickly faded when I saw the honest shock on her face.
"Oh," she said and then relaxed back in the pillows. "I didn't think of that." Her face looked so defeated that I couldn't resist kissing her. She took advantage of that, snaking her tongue through my lips, before I pulled away.
Sighing, she leaned back again. "Austin, just because I'm in pain doesn't mean that I can't think straight. I know what I want. I want you. In every way. You have been here for me through all of this, helping me. You helped me get out of that house, turning against your own father, and you helped get me out of mine. I just wanted to show you how much I appreciate that," she said, her eyes searching my face. I looked back into them and saw so much pain and need that all of my defenses crumbled and I groaned, giving up.
She sensed my defeat and immediately pulled me to her, crushing her lips on mine. Her breathing was uneven, for once because of the passion and not the tears. I kissed her back just as passionately, exploring her mouth with my tongue and letting my hands slide under her shirt. As our kisses grew more and more urgent I took her shirt off, throwing it to the side. She smiled in the kiss, realizing that she was going to get what she wanted, and moved her hands back to my shirt.
Carmen got through all of the buttons and ran her hands over my hard chest, making me shudder. She pushed it off my shoulders and then tosses it off the bed. I slid off her pants and then quickly unhooked her bra, getting more and more excited. That made me nervous. Carmen's tiny fingers worked to undo my pants and then slid them down slowly. I helped her take them off and then we both paused. She was just in her panties while I was only in my boxers. It was time to make the decision. Did she want to go further or stop now?
She only seemed to deliberate for half a second before she was stripping off the last piece of clothing I had on. I allowed this and then pulled her panties off slowly, giving her enough time to object if she wanted to. She just watched me soberly. I smiled as my eyes took in her naked form. She was more beautiful than I had ever seen her. Of course, I had had sex with her before, but I was too busy hating myself for what I was doing at the time, that it wasn't enjoyable at all. I'm sure Carmen hated it, too. Well, of course she did, I raped her.
The thought made me shudder and Carmen, taking it as a sign of passion, pulled me on top of her, kissing me fiercely. We made out for a few minutes and then I positioned myself over her, thrusting inside of her. She moaned my name and pulled me closer as I pulled in and out of her. It didn't seem to be hurting her, I observed gladly. I started to move faster and faster and she kept moaning, kissing me at times or just laying back and closing her eyes. I trailed kisses all over her body while her hands massaged mine the entire time.
We both screamed in pleasure as our orgasms came and went and then I rolled off of her, exhausted. She was breathing hard, as was I. I pulled her close to me and for a while we just snuggled into each other. Carmen closed her eyes and curled into a ball against my chest. I smiled at her position and closed my eyes.
"Don't hate me in the morning," I whispered, just as I was about to fall asleep.
"Never," was her sleepy response.
I grinned and pecked her on the lips, which startled her, then closed my eyes and fell into a deep, blissful sleep. For the first time in years I felt truly happy.
Carmen's P.O.V.
I actually felt sort of happy as I drifted off to sleep in Austin's arms. We had just made love for the first time and it was great. I was glad my first time was with Austin. I mean, technically, we had already had sex and I wasn't a virgin, even when we first did it, but none of those times counted. This was the first time I did it by choice. My choice. I wanted to do this and it was great. I'm glad I did. It felt so wonderful! I was confused when Austin said not to hate him in the morning, though. Why would I hate him? Did he do something to me? I started to worry, but quickly brushed the thoughts off. No, Austin would never do something to me. I'll ask him about it later.
I woke up the next morning in an empty bed. Where did Austin go? As I thought this the door creaked open and I rolled over to see Austin walk in with a tray off food. There were pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, rolls, orange juice. There was even a vase with a rose in it. It was perfect.
"What's that for?" I asked groggily, smiling.
"It's for you, silly," he said coming over and setting the tray across my lap. I licked my lips and my stomach growled. It had been so long since I had eaten real food. It wasn't until Austin had brought me the soup last night that I had realized exactly how long that had been. I hadn't eaten much of it, though, and I had worked it all off later, so I was still starving.
"Thank you. This looks delicious!" Austin beamed at me and then bent down to give me a sweet kiss.
"Good morning," he said softly. I smiled against his lips. This felt so good. So right. Having Austin here, eating breakfast with him in his bed, living in a house together, having him kiss me every morning. It was something I could definitely get used to.
"Good morning," I said and kissed him again before eagerly turning back to my food. I groaned as I took a bite of the pancakes. They tasted so good! "I didn't know you could cook," I commented as I dug into the eggs.
"Well, when I used to sneak out of the house and come here, I would have to cook all of my own food. I snuck out quite often, so I learned how to cook pretty much everything. I even helped the cooks in the castle prepare a few meals. They say I could be a gourmet chef," he said, smirking.
"Well, they were right. This is amazing!" I said and quickly scarfed down the rest of my pancakes.
"I'm glad you think so," he said, blushing slightly. I grinned and kiss his slightly pink cheek, then finished eating the rest of my food.
"So... about last night," he started hesitantly and I froze, looking up. I hadn't thought about it much this morning, but now that I did, the memories came rushing back, making my cheeks flame. "Do you have any regrets?" he asked me, catching me off guard.
"Um... no. No, actually, I don't. Do you?" I asked, suddenly nervous.
"Of course not," he said, looking relieved. I smiled and relaxed. "So you don't hate me?" he asked.
"Why would I hate you?" I questioned, perplexed.
"I completely took advantage of you last night. You were hurt and emotional. You weren't thinking straight. I shouldn't of taken advantage of the situation like that," he said, bowing his head and looking ashamed.
Okay, what the hell is he talking about? He didn't take advantage of anything. I was thinking perfectly straight, thank you, and I am very capable of making my own decisions. Just because I was in a lot of pain, didn't mean that I hadn't wanted it. Needed it. I wanted him and I still do. I always will. And how did he take advantage of the situation? If anything, I took advantage of him!
"You didn't take advantage of anything," I assured him. "I knew exactly what I was doing. Last night was the best night of my life and I will never hate you for it or regret doing it. I came onto you, not the other way around. Besides, I was perfectly capable of saying no if I wanted to, but I didn't." Austin stared at me with doubtful eyes and I sighed. "I thought you didn't have any regrets."
"I don't. I'm just... a little nervous," he said, looking away again.
"Nervous about what?" I asked.
"What if I got you pregnant again?" he whispered, his voice ashamed and afraid.
I froze. Oh no. He had a point! What if he did get me pregnant again? What was I going to do? I felt fine right now. I wasn't throwing up or anything, my stomach seemed to be the same size, I didn't feel nauseous. Last time I got pregnant I was sick the next morning. I definitely didn't feel sick now. Far from it, actually. I felt perfectly fine. For once I wasn't hurting.
"Last time I got pregnant I started having morning sickness immediately that next day. I don't even feel faintly nauseous right now. But if you want we can go to the store and get a pregnancy test or something," I said, trying to reassure him. I was about 99.76% sure that I wasn't pregnant. Still there was a .24% chance that I was pregnant, so I would do what I could to find out.
I really didn't want to be pregnant again. I just lost my first baby and I was far from over that. I don't know how to love another. I don't know where I'm going to find the strength to take care of it. I needed more time to mourn.
"Okay," Austin said, cutting into my thoughts. "We'll go to a store nearby and get a pregnancy test and I'll let you shop around a bit for anything you need. We'll get a movie or something."
"Sounds good," I said and smiled. He smiled half-heartedly back at me. I downed the last of my orange juice and then looked at my tray. It was completely empty.
"You sure were hungry," Austin said.
"Yeah, I haven't eaten in a while," I said, rubbing my now full stomach.
Austin's face clouded. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry about that. Things have been so hectic lately that I completely forgot."
"It's okay," I said. Really, I didn't even notice
"No, it's not. I should have-" he started to say but I cut him off.
"Really, Austin, it's fine. I didn't even notice it either. I wasn't even hungry. Or I didn't realize I was. So I didn't suffer at all." He started to say something else and I cut him off again. "Austin, I'm fine. The important thing is that I've eaten now. Thank you for the food."
"You're welcome," he sighed. "I'll take this down to the kitchen," he said, scooping up my tray. I smiled and then grabbed my rose.
"I think I'll keep this," I said, closing my eyes as I smelled it. Austin grinned and bent down to kiss me lovingly on the lips.
"I love you," I said. It was the first time I had said those words and they felt so good to finally get out. I meant them, too.
Austin looked startled at first, but then he smiled a smile so big I thought it would break his face. "I love you, too," he said and then kissed me passionately.
I pulled away a few seconds later and he grabbed the tray again, which had been set down during our kiss. I watched as he walked out the door, closing it softly behind him.
A few seconds passed and then I suddenly felt warm air brush across my skin. I looked around, confused, to see that three men were now standing beside my bed.
"Grab her!" one of them shouted. I didn't even have time to scream before one of the guys thick hands was clamped over my mouth and around my arms. His grip was so tight it was surely leaving bruises.
"Let's go," the man in the middle said. I looked at him to see that he had blonde, almost white, spiky hair and a long lightening shaped scar running down his ugly wrinkled face. His lips were twisted into a snarl and one of his eyes were blue while the other was a white. The eye that had a white iris was completely blacked out. There was no white where there was supposed to be. It was really creepy.
The other guy was quite handsome looking. He had red hair and a muscular body with brown eyes. The guy that held me had dark brown hair and blue eyes. I wonder why both of those guys were so hot and the middle guy was so ugly. They were obviously all vampires because they all had fangs. I thought all vampires were supposed to be hot. Apparently not.
The red headed guy and the ugly guy suddenly started to shimmer and then they disappeared. What the-? I didn't have a chance to ponder anymore before my vision was suddenly cut off and I felt like I was rocking back and forth, like on a ship. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.
My vision came back a second later and I saw that we were in a dark place, filled with stones. It was very cold in here. The place resembled a cave. Upon closer inspection I saw that there were torture devises everywhere. There was a ball and chain thing that looked like a whip with a spiky ball on the end, ropes and chains were all over the walls, there was a torture chair that had spikes covering it and a few plain wooden frames with ropes tied to them. I was horrified to actually see a few corpses hanging on the walls.
I started to struggle, getting more and more afraid, when I suddenly heard and evil laugh. I looked up and saw a dark figure in the shadows. Slowly, he walked forward and by the little bit of light there was from the torches lining the walls I could see his face.
Marcus.
He crossed the room quickly and came to stand in front of me, where the dark haired, muscly guy was still holding me. He smirked at me, evilly, his eyes raking my body, and I started to shake with fear.
"Welcome to the Middle Ages."