CHAPTER 29 - Love is in the Air
I was washing out the conditioner when I felt the breeze, my first thought was ‘vampire’ but it was still daylight. So I forced myself to relax and breathe again.
I was about to laugh at my paranoia when I turned. I froze. Outside the glass shower screen was a silhouette. The steamy glass prevented me from seeing any detail. Nothing moved. I didn’t move nor did the silhouette.
OK, be brave, if it was a vampire and it meant me harm I would be dead by now, right? But who else would be stalking me in the shower? Then I noticed a small movement. Almost like it was shuffling it’s feet. I released the breath I was holding and allowed my shoulders to drop. Using my hand I wiped the glass revealing Scott’s face.
Scott, what did he want now? I pushed my face back into the water closing my eyes and letting the droplets wash away my tears. Was he back for round 2?
The shower door opened and as I turned in surprise two hands cupped my face. He brought his lips to mine and kissed me, crushing his body against mine. I vaguely heard the shower door swing back closing us in. His hands left my face and travelled down my skin pulling me closer to him. His wet clothes clung to his skin and rubbed against mine. He was still fully dressed in the clothes he had walked out on me wearing.
Something had obviously changed. He kissed me with his whole body, like nothing else mattered. My arms wrapped around his shoulders and through his hair. Tears still streaming down my face I kissed him back with just as much desperation.
The cold tiles at my back and the hot water trickling down my front as Scott wordlessly enveloped me in his love. It felt so good. It felt so right. I loved him so much.
I’ll get you the roses later.
One of his hands disappeared and without parting from me or interrupting our kiss the water was off. He pulled away from me enough to peel off his drenched t-shirt. I watched as the fabric separated from his skin rolling up his body and over his head. Only to be dropped on the shower floor. Then his thumbs hooked into the waistband of the soft pants. With a little kicking, fighting and cursing they soon joined the shirt in a mushy pile. Then his attention was back on me. He picked me up cupping my bottom as he wrapped my legs around his waist. Using his back the shower door was flung open and the cool air touched our skin. I must have shivered because the next thing I knew a fluffy towel was draped around us both. His lips never left mine. One hand kept me fixed in place while the other must have the towel. He carried me towards the bed.
“Scott, I can’t, not yet.” I whispered through his kisses.
“Please Natalie, Tell me you love me again,” he breathed as he laid me on the bed. “I need you. Let me show you how much I love you.”
“I love you Scott. And yes, I need you too. But you just walked out on me Scott, and with everything else... I don’t know.” My voice broke and my tears dripped off my jawbone.
His face dropped and he wrapped his arms around me pulling me into to his chest. “I love you Natalie, I love you so much it hurts. I keep messing everything up. I saw you with him and I, I got jealous. I can’t... Please Natalie, forgive me. I just can’t be without you.”
“Scott I just spent last night thinking you were dying, thinking I wouldn’t see you again. Listening to your pain and not being able to help you. Right now I just want to hold you and know that we are together. I want to know that you love me and that we are going to survive this.”
“I do love you,” he smiled at me gently and nodded then he held me under the covers and kissed my hair. We held each other in silence as his fingers softly made patterns on my back.
“Why didn’t you tell me he was your father?” he whispered into my hair.
“I tried! Remember the Star Wars reference?”
“I have never seen Star Wars Natalie.”
“No! Really? It’s like a classic. How can you not have seen it?”
He shook his head at me and rolled his eyes, “Such a nerd! Just as well I love you!”
“You are one to talk, Jock!” I rolled my eyes at him before we laughed softly at each other. “Then who told you?”
“My resurrected-from-the-grave Mother,” He saw my expression and added, “We buried her when I was six. But I only saw her once or twice a year before that. Now I suppose I know why. She’s Egregore.”
“Yes, I know. I need to tell you everything Scott. I want you to understand and I want you to hear it from me.” He nodded so I told him what happened from the start. As I spoke he tensed and I felt his emotions but he didn’t interrupt.
There was silence when I finished.
“So you kissed Jari and this Aze?”
“Yes, but I was thinking of you.”
He frowned and pulled me into his kiss, “Mine,” then he kissed my neck, “Mine,” then he kiss me in other random and not-so-random places always followed by a “Mine.”
“Be mine Natalie, be all mine? I love you too much to share you.”
“Don’t be jealous, I am yours Scott but you don’t own me. You have to trust me because kissing them isn’t the same as kissing you. I love you and I would never cheat on you.”
“I know. I am sorry I doubted you. Please don’t doubt me. I don’t remember all of what happened at the lake, I drank too much. I was so miserable. That was wrong. I have really stuffed this all up. Everything bad that has happened has all been my fault. I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t know how you can forgive me.”
“I forgive you because I love you. Being in love means that you deal with these things, you don’t run away. I need you to stick by me if I am going to stick by you. Let me explain next time.”
“We have both done our share of running from this haven’t we? Ok, no more. We face this together now. OK?” His eyes smouldered into mine and he kissed me as our naked bodies came together. He moaned softly, “I gather you are not ready to...” he let the words trail away as the lust in his eyes and the gentle nudging against my thigh made it clear what he wanted.
I laughed nervously, “One day I will be all yours but not yet.”
With a small groan he fell back against the bed, “And I will wait for you.”
I picked myself up on my elbow and looked down at his face. Tracing my fingers over his face, his eyes held mine and we smiled at each other. Then I skimmed my fingers down his chest carefully avoiding the bite marks.
“Do they bother you?”
“Yes,” I looked back to his face, “They hurt you, they took something from you that they had no right to, and they used you to get to Jari.” I winced as I gently touched a bite mark, “Yes it bothers me.”
“No, I mean the scars. I’m a mess Natalie. I’ll never be what I was again. These will mark me for life. And well the girls used to like my skin.”
“I am sure they did!” I laughed, “You will always be perfect to me. The scars don’t bother me. I just don’t want to hurt you anymore than they already have. Do they bother you?”
“No, they will serve as a reminder what happens when I stuff up.”
“It’s probably not too late, if you are having second thoughts. I will still love you if you decide that you don’t want to do this whole Watcher thing.”
He laughed, “We are a team, my Qaddis, and we are going to kick vampire butt, or so I am told.”
Umm, excuse me but you are both required in the living room.
“I have to get your Father out of my head! It’s just not right! We are being paged because my brain is now an intercom system.”
Scott laughed. I had told him everything so he knew that Adam and Jari were linked with me.
I put on some of Scott’s clothes with the legs rolled up. Scott’s eyes showed his reaction to seeing me in his clothes. He grasped me and pulled me into a kiss but before he could drag me back towards the bed I grappled free and ran for the door. So we were laughing and teasing each other as we walked out to find the group waiting for us.
“Nice look angel. I bet you would good in my clothes too.” Aze picked me up in a huge bear hug with my feet dangling off the ground.
He smirked and was about to kiss me when I flinched under the weight of Scott’s anger and the fury that exploded in my mind.
“Aze, I think you should meet Scott, my Irin. Now be a good boy and put me down and shake hands.”
Aze was still smirking as he lowered me to my feet but as he leaned in to plant a kiss on my lips, Scott was between us glaring at him. Aze laughed and offered Scott his hand, “Hi I’m Aze, you can call me ‘the competition’.”
I looked at Scott and in a resigned voice said, “It seems that Jari was holding back on the sleazy obnoxious behaviour, family connection you know. Aze doesn’t have that limitation.” Then I turned to Adam, “How do we unlink?”
“No. You might need him.” Samy was sitting at the glass dining table looking glamorous with perfect hair and makeup.
“My mind isn’t Grand Central Station.”
“Trust me I would rather you stayed out of my mind too, especially during key intimate moments.” Adam growled softly.
“Sorry about that.” I blushed and Samy suddenly became interested in her coffee while Aze clearly worked out what was being said and fell around laughing.
"How is Jariel holding up?” she asked as she glared at Aze.
“Have you ever heard the song ‘Great balls of fire’?” I winced.
“Ohh that’s bad. Better your mind than mine!” Aze chuckled and handed me a cup of coffee but didn’t offer one to Scott.
“I assume that now,” She looked at me accusingly as she emphasised the word ‘now’, “You have told Scott everything regarding the situation. Or are you holding more back from him?”
“Give it a rest Samy! I don’t a lecture from you nor do I think you are qualified for relationship counselling!” My voice was low and firm and I met her stare. Scott took my hand and moved in closer to me.
Samy looked at us and shrugged, “Fine, now ask Jari how the diseases are going?”
Tell her that the Spanish Influenza is no picnic, but it seems to be working. They aren’t drawing much from me and it is making them sick when they do. A vampire with a cold is not a pretty picture.
I relayed the information to Samy who nodded. Then she started to talk on her phone. Scott went into the kitchen, and Aze appeared in front of me and without a word picked me up and started to waltz around the house with me, my feet dangling and ignoring my protests.
Natalie, patch me through to Scott please.
I have always aspired to being a receptionist... Scott, I have Jari on line two, do you want to pick up?
What? Jari?
Scott, Aze feigns to the left. You remember what I taught you.
As I struggled to free myself from Aze I saw the slow smile on Scott’s face as he stepped up and one quick move he was in between Aze and me. I didn’t see exactly what he did because I was behind Scott but Aze ended up on the floor rubbing his jaw.
“You are no competition. Stay away from my Qaddis.” Scott’s voice was flat and clear and left no doubt that I was his. I felt the pride wash over me. He turned around and kissed me.
Thanks Jari, are you alright Natalie?
Very much so! Might need more kisses though just to be sure.
Love is in the air, in the whisper of the trees, Love is in the air, in the thunder of the sea, and I don’t know if I’m dreaming...
“Ohh, I see what you mean about the singing. Can you turn him off or at least give him requests. What is that? Seventies Disco?” Scott shook his head. He left the room and came back with an iPod. “Educate him, please!”
I put one earpiece in and pressed play. The music was good and soon I had Jari singing along with the Black Eyed Peas, Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance.
“I have arranged to move the gym here,” Samy was saying to Aze, I caught her glance at us as Scott was kissing me gently up the neck. “You will have to work hard, no school and no distractions.”
“But football training and Athletics are on...”
“No School, but what about my classes...”
“No distractions. You both have fittingly just caught Mono.” She laughed at her own joke. “You will live here and train here.” She then looked me up and down and smirked, “I have arranged for some new clothes to be delivered for you Qaddis. An improvement on your existing wardrobe from what I have seen.”
“Are you always this unpleasant or are you turning on the charm for me?”
She just laughed and her eyes sparkled at me. “You look after my son or you will find out just how much of a bitch I can be!”
“Thanks Mum, I can look after myself you know.”
“Yes, so we have seen. And I will tan your hide if I even hear about you looking at other girls from now on. Work your problems out, cheating on her won’t help! And I have changed the locks around here. It seems that there are a few house keys missing.”
Scott’s mouth moved but no sound came out.
“A few?” I looked at Scott.
Aze meanwhile was almost in pain with tears streaming down his face, he was laughing so hard.
“Sorry, I have to go, you all know what you have to do. Qaddis contact me if you need me. Scott be good to her, she is something special, I like her.” She threw me a genuine smile then turned to Adam and they embraced in a very intimate way, “I will be back as soon as I can, we have unfinished business.”
Then she turned to leave out of the front door. As she opened it a delivery man stood there with a dozen long stemmed red roses. “Ohh that’s right, I took the liberty of ordering these, just in case they were needed,” and then she was gone.
Scott took the roses and with an arm around my waist steered me into the kitchen. He put the flowers into a vase and then kissed me.
“I love you Natalie, I will be your Irin and I will earn your trust.”
“Yes you will, Scott, yes you will.”
Aze clapped his hands together then rubbed them with a smug grin on his face, “Come on kids, we have a lot of work to do if we are going to rescue Jari, save the world and get me laid – and not necessarily in that order!”