“Why didn’t you tell me you were real? All those years I just thought you were my imaginary friend.”
“That’s the way it had to be.”
“Why? Who sets the rules? What exactly is it you want from me?”
“I have superiors just like everyone else. I go where I’m told.”
“And they sent you back to me?”
“Apparently they think you need more guidance than what you’re getting. I have to say I agree with them. Your file reads like a Buffy episode.”
“I make my own decisions Max.”
“Like sleeping with Aidan?” He tsked me. “That wasn’t a very good choice.”
“I don’t really care what you think. Up until a few minutes ago I didn’t think you were real.”
“You’re in trouble. That’s why I was sent back to you. Apparently more than you realize. There are big things coming and if you don’t make the right choices everything is going to be shot to hell. Starting with the Vampire.”
“Leave Michael alone, Max. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“He hasn’t exactly done anything right either. Why did you have to fall for a Vampire? They are treacherous down to the core of their being. There has never been a good Vampire, Georgie, you know that.”
“Stop calling me that, I’m not seven anymore.”
He paused before answering. “You’re right. You are a young woman now with a huge set of problems.”
“Everyone has problems.”
“Everyone isn’t you and your problems aren’t small.”
“Max…” I turned away and rubbed my forehead. My headache was horrible. “Can we not start in on my problems? I already know what they are.”
“You need to fix them.”
“I’ll move it right to the top of the list as soon as I deal with this headache.”
“I’m being serious.”
I rolled my eyes and headed to the bathroom. I grabbed the Tylenol and poured four into my hand. I went back out into the bedroom and over to the side table where a pitcher of water and a glass sat. I took my Tylenol and prayed it worked fast.
“Anything else?” I asked, draining my glass of the rest of its contents.
“Do you really want me to answer that?”
“Look, Max,” I put my glass down and looked at him, “I have a lot on my plate. I don’t know how to deal with half of it. And right now just isn’t the right time to sit around and…”
“Drop both of them. I told you. Neither of them are good for you. All though I do praise you for choosing your first time to be with someone normal, a mortal.”
“Aidan is off limits too.”
“Drop him Gee, before things get messy. And they will, very fast.”
“How do you know so much about all of this? You’ve been out of my life for years, years.”
“I keep tabs on you. I do it with all my favorites.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere. You know that.”
“I thought maybe that one might have changed.”
“Not a chance.”
“Then take my advice, drop Aidan. Drop them both.”
“I’ve already tried.”
“And I applaud your efforts but you didn’t try hard enough.”
“Really? Did you see what I went through? How I felt? It was heartbreaking.”
“And it’s going to be ten times worse if you don’t end it now,” he said sympathetically. “You’ll loose them both soon enough anyways.”
“That’s cryptic.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Then I’ll deal with it as it comes.”
“You’re not going to want to do that.”
I sighed. “And yet that’s what I’ll do. You know that.”
“You should really climb back up on that dresser, call him back, and break up with him. Let that be the end of it.”
“Why do you want me to break up with him so bad?”
“Because there are things I know that you don’t. Things that if you knew…you’ll thank me later.”
I shook my head. “Sorry. Can’t.”
Max sighed. “Then can we at least talk about Michael?”
“What about Michael?”
“He’s dangerous.”
I smiled and tried not to laugh. “I already knew that.”
“I mean really, really dangerous.”
“And you’re not? I saw—sort of saw you two go at it. You are just as dangerous as him.”
“That’s irrelevant…”
“No it’s not. If you want me to stop—whatevering with Michael because he’s ‘dangerous’ then the same should go for you.”
“He’s a Vampire, Gee! Deep down you know that’s…”
“Bad? Why do you think we refrained from dating?”
“Dating? Dating? You let him bite you. You let him drink your blood and bond you to him. Do you even know what that means?”
“I’ve been living my life, Max. I know what that means.”
“Let him numb the bond, Gee. It will go away for a few weeks at the most.”
“And I take it something important will be happening in the next couple of weeks?”
He nodded. “Something big.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m not giving up my bond.”
“Don’t be selfish.”
I was getting angry now. His degrading attitude was worse than my own.
“Max. I’m not being selfish. You want me to give up both of them but I can’t. I told Michael the same thing.”
“This is going to end badly, Gee.”
“For me, nothing is supposed to end well.”
He made a frustrating sound. “You are worse than when you were four.”
“Am I supposed to take that as a compliment?”
“No!” Max shouted.
I flinched and backed up. He realized he’d scared me and controlled the look on his face.
“Gee,” he came over and gripped my arms, “you’re about to get yourself into something…horrible. There will be tons of pain and your heart is going to break.”
I thought about it for a moment, the thought of loosing Aidan was…an inch above my tolerance level but loosing Michael, for real, that was a deal breaker. I wasn’t able to let him go on any level even though he’d left school and traveled to Vampire Domain to get away from the image of me with another guy.
I shook my head. “I can’t. Aidan, maybe, but not Michael. Never Michael.”
He sighed. “Gee…”
“No Max, no. And we’re done. I’m done talking to you.”
“Well I’m not done talking to you.”
“Too fucking bad!”
My anger boiled over and I reached out and pushed him. He stumbled back looking very surprised.
“Get out.”
His face hardened. “No. I’m not leaving until you concede something.”
“I’m not giving up Michael and Aidan is off the table right now. What else do you want me to do?”
“Break the bond.”
I rolled my eyes. “Why are you so intent on splitting me from the men in my life?”
“I haven’t mentioned all the men in your life. I would never tell you to give up Luke.”
“That’s because I can’t. He’s assigned to me just like you.”
“Oh there are ways to get Luke reassigned.”
“So you just want me to give up the guys I’m intimate with?”
“The last time I checked you haven’t been intimate with Michael since he left the school.”
Well that was promising. At least they couldn’t see what Michael and I did in the dreams. I cocked my head to the side.
“Your point?”
“You were right when you told Aidan that the road you walk is a lonely one. You’re not meant to do it with another person. You’ll just end up losing them too.”
“Then I will. If it’s true, if I’m really meant to walk the rest of my life alone, then it will happen. I’m done pushing people away just because society deems me unworthy of everyone. I’ve made sacrifices, Max, tons of them. I’m done.”
“Then you will lose everyone,” Max said sympathetically.
“That’s if I don’t die first.”
At the end of thirty minutes, Max still didn’t leave. I exited both my bedroom and the suite, closing the door behind me. I went to the door directly across the hall. My door opened and I turned around to look at Max.
“Georgiana, get back here,” Max said carefully, finally figuring out where I was going.
I turned back and was about to knock when the door opened. Michael filled the little space there was. He looked down at me, completely ignoring Max.
“Can I come in?” I asked.
Michael looked at my open doorway, the corner of his mouth twitching up in a half smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He looked back at me.
“Sure.”
He opened the door wider. I ducked under his arm and caught one last glimpse of Max fuming in my doorway. Michael closed the door with a chuckle.
“Angel boy giving you hell?”
“He wouldn’t leave.”
“Then why didn’t you call for Luke?”
“Do you want me to do that? Because I can.”
I walked over to his couch and sat down, covering my face.
“How’s your headache?”
“Worse. I took four Tylenol about twenty minutes ago.”
“Maybe you should take something stronger.”
“I don’t have anything stronger. I’ll just have to deal with it and remember not to let two other people besides myself in my head at once again.”
“Maybe you should try and get some sleep. You didn’t sleep at all last night.”
“How do you know?”
“I can feel when you’re restless. Bedroom’s that way.”
I looked over at him. “I’m not sleeping in your bed, Michael.”
“It’s just like yours. All this is on loan to me as well.”
“And they just conveniently put me across the hall from you?”
He just shrugged and sat down on the couch next to me. He grabbed the book off the end table. I rested my head on the arm of the couch and stretched out, putting my feet on his lap.
“The bed would be more comfortable.”
“I’m fine,” I said, closing my eyes.
I turned my head to the side and tried to go to sleep. Only problem was, as comfortable as I seemed, I couldn’t go to sleep. My brain wouldn’t switch off. I kept thinking about things and the fact that Michael was only a few inches away wasn’t helping. Finally I sighed and opened my eyes. I looked over at the clock and found that only fifteen minutes had passed. Michael was still in the same position, book in hand and reading. His free arm rested across my ankles and only moved when he needed to turn the page. I tried to read the title but it was in some language I didn’t know.
“What are you reading?”
He looked up from the book and his eyes seemed to bore into mine. “That’s not what you really want to ask, is it?”
I shook my head. He closed the book and waited.
“Why does everything have to be so complicated?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Everything that happens or will happen or did happen has this long explanation of why it happens. I want to know why it has to be that complicated. Why can’t it just be simple and easy?”
“Things were never meant to be easy, Georgiana, if they were then people would lose interest in life, everything would become dull and predictable. Would you want to live in a world like that?”
“What’s so wrong with normal, dull, and predictable?”
He frowned. “What’s this about, Georgiana? Does this have something to do with Max? Or the boy?”
He rarely ever called Aidan by his name. I found that interesting but then I imagined myself in Michael’s position. Would I want to refer to the other girl by her name? No. I’d want her to appear as if she was nothing.
“No. It has nothing to do with Max or Aidan.”
Understanding crossed his face. He looked down at his hands. “You mean me.” He looked back up at me.
I nodded and waited for him to reply. I knew what he was going to say. We’d had this talk before. I was just looking for something different this time.
“Would you rather not have fallen in love with me?” he asked quietly.
I hadn’t been expecting that response. I stared at him in disbelief.
“Because sometimes I wish you hadn’t.”