"Blade," I poked him awake in his cheek and neck. He groaned, pressing his face against my neck.
"No," he mumbled, "Let me sleep."
"I did. Now let me see you," I said, shoving him off of me so I could sit up.
He rolled onto his back and covered his eyes. "See with your eyes. You don't have to shove me. I was comfortable."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I rolled my eyes, pushing the blankets down before I crawled over him. I started pushing his shirt up and that seemed to wake him up.
"Whoa! What are you doing?" his eyes flew open and he slapped his hands over mine.
"Relax. I'm not planning on doing anything like that anytime soon. I wanted to see if you were okay," I swatted his hands away and pushed his shirt up. "Can I—?" I gestured at his stomach.
He shrugged. "Go ahead. Don't complain if I get blood on the sheets."
"That's gross," I grimaced as he sat up. I unwrapped the bandage from his stomach and tossed it away, making sure to get it on the floor. I winced when I saw his stomach.
He looked down, scrutinizing it for a moment. "Huh. Not as bad as I thought it'd be."
It wasn't a gaping hole, and it wasn't bleeding either. But it was still a nasty looking black scab with bruises around the edges.
"Blade," I said firmly, arms folded as I stared at him.
"I'm not biting you. Can't we just...lie here for a while?" he peeled his shirt off completely. He touched his stomach, wincing a little. "I can hunt when I feel better."
"Oh you're so stubborn," I muttered, banging my forehead against his shoulder. "You've done it before."
"That was different," he protested.
"Not really," I said dryly, "But fine. Since you're being a baby we'll just lie here. But I swear if you don't go hunting I will stab myself with something and make it look like an accident."
He gave me a weird look. "That sounded really...suicidal."
"You know what I meant." I rolled off of him and lay on my back, lifting my arm to my face. "Hey look at that." I grinned, touching my black tattoo. The rash like red around the edges that spread up to my shoulder had faded to a soft pink color.
I reached for his arm, and while his was still a much darker black than my pink was, it was a lot better looking than before.
"Good." He relaxed a little, touching the left side of my face softly with one fingertip. "We're going to stop who ever is doing this."
"We?" My eyebrow rose, "I wasn't aware you were including me in this plan."
He smirked. "Yeah well you're the one who's getting all the warnings it seems, so I figure it'd be ideal to have you with me. Besides, you're my sidekick."
I didn't smile though. If anything that just made me feel worse. When I told them what happened, I kind of skimmed over details...and didn't even mention my nightmare...
"What's wrong?" he asked, a frown pulling at his lips.
"Um...I didn't really...tell you guys everything," I said slowly, fiddling with my fingers awkwardly as I turned to face the ceiling.
He propped himself up on his elbow, clearly angry but I could see he was reining it in. "What exactly did you leave out?"
"Er...Jill?"
"Jill?" he echoed doubtfully.
"Yeah. She remembers Halloween." I licked my lips, struggling to find a way to explain it. "We don't know why but she remembers."
"What else does she know? I have the feeling you're holding back," he shot me a look, clearly telling me I better tell him everything or I'd be in major trouble.
I winced. "She kind of...guessed...that you were...are a vampire. And she's kind of the reason I'm here. She kept that vampire from feeding off of me."
"He tried to bite you?" he hissed.
"Yeah. He said he wasn't allowed too, after he cut up my face, but that no one would know...so he was about to but then Jill showed up."
"I can't believe you guys thought you could take on a vampire. You could have been killed!" he nearly shouted.
"I get that Blade! I have a very good reminder," I gestured at my face, glaring at him. "But it was either attempt to fight him or let him feed off me. Either way, we hurt him just enough for us to get away which was just fine by me. I rather take the chance than be the blood bank to every vampire that comes around. Oh, and by the way, he sends his regards to you." I added bitterly.
He sat up, rubbing his temples as he breathed deeply for a moment. After a while, looking calmer now, he looked back at me. "What else did he say?"
I shook my head. "I don't know. It didn't make any sense. He kept saying I was doing it wrong; that I wasn't going 'according to plan'."
"What plan?" he frowned.
"Like I know," I snorted. "All I know is that apparently him cutting my face open was supposed to help. He told me not to do anything, that everything would fall into place by itself. Which kind of contradicted what he told me beforehand..."
Blade pursed his lips, a wrinkle appearing between his eyebrows as he thought, face creased. "This doesn't make any sense," he said finally.
I started clapping, "Bravo! Thank you for pointing out what I already know."
"We need a vacation," he decided. Suddenly he slapped his forehead. "Fuck! I knew I was forgetting something!" He scrambled off my bed but I grabbed him by the arm, stopping him.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" I asked, completely confused.
"I'll be right back. I swear." He drew an X over his chest, "Cross my heart and hope to die."
"Not funny."
"You know what I mean. Anyways I'll be right back, I have to get something." He untangled himself from me and rushed out my bedroom door. I waited for a moment, attempting to untangle my hair with my fingers, quickly realizing how shitty I must look. I ran my fingers over my scarred face, feeling the rough scabs. I grimaced, not liking the feeling at all. I could just imagine what my mother would say if she saw me. How would I even explain that?
Blade suddenly came back, hands behind his back. I regarded him suspiciously.
"What are you hiding?" I asked he sat back on my bed next to me, long legs folded neatly.
"Well...I had this fucking amazing plan for your birthday...but as you know it kind of fell through," he scrunched his face up, "But I can keep at least one part of the plan. I just forgot about it with everything going on." He held out a long white envelope.
I stared at it. "Sorry I don't accept gifts."
"I don't really care. It's your...it was your birthday and I'm giving you a gift."
I folded my arms over my chest, "The only thing I really want is for those vampire freaks to go away."
"Trust me." He took my hand and put the envelope in it, looking me in the eyes with a small smile, "You want this."
I peered at the envelope. I really didn't want a gift, but I did want to know what it was. If he said I wanted it...well...it'd be interesting to know what he thinks I want.
"You don't have to think of it as a gift if you don't want. Think of it as...a need." He said, patiently waiting and watching me.
"I hate that you know how to peak my curiosity." I glared at him, shifting the envelope from side to side. It made a weird noise, like something sliding, kind of reminding me of rain.
"Unless you have x-ray vision you better open it," he said dryly, resting his elbow on his knee, chin on the palm of his hand.
I stuck my tongue out at him as I turned the envelope over, sliding my finger under the flap. It opened smoothly and I saw papers inside. Two papers to be exact. I pulled them out, scanning all the writing slowly as I tried to understand it. When I realized what it was I couldn't be more shocked.
"No way!" I exclaimed, gaping at Blade. "How did you...when is this..." I sputtered, unable to get a clear thought out.
Plane tickets. To New York. I was going home for Christmas.
"Next Friday. After you're finished all your exams," he smiled, nodding at the envelope. "You're not quite done."
"Trust me, just this would have been more than fine!" I said enthusiastically.
He chuckled, "Then maybe I should save the other one for your next birthday."
"Well now I'm curious, so I'm going to look. No way in hell would I be able to stand not knowing for another year," I tipped the envelope upside down. Out came a thin, silver chain. And when I say thin, I do mean thin. I was afraid to even look at it in fear that if I stared too hard it'd snap. "You do realize I break things quite easily right?"
"Yes I know. That's why I figured this might be better for you than a human necklace," he said, holding a hand out. "May I?"
"I suppose," I dropped the chain into his palm.
He clipped the necklace closed and held it in his hands, holding them apart just enough to keep the chain taunt and tight. Before my eyes I watched the muscles in his arm bunch as he pulled the necklace tightly in his hands. His teeth grit together as he tugged, again and again, but to no avail. The necklace didn't even break.
"Vampire gold," he explained, relaxing his grip a little. "Kind of like us; it can withstand a lot before breaking, no matter how fragile it looks."
"Well I'll be damned," I blinked as he handed it back. "That doesn't even seem possible."
"Go ahead; yank as hard as you can. You'll do more damage to yourself than to it. If anything it'll cut your hands," he shrugged.
"I'll take your word for it," I said hastily before I hugged him. "Thanks Blade." I said sincerely. I really did mean it; no one had ever really given me gifts like this, ones that actually had some sort of meaning or importance to me.
"You're welcome. I figured maybe that way you wouldn't lose your Dad's locket. The necklace will never break," he returned the hug tightly and I didn't want to let go.
"You know...you never struck me as the romantic type. Or the type to care, or even remember, stories and things I tell you," I told him, smiling a little. I was glad I was wrong about him. He was definitely full of little surprises and I loved nearly all of them.
"Told you I cared about you more than you thought," he started playing with my hair, "Though it is just a tad of an ego bruiser to know you thought I didn't give a flying fuck about you."
I blushed. "Well can you blame me?"
"Not really," he said, pulling away with a grimace.
I pecked him on the cheek and jumped off my bed, going over to my bureau and searching the drawers. I pulled the tiny heart locket from the box and went back to bed, sliding it onto the long chain. I turned around and held my hair up while Blade clipped it shut.
"Blade?" I asked quietly.
He wrapped his arms around my waist, leaning his head on top of my shoulder. "Yeah?"
I fiddled with the locket, feeling awkward. "What are you doing for Christmas?" I wasn't really too fond of the idea of being away from him after all this, even for a few days. The pain was far too much to handle. Besides, what if someone came after him? I wouldn't be able to do a thing back in New York.
He paused for a moment. "Well...Mom and Dad usually spend Christmas together. Lexi's probably spending it with Alek and his brothers...or just with him. Ace will probably be with Aros and Annie. So...I'm not doing anything really."
"Why don't you come home with me?"
"You make me sound like a lost puppy," he mumbled.
"Hey you can always spend Christmas here alone," I pulled out of his arms, or started to anyways. He pulled me back, turning me around and pulling me into his lap.
"I never said I didn't want too," he pointed out, "While I would very much love to meet your mother...wouldn't that be just a little rude to bring home a guy for Christmas?"
"Not at all." I draped my arms around his shoulders, "For one thing, Mom wants to meet you. For another, her boyfriend is spending it with us; so she can't say a thing about me bringing my boyfriend home or else she'd be a hypocrite. And that's one of the things she hates being, plus she's pretty chill about the whole thing." I thought about it for a moment and grinned. "Besides, you need to get the approval of my friends. Though I'm pretty sure one of them will just look at you and love you."
"I'm sorry, you lost me at 'boyfriend'," he said, smirking hugely at me.
I felt my cheeks heat. "Um...well...that's what you are...aren't you?"
"Yeah, but it's still nice to hear." He pushed me down onto my back, pinning me down. "Does your mom know that?"
"I've spent all this time with you...have you seen me use the phone even once?" I flicked his nose. He caught my hands, pinning them above my head with one hand, his other hand resting on my waist. "Besides my mom loves surprises."
"Oh I'm sure she'll love me," he said smugly, "Mom's always think I'm so charming."
"You better behave yourself," I warned him, "No acting inappropriate. And no P.D.A. She's laidback but she's not afraid to voice her complaints in front of a person. And one way to get her to like you is to keep your hands off of me."
He groaned dramatically, hiding his face in my neck. "So I'm going to be deprived of you almost two fucking weeks? Shit Kiana. That's just cruel. It'll be almost a month without you."
"You know it is Christmas...they might go to a lot of parties...we don't have to go to all of them. And most parties end pretty late," I reminded him and I felt him grin against my neck.
"Never mind then. Let's go!"
"Dude are you stupid? We are here, right now, in private. But you rather go all the way to my house to do something?" I hit his back with my hand, "What is wrong with your brain?"
"I think it might have burned out during the past two weeks," he sat up, shuddering. "It was horrible."
"Sorry."
He shook his head. "Like I said, don't be sorry. There's no point. Besides, look. We're better now," he showed me his arm again as proof.
"You'd be much better if you drank something," I grumbled.
"Kiana, I mean this in the nicest way possible...shut up. I'm a big boy, I'll drink when I want too," he said in exasperation, cupping my face in his hands.
"Oh come on, it'd make us both feel better if you just bit me already."
"How would that make you feel better?" he challenged, arms folded over his chest as he met my eyes.
"I wouldn't be worrying as much! Hearing your Dad talking about how you had to be fed through an IV isn't exactly a comforting thought. Especially when you haven't drank a single thing since then!" I exclaimed.
"Bastard. Don't let him get to you, he was doing it on purpose. He was trying to break us up Kiana, so just forget about it. All I need is you, okay?" he bent down, leaning his forehead against mine. "Look how much better I am now. And that's without blood."
I slid my hands into his hair, squeezing my eyes shut. "But you'll need to drink eventually. And if us being close would make us both better then you drinking from me would do that. It would help both of us."
He sighed. "I know. But I just..."
"Eliza messed you up. But just because it happened, almost happened once, doesn't mean it'll happen again. Look you bit me already, you've had your fair share of my blood before and I'm still here. When Ace stopped my face from bleeding he had a hard time with it, he didn't get how you could do it without a problem. So I know you would never do that," I said softly, stroking his hair. "With Eliza you were new for just a few days. You've had nearly six hundred years of experience since then."
He kissed my temple slowly, sliding his lips down to my throat. "Yeah, but none of the girl's I've ever bitten were my conduit, or my girlfriend. And they weren't on their way to dying."
"I'm fine," I assured him. "I'm much better than you are. And I know you want it...need it. So just do it now and I'll stop bothering you."
He breathed in deeply, lips parting. I felt his teeth against my skin. "Are you sure?"
"Yup," I said, popping the 'p'.
Nipping at my skin lightly with his teeth, I kept myself entirely relaxed. Although a part of me was excited at the prospect him biting me. I kept thinking about the first time he did it. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever felt.
He let out a sigh, breath tickling my neck before his teeth broke through my skin. My whole body felt like a shock ran through it, leaving me burning. I snaked my arms around him tightly, eyes squeezing shut tightly. His hand slid under my back, wrapping an arm firmly around my waist while his other hand cradled my head.
"Blade," I gasped, nails digging into the flesh of his back.
For the first time in a long time I actually felt alive, full of energy. My legs wrapped around his hips tightly, tensing my muscles to hold him there and press against him. There were so many barriers keeping me from being comfortable, keeping me from getting what I wanted.
I felt his hand move from my back to my front, sliding it under my shirt. His hand roamed across my chest and stomach and I could barely focus on anything.
Suddenly he pulled away, sitting up between my legs. His eyes were closed and he was panting just as hard as I was.
"What's wrong?" I breathed, forcing my eyes open. That very momentary burning feeling suddenly died out and I felt so tired.
He shook his head, "Too much blood. I'm not used to it and you can't lose anymore. Not now."
"Oh," I mumbled, closing my eyes again. "Do you feel better?"
"A lot better," he replied, and he did. He sounded more awake, more like himself. His voice wasn't as rough and it sounded more like it used to. The warmth that seemed to radiate off his skin cooled down to a more comfortable temperate. Thank God.
He bent down over me, tongue against my neck. He licked the blood off my skin, stopping the bleeding before he laid down next me. He draped an arm over my stomach and I moved into him.
"You should sleep," he whispered, "You need your rest."
I nodded slowly, rolling onto my side, pressing my body against his comfortably, head against his chest.
Blade POV
I didn't feel hot anymore. My throat didn't hurt, the nasty wound in my stomach closed up, leaving flawless skin behind. I could finally breathe properly and think straight.
But Kiana didn't look better. Her heart was beating too damn fast to be healthy and she felt too cold for my liking, her skin too pale. I ran my hand over her side, feeling her ribs.
She might have thought that I was fucking worse than her but we both deteriorated differently. Just because I looked worse didn't mean I was. She's lost weight.
I remembered she hadn't eaten anything in a long time. God damn it. That should have been the first thing to be taken care of.
Stroking her hair, I couldn't help but sigh. I missed this, missed feeling beside me and having her actually talk to me. I waited for hours there, just holding her while she slept, unable to sleep myself until she finally woke up.
"Good morning," she said sleepily, yawning.
"Good afternoon," I corrected her, touching the claw marks on her face gently with my fingertips.
What did all of that even fucking mean? Not going according to plan? What the hell kind of plan did these vamps have going on?
"You should eat something," I said, feeling grim. I hated seeing her like this, and I would keep feeling like absolute shit until she was back in perfect health.
"I'm not really hungry, but I guess you're right," she sighed, sitting up. She touched her face, looking vaguely upset as she did so.
"You okay?" I asked, taking her hand in mine.
"Yeah I'm fine," she smiled, but it didn't seem quite real. "I'm just going to get dressed properly and then we'll go down."
I nodded, watching her carefully as she got clothes and disappeared into the bathroom. She knew something she wasn't telling me. And you'd think that after all this time she'd have learned that that was a really shitty idea.
Once she emerged, looking a bit better now, we headed down for breakfast. Jordan handed me a large glass of blood with a stern look, and gave Kiana a plate with an even sterner look he'd given me.
Kiana flushed and sat down, picking at her food, occasionally eating some.
"Are you guys okay now or what?" Leo asked, blinking at us as he entered the kitchen.
"We're okay," Kiana smiled, and now it seemed genuine. Maybe she was just upset that her face was still clawed up, but that didn't seem like her. I still thought she was fucking beautiful.
"Oh it's about time," Leo said, while Jordan tossed him an apple.
"Well that's what happens when two really stubborn people fight," Jordan shrugged, grabbing an apple himself. "How's the face by the way? Bothering you at all?"
"Not really. The only thing that bothers me is the reminder of what happened and the fact that everyone thinks I'm being abused or something," she said with a roll of her eyes.
Well that makes sense. The reminder of it isn't something exactly wonderful, and to have to walk around with it all day would probably be worse.
Jordan nodded, "Keep eating."
She stuck her tongue out at him, but did as she was told. I snickered.
"Hey don't laugh Blade, you start drinking too," Leo said, giving me 'the look'. "Your parents would never forgive me if something happened to you."
"Oh yes they would, they love you. Besides, I drank something before."
"You drank from Kiana, didn't you?" Jordan asked, arms folded.
"Only a little. She made me," I took a sip of the glass of blood, figuring I needed to start getting used to it again.
"He looked like crap. I wanted to help. And it did help so don't complain," she said, elbowing my side playfully.
"Yeah, yeah," I waved my hand, "Details."
"Important details," she snorted, eating some scrambled eggs.
"Hardly," I sniffed, drinking more. We sat there for a long time, basically until Kiana finished her plate. It spanned over the course of almost an hour and a half, with us just eating/drinking and chatting to whoever was there at the time.
We finally went back upstairs but instead of continuing to her room, she stopped outside of mine, staring at the oak door.
"Blade..." she said quietly.
I swallowed hard, standing beside her. While my room had always been my place to go with no one else, it had become my hide out from the world over the past two weeks. But now it seemed to have been more like a prison. It was where all this started. Spending time in there was the last thing I wanted to do.
"I don't think you want to go in there," I said, deadpan.
She turned her head to face me, "I...I want to see. I need this. We both do."
"No we don't," I said quickly.
She wrapped her arms around me and I felt her heart beating against my chest. "Yes we do," she whispered, running her fingers through my hair. "Let's just go in, we don't need to stay there for long."
"No more than a minute," I told her firmly.
"Got it," she nodded, stepping back. She grasped the door handle, taking a small breath before she turned it and pushed the door open. She took my hand, giving it a squeeze and flashing me a small smile before she went in, pulling me in behind her.
I looked around my dark room, seeing the blankets tossed to the floor in a mess from when I slept there, my bed was still untouched from her birthday night. There wasn't a fold of the sheets out of place.
My drawers were open and I had things everywhere: clothes, papers, blankets, everything.
Kiana started to let go of my hand by I gripped her tightly, afraid to let her go. She gently pried her hand from my grasp, touching my cheek lightly before she walked deeper into my room. She walked around, looking at everything. She finally got to the bed. I saw her stride falter a little but she kept on, going to stand right by it while I just watched her, glued to the same spot as before.
She looked down at my bureau, seeing the chain with the Eliza's ring on it. She had given it back to me when she left me the second time. It had made its home on my bureau, so it was usually the first thing I saw in the morning and the last thing I saw before falling asleep.
Until Kiana started spending the night, then the first and last things I saw everyday was her.
Kiana simply stared at the ring, her head bowed the slightest before she turned her attention to my bed. I saw her hands curl into fists at her sides.
There were so many things I wanted to tell her, so many things I wanted to do, but they were all useless. None of them would erase what I did to her.
She just stood there for a long time, simply staring at it before she turned and walked back to me.
She smiled tightly, "See? Not so bad."
I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I had been holding for the past few minutes. "Let's just get out of here."
Nodding enthusiastically, she followed me out hurriedly. We went back to her room, relaxing and lounging around while she attempted to do homework. It was nice to think about something as trivial as homework and exams. It kept our minds off the real problems.
********
Kiana POV
After five stressed out days of packing, studying for exams and doing homework and projects, then actually doing the exams, in between trying to get better and actually not look like death...we finally got to the airport, got on a plane, and made our merry way over to New York.
To home.
I never realized just how homesick I was until we found a taxi and started driving down streets I knew so well. I was just about bursting with excitement of seeing my mom, my friends, my cat and even Peter.
Fortunately for me, my face had healed up quite nicely over the past five days, so thankfully there was only very pale, pink scars to show for it that Jordan assured me would go away within the next week or so.
"Stop bouncing," Blade groaned at me.
"Sorry!" I grinned, hugging him tightly. "I just can't wait to see my mom. She'll be so surprised."
"I'm sure she will be. Especially when she sees me," he said dryly, keeping an arm around me to keep me from bouncing. I just couldn't sit still.
"Please behave," I pleaded, "I really want her to like you."
"I'll be on my best behaviour. I promise," he held a pinky out to me, one corner of his mouth pulled up in a half smile. "Since we can't do it our way..."
"As soon as we're alone we're promising our way," I warned him, hooking my pinky with his.
I saw the cab driver's lips pull into a smirk in the mirror. I frowned for a moment until I understood why he was smirking. To him it probably sounded like we were going to have sex. Jerk.
"I know. I can't wait," he said sarcastically.
"Shut up. You're the one who likes doing it like that." I hit his arm lightly as we turned onto my street. "Ooh! We're here!"
"Yes, I know. I have been here before."
"What? When?"
He gave me a weird look. "Hello? I brought you home after Aros' party during the summer, remember? I stuck around for a while...you just didn't know I was there."
"Oh, I forgot about that." I blinked in surprise, pulling my hat on over my ears.
"Not surprising."
"Hey that's not fair. They totally made me forget that, it wasn't my fault," I whined as we pulled to a stop.
We paid the cab driver and as we were leaving he told us 'kids to have fun', and he was still smirking. Blade glared at him for that. And when Blade glares, it can be quite a frightful thing. We went around to the trunk and Blade popped it open.
"Why don't you go inside? I'll get the bags," he said.
"Good idea." I stood on tip-toe, pecked him on the cheek and went up the few stairs to my door. It was about six o'clock in the evening and it was pitch black outside. It'd be impossible to see if there was no streetlights.
I knocked on the door, suddenly feeling apprehensive. What if she wasn't home? Or what if they had something planned?
Maybe I should have called after all.
----------------------
Yeah yeah another update so soon? Some people might say I need to get a life and go out, do things, live a little. Those people would be right. Kidding.
Anyways, hopefully I'll update part 2 of this chapter either today or tomorrow. I've organized Bad Luck with Love on Wattpad so far (they're draft chapters, only 6 are posted so dont get excited), and I should be updating that pretty regularly alongside Slave to Love. Werewolves and Vampires will be coming along a little later since there's more to sift through, and a heck of a lot more to edit. Eesh. I was reading it last night because I couldn't remember much and I spent most of my time laughing at how awful and cheesy it was. Eesh. Then again, it was also 4 AM (I know shame on me) so everything was funny and ridiculous.
I forgot how corny and cheesy I was. And optimistic. Holy hell. I read some of the message I left at the bottom of the chapters like this one, and they were mindblowingly perky. It was cringeworthy. Anyways, I'm off to edit or draw or smt I'm not sure yet.
Much love and good vibes,
xxLaura