Blackwater (22 page)

I gasp, "You coulda told me before. I woulda got my sister out."

He laughs, "She wouldn’t have let that happen. Not with all the work she had put into your sister. By the time I got there, the spells and rituals were nearly done. She had Ramón killed so he wouldn’t tell you about the magic she was doing. He would have sensed it. I met you the night you were sick."

My hand lifts to my face, "You killed him?"

He clenches his jaw, "It's why I said I wished I had known. I never knew you were close. He was nothing more than a driver. She told me he was a driver who had magical blood."

I turn away from him and watch the roadside pass me by.

"I love you. I have since the moment I met you. Don't let this ruin everything."

I look back horrified, "Ruin what? The fact you helped my momma murder my family, you murdered my best friend and then stalked me for half a century? Yeah, I feel the love baby."

He looks savage, "What about the fact I saved you, several times? What about the fact I saved you from marrying that cad? What about the fact I saved your sister? I knew the ritual had been performed and she would at least live a half-life in the mansion? What about the fact I spared your life and saved you."

I feel a dangerous switch in my mind flip. "WHAT? YOU SAVED ME? YOU KILLED ME AND DAMNED ME TO BE THIS! I AM A HIDEOUS MONSTER AND MY SISTER IS STUCK AS A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD! SCREW YOU!" I open the door of the truck and roll from it on the dusty pavement. It scrapes and scratches but I know it will heal. I take off as I hear the sounds of the tires screeching. I run. I always run.

The image of the house burns in my chest. I creep from the woods like an animal would. My clothes are torn, my hair is everywhere. I see her in the window, the sun is gonna rise soon.

She waves. I wave back as I walk up the driveway that’s cleared and looking more normal now.

Tessa opens the door for me, "Hello, my love." I grip her hands and look her in the eyes, "Did my momma trick you in school?"

She swallows and I see the moment of clarity in her eyes. She nods, "She tricked me. She was always doing magic on my mind. Making me think things was a good idea. Forcing me to make my brother like her and meet with her."

I grip her hands and shake my head, "I'm sorry Aunty."

She shakes her head, "Well I ain't. I got you and Em. My brother didn’t know he wasn’t happy." She points behind me, "You want some tea?"

I laugh and shake my head but I can feel the tears and the sickness inside of me taking over. Instantly Emily is there. She smiles, "I love him. Luke. He is everything a kind sweet young man aught to be."

I smile back but it forces a tear from my eyes.

She scowls, "What?"

I shake my head, "I just heard about momma today."

Tessa points, "You've been to see Ramón?"

I nod. Emily looks sad for me. I think it's for me.

I swallow, "I'm sorry, Em. I didn’t know what she had done to you. I swear I never knew any of it."

She shakes her head and places her hands over her ears softly, "We don't talk about some things here." She vanishes.

Tessa's face fills with concern, "All that nice building that nice young man did and she is gonna ruin it." I look up the stairs and take off. I take the stairs three at a time and burst into her room. Her hands are carving into the newly finished walls. I tackle her to the floor.

She vanishes and I drop onto the new sub-floor.

I shout into the air, "Don't do this. You like him. Don't make a mess of the work he's done. That’s letting her win."

She is back, her face is filled with rage, "SHE WON!" The walls vibrate.

I shake my head, "She didn't. You're here. I'm here. You like him, you like Luke. He likes you. I could see it."

She sobs but nothing leaves her eyes, "I'm dead."

I shake my head, "If her magic can take your life and your soul, then it can bring it back. We can find a way." I step across the floor carefully, with my hands out "I won't leave you this time. I will find an answer. I swear it."

Her eyes dart around the room. I can feel the energy coming off of her. She twitches with the explosive need she has.

I shake her slightly, "I won't leave you."

She slumps and lets it all out in a wail. I wrap myself around her and hold her until I see the light coming in the window. My panic starts.

"I have to go." I whisper.

She frowns, "But you said…"

I shake my head, "The sun will roast the arse off of me."

She looks and nods, "The basement. I got Tessa to ask Luke to make a room. It's nice. His guys finished it just as they left."

I smile, my heart is crushed and I'm dying inside. "Thank you."

She crosses her arms but it's more like she is hugging herself, holding herself together.

I kiss her forehead and walk from the room. I look back, "We don’t need to fear her, Em. She didn’t win. We can destroy her. We always could, we just didn’t know it. If that hateful bitch is a Blackwater witch, then fuck it, so are we."

She nods, but when she looks at me I can see the defeat in her eyes.

I walk down the stairs and let the millions of thoughts I'm having filter through. They are making a million questions. I hear a light knock at the door. I open it. He stands there with his jaw clenched.

I walk away from him, leaving the door open for him. I open the door to the basement and leave it open also. I may be angrier than I can express but comfort and companionship are worth more than my fury. It ain't even real hate. It's more like disgust and exhaustion. I'm too tired to kid myself on how I feel about him. How I always have.

The room downstairs is nice. It's got no windows but there is a platform bed with blankets and a mattress. I don’t even know how she got it all there in so little time. The room is plywood and concrete but it's better than half the places I have slept. I take off my boots and fall into the blankets. He is there, closing the door and climbing in beside me. He kisses my head, "Sleep my love." His accent is back completely.

It makes me smile. "You're a complete fraud aren’t you?"

He laughs, "I am not." But the not sounds like he says no.

I nod, "Yes you are."

He wraps around me, "I love you more than a single thing in this world. There is nothing fraudulent in that. I honestly thought I was doing the right thing. I honestly never wanted to hurt you. I love you."

"Why do you love me? You can have any girl you want any night of the week, right?" I shove him back but his hands stay on my arms, pinning me against the wall.

He lowers his face and presses his lips against mine. "We both know that wasn’t what I meant. Now if I recall, I owe you something, Lorelei. I owe you enjoyment and pleasure. Let me make everything better."

I laugh bitterly and shove him back, "No, thanks." I sigh, "You let them all die and then you killed off the life inside of me, so I've never even been able to be sad the right way. My feelings are hindered by the devil you put inside of me. It's in there now dancing with the devil I already had in me from my momma." I close my eyes and let the inky tears slip from my eyes until I'm asleep.

It's the best sleep I have ever had. I wake and feel safe, which never happens. His body is still wrapped around mine completely.

My stirring wakes him. He moans, "It isn’t time to wake up yet."

I shove him off of me, "Yes, it is."

He drags me into him and throws a leg over me, trapping me. "No, it isn’t." He holds me to him. His lips start to trace up the back of my neck. His kisses light my stomach on fire instantly. Slowly, his hands tighten their grip but massage at the same time. He kneads my chest and stomach.

I try to wiggle away but he pulls me into him. I squirm but it makes him give a throaty laugh, "Wiggling your arse into me isn’t gonna make me forget about ravishing you."

I feel a sneer creep across my face, "I'm still as angry as I can get with you. The whole vampire-maker thing that makes me like you, is interfering with it. But trust me, it's a huge amount of dislike."

He chuckles into my ear, "Works for me. I like it when you're annoyed."

I turn to face him but he plants his lips on mine before I can get properly angry. I dig my hands into his chest but I'm no match for his strength. I get my mouth free and shake my head, "Please, no."

He stops instantly but his grip is not loosened, "You want me. I can tell."

I nod, "I do, there ain't any point in denying it. But you have hurt me in a way I can't get past. Not today."

He pulls back to look at me better, "When?"

I frown, "When Emily is happy again. When you have made amends for that. You've lied to me since the beginning of this. If you'd been honest, I might have saved my sister. I don’t deserve to be happy until she is."

He watches my face for a moment and then growls, "You expect me to wait for that?"

I shrug, which is difficult in his embrace, "You can have sex with whatever and whoever you like. Just not me. We both know you can have it any day of the week right?"

His dark eyes narrow, "That means no though right? You say I can, but deep down it means I can't. If I were to date other women whilst waiting for this to work, you would stack that against me? Correct?"

I grimace, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

He grins shamelessly, "It was a poorly timed joke. Calm down." He kisses the tip of my nose, "I waited a long time already, what's a little longer?"

I shove him off me and climb off the bed. I stretch and walk from the room, watchful, of my sister or Luke or anyone else. There is no one. I frown, "Do you think they did any work today?" I look around. The basement is finished and dry but it's not nice. It's never been nice.

I climb the stairs, expecting a wooden stake at any moment.

I hear voices from the front room. I walk across the sawdust and boards on the plywood sub floor.

Luke points to the molding, "The way that one curves matches this one perfectly, don't you think?" He holds the book out for Emily to see. She is dressed normally, in jeans and a T-shirt. I almost raise an eyebrow but I let it go. They're standing under a pot light that is new, picking out moldings. It's better than her destroying the house and killing him by accident.

Hammering and other noises start up as if they were waiting for me to wake up, or I just never noticed them. I walk into the kitchen and look at the mess. I sigh and walk out into the back garden. The smell of magnolias and jasmine is everywhere. The lilacs are almost done blooming so the sweetness of them is nearly gone. The air is too fragrant, I wonder if it smelled like this when I was normal? I don’t think it did.

His voice breaks my thoughts, "I need to show you the other thing."

I turn to see Whit standing next to the broken pillar on the ground. He must have gone around the backyard. In the gloom of the twilight and the overhanging fragrant garden, his face could stop my heart. If he hadn’t already done it.

I nod and follow him around the back of the huge house. We wade through the old overgrown gardens. The willows and oaks and moss have taken over completely. When we get to the oak alley I can see the difference in the front entryway.

He takes my hand in his. My skin doesn’t spark the way it used to when he touched me. It's just warm and lovely. I tug my hand free.

"You've got to give me something." He cocks his grin at me.

I shake my head, "Not a hope."

We walk in silence, until I can't take it anymore. I grab his hand and spin him to look at me, it's no easy feat. He is massive. His brooding face makes me inhale sharply.

I don't want to ask but I need to know, "Why did you just watch? Why didn’t you talk to me? Help me? You must have seen me teaching myself to drive, killing randomly, eating animals for a while until I started to become one? Why didn’t you help me?"

His jaw is tight, it's part of the inner conflict he has going on about something. He swallows it down before he speaks, "I didn’t know how. I knew what I had taken from ya. I knew what I had done was wrong. I couldn’t feel it, I couldn’t make myself be sad about it, but I knew. Your face was so sad. You talked to her, Emily, like she was there. You cried everyday. Watching you fall apart was hard, but being the reason you were broken was worse. So I came back here a lot and watched over Tessa and the house. I made sure she stayed alive."

His face almost kills me a second time, "I wish I could hate you properly. I have this hole in my heart and nothing but you is gonna fill it." He takes a step forward but I put a hand up, "I would rather be broken than let you fill the hole."

His face grows stoic, like he's a statue but his words melt my heart, "I can't live without you. I followed you for forty-eight years, Lorelei. I'll follow you for another fifty, a hundred and fifty. I can't live without you. I want you but I need you more. You're the broken one but I'm the one who needs you to save me, make me feel again."

A sound fills the air around us, a thump. I look to the right as a huge raindrop lands next to me and splashes on a broad leaf. The next one that hits splashes on his shoulder. Instantly a downpour hits.