Bleeding Love (32 page)

“How can I not,
when I've personally been a victim of your wrath?”

Their lips met in
one soft kiss. At that moment the branch supporting them gave way and they
fell, crashing to the forest floor.

They reveled in
the exhilarating drop, the thrill of falling faster and faster, and the
satisfaction of the harsh wind whipping against their bodies. It was more
freeing than running as fast as lightening. When they finally landed in a pile
of soft forest debris, leaves in all shades of green were sent flying all
around them. They didn't sustain any injuries or wounds. They weren't limping
or wincing in pain. They were only dirty, and they laughed at this before
closing the distance between them once again. In one swift second, they pulled
apart when they heard someone speak.

Immediately, they
crouched low, growling quietly, facing the intruder together.

“Are you
seriously going to bite me, Adie?” After a few seconds, Brianna moved in front
of the two, and they saw the blood stains on her cardigan. “You wouldn't.”

Adrienne's lips
turned up into a full–on smirk before she asked,” And why is that?”

“Because.”
Brianna bent low. “You'll have to catch me first.”

Before Bree was
able to show off her newly acquired gifts, Adrienne stood up and focused her
psychic weapons.

Brianna couldn't
even inch away since the vampire princess had started to slowly suck the energy
out of her. However, even if Bree was feeling tired and drained, she wasn't
wincing in pain, and Brianna realized that Adrienne had been careful with her. She
had no intention of hurting her very close friend. She just didn't want her to
run away.

“I'm glad I'm not
the newbie anymore.” Adie grinned.

Xavier chuckled
at his fiancé's statement before sidling up to her, winding an arm around her
waist.

Adie continued, “Maybe
I can teach Bree the ropes of being a bloodsucker, although teaching her to
hunt won't be on my itinerary. Killing deer is like, eww.”

“Well, it's your
lucky day, ladies,” That was Xavier being the usual smartass. “As that is Aidan's
and my specialty.”

“Gross!” The two
women shivered in disgust before Adrienne continued. “Next time you're going to
kiss me, brush your teeth first! I'm not swapping spit after you’ve fed from an
animal!”

“Bite me,
Adrienne,” Xavier then answered mischievously, and to add emphasis to his statement,
he flashed his sharp, white fangs. “Or would you like to do that after I’ve
gone hunting?”

Adrienne's eyes
darkened and burned with a sudden desire. But it wasn’t something she wanted to
admit to. Instead she said, “How many times have I said there will be no hunting—”
She never got to finish her sentence.

Xavier ran up to
her, throwing her over one of his shoulders. He continued his swift sprint with
Aidan and Brianna following closely behind him. Adrienne, meanwhile, was
pounding her fists against his back.

Her boyfriend
laughed at her feeble effort to get him to stop. Saying, “I'll have the deer,
and you get the rabbit.”

Adrienne rolled
her eyes before she exhaled deeply. “Just because I've never killed an animal
doesn't mean I'm 
that 
weak.”

“I meant what I
said as a compliment, you know,” his voice was teasing. “Because you have so
many other assets, I like to think that I can provide for you
in other ways
.”

Smartass
, she thought, eyeing the seductive grin
he had on his face.

“If you know what
I mean, Adrienne.” He winked at her.

5 years
later,

“Tristan, shut
up!” Adrienne screamed at the top of her lungs. “I'm going to kill you if I
miss my flight!”

The man in
question simply laughed out loud and crossed his arms over his chest. He
continued chuckling, walking across the room at a leisurely pace, as his best
friend, out of breath, finished her packing.

“I still don't
know why you're in such a hurry. You've just graduated,” he said to her, his
voice slightly serious. “Are you sure you don't want to go with Ethan and me?
The cruise will be fun. I can promise you that.”

He had that
mischievous glimmer in his eyes, and Adrienne immediately knew that
fun
for Tristan meant lots and lots of
women
.

“And watch you
two try to hit on those Brazilian girls?” her voice took on a playful tone. “Thanks
but no thanks. I'll be doing just fine in Austria.”

“We're not going
to 
try 
hitting on them, we
 will
, Adrienne.”

“As if they're
going to buy it.” Adrienne rolled her eyes before finishing her packing. She zipped
her luggage closed, locked it, placed it on the floor and did a little jiggy
dance. She was ready to go.

She was about to
say something to Tristan, but then, someone knocked on her door. She assumed it
was Sabrina, just getting in from New York. When Adrienne opened the door, she
saw the familiar mop of red hair. Max was nowhere in sight, so she guessed the
couple still hadn't patched things up from last week's nasty argument.

“Don't even ask.”
Sabrina held a finger up. “The bastard's avoiding me by taking night shifts,
although he sent me a text instructing me to tell you to,
'Have a fun time
in Austria.'
He couldn't even say those things straight to my face.” She
entered Adrienne's room with a frown on her face before she plopped down on the
bed. Sabrina looked more bitter than sad. Maybe she wasn't mad at him anymore,
just annoyed, and was just waiting for him to make the first move and
apologize.

“Well, you can't
blame the guy. You threw his blueprints out the window.” Tristan looked
sympathetic, and Adrienne began to wonder how Tristan, Ethan, and Max managed
to stay friends for this long. “Those are pretty important documents for an
engineer.”

“Well, it was in
the trash can,” Sab reasoned, rolling her eyes at Tristan's bias. “What was I
supposed to think?”

“Never, never,” Tristan's
eyes flashed impishly,” Mess with a man's things.”

“And if you two
continue this, I'm really going to miss my flight.”

“So you're still
not going to be persuaded to join the two man-whores on their cruise?” Sabrina
asked, starting to stand up from the bed. “Last time I talked to Ethan, he said
that you three were going to rock some Brazilian ass.”

“That's because
you and Max backed out on these two megalomaniacs,” Adrienne teased, referring
to Ethan and Tristan.

“Not my fault a
trip around the world is a lot more enticing than a bunch of booty–shaking
South Americans. I swear all the girls would steal my spotlight if I went with
them, can’t allow that.”

“And the clock's
ticking down people. Do we want Adrienne to see the
geek
or not?”

Sabrina laughed
at Tristan's awful and immature jab. “High school was so five years ago, Tryst.”

The three of them
left Adrienne's room before they headed down to the garage and stowed the bags
in the trunk of the SUV.

“I can't believe
you've been in love with the guy for 
this
 long, Adrienne. For
five years? And you haven't even seen him since we graduated from high school,”
Tristan said, amazed.

“Well, if you're
best friends with someone like Brianna,” said Sabrina. “Love takes a whole new
meaning, seriously. Like she and Aidan have a spotless relationship, no
fighting, and no bullshit. Max and I are like the total opposite, all fighting,
and all bullshit.”

“And after all
those fights comes the make-up screwing,” Tristan said, laughing.

Sabrina smacked
him on the back of the head. “At least I'm getting some action, med school's
wiping your horny ass clean,” was Sabrina's quip.

Adrienne, seated
on the passenger's side of the car, could only laugh at her two friends. She
had missed this the whole time she was in Yale. There were hella fun and fucked
up parties, lots of things going on, but easy camaraderie of high school friends
was still different. And she was going to miss this. When she was in Europe Adrienne
wouldn’t be able to fly to New York on a whim and see Max or Brianna, then head
over to California to hang out with Tristan and Ethan.

Europe was too
far for weekend trips and she knew she was going to have a completely different
life the moment she saw Xavier. She was going to get married, and settle into
helping him rule his kingdom. So, she was going to cherish this car ride no
matter how quickly it ended.

“Well, the up
side of med school is that after five years of controlling your sexual tension,
you'll be able to release it during this break. Then you can go back and start
all over again,” Adrienne said contemplatively.

Sabrina was quick
with another witty remark, “I think in Tryst's case, its absence makes the dick
grow fonder.”

“Amen to that,” Adie
then agreed, laughing.

She looked out
the window and saw the airport getting closer. There were airplanes hovering overhead
and impatient drivers honking their horns. She couldn't help it, tears just
started to flow. Tristan and Sabrina might not realize it, but she knew that
there was a possibility she would never see them again.

She was fated to
be a vampire Queen, and vampire Regents don't just travel from Europe to the
states so they can party and hang out with friends. She would gain eternal love,
and lose her teenage friends.

When she parted
ways with Tristan and Sabrina, Adrienne couldn't help but look back at them in
order to memorize their faces and forms. They were smiling at her, and Tristan
being Tristan, had the audacity to shout one, last nasty remark to her. She
chuckled at that, laughed hard as she turned on her heel and entered the airport’s
sliding doors.

Inside the
building the air was warm, yet Adrienne felt chills rise up and down her spine,
prickly sensations on the hairs of her arms. The excitement was building. She
threaded through the crowd, concentrating on each step. She had a ticket that
was going to take her from Los Angeles to Munich, and another one from Germany
to Vienna, Austria. After five whole years of not seeing each other, she was
finally going to see Xavier Kristofferson, the man she was destined to marry,
and this scared her. Now that she was alone, without Tristan and Sabrina's to
fill the silence, she had time to think of her fiancé.

Xavier and she had
agreed that for the entire time they were separated that they wouldn’t communicate.
They had figured that even one email would make the separation to difficult to
bear. She’d been very afraid that if she heard his voice once, she'd drop out of
her University classes and all that hard work would go to waste.

As they had
agreed, during the five years, she had dated other guys, but not one of those
men got a repeat date. Through all this time her heart had remained with him.
Each time some guy would pick her up at the apartment, she knew they didn’t
stand a chance of taking her from Xavier. She dated because it was a normal
thing to do in college.

“Flight 116 to
Munich, Germany, your flight is now boarding. Please proceed to gate
thirty–six.” The announcement filled her soul. “Flight 116 to Munich, Germany–”

Adrienne quickly
advanced toward her designated gate. When she got there, she lined up and
flashed her ticket before the cabin crew allowed her to board the plane. She
continued to walk, closely approaching the front of the aircraft, and when she
reached first class, she stored her carry–on in the overhead compartment before
taking her seat. She sighed deeply. Adrienne hadn't planned on what she was
going to do when she finally saw him. The hard part about this trip was Xavier
had no idea that she was coming.

She had put all
her trust in Brianna and Aidan. The two were her accomplices in making this
trip the surprise of the century. She may not have wanted to hear Xavier’s
voice for fear of ditching school altogether, but she still needed to know what
was going on with him. She had relied on her relationship with her best friend
and her boyfriend.

Briana and Aiden
had decided to attend college together in London. They were now living there in
the countryside where they could run through forests and mountains without being
afraid of being discovered. Bree had even told Adrienne that Aidan and she were
already talking about marriage, but as far as she knew, there were no definite
plans yet.

“Would you like a
drink, ma'am?” one of the stewardesses asked, her long black, pencil skirt moving
with her short, simple gestures.

Smiling, Adrienne
answered,” I'd like a glass of water, please.”

“Right away,
ma'am.” The flight attendant returned in a bit with a glass of chilled water.

Adrienne gladly
took the drink from her, saying thank you, she settled back for the long trip.
Satisfied with the calm surroundings, she breathed a sigh of relief and closed
her eyes. For a few hours, she forgot about seeing Xavier again, and what his
reaction might be.