Cherry Blossom (Vampire Cherry Book 2) (15 page)

“And maybe the guys could spend that time sparring?” Somewhere far, far away from mortals, if possible.

For the first time since I entered the kitchen, I turned to them. Alex still appeared impassive, while Constantine gave me a speculative look.

“If Willoughby is planning an attack, we all need to be at our best,” I said. “He’s older than all of us. I know I can’t win in a fair fight with him, but you both could improve your chances with some training. You could use the back yard.”

Constantine nodded. “I wouldn’t mind some playtime in the sun. Alex, are you up for it?”

Alex stood, all but kicking his chair back. “Going to wipe the floor with you, old man.” The words were playful, but his tone wasn’t.

“Have some more of the potion first?” Mom glanced at me as she spoke to them. I gave a tiny shrug. Surprisingly, she said nothing until we were alone.

Until the very moment we were alone.

The door was still ajar when she mouthed, “What was that?”

I held a palm up, and waited until I heard heavy footsteps tread down the porch steps, before telling her of the suspicions Constantine and I shared.

She sank in a chair, waved me to the one next to her, and listened in rapt fascination, while I detailed the instances on which Alex allowed me glimpses of a man I barely recognized.

“So you’re saying something may be driving him literally mad with jealousy?” she asked when I was done.

“But in a weird, exaggerated way. If you could see his eyes… I can literally see him transform into someone else.”

“You think it’s something paranormal.” It wasn’t a question.

“It’s either that, or he’s always been this way and just didn’t have time to show it before. I don’t want to believe it, Mom. You don’t know how kind he is.”

“He’s been nothing but a perfect gentleman to me and your father. To you too, as far as I know.” She studied my face. I hadn’t told her about the rough sex—
of course
—or the attack, and had to try to keep my gaze steady. “If he’s laid a hand on you, I’ll be really disappointed in him.” Her gaze was so hard, she might as well have said she’d shower him with acid. For a moment I could believe she’d kick his ass if she believed he’d hurt me. She certainly looked as ferocious as a momma bear whose cub was facing a threat.

“He hasn’t. He wouldn’t. I’ll tell you if he does.” I winked, hoping it reassured her.

“Good. Now what are you going to do about it? How can you find out for sure what’s causing this? And are you still waiting for Willoughby to come to you, or are you going after him?”

I shrugged. “We still don’t have a plan, and can’t come up with one until we know we can count on Alex not to flip sides. I guess Constantine and I could try going after Willoughby without Alex, but I’d rather keep a close eye on him at all times.”

“And you won’t know what he’ll do until you figure out what’s happening to him.”

“Exactly. Which is why I wanted to ask you if Ruby ever said something about vampires practicing mind control?”

Mom looked at me questioningly. “I thought you already knew. Don’t they teach newbies anything these days?”

I felt a tingle of hope before I realized she’d misunderstood. “I mean controlling other vampires, not humans.”

She furrowed her brow. Beside her, the pile of unpeeled tomatoes mocked us. If we didn’t get started soon, we wouldn’t be on time.

Which seemed to apply to everything as of late.

“Nothing?” I asked her. “Does she have some sort of diary? Notes? Something on the PC maybe.” Light-bulb moment. “Where did she write the recipe for the daylight potion?”

Mom shook her head. “She doesn’t trust anyone with the recipe. Once she perfected it, she destroyed all her notes on it. She has no files on this computer—only her laptop, and that’s with her.”

No luck there, then. “Damn it. I was hoping for precedence of vampires being controlled in their sleep. Guess it was a long shot.”

“Oh, wait!” Mom jumped up, and my unbeating heart leapt in my chest. “I remember Ruby saying she had the weirdest dream, soon after we moved to the States. Constantine came to her, to check if we were okay. She told him he couldn’t really be there, and he said he’d tasted her blood, so all he had to do was go to sleep focusing on her. It was all very surreal for her. I didn’t think of it sooner, because she had no doubt her imagination had made the whole thing up. But maybe…”

My eyes felt about to bug out of my head. If that was the case, could Constantine visit the dreams of anyone whose blood he’d tasted? Would they know if he did?

Would
I
know?

That was a question for another day. “Could there be more you don’t remember? Maybe if I…um…hypnotized you?”

“No, I’m not forgetting anything. Now that I recalled the conversation, it’s as clear as if we had it yesterday. You should ask Constantine for details. If he was really there, he’ll know.”

I didn’t want to ask him. I’d have to ask why he didn’t say anything sooner, and that would only lead to badness.

“I think I’ll try it myself,” I told Mom. “See how that goes. Can you please not mention anything for now?”

She nodded. “But honey, if you need help, you can ask him. I trust him completely.”

So did I, which was scary, because he wasn’t a paragon of honesty. If he didn’t lie, he withheld the truth. The end result was the same.

The men returned for lunch, and then disappeared again. Not that I minded. It gave me more time to figure out how to emulate what my mother said Constantine could do.

From what Mom said, Constantine had just focused on Ruby at the right moment. I’d fallen asleep thinking of Alex more than once, and had never landed in his dream, so I guessed it worked the same way flying did. We had to believe we could do it, and will ourselves to follow through.

That night I didn’t feel like sleeping next to Alex. My skin prickled at the thought of him touching me, making love to me, when he felt like a complete stranger. I lay there and stared at the ceiling as he came out of the shower, trying to keep my gaze from diverting to what the towel around his hips left uncovered. Namely, most of his amazing body. Not looking straight at him didn’t help. Even if his wide shoulders didn’t butt into my peripheral vision, I knew by heart every inch of his hard pecs and cut stomach, sprinkled with a dusting of dark hair.

I was generally happy my hormones hadn’t died when I did, but that moment, they mainly pissed me off.

Luckily, Alex passed out the moment he hit the mattress. Constantine had worn him out thoroughly. Or maybe it was the excitement of the day, and he’d wake up rested and back to himself in the morning. If wishes were horses…

I needed my beauty sleep, but my body wasn’t yet used to my return to a human time schedule, despite my exhaustion.

Also, trying to find a way to spy on my lover, in case my maker had him under a spell, wasn’t really conducive to relaxing enough to fall asleep.

Fun.

Not.

If I didn’t fall asleep I couldn’t enter Alex’s dreamland—assuming I’d even manage to if I did sleep.

I got comfy on my back, and threw one arm over my eyes, trying to focus on all that was good and kind about Alex. All that I loved about him. I needed to remember these things anyway, whether my plan worked or not. For my sake.

Our first night together. He’d initially thought I was a prostitute, and had invited me home for a lecture, instead of the naughty times I had in mind. The naughty times were had after all, and what had enraged me at the time was now our private joke.

He was always so open. So willing to talk about his feelings. So ready to trust me. To love me. To make me his priority. My chest expanded with the love I felt for him.

He’d stuck with me after he’d seen me sprout fangs. After he’d found out my true nature. He loved me despite losing his life as punishment for being my lover.

He introduced me to his mother.

He—

He sat on the same log, in the same clearing. In front of me.

I was asleep.

And inside Alex’s dream.

Chapter Eighteen

The sensation of peace is all-encompassing. No. All-pervasive.

It’s an unnatural peace. Forced.

Alex sits in the sun, only a handful of feet away. I could reach him in a human heartbeat, but my feet are cemented in place. My inability to move doesn’t scare me. It somehow matches the tranquility of the forest.

Utter tranquility.
Utter.

No wind rustling the leaves. No birds chirping. No wildlife whatsoever. It’s like nature is in a coma. Makes sense Alex doesn’t spend time recreating forest sounds in his sleep, but everything else seems a perfect copy of reality.

He raises his gaze, and I suck in a breath when he looks straight at me.

“You came.” The smile on his lips is the exact same I saw when I followed him to this very clearing in real life.

What? He expected me?

Before I can ask, a female voice comes from right behind me. “How could I not? You know how I feel about you.”

I know this voice. Where do I know this voice from?

I try to turn and see who spoke, but I’m still rooted in place. Worse, I have absolutely no control over my body.

A burst of cold spreads through me, from my chest outward, tying my stomach into a knot, making my throat clench, and numbing my fingers. It’s gone as suddenly as it appeared, and I’m left looking at the back of a blonde head. The figure in front of me gradually comes into better focus and assumes shape as it nears Alex, adding to the distance between us.

A thick blonde braid draped over one shoulder. An almost bare back, pale and smooth. Voluptuous hips, swathed in barely-there strips of see-through gauze.

Ádísa! This figure can’t belong to anyone else.

Why is Alex dreaming of her? He only saw her that one night, when she tried to kill all three of us. Constantine ripped her head off and turned her to dust, but she apparently had plenty of time to make an impression on Alex by then.

We certainly talked about her a lot lately. Alex’s subconscious is probably messing with him.

I realize she must have passed through me. Was that the cold I felt all the way to my core?

If this is Alex’s dream, how can the image of Ádísa bring forth a physical reaction in me?

She reaches him, and sinks down to her knees by his side. “I’ll always come to you. Always put you first.” She trails a hand up his…calf? I can’t really see from where I stand.

“Can you say the same for Cherry?” she asks.

Sick to my stomach, I wait to hear his response.

“Cherry loves me.”

Is this some weird déjà vu? A replay of whatever he was dreaming when he sleepwalked? This is the time to check if I’m doing this right. Ruby was able to see Constantine when he shared her dream.

“Yes, Alex”—I smile—“I do love you. I’m here. Can you hear me?”

He doesn’t bat an eyelash or look at me. His face is turned to hers, but from what I can make out, he’s still smiling.

The clarity of the dream strikes me. I’ve never dreamed in such detail. My gaze is drawn to the blue sapphire gleaming on the cleft of my arch enemy’s throat.

Details. Not as important as what Ádísa is busying herself with. And she’s undoing Alex’s pants. She makes herself comfortable between his thighs, and pushes her hand inside the opening of his jeans.

I gag. “Alex, I’m here. Stop her. Send her away.”

Still no sign he hears me. His eyes drift shut, and his head rolls back.

The bitch meets my gaze, and the look she gives me is the same as when I caught Constantine and her in bed together.

Triumphant.

She feels triumphant. In Alex’s dream.

Something is even more wrong than I suspected.

I sense another presence, and again try to look behind me, but can’t move. This one isn’t threatening—I don’t think it is, at least. It’s just
there
.

Always looking at me, Ádísa licks her lips. “Does she appreciate you like I do, Alex?” She raises his shirt and kisses his navel. Alex moans. “Would she put you above everyone else?” Her sharp nails leave red lines on his side. “Even Constantine?”

“Cherry loves me.” Alex stills her moves, and I silently squeal in delight. Then I realize he hasn’t removed her hands from his body.

It’s a dream. Just a dream. I can’t be jealous of a dream. Even if it’s of the woman who destroyed my life and was the reason Alex lost his.

“But does she love you enough?” Ádísa asks. “I would love you enough. You could fix it, if you did what I told you. Then you could have it all.”

What? What did she tell him to do? It feels important.

So many things are important, but I can’t tell why—like that Ádísa is less real than Alex. Less substantial. She’s still more solid than I am.

Alex moans. It sounds like he’s enjoying himself, and I’m glad Ádísa’s hair now hides whatever she’s doing to him.

And shit! Is she…?

I can’t just stand here, while she has imaginary oral sex with my boyfriend. I can’t leave him here.

Focusing on my love for him, I shout, “Alex, wake up.”

Yeah, that doesn’t work. No sound makes it out of my lips.

“Alex!” Nothing again.

I close my eyes and scream in my head. “Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.”

Nope.

I have to wake up. Now. Eyes, open, damn it!

Alex lay on top of me, legs tangled with mine. He was hard against my core.

Hard for her.

I grabbed his shoulders, and shook him harshly until he opened his eyes. It wouldn’t be fair of me to knee him in the balls over something that ultimately wasn’t his fault.

“Bad dream?” I asked.

He rolled to his side, and took me with him. “Yes. I’m sorry if I scared you. Wanted to feel you.” He caressed my stomach, and brought one of my legs over his hip.

“This doesn’t seem scared.” I pumped my hips against his erection once, and then tilted them so my lower body didn’t touch his.

“It was fucked up. I think everything we found out about Ádísa got to me. I dreamed she was trying to convince me you didn’t love me, and she was pretty damned persuasive. She tried to seduce me, and I was just sitting there, powerless. Even enjoying it. But it wasn’t me. I didn’t control it, Cherry. I’m sorry. You know you’re the only one I want.”

Relief washed over me that he didn’t lie. I held his chin and looked into his eyes. They were open and lucid. He knew it was me in bed with him. As things should be. I arched my neck, and rubbed my heel up the back of his thigh. Despite all my fears about what was happening, I needed to feel the closeness that bound us when we made love, and the man in front of me was the lover I trusted, not the madman trying to replace him. Ádísa’s memory might have turned him on, but I’d reap the benefits and enjoy the hell out of them.

And I would ignore how petty it was that part of me wanted to make love to Alex so I could one-up her.

“Love you,” he mumbled in my hair.

“I love you too.” Not like he could control his dreams, right?

I pulled him to me and lay back, so he was covering me once more. He propped himself up on one arm, and caressed my face with his free hand. “You’re so beautiful,” he said. “Perfect.”

His voice and gaze held such awe, I almost teared up. He was back. The man who’d made me overlook my decision to never fall from a human was in bed with me, planting butterfly kisses on my lips and eyes. He nuzzled my hair, and licked a trail down my neck. I’d gone to bed in a tank top and a pair of boy shorts, and it didn’t take long for Alex to find his way inside both. Before I knew it, my top was bunched around my waist, and my shorts were hanging from one ankle.

“Touch me.” Alex gently led my hand to his cock.

His long, hard shaft throbbed against my palm. I closed my fingers around it, unable to circle it all, and slid my palm up and down its length—squeezing on the upstroke, the way I knew he liked.

He groaned. Grinded against me. “Just like that.”

I kissed his jaw line, and pulled his earlobe between my teeth. Nibbled on it. “Tell me what you want,” I whispered.

“I want to taste you.”

I withdrew my hand and spread my legs wider.

“Not there,” he said. “I want your blood.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and folded my legs over his hips, so the head of his cock nudged my entrance. “I thought you fed tonight.”

“Nothing tastes like you.” He pushed forward slowly, until only the tip was inside me. “Nothing measures up.”

His words meant more than I cared to admit. He didn’t prefer human blood to mine. He didn’t miss the warmth.

I hadn’t lost him.

I arched my body, trying to take in more of him.

“I need to taste you,” he said again.

I tossed my head back, clearing the hair from my neck, and bared my throat to him.

He needed no further invitation to sink inside me to the hilt, just as his fangs sliced into my neck. The euphoria of the double penetration was unsurpassable as always, and I gave into him, allowing him to mold my body to his, prolong my pleasure as he took his. I let him take me and take from me, while I fell off the edge again and again, until I could no longer control my limbs.

“Wow,” I murmured when he finally stopped moving inside me. I was so lightheaded, the words fell out in a jumble.

Lightheaded. From blood loss.

He was still pulling on my blood.

“Alex. Stop.” I couldn’t manage more than a whisper, but I knew he heard. He had to have heard.

Why wasn’t he stopping?

“Alex? Baby? You’re draining me.” This came out on a breath, and had no more impact than my previous words had.

I didn’t have the strength to even panic properly, let alone push him off me. How much had he drunk? I lay there, feeling my second life slip away just like my first had. Only this time, it was at the hands of someone who loved me.

I felt sorrow for Alex. By the time he realized he’d taken far too much, I’d be nothing but ash. That was what happened when we no longer had blood in our veins. The end result was the same as if we’d been staked or decapitated.

He’d be so shocked…

No!

Screw Alex’s shock. I loved him, but I wasn’t going to spend my last moments of existence lamenting his hurt at causing my ultimate demise. I tried to raise a hand and slap some sense into him, since he wasn’t listening, but my fingers barely rose from the sheets, before my arm flopped down numbly.

Fuck.

This was it. This was really it.

Alex’s weight lifted off me all at once, as though he flew upward. Which, I realized, he did. He flew in a short arc, before landing across the room with a hollow thud.

“Are you all right?” Constantine’s face took up my visual field. He looked worried. Why was he worried?

Right. I was half dead.

And completely naked.

Eh, I couldn’t let that bother me.

Constantine was more chivalrous than I gave him credit for. He pulled the covers on top of me even before popping open a vein in his wrist. “Here,” he said. “Drink.”

The classic cologne he preferred caressed my senses. Tobacco, wood, and leather, with dark, spicy undertones that kick-started my sensory memory. I scrunched my nose. “No. Can’t.” Drinking from another vampire was too intimate, and he and I weren’t at that place anymore, however familiar his scent. Hadn’t been in a long while. “We broke up.” My voice was no louder than before, but he apparently had no issues making out my words clearly.

And why was my brain glitching? Who cared if we weren’t together? The man was trying to save my life. “Never mind,” I more mouthed than said, before opening up for what he offered.

God, I’d forgotten how good his blood tasted. I don’t know if blood ages like wine, but his was richer, thicker, and more fragrant than Alex’s. Not that I spent much time thinking about it after the first few drops touched my tongue. I latched on to his self-inflicted bite, and sucked greedily. My eyes slid shut, as I felt strength return to my body with every gulp.

“Of course it’s Constantine. It’s
always
Constantine,” I heard Alex say. A growl vibrated in his chest.

I wanted to tell him he should be thanking my ex instead of being all grumpy about his intervention.

No, I wanted to kick his ass for making that intervention necessary. I was done feeling sorry for Alex and worrying he wasn’t all right. Done tiptoeing around his feelings. Whatever was happening to him, he had to be a man about it and come clean, not risk my damned life because he felt too embarrassed to own up to it.

I was, of course, too busy feeding to answer him as he deserved, so I kept scolding him in my head while I focused on the task at hand.

A door slammed shut, and I assumed Alex was having a hissy fit. Whatever. Once I was done here, I was totally giving him a piece of my mind. The guilt trip I’d been on since assisting his turning was now over, thank you very much, and our last stop was Reality Check.