Drip Drop Teardrop, a Novella (7 page)

Among his
seemingly never-ending questions, Brennus apologised for
embarrassing her when he danced with her at
4.0
. Immediately she felt ashamed
because he seemed to know she had been humiliated to be seen with
him and his scarred face. Somehow she found herself apologising
back, telling him she couldn’t help it, her fear of being noticed
by crowds of people was some psychological bullshit she’d picked up
after the death of her parents. But they both knew that was only
half the truth. Suddenly, Avery wondered why he wanted anything to
do with her. She wasn’t the nicest person.

When he was done
unravelling her little mysteries, Brennus finally let her drift off
into sleep just as the sun broke the horizon.

Avery awoke hours later,
the vast darkness beyond the glass windows telling her she’d slept
all day. It had been a wonderful, dreamless sleep. She felt
refreshed for the first time in a long time.

A throat clearing above
her head shot Avery upwards, and she found herself gazing into the
grey eyes of Ames.

“
Miss.” He
nodded his head congenially at her. “Sir has asked me to show you
to your room where you can freshen up, have a bite to eat and get
dressed for tonight.”

“
Tonight?”
she queried slowly, rising to her feet to follow Ames who was
already heading out the door. “What’s tonight?”

“
Sir has
plans for you both.”

That sounded
ominous. Shivering in her pj’s now that she was no longer near the
fire, Avery hurried to follow Ames through the gorgeous modern
house straight out of
Interior Design
Magazine
. He took her up this huge, wide
staircase with chunky oak banisters to the second floor. At the end
of the hall was a double set of doors. He thrust them open with a
flourish and Avery gaped as he led her inside the bedroom suite. It
was bigger than her and Caroline’s apartment in Brooklyn. A
king-size bed dominated one side of the room, sitting on a massive
circular dais. The other side of the room had an ornate fireplace
to equal the one downstairs. Avery shivered deliciously. It was
lit. There were sofas and chairs, an entertainment unit. Her eyes
widened as they passed over the open doors to a walk-in closet
bigger than their Brooklyn sitting room. The bedroom must have
faced the same way as the sitting room downstairs, for another
glass wall dominated, leading out onto a balcony that looked over
Brennus’ estate.

“
Through that
door is the bathroom, miss. Why don’t you freshen up? There are
some clothes that should fit quite well in the closet. I’ll have a
tray of food sent up.”

Avery was in a complete
daze as Ames left, shutting the doors behind him. She numbly
followed his directions and wandered into the bathroom.

“
Holy moly…”
she breathed.

Correction. The bathroom
was bigger than her apartment.

Floor to
ceiling, the bathroom was decked out in lavish travertine and gold.
There was a spa in one corner, a claw footed tub in the middle of
the room, and separated by a tiled wall, a wet room at the back.
Before she had time to think about it she was stripping out of her
clothes and heading with excitement towards to the wet room. Three
shower heads came on automatically as she stepped inside and Avery
gasped at the shock of the beautifully warm water hitting her skin.
She sighed happily and leaned back against the wall. That’s when
her eyes fell on the shelving unit built into the wet room. It was
like something out of a
his and
hers
catalogue. The top shelf had men’s
shampoo and conditioner, aftershave, deodorant, razor, shaving
foam, shower gel. All of it used. The bottom shelf had her
favourite shampoo and conditioner, deodorant, coconut shower gel,
shaving foam and the Gillette Venus razor she preferred. None of it
used. Her heart thudded in her chest and she struggled to draw
breath.

This was Brennus’ bedroom
suite.

And clearly he had been
waiting for her to join him in it for a while.

His harsh face flashed
before her eyes and she shuddered, confused and disgusted for the
way she felt about her would-be kidnapper.

“
You’re only
nineteen,” she whispered to herself, ripping the shampoo down off
the shelf and popping it open. She began lathering it into her hair
in jerky, angry motions. “You’re just a girl, being manipulated by
a much older man. Well… he is only twenty.” She bit her lip and
then shook her head, sending stinging shampoo foam into her eye.
She groaned. “Twenty give or take a couple of thousand years. He
has a lifetime or thirty on you… he knows how to play the
game.”

Avery snorted at herself.
She was talking crap. To herself.

Suddenly scared Brennus
might decide to show up Avery rushed through the rest of the shower
and hurried back out into the suite, wrapped modestly in a huge
bath towel. She was still alone. Except now there was a tray of
gorgeous smelling food on the table by the sofa. Stomach grumbling
she sauntered into the walk-in closet and her towel promptly
dropped.

“
Holy hell…”
Her fingers brushed the rows of folded jeans, t-shirts. The skirts,
all colours, all lengths, hanging on the rails. Dresses, coats,
jackets. Drawers that opened to reveal underwear, pretty underwear…
sexy underwear?!

There were even drawers
with jewellery and perfume. Racks of shoes, sneakers, boots, belts,
bags, purses, hats, scarves... All in her size, all to her
taste.

“
I think you
should be a little more creeped out than you are, Ave,” she
whispered shakily, drawing on a pair of panties, bra, black jeans
and a shirt. Her gaze fell on the other side of the closet where
the layout matched this side. Except it was filled with what was
clearly Brennus’ stuff.

“
You get
everything you need?”

She squealed like an
idiot and whirled around to see him smirking at her. “JeSUS!” She
glared at him and brushed past him, ignoring the sparks that shot
down her arm where their bodies met.

Thumping down on to the
sofa, she grabbed at the food tray and began digging in, glaring at
him the whole time as he took the seat opposite her. She swallowed
when he refused to look away. “You know this is all just a little
too Virginia Andrews for my liking.”

He raised an eyebrow.
“Meaning?”

“
The clothes,
the accessories, the shampoo!” Avery shook her head in disbelief.
“It’s creepy, Brennus.”

He sighed, rubbing the
back of his neck self-consciously. Her eyes widened a little. Was
he embarrassed?

“
Perhaps I
went overboard.” He shrugged sheepishly, no longer meeting her
eyes. “I just wanted you to be comfortable.”

For some inexplicable
reason Avery felt bad for upsetting him. “I know. The thought was
nice… if poorly executed.”

Brennus frowned, looking
up. “The things weren’t to your liking?”

“
Of course.
It was just… doing what you’ve done… it’s alarming and a
little…
gothic
.”

He surprised her by
chuckling, the sound tugging at her belly. She flushed. God, Josh
had never made her feel this way. Sex with him had been perfunctory
and boring. Somehow she knew with Brennus it would different. When
she looked back over at him, his eyebrows were raised speculatively
and she had the weirdest feeling he knew what she had been
thinking. Avery blushed even harder and he responded with a wicked
grin.

“
Sorry, if I
‘freaked you out’, as you kids say today.”

She snorted ignoring the
heat in her cheeks. “Could you sound any older?”

“
Yes.”

Rolling her eyes at him,
it took her a minute to remember she was supposed to be pissed off
at him. She stopped smiling and dropped her gaze.

“
Avery,” he
moaned softly as if her coldness physically hurt him.

Ignoring his plea, she
shrugged and continued to eat. When she was done, she leaned back
and concentrated on his scar, waiting for the ripples of revulsion
she had first felt when she saw him. She bit her lip, telling
herself she still felt them. She thought of Sarah and Jemima and
how freaked out they’d be if she started seeing this guy. Even the
knowledge of their humiliating judgement didn’t bring on the
ripples. How long had she been here? It felt like
forever.

“
So what’s on
the agenda tonight?” She asked softly. Giving in.

Brennus stood up and held
a hand out to her. “For one night only… I’m going to show you my
world.”

I Wonder What
it’s Like…

Walking by your
Side

The last place Avery
expected to end up was the hospital. One minute she was shrugging
on a jacket (this gorgeous leather bomber… so soft… she wanted to
die – if her aunt saw her in it she would) and taking Brennus’
hand. The next minute, the whirlpool thing happened and they were
standing in a brightly lit hospital corridor, nurses and doctors
rushing by. Not one of them looked at them and when a short,
flustered-looking doctor headed straight toward her as if she were
invisible, Avery yelped and pushed Brennus aside so the doctor
didn’t walk straight into her.

“
What the
hell…” she snapped, glaring at the doctor as he hurried off. She
was all for not being centre of attention but that was just
ruuudddee.

She stiffened at the
sound of Brennus’ chuckle and spun around slowly to pin him to the
wall with a ‘ferocious’ look. “What?”

He smiled at her, the
scar stretching up on his cheek. It seemed more prominent under the
fluorescent lights. It must have hurt when he got it, she thought,
feeling a pang of pain for him. “Avery, no one can see
us.”

Her eyes widened
incredulously. “We’re invisible?”

He nodded, the smile
slipping from his face as he sobered. “We’re here for the
dead.”

Once more he held out his
hand and tentatively she took it, tears prickling painfully in the
back of her eyes for some reason. Despite everything inside her
screaming for her to run in the opposite direction, Avery followed
Brennus as he wandered into the ICU. His shoulders seemed to hunch
over as they walked into a private room. A teenage girl lay broken
on the bed. An older man and woman were curled up together on the
sofa against the wall, their faces strained with terror even in
their sleep. As she stood there with Brennus, an icy cold descended
on the room and the heart monitor by the bed went crazy as the
waves on the screen flat lined. Nurses and a doctor rushed into the
room, pushing paddles on a trolley, and Brennus pulled Avery out of
the way, guessing she wouldn’t enjoy the sensation of someone
running right through her. They worked in a calm hurry to save the
girl’s life, her parents held back by a nurse as the doctor
attempted to stop the inevitable. Brennus stepped forward through
the medical team and brushed the girl’s hair off her face. Gently
he bent down and pressed the softest, sweetest kiss to her
forehead.

Avery tended to cry if
someone else did and as the man and woman sobbed hysterically when
the doctor pronounced, ‘Time of death, 20:16,’ Avery felt a hot
tear score her cheek as her throat muscles clenched together,
determined to hold back her answering sob.

She felt the brush of
Brennus’ fingers on her cheek and she looked up at him. He stared
back with such love, she felt her knees buckle.

*

For the rest of the night
he took her from pillar to post, answering the call of the dead.
Each person he treated gently. Respectfully. Sombrely.

He was the most
beautifully sad thing she had ever seen.

I’m Gonna Kiss
the Parts

that you have
Lost

After such an
exhaustingly emotional night, Avery was surprised when Brennus
suggested they go dancing the next evening. Her first instinct had
been to flinch inwardly at the thought of being seen at
4.0
with Brennus. As
soon as the thought floated out into the verse she berated herself.
When had she grown into such a shallow, hateful person?

“
I didn’t
mean
4.0
.”
Brennus shook his head. “Your friends might be there.”

She wanted to
tell him she wasn’t ashamed to be seen with him. But she wasn’t
sure if that was true or not.
God
. She was disgusted with
herself.

Seeming to read her mind,
Brennus smirked. “You are remembering that you consider yourself my
captive, right, Avery?”

She straightened her
shoulders and nodded at him. “Yeah. Right. Forgot about that.” She
felt a little better about herself.

But Brennus was grinning
that wicked grin that did funny things to her insides, the kind of
funny things that made her wish he would just grab her and kiss her
already. “Forgot hmm? I’ll call that progress.”

Avery grimaced. “That’s
not what I meant.”

She had to
admit that choosing an outfit for going dancing was difficult.
Brennus had great taste. Understated, classy. In the end she chose
a pair of skinny jeans and a silk top that tied into a gorgeous
floppy bow behind her neck, the wide ribbons sliding sensually
across her back as she moved. Her stilettos were emerald green to
match the colour of the top. Her clutch matched too. She shook her
head.
Where had he gotten all of this
stuff?
She wondered, shrugging on a little
cropped jacket a lot like the one she had at home.