The Life of Anna, Part 5: Emerged (30 page)

Anna laughed. “Maybe.”

Anna had fun at the club, dancing with Aaron
and some of the other dancers, but she felt a constant ache in her
heart for Alex. Why of all nights couldn’t she get her mind off of
him? She was in for a wonderful evening of sex with Mr. J. Why was
she thinking of her dead husband?

“You’re rather subdued tonight, Miss
Katrina,” Simon said as they rode the elevator up to the eleventh
floor of the Library Hotel.

“I’m sorry, Simon. I just...have a lot on my
mind.”

“Anything I can help with?”

“Not unless you know how to bring the dead
back to life.” She gave him a sad smile and then shook her head.
“I’ll be okay. Mr. J. is good at getting my mind off of
things.”

Simon studied her for a long moment and then
nodded. “I hope so. I believe he has a lot on his mind as well.
Perhaps you can distract each other.”

“Simon, if he’s not up for tonight....”

He shook his head. “He’s very much looking
forward to it. He just had some business to attend to yesterday and
is having a hard time letting it go.”

She smiled. “Well then, maybe we really can
help each other.” They walked down the hall to the room at the end.
“The Love Room?” she asked doubtfully.

Simon shrugged and held up the blindfold.
“Ready?”

Once again, her vision was removed and she
was led into the hotel room. The room smelled delicious, as it
usually did, but there was something off, though she couldn’t quite
pinpoint it. Maybe it was just the stress from both of them.

She inhaled as she walked, smelling vanilla
and roses, and smiled. “It smells good in here.”

He gave a breathy chuckle and squeezed her
hand. The bed squeaked slightly as he sat and he intertwined his
fingers with hers. She could hear him breathing deeply and could
feel him watching her.

She could sense his tension as she stood in
front of him, and was tempted to try and read him. Would that be a
violation of their privacy agreement? But if she did, it wasn’t
like she could do anything about what she got from him. He was
quick to keep her from touching him.

“Simon said you had some stressful business
to deal with this week,” she said softly. His tension increased and
she bit her lip.

He didn’t move. Had she upset him with her
comment?

Finally, he released one hand and ran his
fingers across her bare stomach beneath the black halter-top she
wore. He put his hand on her hip, pulling her closer, and then
began to kiss across her stomach with soft, caressing touches of
his mouth.

“Oh!” she exclaimed softly as he swirled his
tongue in her belly button. His fingers flexed the flesh of her
hips, making her wince slightly. He nipped at her hip and then
kissed up between her breasts and captured her mouth in a
passionate kiss. A desperate kiss.

Something was off, Anna was certain now. She
knew it was him, but something was different. His tongue thrust
forcefully into her mouth, stoking her own passion and she moaned
softly. He pulled her closer, her body pressed against his chest.
Her hands moved unconsciously to his shoulders and she was shocked
when he didn’t pull them away. What was going on?

She kissed him back with as much passion as
he kissed her with. She grasped the soft material of his shirt over
his shoulders and felt hard muscle beneath. Why was he letting her
touch him? Why did she care?

Her hands moved up his neck and into his
hair, but it was caught in something. He had a ponytail? It wasn’t
very long, but long enough. He growled and pulled her to him,
twisting his body so that she was on her back on the bed and he was
on top of her.

The fire in her body grew hotter and she
pulled at the elastic band, freeing his hair and tangling her hands
in it. His own hand tangled into her hair as the other held her
around her upper body.

His kiss never faltered in intensity and he
continued invading her mouth with his tongue. He pressed his hips
against hers and moved his hand down to her neck, stroking her
cheek just in front of her ear.

He broke away from her mouth, leaving her
lips throbbing as he kissed his way down to her neck. He nipped
gently and she gasped. His hand moved down to her breast and pulled
at her shirt until it tore open and he could cup it with his hot,
bare hand.

She moved one hand around to his face,
feeling the scratchy hair of his beard. He was letting her touch
him; she was going to take advantage of it. He sucked hard on her
nipple and she arched her back and cried out, tangling her hands in
his hair once more to pull him harder against her breast.

Her hand moved down to his shoulder and,
feeling a collar, surmised he was wearing a dress shirt and moved
to unbutton it. He pulled her shirt off and she heard a soft noise
as the shirt hit the ground.

She unbuttoned as many buttons as she could
reach as he kissed her breasts and then tried to sit up so she
could undo the rest.

He put his hand on her shoulder to hold her
down. “
Nein
,” he murmured in a low voice and she froze as
a chill ran through her body. He froze as well.

He spoke. In German. In a voice that haunted
her dreams.

No!
This was some sort of cruel
trick her mind was playing on her. Lots of men have low voices. And
speak German.

Grief overwhelmed her and she tried to push
him away. He didn’t move and she kicked at him. “Let me go!” She
pushed harder and he moved. She rolled to the side of the bed and
fell to the floor on her hands and knees, head hanging down and
breathing heavily.

After a moment, she shook her head. “I have
to go,” she whispered and pulled the blindfold off, looking around
on the floor for her shirt. It had dropped over here and she
spotted it in front of her.

She didn’t dare look at the bed. “I won’t
look at you,” she said in a broken voice. “But I need to
leave.”

He didn’t speak as she pulled her shirt on as
best she could and held it together as she stood, facing away from
the bed. “Thank you. For everything. But I think we should end
things now.” She would never be able to be with him again without
thinking of Alex and she couldn’t deal with that.

She put her hand to the side of her face so
she wouldn’t see him as she made her way to the door. Her hand was
on the knob when he spoke again, his voice full of pain.

“Anna. Don’t leave.”

It wasn’t surprising he knew her real name.
He knew who and what she was. But, she wanted to open the door and
run out of the room screaming. This was worse than her dreams of
him. Of Alex. Now there was a man alive who sounded like him. And
felt like him....

But she couldn’t move. Why wouldn’t her body
listen to her mind?

“
Schatzi
,” he whispered. She heard
the bed move and felt him coming closer.

“No,” she whispered. “No, you’re dead.”

He was standing right behind her, his body
heat dissolving the chill in her body. He put his hands on her
upper arms and turned her around. “
Nein
, Anna. I am
alive.”

Alex stared down into the face of his beloved
wife. Her green eyes filled with tears and she began to shake.
“Alex?” she whispered, disbelief written all over her face.

His heart swelled at the sound of her voice
saying his name. For the first time in so many years, she
recognized that he was still alive. “Yes,
Schatzi
. It’s
me.”

She blinked several times and shook her head.
“How...how are you here?”

He cradled her soft cheek with his hand and
smiled. “It’s a very long story, and I will tell you everything,
but for now, know that we escaped several months after Vlad became
Elder, and arrived in New York in July.”

“July?” she asked in a broken voice. Her
lower lip trembled. “You’ve been here since July?”

“Yes, when you got sick, I had to—”

A crack sounded in the room and it took Alex
several seconds before he realized that she had slapped him in the
face. It took him another few seconds to register the look of anger
on her face. The sting of the hit was padded by his beard, but it
still hurt. “You’ve been here for two months and didn’t tell me?”
Her eyes widened and then narrowed with her jaw trembling at the
same time. “Why am I just finding this out now?”

“Anna, there were things I had to do before I
could let you know I was here...and alive. I had to—”

“Were you just using me?” she asked in a
squeaky voice, motioning around the room. “Why did you lie to me?
Why all the secrecy? Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you come
see me in person?” Her voice got louder with each question until
she was yelling at him. “What the hell is going on, Alex?”

He could hardly believe this was really Anna
standing in front of him. The fire in her eyes bewildered him, and
he didn’t know how to answer her questions. This was certainly not
how he had envisioned their reunion. He’d imagined it thousands of
times, but it never had involved her being angry with him. Or
hitting him.

She had hit him! And yelled at him! He felt
his own anger rising beneath the surface. “You never believed me
when I told you I was alive, Anna. If you’d believed me, we
wouldn’t be going through all this shit.”

“You were dead, Alex. Devin told me. Your
father told me. Everyone told me you were dead! I spent two years
doped up out of my head rather than grieve for you. How the hell
was I supposed to believe my fucked up dreams?”

“I tried to tell you,” Alex snapped. “I tried
to tell you and you refused to accept my word. Didn’t you notice I
aged? That I changed? Why wouldn’t you believe me?”

“So I was supposed to believe a dream over
what people in the real world were telling me? Even your father
accepted my dreams were just dreams.”

Alex stared at her, his chest heaving. He
shouldn’t be angry with her. It wouldn’t do any good, and harm
their future relationship. But this was a different Anna than he
knew before. Who was this angry woman standing in front of him?
Angry tears streamed down her face as she glared at him while
clutching her shirt between her breasts; a reminder of how the
evening had started.

He took a deep breath to calm himself. “Anna,
Schatzi
. Please. Let’s not start things like this.” He
took a step towards her and she stepped back and shook her
head.

“You lied to me.” Her voice was softer, but
filled with anguish. “You lied!” She turned on her heel and stalked
to the bathroom, slamming the door closed behind her.

He stared at the door, completely baffled at
her behavior and at a loss for what to do. He’d never seen her
angry before.

She emerged a few minutes later, changed into
the clothes he’d brought her for the morning. She walked over to
where he’d put her purse on the dresser and headed to the door.

“Where are you going?” he asked, his voice
sharper than he intended.

“Home.” She opened the door and walked out of
the room, slamming the door behind her.

Alex stared at the door and rubbed his chest,
his heart broken. This was not how it was supposed to go. He took a
deep breath and then reached for his phone to call his father.

“Vati, we have a problem.”

Anna ran out of the hotel, tears streaming
down her face. She was given strange looks by multiple people as
she ran down the sidewalk, but she hardly noticed. Her mind was
going a million miles a minute and she didn’t know what to do. She
ran blindly, not paying attention to where she was going, only
wanting to run away from the pain in her heart.

She wanted to scream! She wanted to cry! She
wanted to run back to the hotel and fling herself into Alex’s arms.
She wanted to run away and never see him again, even though she
hadn’t seen him in years.

He was alive! Alex was alive! And been here
two months without bothering to see her. He hid behind red curtains
and blindfolds, keeping her from knowing he was there. Why? Was he
ashamed of her? Where had he been?

Fear gripped her heart and she stopped short
in the middle of the sidewalk. Had he found someone while he was
gone? No, was that
where
he had gone? Had he fallen in
love with someone and faked his death so that he could be with her?
His father never would have allowed Alex to divorce Anna.

Wait, did Wilhelm know Alex was alive? Had he
known the whole time?

No, she knew Wilhelm thought Alex was dead.
She had felt his grief and healed him of it. Had Alex deceived his
family?

Then why come back? Why find her and become
“Mr. J?” No, it didn’t make any sense. Why would he run off with
another woman and then come back to her? No, that wasn’t it. She
started walking again.

What had he first said? That he’d escaped?
From where?
After Vlad became Elder
. Vlad? Had he escaped
from Vlad? Had he been in Russia the whole time?

Her dreams...she’d dreamed of him...but Alex
had said they were real. He’d gotten angry at her because she
didn’t believe him in her dreams. He’d always been in the same
room. No, he hadn’t run away to be with another woman. He’d been
imprisoned by...Vlad? Vitaly?

Peter!
Peter had to have known Alex
was alive! And he hadn’t told her?

Anna stopped cold in the middle of the
sidewalk again. Peter, the man she’d lived with for a year. The man
who loved her...he knew her husband was alive, and he’d never told
her.

How many people knew Alex was alive and
didn’t tell her? How many people had lied, letting her continue in
her grief?

“Hey, sweetheart. What’s a pretty thing like
you doing out alone this time of night?”

Anna looked around and saw a man walking up
behind her with a creepy smile on his face. The street was small
and surprisingly devoid of people. She backed away, looking around
and trying to figure out where she was. None of the buildings
looked familiar.