The Return of Jonas (Pearl Vampire Chronicles #4) (13 page)

Jonas whispered in my ear, “He can still hear, you know.  I could just keep going,”
He started to slide his hand down the front of my pants.  I closed my eyes and willed myself to remain calm.  The last thing I needed was for Jonas to feel me panicking. 

“But hearing just isn’t the same as seeing, is it Jonas?” I s
aid.  Again, his hand stopped.

“I suppose you’re right, Sarah, but damn, you feel and smell better than I imagined, I’m not sure I can stop now,” he said.

“But, Jonas,” I said, grasping at the last straw I had, “I thought you wanted to show me that you could please me better than anyone else.  You really think you can do that with your arm pinned around my neck, threatening to break it?”

“Fine, I’ll stop, this time,” he said.  Matt turned around then as Jonas continued.  “I just hope that this little demonstration here has shown you that you’re going to have to do better, so much better.  I don’t know yet if our next meeting will be our final meeting, or if it will be another demonstration.  But I truly expect and hope you won
’t disappoint me again.  And, Sarah,” he said as he spun me around to face him, knowing that Matt was watching again.  I winced as he grabbed my broken wrist and pulled my hand towards his pants, pressing it against his erection.  “You will know this, you will enjoy this and it will give you pleasure unlike any you’ve ever known.”  He kissed me, his tongue forcing my mouth open and finding mine, his eyes on Matt the entire time, my eyes on him.  Suddenly he winced as I bit his tongue.  He pulled back and smiled at me.  There was a little blood dripping down his chin.  “I like it like that too, Sarah,” he said as he wiped the blood from his face.  Suddenly he shoved me backwards.  I flew into Matt’s arms and we both fell to the ground… and Jonas was gone.  He flew faster than I’ve ever seen a vampire fly.

Matt and I sat, stunned, on the ground for a few minutes.
Finally he started to say “Sarah, I’m so sor—” but my hand flew up and covered his mouth. 

“Don’t you dare, Matthew.  Don’t you dare blame yourself for this.  Now, let’s go home because I desperately need a shower and a toothbr
ush to wash his stink off me,” I said and I saw Matt smile, “and I need some blood to help my wrist heal.  And we seriously need to consider what Carlos said, because this asshole really is stronger than anyone I’ve ever met.”

Suddenly Carlos was in my head
.
‘Sarah… is it time to feed? I’m hungry, Sarah.  It’s time to feed… please tell me it’s time to feed…’

I squeezed my eyes shut.  “Carlos is hungry again, Matt.  If he’s this bad, this fast…
is this something we should really tackle?  Especially me?  I don’t have to go through some special process to get my fangs to release.  What if I start attacking and killing humans on the streets?  I’m not sure it’s safe to have me try it.  Maybe just you and Carlos?” I said.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about that,” Matt said
.  “Is he there? In your head? Can you tell?” he said.

I shook my head no.
“I don’t feel nauseous, so I don’t think so.”

“What if, after Carlos is better, we drew him away, to the island?  We could feed on whatever, nobody would be in danger from you, and Cameron and David could be there
to help us afterwards.”

I looked at him for a few minutes, thinking about what he said, trying to picture how it would go down, trying to imagine the
outcome; at least the one I hoped would happen. It actually felt like it might work.  But it definitely wasn’t something I was ready to commit to, yet.  I stood up and held my good hand out to Matt and we started heading down the mountain.

‘
Sarah… hungry… hungry… hungry… please?’
Carlos thought.

I turned to Matt
.   “Clinic first, okay?  I need to feed Carlos and have Cameron set my wrist.”

He nodded then gathered me in his arms and we flew the rest of the way, landing softly by the waterfall.  I went to Carlos’ room first, while Matt went to collect Carlos’ dinner and Cameron.  I walked in and was pleasantly surprised to see Maria sitting in the chair next to Carlos’ bed, and Carlos was sitting up.  He was obviously doing much better.  “Sarah
,” he said as Maria jumped up.

She blushed and said, “I’m sorry Sarah, I didn’t mean to visit so long.”

I smiled at her. “It’s fine, Maria.”

Carlos said, “I was just showing Maria this show
.”  He pointed to the TV. “can you believe she’s never seen it before…” then he stopped and stared at me, wrinkling his nose.  “Maria, I’m really sorry, but I need to talk to Sarah alone for a minute.  Do you mind?  I hope you’ll come back later,” he said, his eyes never leaving my face.

“That’s fine, it’s getting late anyways.  I’ll be back in the morning.  Goodnight Carlos
, Sarah,” Maria said as she backed out the door.

The second the door closed, Carlos said, “Where did you see him?”

I sank into the chair, cradling my obviously broken wrist in my other hand.  “Up by the cave, the one Malina stayed in.  I see your nose is working again.”

“Sort of, for his scent it is anyways, but I haven
’t noticed any other smells yet.  Were you alone?” he said.

“No, Matt was with me.”

“Is he okay?”

“Yes, I’m okay,” Matt said, as he walked in with five pints, followed closely by Cameron, who was carrying a wrist brace.

“Let me see the wrist, please, Sarah,” Cameron said.  I winced as he ran his fingers along the bones.  There was a snap as he realigned the bones, then he put the brace on.  “I want to take X-rays tomorrow morning to make sure it’s lined up correctly, understand?”

I nodded
.  “I’ll come see you first thing in the morning, okay?” I said.  Cameron nodded and backed out of the room.

“Okay, so tell me everything,” Carlos said.

“First, you feed, while they’re still warm,” I said.

“Only if you guys leave,” he said, blushing.

“Carlos,” I said, “you still might need help.  And I need to see if this causes that reaction every time, because if I’ve got the two of you reacting that way every time you feed, then we’re going to have to make sure you’re feeding in private, or we’ll be having a lot of embarrassing moments.”

“The two of us?” Carlos said.

I nodded. “You and Matt,” I said.

“Not you?” he said.

I shook my head. “Not yet. It’s too dangerous for me right now.  I’ll explain later, first eat.”

Matt handed me the evil pint, which I handed to Carlos.  “You try by yourself first,” I said.  He pressed the bag to his nose and inhaled a few times, then opened his eyes and looked at me, shaking his head.  “Maybe it’s the plastic.” he said.  “
Can you try putting some on the back of your hand and letting me smell that?”  I nodded and dropped my fangs, pierced the pint and squeezed a few drops onto the back of my broken hand.  I went to hand the pint to Matt, but stopped.  Instead, I drained it first, then handed Matt the empty bag. “For my wrist,” I said as he smiled at me.  I spread the blood around on the back of my hand then put my hand up to Carlos’ nose. 

He gently pushed it closer
.  “Oh, I think… I think… oh yes,” he said as his eyes opened, his changed eyes.  His tongue licked the back of my hand and his fangs dropped.  I handed the first bag to him, then the next three, and tried again, unsuccessfully, not to blush, as again he had the same reaction, this one more noticeable from the undeniably familiar shape under the sheet between his legs.  My heart was pounding in my chest.  I was in pain with a broken wrist, my husband was standing right next to me, but, God help me, I was turned on.  Shit.

“Well,” I said afterward, “feedings are definitely going to have to be private for a while.”

Carlos nodded. “Sorry,” he said, blushing, as his breathing tried to return to normal.  We waited until he was ready.  Finally, he said, “Okay, tell me what happened.”

Matt and I looked at each other
. “Go ahead, Sarah,” he said.

I nodded
.  “Jonas was in my head, singing.”

“Singing?” Carlos said.

“Yep, singing the same song over and over to bug me.  But when Matt said that he wanted me to show him the cave that Malina was in, Jonas stopped singing for a second, making me think that he might be there.”

Carlos looked at Matt
. “What made you want to see the cave?” he said.

Matt shrugged his shoulders.

“That idea might have been him too. He might have somehow planted it in your head,” Carlos said then he turned back and looked at me.  “Go on.”

“Okay, so we flew up there and landed on top of the cave.  We could smell him, but it didn’t smell fresh, it definitely seemed abandoned now.  We dropped down to search.  Matt was inside the cave, I was standing at the entrance watching him, when I felt Jonas watching me from behind.  I turned around and saw that he had a detonator in his hand.  He had rigged the mouth of the cave to collapse, trapping anyone who was inside.  He told me to walk towards him or he would push the button…
I told him no,” I said.

“You told him no?” Carlos said,
and there was total surprise on his face as I nodded. “And he didn’t go ballistic and push the button?”

I shook my head
. “No, because I told him to come to me,” I said.  Both of them stared at me. 

“You what?” Matt said.

“I had to stay where I was so he wouldn’t push the button and I had to get him closer to me so I could knock it out of his hand, so I told him to come to me.”

“Not your smartest idea ever, Sarah, but probably not your dumbest either,” Carlos said
. “Go on.”

“Well, he was almost to me, when Matt saw him.  That distracted Jonas enough for me to spring at him and knock the detonator out of his hand.  But he grabbed me before I could get away from him.  He broke my wrist to show me how strong he was, then he told Matt to stay away or he’d break my neck.  God, he’s strong Carlos.  He broke my wrist like it was nothing.  Is that from the…?” I said.

“Mostly, but part of it is just him, from being around for so long,” he said.  “Then what happened?”

I hesitated.  Matt and I looked at each other.
It was bad enough the first time… did we really have to relive it?  Carlos noticed our reaction immediately and sat up straighter.  “That son of a bitch didn’t… he didn’t… tell me what he did Sarah,” he growled.

I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting to keep my mouth shut, but it finally burst out
. “He felt me up, okay?  He was trying to get a reaction out of Matt, so he felt me up.”  I shivered as I remembered how creepy it felt.

Carlos looked at Matt
.  “You… you didn’t react?” he said, sounding amazed.

Matt shook his head, looking completely ashamed as he said, “No, Sarah linked with me and told me to turn around.”  I reached up and clasped my hand in Matt’s.

“And you did?” Carlos said. “You just turned around?  But…how?”

“Nobody can say no to Sarah, Carlos.  You know that as well as I do,” Matt said as he leaned down and kissed the side of my head.

Carlos looked back at me. “Did that work?” he whispered.

“Eventually,” I said, “it took me a few minutes to convince him, but then it did work.”

“How?” Carlos whispered.

“Because I reminded him that he wanted to force Matt to watch and he couldn’t do that up there
with Matt turned around like that,” I said.

“That stopped him?” Carlos said, clearly floored.  I nodded.  “And then?” he said.

I squeezed my eyes shut again… I was afraid he’d ask that.  “Sarah?” he said.

When I opened my eyes, I was pissed and feeling the anger from that moment all over again.  “Then he…
then he put my hand on his… on his… on the front of his pants and he kissed me… so I bit his tongue.  Which reminds me, I really need to brush my teeth and shower now,” I said as I started to stand.

“Wait,” Carlos said, “you bit his tongue…
and he reacted… how?”

“He smiled at me…
and then he left,” I said.

“He kissed you, you bit his tongue…
and he
smiled
at you?” Carlos whispered as he looked up at Matt and they both smiled.

“What?” I said, looking back and forth between them
. “Tell me, damn it.”

“Well, honey, it’s just that you have this uncanny ability to make the men in your life…
ummm… how can I put this, Carlos?” Matt said.

“Act stupid?” Carlos said.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Matt smiled. “They react in ways that they don’t react to anyone else.”

I stared at both of them
.  “I do not,” I finally said.

Both of them said
, “Yes, you do,” very emphatically.  “Sarah, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if you talked Jonas into returning to his island prison without putting up a fight.  Seriously, you could probably do that,” Carlos said.

I opened my mouth to argue again
. I mean, the idea that I could talk men into that… it was ridiculous, right?  But I was tired and I could still smell Jonas on me.  I’d had enough for today.  “I’m not going to argue with you anymore.  I’m going to shower and then be selfish by having my husband make me feel good again.  You get some sleep, we’ll talk more in the morning, okay?” I said.