The Return of Jonas (Pearl Vampire Chronicles #4) (15 page)

‘None of your business, Jonas,’
I thought.

‘
Does someone want to lose their sight again,’
he growled.

‘Fine, I’m getting
breakfast.’

‘
Virgin blood’s the best.’

‘
Yeah, well, I seriously doubt there are many virgin prisoners, so I guess I’ll never know.’

‘Oh, come on.  I know you’re feeding the good stuff to Carlos.  I told you I wanted you to do better, Sarah.  You’re not going to do better unless you’re feeding on it too.  Please tell me you and Matt aren’t going to let me down again.  Y
ou are using good blood, right?’

‘I’m feeding the good stuff to Carlos because you just about killed him, Jonas.  And, as for what Matt and I are drinking, why should I tell you?
’

‘No way,’
he thought,
‘you smelled that delicious and you’re not feeding on good blood? Oh my God, Sarah.  There’s no way I’ll be able to stop once you start to feed on it.’

‘What makes you think I’m going to?’

‘Because you don’t stand a chance if you don’t.’

‘So?
’ I thought.
‘Maybe I’ve just decided I’m not going to fight you.  Maybe I’ve decided I’m just going to stand there and let you kill me.’

‘Because I’m not going to kill you, Sarah.  At least not right away.  I’m going make you watch me kill them.  And then I’m going to make you my pet, for as long as I want to
.’

‘You can’t force me to want you
.’

He laughed in my head
.
‘Do you really think I care if you want me?  I want you, I’m going to have you, that’s all I care about.’

‘What’ll it take for you to just go away, Jonas?’

He was quiet for a few seconds, like he was actually thinking about an answer.
‘Fuck me.’

‘That’s it?’
I thought.
‘I sleep with you and you’ll go away?’

‘No, Sarah.  I didn’t say sleep with me.  I said fuck me.  You’re entire body and mind has to be into it, the way it is when you’re fucking him.  If I don’t feel that, then the deal’s off.’

Now I was the silent one.  There’s no way I could do that, could I?

‘Sarah?’

‘How do I know you’ll go away afterwards?  What guarantee can you give me?’
I thought as my hands began to shake and my heart raced.  I can’t do this… can I?

‘I’ll take you to my island.  You can have a boat waiting for you. You can leave me there in all my weakened, satisfied glory
.’

‘You’re lying
.’

‘Maybe,’
he thought,
‘but what if I’m not, Sarah? What if you can save them? Without a fight, without anybody getting hurt or killed? Just a few hours with me, is that so awful?  But it has to be real, Sarah.  There will be no faking.  We will be linked.  I will know.’

Silence.
Deafening silence. 
‘Jonas?’
I finally thought.

‘Yes?’

‘Will you go away for a little while? Let me think? Please?’

‘Of course.  I
’ll talk to you tomorrow.  Sleep well tonight… and try not to dream about me,’
he thought, then he was gone.  I tossed the pints into the microwave, my mind racing as it whined.  I jumped when it beeped.  I grabbed Carlos’ breakfast and made my way back to his room.

“Geez, Sarah.  What took you so long?  You get lost?” Carlos said.

I shook my head. “No, but I did just have an interesting conversation with Jonas,” I said.

Matt jumped up and Carlos sat straig
ht up in bed.  “WHAT!?” Matt exclaimed.  “What did he say?”

“Well, he just gave us another option for making him go away.  One that doesn’t involve any fighting and doesn’t involve any bloo
dshed,” I said.

“You’re kidding me, right?” Carlos said
.  “What option?”

I hesitated for a second…
and that was all it took for Matt to figure it out.

“You promised, Sarah,” he whispered.

“And I’ll keep that promise, Matt.  I promised to die by your side, if, in the heat of battle he said he’d let you live if I went with him.  I will still do that.  But this is different.  There isn’t any battle with this, and I wouldn’t be leaving with him… it would only be one time,” I said.  But I knew as soon as I said it that I couldn’t go through with it.  I knew as soon as I saw the hurt in his eyes that I could never, ever do it.  I set the blood down on the bed next to Carlos and walked over to Matt.  I wrapped my arms around him and looked into his eyes.  “I’m so sorry,” I said as I began kissing him, gently working my way through his pain until he responded.

I couldn’t stop kissing him, not when Carlos said, “Uhhh, guys, my nose works, can you please leave?”  I couldn’t stop even as Carlos’ request became more desperate.  “Oh, God, I can smell it guys, please, please…
I can’t hold out much longer… come on guys… please… oh hell…” he groaned.  I couldn’t stop even as we heard Carlos slurping his dinner, moaning and groaning as his ecstasy grew.  Couldn’t stop as Carlos’ moans were clearly accompanied by uncontrollable, involuntary sexual reactions under the sheet as he downed the last pint.  Couldn’t stop as Carlos let out a final muffled cry of pleasure after he shoved his pillow in his face.  Couldn’t stop as Carlos lay there gasping and cursing us under his breath.  But finally had to stop when he began throwing the empty pints at the back of my head.

On the last one, Matt and I started laug
hing, “Okay, okay, we’ll stop.”

“Damn it,” Carlos said, “my nose is fixed now.  Meals will be private from now on, understand?”

“Oh, crap,” I said, “what time is it?”

“Almost eleven, why?” Matt said.

“I have a meeting with Bahiti,” I said as I rushed toward the door.  “I’ll be back in an hour.”

I raced through the halls and into m
y office.  I sat down at my desk across from Bahiti.  “Thanks for coming.  I have some history questions for you.”

“Sure, Sarah,” she said, “what would you like to know?”

“Well,” I said, clearly nervous, though I wasn’t sure why, “did vampires used to be different?  I mean, a long time ago.”

She stared at me for what seemed like forever, then she smiled
. “You mean, did they used to be like you.  Able to drop their fangs at will and feed on whatever or whoever, they wanted?”

I nodded.

“Well, a lot of our ancient history was destroyed by Victor, but I have heard a few stories.  I’m not sure if they’re true or not though.”

“What were they?” I said
. “They were bad, weren’t they?”

“Some of them, yes.  But there are bad vampires now, as you well know, so I don’t think it was much worse then.  But apparently
vampires had no discipline, no structure.  They never tried to control themselves and they were ruthless killers,” she said.

“So you don’t know if their need to kill was out of control or just they themselves
wanting to kill?”

She shook her head
. “No, but I know someone I can ask.”

“Who?” I aske
d. “There’s a vampire around who was alive before Victor took over?”  I gasped as I realized she was talking about Sekhmet – an ancient Egyptian Queen who had ruled over vampires for over a thousand years before she decided to shut down her body and go into vampire hibernation.  We had gone into her temple during our search on how to turn me into a vampire and some of the drawings on her throne had provided a crucial timing piece to the process.  “Bahiti, is that safe?”

She smiled
. “If I don’t push her to answer questions she doesn’t want to answer, then, yes it’s safe.”

I shook my head
. “No, I can’t ask you to do that for me, Bahiti.”

“You didn’t ask, I’m volunteering,” she said as she stood up
. “I’ll be back in a few days.  I’ll let you know what I find out.”  She turned and walked out before I could say anything else.

I had one more stop on the way back to Carlos’ room.  I knocked on her door and waited for Stacy to answer.
Stacy had been a prostitute friend of mine who I had asked, and she had eagerly agreed, to become a vampire.  She was now running the first vampire call-girl business.  “Sarah!” she said as she hugged me.  “I haven’t talked to you in ages.  How are you?”

“I’m great Stacy, how are you doing?” I said.  She saw right through me though.

“Come in, tell me what’s going on,” she said as she pulled me toward the couch

I smiled at her.
“Okay, this might sound odd, but I have to ask anyway.  Can you drop your fangs whenever you want?”

“The way you can?  No.  But every once in a while, they’ll just randomly drop.  I keep trying to figure out what I’m doing when it happens, but I haven’t been able to yet because it’s so rar
e.”

“How rare?”

“Once, maybe twice a year.”

“Oh,” I said, trying not sound too disappointed.

“Sarah, there’s nothing wrong with you,” she said.

“Easy for you to say,” I said, “you’re not the only one like me.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being unique,” she said then she smiled.  “You know what you need?”

“What?”

“A sexy new negligee,” she said as she grabbed my hand.

“Where are we going?”

“To my shop.  I’m going to pick something out for you.”

“Stacy,” I began, but she turned and gave me that ‘don’t be such a drag’ look, so I stopped.

Twenty minutes later I had hidden my new purchase in our room and was heading back to Carlos’ room, but Matt found me in the hallway.  “He’s not here,” he said as he gave me a kiss.

“Where is he?”

“With Maria.  Is that why you had her stay with us, Sarah?  I’ve never seen him like this with anyone… except…” he started to say but stopped because he knew that he didn’t need to continue.  We both knew all too well who he was talking about.

“I had a feeling.  Yes, that’s why I had her stay,” I said.

“You are something else, Sarah Pearl,” he said, smiling at me.

“You think so?” I said
. “Wait till you see what I have in store for you later,” I said then I winked at him.

He stared at me then I watched a shiver rock his body.
  He pulled me into his arms. “Why wait till later?” he growled.

“Why wait till later for what?” Carlos said.

I turned and looked at him, and my heart swelled when I saw he was holding Maria’s hand.  Maria looked a little worried that I might be mad, so I smiled at her and she relaxed.

“Wait,” Carlos said, “forget I asked that, because knowing you two I already know the answer.”
  Carlos leaned over and whispered something in Maria’s ear that made her eyes go wide and then she blushed.  They’ve already progressed to the sharing secrets stage? I thought.  Wow, I did better than I thought.

“So, Sarah,” Carlos said, “I went to grab some lunch earlier, but I see you’ve got some sort of electronic lock on the fridge.  You gonna tell me the
combination?”

I stared at him then
I shook my head.  “No, Carlos,” I said then I held up my hand when he started to argue.  “I changed it this morning.  And I’m not going to tell you and I’m not going to tell Matt, since he’s starting on it tonight.”

“I am?” he said.

I nodded. “Yes, you are.  But Carlos, the other fridge isn’t locked.  If you’re hungry, help yourself to that.”

Carlos glared at me.  He was trying desperately to control himself.  He wanted to scream at me, maybe even swing at me, but I saw him gently squeeze Maria’s hand, as if trying to draw calm from her.  “Fine,” he grumbled, “I’ll wait.”

Maria could feel the tension and tried to help.  “The sun’s just setting, how about we all take a walk in the courtyard?” she said.  Carlos and I continued to stare each other down, but we both nodded.  I grabbed Matt’s hand and we turned to head down the hall.  Suddenly I started feeling nauseous.  I squeezed Matt’s hand tight.  I pointed to my head when he turned and looked at me.  I felt Matt linking with me just before Jonas came in.

‘What are we up to this evening, Sarah?’
Jonas thought.

‘I thought you were going to leave me alone until tomorrow, Jonas.’

‘Ahhh, we have a visitor.  Hello Matthew.’

‘Jonas,’
Matt thought, hissing the “s”, which made me smile.

‘
So, Sarah, did you share my offer with your husband or do I get to have some fun and tell him?’

‘
She told me, Jonas,’
Matt thought.

‘Too bad, that would’ve been fun.  So,
are you going to share, Matthew?’

‘Fuck off, Jonas,’
I thought.

‘Stop, Sarah, you’re getting me all excited,’
Jonas thought.
‘Does this mean you’re not taking me up on my offer?’