Blackwater (28 page)

I look around at the mist coating the graves and the dark bushes and overhanging trees.

I'm panting and confused. I look around and then at my wrist, it did happen. It was real. My trembling hand brushes away the blood dampness on my throat as I stand on my wobbly legs. His effects on me are bizarre.

"Lorelei!"

I turn as an icy whisper blows across my face, "You get away from that one. You get far away."

I see the twitchy ghostly image of Ramón and smile, "Who is he?"

Ramón hovers over the ground in his ghost form, "Father of the vampires. He is one of the cursed. You need to stay away from him and them Roses. Grandmamma was wrong to call them, Cheri. They're bad news. They always got an agenda."

I swallow and glance around the garden nervously, "What about Whit?"

Ramón shakes his head, "He ain't bad, he's just tricky. Girl, go with your guts. What does it tell you? The magic gonna speak to you now but you gots to listen."

I close my eyes and feel for it, "He's lying to me about something. I can feel it in his words. Something ain't all there." I open my eyes and Ramón is gone.

The dirt shifts as a hand shoots from it. I leap down and brush it away from her face. I blow and drag her from the hole. She opens her eyes and brushes her face off, "You buried me in a damned hole? What's the matter with you?"

I laugh, "You needed to change fully. You gotta be strong. You don’t have any magic to protect you."

She frowns and looks around, "Uhm…are we in a graveyard?" She looks lost.

I nod, "Yeah. Just gotta wait for Em to wake up and we can leave." I point to the mound of dirt she was laying next to. She grimaces, "You put her in a hole too?" Her voice breaks as she backs away.

I grab her wrist and slide my fingernail along it, "Look. I'm not crazy."

She looks at the black blood and screams.

I pull her in, "It's the way you wanted things, trust me. You won't ever age or change. You get to be young and beautiful forever."

She pulls back, black tears streak her cheeks, "What?"

I drop my fangs, I have control because I remember. She screams again, but hers drop too. She touches them with her fingertips and screams louder. I cover her mouth but she bites me by accident. She gets a taste of my blood and shoves me down. She leaps at me in a ravenous snarl. I shove her off and shake my head.

"This is gonna be real fun," I mutter and hold her at bay.

Whit appears in the woods with Maria, who looks less than pleased. He grabs the Angie monster and holds her face to his, "Get the hunger under control. Stop acting like a savage."

She goes limp in his arms and becomes a sobbing mess.

"What did you do?" She curls into a ball on the ground, hugging herself. "I'm so hungry and thirsty."

I look at Whit and the memory of the way I felt creeps back in. I forgot how shocking and horrid it was to change.

I drop to my knees and lift her stained face. Her fangs hang from her wet plump lips. I smile sweetly, "I went through it all once. I got sent back in time, don't ask." I hold a hand up, "just trust me, don't ask. I saw you, you were married and had grandkids and seemed happy until you saw me. You was old and tired and sad. You was so mad at me for leaving you behind and letting you age. I still looked like this and you were seventy years old. You cried and I felt sick for you. Your dreams were gone; you spent your whole life as a wife and momma. When I got the chance to make you like me, I took it. I want you to be with me."

The look in her eyes devastates me and I second-guess the choice I made. She swallows and looks at Whit, "You a vampire too?"

He nods once.

She looks at Maria and nods, "Your momma is one? I guess that makes sense."

I laugh, "That’s my auntie Maria. My momma stole her body."

Angie widens her green eyes.

I shake my head, "You don’t wanna know that one either."

She looks at the mound of dirt, "You killed your sister too? Made her like this?"

I grip her arms and feel like bawling, "Yes."

She shakes her head, "There ain't no going back is there?"

I shake my head. She slumps and hugs her legs in tighter. Her black dress is a destroyed mess. She looks like a sixties nightmare.

"Where do we go?" she whispers.

I look at Whit, "Scotland?"

He nods again, "We have to." He looks at the women around him and shakes his head.

Em's hand pops out of the dirt and Whit sighs and grabs her hand.

I run my hands along the wall of my bedroom. The feel of it makes me sick. I have still somehow lost everything, the daylight, my humanity, my trust in Whit. It's still crumbled away, and now I've infected Angie and Emily with the unhappiness I was plagued by.

I walk out onto the deck and look out at the flagpole with the half-mast flag hanging from it.

"You alright?" he asks softly.

I turn and shake my head. His dark eyes see me, they always do.

I bite my lip and watch his face. Even in the dark he's still the most beautiful man I've ever seen. I can't fight the love I have for him, even though I feel the distrust still there, hanging in the air between us.

"You made the right choice," he whispers and steps to me. His warm hands wrap around mine.

I look down where we are touching and shake my head, "I was so mad at you. You changed me and let my momma kill my sister and let my daddy die. You let Angie marry Martin and Tessa rot with this old house. You and I let so many things happen to the people I loved and I hated you for it."

He lowers his face to mine and kisses my cheek, "Shhhh. We didn’t make those same mistakes this time."

I feel the black water run down my cheek. I look at him and let him wipe away my tears. My lip trembles, "I did, I made those same mistakes. I did it. I took away their rights and changed their worlds."

He kisses again but I push him off. It's a conflict for my body. I want to hold him to me.

I shake my head, "I made the same choice for them that you made for me. I understand why you did it. I just wanted to say that. I'm not mad anymore. I get why you would make that choice for me."

He stands up and looks down on me, "I just want you safe. I want you away from it all."

I look out into the night and remember Marcus. I swallow and look up at Whit, "My blood is still... well, like it was before. It still makes you feel things."

His jaw tightens for a second before he speaks, "I know. Claiming the magic makes you a witch. Granted you're nearly undead, but your blood is the same as it always was. Now it's just a short-term effect, but it means that you'll be able to be used by others for the effects. Not to mention it's incredibly sexual for us."

I swallow hard and rub my wrist where the bites were. I loved the feeling of Marcus drawing my blood, but it's like cheating on Whit.

Instantly I remember the question Marcus asked me and frown up into his dark eyes, "Why did you ask if you asked me to wish anything before, in the other time?"

His face freezes in thought or panic. His lips play with a grin, "Why?"

I raise an eyebrow, "Someone mentioned it and I think it's weird you did it."

He gulps I think, I swear I see him gulp. He looks out into the night and mutters, "Bloody Marcus needs to mind his own business." He runs a hand through his hair and it distracts me. I know then that the effects he had on me before are worse now.

I shake my head, "You made me wish it for a reason didn’t you?"

He gives me a serious look, "I'm trying to protect you."

I step back, "What?"

His face changes to humble instantly, "My love, I want you safe. This guarantees no other vampires can force your love."

"What have you done?" I whisper.

He grabs my arms, "You have to know it was for your protection."

I sneer, "It always is. Why did you make me wish that?" Heat creeps up my face as I recall the image of him forcing the wish from my lips. His face buried between my thighs and sucking blood from there. The virginal innocent me, makes the blush worsen.

"Witches who haven’t gotten their power yet can make wishes and they come true. Ramón and his grandmamma were protecting you and stunting your magic. They were keeping it from your mother. They didn’t want her to know you had magic. You have witch blood no matter what, but only some witches are born with magic. They had protection spells on you, stopping her magic on you. I think they assumed she was going to go for you. Emily was too young for her. More than likely she didn’t want to start out so young again. She probably wanted to be old enough to make choices and be an adult."

I hold a hand up and cut him off, "What does this have to do with the wish?"

He sighs, "The wish is sealed. You will love me forever. You claimed your magic and made a wish. It's done."

I feel instantly sick, "Oh lord. What have you done?" I step away from him and rip my arms from his grip.

He looms over me, "You loved me anyway, this just makes it so no one can use glamour or compulsion and take your blood."

I laugh bitterly, "Well, tonight Marcus came to me and took my blood. So there."

He grabs my arms and drags me to him, "YOU ARE MINE, LORELEI!" He drags me through the doors to my room and throws me on the bed. I scramble up the bed to the headboard, terrified. I watch him pace the room. He growls and breathes like a bull in a pen.

He turns and the rage on his face frightens me to near death, "You will not see him again. Do you understand me?"

I feel my face nod, against my will. He forces me into the agreement. I feel his power over my blood and body.

He covers his face and shakes his head.

I climb off the bed and bolt. I jump the stairs and fly across the garden, trying to ignore his screams and the smell of the smoke still lingering in the damp air.

I race through to woods, pushing my legs and lungs. I can hear him behind me and push myself harder.

He doesn’t give up like before.

"STOP!" he screams.

My legs stop instantly. I crumple to the ground. He has the control over me. I feel the flames inside of my veins as he rounds the corner to the small clearing I'm slumped in.

He pants and points. "Stop. Just let me show you, I love you. I did it all out of love."

I fight his commands, but it creates a fire in my hands. I scream as my hands shoot from my body towards him. The fire bolts hit the tree next to him. He leaps out of the way but my hands fire like a Tommy gun.

The fire spreads in a circle around us.

He laughs and walks towards me. I hold my hands up, "Stay back."

He points at the fire, "That’s a special kind of fire lass. That'll burn right down into the earth. You need to put it out. We can both die from that."

I shake my head and point my finger at him. He doesn’t stop walking towards me. He grabs my hands roughly pulling me into his embrace. I break and sob.

"It's too much," he whispers into my head. "You've been through too much. Just relax. Imagine the fire being put out, sucked into the earth."

I close my eyes and imagine the earth pulling the flames down into the damp earth. The crackle and heat dies down.

He pulls me back and kisses my forehead, "You need to calm down. I swear to ya, I didn’t do it to force you to love me. I just know what happens to a girl like you with people like me."

I look up into his face, "I want you to do the same then. I want you to make me have the same control over you."

He groans, "Ya have it. Lorelei, I've got nothing but you in my heart. I swear it. I've saved you and Maria and your sister. There is no Blackwater witch blood left for the taking. That was the most powerful blood in the whole world, minus the first witch's. Ramón and his grandmamma are both dead. I'm going to be strung up by my toes from my family. I came here for a reason and I've defied them. I have to go home with witches who have turned and no one is going to know about your blood but me."

"And Marcus," I mutter.

He grips me tighter, "I'll deal with him."

I search his eyes for the truth, "I don’t trust you. You've lied too many times. I just don’t believe you."

He smirks and my heart almost looses it's battle with my brain, "Baby, you have to let me earn your trust. I deserve another chance. I swear to ya."

I shake my head, "Don't swear. There isn’t anything you could swear to me in the world that would change the fact you've lied about everything. If I hadn’t come from the future, I would be running for my life right now, terrified of you."

His plump lips are calling to me, they want me to forgive him. I feel mine pucker and lift. I shake my head and pull back, "You have to stop this. You have to take away this. I don’t want to love you like this. I want the control. I want to love you like a normal person."

He nods, "At my house. I'll take it off when I have you safe in Scotland."

I wiggle out of his arms, "Deal. But you don’t touch me till it's off."