"Not so weird."
I spin to find Aleks behind me.
I can't help but smile at the nice surprise, "How are you here? How did you know I was here?"
He shakes his head, "I didn’t. I came to check on him."
"Why?"
"Because he was my friend for a long time and he is heartbroken and destroyed. And even though he is evil and rotten, I can't change the fact he helped me kill my father and make things right in my world."
"You're a very honorable person."
He laughs, "No, I'm not. I just believe in an eye for an eye. Marcus has been punished. You cannot know how bad it is for him now."
I put my hands on my hips, "So, he lost Hanna. Big whoop. Now he has a heart and can feel. He doesn’t need her."
Aleks crosses his arms, "That’s not the whole story Aimes. Henry cursed the heart he put in Marcus's chest."
"Lydia's heart."
He nods, "Yes. He put a curse on it that is similar to one I had. He feels everything that his victims feel or have felt. His pain over the past couple days has been brutal. He has felt the terror and pain and everything."
I scowl, "But why was he a good vampire last time, only taking what he needed and bad this time? He wasn't a good person but he was a good vampire."
He shakes his head, "It's the cost of what Ari does. Things change. Things she can't control. Think how easily Blake adjusted to you being what you are."
I nodded, "Yeah. He was so good with it. But the first time he tried to commit me."
"Exactly. He has dealt with it subconsciously so many times, that when it came time to tell him this time, he was cool with it."
I look down. The sexual tension between us is mesmerizing. I remember so many things. We're talking about depressing things and all I can think about is brushing my fingers up and down his back. I shake my head and take a deep breath.
"Thinking about something?"
I look up. I know my face is on fire. I shake my head.
He grins his uneven smirk and I stare, like a psycho, at the fat part of his lip. I can taste it if I remember hard enough. The feel of me feeding off of him as he thrusts inside of me, is fresh somehow in my mind. Part of me wants to shy away from the thought. The other part of me wants to rip him limb from limb, devouring him. I realize I'm glaring and making a low growl.
His grin widens.
He grabs my hand and we flash. He shoves me hard into something as we stop moving. It hits me behind the knees and nocks me back. I land on a soft bed. He's on me, pressing me into the mattress before we both take a breath and realize it's a bad idea.
It's hungry and desperate. We have never made love like it. His teeth scrape at my neck. My hands drag up and down him. I rip his shirt from him. My t-shirt is torn open. His lips against my breasts are soft. They're too thick and plump to be anything but gentle against the swell of my breasts. His teeth nip lightly. I cry out. He's massaging and caressing. The trail of his touch is like rubbing a burnt match head against me. My skin sizzles. We pull apart and struggle from our clothes. I lift a foot. He grabs my boot, cussing in Norwegian as he tugs it off. It makes me hotter. He tosses them aside and pushes me back down.
I don’t even know where we are. I don’t care. His tongue is in my mouth. He owns me. He knows all the right buttons to press. He flicks one nipple with his tongue and lightly tweaks the other one with his fingers. I'm moaning loudly. He muffles my ecstasy with his mouth. My hands reach around the back of him. I'm scared to suck him, but I need it. He climbs between my thighs and thrusts inside of me hard and fast. I cry out from the pressure. My hands are sliding up and down his back. I'm mid orgasm when it starts. I don’t know if he will die or not from the suck but I can't stop it. He's pounding me still when I finish screaming into the huge round shoulder I'm biting. My orgasm prolongs as he finishes. He collapses onto me, panting.
"That stings a bit Aimes." He says breathlessly.
I laugh. The sex felt dirty. Desperate. Amazing. There was no appreciation for one another. It was hard and fast and I loved it.
I feel like I can't get my breath. I push him off. He grins beside me, "I think I used you a wee bit there."
"Use me anytime you feel the least bit needy." My mouth clamps shut. I can't believe I've said it. He bursts into a fit of laughter and rubs my belly. His huge hands against my skin make me weak. I want more.
"Hungry for something beyond my empty soul well?"
I shake my head, "I need to find her."
He smiles, "I think I may have the answer to that. Downstairs." He lifts me up off the bed. I look back at my torn clothing and press my lips together. I wink to my bedroom and jump in the shower. I rinse and jump out clean. I wink back to his bedroom with my clothes in my hand.
"I hate it when you do that." He says leaving the room fully dressed. I grin and pull my clothes on fast. I wink down the stairs after him. We are in his old house in England. I love the place. I have since the moment I saw it.
"I can imagine us living there. My parents visiting. We have two Irish Wolfhounds and maybe bunnies and of course a cat. I'm wearing a sweater and my dad and you talk by the fire, wearing those sweaters that Dorian always calls a jumper and mocks." My chest tightens when he turns back to look at me. I realize what I've said.
"Dorian doesn't talk anymore." He regrets his words as much as I regret mine. We both wince and look away.
"If I could have died instead I would have." I say but it, doesn’t improve things. He walks down the stairs to the basement.
"You can’t leave me. Ever." I follow him down. I smell something when I'm part way down. My insides tighten and panic.
"What have you done?"
Giselle walks across the basement looking grim. "Hey." Her eyes are still red from the funeral.
"What's going on?" I almost don’t trust either of them. I smell Shane. I know I do. I almost worry about him and question them. Something is up.
"I have him calm." She says.
"Giselle remembers the blood lust. She doesn’t remember anything else but she remembers that. She thinks she can save him."
Giselle smiles weakly at me, "Maybe I can find out where Ari is too." She hugs herself.
I wrap my arms around her and breathe her in. It's the first time being with her after all of it. Her body doesn’t melt into me the way it used to. She is tense where I am soft. I'm hugging with my heart and she is unable to understand why.
"I will make them give it back Giselle. Give back all your memories."
She shakes her head, "I don’t want them. I don’t want to fight it again."
I nod, "The happy memories though. The memories of Lydia and O and Dorian."
She swallows hard against my shoulder, "It sounds weird but my heart remembers them. I know them all inside of me."
My eyes water, "No, it sounds like love."
"We did all love each other. I can feel it."
Aleks wraps his arms around us both and holds us to him.
"You guys just humped didn’t you?"
I snort, "What?"
"He smells like sex. Like ew. Get off me caveman." She shoves us both.
I sigh, "I missed you."
She laughs and walks to the door to the cellar. "Did you straighten out the Alise thing?"
I laugh harder, "Blake has her convinced it was a bad dream. I guess she came there to see him after drinking a ton with Michelle."
She looks confused, "Do you ever miss it? The normal shit? I just want to get trashed and let some boy take advantage of me."
I tilt my head, "I do miss it. I miss the regular stuff but this is so big. It's everything to me now. I guess seeing it both ways was all I needed."
"Not me. I miss it. I miss getting trashed and having sex and not feeling like eating the person. I even miss just not coming. Just being used for a one-time thing. Sweaty sexy boy and me and the smell of booze. Jesus. Every guy now wants to be my husband." Her voice becomes mocking, "I smell so good and look so good and taste so good. Blah blah blah. Like shut up and do it. Jesus."
Aleks looks like he might cry. She is oblivious to the fact we have not said a word and continues. "I just want someone who can't see my beauty. Who can't smell my shit. Well you know, not my shit but like the succubus thing. I just want a guy who wants to just do it a lot and maybe buy me purses and stuff."
I distract her, "We should go to Cuba some time. You love Cuba."
She points at me and opens the door, "I know right. I love Cuba. This place is depressing. I officially don’t like England. Boring. No wonder no one comes here for spring break. No girls gone wild in Hertfordshire."
There is a blur and a snarl and she clotheslines Shane and jumps on top of him. She presses her face to his. He is frozen once she does it.
"Giselle! I told you to chain him."
She pulls away and grins, "It's more fun like this."
Aleks sighs, "You're going to be the death of me. I swear it." He eyes me up, "You both will be." He grabs Shane and drags him back into the cell. Giselle sits on the ground and smirks, "He tastes funny. It's weird."
"Can you kill him?"
She shrugs, "No clue. I mean maybe. I never tried. I killed other vamps but they weren't Marcus's vamps. That could change things."
She stands and walks into the cellar. I follow. He looks different. So different I feel like he too has died. Like he is missing from my life.
He lifts his face slowly and grins, as his strength filters in slowly. "You got some kiss Giselle. Always did I guess."
She laughs, "And you got some pain in the ass nerve. Now tell me where Ari is or next time I suck until you die."
He laughs. It's so bitter and hard, I don’t know it. Or him. "Kill me. Do it. Free me. She cursed me. Kill me and let go." His laugh almost sounds like it could turn to a sob.