He had a thousand questions, but none of them mattered then. Not as he fucked her and not later on, as they tumbled to the floor under the table, their clothes torn, they bodies exposed in patches of skin that was bruised or red or erect.
Chapter 18
The washing machines hummed loudly enough to make their conversation feel sheltered and safe from intruders. Nora knew she couldn’t stay long, but she relished the time she got to spend with Fletcher, knowing perfectly well it would be a while before she could visit him again.
“So is this our fault? All that’s been happening?” Fletcher asked, his chest being used as a pillow for the mass of knotted hair he tried to comb his fingers through.
“What do you mean?” Nora replied, her eyes shut, not really registering the conversation as she rested close to him. His breathing and heartbeat created a musical sort of rhythm that she decided she could listen to forever. A concept she was far more comfortable with than most humans who threw the word around like it was part of their reality the way it was part of hers.
“The killings, all the attacks on athletes and frat houses and students – Is it because I can remember what you are? Because no one knows. I tried to tell my friends when it first happened but that didn’t go well and I haven’t said anything since.”
Nora sat up. She had completely forgotten that Fletcher didn’t know. That he had no way of knowing any of it, not enough to conjure up anything but crazy explanations to a war he had no part in. It almost made her laugh, thinking that, to him, this was their fault. That what they were doing could be that big.
“No,” she shook her head, a small smile on her face. “God, no. Those murders have nothing to do with us. I was so afraid you’d think that I had something to do with it.”
“Never.” He shook his head, propping himself up with his elbows digging uncomfortably into the hardwood floor. “I knew there was something up, but I knew it had nothing to do with you – that it couldn’t be you, I mean. At least I hoped so. But then I started thinking it was some sort of message or punishment and when I didn’t hear from you I imagined the worst.”
Nora wasn’t able to hide how that made her feel. She had been nowhere near as confident in his loyalty to her, and it made her feel badly. Even more so because she couldn’t really explain what was going on.
“It wasn’t us,” she shook her head, buttoning up a shirt that had been ripped in so many places it was pointless to pretend she could wear it back out.
“Then why are they doing it?”
“It’s not my clan,” Nora sighed. “I can’t really tell you what’s going on, but I can tell you that you have nothing to do with it. And that you and your friends should get out of town tomorrow, as soon as the sun is up, and not come back until it’s safe. Until this is over.”
“When will that be?” he asked almost teasingly, pulling himself up before offering a hand to her and lifting her from the floor.
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly, deciding to leave out the part where this town might never recover from the kind of terror Ben wanted to unleash on them. “But no one is safe.”
“Come with me, then.”
“What?” She raised her head in alarm, looking at him, marveling at his naiveté. Loving him for it.
“You say no one is safe, and that I should get out of town. Then come with me. You can make me a vampire and we can run, just the two of us. If no one is safe, then run away. Run away with me.”
The mere thought of it was so completely fucking insane that she was mad at herself for considering it. Because she was. Seriously, too. It sounded like such an amazing clean slate, just running off with him and never looking back or thinking about what could have been. It was impossible, of course. There was no way she could leave Marcel and Elise behind, no matter how much every part of her screamed to leave with Fletcher.
“I can’t.” She reached out, her hand caressing his face softly, fingers slowly digging into his hair and pushing it back. “You know I can’t do that. I have responsibilities. I have to see this through.”
“Just tell me what it is, please.” Fletcher grabbed her hand, taking it between both of his, as if it took all of his strength to lower it to his lips and kiss it tenderly. “Whatever it is, I can take it. I won’t try to do anything heroic, I promise. I just want to know what it is you are up against.”
“I can’t,” she said, snatching a white t-shirt from his basket before ripping what was left of her shirt off of her torso and throwing it into the basket with a smile, standing before him naked from the waist up. “I’m going to take your shirt. I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to wander around with ripped clothes, all things considered.”
“You might attract a poor unsuspecting human to you, thinking he’s going to help.”
“Exactly,” Nora smiled.
It was a strange time to joke, but they both knew that this conversation could very well be their last.
Nora hoped that he would follow her advice and get out of town. Not just because he’d be safe, but also because having him gone would allow her to concentrate on a very real problem. And who knew? Maybe if they managed to get Ben out of town things could go back to normal and Fletch could return. Maybe if she helped defeat this psychopath she would be deemed worthy of choosing Fletcher to be embraced. His loyalty alone made a strong argument. He had known enough to attract a type of media that, while far more sensationalist than most people were comfortable with, did have a great big audience willing to believe in things like magic, monsters, and vampires. Yet he hadn’t capitalized on it.
“I have to go,” Nora said, breaking the last of four very deep kisses that threatened to leave them back under the table. “I have an hour to get back and I don’t want Elise on my back about this.”
Fletcher kissed her again.
“I’m serious, Fletch, and you need to get out of town.”
He kissed her again, this time deeper – his hands wandering down her back and cupping her ass hard enough to shove her up against himself.
“Stop,” she laughed, trying to sound angry while being thoroughly endeared and turned on. “I’m serious,” she insisted, pushing him away.
“Okay, okay.” He held his hands up. “I’m behaving. And I’m packing Jason up and leaving as soon as the sun rises, I swear.” He crossed his heart.
It was a gesture she didn’t really understand but it was good enough for now.
They kissed a dozen more times as she climbed out of the window, half her body outside the house as her head remained in, kissing him still. Like teenagers breaking curfew. It was enough to forget the horrors that went on around them these days. At least for a moment. At least until Fletcher felt her yanked away. Startled, he looked up. She was gone! Her screams muffled and quieted suddenly as she disappeared into the night.
She was gone.
Chapter 19
“We found him lurking outside.” Antoni threw Fletcher on the floorboards like ragdoll, his shirt torn, his face bruised and his clothes bloodied.
Marcel, Octavia and Lana inspected him as if he were a great big spider or some rare animal that had been lurking and threatening to eat their bushes.
“Is it hurt?” Lena asked, her nostrils flaring at the smell of blood.
“He was roughed up a bit by the younger ones that sniffed him out, but he hasn’t been harmed, not really.” Antoni lifted a side of Fletcher’s body with his boot, letting him flop back onto the floor.
“Was he bitten?” Octavia leaned in. “Who are you, boy?”
Marcel stood back, quietly watching Elise as her eyes widened and she clasped her hands close to her chest without even noticing she was doing it.
“Elise?” Marcel spoke up, breaking the tension and making everyone look over at Elise, standing at the door, “Have you seen this young man before?”
Her eyes widened. She almost shook her head to say no, trying to protect Nora. But Nora was missing, and maybe that was why Fletcher was
here. Instead, she nodded her head slowly.
“You have?” Athos growled his way into the room. “Can you explain how he found us, then?”
This time, she shook her head, her eyes still wide as they moved from Athos to Fletcher and then back to Marcel.
“Speak, child!” Octavia snapped at her. “How do you know this human?”
“Nora….” Fletcher wheezed, a lump on the ground, pushing himself onto his knees slowly, his body sore. He had at least a few cracked ribs as the result of his run-in with the ‘younger ones’.
“What did he say?” Marcel’s entire posture changed. His back straightened. He stood tall, his eyes fierce as he moved closer to Fletcher, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him up, “What the fuck did you just say?”
“Nora…” Fletcher repeated, his voice choked by Marcel’s hand around his throat. “I’m a friend of Nora’s.”
“A friend of Nora’s?” Lena echoed, glancing around the room as everyone exchanged confused glances that eventually landed on Elise, “Can you explain this?”
“I can’t explain it.” She shook her head. “I know that it- he- he’s immune to her bite…”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Antoni scoffed, “That’s impossible. Obviously someone here is lying.”
But not everyone shared his disbelief. Awkward looks were exchanged between them all, and Elise could swear she had heard Athos snicker at her confession.
“He remembers her,” Elise insisted. “She’s fed on him a few times. I don’t really know how many. She’s obviously been lying to me. She said she was not going to see him anymore.”
“Is that true?” Marcel asked Fletcher. “Did she feed on you? Can you remember her? Do you know what we are?”
Fletcher nodded his head, his legs swinging wildly as he tried to pull Marcel’s hand off of him with both of his. It wasn’t until then that he really understood what he was doing, and the risk he was taking. What other choice did he have, though? He couldn’t just leave. Couldn’t just disappear after she had been taken. He didn’t know enough to speculate on who had grabbed her, but he had seen enough fear in her eyes to know it was a threat. He knew he could die, that he had promised not to be a hero, but he couldn’t just let them – whomever they were – have her.
Marcel released him, watching him crash onto the floor with a loud thud.
He coughed, gripping his throat and taking deep, painful breaths. They felt like daggers being pushed down his throat.
“Talk,” Marcel said. “Who are you?”
“She disappeared –” Fletcher wheezed, a hand on his chest as he sat up and tried to steady himself. He was so fucking terrified he was having trouble producing coherent sentences. He just spat out words in the hope that they would make sense. “She came to see me, told me to get out of town, she…” He coughed, clearing his throat again. “She never told me anything about you. She was as surprised as anyone over me remembering who she was, figuring out what she was.”
“Who did you tell?” Lena growled.
“No one. Well, I tried, but no one believed me, so I gave up. I haven’t’ said anything about any of you since I saw her again. She said it wasn’t possible, but the venom - that thing - it just never worked for me.” He looked around the room imploringly. Nora wasn’t there. She truly had been kidnapped.
“As she left me, someone or something grabbed her!” he burst out, tears springing to his eyes, and running down his cheeks. “Someone has her! Please! We need to find her!”
Though their faces registered shock, the roomful of vampires stood staring at him.
“He’s a brave one, I’ll give you that,” Athos observed. “Or really fucking dumb. I can never tell where brave ends and dumb begins when it comes to these silly creatures.”
“We can test that theory—” Antoni began, making a move to grab Fletcher to tear into his throat and see if he really was immune.
“Wait,” Marcel lifted a hand. “He’s only immune to Nora’s venom. Yours will make him forget everything, and if he knows anything that can help us find her, it’ll be gone.”
“What do you mean?” Antoni was lost, but he could see as he looked around the room that it was only he and Elise that seemed confused.
“Take him to my studio. Elise, please join us.” Marcel turned to Octavia, Lena and Athos, all of them looking partly bemused and partly annoyed by this development. Funny, how this kid should show up just as Ben terrorized their home and threatened to destroy everything they had worked so hard to maintain for so long: their normalcy. “I’ll take care of it.”
Chapter 20
Elise followed Antoni and Fletcher into the room. She could smell Fletcher’s blood, and hear his heartbeat. It was difficult to focus on anything else. His fear, his desperation; it made him smell all the more human and delicious.
“Shut the door,” Marcel instructed her as he moved to sit, as if this were a business transaction that needed to happen in the most comfortable position possible. “Take a seat.”
They all did as they were told, with Fletcher grabbing a chair in the furthest corner.
“Fletcher is Nora’s kindred soul,” he stated simply, folding his hands on his lap.
“That’s a myth,” Antoni snapped instantly. “A vampire bedtime story – romance, nothing more.”
“Antoni, I am telling you he is,” Marcel interrupted calmly, turning his attention to Fletcher. “For a very long time, it was believed that vampires could only turn one person, and that this person was the person meant to share eternal life with them. It represented a problem to the more militant vampires who wanted to populate the world with our kind, so slowly but surely, a rumor began spreading that the mere idea of a kindred soul was ludicrous. Just one person in the whole wide world, meant to be for you – Well, I think you’d all agree that it sounds a bit like a golden goose chase. So those of us who knew the truth were urged to keep it to ourselves and clans began happening, with different rules on what the considerations to be embraced were. For us, it’s a process. We learn about the people first.”
“So wait…” Elise began, glancing back at Fletcher. “He can remember Nora because Nora is meant to turn him?”
“Well, no, not meant.” Marcel shook his head, “Those of us who wanted to find that one person soon came to find that encountering that kindred soul didn’t always lead to good things. Sometimes you can’t help the way the world damages a person, the things it takes from them, and it soon became evident that trusting in this force was far more dangerous than it was romantic or meant to be.
“Ben…” Antoni said under his breath, “he’s your….” He gasped.
Marcel sighed, deflating slowly.
“So why does Ben want to kill you?” Elise stood, moving to sit by Marcel as Fletcher and Antoni exchanged glances.
“Well, once two kindred souls have shared blood, a sort of shared unconsciousness happens. It’s how I know he has Nora. And it’s the reason he is so good at hiding from us. It also makes me a part of him, just like he is a part of me. I suppose my presence in his head is not something he’s too fond of. My guess is he wants to make sure that passageway between us is permanently shut.”
“By killing you.” Elise exhaled, still trying to take it all in and wondering if saying something about Fletcher would have made any difference at all in Nora’s kidnapping.
“He can see what you see?” Antoni asked, still confused by this whole thing.
“No,” Fletcher interrupted before Marcel could answer. “It’s like you just know. Like a hunch, but without the uncertainty of a hunch. You just know you are right.”
“So he’s always had the upper hand?” Antoni stood up, visibly upset by the information that had been kept from him all this time.
“I’ve worked all my life to make sure he didn’t. I don’t crave him like I did. I am not vulnerable to him like I once was – but that has also meant he’s not vulnerable to me either. He can’t attack us because I’d know h
e’s coming, but the same remains true for us.”
“Well, does he have as many bodies as we do?” Antoni asked.
Kindred Souls: Entire Series Books 1 - 5 Page 9