Leticia

by Lindsay Anne Kendal

  “Oh god I hope so.”

  There was a knock on the door and Tristan walked in.

  “It’s nice to see you up and about,” he smiled at me. “Now we just need Jackson to wake up.”

  “I know. Thank you for helping me.”

  “You’re very welcome, but I’m not finished with you yet. It seems, looking at you, that there is still silver in your system. I think we should get it out.”

  “You mean you’re gonna bite me again?” I asked.

  “Only with your permission.”

  “Do it, the sooner I’m back to normal the sooner we can decide what to do about Jackson.”

  Nancy explained to him what I’d suggested, thankfully Tristan was in full agreement. They decided to give me some time alone with Jackson, then when I was ready, Tristan would come to my room and try to rid me of the silver.

  I moved so I lay next to him, laying my head on his chest and wrapping my arms around his waist. He felt cooler than normal, but I put it down to the fact that he hadn’t been moving around.

  “You better wake up, do you hear me,” I said, squeezing him tighter, tears rolling down my cheeks. “You told me not so long ago that I wasn’t allowed to leave you when you’d only just gotten me. Well, now I’m telling you, you are not allowed to do this to me. You can’t leave me, not like this; I won’t let you.”

  I moved so I could look at him and ran my fingers through his hair. Although he was asleep and pale; he was still beautiful. Quite possibly the most handsome man I’d ever had the pleasure of seeing. Even now, after seeing him almost every day, I would still get butterflies in my stomach whenever he looked at me. One thing was for certain, even though I hadn’t known him very long and we hadn’t spent that much time on our own. I was definitely falling in love with him; and I couldn’t stand the thoughts of him leaving me before I’d had the chance to tell him.

  “Please open your eyes,” I begged in tears. “Please baby. I’d do anything... anything at all. I want to see your eyes.” I hoped and prayed, but he didn't move at all. I lay my head on his chest again, just listening to him breathe. At least he was still doing that. “As soon as you’re well again and all this is over, we’ll be able to be a proper couple. We can do whatever we want, whenever we want. For as long as we wish.”

  I lay there for quite a while, not wanting to leave him; but the pain I was experiencing was getting worse. I needed to let Tristan help me. I dragged myself off the bed and leaned over, kissing his cheek one more time, before heading for the door. As I was about to walk out, Nancy walked in.

  “Hey,” she smiled. “Come on, let’s get you sorted out.”

  After walking me back to my room she shouted for Tristan.

  “Where are we by the way?” I asked, while waiting for him.

  “We’re in the Peak District, not too far from Castleton. Jackson bought this house a few years ago, it was a shell, but he worked hard on it. He toyed with the idea of selling it but then decided against it just in case we ever needed to move. Looks like he made the right decision.”

  “OK Tish, are you ready?” Tristan said, walking in.

  “Yeah.”

  “I don’t need to be here for this,” Nancy told us, walking out.

  “She didn’t stay the last time I did this.” He explained.

  “Why?”

  “She doesn’t like it. Don’t take this the wrong way, she trusts me and you, but she knows it’s quite an intimate thing. So naturally, she doesn’t like it.”

  “I don’t really see it that way.”

  “No?”

  “No, why would I? The last time you did it, it was to save your life. The last thing I thought about was it being intimate. This time, it’s to save me. Again it’s not intimate it’s a necessity for survival and I certainly don’t get a kick out of it.”

  “I bet she’d like to hear that.”

  “Then I’ll tell her.”

  “Great, well let’s do it then. Now I won’t take anywhere near the amount I took last time. You’ll go tired and probably sleep again. But as you know, once you’re awake and you’ve eaten, you heal quickly. If it’s not all out of your system, then we’ll do it until it is. How does that sound?”

  “Great,” I sighed. “Seriously though, thank you, I appreciate it.”

  “You saved me, now it’s my turn,” he smiled.

  I smiled back and lay on the bed. This time he didn't bite my neck, he took it from my wrist. The same adrenalin rush feeling I had last time swept through me. The longer he was doing it the more tired I became, but the less my blood felt like it was burning. It was definitely working.

  “That’s all I’m taking for now,” Tristan said pulling away from me, and watching as the two puncture wounds healed. “Get some rest, see how you feel later. If we need to do it again, we will.”

  “Thank you.”

  I closed my eyes and must have fallen asleep almost instantly. The next thing I knew, Nancy was coming in the room with a cup of tea and a few slices of pizza.

  “Here, get this down you, and that pizza is gorgeous, I made it myself.” She smiled.

  “Thanks. Is there any change with Jackson?”

  “No, none whatsoever. Tish what if Tristan’s blood doesn’t work?”

  “We can try mine.”

  “Are you as powerful as Tristan? I mean, would your blood have the same effect?”

  “Yes it should do, and with regards to being as powerful as Tristan, in some respects, I’m more so.” I told her “I’m physically stronger, but Tristan is faster than me. Also I’m more vulnerable than him. The silver doesn’t affect him, iron wouldn’t either, basically, unless he loses his head, he’s drained, or staked through his heart, nothing really damages him. I don’t know why I’m saying all this, you already know, sorry.”

  “Don’t worry, it’s just a conversation.

  “All of us heal quickly, that’s one of the perks of being what we are. Sometimes, we just need a little bit of a helping hand.”

  “OK, how are you feeling by the way?”

  “Hungry,” I smiled. “So this pizza came at the right time.” I said before taking a bite.

  “Do you feel more like your old self?”

  “Yeah, my blood isn’t on fire anymore, it just feels slightly warm.”

  “There must only be a little bit left in your system. Tristan will sort that later.”

  “I’m gonna ask him to do it before I go to bed. I think I’ve lost enough time being passed out lately. I’ll eat this, then get showered and changed. I’ll meet you downstairs.”

  Chapter 42

  After getting myself ready and checking in on Jackson for a few minutes, I joined Nancy and Tristan downstairs. All the time I was looking around me. This house was as beautiful on the inside as the last one. Richly decorated, with beautiful artwork hung on the walls.

  “You like it here don’t you?” Tristan smiled.

  “It’s lovely.”

  “My brother has good taste; and rich too. He spares no expense on the houses, he wants them beautiful,” Nancy added. “Anyway, what do we do now?”

  “Well, now that my brain is working properly again, I need to get a few things straight.” I began. “Maybe in the end I’ll remember everything but until then... I understand we were attacked, I know you said there were a lot of them that came for us. I was hurt, Jackson went berserk and in the end they retreated... am I right so far?”

  “Yes, pretty much.” Tristan answered.

  “Then there was an explosion, everyone was hurt, but me and Jackson more so...”

  “Correct.”

  “OK, so here’s my next question. Where is Luke?”

  “Leticia...” Nancy tried to say.

  “In honesty Tish,” Tristan interrupted. “And to avoid pussyfooting around... we don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “Not long after you hit the deck, a few guys dragged him out of the house. We were too busy f
ighting; Jackson was too concerned with not letting anyone else get near you. We couldn’t stop them. He fought against them as much as he could, but they overpowered him.”

  “Did you even try to get to him?”

  “Of course we did.” Nancy replied, seeming hurt by my question. “Leticia if you get your memories back, if you remember how many came barging in that house, you will understand why we failed to save him. I told you, some of them were strong, they must have ingested some of Tristan’s blood.”

  “Towards the end we were a man down, well, woman, but you know what I mean.” Tristan continued. “That affected us. It’s surprising how much difference being one person short can make. However, once they had Luke they retreated. It seems it was actually him they wanted, not us.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn't mean to sound nasty towards you,” I told them. “Have you heard from any of them since?”

  “Nothing. We’ve been on our guard, but we haven’t seen anyone around. They probably can’t find us. But no doubt they’ll track us in the end. Nancy did go out to see if she could find them, but obviously she changed her appearance. She was trying to find Luke, but sadly she couldn’t. There was no trace of the men or him, anywhere. She searched every day for two weeks, I did too. It seems only God will know where they went.”

  “Oh Jesus, I don’t know what to do. I need to try and find him. God only knows what they’ll be doing to him, if they haven’t already killed him. But I don’t want to leave Jackson.”

  “Well here’s an idea, why don’t Nancy and I go to Milton Keynes? We can check the lab out again, see if there’s any sign of him.”

  “Look Tristan, I can see why you’re thinking that, but do you really think they would be stupid enough to go back there? They know we’ve been there already...”

  “It’s got to be worth a look,” Nancy said.

  “I agree, they may not be staying there but they could have paid the place a visit. We won’t know until we look.” Tristan continued.

  “Now think of it this way, what if their expecting you to go there... What if you both walk into a trap?”

  “We’ll go prepared. Only one of us will go inside while the other keeps watch, just in case. We’ve spoke about this for the last week or so, we’ve got a good plan. Trust me.”

  “Right, OK...It seems it won’t matter what I say, you’ll go anyway.

  “Wouldn’t you?”

  “I guess so...When are you thinking of going?”

  “Pretty darn soon. Better to go while these creeps have no idea where we are. I don’t fancy losing this house too, and if there are only two of us here, we could.”

  “Are you going to wait to see what happens with Jackson?”

  “Of course we are,” he assured me. “We’re not going anywhere until he is back to normal.”

  “Are you OK?” Nancy asked me. “Seriously.”

  “Not really, I’ve lost three weeks of my life and wake up to find the guy I adore is in coma upstairs. The people I care about are in constant danger and have lost their home, and a man I used to care deeply about has been taken and I have no idea where he is. So all in all, it’s not been a good day.”

  “Don’t worry about us, we keep telling you. We don’t regret getting involved. As for Jackson, we will return him to normal, and with regards to Luke, we’ll find him,” Tristan assured me.

  I didn’t respond there was nothing I could say that I hadn’t already said a thousand times at least. I looked at the clock, it was gone three. I excused myself and went upstairs to Jackson’s room; when I walked in, I noticed he’d moved. This morning, he was lying on his back, his arms straight by his sides. Now he was lying on his side. I almost screamed for Nancy, before running over to him.

  “Jackson,” I said shaking him. “Jackson can you hear me?”

  There was no response.

  “What’s the matter?” Nancy asked, running in with Tristan.

  “Look, he’s moved.”

  Nancy knelt down beside me, shaking him and calling his name. In the end she shook him so hard that he ended up rolling on his back again.

  “COME ON!” she shouted at him. “WAKE UP!”

  “Nancy,” Tristan said, grabbing her arms. “It’s not going to work my love.”

  Every tiny bit of hope I’d felt only seconds ago, left me. I felt empty.

  “Why don’t you both leave him be.” Tristan suggested, walking Nancy out of the room. “Come on Tish.”

  I took a deep breath and nodded.

  Just as I reached the end of the bed, he shot up straight, eyes wide and gasping for breath.

  Chapter 43

  Nancy and Tristan spun around. I quickly cupped Jackson’s face.

  “It’s OK, it’s OK, calm down, you’re OK,” I told him.

  “You’re alive,” he croaked.

  “Yes.”

  “Oh thank God.”

  I didn’t get to speak to him for a few minutes then, as Nancy decided to dive on him. He didn’t seem to understand why everyone looked so relieved. He didn’t have any idea what had happened to him and how long he’d been out of it. I knew how that felt.

  “Are you OK?” Tristan finally got to ask him.

  “I’m starving.”

  “Yeah that means you’re OK,” he laughed.

  Nancy then decided to go and cook her brother something nice, and thankfully, Tristan went with her.

  “I feel as stiff as a board,” Jackson moaned.

  “Well, you’ve been lying there quite a while.”

  “What’s going on, what’s happened?”

  “Eat first, I’ll tell you later.”

  “No, tell me now.”

  I couldn’t refuse, I’d wanted to know everything straight away and Nancy had been good enough to tell me. I sat on the edge of the bed and told him everything I knew. The more I explained, the more annoyed and agitated he got, until finally, he snapped.

  “Three weeks!!” he bellowed. “Three goddamn weeks!!”

  “Jackson calm...”

  “I thought you were dead, you were limp in my arms; I honestly thought I’d lost you. I was shocked to say the least when I saw you in front of me, not a mark on you... now on top of that I find out that my house has been destroyed, we’ve lost Luke who was the only link we had to them, and I’ve lost out on three weeks of my life. Don’t tell me to calm down.”

  “I’m...”

  “I swear to god, I will find each and everyone of these bastards and pull their bleeding heads off. I’ll find this “Boss” person and torture the arrogant, self-centred son of a bitch for the rest of his life.”

  “Jackson, I understand you’re pissed off baby, I really do; I am too. Extremely. But we both need to get our strength back before we attack, and, we need to find them in order to actually attack.”

  “I’m sick of this shit now. I just want it over and for us, me and you, to be happy.”

  “We will be, I promise. But at this precise moment in time, can we get you back to normal?”

  “I feel fine. Just stiff that’s all. When Nancy comes up with whatever she’s cooking, I’ll be great.”

  “OK.” I said, before walking over to the window.

  “Leticia, what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  A moment later I felt his arms wrap around my waist.

  “Don’t lie to me.” he said, turning me to face him.

  “You just wake up after three weeks of being in a coma. OK so you feel well. But don’t you think it’s a bit stupid to instantly want to go out fighting. I know how you feel, I mean, I want to find Luke, I can’t bare the thoughts of him going through all that again, but I can’t yet. It’s just something I have to deal with. If we go now, we could both end up dead. We’re not dealing with normal people...”

  “I know, I know, I’m sorry,” he said pulling me close to him. “I’m just so annoyed.”

  We stood by the window, holding each other until Nancy came in. Then much to Jackson’s dis
pleasure, I left them alone for a while. I needed time on my own with my thoughts.

  Later that evening we all sat together in the living room. It felt strange. Knowing that only yesterday two of us were comatose, and yet here we all were together again, almost as though nothing had happened. It was great, but strange. Jackson stayed glued to me all night, just holding me and kissing me. None of us spoke much since all we seemed to talk about was Luke and what was going on. So we decided to just watch some TV.

  Since Jackson seemed to be fully healed, which also amazed us, and Tristan was going to remove any traces of silver left in my system later on, it was decided that he and Nancy would travel to Milton Keynes tomorrow. Jackson and I were to remain here, but be on call just in case. Neither of us was particularly happy about it, but no matter what we said, they wouldn’t change their minds. We wanted to go with them, but like Tristan said, we needed to be here to monitor things, and try and track them down in case they were still in the nearby area.

  Just before bed, Tristan sucked the last of the silver out of my bloodstream. He didn’t have to take much at all, which I was relieved about. He didn’t even take enough to make me sleepy. Jackson and Nancy wouldn’t come in the room, I understood Nancy’s reasons, I’d had them explained to me. But Jackson had no reason to stay away. The only thing he’d said, before shooting Tristan a rather evil look, was for me to go and see him afterwards.

  When I walked in his room he was already under the duvet, he smiled at me and patted the bed, wanting me to sit with him.

  “How are you feeling?” He asked.

  “A lot like me again, I think after a good night’s sleep, I’ll be back to normal.” I said, sitting beside him.

  “Good, I’m glad.”

  “I can’t believe we both woke up on the same day, don’t you think that’s a bit strange?”

  “I hadn’t really thought about it, maybe it’s just coincidence.”

  “Hmmm.”

  “Does it matter really, we’re both OK. I don’t feel any different than I normally do; even the stiffness has worn off now. You still look as amazing as ever, you feel...”