“We will son, but let us see if the spell your mother is using is helpful to us.”
His father’s words brought his attention back to Sirene who was still standing, muttering something under her breath, her hands cupped around Faith’s panties.
He found himself cringing slightly seeing her with them in her hands, the material torn and ragged looking from when he’d ripped them off Faith. He was so used to keeping his life closed off to everyone, but those panties pretty well told a story on their own. Of course seeing them also made him hurt. It was a pain that pierced through him, the thought he might never see Faith again. Memories of their last time together filled his head. The way he’d treated her, spoken to her. He’d fucked her and basically dismissed her like she was nothing more than a cheap street corner hooker.
“Look.” His mother’s voice snapped him out of his mental turmoil and he turned his attention back on her, seeing the excitement on her face. There wasn’t just excitement though; she was looking flushed like someone who was suffering from mild sunburn. So was his father for that matter, so he could only assume he was the same. They needed to get looking quickly because the sun was starting to get to them, and it wasn’t going to get better until they were out from under its harsh rays. “Look.” She said again and both he and his father crowded closer.
At first Adrian wasn’t sure where or at what he was supposed to be looking, but then he noticed it. It was only faint and it wasn’t all that obvious what it was at first, but slowly it became clearer, more distinct. It was an arrow, a red arrow floating little more than a hair’s breadth off the fabric of the panties.
“What the hell does that mean?” He hissed, keeping his voice down so Nadine wouldn’t hear them.
“I’m not sure but I’m hoping that when we walk, it will work like a compass and the arrow will stay pointing in the direction where Faith is.” Sirene said absently, her gaze still fixed on the arrow.
“Well come on mother, let’s go.” He was impatient to get looking.
“Wait one moment. There is something I need to do first.” She walked back to the car and opened the door. “To the dungeon with this woman and lock her up tight.” She commanded and with a flash of white light, Nadine was gone.
“Where the hell is she? How do you know it worked? You sent her to the cells under the house didn’t you? Why mother? What if we needed to question her?”
Sirene touched his arm. “She has no intention of helping us, and I don’t need the distraction of knowing she is sitting in the car, possibly gloating that we might not find Faith, and if we do, that it might be too late. Plus, I thought Lucas might wish to come with us.” She peered into the car. “Is that right?” She asked him.
“Yes please, let me help you look for Faith. This sun is brutal and you are all looking like it is affecting you.” He climbed from the car, his concerned gaze moving around them all.
“Come, follow me.” Sirene said and they all headed down onto the sand. It was soft this high up the beach, and they sank down into it, making it harder to move quickly. It would have helped to use their vampire speed, but they didn’t want to do anything to draw obvious attention. There weren’t a lot of people on the beach, but enough to notice anything out of the ordinary.
Using Faith’s panties as a guide, or the arrow on them anyway, they headed in the direction it was pointing. It seemed that it was in fact acting like a compass because if they changed direction at all, the arrow turned to keep pointing in the general direction of a large sprawling clump of long reed like grass. It was growing over a long expanse of the sand, high up the beach and Adrian could see it would be a good area for someone trying to hide a body. Thinking of Faith as ‘a body’ caused a fresh wave of fear through him though and unconsciously, he found himself forging ahead, overtaking his parents and Lucas.
When they were finally upon the start of the tall, reedy kind of grass, he slowed down to see what the arrow was doing now. It had changed direction slightly and was indicating they still needed to go further down the beach. Again, he led the way trying to ignore the fact that he felt almost like he was on fire under the unrelenting glare of the sun. If they didn’t find Faith soon, they might not survive this prolonged exposure to the bright rays. Still he knew if they were struggling in it, then how the hell could Faith have had any chance of surviving it?
“Wait Adrian, the arrow is changing direction.” His mother’s voice brought him to a halt and he turned back.
“There.” She pointed to a larger clump of grass. “It’s pointing that way. Quickly, we must hurry. We can’t stay under this sun much longer.”
Adrian hurried towards the clumps of grass that were thicker over one area and once he reached it, he pushed his way in almost leaping to get through. He parted the grass so it wouldn’t hinder him too much, his eyes scanning ahead for any sign of Faith and nearly tripped over a large piece of driftwood he hadn’t seen. He stumbled on it slightly, regaining his balance but then something registered with him. It hadn’t made a wooden sound when he’d accidently kicked into it with his foot.
He glanced down at it and noticed it looked blackened like it had been through a fire. That was odd though as it raised the question as to how it got to be where it was, on the beach.
“The arrow is indicating this is the location Adrian. Everyone spread out and look around.” Sirene instructed.
He frowned, looking around and his eyes landed back on the blackened shape at his feet. It was hard to see properly due to the layer of sand over parts of it and he stared at it in confusion.
When finally his brain made the connection between what his eyes were seeing and what he’d thought he was looking at, he felt horror stab through him. That horror became gut wrenching pain. An agony unlike anything he’d ever experienced in his life. Unable to deal with the pain that was tearing through his body, whipping him emotionally, he cried out, the sound like that of a wounded, dying animal.
He fell to his knees, every movement of his body hurting him, leaving him feeling like he was nothing more than a mass of open wounds.
With hands shaking so hard and his whole body shuddering with sheer, blind terror, he reached for the blackened shape lying partially obscured by grass and soft sand.
He felt the movement next to him, and didn’t need to turn his head to know that his parents and his son had rushed to his side when he cried out. Slowly, almost fearful of what might happen, he touched the shape he’d first thought was a length of burnt driftwood. Gently, he lifted it and as the sand fell free, what he was staring at became more obvious, at least to the others standing around.
When he heard their harsh intakes of breath, he knew that it was finally registering with them too as to what they were looking at. He couldn’t do anything but stare down at her, shock, horror consuming him. Feeling how much damage the lengthy exposure had caused to her, how dry and fragile she seemed was almost too much for him to bear.
It was only when in the midst of the pain that ripped through his body, leaving him feeling raw and exposed, when he heard his mother’s soft cry and the utter devastation in her tone that he collapsed. Not physically. His body still kneeled in the sand, his arms hugging her to him but something about that tone in Sirene’s voice was the catalyst for him.
He threw his head back, tears blinding him that he hadn’t even been aware of at first. With his face turned up to the brutal, destructive sun, he howled, he cried and he bellowed out his sorrow and his agony. He cried, loud, broken, ugly sobs that tore at his throat. They left him raw, hurting him and still he cried. Screams of outrage finally had him collapsing over her body and a voice kept shouting over and over again. “NO, NO, NO!”
It was only when he felt a hand on his shoulder that he realised that the voice he’d heard was his own. Gently, reverently, he lowered Faith’s lifeless, burned body to the sand again and bowed his head over her as he continued to sob. No one said anything more to him, but he felt their presence flanking him as the
y dealt with Faith’s destruction at the hands of Nadine in their own way.
Even when his sobs were finally little more than shudders that racked his body, he stared at her, unable to look away. There was nothing left of his Faith. Fuck it, when she was dead, now he could think of her as his? Why couldn’t he have given her that when she was alive? That was all she’d ever wanted, was to be his like she’d seen in her visions, and he’d done nothing but push her away. Fuck her and push her away. Confuse her emotionally, fuck her and push her away and now she was gone. There was nothing left of the beautiful blonde woman with the stunning blue eyes and the sweet dimpled, infectious smile.
Nadine had won. She’d taken away the only woman he’d ever known who had been able to penetrate the walls he had erected around himself over the last two years. When he considered the future, the endless, eternal future with Faith’s death on his conscious, he felt another brick in that wall around him crumble, and he dissolved in a fresh round of tears, his hands reaching out to her again. He took one of hers in his, the skin all dry and leathery to touch, and he raised it to his lips.
“I’m sorry sweetheart, I’m so sorry that I hurt you. I’m sorry that you probably felt like I was just using you.” He watched his tears fall onto her parched and blackened skin. “But most of all, I’m so sorry that I didn’t see what you had been trying to tell me since we met, until it was too late. You were right, you are mine. You were meant to be mine but I was too much of a fucked up, self-absorbed, anal bastard who thought I could just lock myself away from everything and everyone. I let you into my heart but then I would panic and throw you back out. When you told me you loved me, I really panicked because you are so good and sweet and beautiful, and I am not. I didn’t run because I didn’t want you. I ran because I felt unworthy of someone like you. I thought you would wake up one day and see me for what I am. I am what you told me I was. I’m a fucking coward. Too scared to step out of my comfort zone, too much of a coward to tell my family what was going on with me, and too fucking scared to let the walls down in case I was seen for what I am, a spineless coward. You came along and you wanted me. I took what you offered and kept telling you to stay away, but you are a stubborn, tenacious one.” He let a hint of a smile touch his lips at that. “Thank you for never giving up on me my sweetheart.” He bent closer to her, the scent of her charred skin filling his nostrils. “I love you Faith and I’m sorry I couldn’t say that to you when you needed to hear it most.” He whispered and silently his tears began to fall again.
He felt the hands of his parents’ on his shoulders; he was aware of Lucas behind him, and he could hear sniffing. Of course everyone would be upset. Faith had that kind of personality that made everyone like her, even tough, cold hearted Fabian. Her death was going to affect them all for a while, and Adrian didn’t want to think about how they were going to tell Flame what had happened.
It was then that he heard it; just a sound, something, a whisper on the wind, or the crash of the waves. He couldn’t work out what it was at first. He wasn’t sure when it was, or how long it had been happening for, but faintly, ever so faintly, a sound began to penetrate his head. It got louder and louder, finally drowning out his mother’s and Lucas’s quiet sobs.
He froze, his tears drying on his cheeks under the hot sun and he listened, straining to hear the voice which for a moment he’d thought was calling his name.
“Adrian.” It came to him again, faint, like it was coming from a long way off and again he froze, struggling to pinpoint what it was. Was he finally going fucking nuts? Losing Faith was going to tip him over the edge into insanity?
“Adrian, Adrian, it’s…it’s…me…Faith.” He heard the voice again, and this time he was sure it was real and not just a figment of his imagination. His eyes shot to Faith. She still looked horribly still, burned, dead, gone to him though. It had to be the grief, the shock, the agony of not being able to save her in time that was messing with him.
“Fuck, I’m going nuts. I thought I heard Faith’s voice.” He whispered more to himself than to the others.
“You’re not going nuts you great buffoon. It’s me, I’m alive but I won’t be much longer if you don’t get me out of this sun. Don’t question your sanity Adrian. Nadine drugged me but it isn’t meant to kill me. It’s supposed to make everyone think I’m dead. I think she wanted humans to find me, and for me to end up at the morgue and possibly buried alive or cremated alive. Perhaps she wanted me to die slowly under the sun, I don’t know. Don’t let go of my hand.” She cried out louder. “I can’t talk to you, I’m too weak. I need to touch you. I’ve never been able to talk by using my mind before but I think it’s because we are as one now. I am yours and you are mine. It was always meant to be. Finally when you think I’m dead and I can’t hear you, you confess your thoughts to me. You confess your love. I love you too my beautiful, kind, caring, gorgeous vampire.” She faltered, her voice growing weaker. “Quickly, get me out of the sun. I’m going to die if I don’t get blood and a lot of it soon but first I need to be out of this sun. We all do.”
“Son?” Adrian felt his father’s hand on his shoulder again and he turned, not letting go of his hold on Faith’s hand. He smiled up at them, his face lighting up with his joy through the tears that still rolled down his cheeks and clung to his long black eyelashes.
“Father, Mother, my son, we have to get out of this sun but we have to get Faith to safety. She’s not dead, she’s not dead. Do you hear me, she’s not fucking dead.” He almost shouted, and suddenly became conscious again that they were on a public beach.
“Blanket us.” Sirene spoke quietly. When everyone looked at her she shrugged. “It’s a spell to hide us from everyone’s sight. How do you know Faith is still alive my son?”
“She is talking to me with her mind mother. I’m not crazy, she told me that Nadine fed her something, a poison I guess that makes her appear dead to everyone; it paralyses her. She suspects that Nadine hoped if the sun didn’t kill her, that her body would be discovered and taken to the morgue. If she can’t move or talk and being vampire means there’s no heartbeat anyway, she would pass for dead. She could have been buried alive or cremated; I hate to think what might have happened. Come, we must move her to safety. Don’t stare at me like that. I’m not fucking crazy. Faith…is…alive!”
Chapter Twenty Four
Faith
I don’t know what had given me the strength to communicate with Adrian using my mind. I was exhausted, in agony, trapped in my own private hell. Hell for me was my charred body and the unrelenting, intensity of the sun which steadily worked on destroying me.
How did I end up here? How could that woman, Nadine have done this to me? I could understand her pain, I’d experienced unrequited love. I understood how horrible she must have felt at being rejected by the one she loved; but trying to kill me? She blamed me for Adrian’s behaviour. The irony was, he hadn’t wanted me either. Well, he’d wanted me sexually. His urgency as he’d torn my panties from me and slammed me against the fence, plunging into me with none of his customary control, proved that. He just hadn’t wanted me in the eternally yours sense until now.
Maybe it was the shock of thinking I’d died, I don’t know, but I wasn’t going to spend too much time wondering why. He loved me and he’d cried for me. Huge, heartbroken sobs for me. That was all the proof I’d needed that he loved me. That was all I needed to fight to live to not let the pain, the anguish and the drugs in my body pull me under. That was all it took for me to throw that last little bit of dying strength I had into trying to communicate with him. I had no idea why he could hear my thoughts, but something told me it had to do with him. Now Adrian had opened his heart to me, admitted his feelings and some of that huge wall he’d erected around himself had started to fall, he’d opened up to me. We connected, not just physically anymore; this was spiritually, emotionally, mentally. This was the ultimate connection. This was the connection two people had when they loved with everything withi
n them, when that love was of an almost profound level. I’d found my soul mate and he had found his but now we had to move because I could feel myself slipping away. I was exhausted, burnt and severely weakened from not only the drugs but from the unrelenting sun’s rays. I needed to feed; I needed a miracle right now.
“Save me Adrian, please.” I put everything I could into that thought, and felt his reaction. He tore his hand from mine and although I couldn’t open my eyes, I literally couldn’t move a muscle; I knew he’d stood up.
“Quickly we have to get her out of here. She’s going to die. She’s weak. Please mother, help me save her.” I heard the urgency in his plea to his parents, but I couldn’t respond in any way. In fact I couldn’t do anything anymore now. I heard a roaring sound in my ears which sounded like the ocean. Kind of ironic I thought, but then the darkness pulled me under and I could no longer feel the harsh rays of the sun, in fact I could feel nothing.
Adrian
Adrian dropped to take Faith’s hand again calling her name but she didn’t respond. Icy fear gripped his dead heart and he was suddenly scared he’d lost her. With the drugs and the damage from the sun, he couldn’t be sure but he suspected she was exhausted now. Fuck he hoped so. He hoped she was simply exhausted which given what she’d been through was understandable. He couldn’t let himself think that he might lose her. He’d fucked about and refused to face his true feelings for her, and the ultimate kick in the teeth would be to have found her, truly found her, then to lose her.
“Come, we have to get her home.” He slipped his arms under her body ready to lift her and stood, noticing how light she was as he cradled her against his chest. She was so horribly dehydrated. He wasn’t even sure she would live, but sure as hell he wasn’t going to give up without trying first.
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