by S. Coop
“Screw you!” she spat. She wanted to make a hasty exit, but she also wanted to add more salt to the wound. “And another thing. Stop calling me Marly! Ugghh! You! You drive me crazy!” She swiveled and reached out her hands as if to choke him. “I liked it better when you weren’t talking!”
She stood and headed for the door. She felt Lasandro’s eyes searing through the back of her head. She had to get out. He both angered and aroused her at the same time, and that scared her. She had never felt that way toward anyone.
Lasandro raced to block the door, grabbed her, and pinned her against the wall. His eyes flamed intensely. “Well, let me tell you a little thing about the ‘silent treatment.’ I stay silent, you cave, and tell me everything I need to know. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.” He put his face an inch from hers. “But seeing as you’re so stubborn …” He pressed his hardness against her. “That didn’t quite work out, did it?”
Lasandro exposed his fangs and threw her a mischievous grin. The sexual tension was unbearable, at least for him. Did she not feel it? He eyed Morgan’s lips and imagined what they would feel like pressed against his. He had been waiting to taste her lips again. He looked into her eyes and greedily pressed his lips against hers expecting them to part anxiously for his tongue, but instead she bit him!
He pulled away from her. “Did you … did you just bite me? Wow!” He grinned. “That was so unexpected.”
She had a look in her eyes he had not seen before. He could see lust and fire in them mixed with hesitation. He grasped her wrists and slid his lips across hers, claiming her mouth with his. He pressed his now full erection into her abdomen. This time, she kissed him back hard.
His lips sizzled against her skin while she frantically clawed at his back, grabbing him and bringing him closer to her. The passion between the two bordered on animalistic. He picked her up and urgently carried her to the bedroom, lips still plastered to hers. With each step he took, a piece of clothing hit the floor. He placed her on the bed and filled her with one quick thrust. He had waited so long for this moment, and his intense throbbing inside of her was a testament to that.
The feeling was totally mutual. Morgan, too, had wanted him for some time, though it was difficult for her to admit. She exposed her fangs and moaned, indulging in her fantasy come to life. She looked him in the eyes while their bodies moved in synchronized unison, never slowing down. Her moans grew deeper and more ragged during his onslaught. He took her breasts in his mouth one at a time and hungrily sucked, tracing her sweet peaks with his tongue. Morgan sank her fangs into Lasandro’s chest, tasting the salty blood ooze along her tongue.
He growled with intense pleasure, his fangs protruding as he increased his speed and thrust into her faster and harder.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and squeezed, tightening her vaginal muscles around his throbbing cock.
Lasandro grabbed her hips and pumped furiously until he reached that sweet plateau of ecstasy. He arched his back and roared, releasing himself into her while feeling her contract around his member, and she cried out with her own sensual release.
Their simultaneous climax did little to satisfy his appetite. He grabbed her and placed her on top of him, grasped her hips and guided her up and down, their wet skin coming together to make clapping noises.
Watching her breasts bounce, he cupped them and squeezed, admiring her unique beauty. Her sweet spot contracted, and she climaxed once again. He could feel the heat, and he greedily pumped harder until he too climaxed again.
Slowly they came down from their euphoria, still holding one another tight, their wet bodies pressed together.
“You’re so amazing,” Lasandro whispered. While stroking her hair, he stared at her with lust and passion and didn’t care what secrets she was keeping from him. There was no place he would rather be than to be there with her.
The remainder of the night they spent kissing and holding each other. They forgot the world around them. Only they existed in their own little bubble until they both fell asleep.
A few hours later, Morgan woke up startled. Feeling profound emptiness inside of her, she looked at the other side of the bed and saw that Lasandro was gone.
Still sleepy, she sat up and tried to make out what she was feeling. She knew Lasandro was not in the house—that much was clear. She couldn’t feel him, and that meant that he had gone somewhere far away, very far away. Where could he be? Surely, he wasn’t taken. Morgan pondered the thought but knew if that were the case, she would have definitely felt any struggle or fear he might have experienced.
She got up and walked to the balcony. Where are you, Lasandro? She was beginning to get upset. Negative thoughts started to plague her. She chastised herself for having been weak and letting him into her heart, but it was done. She knew he had been the screw ‘em and leave ‘em type before, but hadn’t he changed? He loved her, didn’t he? Romantic feelings aside, she knew he was now out there all alone. and she wasn’t there to protect him. How could I be so careless? A lump formed in her throat while she gazed into the distance with regret and fear.
Chapter Nine
The Truth Hurts
Lasandro ascended the tattered cement steps that led to the Shadybrook Correctional Facility. He hadn’t been in Shadybrook for years, and bitter memories of the place still lingered within him. He felt bad leaving Morgan without telling her where he was going, but he knew if he had told her, she would have said it was a bad idea. Hell, he didn’t need her to tell him that.
He knew this day had to come eventually.
The previous evening Lasandro spent with Morgan was exquisite. It wasn’t just the amazing sex. While sex did play a nice part, the closeness he felt to her was most amazing. Over the years, he had grown accustomed to not falling in love. Falling in love with a mark was a mistake, something only amateurs did, and though he had had plenty of girlfriends, he never felt anything for them. Before he could move forward with a new life, he had to leave the old one behind.
He played the night over and over, remembering every curve of her body and in doing so he got aroused. Not a good thing to do in a place like Shadybrook Correctional.
Guards escorted Lasandro’s father into the visiting area, removed his cuffs, and pointed him in Lasandro’s direction.
Lasandro didn’t get up to greet him. The man didn’t deserve that kind of respect. Hell, he didn’t deserve to be alive as far as Lasandro was concerned.
His father squinted at him, a small smile creeping across his lips as he sat. “Hey, kid,” Vincent said. “Long time no see. You’re looking … well.”
Lasandro glared at him. The years hadn’t been kind to his father, old age and fragility plastered across his face. A few stubborn hairs holding on for dear life had replaced his once full head of hair. Lasandro could see his reflection through the thin-framed glasses his father wore. The bright orange jump suit contrasted against his father’s skin in an unflattering manner, and he had a shiner under his left eye. Not so tough now, are you, old man? Lasandro delighted in seeing his father look so helpless and pathetic. He was nothing like the “great” Vincent Lasandro.
“Look,” Lasandro said, “I’m not here to exchange pleasantries with you. I just want to know. Why’d you do it?”
Vincent glared at Lasandro, “I knew this day would come, Vinny, and I’ve been preparing for it. I just didn’t know it would take so long.”
“Just tell me why!” Lasandro yelled, banging his fist on the table.
A guard took two steps toward their table. “We have a problem?” the guard asked.
“No.”
“Let’s keep it that way,” the guard said.
Lasandro stared into his father’s rheumy eyes. “Why did you have to take away the only thing that was good in my life?”
“Look, kid, it was out of my hands,” Vincent said. “I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t save her.”
“You had a funny way of ‘saving’ her, dad. You killed her!
And you really are sick! Why kill her just to turn around and try to save her?” Lasandro shook his head trying to make sense of it all. “You’ve lost your fucking mind, old man.”
“No,” Vincent said. “I have not. I remember that night clearly.”
“So do I,” Lasandro said.
“Yes, and it was your testimony that damned me and left me here to rot. I had no chance after that. You really messed everything up for me, ya know? And you didn’t know what you were talking about!”
Lasandro couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Hold up! What was I supposed to do? I told them what I saw, and that was you holding Mom dead in your arms. I still have nightmares about it to this day. I can’t believe you’re trying to make me feel bad for that! You haven’t changed a bit. You look different, but you’re the same selfish piece of shit you’ve always been! Blaming a child for your crimes!”
“Look, kid, you gotta believe me. I … I didn’t do it. I loved her, too.” Vincent leaned in closer and made eye contact with his son. “Vinny, please. Let me explain. I’ve waited so long to see you again to tell you what really happened. Just let me do that.”
Lasandro crossed his arms and glared at his father. His head told him that his father might be telling the truth, but his heart told him to reach over the table and choke the life out of him. “All right. What really happened?”
“That night … that night was like something out of a horror flick. I remember ya mom and I had a fight. I let my temper get the best of me and I hit her. I admit to that much, but I loved your mother. I loved her with every fiber of my being. I … I just can’t understand why that had to happen to her.” He looked down at his hands resting on the edge of the table, tears welling in his eyes. “why her and not me?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’d been gone for about three hours. I felt real bad for hitting her, you know, she never deserved that from me. I bought some flowers and came back to the house to apologize, but when I got there, I couldn’t get in. I thought maybe she put something up against the door, cuz she was still mad at me. I was trying the door when I heard her screaming inside. I yelled for her, and she called out to me for help. I ran to the window and broke it so that I could crawl in, but when I got in there; it was horrible. There was blood everywhere, and ya mother, well, she … she was already gone.”
Lasandro stared at his father for a moment. “So you’re telling me someone else murdered my mother? You’ve spent all these years in jail for something you didn’t do? Do you really expect me to buy that? I’m not a kid anymore. You can’t just feed me crap and expect me to believe it!”
“The lawyers and the judge, they all had it in for me. They wasn’t tryin’ to hear anything else. I didn’t stand a chance with my long rap sheet and bad rep. I told them about the two people, or things I seen, and they just threw it out. And then you testified against me. I still don’t understand …”
“What people, what things?” Lasandro asked.
“These people, these things, there was two of them. One of them was real big. I remember their eyes cuz they glowed. One of them had pink eyes, and the other was like gray or somethin’. Come to think of it, they glowed ...” Vincent studied Lasandro. “They glowed kinda like yours is glowin’ now. Geez, kid, what have you got yourself into?”
Their eyes … glowed. What?
“Um, I don’t have time for you to play the ‘concerned parent’ after all these years.” Lasandro stared at him. His father never acted as if he cared, but now here he was, worried about him. Too little too late old man. “I gotta go.” Lasandro got up. “I can’t be in the same room with you anymore.”
“Hey, kid, you think you can come by again? I could use some money on my books …”
“Don’t count on it.” Lasandro walked past his father and out the visiting room doors.
Lasandro knew his father had done many things he had not been convicted of, but he also knew his father was telling the truth. He could sense it. But who killed his mother and why? His mother had no enemies that he could remember. In fact, everyone she ever met took a liking to her. He thought back to what his Dad said about the glowing eyes. Eyes like mine. Lasandro knew vampires didn’t need a reason to kill, and he was determined to find out who or what killed his mother. If anyone knew about vampires, it was Morgan.
Morgan. He knew she would be pissed that he left without telling her. He would have loved nothing more than to make love to her all day, but this was something he had put off for far too long. Every night since the “incident” with Marcus, he had been dreaming about his mother, about the portion of his life he was afraid to face. Every night he was reliving that horrible memory long ago. He needed closure. Unfortunately, his meeting with his father had provided the opposite.
Nearing the house, Lasandro felt Morgan’s presence, and it made him feel warm inside. However, he had to prepare himself to grapple with the barrage of questions she would have in store for him. He thought it was a small price to pay to see her beautiful face again.
He walked inside, half expecting to get punched in the gut for his absence. Chuckling to himself, he thought back to when he was a kid and had to tiptoe into the house to avoid his mom’s anger because of a phone call from his teacher. This time, he welcomed it. Not because he loved to fight with her, but because he wanted what usually followed a fight between lovers: the makeup sex.
Morgan was out back. He thought he would find her there because she loved to lie back in the sand and look at the stars. “Hey, sexy,” Lasandro teased.
“Lasandro.” Morgan turned around to face him. She felt both relief and anger toward him—relief that he was okay but anger that he had taken off without letting her know where he was going. She wanted to let him have it and yell at him for being out there all alone without her to back him up if something had happened, but surprisingly she decided on a softer approach.
“Where did you go?” she asked.
“Wow. Really? No ‘Where the hell have you been, you could have gotten yourself killed?’”
“Nope, but I was worried,” she replied softly.
“Well, it’s kind of a long story … let’s sit for a sec, and I will explain.”
Morgan sat in the sand facing him. Lasandro opened up to Morgan about his mom and her death. He told her how he had grown up as a foster kid, became a street thug, and graduated to a womanizer. The whole time Morgan listened intently, Lasandro was overjoyed that he felt he could confide in her.
“So, that’s why you were in Sun Valley when we met?” Morgan asked.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it in a nutshell. I know it sounds crazy, but I feel that everything that happened in my life after my mother’s death happened so that I would eventually end up the way I am today. Here with you.”
“I had something to do with that,” Morgan said.
“I know you did, but … Look, I’ll be totally honest. My life wasn’t all that great before I became a vampire. I know I give you shit about turning me and all, but honestly, I think you did me a favor. I probably would have ended up locked up like my old man,”
Morgan had been feeling so guilty about turning him, and it was hard for her to face him knowing she was responsible for changing his life forever. Knowing he felt this way, she was both surprised and relieved. “I’m glad you told me this.”
“Me, too. And I need you to do me another favor.”
“Name it.”
“I need you to help me find out who killed my mother. The way my father described it, I think they were killed by vampires, and I need—”
“Vampires?” Morgan interrupted. “Are you sure of this?”
Lasandro studied her expression. She seemed ashamed that one of their kind could be behind his mother’s death. “Yeah, I’m sure. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but I sensed that he was being honest. I know he’s scum and everything, but now that I think of it, I don’t think he was or is capable of murdering anyone.”
“I know of many vampires in these parts, so I will help you as much as I can,” Morgan said. “And I want to apologize for not telling you everything you need to know. I was, I don’t know, protecting you. This is my first and only time as a Maker, so I’m new at all this, too.”
“I haven’t been the easiest child to raise, have I?”
Morgan smiled. “Well, yes and no.” She wrinkled up her lips. “Mostly no, but that’s mostly my fault. You’re curious, and I haven’t been satisfying your curiosity.”
“Well, the other night you did,” Lasandro whispered.
“Yes, we did.”
“I know I satisfied more than my curiosity.”
Morgan bit her lip. “I have never been so satisfied.” She took his hand. “But I should have told you more than I have, so … Ready?”
He nodded. “Ready.”
“Things for vampires have changed a lot over time,” Morgan said. “There are now strict rules to be followed and people to answer to if those rules are broken. The AVA stands for the Associated Vampire Alliance. The alliance first started in the seventies. It was originally just for our kind to come together, you know, just for us to know there were others out there like us. However, it quickly grew into something else, something more political and more powerful. The more we vampires depended on the group, the more power hungry the founders became.”
“Sounds like the people in Washington,” Lasandro said.
“Only these people, these vampires, are much more powerful than politicians in Washington,” Morgan said. “They created a set of laws that were to apply to all vampires here and abroad. They became sort of like the Papacy.”
“There’s an undead … Pope?”
“Something like that, yes,” Morgan said. “But dire consequences can happen if a vampire doesn’t follow these laws. The AVA goes to great lengths to account for every one of our kind, especially now that most of the world knows that vampires exist.”