by Martha Woods
Perhaps if they hadn’t been in the middle of making love, Calla wouldn’t have been so easily swayed. However, she thought it was a solid compromise at the time. Even if she possibly didn’t have a purpose for a year, at least she knew there would come an end. And it wasn’t a ridiculous amount of time. If waiting just one year would be enough to convince them they were together forever, then so be it. She nodded, “Okay. One year.”
Jared smiled at her, managing to make her heart flutter, “Yeah?”
She couldn’t resist returning the smile, “Yeah.”
Jared kissed her and began pushing his hips into hers faster. “I love you,” he breathed into her lips.
“I love you too,” Calla managed to get out.
Jared kissed to her neck and began licking at the base. She nibbled her lip, her toes curling in anticipation, knowing what was coming next. A sharp, but brief pain pierced her neck. Then, he started to suck, drinking her blood. Intense pleasure crashed over her. His fingers nodded in her hair, tugging on it at the roots lightly as he thrust into her wildly. Calla let out a loud breath as she peaked, the sensation of him drinking from her proving to be too much for her. Just as she came down from her orgasm, Jared grunted, thrusting deep inside of her, before withdrawing and laying down over her. She kept herself wrapped around him, loving how cold he was particularly after sex. Calla always got so warm from getting so worked up.
They cuddled for a few long minutes, kissing every so often as they calmed down. Then, just as she thought they would lay down and start to go to sleep, Jared stood from the bed. “What are you doing?” she asked curiously, propping up on her elbows to watch him.
“Wait here,” Jared said, pulling on his jeans and shoes before slipping on his coat. Then, within just moments, he left the motel room. Where on Earth could he be going? Calla ran a hand through her hair. It was starting to dry and her curls were wild from laying down while it was wet. It wasn’t a long wait, just a couple of minutes, before the door opened again. He stepped in with nothing but a brown box, yet kept the door cracked as he stepped in. Walking back over to the bed, he sat the box on the ground and turned back to Calla. “So… I was feeling really shitty that you were so down. I know I’m not the entire cause of why you were, but I didn’t help things. In fact, I made things a lot worse. I wanted to do something to show you that I was sorry for how I treated you that morning, and so I… Fuck it, I’ll just show you.”
Calla was so bewildered, not knowing why he was so reluctant to give her a gift. He reached down and opened the box himself. He then reached inside and pulled out a black and white bunny. She gasped loudly, her eyes widening with shock and joy. It was the same rabbit from the pet store! Her heart sang with happiness, and she was completely melted at the gesture. Calla extended her arms and took the bunny from him. “I can’t believe you went back and got him!” she exclaimed, giving the furry little thing a pet. He was still so soft.
“Well, he had actually been purchased… I had to pay the cashier two hundred bucks to give me the person’s name. Then had to track down the family, and pay them for him,” Jared reached and scratched its little head. “I wanted you to have the exact one you had liked so much. He belongs with you.”
Calla was completely melted. How did she luck out and manage to find him in this maddening situation? She leaned over and gave him a big kiss on the lips. “Thank you so much. This has to be the sweetest thing I have ever heard of,” she gushed.
Jared shrugged.“I figured it would be nice for you to have a little friend to hang out with during the night. If he doesn’t work out, he’ll make a nice snack,” he joked, which earned a glare from Calla. That only made him chuckle. He then stood from the bed and walked back to the door. He brought in a cage, along with a plastic bin full of supplies for him. “They had already bought everything for him, so it made it really easy on me.”
Calla stood with the nameless fluff in her hold. He needed a really cute name, but nothing too cliché. “How do you think the others will feel about this?” she questioned.
He shrugged, “I don’t really care what they think. If they want to get upset over a little rabbit, they need to reevaluate our entire situation as a family.”
Well, he had a point there. Jared helped her fill the cage with bedding before placing the little thing inside. Once the door was latched securely, Calla wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again. “You’re so romantic, even if you don’t want to admit it.”
Jared shrugged modestly, “I suppose I am for the right person.” They shared a smile and kissed again. They pulled back and started to walk to the bed, when there was a knock on the door. “What the hell…” Jared muttered. Calla rushed to the bed to hide under the blankets since she wasn’t decent. He moved to the door and opened it. “Julie? What is it?” he asked.
“Kristian’s missing. Veronica wants everyone canvasing the town. She said including Calla. Every pair of eyes counts,” a female voice said.
Jared shut the door and turned to look at Calla. Her eyes were wide. Kristian was missing? She worried what that could mean for his well-being…
* * *
Veronica couldn’t think straight she was so worried. They were losing darkness and Kristian was nowhere to be found. They had searched his motel room, his car, the bars, and the 24-hour convenient stores. Morgan helped her band together all the members of the family that weren’t watching the newborns to help look for him. She wanted the entire town and surrounding areas canvased before sunrise. Veronica hoped that since he hadn’t taken his car, that he hadn’t gotten far. There was a flutter of a worry in her chest that the sadness had grown to be too much for him, and he just darted off into the closest field or patch of trees, never to return. They had to find him.
The bones of her knuckles showed through the skin as she clutched Morgan’s hand so tight that she thought she could have actually broken his bones. His thumb drew circles on the back of her hand, but it didn’t give her any comfort. “We will find him, Veronica. Everyone is out looking. It’s just a matter of time before someone stumbles into him,” he tried to comfort her.
It was useless. The only thing that would comfort her, would be finding her brother. They walked down the alleyways of the almost nonexistent downtown area, if it could even be considered that. It was just a mere few blocks of small shops and restaurants. At least the town being so small made it easier to look for him, but she just feared what would happen at the end of their search if he didn’t turn up. They couldn’t stay out during the day to look for him. Unless we bleed Calla. She immediately shook the thought. She didn’t want to have to resort to that, but if sunrise came, she would take Calla with her on the road to look for him—no matter how much Jared protested.
They were closing in on finishing up their area, and Veronica’s body was starting to ache from the worry. Why couldn’t Kristian have taken his phone with him? They could have tracked it so easily. “We need to call on Charley. Have her look. She’d be better at it,” Veronica stated as her eyes wildly searched every corner and shadowy figure in the distance.
“She’s sort of busy with the newborns… The freak likes the challenge of them,” Morgan said, shaking his head.
“Then we know where she is and should be easy to reach.”
“Veronica… She does the work of like three guards over there, and she’s good at it. Calling her away would mean getting three guys off the street and sending them to replace her. Besides, we are running out of daylight. She wouldn’t have enough time to really help.”
“She can poof here.”
“Yeah, but our guys can’t poof to the warehouse. Do you really want to trade three sets of eyes for one, anyway?” he questioned. Veronica didn’t give a response, just staring off into the distance. She knew he was right, she just didn’t want to admit that. Morgan sighed and kept quiet then, finally catching on that nothing he could say would matter until Kristian was found.
They started down another alley
way when she noticed two vampires, Julie and Pryce, just a block away. Had Veronica and Morgan really already finished their section? Veronica’s pace quickened, wanting to get down the alleyway to look at the street. Her eyes scanned the boulevard up and down, able to spot the other vampires helping. They were all starting to finish their areas… No one had found him yet? There had to be somewhere they weren’t thinking to look. Veronica chewed on the corner of her lip as she tried her best to think of where he would have wanted to go. Somewhere that reminded him of Tessa, maybe? But where could that be? They were in a rural part of southern New Jersey at that point. What could be around that would remind him of her? It was then that Veronica realized just how little she knew about Tessa. All she knew was that she was an orphaned witch, had a tragic childhood, and used to be a fortune teller.
They paced along the sidewalk, heading back in the direction of the motel, there was silence between the two of them as she was lost in her own thoughts. Maybe he had taken off into the woods… Veronica searched around for any sight of a forest area. As they grew closer to the motel, she noticed a patch of tall pine trees towering over some houses. She immediately beelined for them, pulling Morgan with her, who followed without protest. As she neared them, something deep inside her being pulled her toward those trees. Was he actually in there? Her boots clacked against the cement as she quickened her pace even more. When she reached the little dirt patch that led a worn path into the trees, Veronica darted her eyes around to check for humans before breaking into a full run. She didn’t have to look back to know that Morgan would be following her.
Darting in and out of the slender saplings that had started to overtake the worn path, Veronica and Morgan rapidly covered ground. Veronica didn’t bother to look around, her eyes fixated directly ahead. She was following the feeling in her stomach, it being the only lead they had at all. The sky was growing light, and it would only be a matter of time before they had to rush back to the motel to avoid the morning sun. With the help of their superhuman speed, they were down the path in just a matter of seconds. When the trees started to thin, Veronica and Morgan slowed down. Stepping around a curve in the path, Veronica let out a long breath. Even though the person was faced away from her and was still off in the distance, she knew it was Kristian. He sat at least a hundred feet away on a bench, at the bank of a pond.
She couldn’t believe they had finally found him, and that he had been so close to the motel this entire time. Veronica looked up to Morgan and gave him a big kiss, wanting to thank him for his patience with her that night. She had been going out of her mind for hours at that point. Then, when she moved to walk toward him, she signaled for Morgan to stay where he was. There was no telling what kind of state he would be in, so while she wanted Morgan close, she didn’t want to spook Kristian either. Morgan stayed put by the trees while Veronica carefully paced over to him. Even when her boots hit small rocks along the ground, making noise, Kristian didn’t turn to look at her.
Veronica moved around the bench. If she had a beating heart, it would have plummeted into her stomach. Kristian sat slouched on the bench with multiple empty liquor bottles surrounding him. In one hand, he held a nearly empty bottle of scotch, and in the other, was what Veronica immediately identified as one of Tessa’s pashminas. Stepping over to him slowly, she moved the ones sitting on the bench, down to the ground. She took a closer look at him. Alcohol was perfectly safe for vampires to drink, as long as they were feeding regularly. If they didn’t, the alcohol content in the blood would just remain there, and continue to build up. If it went on long enough, a vampire could actually drink itself to death. It was hard to do, and took a long time, but Kristian looked like he was on that path. His pale skin was grayish with dark circles around his bloodshot eyes. “We need to get you back to the motel,” Veronica breathed, reaching for her brother’s face with a gentle hand.
Before it could make contact with his skin, Kristian slapped it away. “I’mnotgoinganywhere.”
Veronica sighed. “You can’t go on doing this, Kristian. You’re going to drink yourself to death.”
“Either it orthesun will—” he hiccuped, “will get me first.”
Her jaw went slack. He couldn’t be serious. He wasn’t purposefully sitting out here to die… Veronica stared at him for a full minute of silence and shock. When she finally came back to reality, she sprang to her feet and slapped him across the face with full force. His face jerked to the side, and he kept it there with his eyes lowered. “Damnit, Kristian, snap out of it!” Veronica demanded. “It is time to stop this nonsense. You are too good of a man to be hung up on somebody like Tessa. Your life shouldn’t end just because your relationship with her did.”
“Yooou don’t get it, Ronnie,” Kristian slurred to her, resorting to a childhood nickname in his state of stupor. His chest began to rise and fall rapidly as he grew even more upset. “You don’t think I wanttoget over her? I want her out of myfuckingbrain. She won’t leave, though. Every single thing reminds me of her. Tessa infected me with her love, and it’ssh not going away. I can’t sleep. I can’t thinkof anything but her. The smell of blood makes me gag. There’snothing left of me.”
Veronica was crushed that her brother was so far gone. That the deceptive witch had used him up for all he was worth, leaving him utterly broken. She moved to sit next to him again, and grabbed his chin. His emerald eyes were glossy with emotion and lacked any sort of light to them. Kristian was lost in a world of darkness and pain, for no reason other than he had given his heart to a woman after decades of womanizing, and that woman stomped on it in return. Perhaps some may call it karma, but Veronica called it cruel. He had finally learned to give himself truly to a person, and Tessa took advantage of it, and betrayed him. “How does none of this make you angry?” she asked him. “How is your blood not boiling for revenge?”
He shook his head, moving his face away from her touch, “I could never hurt her…”
“Why not?” she asked. “Kristian, do you still not see what has happened? While it may have been chance that you stumbled into her in that street fair, everything past that was her doing. She should have been scared of us, but she accepted our existence with almost zero resistance. She didn’t have to get romantically involved with you, but she chose to. Tessa was manipulating you all along, playing you for a fool because she knew you were old and more than likely looking for any sort of companionship. She got what she wanted out of all of us. Tessa used you. She took advantage of your heart, with no remorse for you. Do you think she cares that you’re sat here, ready to face death? Why would you want to give her the satisfaction of knowing she has gotten to you so? You know the news of your death would get to her eventually. Are you willing to let her win like that? So easily? By just folding?”
Slowly, she noticed something in Kristian’s expression change. Even through the thick haze of liquor, he was starting to see Veronica’s side of things. That perhaps there was a reason to be mad, instead of just wallowing. Just as soon as the realization arose, Kristian tried to dismiss it with a shake of his head. “She wasn’t using anybody… She loved me…”
“How can you be so sure? You two were saying professing your love for one another faster than any couple I’ve ever seen. You let your guard down, and she seized everything she could to get what she wanted. Tessa’s said it herself many times. She’s only ever had herself to depend on. She only trusts herself, and only looks out for herself.”
Kristian bit down on his lip and stared out at the pond, at the small group of early rising ducks swim across the water in the distance. “I… I knew her. She couldn’t have hidden things like that from me…”
“She was reading your mind the entire mind, Kristian. She knew how you would react before you even did. Tessa was a damaged soul. I’m not saying she’s pure evil, I’m saying there’s no evidence that she was taken by force, and there hasn’t been any sort of disturbance to indicate that they’ve killed her for her power. You know how eager they w
ere to kill her… There had to be some sort of agreement or offer made. And you know I’m right about this.” Kristian’s breathing evened and his eyes darkened even more. His eyes traced the ducks across the pond as he thought about what she was saying. Veronica glanced back to Morgan, who in turn pointed to the sky. Veronica looked overhead to see the sky starting to lighten. They had to get going. Grabbing Kristian’s face, she stared into his eyes, “It’s time to stop being so sad, and time to get mad. Get pissed. This woman made a fool of you. Have you ever been a man to let someone get away with something like that?”
Kristian’s eyes searched hers for a long moment before his expression finally pulled out of the distraught look and was then somber. “What do I need to do to help?”
Her chest finally relaxed, and she wanted to smile, but she didn’t want him to think she was being any kind of way. “Firstly, we need to get you back to the motel. Then, we’ll talk strategy.” Veronica stood from the bench and extended a hand to Kristian. He wrapped his skinny fingers around her hand, and allowed her to pull him from the bench. Kristian stumbled and struggled to catch himself, having to get Veronica’s help to finally balance. She held him upright as they moved him from the pond, and toward Morgan. He was going to have to sleep this off completely before they could do anything.
“We only have about five minutes before the sun comes up, Veronica,” Morgan informed her.
She groaned inwardly. They couldn’t walk back in that amount of time. They would have to use their speed, but Kristian was in no state to run. “Well, I guess you’re going to have to carry him.”
“I’mnotbeingcarried,” Kristian interjected.
“You should have considered your independence before drinking your weight in booze,” Veronica chastised. “You can’t even stand on your own.” He gave her a look that signaled he was about to protest or argue, so Veronica let go of him. Kristian instantly wobbled and fell to the side. Morgan moved in a blur to catch him. He then swiftly picked him up and carried him over his shoulder. Veronica patted Kristian’s head, “It’ll be quick. Don’t be a child.” A lowly growl sounded from Kristian’s throat, making her roll her eyes.