by Amy Richie
I hated the way he said my name. “Yes, I hear you, Marcus,” I mimicked his tone.
He yanked the door open so hard, I feared for the hinges. “I’m leaving.”
“Where are you going?”
“When I get back,” he continued without answering me, “you better be gone.”
* * * * *
I sat still for a long time after the vibrations from the slammed door stopped. What had just happened? He couldn’t possibly be serious, could he?
“We could still go to Paris,” Sylvia offered.
“I’m not leaving him.” I couldn’t believe she had actually suggested it.
“He looked pretty serious, Claudia.” She cast a meaningful glance to the ruined desk.
“He’s upset,” I conceded. “Probably over something Silango said, but that doesn’t mean I’m just going to leave him.” I’m not like you and David, I didn’t add out loud.
“He wants you to be safe.” Ice had begun to creep into her voice.
“I’ll be safe with him.” I couldn’t believe we were even having this conversation.
“You don’t know what he’s capable of.”
“And you do?” I glared at her until she looked away.
“I know you love him, Claudia…”
“No,” I cut her off with an upraised hand, “you can’t begin to know how I feel about him. I’m not leaving.”
“Fine,” she sighed heavily, “We’ll stay. But,” she held her finger in the air, “is it okay if I say I told you so?” Her lips upturned slightly at the edges.
“No.” I impulsively threw my arms around her neck. “You can’t say that,” I smiled, “because you won’t be here.”
“What?”
I sat back in my own seat, coming to a painful decision. “You have to leave.”
“But you’re staying?”
“I know I’ll be safe here with Marcus, but I don’t know if you will be. I can’t take a chance like that.”
Her lips tightened, but she nodded. “I don’t think you’re safe here either, though. You should just do as he says. He’ll find you again when he thinks it’s safe.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
“I know.” She got up gracefully and came to kiss my forehead. “I would probably think less of you if you did.”
I listened to the sounds of her footsteps on the marble floor. I sat still as she returned to her room and got her bags. Her footsteps paused outside the door, but she didn’t come back in. I heard her swiftly descend the steps and go out the front door. The soft click had such a ring of finality. I wondered where she would go now.
Tears gathered in my eyes, but didn’t fall. As soon as all this was over, Marcus and I would find her again. Then we would go to Paris together. But we would stay away from the Eiffel tower. I closed my eyes to wait for Marcus.
I didn’t have to wait long. I didn’t hear him enter the house or come up the stairs, but I felt him in the room with me. I snapped my eyes open and he was standing barely a foot away.
“Why didn’t you leave?” he demanded angrily.
I couldn’t believe how bad he looked, how much he had changed since just that morning. His mouth and jaw were clenched tight and his eyes were darkened. He kept them only half opened in a continuous glare.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I told him.
“You have to go, Claudia.” The wildness in his eyes scared me. “You have to get away from me.” He wiped his fist across his mouth. I had never seen him like this.
“What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you hear me? You have to leave me.”
“No,” I shook my head quickly. “I’m not leaving.” My own breath was becoming just as raspy as his.
“Are you insane?” His fingers dug painfully into my shoulders.
“Marcus.”
Suddenly, he flung me roughly across the room. My head smashed into the wall, cracking the plaster. “Go,” he snarled.
“I can’t just leave,” I cried. “Where will I go? I have nowhere to go.” I couldn’t understand why he was so angry. What did I do? “Marcus,” I held my hands out to him, “what did I do? What happened?”
His face crumbled as if he were being burned alive. “No, Claudia.” He fell to his knees and crawled across the floor to where I stood. He wrapped his arms around my waist and buried his face into my stomach. “I love you, Claudia,” his voice was tortured.
“I love you, too,” I croaked. “I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to,” his voice was still muffled.
“I can’t. There’s nowhere for me to go.”
“Go with Sylvia.”
“She’s already left.”
“She left without you?”
My heart stuttered at his change of tone. “I told her to. I told her I was staying with you.”
In a flash, he was on his feet and just inches from my face. He was a desperate man. “You have to leave.” He held my head between his two hands. “Claudia.” He kissed my lips until his sobs took over. He held me to his chest while we both cried. “Claudia, if you don’t leave, I’ll kill you.” His flat voice made my blood run cold.
“Why would you say that?” I whispered.
His breathing was even more labored, causing his shoulders to shake. “Haven’t you heard anything I’ve said, Claudia?” he whispered fiercely.
“I’m afraid, Marcus. I don’t want to be without you.”
His face crumpled again. “Oh,” he mumbled. “Claudia.” He touched his forehead to mine. I watched the torture on his face.
“What can I do?” I sobbed.
“Leave.”
“What happened to you?”
“Silango,” the name escaped through his clenched teeth.
“Wh…” I shook my head rapidly. “I don’t understand.”
“Silango ordered me to kill you.” My heart stopped. “And Sylvia and David.”
“What can I do?” I repeated out of sheer desperation.
“There is nothing you can do.” He closed his eyes and pushed himself away from me. When he opened them again, a hard mask was in place. “I have to leave now. Don’t be here when I get back.”
“No.” I reached out to him. “Marcus.”
“You can’t stay here.” He pulled out a large wad of money from his pocket and laid it on the stand. “Take this, there’s more upstairs in our stash.”
“Where can I go?”
“Go to the States. I’ll send someone,” he swallowed loudly, “someone to help you.”
“Who can possibly help me?”
“Rueben.” He ran his hand roughly through his hair. “Claudia.” He turned to go.
“Your brother?” I asked quickly.
“He’ll help you.”
“When…when will you send for me?”
“I won’t, Claudia. You have to learn to fend for yourself.”
“You promised to never leave me,” I sobbed. “Maybe it would be better if you just kill me like Silango wants you to.”
“Just go to the States,” he slammed his hand against the wall, making a large indent in the plaster.
“I don’t…”
“It doesn’t matter what you want. It’s time you grew up.” He disappeared before I could say anything else.
I followed him out the door, but he was already gone before I got there. There was no one left in the house. Everyone had left me.
I went back in the parlor and sank down beside the wall. What would the housekeepers think had happened in here? The wall was smashed in and the furniture had seen better days.
My eyes fell on the wad on money Marcus had left me. Go to the States?
I couldn’t just leave him here alone. Even if he didn’t realize it, Marcus needed me. We made promises to each other. I couldn’t leave him now.
Time had changed so much as far as marriages went. When Marcus and I had first married, divorce was virtually unheard of. Now it seemed like more and more coupl
es were calling it quits. Soon, there would be as many people getting divorced as there were getting married.
It wasn’t even just the fact that we were married that tied me to Marcus, though. Obviously, it was so much more than that. And it wasn’t only because we were mated vampires, either. Sylvia and David had parted ways.
Marcus had created me. We were bonded. No matter how far I went, that would never change. My feelings for Marcus would never lessen–not ever. How could he expect me to leave him now?
I ran a shaking hand through my mess of curls. We should have never came back to London. If only we had stayed away, then Silango wouldn’t have gotten his claws back in Marcus.
I laid my head down on my raised knees. What was I going to do? Marcus wouldn’t really kill me–would he? I didn’t know how strong his bond was with Silango.
It got stronger with time, so it must be strong by now. Marcus had never ordered me to do anything, so I couldn’t be sure what that was like either. He had seemed so different tonight–so much like the man in London, the man he had been right before I was changed.
My eyes closed on a ragged sigh. Marcus wanted me to leave. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I was making it out to be. Maybe he just wanted me to be away until he could get things sorted out. If he thought I was really in danger, then it made sense for him to send me away.
The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that Marcus was only sending me away for a few days. He would come back for me. He couldn’t live without me anymore than I could live without him.
A voice in the back of my head tried to whisper doubt into my head. He had loved a long time before he met me. I was just a needy little thing. He was probably glad to be rid of me.
“No,” I whispered forcefully to the ruined parlor.
I would go to the States and find Rueben so that Marcus could get things straightened out–I had no choice in that. But, Marcus would come for me, I just had to wait for him.
I took a deep breath to try and calm my nerves. My bags were still packed so it wouldn’t take me long to be on my way.
My shaky legs carried me easily enough to the bedroom Marcus and I had shared before. The suitcases were piled neatly at the foot of the bed. Laying on top of mine was a ticket–a plane ticket.
I sighed and picked it up to see where I was going.
Chapter Thirty-Five
I clutched tightly to the handle of my single suitcase. I had never traveled alone before. In all the years I had lived, I still didn’t know so many things. I should have at least been able to travel alone without being afraid.
Someone from behind me ran into my arm. “Sorry,” he said with an oversized grin. He was a tall man with short blond hair that he spiked into short little bundles with too much hair gel. The small of him made me wince. “Did I hurt you?”
I didn’t interact with humans very often; I always stood behind Marcus while he made all the arrangements. I tried to turn away from the spiky man without saying anything, but he put his hand on my arm to stop me. My eyes widened in alarm.
“Hey, lady,” he asked loudly. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I mumbled, trying to get away without causing a further scene.
“You don’t look fine.” He stuck his face closer to mine.
“I am.”
“Well, I mean, you’re fine,” he raised his eyebrows suggestively, “but you look like you’re going to be sick.”
“It’s the smell of your hair gel,” I told him.
His eyes narrowed. The truth must not have been something he was used to. “What?”
“I…uh…” I searched frantically for the nearest exit. I could just make a run for it; no one would catch me. If only this man would let me go.
“Hey.” Suddenly, a familiar man was standing right next to me. “Everything alright?” He placed his hands possessively on my stomach.
“Y…yeah.” Rueben: I was so grateful to see him I sank into his touch.
He turned to look at the man with spiked hair. “Yeah?”
“Sorry, man,” the man held his hands up in surrender.
Rueben expertly guided me out of the crowded airport and into a waiting car. He didn’t start the car like I expected. Instead, he turned to me with a crooked grin.
“Claudia, I wish I could say it’s nice to see you.”
“It is good to see you, Rueben. I didn’t know what I was going to do in there. I was about to make a run for it.”
“A pretty thing like you?” He scoffed. “I’m sure you get that sort of thing all the time.” He jerked his thumb towards the crowded airport.
“No, I don’t.” My eyes widened in emphasis. “I don’t go out much…by myself.”
“Marcus doesn’t let you out of his sight, eh?” He grinned wide.
“I don’t like to be away from him.” I averted my face from eyes that probably saw too much if he was anything like Marcus.
“Hmm,” I heard his grunt across the seat.
We still hadn’t moved. Were we waiting for someone? Maybe Marcus was coming to meet us already. I perked up slightly.
“He’s not coming,” Rueben dashed away my hopes.
“How do you know?”
“I know.”
“Then what are we waiting for?”
“Our next flight.”
“Oh.” I slumped back against the seat. “I still can’t believe that he sent me away,” I half-whispered.
“He had to.”
“He…” I hugged my arms tighter around myself. “He said he loved me.”
“Hmm,” Rueben scoffed.
“What?”
“Love?” He arched one pale eyebrow.
“Yes. We are married.”
“Love is never enough, Claudia. No matter what you hear in the songs, it’s not.”
“We could have…” I shrugged. “We could have figured something out.”
“No. An order from Silango can’t be ignored.”
“What do you mean? What order?”
“Marcus didn’t tell you?”
“About Silango? Yeah, he told me that he has some pull over you guys; like he can tell you what to do.”
“That’s one way to put it, I guess.”
“So, Silango ordered him to send me away, so he did?”
“No. Silango ordered him to kill you–so he sent you away.”
A shiver traveled up my spine. “Why does Silango want me dead?”
“I wasn’t there, but…my guess?”
“Yeah.” His guess was probably better than mine.
“The order is from Neleh.”
“Neleh?” Marcus had mentioned her once. She hated the Letrell’s.
His forehead creased in confusion. “How long have you been changed?”
“Since 1886.” Now I was confused. What did that have to do with Neleh?
“And he never told you anything about Neleh?”
“Should he have?”
“Neleh hates the Letrells. She hates everything about our family–including you since 1886.”
“Marcus mentioned her once.”
“Once?” His eyebrow arched high above the other one.
I imagined that most women thought Rueben was good looking. His dark blond hair was long enough to sweep over his eye, but it was well above his ears. His full lips were jutted out into a natural pout; orange and brown and yellow swirled together to make his eyes the color of thick honey.
“I must warn you, Claudia,” he spoke suddenly, “Marcus would not approve of the way you are looking at me.”
“I…” I blushed red at his words, then scowled out the window. “Where are we going, anyways?” I snapped.
When he chuckled, I rolled my eyes. “To another city.”
“Why?” Marcus had gotten the plane ticket for me so he would know where I was. I had to stay here.
“That’s exactly why we have to leave.” When he looked at me, the light coming through the windshield turned his eyes orange. “H
e can’t know where we are.”
“That’s…that’s ridiculous. He has to know where I am so when he comes back for me…”
“When he comes back for you, it’ll be to kill you. Don’t you think it will be better for him to not be able to find you?”
“He won’t hurt me.”
“He won’t have a choice.”
We stared at each other until I turned away in a panic. It wasn’t true; Marcus had sent me away from London to be safe, but as soon as he could get away from Silango, he would join me and we’d be able…
“It doesn’t work like that, Claudia,” Rueben cut my frantic thoughts off.
I sniffed back the tears. “You don’t know him like I do.”
He sighed. “The order was given to kill you. It doesn’t stop in London. It won’t stop until he finishes it.”
“We lived fine outside of London. As soon as we went back there…”
“The only reason you lived in peace was because the order hadn’t been given yet.” His voice was gentle but firm.
I clamped my lips shut. Let Rueben think what he wanted. I knew that Marcus would figure things out; he wouldn’t just give up on me. I just needed to give him a few days to fix things.
“Marcus called me yesterday. He told me where to meet you, where he was sending you, but he said we can’t stay here. He said we would need to find somewhere else. He said…”
His voice droned on in the small space of the car as my heart broke into tiny pieces. Why wouldn’t he want to know where I was? Wasn’t he ever going to call? How would I know he was okay? Maybe I wouldn’t go with Rueben.
I quickly discarded that idea, though. I knew I didn’t want to stay in the city by myself, even if it was only going to be a few days. No, I decided, Marcus had trusted Rueben to take care of me, so I would too.
When Rueben said it was time to go, I blindly followed him back inside the airport. I kept close behind him, careful not to make eye contact with any of the humans that bustled around. Who knew that traveling by air would be such a popular idea?
“Have you ever been to New York?” He asked once we’d found our seats. I shook my head silently, more terrified than I cared to admit. “We’ll be there soon. I’ve gotten you a little apartment. It’s not the greatest neighborhood, but that makes it easier to feed.”