The Return of Jonas (Pearl Vampire Chronicles #4)

by Nelson, Dara

  “Oh, Sarah. I’m so sorry,” he said. “But how… how did you get through that?”

  I rested my head on my knees as I looked at him. “Honestly? I have no idea, Jonas. I didn’t live, but I couldn’t die. I felt nothing. I was just empty… until Matt walked into my life.”

  “So, if I come to your house, what are you going to feed me?”

  Going for broke here, I thought. “Ummm, how about half and half?”

  In my head Matt and Carlos were both protesting, ‘Uh-uh, no way Sarah. He is not coming here. Not a frickin’ chance,’ they thought.

  ‘Yes he is guys, so just chill out and get over it,’ I thought.

  Jonas slightly smiled at me. “Are they arguing with you right now?” he said.

  I smiled. “Sort of.”

  “What did you tell them?”

  “I told them to chill out and get over it,” I said… and he chuckled.

  “So, half and half, huh? You really want me off the good stuff? Because you think I’ll be a….how did you put it?… a better friend?”

  I nodded. “And I think you’ll be happier, eventually,” I said.

  He stared at me for a while then finally said, “Okay, Sarah. I’ll try it, for you. But I’ve gotta be honest with you. Withdrawal from this shit is brutal. I’ll probably end up killing you, all of you, but I’ll try it,” he said.

  Matt and Carlos were stunned, to say the least. ‘I don’t believe it,’ Matt thought.

  ‘Son of a bitch, she actually did it,’ came from Carlos.

  ‘I knew you had magic, baby, but this… this is extraordinary,’ from Matt.

  ‘Guys, we’re not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot, so stop celebrating.’

  “Ready?” Jonas said… and I nodded. Before he took off though, he smiled… with a twinkle in his eye. “I gotta say, this is a first for me, Sarah. This having a friend thing. And for as long as I’ve been around, I didn’t think there were any firsts left for me. It feels… exciting. You really are one of a kind,” he said, then he wrapped his arm around my waist, took off and headed toward home (at least I hoped it was toward home).

  He landed softly on the sand and released me. “What do you do now, Sarah? Do you wait for him to get back or do you feed me?” he said. The way he said it made it feel like a test to me. I could hear the boat approaching fast. But if this was a test…

  “Let’s go eat,” I said as I headed toward the house.

  “Why did you make that choice? Because you’re afraid of me?” he said.

  I shook my head. “No, because you’re my guest here.”

  He smiled and nodded his head. “Nice,” he said as we headed toward the house. When we walked in, Carlos and Maria weren’t there. I knew they wouldn’t be. I was sure Carlos would have taken her to the guest house… and I didn’t blame him for not wanting to be anywhere near Jonas. Jonas followed me down the stairs to the basement. He raised his eyebrows when he saw the lock on the fridge door. “Let me guess,” he said, “you’re the only one who knows the combination.”

  I smiled. “Yes I am. Could you turn around please?” I said.

  He didn’t budge. “Seriously? Sarah, you do know I could tear that door off with my little finger.”

  “Yeah, I know that… but I’d rather you didn’t. Now will you please turn around.”

  He sighed, then turned. “If you insist.”

  I opened it and pulled out two pints for him. Then I pulled out six pints of the regular blood from the other fridge.

  “Honey,” I heard Matt say from upstairs, and there was a definite tinge of panic in it.

  Jonas laughed. “I think the hubby’s just a touch worried, Sarah.”

  I smiled at him. “I’m downstairs,” I called then I headed up. Jonas followed me up the stairs.

  “You have an exquisite ass, Sarah,” he said.

  I stopped and turned around. “That’s a touch over the friend line, Jonas. But, thanks,” I said. Matt was waiting at the top of the stairs… and from the furious look on his face, he had heard Jonas’ comment. I gave him a quick kiss, mumbling, “Relax,” into his lips. Then I grabbed his hand and brought him into the kitchen next to me… I didn’t want him standing there as Jonas walked past, I’m not sure how Matt would react. I stopped at the microwave and tossed the blood inside. As Jonas walked past us to sit at the kitchen table, he nodded his head at Matt.

  “Matthew,” he said.

  Matt clenched his teeth and squeezed my hand, but said, “Jonas.”

  I looked at Matt. “Can you call Cameron today? Get him out here to help supervise?” I said. Matt nodded, but kept his eyes locked firmly on Jonas. The microwave dinged and I opened it. I went to hand Jonas his meal, but as the scent of the good blood hit me, I hesitated. I looked at it, desperately wanting it for myself. I licked my lips then looked at Jonas. Jonas smiled at me.

  “Take one,” he said. YES! My mind screamed at me, but I shook my head.

  “Thank you, but no. No more for me,” I said and I handed them to him. He shrugged his shoulders.

  “Suit yourself, but it’s gonna hurt, Sarah,” he said. “You shouldn’t quit cold turkey.”

  “But I only fed on it a few times, Jonas. It shouldn’t be that bad,” I said.

  He shook his head. “You’re wrong. With this stuff, all it takes is once then every muscle in our bodies aches for it again. When they threw me on that island, forcing me off of it, it just about killed me. It won’t take you as long as me, but it will hurt just as bad,” he said.

  I smiled at him. “Thanks, Jonas, but I’ll take my chances,” I said. He nodded and picked up his first pint. I turned and looked at Matt, watching Jonas feed felt too… intimate to me. And so began our crazy recovery.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Days one and two weren’t bad at all and I was beginning to think Jonas’ warning was wrong. Then day three came…

  It began with a horrendous wake up call for me. It was dawn and I was sound asleep when suddenly every muscle in my body cramped up. I cried out, tried to roll into a ball and fell on the floor. My hands and my feet were contorted into horrible-looking positions. I could see ripples of pain moving through my calves, my stomach, my arms, everywhere. The cramps were so strong I thought they might break bones.

  “Sarah!” Matt cried out as he quickly moved to my side. I couldn’t speak, my mouth was clenched. I couldn’t even open my eyes. “Sarah?” Matt whispered. “How can I help?” Suddenly our door flew open. Jonas came in… and he took over.

  As he began to scoop me into his arms he looked at Matt and said, “Go get her at least eight pints, quick.” Matt didn’t budge. He was frantic, but afraid to leave me with Jonas. Jonas stood up with me in his arms. “Matt! Focus! She needs your help. Go get her eight pints… Now!” he snapped. Matt blinked, then turned and ran down the stairs.

  Jonas sat on the edge of the bed and set me down next to him so my head was resting in his lap. The rest of my body was still a horrifying, contorted ball. Jonas began massaging both sides of my face and jaw. My terrified eyes popped open and stared at Jonas. “What the hell…” Matt said as he came back into the room.

  “Relax. She can’t feed if her jaw won’t open, can she? I’m working the cramps out of it. Then she can feed and we can work on the rest,” he said.

  Matt set the blood down on the bed and sat down. “We?”

  “Yes, we. You can’t very well massage her arms and legs at the same time can you? Unless, of course, you want her to suffer longer. If that’s what you want, I can just go now,” he said and I whimpered, my eyes pleading with Matt to let him stay.

  “No,” Matt said, “don’t leave. Just tell me what to do to help her.”

  “First,” he said as we all heard the pop as my jaw finally released, “you can hand me a pint.” Jonas looked down at me. “Sarah, I need you to release your fangs, please?” he said. I whimpered again, knowing how much it was going to hurt. I know there was pure panic in my eyes. I was too afraid
to release them… and Jonas saw that. He smiled a little as he kept massaging my jaw to keep it from locking up again. “Sarah, if you don’t release them right now, I’m going to lean down and kiss you,” he said. Well, I was definitely more afraid of that than the pain. I closed my eyes and whimpered slightly as I dropped my fangs. Jonas chuckled as he pressed a pint to them. He looked at Matt. “I knew that would do it,” he said. They made me drain all eight pints, even though I didn’t want them all. “Go start a bath,” Jonas said to Matt. “The warm water will help release the muscles when we’re massaging.”

  “Wait,” Matt said, “you’re not going to be in there when she’s in the bath?”

  Jonas squeezed his eyes shut, sighed, then opened them and stared at Matt. “Look. Put some damn bubbles in it or something. But she needs both of us in there, so deal with it, okay?” Matt nodded, climbed off the bed and walked into the bathroom. Jonas followed with me in his arms, whimpering. “Get in. I’m going to hand her to you,” Jonas said

  “Get in? Wouldn’t I be more effective out of the tub?” Matt said.

  “Well, that depends. Do you really want her to feel the pain of her back coming in contact with the hard tub or do you think your body might be a little softer for her?” he said. Matt climbed into the tub in his boxers and held his arms out. Jonas gently lowered me down to him then he pulled off his own shirt. “Okay, start with her hands. Massage the fingers, like this, okay?” he said. Matt nodded and did as Jonas instructed, while Jonas started working on my feet and toes.

  Twenty minutes later, Matt was working on my upper arms, while Jonas had managed to get my right leg to straighten out and was working on my left. A little over an hour after this pain hit me, I finally uttered my first word. “Ow,” I whispered.

  “Well, hey there,” Jonas said. “Welcome back.” I tried to smile… and not blush as I glanced down and saw that the bubbles were gone and my nightgown was gone (Matt tore it off when it kept getting in his way). Jonas saw my embarrassment and stood up. “Don’t worry, I’ll go. I’m gonna go sit on the porch and wait for breakfast. Matt, you need to work a little more on her stomach muscles and back before you get her out of the tub,” he said as he turned to walk out.

  “Jonas?” Matt said. He stopped and looked back at Matt. “Thanks.”

  Jonas nodded, then said, as he walked out, “Just remember, we’re all going to need help when we’re going through that, soon.”

  “Yeah, you’re next,” I mumbled.

  “Ooohhh, lucky me,” he said as he kissed the top of my head.

  An hour later I was gingerly making my way down the stairs. “Are you sure you don’t want me to carry you?” Matt said.

  “It’s okay, sweetie. I’m thinking the more I use the muscles now, the better they’ll feel. Right, Jonas?”

  “That’s correct,” Jonas said from the doorway.

  “Am I done? Or do I have to go through that again?” I said.

  “As short of a time that you were on it, you might be done. But I can’t guarantee it. The rest of us definitely won’t be so lucky. The longer you’re on it, the more times you have to go through that.”

  “How the hell did you and Carlos go through that alone?” I said.

  Jonas smiled a little. “Each episode lasts several days when you don’t have someone there to massage the muscles… so you just grin and bear it, I suppose.”

  “So, when’s my turn?” Matt said.

  Matt and Carlos were both down to one pint a day. Jonas was on two. “As soon as we’re sure I’m done. Let’s give it a couple of days, okay? By the way, where’s Cameron?” I said.

  “He and David had some sort of medical emergency back at the village. He said one of them would be here as soon as they could.”

  “Great. I guess we’re on our own on this,” I said. I tried to push myself off of the couch, because I knew everyone needed to feed, but I didn’t have any luck. “Someone help me up, please?” I said. They both shot up off the couch to help me. Jonas started to put his arm down, but he smiled as I grabbed onto both his and Matt’s, one hand for each. They pulled me to my feet. “Time for you guys to feed,” I said as I headed toward the basement stairs. “I can’t carry this all up by myself. Can I get a little help please?” I said. They were both behind me in a flash.

  And so it went for the next two days. Matt watched me like a hawk, of course. And I watched Jonas. I could see when he was hurting, so I would try to distract him by having him join me for a walk on the beach or a stroll through the woods. I enjoyed seeing his new, friendly personality emerging. The one I knew was in there, hidden under all the pain, loneliness and addiction. He even told Carlos that he no longer blamed him for his being exiled to the island, which meant that Carlos and Maria now joined us occasionally in the main house. At two a.m. on the third day after my first withdrawal episode, I gave up on sleeping and decided to take a walk. The cramping wasn’t bad, but it was enough that it kept me from sleeping and I didn’t want to wake Matt or Jonas. For some reason I decided to take the back path through the woods. Suddenly I noticed a light through the trees. “What the…?” I said. I swear it looked like a fire. I sped up, ignoring the aching in my legs, until I came to the edge of the clearing. The same clearing that we stood in when we convinced all those vampires to go up against the Elders not too long ago. I stopped there… and stared at the fire.

  Somebody had lit a fire in the fire pit in the middle of the clearing. Who would do that? Who would do that in the middle of the night? I tentatively began walking towards it, my eyes searching the surrounding forest with every step I took, my nose breathing in every scent. I heard the quiet snap as my foot triggered the trap, and I screamed as the wire cable squeezed around my ankle, pulling me upside down in a second. The cable was digging into my ankle as I tried to pull myself up. I heard someone approaching from behind. I managed to turn my head around and gasp just before the rock he was holding smashed down on my forehead and knocked me out.

  “Sarah,” the voice called… from too far away. “Sarah, Sarah,” it said again, this time a little closer. Maybe it was Matt and he was looking for me. I should probably call to him to let him know where I was. “Sarah,” it said again.

  My eyes fluttered. “I’m here. I’m over here.”

  “Yes I know you’re here, you stupid bitch. I put you there,” he said.

  Now that wasn’t Matt… but it was a voice that I knew all too well. My head was still foggy and I was seeing two of him, but I definitely knew who he was. “Ramon,” I growled. I quickly tried to clear my head and assess my situation. He had me up against a large oak tree, a huge metal chain wrapped around me and locked around my wrists. And my neck felt unusually heavy, like it was weighed down by something. I thought it might just be from the blow to the head that I took, but as soon as I glanced down, I knew I was wrong. Hanging from my neck was enough C-4 explosives to send me to the moon… and the detonator was in Ramon’s hand.

  “So now what?” I said.

  Ramon sat down on a rock and said, “Now we wait.”

  “Wait for what?” I said.

  “For them,” he said.

  “Why wait for them. I’m the one who killed Malina. Push the damn button. Or are you afraid? Just like you were too afraid to fight us before,” I said.

  He jumped up and slapped me across the face. “Fuck you, Sarah!” he screamed. “She made me stay behind. She told me I had to. I had no choice. If I had a choice, I would have been there and I would have torn you to shreds. Instead, I’m alone, all alone and the only thing I have to look forward to is watching you being blown to bits.” I watched his finger twitch over the trigger and I tried to will him to push it now, but he caught my gaze and followed it to his finger. He sneered at me. “Oh, I get it. You’re trying to save your little man, or should I say men? Did you and Carlos finally do it? I can’t believe Matt would still want a slut like you. No woman of mine is ever going to cheat on me and live. No way, no how. No, you’re not going
to save them this time… and they can’t save you. We’re just going to wait for the family reunion… complete with fireworks. Ahhh, I hear them now. They know you’re missing and they’re searching. Go ahead, Sarah. Call to them, link with them, just try to tell them to stay away. You and I both know they won’t. They’ll have to try to save you, so they’ll come… and then you’ll see… you’ll all see, what I am capable of,” he said then he turned and moved to the opposite side of the clearing from where I was, presumably so he wouldn’t get hit by the blast too.

  I immediately closed my eyes and linked with Matt. ‘Honey. Listen to me very carefully’, I thought. ‘I need you to stop right where you are. Please, dear God, stop. Don’t come any closer. Please.’ I know he could hear the sobs that were racking my chest.

  ‘Sarah? It’s Jonas, isn’t it? What the fuck has he done to you?’ Matt thought.

  That confused me. ‘Jonas? No, not Jonas. Why would you think it was Jonas?’

  ‘Because he’s missing too. But if it’s not Jonas, then why do I have to stay away, honey?’

  ‘Because it’s Ramon… and he’s got a bomb.’

  ‘A b-b-bomb?’ Carlos thought. ‘What do you mean he’s got a bomb?’

  I heard their footsteps speed up then. ‘No, not faster, guys. Please, just stop. For me? Please, stop,’ I thought. I could see their shapes now, coming closer. Matt cleared the trees and stopped at the edge of the clearing. His eyes locked on me and took a second to register what he was seeing. I squeezed my eyes shut as I saw the pure terror that filled his face. He gasped, “NO!” as he fell to his knees.

  Ramon stepped out into the clearing then. Carlos growled at him and started to move towards him, but stopped when Ramon shook his head and held his hand up showing him the detonator. “Not one step closer” he growled.

  Matt kept his eyes locked on me as he said, “What do you want, Ramon?”

  “What do I want?” he spat. “That’s easy. I want to watch you choose.”