by Janie Marie
“If you wish to shower, go ahead. I’m going to order dinner. I need blood.”
She turned to stare at him, her heart throbbing. He was feeding her more than normal, insisting she stayed fed because he wanted to make sure hunger never caused her to lose control. Nothing ever happened between them, though. It didn’t matter he still turned her on, David was like stone. He’d feed her, then call for a refill for himself.
Jane looked at the bathroom door as he sat down, picking up the phone to order. She could see him watching her from the corner of her eye as she hesitated walking to the bathroom. Her memories were replaying again whenever she went in there, and not the ones she’d made with him. No, those wonderful moments, if they did come forward, were breaking her heart because that was all they would ever be—memories. “Will you bathe with me?” She waited for his response, never pulling her gaze from the door as she wondered what torment she would encounter.
David finished his order and hung up. “I need to relax for a moment. Maybe some other time.”
She turned her head so he wouldn’t see her tears and went to the door. A chill swept over her, and she closed her eyes, pushing the door open so she could enter her own torture chamber.
Jason stared down at his lap, confused. He didn’t understand why he always forgot where he was whenever he was around Melody. She always reassured him by saying he must simply be tired because he was spending time with her when he should be sleeping, and he always felt content after her explanation.
What he wasn’t content about was Jane. One moment he was hating himself for all the pain he had put her through and grieving the loss of their marriage, but the next moment, he was staring into those green eyes, hating Jane. He wanted her to hurt as badly as he was. He wanted David to suffer. Jane didn’t deserve any bit of happiness or love. She had hurt him, ruined their marriage, and broken their family. Make her suffer. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of those dark thoughts. Nothing seemed to free him of his inner torment.
This was how it was every single day since meeting Melody. He enjoyed her company so much; she was beautiful, attentive, kind. She made him happy. She told him he was a good father, a good man who any woman would be lucky to have. She told him he had done so much for Jane, sacrificed his chances to have more for her—gave up things he loved for her. He was everything he had wanted to be as a man—as a father and husband. It was always Jane’s fault. She was weak. She wanted attention, so she refused to get better. It wasn’t his fault. He was better than David because he let her go. David had that chance, but he didn’t love Jane enough to let her simply have her family.
This is wrong.
That faint whisper always said the same things. It always said these were not his thoughts; he had made peace with Jane because it was the right thing to do for her. It told him to stop listening to Melody, but he always forgot about the whisper when he looked into her pretty eyes.
The knife trembled between his fingers, its shiny metal gleaming in the moonlight pouring through the window. Tears burned his eyes as the new thoughts kept repeating in his head, telling him to do something so evil, so unthinkable.
He looked away from the knife and back to the blonde next to him.
Melody smiled, soothing some of those painful feelings. My angel. “This is the only way you can hurt her. She deserves to suffer for what she did to you.” She caressed his stubbled cheek with her soft hand. “Neither of us will ever be able to get close enough to destroy her. She is too strong, and David will not let you come near her again. We have to weaken her, and this is how we do it.”
Jason nodded, agreeing, but the stabbing pain in his heart forced him to look away from her.
“No, Jason,” Jane’s sweet voice flooded his mind.
He let out a sharp breath, nearly dropping the knife. He didn’t want to listen to Melody. He loved Jane.
This isn’t right.
Melody’s cold fingers wrapped around his, securing the knife in his hand. He looked into those green eyes again, and all his hate returned. Melody’s smile told him she cared about him. Her words told him he was the victim, not Jane. Jane deserved to be treated the way he treated her. It was his right because he took care of her; she had no one but him, and she should’ve been grateful.
Instead, Jane made it clear he wasn’t enough. His money wasn’t good enough for her, their sex wasn’t good enough for her—he was a failure to her. David, though, he was perfect in Jane’s eyes.
David had taken everything from him. The smiles he never saw from Jane were all David’s. The way her eyes lit up belonged to David. Her laugh, her sweet laugh, it all belonged to David.
Jason clenched his hand around the knife. This is all Jane’s fault.
“She hates you, Jason,” Melody said. “She wants him, not you. She used and blamed you for her faults. She brought all of her pain onto herself. It wasn’t you. It wasn’t anyone’s fault but her own. She’s evil and selfish. She wants everything, and she watches those around her suffer while she gets what she wants. She bewitched you into caring for her, but she ran to David when he came along and forgot all about you. She chose him as soon as she saw him, and you were nothing. And, although David is strong, he had no power against her. She tricked him, just like she tricked you. Don’t you remember what you told me? You said you didn’t understand why you wanted to protect her from her family, that you did not wish to get involved. Yet, you found yourself threatening a man you did not know and feeling extreme devotion and love for a girl you barely knew. Is that not strange?”
“I wanted to save her,” he said, nodding. “I don’t know why. I just saw her and had to save her. She did that, didn’t she?”
Melody’s green eyes burned like twin flames. “She did. It was always her. She made you hate yourself. You are a good man, Jason. She made you into the person you have been hating. You must stop her. Take her heart from her.”
Without questioning her, he stood, gripping the knife in his now steady hand, and he pushed open the door to the adjoining room.
The lights were off, but the dim glow from the TV cast enough light to see the small figure curled up on the bed. Melody gently pushed him into the room until he stood right next to the bed.
“This will kill her,” Melody whispered in his ear. “Make her feel real pain.”
Melody moved around him, and she carefully pulled back the blankets to reveal the small boy who looked so much like him. He resembled him only in appearance while his qualities and heart matched Jane’s. All the bitterness Jason felt toward Jane was now focused on his sleeping son.
“You hate her,” Melody cooed, touching his shoulder when his hand started to shake. “You hate everything about her. She used you. She destroyed your will and strength. She blamed you for her pain. She never loved you.”
Jason felt his heart squeeze at that last comment. His hand started trembling again as he stared down at his sleeping baby. He felt so much hate and regret. For myself, he shouted in his head. He blinked, feeling a shift in the disorienting feeling surrounding him.
“She loves him,” Melody said quickly. “She wants to please him, not you. Never you, Jason. You were nothing but a disappointment, a regret. Nothing you did made her happy or made her love you.” Her cold fingers chilled his cheek when she caressed him. “She loves it when he kisses her, when he tells her that he loves her. She smiles at him, and she wants his hands on her body. She runs to him when she cries. She dreams of his face at night while yours brings her nightmares and disgust. You repulse her, Jason. Your touch made her skin crawl, and David’s makes her scream in pleasure.”
Her words were hitting at the very thoughts he couldn’t banish from his breaking mind. Everything she said was his worst fear. These were all things he had convinced himself over the years—lies he’d told himself to ease his guilt. All his anger was ready to explode out of him.
“Destroy her heart, Jason. Destroy her, and you will be free of the torment she has placed on you
.” She put her face within his line of vision. All he could see were her eyes. Those beautiful, honest, and loving eyes. The swirling green inferno matched the tumultuous thoughts spinning in his head: Jane. Hate. Jealousy. Hurt. Pain. Anger. Destroy. Murder.
He tried to focus on one thought. Something was wrong. He couldn’t understand anything. He blinked, feeling a sudden calm in the disorder.
Melody was there again. She whispered those words until he felt dizzy and could only think: Destroy her heart.
He shivered as a new voice suddenly fell into the chaotic storm. It was laughing. It was only for a moment, but he’d heard that sound before.
“Stop, Jason!” Jane’s voice was louder, but not frightened or panicked. She was laughing again. He tried to look through the swirling green haze to where he could hear her on the other side, and he finally saw her face. She was smiling and laughing for him to stop spinning her on the merry-go-round. Jason saw himself laughing as he tried to slow it down. Jane had a huge smile on her face, and he could tell how dizzy she was, but she was happy. With him.
“Jason, you made me sick,” she had scolded him, but her smile never faded. He supported her when she finally scooted to the edge and held her to him. They were younger then, only just out of high school, and they were hanging out at a local park.
The younger version of himself smiled as he wrapped his arm around her back. He reached up to fix her hair with his other. “I’m sorry, babe.”
She tried to look upset with him, but it only made him grin back.
“Is this better?” he asked her.
Jane tried to frown, and it was obvious she was still feeling queasy, but she sighed and nodded, finally smiling that smile he had forgotten was his. The younger him quickly kissed her, and she kissed him back, smiling the entire time.
The scene changed. This moment had taken place when they were still in school. It was the first time he had really paused to look at her. She was wearing a blue sundress with her hair in a ponytail. He always stared at her when she walked by his locker. Despite the fact there were girls muttering insults right alongside him, she always smiled, and with a brave face on most days, she would meet his gaze. “Hi, Jason.” That was the moment. That blue dress and her smile even though her eyes shimmered with unshed tears—that smile was it. That was before he’d known anything about her, before he’d felt that protective urge. She had caught him with a smile and hello in passing, and he had forgotten all about it.
Everything blurred again, showing him her smile when she said, “I do.” at their wedding. He saw her smile even though she was scared when she revealed she was pregnant—her smile when she cooked the first meal for him in their home, her smile when he had his first day at work, wishing him good luck and telling him she was proud of him. He saw her smile as she took care of him whenever he was sick, when he threw up all over the place. She had cleaned it up without making him feel embarrassed.
Jason saw her smile when she jumped out from behind the door, yelling to scare him. She pouted when he told her he wasn’t scared. He saw her smile when she held their children, when she thanked him for giving them to her. When she told him she loved him—she had smiled for him. She had truly loved him and given him all she could of herself, and he had let her down.
Memory after horrible memory of her crying, of her hysterical face when she suffered flashbacks, of the broken look on her face when he failed her again and again. When he found her holding a knife to her wrist, or screaming that she wanted to die. He saw her ruin when he said, “Then just kill yourself.” He saw her lose hope when he looked her in the eye and said, “I’m not in love with you . . . You’re just my wife.”
He knew he was crying, but the painful images wouldn’t cease. He saw how she would lie there, staring at nothing. The tortured look in her dull eyes whenever he guilted her into having sex. All she asked was for him to show her some affection, and he’d told her that was stupid—that they were married, not living in a fairy tale. Sex was all he needed to show her he cared. She’d give him what he wanted, but she would curl away afterward. Sometimes he would hear her crying in the shower, begging for it all to stop. She would scrub herself until her skin was red, and he did nothing for her.
“I wasn’t bitten, I swear! I don’t understand.”
He could see her face, the terror. She was going to die, and she knew it. And she still chose to protect them, sacrificing herself so he didn’t have to hurt with making the choice to kill her after she turned. She’d left to save them, not to join David. She’d left to die for them.
He never thought he’d see her again. But there she was, as beautiful as that day she walked by and said hi to him. It wasn’t just her immortality that made her beautiful, it was the fire burning in her eyes. She was living again. He had stomped out her fire all those years together, beat that light until she relied only on him, never believing in herself—but these men, David and Ryder, they had freed the fearless and loving girl Jane really was.
She glowed when she looked at them. She was loved and protected. He saw the love and trust sparkling in her eyes when she looked at Ryder. They were so devoted to each other, unbreakable, it seemed. He knew there was so much he didn’t understand, but he knew Ryder was something no one else could be for her.
Then the passion in her eyes when she glanced at David. Jane might not have known it, but she loved David, and David, well, he looked and treated Jane like a goddess. He handled her with so much care, regardless of the fact she was supposed to be more powerful than him. She was his sun, his moon, his everything. David was the man he would never be—the man she belonged with. He gave her hope, a chance to be who she really was because he loved all of her.
The turbulent thoughts slowed in Jason’s mind. The hate and violent desires faded. I love Jane. He would always love her. He wanted her to be happy, and he wasn’t the man meant for her.
Jason blinked repeatedly. The whispers were no longer in his head, and all he could see was Jane’s smile. She was happy, and he wanted that for her.
What am I doing? he asked himself as he stared at the knife in his hand—the knife over Nathan’s heart.
There was a whisper being chanted in his ear, a language he didn’t recognize. He looked at Melody; she was chanting. He shoved her as hard as he could. She was strong, but he had surprised her enough so he could block Nathan from her view.
“What are you doing?” she asked as her green eyes lit up.
How had he not seen it before? She was evil. Jason shook his head. He felt the spinning, the fuming rage that was trying to invade his mind again. “Stop it! Stop messing with my thoughts!” he shouted to her. He knew he had woken his children as he saw Natalie stir on the other bed.
“She doesn’t love you, Jason,” Melody said, coming closer. “You have to do this. You have to break her heart.”
“No.” Jason shook his head, trying to make sure Nathan was safely hidden behind him. He squeezed the knife in his hands as the blonde gave him a wicked smile. “You’ve done nothing but lie to me and make me think things that aren’t true. I love her. I love her enough to let her go.”
Melody laughed, crossing her arms. “You’re really pathetic.”
Jason kept watching her eyes glow and swirl, but the pressure on his mind was weakening. Jane’s smile was all he could see now.
“She must have been right, then,” Melody said. “You are nothing compared to David. He makes a woman feel good. He makes a woman crave his touch. The pleasure he can bring to a woman’s body is indescribable. Do you want to know something, though? David has fucked hundreds, maybe thousands of women in his lifetime. He is using your wife because she is powerful, because her blood is a little sweeter than the others’. He will tire of her. He will ruin her, and you will watch as she embraces the monster hiding within her. She will kill all of you.”
“Shut up!” Jason shouted, causing Natalie to start crying. “You know nothing about her! You’re just a jealous witch. David saw
through you—that’s why he nearly killed you. It wasn’t him keeping you and him a secret. He was protecting us from you. He didn’t want you, and neither do I. You’re nothing compared to her.”
Melody’s movement was so fast. He barely registered the blow to his side, but the pain exploded throughout his body when he hit the wall she’d thrown him into. Natalie screamed as Melody stood over him.
“Run, Natalie! Nathan, RUN!”
Melody snarled when Natalie jumped off the bed, but Jason found the strength to lunge for the vampire who was about to attack his baby girl. He knocked her to the ground, breathing a sigh of relief at the sight of Natalie escaping.
“You stupid human,” Melody said before biting his forearm.
He yelled, trying to pull his arm free of her powerful mouth. His blood sprayed across their faces, but he was able to free himself. He regretted it, though, as soon as he saw how much flesh she’d ripped away. Blood was everywhere, quickly pumping out of his body.
His natural reaction was to put pressure on the bleeding and that allowed Melody’s hands to come free. She grabbed him, punching him in the face before he felt his body flying. He landed on something soft, but he couldn’t tell where he was. She was so much stronger than him. He’d been in fights before—knew how to take a punch—but he was defenseless against the powerful vampire.
His nose and surely parts of his face were broken as warm blood slid into his eyes. He tried to move, but he couldn’t.
Melody was suddenly in view. She straddled him and lowered her face above his. She licked his cheek, moaning as she licked more.
He knew this was it. He didn’t want to die, but he was glad his kids were safe. Jane would be safe. They would all have David. He began to smile, but a whimper, a little noise he’d heard so many times before, made him panic and turn his head even though he felt his bones crunching.