Crave

by Teresa Mummert

  ***

  By the time I’d finished, my hair had all but dried. Elijah seemed more relaxed, although he was still uncertain as to what had happened.

  “You must think I’m crazy,” I mumbled, fighting to talk past the lump that had formed in my throat.

  Elijah’s fingers slid through my hair and the corner of his mouth turned up in a slight smile.

  “Never,” he whispered and I closed my eyes, committing this moment to memory out of fear that might be all it is one day. “Look at me.”

  I slowly opened my eyes, struggling to keep my worry from reaching him and letting him know how scared I now was. This feeling of dread was much worse than any I’d felt when face to face with monsters who’d wanted to kill me. Losing him would feel like literally ripping the heart from my chest.

  “I promise.” The pad of his thumb glided over my damp cheek and I leaned into his touch.

  He pulled my mouth to his, kissing me slowly as if would be the last time. If it was, I wasn’t going to waste a single moment we had left. With shaky fingers, I reached up to the top of the towel where it was tucked into itself, and slowly pulled it free. I let it slide from my hand and puddle at my feet.

  Elijah inhaled deeply, his lips pressing harder against mine. I knew he was struggling to keep himself in control and I hoped that he wouldn’t be successful.

  “Elijah,” I whispered against his mouth and he groaned, his hands sliding down my back causing me to shiver under his fingertips. I pressed my body against his, scared that he would disappear, another dream that I would be pulled from at any moment.

  Elijah broke free from our kiss and took a step back from me. I couldn’t hide the disappointment from my face, causing him to smirk and he grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled it over his head. His body crashed back into mine sending us tumbling onto the bed, his body landing on top of me.

  I slid my fingers into his hair, not wanting him to ever leave my arms again. His hands moved with an urgency now, exploring the curves of my body. His touch ignited a spark inside of my belly that quickly spread like wildfire throughout my veins. The need for him consumed me like the flames of desire needed oxygen.

  I reached between us, fumbling with the button of his jeans and his hand slipped over mine and I thought for certain he was going to put an end to wherever this was leading, but instead, he popped the button free from the fabric and shoving them down along with his boxers.

  “You’re not stopping?” I asked as his mouth roamed over my collarbone.

  “I can’t,” he whispered against my skin, his breathe fanning out over my flesh, causing my need for him to intensify further.

  My back bowed from the bed below as we moved together like it was always meant to be us. He was gentle yet strong. But even with all of the pleasure, I couldn’t help but wonder if the reason he’d finally given in was because he didn’t think we had a chance of walking away from any of this.

  “Don’t think, Eva. Just feel,” he whispered.

  In that moment I let go. I let go of my fear and my worries of tomorrow. I put my life in the hands of Elijah as we tumbled over the edge of desire together.

  I would follow Elijah to the gates of hell if it meant spending eternity with him there. I could see the struggle to maintain his humanity every moment we were together. My life was balanced precariously on the edge of death, but it was a thrill I couldn’t remember living without.

  Chapter thirty-one

  Porter

  I ran the brush through my hair absentmindedly as I thought about the words Olivie had said to me.

  “Your whole relationship is a lie.”

  What did she mean? As far as I knew, I could only feel what he felt because he cared for me. How could that not be real? Elijah’s voice broke through my train of thought, startling me.

  “What is it?” he asked. His jeans hung low on his hips, unbuttoned. His voice was thick with concern. I smiled and quickly erased any trace of worry from my expression. I felt a blush creep over my cheeks at the memory of what we’d done together.

  “I’m hungry,” I replied with a pout. I had been ignoring my stomachs cries for nourishment and I felt like I had not eaten for days. He grinned and ran his hand along my jaw, tipping my chin toward him and kissing me quickly on the lips.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he said and grabbed a t-shirt from his bag before heading to the door. “Do not open this for anyone,” he called over his shoulder. I nodded in understanding and ran my fingers through my hair. I turned to the bed and rummaged through the bag for something to wear.

  I was relieved to find a tank and a pair of panties. I laid them out on the bed as a low buzzing and the flashing of a cell phone screen caught my eye from inside the bag. It is white and silver, not one I recognized. Elijah has been using a black flip phone since I met him. I bit my lip glanced back at the door. No sound came from outside and I picked up the phone.

  The screen came to life at the touch of my finger. I slid through the pages of applications and come to one with an envelope titled messages. I paused for a moment to listen for signs of Elijah. The room was silent. I clicked the icon and scroll through the lists of messages. One caught my eye titled Porter Duties. I clicked the folder and an overwhelming list of messages popped up onto the screen. I chose one at random and read the contents.

  Services needed. Payment upon delivery of the head.

  I gasped aloud at what I had just read when the lock on the door to the room suddenly clicked. I threw the phone back into the bag and nervously began dressing. I had my panties on and my tank just over my head as he entered.

  “Find anything?” I asked, my voice too high pitch and jumpy. He looked at me for a brief moment and smiled, holding out a bag full of goodies. I relaxed a bit and remembered to breathe. “Thanks,” I said as I walked over and grabbed the bag, unable to look directly into his eye. I felt guilty for invading his privacy.

  I sat on the small desk chair beside the bed and clicked the remote. The television came to life. I watched Elijah pick the phone out of the bag from the corner of my eye. After a moment, he slid it into his pocket.

  “Here,” He said as he flung a pair of my jeans onto the bed.

  I finished a honey bun with as little chewing as possible, desperate to settle my nervous stomach. I still wasn’t sure what had caused me to end up in that forest. We needed to get to Reid before she could get any closer to us. I pulled on my jeans and slipped on my shoes.

  “Ready?” Elijah asked, slinging the bag over his shoulder. I nodded and stood up to take his hand. He held onto me tightly as he opened the door and did a sweep of the parking lot with his incredible vision. Everything was pitch black except for a faint glow from the open sign. He pulled me along hurriedly to his car and opened the passenger door, practically shoving me in with more force than I think he intended.

  In what seemed like the blink of an eye, he was in his seat and we whipped out of the parking lot and back onto the main road. His eyes flicked from the road to the rearview mirror and lingered longer than I felt comfortable.

  I grabbed my seat belt and wrapped it around me, clicking it into place. Elijah looked at me from the corner of his eye with a small hint of a smile. I flushed realizing that a car accident was the least of my worries as I rode with my vampire boyfriend to escape the legion of others that wanted me dead. My body felt incredibly rested. I was better than normal. I expected to feel tired and sore after we’d slept together.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked, interrupting my thoughts. I felt a blush creep over my cheeks and I turned to look out the window into the night.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, brushing off his question. He glanced at the clock on the dash.

  “We will find another place to sleep just outside of town. We should attack Reid right after the sun sets tomorrow night. Catching them off guard is our best bet.” His plan seemed to make sense, but I didn’t know if I could sleep another day knowing that death was
hunting for me at every turn. Not coming up with any other ideas, I nodded in agreement and reached for the radio. My mind going to the mysterious cell phone.

  ***

  We made it to Baltimore with little time to spare before sunrise. I waited in the car as Elijah checked us into a small motel that appeared abandoned. He reemerged from the tiny office with a key in hand. I quickly hopped out of the car and grabbed our bag from the back seat, meeting him in the center of the parking lot.

  When we made our way into our room, it was dark and dirty, smelling of smoke and stale alcohol and smoke. I tossed our bag and lay on the bed, grabbing the remote from the side table.

  “I need to make a phone call,” He said as he leaned over and kissed my forehead, inhaling the scent of my hair. I nodded and began clicking through the channels. As he walked outside, I sighed and sat the remote down. I could not stop thinking about the messages on the phone from the bag.

  The last thing I needed was to doubt Elijah. I was exhausted and the sun would be rising soon. I pulled the covers back and slid underneath, snuggling into the center of the bed.

  ***

  I awoke to Elijah’s hushed voice near the entrance of our hotel room. I glanced at the alarm clock beside the bed. It read nine o’clock. I rubbed my eyes and stretched.

  “Elijah?” I called out into the darkness. A moment passed and Elijah rounded the corner.

  “Did you sleep well?” he asked, grinning as he leaned down and rubbed the back of his fingers along my cheek. I nodded as a yawn escaped my mouth.

  “Why didn’t you wake me?” I asked as I fumbled with the button on his crisp white button up shirt.

  “You needed your rest,” he replied, kissing me softly on the forehead. “Get dressed. We need to get on the road.” He got up and walked toward the bathroom. I nodded and rubbed my eyes. Sitting up, I search the cramped space for our bag. I spotted it across the room on the dresser and my mind went back to the messages.

  I turned on the bedside lamp and made my way to the dresser. I found my favorite pair of old jeans and shrugged them on. My hand skimmed around the bottom of the bag coming up empty. The other phone was gone. I was hoping he would have returned it to the bag after his call. I sighed and pulled my hand out of the bag, turning to see Elijah staring at me from just inside the room, toothbrush in his cheek. His expression was blank.

  “Looking for something?” he asked. His tone was calm.

  “Just a hair tie,” I stuttered and smiled. He grinned and walked toward me.

  “I like your hair down,” He said sweetly, running his fingers through my tangled mane.

  “Down it is,” I said blushing and quickly zipped the bag. I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to untangle it the best I could before taking a brush to it.

  “Your toothbrush is in the bathroom,” He called as he walked back to the restroom.

  I needed to talk with Elijah and put my mind at ease but now was not the time. We were preparing for a war and the last thing he needed was to be preoccupied with me.

  ***

  I got ready in record time. We were less than an hour from Seven Valleys when my nerves began to take over. Grayson was part of Reid’s Sector. He was blood lusting for me and outside of killing him, we had no other ideas of how to make him stop. I bit my nails absentmindedly as I thought of what we were up against.

  “Stop,” Elijah growled, breaking me from thoughts. I glanced over at him confused, trying to figure out what I had done. “Your heart. It is beating out of control,” he explained and I realized in the glow of the streetlights it was becoming harder for him to resist. Getting my emotions under control on our way to fight a hoard of angry vampires was easier said than done. I bit my lip and tried to clear my mind, but my thoughts became more jumbled and worried.

  “Can I ask you something?” I turned my body to face him, wringing my hands together nervously. He glanced at me, raising an eyebrow. “Please don’t be mad, but well… when I was going through our bag, I had found a phone. It had lit up and I knew it wasn’t yours,” I rambled not sure what my question even was. I could see Elijah’s jaw clench and I swallowed hard, wishing I had kept my mouth shut.

  “What would you like to know?” he asked evenly. If he was angry with me, he was excellent at hiding it.

  “What is a porter?” I asked closing my eyes as if that would help soften the blow from whatever he was going to tell me if he were even going to tell me anything. He took a long deliberate breath and I knew he was frustrated because breathing was not a priority for vampires.

  “A porter is an attendant. Sort of like the guy at a hotel who carries your luggage for you or gets you things you need,” He explained vaguely. I was even more confused. My mind flashed to Elijah in a bellhop uniform.

  “But the message…” I said letting my voice trail off. Elijah nodded his head and knew he would have to explain further.

  “It’s a little different in the vampire world. Vampires don’t need someone to lug around their belongings. But occasionally they need someone found and brought to the Elders Council.” He opened his mouth to say more but decided to wait for my response before giving too much away.

  “You are an assassin?” I asked, my voice cracking and coming out more high pitched than I intended.

  “Not exactly. They usually want someone brought back intact to stand trial. But some occasions require… swift justice,” he clarified. My brain tried to process all of this information.

  “Olivie,” I said barely above a whisper, but Elijah had heard me clearly. “Why didn’t she send a porter? Why did she come for us herself?”

  Elijah did not answer and I knew this was something that he had not quite figured out himself… or something he didn’t want to share with me.

  I reached for the radio and cranked the volume as high as I could stand. If I Was Your Vampire blared through the speakers and had we not been in such a dangerous predicament, I would have laughed. Elijah’s expression softened and I could see him begin to relax, which made it easier for me to calm down.

  Time raced and before I knew it, we were rolling over one of the last hills into Seven Valleys. This was it.

  Elijah reached across me and for a moment, I was not sure what he was going to do. He clicked open the glove compartment and pulled out my brother’s gun. He held it out in front of me, waiting for me to take it. I hesitated but wrapped my fingers around the grip and examined it. Hot tears pricked the corners of my eyes. I had not had time to properly mourn the second passing of my brother and with all of the excitement, the emotions were becoming too much to contain. Elijah’s hand rested on my knee and he glanced at me. I knew he was comforting me and he did not need to say a word. I looked back down at the gun and slid it behind me into the back of my jeans so it was handy when I needed to kill someone.

  Chapter thirty-two

  Rest Haven

  Main Street was just beginning to come to life and people filled the streets, not caring about our hurry to wage war in their tiny town. Elijah clenched his jaw and cursed under his breath as the car crept forward at a snail’s pace. When we reached Green Valley Road, the congestion had dissipated and Elijah was free to drive at his usual high speed. We slowed to a crawl just before Reid’s farmhouse. Elijah clicked off the headlights and we drifted by, inspecting for signs of life… or death.

  One solitary light in the front of the house glowed as Elijah circled around, pulling the car off the side of the road about a block away. He nodded and I knew that it was now or never. We both got out of the car and I met Elijah at the trunk. He slid his keys in the lock and popped it open, revealing an arsenal of vampire-killing weapons, most of which I had never seen and would not even begin to know how to use. Rows upon rows of stakes lined the walls of the trunk. On top of those sat several flat open top creates. Each held a different type of weapon, one filled with crossbows, and another with handguns. The rest looked like movie props from horror flicks.

  “You ready for this?�
� he asked and I was not sure if I ever would be. I nodded and a quick smile spread across his face but faded leaving behind no visible emotions. He pulled out a wooden stake and inspected the tip. It seemed to meet his standards and he handed it to me. “Use the gun first. Hopefully, no one can get close enough that you will need the stake,” he explained and I continued to nod like a bobble head doll.

  He slid several weapons into the waist of his jeans and closed the lid. He placed his hand on the small of my back and his confidence flowed freely in the air, calming me. This was Elijah’s favorite pastime and I could tell he was damn good at it.

  We moved silently through the dark, circling the house and finding a door near the back that housed a furnace. Elijah tugged on the handle and it swung open. I held my breath.

  The room was silent as we stepped inside. I could not make out which part of the house we were in and the glow from a few rooms away did not light my path enough to make it out. I placed my hand on Elijah’s back and followed blindly through the maze of rooms. When we reached the entry to the lit room, I recognized it immediately. It was where I had come face to face with Reid, and discovered my brother was not exactly dead. Elijah turned and nodded quickly and I tucked my body in close to his and followed him around the corner. By now, someone should have known we were here, but nothing came for us. I was beginning to lose confidence in our ambush tactic. Elijah motioned for me to stay put as he snuck up the stairs to the second floor. I pressed my back against the wall, praying to a god I was certain didn’t exist.

  The sound of quick footsteps startled me and I struggled to see up the dark staircase. Elijah bounded toward me with his gun in hand.

  “I know where they are,” he said as he walked passed me. I followed behind quickly as we snaked our way back through the home and out the same way we had come in.