by Tara Brown
Finally he spoke, “My dad is immortal too, when I was young he did something horrible. He raped and murdered a woman. I found him drunk with a woman dead beside him. I cleaned up the mess for him and hid the body. I thought it wasn’t his fault, I thought he had been so drunk it must have been an accident.”
A small tear left his eye making its slow trek across his face, “Many times that year people came looking for the woman, she was the medicine mans daughter. He was devastated that she had run away like that, they had apparently fought over whom she would marry. He used his magic eventually to try to find her. I don’t know exactly how it works but it somehow told him what had really happened. He showed up at my house when I was twelve, he was angry. He cursed my dad in hopes my dad would murder our entire family. He cursed me with a type of immortality that I would forever feel responsible for my dads actions.” His voice wavered slightly but he cleared his throat.
“He cursed me so that I would be forced to clean up after my dad every time. I would be forced to help the victims left behind and from their suffering I would get my sustenance. I would heal them over time from the shadows. I have not seen my dad for over six hundred years.” He stopped speaking as if unable but I knew that was it. He was done even though an incomplete feeling hung in the air between us.
I allowed the knowledge to fill my brain and the feeling of heartbreak and anger to overwhelm me.
“Your dad murdered my mom.” It was a statement.
He nodded, “I am so sorry Aimee.”
“You came here to clean up the mess.” Again a statement.
He nodded remorsefully.
“What went wrong, how did we end up here?”
He smiled softly, “You. I fell for you the moment I saw you. I spent too much time with you, I loved you. I couldn’t focus on what I was doing. You sat on the side of the road telling me everything, you were so perfect. You missed your mom the way I missed my wi… well my family. You were right this is all my fault.”
I flinched wondering if he was going to say wife. I wanted to comfort him but I was not completely finished with the emotions I had brewing inside of me. I wanted answers more than anything at that moment though, “What does it mean now that your curse is gone?”
He grimaced, “My dad’s victims will suffer incredibly, no one will help them.” He looked sickened by it all, “I wont ever feel joy or peace again. I am now just a lost soul. I will forever be stuck in the in between.”
“You still have all of your abilities?”
He nodded looking at me incredulously.
I knew he was wondering how I was being so technical in it all but I had shut off my emotions for a moment to process what was going on. I was unable to feel sorry for him while I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself.
“Do you feel nothing being here with me now?”
He smiled looking at me through his eyelashes making my nerves quiver and my breath suck in, “You seem to be the exception to the rule.”
He leaned in to kiss me, which I wanted but I shook my head, “Your dad raped and killed my mom. I can’t do this right now. I need some more answers from you.”
He looked dejectedly at me, “Aimee I couldn’t tell you the truth you understand what I’m saying don’t you?”
I shook my head; “If you had been honest with me from the start when you realized I could see you none of this would have happened.”
He nodded, “I know but I fell in love Aimee, I wont bother you ever again.” He leaned in and kissed me and like a puff of smoke was gone.
I didn’t know what to do, I hadn’t wanted him to go, had I?
I didn’t want to be alone again. I pulled my legs up and waited to die. I hadn’t eaten, I hadn’t drank, I knew at some point I would die and it would end.
I was sad about my mom but I knew he must be hurting more than me.
His own dad killed the mom of the woman he loved, was I woman yet?
I shrugged assuming if you had to ask you were still a girl.
I curled into a ball and fell asleep again until I heard the bushes rustle behind me waking me up. I wondered if it was his dad coming for his turn with me.
“I am so sorry Aimee.”
Aleks sat beside me pulling me into him. He slipped his huge black fleece off and pulled it over my head. I didn’t realize I was so cold until the warmth from his jacket seeped into my skin.
I shivered closing my eyes. I had gotten to the place of insanity. I wasn’t certain any of it was real anymore. I was thinking either side effect of drug or I was dead or it was the long assumed brain tumor.
“Where are we going to go?” I asked knowing that I couldn’t go back to my place and I couldn’t stay one more day at the beach without murdering an entire village out of boredom.
He frowned, “You can’t go anywhere until you change.”
I laughed bitterly, “I’m not changing Aleks, it isn’t happening. I’m still me just a bit different. I’m the same as I was when I was at Blake’s a week ago. Too bad Blake’s didn’t really work out, I could use a shower.”
He nodded laughing, “Your body had to be healed by Dorian’s blood before it can start to transform. You were on your deathbed Dorian saved you as much as that disgusts me. Now that you’re all healed up inside the change should start to take place.”
I frowned at him, “Why do you hate him, beyond the obvious winning personality traits I experienced?”
He shook his head, “I just don’t like demons Aimee, pretty sure that sums that up. Anyway I want to get you somewhere warm for the night.”
I smirked at him, “Okay. I smell.”
He laughed, it was still weak but he seemed to be a little perkier.
I was pretty sure I was thinking of the same thing as he was, hotel room.
Thinking about what had happened the other day with Shane I changed my mind, “Uhh actually we should probably stay out here. We can make a fire again.”
Aleks looked at me doubtfully, “What’s wrong?”
I bit my lower lip and sighed feeling ashamed of myself, “I saw Shane the other day. He came here and was so angry with me. Blake had told him everything that’s happened so far.”
“Blake knows everything, everything including me?” He didn’t sound impressed.
I knew my eyes answered for me as disappointment filled his face. He raised his eyebrows at me, “Aimee I told you these things in confidence.”
I shook my head, “Aleks you kept leaving me and I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I just needed someone on my team.”
He gripped my shoulders harshly, “I am always on your team, I just know what kind of danger I bring with me everywhere I go.”
I looked into his intensely blue eyes and nodded.
“Shane was very angry about what happened between us. He was cruel and I deserved every second of it. I dated you both at the same time. I’m disgusting.”
Aleks chewed the side of his lower lip, “You shouldn’t really be around him anyway. Firstly I don’t like it and secondly you could hurt him.”
All I heard was him, I could hurt him.
I frowned, “I can’t hurt you?”
He laughed, “No. I am doomed to walk the earth alone, nothing can hurt me. Do you honestly think I’ve never attempted dying?”
I hadn’t ever thought about it, I assumed he enjoyed his life of eternity doing whatever he wanted and exploring.
Aleks looked at me and rolled his eyes, “It’s not like in the movies Aimee, I don’t have a mansion somewhere with all kinds of international money and friends in all the right places. I am alone almost all of the time except for the odd demon or other mythical being. Anyway did you hurt Shane?”
I nodded flinching at the disappointment in his eyes, “It was an accident, I grabbed him to try to make him listen and my hands pulled from him like they were sucking on him. I looked at him and he was still, like a zombie and I was filling up with ecstasy. I let go and he left. He seemed dizzy and weird
afterward.”
He smirked at me, “You're got lucky, your abilities haven’t set in yet. Until you learn to control that you might want to refrain from touching anyone.”
He looked at me through his lashes, “Except me of course.”
I smiled at him knowing I probably wouldn't be able to touch him, not while Shane was alive. That gave us any where from sixty to eighty years to work out what we were to each other. It made me smile disgustedly.
We walked back up the beach to where I had built my fire initially and I watched as he made the new fire. He was much faster at it than I was and within a very short amount of time we were sitting by a very warm fire. I felt the damp and the cold but I didn’t hurt or ache the way I would have before kissing Dorian.
I needed to see my dad before Blake decided to continue his witch hunt and tell my sister. I needed to see my sister too. I didn’t want Blake filling their heads with all sorts of truth without me explaining. I hadn’t chosen this path because I had some death wish. I looked at Aleks and recalled how it had only been a few weeks since I was ready to die to be with him.
Now if I could have my way I would end everything between us just to have all of them back again. The fact I wasn’t graduating was bothering me beyond belief. I knew I could get my Dogwood Diploma instantly just with a few phone calls, all of my finals had been in January and really the last classes were labs and advanced placements that meant I could do them all over again in university. They would have counted for credits if I’d finished them.
I missed my guild on World Of Warcraft and I missed just chilling eating a bowl of cereal with my dad watching the discovery channel. From the inside and safety of my home I had wished for excitement and adventure before my mom had died. There I sat on a real life adventure and instead of having fun I was very ready to turn in my hiking boots for flip-flops and boredom. I wanted regular, I wanted Giselle’s million text messages about hot doctors and where she was ever going to get a tattoo nice enough to hide her scars but that she would want to still have when she was old, like thirty-five and shit. I couldn’t make myself get past the fact my happiness had been the price of Aleks. I knew it wasn’t all his fault but I still saw him as the catalyst that had brought me to that moment.
“You’re not in love with me Aimee are you?” He asked looking me in the eye, almost demanding an answer.
I was amazed at how easily he had read my face forgetting that he had spent months memorizing everything I did. I shook my head, “I don’t know. I don’t know anything any more.”
He nodded standing up and walking to where I sat. He did look sexy in the firelight, I had to give him that.
He stood in front of me, “I will wait as long as you need to figure things out. I’ve waited over six hundred years for you. Everyday I died being forced to live without love. You’ve taught me to love again and given me a renewed sense of hope.” In the darkness his blue eyes stood out even more, like they sparkled. He knelt in front of me in the sand to be face to face with me. He brushed my hair from my face on either side, his warm hands sending chills up my spine. I watched his eyes for a moment until suddenly they burned with a hatred frightening me. His face twitched as he spoke to the side of my head, “What are you doing here?”
I realized he was speaking behind my head. I was off my driftwood being pulled roughly to the far side of the fire and placed behind him before I could register what was going on.
“Son, I just wanted to see you. I’ve missed you all these years.” I looked through the rigid arms holding me in place to see a naked man. He was in his forties if I had to guess. He was very large as Aleks was, he looked like Aleks. His eyes were the same white blue. I knew him instantly.
“You’ve missed me by running from me every time. I have spent six centuries cleaning up your messes.” Aleks’s voice was a deep growl. I had no actual idea of what he was capable of until that moment. He had always seemed like a friendly gentle giant with me but this was not the same man. At that moment he scared me even though he was protecting me.
The naked man stood proud of his physique, I managed to avoid letting my eyes fall below his face but it was a struggle.
He held his arms out as if in peace, “Son I just thought that maybe you would want to bury the hatchet, besides I haven’t met your young lady yet. You’re being rude Aleksander.”
His dad maintained most of the Norwegian accent, more than likely because he spent most of his time alone.
I felt Aleks’s grip tighten on me, his muscles were flexed in his back and arms. “She is none of your concern dad. This is between you and I.” His dad looked as if he were starting to get upset as his body shook in a way I’d only ever seen in a person having a seizure but his eyes were fixed on me and he licked his lips. His stare was beyond menacing. Instantly we were moving. I closed my eyes but we stopped as suddenly as we had started, I was standing outside Shane’s house. Aleks faced me looking down at me, “I need to do this Aimee, I’m so sorry but I’ve waited for over six hundred years to be able to stop him.”
I nodded, “Kill him for me too.”
He bent and pressed his lips to mine firmly. There was no messing around with flirty kissing, just a solid kiss and then the warm air filled space around me. He was gone and I was alone again. I turned to look at Shane’s huge house and knew I wasn’t welcome there. I wanted to go home but I was terrified Blake had been to my dad already. My poor dad, I wished I had just been honest with him from the beginning. I walked around the side of Shane’s house and sat on the deck. His windows were closed and he was inside watching TV. I could hear the TV just faintly from the kitchen window that was wide open. I imagined I was in there watching it with him, snuggled into him and warm.
Instead I sat on the hard deck and waited for Aleks to come back, which was unlikely, as I knew his dad would either kill him or run away. I was completely alone again but this time something was different, my skin had started to burn and my vision had started to blur. I hugged myself tightly as the stomach ach started again but this time it was intense. I moaned, I couldn’t help myself. I got up for fear Shane would hear me and started to walk toward the stalker woods. My legs crumpled along the way taking me down on the grass. I heard a scream and should have been scared but I hurt too much to worry about that girl. I crawled along the grass feeling the sweat poor off of me. I heard the scream again it was starting to annoy me that the girl wouldn’t shut up.
“Aimee, Aimee is that you? Aimee oh my god.” I heard Shane’s voice in the background but I tried to crawl away from him, I needed to keep him safe. I felt the black coming to take me, Shane’s worried face and mouth moving was the last thing I saw. I couldn’t hear anything over the girl screaming.
Chapter Sixteen - WHEN IS ANYTHING EVER ENOUGH
I heard noises, it sounded like someone talking, there were a few of them, a guy and a girl. I didn’t know where I was but I was worried Shane was with me. I was so worried I would hurt him. My body felt as if someone had taken a tiny blade and cut every inch of my body and then dripped orange juice on it. I stung on the bottoms of my feet even. I figured the towns’ folks had heard I was a monster and had come with pitchforks to claim me at Shane’s house. I could hear them arguing but I didn’t know what they were saying. I tried to ignore the immense amounts of pain my brain was coping with and turned off my emotional body. I listened, as my sister, Blake, Shane and someone I didn’t know argued. It was a woman’s voice, I assumed it was Shane’s mom or Blake’s.
“She’s changing, just like she said she would.” Shane’s voice sounded like it was defending me.
“No she’s sick we need to get her to a mental institute, the drugs have done something very bad to her, I think she has drug induced schizophrenia.” Blake spoke so cold still. I couldn’t believe he hated me that much to want to commit me.
I heard a growl almost, “Blake you try to take her.” Shane was defending me, bliss and guilt rotated inside of me, taking turns on what I was fe
eling.
“Boys, seriously. I think we need to think about the fact it’s Aimee, boring lame Aimee. She would never do this on purpose. She hates life, exciting things and would never worry my dad like this. This is not the norm for her, she is sick. She needs a hospital, not the nutter one either Blake, I cant believe you said that.” My sister tried to help, I tried not to be offended.
“Shane I think Alise is right, she needs a doctor. She seems very sick.” The mystery woman spoke softly trying to reason.
“No she stays here. If we take her to a hospital they’re going to think its what he thinks it is. There is no way I’m doing that to her.” Shane was defiant.
“She didn’t choose you man. Your defending some other dudes girl.” Blake’s words cut like a knife.
“I chose her Blake.” Shane’s words cut deeper. I wanted to scream I was so frustrated. “You’re her best friend, you should have too. I want you two the fuck out of my house.” Shane’s voice wasn’t in a negotiating tone.