by Dawn Gray
My lips began to quiver and my chin began to shake as the emotions started to build up. "If I had stayed here, even if I had gotten in touch with Julian after we left, none of this would have happened. You could have stopped this, Quinn. Why didn't you say anything?" I asked him as the tears started pouring out and I could do nothing to stop the heartache in my chest. "My baby might die and all you had to do to prevent this was open your damn mouth."
I could see that he was getting upset as I paced around the room, with my hands on the sides of my head, covering my ears, going over all the small details and telling myself that if I had only done this or that, but I stopped and looked at Quinn. I wanted to say something as I stared into those dark eyes, something hurtful, something mean so that I wasn't the only one hurting. He stood up and walked over to me, without smiling, he put one hand on the back of my neck and one hand on my cheek.
I looked up at him, wanting to hate him, because there was no one else in the room to hate, but I couldn't. I couldn't hate Quinn like that. It wasn't his fault, he hadn't known better. He hadn't realized the immense importance of what he had overheard, and he didn't know just how much it would affect him in the future.
"I want to hate you right now," I told him with a muffled voice. "I want to scream and hit, and make the world feel the hate that I feel now, but I don't hate you. I can't hate you, and I want too."
"You have the right," he said looking down at me. I shook my head and held his hands where they were. "I wouldn't blame you for hating me. If I were you, I'd hate me too." I reached up and touched his face with my fingers and he closed his eyes and seemed to lean into the feeling. "Oh please, Ash. I'm so sorry."
I inhaled deeply, feeling my lungs quiver at the sudden rush of air. Then, in a faint almost nonexistent whisper, I told him how I felt.
"I love you, Quinn." He opened his eyes and looked at me, then leaned down slowly, stopping just before he reached my lips to look into my eyes, and then kissed me warmly.
His lips pressed harder and his kiss became quite passionate, then the feeling started to grow inside both of us. He backed away, not from my lips, but from my body, creating a space to tone it down but I pulled him closer. It became overwhelming and he looked at me as his lips broke away from mine.
"I don't think I could handle much more of that," he sighed against my lips, unsuccessfully trying to fight it.
"How much stronger would it be, skin to skin?" I asked him, as his resistance slowly failed and his lips began to tickle mine. He backed away for a second and we looked each other in the eyes, then he kissed me with such force and want that I almost lost my balance and grabbed onto his shirt for support.
I sat back on the bed, dressed in a light white gown that he had gotten for me from my room. He had returned with it, and then promised that he wouldn't be gone long, in between kisses that never seemed to end. While he was gone, I stretched out on his large bed and relaxed, loving the feel of the silky blankets on my bare skin. They were cold to the touch but soothing to my body, which had become increasingly hotter since Quinn had started touching me.
12
I reached up behind me, and tucked my hands in between the mattresses, then stretched out my legs straight so that my body was in perfect alignment. I closed my eyes and smiled to myself as I relaxed in the quietness of Quinn's room.
I thought that I had started to dose, when I felt warm lips around my ankles. I opened my eyes and looked down at Quinn, who was looking up at me with his dark eyes. I noticed then that he wasn't wearing a shirt. I smiled at him, and then closed my eyes as he moved slowly up my legs, starting on the outside, and finishing with the inside of my upper thighs. He stopped and looked at my face, which I knew had become flush with color, and then I opened my eyes to look at him again. I watched, with me locked in his gaze, as he lowered his body down between my legs and moved my gown up just above my hips. His mouth made circles around all of the sensitive parts of my lower body, and then he moved closer, with each circle.
He kissed the sides of my neck several times before he made his way to my mouth. Our lips locked and our bodies entangled with one another. I pressed my hands against his strong back, trying to bring him in closer, as he tangled his fingers in through my hair. He kissed my lips, and then seemed to suck on the bottom one before he let me go and propped himself above me.
"You're very beautiful," he said softly to me and kissed my forehead. "I want you so badly, but the feeling is already almost too strong. What is it, how do we control it?"
"We give into it," I whispered to him and ran my hands over his chest. He looked me deep in the eyes as he slipped in, and he leaned down and kissed me passionately.
"I can stop if you think that this is too much for you to handle," he spoke gently.
"No, I think I can handle it. It's you that I'm worried about." I smiled.
"You think you've got me?" He asked as he began to start a rhythm with our bodies.
"Oh, I know I do," I replied and closed my eyes as the feelings grew. He was right, I wasn't sure if I could handle it but, as the night went on, I suspected he was having a hard time handling it himself.
His little moans and gasps as he continued seemed to bring on the feelings more, knowing that I was pleasing him just as much as he was me. My body began to shutter as it began to climax and he smiled at me as I grasped his shoulders and dug in with my nails, trying to hold out as long as I could. My body began to shake, and my grip tightened to the point where he had to pry my hands away from his skin and hold them.
"Let it go," he said softly, in between his own little noises. I let go, all right. My body shook and the pleasure building up almost made me pass out when I did give into it. My quiet moans became screams of ecstasy, which brought Quinn to his own climax. The two of us collapsed in each other’s arms as the orgasms slowed and our bodies shut down for the moment.
Quinn held me tightly as he laid his head down on my chest. We both lay there, neither speaking, as Quinn closed his eyes. His breathing slowed down, I knew that he was relaxing, almost falling asleep. I couldn't move, for his body pressed down on mine, and I closed my eyes and began to fall into a deep sleep.
When I opened my eyes, at whatever time it might have been, Quinn was standing in the doorway, sipping on something in a glass, just watching as I lay there in my nakedness. I stretched out then turned over on my stomach and lay with my head at the other end of the bed.
"This is a side I haven't seen of you yet." He smiled at me. I looked at him, with his cotton, baggy pants, black of course.
"I guess you're seeing a lot of sides of me that you never saw before." I smiled back at him.
"And tasted," he replied and licked his lips. His smile faded and he walked over and sat on the bed next to me. "I was thinking about something, after we were done of course, and what if doing this hurts you?"
"I don't feel anything right now, but happy," I replied to him and took his hand. "Quinn, if anything was going to hurt me, don't you think it would have been the blood that we exchanged in the water the other day?" I asked him. He nodded then put the cup down on the floor. He moved my hair way from my neck as I put my head down on my crossed arms and closed my eyes. He began to kiss me all over again, but this time up and down my spine, over my buttocks and down my legs until he came back up, just like before, naked. He pressed his weight down on my body again, his stomach to my back.
He kissed my earlobe and then my neck and stopped just at my vein.
Can I taste you? He asked me quietly with his mind. I nodded and reached back with one hand to touch his leg. I could feel his teeth as they broke through my skin, but I could feel his mind with mine. It was quite erotic to have him this way and with each beat of my heart, the feel of my blood rushing into his mouth became overwhelming, and it didn't take me very long to start to shudder again. My moans became so loud that he put his finger next to my mouth almost as if to quiet me, which I bit down on, noting that he didn't seem to mind this pain.
Suddenly, he broke from my neck, let my waist go and I dropped to the bed, with his weight on me. With his breathing still heavy in my ear, he spoke softly to me. "You may just be the death of me, little girl."
"Why? Because you haven't had this much fun before and your heart might stop?" I teased him. He turned me over, quite forcefully, and towered over me on his hands and knees. "Okay, we're both naked and you think that you're scaring me?"
"It's not intended to scare you," he said coming closer to my face. "It's just meant to excite you."
"Don't you think that we've had enough excitement for at least an hour?" I asked him, pleading with him to take a break.
"Are you all right?" He asked me with concern.
"I'm a little sore," I told him softly. He sat up and looked at me.
"From me?" He questioned.
"No, not you directly. I just haven't had an experience like that in quite a long time," I said and sat up. He slipped my nightgown over my head. I pulled it on the rest of the way then pulled my knees to my chest. My eyes began to water, as I thought about the overpowering feelings in my heart and I put my hand up to my face.
"Ash?" He whispered. I looked at him and touched his cheek.
"I'm all right," I said softly, and then kissed him gently. "Please believe me. I'm okay."
"If you're okay, why are you crying?" Quinn asked; the worry in his voice was quite apparent. I smiled at him and shrugged.
"Would you believe that I've never had an experience like that before?" I told him. He looked at me oddly. "I've never felt quite that way before. Sex before seemed to have such a purpose, like we didn't choose to do it, we had to do it."
"Do you think it was because of the fact about the baby?" Quinn questioned. I shrugged again, then got up on my knees and sat across his lap facing him. He put his hands on my hips, under my gown and closed his eyes as I touched his cheeks.
"It doesn't matter anymore why and ...and how things happened the way they did before," I whispered to him. "What matters now is: you, me, and Jack. I don't want to think of the last eight years as being something that was set up that I was forced to do. I want to think of it as a memory, where the greatest thing I got out of it was Jack, and of course, Lauren. I want to think of now as when I got you and the others back.
"I love you all, very much. You're my family, you always have been." I smiled at him, knowing that a comment was brewing in his brain.
"I don't know a single family member that you would let lick you like that. I really don't think you do that with family members." He laughed. I used all of my force to push him back on the bed so that I sat on his lap.
"Now, you're going to do what I want to do." I smiled at him, then leaned down and kissed his throat. He turned his head to the side, giving me better access to his neck. Gently, I bit into him and his body stiffened, in some parts more than others did, and he held me close as he began to moan and sigh out load again. Never had I met a man who was so verbal. Suddenly, his fingers tangled in my hair and he pulled me away and held my face in his hands. "What, Quinn? What is it?"
His lips moved as if he was trying to form words, but he couldn't find them. I slid off from him, and watched as he got up and got dressed rather quickly. I followed him, getting dressed myself, but as I followed him down the hall, I realized that we were going to the entrance that came out by the beach.
The smell was evident even before he swung open that heavy door. Something was burning. We both stepped up dunes and looked at the house as it was engulfed in flames. I looked in shock as Quinn put his hands to the side of his head.
"NO!” He yelled and started to walk towards the house. I realized then what had him so frightened. The three vampires that had been in the house when we had disappeared into the tunnels, their presence, their connection with us, was gone. They were nowhere to be found by either of us. I grabbed Quinn's arm as he began to walk towards the house and I stopped him. He looked at me, his eyes blood red and he snarled. "Let me go!" He demanded. I held him tightly, without budging. "MY brother is in that building."
"No Quinn, they're not, he's not," I told him, trying to calm him down. "Can't you feel it; they're not in the building." Then I stopped and rephrased that response. "No, they're not on the property."
Quinn and I stood on the grass and watched as the house went up in bright red flames. There were no mortals or immortals in that building. There were no minds screaming out for help, no heartbeats to be heard, and no sign of anyone at all. Quinn collapsed to the ground and I held him as I would anyone, tightly, as he cried for his brother. For any kind of sign, but none came and so the two of us sat there until morning, watching the firefighters do their best to save some of it.
Near sunrise, I helped Quinn back in to the darkness of the tunnels, back to his room, and watched him lay down on the bed. His eyes were closed but I could see the hurt on his face.
Julian, where are you? I asked with my mind, then looked at his younger brother once more before I left the room and pulled the curtain across.
As I rested on the couch, I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on feeling anyone's presence; I couldn't feel anything. This made my heart break, but I couldn't give up hope.
I sat up on the couch and walked over to Quinn's room. He was laying there staring at the ceiling. He turned and looked at me and smiled.
"So," I said and crossed my arms. "Do you want to go up and look for clues?"
"Very much," he said and the two of us left the room. "If I find out that David had anything to do with this, I'll kill him."
We walked hand in hand through the still dripping, charred remains of the once beautiful three-story house. Quinn stopped in the sitting room and stood there looking out the empty frame of the large window that use to be there. I walked on and made my way to the second floor, the stairway was still sturdy enough to hold my weight.
I walked to the side where my room had once been, just below Julian's third floor hideaway, but now my room was open to the sky and I could see the clouds passing by. I looked down around the floor and noticed something under the ashes. I was bending down to pick it up when I heard Quinn step closer.
"What is it?" He asked.
I picked up the small piece of wood and brushed it off. It was Julian's image and the way the face looked, I knew where I had seen it before.
"It was a picture you're brother had painted, on the underside of his canopy." I smiled and looked up at Quinn. "It was just something that he had painted to make himself feel manly."
"And, that was?" Quinn questioned. I looked up at him.
"It was him with a bunch of women at his feet."
"Typical Julian." He smiled. I closed my eyes as I held the painting in my hand. I thought back to before I left, after I had told Julian that I was leaving. He pulled me into a tunnel and brought me out to the island.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" He had asked me as we stood at the edge of the water.
"Sure, if I knew where I was," I had replied. He had walked me up to the top of the hill, and I saw that the house had looked much like a matchbox car. My only expression: "Wow."
"Yeah, I know," he said and smiled at me with pride. "No one else knows about this place."
I opened my eyes and looked up at Quinn and then stood and took his hand. "Where are we going?"
"I think I know where they are," I told him and we walked back down to the first floor. I started to take him down into the tunnels, but he stopped me and I looked at him. "Look, Quinn. I have a good feeling about this."
"I trust you," he said and kissed me gently.
We walked on and just as we got to the end of the long tunnel, I grabbed the heavy door to my left and started to pull. My hand slipped off and the handle sliced my skin, the blood started to bubble as soon as I looked at it. I looked at Quinn then back at the bright red liquid that covered my hand and arm. Quinn grabbed the door and pulled it opened. He stepped out into the sun then turned and looked at me.
His face w
as lit up and he smiled. "I can feel them."
I pushed the door opened in front of me and looked into the cabin. Michael stood in the corner looking out the window and Lauren was asleep in the floor beside the fireplace. As we walked in, Michael looked over and his face seemed full of shock. He walked over quickly and hugged me quite tightly. He kissed my check and then pushed me away so that he could look at the two of us.
"You're alive," he said softly. I nodded and looked at Lauren, then at Quinn. "She's fine, just exhausted.”
"Where's my brother?" Quinn asked quickly. Michael looked at him, then at the curtain that hid the twin-sized bed that had been over by a large window the last time I had been there. Quinn walked over quickly and pulled back the curtain.
I watched his face, as it seemed to turn green, then he looked at me and shook his head. He looked over at Michael and let the curtain drop.
"What happened to him?" Quinn questioned. I let go of Michael and walked over to the curtain. Quinn grabbed my arm and I looked up at him. Why would he try to stop me? I snatched it away and moved the curtain. "Ash, please."
I looked at Julian as he lay there on the mattress, his clothes off and his face bandaged. I knelt down beside his face and picked up some of the wrap to see underneath it. His skin had blackened, and his skin smelled of burnt flesh. I looked back at Michael also and sighed.
"After we had gotten everyone out, or after we thought we did, Julian felt that there was someone still in there. It was Dedra, the maid that you had almost attacked. She was on the second floor, tucked in a bathroom. Julian went in and got her out safely, but something happened and he walked out of there on fire," Michael said and sighed. "He saved her life."
"What about his life?" Quinn asked. Michael sighed and looked down at me as I took Julian's hand. I knew, and so did Quinn, that Michael didn't want to discuss anything in front of me. I watched them leave, and I turned back to Julian.