Rose Blood

by Jessica Miles

  Chapter 29

  It was 9 in the evening when Rose finally made her way back to Marcus’s place. She slipped in quietly and made her way to her room, hiding her phone under the bed. She got in the shower and cleaned the evening’s lovemaking evidence from herself thoroughly… she needed to tell Harry she wasn’t on the pill anymore, he needed to bring things in future. It had kinda slipped her mind. She put on her robe and came out of the bathroom to find Marcus standing in her open doorway.

  “Where have you been all this time Rose, Benet said you left here at 5?” His face was dark and angry as he walked up to her.

  “Just out… you said I could go out whenever I want, so I did”

  “Where and with whom?”

  “Walking around shopping with a friend I bumped into if you must know.”

  “What did you buy?”

  “I didn’t buy anything.”

  “That was a long time to shop for nothing”

  “We were talking mostly”

  “Exactly what did you and Harrison Taylor talk about for 4 whole hours Rose”

  “You followed me?”

  “No, but I’m real good at guessing.” Despite her attempts to wash him away she still reeked of him. He wished his senses weren’t quite so acute at times.

  “We talked about lots of things actually. One of the main subjects was your blocking of our phone calls, texts and emails, got anything to say about that Marcus?”

  “I can’t deny I did that. I didn’t want him coming between us.”

  “I’m sorry Marcus, Harry is already between us. I did try to tell you that. You can’t wipe out someone’s love with an exclusivity contract. He’ll wait for me, for a year if he has to.”

  “But Rose, you do feel something for me, don’t you?”

  “I do. I have very strong feelings for you. But I won’t ever feel the same way as I do about Harry. He is my soul mate. We are going to get married. He asked me today.”

  Marcus felt a despair like no other. This woman, his woman, had slipped from his grasp and didn’t want him. This was nothing to do with his vampirism, which had been his main concern, she just loved someone else. He couldn’t speak to her or even look at her any more. He turned and made his way upstairs to his room. His heart was so heavy with love for her. What could he do? Nothing… He couldn’t make her love him more than Harry, he knew that… He would have to let her go. But he would do it later, in his own way. He wanted her to remember him forever.

  Chapter 30

  Marcus took a long suck at her neck. Jemma was writhing in ecstasy beneath him… his supply women couldn’t get enough of it, of him… the bite and sucking often made them come without any other stimulation from him… Before she came into his life his feeding sessions excited and satisfied him. He usually enjoyed the taste and visual sensations provided by his gorgeous suppliers.

  He sucked the blood down quickly. It was tasteless.

  He wanted Rose’s blood and she didn’t want to give it. But he would take it, one last time at least.

  Chapter 31

  Rose didn’t see Marcus for another two days. She continued to work as normal and contacted Harry many times on her new secret phone. It was a love phone… full of ‘I love yous’ and ‘love you mores’… She used her other phone to call her parents, friends and brother. She hadn’t told them about her relocation, it was difficult to explain it without inviting unwelcome probing questions…

  On the evening of the second day Marcus appeared in the living room where she was sitting with a cup of coffee playing a game on her phone.

  “Rose… can I ask you something important?”

  “Sure, what is it?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about Harry before? Didn’t you see how I felt about you, I couldn’t have made it clearer?”

  “I had no idea it was going to go this far, moving me in here like this… I have known Harry for three years and we only just got together properly… it was in the air for a while though, before I met you. The only time I could have said anything about it to you was when you arrived to sign the contract and I had just been threatened by my boss not to rock the boat.”

  “But our first night out together, you should have said you had started seeing him… all that flirting and kissing in my bedroom, why did you do it…? It needn’t have happened. That’s when I fell for you and I tell you now Rose, it’s gone way beyond that since.”

  “Please don’t Marc… I know… You just do things to me…” she started to get upset over her dreadful part in it all

  “I do things to you? Why is that? If you love Harry so much you are marrying him, you can’t love me too, can you?”

  “Well if I’m honest about it, yes.”

  “Oh really… but you said he is your soul mate… you love only him surely…?”

  “He is my soul mate, but I don’t love only him. I do have strong feelings for you and I know exactly what they are…”

  “Does what I am have any bearing on your feelings… one way or the other?”

  “No, that is nothing to do with it. I accept that is what you are. My problem is that I love two people at the same time. I have to be honest and say I love Harry much more. But that doesn’t stop me from feeling a lot for you too… It’s going to be hard in here for the next few months for all of us, now that we all know the score, isn’t it?”

  “Hardest for me I feel Rose. You have a future with Harry. My plans for us have just disappeared into nothing…. I can’t keep you here… not now that I know all this. How can I? I’m not an evil monster…” He felt so angry with her for all this, for lying to him… leading him on all this time.

  “Marc please don’t…” she started to cry silently, tears were streaming down her face.

  “You can leave tomorrow, but tonight Rose you are all mine. Come here now and show me a little of that love you have for me…”

  As he held his arms out to her his heart was hardening fast. He felt deceived and used, it wasn’t something he experienced very often and he didn’t know quite how to handle it. All that time they had spent together, getting to know one another, it was all in vain, a sham. She had no intention of being with him and never had. A rage started to gather momentum within him. He could offer her untold riches and immortality but she didn’t want any of that.

  She moved into his arms in a mixture of love, relief and sadness. Her time with him was coming to an end. She was going to show him everything she felt for him tonight and much more.

  He led her into his room and his lust for her took over… they lay down together on his bed.

  “Marc… let me love you, I want to do everything for you, if this is our goodbye.”

  “I can’t promise I’ll be able to let you Rose, but you can try really hard if you like” That would be just perfect… just what he needed from her, she was playing right into his hands.

  “… and Marc, at the end, I’d like you to bite me again… one last time, okay?”

  “Try and stop me”

  Chapter 32

  Rose sat in the car as Jeff ran her home at 2pm. Her mind was consumed with Marcus. They had been together all night… making love over and over again… normal human style… He didn’t bite her until the early hours of the morning when they were too tired to do anything else … he had fallen asleep across her, his face still covered in her blood. When they woke this morning he’d kissed her some more and they’d carried on again until lunchtime when she finally forced herself out of his bed and his life.

  It would take her a long time to get truly over this, over her deep feelings for him, she thought. It was so incredibly sad her insides ached with it all. Their hottest vampire love scenes swamped her mind yet again… it was going to be hard to forget him… if she ever could.

  As the car approached her old home she felt strange, different somehow… out of step. Harry was arriving at 4pm and she wanted to make sure everything was tidy in there for him. Jeff took all her cases indoors and they sa
id a teary goodbye. She tidied up for some time and sat waiting for Harry. She waited and waited and waited… but he didn’t come.

  Chapter 33

  Harry came downstairs to the foyer at 3.30… he was a little late finishing up with all the extra work he now had. Tonight he would see her again. His heart was somersaulting with joy at the easy end to this. She had told Marcus all about them and he had let he go, just like that… He was quite amazed in fact. He would have thought Marcus would have tried harder to keep her. He was about to walk across the Plaza to the DLR when he was approached by a short and stocky tough looking guy.

  “Mr Taylor is it…? I’m Jeff Richards, Mr DeVere’s driver and assistant. He’s asked me to come and get yer from work … he needs to see yer urgent like and then I’ll run yer back to Rose after. It’s a surprise visit, so don’t let her know…”

  “I don’t know about this, Rose is expecting me. Let me call her first.” he got out his phone to call her but Jeff swiped it out of his hand. “What the fuck…?”

  “No calls lad… It’s a surprise, like I said… Now then… Mr DeVere is waiting. It won’t take long. Come with me and don’t even think about leaving, I’m an ex pro fighter and spend two hours a day in the gym… I wouldn’t recommend taking me on in any way mate.”

  Harrison allowed himself to be escorted to the car and driven to Kensington. It took quite a while in the heavy traffic and he started to fret about Rose waiting for him in her flat. He also started to fret rather more about Marcus DeVere… What did he have in mind… threats, mutilation, murder? The man had so much money he could arrange it and never be found out.

  They arrived at the gates and passed through and then through the doors beyond to the underground parking area. Jeff returned his phone whilst he escorted him up in the lift. Harry started to take the DeVere experience in. By the time he arrived in the living room where Marcus was waiting for him he was already fully absorbing and understanding the kind of lifestyle Rose had been living for the last week… and he was sure he hadn’t seen the half of it….

  “Ah Mr Taylor, there you are. Sorry about this, I don’t usually kidnap people from work, Jeff was quite upset he had to do this for me. So… let’s get to the reason for this meeting shall we. It appears we have a dilemma. We both have a very strong interest in the same woman”

  “I have far more than a strong interest, I have loved her for 3 years in fact…”

  “3 years, 3 weeks, no matter… the purpose of bringing you here today is to discuss, man to man, what to do about it. I have let her go home for now, until things are finally decided… I thought it best, only fair.”

  “There’s nothing to discuss. If she’s done with you, she’s marrying me. I tell you now NOTHING will keep us from seeing each other… whatever your exclusivity clause says…”

  “Harry… if I were to tell you that she loved me more that you and I can prove it, would that change things?”

  “I know Rose better than you. She doesn’t love you Marcus”

  “Well I have a little something that says otherwise, want to see it?”

  “Nothing will convince me otherwise, whatever it is”

  “I think you may be wrong this once, please indulge me”

  “Do your worst then”

  Marcus picked up his remote control and turned on his massive TV, turning up the volume. There in front of him in a black and white image were Rose and Marcus on a white bed… She was doing things he didn’t want to watch, but he did force himself for a few minutes… he felt sick inside seeing it but the worse part of all was hearing what she was saying. In between all the other very graphic sounds coming out of the TV she said she loved him… six times before he stopped counting and his brain started to shut down. That was all he could take…

  Rose out of control all over Marcus saying she loved him. This had destroyed him completely.

  “Turn the fucking thing off. I get it loud and clear.”

  Marcus pressed the remote button off.

  “So, what will you do Harry, run back to your loving little Rose? She’s waiting for you… probably getting quite worried by now…”

  “What I do when I leave here is none of your fucking business.” With that he turned and left. He wasn’t going home tonight or to Rose. He was going to drown his sorrows and forget about the world in the nearest hotel bar.

  Marcus watched him leave with a smile… he turned the TV back on and watched some more Rose… Seeing her felt like a knife in his heart. He was still watching it half an hour later when his phone rang.

  It was her.

  Chapter 34

  Rose was more than concerned. Her phone calls went unanswered and her texts too. She started to worry about him. Had he had an accident? She’d spoken to him at 1pm, just a few hours ago… what could be the problem otherwise?

  She finally gave in at 5pm and ordered a cab to run her to his flat. She arrived to find it unoccupied. She tried the door buzzer several times, to be absolutely sure before she left for her flat again. She arrived back home and sat on her bed thinking. She called Harry yet again, still no answer.

  The she called Marcus. A cold and chilling thought was forming in her mind.

  “What have you done to Harry…”

  “I haven’t done anything Rose, but I did pick him up from work to discuss some things.”

  “Discuss what things? What’s going on? I’m coming over…”

  “No need, we’re finished now. He’s up to speed”

  “What do you mean up to speed…?”

  “I thought he might like to know just how much you love me, to put it all in perspective for him, so I showed him a little of the first hour of what we did together last night, from my bedroom CCTV recordings… the parts where you told me you love me again and again… it was so touching Rose”

  “Oh no Marcus! What have you done …?” That part of last night had been really wild, even by her standards…. It was her star performance for him, her goodbye sex fest and just choc full of so many ‘I love yous’. This would kill Harry… She had never felt so sick in her life.

  “No Rose…. Just stop and think. What have you done?”

  He ended the call. That was his big goodbye. She’d never forget it.

  Chapter 35

  She sat in her flat heartbroken. She had lost him. Harry would never want her after that. She had acted like a woman possessed with Marcus. There was nothing she hadn’t done… and all on camera… her mind filled with shame and fury at Marcus. He had tricked her, he was no gentleman at all… he knew he’d lost her so he made sure she lost Harry as well. It was a vindictive truly evil thing to do, whether this had anything to do with his being a vampire, she didn’t know, but one thing was for sure, he couldn’t love her at all to behave this way. She couldn’t believe he had staged last night so coldly, filming it as he had.

  It had been so loving in her mind… she had loved him… he had loved her…

  But as her mind started churning things over and over… she was staring to see more than his betrayal – she was starting to see her own. She had never stopped to think about Marcus. He wasn’t the womaniser she had first thought he was, he was a deep and extremely private person. She had never thought about how much she meant to him or how hurt he would be. He had spent time getting to know her, he had tried to love her and she had shoved it back in his face with a double helping of Harry… she felt sick to her stomach with herself. She had betrayed them both, Marcus and Harry.

  She lay on her bed sobbing herself to sleep. Tomorrow she had to get up and go to work and face Harry. She would try and hold it together, if she could. It was hard enough walking into the office again anyway, continuing with her old life after so much had happened, but this was going to be hellfire and damnation on top.

  Chapter 36

  At 8am she took a deep breath and walked into her office. Harry was there, at his desk. He didn’t look up or say a word as she arrived at her desk. She took in his handsome profile
with a heart and gut wrenching feeling. She would never stop loving him. Never, ever, ever. She started to well up.

  “Ro, come in a moment please love….” Mike called to her from his room.

  She walked in and shut the door, she felt sure something very personal was going to go down yet again.

  “Look, I’m sorry this has all got so messy. It’s a real shame… I’ve given the DeVere account to the Corporate desk for now. He still wants us to manage it, we’re under contract for a year as you know. But some parts relating to you have been removed on the agreement of all parties involved… Ro, I do hope everything works out okay for you two.” He motioned towards Harry with his head…

  “No too late, that’s dead in the water Mike.” She was struggling with this nicer Mike Harding, waiting for something evil and nasty to emerge….

  “Well I’m sorry to hear that, maybe it’s for the best though. Working together and all that. It can make things difficult.”

  He really did look sorry… not that she cared whether he had a conscience or not. Her life was in ruins. Her reputation somewhat if not completely tarnished. She would hand in her notice and find another job. In fact she would write it out right now. It was too much to expect them to sit together out there like old work buddies.

  “Thanks Mike… I need to get on, do a few things, can you keep my accounts shared out till tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, that’s fine Ro, take all the time you need….”

  She left his office and sat down at her desk. Harry wasn’t there, probably at the coffee machine, she thought, or anywhere else he could avoid her in fact. She turned on her screens and accessed her emails for a last quick look through. She was professional to the end.

  She opened a word document and began to type out her resignation letter. Her eyes were blurring a little with the awful dreadful finality of it. She sat back to read it as Harry walked up behind her and placed a drink in front of her.