“Just because I’m sick day in day out doesn’t make me a weakling, neither does the fact that I’m a woman.” She was gentler than she meant to be.
“Correction, girl, and no, it’s not that. You should be in pain.” He ran his fingers through his hair, releasing more strands of hair and making them fall across his forehead.
“What?” She ignored the girl statement and focused on his confused rambling.
“When I tried to get out of your hold, you shouldn’t have been able to hold me down, and your legs…” He was looking even more confused, then he smiled, raking his hand through his hair again. “I guess I’m more tired than I thought.”
“Didn’t you sleep last night?” The question sounded ridiculous, of course he didn’t sleep. I kept him up with my screaming. She felt guilty.
“Hey, I like watching you sleep, it sooths me.&r
She pulled away and sat upright, still between his legs. “Why stir me up if you’re going to shut me down!” She didn’t hide her impatience. This game was getting frustrating. He sat upright, keeping her where she was. “Because the next time I make love to you, it will be special, magical, binding.” She pulled the neckline of his shirt and looked down in it, at his bare chest, and then she pulled hers and did the same. He pulled her hand and held it against his chest. She lifted her head up fast as the shirt snapped back into place. “What are you doing?” His brow was raised and his lips were curved down. “I was just checking between the two of us, who is the woman in this relationship, and after the survey, I can confidently conclude that I am.” He laughed, and lay back, pulling her down with him. She smiled, seeing him happy made her heart skip. Then her smile faded, she pulled herself up when she remembered what he said.
The finals were finally over. They weren’t that bad but she wished she had more time to prepare, and then maybe she would have done better on them. She was sure she’d done well in history because Ash turned out to be a better teacher than Mr. Scott. Ash kept telling her not to fret, that he was sure she’d done well. Easy for him to say, he wasn’t in the hot room, but she never contradicted him.His moods seemed to be connected to hers, whenever she was sad or worried or depressed, he made it his job to cheer her up and if she were still in that rotten mood, he would get depressed too. She found it silly, but at the same time, it showed her how much he loved her. So she made it a point to try and stay positive and happy when she was around him.Ann and Maria were moving back into the apartment now that exams were over and so were Lee’s nightmares. She was happy to have her sisters back, but she knew she would miss the alone mome
“Do you think it was the bite?” Billy was pacing in the living room, agitated confused and scared.They had waited for the girls to leave before they talked about Lee and how she was able to hear their telepathic conversation. Ash had put up a fight, trying to prevent Lee from leaving the apartment. He tried to forbid her but it had only made her even more adamant to go. After thirty minutes of arguing he gave up. He called Dave the second the door closed behind them, and asked him to keep an eye on them. He felt at ease knowing that someone was watching her, but he was troubled by Lee’s ability to read their thoughts.“No, it couldn’t be I didn’t bite her that hard.” Ash was at the edge of the couch, cradling his head in his hands.“You bit her hard enough to leave a scar!” Billy yelled panicked.Ash’s head shot up. “How do you know that?” His voice was urgent.“Ann told
It was a happy picture, with her seated on her father’s lap and Alice in her mother’s arms with her little fingers in her mouth. Jayson was standing behind her mother and father with his huge dorky smile on. She’d missed that smile.The first day she spoke after her family got killed was the day she saw their picture in the newspaper. Her social worker had to file a motion with the court, declaring that she hadn’t died in the fire. It was a long process but she was finally legally alive. She was glad that the newspapers hadn’t found out that she was still alive, she didn’t want the attention and maybe not physically, but a part of her had died with her family that day.She looked up. Ash was standing at the door, his face distressed. She stood up and walked to him. She took his hand in hers and walked back to the living room. Without a word, she handed Ann the clipping then led Ash back to the couch. He sat down before she climbed back onto his lap, burying her head in his chest. He h
“Merilee.” He had a wide grin on his face, his voice sounded relieved, like he had finally found what he was looking for. She stayed quiet and just stared at him, half expecting he would disappear, or she would wake up from a cruel dream.Ash tried to turn her whole body around to face her father, but she wouldn’t dislodge. He kissed her head, pushing it slightly; he did this till he reached her ear. He kissed it then whispered in her ear with his silky soft voice, “Mi amor, he’s real. You are not imaging him, neither are you dreaming.” He tugged at her hand at the front of his shirt. “Touch him, and feel that he is real.”She didn’t do anything, she just stared at him, and then he did something with his face. She recognized it immediately! It was his impatient face. He always did that when he was trying to be patient with one of them, except for one person.“You never dared to do that with Mom
“Don’t worry, I know them all.” He sounded so casual.“Oh, you had time to talk to them when you came?”“No, not really.” There was a shadow across his face, his eyes shifted and looked behind her. She turn around, he was staring at Ash.“Dad, what’s going on?” She could see the silent conversation they were having, the trepidation in their faces was so evident it couldn’t have been clearer if the word were stamped on their foreheads.Ash stood up and moved toward them slowly, dragging out the seconds he had left to reach her. He sat on the table facing her. He took her hands in his and buried his face in them, her palms felt wet, was he crying? She’d seen him sad, angry and in agony, but this was very new to her. He kissed the inside of her palms and whispered in them. The words sounded like ‘forgive me’, but she couldn’t be sure. He was scaring her.She plac
“What?” she whispered at him, the images still swimming in her head.He raised his hands and cupped her face, rubbing her cheeks with his thumbs. “Lee, are you okay?” His voice was soft, shaky but level.“It was so real. Like a movie, but, my family…” She stopped, she thought about what she was saying, and she couldn’t seriously be considering it.“I’m so sorry.” Ash sounded miserable, what was he talking about? Someone touched her shoulder, and then turned her around. She starred at her father, his face looked pained.“Honey, it was real. That’s how our family was murdered.” The last word came out like a pained whisper. All the images came flying back into her mind, hitting her with the reality that it had happened. She gasped then pulled away, walking backward as far as she could from the two.“No, it can’t be. It’s my mind; it’s playing t
Joe and Billy moved fast behind her. Ash took slow steps toward her, his arms wide, and his hands up.“Come near me and you’ll regret it!” she hissed the words at Ash with such venom it stopped him dead in his tracks.“Lee, you need to calm down,” he said it slow as if he were talking to an infant.“You knew about me, my dad, my family and you kept it from me! You know exactly how much pain it caused me.” She turned to him, she forgot she loved him, she forgot the fear of losing him, and all she wanted was to attack him, rip his heart out and shred it just like they’d done to hers.“It wasn’t the right time—” he managed to get out before she cut him off.“Give me that bullshit about the right time again and I swear…” She felt a rumble deep inside her.Ash inched closer to her. “It wasn’t my place.”It irritated her how
It was dark when Dave pulled the car into his driveway and the moon shone brighter than the streetlights. The vacation seemed so short, but he was more relaxed than he was three weeks ago. He had enjoyed the time he had spent with his family. It showed him exactly how much he loved them and wouldn’t want to be without them. The kids wanted to stay longer, but he had to get back to work. “We are home,” Dave announced to his family. Jayson jumped out of the car, Martha followed suit with Alice in her arms. Merilee had fallen asleep and didn’t seem to be waking up anytime soon. “Honey, wake up we’re home,” Dave whispered as he nudged her gently to wake up, instead she lay flat on her belly in the vacant back seat. She looked so sweet and peaceful, deep in her slumber. But he knew better, Merilee was just pretending so that he could carry her in. There was no other choice but to submit to the little princess, then come back and get the bags. Before he could step out of his car, he heard
Baku threw things around. He felt caged and that made him anxious and uncontrollable. Soon he’d be taking his frustration out on his pack.“I can’t keep hiding out like a rat. We need to get rid of him now! Seth! Why is Cole taking so long! All I did was ask him to kill a family of weak humans, how hard can that be!”Seth smiled. He was unmoved by Baku’s erratic behavior. “The humans will be back from their vacation tomorrow. They will be dead by the next morning. I thought you would want to kill two birds with one stone, so I set a trap for Ash—” Before he could finish telling his master plan, Baku interrupted him with an air of arrogance and a hint of mockery in his voice.“Thinking and strategizing is my forte. Let’s face it, it’s not your strongest suit, but there is a first time for everything, continue.”Seth clenched his jaw and fisted his hands tightly. Baku ignored his frigid
Ash, Joe and Billy got out of the car and walked up the driveway of the cream-colored house with red and white roses bordering the path. Joe had tracked them here, to Dave’s house.Billy reached to ring the doorbell when Ash stopped him. “Don’t bother no one's home. They left; I hope for good.” Ash was relieved. He could now go back to hunting Baku without worrying about the humans. “Let’s go. We have a bigger fish to fry.”“Ash, could we get some pizza on the way?” Joe said sounding relaxed, “Too bad we can’t go back to that place, the sauce smelled pretty good.”Ash turned and looked at him, a perplexed look on his face. “What?”“Only Joe can think of food at the oddest of times,” Billy said flatly as he walked back to the car.“Joe, when I first met you, you were a pretty serious guy, what happened?” Ash asked Joe who was staring at him wi
Dave paused before he answered and looked around suspiciously. He panicked when he turned to see two huge, over six feet tall, guys standing between him and the door. Terror tagged at him knowing his family was on the other side of the door. He hoped they hadn’t seen them.“Take what you want from me just let me walk out of here.” He extended the hand that had the blackberry in it to Joe.“We don’t want your money,” Joe pushed Dave’s hand away.Before Dave could speak again, Joe picked him up by the collar and threw him behind the counter. He hit the floor hard on his side. Blood trickled from the cut on his head where it had met with the corner of the counter. He was dazed and confused. He stumbled a bit on his knees as his head was spinning. Before he could stand up, the door opened, and three pairs of footsteps walked in.“Hi Ash, Baku has a message for you.”“What’s that?”
“Sabrina, that’s enough.” Ashat shoved her off him. He pulled on his pants and got out of bed to get another beer.“Are you sure?” she asked, using her horny voice. She was now seated on the bed, naked. She rubbed her right foot slow and seductively over her left leg, as her fingers played with her long hair.If you are trying to seduce me, you’ll have to try harder.Her face dropped and then suddenly turned red in a rage. She growled at him and in a huff pulled the sheet to cover herself.“I may love you but that doesn’t give you the right to treat me like a whore! You shouldn’t have bit me if you wanted to dispose of me once you grew tired of me!”Well, that was your profession. Biting you was a mistake, a huge one. He shrugged. I guess I was hungrier than I thought. Then the familiar pain settled over him. I only love one person, and you are no
“Guys, breakfast is ready!” Martha shouted from the bottom of the steps. Her husband, Dave, walked into the kitchen holding Alice and placed her in her chair before he took his seat at the table. “I’m going to count to three. One, two…” Dave chuckled when two doors slammed shut as Jayson and Merilee came racing down the steps. He always wondered what would come after two, but Martha always got them to do what she wanted before she reached the dreaded three. Dave looked around the table at his family and smiled. They were a close nit African family. He and Martha had gotten married young and moved to America when Dave got a job immediately after he finished varsity. They were happy and had three beautiful children to show for it. Jayson ten, Merilee five, and Alice had just turned three. They had made it a point to have their meals together. Dave worked round the clock to pay off the house loan. The extra hours and the normal workload kept him very busy and left little time to spen
The cold droplets on Lee’s face woke her up. She lifted her hands to cover her face before she opened her eyes. Ash was standing over her, his head bent down shaking his wet hair over her.“Ash what are you doing?” She turned, hiding her face in the pillow, but the water droplets were now on her neck. She couldn’t help but laugh at his silliness. “Ash, will you stop that!” The drops stopped, but she stayed as she was, just in case it was a trick.“If you don’t turn, I’ll pour a whole bucket on you.” His voice was full of laughter. She turned to look at him. He wasn’t pale anymore. His earthshaking smile dominated his face, his eyes reflected his happiness. He was shirtless and still wet, in black flannel pants.“You look better, healthier.”“You don’t look too bad yourself, especially in my shirt.” He tugged at the edge of his light blue, long-sleeved shirt. It
She felt a sharp pain in her inner lip, and then she could taste fresh blood on her tongue. Ash flicked his tongue on the spot, and then he sucked deeply. It hurt but she didn’t move neither did she stop him. He was hungry and for some insane reason she didn’t mind him feeding off her.She heard Billy and Joe hiss behind her. She opened the hand behind her back, cautioning them not to come near them. A deep angry growl rocked the room. It startled everyone, even Ash. That had to be Billy.Ash pulled away, for a moment she saw his eyes flash golden yellow and his face had desire all over it then they were back to brown and he had disgust in his face. “I’m so sorry.” He pulled at her legs, trying to unwind them around his waist but she only tightened the lock.“Stop that. I was just stuffing myself with some steak, would you like some? There is only one left.” Her lips throbbed. She passed her tongue over the long cut he h
They heard a stir, and then a grumble. They all looked toward the door, waiting. The next minute they heard a glass shatter and an enraged growl. Billy sprang out of his seat and stood in front of the door, Joe flashed beside him, blocking the girls’ way.“Where is she?” Ash gave a loud roar from the living room. It made the guys stiffen. The last time she saw them so alert was at the diner. Surely Ash wasn’t going to go on a rampage?“Ash is awake,” Maria spoke above a whisper.“Is he going to turn into a wolf again because he really sounds mad scary?” Ann looped her hand with Maria’s. She sounded scared. The girl who was hitting out on the drunk wasn’t so courageous now that the drunk was awake.There was a loud break then a crash from upstairs. “Where is she?” Ash’s temper was mounting.Lee was wrong he was already on a rampage. He was taking out his frustration on the furniture. Her sisters looked more frightened.She put her fork and knife down and reluctantly pulled away from he