Chapter 14
Fourteen
Marlon
Isat on the couch in the basement and looked around at everything that was in it.
Lots of rubbish and things that were well past their usefulness were shoved onto shelves or packed into boxes.
In the time I’d been buried, so much had changed, making the hate in me burn even brighter, and if I were to find the men alive who had trapped me, I’d destroy both of them without a thought. Then it hit me.
“He cannot be my mate.” When Blake said it earlier, I had to control my anger, but at some level I knew it was true, and he was right.
The bond with Blake was strong. So strong it made it hard to be away from him, but we could learn to deal with that.
We’d have to. Blake was human, and he had a life that didn’t include me no matter how much that angered me.
I could read some of his thoughts and even more of his emotions, something that had only happened a few times as I’d drank from a victim. But not the way it had with Blake.
I looked at the television and picked up the device Blake had given me to choose what I wanted to watch.
Pressing the button made the screen jump to something else.
There were so many choices. Every time I pressed the button, something new appeared.
I finally settled on a story about two teenagers and their families.
Soon I was drawn into their story when it was revealed the boy was a hundred-year-old vampire and was afraid to fall in love with the sixteen-year-old human for more reasons than one.
I was so engrossed that when the second movie started with the same couple, I watched it too.
“Marlon?” Blake yelled down the stairs. I hadn’t even heard him arrive.
“Down here,” I said, even though he knew where he’d find me. He jogged down the stairs and into my arms as I stood to greet him.
“I missed you. Did you find something to keep you—is that Twilight?” he asked and pointed at the television.
“New Moon. I have to see how they resolve the problem of him being a vampire and her being human. She’s a very foolish human,” I said, and glanced at the television.
“Yeah. I guess,” he said and again looked from the television to me. “There are much better vampire movies if you want to watch one.”
“I like this,” I said and pulled him into my arms. “It makes me feel calm worrying about their problems instead of my own.” Pulling back enough to cradle his face in my hands, I kissed him.
My lips lingered until his tongue brushed against my lips, and one taste of him ignited the fire in me, same as it had every time he was near. “I like this too.”
He swayed us back and forth as we continued to kiss.
The smell of oil and other things from his job lingered on his skin, but through it all I could smell his distinctive scent I would know anywhere and be able to smell from miles away.
My mate. I broke off the kiss and ran the tip of my nose up his neck and inhaled his scent, so tempted to bite him but knowing it would be out of greed for his sweet blood and not need.
“Do it,” he whispered, and a shiver ran down his body. He wanted it. He wanted me to drink from him.
“It’s not necessary, love.” Unable to control myself, I lapped at his neck just below his ear, tasting the salt of his sweat and feeling the pulse of the blood in his veins.
“I know.” He shoved his neck at me, and without thinking I sank my teeth into him. He released a deep sigh and instantly relaxed against me. I took one draw of his blood before swiping my tongue against his skin, sealing the wound and saving his precious blood. “I want you, Marlon.”
“You need to eat. Every time I feed from you, it weakens you. I need to make sure you’re taken care of too,” I said, and was surprised to hear words of concern come from my mouth. I was never one to worry about anyone, not even the human I once believed was my mate.
“I will.” We were both hard, and I took a deep unnecessary breath to force the need to claim him down. He leaned heavier on me as I moved us to sit on the couch.
“Aaron stopped by my work earlier.”
“Your idiot friend?”
“Yes, and he’s not an idiot. He wanted to know what was going on with the treasure. I told him it was all a lie and there was no treasure.”
I slipped my arm around him, and he curled into my side. This was nice, and no matter how strong I knew our bond was, I could not fight the need to be close to him. “Did he believe you?”
“I think so. I told him they probably made it up to hide the fact they’d buried you.”
“When the sun has set, I will go to the farm and retrieve some of the gold that’s hidden there.
The rock I gave you earlier is not all there is.
You can split it between the two of you.
I have no need of it.” I had grown tired of the game of keeping it from them.
Gold had no meaning for me. I could take anything I wanted, but my mate still lived with the responsibilities of the human world and I didn’t want to keep lying to him.
“I’ll go with you,” he said and sat up.
“No. You stay here. It won’t take me long,” I said. It wasn’t that I didn’t want him with me, it was that I needed to feel free after being locked in his house at the mercy of the sun.
“Marlon? I want to.” His eyes pleaded with me, but I needed to feel the night air on my skin. To know that I could go if I wanted to.
“I promise I won’t be long.”
“Hey, Blake, are you down there?”
My head snapped in the direction of the sound, and my eyes locked on the human as he came into view.
His eyes widened, and he flinched back from my glare.
Blake stood and put himself between the two of us and walked over to where his friend stood frozen.
“Hey, I said I’d call you later. I just got home. ”
“Oh, sorry. I was nearby and just thought I’d stop by. Is that okay?” he asked and looked between the two of us.
“Of course, did you eat yet?”
“No, I thought I’d see if you wanted to get something.”
“Marlon, how long will you be gone?” Blake asked and turned to meet my eyes.
“Not long, love. You get some dinner with your friend,” I said, and surprised myself at how friendly I sounded.
I still wasn’t sure what to think of Aaron.
It was obvious he didn’t trust me, and I didn’t trust him either.
Some humans were highly aware of vampires, and whether they knew it or not, their senses were correct.
They needed to be wary of us. Something told me he could be a threat to me, but he was human, and I could snap his neck before he saw me move.
Despite that, my senses were rarely wrong.
“Want to get a pizza?” Blake asked, and Aaron forced his eyes away from me and back to Blake.
“Yeah, that would be good.” Aaron still hadn’t moved from the bottom of the stairs, and I could feel his discomfort at being in the room with me.
The sun would be below the horizon at any moment, then I’d be free. I was so focused on freedom I barely noticed Aaron climbing the stairs, leaving me alone once again with my mate.
“You’ll come back, won’t you?” Blake asked. His eyes were full of worry and doubt. I rushed to him and pulled him into my arms.
“I’ll never leave you. You’re my mate.” During the day I couldn’t leave, but he didn’t understand how strong the compulsion to stay with him was, even after seeing me frozen from his leaving me earlier.
He was truly my mate, and I knew he wouldn’t want to leave me, but he could, which was why he’d been able to go to work.
He knew I’d be waiting for him. But without the sun to trap me, he was filled with doubt.
“I have been trapped in a grave for an eternity. Would you deny me my freedom now you’ve given it to me?
” His expression softened then, and he wrapped his arms around my waist.
“Come back to me,” he whispered.
“Always.”