Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Adeline
I stagger, grabbing the elevator door frame, the entire room spinning violently as vertigo washes over me. I feel like I am trying to walk on the moon. Eli rushes over to me, and my vision blurs as I try to blink it away.
I feel my feet leave the ground before sensing Eli moves as he sits down.
“Why does it feel like this?” I ask.
“Because you have been in heat for too long, Addie. Your body is trying to force you to mate,” he says, taking his shirt off.
I push on his chest as I try to get up and away from him.
“I’m not doing anything. I promise,” he says, grabbing my arms and pulling me down.
I feel his hands fiddling with my buttons, and I push his hands away.
“I’m not trying to have sex with you, Addie. Just skin on skin might help,” Eli tells me, and I stop.
My entire body feels like it is on fire. He undoes my blouse before Cyrus pulls it off, leaving me in just my bra. Eli pulls me against him, wrapping his arms around me, his skin soothing the burning sensation like my own personal cooling mat, despite how hot he usually feels.
“Is it helping? You feel like you’re cooling down?” Cyrus says, touching my head with his hand.
Eli’s hand is rubbing my back, and I feel like I could just sleep here forever as long as he doesn’t move.
“I will get her some water,” Cyrus says, walking out of the room.
I turn my face into Eli’s neck, pressing my face against him. “I need to go home.”
“Why don’t you stay with us tonight?” he says, but I shake my head.
I don’t trust myself to stay with them overnight. I know I will push my own boundaries if I stick with them; I already am by using him as a cooling mat.
“How about we stay here like this at least until your heat dies down?” he says, turning his face toward mine. I nod, and he kisses my forehead.
“God, I wish you wouldn’t wear that crap on your face,” Cyrus says, walking in with a glass of water and a wet cloth.
He grips my chin, tilting my face up and wiping the make-up off. The wet cloth soothes my burning face, which I have no doubt is flaming red.
“My cheeks are always bright red,” I admit as he continues to wipe my face clean.
“Yes, they are. You’re very flushed,” he says before wiping my lipstick off.
“Bet it feels better with that crap off, though,” he says, letting go, and I drop my face back on Eli’s shoulder.
“Yes, not so hot, just looks gross,” I tell him.
“You look fine,” Cyrus says, sitting next to us. “You should stay with us tonight.”
“I already asked her. She won’t,” Eli tells him.
“We won’t try anything, Addie. Just sleep,” Cyrus says, but I shake my head. He sighs, sitting back, and I can feel his disappointment.
“What you did for Taylor and Maya was nice,” I tell them.
“They’re family,” Eli says.
“What about Bella then and the meeting?” I ask.
“Bella should have been put up years ago, and as for the meeting, we weren’t aware of what Troy was doing. We would have dealt with him and any others if we had known. But now, hopefully, it will be a deterrent,” Cyrus answers.
I close my eyes, the burning sensation coming back again, making my body tense.
“Have you got painkillers?” I ask them.
“Is that why you’ve been taking pills?” Cyrus asks.
“They help,” I tell him.
Cyrus touches my head with his hand. “She is burning up again.”
“I know. I can feel it,” Eli tells him. “Go see if you can get her some.”
“Or we could try something else,” Cyrus tells him, making me open my eyes.
Cyrus bites his wrist, and I shake my head, moving my face away, knowing drinking his blood made me aroused last time; I already am and don’t need it being ten times worse.
“It might help,” Cyrus says.
I shake my head.
“Are you worried because bloodletting makes you feel strange?” Eli asks.
“It makes me horny and high,” I tell him.
“I won’t do anything but hold you,” Eli says, and Cyrus bites his healed wrist again.
“Come on, it will help,” Cyrus says.
He presses his wrist to my lips. I let my lips part, his blood flowing into my mouth, making me moan before I bite him.
“Good girl,” Cyrus says, brushing my hair back as I clutch his wrist.
He doesn’t even flinch when I bite him with my blunt teeth.
A feeling of euphoria washes over me, and I move my hips against Eli, wanting the friction, but Eli grips my hips holding me still no matter how much I try to move them against him.
The pain eases, and I feel like I am floating and weightless.
Cyrus pulls his wrist away before wiping my lips.
“Better?”
I nod, resting my face back on Eli’s shoulder, the pain easing off, and I feel my face cooling down, my skin no longer blistering hot.
“Her temperature is dropping,” Eli says, his hands trailing up my back.
“I feel better,” I admit.
“You want me to let you go then?” Eli asks, but I shake my head, loving the feel of his skin against mine.
“We should take you home soon. It’s nearly knocking-off time anyway,” Cyrus says, and I nod.
He is right; best to get home before I start feeling like shit again.
Sitting up, Eli passes me my blouse beside him.
I pull it on, doing up the buttons. Eli puts his back on, and I climb off his lap, suddenly embarrassed that I’ve just used them selfishly.
Yet they don’t complain, and I know they can feel my embarrassment through the bond.
* * *
Eli
We end up dropping her home before driving home ourselves in silence.
A massive storm is about to hit the city, clouds rolling across the sky.
We help Debbie pull all the roller shutters down because the power’s gone out and help secure all their outdoor stuff, managing to squeeze most of it into their shed, yet Addie still refuses to leave home.
Pulling up at the house, the wind has picked up massively, the outside furniture scattering across the yard. Getting out of the car, Cyrus and I pick up what is left of the outside table before tossing it into the shed; the glass top shatters from hitting the tree beside the house.
“I will put the car in the shed,” Cyrus calls to me over the wind.
I nod before opening the front door; our house has power still, so that is something. Walking inside, I turn the heating on. The moment I do, the power cuts out before flicking back on. The solar panels are still working, thanks to the batteries’ storing energy.
Cyrus comes in a few minutes later, the wind so strong it shakes the windows.
“Everything outside is secure, but I am drenched,” he says, grabbing a towel from the linen cupboard. I am on edge, and so is Cyrus. We don’t want to leave her.
“She will be fine, Eli.”
“I’m not worried about the storm, more worried about her heat. Do you think it has been getting worse since we came back?”
“I don’t know, but we need to think of something soon, maybe give that witch friend of yours a ring later. Addie isn’t going to let us mate her anytime soon.”
“I will ring her tomorrow. It’s a bit late now,” I tell him, and he nods.
“Hungry?” he asks, looking through the pantry.
“Not really. I feel like throwing up,” I tell him. It is an odd feeling, one I am not used to, so I know it is coming from her.
“Addie…” he says, making me look at him. “I have the same feeling. She must feel sick.”
Cyrus picking up on it, too, just makes me worry more.
“Maybe we should ring her and check on her. Or maybe go stay at her place. She might let us,” I tell him.
“How about we wait? Debbie will ring us if she is worried about her.”
He is right; Debbie would ring, but it doesn’t make the tension in my body leave knowing that. My entire being is calling out for her painfully.
“Well, I am going to shower and put dry clothes on if you want to join me,” Cyrus says.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I tell him, and he nods, walking off.
I walk into the room, flopping on the bed and hoping sleep will take me so I can wake up and see her. Yet my mind is restless, as is my body. My every thought is consumed by her.
Though today’s gone better; at least she let us be close to her, even if it was only because she was desperate for the pain to stop.
Cyrus hops out of the shower before walking into the bedroom. Thunder cracks loudly while lightning lights up the sky, streaking it with electrical violence.
“I love storms,” Cyrus says, flopping on the bed next to me.
“I don’t. They are too loud.”
“Nothing better than rain on a tin roof,” Cyrus whispers while listening to the storm.
“That’s your inner country bumpkin coming out in you. Weren’t you raised in a shack?” I taunt.
“Better than where you were raised in a kennel.”
“I wasn’t raised in a kennel,” I tell him, smacking him.
“Might as well have been with all them howling mutts.”
“That’s my family you’re talking about,” I tell him with a chuckle.
He’s never liked my family. I don’t blame him; they are basically what he says: mutts, complete savages. His words make me wonder what’s happened to them.
“Stop thinking about them. You will piss me off after what they did to you.”
“I’m not,” I tell him.
“Yes, you are. I can always tell when you do. Your emotions go strange.”
“I wouldn’t have met you if they didn’t do what they did.”
“I would have found you eventually. They are scum and deserve nothing but death.”
He is right. That is why I left and started my own pack as soon as I could. Before throwing that away for him. Though, I would do it again in a heartbeat. But I sometimes miss pack life, the feeling of family.
“Addie is our family now,” he says.
“So much for not being able to read my thoughts.”
“You know I can’t, but I have had you for 300 years now. I know how you think,” Cyrus tells me. He rolls over, pulling the blankets up and placing his head on my chest.
“I love you,” I tell him, and he kisses my chest.
“I love you more,” he says, making me chuckle.
I reach over, flicking the lamp off before lying back down, trying to get comfortable. Cyrus’s hand runs down my abdomen and back up; I focus on the sweeping movement of his hand, letting it lull me to sleep.