Drip Drop Teardrop, a Novella (10 page)

He nodded and lifted his
head to gaze at her.

Her breath
caught.

No one had ever looked at
her like that before. His eyes spoke words his mouth could never so
poignantly convey. Selfishly, she was glad he felt that way about
her.

She wet her lips
self-consciously and Brennus took it as an invitation, brushing a
kiss across her mouth before jerking away from her.

“
I’ll be back
in a minute,” he promised and ran his hands through his hair,
attempting to restore his flustered state to presentable. He didn’t
look at her. Shaking her head, Avery searched for her shirt and
found it discarded on the floor. Quickly, she pulled it on and he
threw her a grateful look.

“
Who will it
be?”

“
The
visitor?”

“
Yeah.”

“
I don’t
know. I’m about to find out.”

***

Avery didn’t know why she
did it. It was his visitor. His home. His private business. But she
gave him five minutes and then tip-toed out after him, praying Ames
didn’t bust her. At the sound of Brennus’ voice her ears lifted,
and she mocked herself for acting like a puppy hearing her owner’s
keys turning in the lock. Making sure Ames was nowhere to be seen
Avery followed the voices to the sitting room. One of the double
doors was cracked open a little and she peered through the gap, her
breathing stuttering to a halt at the sight of Brennus standing
opposite a tall woman. She was so tall she came to Brennus’ chin.
Her light brown hair was pulled back off her face in a knotted
messy bun that somehow managed to be stylish. She wore tight black
jeans that accentuated the slender long lines of her legs. A
leather jacket and matching boots completed the ensemble. Like
Brennus, she wore all black. Avery could just make out her profile
but what she saw of this woman amounted to gorgeous.

“
This is a
difficult time.” Brennus moved around her and leaned against the
fireplace. The woman turned and Avery felt a twinge of jealousy.
She was stunning. Not cute. But beautiful. Fine featured. Dark,
exotic eyes.

The woman grimaced at
Brennus. “I know. That’s why I’m here. Rumour has it you’ve bagged
a human.”

Avery’s heart sped up.
That would be her.

Brennus growled angrily,
“That’s none of your business.”

The woman’s dark eyes
flashed just as angrily. “None of my business?! You’re
contemplating cashing in this job, this life, this connection to
me, for some silly little girl and it’s none of my business?! When
are you going to forgive me, Brennus? When are you going to admit
that you still love me? When are you going to forgive me and
believe me when I tell you I truly love you?” her voice softened to
a plea.

Oh my
god
, Avery felt sick.

“
Anonna…” he
breathed, his eyes closing as if in pain.

Anonna
. The exotic Ankou was Anonna.
Brennus had left out the part where Anonna had finally come to her
senses and admitted her true love for him. Watching Anonna’s agony,
Avery felt a vicious jealousy take hold. It burrowed its way under
her skin, heating her blood, cutting off rationality, narrowing
down her perspective. She hated this woman.

She didn’t know
her.

But she hated
her.

“
Brennus
please don’t do this,” Anonna whispered.

Avery waited, the blood
pounding so hard in her ears she was afraid she wouldn’t hear his
response.

“
I don’t love
you anymore, Anonna. I haven’t for a long time.” His eyes were sad,
regretful. “I’m sorry. But I must ask you to leave.”

Anonna’s face hardened,
like those Roman busts Avery had seen pictures of in history books,
her eyes almost as opaque. “You choose her, Brennus… and you will
regret it.”

“
I’ve already
chosen her.”

Anonna nodded, a brittle
movement, as if unsure a more forceful gesture wouldn’t just cause
her to shatter.

She vanished.

Avery sucked in her
breath.

He’d chosen
her.

And Avery had somehow
chosen him.

Unlike Brennus, Avery had
no intention of admitting it. It would cost too much.

The Bath that
You Poured Me

has Drained,
and it’s Gone

She didn’t
tell him she knew about Anonna’s visit. And he didn’t tell her
about Anonna’s visit. She didn’t pull away from him outwardly.
Instead she embraced being with him. Living life to the full, they
called it. He never asked it of her, but on the final night… she
gave to him.
Everything
. She let him kiss her, touch her. She kissed him back,
touched him back. She let him undress her and trail shivers across
her over-heated skin. Now she understood what Sarah meant when
she’d said she’d been to the stars and back. As Brennus showed her
what sex could really be like, he didn’t stop with the stars. He
hit the moon and the Milky Way and lit never-ending fireworks the
entire way there and back. But it wasn’t just amazing sex, like
Sarah had described. It was that allusive thing Aunt Caroline told
her about. Connection.

Sex. Making love. She got
the difference now.

So she wasn’t surprised
at Brennus’ reaction the next morning as she slid out of his
embrace and began getting dressed. He felt the chill in the air;
the chill she had created. He’d asked her what was wrong and Avery
had seen the panic in his eyes. Then she’d told him she was ready
to go home.

He wrenched back the bed
covers and pulled on his dark slacks. He turned to face her, all
bristling angry male, the way he had been that first night. “What
the hell are you talking about?” He seemed to struggle to keep his
voice calm.

Avery gulped, willing her
heart to stop racing. She trembled as she reached for a jacket she
had left lying on the sofa. Then she realised it wasn’t her jacket.
Brennus had bought it for her. She dropped it back down and drew on
all her courage to face him. His lips were white with anticipatory
rage but his eyes pleaded with her. “I’m sorry, Brennus. I like
you.” She swallowed the lukewarm sentiment that didn’t even amount
to a percent of what she felt for him. “I do. But Caroline wouldn’t
want me to trade my mortality for her.”

“
Caroline!”
he shouted now, his scar stretched as tight as his emotions. “What
the hell do
you
want, Avery?! Not Caroline.
You!
”

She shook her head. “I
want my life back.”

The room seemed to
darken, and a definite icy cold descended across the room as
Brennus struggled for composure. “This is what you really want? To
go back to her?”

She nodded, afraid to
speak.

Brennus made a choking
sound and covered his face with his hands.

Oh
god
, Avery felt like crying out to him,
her hand reaching out of its own accord.

He drew his hands down
his face. It was stark, and cold. Seemingly dead. Except for the
bright shine of tears in his eyes. “I’ll kill her,
Avery.”

A bucket of cold water.
Like an unexpected slap to the face. She felt that jerk of shock
slam her organs against her bones. “You bastard,” she whispered
hoarsely.

He shrugged numbly. “I’d
do anything to keep you.”

“
What about
our deal? You said if I stayed the week you wouldn’t take her
before her time.”

“
I lied.” His
eyes were like ice chips. “Your choice. Me or her?”

She glared at him. “I
choose her.”

The room spun around on
her and she reached out, thinking it a fainting spell. Sick rushed
up her throat in an acidic soup and she collapsed to the ground,
vomiting up on the hardwood floor.

Wait. Hardwood? The
bedroom was carpeted.

Avery raised her head and
gazed around the room. It was her and Aunt Caroline’s sitting room.
She wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her shirt.

He’d sent her back.
Without saying goodbye.

***

True to Brennus’ word,
Aunt Caroline had no memory of Avery being gone. Neither had Sarah
or Jemima. Life quickly returned to normal. Well, as normal as it
could be. Her aunt didn’t rapidly deteriorate, although Avery
waited on tenterhooks for Brennus to make good on his promise.
Every day he didn’t, she began to hate him a little
less.

When a month passed and
still no change, it crossed Avery’s mind that he may have lied. Was
it just a desperate ruse to try and get her to stay? She wasn’t
sure. There was a ruthless aspect to Brennus when it came to her.
She had seen it that first night. She wasn’t sure that was a
lie.

She hated that he crossed
her mind every day. That when she lay in bed at night, she could
still feel the press of his body against hers. She grieved for him.
But Caroline would never have chosen someone like him for Avery.
And Caroline always made the right choice.

Sometimes it
was hard to remind herself of that fact. Like that first night out
at
4.0
. Avery had
searched the crowds for him, praying she would see his severe face
in the crowds. But he didn’t show.

Caroline asked her
constantly if she was alright and that just tripled her guilt
because the last thing she wanted was Caroline worrying about her
on top of everything else. Then Caroline had brought up funeral
plans and Avery had freaked out, shouting incoherent nonsense
before slamming out of the apartment. When she returned later that
day neither of them said a word and Avery seethed on her own
shame.

As the weeks moved into
the second month, she felt like she was being haunted. She would be
standing in the DVD rental store and she’d catch a whiff of this
beautiful spicy, earthy smell that reminded her of Brennus. She’d
look around to see if he was there but there no one. And then she’d
sniff the air again and the scent was gone. It became an obsession;
every journal page filled with descriptions of him. Finally, she
started doing some research, looking up whatever she could on the
Ankou. There was an astonishing amount of information on the web
and in the library, and she locked it all inside her
hoping…

Hoping what? That it
would somehow make her stop loving him?

She admitted it only that
once and then pretended it had never happened.

Caroline had taken to
sleeping longer in the mornings. The rain lashing against the
windows outside were kind of a lullaby and Avery drew her aunt’s
door closed, wishing she could keep her there forever. The
apartment was cold, damp. Avery made herself some herbal tea and,
feeling maudlin - but what was new, right - she pulled out Aunt
Caroline’s photo albums and snuggled onto the sofa with a blanket.
She’d chosen the album of all the photos when Caroline was younger.
There were ones at college; the kind of photos that made you long
for your own college experience. Somehow it was never quite as
great as the photos made it seem. Caroline had had so many friends
though. There were photos of her with a couple different guys over
the years; all cute, sporty types. Avery’s hands trembled over the
pictures of her aunt rock climbing. Biking. Rollerblading. Playing
baseball. Ice skating at the Rockefeller Center. She was like an
advertising campaign for LIFE.

Her chest tightened and
Avery struggled to draw breath. She clutched at her t-shirt and
gulped at the air, tears streaming down her face.

“
Baby,” her
Aunt Caroline’s soft voice called from behind her, but she couldn’t
turn around. She felt her aunt’s warm body ease next to hers, her
safe arms coming around her. Like a panicked dog abandoned at the
side of the road, Avery pleaded with her aunt with her eyes.
Caroline brushed her hair off her face. “Breathe, baby,
breathe.”

She sucked in a deep
lungful of air and the inhalation caught on a sob. She allowed
herself to be pulled into her aunt’s chest and she soaked her with
tears; an entire season’s worth of rainfall that had been weighing
down the clouds for quite some time.

It’s Not
Murder

it’s an Act of
Faith

There was relief in
admitting her grief to her Aunt Caroline. It was what Caroline
needed from her, so she gave it. Somehow Avery managed to get
through the funeral talks and financial discussions, holding
herself together by the tips of her tremulous fingers.

It was weird… but she
felt closer to her aunt than ever.

That was why, on club
night, as Caroline watched Avery get ready from her perch on the
sofa, her blankets all around her, the latest Charlaine Harris book
in her lap, Avery unconsciously let her obsession take to the
fore.

“
Aunt
Caroline?” She asked hesitantly as she pulled on some
bangles.

“
Mmmhmm?”

“
Did you ever
date a bad boy?”