Hyde (19 page)

She watched the dirty water drain from the
shower, as the filth was washed off of her. No amount of water
would take the blood from her hands. She understood Lady Macbeth
suddenly.

She sat in the shower, letting the water sooth
her. She really could go for one of Annabelle's baths. She longed
for the smells of the oils and soap mixed with the haunting songs
Annabelle would sing. She barely knew her and yet felt instantly as
if she loved the ghost.

She thought about Lydia's house realizing she
didn’t completely agree with their actions, but she understood
their beliefs and justifications. She would never want something
such as herself out in the world.

The hand with the platinum wedding band filled
her mind. No matter how long she stayed in the shower, she would
never rinse that off. She had taken a human life.

****

She climbed into her bed after the shower,
donning her favorite fleece pajamas and wrapped herself in her
blankets.

Roland came in with a small kit.

"We need to bandage that toe. I have actually
got a few things left over from your father's injuries. This is his
old kit."

"I'm sorry I've been avoiding you."

He sat and looked at the toe, "No my dear. This
has been a hard few months for you. I cannot imagine what it's been
like."

"Something is wrong with me Roland. Beyond the
other stuff. I have never been one of those sort of girls, you know
the ones who, uhm well mess around."

He snickered, "Hanna we don’t need to have this
conversation."

She gulped nervously, "I know but I feel
weird."

He nodded, "It happened to your dad a lot. He
felt off or odd." He patted her leg and stood from her bed, "It's
all better."

She smiled, "Thanks."

He nodded and walked from the room, "Sleep
tight."

She lay back wondering how it had all changed in
such a short amount of time.

"I'm sorry."

She looked up to see Marcus in her doorway.

"I'm too tired Marcus. I can't do this right
now."

He walked toward her slowly.

She could see the worry on his face.

"I came to explain."

She closed her eyes, not wanting to hear him out
and rolled over away from him.

She felt his weight on the bed near her
feet.

"I have fed off women, I know you said you
didn’t want to talk about this but I have to explain. From the
moment I met you I have not been with anyone. I have bitten them
and that’s it. I never give my blood to anyone. What you and I did
where you had some of my blood and I had some of yours. I have not
done that in hundreds of years. Until today. I made a vampire
today."

He sounded stressed. She wanted to ignore the
pain in his voice.

"I turned that girl Aleks wanted to save. I did
it for you. I want to be a man worthy of you and she was an
innocent who was dying because of men I created. I love you and I
only ever gave your blood to the idiots in Boston because they have
a new young chemist who is smart. He's smarter than I am and he's
only in his twenties. I can't even imagine him in twenty years? I
wanted him to make the cure for you so I traded him your blood. I
was at a dead-end and so was your father before he died. The new
chemist is changing the formula, he's making progress. I will have
your cure before the end of the week I believe. If it means the
Dark Ones get some weapon from your blood, so be it. I would let
them amass an army if it meant I could cure you."

She turned over to reach for him but he was gone
already. She could smell him in the air still. Tears filled her
eyes but exhaustion took her before she could cry.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: So like, can I fly

Aleksander

The dirt shook as if an earthquake were
occurring. He watched as her small hand broke through the dirt.

He jumped down into the hole and began pushing
dirt off of her.

He grabbed her hand, pulling her from the mound
of dirt.

She gasped, "What, what is happening?" She kept
her eyes closed as he pulled his jacket off her face. He brushed
her off and made sure no dirt was in her face. In the moonlight it
was hard to see.

"Giselle you can open your eyes now."

She opened her dark brown eyes, fluttering her
long lashes, "Where are we? My stomach hurts. Is that a river? You
smell good."

He laughed, "We will find you someone to eat but
in the mean time I brought you this." Her ADHD seemed worse.

He bent over to the cooler he had grabbed on the
first day she had slept. He pulled a bag of blood out. He had
stolen a few bags from a blood bank.

She looked at it hungrily and grossed out
simultaneously, "Is that blood?"

"Yep, you need to drink it."

She scrunched up her nose but put her hand out.
She looked at her hand and gasped pulling it back in, "What's wrong
with me?"

"Drink this and we will talk."

She took the bag, she tore at the top of it and
sucked from the hole she made. She guzzled the whole thing in one
breath. Her red stained lips smiled, "That was good. Weird
huh?"

He shook his head, "Not so weird. Come sit by
me." He sat down on a huge rock, overlooking the frosted hillside
and river.

"Shouldn’t I be cold?" She asked walking to
where he sat.

He laughed, "Yeah but you wont get cold or hot
any more. After you drink blood your body will be at its warmest
and then it will cool off incredibly slowly until you eat
again."

"Am I vampire?"

He nodded, "I did this to you so if you want to
hate me forever I understand."

She smiled, "I feel amazing. You stopped all the
pain." She grabbed his face roughly and kissed him.

He laughed, feeling her lips crushing his and
the taste of the blood on them.

"Wait, you will have to listen to me for a
minute."

She giggled, "Okay."

He sighed, "You can't go out in the sunlight,
ever. You'll burn up. No more sunshine, no matter what."

She nodded.

"You have to eat blood. If you eat human food
you will have to use the bathroom. If you eat only blood, you will
never have to use the bathroom."

She smiled showing her bright white fangs, "I
have new teeth."

He tried not to notice how sexy she looked with
them.

"You will be very fast and strong, you will kill
people if you aren’t careful. Your strength is going to take some
getting used to."

"Will I be desperate to eat every person I
see?"

He laughed, "Were you addicted to food,
shoveling it into your face as a human?"

She shook her head.

"Then I wouldn’t expect it. You will need to be
careful of your compulsion. Marcus doesn’t make vampires anymore
because his vampires are the strongest in the world. If a regular
vampire makes you then you'll be weaker than him and anyone who is
older. Because Marcus made you, you will be stronger than any
vampire. Only Marcus's other vampires will be as strong as
you."

She grinned a fanged grin, "Sweet."

He nodded, "I guess yeah. So ready to go home
now?"

She leaned in kissing him very softly, "Thank
you."

He felt his face blush, "Don’t thank me. I have
cursed you."

She grinned, "At least we have each other. Can I
fly?"

"No."

"Can I swim really fast?"

"Not sure, I've never watched Marcus swim
laps."

"Can I run super fast?"

"You'll be faster than a regular human. You're
stronger now."

"So I don’t sparkle?"

"What? Uhm, I don’t think so."

She looked down, "Man. What can I do?"

"What do you mean?" He felt himself getting
impatient.

"My super powers?"

"What super powers? You can't die and like I
said you're strong."

"Hmm, kind of lame. Do I change into like a wolf
or a bat?"

He laughed taking her hand, "Lets go."

Chapter Thirty: Pretty sure I need to be
strip searched

Hanna

"Ari how long did it take you to get control of
the other people inside of you?"

Ari groaned, "Forever. It was brutal. Why?"

Hanna grimaced, "I have to try to control my
beast."

"Oh yeah. Good luck with that."

Hanna laughed, "Thanks."

Lucas sniffed the air in the sitting room,
"Anyone smell that?"

Ben raised his eyebrows, "I do. Giselle is
back."

Ari rolled her eyes swatting Lucas, "I hope she
bites you."

Ben grinned, "I'd be happy to bite her
back."

Hanna watched as Giselle walked in looking
healthy and stunning. She smiled, "Hey."

Giselle beamed, "Hey guys."

Ben moved over on the huge sofa, "Come have a
seat Giselle."

She looked behind herself and grinned, "Uh okay.
Come on." She grabbed something from the hall and dragged Aleks
into the room. Ben looked bummed making Ari laugh.

Hanna looked at Aleks noticing her attraction to
him. She wanted to ignore him, especially considering he had made
her feel things for Marcus after her birthday.

"You look remarkably better."

Giselle nodded, "I feel so much better. I'm
still getting used to how bright everything is and how much better
my vision is. I can hear shit like its no bodies business. Hanna
your heartbeat is going nutty."

Hanna blushed, trying not to look at Aleks.

Ben laughed, "How fast can you run?"

She smirked, "Faster than you I bet."

"Want to race?"

"When the sun goes down." Aleks pointed out.

Hanna frowned, "Well I better get home before
Roland sets the hounds out looking for me. He's been weird
lately."

Aleks stood, "I will walk you out."

She blushed, "Oh that’s okay."

"No I want to."

She walked from the room to the front door.

He took her hand, "I'm sorry."

She nodded, "It's cool. I get it." She did but
it hurt nonetheless. He had convinced and fooled her with his mind
tricks. That would take some time to forgive.

"I deserve your anger. I just want to thank you
for your part in saving her."

She raised her eyebrows, "I was going to do it,
I just didn’t want to do it. You didn’t have to force me into
feeling something for him. You used your mind tricks on me?"

He nodded, "Yes."

"Well you're welcome. I'm glad she's alive and
healthy. Just be honest with me from now on though and don’t use
that Jedi mind trick crap on me. It doesn’t make me feel good to be
traded like some kind of commodity to save girls you think are
hot."

He reached for her hand and pulled her into him,
"I saved her because I had to. It wasn’t because of her looks."

She pulled her hand back, "Whatever, fine. We're
cool."

She walked out of the house, fighting turning
back and running and jumping into his arms. She hated the way every
guy was making her feel that way.

"I will talk to you later okay?"

She waved backwards not looking back. She
couldn’t, she wasn’t strong enough for whatever it was that linked
them.

****

The drive home was frustrating. One part of her
wanted to phone Aleks and tell him to meet her at her place.
Another part of her wanted to just drive to Marcus and forgive him.
The largest part of her wanted to hunt down Sam and tear his
clothes off. She wondered why he hadn’t been at the house when she
had been there?

She didn’t want the drama of any of the
scenarios she played in her mind. She could tell how Giselle felt
about Aleks. She had no intention of making any moves on him. The
further she got from him, the worse she felt about being attracted
to him.

She laughed as she pulled into her driveway to
see Officer Paulson standing at the front door speaking with
Roland.

She sighed wanting to back up and drive to the
airport.

She climbed out of the car smiling.

"Hey, just the girl I wanted to see."

She smiled at him. He was in his uniform, she
tried not to notice how his body filled it out. She tried not to
notice he had handcuffs and how hot those had suddenly become.

He walked toward her, "So how you feeling?"

She frowned, "Good."

"You're concussion and everything that happened
with your friend."

She nodded, instantly feeling awful about not
seeing Rebecca's parents yet.

"I feel great but still upset about my friend
and all that."

Roland looked like he was about to start
laughing, "Come in out of the cold you two. I will fix some
cider."

She looked at the wreath on the door. Inside the
house Christmas decorations were everywhere.

"Wow Roland this looks amazing."

"Thank you. It is my favorite season."

Andy laughed, "Yeah mine too, less crimes
committed. Well more suicide attempts but less other crap."

She laughed at him, "You sound very concerned
about the suicides."

He shrugged, "You kind of get to the point where
you almost want to give them a hand with it. How many times can the
same miserable person attempt it and how in many different ways
before they eventually succeed?"

She nodded, "Wow cold. I guess you have to be
there to get it. How's the case?"

He scowled, "You're aunt is a piece of work.
It's why I'm here. I didn’t want to bring it up at your
birthday."

She pointed to the sitting room, "Lets sit."

He pulled his coat off and hung it up on the
coat hanger.

She pulled off her boots and slipped on her
fuzzy slippers.

The couch was warm and inviting with the
fireplace ablaze and stockings hung in preparation.

"She isn’t your real aunt. It turns out her and
your mother were friends for years before you were born. What do
you recall about her?"

Hanna shrugged, "I knew she wasn’t a blood
relative. They always said she was like my mother's sister. She was
really my godmother."