Odyssey (The Vampire Destiny Series Companion Book 1) (21 page)

Lukas pulled to a stop and his car door opened.  He blurred towards my car and I rolled the window down so we could talk. 

He pointed at a large villa and propped his arms on the opened window of my car.  “This is Anna’s house.  I don’t think she’s going to be receptive to you either.”

“Why would that be, Lukas?”  I asked.  Not only was I curious, I was also growing angry.  This was obviously a misunderstanding of some sort, and everyone had reached their own judgment without my version of events.

“Anna and Georgia are very protective of her.  Josie is all alone…” Lukas began.

I cut him off sharply.  “I know all of this, Lukas.  Get to the point.”

He huffed and continued.  “She is alone.  She has no family to support her.  And we know she lives like a nomad.  This is the first place Josie attempted to connect with others.  Anna sees her as a sister…and she sees you as the man that demolished her sister’s heart.”

All the strength left my body at the impact of his words.  I had hurt her unintentionally.  If I could change things, have the chance to do it all again, I would have told her where I was going instead of relying on a note to do the job.

“Fix this, Stefan.  Do whatever you have to do to make this right again or…” his voice tapered off and he rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes.

My brow furrowed.   In our time together, I had never seen Lukas so affected by anyone or anything, let alone humans.  “Or what?”

“This won’t end well.  For you, for me…for Josie.”  He blurted out and rose to stand.  “I’m going home.  This is all on you, lover boy.”

Lukas hurried to his car and pulled away from the curb.  For some time I simply sat in the car and watched Anna’s house, watching as lights turned off and on and occasionally I could make out the silhouette of a woman moving throughout the house.

I could wait no longer.  I was out of the car and had made it to the edge of the porch when Anna met me, wrapped in a bathrobe.  Her brown hair was a riot of ringlets, her sharp eyes assessing my every movement.  She pinned me in place with her severe stare.

“You’ve returned, I see.  You disappear for days and leave us to pick up the pieces of the shit you left behind,” Anna spat angrily, looking me up and down with disdain.

I had a newfound respect for Anna Wilson.  She was loyal to Josephine, a worthy friend.  But I was not here to make friends with her.  I was only here for one reason.

I was here for Josephine.

"Is she here?" I wasted no time on pleasantries.  She was somewhere inside the house and I did not want to waste time chatting with Anna, no matter how amusing and devoted I found her to be.

Anna crossed her arms and twisted her lips to the side.  "It's late Stefan.  Maybe try this tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" I growled. My temper flared as Anna's words resounded through my head. 
Tomorrow?
I had waited long enough.  "No.  I just spent 20 hours on an airplane.  I need to speak to her now."

Anna shifted uneasily.  One of her hands raked through her hair and she took a step closer to me and lowered her voice.  "Look Stefan, I hate to be the one to tell you, but I don't think Josie wants to talk to you.  Or see you."

My eyes narrowed as I listened to Anna speak.   I wanted to hear Josephine tell me this, if it was even true.  If she would only let me explain…

I stood taller, towering over the much smaller woman. "Let me pass."

She backed up as I attempted to shove past her, bracing her arms against both sides of the door.  "What part of coming back tomorrow are you not getting?  I just told you she doesn't want to see you.  You left her and now you're back to grovel?"

I was fascinated with her spunk and bravery.  Few humans would have stood up to me.  "There has been some sort of misunderstanding.  Let me through, Anna.  I will not ask again and I do not want to hurt you."

Her heart thudded in a mixture of anger and fear.  Her cheeks were flushed a bright red.  She was frightened, finally recognizing me as the dangerous predator I was.

Anna rubbed her forehead with the heel of her hand.  She expelled out a loud puff of breath.  "Go on. You're taking the heat for this.  I'm not dealing with her wrath."

She stepped aside and I rushed past her into the house.  I became focused on tracking Josephine, her sweet smell calling to me her like no other woman’s ever had.  I burst through a bedroom door, my eyes frantically searching for her in the blackness of the room.  She was sitting in the middle of a bed, clutching a blanket to her chest, her breathing erratic.

She was a beautiful disaster.  Her tangle of pale copper waves were a halo around her luminous face; her green eyes haunted and empty as they stared back at me.

"Josephine." I crossed the room to the bed, falling to my knees at the side.  My time away from her had not cleared my head in my desire to possess her.  If anything, it was worse than before.  I was hooked, as desperate as an addict.  My arm stretched across the bed in search of her hands.  I was desperate to touch her.  “Josephine…”

I had expected her acceptance.  Instead, she twisted her hands tighter into the blanket, her face an unfeeling mask.

Suddenly, I felt her anger barrel though her with the speed of a freight train.  “You left me.  You fucking left me,” she seethed, her lovely face twisting into a grimace.  “I told you everything and you left me!  No note, no calls.  Nothing!  You. Left. Me.”

“Josephine…” I was crestfallen, running a hand through my messy hair.  Hopeful my persistence would pay off; I reached my hand out to her again.

“Fucking leave, Stefan.  I don't want to see you again,” she muttered, slowly inching further away from me on the bed, pulling her legs to her chest as if she was barricading herself from me.

“You do not understand.  I left—”

“Oh, I understand completely, Stefan.  You left me and now you're back like everything is going to be like it was before?  It will never be the same again.”  She sniffed, shaking her head in disbelief.  “Leave before I have Anna call the police.”

With those words, she turned over in the bed with her back to me.  She did not want to even look at me.  It was killing me to be so close to her and not feel the reassuring touch of her skin.  And her anger was palpable; I could feel it radiating from her, pummeling me like a million invisible fists.

“I love you.  Josephine, please...” I had to try again, and my voice cracked into a broken sob.

“Save it for someone that cares,” she spat at me over her shoulder, her voice filled with a poisonous venom I had never heard from her before.  “Just fucking leave.”

Defeated, I rose and obeyed her request.  I looked back a final time, hoping against the odds that she would at least let me explain.

But she was impassive, her body still angled away from me.  She no longer cared.

I barely recalled leaving the house.  I was in a haze of agony and despair, stunned and defeated.

I had lost her again.

***

The next day was a nightmare that I could not wake up from.  When I had arrived home the previous night, Lukas sat waiting on the couch with his hands in his lap.  When he took in the state of my mood, he wordlessly nodded and wisely said nothing as I passed through the house to my room.

It was one of the few moments I wished for a Council call.  I could take out every bit of my pent-up aggression on someone worthy of pain and suffering.  And maybe, just maybe, I would not hurt so much.

It was difficult to not rehash the events over and over, searching for a way to fix what had broken between us.  She had turned me away, rejecting me without explanation.  Even if she had let me explain, I had nothing to offer her but the truth.

And the truth could destroy her love for me.

She had not found my note.  She had not even bothered to ask where I had been. She was bitter, her hatred and anger filling the space between us.  When she stared at me, there was no love there.  Instead, her eyes screamed out to me, speaking everything she could not.  They had begged for answers to the questions buried within their fathomless depths.  Where were you when everything fell apart?  Why were you waiting?  Why did you leave me?

She said nothing and simply turned away and hid within herself.  She left all of her questions unspoken.

It was at that moment I realized what it was to have your heart broken.

Mentally and emotionally exhausted, I collapsed to my bed fully clothed and fell into a restless sleep.  Even in my dreams, she haunted me.  Her face, her voice…even the memory of her touch was crystal clear as I slept.

I was roused from sleep when Lukas knocked on my door.  He did not wait for an invitation; he simply flounced in and plopped down on the bed at my side.

He tossed a shiny new phone on the pillow by my head.  I looked at him groggily, the question showing in my eyes.

He shrugged and wrinkled his nose.  “You needed a new one.  And you need a bath.  Quit wallowing and get her back.”

“Lukas…this is none of your concern.”

“Oh really?  For nearly 200 years and for my entire existence as a vampire you’ve focused on little besides Josie.  And now you’re going to just give up and wallow in your self-pity?  Bitch, please.  There will be a day that you'll find out that maybe she doesn’t hate you.  You brought this on yourself, Stefan.  You should have told her where you were going instead of leaving her a note…a note that somehow was misplaced.  Sometimes I feel like you're on a mission to destroy yourself.  And I'll ever understand why."  He shook his head and walked to the door.  As he left the room, my mood grew darker, bleaker.  He was correct, of course.