Pretend With Me (Midnight Society #1) (45 page)

It was like a dream. I stayed with my head on Eric’s
chest, unmoving and looking on at exactly what was in
front of me - which was Katalin and Dean. I was looking
at them, yet I wasn’t seeing them. Nothing was registering
in my mind, my brain wasn’t working. I wasn’t taking in or
interpreting information, it was all just passing through me
as if I was a net trying to hold sand grains.

I saw Katalin push Dean away and he stumbled
backwards. “Why are you here, Dean? What do you
want?” she snapped at him, her voice cold and hard.

“Are you crazy, Kat?” Dean shouted at her, grabbing
her roughly, shaking her. “Why wasn’t the fucking shield
up?” he screamed.

Katalin batted his hand away as if it was a feather.
“Leave me alone, Dean,” she whispered turning her back
to him. Her voice was so low that it almost seemed as if
only her lips were moving.

I risked movement then, closing my eyes. I didn’t want
to see anything. I just wanted to shrivel up and die, but
instead the third eye let the scene in front of me play out in
my head as if it were a movie. I wondered if clawing out
my eyeballs would somehow shut off the third eye.

“From now on wards, you are to have no contact with
me. I want absolutely nothing to do with you or anything
that involves you,” she paused sucking in a slow shaky
breath. “Leave me alone, Dean; do not mention me to
anyone; do not try to talk to me, just forget that I was ever
a part of your life,” Katalin told him and began to w alk
away but just as she was a few footsteps away Dean
grabbed her hand yanking her back to face him harshly.

“What is going on?” His voice was hard and
commanding - his alpha voice. I waited, expecting to feel
something at the scary demanding tone, but nothing
happened. I felt nothing - no fear or terror - just nothing
but emptiness, and I realized that when you had nothing to
live for you had nothing to lose.

“I don’t know what you mean?”
“Cut the shit, Katalin. You’re forgetting that I know
you, the real you, not the numb, stone cold, evil bitch you
pretend to be.”
“Let me go, Dean,” she whispered as she closed her
eyes and I could hear her voice breaking. “Please let me
go.”
“I’m not letting you go until you tell me what’s going
on!”
“My father wants you dead,” she whispered opening
her eyes and looking up to him. “We both know when
Victor wants someone dead, they die eventually…”
“He knows,” Dean realized. I didn’t know what was
going on. I gave up then, I didn’t care to know or
understand anything, it w asn’t worth it anymore.
“Yes,” Katalin swallowed, tears running down her eyes.
“Victor knows… You almost died Dean... I had to give
you my chi. I weakened myself - my abilities - my blood…
It was all weakened because I saved you… and I don’t
regret that I did. I’ll never regret saving you, no matter
what the consequences are… I love you Dean... more than
I should…
“Victor already thinks you’re my weak link, I’m his best
weapon and he can’t have me being weak. He saw what I
would give to protect you, to keep you alive…”
“Is this what you want Kat?” Dean asked grabbing her
shoulders with both hands, his blood staining her clothes.
Katalin didn’t answer, instead she closed her eyes turning
away from him. “Katalin,” Dean shook her violently, “is
this what you want?”
“If keeping you alive means staying away from you,
what choice do I have?”
“Fine then!” Dean spat releasing her shoulders. “Say
it.” He spun around, turning his back to her, his hands
clenched into tight fists making his injured hand bleed
even more now. “Say it, Katalin! Release me from my
oath.”
Katalin sank to her knees, hanging her head as she
sobbed. Her entire frame shook. “I release you...” she
choked out, her voice broken. At this Dean turned around
to face her, staring at her in shock as if he didn’t expect
this.
Something stirred awake inside me then and I was no
longer numb. The hole in my chest, where my heart should
be, throbbed and vibrated with pure un-healing agony. My
body ached as though I was being crushed. Raw pain
shocked me.
And then Katalin’s words were echoing through my
head, again and again as if it were a broken record. She was
saying goodbye to Dean even though she loved him. She
was saying goodbye to protect him, to keep him from
getting hurt.
This was it; this was what she w as trying to tell me all
along. The third eye had seen it before I had, that’s why I
couldn’t shut it off. I had to see Katalin saying goodbye to
Dean. At once all the things Katalin said to me since I’d
met her came back instantly.
Power was useless if not controlled. You did what you
needed to. In Thirdworld, you needed to be selfish. It all
meant something. What was the point of having power if
you didn’t use it to protect the people you loved? You
needed to be selfish and save those you loved no matter
what. Daren did - he saved me and lost his life. Eric was
willing to do it and Katalin was doing it right now. But
what did it matter - Eric and everyone I loved was still
dead.
I shot up into a sitting position and found myself in
complete and utter darkness, and soaked to the bone. My
clothes - not the bloody wedding dress I’d been wearing
just seconds ago - was sticking to my skin with sweat. I
was somehow in my bedroom at the Wilson’s house. My
heart was pounding in my chest, rapid and like drums
inside my head. My pulse was racing and my breathing was
uneven, shallow, and panicked. Even my face was wet with
both sweat and tears.
I didn’t understand anything. What was going on?
What was happening? How did I get here? Just seconds
ago, I’d seen Katalin murder everyone I loved. My parents
were dead. My aunt, Dr. and Mrs. Wilson were dead…
Eric was dead…
Without thinking, with only the need to do something
driving me I threw the cover off me and got off the bed,
walking to the door. Once outside, light pierced my eyes
like knives stabbing me, but I didn’t care. Ignoring the
pain, I began walking towards the staircase slowly,
nervous, and weary. Soon sounds were beginning to get
clearer, and when I got to the staircase, I found out why.
The people who’d been involved in planning and
catering the wedding were still here. They were hustling
about, yelling orders at each other, and at first I thought
they were taking everything down, but I soon realized I
was wrong.
It was the opposite; they were putting them up. The DJ
was testing his sound system, the decorator was instructing
her team on what went where, while the florist and her
team were coming into the house with huge trolleys filled
with buckets of flowers.
I ran down the rest of the stairs and grabbed onto the
first person I saw, a woman. “What’s happening here?” I
demanded to know.
“We’re getting ready for the wedding tomorrow…” the
woman trailed off, looking at me like I was crazy.
“Who’s wedding?”
“Eric Wilson…” she frowned, pulling away from me
and then going about her business.
I stood there for a moment, trying to make sense of
everything and the instant it sunk into my head, I took off
running towards the pool house, hoping beyond
everything that I was right. I was going at top speed and it
only took me a second to get out of the house and in sight
of the pool house, yet I found that this wasn’t fast enough.
I pushed my legs to go faster, needing to know if this was
real or not.
“Eric!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I opened
the door, storming the house. My heart was pounding in
my chest, beating so fast that I thought it was going to
break out and fly away. Not knowing where he was, I
stopped in my tracks and inhaled deeply.
“Eric!” I screamed, afraid to hope, yet hoping that he
was here nevertheless. And just like that, as if my hope had
conjured him up, he was there, standing in front of me
with the rest of his groomsmen. I barely looked at them.
My eyes were stuck to Eric, glorious and beautiful and
alive. I probably looked like a mess, but I didn’t care – he
was alive.
It had all been a vision, given to me by the third eye,
showing me what would happen if I stopped. It hadn’t
happened yet, none of it had, and I could change it. It had
seemed so real. I had felt every heart-wrenching ache,
every painful throb of losing him. I had seen his last breath
and I had heard his heart stutter to a stop. None of that
had really happened though. It had been a vision of the
third eye. Having him here in front of me, alive and okay
was a miracle. It was all I wanted, all I’d ever need.
I loved Eric so much and I never wanted to lose him
ever again. Even now, when I could see that he was alive, I
could still feel the aching pain of losing him - the
overwhelming agony that had struck me. I never wanted to
go through that again.
“Umm… hi,” he began clearly confused, “it’s bad luck
to see-” he never got to finish that sentence.
I launched myself at him with so much force that when
he caught me he literally stumbled back. “I love you,” I
said hugging him tightly, pressing my body into his as I
breathed in his scent. “I love you.”
“And I you… but, Jen, what’s going on?” he frowned
at me. “You’re crying…” Eric then whispered as he raised
his hand, wiping my face dry and I realized I really was
crying. Without releasing me he began guiding me towards
the bedroom. “Why are you crying, Jen?” he whispered
once we were there.
“I’m happy,” I muttered sniffing, barely able to control
myself. I couldn’t stop looking at him. It was hard to
believe what I had lived through just a few minutes ago
had all been in my mind. “Eric I love you so much…”
“You already said that but… I don’t know what’s…”
he trailed off.
There was so many things that I wanted to tell him.
Instead I heard myself ask, “Marry me, Eric?”
“What?” he frowned at me, as if I’d gone utterly mad.
“Eric… I love you… I want to spend the rest of my
life with you, because without you I wouldn’t be living.
Everything I am, I am because of you… You were always
there for me... even when I was hurting and angry… even
when I put you in danger… When we met… I was in a
dark, lonely place. My world was falling apart. I was in
pieces but you gave me something to fight against.
Fighting our marriage saved me. I love you and I do want
to marry you, but I don’t want this wedding…” I was so
nervous my stomach was doing summersaults, flipping this
way and that.
He remained silent for a long while, staring at me
totally confused and shocked. “Okay so you want me to
marry you?” I nodded instantly. “But you don’t want the
wedding?” his frown deepened. “I’ll marry you, but I don’t
see how… if you don’t want the wedding…”
“I don’t want the wedding that’s happening
tomorrow…” I tried explaining. “It’s fake and it’s…” I
trailed off not being able to find the words to say what I
wanted.
Eric didn’t do anything for what felt like a long while;
he just stared at me silently. His eyes never left my body.
They were focused and so intense that I knew he was
reading me, figuring out the things I needed to say but
couldn’t. I let him. “I get it, Jen,” he then sighed. “The
wedding tomorrow is forced and not real, you want
something genuine. You don’t want us to get married
because Thirdworld is telling us we have to. Okay.”
“Okay?” I asked.
“Okay,” he repeated, grinning at me. “I’ll marry you
because I love you too.” So this is what true happiness felt
like, I thought. I couldn’t stop smiling - I didn’t want to. I
wanted to live in this perfect moment forever. If I could
have frozen this moment in time, I would have.
About forty-five minutes later Eric and I were standing
in the bedroom of the pool house, with a dazed priest in
front of us, and Jason at his side. Making people do things
they didn’t normally do was one of Jason’s talents.
According to Eric, Jason could influence a person’s
thought and action by using his chi on them, and when he
had showed up at the priest’s house in the middle of the
night, that’s exactly what he did.
And so, Eric and I got married with no one watching
us, save for Jason, our witness. I was barefoot and wearing
Eric’s worn out, old T-shirts and shorts while he was in
pretty much the same. I had not a speck of make up on,
my hair probably looked like a nest, and my eyes were
bloodshot and puffy from crying. It was perfect though,
because our wedding was real. It wasn't done because we
were being forced into it. Right now, no one was telling us
that we had to marry each other or the people we loved
were going to die. We married each other simply because
we loved each other.
I had never been this happy before. I was in pure and
complete bliss. Everything was absolutely perfect. I had
the world’s most amazing person. I knew that I didn’t
deserve him, but I was glad that I had him. Ever since I’d
come into Eric’s life, I had caused him pain, put him in
danger and screwed up his life, now I was going to make it
up to him. I would spend the rest of my life making it up
to him and I was happy I had the chance.
Once the priest was done and Jason had walked him
out – to ensure he remembered nothing of tonight, no
doubt – there was only one thing left to make it real. Eric
and I had to feed on each other.
Saying I was nervous was a huge understatement. I was
literally shaking. My stomach was in knots that tightened
with each passing second. My heart was flying in my chest,
about to burst, and beating so hard and fast that I could
hear it pounding in my ear.
“Relax, Jen,” Eric chuckled, pure amusement written
on his face.
“I can’t,” I muttered, my voice breathy and shaking.
“Well…” he mused as he playfully pulled me closer,
making me stumble towards him awkwardly. He released
one of my hand, placing it at the side of my neck. “Maybe
we can do something about that,” Eric whispered as his
thumb began gently stroking my jaw line.
His touch was warm and so soft that I could barely feel
it, but my body was attuned to him and even the slightest
touch of his could make me insane. I could feel myself
relaxing. Slowly the tension that had settled in me because
of the vision began to fade. I could feel it leaving my body
and eventually I was so relaxed I was barely aware when
Eric pulled me to him and kissed me. All I knew was that I
was suddenly kissing him back.
When he finally did pull away, we were both breathless.
I could see his desire radiating off him in waves and it
attacked me like a tsunami, making me want him even
more than I already did. “I’m going to bite you on your
wrist, okay,” he whispered breathily.
He didn’t have to explain to me why, I already knew.
Eric and I had gone against Thirdworld; something that
caused people to die. We’d put our families and friends at
risk, and if anyone from Thirdworld were to find out
about this, the first people that were going to suffer was
the people we cared about. My only response was a weak
nod and he slowly brought the hand he was holding up to
his lips, kissing my wrist gently.
My eyes closed automatically as I felt his fangs gently
razing against the over-sensitive skin on my wrist. I sucked
in a breath, not knowing what to expect. I knew Eric
would never hurt me and I trusted him completely, but at
the same time this was foreign to me.
His teeth gently skimmed over my flesh once and then
finally, after it felt like I’d waited forever, I felt his fangs
puncture my skin and then push into my flesh, tapping
into the vein underneath.
At first all I felt was pain – a feeling so strong and
intense that I wanted to yank my hand away from him and
run for the hills. I didn’t though, even as it felt like he was
literally tearing away my skin. Gradually the pain began to
dull. It faded until it was completely gone and all that was
left was a tugging and pulling sensation as if I was being
stitched up. There was also something else, too mild to
really hold onto but growing as the seconds ticked by.
It was pleasure I realized when the feeling rose to the
surface. It was more than pleasure actually – something
that was too strong and intense to describe, something I’d
never felt before. It travelled through my body, coating me
with blissful abandon. My body had been transformed into
a live wire and was about to explode.