Safe Hex With a Vampire (17 page)

She walked over to Isaiah and took his hands
in hers. Her eyes closed and she flinched. Isaiah’s eyes widened
and then closed. His body shuddered and he let out a sigh of
relief. It was several minutes before she released Isaiah’s hand.
Aiden wasn’t exactly sure what she had done but he knew it had
something to do with the incident that had caused Isaiah’s
breakdown. Isaiah’s eyes opened and in slow degrees became more
focused.

Isaiah leaned down and kissed her on the
cheek. “Thank you,” he said, suddenly sounding saner.

“It wasn’t your fault that she died,” Ivy
said, startling Justin. “You weren’t the cause of her death and you
know that.”

Isaiah shook his head. “You’re wrong; I was
responsible for her care. I failed her. Thank you for taking some
of the pain and guilt away, Cousin.” He hugged her and then left
without another word. No longer shuffling, he strode out of the
room. He still looked changed, but Aiden supposed that one couldn’t
go completely insane and return to sanity as the same person.

Ivy looked a little drained and somewhat
frightened after her interaction with Isaiah.

“Are you okay?” Aiden asked Ivy.

She nodded. “It just takes me a few minutes
to recover. I’ve seen much worse.”

“Is he better now?” Justin asked
hopefully.

“Somewhat,” she said hesitantly. “He was
damaged by what happened and he won’t ever go back to what he was
before, but he should be less haunted by the memories. Just give
him time to come to terms with it in his own way. I took enough of
his pain away that he can think clearly now.” Ivy handed Justin a
card. “If he has a relapse, call me and I’ll meet with him again. I
don’t think he will but I’ve been wrong before.”

Justin looked like he wanted to ask more
questions, but the noise from the kitchen distracted them. Tempest
and Caitlin had not quietly entered the house. They were both
laughing so loud that it was hard to make out what they were
saying. Aiden did make out the word, “idiots,” so he assumed they
were still talking about him and Justin.

Aiden headed toward the kitchen, anxious to
see Tempest. It was actually kind of embarrassing how much he
wanted to see her. He would have been more embarrassed if Justin
hadn’t been racing in to see Caitlin.

“You cut your hair,” Aiden said to Tempest
as soon as he walked into the room.

Tempest shook her head back and forth to let
her hair bounce, and smiled. “Do you like it?”

“Yes,” he said honestly, wondering if it
would be rude to toss her over his shoulder and carry her upstairs
while Ivy was there. Then his mind drifted to the things he wanted
to do to her once he got her upstairs.

“Yes, it would be rude,” Ivy answered back.
“Please don’t ever project those images while I’m in the room
again.” Then she pointed a finger at Justin. “Same goes for
you.”

Justin looked shocked, and intrigued. “You
can read minds?”

“No,” Ivy answered, “but you all seem to
project your thoughts and I can read those. You might want to stop
doing that. I do not need to know that I’m the only person in this
room that is not getting great sex.”

Justin and Aiden grinned at each other and
then looked back at Ivy.

“Ew!” she shrieked. Her eyes darted from one
to the other. “Why would you put those kinds of images into my
mind? Seriously Aiden, that’s my sister. And you,” she said
pointing a finger at Justin, “I’m not even sure that’s physically
possible.”

Both of them started laughing and then
reached back as they both felt hands smack the backs of their
heads.

“What was that for?” Aiden asked.

“Don’t pick on my sister,” Tempest warned.
“I can’t believe how juvenile you two act together.”

“On that note, I’m leaving,” Ivy said. She
looked at Caitlin. “Sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk, but I get
the impression that we’ll see each other more in the future. I’m
Ivy by the way.”

“Caitlin,” she said with a curt nod.

“I thought you wanted to stay and meet
everyone,” Tempest said.

Ivy hesitated. “We have a new resident. I
can’t really be away too long.”

Tempest looked concerned, and Aiden began to
worry that she was going to feel obligated to return with Ivy.

Ivy must have sensed that too. “There’s
nothing you can do for her. She doesn’t need medical care, just
emotional support. We both know that’s my area.”

Tempest really wanted to argue but she knew
Ivy was right. “Promise you’ll call me if you need me.”

Ivy hugged her. “I promise. Now have fun,
and don’t be mean to Aiden.”

Claudia remained silent, lost in thought for
a long time. Finally, she squeezed my hand, and looked up into my
eyes with an intensity that made me want to take her right then and
there. “I would kill to protect you too, Roman.”

Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog

Tempest hadn’t spent a whole day just having
fun in years. Actually, she couldn’t remember the last time it had
happened. In grade school, she’d been the nerdy girl who always
wanted to have the best grades in her class. She hadn’t been
involved in many extracurricular activities until high school when
she’d learned how important they were for college applications.
While others were enjoying the college experience, she’d been
working hard to get into medical school. She’d allowed herself a
little fun during her first year of medical school. That is when
she’d lived with Brian and even made a few friends. After Lucy’s
suicide she had returned to her single minded focus of
becoming a doctor. After her residency, she had given all of her
attention to the center.

Her own mother often complained that Tempest
needed more down time, but Tempest found it hard to relax when she
lived at the same place she worked. There was always something to
do. Ivy had suggested that they hire more people so they could move
into their own homes and get more breaks. Rose and Willow only
spent three nights a week at the center and Ivy felt they should do
the same. It was just hard to let it go. Or, maybe she just needed
an excuse to avoid the rest of her life. Now she realized that she
was not only being unfair to herself, she was being unfair to Ivy.
Her sister stayed there to support her. They needed to make some
changes. When she got home she and Ivy were definitely going to do
more fun things. Maybe she wasn’t ready to move, but they would be
taking days off. How could she even think about becoming a mother
when all she did was work?

Tonight she was snuggled up on a very cozy
sofa with Aiden while they watched a movie. It was a sappy romantic
comedy that Tempest had wanted to watch, but never found the time
for. Aiden hadn’t complained at all when she’d picked the movie.
Then again, he watched a soap opera and really seemed to enjoy
reading Cosmo so how could he complain? Aiden smelled so good that
she took a deep breath and then sighed.

“This movie really sucks,” Drew complained
as he pouted on the chair beside the sofa.

Well that was a splash of cold water. For a
moment she’d forgotten they weren’t alone.

“You don’t have to watch it,” Aiden reminded
him, sounding more than a little annoyed.

Whether Drew really misunderstood Aiden’s
meaning or was being intentionally annoying, Tempest didn’t know.
She did know that Aiden looked ready to toss him out a window when
Drew changed the channel. Somehow she suspected that would spoil
the rest of the evening for her.

“I was really enjoying that movie,” Tempest
said sweetly.

Drew quickly changed the channel back and
gave her a lopsided grin.

“Thank you,” she said.

If she wasn’t mistaken, Aiden was actually
growling.

Drew sighed as he stared at her.

“How old is he?” Tempest whispered to
Aiden.

“I’m almost twenty two,” Drew
answered.

She looked skeptical.

“We don’t really mature very quickly, at
least emotionally,” Aiden explained. “He’ll probably be a
temperamental pain in the ass for another seven or eight years.
This is the age where it’s most dangerous to have him around humans
because he lacks any impulse control. It’s worse with him, because
he’s a little sociopath to begin with. We’re hoping he grows out of
it some.”

Drew scowled at Aiden. “There is something
to be said for youth and stamina.”

“More to be said for age and experience,”
Aiden replied calmly.

“And I suppose that with a little Viagra you
can still get it up long enough to satisfy a woman,” Drew said with
a smug grin. Then he turned his attention to Tempest. “Wanna see
what it’s like to have a man who’s not old enough to be your
ancestor?”

Aiden started to rise but Tempest caught his
arm.

“Drew, I think it might be best if you
watched television in your own room tonight,” Tempest
suggested.

Drew pouted for a moment before his face lit
up with excitement. “If I refuse to leave, will you do that mind
thing again?” He looked positively thrilled by the idea.

“You liked that?” Aiden asked.

Drew nodded enthusiastically. “I felt like
my whole body was vibrating with the energy in the air. I came so
hard that I thought I might die. It was fucking awesome!”

Tempest stared open mouthed for a
moment. That was more than a little disturbing. She could feel
Aiden’s body moving with his silent laughter. “Does that happen to
you too?” she asked Aiden.

He laughed out loud at her discomfort. “If
it did I’d pick a fight with you more often. This is the first time
I’ve ever been jealous of Drew.”

Drew was too caught up in the memory to pay
attention to their exchange. There was a far off, dreamy expression
on his face.

“We all have different talents and we
usually don’t completely understand them until we reach full
maturity,” Aiden explained. “This probably has something to do with
Drew’s special talent. I always thought it was being a pain in the
ass, but apparently it has something to do with sex.”

“I’m not removing him from the room,”
Tempest said with a shudder of revulsion.

Drew heard her and looked more than a little
disappointed. “What if I’m obnoxious? I can be
really
obnoxious when I try.”

“I’m sure you can,” Tempest said
awkwardly.

Drew was sitting on the edge of his seat
expectantly. “Can I at least watch the two of you tonight?”

“No!” Aiden snapped.

Drew didn’t seem at all dissuaded by the
rejection. He sighed as he stared at Tempest. “You are so
incredible.”

Aiden actually smiled. “That is the first
intelligent thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

“You do realize that this place is a mad
house, don’t you?” Tempest asked.

Aiden chuckled. “Yes, but it’s never
boring.”

Tempest smiled and snuggled into Aiden’s
side. They both gave up on the idea of getting rid of Drew. It
wasn’t long before Tempest dozed off.

Claudia looked at us both like we were
idiots. “Your father often brings women home. You said that Sofia
sends them away, but that was probably not always the case. Have
you ever wondered how many of your brothers might not even be her
children? You’ve said your father is a cruel man. Do you really
think he is any kinder to her? Her life cannot be easy.”

I looked at Viktor, realizing that we were
idiots. She was right about many things, but we didn’t have time to
explore those realizations.

“
I wouldn’t give her too much sympathy,”
Viktor said. “Sofia was very angry with Alessandro’s reaction to
you, Claudia. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that angry.” Then
his attention turned to me. “I believe she is going to tell Father
where she saw us. Sofia wants Claudia dead.”

Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog

Aiden was doing his best to give Tempest
some time alone. It would have been easier if she hadn’t told him
that she needed time to think. He didn’t really want to give her
too much time to think because he was sure she’d come up with
reasons why they shouldn’t be together.

The night before, they had acted like a
normal couple. Well, as normal as they could get under the
circumstances. Tempest had fallen asleep watching a movie with him,
and he’d even pretended Drew wasn’t with them for a short time.
After the movie, he’d once again told Drew that he could not come
upstairs and watch him with Tempest. Then he’d carried her up to
his room. She’d woken up on the stairs so they’d had crazy sex in
the hallway, against the door of his bedroom, and then they’d
fallen asleep together. It was perfect. Okay, almost perfect. Drew
had apparently managed to watch them, but Tempest didn’t know that
so it wasn’t too bad. Aiden realized then that they needed to make
a bigger effort to actually make it into his room next time.

This morning he had done everything he could
think of to stay away from Tempest. He’d headed to the gym at the
far end of the house. Then he’d showered and come back downstairs
only to find Tempest in deep conversation with Justin about
genetics. Had he not seen Justin with Caitlin, he might have been
jealous. Well, maybe he was a little jealous anyway. Not that he
thought Justin would try anything with her; he just hated sharing
her. After four hours he was going crazy. He decided to go back up
to his room to check on the details of the job he was starting
soon.

When he entered the room, he found Tempest
sitting in front of a laptop with tears running down her face.

He came up behind her and wrapped his arms
around her. “Why are you crying?” he asked softly. He didn’t want
to see her looking sad and vulnerable.

“I was just reading his blog.” she said and
pointed to the screen.

“My uncle’s blog?” Aiden asked after a
confused moment.