Scarlet Masquerade (23 page)

“A.J., I’m sorry. I know that wasn’t the reaction you wanted. I mean, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t attracted to you, but I barely know you. I feel like I’ve met you before but—”

“Clarissa, please don’t apologize. It’s my fault. I’m pushing things too fast. I’m used to getting what I want and, well…” A.J. let the words die on her lips turning and reaching for both of Clarissa’s hands. “Time is not our friend at the moment.”

A.J. smiled and pulled Clarissa away from the window. She didn’t want anyone hearing their conversation, but more importantly she didn’t want to risk Clarissa’s safety if someone was waiting for an opportunity. A.J. watched as a puzzled expression crossed Clarissa’s face.

“I don’t understand.”

“Please sit down and let me explain.” Confused, Clarissa sat on the couch. A.J. knelt in front of her. “Clarissa, I’ve looked for someone like you my whole life. In fact, many years ago I thought I had found someone like you, but she was taken from me.” A.J.’s thumbs caressed the backs of soft hands as she looked down at them.

“Oh, A.J. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

A.J. reached up and started to untie Clarissa’s mask. Clarissa tried to stop her, but A.J. smiled and whispered, “Please.”

She hadn’t forgotten how beautiful Clarissa was, but it had been so long since she had seen her this close, she wanted to cry. Holding back tears, A.J. reached up and framed Clarissa’s face with her hands.
You’re so beautiful,
thought A.J., gently stroking the beautiful face with her thumbs.

“Who are you?” Clarissa’s pleaded.

“I’ll explain everything, if you promise me you won’t run.” A.J. watched Clarissa’s heart beat speed up. She could feel Clarissa tense under her touch and ran her hands down the frightened woman’s arms. Grasping her hands, she continued, “Have you ever loved someone so much you would give your life for that person?”

Clarissa nodded her head and looked down at their joined hands. Whispering, she said, “I have. Once, a long time ago, but things changed and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.” A small tear trickled down Clarissa’s face, unsettling A.J.

“Clarissa, I need you to do me another favor. Take my mask off for me.” Clarissa sat and looked at her. Another pleading whisper escaped A.J.’s lips, “Please, don’t be afraid.”

Time seemed to stand still while A.J. waited for Clarissa’s hands to do her bidding. She watched Clarissa bite her lower lip and then, finally, reach up to the ties that kept A.J.’s mask in place. A.J.’s heart was pounding so loudly she was sure Clarissa could hear her own fear. She could take anything right now, but rejection. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she would be sitting in the same room as Clarissa. So a few minutes of apprehension was a small price to pay to reconnect with her one true love. As the mask started to fall, A.J. lowered her head and raised Clarissa’s hands to bury her face in the soft caress of her palms. Gentle kisses covered the delicate fingers and she started to cry. She felt Clarissa’s fingers cup her chin and raise it.

“Please don’t cry, A.J. I’m sure you’re….” The words trailed off when Clarissa got her first glimpse of A.J.’s face. “Alexandra.”

Gulping for breath, Clarissa felt as though she had been punched in the stomach. How could it be? She had cradled the crying face of Alexandra Locke and now staring at her were the most beautiful, sad blue eyes. The silence was stifling and all Clarissa could think about was running away from this murderer. Afraid to move she sat still as a statue, scared that if she didn’t Alexandra might hurt her. And yet, the pain in Alexandra’s eyes told a different truth. As tears streamed down Alexandra’s face, Clarissa resisted the urge to wipe them way. She was afraid that if she touched her lover from the past, she might melt into her arms, and yet this was the woman that had killed her family. Clarissa’s emotion battled within her, the longing for Alexandra to touch her, kiss her, as she had done in the past, was at war with the pain of losing her family at Alexandra’s hands.

“You murdered my family. Why?” Clarissa’s soft tone hid the undercurrent of emotion that was starting to well up inside her.

“What?”

Clarissa was taken aback by the shocked look on Alexandra’s face. She hadn’t prepared herself for a meeting with Alexandra, ever. Now she was face to face with the killer she had always known Alexandra to be.

“You heard me. Why Alexandra? Why my family? Was your grief at losing me so strong that you had to take it out on them?” Clarissa stiffened with each word trying to control the turmoil she could feel working inside her body. If she changed now, she didn’t care. She was face to face with a monster and perhaps it would take another monster to exorcise Alexandra from her mind completely. “I loved you like I’ve never loved before or since. I gave everything to be with you and that is how you repaid me, by murdering my family?”

Alexandra bowed her head, resting her hands on each side of Clarissa’s legs. Clarissa felt the rage flow off Alexandra as she watched her hands begin to tremble. Confused, she once again reached down and lifted Alexandra’s chin to face her. She wasn’t going to let Alexandra get away with trying to intimated her or leave without an explanation. She, too, had strength, and she wasn’t afraid of Alexandra Locke. While she hadn’t sought her out for revenge, she also knew that this meeting would never have taken place if she had her way. Clarissa had learned to deal with her hatred for Alexandra. It was tucked into nice little box she kept packed away in the back of her mind. It was the only way she survived it. But now it seems the box wanted to be open and she could feel the hatred spilling out of what was now an open wound.

“Answer me,” Clarissa said with so much venom it slapped Alexandra across the face. And then she couldn’t hold back. Fists pummeled Alexandra with such fury that A.J. only sat there stunned by the punishment. Blow after blow assailed her and yet she took them. Clarissa’s onslaught slowed when she realized that Alexandra wasn’t defending herself. A stinging slap across Alexandra’s face brought clarity to Clarissa and she immediately recoiled. Shamed by the attack, she lowered her head and whispered, “Answer me.”

###

A.J. sat stunned at the accusation. The beating she could handle, but the accusations floored her. Her tongue had lost all ability to function and she just stared into angry green eyes that looked like they would stake her where she knelt. Trying to put two and two together as quickly as she could, a slow rage began to build in A.J. De Marcus. He had once again taken everything she loved and tainted it. Even now, he had wormed his way back into what should have been at least a reunion between friends. But no, he had taken even that away from her. Well, this time he wasn’t going to win. A.J. would do whatever she needed to convince Clarissa that not only did she not kill her family, but that she still loved her with every fiber of her being. She rose and sat on the couch next to Clarissa and watched Clarissa recoil from her touch. Pulling her hands back, she clasped them in her lap trying to control the tremors that worked through her body. Clarissa being so close was starting to stir her lust and she didn’t need that competition with her head right now.

“I don’t know what lies you’ve been told, but I never touched your family. I knew how much they meant to you. I even respected their wishes when they banished me from seeing you as you lay dying. I wanted to be there with you, to comfort you when you took your last breath. I wanted my face to be the last thing you saw when you passed from this world and into the next. But it wasn’t meant to be, thanks to De Marcus.” A.J. took a long deep breath steadying herself for what might come next.

“Why would he lie to me? Assuming he’s the one that told me?”

“Why would I? I thought you were lost to me, passed on to the next world, never to be seen again. I left the night before you died. I went to my country house and grieved for years. I closed myself off to everyone and everything. I was practically ruined by my grief and I didn’t care. I had lost the one true thing that mattered to me, you.” A.J. straightened, looking around the room. She didn’t have much time and now she needed to convince a woman who thought she had killed her family that the safest place was with her. This wouldn’t be easy, but she didn’t have a choice.

“When did you know I was alive? How long has it taken you to put your plan into action?” Clarissa was throwing accusations around like spitballs and A.J. was trying to figure out what she was accusing her of now.

“What are you talking about?” A.J. was confused, and she needed Clarissa to clear up that confusion and quick. Time wasn’t their friend.

“The assassin that was sent to kill me the other night. That was you, right?”

The accusation was like a punch to the gut and A.J. leaned her elbows on her knees trying to steady her breathing.

“I just told you how much you mean to me and you think I’m trying to kill you?” Running her fingers through her hair, she worked to control her rage. “Sorry to break the news to you, but I’m the one protecting you.” Standing she began to shake with rage. “I fucking can’t believe you would think I would have anything to do with hurting you.” Reaching into her pocket she pulled out her tin and popped two more pills. She was spiraling out of control and it was getting harder and harder to keep her wits about her listening to the lies being thrown at her. “I saw you at that bar, with that…that butch or whatever she was. I couldn’t believe it.” A.J. paced the floor, running her hands through her hair recounting the night to Clarissa. “I followed you on my motorcycle. When you got home I called a friend and gave him the information to track you down.”

With her back to Clarissa she continued speaking to the wall. It was easier on her head and her eyes. She wanted to run. For the first time in her life she wanted to be anywhere but right here next to Clarissa. A.J. could feel the daggers piercing her back, her shoulders dropping in defeat. Had Clarissa bested her? Would she really give up so easily and let Clarissa walk out of her life again, for good? Time was a cruel mistress, and A.J. would have plenty of it to think of all the things she should have said to the beautiful woman she dreamed of when she needed hope.

“I didn’t know he was working for the enemy, until the other day.” As she turned looking at Clarissa time stood still for a brief moment, their eyes meeting. Centuries fell away and memories flooded them both. But then the wall was put back firmly in place right where it had been only minutes ago.

“Enemy? What are you talking about, Alexandra?” Clarissa’s expression gave little away to A.J., walking back and looking at her lover imploringly.

“De Marcus, he’s alive, and I can only think of one person who wants to hurt both of us. He is the only thing linking you and me together.”

“That’s impossible. He died in England. He fell out of a hayloft and onto a combine. The woman he was with saw it all.” Clarissa grabbed her head and shook it, “That’s...that’s impossible, Alexandra, he’s dead.” The fear in Clarissa’s eyes gave A.J. pause. What had he done to Clarissa to make her so frightened? It didn’t matter. She was safe now and A.J. was going to do what she should have done centuries ago. Kill De Marcus.

“Listen to me. We have to go now. I can protect you, but you have to leave with me.” A.J. pulled Clarissa up and turned, but was quickly stopped when Clarissa jerked back.

“Wait. I can’t leave now. I have the ball, and I have to make sure everyone is taken care of. Stop, Alexandra, you don’t understand.” Waving her hands around, “This, this is my responsibility. I have to take care of things around here.”

A.J. grasped the bobbing head in her hands, stopping Clarissa from continuing. “You don’t understand. If we don’t get out of here you won’t have to worry about…” A.J. flung her hands around and gestured to the room, “any of this. Get it? You’ll be dead. Look, you can tell everyone that I’m sick and that you need to see that I get home. Me being the ‘big’ donor and all. I’m sure your President Woods will beg you to take extra good care of me.” A.J. looked as the fear of death came to realization in Clarissa’s expression. “Clarissa, people could die if De Marcus shows up here. Do you understand? And it would be on our heads. I don’t think I can live with that, can you?”

A.J. pulled Clarissa to the door and waited while she unlocked it.

“No, I couldn’t live with that. I’ll find President Woods and then we can go.”

“I’m coming with you. Trust me, I can be very convincing. Besides, I just need to put the thought in his head and we’re out of here.”

“That was you talking to me on the dance floor, wasn’t it? The caress on my face and along my...” The words died on Clarissa’s lips as she touched the side of her face. “The rose that was left for me, you did that didn’t you? Now it all makes sense. It’s been you all this time, hasn’t it?”

“Clarissa, I wanted more time to get to know you again. To be able to reveal myself to you and not frighten you away, but now I’m afraid we don’t have that luxury.” A wave of energy hit A.J. and Clarissa as soon as they hit the dance floor. Too many people and not enough room were overloading their senses and making them vulnerable.

“Alexandra, there. I see President Woods over there.” A.J. followed Clarissa’s finger and found the tall gentleman speaking to someone.

“Clarissa, we need to go. Now.” A.J.’s tone gave no room for discussion, pulling Clarissa in the direction of the front entrance. Suddenly, A.J. felt Clarissa being pulled in another direction.

“Oh there you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Oh, who is this gorgeous woman?”

“Carol. I don’t have time to talk. This is A.J. Lockwood and I’m afraid she is feeling sick. Can you cover for me? I have to take her home.” Clarissa hoped the excuse would do the trick, but Carol lingered, holding Clarissa firmly.

“Oh, right. You need to take her hoooome.” Carol winked at Clarissa and then whispered, “I think I would change my fluid for her. Have fun.” She winked again, and let Clarissa’s hand go.

“Nice to meet you. Perhaps another time, Carol.” A.J. winked, knowing she was playing into her game pulling Clarissa to the door.