Chapter Four

Its strange but the more time I spend with Seb and Eddy the more convinced I am the more convinced I am that they are hiding something. Although whats stranger is as I spend more time with Seb the less frequent that nightmare has become. I suspect its been replaced with the sensation of being watched, whether that is down to paranoia, delusions or this curiosity I have no idea, and Seb clearly has no intention of sedating the subject.

Mind you the elephant in the room is Lilly and her ridiculous tantrums lately. Possibly because she hasn’t been getting attention for a while, I’ve been too busy house hunting on the quiet, not involving her in what I’m doing. Or perhaps not being exclusively around her at the moment has certainly put her nose out of joint.

It possibly didn’t help matters when Seb and Eddy came over while Lilly was at work. “It may just be the sofa for now, simply because I am house hunting but you two are more then welcome to come to the new place. You know if you had any special features I could consider keeping an eye out for them?”

“If it has a basement I’m in for sure” Eddy grinned. Seb nodded.

Nipping to the bar for a spot of dinner after the boys had moved their stuff in to the house was a great idea. Slightly less great when Lilly came in and sat down with us.

Eddy raised a glass without thinking and toasted “to the new house” Seb caught my eye as we sipped our drinks praying that Lilly hadn’t noticed. Unfortunately I wasn’t as lucky as I had hoped. An interrogation later and she knew I planned to move. There was a few seconds of quiet after she asked when I planned on letting her know, she was on the edge of another one of her tantrums and I really didn’t  have the patience to put up with her crap this evening. “Well you can either rent the house or move out.” She took a second before she said, “you know, I think I will move in with you, you can’t get rid of me if you tried”

“You don’t say” Seb mouthed under his breath, he’s right, I’ve been trying for years, some how  couldn’t respond.

Back at the house Seb, Eddy and I were sat at the table while Lilly lounged on the sofa making a list of requirements for the new house. I sat talking with the boys as we made a practical list. “So Eddy you want the basement? Seb you prefer the kitchen to be simple open plan? I think that is doable.” Lilly sauntered over and handed me a list, “you want a paved garden, massive bedroom, walk in wardrobe, en suite, office, pink bathroom and a jacuzzi. Right.” I scrunched up the list and threw it from my chair into the bin. “What did you do that for?”

“Hmm let me see, its unreasonable, and oh yeah its not going to happen.”

“But they got what they wanted on the list!”

Chapter Five

I over heard Seb and Eddy discussing a nearby woods on y way to go and make a cup of tea, and to be honest this wasn’t the first hushed conversation I had stumbled upon today.  I had heard some talk of a full moon, but at that tie of the morning, I didn’t think anything of it. That was, of course, until Eddy told Lilly he had to go on a work retreat over night. Lilly suspected nothing, but Eddy is a bad liar. Of course I kept it quiet, with Seb watching like a hawk now wasn’t the tie to discuss lies or suspicions.

When Lilly and I were finally alone she declared we had to follow Eddy having decided he was cheating on her, her intention was to catch him in the act. We followed Eddy at a distance into the woods he had talked about earlier.

Being dragged forwards by Lilly I had that sinking feeling as we went further and further into the trees, not paying enough attention to a car parking up. Slowly we found ourselves standing at a small unlocked gate that lead into the mouth of a small cave that Eddy had disappeared into without hesitation.

I felt a cold tight hand grasping my free wrist as Lilly made to drag us further towards Eddy. Looking behind for the first time since Lilly started the pursuit I came face to face with Seb. Like a child caught in the act of wrong doing I couldn’t reach his gaze. Lilly quickly began to protest to resume the pursuit loudly as we heard footsteps approaching in the cave behind us, as Eddy quickly shut the gate, locking it and demanding that we leave, as he let out an agonizing, blood curdling scream.

I felt Seb’s grip on my wrist tighten as he pulled Lilly and I back to stop us getting any closer. For the first tie I watched Lilly at a loss for words. Breaking free she went straight to the gate trying to see where Eddy had disappeared to.  Before Seb could pull her back Eddy had lunged at her, with bright amber eyes he swiped his growing claws at her out stretched hand, his skin splitting. Seb sprung into action dragging us away. Pausing finally to lead Lilly by the  hand, I could see blood dripping from her. I pulled Lilly to face me, took her left hand  mine and lifted the torn sleeve, her wrist was scratched.

When we got to the hospital we had to tell them she had caught it on some nails, although I don’t know if the tetanus jab could really do any good. For the first time I watched Lilly at a loss for real words, she just remained silent. Even walking into the house seemed different, the quiet seemed to echo. I told Seb in no uncertain terms to wait there and make some tea while I put Lilly to bed.

Now he couldn’t deny answers, I took the tea waiting for him to finally speak. “I’m sorry, Lilly was never meant to, you were never meant to, you deserve the truth, he’s a werewolf.” I waited to feel something, anything; fear, surprise, shock, disbelief but none came. “I kind of guessed that. So if the monsters that hide under the bed are real, what’s your deal? Because I know that isn’t your secret, what’s your excuse? I heard you follow us, you could have stopped this, stopped us at any time, why not?” The silence dragged, “I was selfish. I wanted to tell you, but you would never have believed without proof, you would run for miles and miles, and you still might. If you wanted to you could,  I am sorry Lilly got hurt, but Demi, you have to know I love you.” I couldn’t reply, he had more explaining to do, and quite frankly now was not the time for the first “I love you” in the relationship. “You have to know I love you and would never hurt you, yes I am filled with hunger, just like you said. I have done terrible things, I am cursed, I have hurt and killed so any people than I ever want to count.”

I know I should feel scared but I couldn’t believe it, it didn’t feel real. His eyes turned as black as coal and he revealed fangs sprouting in his mouth, as quickly as it had come, his demonic face returned to the kind features I had come to know. “With you I a safer, the hunger is gone, I don’t need blood, I need you.” His head dropped, I took his hand and sat him on the sofa.

We sat and talked, everything from his past, his blood lust, his memories. I looked into his eyes and reminded him of the night we met. Finally I explained about the ring, the psychotic ex, the feeling of being watched. He told me about how he became this thing, this vampire, what he remembered about his victims, my own curiosity surprised him, when I asked what he remembered he replied with one word, “everything”. I stopped asking questions, now I asked for a promise, “should there be no other choice, no other way, will you trust me? Can you turn me? There is only a  matter of time until Mark makes good on his promise, please.” He was reluctant to agree, when he did a new feeling spread over me, relief. Relief that now I had an option. Even in the darkness I felt safer as we fell asleep on the sofa.

 

Chapter Two

I can’t put my finger on what it is I’m missing. I know Eddy and Turner were hiding something. I just want to know what. A while after I finally manage to fall asleep I am woken up by some stupid idiot trying to call me, of course in the early hours of the morning who bothers to look at the caller I.D? I couldn’t recognize the voice “I’m tired, I’m so tired of hiding, you’re tired of hiding too. I could see it in your eyes.” Finally the fog lifted “Turner? What the hell? Do you even know what the time is?” He apologized for waking me and asked if we could meet to talk properly. Too tired to pay attention I told him to call me when I was awake and he was sober.

Here is the thing, every night for almost a year now, I have tossed and turned throughout the night, for one reason; the reoccurring nightmare. Every night he is standing in the hall; hurt and angry standing next  to the last box of his stuff. Lilly stood beside me, her arm around my shoulder as I tell him to leave, again, that I was never a possession, I was never his possession, that  never will be. I can see the hurt transform into rage. Cold, callous, angry screeching rage blaming Lilly for poisoning me, calling me a weak, spineless prude. Berating my values, for putting everyone, family and friends before him. For not sleeping with him. He stood vowing that the next man in my life will be the last, the moment that ring is off my finger; either on the dresser or another mans hand he will be coming back for me.

But that’s not just a dream or a nightmare. Its a memory of my last relationship with Mark. It is what made me get the courage to leave, to leave this house, the past and memories behind.

At about lunch time my phone started to leap into action. True to his word Turner had called back. “Talk damn it” it was Eddy’s voice hissing words at Turner, “whats the worst that could happen” he hissed. Had they actually forgotten I could hear them? “Oh, I don’t know I could go nuts and bite her.” Taking my cue I cleared my throat. “Sorry I got distracted, I just wondered, well, would you like to go for a drink tonight?”

“I’m meeting Lilly at the bar tonight, she’s dragging me to complain, I mean she wants to whinge, I mean sh wants to talk about her lunch date.”
“Oh, no worries maybe another-”
“That wasn’t a no, I mean, I couldn’t stop any knights in shining armour wishing to save me from Lilly’s dating woes, I would be eternally grateful.”
“An eternity is a long time.”
“I know”
“I am sure I could arrange that. Is the armour compulsory?” I couldn’t help but smile, even while the estate agent showed a weird looking couple around. “Depends if your brave enough?”

Chapter Three

By the time I arrived at the bar Lilly had snagged us a booth and a couple of menus. I just counted my blessings that I didn’t have to cook. Lilly is an absolute pain in the ass to cook for, only roasts and very plain, very simple, very dull cooking gets eaten other then that its tantrums and refusing to eat it. Lilly started on a monologue about how frustrating her boss was. Mainly because she wasn’t in his pants yet. Mean while I had begun singing soundtracks to myself, I just sat there nodding as she went on about the boy on front desk flirting with her and she dived into the ever so dull story of her date. Thankfully seconds later I sensed someone standing beside me, “mind if we join you?” Not waiting for an answer he told me to “budge up” I slid over as Turner sat beside me. Lilly reluctantly followed suit for Eddy while she pouted again. “What happened to the armour?”

“It was all tarnished”

“What a shame.” Eddy didn’t seem to be happy sat next to Lilly as she resumed dominating conversation as she complained continuously about her lunch date. Even after food arrived we suffered through the constant drama with no interlude, no break, no pause. Eddy rather foolishly decided to join a side, he was team “poor guy who dated her”, had he been wiser he would have kept it a secret thought. He was never going to be the firs to try shining a light on a different angle causing more frustration. Turner smiled “I see your ring is on the right, you haven’t touched it once. So, what is it you are hiding from?”

“Why are you so curious hmm? It’s just living on the right today, so what is it you are hiding from then?” I held my gaze until he spoke, “you have beautiful eyes” unimpressed I rolled my eyes, “flattery will get you no where.” He took a sip of his drink before we spoke again. “I’m not hiding anymore, I have learned that I can control myself. You surprise me, you see right through me, you call me on it, not many have the guts to do that. I am afraid, of you, that you will see the darkness in me and run away, I don’t want you to run, even though you should, I don’t deserve forgiveness, or reprieve, but I some how just want some kind of acceptance. I have done some truly terrible things, mistakes, but I have changed.” Momentarily petrified yet some how relaxed, I look over at Eddy and Lilly bickering about dating to busy to pay attention. Struggling to read Turner I finally speak, “we all have our demons you know. And hiding behind your mask won’t save you in the end.” He nodded and lent in slowly before kissing me gently. “you do realize I won’t keep calling you Turner?” He smiled, “really?”

“Really, I much prefer Sebastian” I saw him flinch, “at least shorten it to Seb.”

“well I suppose thats better then calling you Bass?” The conversation between Lilly and Eddy had fizzled out as they now started pulling kissing faces at us. After a while I turned to face Seb and spoke quietly. “I suppose, I should be afraid of you, but I’m not. I’m tired of being afraid of shadows. Whatever the secret is, keep it, we all have secrets. At some point we have to face our fears, whatever they are.”
“Hey Demi, their twat of a landlords selling the place out from under them, do you know any flats or anything?”
“I’ll keep an eye out, Lilly you have gravy down your top.” I laughed as she started a whole new drama on gravy.