Essence (Nectar 3)

Sam moved into Kyla’s space and reached for her hand.

Kyla swatted at his hand, “No... I need to ---”

“Now!” Tristan roared.

“Kyle, follow Sam and Kyla. Go to the safe room at the back of my office closet downstairs. Go right there. Quickly,” Sasha told Kyle and Kyle got to his feet.

Before Kyla could finish her protest, Sam had her over his shoulder and her surroundings were blurring. She tried to reach for her belt so she could grab the dagger and stop Sam from whatever he was doing but he caught her wrist mid-run and a moment later she found herself inside Sasha’s house, inside the safe room downstairs.

She felt the cold rise in her, she was pissed. She was about to strike out at Sam but he cut her off.

“Sorry, Love. He needed you out of there.”

“What? I needed to be there, Sam. Shit!”

“No, Kyla. You don’t need those images haunting you. It’s gonna be a long night. Trust me. You don’t want to be there.”

“Why did he tell you to go after Sergey? Isn’t Sergey so much older and therefore stronger than you? How stupid was that?”

“Not stupid at all. That’s Adrian, though. He gets me to go after Sergey so that Sergey kills me in defense. That punishes me and it punishes my sister. It also punishes Tristan and then puts Tristan and Sergey on the outs. That’s how Adrian’s mind works.”

Kyle was there. Sam was quickly out of the room, without a goodbye, and the door was shut.

Kyla reached for the knob but it was locked.

“Shit. Shit, fuck!”

She paced a minute and then was aware of movement behind her. Kyle was reaching into the refrigerator, pulling out drinks,

“Coke?”

“Pepsi, if there’s any. Or ginger ale.” she muttered, “Fuck! They locked us in!”

“Who?”

“We were in the boathouse, Tristan woke Adrian and then when Tristan started to lose it Sam brought me back here and Sasha told you to follow. I wanted to be there. That man has stolen so much from us! I wanted you there, too. If ever you do become a vampire you’ll remember, I think. You’ll probably remember all the times you were mesmerized.”

He winced, “Not sure I want that.”

Kyla shrugged, “But wouldn’t you want to see Adrian punished?”

Kyle shrugged, “I’m mostly a pacifist. I think I’d rather see him mesmerized and forced to right all his wrongs.”

Suddenly, Kyla wanted Tristan to stop and reconsider. Tristan could likely do that! Kyle was right. Why couldn’t they use Adrian to help them with their cause?

She reached out for Tristan in her mind, pleading for him to stop and talk to her before continuing. But she felt something really horrible hit her gut. She felt his rage, she felt something so sinister slithering around in her veins that it reminded her of the sensation from the night she’d tried to run away when Tristan had bit her and unleashed punishment into her veins. But this was multiplied. By a lot. Bile rose in her throat.

She was pretty sure that the inside of that boathouse was a bloodbath.

She ran to the bathroom and barely reached the toilet before she projectile vomited. She was in that bathroom on her knees first vomiting and then dry heaving for at least the following hour. And it was extremely reminiscent of the night with the spider and snake sensation in her veins.~~~Tristan was there, in front of her. She’d fallen asleep on the sofa. Kyle was sitting beside her, staring at the television. She’d been sleeping, her head on the arm of the sofa, her feet were on Kyle’s lap. Kyle had lifted her off the bathroom floor at one point, when she’d finally stopped with the dry heaves. He’d put her on the couch and covered her up with their mother’s quilt.

“Let’s go,” Tristan reached for her hand.

She couldn’t really read him. His face was serious. His mouth was tight.

She took his hand.

“Goodnight, Kyle.”

“’Night,” Kyle muttered, still staring straight ahead.

She and Tristan walked the walk back to the house next door in silence, in the dark, at a normal, maybe even a slow, pace. She spotted no one else but lights were on in Sasha’s main floor and she saw shadows moving up there.

Back inside she went right to the bathroom and brushed her teeth and then took a shower. He didn’t join her. Maybe he’d already had one. She shivered.

She wasn’t getting much emotion from him so she didn’t know what to make of that. Back when she’d first been locked up in the safe room with Kyle she’d gotten loads of emotions, ugly, nasty ones, but now he seemed completely calm.

When her shower was done and she was rifling through their bags for something to wear to bed, she heard him come in and felt his presence as he walked past her back, then she heard the bathroom door close, followed by the water in the bathroom turn on.