Page 26 of Last Hope
Ezzy’s memories of her grandmother were foggy at best, lost within a sea of confusion in her mind. She blamed it on the memory block. When it had been taken off, her childhood had come slamming into her all at once and sometimes she still had trouble sorting through the mess.
“Light is coming,” she stated, pointing at the ceiling.
Ezzy nodded. The good thing about her grandmother’s house was that there were not that many windows. Probably because her father had grown up there his entire life and having windows would have invited the possibility of him burning to a crisp and dying.
“Yes, we’re about to go to sleep. Would you like us to bring Viktor in here with us or are you fine with him sleeping in your room?”
“The baby stay with me,” her grandmother reassured before nodding goodnight to the both of them and leaving.
Antonio smiled once she was gone and stretched his long limbs across the bed again. “I can feel the sun coming up,” he whispered with his eyes closed.
She rolled her eyes and pulled her sweatpants back off. “Can you please put on your pajamas before you fall asleep?” She went over and hopped onto the bed with him. “It’s a nuisance to try and take your clothes off of you when you’re passed out.” She lay back against the comfortable pillows and began to pull the blankets to her.
“Well, I suppose.” Antonio’s hand gripped her side and all of a sudden he flipped her on top of him so that she was straddling him. She gasped in surprise and then laughed. “You should take my clothes off while I’m awake. It’ll be easier for you since I’ll comply.”
“If you insist…” And then Esmeralda kissed him. His mouth was warm and inviting against hers, and utterly familiar. Once again she could feel their connection course through her veins like a river of hot fire, igniting passion within her. She pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it to the side, kissing him deeper and reaching for the back of his head to hold onto his hair, letting it curl between her fingers.
She wrapped her legs tightly around his waist, hooking her heels together behind his back and squeezing herself closer to him, causing him to moan deep in the back of his throat.
“You’ll be the death of me, woman.” He broke their kiss to say.
“At least you’ll die with pleasure.” She chuckled and kissed him, harder this time. It was her attempt at pushing everything else away. All the stress and worry, the sadness and anger, it was all replaced with this feeling of his tongue against hers. Of the sparks trailing across the surface of their bodies.
Antonio wrapped his fingers around the flimsy material of her top and tugged it upwards, slipping his hand inside, touching his hot flesh to hers, causing her to gasp against his lips.
“I want you,” he said, locking his black eyes with hers. She stared deeply into his, noticing the flecks of red within his iris. After all this time, she still found his eyes to be fascinating and terrifying at the same time. But that was just the glory that was Antonio. It was who he was. Fascinating. And terrifying.
She smiled and undid the top button of his pants. “So, comply and I’ll give you what you want,” he said, boldly. Usually she was always shy about these things. She never really took the lead when it came to sex. But she felt so powerful, she felt as if this was something she needed to do…
And he did comply.
She wasn’t sure how ithappened, because everythinghappenedso fast. But, all of a sudden, he was out of his clothes and naked underneath her and tugging at her own flimsy lingerie, trying to get her the same way.
He pulled her top off first, leaving her chest bare and naked on top of him. His black eyes flashed red with desire and he ripped the panties off of her, leaving them in shreds on the bed. She glared at him. He merely chuckled. “You said you weren’t a fan of them.” And he pulled her down against his naked body for a hungry, animal-like kiss. His body was hard, and ready for hers. She felt it.
“I love you,” she whispered to him, before covering his body with her essence and slowly gliding onto him, causing them to both cry out with pleasure and their minds to drift off into oblivion.
* * *
“Are we bad people?”Esmeralda asked some time later. She was lying on Antonio’s outstretched arm, naked, with her back to him. His steady breathing warmed her into an almost dream state, but she had to stay awake and ask him something…it was important.
“I’m not a people,querida. I’m a vampire.” He whispered sarcastically against her hair. She could hear the tiredness in his voice. The sun was almost up, and he would soon fall into a deep sleep and not wake until it went down again.
“You know what I mean.”
He sighed and stroked her bare flesh with his fingers. It sent pleasant shivers down her spine. She pressed herself tighter against him and relaxed when he wrapped his free arm around her waist to hold her close. “Why do you ask?”
She closed her eyes and sighed. “Because we abandoned Isis in her time of need; she never would have done that to us. She’s always been here for us and I just feel…like a traitor.”
Antonio’s body tensed and she could tell his mind was racing to find comfort for her but he felt the exact same way she did. At least she wasn’t alone, she thought. “We did what we thought was best for our son,” he said at last, calmly. “It’s our job to protect him, and he would have been in danger if we would’ve stayed. I hated the idea of leaving Isis, too, but it was something we had to do. It doesn’t make us bad people.”
Ezzy felt tears begin to slide out of her eyes. “But does it make us bad friends?” She waited in the silence for his reply. It stretched on for a long time until she could take it no longer and turned to look at him in question. She wanted an answer. But, he had already fallen asleep and a new day had begun.
15
The trees clustered together in the form of a canopy, covering their heads from the light of the moon. Nothing illuminated the darkness around them, for the trees contained all of their leaves and there were hardly any cracks for the moonlight to find and sneak in to, guiding their way through the traitorous woods.
Stones and twigs snapped beneath their feet, but it wasn’t the only noise to be heard. Isis’s hearing was sensitive to all activity around her. From the branch under Anya’s foot, to the cricket hiding in the bush, to the deer that had just run away at the little commotion they were making. It was all so peacefully blissful but all so wonderfully terrifying. She had the insane urge to whisper to Anya, to ask where it was they were going but her Soul Mate’s silence was infinite. To disturb her would be to scratch one’s nails against the chalkboard in a quiet classroom.
