"If Bella tells me to go, then I will go."
Something cold and sharp brushed past me and I watched as Giovanni"s upper arm ripped open. He looked down at his arm and then at Pallo. "You"ve been holding out on me, my child."
I made an attempt to go for Giovanni and another icy blast of power pa.s.sed me. This one caught my right shoulder on the way to Giovanni. My skin pulled apart and I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. I fell forward into Giovanni"s arms.
He pushed my hair out of the way and let out a gasp. He lowered me to the floor and laid me on my side. "Pallo ... what have you done to her?"
Pallo appeared behind me and touched my shoulder tentatively. I winced as my magik grabbed hold of the power he"d used to cause the cut. My magik didn"t understand it, and I could feel it acting much as humans" white blood cells would. It began attacking Pallo"s power. I screamed and Giovanni clutched my hand in his. I tried to get up and run away from the pain. I knew it would follow me, but I didn"t care.
My skin ripped more. The magik that was waging a war within me was pulling my shoulder to pieces. Giovanni moved close to me and kept whispering my name.
"Pallo, you must pull your power out of her, quickly."
Pallo touched my back again. "Gwyneth, I am sorry. I did not intend this for you. I ...." His voice was shaky.
I wasn"t so sure about what he was telling me. I thought of the look on his face whenever he saw me with Giovanni. It wasn"t a look you give someone you love. Hurting me might very well be the only thing he had left to do. Maybe, hurting me would bring him closure. Maybe, now he would find peace.
Pallo grabbed hold of me and I screamed. "Gwyneth, no ... I would never try to hurt you ... no ... this is not closure, this is torture."
Giovanni pried him off me. "Pallo, you must pull your power back! Look it is getting worse."
"I ... I do not know how." His voice held something I"d never heard before, he was ashamed and scared.
"Give me your hand," Giovanni said. For a moment, I thought there was going to be another fight. Pallo put his hand out and Giovanni took it and placed it onto my shoulder hard. I screamed out again and he tried to soothe me. Static radiated from his body and moved down his arm. Pallo"s body began to give off the same feeling. It felt like someone was taking a vacuum cleaner hose and placing it directly over my shoulder. The icy cool power receded slowly from me. My power washed up and over my back. I knew I was beginning to heal.
Giovanni let up on the pressure he was putting on Pallo"s hand. They moved their hands off me. Pallo pulled my ripped blouse aside and then ran his fingers over my skin.
"It is gone." He sounded shocked.
Giovanni leaned down and touched my cheek. "How do you feel?"
"Better ... fine," I said softly.
Pallo took his hand away from me and stood. Giovanni put his hands under me and helped me stand. I let him wrap his arms around me tightly and I buried my head against his chest. I didn"t look at either of their faces. This was a moment between a master and his student-his child. Pallo was a master himself now, but he had just learned a valuable lesson. If he was not careful with the power he now possessed and learned to control it, people would be hurt. I knew that their silence spoke volumes. It told Pallo that even though he had grown into his full powers-Giovanni was still superior to him.
"Gwyneth," Pallo said, from behind me. I pushed my face down further against Giovanni"s chest. I didn"t want to hear what Pallo had to say to me. He spent his time preaching to me about Giovanni being so dangerous and he was the same as him. He possessed all the same powers of his old master, but lacked the discipline needed to control them. That made him a bigger threat than Giovanni in my book. That made him deadly.
"No, Gwyneth, I ...."
I cried softly against Giovanni"s chest. Everyone had changed so much while I was gone. Caleb was acting like an arrogant ladies" man and Pallo was now lethal. I wanted to get as far away from them as possible and I knew that Pallo sensed as much. I was able to feel when he was reading me.
I heard him in speak inside my head. I am sorry that I hurt you, Gwyneth.
I didn"t respond to him. I kept my face buried and listened to his footsteps as he left the room. I heard the door shut softly and reached around to hug Giovanni. He let out a small moan and I pulled away.
His arm was still ripped wide open. His black shirt was wet with his blood and the gash was making no signs of healing.
"I thought you could heal yourself," I said, desperate to hear him tell me, yes.
He drew me closer with his good arm and kissed the top of my head. "Yes, but some things are more important."
He had used his power to help Pallo control his and now Giovanni could not heal himself. I could see his bone through the cut. It was nasty and needed to be tended. Normal medicine was pointless with vampires. They were dead already, so nothing any doctor could do would help them. They needed power-magik and right now Giovanni and I had little to none left to spare.
"Caleb!" I shouted and pulled away from Giovanni fast.
Chapter Twenty.
I ran down the stairs and missed the bottom three. I crashed into the server that sat on the opposite wall across from the stairs and bounced into the wall next it. I heard the gla.s.s bowl that held fruit crash to the floor. I glanced back long enough to see the wine that had been sitting on it was still there. James came running out from the kitchen. I looked down at him wearing my adoptive mother"s old ap.r.o.n and shook my head. I"d comment on that later.
"Caleb. Where"s Caleb?"
James motioned towards the kitchen. I ran past him, expecting to find Caleb there. It was empty. I spun around and stared at James.
"He followed Pallo out back."
I ran as fast as I could to the backdoor and threw it open. The early spring air was cold yet and my blouse was ripped open in the back. I would have been better off naked. At least I wouldn"t have been wet with blood soaked clothes, too. I sucked my breath in and ran down the back porch steps. I almost fell in the giant hole that was in the ground. Before I left, Caleb had put in a Koi pond. He got as far as digging a mega-huge hole and that was it. Apparently, Pallo hadn"t felt the need to fix that undone renovation project. No, that would be silly to fill in the big giant hole while you could fix the perfectly fine kitchen instead. Yeah right!
I ran past the hole and visually scanned the yard frantically. I lived on two hundred and fifty acres of mostly woods. I hoped that they hadn"t gone too far or I"d be looking all night.
I spotted Caleb"s light hair near the edge of the back barn. I took off in that direction. I ran up behind him, out of breath and sweating, even though it was cold out.
"Caleb ...."
He turned around. I must have looked like quite a sight. He grabbed a hold of my arms. "Gwen?"
Pallo stepped out from the other side of the barn. His gaze flickered over me quickly. I made no attempt to try and fix the problem between us. If I dared, I"d only make it worse.
"Caleb, I need your help."
Pallo stepped forward. "No, Gwyneth, it is not you who needs his help. It is Giovanni."
I glared at him. "And why is that, exactly? Who couldn"t control their own power?" He backed up and averted his gaze.
Caleb shook me a little. "What does he need?"
"His arm ... there"s a huge gaping hole ... I can see the bone through it ... he can"t heal it because he ..." I was so out of breath. I really needed to start running daily again. I glared at Pallo to signify that he knew exactly why Giovanni was unable to heal himself. "Caleb, please, he helped me ... and ...."
"Calm down, Gwen. I"ll help him."
Pallo moved up and touched his arm. "Caleb?"
Caleb shrugged him off and smiled. "Don"t worry." He turned and looked at me. "I"ll help him only if you do something for me."
I didn"t care what the price was. I wanted Giovanni to be all right. "Anything ... just help him, please!"
"I want him out of your bedroom, for a week, and I want you to give me your undivided attention for that time."
My jaw dropped open and I couldn"t believe what I was hearing. "You"re going to force me to be with you or you won"t help him?"
Caleb smiled. "I wouldn"t call it forcing you. We"re getting married soon. We"ll be spending the rest of our lives together. I would hardly think that having you spend a week with me before that would be const.i.tuted as forcing you." He stared down and I saw his face change slightly. He looked more like the Caleb I"d fallen in love with now. Though, the rugged one wasn"t so bad. "And, if at the end of that week, you still feel the same way about having Giovanni in your life ... I"ll be okay with that. He"ll be welcome to remain in it, even after we"re married, Gwen."
"No!" Pallo shouted, his voice booming all around us.
I leaned in and looked at Caleb. "Are you telling me that you"d share me with Giovanni if my feelings for him don"t change?"
He nodded and I felt like I"d just won the lottery. Pallo stepped in and grabbed Caleb"s arm. "No, make him swear to reveal their past together to her before the week is out. She needs to know."
"Fine, if at the end of a week and after he shares your past with you, if you still feel the same for him, then I will allow you ... my bride-to-be, to keep him in your life- forever." There was an underlying tone in his voice. One that made me wonder again what Caleb had found on his journeys far from home. Had he found someone else?
I felt a tear come to my eye. "And my father, you"ll make my father understand that if it is fine with you then he"s to leave Giovanni alone?"
Caleb glanced at Pallo and then back to me. "Yes, but Gwen, you can"t sleep with Giovanni or seek comfort from him during our week. I need you to focus on me and me alone. Can you do that?"
I thought about it and nodded. "If you"ll help him, I"ll do anything."
Chapter Twenty-One.
When Caleb and I got back to the room Giovanni was lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. I yelled for James to bring up a supply of the blood they kept on hand and ran to Giovanni.
Caleb lurked behind me.
I rolled Giovanni over and looked into his face. He was almost gone. He"d given up his chance at saving himself to help me. I bent down and kissed his now blue lips. Seeing him like this hurt me so very much. I blamed Pallo for it and knew that if anything ever happened to Giovanni I"d never forgive him. He"d almost cost me Caleb once already. He would not cost me another man I loved.
"Help him, please."
Caleb dropped down next to me and put his hand over Giovanni"s heart. I could feel his very hot flood of magik wash over Giovanni"s body. Caleb was powerful beyond words and fixing Giovanni would not leave him drained. Giovanni"s body twitched and he gasped as his eyes shot open.
I grabbed the back of his head and leaned in to him. I let him see my eyes and my love for him. His back arched as Caleb shot more power through him. I tried to soothe him, but nothing I did was working.
"Caleb!" I knew he was being rougher than called for. I pleaded with him with my eyes to stop. He needed to set aside his feelings for Giovanni and help me like he"d promised to do. He stopped and Giovanni"s body relaxed. I looked down and watched his muscles mend and his skin pull together.
James appeared next to us holding a coffee cup. I knew without looking that the cup contained nothing close to coffee. I picked Giovanni"s head up more and took the cup from James. I tried not to dump it down Giovanni"s chin, but he was having problems getting it down. James touched my shoulder. "Gwen, he"s in bad shape. This is pigs" blood and it"s not going to do the trick. He needs something stronger."
Caleb rolled up his sleeve. I grabbed his arm and shook my head. "No, I owe you enough already for helping him. I won"t let us be indebted to you anymore. Go, you"ve done enough for him already and I"ll never forget that. I know it was hard for you to agree to this ... and Caleb ...." I reached out for him. "Thank you."
He touched my shoulder and stood up slowly. "Caleb," I said. "I"ll meet you in the morning and tomorrow will mark the start of our agreement."
"Thank you, Gwen."
"No, Caleb, thank you."
He left and James followed close behind. I looked down at Giovanni and used my sleeve to wipe his chin clean. I put my wrist to his mouth and told him to drink. He tried to shake his head. I stared down into his dark gaze and cried. I watched his eyes flicker closed ,and I dropped my head to his.
I whispered more to myself than anyone else, "I can"t do this without you. I can"t go back to the way it was ... I can"t ...."
His eyes flickered and his fangs punctured my skin. He sucked softly on my wrist. His tongue pushed against my flesh as he went. I watched the color return to his lips and face and the twinkle return to his eyes. He let go of me and planted a soft kiss on the bite mark. It healed almost instantly.
I helped him up and pulled him to me. "You ... you..."
"No, you, Bella. You are the stubborn one."
Chapter Twenty-Two.
Giovanni took a shower while I finished cleaning up the blood from the floor. His clothes were ruined and so was my shirt. I bagged them up and set them by the bedroom door to go out to the trash. I wondered what my garbage collectors would think if they ever actually went through my trash. I had at least twenty empty bags of blood or used containers of pig"s blood each week and when I was home I seemed to be shipping more and more ruined clothes their way. They probably thought I was a serial killer or into sacrificing animals. Either way, they couldn"t think I was a mild mannered woman in her mid-twenties.
Giovanni had been in the bathroom for a while. I was a little concerned about whether or not he was strong enough to be up and about. I walked over and tapped on the bathroom door.
"Come in."
I pushed the bathroom door open and walked in to see his outline through the shower curtain. "How are you doing?" I watched him rubbing soap all over his body and I touched the cool countertop to remind myself that the man had just had a major ordeal and would not be ready for s.e.x.
"Bella, come here."
I walked to the other side of the shower curtain and stopped. He pulled it back and let me watch him washing his body. He looked at me and smiled. Oh, he was enjoying this. I forgot I was dealing with a five-hundred-year-old vampire that could induce desire at will.
"You look like you need to join me." At first, I thought he meant that it showed that he was turning me on, but then I realized I was covered in blood, as well. I bent down and took off the rest of my clothes. I stepped in and went to him.
He wrapped his arms around me. The warm water beat down on us. The first thing I noticed was how warm Giovanni felt to me. I"d noticed that after Pallo fed his body warmed as well. My faerie blood must have been heating things up nicely for him. He moved his hands downward and washed the length of his erectness. Yep, everything was moving up, temperature and all.
"There"s something I need to tell you," I said, trying hard not to stare at him.
He let out a small laugh. "I know what you did. I can read Caleb and he was thick with thoughts of the agreement he forced you into."
"I had to. I couldn"t lose you."
He stroked himself more. Soapsuds fell off him and splattered the bottom of the tub. I had to focus hard on remembering what it was we"d been talking about. "I would be lying if I said that I wasn"t disappointed in the way he went about it, but I am fine with it if you are, Bella." Something was off in his voice.
I managed to tear my eyes away from him long enough to look at his face. "I thought you"d be mad."
"I am upset you felt the need to do something that I know you don"t want to do in order to help me, but I am not angry with you."