Innocently Evil (A Kitty Bloom Novel) (26 page)

“Wait,” he said, annoyance filling his deep voice.

Max tightened his grip on our shoulders and then turned us back around to face the happily engaged vampires. Louis now looked at us feigning an interest bordering on boredom and his arms were crossed tightly over his muscular chest.

Our mother stepped up to us,
completely leaving Louis behind, with not even a fingertip left resting on his body, and frowned apologetically at us. “I know this isn’t what you expected, Kitten,” she said, softly. “Truthfully, it isn’t what I expected either. Becoming a vampire is one thing, but engaged to be married is another. If you had of asked me a couple of days ago, I never would have predicted this.”

Reaching a hand out, she
rested it on our left shoulder. Although we flinched to move it off, there wasn’t much we could do with Max’s sturdy biceps holding our arms in place.

Our mother’s unnaturally turquoise eyes shone with earnestness as she looked tenderly into our eyes.
“It’s a lot to handle all at once,” she said. “I can understand that. I don’t expect you to forgive me right now and I don’t expect you to accept what I’ve chosen for my life in this moment. But one day you will.”

She sighed and moved her hand from our shoulder to our cheek. We tilted our head to avoid her touch, but with a nod from Louis, Max’s grip tightened and letting her touch us seemed a better alternative than not getting any air.

Her cold, dead, vampire fingertips caressed our cheek and we glared into her eyes. “You are still my daughter, Kitty. Kitty-cat,” she said with a smile. “You’re my family and I love you. I would never leave you, just as you would never leave me.” Our mother stroked a piece of stray hair away from our forehead, then she leaned closer and looked deep into our eyes. “And after tomorrow night,” she almost whispered. “We will be family forever. One big happy family and you will have an eternity to understand my decisions.”

Fury devoured our heart and our anger was too
great to hold back and more important at that moment than the consequences. Our mother’s face came closer and she kissed us lightly on the cheek. Then, as she slowly, caringly pulled her head back from the intimate moment she believed we had been a part of, we head-butted her.

She
stumbled backwards and her hand flew to her nose. Dark, scarlet blood covered her inner nostrils and dripped onto the pale white skin just under her nose. Louis moved to her at lightning speed as he checked to see whether or not she was okay. When she raised her hand and murmured something through all the blood flowing into her palm, he stood up and stalked towards us. He stopped inches from us and glared viciously into our triumphant eyes. At our smile, he smiled, a callous, deadly stretch of lips across teeth.

“My dear,” he began sweetly, “didn’t anyone ever tell you that violence isn’t a virtue.”

At our insolent grin, he tilted his head to the side and smirked. White skin flew rapidly towards us, filling our vision, and slammed hard into our left temple as we turned our head to dodge the blow. Our head lolled back and our body sagged. Darkness surrounded us and bright, glittering stars spotted our vision. Then we were falling, falling into the darkness and we realized that bloody Louis Tiennan had knocked us out cold.

Nineteen: Dealing with a Devil

A cold, damp, soft thing slid gently down my neck to the centre of my breasts and disappeared. It landed lightly on my collarbone, sliding from side to side and was gone again. A hushed splashing sound followed and then a barrage of water droplets, like a newborn waterfall, whispered me awake. My eyes fluttered open as the cool, wet cloth settled on my lips and rubbed down to my chin. I took
in a sharp breath as Max’s bright amber eyes stared down at me reassuringly and I swallowed deeply. A strong, spicy, metallic flavor engulfed my taste buds and filled my mouth and the back of my throat. I coughed violently, choking on my own blood, until Max’s warm hands wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me up.

             
He hugged me hard against his chest, shushing me and patting me lightly on the back like a baby, as I gasped for air. “Breathe,” he whispered. “Everything’s okay.”

             
After a few deeper, less hyperventilating breaths, I managed to pull air into my lungs and hold it. As my frantic heartbeat slowed, I pushed out of his embrace and leaned back. “Where,” I said, fighting the urge to cough, “am I?”

             
Max stared apologetically at me from where he sat on the edge of the bed. “We are in a guest room,” he said. Seeing my obvious lack of understanding, he tilted his head to the side and looked at me quizzically. “You do remember what happened, don’t you,” he asked.

             
I bit my lip and looked around the room. We were in a huge square-shaped bedroom filled with wooden antique furniture. A warm, golden glow of light from overhead illuminated the large, ancient artworks that were intricately painted on all four walls of the room. There was a huge, imposing double door to my left and in the right hand corner of the room there was a second smaller door. I lay back down on the bed and stared up at the red velvet canopy that loomed above me from the tips of the strong, black four-poster bed frame. The newly transformed turquoise eyes of my mum filled my mind and the memory of head-butting her made me smile. I remembered a pale, white fist coming at me and then pain and darkness.

             
I glanced up at Max, whose eyes now seemed filled with worry, and I nodded. “I remember,” I said.

             
A smile swept across his rosy lips and he leaned towards me. He went to dab the bloodstained cloth on my chin again, but I stopped him and without complaint he handed the cloth to me.

             
“You took quite a hit,” he said, as he leaned back a bit and relaxed his posture. “There was blood everywhere.” He gestured to my chest and I glanced down. Almost the whole front of my slate grey shirt was stained burgundy black with blood and even the top of my black track pants was damp with congealing fluid.

I licked my lips as I looked back up at Max, and swallo
wed another thick mouthful of the spicy, slightly arid, metallic blood still filling the back of my throat. I frowned unhappily at the flavor and immediately tried to swallow again, as if thinking that more bloodied saliva would weaken the taste. My expression contorted and I shook my head at the even stronger tang of blood. I grimaced and looked at Max. “Do you have any water,” I asked, a little desperately.

             
He grinned and held his index finger up as if to say ‘one moment’. Then his weight left the bed as he stood up and he walked towards the smaller door in the right hand side of the room. He opened the door and disappeared inside. I heard the muffled hush of water pouring from a tap, then nothing and he reappeared at the doorway with a glass in his hand. He strode back over to me, took a seat again on the bed by my hips, and handed me the glass. I sat up a little and put the cold, hard edge to my parched lips and slipped some of the refreshing liquid into my mouth.

As I drank, Max stared down at me curiously and then clasped his hands together in his lap.
“You know,” he began suspiciously, “given the amount of blood you lost, you sure seem to be recovering quickly. After all, you did get hit by a vampire.”

             
I stared at Max’s curious expression and smiled sheepishly with the edge of the glass still pressed to my lips. After a moment, I took another cautious sip and lowered the glass away from my mouth. Then feeling a little under the microscope with Max’s eyes still piercing into mine, I shrugged in proper response to his question and tried to think of a diversion. “I hope you know that I’m still mad at you,” I said matter-of-factly, then cringed internally at how childish the comment sounded.

             
Max’s eyebrows rose in surprise and the conversation appeared to have been successfully diverted. “Me,” he said, astonished. “After all the events of the evening, I had hoped your anger may have transferred to more deserving participants. By now, I must seem at the very least to be one of the more innocent players involved.”

             
His sincere expression and absurd expectations made me laugh out loud. Overwhelmed by his audacity, I placed the glass on small chest of drawers beside me and sat up, pushing my back firmly against the bed head. “You can’t be serious,” I said. “How could you actually think that I would consider you innocent, in any form. I doubt that you were innocent even as a baby you were innocent. Mischief and manipulation are part of your very soul—if you have one. This evening was nothing less than proof of that.”

             
Max’s left hand went to his chest, covering the dark, hollow area that would have held a heart, if he had one. “You wound me,” he replied clearly in mocking sincerity. “How could you think so poorly of me?”

             
His expression remained grief-stricken for a moment and then suddenly his hand dropped and a pleasurable grin wrapped itself hungrily around his lips. I flinched at the quick change in personality and then chided myself for it.

             
“Of course,” he said, seductively as his left index finger stroked gently up my thigh, “manipulation has its benefits. Manipulating the conversation, for example, could lead some curious person off the trail for the truth. However, I am not so easily manipulated, Kitty. You should already know that.”

             
Max leaned in closer to me and I pushed myself further against the hard, wooden bed head. I crossed my arms across my chest defiantly as Max’s hand left the top of my thigh and settled softly on the right side of my neck, just under my jaw.

             
“So, let’s quit the games, shall we,” he said sweetly. “And why don’t you tell me what’s new with you?” His sickly sweet smile was enough to rot little kids’ teeth as he stared hard into my eyes waiting for an answer. His skin was warm against mine as his hand moved to cup the side of my jaw and his thumb started stroking the loose hair by my ear.

My body relaxed at his touch, even though most of me didn’t want to and I tried hard not to listen to the suggestive thoughts being pelted at me by my evil half. I swallowed as my brain started trying to focus on an answer, and then I
realized something interesting. “You’re warm,” I said, quietly and a little more to myself than to him. “You’re never warm.”

             
Max’s thumb stopped stroking my ear and with his hand firmly around the side of my head, he pulled my face closer to his. “Kitty,” he said, sounding disappointed. “What did I just say? You can’t distract me. Just tell me what I want to hear.”

             
With the help of my evil side’s more violent imagination than my own, my mind started to come up with possible reasons for why Max was now unusually warmer than normal. All of them involved him doing something I wouldn’t want him doing.

             
“Why are you warm,” I asked, not only trying to be irritating and wanting to change the direction of the conversation, but also because I wanted to put my overly active imagination to rest.

             
“Kitty,” Max said, more firmly. “Tell me what I want to know.”

             
I looked deep into his demanding amber eyes and shook my head. “You first,” I said. “You give me my answer and I’ll give you yours. Do we have a deal?”

             
Max raised an eyebrow and frowned, clearly annoyed at me. Then a small smile crept over his lips and he leaned a tiny bit closer, his nose almost touching mine. “But, Kitty love, my answer is of little importance and will only result in your unhappiness, whereas your answer will give me a reason for the mysterious change in your nature. Surely, you can see how neither of us could benefit from my answer and both of us would benefit from yours.”

             
I glared at him for a moment, then grinned slyly and moved the last little inch. I touched my nose to his and gave him a slow, caressing Eskimo kiss, and then put my lips close to his. “Max, darling,” I said, saucily. “Your answer is worth as much to me as mine is to you. Tell me what you did to get warm and I’ll tell you how I’ve changed.”

             
I pulled my face away from his a little, but was stopped by the firm hand he had around the side of my face. Without another word, he pulled me back to him and forced his lips on mine. They were soft, but aggressive as they tried to devour my mouth and my mind couldn’t help but give in to the passionate desperation of his kiss. My tense limbs relaxed and my body yearned for more, while my evil side fought urgently to gain some control. As my will weakened, she grew stronger and it wasn’t long before my arms, crossed like a barricade across my chest, came falling down and wrapped instinctively around Max’s neck. Fire ripped through my veins and a tingling shockwave trembled through my body. My mind no longer contained the strength to command my body and she was now in control.