I do not own Blood and Chocolate, nor do I own Twilight. I DO own my characters however.
Could it be? Yes, I've added a chapter!
"Fires (which burn brightly)" by Procol Harum
"Once proud and truthful, now humbled and bent Let down the curtain, and exit the play
Fires which burnt brightly, now energies spent
The crowds have gone home and the cast sailed away
Our flowers and feathers as scarring as weapons
Our poems and letters have turned to deceptions"
Layla:
My mom and dad meandered over to the front door each taking turns of the chores that needed to be done everyday and as usual I nodded at each one, not planning on doing any. I'm sorry, I have more important things on my mind than taking out the trash. And when my mom asked me to clean out the cat box it was clear that she still hadn't figured out Phoebe accidentally ran over the cat over a year ago.
They went squabbling out the door and I watched them leave. I was kind of glad they were leaving. I didn't want them in the middle of all this danger. I wondered if there was anyway I could send Paulette away. If there was another casualty in my family... I don't know what I'd do.
The second I shut the door, I heard Jonas:
"Layla!"
My heart thudded.
Immediately I was running as fast as my legs would allow. My mind was in a flurry of panic. The assassin! The council! A new threat! I ran into the kitchen and saw Paulette lying in Jonas's arms on the floor, he had one hand in his pocket shoving something inside, his other arm was holding my limp sister.
"She fainted," Jonas explained. It was strange that I felt a wave of relief. At least it wasn't a killer werewolf's mate. I knelt down beside them.
"What happened?" I asked him reaching for my sister's face. She was dazed, but her eyelids were fluttering. "Do you think she's sick?"
"I don't know," Jonas said.
"Maybe we should stay home with her," I suggested. Jonas scowled at the idea.
"Whoa..." Paulette muttered.
"Paulie, you drama queen, what happened?" I said trying to make my voice sound light.
"I-I don't know," Paulette grumbled. She touched her head and clenched her eyes tight. "Oh... I don't know. What am I going to do?"
"Have you been under a lot of stress? Senioritis?" I asked her unsure of what she meant. Paulette snorted and laughed.
"Yeah, you can say that," she grumbled moving away from Jonas. He helped her up, or tried to. Paulette seemed to refuse his help and moved away from him as quickly as possible. "Anything that can happen, has happened. Are mom and dad gone?"
"Yes," I answered as she wobbly made her way to her feet. I tried to offer my help and she jerked away from me.
"Good," Paulette said with a sigh. She stared off at the stairs toward her room. "I'm not going to school today."
"Maybe you should," Jonas said. I looked at him. He inched closer to me and whispered in my ear. "As long as you're in danger, she is too. We should keep her close by." I felt my stomach flip flop. My sister was in trouble again, because of what I was going through. And last time I'd lost a sister in the midst of it all. He touched my hand.
"She'll be fine," he added privately. When I looked up I saw Paulette watching us whisper. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her brows were knit in concern.
"He was right," she whispered.
"What?" Layla said.
"You two," Paulette said suspiciously. "You're so secretive." I felt an unfamiliar feeling in my chest, that seemed to echo in Jonas. We exchanged glances. We were still on the floor where Paulette had been lying. She was standing in front of us with an accusing glare. I fought the urge to gulp.
"Who was right?" Jonas asked just as suspicious. Paulette blinked her matching brown eyes and then brushed a blonde strand over her shoulder. She was staring at Jonas, debating.
"Who exactly are you?" she asked him. Jonas cocked an eyebrow. Then he gave a short, nervous laugh and pointed to himself.
"My name is Jonas," he said still smiling.
"No, I mean, what are you?" Surprise flickered between us. "What is with your family? Are you a cult? Why do you have so many people living in that house on by the meadow? And I think the most important question," Now her look switched from me to Jonas. Her expression was unfamiliar. "Why does your police file say you're prone to psychotic breaks?"
Jonas flinched. I stood up in front of Jonas.
"What the hell, Paulette?" I snapped standing face to face with her and pushing her backwards. "You have no right..."
She turned angry in an instant.
"I have every right to know what interest a psychopath has with my only remaining sister!" Paulette shouted pushing me lightly on the shoulders. Jonas was on his feet in an instant. He put his hand on my shoulder.
"Layla," he said. I shrugged his hand off.
"How rude can you get? What makes you think he's psychotic?" I felt my cheeks flustering pink. How did she know all of this? Stupid question. If anyone had a secret Paulette was always the first to find out. But this was the secret that no one was allowed to know. One I barely had a right to know.
"I saw his police file last year in the Chicago incident. Jonas's dad told the police he was prone to psychotic breaks!" she retorted.
"How did you get Jonas's file?" I asked.
"I stole it when I was in the hospital and the detective came to talk to me," Paulette said.
"You can't stick keep your nose out of anyone's business for five seconds, can you?"
"Five seconds! It's been six months! And now all of the sudden you couldn't give a damn about anyone but that freak! What about you, Layla, what kind of secrets are you keeping?" her voice was accusing. I wondered if she was blaming me for what happened in Chicago. Her car accident, what happened to Phoebe. I unexpectedly choked on a guilty sob that must have sounded like a whimper.
"That's enough!" Jonas suddenly shouted at a volume that made both of us flinch like the words had just been delivered from a parent. I looked at him. His brown puppy dog eyes were narrowed intensely. "Leave Layla alone. You have no right to be snooping into our business."
"Yes, I do! I'm family! Do you think I buy your bull shit story about what happened in Chicago? Layla used to tell me everything and now I know nothing about her. I've talked to strangers who seem to know more about you two than I do!"
"What strangers?" Jonas growled dangerously glaring at my sister. She paused, dropping her gaze to form a lie.
"That's none of your business," she muttered as Jonas's intimidating presence seemed to be starting an effect on her.
"What strangers!" he demanded stepping toward her. I grabbed his hand pulling him away from her.
"Jonas, easy," I warned. He threw me a look.
"She's withholding important information. I want to know who she's been talking to and what kind of access she's giving them to us! Layla, she's involved!" he yelled at me. I narrowed my gaze.
"No, she's not!" I argued. But was she? Could she be tricked into helping the assassin get to me and Jonas? I refused to believe that. Suddenly there was a gust of wind that caught both me and Jonas off guard. Jonas groaned and his hands clapped over his mouth and nose. Just as quickly as it'd come it was gone leaving the front door open behind it and taking Paulette with it.
I stared open mouthed at where she had just seconds ago been standing.
What the hell just happened?
"Paulette?" I finally breathed. Jonas burst into a run straight to the bathroom and started to throw up. These strange acts happened all at once. I joined Jonas as fast I could. His brown tousles were hunched forward with the rest of him into the toilet bowl as he hurled. "What just happened?"
"I don't know," Jonas coughed. He picked up his head and wiped his arm on his mouth. I started to shake.
"Where's my sister!" I demanded.
"I don't know," he repeated. "That smell..."
"Stop going on about the smell! We have to find her!" I shouted urgently.
"No! That thing that just went by. It was the smell! The smell that's been on your sister!" he said. I blinked.
"What?"
"Something's been hanging around your sister and its not human," he said picking himself up.
"Werewolf?"
"I've never smelled any werewolf like that, but I don't know what else it could be. It was moving so fast," he said staring at a spot on the ground. He groaned and ran his hand through his hair. I stared up at him, I could feel worried tears coming up.
I couldn't believe this was happening again. He gave me a sympathetic look as he waited for a reaction from me.
"It has my little sister," I managed to choke as I held back a sob. Jonas reached out and touched my hair. I collapsed into him and hugged him.
"It's okay, Lay," he said rubbing my back. He kissed the top of my head and the shock and the speed of all the events started to rattle me. I shook my head and pulled away from him.
"Come on. We're going to go find her," I said in new determination. It wasn't a suggestion. I took his hand and started to lead him toward the truck.
Ben:
My legs stopped running and my feet skid onto the black top underneath the shade of a building. I set down Paulette, who was still dizzy. Vampire speed was difficult to get used to. There was times when it still surprised me. I guess, if you're not used to it, it does feel like teleporting. The blonde wriggled out of my arms and slowly looked around.
I'd taken her to the most private place I knew of. It was an empty parking lot no one seemed to know about dead center between four buildings with an alleyway going in each direction.
"Oh my god," Paulette said looking around. She was breathing hard. She moved a strand of blonde hair from her mouth where it stuck to her lip gloss. Then she scowled at me. Her eyes narrowed. She backed away slowly. "No. No! I am still mad at you!"
I rolled my eyes.
"Why was that gigantic person yelling at you? He looked like he was going to tear your head off. Your sister too," I said following her. She turned and started to walk away. In my own frustration I easily grabbed her wrist and stopped her.
"Stop it!" she screamed. My sensitive vampire hearing winced at the high pitched volume.
"Morsel," I warned.
"Don't call me that," she snapped. I pulled her anyway and in an instant pinned her against a building thirty feet away from where she was just standing. My temper was fuming.
"Listen, my little morsel," I said villainously hissing and using her pet name just to agitate her. "I'm tired, I'm hungry, I just barely got out of one of the worst fights of my life alive, I just lost us four million dollars, and I come back and I see you in danger. I think I deserve an explanation." Paulette looked temporarily frightened. I locked my eyes onto hers hoping to use my vampiric beauty to force her into submitting to telling me what was going on.
But trying to entice Paulette into submission was like trying to pet a dog with rabies.
"Don't make me stake you, jackass! Get the hell off of me!" she snapped futily. Like she could hurt me. Of course I didn't let her go. Part of me wanted to bite her, just to teach her a lesson, but if her blood was as toxic as I'd witnessed I didn't want to be one of the maniacs trying to drain her for all the blood she had. Then again maybe I was just hungry.
"I'm having a hard enough time keeping you alive as it is," I said. "Now you've turned your family against you?"
"I didn't do anything," Paulette said frustrated.
"I refuse to believe that. You're always doing something to piss someone off," I retorted. Paulette looked away from my eyes. It made me wonder if my vampiric charm was getting to her. She struggled one final time and then huffed.
"Jonas wants to marry Layla," Paulette said her voice quivering. She was still looking up at the large cement buildings. "He was right."
"Who was right?" I asked her. She shook her head and then sobbed. My temper dropped about forty degrees as stubborn tears started to fall. She tried to wipe them away, but she couldn't move with me pinning her against the wall.
"Paulette," I said as gently as I could. I thought about my encounter last night. Tav said that I should abandon her. Leave her to be torn to shreds by who knows how many vampires. She was more fragile than she even knew. "There's a problem."
She continued to sob unable to speak.
"Paulette, it turns out your blood is addictive," I tried to explain. The way she was crying I couldn't be sure she was listening or not. Then she nodded trying to hide her face under a curtain of blonde hair. "The vampires are coming here for you."
"Good," she choked.
"No, that's not good," I said feeling my voice take an incredulous tone.
"I'm sick of this," she said pitifully. I suddenly realized what she was talking about.
"Stop it," I ordered, feeling my temper return.
"Leave me alone," she said picking up her eyes and gritting her teeth.
"No."
"Screw you," she snapped. There was a flame in the black center of her eyes. "You did this to me."
"I did not. The doctors in Chicago did this..."
"You put me in danger," she said. I unnecessarily swallowed. My guilt was rising again. I replaced it with anger and frustration.
"You are staying with me, my little morsel. I'm going to die protecting you and you're going to be grateful as I do it!" I said releasing her from the wall, but taking her wrist and dragging her along with me, too angry to wonder if I was hurting her as my grip tightened. I'd never met someone who's temper could match mine when I was irritable and hungry, and Paulette seemed to be better at it than me.
"I noticed your parents are gone," I said still seething. "That's good. I'm going to be hanging around a lot more and your sister and her psychopath boyfriend are just going to have to deal with it."
"Fine," Paulette said letting up on her anger just a tad. I looked over my shoulder at her. She was still seething. I feel her blood rushing through her veins as I pulled her by the wrist. I'd parked my motorcycle in this parking lot. It's how I knew this place would be private. I led her to my motorcycle and mounted it. She hesitantly looked at it and then back at me. Her eyes were full of defiance. "Come on. It's six thirty. Get on, or I'll drag you home myself and come back for my bike later."
She glared, her eyes full of something I couldn't describe. I guess it could be hate. I wouldn't really blame her.
Sorry it took so long, I just wrote this in an hour. It was very fun to write. Thanks to all the recent reviews which have reinspired me!