Happy Rebirthday Ch 3

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Characters: Josef; Emma; Mick; Coraline; Beth; Sarah.

Rating: M High level sex scene; some coarse language; adult themes.

Happy Rebirthday. Chapter three.

Everything was quiet, yet the sensation of movement startled me into semi-wakefulness. I was being carried. I dragged my eyes half-open and noted that the harsh sunlight hadn't quite made the shift to dusk.

"Josef? What time is it?" I mumbled.

"S-okay ... go back to sleep," he murmured in reply.

He laid me down on our bed, and we resumed the spooned position we had been in only minutes before in our freezer. Then I felt Josef stop breathing, and I surrendered to sleep moments later.

***

Not quite awake, I nevertheless responded to the pleasure of my husband's touch. I cautiously squinted and judged by the light that it was early evening. Then I closed my eyes again in order to fully appreciate the feeling of Josef stroking my shoulder and arm. His hand travelled slowly down to my hip and I rolled onto my back. His hand slipped slowly between my thighs and I opened up to his gentle caress. I reached out for my husband, and my hand made contact with his muscular shoulder, so I ran the tips of my fingers up his neck and caressed his unshaven face, before allowing my hand to wander of its own volition down his smooth chest and stomach until I felt the back of my hand brush against his erection. I moaned softly and he rolled on top of me, pausing in an unspoken question. I answered wordlessly and he slid into me in one slow, smooth thrust. I pulled my legs up and crossed my ankles against the small of his back. Josef rocked against me in a subtle movement that still somehow managed to touch every sensitive place I had. I dug my fingers into his back as the pleasure radiated through my body, and I sank my fangs into his muscular bicep. A few seconds later I felt Josef's muscles tense and I arched my neck to allow him easier access. His bite had a lazy, dreamy quality to it I hadn't experienced before.

We lay together for several minutes before Josef kissed me softly and whispered, "You awake yet?"

"No."

"Want five more minutes?"

"Uh-huh."

I uncrossed my ankles and rested my feet on the bed, and then I let my fingertips drift slowly up and down Josef's back.

"Emma."

"Hmmm?"

"You know I won't leave the bed all night if you keep doing that."

"Ah," I laughed softly. "The plan's working."

He kissed me tenderly, and then pulled away. I opened my eyes and looked at him.

He stroked my face and said, "I have a million things to do before midnight."

The spell was broken. I, too, had to face reality.

I showered, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and tennis shoes, drank my breakfast in three big gulps, and then started making phone calls. After several frustrating minutes, I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally found someone willing to talk to me. Even so, I didn't bother with social niceties.

"I'm trying to find Mick. Is he with you?"

"Yes."

"Can I come over?"

A moment's hesitation, then: "Yes."

"Thank you. I'm on my way."

***

Coraline opened the door before I had a chance to knock, and greeted me with a comforting hug. After a minute, she pulled back far enough to look deep into my eyes.

"How are you, Emma? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine ... but is Beth alright? She won't answer my calls. And neither will Mick, for that matter."

"Beth was in shock last night when we took her home, but after a few hours – after the initial trauma had worn off – she gave Mick a mouthful of abuse and told him to get out. Now she won't take calls from any of us."

"I see. I guess we just have to wait, now. By the way, where is Mick?" I asked, glancing around.

"He's in the pool – but Emma, he's naked, so keep a respectable distance."

I nodded – and hoped that my puzzlement wasn't too obvious.

I walked outside and found Mick standing in the water, with his back to the edge, staring into space. I stopped a fair way from the pool and cleared my throat. Mick inhaled sharply, but didn't show any other sign that he was aware of my presence – until he spoke abruptly.

"I don't wanna have to deal with you right now, Emma. And you stink of Josef. Just how many times did you two fuck last night, anyway?"

With that parting shot, he sank to the bottom of the pool.

"Oh, very mature, Mick," I shouted, although I knew that even a vampire couldn't hear me underwater. "And don't bother to thank me for me saving your girlfriend's life. Please, don't even mention it."

I stormed back into the house and Coraline calmly indicated that I should take a seat.

"Coraline, your husband is behaving like an immature prick tonight."

"Well, honey, your husband was behaving like an immature prick last night. They're both men," she sighed. "Need I say more?"

I cracked up laughing and she smiled and shrugged. After a minute I stopped laughing and became serious. I had a confession to make.

"Can I tell you something? I really hated Beth last night."

"I know."

"I had to," I added, well aware that I was attempting to defend the indefensible.

"I understand that, Emma. Josef needed you to be one hundred percent vampire. He needed you to put on a show in front of Mick to prove who you really wanted. You did what you had to do in order to get Josef's attention off Beth. And any smart woman understands the power of sex to control a man."

Although I was grateful that Coraline was pragmatic enough to understand, I was still embarrassed.

"Just how much of that 'show' did you all witness?" I asked sheepishly.

"Not much ... honestly, honey. We saw Josef put his hand on your breast and then I managed to ease Beth out from between the two of you. Mick and I heard you threaten to castrate Josef with your teeth – well done, and by the way, that really made Mick's eyes water – and then we were out the front door seconds later."

I sighed with relief to know that at least they hadn't seen me in my birthday suit.

"Do you think that Mick – and Beth, for that matter – will ever forgive me?"

"Mick will ... eventually. And Emma ... if he doesn't, I will remind him that he wasn't always the boy-scout-vampire that you know and love." Coraline shrugged. "But you need to realise that right now he's absolutely devastated because he felt completely powerless to save Beth – and from his best friend, no less. Josef wanted to put Mick firmly in his place, so he used the two women Mick loves most in the world to do it."

I nodded as though I understood when the truth was that my mind was reeling. Plus, I was still trying to reconcile the knowledge that the ruthless predator who had almost taken Beth's life was none other than the man I loved more than life itself.

"However, Beth is a different story, so be careful," Coraline continued. "You should be aware that she's quite fond of staking vampires."

Before I could ask for an explanation, Mick walked in. His hair was dripping wet and he was dressed in the same jeans and Henley he'd worn the night before at my ill-fated party.

He completely ignored me and focused on Coraline.

"Hey, is it okay if I get myself a drink?"

"Sure, Mick," she smiled. "You know where everything is – just make yourself at home."

"Thanks."

Mick walked off in the direction of the kitchen.

I leaned forward and whispered, "He's wearing the same clothes he had on last night. Did he spend the day here? Are you two ..."

I let my voice trail off.

Coraline smiled.

"Yes, he spent the day here because he needed the comfort of someone familiar – even if it was me," she added with laughter in her voice, and rolled her eyes. "But nothing happened, and no, we're not getting back together."

"But you do want him back, don't you?" I asked bluntly. "I'm not wrong about that, am I?"

She glanced over her shoulder to see if Mick was within earshot, and then said: "Yes, I do; and no, you're not. But Emma, it would have to be under the right circumstances. I've learned my lesson; I can be patient when I have to be."

I wondered how long Coraline intended to be patient. After Josef's threat to turn Beth, I wasn't confident that I understood anything anymore. I was staring into space when Coraline reached over and touched my knee.

"Do you want to talk about what happened last night after we left?"

I shook my head, but my eyes betrayed me as they welled with tears. The next thing I knew, Coraline had her arms around me and I was sobbing.

In halting sentences, I revealed that Josef had broken my ribs more than once while we were having sex, and that he'd even broken my collarbone at one stage, due to the strength of his grip. Although Josef's and my relationship was passionate – even by vampire standards – he'd never been violent enough to break my bones before. Yet what hurt the most was that he hadn't seemed to care.

My physical pain was long gone, but my emotional pain lingered.

"I'm so sorry, honey," she whispered.

Before I had a chance to respond, Mick walked back into the room and stared at me as though I was an unwelcome visitor in his home. I knew that he and Coraline had been married for thirty-three years before she had kidnapped Beth, but I didn't know how many years Mick had actually lived in this house that I had only ever known as Coraline's place. So I rose to my feet and looked at her.

"I'd better be going. Do you think it would be alright if I dropped by Beth's–"

I hadn't even finished my question before Mick had my arms pinned to my sides, his snarling face only inches from my own.

"Stay away from Beth," he ordered. "You got a choice, Emma. You chose to become a vampire! And last night you were ready to take that choice away from Beth."

I stared up into Mick's face but no words would come. How could I possibly begin to defend my own actions? The only thing I was one hundred percent sure of was that I had done my best under extreme circumstances.

Thankfully, Coraline intervened. She stepped up behind Mick and spoke softly.

"Emma saved Beth's life last night ... she did it the only way she could ... you know that, Mick."

"Stay out of this, Coraline," he snapped, and turned his attention back to me. "Beth was your friend." Mick tightened his grip and shook me hard. "She was your friend and she believed she could trust you! I believed I could trust you."

I was speechless. It hadn't occurred to me that I'd lost Mick's trust – I had expected him to understand the situation. At that juncture, Mick looked at me as though he was considering the option of tearing my head off, right then and there. I closed my eyes to escape his glare, and he inhaled sharply.

"So you're scared of me now?" he asked savagely. "Well, just imagine how Beth felt last night, trapped between you and your husband."

"Of course Emma's scared of you, Mick," Coraline said quietly. "You're a strong man and she's only barely taller than your shoulder."

Mick pushed me away roughly and I stumbled backwards; I only just managed to keep my balance. He glared at me with pure contempt in the place of his usually gentle expression.

"You're not so brave without your all-powerful husband here to protect you, are you, Emma?"

"Mick, that's enough," Coraline said. "You don't know what Josef did to her last night."

Mick looked like he was ready to kill – but his voice was chillingly calm.

"What happened after we got Beth out of there?"

I lowered my gaze and said, "Things got a little ... wild."

"How wild?" Mick demanded.

I raised my eyes and met Mick's stare; however I simply shrugged and refused to answer.

Coraline explained succinctly, "Josef broke her ribs, among other things."

Mick looked from Coraline to me and back again, his expression unreadable. Yet I had the sick feeling that he was trapped in his own private hell, remembering pain he had inflicted on Coraline long ago, while simultaneously trying to deal with present issues. Abruptly, he turned on his heel, stormed out into the garden, and yelled at the top of his lungs.

I looked at Coraline with tears rolling down my face and said, "You shouldn't have told him that."

"He needed to know that Beth wasn't the only one who got hurt last night." She put her arms around me and stroked my hair, as though she was comforting a child, and continued. "Emma, honey, please forgive him. He's angry and hurting and he feels powerless." She paused for a few seconds as if measuring her next words, and said, "Women are stronger than men – you know that – and Mick and Josef both need us to be strong enough to support them right now. This is the 'worse' part of that pesky 'for better or worse' marriage vow."

I nodded numbly, and even though I knew my timing was appalling, I voiced my thoughts in a rush.

"Coraline, would it make things worse if I told Mick that Beth went to Josef to have that photographer killed? I'm not saying that anything excuses what Josef did last night, but Mick still thinks of Beth as an innocent angel who needs to be protected from the big bad world, and she's not innocent at all. She's a survivor if ever I met one."

Coraline glanced towards the window, apparently checking that Mick was still out of earshot.

"Emma, if you tell Mick what Beth did, it will not only shatter his precious illusions about her, but he'll hate you for telling him. I agree that he needs to be told – but not today."

I nodded, hugged Coraline, and asked her to tell Mick I'd said good night.

***

When I arrived home, I carefully avoided Josef, took a shower, and changed into fresh clothes. After that, I went straight to my office and spent a few hours trying to convince myself that I was actually doing some work.

Shortly before 2:00 am, Josef walked in, stood directly in front of my desk and declared: "Mick gets everything."

I looked up from my computer and frowned.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"True – but hearing and understanding are totally different things," I reminded him.

Josef looked at me as though I was being purposely dense, and began to pace in front of my desk.

"Beth apparently either doesn't know or doesn't care about Mick's past; he staked Coraline and set her on fire and she still loves him in her own dark, obsessive way; and now he has the unabashed adoration of my wife. Everyone loves Mick. He's handsome and charming ... Mick is the Tribe's answer to Sir Lancelot."

I watched Josef with what I hoped was a neutral expression and tried hard to keep my thoughts guarded, even as they raced. Sir Lancelot, the gallant knight who fell in love with the wife of his friend, King Arthur; the very same man whom Lancelot probably called 'sire'... oh yes, Josef, when you're jealous you have all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

All at once the reality of my life presented itself, and I wondered how I could have been so stupid as to miss it before. I had married the self-appointed king of the LA vampire community, and for some bizarre reason he feared that Mick – his best friend and brave knight errant – was going to fall in love with me – and I with him.

I refused to take the bait, and after a few moments, Josef smoothed his tie and picked up where he had left off.

"Emma, I have power, money, prestige, and more than one beautiful home ... but until I found you, everyone except Mick only liked me for my money and for what I could do for them."

Josef paused again to collect his thoughts, or to give me time to; I wasn't sure which. Either way, I just waited for him to continue.

"And when things get difficult, who does my wife turn to? Not me – but Mick St. John. So now Mick has the love of three strong and extraordinary women. And he's overly fond of giving me advice about you, but I wonder if he would do any better if he had the responsibilities I have – a business empire to run plus a fledgling bride to look after."

"Can I say something?"

"Of course."

"I just want to know if I understand you correctly – you were ready to turn Beth because you're pissed off at Mick for offering you advice about being a husband. Is that it?"

Josef smirked and said, "There are worse ways for Beth to spend the rest of her life than being eternally young and beautiful."

It took me a minute to find my voice.

"My god – you are unbelievable."

"Really? How so?" he inquired with a look of polite innocence; he had the boyish charm down to a fine art.

I wondered if it was possible that Josef truly didn't understand the damage he'd done. I shook my head, but it didn't help me organise my thoughts, so I just went ahead and spoke my mind.

"Josef, you're talking about pairing Mick and Beth up for the rest of time, even though two nights ago you told me that Mick still loves Coraline ... and that was right before you broke my heart by saying that you still love Sarah–"

"I didn't mention Sarah."

"You didn't have to! Her name was hanging in the air between us!"

Josef came to a standstill and asked, "Emma, do you really want to know what I was going to say?"

I swallowed hard and nodded.

"I was going to say: 'Mick loves Coraline the way I love you, Emma.' That's the truth. I was thinking about you ... and how I'm losing you by degrees."

I heard what he said about losing me but chose to ignore it. Instead, I flew into Josef's arms and he swept me up and carried me over to a chair, where he sat down with me on his lap.

"Anyway ... Mick is my best friend, but sometimes he's stupid and needs a shove in the right direction. If he really loved Beth and wanted to keep her, he'd be man enough to turn her."

"Josef, he loves her too much to turn her."

"Oh please. Emma, drop your impossibly romantic notions of love and see how people really are! People in love are selfish." He enunciated each syllable carefully to drive his point home. "I've been watching for four centuries, and nothing ever changes. When you love someone, you want to keep them with you for as long as possible – and vampires just happen to have the means to do that."

"But–"

"But nothing, Emma – I'm right. I decided the night we met that I'd turn you. It was simply a matter of when and whether or not I had your permission. So I gave you the freedom to make the right decision." Josef smiled and stroked my face. "I took the risk of turning you, because I knew that if I didn't, I'd lose you sooner or later anyway. If Mick loved Beth with as much passion as Coraline feels for him – or that I feel for you – he'd turn her. It's simple. Think about it Emma – you know that I'm right."

I was stunned into silence.

I fully expected Josef to put me off his lap and leave me with my thoughts, because that's what he normally did after making a devastating statement, but this time, he simply pulled me closer and held me.

The end.