Chapter 86: Confrontation on the Beach
Amanda's POV
"I have such a pounding headache right now . . ." I grumble as I resist the urge to shake my head. "It's like someone is pounding my skull with one of Hunter's sledgehammers."
"Don't worry baby. I'll make the pain go away," Randy says in a supportive tone as he leads me into our room. "Well, more specifically, my blood will make the pain go away."
"Thank goodness for your blood," I say with a chuckle as I close the door behind us. Randy pulls me into his grasp and looks down into my eyes, but we don't like eyes for long as his move to the healing cuts on the top of my head and the side of my temple. His eyes are absolutely scrutinizing as they lock in on the slowly healing bruise on my right cheek. "Does it really look that bad? Be honest."
"I haven't formulated a solid opinion yet . . ." Randy mumbles with a frown as he looks at my neck to see if there were any wounds there. Once he was done with that, he moved down to his sweater, which I was still wearing. He takes hold of the zipper and pulls it down with one gentle tug before helping me out of it. The damage Rochelle did to my upper arms was basically minimal, but it was still enough to gain a wide-eyed response from my beau. "You want me to be honest, and I'll be honest. I was expecting the worse."
"Why?" I ask with a pout. "Did you really think I would let Rochelle have that big of a jump on me? I have years of wrestling and martial arts training in my repertoire. I can defend myself Ran."
"I know you can defend yourself, and I'm proud you did," he tells me gently as he pecks my forehead. "I'm just mad over the fact that Rochelle brazenly attacked you in a mall bathroom for crying out loud! I just . . . I just never expected something like this to happen to you. I should have. . ."
"Randy, don't blame yourself for this," I say calmly as I look up at his tortured face. "Neither of us expected this. I don't want you to be so hard on yourself."
"It's really hard not to," he tells me glumly as he gently tugs me over to the bed. "You're my soulmate 'Manda. Whenever you're hurt or attacked or something, I feel like I failed you by not protecting you from the threat . . . It's my natural instinct to take care of you and protect you, and things like what happened to you earlier makes me feel like I'm not living up to what I'm supposed to do."
"I just told you to not blame yourself for this, and it sounds like you're blaming yourself for this right now," I say with a shake of my head as he sits down on the mattress. He shoots me a grimace in return, and I just shake my head at him, but that just aggravates my headache even further. "You really have a bad habit of not following people's instructions sometimes . . ."
"Sorry . . . Like you said. It's a bad habit," he tells me with a small shrug. "Come here baby. You need some blood in your system."
"That I do. It's starting to get annoying to feel a pounding in my skull every time I shake my head," I say with a scowl on my face. Randy scooches back along the mattress till his back was resting along the headboard, his arms outstretched, just waiting for my arrival. I slowly crawl onto the bed and into his arms, my ass resting snugly on his lap as I rested my head on his shoulder. My eyes go straight to the jugular vein in his neck, the call of his blood just igniting the burn in my throat even further. "You're blood is tempting me so much right now . . ."
"Now you know how I feel when it comes to me and your blood . . ." Randy says with a soft chuckle as he looks down at me. "Don't fight the temptation 'Manda. Go ahead and bite me. I don't mind if you bite me hard, well, if you want to."
"Why do you want me to bite you hard all of a sudden?" I ask curiously as I feel my fangs start to extend involuntarily, which only happened when I was hungry for blood sometimes. "Please don't tell me you want it to serve as some kind of punishment for not being able to protect me."
"Wow . . . Was it really that obvious?" Randy asks me with a sheepish grimace as I shoot him a narrow eyed stare. I even shoot my left eyebrow upward, just for emphasis. "Okay, it's that obvious . . . I'm only asking you this just this once. I'll never ask you to do this one small favor for me ever again. Besides . . . I always wanted to know what a hard vampire bite felt like."
"You are weird, but I might as well give you what you want, just this once . . . Better yet, I'm not even going to sugarcoat it," I say with a smirk as I turn my attention to his neck. As soon as I brought my lips close enough to his neck so that we were almost touching, I open my mouth wide before biting down hard on his skin. Randy lets out a sharp yell as his body instantly jerks upon impact, but he doesn't move much since I'm still sitting on top of him. Even though I knew I was hurting him, I push my feelings aside so that I could concentrate on his blood. Besides, he asked for this anyway.
I continue my intake until the burn in my throat finally subsides, the headache going with it as I relished the taste of his delicious blood. Once I felt that the burn had finally disappeared, I dislodge my fangs from his neck, leaving the two holes to heal on their own, before looking up at my future husband's face. His eyes were closed and his breath was slightly shallow, which made me start to wonder how much pain did I really put my man through.
"Randy," I say in a low whisper as I bring a hand to his cheek. "Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine," he tells me slowly as he finally opens his eyes. "I just never expected the bite to be so painful. It hurt like freaking hell."
"Hey, you asked for it!" I retort back as I watch his wounds slowly heal. "And besides, when you're a snake, you have to have a good snake bite! It's practically a basic in snake etiquette."
"You make a good point . . ." he tells me with a smirk as he brings a hand to his neck. "When I asked you to bite me hard, you bite me hard alright."
"It's good to know that I did my job then," I say with a smirk as I turned to look at the crib to see that it's not even there. "You put the crib in Alanna's room, didn't you?"
"Yep, but you can check on the twins later," he tells me abruptly as I slide off of his lap. "It's time you give me some answers. I want to know what happened back in that mall bathroom."
"Fine . . . You do have a right to know and all," I say in defeat as he I watch him adjust himself so that his whole body was now laying on the bed. "Where should I start?"
"Start from the very beginning," the Viper tells me bluntly. "And don't you dare try to hide any details from me. I want to know everything."
"But if I tell you everything, you may react so badly to what I have to tell you that it will probably take a while to calm you down, and I don't want that kind of negative energy around the girls for the rest of the day," I say with a pout as he shoots me an annoyed look. "At least promise me you will try to keep your emotions in check. What I have to explain to you is short, but even the shortest of sentences have been proven to set your temper off."
"I get it. I get it. I have a short fuse," he tells me with a pout as I rest my head on his chest. "But you still love me regardless 'Manda, and we both know it."
"You got me there," I say in defeat as I feel his arm wrap around my waist. "Anyway, its' story time . . . Please don't interrupt me while I'm telling it, okay?"
"I promise . . . Hopefully, I'll be able to keep it," I hear Randy mumble the last part under his breath, but I figured this was the best I could ask from him.
"Alright then, let's see. I took Alanna to the bathroom like you asked me to, but we had to go up to the second floor bathroom since the one on the ground floor was closed for repairs," I say as I look back at the recent memory. "While Alanna did her business, I stayed by the sinks. I went to go wash my hands when I suddenly got pushed into the mirror from behind. I then got pinned onto a stall door . . . That's when I realized it was Rochelle who attacked me," I say as I feel his body tense up right under me. I couldn't fret on it now. I had to continue my story. "She threw me into the wall, and while Rochelle was distracted with me, Alanna took it as her chance to escape. As soon as I knew that Alanna was safe, I took it as my chance to move. I fought back, and when I had Rochelle on the ropes, she threw me a note and quickly left the room."
"How exactly did you fend her off?" Randy asks me curiously as I tap my fingers along his stomach.
"I tackled her and started punching her mostly," I say with a simple shrug. "Kinda like how you do it in the ring."
"I'm glad to know you took something out of my book to defend yourself," I could hear the smile in his voice as he spoke. I look up to see him smirking down at me, his eyes showing how proud he was over what I did. "I guess it really does pay to be an observant valet huh?"
"It pretty much does . . ." I say with a smirk as I move my head up to his shoulder. "So, how mad are you right now?"
"I'm very mad right now actually. I'm just too tired to really physically show it," he tells me with a groan as I pat his chest. "You feeding on my blood really drained me."
"Well it's better for you to just sit around and sulk rather than have you trashing the room or something." I say with a shrug. "We wouldn't want your parents to come to this house to see one room destroyed beyond repair do you?"
"No, no. We definitely don't want that. My mom would never forgive me if I did that to her beautiful retirement home," Randy asks me as I kiss his cheek. "So, where's the note Rochelle threw at you?"
"In my back pocket . . ." I say as I take the crumpled piece of paper out. "I haven't read it yet, mostly because it's addressed to you."
"Figures as much . . ." Randy grumbles as I hand him the paper. He opens it up, revealing the short messy script that was Rochelle's handwriting. All that was written on the paper was one statement. "Meet me at the beach that's directly north of your home tonight at midnight."
"The beach directly north from this house . . ." I whisper with a scowl on my face. "Do you think it's the same beach that Dani saw in her vision?"
"It probably is the same beach," Randy tells me flatly as he crumples the paper in his fist. "I would so tell you not to come with me, but I'm not going to. Can you guess why?"
"I already told you that Dani saw me with you on the beach talking to Rochelle in her vision," I say with a small smirk as he throws the paper into the nearby trash bin. "Would that be the reason why?"
"That would be one," Randy tells me with a shrug. "The other would probably be that your protective instincts wouldn't allow you to go out to meet Rochelle without you present. We probably would get into one hell of an argument if I tried to make you stay."
"Damn straight we would. I would even be willing to punch you in the face, if our fight would escalate that far," I say with a grin as I finally crawl off the bed. "Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to check on the twins now."
"Fine, but please come back when you're done," I hear Randy say as I walk over to the door. ". . . I miss you already."
"You sound like such a sap just now!" I say with a smirk as I walk out the house. "But it's cute though. Real cute!"
Normal POV; 11:45 P.M.
"Are you sure about this?" Nate asked out of concern as he and his brother stood on the front porch of the house. "Who knows what Rochelle could have planned for you and Amanda once you get there?"
"Well, we have a pretty good idea of what's supposed to happen thanks to Dani's vision," said Randy as he crossed his arms over his chest. "But there is the possibility that something may happen that the vision didn't catch."
"Great, that's nice to know," Nate grumbled under his breath as Amanda walked out of the house. "Are the girls asleep?"
"The twins have been asleep for a long while now. I just got Alanna to fall asleep like five minutes ago," Amanda said with a strong nod of her head. "She's worried about us Ran . . ."
"I know she is, but we have to do this," Randy told her as he turned back to his brother. "Nate, look after the girls while we're gone."
"Of course," said Nate as he nodded his head. "And make sure you guys look after each other while you're out there ok? The girls are expecting both of their parents back here in the morning."
"Trust me. We plan to come back once we're done," said Randy as he walked down the stairs. "Let's go 'Manda."
Amanda quickly joined him at the bottom of the staircase. Once the two figured out which direction north was, they ran like the vampires they were. They were two blurs in the dark, the couple moving at breakneck speed as they crossed the tropical terrain. They slowed down when they finally reached the coastline, their eyes scouring the area for any sign of Randy's blast from the past.
"This is as far north as we can go, but are we at the exact beach?" Randy asked as he sniffed the air. "I can smell Rochelle's scent around here, but it's very faint thanks to all the seawater around here."
"She's here alright. I can sense her mind," Amanda said with a scowl as she turned to a patch of palm trees about 30 feet away. "She's been here all this time."
"Damn straight I have," said the redheaded vampire as she finally stepped out of the shadows, looking more disheveled than ever before. "It's nice to see that you got my message Randy, although, I'm irritated to see that you brought an extra guest to our little soiree."
"If you want me, you're going to get both of us. We're pretty much a package deal," Randy said with a serious look on his face as he came up to stand next to his mate. "Besides, I couldn't tell her no, even if I tried."
"I guess that's the problem when you're bonded to another vampire," Rochelle said with a shake of her head. "You find that you have trouble saying no to your soulmate on certain things, especially when those things can end up putting you in danger."
"You took the words right out of my mouth," Randy said with a shrug. "By the way, I didn't appreciate what you did this morning back at the mall."
"I figured you wouldn't," Rochelle said with a chuckle. "Is it too late to say that all I wanted to do was have a little chat with your fiancée here?"
"A little chat?" Amanda asked with a scowl on her face, her hands starting to bawl themselves into fists. "You blindsided and attacked me, you freaking bitch!"
"Okay, so wanting to chat with you wasn't the best way to describe what happened in that bathroom earlier," Rochelle said with a scowl on her face. "But hey, it looks like you've healed nicely from our little altercation. To be honest, I thought I was going to have you beat, well, till you tackled me and started to punch my lights out. You have a really good right hook girl! It truly hurt like hell! I was spitting blood out for a good while afterward because of you."
"It's nice to know those little sparring sessions I had with my sister growing up have finally paid off," Amanda sarcastically said as she stared Rochelle down. "Although, I think I could have at least landed one more hit on her before she ran off."
"Maybe you'll get that chance tonight," Randy whispered into her ear as he kept his eyes on Rochelle. "I would love to see you do it!"
"What are you whispering about all of a sudden Randy?" Rochelle asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Nothing you need to worry yourself about," Randy told her flatly. "So, why did you want me to meet you here in the middle of the night? I hope it was to apologize for attacking my mate."
"Sorry. But that's not it. I'm not one for giving apologies," Rochelle said with a cynical laugh. "I don't regret attacking Amanda, or scaring Alanna for that matter . . . It's nice to put a little fear in children, you know?"
"She is so not babysitter material . . ." Amanda mumbled low enough that only Randy could hear. Randy couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle at her comment, which only gained the ire of Rochelle. "Is there something wrong Rochelle? You look pretty annoyed right now."
"Sometimes I get a little irritated when someone laughs at me," said Rochelle as a scowl came across her face. "It's especially irritating when the person who's laughing at me is someone who's been refusing my offers for weeks now."
"I refused your offers, and I have my reasons why," Randy calmly said as he resisted the urge to ball his hands into fists. "I've told you this before Rochelle, but you're so hardheaded that you don't seem to pay attention to what I say. I have a wonderful life and I'm not going to ruin it by joining your side."
"Oh yes. I've heard your story before," Rochelle said with a wave of her hand. "It's becoming very repetitive if you ask me."
"Then you know what my answer will be if you ask me again," Randy told her flatly. "It's not changing any soon."
"You could have joined me Randy! You could have joined me in my plans, my vision for the future, but you just threw it away like a fucking, dimwitted asshole!"
Amanda's POV
Rochelle practically screams the statement at my man as her wild red hair flies unabashedly around her face thanks to the sea breeze that was hitting us left and right. Her disheveled appearance matched her mood, her eyes easily showing her fury as she looked at the two of us. I couldn't help but notice that what she said was the beginning statement to the dream I had days back, and if my dream was any indication, things were only going to get tenser from here.
"I could have joined you, but I declined every single time . . ." Randy tells her calmly as he stood his ground. "And I declined with good reason, very good reasons . . ."
"Oh yes, yes . . . With good reason you say . . ." Rochelle says in a mocking tone as she flails her arms. "Your job . . . your daughters . . . your mate . . . Am I missing anything else or did I get that all right?"
"No . . . you got it," Randy tells her simply as he did a small shrug. "I've told you plenty of times before that I wasn't planning to give up all that just so I could help you, but you just wouldn't understand. You asked me to join you time and time again, and I told you no every single time. You just wouldn't listen. It never got through that thick skull of yours Rochelle."
"Like you probably said before Randal: I can be very persistent when I want to be," she growled out in response as she took a step forward. "Do you want to know why I was always persistent towards you Randal? I saw you as a challenge, a challenge that I wanted to break, to destroy actually."
"I guess I proved you wrong huh? I became the challenge that you just couldn't conquer," Randy says with a shake of his head. "I proved to be too unbreakable for you . . . I was the one person you couldn't break . . . That you couldn't control . . . That you couldn't have for yourself, is that it?"
"Shut up you fucking bastard!" Rochelle yells as she starts to claw her fingers through her hair, which wasn't helping to tame the disorder that plagued it. "You have proven nothing. You hear me! NOTHING!"
"Why is it so hard for you to accept it?!" Randy exclaims back. "After what you pulled back when we were in the military, did you really think that I would join your side that easily? Did you really think that I would just let go of everything you did to me in the past? I remember everything Rochelle. You only bring misfortune and misery to everyone you come across dammit!"
"Old grudges die hard I see . . ." said Rochelle as she shook her head. "You were always the one that didn't believe in the line 'forgive and forget'."
"How could I forget it? My military days are a dark part of my life that I kept hidden from everyone I care about for the better part of sixteen years!" Randy yells back as I start to see veins start to show under his skin as his anger really starts to rear its head. "That year was one of the worst ones in my life. I was too ashamed to tell anyone about it, about what you put me through. Of course I wouldn't forgive and forget!"
"Hmm . . . Wouldn't you just love to put that year behind you for good," Rochelle tauntingly said as she weaved her fingers together. "But that's not going to happen as long as I'm still around. My plans may have crumbled to dust but I'm still standing. I may be alone now, but that's not going to stop me from following after you until you finally give in.
"You just won't give up!" Randy says with a sad shake of his head. "Look Rochelle . . . It's over. You've lost your allies; your plan to control the West is all in shambles; and I'm certainly not going to give in to you . . . I have a life Rochelle. A job, a family, a mate that loves me . . . and what do you have? Nothing . . . Absolutely nothing; all because you just can't give up this sick fantasy of having me in your slimy clutches."
"I'm giving you a final warning Rochelle. Leave me and my family alone. If you come anywhere near my family, I will not hesitate to rip your head off and burn your body into ashes," Randy further tells her before turning around to walk away. "This is your one chance Rochelle. Leave, and never come back."
Rochelle's face becomes a mask of no emotion, but then, her left eye starts to twitch erratically a few times before she lets out a feral, eardrum shattering scream. As soon as she leaps for Randy, I start moving to block her, but as soon as we were close enough to make contact, I feel my rage just boil over to rear its head.
Rochelle is only mere feet from me when I wave my hand at her, telekinetically pushing her away before she has a chance to touch me. I only meant to shove her away for a few feet, but in truth, I end up sending her far into the air. My telekinetic push ended up being so strong that it sent her a good 30 feet away. I figured she would right herself in the air and land safely on her feet, but she continued to flail her limbs until she crashed onto the ground headfirst. I could hear the sickening crunch of her skull cracking and her neck snapping on the sandy earth, and as soon as her body went still, I knew that she was dead.
"Amanda? Amanda, are you okay?" I hear Randy say as I feel his arms wrap around me.
"I think ssso," I say, my voice showing that I was in the Anaconda mindset as my rage quickly recedes. "She was going to attack you . . ."
"I know baby. I know . . ." he whispers tin my ear before kissing the side of my head. "But she wasn't able to touch me because of you. You protected me baby, and I thank you for it."
"She could have righted herself and landed on her feet, but she didn't. Why?" I ask with a small pout on my face as Randy starts leading me over to Rochelle's body.
"I don't know why, to be honest," Randy tells me, just as confused as I am. When we finally reach her body, we both stare down at Rochelle, our eyes going straight to her neck and head where the worst of the damage was at. "C'mon, we better burn her body."
"Alright," I say as I watch him pick up her body. I follow him over to a few patches of dry branches and shrubbery, my eyes going straight to Rochelle's head just in case she managed to survive such a traumatic injury. Randy puts her down on a patch of old palm leaves before backing away. I summon a flame to my hand and drop it right onto her chest, her body combusting into flames on impact. "What now Ran?"
"Well, it'll be a while before her body fully crumbles into ashes. She's far enough from any other shrubbery that she won't cause a wildfire once we leave her." Randy tells me as he takes my hand in his.
"How are you feeling Ran?" I abruptly ask as he watches the fire. "You know . . . Now that Rochelle's finally gone."
"I feel like I can finally turn the page on a bad chapter in my life. What happened to me in the past . . . well, what's done is done. I can never redo that part of my life . . . I'm just glad that it's all over now and I can finally focus on my future with you and the girls," Randy tells me with a sincere smile on his face as he pulls me away from the fire. "C'mon, let's go home."
"Better yet . . . How about I race you there?" I say with a challenging tone in my voice as I tug my hand out of his grip.
"You are so on baby," Randy says as he pecks my forehead, before zooming back to the house. "I'll see you there 'Manda!"
"You cheater!" I exclaim as he disappears within the trees. "But damn . . . I should have expected this from him."
I let out a deep breath before running after him. I am determined to beat him, and once I beat him, I'm so going to kick his ass once we're home.
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