The House of the Rising Sun, Chapter Fifteen, Part 1
Title: House of the Rising Sun
Fandoms: a cross over between Marvel's X-Men(to some degree) Universe and the Anita Blake Universe
Rating: no one under 18. there will be blood and gore, sex and violence. dirty language and whatever else i feel like tossing in here.
Warning: as i said, sex and violence and dirty words. said sex will include, but not be limited to, M/F, M/M, M/F/F, F/F, M/M/F and probably any other combination i can work out. weak stomach, not my fault. you have been warned.
Disclaimer: i do not own anyone from the Marvel universe. i do not own anyone from the Anita Blake universe. i don't even own Gin. i'm lucky to own myself. i swear i'm not making any money from this. i just do what the sick voices inside my head tell me to. i write purely for my enjoyment. and possibly the comments. please don't sue, harass or bother me. i have no money to pay you, but i do have a really nasty temper. and i know some good cuss words.
The House of the Rising Sun: The Index
~*~*~*~*~
To give her more privacy, he turned to study a painting on the wall, a serene wooded glade featuring several small animals hiding in the foliage. He glanced around at the firm click of the latch. He shook his head and took a seat on her chair to wait. Almost immediately, a soft tapping came from the door to the corridor as if someone had been listening for the right moment to knock.
Damian rose and opened the door quietly to reveal a familiar face wearing an uncharacteristically somber expression. “Jason?”
“How is she?” The young werewolf peered past him into the room.
“She is calm. But fragile, I think.”
“Did she…Is she really responsible for what happened? For that...?” The boy’s voice trailed off as he searched for the right word.
“Yes.” Damian shot a quick glance over his shoulder. The sound of running water told him that she’d opted for a shower. He stepped into the corridor, pulling the door nearly shut behind him. “Why are you here?”
“Anita and Jean Claude wanted me to check on her. If you want to go I’ll stay with her.”
“I’ve promised to stay the night.” Damian frowned down at the boy.
“I feel responsible. I’m supposed to be helping her adjust.” Jason swayed from foot to foot with uncertainty. “I must have missed something.”
Damian shrugged. “I have promised to stay until dawn. Come back before then. I do not think she should be left alone so soon.”
“OK.” The shorter man cocked his head for a moment, listening to the sounds from within. “Look. I don’t know what your plans are, but I should give you a heads up.”
“A heads up?” He thought he knew what the phrase meant, but modern slang could be slippery.
“Yeah. You know she’s a new shifter, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, she hasn’t had sex yet.” Now the boy looked chagrinned. “Since she shifted, I mean.”
“Has she not been sharing a bed with you since she arrived?” Damian raised one crimson eyebrow. “It has been at least two months, I believe.”
“We have.” Jason shook his head. “But just for sleeping.”
“She has somehow resisted your charms for all this time?” Damian’s tone was dry.
“She’s let me kiss her a couple of times and that’s it.” The werewolf frowned thoughtfully. “She’s been putting me off. Says she’s got to talk to Remy and Jo first. I thought it was an excuse. I figured she was still afraid to have sex with a shifter. But after the way Remy went after Jo at the party, maybe it wasn’t an excuse after all.”
Damian nodded. “Have you spoken to Anita or Jean Claude about this?”
“No.” The younger man looked uncomfortable. “Not in so many words. I’ve just been giving pretty general progress reports.” Jason flashed a brief smile. “I guess everyone assumed I was living up to my reputation.”
“And how is she doing?” Damian’s thoughts were already turning, considering this new information.
“As far as controlling her beast? Better than most. But, she still isn’t truly comfortable with the leopards. She’s friendly enough in public or in groups, but she’s still sleeping with me instead of the pard.” Jason gave another quick smile. “It’s not that I mind having a pretty girl snuggled up to me, but she’s not really ready to ‘graduate’ until she’s comfortable enough to join them. And of course until she’s tested her control during sex.”
“I see.” Damian paused as he heard the tempo of the shower’s flow change. But when it continued, he returned his attention to the other man. “Thank you for the ‘heads up,’ Jason. I will see you before dawn.” He nodded a dismissal and opened the door enough to slip through.
“Wait. Damian?”
“Yes?”
“What are you planning to do?”
“Have Anita or Jean Claude given you instructions for me?”
“No.”
“Then that depends on Ginette. Good night, Jason.” With that, he closed the door quietly but firmly. Resting his back against the wooden panel, he regarded the closed door of the bathroom for a long moment. Then nodding to himself in decision, he began to prepare himself for bed.
~*~*~*~*~
"Did you have this much stamina before you were turned? Because wow!"
The girl... Tina? Tisha? No. Tia. Her name was Tia. She was talking too much. That meant he wasn't applying himself to the task at hand with any kind of energy. Okay. Perhaps Remy had let his mind wander. Just a bit. But he didn't think it was so unusual after the events of the evening. The whole thing had come as a surprise. A shocking, painful surprise. He'd had every right to be upset. Jo was his. She had no business baring her throat and thighs for anyone else. And then Gin had actually said that he was in the wrong. He was entitled to be a little distracted. They were his, weren't they?
"Remy?" the girl asked quietly. The hesitance in her voice served to pull him away from his thoughts.
"It no'ting to do wit' being turned. Dis all Remy, cher," he told her, offering her a charming smile that was sure to melt any doubts right out of her head. And if the smile didn't work, the shift of his hips would. She sucked in a breath, her body spasming around his as he slid a little deeper into her.
"Wow," she said again, the single word coming out as a gasp this time. He wrapped his hands around her waist and took the opportunity to work a little of his magic on her. Satisfaction rolled through him when her eyes slid shut and her head fell back. "Oh, God. What is that? What are you doing to me?"
"Whatever you want. Everyt'ing you want," he murmured in reply. Then he made good on the promises he hadn't spoken and started stroking deep. Soft mewling sounds rolled up her throat with each thrust of his hips, attesting to just how much she was enjoying their encounter. His ego, the purely masculine side of his brain, took pride in the way she rode his cock and the noises she made because he was fucking her. No matter what had come his way over the years, he'd always been good at this. Listening to his partners pant and moan out their need and release was the finest music in the world, a pure symphony for the senses even at a time when his senses hadn't been as heightened as they were now.
And now, after Belladonna's blood had so easily and permanently corrupted his body and soul... Now, Remy couldn't find a better orchestra to soothe his battered senses. The soft cries, the moans, the meaty slap of flesh against flesh, the faint sucking sounds that came with an excess of lubrication. All of it was the finest erotic symphony for his highly acute senses. It was so easy to lose himself in the sensations that his partner inspired in him. So easy that he could forget, if even for a few moments, the way his heart had shattered in his chest earlier that evening. So easy that the sense of betrayal he'd felt when the truth had come to light could fade into the background of his mind.
So easy that he needed that forgetfulness as if it was a drug and he was an addict.
Tia was eager for him. Wet and tight around him. Her hips moved in time with his. Her breasts bounced with each thrust. She was a beautiful, vibrant young woman. She was willing to do anything he asked of her. He was a lucky man to have such a woman to please and take pleasure from. And yet...
No. He wasn't going to let thoughts of the evening take control. Wasn't going to let them spoil his here and now. So he pushed them away and threw himself into the art of pleasing Tia. His lips traced kisses against her skin, pressing a line of them from her mouth to that spot just under her ear, then down her throat and across her shoulder. He finally moved to her breast, let his mouth take hold of her nipple so that he could suck at it hard. Tia moaned loudly, her hips pressing down more firmly against his own, then threaded her fingers through his hair. Her hold on him tightened when the tip of a fang grazed the tender flesh. "Are you going to bite me there?"
There was a wistful quality in her words, letting him know that she would love it if he bit her on the breast. She'd love it if he drank from her as a child drank from its mother. It was a terribly intimate place to drink, would be such an intimate exchange. And then she'd go tell all her friends that she'd banged the hot new vamp at the Jean Claude's club and he'd had a taste of her from her breast.
There were only two women who had ever deserved that kind of intimacy from him. Tia was not one of them. He rolled his eyes up to find her watching him, gaze hopeful and expectant. Remy gave her a smile, pulled a little harder on her nipple so that she cried out and closed her eyes. Then he started back up, timed his kisses to the end of each upward stroke, until his mouth hovered over her throat. She shivered when his fangs grazed the skin there, a teasing promise of things to come. For now, though, Remy was far from done with her.
With the speed afforded him by his vampire status and the grace and agility gifted to him during his time on the streets as a thief, he took hold of Tia and rolled her onto her back. Settled himself over her with such ease and speed that it startled a squeak out of her. That tiny brush of fear spoke to baser emotions, ones he tried hard to control. But his earlier anger made it that much easier for the predator to slide out of the shadows and he knew when she saw the change simply by the look on her face. He gave her that charming smile of his.
"Relax, cher. Remy not gon' hurt you," he promised. And he wouldn't. He'd seen enough depravity amongst Belladonna's kiss to last him several lifetimes. He was many things, but he was not the kind of man who would strike that kind of fear in someone just because he could. His hands reached out to stroke her skin, calloused fingertips gliding over the soft swell of her breasts so that they could tweak her nipples. She shuddered beneath and around him, and the scent of her desire filled the room.
Tia wrapped her legs around him, lifted her mouth to his in search of a kiss. Remy gave it, teased at the seam of her lips with the tip of his tongue until she opened her mouth and allowed his tongue to slip inside. The sound of her heart beating in her chest was like thunder in his ears, each gasping breath and soft moan an invitation. Her hips moved in time with his own, ensuring that his cock went deep with each thrust. Her arousal perfumed the air, mingled with the floral scent of whatever she'd spritzed onto her skin before leaving her home and the sweat that dampened her forehead and her upper lip and her chest.
The feel of her body wrapped around his, the sounds of pleasure that she let go, the smell of her arousal all combined to push him over the edge.
He rolled his hips, drew back and pressed forward, fucked her with just enough strength behind his actions to add hints of pain to the pleasure he gave her. She curled her fingers into the flesh covering his shoulder blades, dug her nails in hard enough to leave marks in her wake. She was teetering on the edge, her body tight with need. Her voice had that tone he'd heard before, that certain quality that said she was so close to tipping over into a thick pool of liquid pleasure.
Hunger gnawed at him in its various forms, letting him know that he couldn't make this last much longer. So he sped up his pace, thrust faster. His hands and mouth worked Tia's flesh until she nearly writhed with need beneath him. She panted for air, begged with half formed words for him to do it. There was no need to try and guess what 'it' might be. He knew exactly what it was she wanted. And the thrice damned hunger that Belladonna had given him demanded that he give it to her.
Leaning down, he left a heated line of kisses from the swell of her breast to just under her ear. Once there, Remy whispered soft words of encouragement meant to bring her pleasure higher and push her closer to her climax. He used the hand not supporting his weight to reach down and take hold of her hip, pull her into him that much tighter. He fucked her harder, felt the way her body tightened down around him.
After one last whisper, a lewd suggestion made against the shell of her ear, he lowered his head and dropped a kiss to the throbbing vein in her neck. Tia whimpered softly, her fingers digging harder into his shoulders. It was a silent invitation and demand all at once. He didn't ignore it. His fangs broke through skin she'd stretched taut by tipping her head to the side at the same time he gave one last deep thrust. She gave a strangled cry, her entire body going tense as her orgasm ripped through her. The first splashes of bright crimson flooded his mouth at that same moment, setting his own climax off, his hips making a few more sharp thrusts before he spent himself and left them both sprawled limp on the rumpled bedding.
He took a moment to catch his breath before he stroked a hand up her arm so that he could cup her cheek in his palm. Her eyes were slow to open, her smile just as slow to come, but he could tell she'd be fine with a night's rest and a decent meal or two. Giving her a smile, he gave her a nudge toward sleep. Her eyes slid shut right away and it was only a few moments later that her breathing evened out into a slow, steady rhythm. Remy made sure to pull the blankets up over her, then he slid from the bed and went in search of his clothes.
Darkness crowded close when he slipped out onto the street but he could tell that dawn wasn't far off. Time to return to the Circus and decide what to do about the mess that his personal life had become. Again. Habit saw him glancing around him before he started walking. His enhanced senses told him exactly where the rat was hiding. He ignored whoever it was and turned his feet toward home. The rat was only there to keep an eye on him. None of them had ever tried to engage him in any way. Most of the time, he didn't even spare a thought for that fact. Tonight, though, he considered it a moment. The rat was obviously smart, because they both knew just what would happen if the rat tried to take him.
Maybe he could prod the rat into a fight. One release was as good as the next, wasn't it?
~*~*~*~*~
Slowly, so very slowly, he untangled himself from her and carefully settled her back down on the bed. Jo sighed and stretched the kinks from her legs. The bed shook as Edward climbed from it and headed for the bathroom. She took a second to admire the curves of his ass, then put her legs over the side and got to her feet. It wasn't hard to find her panties and borrowed t-shirt and she'd just scooped them up when he came out of the bathroom with a determined look in his eye.
She slipped into her clothes as he retrieved his sleep pants and stepped back into them. Then he took hold of her arm and tugged her over to the chair. While he didn't sit her down in it himself, it was obvious that's what he wanted. So she took a seat and watched while he did the same. His gaze was bright and intense when it landed on her. Yay. They were going to get serious now.
"What was that back there? Why were you intent on leaving?" he asked. "What did you mean, make it stop? Make what stop?"
How could she explain it? She wasn't really sure what had happened. Everything had been fine up until probably a half hour ago or so. She'd been listening to her music, doing her best not to think about anything. And then she'd been slapped in the face with an overwhelming sense of... sorrow. It had run deep enough that she'd felt she was choking on it. Under it, she'd sensed tiny hints of fear that had tried to break through the thick wall of grief to make themselves known. She'd felt as though a knife had been driven straight through her heart. "I don't... I don't know." She frowned as she said it, sensed his own displeasure with her own answer. "Honest, Edward. I don't know. I... I don't think its me. It doesn't feel like me. It feels like its coming from someone else."
She could tell he didn't believe her. It was odd that he spent so much time with people from the preternatural community and he didn't believe in someone being sensitive. "I hope you don't expect me to buy that line."
"Believe me. Don't believe me. I don't care. Its the truth. Someone else's sorrow set mine off. Probably Gin, because she's the only person other than Remy that I share that kind of connection with. He's probably already kicked me out of his head."
"You have a connection with Gin? What kind of connection?" There was something in his eyes. Curiosity. Maybe something else, but she wasn't sure. She shook her head. How did she describe it? She didn't really understand it herself. No one seemed to know what it was.
"We... feed off one another. Or something. I'm sensitive. To energies. To powers. To emotions. Not a full on empath. Something else. Something less and something more. Gin's gifts are different. She can... draw people in to her. Its like she gives off this aura. Moth to the flame type thing. And when she uses it, she can bring one or two people to her side. But if she and I combine our gifts?"
"You can bespell a crowd." She didn't like the tone of his voice, as if she'd just gone from being a poor, defenseless human to prey.
"We can bespell a crowd. Trust me. It isn't something I'm really fucking jazzed about."
"Belladonna made you use it to gather food for her kiss." He made it a statement so she didn't answer him. She just watched as the wheels started turning. "That's why she took you and Gin."
"No. She took us to keep Remy in line. She wanted him to hunt for the kiss. He refused."
She watched him try to puzzle that one out. "Why him?"
"Remy has his own gifts. But he wouldn't use them for her. And she couldn't conceive of any way to make him. Until Gin and I came along. She thought to force his hand by holding us over his head. But then she found out we could hunt in his stead. And it became a game to her. Threaten one to get the other two to fall in line. She threatened Remy with our deaths. She threatened us with his."
"That isn't all she threatened." Since it wasn't a question, she didn't answer. She stared at him, face clearly showing him that she was tired of this already. It took everything in her to hold back the emotions that wanted to boil to the surface. He gave her a considering stare before sitting back in his chair and pinning her with a look that said he was going to start asking uncomfortable questions. And she wasn't going to have any option but to answer them."Tell me what Belladonna did to you that makes you want to kill her so badly."
"She didn't do anything." That was the truth. "Other than keep me alive."
He absorbed that for a moment. "Ah. Darious, then. What did he do?"
She met his cold gaze with one of her own. "Did you know that Belladonna's kiss has games they play with the mortals?"
"What kind of games?"
"They get off on fear. The lot of them. So they'd come up with ways to make people's fear spike to frighteningly high levels. They liked to take their victims into the coffin room with them and subject them to horrible things. Darious' favorite was called 'Breakfast in Bed.' His chosen victim would be stuffed in his coffin and he'd climb in with them, then he'd rape them. It was always as dawn was coming, so he'd die on top of them. And they'd be stuck in the coffin all day with a corpse pinning them down. When he rose for the night, he had breakfast in bed. They also liked to just randomly enclose victims in the coffins and lock them in there by themselves for a day. The more afraid their snack got, the more fun it was for them. I watched a lot of people disappear into the coffin room. I never saw them come back out."
She expected him to ask more questions. He didn't. He just stared at her, gaze calculating and unwavering. Finally, after minutes had ticked by painfully slow while he watched her, he blinked and sat back in his chair. "So its not Belladonna you want. Its Darious."
"He deserves to die screaming for what he did to those poor people. Remy can kill the bitch. He deserves that kill. I've already tried to end her life and you saw where that got me. I just don't care enough to try again."
"You made a good effort," he replied. It sounded like a compliment to her. No. She really hadn't. But she wasn't going to argue that with him. Something told her arguing with him would be futile.
Edward watched her quietly for several long seconds before he shook his head and rose from the chair. Apparently he was done with the questions for the night. "You should rest. Its late and its been a very rough day. Go on. Into bed. Tomorrow really won't be any better because after I start your lessons, I'm taking you back to the Circus." Looked like he was done being human, too.
"Fucking joy," she muttered. She'd rather stay up and avoid the screaming horrors that waited for her just beyond the edge of the shadows. The look he gave her, though, said he wasn't going to let it happen. Jo held back a sigh and climbed from the chair. She felt his gaze heavy on her back as she crossed to the bed and crawled into it. She kept her back to him, curled into a ball and hoped like hell that she'd be able to sleep. Two seconds later, the light clicked off and the bed dipped as Edward climbed in beside her. One hand reached out to take hold of her, then she found herself pulled into him. His chest was snug against her back and his arm never moved.
"Sleep." It was an order. Under it, though, was a promise. Nothing bad was going to get her while he was there. She did sigh this time, let herself go limp in his hold, and closed her eyes. When sleep came for her, she let it take her without a fight.
~*~*~*~*~
Something was amiss, some emotion heavy on the air around him. He could feel it even though he hadn't even entered the Circus yet. Some big, emotional event had happened here. And he'd missed it. Remy took a moment to taste the air in a metaphysical sense, using his own unique gifts to try and make sense of what he was feeling. There was a great deal of fear and anguish, thick clouds of it even out in the parking lot of the Circus. Curious. What had happened here tonight? Should he consider himself lucky that he'd missed it? He might not have missed it at all had it not been for the temper that he'd been left with upon discovering Jo had been with Asher.
It was if all of his problems had simply been waiting in a darkened corner, looking for the perfect moment to attack. The moment he recalled the fight with Jo, the little bit of a good mood he'd managed to find with Tia leaked away to leave him equal parts hurt and disgusted. Hurt that Jo would seek solace from someone else. Disgusted at himself for the way he'd treated her.
Heaving a sigh, Remy pulled the door open to the small entry. The vampire guarding the door gave him a cool nod, staying as far from him as he could on the small room. Remy nodded in returned, then turned to descend the stairs toward the underground lair.
The deeper he went, the thicker and more cloying the emotions got. Whatever had happened in the Circus tonight, it had to have been a huge event. In all his time here in St. Louis with Jean Claude's kiss, he hadn't met anyone who could manipulate emotions on a mass scale. That didn't mean it wasn't possible. He simply hadn't met anyone here who was capable of doing such a thing.
The door at the bottom of the stairs opened easily, silent as the grave on its hinges, allowing him to enter the main room. There were a couple rats lounging on the sofa and a quick peek told him that neither of them had suffered any kind of emotional upset. The two of them barely gave him a nod as he strolled across the room toward the hall leading to his daytime chambers. If they knew what had happened, they weren't giving off any signs.
The deeper he went into the hallway, the more intense the lingering emotions got. His shield held most of them out, but some thin wisps managed to filter through. Some anger touched him, hints of sorrow and pain. Loss. All of that and more lingered in the shadows, each emotion bearing a different taste or feel to it. That told him that multiple people had experienced those emotions. Just what had happened?
The gentle tug of other people's anger made it possible for his own to come bubbling up to the surface. With it came a detailed memory of what had happened earlier at that pointless party. It seemed that Jean Claude liked to show his toys off as much as Belladonna had. Remy's new master just had better taste in clothing than she'd had.
He arrived at his door without running into anyone else, though something about the emotions tugged at him. It felt like he should know it, but there were too many thoughts in his head to allow him to pick up on who it belonged to with any ease. Remy pushed the emotions aside. There was no point in pursuing that line of thought just now. No doubt he'd hear all about what had happened later. For now, he needed peace. And to think about what he was going to do with his wayward women.
Once safely inside his room, the door closed securely behind him, Remy stripped out of his clothes and headed for the bathroom. He needed a shower to wash Tia's scent from his skin. Maybe it would wash away some of the bad feelings about earlier, too.
He knew he'd reacted badly to discovering that Jo had slept with Asher, that she'd shared blood with him. But everything about the encounter had come as a shock. She'd been so deathly afraid of any vampire not him that Remy truly hadn't thought it possible for her to open up to any of them. And she'd been making an honest effort. He'd been able to tell the moment they'd walked into the main room and everyone else had seen them. There had still been some fear, but not like before. She hadn't been bathing in it. Then he'd gone and fucked it all up.
Rationally, Remy knew that it was stupid of him to expect her to remain celibate. He'd discovered early on that Jean Claude, and his kiss, thrived on sex and sensuality. It was impossible for anyone to avoid that when they spent any length of time around the master vampire and his minions. But he'd thought, perhaps naïvely, that his girls would not succumb to such temptations. He'd thought, foolishly, they'd remain his.
During the years that he'd been under Belladonna's control, Remy had had nothing. No friends, no companionship. No clothing that she didn't approve of and provide. No way to leave. No will to live. He'd honestly given up. And then, like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, Gin and Jo had come back into his life. It was as if he'd gotten a second chance. And he'd been determined not to let that chance pass him by. They had become his reason for surviving, his reason for living again. Had he not made himself the buffer between the girls and Belladonna, she would have used them up. Broken their minds until all there was nothing left but empty shells. He'd kept that from happening, had proudly claimed them as his own and had protected them with his life even while they'd healed his broken soul.
So it had hurt to find out Jo had been with Asher. And he'd lashed out, fearful of losing one of his reasons for continuing. Where would he be if Jo tired of him? If Gin found someone else she wanted to be with? Weren't they already drifting apart?
Damn Jean Claude and his scheming. That's how they'd gotten here. There was nothing worse than a Master vampire with plots and plans on the brain. Bad enough he'd decided to split the three of them up. For their own good, he'd claimed. More like for his own good. But to confuse Jo with Asher's interest? That was low. Even for a fucking vampire. And he should know.
Jo's words from earlier in the evening echoed around in his brain. I've been on my own for almost two months. And maybe the two of you fit into this fucking fucked up little family we're in, but I don't. He hated that she thought she didn't belong here. Because that meant she felt she didn't belong at his side. And he didn't want to think of what his life would be like without her. Without either one of them. Because they'd all fit together so well once upon a time.
Memories of that week, before Belladonna and her devil's kiss, rushed to the surface. Maybe he was wrong in thinking that it could be like that again. The world had conspired to change everything for them. It had conspired to change them. He only wished he could find a way to change them back. Just a little. But since that wasn't possible, he'd really like to be able to find out what had changed Jo so drastically and take that pain away.
Bah. His head was going in circles and it was getting him nowhere. For the moment, he put his thoughts to the side and concentrated on scrubbing himself down. Tia's perfume clung stubbornly to his skin If only the guilt washed away as easily as the soap took away the stench of his actions.
By the time he climbed from the shower and toweled himself dry, it was past dawn. He'd felt the sun come up. And he'd felt many of Jean Claude's vampires seek out their rest for the day. Only a few were still awake. Jean Claude, Asher, Damian. A handful of others. No doubt planning something new for the coming night. Remy only hoped that he wasn't part of it.
The bed he climbed into was big. And lush. And very empty. No doubt it would hold the three of them just fine. With room to spare. He just wasn't sure if, and when, that would happen. He'd been stupid and stubborn earlier. It would serve him right if his actions cost him everything he held dear. The question was, could he survive the loss?
There was only one thing he could do to ensure that he never had to find out. He was going to have to apologize. To Jo and to Gin. They'd have to talk things out, get it all out in the open. Come to some kind of understanding. It was hypocritical of him to think that he could get away with having sex with someone else and not allow the girls the same freedom. Hypocritical and egotistical. He couldn't be their entire world. And they couldn't be his. Not anymore. If they were going to survive, they had to grow. He only hoped he could find a way to make that happen. That he hadn't damaged their relationship beyond repair.
Decision made, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax. The sun was rising, stealing his will to remain awake. Death was stealing into his bones. He wondered, as he had every night since he'd woken up in Belladonna's bed, if it would be for the very last time. But the thought was pushed aside by Gin's smile and Jo's laughter, both infectious and as beautiful as a sunrise. He eased his shields just a little bit, reached down the link he had with the two of them to ensure they were well.
Gin was close by, emotionally and physically exhausted. Remy touched briefly on a small ball of confused emotions lingering at the back of her brain before pulling away just a bit. If he had to guess, he'd found the source of whatever had happened here earlier. He'd be sure to ask her about it later. A little longer lingering in her mind assured him that she was fine, that she was sleeping, and that she was safe. Certain that he had no need to worry about Gin, he turned his attention to Jo.
She was some distance away, obviously still with Anita's friend. She, too, was sleeping. There was a hint of emotional upset there, but nothing like he'd found on Gin. Surprisingly, Jo was sleeping peacefully, her mind absolutely still. It was unusual. Every other time he'd slipped into her mind during when she slumbered, there had been a spot that was, for lack of better words, sore. Like a big bruise. Any time he'd tried touching it, tried to find the reason for its existence, Jo had instinctively pulled back and left him wondering what had happened to leave that stain there.
Remy didn't know why the bruise was gone or how that had happened. And he didn't care. All that mattered to him was that Jo was sleeping. And she was safe. That was the best he could ask for. For both of them.
He let his mind touch them both again, just a fleeting thing. This time, he left something behind. Three little words, put into thought and emotion. He felt both of them sigh in response, then he let them both go and allowed himself to succumb to the dawn. Tomorrow was soon enough to say the words aloud.
~*~*~*~*~
Fandoms: a cross over between Marvel's X-Men(to some degree) Universe and the Anita Blake Universe
Rating: no one under 18. there will be blood and gore, sex and violence. dirty language and whatever else i feel like tossing in here.
Warning: as i said, sex and violence and dirty words. said sex will include, but not be limited to, M/F, M/M, M/F/F, F/F, M/M/F and probably any other combination i can work out. weak stomach, not my fault. you have been warned.
Disclaimer: i do not own anyone from the Marvel universe. i do not own anyone from the Anita Blake universe. i don't even own Gin. i'm lucky to own myself. i swear i'm not making any money from this. i just do what the sick voices inside my head tell me to. i write purely for my enjoyment. and possibly the comments. please don't sue, harass or bother me. i have no money to pay you, but i do have a really nasty temper. and i know some good cuss words.
The House of the Rising Sun: The Index
~*~*~*~*~
To give her more privacy, he turned to study a painting on the wall, a serene wooded glade featuring several small animals hiding in the foliage. He glanced around at the firm click of the latch. He shook his head and took a seat on her chair to wait. Almost immediately, a soft tapping came from the door to the corridor as if someone had been listening for the right moment to knock.
Damian rose and opened the door quietly to reveal a familiar face wearing an uncharacteristically somber expression. “Jason?”
“How is she?” The young werewolf peered past him into the room.
“She is calm. But fragile, I think.”
“Did she…Is she really responsible for what happened? For that...?” The boy’s voice trailed off as he searched for the right word.
“Yes.” Damian shot a quick glance over his shoulder. The sound of running water told him that she’d opted for a shower. He stepped into the corridor, pulling the door nearly shut behind him. “Why are you here?”
“Anita and Jean Claude wanted me to check on her. If you want to go I’ll stay with her.”
“I’ve promised to stay the night.” Damian frowned down at the boy.
“I feel responsible. I’m supposed to be helping her adjust.” Jason swayed from foot to foot with uncertainty. “I must have missed something.”
Damian shrugged. “I have promised to stay until dawn. Come back before then. I do not think she should be left alone so soon.”
“OK.” The shorter man cocked his head for a moment, listening to the sounds from within. “Look. I don’t know what your plans are, but I should give you a heads up.”
“A heads up?” He thought he knew what the phrase meant, but modern slang could be slippery.
“Yeah. You know she’s a new shifter, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, she hasn’t had sex yet.” Now the boy looked chagrinned. “Since she shifted, I mean.”
“Has she not been sharing a bed with you since she arrived?” Damian raised one crimson eyebrow. “It has been at least two months, I believe.”
“We have.” Jason shook his head. “But just for sleeping.”
“She has somehow resisted your charms for all this time?” Damian’s tone was dry.
“She’s let me kiss her a couple of times and that’s it.” The werewolf frowned thoughtfully. “She’s been putting me off. Says she’s got to talk to Remy and Jo first. I thought it was an excuse. I figured she was still afraid to have sex with a shifter. But after the way Remy went after Jo at the party, maybe it wasn’t an excuse after all.”
Damian nodded. “Have you spoken to Anita or Jean Claude about this?”
“No.” The younger man looked uncomfortable. “Not in so many words. I’ve just been giving pretty general progress reports.” Jason flashed a brief smile. “I guess everyone assumed I was living up to my reputation.”
“And how is she doing?” Damian’s thoughts were already turning, considering this new information.
“As far as controlling her beast? Better than most. But, she still isn’t truly comfortable with the leopards. She’s friendly enough in public or in groups, but she’s still sleeping with me instead of the pard.” Jason gave another quick smile. “It’s not that I mind having a pretty girl snuggled up to me, but she’s not really ready to ‘graduate’ until she’s comfortable enough to join them. And of course until she’s tested her control during sex.”
“I see.” Damian paused as he heard the tempo of the shower’s flow change. But when it continued, he returned his attention to the other man. “Thank you for the ‘heads up,’ Jason. I will see you before dawn.” He nodded a dismissal and opened the door enough to slip through.
“Wait. Damian?”
“Yes?”
“What are you planning to do?”
“Have Anita or Jean Claude given you instructions for me?”
“No.”
“Then that depends on Ginette. Good night, Jason.” With that, he closed the door quietly but firmly. Resting his back against the wooden panel, he regarded the closed door of the bathroom for a long moment. Then nodding to himself in decision, he began to prepare himself for bed.
~*~*~*~*~
"Did you have this much stamina before you were turned? Because wow!"
The girl... Tina? Tisha? No. Tia. Her name was Tia. She was talking too much. That meant he wasn't applying himself to the task at hand with any kind of energy. Okay. Perhaps Remy had let his mind wander. Just a bit. But he didn't think it was so unusual after the events of the evening. The whole thing had come as a surprise. A shocking, painful surprise. He'd had every right to be upset. Jo was his. She had no business baring her throat and thighs for anyone else. And then Gin had actually said that he was in the wrong. He was entitled to be a little distracted. They were his, weren't they?
"Remy?" the girl asked quietly. The hesitance in her voice served to pull him away from his thoughts.
"It no'ting to do wit' being turned. Dis all Remy, cher," he told her, offering her a charming smile that was sure to melt any doubts right out of her head. And if the smile didn't work, the shift of his hips would. She sucked in a breath, her body spasming around his as he slid a little deeper into her.
"Wow," she said again, the single word coming out as a gasp this time. He wrapped his hands around her waist and took the opportunity to work a little of his magic on her. Satisfaction rolled through him when her eyes slid shut and her head fell back. "Oh, God. What is that? What are you doing to me?"
"Whatever you want. Everyt'ing you want," he murmured in reply. Then he made good on the promises he hadn't spoken and started stroking deep. Soft mewling sounds rolled up her throat with each thrust of his hips, attesting to just how much she was enjoying their encounter. His ego, the purely masculine side of his brain, took pride in the way she rode his cock and the noises she made because he was fucking her. No matter what had come his way over the years, he'd always been good at this. Listening to his partners pant and moan out their need and release was the finest music in the world, a pure symphony for the senses even at a time when his senses hadn't been as heightened as they were now.
And now, after Belladonna's blood had so easily and permanently corrupted his body and soul... Now, Remy couldn't find a better orchestra to soothe his battered senses. The soft cries, the moans, the meaty slap of flesh against flesh, the faint sucking sounds that came with an excess of lubrication. All of it was the finest erotic symphony for his highly acute senses. It was so easy to lose himself in the sensations that his partner inspired in him. So easy that he could forget, if even for a few moments, the way his heart had shattered in his chest earlier that evening. So easy that the sense of betrayal he'd felt when the truth had come to light could fade into the background of his mind.
So easy that he needed that forgetfulness as if it was a drug and he was an addict.
Tia was eager for him. Wet and tight around him. Her hips moved in time with his. Her breasts bounced with each thrust. She was a beautiful, vibrant young woman. She was willing to do anything he asked of her. He was a lucky man to have such a woman to please and take pleasure from. And yet...
No. He wasn't going to let thoughts of the evening take control. Wasn't going to let them spoil his here and now. So he pushed them away and threw himself into the art of pleasing Tia. His lips traced kisses against her skin, pressing a line of them from her mouth to that spot just under her ear, then down her throat and across her shoulder. He finally moved to her breast, let his mouth take hold of her nipple so that he could suck at it hard. Tia moaned loudly, her hips pressing down more firmly against his own, then threaded her fingers through his hair. Her hold on him tightened when the tip of a fang grazed the tender flesh. "Are you going to bite me there?"
There was a wistful quality in her words, letting him know that she would love it if he bit her on the breast. She'd love it if he drank from her as a child drank from its mother. It was a terribly intimate place to drink, would be such an intimate exchange. And then she'd go tell all her friends that she'd banged the hot new vamp at the Jean Claude's club and he'd had a taste of her from her breast.
There were only two women who had ever deserved that kind of intimacy from him. Tia was not one of them. He rolled his eyes up to find her watching him, gaze hopeful and expectant. Remy gave her a smile, pulled a little harder on her nipple so that she cried out and closed her eyes. Then he started back up, timed his kisses to the end of each upward stroke, until his mouth hovered over her throat. She shivered when his fangs grazed the skin there, a teasing promise of things to come. For now, though, Remy was far from done with her.
With the speed afforded him by his vampire status and the grace and agility gifted to him during his time on the streets as a thief, he took hold of Tia and rolled her onto her back. Settled himself over her with such ease and speed that it startled a squeak out of her. That tiny brush of fear spoke to baser emotions, ones he tried hard to control. But his earlier anger made it that much easier for the predator to slide out of the shadows and he knew when she saw the change simply by the look on her face. He gave her that charming smile of his.
"Relax, cher. Remy not gon' hurt you," he promised. And he wouldn't. He'd seen enough depravity amongst Belladonna's kiss to last him several lifetimes. He was many things, but he was not the kind of man who would strike that kind of fear in someone just because he could. His hands reached out to stroke her skin, calloused fingertips gliding over the soft swell of her breasts so that they could tweak her nipples. She shuddered beneath and around him, and the scent of her desire filled the room.
Tia wrapped her legs around him, lifted her mouth to his in search of a kiss. Remy gave it, teased at the seam of her lips with the tip of his tongue until she opened her mouth and allowed his tongue to slip inside. The sound of her heart beating in her chest was like thunder in his ears, each gasping breath and soft moan an invitation. Her hips moved in time with his own, ensuring that his cock went deep with each thrust. Her arousal perfumed the air, mingled with the floral scent of whatever she'd spritzed onto her skin before leaving her home and the sweat that dampened her forehead and her upper lip and her chest.
The feel of her body wrapped around his, the sounds of pleasure that she let go, the smell of her arousal all combined to push him over the edge.
He rolled his hips, drew back and pressed forward, fucked her with just enough strength behind his actions to add hints of pain to the pleasure he gave her. She curled her fingers into the flesh covering his shoulder blades, dug her nails in hard enough to leave marks in her wake. She was teetering on the edge, her body tight with need. Her voice had that tone he'd heard before, that certain quality that said she was so close to tipping over into a thick pool of liquid pleasure.
Hunger gnawed at him in its various forms, letting him know that he couldn't make this last much longer. So he sped up his pace, thrust faster. His hands and mouth worked Tia's flesh until she nearly writhed with need beneath him. She panted for air, begged with half formed words for him to do it. There was no need to try and guess what 'it' might be. He knew exactly what it was she wanted. And the thrice damned hunger that Belladonna had given him demanded that he give it to her.
Leaning down, he left a heated line of kisses from the swell of her breast to just under her ear. Once there, Remy whispered soft words of encouragement meant to bring her pleasure higher and push her closer to her climax. He used the hand not supporting his weight to reach down and take hold of her hip, pull her into him that much tighter. He fucked her harder, felt the way her body tightened down around him.
After one last whisper, a lewd suggestion made against the shell of her ear, he lowered his head and dropped a kiss to the throbbing vein in her neck. Tia whimpered softly, her fingers digging harder into his shoulders. It was a silent invitation and demand all at once. He didn't ignore it. His fangs broke through skin she'd stretched taut by tipping her head to the side at the same time he gave one last deep thrust. She gave a strangled cry, her entire body going tense as her orgasm ripped through her. The first splashes of bright crimson flooded his mouth at that same moment, setting his own climax off, his hips making a few more sharp thrusts before he spent himself and left them both sprawled limp on the rumpled bedding.
He took a moment to catch his breath before he stroked a hand up her arm so that he could cup her cheek in his palm. Her eyes were slow to open, her smile just as slow to come, but he could tell she'd be fine with a night's rest and a decent meal or two. Giving her a smile, he gave her a nudge toward sleep. Her eyes slid shut right away and it was only a few moments later that her breathing evened out into a slow, steady rhythm. Remy made sure to pull the blankets up over her, then he slid from the bed and went in search of his clothes.
Darkness crowded close when he slipped out onto the street but he could tell that dawn wasn't far off. Time to return to the Circus and decide what to do about the mess that his personal life had become. Again. Habit saw him glancing around him before he started walking. His enhanced senses told him exactly where the rat was hiding. He ignored whoever it was and turned his feet toward home. The rat was only there to keep an eye on him. None of them had ever tried to engage him in any way. Most of the time, he didn't even spare a thought for that fact. Tonight, though, he considered it a moment. The rat was obviously smart, because they both knew just what would happen if the rat tried to take him.
Maybe he could prod the rat into a fight. One release was as good as the next, wasn't it?
~*~*~*~*~
Slowly, so very slowly, he untangled himself from her and carefully settled her back down on the bed. Jo sighed and stretched the kinks from her legs. The bed shook as Edward climbed from it and headed for the bathroom. She took a second to admire the curves of his ass, then put her legs over the side and got to her feet. It wasn't hard to find her panties and borrowed t-shirt and she'd just scooped them up when he came out of the bathroom with a determined look in his eye.
She slipped into her clothes as he retrieved his sleep pants and stepped back into them. Then he took hold of her arm and tugged her over to the chair. While he didn't sit her down in it himself, it was obvious that's what he wanted. So she took a seat and watched while he did the same. His gaze was bright and intense when it landed on her. Yay. They were going to get serious now.
"What was that back there? Why were you intent on leaving?" he asked. "What did you mean, make it stop? Make what stop?"
How could she explain it? She wasn't really sure what had happened. Everything had been fine up until probably a half hour ago or so. She'd been listening to her music, doing her best not to think about anything. And then she'd been slapped in the face with an overwhelming sense of... sorrow. It had run deep enough that she'd felt she was choking on it. Under it, she'd sensed tiny hints of fear that had tried to break through the thick wall of grief to make themselves known. She'd felt as though a knife had been driven straight through her heart. "I don't... I don't know." She frowned as she said it, sensed his own displeasure with her own answer. "Honest, Edward. I don't know. I... I don't think its me. It doesn't feel like me. It feels like its coming from someone else."
She could tell he didn't believe her. It was odd that he spent so much time with people from the preternatural community and he didn't believe in someone being sensitive. "I hope you don't expect me to buy that line."
"Believe me. Don't believe me. I don't care. Its the truth. Someone else's sorrow set mine off. Probably Gin, because she's the only person other than Remy that I share that kind of connection with. He's probably already kicked me out of his head."
"You have a connection with Gin? What kind of connection?" There was something in his eyes. Curiosity. Maybe something else, but she wasn't sure. She shook her head. How did she describe it? She didn't really understand it herself. No one seemed to know what it was.
"We... feed off one another. Or something. I'm sensitive. To energies. To powers. To emotions. Not a full on empath. Something else. Something less and something more. Gin's gifts are different. She can... draw people in to her. Its like she gives off this aura. Moth to the flame type thing. And when she uses it, she can bring one or two people to her side. But if she and I combine our gifts?"
"You can bespell a crowd." She didn't like the tone of his voice, as if she'd just gone from being a poor, defenseless human to prey.
"We can bespell a crowd. Trust me. It isn't something I'm really fucking jazzed about."
"Belladonna made you use it to gather food for her kiss." He made it a statement so she didn't answer him. She just watched as the wheels started turning. "That's why she took you and Gin."
"No. She took us to keep Remy in line. She wanted him to hunt for the kiss. He refused."
She watched him try to puzzle that one out. "Why him?"
"Remy has his own gifts. But he wouldn't use them for her. And she couldn't conceive of any way to make him. Until Gin and I came along. She thought to force his hand by holding us over his head. But then she found out we could hunt in his stead. And it became a game to her. Threaten one to get the other two to fall in line. She threatened Remy with our deaths. She threatened us with his."
"That isn't all she threatened." Since it wasn't a question, she didn't answer. She stared at him, face clearly showing him that she was tired of this already. It took everything in her to hold back the emotions that wanted to boil to the surface. He gave her a considering stare before sitting back in his chair and pinning her with a look that said he was going to start asking uncomfortable questions. And she wasn't going to have any option but to answer them."Tell me what Belladonna did to you that makes you want to kill her so badly."
"She didn't do anything." That was the truth. "Other than keep me alive."
He absorbed that for a moment. "Ah. Darious, then. What did he do?"
She met his cold gaze with one of her own. "Did you know that Belladonna's kiss has games they play with the mortals?"
"What kind of games?"
"They get off on fear. The lot of them. So they'd come up with ways to make people's fear spike to frighteningly high levels. They liked to take their victims into the coffin room with them and subject them to horrible things. Darious' favorite was called 'Breakfast in Bed.' His chosen victim would be stuffed in his coffin and he'd climb in with them, then he'd rape them. It was always as dawn was coming, so he'd die on top of them. And they'd be stuck in the coffin all day with a corpse pinning them down. When he rose for the night, he had breakfast in bed. They also liked to just randomly enclose victims in the coffins and lock them in there by themselves for a day. The more afraid their snack got, the more fun it was for them. I watched a lot of people disappear into the coffin room. I never saw them come back out."
She expected him to ask more questions. He didn't. He just stared at her, gaze calculating and unwavering. Finally, after minutes had ticked by painfully slow while he watched her, he blinked and sat back in his chair. "So its not Belladonna you want. Its Darious."
"He deserves to die screaming for what he did to those poor people. Remy can kill the bitch. He deserves that kill. I've already tried to end her life and you saw where that got me. I just don't care enough to try again."
"You made a good effort," he replied. It sounded like a compliment to her. No. She really hadn't. But she wasn't going to argue that with him. Something told her arguing with him would be futile.
Edward watched her quietly for several long seconds before he shook his head and rose from the chair. Apparently he was done with the questions for the night. "You should rest. Its late and its been a very rough day. Go on. Into bed. Tomorrow really won't be any better because after I start your lessons, I'm taking you back to the Circus." Looked like he was done being human, too.
"Fucking joy," she muttered. She'd rather stay up and avoid the screaming horrors that waited for her just beyond the edge of the shadows. The look he gave her, though, said he wasn't going to let it happen. Jo held back a sigh and climbed from the chair. She felt his gaze heavy on her back as she crossed to the bed and crawled into it. She kept her back to him, curled into a ball and hoped like hell that she'd be able to sleep. Two seconds later, the light clicked off and the bed dipped as Edward climbed in beside her. One hand reached out to take hold of her, then she found herself pulled into him. His chest was snug against her back and his arm never moved.
"Sleep." It was an order. Under it, though, was a promise. Nothing bad was going to get her while he was there. She did sigh this time, let herself go limp in his hold, and closed her eyes. When sleep came for her, she let it take her without a fight.
~*~*~*~*~
Something was amiss, some emotion heavy on the air around him. He could feel it even though he hadn't even entered the Circus yet. Some big, emotional event had happened here. And he'd missed it. Remy took a moment to taste the air in a metaphysical sense, using his own unique gifts to try and make sense of what he was feeling. There was a great deal of fear and anguish, thick clouds of it even out in the parking lot of the Circus. Curious. What had happened here tonight? Should he consider himself lucky that he'd missed it? He might not have missed it at all had it not been for the temper that he'd been left with upon discovering Jo had been with Asher.
It was if all of his problems had simply been waiting in a darkened corner, looking for the perfect moment to attack. The moment he recalled the fight with Jo, the little bit of a good mood he'd managed to find with Tia leaked away to leave him equal parts hurt and disgusted. Hurt that Jo would seek solace from someone else. Disgusted at himself for the way he'd treated her.
Heaving a sigh, Remy pulled the door open to the small entry. The vampire guarding the door gave him a cool nod, staying as far from him as he could on the small room. Remy nodded in returned, then turned to descend the stairs toward the underground lair.
The deeper he went, the thicker and more cloying the emotions got. Whatever had happened in the Circus tonight, it had to have been a huge event. In all his time here in St. Louis with Jean Claude's kiss, he hadn't met anyone who could manipulate emotions on a mass scale. That didn't mean it wasn't possible. He simply hadn't met anyone here who was capable of doing such a thing.
The door at the bottom of the stairs opened easily, silent as the grave on its hinges, allowing him to enter the main room. There were a couple rats lounging on the sofa and a quick peek told him that neither of them had suffered any kind of emotional upset. The two of them barely gave him a nod as he strolled across the room toward the hall leading to his daytime chambers. If they knew what had happened, they weren't giving off any signs.
The deeper he went into the hallway, the more intense the lingering emotions got. His shield held most of them out, but some thin wisps managed to filter through. Some anger touched him, hints of sorrow and pain. Loss. All of that and more lingered in the shadows, each emotion bearing a different taste or feel to it. That told him that multiple people had experienced those emotions. Just what had happened?
The gentle tug of other people's anger made it possible for his own to come bubbling up to the surface. With it came a detailed memory of what had happened earlier at that pointless party. It seemed that Jean Claude liked to show his toys off as much as Belladonna had. Remy's new master just had better taste in clothing than she'd had.
He arrived at his door without running into anyone else, though something about the emotions tugged at him. It felt like he should know it, but there were too many thoughts in his head to allow him to pick up on who it belonged to with any ease. Remy pushed the emotions aside. There was no point in pursuing that line of thought just now. No doubt he'd hear all about what had happened later. For now, he needed peace. And to think about what he was going to do with his wayward women.
Once safely inside his room, the door closed securely behind him, Remy stripped out of his clothes and headed for the bathroom. He needed a shower to wash Tia's scent from his skin. Maybe it would wash away some of the bad feelings about earlier, too.
He knew he'd reacted badly to discovering that Jo had slept with Asher, that she'd shared blood with him. But everything about the encounter had come as a shock. She'd been so deathly afraid of any vampire not him that Remy truly hadn't thought it possible for her to open up to any of them. And she'd been making an honest effort. He'd been able to tell the moment they'd walked into the main room and everyone else had seen them. There had still been some fear, but not like before. She hadn't been bathing in it. Then he'd gone and fucked it all up.
Rationally, Remy knew that it was stupid of him to expect her to remain celibate. He'd discovered early on that Jean Claude, and his kiss, thrived on sex and sensuality. It was impossible for anyone to avoid that when they spent any length of time around the master vampire and his minions. But he'd thought, perhaps naïvely, that his girls would not succumb to such temptations. He'd thought, foolishly, they'd remain his.
During the years that he'd been under Belladonna's control, Remy had had nothing. No friends, no companionship. No clothing that she didn't approve of and provide. No way to leave. No will to live. He'd honestly given up. And then, like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, Gin and Jo had come back into his life. It was as if he'd gotten a second chance. And he'd been determined not to let that chance pass him by. They had become his reason for surviving, his reason for living again. Had he not made himself the buffer between the girls and Belladonna, she would have used them up. Broken their minds until all there was nothing left but empty shells. He'd kept that from happening, had proudly claimed them as his own and had protected them with his life even while they'd healed his broken soul.
So it had hurt to find out Jo had been with Asher. And he'd lashed out, fearful of losing one of his reasons for continuing. Where would he be if Jo tired of him? If Gin found someone else she wanted to be with? Weren't they already drifting apart?
Damn Jean Claude and his scheming. That's how they'd gotten here. There was nothing worse than a Master vampire with plots and plans on the brain. Bad enough he'd decided to split the three of them up. For their own good, he'd claimed. More like for his own good. But to confuse Jo with Asher's interest? That was low. Even for a fucking vampire. And he should know.
Jo's words from earlier in the evening echoed around in his brain. I've been on my own for almost two months. And maybe the two of you fit into this fucking fucked up little family we're in, but I don't. He hated that she thought she didn't belong here. Because that meant she felt she didn't belong at his side. And he didn't want to think of what his life would be like without her. Without either one of them. Because they'd all fit together so well once upon a time.
Memories of that week, before Belladonna and her devil's kiss, rushed to the surface. Maybe he was wrong in thinking that it could be like that again. The world had conspired to change everything for them. It had conspired to change them. He only wished he could find a way to change them back. Just a little. But since that wasn't possible, he'd really like to be able to find out what had changed Jo so drastically and take that pain away.
Bah. His head was going in circles and it was getting him nowhere. For the moment, he put his thoughts to the side and concentrated on scrubbing himself down. Tia's perfume clung stubbornly to his skin If only the guilt washed away as easily as the soap took away the stench of his actions.
By the time he climbed from the shower and toweled himself dry, it was past dawn. He'd felt the sun come up. And he'd felt many of Jean Claude's vampires seek out their rest for the day. Only a few were still awake. Jean Claude, Asher, Damian. A handful of others. No doubt planning something new for the coming night. Remy only hoped that he wasn't part of it.
The bed he climbed into was big. And lush. And very empty. No doubt it would hold the three of them just fine. With room to spare. He just wasn't sure if, and when, that would happen. He'd been stupid and stubborn earlier. It would serve him right if his actions cost him everything he held dear. The question was, could he survive the loss?
There was only one thing he could do to ensure that he never had to find out. He was going to have to apologize. To Jo and to Gin. They'd have to talk things out, get it all out in the open. Come to some kind of understanding. It was hypocritical of him to think that he could get away with having sex with someone else and not allow the girls the same freedom. Hypocritical and egotistical. He couldn't be their entire world. And they couldn't be his. Not anymore. If they were going to survive, they had to grow. He only hoped he could find a way to make that happen. That he hadn't damaged their relationship beyond repair.
Decision made, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax. The sun was rising, stealing his will to remain awake. Death was stealing into his bones. He wondered, as he had every night since he'd woken up in Belladonna's bed, if it would be for the very last time. But the thought was pushed aside by Gin's smile and Jo's laughter, both infectious and as beautiful as a sunrise. He eased his shields just a little bit, reached down the link he had with the two of them to ensure they were well.
Gin was close by, emotionally and physically exhausted. Remy touched briefly on a small ball of confused emotions lingering at the back of her brain before pulling away just a bit. If he had to guess, he'd found the source of whatever had happened here earlier. He'd be sure to ask her about it later. A little longer lingering in her mind assured him that she was fine, that she was sleeping, and that she was safe. Certain that he had no need to worry about Gin, he turned his attention to Jo.
She was some distance away, obviously still with Anita's friend. She, too, was sleeping. There was a hint of emotional upset there, but nothing like he'd found on Gin. Surprisingly, Jo was sleeping peacefully, her mind absolutely still. It was unusual. Every other time he'd slipped into her mind during when she slumbered, there had been a spot that was, for lack of better words, sore. Like a big bruise. Any time he'd tried touching it, tried to find the reason for its existence, Jo had instinctively pulled back and left him wondering what had happened to leave that stain there.
Remy didn't know why the bruise was gone or how that had happened. And he didn't care. All that mattered to him was that Jo was sleeping. And she was safe. That was the best he could ask for. For both of them.
He let his mind touch them both again, just a fleeting thing. This time, he left something behind. Three little words, put into thought and emotion. He felt both of them sigh in response, then he let them both go and allowed himself to succumb to the dawn. Tomorrow was soon enough to say the words aloud.
~*~*~*~*~