Between Loves (The Pendant Series Book 2) Read online

  Speechless, Ray nodded his head as he handed me my coffee and we exited the hospital.

  Once we arrived at Granny’s, I kicked the teal pumps off and strode around barefoot. Without the added height, I now just felt like a girl in a sundress. Poking my head in Granny’s room, I saw that Chrissy was in there giving her a beauty makeover.

  I smiled at the thought of Granny being primped and pampered by my high-maintenance BFF and turned to exit the room. That was when I saw her room. All of Nouri’s things had already been removed. Her relatives back in the Philippines had requested that her body and belongings all be shipped back to her homeland. There would be no funeral service for my beautiful nurse here in the States.

  I would just have to learn to move on without her.

  Ray and I had stopped on the way home and we enjoyed an early lunch at some upscale restaurant where my attire seemed to blend right in. After the rich meal, I was ready to down a couple of painkillers and take a nap. Closing the door of Nouri’s now empty room, I headed upstairs with Ray in tow.

  As we entered the pink bedroom, I heard the door close and lock behind me. I turned around and before I had time to object, Ray’s mouth was on mine as his hands gripped the back of the denim vest and ripped it off me. It was like the scene in a movie…frenzied hands tugging at every article of clothing as we blindly made our way over to the bed.

  Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to let Ray pick out my clothes after all.

  He was anything but calm. “You had me so scared, Sid. I thought I had lost you when I found you crumpled in the backyard. I can’t live without you.”

  Our lovemaking was different than usual. It was as if Ray felt a need to display his strength as he gripped me tightly and poured himself inside me, as if he were using my body as an escape to drown out all of the memories of Monday’s gruesome scene. He was rough, burying himself in a pit of sensuality, showing me just how strong and powerful he could be. His body draped over mine, allowing me the visual of this superior being against my petite feminine frame.

  In the past he had always been so gentle and soft. He was the only person I had ever been with and there was once a time that I could say the same for him. But now he was a stranger with this animalistic instinct that seemed to possess him as he sexually devoured me. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it. I had yearned for any affection this man chose to give me and now I couldn’t pry him off with a crowbar. I looked into his face and he wore the same dead eyes that I saw in the hospital. No feelings, no depth, and no intimacy, just empty pools of nothingness.

  As he climaxed he collapsed on top of me, his breathing strained; he lay perfectly still, wrapped up in his sexual aura. I ran my fingers through his sweat-soaked hair and kissed his shoulder. He rolled over on his side, facing me, and met my gaze.

  “I love you, Sid.”

  At the same time he said those words the light behind his eyes returned in bright, living color.

  The zombie was gone.

  I was so happy to see the old Ray return that I no longer cared about all the new things he had just shown me. I took his face in my hands and kissed his perfect mouth. For a moment we lay together in blissful harmony. The sweat from our bodies conjoined as the tingling sensation in my stomach began to subside.

  Unfortunately, we slowly began to sink back into reality.

  “You know I can’t go back with you on Friday,” I said slowly, too afraid to meet his eyes. This had been on my mind ever since my discussion with Detective Albright. He had told me that Nouri’s death was clearly a threat from someone who meant business. Whoever it was wanted to stop me from going to L.A. with Ray and they had temporarily succeeded by killing Nouri.

  My mind drifted briefly to my last dream, which included the not-so-cryptic warning from my dead mother. She had clearly instructed me to run away from this town. Balancing the two, I decided that I should heed to the very real warning that had left the stitches across my forehead.

  I knew it the instant I read that note, but I was still scared to tell Ray. He wasn't always the most understanding when something stood in his way of getting what he wanted.

  He somberly responded, “I know.”

  I was shocked.

  Was Ray finally coming around and working on his selfish outbursts?

  Or maybe he never wanted me to go back with him to L.A. in the first place.

  I closed my eyes while I pondered all possible solutions and before I knew it I was out for the count.

  Chapter 7

  Thank You For The Venom

  Samael knew what was being offered to him was wrong on so many levels. He also knew that once he took this route, there was no going back. His soul would be taken, indebted to the Snake.

  Would Eve still be able to love him if his heart was now black as coal?

  And what of his father?

  As much as he hated his father for what he had done, he still yearned for his approval and had hoped to receive it one day. He dreamed of living his remaining days together with Eve in his home. He was still foolish enough to believe his father would overturn his decision made two weeks prior, and that they could all live together in peace as one family. After all, Samael was the first-born son. His father had made so many plans for him. He did not want to be the disappointment that he knew defined him.

  But however much he wanted to please his father, he could not suppress his own desires. Eve had an uncontrollable hold over him. He could never resist the temptation to be with her, nor did he want to. She had become his obsession and he would not stop until he devised a plan for them to be together.

  He knew Eve would forget him if she crossed the gates of the garden. Here in Eden, you remain in your own body and you can stop your body from aging any time you chose.

  Outside the gates, however, you no longer have control over the aging process. You continue to grow old until the day you die. Once deceased, your soul travels through space until it is reborn into another being of your same bloodline. So long as your bloodline carries on, your soul will always have a body to possess. You become an incarnation of all of your past ancestors, but you leave all your past memories behind. With each rebirth, your memories are erased from your past life.

  Samael knew that Eve would grow old and die if his father’s plan was carried out, so it left Samael with no choice but to fulfill the task Samjaza assigned.

  ***

  “If Eve truly wanted to be with you, she would have found a way, Samael,” the pretty girl told her brother as she randomly ripped the daisies out of the ground and plucked them, one petal at a time.

  His sister always found the smallest things to capture her interest and she did it all with the style and grace of a true princess. She dropped the flower stem and pleaded with her brother in an attempt to show him what she believed to be Eve’s true side.

  “She chose to be with Adam over you. She is engaged and will probably become plump with his baby inside her belly very soon. Do you not think that she will easily forget her forest frolics with the King’s son and fall madly in love with the handsome, strong Adam who was the King’s hand, therefore just as desirable as you, if not more?”

  Samael watched his vain little sister and began feeling a faint hint of contempt as his gaze followed the beautifully manicured redheaded princess.

  He mused to himself, “Any man in this entire land would bend over backwards to capture the interest of this evading butterfly, yet she insists on following me around with her blatant attempts to fill my mind with falsehoods.”

  Before even he realized what he was doing, Samael had pulled his golden dagger with rubies embedded in the handle out of his waistband and slammed his sister against the large trunk of an oak tree he as he brought it to her throat.

  Her entire body tensed, unable to move for fear of her skin being pierced by the blade.

  Samael brought his face inches from hers and hissed, “Don’t you ever speak ill of my love again, do you understand me? I am
no longer the older brother you have sinful fantasies about.”

  Her emerald eyes widened in surprise.

  A sneaky sneer spread across Samael’s face. “Oh yes, sister, I know of the filth that runs through your dirty little mind and the impure desires you secretly harbor about your older brother.”

  He pressed the knife deeper against her throat as he grabbed both of her wrists and thrust her arms up above her head. She wriggled in an attempt to free herself but instead, she pressed forth into the blade. A small squeal of pain escaped her lips as a trickle of blood the same color as her hair ran down her neck and over the hollow of her throat.

  In an attempt to validate his suspicions, Samael brought his mouth to this spot of his sister’s neck and let out his warm, heavy breath against her skin. She moaned in delight and pressed her body against his.

  “This is why you could not be a good little wife to Adam,” he sneered as he put his mouth onto her cut and licked the blood away. He traced his tongue back up her neck to her ear, where he began to nibble.

  Slowly, he released her wrists and ran his fingertips down her arms, tracing the pale blue veins all the way down until he reached the upper slopes of her breasts.

  His little sister wrapped her arms around his neck and thrust her waist into him, harder this time as she pulled his face closer in for a kiss.

  “Yes,” she moaned, thinking she had finally made him see what she had been feeling since becoming a woman. She had desired his lips on her skin for as long as she could remember. Her thoughts swirled in a cloud, lost above her in the heavens somewhere. Her entire body was tingling with an invigorating sensation and no matter how close he was, she ached for him to be even closer. She let go of his neck and placed her hands on both sides of his waist, pulling his body into hers. She felt an uncontrollable urge to deliciously smother him like a tiger jumps on its prey. Closing her eyes, she opened her mouth eagerly, waiting for his lips to press against her mouth, but instead she felt a stone-cold blow to the side of her face.

  His sister immediately snapped her eyes open and crashed back to reality. No longer overcome by her brother’s antagonizing sexual presence, she was able to regain her senses.

  The blow had sent her to the ground. Her nose burned and her eyes watered. She brought her hand up to touch her throbbing cheek. She could feel her face already swelling from the blow. Taking a moment to think, she finally pieced together what had happened and laid there in utter shock.

  “Did you raise your fist to me, brother?” she asked in amazement. She looked up at her sibling who was standing in the shadows of the oak tree with clenched fists. He looked much larger at that moment, almost as big and strong as Adam had been. The dagger was still in his hand and she could see the rubies glistening off of the sun.

  “You wicked temptress!” he shouted. “This is all your fault! I should kill you now.”

  Samael was huffing and puffing in a mad rage. “These impure fantasies you have in that delusional head of yours are the reason Adam needed a new wife. Had you done your duties and been the devoted spouse father promised, he wouldn’t have needed Eve.”

  His sister hissed back, “I will not take orders from that man whom I do not love! He is not my superior, ’tis the other way around. He should have been taking my orders.”

  “In what world do you live where the men take orders from their wives? That is absurd, sister. You are to obey your husband ’til death do you part. You are not to run away and in turn have him steal my love.”

  Samael tried to make his sister see his reasoning but she was much too stubborn and would not give in to his distorted vision of being happy with that underbred peasant.

  “I did not love Adam,” she justified.

  “Eve does not love him either, she loves me,” Samael shouted as the vein in his neck bulged under his skin resembling that of an enraged volcano.

  His sister pleaded with him, “I love you, Samael! I do. Can you not see that? You are the blood of my blood, we are equal. I am not some dirty little peasant for you to play around with. I am superior to her. It is me you should be with. You should not contaminate your royal blood with the likes of that scoundrel.”

  Another blow followed. This time it was from Samael’s boot. It was much harder than the last but she would not allow her brother to see the pain he was inflicting on her—both physically and emotionally. She sat back up and spit the blood and dirt from her mouth. Wiping her face with the back of her hand, she looked straight into her brother’s face.

  “I love you and will take anything you have to offer, dear brother.”

  Samael stomped over to her like a madman, gripping her beautiful red hair in his hand and pulling hard. His sister groaned in pleasure, closing her eyes and licking her lips.

  He was enraged. “You are nothing more than an evil temptress and I will no longer play into your twisted games. If you come near me again, I shall kill you with this dagger. Do you understand me?”

  Her eyes remained closed, and she refused to give him the satisfaction of an answer.

  “I cannot tell if you heard me, little sister. Perhaps this will make it clear to you.”

  Refusing to open her eyes and continuing to play her foolish game, she did not see when Samael took the dagger and pressed it hard against her left cheek. He quickly ran the blade across her face.

  Before she had time to realize what he was doing it was too late. She brought her hand to her cheek but the blood seeped between her fingers. She jumped to her feet and looked at him in horror.

  “What have you done to me…have you cut my face?” she shrieked.

  Samael looked at her with a smile of victory.

  “Go on, little sister, run back home and look at your image in the mirror. You may not like what you see, but it will stay with you as a reminder. Keep away from me. I love only Eve. You and I will never be together again. Not even as brother and sister. I never want to see your face in my life.”

  “What have you done?” she screamed, causing the jays in the trees above them to shriek as they flew away in unison. “You will pay for this, Samael. Choosing that wretched girl over me, your own blood. You are a traitor, Samael, and a disgrace to this family! No wonder Father hates you so. You are a fool.”

  She turned and ran away.

  Chapter 8

  Alive

  I shot straight up in bed and sat there, breathless.

  What kind of sick dream was that?

  I glanced over at Ray’s side of the bed as I quietly tried to assemble my thoughts. He was sleeping soundly next to me. He looked so peaceful and I considered this may have been the most sleep he’d gotten in the past two days. I had been so consumed with my grief for Nouri and the unanswered questions of who had murdered her that I really never stopped to consider what Ray had been going through and how he must be feeling after discovering Nouri’s cold, dead body. Not to mention me being beaten on the ground.

  Of course, he hadn’t slept well since Monday. He’d been preoccupied at my bedside making sure I was okay. Despite Ray’s character flaws, there was no doubt that he did love me.

  I carefully slid out of bed and crept over to my closet. Although I adored my new dress, I needed to be a bit more comfortable and so I slipped on some black sweat pants and a soft cotton top. I opened the laptop and very quietly slid into the seat at my desk.

  My heart told me to make my latest dream more real and so I began to notate it in my online journal. Every morning while my mind was fresh, I recorded as much as I could remember from my subconscious journey to uncover what it was that Samael was trying to show me.

  Samael’s coming for you, Sidney. Don’t let the dreams or his charm fool you. It’s all lies.

  My mother’s warning rang out in my mind before I brushed it off. It was all just a dream. No one was coming for me. I just had to figure out the point to these annoying midnight ventures and then I was sure they would stop.

  But I was alone in this endeavor.

&
nbsp; The main man in my life was anything but enamored with my enthusiasm. I had told Ray all about the dreams the instant they began, but of course they had nothing to do with him, so they didn’t hold his interest.

  In fairness to the devotion he had shown me this week, I tried to make my presence as miniscule as possible. But my typing fingers still woke him.

  “Are you serious?” I heard him mumble with his face in the pillow. I glanced back and saw his thick, golden curls illuminated by the setting sun through our bedroom window.

  Like a compulsive romantic I shushed him. “Go back to sleep, I need to write this down before I forget it.” I could hear him grumbling as I tip-toed out of the bedroom to enter my rapidly disappearing memories of my latest dream.

  He hissed, “You say you keep having the same dream. Can’t you write it down the next time you have it at a more reasonable hour? Who cares if you forget it, Sid? It’s just a meaningless dream.”

  I gave him a parting shot as I closed the door. “I have to figure this out.”

  He groaned.

  That was Ray, it was always about him. I ignored his tantrum as he shouted at me through the door. I didn’t bother telling him the dream had evolved since I had met Adrian. Ray would never understand and instead just get angry I had mentioned the name he wished I would forget.

  Taking the computer into the spare bedroom across the hall, I sat down and began to type the new details of my dream with the incestuous siblings, more accurately, sibling. I suppose during biblical times, that sort of thing took place, but did I really need to dream about it?

  Gross.

  After typing the dream, I sat back and evaluated my work. Why would my mother warn me about this Samael character? There is no way he could be real. The entire story was beyond bizarre and I still failed to understand the point of all this nonsense.