99. No Way?

Juliet

Of course, I ran to Charlene’s room. Well waddled as fast I could. Louis coming with me. Trying to stop me from being stupid and falling. Picking me up under my arms and carrying me. I gripped his hair and pushed his mouth on mine.

Charlene had closed the door.

“Louis will just read you!” I knocked loudly.

“I don’t care.” She said laughing.

“Come on, I’m so bored. You’ve been keeping this from me for months.”

“Keeping what from you?” I jumped around, startled, hearing Carl behind me. Pressing my lips together. I was riddled with guilt. My eyes shot to Louis for help, but he pretended to see something in the sky. I said some things in my mind that made even Louis blush. Carl’s eyes moved from Louis to me. He knocked on Charlene’s door. The door slowly opened. Charlene was riddled worse than me. Carl’s gaze traveled from me to her. His shoulders slumped. His head dropped.

“Who is it? You’ve met someone.” Three pairs of eyes were watching him. “Is it Kubra?”

We were all shaking our heads. Little Carl was not so dumb after all… How the hell did he figure that? “How did you know? I didn’t even know.”

“You didn’t see him when I told him Ben left her alone.”

Carl’s eye darted to me. “I took too long.” He said solemnly.

I sighed, feeling so sorry for him. How did anyone follow someone like Kubra? He was tall, dark, and handsome. Older… more mature. When he moved, the girl asked how high they should jump. They were almost the same as well. Charlene had type… Buff and boyish.

It made me think of Michael… I had to shake myself, or else I wouldn’t sleep. I took Carl’s hand and pulled him across the lawn and into my room. Closing the door. Louis went to lie down on the bed. I enjoyed him following me around like that. It was the best feeling ever. If he would just kiss me… My eyes flickered to Louis, who flashed his eyebrows at me. I growled at him. Scenes of him being tied up flashed through my head. Louis giggled and rolled around, putting his face under the pillows. I shook myself… again and pulled Carl across the little bridge to the little sitting area. He sat down.

“Nothing had happened… they just kissed today… For the first time.” Louis said.

“Oh, jeez!” Carl jumped up and paced.

“So if you want to get in there. You still have a chance… You were the one that messed this up.” I said.

“How?”

“By not…”

“Throwing yourself at her feet Carl,” Louis said, walking over rummaging through the cupboards.

I was confused but let Louis search for whatever he was looking for.

“You’re either very proud or stupid.” Louis kept talking.

“Hey!”

I turned to Louis… “Is it just vampire guys that go all out for their women?”

He shrugged ignoring me. Louis opened the door between the rooms and went into Marcus’s room, and kept on rummaging.

I shook my head. Twirling my finger next to my head at carl.

“Can we stay on topic, please?”

“We are Carl. You have to decide whether she is everything to you. If not let her be happy… Charlene wants the obsession. The life-long commitment.”

“Four years not an obsession enough for me to have liked her.”

“Years of doing nothing isn’t an obsession. It’s… boring and juvenile… At some point, it needed to change… She needs a man… And you… I’m sad to say… is acting like a child. Hold out for someone else and leave Charlene be.”

Carl paced some more. “In what way?”

I rolled my eyes. “I can’t anymore Louis. He doesn’t want to understand… love.”

Louis caught my eye. He was busy in a box on the bed. His hand hovered before he took something out. He held it up. Carl turned to him. Louis lifted bondages up into the air. “Tonight, Juliet will tie me to the bed and have her way with me… Can you do that for Charlene?”

“Why the hell does Marcus have bondages. Does he even know?” I asked, indignant.

Louis ignored me… “Because I can tell now… Not Charlene or Juliet will be the ones tied up… Ever… It will never go the other way. Charlene will never come running after you, Carl. They might be easy… but you probably just had one shot….”

“What about Chris? You ran after him for years….”

“Yeah, like Louis said. We don’t know what we would do… If that person starts slipping through your fingers.” Louis and my gazes locked.

But my love turned to anger. I glared at Louis about the bondages. “You shouldn’t even joke about that. It’s like number three on the list.”

“I know…”

“What list?” Carl asked.

“The three things I would never do for any of them.”

Carl seemed impressed. “Just three?”

“See Carl! You probably have a massively long list of ultimatums, and it’s just one logistical nightmare with you… No romance and…”

“Boredom…” Louis said.

Carl was getting upset. “I’m not boring.”

“You spell the word,” Louis said as he pulled me up.

Carl snapped and stomped out of the room. Louis and I paused outside, watching him. He stood still for a moment, eyeing Charlene’s door across the yard. Finally, Carl glanced back at Louis and me and strutted over.

I gripped Louis’s hand. “Will he do it?”

Carl pushed open the door, walked in, and closed it again.

“No way! I thought he wasn’t serious about her.”

Charlene screamed. We burst out laughing. The door rolled open. Carl got pushed out, holding his cheek. Charlene closed the door again. Muttering and swearing. Carl was defeated. I sighed. It was funny.

“Louis…”

“Yeah, I’m on it.” Louis jogged down the corridor to meet up with Carl. Just before they went into the room… Louis looked back at me and smiled brightly. “We have a date tonight?”

“No! Who is going to stand guard? You’ll just rip out of them. They are not vampire proof.”

Both our eyes drifted to Carl’s room. All the things I could do to Louis played through my mind. His hand gripped the door frame… steadying himself… He just knew how to make me feel good…

***

Charlene

Across the yard, Louis went into Carl’s room and closed the door. Juliet came over and asked me if I wanted to go with her to Rodrigo. We asked Cindy and Liam to watch Miné. Neither of us had a car of our own. It felt weird being almost twenty and not having wheels. Jessy drove us down the road.

“So you want to talk about it?”

“Kubra walked in on me naked in Paris.” Juliet giggled. “He came at me like he was going to eat me… I told him I didn’t want to put out anymore without commitment… And he left the room. Said that he wanted more.”

“Charlene… He really likes you…”

“I… think he does…”

“And? Do you like him?”

“Wait! That’s not all.” Juliet’s eyes grew bigger.

“He told me he was in love with me.” Jessy sputtered. “Kubra had been watching me while checking up on Marcus.” Juliet got that smirk on her face whenever a guy took responsibility. Got obsessed. “And of course, he’s super hot….” Jessy shook his head. I fanned myself dramatically. Juliet giggled, nodding, agreeing with me. “He’s not against Marcus. He is relieved about his father. He had gone on some war campaign. Busy with Louis and on other stuff… He wanted to give me space.”

“Well that’s good news. I was so worried that he would hate Marcus….”

“I asked him to move in at the house….” Juliet nodded excitedly. “I don’t think he will because of Carl and Ben...”

We stopped in front of the building and made our way down the elevator. Juliet tried to prepare me for the monsters that lived down there, but nothing could prepare you for that.

“Rodrigo!”

“Juliet! In here!”

“I’m here for my seven months. Did we come at a bad time?” He came out of the glass cubicles. Injecting one of the monsters.

“What are you doing?”

“I think it’s time I let them go. At least some of them. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine?”

“Are you an infected vampire?” Rodrigo’s gaze fell on me. He looked me over quickly.

“Don’t do it… it’s not worth it. The pain almost makes you crazy.”

“You seem fine.” Juliet snickered. Rodrigo smiled at her. They were sharing a moment.

“What does it entail?

“Lots of injections over a long period… And you need a donor.”

“Who was yours?”

Rodrigo’s eyes flickered to Juliet. “I think it’s time you tell me what happened between you and Marcus.” She suggested.

“He was twenty. I got kidnapped at fifteen. Kept down here until I was buff and big at thirty. Trained all day long and put through that. Marcus had to watch me suffer for years. Qadir made him do it… Every time he had to tie me down in darkness. Around Marcus’s fortieth birthday, I had changed and was going insane. I wasn’t adjusting. He had enough and took me out. He dropped me somewhere in a wooded area. Told me to try and eat only once a month and move around. Left me there. .. So, no, it’s not what you think. Marcus wasn’t some psycho for two hundred years and changed overnight. He had always been… different.”

Juliet was on the table. The sonar seemed fine. When Rodrigo was done, he handed her a rag to wipe off all the gel from her baby bump. I helped her, and she pulled down the shirt.

“Will you really live forever?” I asked.

“That’s what they say.”

“How many of you are there.”

“Not many. It is not fun being in darkness your whole life… What are you going to do one day? Become a Pathologist?”

“I’ll find a planet in total darkness. Live there?”

Louis came running into the room. “Juliet, come on… I wanted to be here.”

She handed him the picture. He tilted it up and down and shook his head.

“It’s really nothing… Seven months is just another month.”

“That’s not the point.”

“I needed to talk to Charlene, and she wanted to ask Rodrigo some questions.”

“What kind of questions?”

“Can I be Charlene’s host?” Juliet asked.

Rodrigo sat back on the counter, perching himself up with his arms. Regarding Juliet. He nodded softly and closed his eyes, biting the inside of his lips. “But I won’t do it…”

“Charlene, we could rather make you a watcher and get that tech in you,” Louis suggested.

“That won’t help me protect Miné. Who will I be connected to? Kubra?”

All three of us exchanged glances.

“You can come with us when we leave. If we ever leave.”

“He did ask me to marry him.”

Juliet was beside herself. “What was your answer.”

“No!”

“Why?”

“In this regard, Jules. I’m not like you. I don’t know how you do it. But if he moves in tomorrow… I have been thinking. Maybe we can get a teleporter on the campus.”

Louis and Juliet stared at each other and smiled.

“And you Juliet?”

We all turned back to Rodrigo.

“Me! Study? Are there any classes on how to take over three planets and rule them?” The room went deadly quiet. Juliet gets what Juliet wants.