Page 6 of Resurrecting His Soul
Without waiting for him to respond, she took off out the busted glass door, and she didn’t stop until she found the closest town—Lotusville, Virginia according to the sign. It was a small town, which made sense because she had never heard of it, and she’d done pretty well in her Geography class in high school, but you didn’t really learn about small towns too often. With no idea where she was really at or where she had left her cell phone, she needed to find a way to call Allison and check on her. Ricardo said she hadn’t been hurt, but she wasn’t sure he could be trusted, especially when she considered how easily he had decided it was for them to be killers just because of their food of necessity. He could have been lying to convince her to leave with him the day before.
Options were limited on where she could go. There was a gas station on the corner of what appeared to be Main Street, a small grocery store, and there was a small restaurant that looked like a locally owned mom and pop. It was still early in the day and the restaurant wasn’t busy, so she decided to go in and see if they had a phone she could use. Once inside, she headed straight to the bar and waited for the bartender to walk over.
He didn’t look at her when he asked, “What can I get you?”
“Can I use your phone?”
“Psh, nothing in here is free. You want to use our phone, you’re gonna have to buy a drink.”
Since she hadn’t thought to grab anything before she ran out on Ricardo, she didn’t have any money on her. So Lisandra moved to leave, but one of the waitresses she had seen waiting on the table closest to the bar stepped in front of her.
“Geez, Jimmy, you are such an ass,” the waitress said. “Here,” she held her hand out to Lisandra, a portable phone in her hand. “Ignore him. I think his momma dropped him on his head too many times. Just leave it on the bar when you’re done, okay?”
Lisandra froze and inhaled. The most delectable smell filled her nose and with it came third-degree burns trailing down her throat to her stomach, and its fire brought about a thirst like nothing she’d ever experienced that slammed into her, overtaking everything. All thoughts of calling Allison were gone. A pounding noise filled her ears and her eyes shot to the vein on the side of the woman’s neck where her pulse throbbed just beneath her delicate skin, calling out to Lisandra with every beat of her heart. Everything around them faded until it was only the two of them in the restaurant. Fangs descended in Lisandra’s mouth, and her nostrils flared. Moving faster than light, she yanked the waitress by her arm until their bodies were pressed together, then she pulled the girl’s hair off her shoulder, leaving her neck completely unshielded. When she sank her teeth into the girl’s neck, the taste of blood was so overpowering it became her only focus. She sucked harder, needing more. A low growl rumbled from deep within her and she was lost in her thirst—an animal.
Suddenly, someone strong pulled her away from the source of the blood and she screamed in anger as the burn in her throat returned tenfold. She flung her arms and tried to break free, but it was no use. Two hands gripped her tight and spun her around, then they moved until they were on either side of her face, forcing her to look straight on into a pair of bright sapphire eyes.
“Lisandra, focus. It’s me. Focus.”
The fire began to dull, being replaced by a different heat. Where the man’s hands touched her face electricity was coursing through her, lifting her out of the haze and back into the restaurant. After a couple minutes, her eyes focused again and she stared directly into the frost blue eyes of Ricardo. Her attention was pulled away from him by the screaming filling the restaurant. Pulling her face away from Ricardo’s touch, she gasped when her eyes landed on the waitress laying on the ground, her neck covered in blood. The other people in the restaurant stared at Lisandra in horror, some crying, some screaming. She’d been so stupid. She should have listened to Ricardo. Clearly, she had no idea what she was doing, and it had nearly cost an innocent girl her life, a girl who’d offered her help.
With tears running down her face, she looked back at Ricardo. “Please, get me out of here before I hurt someone else.”
Gripping her face again, he ran his thumbs under her eyes and wiped away her tears. “Shh, it’s going to be okay. I’ve got you.”
She didn’t believe him, but when he bent down and lifted her into his arms, she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest and let him carry her out of there. She had run away from her home to escape a monster, and she was scared to death that she was becoming one herself.
ChapterFour
Ricardo
Ricardo hated the ache he saw behind Lisandra’s eyes, and he was angry with himself for letting her leave. He could have stopped her, or at least followed her more closely, but he hadn’t wanted to risk her noticing him following her when she left his house. If he was being honest, he had been having a personal pity party when she left, which he had taken out on the other half of the glass door she had thrown her chair through earlier that morning. He was angry at himself for not being able to convince her to stay; for scaring her away by being too forward. But he hadn’t wanted to sugar coat what he was—what they both were. Clearly, being so candid with her about what she was and how she would have to feed was too much for her first morning as a vampire. He was kicking himself for not leading with the need to avoid public places where humans would be lingering while she was a new vampire. They could have avoided the very public situation Lisandra had landed herself in by denying her thirst. Instead, he had driven her straight into what was nearly a killer situation, and right after she made it clear she never wanted to hurt anyone regardless of her dietary needs.
Standing outside the restaurant on the sidewalk with Lisandra pressed against him while he held her in his arms and she cried into his neck, the last thing he wanted to do was let her go, but he had to take care of this little situation inside before any of the humans could spread vampire rumors around their small town, or worse, on social media. Man, he missed when all telephones had a cord that connected them to a wall and taking a photo took a professional and lots of preparation while you stood perfectly still. He needed to wipe the memories of all those human witnesses. His home was far too close to town to have conspiracy theories about vampires flying around after what had just happened. Making Lisandra release her hold on his neck and walking away from her, even the few feet inside the bar, made his chest tight in an uncomfortable way. It was not a feeling he was used to. Feelings weren’t really his thing, not for a very long time, but that seemed to be all he was doing since he first laid his eyes on her… feeling.
Brushing the hair back from Lisandra’s face, he ran the tip of his finger down her cheek to her chin and lifted her face until she was looking at him through her tears. Damn she was beautiful, even with tears streaking down her cheeks, and blood coating her lips. He knew he’d never seen anyone more beautiful, and with her pressed against him, and her lips so close to his, the urge to press his lips to hers was stronger than any blood lust he’d ever known. Not kissing her was almost painful, but he had to take care of the humans to make sure she was safe, and that was more important than anything he wanted from her.
He reached for her arm and pulled it down from around his neck, and bent to put her back down, but she clung to him. “Please, just get me out of here,” she practically cried. “I don’t trust myself…” her voice trailed off and he could hear her sniffling against his neck.
That tight feeling in his chest turned into something far worse, and the pain made him wonder if something invisible was trying to crack open his sternum. Shaking it off, he focused back on Lisandra and ran his hand over her hair, trying to offer her some small comfort. “I know, darling, and I will take you home in just a moment, but I need to take care of the humans first.”
That got her out of his arms in a flash, and she jerked her head up and narrowed her eyes on him. “You are not going to take care of them, Ricardo. I won’t let you.” Her hands balled into fists, and she bared her fangs at him.
He smiled, unable to help himself. Feisty Lisandra was hot. She’d clearly interpreted his words in a far more sinister manner than he had intended, not that he blamed her; after all, he’d been the one to tell her all vampires were killers. A couple days earlier, before he had found her, she would have been correct in her assumptions. He rarely used his gifts to wipe human memories away because he usually did not leave any living witnesses to share what they had seen, but things were different. If he killed the people in the bar, he knew she would never forgive him, and he was not willing to let her go that easily. He didn’t care about feeding, and killing anyone was the last thing on his mind. He just wanted to keep Lisandra safe, and that meant making sure everyone in the bar forgot she existed.
“I’m not going to hurt anyone, I promise,” he said. “I am just going to make them forget what happened. Forget seeing you here.”
Her eyes grew wide. “You can do that?”
He nodded. “We can do that.”
She wiped off her face and mouth and straightened her clothes. “I want to help. This is my mess. Can you show me how it’s done?”
“This is not your fault, love. It is on me, but I would be honored to help you learn this skill. I’ll teach you anything you want to know.” His arms itched with a desire to hug her, which was strange for him. He was not a hugger. She brought out something in him, something that died centuries ago, when he had become a vampire himself. He’d never missed anything about his human life, hell he never even thought about his life before becoming a vampire—not for hundreds of years. Lisandra brought out things in him he had not thought himself capable of, and he had basically just met her.
He held his hand out and she only hesitated for a moment before taking it, and he laced their fingers together and walked back into the bar. He felt on top of the world holding her hand, but there wasn’t time to think about what that meant. As soon as they re-entered the bar, the humans started to freak out again and he had to work quickly. Lisandra tensed up beside him, and he squeezed her hand lightly and whispered in her ear, “I’ve got you.”
He had to move fast, faster than the humans could follow, but Lisandra kept up with him with ease. When he first started moving, he heard her gasp, and he glanced over to see shock register on her face, but it was gone almost as fast and replaced by a smile. He would have to make sure he taught her all the amazing things that came along with being a vampire. It wasn’t all blood and death. No, there were some very special benefits that came along with no longer being human, and he was looking forward to showing her everything being a vampire had to offer. Hopefully she would stick around and let him.
