AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you for the reviews and for reading, wonderful readers! I hadn't planned on posting the continuation past chapter two, but I decided to go for it.
-----------------------------------------
When I came home from work one day about four weeks after my second visit to Naluchra, Master Daniel was sitting on the couch in the living room reading the paper just as He always did. But just when I was about to ask how His day was, I noticed a suitcase by His feet. "Slave, sit down," He ordered.
My heart pounded in my chest. I had no idea what was going on. I'd been extra obedient and had stayed out of trouble. Was He going somewhere? I sat down in my rocking chair across from Him, wringing my hands in my lap nervously.
After several minutes He finally put the newspaper down and inched up to the edge of the couch cushion. "I am done with you."
I had never been more shocked in my life, not to mention being completed blindsided by Master. "May I sp—"
"No, you may not," He said firmly. "We have been as one for three years. I have taken you as far as I possibly can." The expression on His face was blank.
"That's not true," I said quietly. "I ... there is so much ... this is bullshit!"
"You are not to talk to me in that manner!"
"If I am no longer yours then I can speak as I wish!" I spat as I stood. "How can you just throw me out like I'm nothing but garbage?" I was pissed then, more than I've ever been in my entire life.
He avoided my eyes as He stood, grabbed the suitcase—apparently it was mine—and walked to the front door. I watched Him but didn't budge from my spot. "Daniel!" He didn't like that, but as He said, He was no longer my Master. "We had ... have a life together. Where the hell am I supposed to go?" My face was burning red with anger.
"I have no doubt you will find some place. Call me when you're—"
"NO!" I screamed as I met Him in the foyer. "You have treated me like a fucking hooker the past few months with Hiliad and Liza and I am NOT—"
"Call me when you've gotten settled in your new place. I'll bring the rest of your things." He opened the door wide and waited for me to walk through.
I didn't. I couldn't. "Daniel," I said, my voice cracking, "What have I done to make you go this far? What did I do?"
"You've done nothing." He finally looked at me, and for a split second I noticed pain in His eyes. "Leave."
"No, no," I said completely deflated and rejected. "I ... can't." I closed my eyes to stop the sting, but it only produced a single tear to fall.
He grabbed my elbow and practically tossed me out of the door, followed by my suitcase then He closed the front door. "Daniel! Don't do this, please! Let's talk about this!" My pleas were answered by the front porch light being turned off that turned my tears on. I slammed my fists on the door hard, screaming and cursing and begging Him to let me in.
Ten minutes later, when my fists were killing me and I had no more tears left, I crawled down the front steps back to my car. Heading out of the housing development, I had no idea where I was going to go.
---------------
Daniel watched His former slave, His love, drive down the street until she was out of sight. He was just as devastated as Connee was. He only hoped she could forgive Him, though seriously doubted it.
---------------
I drove blindly for the past three hours—circles upon circles, intersections I crossed more than once. I drove down the same streets with the same houses and the same cars. Same everything. The same morbid thoughts ran through my head over and over. And why not? The big old oak tree I'd passed four times already seemed like a good one to smash into. It even had a cross of flowers with my name on it. I was perfectly fine with that.
A sign up ahead read Middlesborough -- 10 miles. Middlesborough? When had I gotten on the main road? What the hell was in Middlesborough? Oh. That's right. Naluchra was there. Why was I heading there? Oh, that's right, because I'm a complete and utter fool!
---------------
"You're brave coming out here alone."
"Liza, drop it and let me in." Was that me that just said that? I thought flabbergasted. Standing at the entrance of Naluchra and I was bitching at a vampire? I was asking for major trouble.
"Aw, you been crying?" she asked with little feeling in her voice. I didn't answer. "Hiliad's been waiting for you."
"I didn't come here for Hiliad," I told her then tried to slip past her. She stepped just enough in my way to piss me off. I looked her right up into her face. "I'm not in the mood for this. I'm only having one drink and then I'm leaving."
"We'll see about that," she said as she stepped aside. "And be careful who you're talking to."
After being in a relationship with a master that dropped me like a sack of hot potatoes and I'm brazen enough to try to piss off a vampire? Oh, yeah. I'll be dead by morning.
That time when I walked in the club—heading straight for the bar—I didn't pay attention to the stupid tourists wearing the stupid fangs or the stupid vampires looking at every human neck and the stupid ... stupid ... stupid. Being there was a stupid mistake.
I turned to walk out when I ran into a brick wall—kinda sorta. "Whoah, easy there, little one."
"I'm sorry," I muttered as I looked up into the face of ... stupid Hiliad. His hands had me firmly by my shoulders, and I couldn't move. "Hiliad, let me go."
He grinned evilly but damn, what an awesome evil grin. "Can't do that."