Here it is! I hope you enjoy! Sorry for the long wait. I have to work on this at work and it's a little awkward writing erotic romance at the office. Anyway, let me know what you all think!
SRB
Thanks again to Archangel for editing! You're the best!
-Alex-
I blinked rapidly, trying to clear the fog from my head. The sounds around me seemed muddled and my skin felt numb. Everything felt numb. It was as if, for a moment, the world went black but in the distance, it seemed as if there were eyes looking back at me. I knew those eyes, but couldn't seem to remember who they belonged to. For a moment it seemed as if nothing existed except for those eyes, but they weren't the eyes that I was longing to see.
I turned my head to where I knew Santana would be and as quickly as it had ascended, the numbing darkness was gone and so was she. Instantly on alert, I whipped my head around looking over the room. She wasn't there. I left Aaron's bedroom, yelling her name, and received no response. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. My mate was gone.
Running back into the room, I noticed Aaron looking around, an extremely confused look on his face. "Aaron!" I screamed, stepping closer to him. His response was dramatically slow as he turned towards my voice. "Aaron! Snap out of it!" I began frantically slapping his face with both hands. I watched as his eyes cleared. "Where is she?" was the first question out of his mouth. "Where's Aara?"
My anger piqued at hearing that name and I snapped, grabbing his shirt roughly and hauling him up the nearest wall.
"SHE TOOK HER! SHE FUCKING TOOK ANA!" I screamed in his face, breathing frantically. I wanted to hurt someone; I wanted to rip something apart at the thought that my Ana was gone. I looked into his eyes, hoping to see defiance there, hoping to see the fight that he was always ready for, but what I saw there made me pause.
The look he gave was enough to clear my head. It was so full of pain and anguish. I watched as the spark that usually lit up his eyes dim, as if in slow motion. "She left me," he said, looking up at me, and it was then that I recognized the eyes from the darkness. They were his.
I thought about when people talked about seeing car accidents in slow motion. It had to be something like what I was observing now. I watched my brother's heart break at an agonizingly slow pace that was surely only seconds in length.
"We'll get them back. We'll get them both back." I said, placing his feet back on the floor and straightening his shirt. He ran a shaky hand through his short-cropped hair and looked up at me with a look that said, do you promise?
I merely nodded. It was all I could do. There was no way that I could deal with both Aaron's turmoil and mine. I tried sensing Santana, but I felt nothing. It was as if she no longer existed, and I fought the urge to clench my chest at the realization. I couldn't fall apart right now, not with so much to be done.
Looking over at my brother, I put my hand on his shoulder, silently begging him to pull it together. He nodded once and I saw a steely determination enter his eyes. Suddenly remembering how it was when I was searching for Santana, and idea popped into my head. I couldn't sense my mate, but maybe he could sense his. "Aaron, do you feel her?" I asked him.
Aaron looked at me. His confusion was obvious. "Can you feel her? Can you sense Aara?" I then explained to him how I had sensed Ana and found her in the library that day. It felt like that day had been years ago, while in reality it had been only days. "Just concentrate on her. Think about her scent, her face, her eyes, everything. Think about your future together and how you're going to ensure that she never leaves you again." I threw that part in, acknowledging my brother's tastes for unconventional punishments. The corners of his lips lifted slightly and he chuckled.
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. His brows knitted together in concentration and his smile grew, his dimples showing. "I can find her, and her cute little ass better be ready," he said with a wink. I laughed, and we made to leave to room before a thought hit me.
"We don't know how many there are. We don't know what they can do."
He shrugged his shoulders in typical fashion. "We can take them." He made to leave again and I placed my hand on his chest, halting his movements.
"No. We can't go in there guns-a-blazing." I nearly laughed at my own wording. "-fangs-a-blazing. We do this right. We get help. I'm not gonna risk losing her because we were unprepared." Aaron nodded. "You know who to call." He went back into his room and grabbed his phone, and I pulled out my own.
We were about to ask some pretty big favors, but I knew that it was worth it. Aaron and I both had connections with a few local were packs as well as another vampire family. I couldn't help but feel as if we were overreacting, but making these calls felt right. I had meant what I told Aaron: I wouldn't risk losing Santana. I had only just found her.
***
Carmendi watched in shock as her older sister carried in an unconscious Santana. It was the closest she had ever been to her, and she had to fight the urge to reach out and touch the sister she had never known. She watched as Aara laid the taller girl onto the bed with a gentleness she had never seen Aara possess.
"We leave within the next two hours." Aara said before she walked briskly into the en suite bathroom and closed the door behind her. Aara had felt so unsettled the moment she had devised her plan to leave the apartment. She was always in control; every movement and every word was always well-calculated. But for the first time in her 22 years, she had no idea of what to do. She thought about the man with the blonde hair and clear eyes and fought the way her knees wanted to buckle in defeat and protest.
Gripping the corner of the sink, Aara felt the marble crack beneath her hands as she battled the way every cell in her body pulled in the opposite direction, HIS direction. She wanted to cry, she wanted to scream out, to force her body and her heart to catch up with her mind. She had done the right thing. There was no other choice.
She knew she should have told her siblings about the talk she had with the doctor the night before they set out on this mission. She knew they deserved to know, but she couldn't bring herself to say the words, she couldn't bring herself to admit how weak she felt that the doctor could use her loved ones against her. Turning the knobs of the faucet, she watched as the sink quickly filled with cold water. She scoffed in disgust at her reflection before plunging her face into the water-filled sink and screaming as loud as she could. Taking comfort in the fact that no one could bear witness to her weakness and slip of control.
Audrienne had been uncharacteristically quiet for over a day. She couldn't help it. It had started when Carmendi returned from the lab. There was something about the way that she smelled. Her usual smell had always reminded everyone of clean linen but there was something else there, a spicy scent that clung to her until she had showered. The scent had burned itself into Audrienne's brain, making itself unforgettable.
From the moment that her younger sister had returned the previous day, Audrienne had been on fire in the sweetest way. It was as if her body cried out for something, something without a name, something she didn't know. The worst were the eyes; they were green, so dark they were almost black. Those eyes floated in the blackness every time she closed her own, taunting her, teasing her like a phantom. Engrossed in her own thoughts, she had unknowingly tuned out the world around her.
Sitting near the window, a distraught Carmendi watched the world go on through the glass. They were leaving. They had what they had come for and they were leaving. She hadn't found him yet, she hadn't found the one that she was made for, and they were leaving in less than two hours. No one hated the compound more than she did. From a young age, she'd had an affinity for pranks and laughter. She was mischievous and cunning in the most amusing way, and could brighten up the darkest day.
When she had come into her abilities, she used them to her advantage to create as much trouble as possible. She moved through the compound like a ghost, stealing personal items from the other hybrids and hiding them in silly places. She'd turned furniture upside down, leaving the inhabitants of the room confused. On more than one occasion, she'd snuck into the showers and stolen towels, or poured cold water in over the person bathing.
No one once complained or told on her to the soldiers or the doctor. She was a little bit of sunshine in a dark place; the hybrids couldn't afford to lose her to lengthy confinement. Although, the doctor was never informed of her playful pranks, they all knew that he despised her above the rest. He hated that sparkle in her green eyes, the willfulness and mischief that was always there.
She wondered if her mate would like her playful nature. She wondered what his laugh would sound like, desperately wanting it to be deep and full of life. Sighing deeply, she looked over and watched her siblings. Audrienne appeared to be lost in her own thoughts. She had been like that for a couple of days now. Carmendi briefly wondered what had her sister's mind so occupied before looking over at her older brother. Zach was the one she was closest to. He was the epitome of the strong, silent type. She watched him watch Santana sleeping; his expression always so hard to read that she knew that there was no point in even trying.
Lastly, she looked at Santana. They were about to take her away from everything that the girl knew. She knew that her oldest sister was in her last year of undergrad, pursuing a pre-med degree. She briefly wondered what other dreams they were stealing from her. Did Santana want to be a doctor? Did she want to heal people, cure diseases? Did she want to help sick, dying children? Did she want children of her own? Carmendi thought of the beautiful children that Santana and Alex would create, children born from an undying love. They were taking that all away.
She couldn't decide which was worse: knowing that your mate was out there but never knowing him, or having your mate and being taken from him. Both seemed as if they would cause sorrow. She didn't want to feel that. She didn't want her siblings to feel that. She had to say something. She had to get them to understand that they couldn't go back there; they could never go back there, especially with Santana.
Both Zach and Audrienne turned towards her as she cleared her throat. How could she explain? How did she make them understand? She had never been eloquent, she had never explained things well, but this was important.
She stood, switching her gaze between her two siblings. She had to say something. "Um..." she started. They looked at her expectantly, waiting for whatever it was that she needed to say. She glanced at Santana once more, thinking of the pain that Alex was surely feeling with his mate missing. "This is wrong." It came out in a whisper. She sighed at the confused look on both of her siblings' faces. "This is wrong." she said once more, much louder.
"What's wrong, Carmen?" Zach asked in his deep, even voice.
"This!" she screamed, gesturing around the room. "That!" she yelled, pointing to their sleeping sister.
"We have a mission." He said, growing tired of her outbursts.
