Page 26 of Justice
I woketo the thinnest sliver of sun streaming in through the plane’s window. Everyone was asleep, except Liberty, who gave me a soft smile from the other side of the plane before rising and quietly walking toward me. As if there was some invisible strand pulling us together, I felt the pull of our bodies yearning to be close. It was impossible. The longer I remained close to her, the harder it was to stay away, the less space I wanted between us.
Was this how not being lonely felt? I’d spent nearly two hundred years praying for death because of the feeling of solitude that clawed at me from inside. I wasn’t sure what to do with this feeling, but I knew that she would be mine as long as I lived. I couldn’t, wouldn’t, refused to let her go now that I’d felt more alive than ever before.
My body could feel the thrum that pulsed through her. The electrical spark of her nerves as she watched me sent pleasure through me before she even touched my skin. Her finger grazed against my cheek as she lowered herself onto my lap, her legs straddling my thigh. My chest ignited; fire and want twisted around each other as it spiraled through my body. Was this what it was like? Was this how it felt to be completely whole?
“Everyone is sleeping,” she whispered like I didn’t already know that for this moment in time, she was one hundred percent mine.
My fingers slid up her thigh under her dress, her bare flesh warm. “But, you’re not.”
“No. I’m not.” She leaned in and kissed my neck before laying her head on my shoulder, “Do you think this will work out? Oak refuses to accept anything but success. Sterling can’t look past the inconvenience and Justice, well, hell if I know what the hell is planned there. But I worry. I worry we won’t all make it through. Whatever that means.”
The more that came at us, the more I worried about the same thing. But that wasn’t something I would admit to her. She was seeking my reassurance, not my doubt. My fingers softly stroked her skin. “I think we were destined to make it to the end of this, Lib. Regardless of how hard, why would the fates throw us together only to tear us apart?”
“The paranormal put a lot of faith in these fates, it seems,” she mused.
“Everything in this world is decided for us; haven’t you realized that by now? To have a curse that happened to your family member two and a half centuries ago follow you to now? That can only be chalked up to fate, don’t you think? Does the human’s God have enough foresight for such actions?”
I inhaled the scent of her hair. The scent calming me in ways nothing ever could. “I don’t imagine so.”
“Promise me this will all be okay. That we all will be okay,” Liberty begged against my skin, and I didn’t know how she could make me promise such a thing when I knew nothing of the workings of the fates. I knew nothing about how to keep everyone safe. I knew nothing of how this would end. So I gave her the only promise I could, the only thing I knew was true.
“I would never live a day without you in it.” Because if she were to die in this, I would die before her, protecting and shielding her with my whole being.
The plane dipped slightly as it began its descent, and I loathed that soon I would have to take my hands off her thighs and remove her from where she fit so perfectly in the crook of my neck. As if sensing the shift, Oak’s eyes opened, instantly searching for her. A calm came over him when his eyes fell on her. He then let his eyes drift closed again before inhaling a deep calming breath. He must have sensed it and knew, just like I did, that the moment we stepped off this plane, life wasn’t going to be the same. A new level of complications was about to be added, and I just couldn’t say for sure if I was ready for them.
“When this is over, will you show me your workshop?”
I blinked, torn from my thoughts by her unexpected question. I hadn’t thought about my work in days. What once consumed me so thoroughly had been replaced, and I no longer cared about building perfection, only maintaining the perfect right in front of me. “You want to see my work?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” She pulled back. “I have a confession. I might have googled you, and your pieces are, well, extraordinary. To carve like that must have taken you years.”
Decades, actually. “If you wish, I’ll take you anywhere.”
“Your table and chairs are amazing, and your coffee tables are magnificent. But my favorite are the cradles and tiny kid-size chairs,” she admitted, and they were my favorite too. They reminded me of my sister and her love for this one doll my mother had made for her. My mother made it out of an old flour bag and my father’s worn-out clothes.
“I have a few acres of land. It’s peaceful there.” More than peaceful, it was my little slice of heaven—the one place in so long where I’ve felt at home, alone in my element.
“I want to go,” she said with more force before adding, “I mean if you want to.”
I forced myself to remove my hands so I could wrap them around her waist, pulling her close to me as the plane lowered. “Of course, I want you to go. I’d have you stay if you wanted.”
I would never return her. Sharing be damned, but she was mine. Every sweet inch of her had my name invisibly etched into her skin, and I couldn’t wait to see her naked body sprawled across a bed carved by me. Hands, teeth, and tongue all going to use. Minutes, hours, days.
A snapping sound ripped my mind from the hypnotic haze, and my eyes tore away from the beauty in my hands to Sterling. He cleared his throat. “We’re about to land.” I knew this. “This means it’s time to buckle up.”
Oh yeah, that. I pried my fingers from her skin, hating that I had to part. Safety first? We were fucking vampires. Odds of dying in a plane crash were slim. Only, we didn’t know how fully she was a vampire, and the thought of her life being taken too soon due to my lack of common sense made me nauseous. “Where are we headed?”
“Justice’s family land,” Oak interjected, the book open on his lap. “Though it will be empty.”
“You can’t possibly know that.” Justice stood, hovering over everyone with a scowl plastered on his face.
“It’s in the book,” Oak stated.
“Fuck the book!” He reached down, and Liberty’s hand shot out, stopping Justice before he could get it.
“That book is important. Don’t touch if you have intent on harming it.”
Like the rest of us, she made him soft. Even when he tried to hide it. Just looking at her made the yellow in his eyes pale and his posture loosen. “I have questions.”