A familiar feeling started to swirl in the pit of her stomach.
“What’s wrong with her? Is she going to be sick?” Mia could hear the sheriff, but his voice had become muffled.
“She’s in the ocean.” Mia squeezed her eyes shut as the vision started.
“Who’s in the ocean? Cole, how much has she had to drink?”
“Mia, where is she?” Cole’s calm voice soothed her.
When the next image hit, she dug her fingers into his skin, and felt him jump from the pressure. “She’s straight out from where you were kneeling. Not too far out from the pier.” Mia opened her eyes.
Cole stroked her hand that lay on his arm with a feather touch. With rapid breaths, Mia retreated back into the seat. Her muscles tightened and trembled.
Cole looked at the sheriff. “John, have you experienced anything like this? What do we do?”
John shrugged. “Haven’t a clue.”
Mia’s eyes slammed shut, and she watched in horror as the dark chambers of her mind replayed the girl’s murder. She shook her head from side-to-side.
“No… It was a vampire. He ripped chunks of flesh from her body. Oh, God. The blood. It’s everywhere.” Mia swallowed hard before continuing. “She’s screaming and screaming, but he won’t stop—it excites him when she screams.” Her eyes flew open. She tugged at the sheriff’s arm as she looked up at him. “You have to look at her body carefully. The fish have been eating at her for days, and you’re not going to be able to tell she was attacked. Look at the other two girls too. Closely.”
“What two girls?”
Mia was unable to answer. She pushed the door as hard as she could, and John wisely moved out of her way. She threw up everything she had in her. A napkin appeared in front of her face, and she took it from Cole’s hand. Wiping her mouth, she leaned back into the seat. Stomach acid still burned her throat, and silent tears began to run down her cheeks. Her vision was blurred, but she could make out the sheriff’s figure at Cole’s window and the sound of their muffled voices.
“Looks like I’m going fishing tonight.”
“You need me to come back and help?”
“Naw, get her home. Bring her in tomorrow. I see how valuable she is to us now, and I want her tested on the other stuff you told me about.” He leaned down into the window. “I don’t want anyone to get their hands on her. Understood?”
Cole nodded. John tapped the metal roof and walked away.
“They’re going to get their hands on me, aren’t they?” Mia lifted her heavy lids to meet his gaze.
“I’ll be damned if anyone ever touches you, but me.” He tightened his grip on the wheel, and his jaw ticked. “No one will hurt you, Mia.”
Her lids fell, and she felt the vibration of the car engine underneath her. As her stomach settled, she drifted to sleep.
***
The next time she opened her eyes, Cole was laying her down on her bed. She felt his hand on her knee, then he slowly glided it down to her ankle. His fingers stroked her skin as he removed her strappy sandal. He treated the other leg the same, as if he was learning her flesh, sliding his hands down her calf until he found her sandal and removed it. He tugged on her arms, pulling her up until she slumped against him. Her head rested on his shoulder as he knelt down on one knee. His hands rested on her outer thighs, one on each leg. Slowly, his fingers moved up her skin, sliding her dress from underneath her. Mia’s mind was in a fog, she just couldn’t send the signals to the rest of her body to move away from him. Her lips rested on his neck as she put her hand on his arm.
“No. Please, don’t,” she said, just managing to speak.
“Don’t worry, I won’t.” His hands continued moving up her frame as he slid her dress over her head and skillfully unsnapped her bra. “I want to, but not like this.” He lay the dress down and pushed her slightly back until she was looking into his eyes. His hands came to rest on her shoulders, and he slid the straps of her bra down her arms as he spoke. “If you want me, you’ll have to come to me. I don’t play games, Mia.” He grabbed her nightshirt, and she lifted her arms for him. He never glanced at her breasts, though she wanted him to. She never wanted anyone to look at her, but she needed him to, and the thought was unsettling.
He slipped her nightshirt over her head and scooped her into his arms. Cole lay her gently down on the pillow and pulled the covers up. He gazed down at her. “Can I ask you something?”
She wanted to say “No.” She knew alcohol worked like a truth serum, and she was afraid of what he was going to ask. She swallowed hard, faced her fear, and nodded her head.
“Why do you guard your heart the way you do? Why haven’t you let a man get close to you? Did someone hurt you that deeply?”
He’d just pulled the last thread that was holding her together. Tears pooled in her eyes. “Because men do nothing but hurt you mentally and physically. They touch you when they aren’t supposed to, and they take without asking. Daddies leave, boyfriends and husbands cheat—Lies, that’s all they are—lies.”
He sat down on her bed, and she turned her back to him, rolling her body into a protective ball. She spoke in a whisper that only a vampire could hear. “You want me to face it? I’ll face it. You want me to see the awful pictures in my mind that I try to block out to make me feel normal—to give me peace? To face the things that frighten me and have scarred me for life?”
“We all have scars, Mia. They are supposed to make you stronger, not paralyze you.”
“All my boyfriends have cheated on me after promising me the world to get what they wanted. The worst part is, I could see them cheating in my dreams. What will I see if I look inside you, Cole? Will I see the same? I’ve never had a man be respectful or honest with me, even you. You deceived me. You dropped a big bomb on me, one that has shattered my reality.” A shudder rocked her body. “You bite, and I was…” No. No. She couldn’t go there—it was too dark of a memory. She tightened her eyes to flush out the images. He would never know that scar. It was the deepest one she carried. “I have a good system to protect myself from the world. I don’t want any more pain. Now, can you go, please?”
Mia felt him rise from the bed, and then heard the sliding glass door open to the balcony. Looking over at the front door, she could see all the locks were secure, and the balcony was vacant. Cole had gone. She lay down on her pillow, the room still spinning, her loneliness consuming her, and she cried. Everything that had happened in the past, her life almost ending, but most of all, Cole kneeling on the beach, collided and consumed her mind. She hated herself for how she had made Cole feel. For the first time, she felt lost in her king size bed. Mia felt laid open, her emotions bared as she sobbed and set her pain free.
When her body eased down and no more tears would come, she looked over at the clock. She had cried for an hour straight. She heard a noise from the balcony and lifted her head off the pillow. It was Cole. He sat in a chair on the balcony with a slightly bent leg resting on the railing, and the other on the ground. He tilted the chair back, balancing it on its back legs.
Mia stumbled out of bed and went to the sliding glass door separating them. She looked down at her toes, realizing he must have seen her lose control. She hated the thought because she knew how Cole felt about weak people.
His gaze met hers, dark eyes swirling with a pain she didn’t understand. His elbow rested on his knee, and a black container dangled between two fingers. Cole swirled the canister, took a drink, and then stood to face her.
They were inches apart, separated by glass. His face was expressionless as his gaze bore into hers. His jaw ticked, and Mia lowered her head. She was sorry for the way she’d acted at the nightclub and the way she’d made him feel.
When she looked up, Cole was gone.