Dead in the Water

(Nonnie’s POV)

I growled as we rolled around on the floor. I don’t even think we were really trying to hurt each other. It was more like we were trying to get out our frustrations. Amanda landed a solid blow to my cheek causing my head to snap to the right. I swung back hitting her across her face causing her head to snap to the left. Just then I caught a glimpse of two puncture wounds on her neck. I knew right away what they were. They were bite marks but she hadn’t been bitten for months. Not since the night Gerard died. Those marks were fresh. As I was distracted she took this opportunity to hit me again, but now I was more concerned than mad. So instead of hitting her I used all my strength to send her flying into Bob’s arms.

“Okay you win,” I said standing up out of breath. I saw Bob frown and hand Ray some money causing me to roll my eyes.

“Damn straight I win,” she said catching her breath. I rolled my eyes, knowing that if I wanted I could have kept going and we could see who would win.

“Look I’m sorry that I told them, but I wasn’t exactly in the protect Amanda’s secret mood when I did it. I was pissed off at you,” I sniffed the air and smelled blood. “Bob go get her a tissue for her nose,” It hadn’t even started bleeding yet, but I could still tell that it was about to start.

“Why did you stop the fight?” She asked, puzzled. “I know you and now that you have the strength you don’t back down from any fight,” I walked out of the room and back to Frank and my room. I found the small hand held mirror then walked back out to her.

“I stopped cause I wanted to know who the hell has been biting you?” I swept some of her hair to the side and held the mirror so she could see it. At first she was looking at me not the mirror, but when she looked in the mirror her eyes got big. “Those are fresh Amanda. Do you have something you wanna tell us?”

“I…I don’t know where they came from,” she said touching them. “I…”

“Who have you been around? Have you been out by yourself lately?” Frank asked studying the marks over my shoulder.

“Not often most times I’m with…”

“Most times you’re with Martin,” I finished for her. “That bastard…”

“I’m sure there’s a good explanation,” she defended.

“Amanda…You’re already dying, what the hell would he be biting you for? It can’t help,” I said. She just looked at me.

“Martin loves me, there’s got to be a good reason for this.”

“You damn well better hope there is cause if there isn’t I’ll kill him myself,” I said. She looked at me with another fight in her eyes.

“Look…” she took a deep breath trying to calm herself. “I’m going to take care of this. Martin wouldn’t hurt me just like Frank wouldn’t hurt you. If he bit me its cause he had to.”

“Amanda you used to get pissed at Frank for biting me even when he had to,” I said. Frank put his arms around me. I leaned back against him finding comfort from the embrace. He had this way of calming me down I couldn’t explain it. I was better at controlling my emotions now, but they still got the better of me often. He was always able to get me to calm down.

“Nonnie I said I’ll handle it,” she said obviously calming down too.

“I’m sorry,” I said knowing that was all she really wanted to hear. “I’ll be more careful with what I say.”

“That’s all I ask. I mean I don’t want the other’s to find out. They would probably freak out more than you and then they would all be worried and just a bunch of stuff I don’t want to deal with. The people who need to know already do,” she concluded.

“Can I ask a favor?”

“What?”

“Can you tell Pete? I think it has something to do with being a vampire, but he and I could both tell there was something wrong with you and he’s really worried as it is. I didn’t tell him, but I’m sure that Elissa and he can feel it when you’re around.” I said worried about them.

“I’ll think about it, and I’m sorry. I know this has been really hard for you with Gerard and Mikey. I should have considered that last night,”

Hearing those names, everyone in the room got sad. They were our friends and they meant a lot to our group. Amanda and the others didn’t know them before all of this started. They only knew the evil brother’s, not the caring and loving best friends that we had lost.

“And hey I’m not dead yet, I’ve been feeling better everyday. Martin is good for me, so I know that he can’t be doing this. I’ll get to the bottom of it okay,” She said as I smiled.

“If you need back up you know where to find me,” we hugged and she said her good-byes. I knew she believed in what she had told me about Martin even if she wasn’t completely sure why he was biting her. I was the same way with Frank.

“Non you owe me thirty bucks,” Bob said. I looked at him like he was crazy.

“How do you figure that?” I asked.

“You threw the fight and Ray won the bet,” I laughed.

“That’s what you get,” I said walking over to Ray. I quickly reached into his pocket and took the money back. “That’s for not trying to stop two friends from fighting.”

“But…It was a girl fight. Men wait their whole lives to see one. The only thing that could have made it better was water…” he looked off to the left like he was imagining Amanda and I fighting in water. I raised my hand to hit him, but Frank grabbed my hand.

“Haven’t you been in enough fights today?”

“She came at me first,” I said knowing that it was a lie.

“I think I’ll have to teach you a lesson,” he said with a low sensual growl.

“Ewww gross,” Ray said.

“You just stop thinking about me and Amanda fighting in water and I’ll keep this thing Frank and I have planned contained in our room other wise I suggest you guys stay out of the kitchen, the dining room and…”

“Deal,” Bob said hitting Ray upside the head. Frank just laughed and took my hand. It felt good that Amanda and I weren’t fighting anymore. It felt good that the guys weren’t scared of me anymore even though I lost my temper a lot.

I still had this nagging feeling that Amanda was keeping something else from me, but I knew she wasn’t going to tell me now. She didn’t trust me to keep her secrets and that was fine. I found out about her dying easy enough I’m sure I can figure out whatever else she’s hiding. I just hoped that one of us would get to the bottom of what was going on with Martin, before it was too late.