Ineffable Plan

When I opened my eyes, I was nearly blinded by the brightness of the room. As I waited for my eyes to adjust, I noticed a sharp steady beeping sound. I turned my head to the side and saw the heart monitor. I was in a hospital. I almost gasped as I saw the bag filled with deep crimson liquid hanging from a pole. I cringed at the sight of it. There was an aching pain coming from my right wrist, so I lifted my arm to look at it. It was covered in white bandages.

“What the hell?” I croaked.

Immediately, Aaron was standing at my side. I turned to face him. He was still that bright red color from before. His skin was flushed and he looked warm. His face shined slightly from the thin layer of sweat that covered it. He was wearing a t-shirt and my eyes traveled down his arm. The mark from before had returned. Thin intricate lines wove around the length of his arm, disappearing inside his shirt sleeve.

“Are you okay?” His voice was thick with worry and his eyes clearly held guilt. I winced.

“I’m fine,” I mumbled. “What happened?”

He pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat down.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered miserably, looking down at his hands. “It’s my entire fault. I almost drained you dry. I got completely lost in you; in your blood. I forgot that it was you. I forgot that I needed to stop.” He tilted his head up to look at me and held my hand. “It won’t happen again. I won’t drink from you again. I’m so sorry, Justine. I almost killed you. You, the only girl I’ve ever loved; the only girl I’ll ever love. Forgive me, please?”

I was staring at him and I felt my stomach turn as I watched him explain. He looked so tormented and I only wanted to comfort him, but I didn’t know how.

“It is fine, Aaron. I’m okay.” I reached out and brushed my fingertips across his face, brushing away the hair that had fallen in his eyes. “It’s alright. It was an accident.”

I was stunned when he looked up at me again. Tears were brimming over his eyes and rolling down his cheeks. “Oh, Aaron,” I said reaching for him. Had I been that bad off?

Aaron pulled me off the bed and into his lap, careful not to disturbed the tubes in my arm. I laid my head on his shoulder and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Everything’s fine,” I whispered as I planted soft kisses on the side of his face and along his neck.

We stayed like that for a while until Aaron suddenly placed me back on the bed. I clung to his neck, refusing to let him detangle himself from me.

“What are you doing?” I protested.

He smiled softly. “Julian and Manny are coming back.”

“So?” I asked incredulous. Momentarily the thought of him being ashamed of me flashed through my mind. He didn’t want his brother’s to see us together.

“My brother’s have seen us together before,” he answered sternly. He looked offended by the accusation in my thoughts. “I love you. I don’t care who sees us together. It’s just that the nurse is with them. She’s going to check up on you. She’ll be upset if you’re out of bed.”

“I don’t care,” he ignored me and sat back down on the chair next to my bed, holding my hand firmly in his own. I winced. “What’s this about?” I lifted my bandaged wrist.

Aaron looked ashamed. “I’ll explain when she’s gone.”

Just then a very young and very pretty nurse walked into the room, Julian and Manny trailing behind her. She glanced quickly at me, sending me an unfriendly glare, before checking on the heart monitor. Then she moved onto the blood pack and IV. When she was done she moved disdainfully to me. With more force than was necessary, she took my blood pressure and checked my temperature. I gasped from pain as she removed the bandage from my wrist and exposed the small gash underneath it. I looked at Aaron and he sent me an apologetic smile. Painfully, she changed my bandages with me whimpering and hissing the entire time. I had no idea why she was so pissed at me, but it was obvious that she was.

“Could you please be a little gentler?” Aaron growled, his voice low and dangerous, when I screamed out in pain. I noticed his hands folded tight against his chest and he looked furious. I looked over at Julian and Manny, both looked as angry as Aaron. Julian’s hands were fisted into his pocket and I could see that his forearm was flexed. Manny held his arms like Aaron’s and I saw a small vein pushing forward against his skin right above his left temple.

With a final tug of the bandages, a small whimper from me, and a low angry growl from Aaron and Manny, the nurse strolled out of the room. As the door shut behind her the guys relaxed significantly and Julian and Manny appeared at my side.

Aaron lifted my wrist gently in his hands. “I’m sorry about that. I’ll heal this as soon as you get out of here.” He lightly kissed my fingertips.

“What’s her problem?” I grumbled unhappily.

“Would you like me to take care of her?” Julian asked with a mischievous, and almost hopeful, smile.

Manny spoke before I could. “She’s not very happy with us.” He smiled warmly as he watch Aaron effortlessly pull me off the bed and back into his lap. “She’s a bit jealous. She doesn’t like that all our attention is on you and not her. She isn’t used to it.”

“Of course it doesn’t help that our dear little brother, Ryland, blatantly rejected her advance only a minute or so before she came in here,” Julian said laughing. “It also doesn’t help that Aaron seems to be under the impression that you’re the only living thing on the planet.”

“Isn’t she?” Aaron mumbled into my hair.

I let my fingers wander out of my lap and across his chest. His shirt was damp from sweat. My hand rested on the small gold cross on his neck and I laughed lightly. I hadn’t noticed Aaron was staring at me until I heard Ryland’s voice.

“Why don’t you take a picture? It’ll last longer.”

I looked up and was met by Aaron’s eyes. He smiled slightly and dipped his head down to place a soft kiss on my lips. “I love you,” he whispered quietly.

“Gross.” Jeremy was now in the doorway making nasty gagging and retching sounds. “No one wants to see that, you two.”

Rebelliously, Aaron tilted his head down to kiss me again, a little deeper than before. When he pulled away, I notice the small grin on his face. I blushed, feeling the eyes of his brothers on us.

“What happened to my wrist?” I asked trying to distract them.

Ryland snickered. “We couldn’t bring you here with blood loss from a vampire bite, could we? So Aaron had to seal the bites, but that created another problem. Without a wound, there was no explanation for the blood loss. So we had to slit your wrist. No worries, though. We didn’t do that until we were already in the ER. No need for you to lose more blood than you already had.”

“Besides, it would have been a little hard riding in a car with you if you were bleeding,” he continued. ”It may have been a bit too tempting. I had to drink three people dry just to get rid of the thirst from the small amount of blood I smelled when Manny cut your wrist. Jeremy took out five!”

“Stop,” Aaron warned, pulling me tightly against his chest. “She doesn’t need to hear this.”

“Aw. Come on.” Jeremy ribbed. “You don’t mind, do you, Jus?”

“Actually…”

“Exactly,” Aaron said turning away from me to look at his brothers. “Why don’t you guys get out of here? It’s late and I think you two,” he pointed to Julian and Manny, “may be thirsty. I can see it. You look a little paler than usual.”

Julian and Manny walked over and kissed my forehead softly before exiting the room. I could see the restraint it took for them to do so. I also felt the way Aaron tensed up when they did. Ryland and Jeremy walked forward and kissed my forehead as well, Ryland deciding to playfully lick from temple to my hairline.

“Mmm. You taste good. Aaron, you’re a lucky bastard.” He mused while I scrunched up my nose at him. Aaron let out a warning growl at his brother and he left the room laughing with Jeremy a few steps behind him.

Aaron took the sleeve of his hand and wiped away the wetness from where Ryland had licked me. “Sorry,” he mumbled apologetically on Ryland’s behalf.

I shrugged. “Aaron? How come you’re always so warm? I though vampire’s were supposed to be cold.”

I felt him laugh beneath me. “I’m not that kind of vampire. There're two kinds: those of us who are born vampires, like my brother’s and I, and those of us who are made vampires, the Cold Ones. When you’re born a vampire, you’re still part human.” He held my hand to his chest. “Do you feel that? My heart is still beating. The Cold Ones’ hearts don’t beat. They’re the dead ones.”

“Oh!” I was surprised. I never noticed that before. I suppose I wasn’t really paying much attention to it. “So other than the warmth and the beating hearts, what other differences is there?”

Aaron took a moment to think before he answered. “Well, we’re stronger, but they’re a dangerous in a different way. If they bite you, you either die or turn into one of them. It’s not like that with my kind, but you know that. Of course we can still turn people, the process is just different.” He thought for a moment more. “They don’t get older…”

“Will you get older?” I asked cutting him off.

He nodded. “I’m only nineteen, both human and vampire years. I’ll stop aging eventually, though. It may be a few years from now, but it’s hard to tell. It’s different for everyone.

“Can you die? Like be killed?” I whispered.

“Mhm.” He nodded. “I can be killed. All vampires can be killed, but it’s very hard to do.”

I pressed my face into his neck. He was so warm, maybe even too warm. After only a few moments, beads of sweat began to form on my forehead. “Are you sick?”

“What?”

“You’re skin is so hot. You have a fever?” I place my hand on his forehead. He didn’t remove it but laughed instead.

“I’m not sick. It’s one of those things your blood does to me. I’m fine. Better, actually. I’ve never felt this great before. I’m stronger and faster and my senses are definitely heightened. It’s nearly impossible not to listen to your thoughts now, sorry. Taking so much of your blood has practically put your thoughts directly in my head.”

“Fantastic,” I mumbled against his neck. “When can I get out of here?”

“Once the doctor says its okay. Not a minute before.”

*****

Aaron and I spent the night at the hospital and the next morning Manny and Jeremy were there to pick us up and take me home. I smiled as the two walked into the room. I didn’t think that I could deal with Ryland and Julian at the moment. Aaron laughed at the thought.

“They’re not that bad, are they?” He asked as he pulled my foot into his lap and began tying the laces on my shoes for me. I gave him a look and he chuckled again. “Ok, maybe they are. You get used to it, I guess.”

“No,” I stated firmly. Aaron looked up at me, thinking that I was still talking to him. I wasn’t. “I can walk just fine. I’m not rolling out of here in wheel chair. There is nothing wrong with my legs.”

The nurse from before sighed angrily. “It’s hospital policy.”

“I don’t care. There is nothing wrong with my legs,” I said shaking my head and edging my way towards the door, trying to get around the wheelchair and Manny.

“We’ll get her in the chair. Don’t worry about it,” Jeremy said in a surprisingly smooth voice. I wanted to be angry with him for what he said, but the way he said it made my anger dissipate. My knees felt a little weak and I began to think that maybe I would need the wheelchair after all.

Obviously his voice had the same affect on the nurse because she smiled dreamily and left the room. As she did, my knees strengthen again and I shook my head to clear it. What the hell was that? I tore my eyes away from Jeremy and noticed Aaron frowning at me. Manny was desperately trying to hold back a laugh. My eyes flashed back to Jeremy and noticed the smug smile on his face.

“Sorry.” His apology was empty. It was easy to see that he was pleased with himself. “I didn’t think it would affect you.”

Aaron was still frowning. “It’s not her fault,” Manny said playfully punching Aaron's arm. “She’s got a little too much of someone else’s blood in her right now.”

Aaron’s frown eased a bit. “Oh. That makes sense, I guess.”

“Whatever you need to tell yourself, bro,” Jeremy said cockily. “Now. Are you going to sit in the seat on your own accord or am I going to have to make you?”

“Like you could make me do…” I suddenly found myself in the wheelchair and Aaron standing in front of me blocking me from getting up.

“Stay,” he said. “It’s better that I made you sit, unless you like feeling all gah-gah over Jeremy?"

I just frown and folded my arms across my chest. Bad idea. I put too much pressure on my wrist and hurt like hell.

“Can we just get out of here? You promised you would fix this once we did,” I said to Aaron. He nodded and led the way out of the hospital.

As we went out the room and walked past the desk, the nurse from before stopped Jeremy. She slipped a piece of paper in his hand and lightly kissed his cheek.

“Call me."