Blood Land, J.R. Lawson [electric book reader .txt] 📗

down as she wrung her hands nervously in her lap. “Do you swear….you didn’t heal me?” she asked without looking up.

“Nora,” Kale now said very seriously, “I promise you I did not heal you.  You asked me to never do it again and I said I wouldn’t.  You have vampire blood in you.  Don’t you think that maybe contributed to your healing quickly?”

“I...guess.  I don’t know.  Everything these days is so crazy I’m not sure what’s real and what isn’t.” Nora now looked up again, clear confusion with a tinge of distress could be seen in her eyes

“I know,” Kale consoled, “But I promise we’ll figure this out together.  And I promise I didn’t heal you.”

“O.k.” Nora nodded as she then gave Kale an almost fake half smile.  Kale took her expression with a grain of salt as he knew that he was telling her the truth, however, there were certain other truths he couldn’t tell her.  Not now at least.

CHAPTER 30

 KALE AND NORA landed in the front lawn of their safe house.  It was only moments ago that Nora had been released from the hospital and she was certainly relieved to not be there anymore, but during the fly over she had so many thoughts going through her head she almost couldn’t keep them all straight.  Mostly she thought about how afraid she had been just last night.  Why had she been?  Hadn’t the past few days and weeks spent with Kale been able to make her feel safer around him?  She definitely had felt that way but it was as if a switch had been pulled last night.  The thought of him being in his hellion form in front of her, after already tasting her blood, being only inches away from eating her, just scared her to death.  For the first time in a while she really came to the realization that she was a human and he was a vampire.  That line had been blurred for her for so many days that she had forgotten the reality of it.  That is, until it was shoved into her face last night.  She felt horrible that she was so scared of Kale and she could sense that he was upset about it; offended even.  She wanted this feeling to go away.  She wanted to feel safe again, but how could she?

Nora tried her hardest to shove all of these thoughts in the back of her head and just relax as the two of them walked toward their front door, however, it was Kale stopping dead in his tracks that triggered a new sudden alarm in her.

“What is it?” Nora asked him.

“Someone’s in there,” Kale stated as he just looked ahead of him at the house.

“What?” Nora asked with slight panic in her voice.

“Stay here,” Kale instructed as he then approached the house alone. Nora watched him as she pulled her arms up and hugged herself nervously.  She looked around her briefly, trying to distract herself for a moment.  The trees around them, the Black Locust, that were planted to provide fragrance enough to hide their scents were almost completely bare.  She had almost forgotten that it was creeping on winter now.  This thought made her shiver even more than usual as she then turned back to Kale who had now stopped right in front of the house.

“Whoever’s in there, come out!” he shouted.  There was no answer so he tried again, “I said, whoever’s in there better get the fuck out now!”

Suddenly, the front door began to open.  First what appeared were a pair of hands, then arms, that were held up in a position of surrender.  What then followed was the body of a female; a female vampire.  She had the usual pale skin and blood red eyes along with long wavy blond hair that fell along her shoulders.  She wore a plum purple tunic top with faded skinny jeans with brown ankle boots witch made her seem taller than she was although Nora could tell she was probably above average height, almost as tall as Kale.  She also seemed to be around the same age as Kale as well, at least in non-geminous years.

The woman stepped out from the doorway and stood on the front stairs with her arms up. “It’s o.k.!  I mean no harm!” she said.  It was then, however that she seemed to make true eye contact with Kale.  Her eyes then widened in surprise and Nora thought she almost saw tears begin to well up in them.  The woman then lowered her arms and jumped from the front door to the lawn and landed a few feet from Kale.

“Kale?!” she then said in astonishment, “Is that really you?!”

“Caroline?!” Kale responded in just as much surprise.

“Yes! It’s me, oh my god!” Caroline now walked toward Kale and held her arms out as if she might hug him, however Kale backed up so as to reject her action.  She immediately got the hint and lowered her arms as she stood right in front of him now.  Nora finally decided to approach and stood close to Kale, but still a safe distance away from this new stranger.

“Kaley, I thought you were dead!  Someone told me you were!” Caroline now sorrowfully spoke.

“Kaley?” Nora then softly said to herself in someone scoffing tone.  Kale glanced over at her briefly in a sour way and then looked back at Caroline.

“Caroline what the fuck are you doing here?” he then bluntly asked.

“I told you!  I thought you were dead!  I came back here to…relive some memories…I missed you.”

Kale didn’t’ respond to her statement but just stared at her.  She stared back for a silent second or two before then continuing, “But here you are!  You’re alive!  I’m so happy!”

“You can’t be here,” Kale then angrily spoke, “You have to leave.”

Nora then felt the sudden need to remind Kale that she was there.  “Kale, who is this?” she then asked loudly.

Kale turned to her.  He had indeed almost forgotten that Nora had been standing there.  He opened his mouth to say something, but Caroline blurted out and interrupted him. “I’m Caroline,” she happily stated as she turned to Nora, “Caroline Rogan.”

“Uh…don’t you mean, Caroline Gallo?” Kale then corrected her, “You haven’t exactly been Caroline Rogan in a while…”

“No, I mean Caroline Rogan.” Caroline restated.  Both she and Kale then gave each other biting stares.

“So…you’re his sister?” Nora then asked, trying to clear up the weird confusion.

Caroline then burst into laughter at Nora’s statement. “No, no, I’m not his sister, sweetie.  I’m his wife.”

Nora’s eyes then widened and she almost felt her jaw drop, but she luckily controlled it. “Wife…?!” she repeated.

“Ex-wife, actually,” Rogan then corrected loudly.

“Actually…no, Kaley.  It’s still…wife,” Caroline then nervously restated.  Kale looked at her with both disbelief and a slight bit of anger.  Caroline wasn’t looking at him directly anymore, she was nervously looking away now.  Nora stared at both of them and there was awkward silence between all three of them for a few beats.

“Well…looks like you guys have a lot of catching up to do.  And some things to talk about…so…I’m gonna go ahead and head inside…” Nora then spoke, interrupting the silence.  She didn’t wait for a response but began to walk toward the house.  She wanted to get as far away as she possibly could from the awkward conversation that she knew was soon to follow.

“Nora…” Kale tried to say, but Nora just kept going.

“It’s o.k.,” she reassured him, “I’ll just be in here.”

Once Kale watched Nora disappear into the house, he reluctantly turned to Caroline once more. “O.k. now, what do you mean, ‘still wife’?” he then sternly asked.

“Who was that girl, Kaley?  She smells human…” Caroline then said, looking behind her at where Nora vanished, obviously trying to dodge Kale’s question.

“Caroline!” Kale shouted, grabbing her shoulder and making her turn back around, “Answer me!”

“God, fine!  Calm down!” Caroline irritably said as she shrugged off his grip.

“We’re supposed to be divorced,” Kale then said, “You had me sign those papers, remember?  After you ran off with what’s his name…”

“Jack.  His name was Jack,” Caroline corrected.

“I don’t give a fuck!” Kale then shouted, “What I do care about is why we’re not divorced!”

“Because…” Caroline then reluctantly answered, “I technically didn’t sign those papers.”

Kale narrowed his eyes at her before speaking again, “What are you talking about?  Are you telling me that those papers you sent me over and over again that I finally signed three years ago, you never signed?!”

“That’s correct,” Caroline ashamedly responded.

“Why?!”

“Well….honestly, it’s because I was afraid,” Caroline began, “I mean, Jack was becoming distant, and I wasn’t sure if I really didn’t love you anymore.  So…I never signed them….just in case….”

“Just in case?!” Kale angrily bellowed, “Just in case it didn’t work out with Jack?!”

“I was right though!” Caroline pleaded, “I never stopped loving you, Kale.  When I had heard you were dead, my heart broke!  I knew I really did still love you!”

“So you thought, what…that you could just come crawling back to me and I’d take you back?  That we could just go back to being married again?  Are you fucking insane?!”

Caroline didn’t answer but just looked down.

“Caroline, I don’t love you anymore!  I haven’t for three years now.”

Caroline kept looking down but nodded her head. “I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything different.”

Kale then sighed and after several beats of silence, spoke in a more calmed tone, “Look, you really can’t be here.  There are lots of things going on that you can’t get mixed up in.”

“Like things with you and that girl?” Caroline asked, “Is she like you’re new girlfriend or something?”

“What? Fuck no,” Kale somewhat defensively stated.

“Then who is she?”

“That’s none of your damn business.  You can’t be here.  You just have to go.”

“Well, that’s the other thing, see, I don’t really have anywhere to go.”

“What are you talking about?’

“Well…”Caroline started, “See Jack and I broke up and he kicked me out.  I didn’t just come here because I thought you were dead and I wanted to relive some memories.  That was part of it, but really I needed a new place to live…”

“No.  No, you cannot stay here!” Kale then angrily specified.

“Please!  Please, just a couple of days?” Caroline pleaded, “A week at the most, just until I can find somewhere else?”

“God, Caroline, I don’t know…”

“Please, Kale.  That’s all I ask.  I won’t get in your way.  I swear.”

Kale stood, thinking for a good minute or two before he heaved a big sigh and answered, “Look…if I was to say o.k. to this, there are a few conditions I have.”

“O.k.” Caroline returned.

“First is that you get those papers and sign them and we take care of this divorce thing and make it final before you leave.  Second is that you don’t talk to Nora.  Not at all.  You leave her alone.  Do you understand?”

Caroline rolled her eyes a bit but then reluctantly answered, “Fine.  I agree.”

“And once we are officially divorced, you’re out of here.  But if you talk to Nora or do anything to her, you’re out even sooner.  Get it?”

“Yes! O.k.!” Caroline groaned.

“O.k.” Kale then concluded as the two of them then began to walk toward the house.  As they went, Kale looked over at Caroline.  Several emotions