Unraveling Sarah Cresley by Marisa Maichel (best summer books .txt) 📕

mother's coming," I warned her. She immediately fell back into the bed and covered herself up, one leg hanging over the bed. I hid in the closet and tried not to laugh at her silliness. Alicia came in, studied Sarah for a moment, then put her leg back into the bed and covered her up. She kissed her, said something in Italian, and went back into the hallway, picking up Coffee, the brown Chihuahua, who decided to lick Sarah's face. As soon as she was gone, I came back out.

"What did she say?" I asked Sarah.

"Sei così bella, Sarah. Ti amo più di ogni altra cosa. It means 'you are so beautiful, Sarah. I love you more than anything'. That right there's an example. My sister doesn't think she needs to learn all the languages in our family tree. Really, she's too lazy and doesn't think she can do it anyway."

"There are people with a lot more in their lineage than you and I, and some of their languages are more complicated than Italian or Hebrew, although Hebrew is hard to an outsider. It took me forever to learn."

"You know Hebrew?" I nodded.

"I am also fluent in several languages, Sarah, including German, Japanese, some Bulgarian, Greek, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, and of course, English."

"I wish I was as smart as you. Say something in Greek."

"Den eímai pio éxypnos apó séna, agapitós, o patéras mou me aplá me ékane na mátho óles aftés tis glósses giatí ... kalá, eíche tous lógous tou. I am no smarter than you, dearest, my father simply made me learn all these languages because...well, he had his reasons. There, I said the same thing in both Greek and English."

"Reese, if I was smart at all, I would not have gotten involved with Scarlett. But one simply does not say no to Scarlett and Jordan Hartlett. Or Rachel Griffin. Or Mia Alexander. Or Sara Blynn. Or Angela Montgomery."

"Did you really call Sara Blynn "Honey"?"

"We all called her that. Jordan's idea, although Scarlett will say it was hers. Sara didn't seem to like it at first for some reason, but she never put a stop to it, so now everyone calls her that."

"I find it ironic that your ex-best friend's name is Alexander, which is the first name of my father's archrival."

"I never thought about it before. Weird. Maybe we're just characters in a book that someone somewhere is writing, and they just felt that it was right." I looked at her. "I know, I know. I've been saying a lot of weird things lately."

"If we were fiction, then I doubt that I could love you as much as I do," I said. "And no one has ever loved his girlfriend more than I love you."

"That's the second time you told me that."

"It's true, mia bella." She smiled and yawned.

"All right, I let you get back to sleep. You need to keep your strength up."

"You're right, but I have such weird dreams sometimes. Like the other night, I had a dream that Death was in love with me."

"Don't say that!" Now I was panicked. She smiled.

"I nearly died from embarassment."

"That's not funny."

"I thought it was. All right, good night, Reese. I love you." And then she closed her eyes. I crawled in beside her and kissed her on the neck.

"I love you more. Probably much more."

~~~~~~~~~

The next day, she woke up crying. I was still with her, as I'd fallen asleep because I didn't want to leave her.

"Baby, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I h-had a dream about my baby dying. It just...died!"

"Oh, Sarah, I'm so sorry. Sometimes babies just die, and no one fully knows why." I had said the wrong thing. She started wailing. I held her like a child and rocked her. She buried her face in my shirt and sobbed.

"I also had a dream about the teachers that d-died," she said. I looked at her. "Both of them bothered me from time to time, especially the guy. He would make me so uncomfortable."

"Then I'm glad he's dead," I said. She looked at me with wide, terrified eyes. Then she ran to the bathroom, almost tripping as she leaped off my lap. I heard her throwing up a minute later. I smelled bile and partially-digested grilled cheese sandwiches. She came back four minutes later, her mouth cleaned and teeth brushed.

"Why are you so violent?" she asked.

"I...I can't tell you." She looked hurt. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's that it is just better and safer if you didn't know."

"Ariella said that you had a big secret," she said. "How come she knows and I don't? I'm your girlfriend!"

"Ari is my best friend, and her ex-boyfriend is the one who spilled the beans anyway." Okay, the last part was only partially true. Sarah burst into tears.

"I think you should go," she said.

"Sarah, don't say that. Please let me stay and help you."

"Just go."

Hurt, I left her, crawling out the window flitting across the yard and street and starting up my van. Did she suspect? How long had this been on her mind? Was the relationship over? No, I would not let that happen. We were soulmates. Meant to be. Fated.

My father was waiting for me anxiously. He looked...unhappy would be an understatement. Furious. Livid, even.

"Where have you been?" he asked me as soon as I got out of the van. When I didn't answer, he tackled me to the ground and started smelling me. "You smell like Sarah."

"I inadvertently spent the night with her," I said. He looked calmer.

"At least it was her and not a certain someone whose name shall not be mentioned."

"Father, she knows I have a secret. She became upset with me this morning after I said some things...."

"What things?"

I told him about the conversation we had involving Matthew Herman and what's-her-face. He only half-listened, choosing instead to nuzzle me with his nose.

"Interesting. Come here, baby boy." I sat on his lap. He showered me with kisses. "I was so afraid. I wanted to go after you, but I didn't know where you'd gone, and I got no visions."

"Why didn't you just track my scent?" I asked. He paused for a moment, then hit himself on the head with a drink coaster.

"I am so stupid!" He set me on the couch and then went outside. I heard him ravaging the forest. A few minutes later, he came back, dirtied and his shirt was torn. "By the way, I found Evan's scent. I tracked it to the lake, where it disappeared."

"Did you dive into the lake?" I asked.

"I should have. Come with me, Reese. Bring your keys and your phone."

He led me to the edge of a lake about two miles from our house. Father took everything off except his boxers and dove in. He stayed under for about twenty minutes. He came back up, carrying a struggling Evan. Evan was a mess. He was completely soaked, his clothes torn. He cursed my father as he carried him to the shore.

"Grab my clothes, Reese," Father said. I grabbed his clothes and followed him home.

~~~~~~~~

"Get in the shower," he commanded Evan. "And don't try to run again. You stink like fish." Sulking, Evan took off his wet clothes and hopped into a shower. The shower ran for a long time before he turned the water off. I heard him rummaging around.

Minutes later, he came back down, dressed in a tank top and jeans.

"Why the lake?" I asked him.

"No one ever finds bodies in bodies of water."

"That's not true and you know it," I snapped.

"Fine. I wanted to hide. Since I am now a walking corpse, I decided to act like one."

"How did you survive?"

"I drank fish blood. I caught them as they passed by and drained them."

"You are...well, you had to survive somehow."

"I intended to die, but I was too hungry and thirsty. The burn in my throat nearly killed me. I wish it had."

"Well, my father will get you help."

"I don't want his help. I think it's time to go back to my family."

"You'll have to talk to my father about that." Father came down.

"Reese, I must speak with Evan alone. Go wait in your room or the library." Grateful for the distraction, I went upstairs to my room and started to read a book. My phone dinged. I looked at it. Sarah had posted a picture of herself on Facebook, dressed in a red cotton dress. I gazed at it for a long time. She looked damn good in it. It accentuated her breasts and hips perfectly, showed off her shoulders, as it was sleeveless, and had roses around the hemline.

I recognized it as a dress I had bought her the other day on our shopping trip. She had added gold high heels and gold jewelry. Already, she was getting likes. From Mason, Amara, Duke, Noah, Rachel, and so on. She had gotten closer to that group as well as Ariella and me.

She was gorgeous. I wanted to go over to her and hold her again. I stared at her for a long time. Then I turned back to my book, but my mind was still on her. Butterflies fluttered around. No, not butterflies. Birds. Little hummingbirds. I felt like I had swallowed a whole bunch of them and my stomach was filled with them. I was happy.

~~~~~~~~~~

I fell asleep, and dreamed that I had a son.

As I held him in my arms, I felt like the happiest man alive. Finally, after a century, my mate had agreed to give me a child. I felt greedy, wanting to keep him all to myself. Sarah was asleep. She had just been through seven hours of labor, and she was exhausted. My son opened his eyes slowly.

"Hey, baby boy," I said. Oh gods, I've turned into my father!

Baby didn't care. He grabbed my finger as much as a newborn could. His tummy gave a growl, and he started whimpering. I quickly prepared a bottle and fed him. She had said she wanted to breastfeed for the most part, but an occasional bottle was okay with her. She didn't want him to have formula all the time, merely as an addition to his limited diet. Cirino was right outside with Alexander. I gave the okay for them and Father to come in.

Cirino stared at his baby brother. He was unsure at first about having a sibling. He had asked Alexander to change him at thirty years old. He had grown up nicely. He had his biological father's blond hair, but his mother's green eyes.

Sarah woke up. She held out her arms, and I hesitantly gave Baby back to her. Baby fussed for a minute, then calmed as his mother held him to her breast and fed him from the bottle. When he was finished, she started burping him.

"Let me do that, Sarah," Alexander said. She reluctantly handed Baby around, and we all got to hold him.

"What do you want his name to be?" I asked Sarah. She smiled at me, eyes still glazed over.

"Doorstop. Let's call him Door." Okay, she was going nowhere near the birth certificate for a while. She was still loopy. I noticed Father trying not to laugh as he held his new grandson.

"I can't believe I waited a century for you," I told Baby. Father glared at me.

"You're one to talk. I waited TWO THOUSAND years for you!"

I woke up suddenly. It was night. I went right back to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~

I stayed asleep for the rest of the night. I slept peacefully, only waking up when Father sidled in next to me.

"Wake up, little one. It's a school day, and you overslept." I cursed and threw off the covers. Father grabbed me around the waist. "Calm down. I already called them and told them that you had a chest cold. Come lay beside me." I crawled in next to him and closed my eyes. I slept some more, then woke up around noon.