A Promised Fate by Cat Mann Read Free Book Online Page B

before we were intimate, I struggled with
insomnia. I saw her and I loved her with an intensity that was hard
to fathom. Now that I belong to her, every part of me needs every
part of her. I need her like I need air. I’m restless without her
near me. Her presence calms my soul and stops the near-constant
noises in my head, nagging noises reminding me constantly of the
filth in my blood. Without Ava the walls close in around me. The
mere idea of no longer having her to love makes my stomach heave
with nausea. I pushed out of bed to go for her and bring her back
to me.
    The wind howled and rain pounded on our rooftop,
smacking against the glass. Palm trees danced wickedly with each
gust and cast elongated ghostlike figures on the walls. The nearby
white-capped waves crashed angrily and pummeled the shore with
rage; sprays of seawater hissed and thunder reverberated, shaking
our windows and causing our picture frames to vibrate against the
walls.
    Through the chaos in the dead of night came the near
silent swoosh of our glass door sliding open. My scalp
prickled and tiny hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stood up
on high alert. Someone was entering our home uninvited. Standing in
our upstairs corridor, my hand gripped the stairwell banister in a
tight, white-knuckled squeeze. My gaze, struggling with the dark,
picked out and followed a tall, slender figure gliding in through
the door and into our kitchen.
    A small bit of relief came to me as the visitor slid
out of wet shoes at the door mat. This was someone we knew, someone
who knew us well enough to know and follow Ava’s exacting house
rules.
    “Hello?” I called out.
    A gasp echoed quietly in the night, barely audible
from the storm that raged on outside.
    “I know you’re there, Jules. What are you doing here
so late?” I called out from the top floor. She turned around and
searched the dark house for me. The sound of my footsteps as I came
down the stairs gave my location away and her eyes caught my
movement in the dark moonlight. Her gaze followed me as I
approached her.
    “What do you need, Julia? It’s late. Rory is probably
in an agony of worry. Let me drive you home…”
    Lightning struck the ocean with a magnificent crackle
and the blackened house flashed with a brilliant, bright light,
giving me my first real glimpse of her. Her skin was ashen despite
the weekend spent in the California sun. Her hair was wet and her
clothing was too. She had on a dark, hooded, unzipped sweatshirt
with a pair of Rory’s boxers and a tank top of his that was
entirely too loose on her thin frame. She was cold and tears
streamed down her cheeks and clouded her eyes.
    “Julie Baby, what’s wrong?”
    She fell against me, throwing her arms around my
body. She let go of whatever strength she had been holding on to
and sobbed savagely into my chest.
    “You haven’t called me that in a long time,” she
said, sniffling and nudging herself closer to me, tightening her
cold, wet arms around my bare body. “You’re so warm.” She held me
even tighter still. “You are always so warm.”
    “Are you alright?”
    “I am now.” She breathed me in just as Ava does,
sucking the air away from my skin with need.
    I pulled back from Julia’s grip on me and held her
shoulders an arm’s length away. I studied her.
    “You’re freezing. Why are you here so late? Does Rory
know you left the condo? He’ll be worried, Jules. This storm is too
dangerous to be caught out in. Let me call him and then I can drive
you home.”
    She let out shiver and her teeth chattered. “No!
Don’t tell him anything.”
    A heavy sigh left my lungs and my mouth pulled into a
deep frown. “Stay put for a second.”
    Down the hall, on the other side of the kitchen, was
our laundry room, which had become a sort of adjunct closet for
Ava. It housed a bunch of stuff that didn't fit her new
baby-carrying shape along with some other odds and ends that had
taken up semi-permanent residence. I found a