5 5
“Oh, crap!” I said to my reflection in the bathroom mirror, noticing what time it was the night of Marcus’s party.
My makeup and hair were done, but I still needed to put on my dress, and I was supposed to pick Aurora up in front of school in two minutes. Tonight, I’d chosen matching red silk bra and panties. Who said I couldn’t pull off both red and black? There were all kinds of surprises beneath the surface.
I grabbed my short black dress off the dresser, pulled it on over my head, clasped the Bite Me pendant around my neck, and hauled ass over to West High. Traffic didn’t help. There was a school dance that evening. You couldn’t pay me to go to one of those.
I spotted Aurora pacing the sidewalk.
“Sorry!” I called out the moment Aurora slipped inside the car. “I didn’t notice the time.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Aurora said evenly. She didn’t look too pleased, but for all I knew that had nothing to do with me and everything to do with Fane.
“Are you going to be okay tonight?” I asked. The last time Aurora went to the palace, she left against her will.
As though reading my thoughts, she answered, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Besides, I deserve a night off after The Great Pizza Caper. I helped rid the world of not one, not two, but three killers, and I had to put up with Valerie in the process.”
I snorted. “That’s what I call fighting fire with fire.”
Hopefully Valerie didn’t show tonight because it wouldn’t be much of a night off for Aurora if she did.
Marcus’s place wasn’t far from the school. He lived directly beside the coastal trail. We buzzed through downtown and entered Marcus’s inlet facing neighborhood. I found a parking spot within a block of the palace, which was nice since we chucked our jackets in the car.
The moment we walked in, Marcus called out, “Joyeux Noel and Aurora Sky!”
He directed us to the kitchen where a young man in a tux offered drinks from a tray. He was as young and fit as the bartender from last weekend.
One of the trays was lined with shot glasses filled with thick, red liquid.
Aurora’s eyes widened. “Is that...”
“Blood,” I said. “Don’t worry, it comes from the blood bank. There’s wine in the fridge or champagne if you prefer.”
A dark figured slipped into the kitchen behind us. Amusement danced across Fane Donado’s face as he focused on Aurora. He wore all black and had black hair buzzed at the sides with a tuff of blond at the top. Somehow, he managed to pull it off.
“I think Aurora would prefer the blood,” he said.
It was a good thing Aurora had her back turned to him. It gave her time to recover from the flash of alarm that crossed over her face. By the time she turned around, she took on an expression of annoyance. She wasn’t fooling me, and I’m sure she wasn’t fooling Fane. Vampires seemed to have a sixth sense about that sort of thing.
I wasn’t about to stick around for the fireworks.
“Have you seen Gavin?” I asked, looking over Aurora’s shoulder.
“He’s in the living room,” Fane said.
“Great. See you around.” I left the kitchen without a backwards glance. Aurora seemed to understand that she couldn’t be with Fane, so I was sure she wouldn’t do anything stupid like hook up with him for one night.
I stopped at the edge of the living room and scanned the vampires and humans dotting the palace in red and black. I spotted Gavin in a chair by the windows. He had his eyes on his phone, which hovered at his midsection.
I maneuvered through the crowd, anticipating the moment Gavin looked up and noticed me, but his head remained bent.
“Hi, Gavin,” I said when I’d reached the small space beside him.
Gavin didn’t bother looking up from his phone. “Good evening, Noel.”
The formality of his tone took me back. I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I looked at the source of his interest and asked, “Did you get a new game?”
Gavin frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Just that you’ve been glued to your phone all week.”
Gavin’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not playing games.”
I leaned back not even sure what to say besides a pouty, “Okay. Didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Gavin didn’t respond; he just kept his head down and began texting again.
It took several seconds for it to register that he actually wasn’t going to stop and talk to me. Not only was I utterly confused, but now I felt like a complete idiot on top of everything else standing in front of a guy blatantly ignoring me.
I needed to sit down and regroup, but the closest seat faced Gavin, and there was no way I could be near him after getting the brush-off.
What had changed? What had I done wrong? I didn’t have a single theory to comfort me.
I found a seat in the far corner of the living room, facing away from everyone. All I had was my reflection in the window for company, and she had no answers, either. I sat staring at her. She offered no comfort or encouragement of any kind—the perfect companion to fit my hollow mood.
I must have zoned out because I hadn’t expected to see Aurora again for at least a couple hours, but it felt more like a couple minutes when her reflection joined mine in the window.
“Noel?”
Slowly, I looked up.
“Oh, hi.”
“What’s the matter?” Aurora asked, taking a seat beside me.
Normally I wouldn’t discuss Gavin with anyone, but his weird behavior was making me nuts. “I don’t know what’s going on with Gavin. He’s being so cold to me tonight.”
Aurora raised a brow. “He’s a vampire.”
“Ha, ha.” That’s what I got for sharing my feelings. “What about Fane?” I asked. “Is it true he broke up with Valerie?”
Aurora was so easy to distract. “He says they were only together a day.” She slumped forward. “He was rather cold, too.”
I felt a twinge of pity. It had been easy for me to place judgment on Aurora for not wanting to break up with Fane and obsessing about him and Valerie after she did. If she felt the way I did about Gavin, I could begin to sympathize.
I sighed. “Why can’t we like normal guys?”
“Because we’re not normal girls.”
We gazed into the blackness beyond our reflections in the window pane.
Aurora cleared her throat. “A boy from school followed me here.”
“What?” I said, turning away from the window.
“Well, actually he followed us here after he saw me get into your car at school.”
“Why would he do that?” I never realized February was National Stalk Someone Month.
Aurora rolled her eyes. “I guess he likes me. Annoying, right?”
“And stupid,” I added. “Did he see anything?”
Aurora scrunched up her nose. “No, I got him out of here right away and told him to never come back.”
“Let’s just hope he doesn’t.” And that was hoping a lot from a high school boy who’d already followed Aurora to a party.
“I was very clear,” Aurora said. She sighed. “So much for a quiet evening out. Ready to get out of here?”
Was she serious? We’d barely arrived. Then again, maybe it was better if Aurora left before she attracted any more trouble. I stood and led the way out of the living room.
I caught Henry’s eye in the kitchen as I passed. I wondered if he knew what was up with Gavin.
I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel as I drove across town. When we reached Aurora’s home, she said, “That’s weird. All the lights are on.”
I vaguely remembered her saying her dad had split. I wish mine had taken off. If he’d left, I wouldn’t have had to. Aurora didn’t know how lucky she was. Not only that, but obviously her mother was up worrying about her. Mine couldn’t even muster up the guts to protect her own children. I thought that was supposed to be a basic animal instinct. We had the capacity to reason and communicate verbally, but all it had done was corrupt us. All hail the human race. If any creature deserved eternal life, it was dolphins or elephants, not humans. People were a plague on earth.
Aurora stepped out of the car and wished me a good night, but I wasn’t calling it a night. My roommates were out for the evening. Even Eric couldn’t get away with staying in on Valentine’s. Clive would never allow a Hallmark holiday to dictate his dinner plans. He likely assumed that no guy wanted to be with me and could very well be stalking the entrance of my building.
Screw that.
I was going back to the palace. Maybe Gavin had finished texting or whatever the hell he was doing and lightened up. He’d made moves on me before. I hadn’t imagined it. Obviously he was interested. He must have been distracted by some important news. He wasn’t the most open guy. Probably didn’t want to bother me with whatever it was.
I zipped through downtown, only vaguely aware of traffic and street lights.
Finding a parking spot proved challenging, especially later in the evening, but my luck improved when a car pulled away from the curb. I took their spot as soon as they vacated it.
I let myself into the palace. There was a small gathering in the kitchen, but I didn’t see any sign of Marcus. I glanced at the last place I’d seen Gavin, but he wasn’t there. The living room was packed, the voices within louder than the music. A couple going up the spiral staircase squeezed past a couple coming down.
I hadn’t noticed Gavin during my initial scan, so I stepped further inside the living room.
Hopefully he hadn’t gone home or upstairs.
A flash of red caught my eye when I looked around the room a third time. Valerie. Red hair, red dress. Big surprise. She was sitting in a guy’s lap on the couch. My first thought was that it was Fane and that it was a good thing Aurora had left early. Then Valerie moved back ever so slightly and I saw that it wasn’t Fane, but Gavin taking the brunt of her ass. My Gavin.
My fingers curled. My stomach clenched into one tight fist. I tasted bile. I felt rage. And still I couldn’t believe it was true.
That heinous bitch!
Apparently I wasn’t the only person who felt she’d stepped into an alternate universe. Maxine, a regular female vamp at Marcus’s parties, honed in on Valerie as she entered the room from the spiral staircase.
“This is new,” Maxine said, tossing her copper highlighted hair over one shoulder. “What happened to Francesco?”
Valerie did her own hair toss, one that sent her tresses over her shoulders—like billowing boob curtains. “Fane is old news. Emphasis on old. Gavin here is nineteenth century. Barely old at all. Besides, he’s so much better to look at.”
Gavin beamed with pleasure. He gripped Valerie’s hips and said, “You’re the most gorgeous thing I’ve looked at in two centuries.”
My heart dropped. All I’d ever gotten out of Gavin was a “You look nice,” and he’d never looked at me the way he stared at Valerie, as though he were a thirteen-year-old who’d never seen breasts before.
A gust of bitter wind reached my legs when the front door opened. I turned in time to see Fane flick the butt of his cigarette to the ground before stepping inside. He might have gone unnoticed longer if other guests hadn’t seen him and quieted in that way that attracts instant attention.
Fane took languid steps across the stone entrance, stopping at the lip of the living room. He glanced at Valerie. I wish I could have looked as bored as Fane when he noticed his ex-girlfriend in another vamp’s lap.
Fane scratched his pale cheek. “Two exes in one night. Marcus really knows how to throw a party.”
Valerie sniggered. “Maybe you should have stayed at home drinking tea with Joss.”
Fane took another step inside the living room. “There’s only one thing I like to drink.” His voice was intimate, as though it were just he and Valerie having a private conversation without the rest of us listening in. “Good thing Gavin likes sharing.” Fane winked.
Gavin wrapped an arm around Valerie and glared at Fane. “She’s off limits.”
Something inside me felt broken. Taken. He’d said I was taken. Now I’d been tossed aside and replaced by ginger vamp bait.
Fane looked around the room and chuckled. “Just remember I had her first. But then, you always went for the leftovers, Gavin. I guess that makes you more of a vulture than a vampire.”
The people standing around only looked mildly interested in the male bravado on Valerie’s behalf.
I was so disgusted I wanted to leave, but it’s not like I could retreat mid-act. I so wanted Fane to steal Valerie back, claim his former rights, yank her from Gavin’s lap, and haul her skanky ass up the stairs then ravish the banshee until there was nothing left but a pile of red rags. But a Fane and Valerie comeback was about as likely as Marcus suddenly developing an appetite for snatch.
Valerie rose to her feet and glared at Fane. She lifted her nose in the air. “Come on, Gavin. I’ll show you how tasty leftovers can be.” She shot Fane and me a silky smile.
Gavin shot up after her, not sparing either of us a glance.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I whispered as Valerie sashayed her way up the stairs, Gavin following eagerly at her heels.
I hadn’t realized I’d spoken aloud until I heard Fane’s voice inside my ear. “It’s his loss. She tastes like rotten fish.” I hadn’t seen Fane move next to me. My senses had gone numb the moment I saw Gavin with Valerie.
“Rotten fish,” I repeated with a frown. So Valerie’s blood did taste off. That or Fane was still putting on his macho show. I hoped so. Maybe my taste had turned Gavin off. But he’d sucked my blood before. Please tell me I did not taste like rotten fish!
Henry walked in a second later and missed the whole Valerie and Gavin barf show. He took mindful steps as he glided over with a full martini glass, sipping from it only when he’d stopped beside Fane and me .
Henry finished swallowing and looked directly at Fane. “So Aurora was followed
here... again. Not the best track record, Francesco.”
Fane smirked. “You mean that boy from earlier? Mike? The only danger he poses is to himself.”
“He’s still a threat.” Henry took another sip of his martini.
“What do you propose, Henry? We slash him and stash him at the dump?” Fane chuckled softly.
Suddenly I wasn’t breathing. Fane better be joking. They both better be joking. I looked at Henry.
He didn’t look amused, but he didn’t shoot down the idea, either.
“Perhaps if you made it clear that you and Aurora are together guys from the outside wouldn’t try swooping in on her.”
Fane’s jaw clenched when he forced a smile.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Henry said. “I’m only pointing out the obvious. She’s trouble.”
“Yeah, she’s trouble all right.” Fane grumbled under his breath. “But that’s none of your business.” He started for the entryway.
“Where are you going?” Henry asked.
“Home,” Fane replied. He locked eyes with me. “To drink tea.” Fane smirked when he saw Henry’s look of confusion. Then he turned and headed for the front door.
Henry shot me a bemused smile. “Want a sip?”
His martini glass was over half full thanks to the dainty sips he’d taken.
I downed it in five seconds. After coughing softly to clear my searing throat, I handed the empty glass back to Henry. “I suppose there’s more where that came from.”
Henry leaned in. “Or we could take this upstairs.”
“Why not?” I answered with all the numbness I felt inside.
Henry leaned forward, inches from my eyes. “You’re something special, Noel. So brave and beautiful.”
I didn’t have it in me to smile.
I’m not special. I’m not beautiful.
And brave? I simply didn’t give a shit if I lived or died. I didn’t give a shit what happened to me. Maybe that’s why I said what I did next.
“Has anyone ever told you, you talk too much?”
Henry’s face darkened right before he let out a bark of laughter. He gave me an appreciative nod. “You’re the first.”
“Let’s get me a refill first. Unless you want to drink alone?”
Henry smiled. “You can have as much as you want.”
And more. So much more, but it turned out to be too much.
When I first woke up, I didn’t know where I was until several shades of orange came into focus. This was no sunrise staring me in the face. I blinked four times, remembering that I’d darted in front of Henry in the hallway earlier that morning and led him into the unoccupied October room. At least Valerie hadn’t taken that away from me. But it was just a room. I didn’t give a shit about a room.
My neck ached where Henry had bit me.
I turned my head on the pillow, relieved to find myself alone in bed. Not exactly a shocker. I was good enough to bite, but not to bed.
Henry had, however, taken my shoes off and pulled the covers over me.
The hardwood floor was cold. My mouth tasted like cotton. I stuck my head under the faucet of the October room’s private bathroom. Besides having a slight case of bedhead, I looked about the same as when I’d arrived. My makeup wasn’t even smudged.
After finger combing my hair, I emerged from the room, pumps in hand, eyeing the doors I passed in the hallway. Several were closed with bats dangling from the doorknobs. I wasn’t the only overnight guest.
Was Gavin behind one of the doors?
Part of me wanted him to step into the hall as I walked by. I wanted him to look me in the eye and see the hurt he’d put there.
Maybe I’d misread his signals. Then again, maybe a certain redhead had gotten in the middle and rained hot lava all over my parade.
He’d said he’d turn me if he could. That was practically “I love you” in vampire speak.
The smell of bacon greeted my nose at the top of the staircase. Dull gray light filled the large windows below, reflecting off the inlet. I circled my way down the stairs and headed to the kitchen.
Marcus stood over a frying pan in a pair of black silk pajama pants with a matching buttoned top. A man in a suit sat with a cup of coffee and the newspaper at the small table against the far wall of the kitchen. I’d only met Marcus’s partner, Richard, once. Where Marcus was boisterous, Richard was reserved. He sat with perfect posture and a serious gaze.
Marcus looked over his shoulder. “We’ve got an early bird.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I don’t remember falling asleep.”
“You’re welcome to stay the night,” Richard said, surprising me. “There’s no reason to put yourself at risk on the road.”
I looked from him to Marcus.
“Richard has a heart of gold,” Marcus said. “He’s a rare find.”
The two men stared at each other for a moment before Richard cleared his throat and buried his head in the newspaper.
“Now! Noel,” Marcus said cheerfully. “What can I get you for breakfast? I’ve got scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, bacon, and homemade scones,” he said, setting down his spatula to clap softly, “in the oven.”
It had been a long time since I’d had a real breakfast, but at that moment my intestines felt like charred toast.
“Thanks, but I’m not hungry.” Okay, so I was hungry, but my stomach couldn’t handle anything, not since twisting in on itself after seeing Gavin with Valerie.
Marcus smiled at me warmly. “Honey, I applaud your figure, but you’re not leaving here without one of my homemade scones.” He ripped a paper towel from a roll on the counter and pulled a scone out of the oven with his bare hand.
“Thank you,” I said, taking it from him.
“Don’t you dare throw that out,” Marcus called after me as I left the kitchen.
He probably thought I was anorexic. I actually had a hearty appetite. I simply didn’t gain weight. Hate me all you want. Tough shit.
I just wasn’t in the mood for a scone. It’s like, “Oh, the guy you have a major jones for just hooked up with the bitch from hell. Here, have a scone.” I felt like chucking the damn thing into the road. But I didn’t.
After wrapping it in the paper towel, I set it on the passenger’s seat to save for later. It was early Saturday morning, and the roads were quiet.
After crossing town, I did a U-turn in the street and grabbed a parking spot beside my building. Morning always felt calmer than night. Safer. Bad things never seemed to happen in the immediate hours after nine a.m.
The washing machines spun their way through rinse cycles as I passed the laundry room.
I took a quick look through the wood slats in the outer hallway. A couple of cars were warming up under the carport and a woman from the first floor was brushing snow off her windshield from an open spot beside the building. Other than that, the coast was clear.
I breathed the cool air in and out as I unlocked my apartment door. I quickly locked it behind me.
It was eerily quiet inside. Michelle had most likely spent the night with her boyfriend. Trudy did morning yoga.
I set Marcus’s scone on the kitchen counter to save for later... maybe even now. I was starting to feel hungry. I’d bypassed all the appetizers at Marcus’s in favor of numbing my emotional pain as quickly as possible. Happy fucking Valentine’s! Always had hated this holiday. Now I hated it even more. It was a slap in the face to anyone who had no one to love them.
I stepped out of my pumps, scooped them up, and was walking barefoot across the carpet toward my room when I saw a figure in the living room from the corner of my eye. My heart jumped instantly into my throat and began hammering out of control.
Clive sat on the couch, smiling smugly.
“Hello, Noel.”