by Jayme Morse
I had so many questions that they had all begun to make my head spin. I couldn’t think about any of that right now.
Tonight was about having fun. And for that reason, Tristan and I had been dancing on the beach for what felt like for-freaking-ever. I was pretty sure the other guys all wanted a turn to dance with him, but Tristan had been hogging me. I didn’t completely mind it. He had and I never got any alone time together.
I was breaking out dance moves I didn’t even know I had. Apparently, the vampire world had turned me into a good dancer, too.
I was so drunk that I didn’t believe it when I saw him standing there, across the beach from me.
With his dark brown hair, sun-kissed skin, and golden brown eyes that locked on mine from across the beach, it felt just like seeing a ghost. A ghost who was very much alive. A ghost of my past.
I had to have been imagining it. There was no way he was there at all. It had to have been the alcohol, combined with all of the intense emotions of the night.
But then he moved and motioned for me to follow after him. And that was when I knew.
Dylan Nash was still alive.
Chapter 30
Riley
I untangled myself from Tristan.
“I’ll be back,” I slurred.
Then, when he wasn’t looking, I snuck off in the same direction I had seen Dylan go in.
I knew there were all types of crazy things lurking inside this forest, but I really didn’t care.
Dylan Nash was very much alive… and I had to confront him about it.
So many emotions were swirling through me then.
My life was so different now. I had fallen hard for my Blood Mates. My coven. The four guys who I had a soulmate connection to.
There was a big part of me that didn’t even want Dylan to be back.
But I had loved him. He had been my first love, my first everything. And he was here, in the flesh and blood.
He was alive, and I hadn’t even known about it.
What the actual fuck?!
The more I thought about it, the angrier I became and the faster my feet carried me.
I jogged through the woods then, careful to keep low. I didn’t want to run at full speed. I wasn’t sure where the poisoned arrows were. I didn’t think they were anywhere close, but I couldn’t have been too careful.
I was also afraid of dragons again.
And ogres, for that matter.
Okay, new plan: find Dylan and get the hell out of the damn forest.
I heard the sound of twigs snapping about a hundred feet ahead of me. That had to have been him.
Or did it have to be?
Why was Dylan making me chase him through the woods instead of just coming over to talk to me?
Then again, I probably should have known better. This was Dylan. He had always loved a good challenge.
I moved quickly through the forest then, but the footsteps moved even faster.
As we came close to the hillside overlooking the moat that surrounded Nightshade Vampire Academy, I saw him.
His back was turned to me, but I would have recognized him from miles away.
“Dylan?” I called out.
He turned me then, his golden brown eyes locking on mine.
“Riley. It’s good to see you.”
“Really? If it was that good to see me, then why are you just showing your face now? I thought you were dead. That car accident—”
“It was fake. There was never a car accident at all. I faked my own death all those years ago,” he admitted.
“But why? Everyone thought you were dead: your parents, Jordan, everyone at school—” I said as I walked towards him, closing the distance between us.
Dylan interrupted me. “I came back recently to tell you, but do you know how hard it has been to find you? I didn’t know you were going to go get yourself and my sister turned into vampires.”
“You act like I’m the one who did it, but it’s really your own fault. If you hadn’t given me that stupid ring—”
“You mean, this ring?” Dylan held the chain he was wearing up, revealing the ring. My ring. Well, it was technically his ring, but it had been mine until it had gone missing. Until he had taken it back.
“You broke into my dorm room to steal your ring?” I asked.
“Finders keepers.” He shrugged.
“You did that weeks ago. Why didn’t you say something before now?”
“Because I’m in hiding, Riley. I can’t show my face around here. You and my family aren’t the only ones who think I’m dead. Everyone at Nightshade Vampire Academy thinks I’m dead, too, and I want to keep it that way.”
“If you want everyone here to think you’re dead, then why are you even here?” I asked. “You’re not doing a very good job of staying hidden.”
“Because I had to see you.” His features softened then. “I’ve missed you so much, Riley.”
“I’ve missed you, too.” I swallowed hard. “But I’m also fucking pissed. There were so many nights that I cried myself to sleep because I believed you were dead. How could you just let me continue thinking that when it wasn’t true at all?”
“I’m sorry. Lying to you was the hardest part of it all. You were my best friend. My girlfriend. The girl who I loved—who I still love.”
He took a step closer to me then and tried to give me a hug.
I took a step back. “Don’t fucking touch me.”
My words had stung; I could see it written all over his face.
“Riley, please. There’s so much I have to explain. But I had to completely dead myself, and I had to do it fast. I had to be dead to everyone or else no one would have believed it at all.”
“Why did you have to dead yourself?” I asked.
“It’s a long story, but it has to do with the Moonstrikes and the Nightshades,” he explained. “I can’t tell you everything right now, but what I can tell you is that the guys in your coven aren’t good vampires, Riley. You can’t trust even one of them. None of them have good intentions.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you,” I said, shaking my head.
“Trust me. I know so much more about them than you do—things that would make you sick if you knew.” He shook his head disgustedly. “Come with me. Run away with me. Let’s be together.”
“Dylan, we can’t. I can’t.” I swallowed hard, a lump lodging itself in my throat. This was so complicated because the truth was that I did still feel something for him—the type of feelings you had for your first love. They didn’t just go away that easily. “If this had happened months ago, before I ever became a vampire or before I had met my coven, I would have gone with you. I would have gone in a heartbeat. But it’s too late now.”
“It’s not too late. I’m here and you’re here. It’s never too late,” Dylan insisted.
“No. That’s where you’re wrong.” The lump in my throat broke loose then, and the tears began to stream down my face. “My coven… They’re my Blood Mates.”
I watched as Dylan’s face crumbled. It was the most difficult thing to watch.
“No. No, that can’t be.” He shook his head firmly.
“I’m sorry.” I continued to cry as we stood there, staring at each other. “But you shouldn’t have pretended you were dead. How could you do that to me?”
“The Nightshades aren’t good, Riley.”
His voice was full of sheer hatred.
“I bet they don’t fake their own deaths,” I muttered under my breath.
“Good luck, Riley.” He hesitated for a moment before pulling the necklace off and then placing it around my neck. “You’re going to need this a whole lot more than I ever will.”
As he turned away from me then, disappearing from my view, I allowed all of this to sink in.
I wasn’t sure how to tell Jordan her brother was still alive. Should I have even considered telling her that her brother was alive at all? There was no way we could escape this school, and
that was exactly what she would have wanted to do if she knew the truth: escape Nightshade Vampire Academy to look for Dylan.
The thing was, I didn’t think he even wanted to be found.
I made a decision then.
I was going to join the Nightshades.
It would make me feel better. Dylan clearly hated the Nightshades. It was the best way I could get revenge for what he had done to me.
I was going to align myself with the fraternity who he hated the most.
All I had to do was find a human to kill. Then I would be on my way to becoming a Nightshade.
When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw Slade standing behind me. His bright blue eyes locked on mine.
“So, Dylan’s back.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is.” I paused. “Why does he hate you so much?”
“The Moonstrikes and the Nightshades have always hated each other. The thing is, Dylan wasn’t always a Moonstrike. He used to be a Nightshade first.”
“Why did he leave the Nightshades?” I asked.
Before Slade could answer me, his eyes had moved to the sky.
I followed his gaze. There were thousands of tiny glittering dots.
“See them all?”
I nodded.
“They’re the faeries.” His eyes locked on mine. “They’ve come to take you away from us.”
The Nightshade Vampire Academy series continues in book 2: (Click the link to pre-order!)
