I touched my fingers to it and traced down to his wrist. “I could do my whole Flash routine, and zip out and up the stairs without anyone seeing me.”
His eyes sparkled as he opened them. “Seriously? Coz that would be amazing.”
I leaned forward to kiss him before rolling out of the bed and pulling my shorts back on. I hadn’t actually tried to use my speed like that before, but I figured everyone still awake and restless in the living room would be too focused on whatever they were watching and talking about to notice a blur of motion.
In just my underwear, I stood at the door, looked back to see Connor’s wide, hopeful eyes, then flashed out the door and up the stairs. No one was there, so I slowed down once I arrived to take more care in what I grabbed for Connor. Once I had a plate loaded with meat, cheese, and crackers, I held one hand to the food to keep it from flying off. I was back in Aurora’s bedroom in moments, and closed the door behind me.
I listened to hear if anyone outside the door made any distressing noises. Nothing seemed out of place.
“Ta da,” I said, handing the plate to Connor as I moved back to the bed. He’d slipped his underwear back on as well and sat up cross-legged to dive into the spoils.
“I see that this arrangement is going to continue to have awesome perks,” he said, shoving a cracker sandwich loaded with meat and cheese into his mouth. I’d forgotten that it was best if he ate something after I drank from him.
I settled in next to him, sitting cross-legged as he was. Some of that awkward silence filtered in, since he couldn’t contribute much to conversation while stuffing his face. I just watched him, waiting to wake up. Waiting for the last several weeks—the Leonards, becoming a vampire, being shot and hunted, and now…what had just happened with Connor—to have been a strange but still pleasant dream.
“Something on my face?” Connor grinned.
“Huh? No, I…well, yes, actually.” I laughed and pointed at the cracker crumbs in the corner of his mouth. He brushed them away. “But no, I just…I don’t know. It’s all so crazy. It should be weirder. Becoming a vampire should not be what makes everything in my life clearer, but here we are.”
Connor finished chewing his most recent cracker sandwich and set the plate on the nightstand. The way his eyes darted told me he had several things to say, but couldn’t decide where to begin. “I think we’re doing this wrong,” he finally said.
“All of that seemed pretty right to me.”
I laughed when Connor rolled his eyes and jolted forward to push me off the bed. Thankfully, the carpet prevented my thud from being too loud and alerting anyone in the living room. “Ow,” I looked up at him from my sprawled position.
“You’re a vampire; that didn’t hurt.”
“I guess you’re right.” I shot forward faster than he could counter, and yanked him down on top of me, careful to break the fall so he didn’t land too hard. He groaned anyway, biting back a yelp and struggling away until he was lying next to me.
“Cheater.”
“You started it.”
“I did.”
“Why do you think we’re doing this wrong? What should be different?”
He rolled onto his back, but tangled his legs with mine, his head on my shoulder and right hand pressed to my chest. I don’t think I realized how tentatively he used to touch me before, now that he knew he had permission to touch me as much as he wanted.
“Nothing needs to change, you know. Between us,” I said. “I don’t want things to change. You’re my best friend. You’ll always be my best friend.”
“So we can be that, me and you, just with added kissing and sexy times?” He ducked his head. “Coz that deal sounds way too perfect to not have a catch.”
We slotted together just like before, like we always did, only now I got to hold him. Only now there were no more secrets, nothing left unsaid. “No catch. Who says it can’t be like this all the time?”
“Skeptics, mostly. I prefer to be a romantic.”
“And a giant dork.”
“And that.” He grinned as his eyes lifted to meet mine. “Can we go back on the bed though? Aurora’s carpet might be thick, but my bony ass does not appreciate the lack of padding. Plus her Spock plushie is so judging me for my illogical existence.”
I looked up to see said plushie staring down at us from the dresser. This was why I loved Connor. This was why it was meant to be him. Because he was my best friend and he made my heart race.
I laughed so hard getting up from the floor, my eyes watered.
Chapter 29
Connor
Connor sat on the edge of the stage, eating out of one of the many boxes of pizzas that Mark had provided them for set strike. The matinee show had started at 3PM, finishing right at dinner time. They’d be taking down the set and cleaning up their several weeks’ long mess of the spring play right up until curfew. Connor needed the extra calories. Especially after last night.
He grinned to himself around another mouthful, lulled by the din of power tools and chattering voices behind him. A few others were scattered on the stage or in the auditorium seats eating while they took a break. He and Emery had fallen asleep in Aurora’s bed, woke before most of the others, and dressed before anyone noticed them leaving the room together. The police escort was there waiting to drive with them home, though nothing seemed to have happened during the night.
Connor kicked his legs, humming as he ate. He’d kissed Emery. He’d done significantly more than just kiss him. Everything he’d fantasized about for years had finally played out in real life. Well, not everything, Connor snickered. But enough. So much.
“What are you grinning about, slacker?” Aurora said, plopping down beside him and snagging a slice of pepperoni, which she proceeded to remove of all pepperoni since she liked the flavor but not the actual meat on her pizza. At least Connor got the castoffs.
Connor considered keeping what had happened in her bedroom last night a secret right up until he looked at her and remembered their pact. “How mad would you be if I maybe lost my virginity in your bed?”
Aurora froze, mouth open around her first bite of pizza. Slowly, utterly calm and collected, she took a bite, chewed, swallowed. “Less mad that you told me in time to change my bedding before I slept in it tonight. But what does ‘maybe’ mean?”
“I don’t know if it counts. We didn’t…you know.” He set his own half-eaten slice down and made a sort of twisting motion with his hands as if he were holding a ball, which he realized only as he did it in no way conveyed what he meant.
“I don’t even know how to respond to that,” Aurora said, taking another bite.
“It’s easy for you. Girls have built in anatomy that breaks to signal you’re no longer a virgin.”
“Hey, that’s not fair. First of all, not technically true. Plus, that assumes penetration decides virginity. And sure, that can work with a guy and girl, or two guys, but what about two women?”
Connor inclined his head closer to her. “I’m pretty sure there are many ways that can work with two women.”
Aurora smacked his shoulder with greasy fingers, which in turn caused Connor to grimace. “I have an easier answer for you, Con-Man. Did you achieve orgasm with the assistance of another person?”
Connor glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to have overheard that, but even those who were couldn’t hear them over the power tools. Still, he whispered when he answered, “Yes.”
“Mazel tov!” Aurora raised what remained of her pizza slice.
“Huh,” Connor said, leaning back on his hands, “I agree with your assessment.”
“So who was it? Or am I stupid for asking?”
“Uhh…we didn’t actually discuss if we’re going to be all public yet, so…” But before Connor could finish
his embarrassed rambling, Emery appeared from behind him and leaned down over his shoulder, kissing him soundly as Connor looked up in surprise, and then settled onto the floor between him and Aurora.
Aurora raised a curious eyebrow, valiantly keeping her grin in check.
Connor blinked. Blushed. Leaned into Emery’s side. “It was Em.”
“Nice.”
“Huh?” Emery looked at each of them, as if just then realizing he had kissed Connor in public for the first time. “Was I not supposed to do that?”
Connor scooted closer to him, “You’re good,” and kissed him right back.
“Oh my god, is this a thing?” Jules’ voiced shrilled from close by, suddenly right behind their heads. “Did I just see that? Did you two finally get your heads out of your asses?”
Connor looked up to see Jules already on the floor, pushing in between Emery and Aurora to get as close to them as humanly possible.
“How many people were rooting for this?” Emery asked.
A few others working on various cleaning or set dismantling had looked their way as well, and were talking or snickering while not hiding at all who they were talking and snickering about, including Nick.
Aurora and Jules shared a look and said in perfect harmony, “Everyone.”
Jules snagged a slice of pizza, but she’d only taken a few bites before Mandy tried to take her power drill.
“What, you’re on break,” said Mandy, “I need it.”
“Nah uh. Get your own. I’ll break when I’m dead.” Jules dumped her half chewed slice in the box. “I do not get enough opportunity to use power tools.” She raced off to finish the set piece she had been helping take apart.
They ate, chatted, eventually got back to work, and when Connor passed Aurora in the halls later, carrying out loads of costume pieces that had been on loan, he whispered to her, “Your turn.”
She frowned at him, only for her dark eyes to widen in dread once she realized he meant: you have to ask out Michael. It was so worth the harsh punch she delivered to his tricep. “You said no consequences!”
“Ow!” Connor struggled between hanging onto the box he carried and dropping it to the floor to rub his assaulted arm. “Yeah, other than our own missed opportunities, and now that I can speak from experience, trust me, you do not want to miss out on opportunities this awesome.”
Aurora tossed her head as if to whip her hair over her shoulder, but it was in a bun again today so she just ended up looking incredibly dramatic. “The difference being that Michael doesn’t know I’m alive.”
They shuffled over to the corner, and Connor did set the box on the floor, when a couple of other students carrying loads out to Mark’s car passed through the door to outside.
“That’s ridiculous,” Connor hissed.
“I’m peripheral, Con-Man, purely background noise to his high school life. He knows I exist, okay, but he wouldn’t even know to think of me that way.”
“Exactly. So work on getting him to start.”
Aurora pouted her full lips at him in extreme exaggeration. If Michael participated in the spring play, Connor would have pushed her in the direction of the Student Council President that second.
“One dance at Prom,” he bargained.
“He has a date.”
“They’re going as friends.”
“But—”
“No buts. One dance. I’ll even ask him for you. We can make it a whole ruse where I beg him to dance with you so you stop stealing Em away from me as the way better dance partner.”
She opened her mouth again then paused. “Okay. But if I make a fool of myself, I’m taking you down with me.”
“Deal.”
With his mind thoroughly distracted now to thoughts of Prom, it dawned on Connor that he and Emery hadn’t actually discussed things at length about this new arrangement between them. He sought his friend out after unloading the last box of costumes, finding him in the choir room that they used as their Green Room, vacuuming.
“That is so cheap, Em. Vacuuming is the easiest job for set strike.”
“Why do you think I volunteer to do it every show?” Emery grinned. He unplugged the cord and started winding it around the handle to transport to the next room.
Connor sat down in one of the choir room chairs. “So…we’re going to Prom, right?”
“Didn’t we already decide that? I bought a burgundy suit for you.”
Confirmation of eBay transactions should not offer quite as much relief as what surged through Connor to hear that. “Right, sure, but now we’ll actually be…dates?”
Emery rolled the vacuum cleaner out of the way so he could sit next to Connor. “Guess so. That okay? Because if you don’t want to label anything yet—”
“I love labels,” Connor said hastily, bumping his knee against Emery’s. “I will go down in history as the one-armed gay kid with pyromaniac tendencies if it means I can also be your boyfriend.” He would have cringed if Emery hadn’t immediately laughed at his rambling.
“Boyfriend,” Emery nodded, and leaned just a little bit closer. Side by side in the chairs, nearly identical in height, Connor’s eyes were drawn to Emery’s approaching lips. “Sounds good to me.” He kissed him. Light. Simple. Then pulled away.
Connor shivered down to his toes.
He inwardly cursed when a group of stagehands cut through the choir room to reach the catwalks, but only because he wished he and Emery had more time alone. After school tomorrow, though, and every day after, they were free with the play behind them now. There was a whole week ahead of them to spend time together.
And, after that, Prom. Connor had a date to Prom. With Emery. Not a friend date, but the real thing.
That night, after dropping Emery off at home, Connor couldn’t wipe the smile from his face.
~
Bane
Douglas Bane gathered the hunters under his charge to him. He’d led this particular group of men and women for nearly a decade. They had moved from the small town in which Emery Mavus lived to one to the south, keeping under the radar from the rogue hunter and elder vampire they had spotted guarding the young teen.
Eli’s failure at the school had cost them. The police were on higher alert than ever, watching roadways, eyeing tourists and any unfamiliar faces, and chaperoning Mavus everywhere he went. Even without the police, the elder vampire and hunter were enough trouble. Taking Mavus out at the school had been the ideal scenario. Quick. Clean. Eli had never made such a glaring error before.
It grated on Bane, and confirmed that he was right not to bring his nephew in on the crux of their mission just yet. Eli was young, experienced but still soft; he pitied these creatures when they wore pleasant faces and feigned living normal lives. Bane knew better. They were monsters, pure and simple, a plague on mankind that had long since overstayed its welcome. The pact between vampires and hunters was a joke. Eli would come to realize that in time.
They were six hunters in total for this mission—over a dozen when they met up with others the next state over. Bane had considered calling in those reinforcements, but the problem wasn’t being outnumbered or outgunned. So far they had been tripped up by timing, lack of information, and mistakes. Now the only part that mattered was time—planning everything to perfection and moving at the exact right moment.
Prom the following weekend gave them that opportunity.
“I know many of you are restless. So much time spent in this tiny town, all for one vampire and his mentor. But consider the evidence before us. They have a hunter under their thrall, blind to their evil. A poor teen boy forced into blood-letting as a retainer. Who knows how they might spread after the example of William and Mallory Leonard?”
The others all murmured agreement, crowded into his motel room, Gam
ble among them, including another man and two women. Eli remained near the door, arms crossed—silent.
He’d taken the risk of staying in the town longer, he said to keep the hunter and elder vampire on his tail to deviate them from catching wind of the others.
“Any additional information to share, Eli?” Bane asked his nephew.
“Nothing, no evidence to suggest Mavus or his mentor is clean.”
Bane held back from smirking, but only just.
“There’s also no evidence to suggest they’re not,” Eli said louder. “Or that Daniels is under any duress, or that the hunter has been glamoured. You keep telling us they’re dirty, Uncle,” he centered his gaze on Bane. “But what do we have to believe that other than your word?”
Silence settled over the others as they eyed Eli, each other, and finally Bane.
Gamble spoke up. “And my word’s not enough together with your own family’s? They’re a virus in this community, and we’re the only thing that can prevent it from spreading. These vampires are so low, they glamoured Daniels to attack me. I almost had to maim the poor kid. I’m lucky I got away before they came back to collect him, or I’d be the next victim lying in a ditch somewhere.”
“Only there haven’t been any victims recently,” Eli said. “How do you account for that?”
“Bane already said. They got Daniels as retainer.”
“He couldn’t feed both of them and still be standing, and you know it.”
“So maybe they’re hunting smarter,” Gamble spread his arms wide, leaning back against the lone table in the room while the others all perched on the beds, “keeping a lower profile, waiting for us to show our faces again. Maybe they glamoured more retainers out of those other friends of theirs. You saw the bodies the Leonards left behind, and the ones we know had to be Mavus and his mentor.”
Of course, Eli and the others didn’t know that those victims had been planted by the vampire Bane hired. It slowed things down with her killed, made it difficult to keep up the ruse, but the bodies left in her wake had been enough to bring them here, slaughtering a trail of vampires along the way that made the few humans sacrificed more than worth it.
Life as a Teenage Vampire Page 24
