by J. M. Adele
His magic touch filtered through her skin, teasing out her agreement. “I do. And I’m definitely drawn to your blood. I haven’t encountered anyone else who does that to me. But if either of us comes close to losing control again, or attacking someone else, we leave straight away. We leave and we never come back. Got it?”
“Good. Let’s shower before we get you home.”
The picture of her parents slaughtered in their beds still stirred her fears. But as he undressed her, peeling the fabric from her heated skin, he freed her of the weight of her worries. Even if only for a little while, he took it all from her with the drag of flesh upon flesh. Every bite an exchange of nourishment, and a reassurance that their new dynamic would satisfy all of their desires as his blood settled warm in her belly. He flooded her system with a euphoria only he could provide until she was so spent she forgot how to stand.
Thank you, Seth.
_____
I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be here.
First day of senior year and herds of students filled the hallway, lockers providing a place to stir gossip or talk crap about each other. Some kids looked like they were about to have a root canal, while others—like Madeline and her bitchettes—worked the space, reestablishing dominance over their subjects.
Everywhere Shiloh and Seth went, heads turned and whispers spilled from loose mouths. Only a few months ago, she would’ve returned waves and said hello. She would’ve asked people how their weekend had been and what they had planned for the next one.
That life had burned to ashes and dust, never to be revived. She’d seen the footage of herself stumbling into the gym, looking inches from death. There was no wiping that from people’s memories, even if she managed to wipe it from the internet. Thank God she had no memory of that moment. Watching the replay drew out the humiliation and agony she should’ve—might’ve—been feeling at the time. But now she knew what ‘thirsty’ felt like. She’d never stop reliving her first memory of being in the clutches of bloodlust. The way it had hijacked her mind and body, releasing the monster buried within. As far as Shiloh knew, there were only a few witnesses to that fall from grace. Herself, Seth . . . and Lanie. She’d heard her sister whimpering and thrashing about during the night. If Shiloh could’ve linked their dreams she’d bet they’d been replaying the same scene from two different points of view. Predator and prey.
At least no footage from the parking lot had shown up. Either she’d been too fast, or the bystanders had been too slow with their phones. Or maybe they couldn’t comprehend seeing a teenage girl flying backwards through the air and landing on top of a car. This wasn’t some comic adaptation on the big screen. Things like that just didn’t happen in real life.
Shiloh couldn’t let it happen again.
Her jaw ached from overindulging in Seth’s blood the night before, but she’d had to satisfy her thirst to ensure she wouldn’t expose her secret. The beast needed to stay caged. Seth had had his fill so he could keep his fangs holstered, too. This was a huge test. One she’d never wanted to partake in. But Seth had assured her it would all be fine, and she’d succumbed to his charm. The urge to run fought with the trickle of calm feeding through her hand in his grasp as they walked to their lockers.
She wondered how he managed to be so cool. He was a brand-new vampire. They were both new at this. Each person’s scent gathered in her nose as she walked by, none of them anywhere near as appealing as the aroma wafting from Seth’s skin. She swallowed, remembering the taste of him sliding down her throat.
For the first time, she wanted to pull away. This was way too dangerous.
Keeping her mouth shut, she hugged her books in one arm and freed herself from his grip, pulling the strap of her bag up on the other.
“Babe, do you want me to carry those for you?”
“No, I’m nearly at my locker. I’ll be okay from here. I can see my first class. You’re going to be late.”
He tilted his head, narrowing his eyes before leaning down to give her a kiss. Shiloh waved goodbye with a small smile, watching him disappear into class and breathing a sigh of relief.
As she opened her locker, a flyer fluttered its way to her feet. She snatched it up, reading what it was about. Some movie called The Lost Boys was going to be screened in the gymnasium on Friday night. She’d never heard of it. Reading down the page, her blood froze at seeing the word vampire. Scrunching it in her fist, she shoved it to the back of her locker and dumped a stack of books in the front, slamming the door.
“Aargh!” She slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her scream.
Waiting behind the locker door was the dark-haired guy from the mall. “So, you’re still with him?”
Fuck. What was he doing here? Was he stalking them? Hadn’t he mentioned something about school before he took off? Adrenaline pumped in her veins as her mind raced with her own questions, completely ignoring his query. She’d have dropped her books if she hadn’t already locked them away. “What do you want?”
The corner of his mouth tipped up and he leaned his forearm on the locker, crowding her. “I just wanted to welcome you back to school. You know, after your ordeal, and all. Seems like nobody’s been real welcoming.”
“Um, thanks.” What? Why are you thanking him? Get the hell away.
“It’s Shiloh, right?” His gaze slid from her face farther south and his jaw ticked.
She crossed her arms, her own jaw tightening. Who the hell did he think he was? He’d scared the shit out her sister and bitten Seth. And now he was trying to, what? Intimidate her? “I have to get to cla—”
“The name’s Devlin.” Holding out his hand for her to shake, he watched her. Was he for real?
Loose pieces of hair framed his face, but the rest was pulled back in a ponytail. She’d wanted to grab him by that convenient handle and yank him off her sister not so long ago. “You were an asshole in the parking lot. This isn’t happening. We are not going to be friends. I’ve gotta go.”
“You have Math first up with Horner.”
“Yeah. So? What do you care?” She pulled in some air so she could huff in frustration, but his smell came with it, seasoning it with yum. Her fangs tingled. Shit.
“I saw your class schedule.” He handed her a piece of paper. “You dropped it.”
“Uh, thanks.” Their fingers touched as he passed her the sheet, the warm current scrambling her mental faculties. It wasn’t the same as Seth’s caress, but it had an undeniable something—an organic power that spoke to some part of her she didn’t know existed. She stepped away and locked it out, lashed by guilt for even acknowledging the feeling. Seth’s was the only touch she needed.
“So, what’s he like?”
“Who? Seth?”
“No. Horner. I don’t care about your boyfriend.”
“I do care about him. I can’t talk to you.” Speeding up her stride, she reached the door to class ahead of him.
He grabbed her arm, stopping her with a jolt. “I wasn’t trying to scare your sister. I was having a smoke. She was upset with him.”
“Look, I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t know how else to say it before I start swearing. Back. Off.”
Retracting his hold, Devlin put both his palms up in surrender. “I heard you, loud and clear.” He retreated a step. “This is me, backing off. But don’t ya want to know why she was upset?”
She hesitated for long enough that the corner of his mouth twitched. “If I want to know that, I’ll ask her.”
“Suit yourself.” He swiped a hand over his mouth, covering his expanding smirk, but he couldn’t hide his playful eyes or the dancing flecks of green and blue emerging from their dark depths.
A flock of birds took flight in her stomach, delivering a prickle of anticipation to her muscles. Unable to stop herself, she flared her nostrils, taking a long inhale to gorge on his intoxicating smell. It was like smoked chili chocolate with a hint of sin—a mix of spices that would burn all the way down, but ma
ke you beg for more. One hand curled into a fist as she held back a curse. “Ugh. You are infuriating. If you had cornered me in the parking lot, I would’ve punched you.”
He moved closer. “I’d like to see you try.”
She could run faster than a flash of light. Surely her fist could snap out so fast nobody would see it. It’d be like he fell for no reason. But the shiner might be hard to explain. “It can be arranged.”
“Lunch break?”
Her forehead bunched. “Are you serious?”
“As fuck.” He stared her dead in the eye before dropping his gaze to her lips.
Shiloh’s knees loosened, ready to dump her weight to the floor as her body awoke in all the wrong places. Places reserved for Seth.
It looked like Devlin hadn’t shaved around his goatee for a few days, hair shadowing his cheeks. He screamed danger, but she wanted to pull back the cloak and discover his secrets.
“Are you two joining our lesson today, or just decorating the hallway?” The teacher’s stern warning pushed them apart.
Devlin’s demeanor went from intense to chilled out in a flash. “Hey, Mr. H. How ya doin’?”
“You are three seconds away from a detention, Mr. Vice.”
Behind the teacher, the students were all watching their exchange, their whispers rising to a dull roar.
“Nah, it’s all cool. I’m done here.” Devlin swaggered into class.
The teacher tapped Shiloh on the shoulder before she could get past him. “Shiloh, welcome to senior year. It’s good to see you back. I understand you’ve been through a huge shock. I hope you’ve had some time to start healing over summer break. If there’s anything I can do to make things easier for you, please let me know, or any of your teachers. We’re here to help.”
“Thanks, Mr. Horner.”
He smelled like tuna fish and bagels. She wouldn’t have minded it so much before, but now the scent had her on the verge of dumping her breakfast at his feet. She favored a diet of red meat. Preferably rare. And anything with caffeine. She couldn’t survive on blood alone.
Sidestepping past him, she made her way to the only free desk, front and center. Dropping her bag on the floor, she sized up where Devlin was, feeling his eyes boring into her from the back of the room. Any hint of complacency was lost in the dark pools of his eyes and the heavy set of his brow. He was pissed. She swore she saw flashes of red in his irises before he turned away.
She spun around, practically lunging into her seat, and shut her eyes. Her gums ached, wanting to release her fangs. She could smell his tantalizing scent from the back of the room, as if he’d turned up the volume on it from ten to fifty. Crap. What did that mean?
Covering her face with her hand, she coughed. Her throat was parched, but that was it. Holding both hands out in front of her, she noticed a slight tremble, but no threat of body-wracking tremors like she’d had with Seth. She was still in control.
That had to count for something.
So why was the thought of diving into his lap to strike at his neck consuming her mind?
Homework
Maybe it was stupid, but she went to the cafeteria, searching for Devlin. When he didn’t show up, she walked around the buildings looking in all the places where he might be having a smoke. Nothing. He was a coward. All talk, and apparently, all walk. She embraced the disappointment, hoping it would crush her curiosity. Yep, that was all it was.
Her phone beeped with a text from Seth.
Where are you?
She could feel him near, the pull of their connection drawing her to him. For the first time, she fought against it. There was no way she’d be able to look him in the face without turning flaming red with guilt. She might have to sew a large scarlet letter A to her shirt.
I haven’t done anything. I love Seth. I can’t leave him. I’ve already tried that, and look how it turned out.
She huffed out in disgust and headed for the library, tapping out a reply.
Working on a paper. I’ll see you after school?
From the door, she could see Lanie’s dark head bent over her laptop. Taking a seat at a desk across from her, Shiloh noted the dark circles under her sister’s eyes. A notebook covered in scrawl with loose bits of paper poking between the pages sat beside Lanie’s computer as she squinted at the screen.
“What are you looking at?”
“Huh?” Lanie lifted her eyes in a daze.
“You’re concentrating so hard. What are you looking at?”
“The missing person’s database. Did you know more than sixteen and a half thousand kids were reported missing in Los Angeles last year?”
Shiloh’s mouth parted. That number was way too many places to the left of the decimal point. And she’d joined the ranks for this year’s statistics. What an achievement. “God, Lanie. I don’t want to know something like that.”
“I wonder how many of them were taken by vampires. I’m trying to find a pattern.”
“Like what?”
“If there’s a large number of abductions in one particular area we might have ourselves a coven.”
Shiloh pulled her chair in closer, witnessing a different side to her sister unfold as she drove the mouse. Lanie had more smarts and determination than she’d given her credit for. Shiloh suddenly felt fiercely protective, wanting to snap the laptop shut and whisk her little sister back home to safety. “What if we find who did this? How are we going to deal with it? The police won’t believe us, and they wouldn’t stand a chance against our vampire strength and agility.”
“Our? You’re not one of them, Shi.”
“Yes, I am.”
“You’re still my sister.”
Shiloh’s heart squeezed and a lump formed in her throat. After all she’d done, Lanie still thought of her as her sister. Not as something to be feared, or as a monster.
They’d grown up trying to outdo each other at everything. Best cook. Fastest runner. Lanie had beat her at almost everything until Shiloh found swimming.
They’d braided each other’s hair and raided their mother’s secret chocolate stash together. She’d teased Lanie about being a party girl, but had always made sure she got there and home again safe. It eased Shiloh’s mind because she knew she’d dropped the ball where Lanie was concerned. She’d prioritized swimming and Seth, and her relationship with her sister had drifted into distance. Being the designated driver hadn’t been enough. She knew it.
You’re still my sister.
Lanie still loved her and was willing to forgive.
Shiloh blinked a few times to ward off tears, singling out each drifting dust mote as Lanie’s words sunk in. “I love you, too.”
“Don’t start that. We have to focus.”
“You’re right. Sorry.”
“Most of the cases in California are from Los Angeles. No surprise there, I suppose, due to population alone. I wish I had access to the police files. I’d filter them according to the area where the missing was last seen and maybe cause of death. Surely not all the victims are turned. Maybe some of them die of blood loss. Then there are those like you who’ve returned, but who are acting weird. Well, weirder than normal.”
“What are you whispering about?”
Shiloh twisted in her seat to see Seth flashing a smile that had her wanting to fold into his familiarity. How strange that she hadn’t felt him coming. She always knew when he was near ever since they’d met.
“Shiloh’s helping me with my history paper.”
Liar, liar. Shiloh eyeballed her sister sideways. Why didn’t she tell him?
“You have homework on the first day of school? What’s the topic?”
Vampires.
“The assassination of Abraham Lincoln.” Lanie didn’t even twitch, her face as straight as a flagpole. Wow. That was skill.
“Google it. You’ll figure it out.” Seth’s tone had bite.
Shiloh had always known these two didn’t like each other, but since her reappearance it was developing i
nto contempt.
He ignored Lanie, resting his palms on the desk beside Shiloh. “Want to come eat with me?”
Her butt rose two inches off the chair before her brain re-engaged. Lanie was hiding this from him for some reason. She’d told her sister about Seth being a vampire. He could be helpful. An extra set of fangs would come in handy in a vampire fight. She decided to go along with it despite the instinct to tell him. “Um, no. Thanks, but I can’t. I’m helping Lanes. I’ll see you after school?” She broke out in a sweat as every word got stuck on her tongue, protesting its release.
It wasn’t like she hadn’t said no to him before, especially with her demanding training schedule. But to refuse herself time with him now was like denying herself shelter in the snow. She put her hands in her lap to hide the trembling.
She needed to be with him.
She also needed to find her attacker, and Lanie had the right instincts on this one. Seth needed to be kept out of it. If he found out what they were doing, he’d want to stop her. And he’d want to protect her. Now it was her turn to protect him. She didn’t want him hurt.
Lines etched beside his mouth as he eyeballed her. “I’ll come and get you after last class.”
He took two steps away before whirling back. Holding her by the nape of the neck, he mashed his lips to hers in a mark of possession, and left her panting as he stalked to the door. She gripped the arms of her chair to stop herself from following, but she could’ve sworn the chair moved a couple of inches on its own, like he had her tied on a string. Like the membrane that pulled her to him was stretching, trying to accommodate this new distance between them. It was in danger of snapping back.
Yes, he was pissed off, but she was doing this to protect him.
They’d be okay.
Spinning around, she found Lanie staring at her. “What?”
Lanie’s face screwed up. “He’s such a dick. Even more now that he’s—”
“Stop, Lanie, okay? You’re talking about the boy I love.”
“Whatever. It’s your business who you choose to be with.” She dismissed the argument with a jerk of her shoulders.
