by Kristi Cook
I smiled up at him, realizing that for the first time in a very long while, I was completely and genuinely happy. Things were good. No, they were great.
All I needed was for Aidan to find his cure, and then things would be perfect. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?
14 ~ Oh, No, You Didn’t
On my way to the dining hall on Monday, I paused by the fountain, leaning against the cool stones. The noon sun was high in the cloudless sky, cutting through the chill in the air.
Aidan? I called out in my mind, reaching out to him telepathically.
Nothing.
He’d been a no-show in calculus, which was pretty unusual these days, at least without advance warning. I knew he’d been working in the lab the night before—he, Jack, and Dr. Byrne usually worked together on Sunday nights after dinner. I’d actually tried to talk to him telepathically before I’d gone to bed and had gotten no response. At the time I’d just figured that he’d been caught up in his work, too preoccupied to notice.
But now … now I was worried.
“Hey, you going to lunch?” came a voice behind me, and I turned to see Tyler headed my way.
“I guess,” I said. It just wasn’t like Aidan to disappear, not anymore. Something was wrong, my instincts told me.
Tyler peered down at me curiously. “You look like you just lost your best friend. What’s up?”
“Just worried about Aidan, that’s all. Have you seen him today?”
He shook his head. “Nah, but it’s not like I’ve been looking for him. Why?”
I shrugged. “He wasn’t in calc this morning.”
“Maybe he’s sick. Did you try the infirmary?”
I knew he wouldn’t be in the infirmary—vampires didn’t get sick. “I’m sure he’s fine,” I said, sounding way more sure of it than I felt.
“Don’t worry, he’s a big boy.” Tyler swept a hand through his hair, pushing it off his forehead, a now familiar gesture. “Hey, can you give me your friend Kate’s cell number?”
“Why do you need it?” Silently, I called out to Aidan again in my mind.
Tyler glanced back over one shoulder toward the building that housed the dorms and dining hall. “I was supposed to meet up with her later today, but I need to cancel.”
“Why would you be meeting up with her?” I asked distractedly. Still no reply from Aidan. “Anyway, just tell her at lunch.”
He shook his head. “Nah, can’t do that. Too public.”
I just stared at him, completely confused now. “What are you talking about?”
His mouth curved into a grin. “I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to tell you.”
“Not supposed to tell me what?” Oh God, no. At the end of the dance on Saturday night, Cece hadn’t been able to find Tyler anywhere. Kate had been missing in action too, but we’d figured she’d called it an early night and gone to bed.
“Please tell me you didn’t. I swear, I will kill you—”
“Just do me a favor and don’t tell Cece, okay? She’s a nice girl and I don’t want to hurt her.”
“Don’t tell her what, Tyler?” I took two steps toward him, closing the gap between us. “What exactly did you do?”
At least he had the decency to look embarrassed. “You want the play-by-play?”
“God, no. I think I’m going to be sick.”
“You’re not jealous, are you?”
“Jealous? Why would I be jealous? I’m pissed off. How could you do this to her? To either of them?”
“It’s not like me and Cece were going out or anything. I just took her to the dance. You know, as buddies.”
“And then left the dance with one of her best friends? What are you, a complete moron? Please tell me you were just—that you didn’t—”
“I thought you didn’t want the play-by-play.” He folded his arms across his chest, looking way too pleased with himself.
“Oh my God, you did hook up with her. What the hell was Kate thinking?”
“Well, from the sound of it, I’d say she—”
“Just shut up.” I shook my head, hoping to clear it of the unpleasant images flooding my brain. “I thought you were my friend, that I could trust you—”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with you, now, does it? Though I’m kinda flattered—”
“I said to shut up.” Instinctively, I raised one hand toward him.
“Don’t,” he said, grabbing my wrist. There was a glint in his eyes that I’d never seen before—almost menacing. “You can take it out on me later, at practice.”
“Let go of me,” I spit out.
I glanced around nervously, almost expecting Aidan to appear out of thin air in a murderous rage. But then I remembered that he’d changed; that he seemed more human than vampire these days.
For a moment, Tyler continued to manacle my wrist, his gaze challenging mine. And then his gaze slid lower, to my mouth.
When his head dipped toward mine, I took a step away from him, wrenching my wrist from his grasp.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Just testing out the ‘jealous’ theory,” he answered with a shrug. “Sorry about that.” His usual cocky grin was back, making me wonder if I’d imagined the brief flash of malice I’d seen in his eyes.
This was Tyler, I reminded myself. A friend.
A friend who’d screwed over my roommate. With Kate, of all people. Vulnerable, hurting Kate.
“You are in so much trouble,” I said, pointing a finger at his chest.
He brushed aside my hand, then took a step toward me. “Are you going to tell her?”
“I have no idea what I’m going to do. You suck, you know that?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Violet. She was there, offering it up. What can I say? I’m a guy.”
I wasn’t buying that. “That’s the lamest excuse in the book. Seriously, can you say ‘cliché’?”
“She was available; you’re not. Let me know when that changes.”
Feeling drained, I let out my breath in a rush. “Just go away, Tyler. I’ve got to find Aidan.”
“Course you do. Tell him I said hey.”
“Hey is for horses,” I said completely nonsensically, repeating something that Gran liked to say.
“See, now? That’s why I like you, Violet.” With a low chuckle, he walked away.
“I hate you,” I muttered under my breath, somehow feeling as if he’d come out on top, the jerk.
I wasn’t lying when I said I had no idea what I was going to do about Cece. On the one hand, telling her would just hurt her, and would surely put an enormous wedge between her and Kate, and rightfully so. Hurting or not, it had been a shitty thing for Kate to do. She knew how Cece felt about Tyler. That should have made him off-limits.
On the other hand, how could I not tell her? Eventually it would come out—the truth almost always did—and Cece would never forgive me for keeping it from her. She was my bestie, after all. Besties didn’t lie to each other. Or, for that matter, withhold important information. Hadn’t I always said that was just as bad?
With a heavy sigh, I headed toward the dining hall. One thing was for sure—Kate and I were going to have a little heart-to-heart.
Just as soon as I found Aidan and made sure he was okay.
He was in the infirmary after all. Which didn’t make any sense. But as soon as I found my friends in the dining hall—Kate and Cece included—and set down my lunch tray, Suzanne Smith walked by, pausing at our table.
“Hey, I just saw Aidan in the infirmary,” she said with a grimace. “He looked awful.”
Which meant my lunch sat abandoned while I hurried over to the infirmary as fast as I could.
As soon as I stepped inside, the medicinal smells assaulted me—antiseptic and something sharper. I glanced around, seeing no one in the reception area.
“Hello?” I called out.
Nurse Campbell bustled in from the back. “Oh hello, dearie,” she said in her c
heerful Irish brogue. “I suppose you’re looking for Mr. Gray.”
“Is he okay?”
She hurried to my side, speaking quietly. “I’ve never seen anything like it, not with his kind. I suppose he’ll recover—they always do. Still …” She trailed off, shaking her head. “Odd. Very odd, indeed.”
“Does Mrs. Girard know he’s here?” I asked.
She nodded. “Of course. She just left. Unfortunately Dr. Anderson was here when I admitted him, and not Dr. Peters.”
I could only assume that meant that Dr. Peters knew what Aidan was, but not Dr. Anderson. Interesting.
“He’s given him a thorough examination,” she continued, her mouth pinched with worry. “Severe exhaustion, he said, and ordered a full blood panel. I can’t exactly comply with that one. We’ll have to substitute someone else’s blood sample to send off to the lab.”
“You can draw some blood from me,” I offered. “Can I see him first?”
“Of course, dearie. Might do him some good. Come right this way.” She led me past the two curtained treatment cubicles, back to a long corridor with several closed doors on either side.
She opened the second one on the right, and I followed inside. Aidan lay on a narrow cot in the windowless room, a sheet pulled up to his waist.
He turned his head toward us, his eyes sunken and shadowed, his face a dull, sallow color. “I was just about to call you,” he said, smiling weakly.
My breath hitched in my chest, panic rising at the sight of him. Suzanne was right—he looked awful. I hurried to his side and reached for his hand. “What happened to you?”
“I’ll just give you a moment,” Nurse Campbell said, shutting the door softly behind her. I listened as the sound of her footsteps faded down the hallway.
He sighed, a deep, rattling sound coming from his chest. “I injected a new serum last night. Afterward, I felt perfectly normal. I remember walking back to my room, the underground one, just to be safe. But then Mrs. Girard found me down by the river, just before dawn. Here,” he said, shifting over several inches, making room for me on the edge of the cot.
I sat, reaching up to feel his forehead. It felt strangely warm—for him, at least—and slightly clammy. “How did you get there? What were you doing?”
“I have no idea—no recollection of anything after walking to my room. I’ve had bad reactions before, but nothing like this. I’m slightly … alarmed.”
I was too. “Well, what were you doing when Mrs. Girard found you?”
He shrugged. “Passed out cold. My clothes were ruined—apparently I had a run-in with Jenna at some point in the night.”
My alarm rose a pitch. “What? How?”
“Last night was a full moon. I was supposed to have met her after curfew. Unfortunately, she doesn’t remember much of what happens when she’s in wolf form. But I had quite a few deep gashes when Mrs. Girard found me this morning.”
My gaze quickly skimmed his supine form.
“They’ve all healed by now. Which means the serum didn’t cure me, of course. But I already knew that.”
“But it did something.” I leaned down to kiss his forehead. “You look terrible.”
“I feel terrible. Weak. I think I might go home tonight, let Trevors look after me for a day or two. Apparently Luc is in town, checking into this whole Stalker situation. I’d like to talk to him.”
I nodded. “Okay. It’s probably the safest place for you right now. With … you know, others. Like you,” I clarified.
“I think I’m actually going to have to travel by traditional means. Once the sun goes down, I’ll have Mrs. Girard call a car service.”
“Is there anything I can do?” I felt so helpless, so powerless.
“Don’t you have a tournament to prepare for?”
I did, on Friday. In Manhattan, at a private school on the Upper East Side. I nodded.
“I should be back by then. I’ll be fine. I don’t want you to be distracted.”
I rolled my eyes in frustration. “How can I not be distracted? Look at you.” I dropped my voice to a whisper. “Vampires aren’t supposed to get sick. They’re immortal, remember?”
“Only until destroyed.”
Was that it, then? Was he somehow trying to destroy himself? Messing around with the serum, injecting it indiscriminately, no matter the consequences?
He reached for my hand. “Next time I’ll—”
“Oh, no, you don’t,” I said, cutting him off. “No next time. There’s got to be another way to test it out.”
His grip on my hand increased. “I’ve told you before, there’s no other way. No vampire rats to test it on first. This is a risk I’m prepared to take.”
Tears burned behind my eyelids. “What about me? What if I’m not comfortable with the risk?”
He closed his eyes, his breathing suddenly sounding labored. When he opened his eyes again, his gaze was pleading. “Don’t do this, Vi. Don’t make me choose. Not when you know that you’re the reward, either way.”
My heart felt like someone had it in a vise, twisting it cruelly. “Next time might destroy you, Aidan.”
His eyelids fluttered closed again. “It very well might. Then again, it might cure me.”
Please be careful, I said in my head, hoping he could hear me now.
I’m always careful, he answered.
“I’ve been trying to talk to you telepathically all day,” I said, aloud this time. “Since last night, actually. You never answered.”
“You’re very faint, even now. I think whatever happened temporarily knocked out that ability. It’s coming back, though.”
“What would I do if I lost my Aidan channel?” I teased, but in truth the very idea terrified me. I liked it too much—the specialness, the intimacy of it.
A smile danced on his lips. “The same thing you’ll do when I’m cured. Talk to me the regular way.”
“We’ll lose that?” I hadn’t really considered it before.
“I assume we will. It’s not something I could do before I was turned. I suppose you’ll still be able to talk to other vampires, though.”
Because I’d still be a Sâbbat, even if he wasn’t a vampire.
“You need to rest,” I said at last, reaching down to plump the pillow behind his head.
He nodded sleepily. “Stay with me?”
“Can you scoot over a little more?” He did, and I wriggled down, fitting myself beside him, my head resting on his shoulder. “Sleep like the dead, vampire boy. I’m not going anywhere.”
15 ~ Strange Bedfellows
Hey, good job,” Tyler said, elbowing me in my side.
“Yeah, you too.” I’d won the girls’ match, and he’d won the boys’. This had become a pattern, actually. I had a feeling we’d both be going into the All-Ivy tournament at the end of the semester as top seeds.
I reached up to pull the ponytail holder from my damp, sweaty hair. From the bleachers, Cece and Sophie waved at me, then gave me a thumbs-up. With a smile, I held up five fingers. Five more minutes. And then we’d have an entire weekend to ourselves, just the three of us. Well, and Patsy, too. Luckily, Kate had some sort of glee club meeting, which had saved me the trouble of not inviting her.
Tyler leaned in toward me. “Hey, the redhead is pretty cute,” he whispered.
“You did not just say that.”
He shrugged. “What is it with you and all the hot friends?”
“I swear, Tyler, if you even think about it, I’ll—”
“Aw, I was just messing with you. Anyway, where’s the boyfriend? I figured he’d be here tonight.”
“Yeah, me too,” I murmured, my gaze sweeping across the emptying bleachers.
Aidan? I called out telepathically.
Nothing.
I assumed he was still at his apartment just off Fifth Avenue—he’d never made it back to school that week. We’d texted a little, but I’d been busy practicing for the tournament, and he was still recovering from whatever had
happened to him on Sunday night.
Trevors was taking good care of him, he insisted, and he preferred his own bed. He promised he was fine, just taking some extra time to make sure.
Of course, he’d also promised that he’d come to my tournament. Worry shot through me, quickening my pulse.
“So what are you guys doing tonight?” Tyler asked, drawing me from my thoughts.
“I don’t know. Just hanging out, I guess. Why? Aren’t you taking the bus back to Winterhaven?”
“Nah, I got a weekend pass. My mom was supposed to come and take me back to Connecticut for the weekend, but she canceled on me. So sure, I’d love to tag along.”
“What do you mean, tag along? You can’t come stay at Patsy’s with us.”
His brow furrowed. “Why not?”
“Why not?” I rolled my eyes. “Well, let’s see. For one, Cece’s barely tolerating you, and who can blame her? Two, after that little crack you just made, I’m not letting you within ten feet of Sophie. And three, where were you planning on sleeping?”
“Your mom’s got a couch, doesn’t she?”
“Stepmom,” I corrected.
“And hey, without the boyfriend you ladies are without an escort, aren’t you?”
I shook my head. “We can take care of ourselves just fine.”
“C’mon, Violet, don’t make me beg. I don’t want to waste my pass and go back to school. Please?”
I just stared at him, amazed as always by his boldness.
“Pretty please? I’ll take all of y’all out to dinner,” he offered. “My treat. Anywhere you want to go.”
I turned to watch Cece and Sophie make their way down the bleachers toward us. “It’s up to Cece,” I said, shaking my head. “And if she says no, that’s it, end of story. No more pressure.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He reached into his bag for a baseball cap, pulling it low on his brow.
I noted the red, white, and blue T on the cap. “A Rangers fan?”
“You got a problem with that? Let me guess—Braves fan, right?”
“Of course,” I answered with a shrug. “Season tickets my whole life, on the first base line. Well, till my dad died, at least.”
