by Jeff Hale
“You still pissed at Darien about last night?” Kris asked.
I hadn’t told Kris that I had gone to their motel, that I had been planning on trying to talk to Darien. I also hadn’t told her about kissing Alex. She was my best friend, and I usually told her everything, but I didn’t feel comfortable bringing it up, possibly because of my own guilty feelings in regards to it.
I nodded in response, tipping my head toward the bathroom door as I heard the doorbell ring. Kris heard it too.
“You’re not going to do anything too wild and crazy with Cody are you?” She actually seemed concerned.
“I might.” I grinned.
“What about the whole ‘too immature’ thing?” She rolled her eyes at my answer but she returned my smile.
“Didn’t say I was gonna marry him.” I laughed.
“Just don’t do anything stupid, okay?”
Like get him killed by a jealous werewolf? I was going to try to avoid that if at all possible, but Alex had said that humans were safe from him because they didn’t have to conform to shifter tradition so I hoped he was right.
I wasn’t sure exactly how far I had planned on taking things with Cody, but I was still too mad at Darien to care about hurting him. I also wanted to prove to him, and myself, that I made my own decisions and nobody—except maybe my mother—ran my life for me.
There was a knock on my bedroom door. My mom stepped into the room, shutting the door behind her, as Kris and I grabbed purses.
“There’s a young man in the foyer waiting for you girls,” she said, leaning against the door and looking us both over. There was approval in her gaze for how we looked, even if she herself didn’t necessarily like the style. “I don’t recognize him though. Is he someone new?"
“That’s Cody Grey, Mom,” I told her. “He asked me out this last week.”
She nodded absently. “So is he normal? Human?”
I had had a long talk with my mother this morning, before going to the motel. I knew that things might be changing with me fairly quickly and I wanted her to be aware of it, of what I was becoming, how it happened, all of it.
So I had told her what Darien and Alex were, what Matt was, that the world wasn’t quite how she had thought. She’d taken the news fairly calmly, like she had suspected all along. Then again, my mysterious Gran was her mother, so maybe she had. The only thing that had upset her was finding out the truth over how I had gotten hurt. No mother wants to hear that her baby girl got shot at.
“Yeah, he’s just a regular old teenage boy, Mom.”
“What happened to the other one? The young man I met? Darien?”
I chewed my lip, half frowning. “We had a bit of a falling out.”
“That’s too bad, Kat. I really liked him. I know you said he was a… shifter? And older than you, but it didn’t bother me because it seemed to feel right to me, you being with him.” She mirrored my lip chewing. “Any chance you two might patch things up?”
At first, her comment surprised me, that she liked Darien enough that she would prefer him over a human high school boy my own age. Then I remembered that she had married my father, had loved, still loved him, despite his death, and that he had been a shifter as well. She might be sensing that same shifter quality off of Darien and it reminded her of my dad.
“Maybe, I don’t know, Mom. But not tonight anyway, and tonight is my last high school party ever, so I’m going to have fun and not worry about it, okay?” I headed for the door and she moved so that Kris and I could leave. “I love you, Mom, not sure what time we’ll be back, probably really, really late.”
“Okay, sweetie. Have fun.” She hugged me.
Cody was waiting next to the front door. He wore loose fitting dark blue jeans, although the denim still hugged his butt nicely, and a dark brown, tight fitting muscle shirt. His eyes lit on me, traveling up and down me a few times before finally settling on my face, pleasant shock evident in his eyes. He’d seen me at Kris’s birthday party all dressed up, but I hadn’t been wearing a skirt at that time, and I didn’t dress this way for school. He whistled low under his breath.
“Ready to go?” he asked, holding his hand out to me.
I just nodded, took his hand, and we all filed out the door.
The Senior Party wasn’t being held at the school. The school officials knew what kinds of things went on at these parties and didn’t want to take the chance on having problems on school grounds, so usually rented out another space. This year ended up being the Red Lion in Pasco. The hotel was used to hosting a great many conventions in the area and well equipped to deal with a couple hundred rowdy teenagers and whatever trouble they might bring.
The party was already in full swing when we got there. We had to check in at the door and then we were directed to the four rooms that had been reserved for the school. One room had been transformed into a dance floor, complete with laser lights, smoke machine and a hired DJ.
A second room was designated an entertainment room, with various video games, gambling games with fake money, and other multiperson games such as Twister being played, while a third and fourth had been combined and set up with food and drink, tables and chairs for people to lounge on and visit.
I found a safe place to leave my purse, and we set about getting drinks and finding a place to sit for a few minutes. I hadn’t seen Melanie or DeeAnn yet, but I figured it was only a matter of time, and hoped that there wouldn’t be any problems. I wasn’t sure about my ability to stop myself if either of them provoked me again.
I finally saw them both later in the entertainment room, playing blackjack at one of the tables. I felt Cody slip his hand into mine as Melanie fawned all over her newest acquisition, Jake Richards, one of the varsity basketball players. She saw us as well, flashed us a venomous smile, then stood on tiptoe to kiss Jake and press her body to his, making it very clear that they were either already sleeping together, or would be soon.
I glanced at Cody, expecting to see jealousy on his face, but instead saw only disgust.
He saw my look and shook his head. “I know, I know, and I dated her for way too long. You can kick me later, okay?”
I rolled my eyes at him and looked back over to Melanie, who was watching for our reaction. Cody bobbed his head toward her in a derisive bow, then turned his back, not seeing the hateful glare she directed at him before I turned away from her as well.
My eyes passed someone as I turned, someone I didn’t recognize, someone who was staring in my direction, and when I brought my sight back to him for a double take, he was gone. I shook my head. A lot of people had brought significant others with them tonight, and some of those didn’t go to our school, so seeing someone strange wasn’t anything to worry about.
Kris had already disappeared into the dance, and Cody and I headed there now. Part of me was slightly worried that the same thing might happen tonight that had happened last night, but now that I was aware of it, I might be able to stop it if it started again.
We danced for the better part of the next hour, Nina playing a mix of techno music and alternative rock. She caught my eye as we came in and waved at me. I didn’t let myself go into the music like I normally did, figuring that was one way to make sure I didn’t draw the whole room in on me by accident. Not that Cody needed any extra encouragement.
His hands roamed my body while we danced, tentatively at first, but bolder once he realized that I wasn’t stopping him. The touching felt pleasurable; not the electric desire that went through me when Darien touched me, but good all the same. Cody had asked me in the car on the way over what my status was with Darien—he had witnessed me telling Darien to fuck off—and I had told him that as far as I was concerned, I was single.
Cody wasn’t wasting any time. When the music changed to something a little slower, he took the opportunity to lean down and place a kiss on my lips, softly, waiting for my reaction. I kissed him back, wanting to feel something normal, felt him respond by sliding his hands over my butt.
I sighed into him, relaxing. Normal boy, normal feelings, normal life. I tried to forget for a moment that I wasn’t normal anymore.
He grabbed my hand, pulling me off the dance floor. Kris waved at me as we went by, giving me a questioning look, and I shrugged and smiled. Cody and I ended up out of the room, him leading me down several halls with hotel rooms lining them, before finally pulling me into a secluded area under a stairwell.
He kissed me again there, pressing my back into the wall, one hand coming up to squeeze my breast through my corset. I didn’t think about it, just let myself go with it, losing myself in the moment. We had probably been making out for several minutes when Cody was yanked abruptly from me and slammed into the opposite wall, where he slid bonelessly to the floor.
But instead of a furious and jealous Darien, standing in front of me now and trapping me under the stairwell was the man I had seen staring at me earlier, the one I hadn’t recognized. He had long, medium-blonde hair pulled back at the nape of his neck, light-blue eyes and pale skin. He couldn’t have been human; he had flung Cody one handed with too much ease, but he reminded me of someone and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
“May I cut in?” he asked, his voice low, almost seductive. He held a hand out to me, the cuffs of his grey button up shirt rolled up and showing bare forearms. He sported a tattoo that looked familiar, one of a hooded skull with fangs, and as fear shot through me, I realized who he reminded me of. Matt.
He was a vampire.
I tried to bolt past him, but it was no use. One arm snaked around me, squeezing so painfully I thought my ribs might crack, the other hand splaying against the side of my face and pushing my head down to the side, exposing my neck. Sharp pain as he sank his fangs in. My blood, warm and sweet smelling, pumping from the wound as he drank from me.
And it fucking hurt, a sharp burning sensation zipping along my nerves. None of that blissful shit from movies and books, no pleasure-pain principle. There were teeth in my neck that had torn holes in my skin, and were messily, hungrily, trying to devour the blood from my system and kill me.
I tried to fight back, but I couldn’t seem to make my limbs move. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t make the sound come from my throat. I knew at that moment that I was going to die.
Something stirred deep inside me. Something wild and crafty, something vicious. Something that smelled blood and fear and wanted more, despite the fact that the blood and fear were my own. Something that wanted to hurt this monster as much as it was hurting me.
It struggled to make its way to the surface, struggled to make its way out of the depths of me and out through my skin, but it wasn’t quite strong enough, not yet, nor was it ready. It was biding its time, waiting for… something it wasn’t quite sure of. It let out a roar inside me as it retreated, and as it left, I felt my sight begin to go hazy from blood loss.
And then, much like the vampire had pulled Cody from me, he was suddenly jerked away, his teeth tearing out of my neck. I dropped to my knees, and then onto my side, still paralyzed, watching the vampire pick himself up off the floor to face his new assailant.
Matt.
What the hell?
“So he didn’t trust that the little princess would be safe when she headed home?” The vampire slewed his eyes toward me, then back to Matt, a vicious smile on his face. “Smart of him.” He looked Matt up and down. “I’m just surprised that I didn’t pick up your presence already, bat.” The word came out as an insult. “You’re better than I would have given you credit for.” He began backing away toward the exit that wasn’t too far from the stairwell. “Keep an eye on her if you can, but be assured that I will have her life. Tell your master that.” And he was gone, fast as a blur, out the door, with Matt staring after him. Matt hadn’t moved, had made sure that he was between me and the other vampire.
Now he knelt down next to me, his light-brown eyes worried as he reached out to touch my neck, pressing his hand against the wound to staunch the flow of blood, his eyes closing briefly as a shudder went through him. “Kat? Can you hear me?”
I blinked at him, a sudden tingling sensation rushing through my body, as though all my nerves were starting to fire again. I tried to say something, my mouth moving slightly, until I finally managed to whisper, “Yes.”
He was feeling my pulse with his other hand, staring into my eyes while he did so. “You’ll be able to move pretty quickly. There is something about a vampire bite that paralyzes its victim. It should be wearing off, and with your healing capability, should go away faster. Not sure about this bleeding though, not sure how much blood you lost. Can’t take you to a hospital.” He sighed, his brown hair slipping over his eyes. “I know that Darien and Alex have a motel room but that won’t do either. That leaves taking you home, Kat.”
The paralysis was fading quickly and I was finding myself able to move now, although I still felt very weak. “She knows, Matt, my mom knows, it’s okay.” My eyes slid to where Cody lay on the floor by the opposite wall. “Is he all right?”
Matt lifted my hand up and put it against my neck, then moved over to Cody and gave him a cursory exam, before coming back to me.
“He’ll be fine, just knocked out.” He scooped me up off the floor like I weighed nothing, cradling me against his chest.
“That guy, Matt? He had a tattoo, just like the one who shot at us,” I said, my mind going sluggish and trying to get the words out before I could forget.
“Tattoo?”
“Yeah, a skull, with fangs and a hood.” A sudden wave of dizziness hit me. “You sure Cody’s okay?”
“I’ll call the emergency number as soon as we’re out of here so they can check on him.” Matt pushed open the exit door and I felt the warm night air caress my skin.
“Need to tell Kris I’m leaving,” I murmured, the dizziness getting worse, and I struggled to keep my eyes open.
“You can call her from the house, I need to get you someplace safe, Kat.”
Someplace safe. As I faded to unconsciousness I was beginning to think it didn’t exist anymore.
FOURTEEN
Alex
I had lain back down after Katelyn left, my body still wanting the extra sleep to heal. I woke back up sometime later when I heard Darien come in the door. I fell back asleep to the sound of the shower running. When I finally wandered out of the bedroom that evening, Darien seemed in a better mood, his laptop open in front of him, fingers typing away at the keyboard.
“Feeling better?” I asked him, scrounging for some coffee. Instant. It would have to do.
He didn’t answer immediately, finishing whatever it was he was typing. He finally looked up and gave me a half smile. “A little. I’m still not happy about it, but I’m resigned to the situation and to do whatever makes Kat happy.”
“That’s good to hear.” I took a long gulp of the coffee, wincing slightly as it scalded the roof of my mouth. “And listen, mate, I am really sorry about what happened with Katelyn.”
He gave me a tight nod. “Your face seems to be healing up finally, bruising is going away. Rest of you okay?”
I chuckled. “I’ll live.”
He gave me a hard look at the comment, then turned his attention back to the laptop.
“She came by earlier today,” I said, watching for his reaction.
He nodded. “I know.”
“She wanted to talk to you.”
He seemed surprised. “She did?”
“Yeah. You should call her, but I’d wait until tomorrow. She mentioned some party that she’s going to this evening and I don’t know when she was leaving for it.”
He nodded again, seeming to relax a little bit more. “I’ll do that then.” He glanced down at the laptop. “For now, there’s work to be done, I’ve taken too long a break. You may want to check in as well, see if there is anything you need to attend to.”
I got the distinct feeling that he wanted to put the events of last night behind us, and if he wanted to catch up on work,
that was fine by me. For the most part, our joint business just about ran itself, but occasionally Darien was needed for consultation on a design and we still needed to check in every once in a while to make sure things were still going smoothly. We hadn’t done so in almost a week, so spending a few hours catching up on things and letting our employees know that we hadn’t dropped off the face of the earth was probably a good idea. The internet was a wonderful thing.
It turned out that there was a minor crisis that needed sorting out, that resulted in multiple emails, records checking, and a bit of research, so I was a little startled when I heard Darien’s cell phone ring. I looked at the clock on the laptop, surprised to note that it was almost ten o’clock.
“Hey, Matt, what’s up?” Darien asked as he answered the phone.
My eyes swung to him and I pushed the laptop away from me, listening intently so I could hear both sides of the conversation.
“We’ve got a… problem,” Matt said.
“What kind of problem?” The light hearted tone Darien had answered with faded away.
“Someone tried to kill Katelyn tonight, a vampire,” Matt told him and I could hear the tension in Matt’s voice.
Darien stood, pushing away from the table. “What do you mean someone tried to kill Katelyn? Where are you? Where’s Kat?”
“Calm down, I think she’ll be all right. I’m here, in Tri-Cities. Loch sent me up to keep an eye on her, make sure nothing happened, unfortunately I almost go to her too late. I’ve got her now, she’s asleep, but I’m on my way to her mother’s. Meet me there?”
Darien was out the door before Matt finished the sentence and I was right on his heels. He all but peeled out of the parking lot on the motorcycle and when we got to Katelyn’s, Matt hadn’t arrived yet. I wasn’t sure if Katelyn’s mother heard the motorcycle pull up, but we waited in the driveway for Matt to show up and he was there within a few minutes.
