Dark Secrets Box Set

by Angela M Hudson

  “Hearing?”

  “Yeah, you know, like human courts but for vampires.”

  “They had a hearing?”

  Eric scoffed. “No shit. Did you think David was just gonna let Jason get away with trying to kill his girlfriend?”

  “Yes.”

  He moved his head in a fluid no. “He went through every vampire law book ever written, trying to find a way to make Jason pay. But Jason’s defense was ironclad. It’s the biggest case in the modern history of vampires.”

  I didn’t care. There was only one thing I needed to know. “Where is he now—David?”

  “Gone.”

  “Gone where?”

  “Defected.”

  “Defected!” A sordid hiss of rage shot through me, starting from my heart. He defected? He did the one thing he said he’d never do—wouldn’t even do in exchange for a lifetime with me!

  “The rumors were true,” Eric said, shattering the rant I was about to blast off on. “I should’ve realized when I saw you in the restaurant.”

  “What rumors?”

  Eric ran his fingers slowly over the side of my face and under my chin, then lifted it again until our eyes met. “You are one of the prettiest little humans I’ve seen. I understand now why he did what he did.”

  “Who?”

  “Jason.”

  “Are you serious?” I pulled away from him. “There is no justification for what he did to me.”

  “I didn’t mean for hurting you. I meant for leaving you alive.”

  “He didn't leave me alive because I’m pretty, Eric,” I said spitefully. “He left me filled with venom, which means he left me to become a vampire.”

  “There’s no proof that he tried to change you.”

  “Proof? What do you need proof for? What does it matter?”

  “It was one of David’s accusations—in the court case. He tried to have Jason locked away for it when the rest of his arguments failed.” Eric laughed then. “Jason was pretty darn clever, actually, taking revenge the way he did. There was nothing even a councilman like David could do to have him reprimanded.”

  I stared ahead then, running everything over in my mind—the words Jason once said to me: something about being allowed to mutilate his kill in any way he saw fit, as long as he ate it. And he did. He drank my blood. He left me alive, yes, and I may never know why, but the World Council wouldn’t have cared about that. Jason’s kill was technically interrupted, and I could see now so clearly how he managed to get away with it.

  “Ah, you see now, don’t you?” Eric asked.

  “But, that’s not fair.”

  “Neither is what David did to Rochelle. But at least Jason left you alive.”

  “David didn’t mean to kill Rochelle, and he didn’t know she was pregnant.”

  Smugness jumbled up Eric’s kind features. “Do you actually know anything about that case, or are you just going by what David told you?”

  “David didn't tell my anything. Jason showed me. I saw it—” And now I thought about it, I couldn’t actually remember what Jason had shown me. I stood up, feeling trapped in a cage I couldn't see. “Look, I know David, okay. And I know he regrets her death.”

  “Regret? David doesn’t do regret. He doesn’t even do compassion.” Eric stood too. “When his brother brought the case of Rochelle against him in the High Court, David, being a man of the law, had the case thrown out before Jason even opened his mouth.”

  “You make him sound so nasty.”

  He snorted out a short, sharp laugh. “You didn’t spend much time with him, did you?”

  “Enough to know I love him.”

  “But not enough to know exactly what you were loving.”

  “I knew he was a vampire.”

  “That wasn’t what I meant.”

  “Then what did you mean?”

  “I meant his ultra ass-holiness.”

  “He was not an asshole. He was always nice to me.”

  “And he’s good at that—at playing human—until you become his dinner.”

  “He never planned to eat me.”

  Eric raised a brow. “Didn’t he?”

  “No! He planned to change me, be with me forever.”

  “Yeah, well, you can’t be a vampire, so you won’t see him again now, will you? Some true love that is.”

  “Thanks.” I looked away. “I feel so much better now.”

  “Well, you didn’t really think he’d come back, did you?” Eric leaned around and looked deep into my eyes with his chocolate stare. “He left without you, Amara, he’s done with you. Don’t you understand that?”

  I bit my teeth together, eyeing the ground to hide my tears.

  “Get out.”

  Eric and I looked up when we heard a door slam down the hall.

  “Just go—it’s over!” Emily yelled.

  “What the hell?” I marched over to the front door as Spence stormed out.

  “Spence? Everything okay, man?” Eric asked, becoming the human version of himself again.

  “Nope.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  Spencer’s jaw set stiff and he looked at Eric. “She found out about Rebecca.”

  “Oops.”

  “Rebecca?” I asked, the words rolling off my curled lip.

  Spencer sighed. “Um. A few weeks ago—”

  “Oh my God.” I covered my ears. “I don’t want to hear this, do I?”

  “Nope.” Eric tried not to laugh.

  My chest tightened with agony for Em. “You’re an asshole.”

  “Ara? It wasn’t my fault. I—”

  “Argh. Just stop making it worse.” I stormed off, stopping before I reached the kitchen. “Eric, I’m sorry. I have to go see Em. You wanna catch up again sometime?”

  He grinned, flipping his chin. “Yeah, I’ll be around.”

  “Spence?” I issued him a death-glare. “I hope the door hits you on the way out.”

  “It’s not my fault, Ara.”

  I caged my breath of murderous rage and made myself walk down to Emily’s room so I wouldn’t ask Eric to kill him. The front door slammed shut as I tapped on Emily’s door. “Em… can I come in?”

  Only a sob answered.

  “Aw, Em.” My heart melted as I walked in and saw her broken into a thousand pieces on the bed, curled up into a little ball. I sat down and pulled her hands away from her face. “Em, it’s okay.”

  “How could… he… do this, Ara?”

  I wiped away her tears and stroked her hair. “I’m so sorry, Em.”

  “I loved him. I loved him. Why do I let myself fall in love? What’s wrong with me?” She looked at me then, and her caramel eyes sparkled, reminding me of Mike’s so much that it pained me to see them reflect the sadness that was in his eyes the last time I saw him.

  “It’s not you, Em. You have a good heart. It’s just all the wrong guys.”

  “Why are there so many of the wrong guys?”

  “Well,”—I chuckled—“because there’s probably only one right one.”

  “What if that was Spence?”

  “Don’t think like that, Em. The right one would never do anything like that to hurt you.” I wrapped both my hands around hers. “You’ll find the right one. Just don’t lose hope.”

  “Why not? You did.”

  “No I didn’t. I just know what I want, even if I can never have it.”

  She stopped crying for a second and stared at me, the hurt blasting from her in a mess of spit and tears a moment later. “I was going to sleep with him tonight. God! I feel so stupid.”

  “You’re not stupid, okay? You were in love; that’s what you do when you’re in love.”

  “I don’t understand love.” She sat up, wiping her face with both hands. “How can it be called love if it’s one-sided?”

  I clicked my tongue. “It’s not love if it’s one-sided, Emily. And love… it… well, I don’t think anyone that’s in love is happy.”

  “The
n why do we keep trying to find it?”

  “I don’t know.” How could I know? All love had ever done was break me, so what right did I have to give any advice to Em? We were both broken now, and all we could really do was just try to move on with our lives and find some reason to exist other than love.

  4

  The night wore on, but the Sandman never came to take me away. I sat with my head against the wall behind me, the back of my bed sticking into my neck, and an upturned book on my lap. Every now and then, I could still hear the muffled sobs from Em’s room, and even though my heart went out to her, the words Eric said to me earlier owned more of my attention.

  I studied the deep lines in my palm, tracing a finger over the changed paths. I wished I were a palm reader, so I could read them for a sign that I might one day be happy. Seeing Emily lose something she thought was so real put things into perspective for me: risk. Emily risked her heart to love Spence, and he betrayed her. She placed her most precious asset in his hands and watched as he crushed it before her eyes. And she never saw it coming, never even had a clue—just followed love blindly. Like we all do. So pathetically blind.

  Emily would never get past this, not after Jason left her the way he did as well. She was just another tainted girl, ruined before she ever met a man that deserved her. Why do we do that? Why do we take risks with a part of us that is so easily damaged?

  I closed my hand and shook my head. After what happened to Emily, I knew I had to stick to my decision to stay single. Eric was nice, but he wasn’t David. He’d never be David, and all of this could only end in the same misery as it had the first time I met a vampire.

  A loud bang started the hell out of me then, sending my book onto the floor before all went quiet again.

  I looked up at my door, listening. Then, the noise came again, louder, and without my panicked reaction overdramatizing things, revealed itself as a knock on the door.

  The last digit on my clock changed from a nine to a zero, marking the hour as three. Three! Who the hell would that be at three in the morning?

  The glow of the porch light beamed through my window then, a second before Emily’s shrill scream echoed through the house. I threw my covers back and ran for the door, calling her name as I stumbled into the front entrance. But instead of fighting off a man with a gun, I stopped mid-step and covered my mouth, nearly falling to my knees at the sight of Emily wrapped completely around the neck of a well-built man.

  “Ara,” he said, reaching his other arm out to me.

  A cocktail of reactions flooded my motionless body. Still shaken with fear from Emily’s scream, my heart tensed then warmed. “Mike!”

  “The one and only.” He ushered me to the hug with a half-grin.

  Slowly, I walked over and wrapped my arms around him and Emily. “What’re you doing here?”

  “Looking for a place to crash.”

  “Why?” I said, removing myself from his arms.

  “Missed you too much.” He shrugged then picked up his bag. “I’m moving to America. Got a job interview in a week.”

  “Oh.” Oh, my God.

  We both looked at Emily then, who still had not stopped crying; she laughed, wiping away the tears as she stepped back from Mike. “Sorry.”

  He frowned down at her. “Em? You okay? I’ve only been gone five months.”

  A quick gust of air came through with her smile. “I’m fine,” she said, “I just broke up with Spence last night.”

  “What?” Mike dropped his bag and pulled her in for another hug. “Why?”

  “Rebecca,” we both stated at the same time, then broke out laughing.

  Mike stared between the two of us, looking a little confused.

  “Come in.” I groaned and headed for the kitchen. “I’ll make some tea.”

  * * *

  I whizzed into a small, oddly-angled space just in front of a cafe, and then nearly dropped my bag and keys trying to coordinate checking my watch as well as getting out of the car. I hoped the student I had booked in for nine a.m. didn’t mind waiting an extra fifteen minutes. I hated myself for being so tired and disorganized all the time, and I was becoming more and more certain this emotional void, this exhausted ball of misery I lived in, might even be depression. I was one more late day, forgotten task, or lost pound away from going to a doctor, asking for help.

  The long line of cafes and shops made the pathway to my workplace feel like a catwalk in front of judging eyes, like they all knew me, knew I was late. When I caught my reflection above an ad for juice, I stopped dead, the words blurring then transforming from “Harvest” to “Haggard.”

  “Gross,” I said to the girl in the reflection, moving the finger of correction over the bags under my eyes. But, as expected, it did nothing to fix my advertised haggardness. Instead, the gloss came out of the bag and I smudged a tidy line of red along my lips, bringing out the blue in my eyes, if nothing else.

  The satisfactory exhale I used next turned to a short gasp though, as my newly-brightened eyes became round and my cheeks changed to match my red lips at the sight of a familiar face staring at me from beyond the glass. I jerked back, a heat wave of mortification rushing through me, offering only a half-smile to his enthusiastic wave. Then, I practically bolted.

  “Hey.” He caught up anyway.

  “Oh, hey, Eric.” I threw my bag over my shoulder, walking a little faster.

  “Are you trying to outrun me?”

  “No. I’m just late. I have a student.”

  “Student?”

  “Yes. I teach piano, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah. Well,” he said, “mind if I walk with you?”

  “No. As long as you can walk fast.”

  Eric laughed.

  Oh right, that was a pretty stupid thing to say to a vampire.

  “So… if I ask you another question, will you say yes?” he said.

  “Why?”

  “Because you just said no, then yes, then no.” He smirked. “It was funny. I wanted to make you do it again.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Then, no.”

  “Won’t work now, you already broke the pattern with why.”

  I stared at him, incredulous. “Don’t you have anything better to do with your time?”

  He shrugged. “I got a lotta time.”

  “Go… catch a goat or something.” I waved a dismissive hand to quote one of my favorite movies, then picked up my pace.

  “Can’t. Got my eye on something a lot tastier.”

  “I’d say bite me, but…” My smart remark was wittier left without closing.

  “Would you like to grab a coffee?”

  “Eric, I just told you I’m running late.”

  “What if you weren’t? Would you then?”

  “Probably not,” I said.

  “Liar.”

  I smirked, unable to restrain it.

  “Great. It’s a date, then,” he said.

  I stopped walking. “A date?”

  “Just as friends.”

  “Friends?” My eyes became smaller. “But you just told me you want to eat me. Friends don’t eat friends, Eric.” I started walking again.

  “Why?”

  “Ergh. I won’t even dignify that with a response.”

  “You just did.”

  My fists clenched. “You’re so annoying. Can’t you see I’m trying to avoid you?”

  “Yes. I just can’t figure out why.”

  “Many reasons. Least of all that you’re a vampire. And it’s taken a lot of thinking to get this kind of clarity, and you, with all your”—I waved at his… well, at all of him—“sexiness is not helping.”

  Eric grinned. “You think I’m sexy?”

  “No.”

  “Oooh. Just wait ’til David finds out.”

  “Yeah, well, why don’t you go find him and tell him?” He’d be certain to come back here and make damn sure I wasn’t giving myself to another vampire. “In fact, leave right now.”

  He stoppe
d walking and looked down at his feet. “So, you were serious?”

  “Serious about you being sexy, or—”

  “About not wanting to be friends?”

  “Yes.” I folded my arms to hide the weakness in that reply. I wasn’t entirely serious, but I knew I should be. Knew I had to be.

  “But I like hanging out with you.”

  “Why?”

  “You’re a cool girl, Amara—”

  “Me? Cool? Those words don’t really belong in the same sentence.”

  He jammed his hands into the pockets of his black jeans and gave a bashful shrug. “But you are to me. It’s kind of nice hanging out with a human that knows what I am.”

  I rolled my head forward, rubbing both temples, knowing too well I shouldn’t be doing this. “Okay, fine. Meet me after I finish work.”

  “Great.” He backed away, that sexy smile warming his face again. “I’ll wait for you all day.”

  “I finish at three. You can come then.”

  * * *

  While I paced the four steps from one wall to the other, my student played the scales jaggedly, hitting the wrong note every second finger. But cringe as I may have yesterday, I did not today, because Eric’s smile and cheeky persistence played louder in my thoughts than the erratic scaling of the eight-year-old in front of me.

  I knew I shouldn’t be thinking about Eric, shouldn’t be looking forward to catching up with him, shouldn’t be considering things I’d previously only ever considered with two other guys in my life—both of them being guys I was in love with. But I liked Eric a lot, and ‘shouldn’t’ was becoming an overused and ultimately unimportant word in my vocabulary.

  I stopped pacing and leaned on the wall, smiling only as a prompt for my student to continue, and the next time I looked at the clock, it said three.

  Thanking the hands of time silently, I packed up my things, said goodbye to jerk-face, I mean Geoff, and hurried out of the store.

  “Hey, beautiful.”

  The glass door hit me in the bum as I stopped dead and looked across at Eric, leaning against his motorcycle with folded arms and a cocky grin.

  “Eric. Right on time.”

  “Hop on.” He jerked his head to the seat behind him.