“How many relapses have you had?” I whispered.
“Too many to count. But not in a very long time,” he added quickly.
“So you trust Nicholas because of everything you’ve been through? And the connection you have from being blood brothers?”
“Yes.”
Before I could ask any more questions, Lucas said, “We should get back. Last thing we need is for your parents to start searching for us.”
“Okay,” I reluctantly agreed. I wanted to hear more about Lucas’ past. It was intriguing. But I was happy he’d at least shared his history about Nicholas. I knew how significant it was for Lucas to open up about anything personal.
“Are you going back to your old job?” I asked, changing the subject. I had a feeling Lucas wasn’t going to say anything else about Nicholas, or future opportunities to kill Bartholomew and Thomas, at least not now.
“Yes,” Lucas answered. “Since my name was cleared, there’s no reason not to.”
“Hunting me?” My voice was barely above a whisper.
“You know I would never do that,” Lucas said softly.
Before I could think better of it, I grabbed Lucas’ hand and squeezed it. I expected him to pull back, but he didn’t.
All of the way back to my house, Lucas held my hand tightly as though he’d never let go.
When we finally got to the door he pulled his hand away and engulfed me in a hug. “Rory,” he whispered into my ear.
“Yes?”
“You deserve better than me.” Lucas’ voice was muffled. His face was buried in my hair.
“But I just want you,” I said simply. We stood there, arms locked around each other, afraid to let go, for what seemed like forever.
“You want me?” Lucas finally asked, pulling back and looking me in the eyes.
“Yes,” I said without hesitation. But I might want Henry, too. What the hell was I going to do about this?
I thought Lucas was going to kiss me, but he didn’t. “We’d better go inside,” he whispered.
“I doubt my parents noticed anything,” I said, still hoping to feel his lips against mine.
“Your sister might have.”
Ugh. “If anyone says anything I’ll just tell them the truth – we had to catch up and went for a walk.”
I reluctantly let go of Lucas’ hands and unlocked the door. We tiptoed inside.
Lucas sat back down on the couch. “You can stay out here with me if you like.”
“I would like,” I said truthfully, “but this couch is barely big enough for you and I don’t want my parents asking nosy questions about us. I’d better get back to my own room, unfortunately,” I said.
“Not quite like the freedom of no one knowing you exist. The ability to come and go as you please,” Lucas remarked.
“It’s different, for sure,” I admitted. “Although sneaking around, hiding myself wasn’t much fun either. And you encouraged me to come back here!” I added.
“Don’t doubt your decision,” Lucas said quickly. “Your family needed to know you were alive; this was the right thing to do.”
“Okay, I guess I’d better go.” I forced myself to walk towards the stairs. “See you in the morning.” I longed to look back at Lucas, get one more glimpse of his face, his tall muscular frame, but I didn’t.
“Yes, I’ll be up early,” Lucas said as I walked away. “I have to take one of those pills before the sun is up, especially if we’re going apartment hunting all day.”
We? I tried to contain my excitement that Lucas wanted me to come with him.
“Just come knock on my bedroom door if you need anything,” I said, and then I practically floated up the stairs, back to my room.
Chapter 14
I had expected a long, agonizing night. One filled with thoughts of Lucas and Henry, the only two guys that were ever on my mind. But when I had gotten back to my room and lied down on my bed, anticipating the flood of thoughts to plague me for hours, apparently I had blacked out instead.
It was weird. I hadn’t had the blackouts quite as frequently, although they were still disturbing, to say the least. It was one of the few aspects of my return that I hadn’t been able to get any answers about.
Apart from Lucas telling us that Tobias guy’s story he’d found in an old case file at his work, I didn’t have any other leads on former humans who’d been resurrected from the grave.
And Tobias – well, according to the files, he was linked to some gruesome murders. So I really didn’t want to have any association with him.
But my blackouts seemed to be harmless. The time that Lucas had kidnapped me, when he was contemplating saying a spell to put me back in my grave, he’d admitted that nothing had happened once I’d lost consciousness.
And it was true – each and every time I ‘woke’ up, no harm done, just many hours I couldn’t account for. Which was disturbing, but in the grand scheme of things, not the most important item to figure out on the list.
So when I jolted awake on Saturday morning, confused at first – as I always was – I quickly calmed down.
A blackout, I had immediately thought. Unsettling, but familiar.
It wasn’t until I looked down at my arms that I started to panic. They were covered in dirt. Frantically, I tried to brush it off. But there was too much of it. I rushed to the full-length mirror in my room, almost afraid to look at my reflection.
My fear was confirmed. Dirt wasn’t just all over my arms. No, dirt was everywhere.
Caked in my hair, covering my face and clothes, embedded under my fingernails.
I slapped my hand over my mouth in a feeble attempt to muffle the wailing sound coming out of it.
Completely panicked now, I slung open my bedroom door and looked both ways down the hall. It was clear. Before I could think about the trail of dirt I might be leaving behind me, I rushed to the bathroom and slammed the door. With shaking hands I turned the shower on full blast.
No one can know about this.
Chapter 15
I stayed in the shower until the hot water ran cold, and even then I kept scrubbing. By now the dirt was gone, even from underneath my fingernails, but I still didn’t feel clean.
My mind was spinning. What the hell did I do last night? I hadn’t paid attention to the time Lucas and I got back to the house after our walk, but I did know we’d left around midnight.
I could tell it was still early by looking through the bathroom window. The sun was just rising. What if Lucas is up? He had specifically said he had to wake up early to take his sunlight pill. I couldn’t let him see all that dirt!
I quickly dried off and wrapped the towel around my body. I leaned my head out of the bathroom door. I couldn’t hear anything. My parent’s and Kayla’s doors were still shut. But they weren’t really the problem. No one in the Stone family was much of an early riser.
Who knew how much time I had? Lucas could be awake already! And if he hadn’t been, me slamming the bathroom door would have done the trick. Still, I had to be quiet, just in case he’d gone back to sleep, or by some miracle, hadn’t heard me clamoring around.
The dirt wasn’t quite as bad as I’d thought. The carpet, which was already a dark color, masked it fairly well. But I still had to clean it up, and pronto. Obviously, I couldn’t turn on the vacuum cleaner! That only left one choice.
With the towel still wrapped tightly around me, I rushed back into the bathroom and grabbed a box of Kleenex off the vanity. Back in the hallway, I fell to my knees and starting brushing the carpet to pool the dirt into a pile, then picking it up with tissues. It was working – sort of.
I had been methodically making my way back to the door to my room, slowly cleaning up the mess I’d made, when I heard someone clear their throat behind me.
“A-hem.”
I stuffed all of the tissues into my left hand and slowly turned around, still on my knees. Lucas was standing at the end of the long hallway, staring at me, a strange expression on h
is face.
Acutely aware that I was barely covered, I gripped my towel tightly and rose to my feet.
“Yes?” I asked in what I hoped was a normal voice.
Lucas walked towards me. “What are you doing on the floor?” he asked in a low voice.
“Um.” I hesitated, but only for a second. “I lost my earring,” I fibbed.
“Okay…” Lucas’ voice trailed off.
“You know, those diamond studs I always wear,” I babbled. It was true. I did have diamond studs. And thank God I’d taken them off to put on some dangly ones for the party, or I’d be wearing them right now. But they weren’t missing, of course. They were sitting on my dresser in my jewelry box.
“That’s an interesting ensemble.” Lucas was obviously trying not to laugh.
“The earrings are really important to me. I didn’t have time to change.” I jutted out my chin defiantly. I couldn’t worry about how stupid this story sounded; I’d said it and I couldn’t back down now.
“Have you checked the bathroom? I assume you were just there.” Lucas smirked.
“Yes,” I said tersely.
Looking resigned to go along with my bizarre story, Lucas said, “I’ll help you look then.” He started to bend down.
“No!” I protested, putting my hand out to stop him. The last thing I needed was him getting a closer look at the partially cleaned carpet!
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you because you were asking so many questions,” I said in feigned exasperation. “I found them.”
I held up my hand that had the tissues tightly clasped inside but didn’t open my palm.
“Oh.” Lucas looked confused. “But,” he started, then stopped himself.
He threw up his hands. “Whatever you say, Aurora.”
“Anyway, I came up to tell you I’m going out for a while before we look at apartments,” he continued.
“What for?” I tugged at the bottom of my towel, which was barely covering the top half of my thighs.
“I have to take care of something.” Lucas looked uncomfortable.
“Why are you keeping secrets from me?” I demanded.
Lucas raked his fingers through his hair. “If you must know, I have to go home for the blood,” he whispered.
“Oh.”
“I couldn’t very well bring it to your house now could I! Besides, I was planning to spend last night at home, until your mother offered for me to stay here.”
“You could have just told me,” I said.
“I’ll call you when I’m headed back to your house,” Lucas said, ignoring my comment.
“I could come with you,” I offered.
“No!” Lucas paused. “I don’t want you seeing that side of me.”
Lucas wasn’t going to budge, so I dropped it, even though I couldn’t understand why he was so sensitive about it.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll show you out. I have to cut off the alarm.”
“Don’t you want to change first?” Lucas asked. “Or are you trying to start a new fashion trend?” he teased.
I did want to put some clothes on, but I couldn’t risk him examining the carpet. I needed Lucas out of the house so I could properly clean it up!
“No,” I said defensively. “You haven’t been around humans much; it’s very normal to wear your towel around the house. They’re, uh, quite comfortable, actually.”
I pushed past Lucas and went down the stairs before he could say anything else.
As soon as Lucas was out of the house, I quickly got dressed and finished cleaning the hallway and the floor of my bedroom. I was still on edge and full of nervous energy, plagued by one question.
Where in the world did I go last night?
Chapter 16
I kept looking at my phone, expecting to hear from Lucas, but all I had was a missed call and some text messages from Henry. I hadn’t read them yet, or called him back. I felt bad ignoring Henry, but as the hours ticked by, I was becoming increasingly worried that something was wrong with Lucas.
And besides, I knew Henry would want to know what happened with Lucas sleeping at my house. I didn’t want a barrage of questions that I couldn’t answer.
When Lucas finally called me, I almost dropped the phone in my rush to answer it.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“I’m almost at your house,” Lucas replied. “Meet me outside and I’ll explain.”
I grabbed my purse and snuck a look in the mirror. I’d asked my mom to French braid my hair for me, and I was wearing a black tank top and cut off shorts. I’d told Mom that Lucas and I were planning to hang out today.
“Is there something going on between you two that I should know about?” she’d asked, smiling.
“Mother!” I had wailed, deciding not to answer her question.
“But what about Henry?” she’d asked. “I saw the way you two looked dancing together last night.”
Lucky for me, Mom had finishing braiding my hair by then and I was able to make my escape. Much as I loved my mother and valued her advice, she couldn’t help with this situation. No one could.
I stepped outside just as Lucas was pulling into the driveway. It was nice to have the luxury of doing things out in the open – before we’d always had to switch up the meeting place, so as not to make any nosy neighbors suspicious.
“Hey,” I said coolly, sliding into the passenger seat.
“Hey yourself,” Lucas replied, shooting me a smile. “I like your hair,” he added.
“Thanks.” I turned my head to stare out the window so that he wouldn’t see my ear-to-ear grin.
“Why are you so late?” I questioned.
“There was a bit of an incident,” Lucas said grimly.
“Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound good.”
“When I got back to my house, it had been broken into,” Lucas continued. “Ransacked, totally trashed.”
“Oh no!” I wailed. “Did they take anything?”
“The blood.” Lucas glanced at me briefly, then turned his eyes back to the road.
“That’s all?” I was confused. Sure, Lucas’ house was pretty bare bones but he still had some valuables: TV, DVD player, computer.
“It was the twins,” Lucas said in a low voice. “Thomas and Bartholomew. They came for me, and when I wasn’t there, they destroyed the only thing in the house that mattered.”
“How much did they take?” I moaned.
“They opened all of the containers, poured everything onto the floor, on my bed, on the rest of the furniture.” Lucas laughed bitterly. “It was over a month’s supply they ruined. They also left a message on the bathroom mirror. You’re next was written in blood. Synthetic blood, that is,” he quickly corrected himself.
“Oh, Lucas,” I said in a distraught voice, “I’m so sorry.”
Lucas turned to me. “No,” he said seriously. “Don’t be sorry. If I had stayed at my house like I originally planned…well, who knows what would have happened. I might not be here.”
Impulsively, I reached out and squeezed Lucas’ hand. “I’m glad you’re okay,” I told him. “I know it sucks, but nothing else really matters.”
“I agree,” Lucas said solemnly. He squeezed my hand back, then turned his attention to the road. “I just didn’t think they could find me so quickly,” he added. “I really underestimated them.”
“I know you don’t like to talk about it,” I said, “but what are you going to do? Don’t you need blood? To survive,” I added, gulping.
“That’s what took me so long.” Lucas looked tense. “I had to call my, um, dealer, for lack of a better word.”
“Where’s the blood now?” I asked.
“I put it in storage. I spent all morning cleaning up the mess, then getting the blood and buying one of those fucking storage units,” Lucas swore.
“I’m glad you got more,” I whispered. I wanted to ask him what would happen if he didn’t take the synthetic stuff, but I didn’t dare. I had a feelin
g I wouldn’t want to know the answer. If all of the synthetic blood was gone, did that mean Lucas would have to start hunting humans again?
“What if they follow you?” I asked worriedly, pushing the thought of Lucas killing people out of my mind.
Lucas shrugged helplessly. “I’m not going on the run again. I just need to be better prepared.”
“How?”
“Sleep with one eye open and two stakes under my pillow.”
I couldn’t tell if Lucas was joking or not. I shuddered. “I can’t believe it’s come to this.”
Lucas pulled into the parking lot and stopped the car. He turned to me. “Please don’t worry about me, Rory,” he said seriously.
“How can I not worry!” I was exasperated.
“I’m going to find a way to stop them, once and for all, if it’s the last thing I do,” Lucas said grimly. “Just watch out for yourself. Don’t take any risks.”
“Risks? I don’t follow you.”
“Like walking outside alone at night,” Lucas said pointedly, referring to when he found me wondering around aimlessly after my colossal fight with Henry.
“I won’t,” I promised. If I can help it. I should have told Lucas about my blackout, but I couldn’t. Even if it meant I was putting myself in danger. I would get a hold of this, on my own.
Lucas pulled the hood of his black coat over his head. “I hate having to do things in the sunlight,” he muttered, getting out of the car.
The first place he had stopped was a large apartment complex a couple of miles from my house. From the outside, it looked like your typical high-rise apartments: stacked units spanning twenty or so floors.
We headed into the leasing office. “May I help you.”
I stifled a groan. Sitting behind the desk was that twit Bunny, the one from Henry’s party. She was filing her nails and hadn’t even bothered to look at us.
“I’d like to tour an apartment, please,” Lucas said politely.
Immortal After All (Vampire Hunter Book 3) Page 5
