by Vremont, Ann
Behind the principal's back, Paul offered a sneering eye roll.
I brushed Mrs. Valdez's false concern and her hand away and moved toward the door. "You can threaten me all you want, I'm not staying alone in the room with him. And if you try to punish me for not playing nice and saving you a headache, you'll have to answer to Officer Gutierrez, family or not."
"Certainly, I wasn't threatening you, Lee." She tried to smile. I could see sweat breaking out in fat drops across her forehead.
"So I can go back to class?" It wasn't really a question, I was already backing out of the room.
"Of course."
Paul rose, but Mrs. Valdez, her back to him, unintentionally blocked the doorway, leaving him to call out over her shoulder, "I'll be seeing you, Lee."
"Only at your funeral, rat fucker." I whispered the promise as I passed through the office and back into the corridor.
***
I was still livid at lunch. I sat at a table waiting for Chris, my hand balled in a fist in front of my mouth because my blood fangs felt twice as long as usual. Sensing something was wrong, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and touched his head gently against mine.
"What's up?"
"Paul showed up wanting to take me home." The words were garbled but with my hand in front of my mouth, Chris didn't realize why.
"Your step-dad?"
I shrugged, my brows knitting together to correct his mistake.
"I mean...yeah, uh, sorry." He smiled sheepishly and gave me a one-armed hug. "But he can't, right?"
"No, he can't," I agreed. His little grin and strong arm around me eased some of my tension and I felt my fangs retract a little. "At eighteen, I'm beyond his reach."
"Which means..." he stopped to softly rub the side of my cheek with his knuckle. "...that was the last chance that sleaze had to harass you. Next time you'll be free to punch him in the face or, better yet, let me do it."
He nuzzled my ear. "It's going to be really hard dancing with you tonight with your hand up like that."
I dropped my fist down to my lap and smiled at him, my fangs fully retracted. "It's hard to stay upset when you're around."
This time he kissed just below my ear. "I'm working on making it impossible, Rapunzel."
Feeling my cheeks warm in a blush, I buried my face against his neck. He smelled like spiced pomegranate. I pressed my lips to his throat, forgetting where we were and licking the pale line of a vein. His skin temperature spiked immediately and he tucked his head towards me, his tongue teasing the side of my mouth.
I could hear the lunch monitor clucking at us from five tables away and Chris pulled back.
"I'm pretty sure Docherty will kick me out of class if I go in sporting giant wood," he joked.
"So you want me to stop?" I looked up at him, coy and hungry.
"For just a little bit." He kissed my temple while he threaded his fingers through mine. Holding my hand like that, his thumb caressed my palm as he stared into my eyes.
I nodded. "So, what time are you picking me up?"
"Seven. Doors open at seven thirty." He wrapped his arms around me and hid his face in my hair. "Do you turn into a pumpkin at ten, again?"
I laughed lightly. "My guardian cop gave me until midnight."
"Same calling plan?"
"No, just when we leave the dance." I shrugged. "I'm almost completely off the leash tonight." The idea that I didn't have to check in bothered me. I'd be naive to think the danger had completely passed and Danny was too good a cop to think it was over with Oscar. But he knew there would be hotel security at the dance and chaperones.
"Well, I'm glad." He kissed me as the first bell announcing the end of lunch rang.
"Yeah," I smiled, standing up and grabbing my bag. The smile felt a little stiff and I broadened it, hoping as Chris walked me to my next class that he hadn't noticed.
There was no sign that he had, then or during final hour. Everyone had heard that Ms. Fields sent her seniors off on the last day with tins of peanut butter fudge and, for a change, all of the students showed up. There were short notes on strips of paper in the tin, like fortune cookies. She gave me my tin last. I unrolled the piece of paper to find one word.
Survivor.
I sucked air in, successfully fighting back the blood tears that were threatening to spill. "Thank you."
She touched my cheek, smiling sadly as she did so. "You don't have to thank anyone, Lee."
I shook my head, still holding my tears back. I had her, Chris and Danny. "Thank you," I whispered again as she moved back into the crowd of students and I felt Chris's arm circle my waist.
High school ended for the last time a few minutes later. Chris walked me to the front door, stopping short of going out with me. He pulled me to the side of the hall. His hands on my hips, he held me close. I could hear his pulse, faster than usual. That "giant wood" he had joked about at lunch was pressed against my lower stomach.
I smiled at him, trying to quell the effects his body was having on mine. "You're breathing a little hard there, Kennedy."
He didn't smile back, just gulped in air. "I'm thinking about you...about tonight."
"Good." I gave a little forward nudge against him and his hands gripped my hips tighter. "Because we've got a problem if you're thinking about your coach."
He dipped his head until his face was against my neck. I heard him breathe deeply, felt the rush of warm air against my skin. "I'm thinking of how beautiful you're going to look."
Gently, he bit me.
"Danny's going to see you and realize once and for all what a fucking idiot he's been."
I shook my head even though I knew a part of me wished it was true. I'd taken Danny's blood twice, had spent nights walking alone through his memories. There was nothing more intimate than that. I didn't have to wonder what kind of man he really was. I knew from the blood - just as I knew Oscar from his blood.
I felt the slow drawing down of my blood fangs. With them came the desire to taste Chris, to know him in a way only the blood would let me. I bit at my lip instead. Before I could pull back, Chris kissed me. His tongue touched my lips and, without thinking, I opened to him, my arms snaking up around his broad shoulders. It was my own blood I was tasting, but it was on him - a few drops on his tongue, on his lips.
It fueled my hunger for him. Our bodies pressed hard against one another. My breasts and nipples were sore from need and I wanted badly to stand on tiptoe, to put my mound in line with his cock - there in the hall with the last of our classmates filing out the front door. I wanted to sink my fangs into his neck.
The sharp voice of Mrs. Valdez next to us was like ice water.
"I believe Officer Gutierrez is waiting outside for you, Lee." She was standing in front of the open doors, looking out instead of at Chris and me. She raised her hand in greeting. "Yes, that's him."
Chris tensed - the kiss, my body's response to him, seemingly forgotten at the mention of Danny.
"I'll see you in a couple of hours," I reminded Chris, ignoring Mrs. Valdez to give him a parting kiss on the cheek.
***
After an almost wordless drive home with Danny, I had three hours to get ready. I spent the first hour in the tub, soaking and listening to the sounds of Danny moving through the house. He seemed restless, going in and out of his office and the garage. I tried hard not to wonder whether he was rehearsing his good-bye Lee speech.
I came out of the water like a raisin and spent another twenty minutes blow drying my hair. In my panties and bra, with the lace camisole on, I put on a light coating of make-up. I had printed out a couple of pictures of Victorian-era hairstyles and managed a messy approximation of one, loose tendrils escaping the updo to curl around my face and neck.
I finished dressing, fussed in front of the bedroom mirror with the way the jacket fell. On the dresser in front of me was the necklace with its tier of beads and garnet cross. It was a perfect match for the outfit. I traced a finger along one side of the
crucifix but couldn't bring myself to put it on.
With forty minutes still left, Danny knocked on the bedroom door. I had a second to think that he shouldn't need to knock on his own bedroom door and then told him it was open. He came into the center of the room, stopping just a few feet from me.
"Were you going to have any dinner before you go?"
"They'll have stuff. Boston's got cucumber sandwiches and other totally weird things on the menu."
He was only half listening, his gaze resting on the necklace. At that moment, I felt as guilty not wearing it as I would have felt dancing with Chris with it on. I stepped past him, moving out of the room. Glancing behind me, I saw the reflection of his hand reaching out to reposition the pendant.
I moved around the front room and then into the kitchen, looking for something to busy myself with. I poured myself a glass of water and leaned against the counter as I slowly drank it. I could hear that Danny had left the bedroom and was back in his office, his desktop thrumming with the strain of whatever he was working on. I watched the minutes tick down, almost sprinting for the front door when I heard the Mustang rumble to a halt outside.
Danny met me in the front room, lightly catching me by the wrist at the same time Chris knocked at the front door. I turned to Danny, noticed the brief caress of his gaze but pretended that I hadn't.
He stepped in, close to me, and spoke lowly. "You can make him wait a second."
I stood very still, trying to read him - his breathing, his pulse rate, the diameter of his pupils. It was like trying to read a blank slate. I might as well have been standing in front of a Buddhist monk.
He leaned forward, his lips pressing just at the corner of my mouth. His heart rate didn't change. Neither did his breathing. I watched him pull back slowly, his eyes lifting to meet mine.
"What are you thinking?" I whispered.
He shook his head, blinked away the question. "We'll talk tomorrow."
Chris knocked again before I could ask Danny what he meant.
"That's long enough, don't you think?" He nodded at the door but his hand still lightly circled my wrist.
"Right." I didn't move. My mind was cycling through possibilities. If he leaned forward again, if he kissed me a second time...
Only he didn't. He let go of my wrist and took a few steps backward. I tried to mask my confusion with a weak smile and then turned on my heels and answered the door.
Chris greeted me with a devastating grin. He had dressed closer along the Goth spectrum of the night's theme than the Victoriana. His brows were darkened and a rich brown ringed his hazel eyes, the thick lashes elongated with two coats of mascara. His shirt was a dark green tweed with a black velvet collar standing up to frame the bottom of his face and strong jaw bone. The collar was an open vee, showing the sculpted lines of his upper chest. Crushed velvet pants colored a deep chocolate hugged his lower body. My stomach did a little flip looking at him.
I quickly stepped onto the entry patio and pulled the door shut behind me. "Boston's going to faint when you walk in."
Unlike with Danny, there was no wondering what Chris thought. His hands fell on my hips and he dipped his head to nibble just beneath my bottom lip, the small bites calculated to avoid smearing my lipstick while doing maximum damage to my self control.
"There's only one girl I want to make faint," he assured me. His hands moved up under my jacket to grip my waist. "You look amazing."
"That makes us a matched pair."
Still staring at me, Chris walked me to the car and tucked me into the Mustang's front passenger seat. On the dashboard was a small black box with a black satin ribbon tied around it.
Smiling at Chris, I directed my gaze at the box. "For me?"
"Yes, but not yet." He took the box and tucked it on the other side of him where I couldn't reach it.
Leaning as far as my seatbelt would allow, I rested my head on his shoulder and placed my palm flat against his firm stomach. "When?"
"At the dance - before we go in." He covered my hand with his, lightly stroking my skin with his thumb as he drove.
The hotel was out in Avondale, near the spring training camps for the baseball teams. Driving west, we could see the sun just beginning to set over the valley. At the hotel, Chris parked the car facing towards the sunset and we just sat for a few minutes, holding hands.
When the sun had cleared the horizon, he got out of the car, grabbing the gift box and coming around my side to open the door. There were fountains in front of the hotel and he led me over to the one that was farthest from the small line of our classmates waiting to get into the banquet hall.
Standing on the far side of the fountain, he held the box out on his open palm. I untied the silk ribbon so that its ends trailed over his fingers, and then I lifted the lid. The first thing I saw was more ribbon - a dark red velvet that matched my jacket. I pulled it slowly from the box to find that it was a ribbon necklace. Dangling from it was a small bird's skull, its bones bleached white and its beak dipped in a black enamel that glittered like polished stone.
Chris placed the box on the fountain's edge and took the red velvet ribbon and its pendant from me. He moved behind me, where he could fasten the necklace. When it was in place, he remained standing there, his body pressed against my back.
Instead of his usually clean shaven face, he had let the hair grow this week - only to carefully trim it before the dance, giving him a rough brush of bristles down along his jaw and a goatee that was a painful match to Danny's. I felt him push aside my jacket collar and then his mouth was against my neck, his breath warm and that little swatch of hair teasing exactly as he had planned it.
His hand reached around the front to lightly stroke the pendant. "I thought it suited you. Is it okay?"
I nodded, little shivers of pleasure shimmying across the surface of my skin from the touch of his lips and the hard press of him against my backside. "It's beautiful."
"It's you, really. What you've seen. What you've survived." He sucked my earlobe into his mouth and my knees started a slow collapse. "You inspire me, Rapunzel."
Shaking, I turned in his arms and placed my hands against his chest.
"What's wrong?" He kissed my mouth, cupped my face between his hands and kissed me again.
Danny's words echoed through my mind.
We'll talk tomorrow.
"Nothing," I lied. I was close to crying and I buried by face against his shoulder. Tomorrow, Danny might tell me to walk, and I would deal with his pushing me away. It would be okay. The constant tugging would be at an end and I'd be free to love Chris completely. But, if tomorrow Danny said, "stay," if he wanted to move out of the spare bedroom and back into my bed? I'd still love Chris, too. I realized that now.
"Shhh..." Chris stroked my hair. "Don't think beyond tonight, Lee. Promise?"
I nodded and hugged him tighter. "Can we go inside?"
***
We stopped by the car long enough for him to tuck the gift box on the dash and then we entered the hotel. In the ballroom, he led me straight to the area roped off as the dance floor.
He pulled me close in a slow dance. "My arms go weak when they can't hold you."
"Damn, Kennedy, you're smooth." I rested my head against his shoulder as we danced and closed my eyes.
"Not everywhere." He brushed his bottom lip against my throat, lightly rubbing the bristles against my skin.
I sighed, letting the sensation slow crawl down my back, over my breasts and tightening stomach until it slid like a finger between my thighs and stayed there. We danced, song after song until I completely lost track of time. We didn't break to eat or drink or respond to our friends with more than a smile before we turned back to each other. Pressed so close to him, I remembered the night at the skating rink, out in the parking lot, in his car. I pictured our bodies in the greenhouse, my coming and calling his name.
"You keep moving like that, I don't know what I'm gonna do," he whispered in my ear.
I could feel him hard against me, his breathing and heart beat erratic and advertising his arousal. Blood rose to my cheeks and I eased away to put a little air between us. I whispered back, "Sorry. It just feels..."
"So right," he finished for me.
"Yeah." Closing my eyes, I pressed my cheek against his, still careful to keep space between our bodies. Guilt crept through me, slowly stiffening my limbs as I thought about how perfect it felt.
He rubbed his cheek against mine. "I'm losing you again."
I offered an apologetic sigh. "How'd you get so perceptive?"
"Easy." He gave a dry laugh and pulled me close again. "Five sets of foster parents, eight case workers. You learn to read people fast."
My arms were around his shoulders and I tightened them in a hug. "I can't believe I never knew that. You never said anything before that afternoon in the greenhouse."
"Just trying to keep up the pretense of being all-American." He tucked a strand that had escaped my messy up-do back behind my ear. "And you had your own worries." He tilted his head and studied my face. "You still do..."
I tried to brush the idea away with an eye roll but he wouldn't let me.
"Like where you will be living next week..."
I shrugged. I felt like Danny had made a decision, I just had no clue what the hell it was. He seemed to be at peace with it, but that told me nothing. Or it told me something I didn't want to listen to - if he wanted me to stay and develop our relationship beyond his role as my self-appointed guardian, why had he let me go off with Chris tonight? There was more than one couple from school that had booked a room at the hotel. I could tell from the enticing smells of youthful lust which ones had already snuck up to those rooms in between dances. In that light, it could hardly bode well for my chances with Danny.
"You can stop wondering." Chris stiffened as soon as the last word left his mouth, like he was bracing himself against something.
I looked at him, tried to read his expression.
"I'm saying..." He stopped, swallowed hard and glanced away for a second. "I've got money saved up and Tedna already told me they needed my room for twins they're going to foster."
It hurt to watch his face, to see the pain rise up and cloud his handsome features at the way his foster parents were ruthlessly pushing him aside. I still didn't know why, beyond the lost scholarship, which he still hadn't admitted to.
