Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2)

by Jefford, Nikki

  I gave Dante a pointed look. “It does look like we’re on a date, though.”

  Dante planted both hands on the tabletop. “You think this is me on a date?”

  I lowered my forehead in confusion.

  Dante also lowered his head and gave me a hooded look. Maybe it was supposed to be smoldering. I laughed, thinking he was joking around again, but his lips didn’t even twitch. He kept staring.

  “Has anyone ever told you that you have the most luscious lips?” Dante reached for my hand.

  “What are you doing?” I asked in alarm when he stroked my wrist.

  “Your skin is so soft.” There was nothing playful about Dante’s tone or the way he looked at me. “I’d like to feel your skin naked against mine.”

  “Hey!” I said, snatching my hand back.

  Dante leaned back, smiling. “I bet your heart’s beating a little faster.”

  “Only because you’re freaking me out.”

  I broke off a piece of breadstick and threw it at him.

  Dante laughed. He picked up the piece of bread where it bounced onto the table and lifted it to his lips. I thought he’d pop it in his mouth, but at the last second he chucked it back at me.

  I threw it back. Dante reached for the plate and threw a whole breadstick at me.

  I laughed. I felt much more comfortable with immature Dante rather than flirty, unsettling Dante. Ashley glared at our table. I’d momentarily forgotten about her.

  I nodded in Ashley’s direction. “Christine is so dropping you.”

  “Yeah,” Dante said with a shrug. “Probably.”

  3

  You’re Invited

  Back inside the Jeep, Dante had his iPod blasting George Michael’s “Outside.” He swayed side-to-side while driving, singing, and tapping on the steering wheel. Dante joined George, singing about how he was done with the sofa, hall, and kitchen table.

  I rolled my eyes when he leaned towards me while singing about taking things outside.

  I cleared my throat. “Speaking of outside...mind keeping your eyes on the road?”

  Dante sang back in return.

  God, I swear he had a playlist titled “Songs for Annoying Aurora.”

  “Wanna come over?”

  It took me a moment to register that Dante was asking a real question, not singing lyrics. I looked sideways at him, momentarily speechless.

  “I’ll let you touch my claw.” Dante glanced down.

  I burst out laughing. “You are such a dork.”

  A dangerous dork. The whole ‘naked skin against mine’ comment still concerned me.

  “I should get home before my mom starts to worry.”

  Doubtful. Every day after school she ran a little later than the previous one. Yesterday she forgot to pick me up entirely. Well, not exactly forgot so much as slept through the afternoon until my phone call woke her up.

  While I’d gotten over my car phobia for the most part, I hadn’t overcome my driving phobia. Too bad I didn’t live in a city with a cool underground metro system.

  “Oh, right,” Dante said, turning down the music. “How is Mrs. Sky? Still making those delicious cookies?”

  More like eating them straight from the manufacturer’s box.

  “She’s okay. She just misses my dad. He’s not around much.”

  Or ever. I had confided in Fane, but I didn’t feel like telling Dante my dad had taken off. Dante wasn’t capable of taking anything seriously. It went against his nature.

  “At least she’s got you for company.”

  “Not for long.”

  Dante glanced sideways at me. “No?”

  “As soon as I graduate I’m moving into my own place.”

  “Yep, yep,” he said, nodding. “That’s the way to go. I know your mom will miss you, but it’s not like you’re leaving the state.”

  Not anymore. Before my car wreck, I’d actually made it into Notre Dame, my college of choice. Paradise lost.

  The traffic light ahead turned yellow. Dante punched the gas and flew through the intersection.

  I bit my tongue. If I screamed it would only encourage him.

  “A place of your own is a great idea,” he said, easing up on the gas pedal. “In our line of work we get home at all times of the night. Your mom’s going to have gray hair before she’s fifty if she’s always staying up waiting for you to get home safely.”

  And maybe dad would return if I wasn’t there. He and Mom could work things out, get back to normal. She needed someone and that someone wasn’t me. Even with Notre Dame out of the picture, I craved my own life and privacy.

  “Get some rest, Sky,” Dante said when he pulled up to my house.

  “Good luck on your term paper,” I said.

  As soon as I shut the passenger door, Dante backed out of the driveway and roared down the street.

  I crossed the road to our mailbox to collect the mail.

  There was a red padded envelope and a grocery bag stuffed inside the mailbox. I opened the bag first and breathed deep. Inside, folded neatly, was my red scarf—the one Renard had claimed as a trophy after kidnapping me.

  It had to be from Fane. He’d been the one to dispose of Renard’s body at the dump. I pulled it out slowly and let it unravel. In the dark the scarf looked crimson.

  What did this mean?

  It had to be a message of some sort. Most likely Fane’s way of saying we were finished for good.

  My fingers tightened into a fist around the scarf. I looked up the hill toward the woods. Without thinking, I headed toward the path leading into the thicket. Ours was the last house on the hill before a dense patch of forest between us and the next neighborhood.

  The spruce trees blocked out the streetlights, but I’d walked through these woods enough times to know them by heart.

  The upside of anger is it makes you unafraid.

  I inhaled the frosty air, practically panting as I rushed through the woods searching the shadows for a silhouette of a man.

  The dry snow crunched beneath my tennis shoes.

  I stopped midway through the forest and yelled, “Fane!”

  After my voice faded in the night, I listened. No answer. I hadn’t expected but rather hoped for one.

  Turn around, Aurora. Go home. Standing alone in the woods in the middle of the night wasn’t one of my brightest ideas. I still had my phobias, but death wasn’t high on the list. Half the time I felt like the walking dead. I wondered if this was how vampires felt, like they’d lost their humanity and could never get it back. The scientists had practically turned me into a vampire. Only a monthly shot of liquid blue prevented that from happening. Still, the side effects were enough to get a taste of what it felt like to be undead.

  I trudged back home. I didn’t have far to go.

  All the lights were off, but the living room walls flashed with the light from the TV. Mom had The Vampire Diaries on. Yeah, seriously. Last week she’d finished reading the Twilight Saga. She’d downloaded the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood series but said it was too sexual for her taste. Naturally, I wanted to check the books out.

  She seemed to think she was on some kind of research mission.

  In her fragile state, I didn’t want to burst her bubble that vampires neither sparkled nor glamored impressionable young ladies into submission. Anyway, it would probably help ease me out of the house if she had the romanticized version of what I had to deal with.

  “Hey, Mom.”

  Her head bobbed around before snatching the remote control. Damon’s face froze with his mouth opened wide, eyes closed. I nearly snorted.

  “Hi, honey.” She swiveled her recliner around with her slippered feet. She had gray sweatpants on beneath her blue bathrobe.

  She sounded remotely cheerful. She always did when she watched her shows.

  Her smile dropped when she saw the red scarf in my hand.

  “Your scarf,” she said, numbly.

  I’d forgotten about it in my hand. T
o my mother it represented all the negative changes in our lives, including Dad’s departure.

  “Oh right,” I said, stuffing it back inside the plastic sack. “I found it.”

  “I like the blue one better,” Mom said, nodding at my neck. “It’s much prettier.”

  “Not as warm, though.”

  “What’s that?” she asked, staring at the thick, red envelope in my other hand.

  I looked at it for the first time in the light. The package was addressed to me, but there wasn’t a return label.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s an early Valentine’s gift from a secret admirer.”

  “Someone from West?” Mom asked.

  Yeah right, like I was around school enough for anyone to notice me. This time, I really did snort.

  “Beats me. Melcher wants me to stay home the rest of the week, so it’s not like I’ll be able to find out.”

  Mom nodded absently. Her eyes were already back on the paused screen.

  “Well, didn’t mean to interrupt your show.” I turned to leave. “Dante says hi, by the way.”

  She smiled. “You should invite him over for dinner again.”

  “Maybe I would if you put some clothes on,” I answered before I could stop myself.

  Her eyes narrowed. She’d developed a bit of an attitude over the past couple weeks.

  “I haven’t been feeling well, Aurora.”

  I wasn’t in the mood for an argument. “I’ll ask Dante what his schedule’s like the next time I see him. He said he misses your cookies,” I added.

  She smiled again. “You should have let me know you were seeing him today. I would have made a batch.”

  “Next time. Good night, Mom. Don’t stay up too late.”

  Damon resumed speaking before I made it through the kitchen.

  I shut myself inside my room, tossing the sack with my scarf onto the bed. I tore open the padded envelope, pulling out the heaviest object first, something small wrapped in red tissue paper. Inside, I found a silver heart attached to a red ribbon choker. The words “Bite Me” were engraved in the center of the heart. I set it aside and dumped the rest of the contents onto my bedspread. Small sets of wrapped candy tumbled out. There were gummy lips, candy hearts, lollipops, and chocolate hearts wrapped in red foil. It was like Cupid’s version of Halloween.

  A red envelope had tumbled out with the sweets. I tore it open and smiled when I saw the invitation. If one thing could be said for Marcus, the vamp knew how to throw a party.

  I opened the tiny bag of gummy lips and began chewing on a piece as I read over the invitation. LOVE BITES it announced. No kidding. The “o” in love was a red heart missing a chunk out of the right corner.

  LOVE BITES

  COCKTAIL PARTY

  FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15TH

  DUSK

  AT THE PALACE

  HOSTED BY MARCUS

  WEAR RED OR BLACK

  I’d only been to the palace once, but Marcus said I was welcome back anytime. Guess he meant it.

  I wondered if Fane was going.

  If he brought Valerie I’d rather he didn’t.

  I put the candy and choker back inside the padded envelope and stuck it, along with the invitation, on my desk then took a shower.

  I could still hear the TV downstairs after I finished blow drying my hair. I left my door open a crack. I wasn’t big on closed spaces after my initiation with the deranged rabies vampire. I discarded the plastic sack after taking out my scarf. I wrapped it gently around my neck before crawling under my bedcovers. That night I managed to sleep without having any nightmares.

  My internal clock woke me up at the usual ungodly hour of five. I had to get up extra early with my new school being across town. Even though I could have lain in bed half the day—not like Mom would notice—I flipped my covers back and put on a pair of long underwear underneath my sweat pants.

  I grabbed my iPod off my desk, along with another piece of gummy lips, then walked carefully down the stairs to the entryway.

  I did some quick stretches then stepped out into the bitter freeze. Oh yes, I was awake now.

  I had started jogging after Renard and his cohorts abducted and attacked me. Morning was my favorite time to run. It’s the only time when I felt like there was only me, existing in a world of my own while the rest of humanity slept.

  “Believe” from the Run Lola Run soundtrack filled my ears as soon as I hit play on my iPod. I ran up the hill to the woods. My feet flew over the forest floor. In no time I reached the neighborhood on the other side and raced past houses with lights beginning to come on as people roused themselves out of bed to prepare for the daily grind.

  My mind played over the mission from the evening before and the lack of control I’d felt when the vampires pushed me back and forth. I was tired of getting smacked around.

  I ran faster.

  Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You” started up. I hit skip. The next song, “Holding Out For A Hero” by Bonnie Tyler wasn’t much better. I really needed to sit down at my laptop and update my playlist.

  I jogged in place and scanned my running playlist, selected “You’re Going Down” by Sick Puppies, and sprinted the rest of the way home.

  I roused my mom out of bed early Monday morning. I wanted time to turn my doctor’s note into the office.

  I spent all four morning classes at the front of my classrooms, eyes on the teacher or board. No more skipping. No more fighting. No more Fane.

  I didn’t know anyone in any of my classes except for Noel in fifth period film elective. Every class, I arrived before her. She was always running late because fifth period followed lunch, and Noel spent lunch with Henry and Gavin. Whatever trepidation she’d felt leaving behind her friends Hope and Whitney at Denali High School were quickly dispelled by spending as many school hours as she could with the suave and sexy vampire duo.

  I had an open invitation to eat lunch with them, but I didn’t feel like sitting at their crowded table in the cafeteria. I spent lunch in a quiet, empty classroom, chewing my food while getting my homework done.

  Today I tapped my foot anxiously, hoping Noel wouldn’t walk in just as the warning bell binged. As if on cue, she strode into class. Her shiny black hair looked good with a white turtleneck instead of her usual head-to-toe black. It’s as though Noel had taken on a new persona at West. Her usual Goth garb had been replaced by blue jeans and casual dresses. She smiled more. It was nice to see after how distressed she’d been transferring mid-year. Melcher had made her switch schools. Apparently he didn’t need two informants in one place. At least, as a junior, Noel had time to get to know her classmates before graduation.

  “Hi,” I said when Noel took her seat beside me.

  “Hey.” She grinned from ear to ear.

  “How was lunch?”

  She smiled bigger. “Gavin entertained us by recounting his first, and subsequently last, snowshoeing experience.”

  Yeah, hard to picture. Gavin looked more like an indoor than an outdoor vampire. “So what did I miss last week?”

  “We watched Harold and Maude.”

  I shook my head. “Never heard of it.” Didn’t surprise me. Mrs. Campbell rarely picked movies from the twenty-first century. Film class felt a lot like English with assignments centered on old classics.

  “It was a cute show,” Noel said. “It’s about this boy who is obsessed with death and then he meets this old woman and they start dating.”

  I grunted; not the most ladylike sound. Young person dating someone ancient. How appropriate. Too bad I missed it. I’d just have to rent it from the video store. Then again, I might run into Fane and his companion Joss: lover of foreign films and black tea—hater of humankind.

  “Did you receive an invitation to Marcus’s Valentine’s party?” Noel asked.

  “Yeah, I ate all the candy.”

  Noel laughed.

  “Are you going?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “It’
s not as though I have a hot date that night…or any night.”

  “This party is going to be a hundred times better than a date.”

  “Melcher did tell us to take the rest of the month off, though I’m sure this isn’t what he had in mind.”

  “Melcher knows about Marcus,” Noel said, shocking me speechless.

  The final bell rang as I shouted, “What?”

  Noel looked from Mrs. Campbell to me and shook her head.

  Mrs. Campbell was the kind of teacher who started the moment the bell stopped and not a second later. She loved film, which made her class one of my favorites. Teachers with a passion for their subject tended to make a lasting impression.

  Today I spent the period tapping my foot under my desk and my pen on top. If Melcher knew about Marcus wasn’t he, and every vampire who fraternized with him, in danger? What if the next assignment involved going to one of his parties and poisoning guests? Marcus, Henry, and Gavin were all harmless. The thought of tricking them into biting me and then watching as they convulsed on the floor sickened me. There’s no way I could stick a knife in their hearts.

  How could Noel say such a thing so calmly? She was better at this undercover thing than I gave her credit for. I could have sworn she had a thing for Gavin and Henry and even Marcus, despite his same sex predilection.

  Once class ended, Noel and I scooted out of our seats. We walked out side by side. Once we were in the hallway, Noel leaned into me, speaking quickly.

  “One of my first assignments as an informant was to work my way into Marcus’s crowd. Attending his parties is one of my ongoing duties.”

  “So you’re spying?” I could feel my mouth gaping open.

  “I’m keeping an eye on things.”

  “What about Marcus, Henry, and Gavin? Are they targets?”

  Noel shot me a stern look. “Of course not. They’re harmless.”

  My eyes inadvertently lingered on Noel’s neck. Beneath her turtle neck I knew she had her own clean bites. Gavin and Henry were much more gentlemanly, using teeth specifically sharpened to puncture a person’s skin and start the flow of blood without chewing through flesh to the vein.