“I wasn’t sure if I should tell you this, but Whitney doesn’t think he’s with Valerie anymore.”
Whitney was one of Noel’s old friends from Denali High and had been one of mine briefly between my car accident and transfer to West. A short friendship. But she had called me to report seeing Fane and Valerie lip-locked right after Valerie blackmailed me into breaking up with Fane.
I didn’t know which one of them I had been angrier at. Valerie for threatening me or Fane for moving on the moment I ended our relationship.
“Well, Whitney should get her facts straight,” I said. “She told me they were back together.”
“Cause they were,” Noel said. “For a day.”
Why would Valerie go to the trouble of pulling Fane and I apart only to hook up with him for one day?
Maybe Fane had realized his error and dumped her a second time. Lovely thought. One that would take some of the edge off St. Vomit’s Day. At this point, even the possibility that Valerie and Fane were history was enough for me.
5
Suck Buddy
I made it through the week without having to deal with Mike. On Friday morning there were no more seats beside me when Mike arrived in history class. I could sense him hustling to follow me out at the end of the period. Just as I felt him closing in, a girl called out, “Mike, wait up!”
His footsteps slowed, mine hastened, and I was in the clear. Hopefully Pretty Voice, whoever she was, asked Mike to the dance.
Special thanks went out to Mom for not keeping me lingering in front of school. That afternoon I saw her waiting in the pick-up lane when I walked out. Ever since I’d mentioned moving out, she’d been either on time or early.
Five hours later the sky had drained of color and we were back at school. I felt bad making Mom drive out here three times in one day, but she wasn’t exactly Noel’s biggest fan. She’d ask less questions if she thought I was going to a school dance. Even though she knew about vampires, she needed her illusions, one of which consisted of a daughter who did normal things like attend school dances.
That didn’t stop her from worrying. “But who do you know here?” she asked, chewing on her lower lip.
“I’ve met a few people,” I said.
“Well, you look beautiful, honey.”
“Thank you.”
I wore my hair down and had stained my lips in a blood red shade that could hold their own against Valerie’s. I wasn’t usually big on eye makeup, but tonight I’d outlined my eyes and put on mascara. I pushed my visor back up once I’d double-checked that I had no smudges around my eyes or lips.
“What time should I pick you up?” Mom asked.
“I’ll get a ride home. One of the guys I’m meeting mentioned going out for dessert afterwards, if that’s okay with you.”
Mom’s eyes narrowed. “Is this boy nice?”
“Very nice and very boring. All he talks about is college.”
“There’s nothing wrong with thinking about the future,” Mom said quickly.
At least my comment worked in taking the sting out of her voice.
A group of girls in short dresses walked past the car.
“Will you look at that,” she said. “Those girls are going to end up catching colds without a coat on. In this weather…” She shook her head.
I’d tried to walk out of the house without a jacket earlier, but Mom insisted I take her full-length coat. It looked too fancy on me, but then again there was no such thing as too fancy or too elegant at the palace.
I leaned over and kissed Mom on the cheek. “Thanks for driving me over…again.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’m happy too.”
“Don’t wait up,” I said after I exited the car.
“Don’t stay out too late,” she countered.
I gave her a little wave then turned and headed for the school’s double doors. Knowing her, she’d watch me until I safely entered the building. A guy in a tux held the door open for his date then ushered me in ahead of him.
“Thanks,” I said.
The students who had worn coats were hanging them up on the long metal coat racks that had been wheeled into the hallway outside the gym.
I swung around to the farthest set of double doors and peered out the glass into the parking lot. No sign of Mom’s car. No sign of Noel, either. I wasn’t particularly keen on hanging around the school in case Mike showed up.
I made my way across the parking lot. Cars poured in one after the other as though they were part of a Friday night funeral procession. With any luck, Noel would pull in before I reached the street.
She didn’t.
I paced the sidewalk along Hillcrest Drive until I heard a honk.
Noel pulled up alongside the curb, and I got inside her car.
“Sorry!” she said before I even closed the door behind me. “I didn’t notice the time.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
I pulled the “Bite Me” heart pendant out of my coat pocket and clasped it around my neck. I hadn’t wanted to wear it in front of Mom. She would have wanted to know where it came from, who gave it to me, why, and so on and so forth.
Noel looked over and smiled at me. “I’ve got mine on, too.”
Marcus didn’t live too far from West in downtown Anchorage. His condo sat about as close to the inlet as you could get.
I shucked off Mom’s coat and tossed it in the backseat of the car.
“You look nice,” Noel said, doing the same with her jacket.
“You look good yourself.” And she did in her little black dress. I held out my arm. “May I escort you inside?”
Noel grabbed my arm. “You may.”
We knocked on the carved wood door with its custom stained glass windows. A young man in a tuxedo ushered us inside.
“No coats, ladies?”
“We left them in the car,” I said.
The young man nodded once. “Please make yourselves comfortable and have a magnificent evening.”
Noel and I looked at one another. I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.
“Thank you,” Noel said.
“Joyeux Noel and Aurora Sky!”
It was impossible to miss Marcus in a living room full of black tuxes. He wore a pair of black trousers and a red silk shirt, half unbuttoned. Guests parted as he made his way through the living room to join us.
“Welcome, my black-haired beauties.”
Marcus kissed Noel’s cheeks and then mine. He eyed our pendants and said, “Very good.”
Marcus had the same heart pinned to his shirt.
“Thank you for inviting me,” I said.
“But of course.” Marcus had a voice as silky as his shirt. I didn’t feel particularly comfortable around him, but you couldn’t find a more hospitable host.
“You know where the drinks are,” he said, sweeping an arm toward the kitchen.
“Thank you,” Noel and I said in unison.
Marcus stepped in the way before I could follow Noel. He leaned forward, lips curving. “Try not to behave.”
I shivered involuntarily and Marcus chuckled before rejoining the guests inside his living room.
A young man dressed like the guy at the front door walked out of the kitchen with a tray of drinks as I walked in. At least Noel and I had the space to ourselves. I looked around the counters. Last time there had been a champagne fountain.
My eyes landed on a silver tray lined with shot glasses and filled with thick, red liquid.
My eyes widened. “Is that…”
“Blood,” Noel said.
I opened my mouth to speak, but she cut me off. “Don’t worry, it comes from the blood bank. There’s wine in the fridge or champagne if you prefer.”
“I think Aurora would prefer the blood.”
Goosebumps rose over my flesh at the sound of Fane’s voice. I turned slowly. I couldn’t stop myself from staring once I saw him. Fane wasn’t cute in the conventional sense. A lot of girls would prob
ably cross the road to avoid passing him on the street, but they didn’t know the way he kissed. The way his lips teased me until I was breathless. If he kissed that good I couldn’t begin to imagine him in bed. Actually, I could. And therein lay the problem.
“Hello, Fane,” I said cordially.
Noel looked between us then asked, “Have you seen Gavin?”
“He’s in the living room,” Fane said, not taking his eyes off me.
“Cool,” Noel said. “See you soon?”
And then she left me. Alone. With Fane.
His grin widened as Noel passed him on her way out of the kitchen.
“Alone at last,” he said, inching closer. “Don’t look so scared, Aurora. I’m the one who should be afraid.” Before I knew it, he was at my side. “Hunter,” he whispered inside my ear.
I took a step away from him. “I’m just here to have a good time, like everyone else.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Fane grabbed two shot glasses off the tray and handed one to me.
Without thinking, I grabbed the shot then scowled. “I don’t drink blood.”
Fane gave me a dubious look then tossed back his blood shot and set it on the counter with a clack. “Yes, you do,” he said, running a tongue across his lip.
I set the shot beside his empty one and glared. Now that he was closer I could smell cigarette smoke on him. He’d quit once for me. Back when we were together. Back when I thought he was human.
“Thanks for returning my scarf.”
“You’re not wearing it,” Fane said. He pushed my hair over my shoulders then sucked in a breath when he saw the bite marks on my neck.
Henry chose that moment to enter the kitchen.
“Geez, Fane! Get carried away?”
Fane’s back was to Henry, so the other vampire didn’t see Fane scowl. His expression changed almost instantly to one of smug satisfaction.
“You know me, I like the rough stuff.”
I felt my cheeks heat when Henry glanced back at me, unsure how to respond. I knew how he felt. I was utterly without words. Unlike Fane. The fiend.
“Speaking of which…Aurora, may I speak to you upstairs?” Fane asked.
“Upstairs?” I repeated. The room expanded as my eyes did.
“Yeah,” he said. “I need to talk to you in private.”
I nodded, once more speechless. My heart beat erratically as I followed Fane out of the kitchen.
“Hey,” Henry called.
When we turned around Henry held out two shots of blood to Fane.
“Why don’t you take a couple of these, Fane? Go easy on her.”
Fane’s upper lip, which was smaller than the lower one, curled when he smiled. “Thanks, bro,” he said. He downed the first shot in one gulp then lifted the second one in the air. “One for the road.”
With Fane’s free hand he slipped his fingers over my arm and steered me through the living room to the spiral staircase.
“What are you doing?” I whispered frantically.
Fane looked around the room. “Have to keep up appearances, don’t we?” he responded testily.
Fane knew that if we didn’t keep up the act of being together then eventually one of the vampires at these parties would want to bite me, and if they bit me, the gig was up. At least Fane didn’t want me dead. How romantic.
I nodded mutely and followed him up the custom iron and wood spiral staircase leading to Marcus’s many private guestrooms upstairs. Fane walked down the hall into the October room—a spacious quarter painted in various shades of orange. He pulled the silver bat dangling from the doorknob inside the room and moved it to the outer knob—Marcus’s clever “do not disturb” signal.
He didn’t bother turning on the overhead light. Candles blazed from all corners of the room. It smelled like orange peel and clove.
Once he’d shut the door, Fane held up the shot of blood. “Still going to pretend you don’t want this?”
“I don’t want it.”
Fane shrugged, but rather than down it he set it beside an orange pillar candle on the dresser. The blood flickered in the light.
“We’re alone now,” I said impatiently to mask my jangled nerves. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Who said anything about talking?” Fane walked over to the bed.
My breath caught in my throat as he ran a hand along the quilt while skirting the length of the bed to the headboard.
I swear every move he made was a deliberate attempt to unnerve me.
I expected Fane to sit on the bed, but he rested his back against the wall and folded his arms. “You have a lie to maintain, and I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Some reputation,” I said under my breath.
He smiled. I tried not to stare at his lips too long.
They puckered right before he began speaking. “How’s the new school?”
“Same shit, different faces.”
Fane leaned forward when he laughed. I felt my body relax as his did as though our minds were somehow hardwired together. “Are you staying out of trouble?”
“I’m West High’s model student. Early to class. Front row. Attentive.”
Fane nodded. “I’m sure that makes your mother happy.”
I shrugged and sat on the edge of the bed. The doorknob settled in my direct line of vision. I’d forgotten how easy it was to talk to him even after the whole vampire/hunter revelation and breakup. Easy didn’t exactly equal comfortable. I hadn’t yet formulated the words to ask if he and Valerie were together. It’s not the kind of thing that flowed naturally into a conversation.
“Have you made any new friends?” Fane asked carefully.
I couldn’t tell if that was Fane’s roundabout way of asking if I had a boyfriend.
“I don’t need friends. I need to graduate.” I turned and met his eye. “As long as we’re in private maybe you can confirm something for me.”
Might as well go for it.
Fane raised a brow. “And what’s that?”
“Are you with Valerie?”
I didn’t care how it sounded. I had to know.
“The only reason Valerie threw herself back at me was so she could ditch me a day later.” Fane chuckled. “I forgot what a hellcat she is.”
He said the last part a little too fondly for my liking. And I suppose Fane considered me a kitty in comparison. I don’t know why Dante and Fane perceived Valerie as the feisty one. I thought the news would relieve me, but now that I knew, it seemed irrelevant. If Valerie hadn’t dropped him, Fane would still be with her. That’s what mattered.
Fane honed in on my frown and grinned. “Don’t worry, she may have gotten the last word, but I got the last bite.”
“That’s enough,” I said, balling my hands into fists. “We’ve put in our time. Now if you’ll excuse me.” I stormed toward the door.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Against my better judgment, I stopped and followed the direction of Fane’s eyes to the shot of blood on the dresser.
One sip. What harm would it do? I could taste blood, unlike food. Not that blood tasted particularly fantastic. It’s the way it made me feel: my whole body humming to life, radiating warmth, all my senses fully engaged.
Fane took advantage of my hesitation. He fetched the shot and lifted it between me and the door.
“I’m leaving now,” I said.
I couldn’t blame Fane for not taking me seriously when I did nothing to push past him.
His voice dropped. “I know all about the cravings. I know about the unbearable thirst that can only be quenched with blood.” He stepped closer. “I know you think about it all the time, like a lover you can’t get enough of.”
I closed my eyes and shuddered. “Stop,” I rasped.
Fane chuckled softly.
I cracked my eyes open enough to see him throw back the shot, but he didn’t swallow. He leaned forward. Even knowing both the blood and his kiss were off limits, I leaned
in. His lips curved up as they closed in on mine.
A knock at the door jolted me back to my senses. My body jerked. Fane swallowed the blood and cursed.
“Aurora?” a voiced said from the other side.
My heart momentarily stopped. It couldn’t be, but even from the few conversations we’d had, I recognized Mike’s voice.
6
Party Crasher
Fane opened the door halfway, folding his arms across his chest as he leaned against the frame. “Can we help you?”
I tried to regain my composure.
Mike stood in the hallway trying to look over Fane’s shoulder. He smiled when he saw me. “Hey.”
“Apparently you have made friends,” Fane said sardonically.
I didn’t respond. I had a bigger problem on my hands. “Mike, what are you doing here?”
Before he could answer, Fane jumped in. “Mike, is it?” I couldn’t see his expression with his back to my face, but there wasn’t anything friendly in his tone. “You see this here ornament on the doorknob?”
Mike glanced down. “Yeah.”
“When the bat’s in flight, we’re getting down tonight—if you know what I mean.”
I pushed past Fane. “That’s not what it means,” I said. “Come on, Mike. We can talk downstairs. Fane, I’ll see you later.”
Fane stretched in the doorframe. “Got some spare Trojans burning a hole inside your pocket?”
I whipped around and scowled at Fane so hard my jaw ached. The only thing burning was my face from rage and humiliation…a lethal combination. I flipped him off right before I grabbed Mike’s arm and steered him down the hall. It took a bit of pulling—he kept staring into open rooms at the statues and other curiosities decorating the palace.
“Sorry, Aurora, I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”
“There was nothing to interrupt. I was just leaving when you knocked.”
Mike grinned. “Oh? That’s good. Who was that guy?”
“Mike,” I said, stopping at the railing beside the spiral staircase. “What are you doing here? How did you even find this place?”
Mike grinned. “I have a little confession to make. I followed you here.”
Northern Bites (Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter, Vol. 2) Page 5
