Hunting Season (Aurora Sky

by Nikki Jefford

  “Of course not.”

  Dante breathed a sigh of relief. “I suppose I can hang tight a little longer, though the accommodations leave something to be desired.”

  “Where is she keeping you?” I asked, eager to move away from the subject of Dante’s dog.

  “In a basement with a vampire.”

  Oh god, if Gavin was locked up with someone he thought to be human…

  “He hasn’t tried to…”

  “She gives him plenty of blood,” Dante said. “The vamp’s not interested in me, anyway, says this is what he gets for going out with Valerie. Is he a target?”

  “No, but he and Valerie are going out.”

  “The girl said she stabbed Valerie, and she’d do the same to anyone who didn’t do what she wants.”

  “Melcher said Valerie’s going to be fine,” I said.

  “And you? Are you all right?”

  I balled up my toes inside my sneakers.

  “I just want to get this over with and get you back,” I said, regretting my word choice as soon as I finished speaking.

  I wanted to get Dante back safe and sound, not back, back—as in back together. Not that we’d been together, though Dante had tried and I’d never gotten a chance to set him straight.

  My shoulders hunched into my neck. Hopefully Fane knew what I meant. I turned and found him staring at me steadily, expression unreadable. I cleared my throat.

  “I want to help you,” Dante said, “But the she-vamp won’t let me out.”

  “I’ll get Jared.”

  “You need me,” Dante said.

  “I’ve got help.”

  The sound of a door creaked open on Dante’s end. He sighed.

  “Vampire Hitler wants the phone back.”

  “Just hang tight, Dante,” I said quickly. “We’ll have you out of there in no time.”

  God, I sounded cheesy. That’s what bad circumstances did to speech—reduced words to lace covered bull crap full of holes.

  Dante didn’t say “bye.” The next words I heard were Giselle’s from afar.

  “Set the phone on the middle stair and back away.”

  The speaker picked up light movement before Giselle spoke into my ear.

  “Are you close to securing Jared?”

  “This weekend,” I answered.

  “Good.”

  “I want you to release Dante once we get him.”

  “That wasn’t the deal,” Giselle said.

  “I need Dante’s help to trap Melcher.” Heck, I’d probably need a whole army of hunters to get Melcher.

  I didn’t like the way Giselle played the game, but at least we had a shared interest in the end results.

  The line went quiet a moment.

  Finally Giselle said, “I’ll think about it.”

  That answer gave me about as much hope as a “maybe.” I’d take it.

  “And can you please give Dante some real food?”

  “Unnecessary,” Giselle said. “He’s a vampire.”

  This was true, but Dante didn’t know it.

  “He likes to eat,” I said.

  “I’ll think about it,” Giselle repeated. “This will be the only time I contact you,” she said next. “Call me at this number when you have Xavier.”

  Giselle ended the call, apparently not requiring an answer. I set my phone on the kitchen table, frowning down at it.

  “That was Giselle, she…”

  “I think I got the gist of it,” Fane said.

  I lifted my eyes. Fane frowned. Okay, Mr. Moody, sorry to interrupt our earlier conversation-slash-flirtation with this hostage situation.

  “In that case, I guess there’s nothing more for me to say,” I said peevishly.

  Fane’s shoulders dropped. “That’s not what I meant. I’m not happy because I’m not in control of the situation. I don’t like Giselle calling the shots.”

  “You and me both,” I muttered.

  “But I do like the plan of capturing Jared.”

  I nodded.

  Fane stepped up to me and touched the side of my face gently.

  “I don’t want you anywhere near this freak on Friday.”

  I inhaled, holding my breath for several beats. “I can’t go to the palace, anyway. I have to be at the lodge.”

  Fane nodded grimly. “I don’t want you there, either, but at least you’ll be far away from Stanton’s place.”

  It sounded weird hearing Marcus’ home now referred to as Richard Stanton’s. It had always been Stanton’s, but it never seemed that way. It was the palace, Marcus’s domain. Bet he never expected this raven-haired teenager would take him down. I hadn’t seen it coming, either.

  “At least I’ll have an alibi when Jared’s abducted,” I said. Had to stay on the positive side.

  “I’ll let you rest up,” Fane said. “Call if you need me.”

  Oh, I needed him, all right, but I didn’t call. I didn’t catch up on homework, either. Instead, I slept through all of Sunday.

  Apparently even vampires weren’t immune to sleep.

  Monday morning, I brushed the tangles out of my long black hair, dressed and headed out the door to walk to campus. I wasn’t in a learning mood, but it beat putzing around home waiting for the weekend.

  When I stepped outside in my skinny pleather jacket and saw Dante’s Jeep across the yard, I half expected him to climb out of the car and come ambling up to greet me with a cheerful, “Looking good, Sky. Real good.” Wink, wink.

  If only I’d just imagined the last forty-six hours.

  I took a steady breath and walked up to the Jeep.

  “I’ll get him back,” I said to it. “I promise.”

  What then?

  Everything had changed. How would Dante deal? His feelings for me were no longer the big issue. He had forever to work them out of his system. He didn’t strike me as a dweller. He’d move on—once we freed him. At least I hoped he would.

  I knew now what I’d struggled to realize before. Dante was my best friend. I loved him to the moon and back, just not romantically. There was more than one way to love a person. I hoped he’d understand that.

  That left me with the riddle over what to do about Fane. Confusing as usual. Didn’t matter. I had plenty of time to deal with the Dark Prince. I had all the time in the world.

  There. Now I could make jokes about time, too.

  The sky was solid white. Not quite dreary, but not especially cheerful, either. I walked past the homes of my neighbors, none of whom I’d met. If the apocalypse ever hit Anchorage, I wouldn’t have anyone within an eight mile radius to count on for help or so much as a cup of sugar. Not that I needed their sugar. One juicy vein would do just fine.

  Fane said blood was enough to get by on, but that morning I’d stuck to my usual breakfast routine—toast with tea.

  I needed normal. I clung to it like a straightjacket in a sea of crazies.

  The sound of traffic increased as I approached Lake Otis Parkway. I made my way up the stairs to the pedestrian bridge, morning commuters whizzing by beneath my feet. A horn honked. It didn’t startle me the way it once would have. In fact, my fingers were itching to get back behind the wheel.

  I had no desire to spend the remainder of my undead life squirreled away like Fane’s roommate, Joss. He wasn’t cold like Giselle, but he acted just as detached.

  I needed to be able to take care of myself. I wasn’t about to call up Fane every time I had to go someplace. And I could pass on the public bus. All I required was a vehicle, and I had one temporarily. At least I hoped it was temporary—so long as this weekend went according to plan. But it was a start. Too bad the Jeep had a manual transmission.

  Once on the opposite side of Lake Otis, I made my way to Campus Drive and the stadium-sized parking lot in front of the University of Alaska Anchorage’s first set of buildings. Clearing the lot was a hike in itself. Even if I took up driving again, it would still make more sense to walk to campus. By the time I warmed up the car,
waited at the intersection, and circled the lot looking for an empty spot, I would have made it by foot to the Professional Studies Building.

  I entered now, taking the stairs to the second floor, passing the journalism department until I reached my Written Communications class.

  Class started in five minutes. The room was already more than half-full of students making chit-chat.

  “Who’s the easiest math teacher on campus?” a woman asked a guy in plaid as I passed between them.

  Good question. Numbers had never been my friend. I tried to listen in, but his answer got obliterated under the smack of the next student’s textbook dropping on his desk.

  I took a seat and arranged what I needed on the tiny desk. The din continued around me. Funny how weird it seemed not knowing anyone. It wasn't as though I’d always had a friend in every class at Denali High, but I recognized their faces.

  The college students surrounding me were complete strangers. It struck me how few people I really knew.

  I’d lived in Anchorage all my life, yet a rush of loneliness came over me with such magnitude it threatened to suck the breath from my lungs.

  I rubbed the desk surface with my middle finger for no other reason than to look busy.

  Striking up conversations with strangers had never come easy to me. Not to mention it was pretty much pointless. Why would I want to make friends with someone who would up and die one day?

  The only friendships worth investing time and emotion in were with other vampires.

  Fane had no trouble befriending humans. He was a social king among society’s rejects.

  I still remembered the group of misfits that flocked to him at Denali High—Goth kids who all looked the same. At some point Fane added grunge to his repertoire of followers, as Zeke colorfully demonstrated.

  The point was, he didn’t let everlasting life bum him out. He had fun and thrived. It made me flush to think that out of his hordes of adoring groupies, he’d chosen to fixate on me. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t suck my blood. He didn’t care whether I was human or vampire. I suspected it made him happy I’d live forever… in theory.

  Even when I pushed Fane away, he loomed at the edges of my life like a shadow—backing me up one minute, gone the next.

  I frowned. The gone part was the current problem.

  Suddenly we weren’t vampire and hunter. Suddenly I knew why he’d bitten Noel at the palace. The playing field had evened out. The game changed. But where did that leave us? As teammates? A high-five, good job, see you at the next meet?

  You’re just lonely, I tried telling myself.

  Loneliness was worse than being drunk.

  I glanced sideways at my nearest neighbor, a young woman with blue streaks in her auburn hair. Her stockings were ripped—on purpose I was pretty sure—beneath a tweed skirt and tank top. A snakelike Chinese dragon was tattooed over her arm.

  Nobody talked to her. I should have made an effort to strike up a conversation. Instead, I stared at her tattoo and wondered how much it had bled.

  I opened my textbook over the desk to prevent a finger burn if I continued to rub away at the surface.

  A guy wearing a UAA Seawolves baseball cap sat down in front of me. He leaned back. Sure, why didn’t he shove his neck in my face?

  My eyes darted back and forth between my textbook and the few inches of skin between his shirt collar and cropped hair.

  I rubbed the bridge of my nose.

  Why did I have to walk over so early? This was turning into the longest five minutes of my life. What was I even doing at university? I didn’t belong here. I wasn’t on campus to make friends or date or pursue a career. I was only fooling myself.

  I got up. I had to get out of there.

  Inside, my heart raged, but nobody noticed the vampire in torment. After stuffing my textbook, notepaper and pen inside, I grabbed my backpack by the top loop. The moment I walked out of the classroom, I felt instantly better. Free.

  My feet carried me quickly down the hall, past corkboards papered in fliers, students walking in pairs, and professors headed to teach class.

  I practically ran down the stairs until I pushed through the double doors leading into an open courtyard. Students sat at picnic tables and sprawled out across the lawn while the weather still permitted. Everyone around me looked like they belonged there.

  Meanwhile, I felt like a dowager at a rock concert.

  I was an old soul. That was the problem. Even though I was from this century, I had trouble relating to my generation.

  I took my phone out and dialed Fane. Instantly, I felt less alone with the promise of someone to talk to. Better yet, he answered after the first ring.

  “Is this a mission related question or do you just miss me?” Fane asked in a devious voice.

  “I’m having a problem,” I said.

  “What is it? What’s going on?” Fane asked, instantly switching his tone. “Where are you?”

  “I’m on campus. I was in class, but I walked out. I couldn’t sit there anymore. My classmates were starting to look like walking, talking blood sacks.”

  The line went quiet. Suddenly Fane laughed.

  Once he’d regained his breath, he said, “Welcome to my world.”

  “The underworld,” I said sarcastically. “What about you? How do you fill the void now that you’re no longer Denali High’s number one delinquent?”

  Fane had told me he was taking a break from the whole high school charade this year. Since Joss was the one who supported them with his online rare books business, I wasn’t sure how Fane passed his time without any kind of daily routine.

  “The real question is how does Principal Romero pass the time now that I’m gone?”

  “I’m sure he has one less grey hair on his head this semester,” I said, watching that I didn’t run into anybody as I circled the courtyard.

  “Two less,” Fane said. “As I recall, you paid a visit to his office at the beginning of the year—three days suspension for fighting.” Fane clicked his tongue. “Bad girl.”

  Sizzles ran up and down my spine, humming like a power line along a mountain pass.

  I remembered that day clearly. Fane had followed me onto the public bus after Principal Romero finished suspending me. But I was the one who’d jumped into Fane’s lap and stuck my tongue down his throat.

  “And now you’re cutting class,” Fane observed.

  I circled around a building, leaving the courtyard behind. It wasn’t exactly a telephone booth, but I had the shaded corner to myself. Was this what my life had come down to? A vampire watching humanity from the shadows?

  My eyes watered. I’d been holding it in since I first walked onto campus.

  Betraying nothing with my voice I said, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with myself. I don’t know how to spend forever. I don’t even know what to do today or right now, this second.”

  Fane was silent a moment before answering. “All you have to do is take it one day at a time.”

  My face dropped. “I expected something better than a bull-shit answer from you, Fane Donado.” The next pause was longer than the last. I couldn’t hear so much as a crackle or breath on the other line. Finally I asked, “Did I lose you?”

  “Not a chance,” Fane answered right back. “You want to know what to do with yourself?”

  “Yes.”

  “Live each day in the present. To regret what might have been is to live in the past. To worry about what’s to come is to live in the future. The question is, what does Aurora Sky want to do right now?”

  You, I thought. I want to do you. I want you to taste me the way no man or vampire has tasted me before. I want you to make love to me for so long I can’t think of a damn thing besides how good you feel inside me… finally. I want to forget everything—yesterday, today, tomorrow, the present, the past, the future. I don’t care what moment I’m living in. I want you.

  Naturally, I said none of the above. I said something almost
worse.

  “Can you come over?”

  The silence that followed was different. If a smile had a sound, this was it—the soft exhalation, the half-chuckle that came before Fane answered.

  “I take it you’re skipping the rest of the day?”

  I shrugged beneath the building’s shadow. “Old habits die hard.”

  “I’ll be right over.”

  “Good. I’ll see you soon,” I said, ending the call before he could answer.

  Aw, hell, what had I just done?

  4

  Co-Pilot

  I jammed my phone into my coat pocket and booked it off campus, retracing my steps home. Even on foot, I figured I had a ten minute lead on Fane. I raced up the stairs to the overhead crosswalk and back down to the other side of the street.

  So much for making the Dean’s List. I’d missed my high school graduation. What were the odds I’d make it through college?

  I smiled at the security cam Fane installed above the front door.

  “Back so soon?” I asked it. “Why yes, I am.”

  I ran upstairs and gave my hair another quick brush through. The walk back and forth to campus had introduced a couple of minor tangles back into my dark hair. I shook my head in the mirror.

  “What are you doing, Aurora?” I asked my reflection.

  Nothing. This wasn’t a booty call. I simply wanted to finish car rehabilitation. The more I could rely on myself, the less I had to count on anyone else, including Fane.

  I waited on the front stoop, not wanting Fane to get any ideas by letting him in.

  He pulled in soon enough, the bottom of his car scraping the driveway as he came up. I winced. From behind the windshield, Fane grinned. At least the little things still amused him.

  As Fane stepped out, I moved toward him. He pushed his car door shut with his shoulder and straightened. My eyes traveled up and down his body before I could stop myself.

  He wore combat boots, black jeans, a black belt, and a black V-neck taut across his chest. No man dead or alive had ever made a T-shirt look so sexy.

  There was a wide black leather bracelet wrapped around his right wrist. It looked like the kind used to shackle a person’s wrist to a bedpost.