Protected (Book 1 in the Ariya Adams trilogy)

by Anna Applegate

  I was so stunned I couldn’t speak, but I was happy. I started crying again, thankful that my friend was still here.

  James got up and walked away. I looked over at him. He rubbed his face with his hands, then through his greased-back hair. Caroline grabbed me and I held onto her just as tightly.

  “Thank you, Ariya.”

  What had I done? Had I really just saved her by feeding her my blood? What did that mean? Was something wrong with me? Nick had her wrapped up once we let go. He was kissing her, furiously. Hugging her.

  “Ariya,” James spoke softly. “I need to take you home. We all need to leave now. We have to talk.”

  Caroline stood up and I grabbed her arm to put it around me. She burst out laughing.

  “Ariya, I’m okay. You don’t need to help me, I promise.” I looked to see if she was telling the truth and was shocked to see that she was.

  She was standing steadily and nothing looked wrong. I walked around to her back and didn’t even see a mark from the stake that had been in her body moments ago. I touched the torn cloth to find no wound beneath it and frowned.

  My breathing was picking up. I had watched her get staked with a weapon, fed her my blood, and it was like nothing had happened. What had happened? I started feeling woozy.

  I started staggering back, but before I could fall, James had me. “Ariya, can you walk?”

  “James, just help her. We can get her home and figure things out.” Caroline touched James’ arm as she spoke.

  It was too much to comprehend. I couldn’t walk, my legs didn’t seem to want to work.

  James picked me up. As he did, he whispered in my ear, “I have you. Everything’s going to be okay.”

  It was enough to keep me from fainting. We didn’t talk much, and we seemed to get home much quicker than usual considering the distance between Riley’s house and mine. I couldn’t form coherent thoughts at the moment. We got in the door and James took me to my room and set me on the bed.

  “I think I could have walked into my room.” He smiled, only for a brief moment, before looking like he was all business again. The second he set me down, my body started shivering.

  “You might be going into shock.” He pulled the covers from underneath me. “Ariya, I know you are going to have questions, but please rest. We’ll all be here when you wake up.”

  He kissed my forehead and I felt safe. After everything that had happened tonight, he made me feel safe. Devon couldn’t get anyone here. Everyone was okay.

  James took my bob off and stroked my hair back. The adrenaline was wearing off and my body felt like it was shutting down. It was stressed, and the emotions I’d been fighting with for months seemed to be taking over again.

  I knew sleep would distract me and let me regroup so that I could deal with whatever was going on. My eyes started to close. James hadn’t moved from his spot next to me, and he stroked my hair back one more time. Forcing my eyes open to look at him again, I noticed how sad he looked. The last thing I thought about before I was asleep was what I could do to get rid of that sadness.

  Chapter 8

  I woke up the next morning, hoping it was possible that everything I’d experienced the previous night had just been a dream. Pulling out my cell phone, I saw I had two missed calls and two texts from Riley, asking where I’d gone.

  A feeling of dread came washing over me and I knew it had not been a dream. Whatever I was told today was going to change everything. Something inside me knew at least that much. What had happened was too beyond normal for there to be a logical explanation.

  I opened my eyes and saw James sitting in my chair by the window. His legs were propped up on the windowsill.

  He turned his head and said, “Good morning. You should get dressed and meet us in the living room.”

  He stood up and walked out. After everything we had shared, especially that kiss, I expected him to be a bit more reassuring, a bit more compassionate. Waiting wasn’t going to do any good. This should be like a band-aid. If I just pulled it off quickly, maybe it’d be better.

  Texting Riley that everything was fine and that I’d call him later provided a minute for me to rack up my courage to face this situation head on. I walked out the door of my room.

  Caroline was filling up the tea kettle with water in the kitchen. Tea was good. Tea was normal. I started to try to form questions in my head. It wasn’t working as well as I had hoped because I honestly had no idea where to start.

  A couple minutes later, everyone was sitting in the living room. Caroline sat next to me and handed me the tea.

  “Ariya, drink this. I didn’t think coffee would be the best choice today.” She was probably right if they were going to be talking to me about why my best friend got staked and how it was possible that my blood was fed to her to save her.

  I took a sip. “Thank you. So, does someone want to fill me in on what is going on?”

  “It’s a bit hard to explain. I’m not sure where to start. There is something I need to show you before we get into your questions. Something I took from you.” Caroline was the only one speaking.

  I looked at her questioningly. “I’m sorry if this seems like a lot to process at once, but I need to make sure you have stored everything you’ve seen before we start explaining this. Look at me.” She stared at me directly in the eyes and touched my hand.

  My mind was rapidly filled with images. I saw Devon slamming me into the bathroom wall, Caroline and Nick rushing in, Nick breaking Devon’s leg. The pain that seared through my head and body from being slammed came back to me. I saw myself collapse onto a bathroom floor. I was in my bed and I heard voices talking outside my door. I saw Caroline walk into my room. She bit her wrist, gave me her blood, and looked at me just like she did now. Then, the images were gone.

  Okay, now I was afraid. What was this?

  “We wanted to protect you. We didn’t want you to be walking around scared of Devon. So, I took away the memory of the night at the boys’ hockey game when he did this to you. It’s why you don't have a clear memory from that night. I took the bad away, which is why the whole rest of the night is fuzzy. You were injured and had to heal. I fed you my blood, which is what healed you so you woke up feeing, well, the way you did.” She looked like she thought I was going to yell at her, but I was just too shocked to do anything like that.

  My jaw was open and all I could do was stare at her. “You took my memory away? How is that possible?”

  “Well, I…”

  I cut her off. “Have you done it before?”

  “One thing at a time, Ariya.” James said from across the room. He was being stand-offish at best.

  He wasn’t smiling; he just sat looking at us, completely void of emotion. I looked from him back to her.

  “No, that’s the first time I’ve ever done it to you. A lot has happened that probably doesn’t make sense. There are things that you won’t understand. I’m sorry, I’ve never done this before, and it was different when Nick did it with me. Tell me what you think you know so far,” Caroline said.

  “What do you mean, what Nick did with you? What I know? I don’t know anything. I know you guys move fast. I know I watched Nick break someone’s leg. I was assaulted. I think James bit me so I could feed you my blood. You fed me your blood. I know you were staked. I know…” And I stopped.

  The ideas in my head couldn’t possibly be real. I started feeling what I had felt back outside of Riley’s when James was telling me I could save Caroline. It was a feeling that things made sense. I shook it off.

  “No. You tell me what’s going on. I don’t want to play some kind of guessing game.”

  That seemed to be enough for Caroline, because she nodded and put her hand on my leg. She continued, “I’m not human, Ariya.”

  The thought in my head was becoming clearer and more plausible. Could the supernatural exist? It couldn’t be. Stakes, blood, speed, strength…

  “Ariya, I’m … we’re vampires.”

>   “That’s not funny, Caroline.” Her head snapped back.

  She hadn’t expected that reaction. What did she expect? Suddenly it dawned on me. This was a joke. It was a mean Halloween joke that the three of them, well four, including creepy Devon, were playing on me.

  “Oh, you guys think you’re so clever, don’t you? This wasn’t funny! I actually thought I was losing it. You know I hate scary stuff! And you, how could you do that to me? I thought you actually died!”

  “Ariya?” Caroline said sounding confused.

  “Caroline, drop it. This is a Halloween prank on me, right? Devon was in on it, too? That was cruel.” Anger flared in me again. It was no surprise now, that there hadn’t been any blood or marks on Caroline. She had never been hurt!

  “Ariya, I’m telling the truth. This isn’t a joke or a prank. We’re vampires. All of us.” I watched her carefully. She wasn’t backing down. “I’m not lying.” She looked hurt, and it was that look that changed my thoughts.

  I went through everything. I wanted to fight it. I wanted to say it was absurd. I wanted to go back to sleep and wake up and be in reality again. But, something inside me knew that she was telling the truth. There was something in my accepting this. It was pushed away deep inside me, not something I ever had thought of as being real before. But, when she said the words again, I knew she was right. I couldn’t even fight the concept and I had no idea why it seemed like the truth to me.

  I looked up at her, then to Nick, and James. They were all looking at me. Maybe they were waiting for me to scream or something. I wouldn’t scream. I was eerily calm, in fact.

  “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I’ve known you for three years and you didn’t think to mention that? Why did you take my memory away? Why couldn’t you be honest with me? I thought you told me everything. You’re my best friend, Caroline. Can I not be trusted?”

  This was not the reaction they were expecting, and Caroline looked taken aback.

  “Ariya, do you understand what I said? I’m a vampire. Nick, James, none of us is human. That’s not a normal thing to be brought up in daily conversations.”

  “I heard you. I understand. How could it not be true? James bit me, I fed you blood, and you woke up after being killed by a stake that looked to be made of wood. What other explanation to that that makes more sense? It was like watching a crappy T.V. show or scary movie about vampires, but it actually happened in front of me.” I truly believed what I was saying. It really did make sense to me and, in actuality, I was not frightened. Waves of calm came over me, almost like relief.

  “I told you she was ready,” Caroline said smugly to James. “There is so much more to tell you.”

  She looked like she was going to keep going, but James said, “Enough, Caroline.”

  For some reason, that upset me even more. They had all been hiding it from me and apparently, James was the one who wanted it hidden most, based on the fact that all the direction seemed to be coming from him. Was telling me they were vampires enough? It couldn’t be everything. That didn’t explain why Devon was after me. Do all humans heal vampires with their blood? I hadn’t heard that one before in the myths. The anger was increasing. Not fear, not disbelief, but anger at them for not including me. It felt like they didn’t trust me.

  “Enough of what, James? Am I only allowed to know bits and pieces of whatever is going on? What else is there? I know there’s a lot more to this than that you all being vampires.” Then I stopped. “Devon is a vampire? Why is he after me?”

  “No,” James said. His patience seemed to be quickly fading. “Devon is a werewolf. You saw him the first night we all went out, in his wolf form. Now for today, that’s enough. “ He was pissed at something. Was it at me?

  I wasn’t expecting the werewolf comment. “Does every monster written exist? Geez!” I shook my head as if that would somehow make the puzzle pieces fall into place.

  “I’ve had strange things happening around me this whole time, you all his this, and now you’re hiding more. I thought I was going crazy. You’d rather have me believe I’m crazy than tell me the truth? Caroline, I told you I saw a wolf and you laughed it off!” I turned to James. “And you! How could you even think about kissing me last night with all of this? What, were you just going to let me fall in love with you and then say, ‘oh, by the way, Ariya, I’m a vampire. I know I haven’t been honest with you ever, but there it is.’”

  I was livid at this point. I felt betrayed by Caroline for hiding things. Not just that, but taking away my memories. And James. My heart hurt, but I let the anger shove that hurt out of the way and fill me instead.

  James couldn’t have had any intention of seriously being with me or he would have told me. That must be it. If he really had cared about me, he would have been honest before kissing me like that. I stood there for another minute, took a deep breath and decided I needed to be alone. I knew it was childish, but I wanted to stew and brood about being left out of this and then having to see Caroline almost die. I had earned that much at least.

  “Please leave,” I told them.

  “Ariya, we are trying to protect you,” Nick spoke up finally.

  I didn’t want to hear it, though. “Protect me from what?”

  When they said nothing, I nodded, as if my point had been proven. They weren’t going to tell me anything else. They should have told me what they were at the very least.

  “You should have told me. All of you should have. And, I don’t need protection from scary things. I can handle it. I can’t handle my friends having a life I don’t know about and being in the dark. Right now, what I can’t handle is having you all look at me like I’m some sort of child. Please leave, just for right now. I’m sorry, it’s just, what I want.”

  I was scolding them for making me feel childish, but I knew that was exactly how I was acting. I felt breakable, and if I had to keep sitting here, waiting for more information that they weren’t planning on giving up, I was going to lose my mind.

  Before they got up to oblige me in my request, I turned and headed to my room and slammed the door. It was juvenile, but the strong I-can-handle-this feeling was leaving me. Crawling under my covers and hiding seemed to be the best idea at the moment. The anger started wearing off and was replaced by sadness. Here comes the whiplash of emotions. My door creaked open and someone sat on my bed.

  “Do you want to talk more?” Caroline asked. “Come on. I know you have questions. Let’s make something a bit stronger than tea and we can just have a veg day in the living room.”

  I turned and looked at her. She was upset. I knew she didn’t want to hurt me, so I smiled at her comment. There were questions that needed to be asked, that much was true. I knew there was so much more to what was going on. Just the vampire part in general brought on so many questions. The calm belief I had before that this made sense to me was starting to waiver. Being away from the crazy things made it seem less believable. When everyone was around, I could make sense of things.

  “Okay.”

  It felt good to think about doing something semi-normal after the conversation we’d just had earlier. The boys were gone. I’m sure Caroline made them leave once I had slammed my door.

  “Does it feel different? Being a vampire, I mean,” I asked as we started walking to the kitchen.

  “Yes. It isn’t a bad different, though. I crave blood. That’s the part that’s probably the hardest for you to grasp, I’d assume. I’m faster, stronger. I feel more powerful, like, my emotions are stronger. I like what I am, Ariya.” She shrugged.

  “How did it happen? Were you born a vampire?”

  “No, vampires can’t reproduce. I was turned.” I raised my eyebrows, wanting her to continue. “I was turned by Nick.”

  “Nick? How did you find out he was a vampire?” I exclaimed.

  Caroline would understand what my reaction was like then. She went through this herself. The thought brought me a large amount of comfort.

  “Yes, Nick,” s
he chuckled. “I fell in love with him. The town I lived in put on sock hops back in the 50’s. I was living on my own with no family. My father died when I was a kid and my mom checked out. She was in a psychiatric institute and I wasn’t allowed to see her. Nick was at the sock hop and he asked me to dance. We started talking. He was perfect. If I had a dream guy in my head, he was it. I thought it was fate stepping in. I was only twenty at the time and had never had a strong family unit of my own. He brought the feeling of family to me I’d always been missing.”

  “Eventually, he told me what he was. I was shocked and scared, but I trusted him, so I tried to learn more and accept it. We talked about it a long time and when I was twenty-five, we decided we didn’t want to be apart. I didn’t want to spend a life without him, so he turned me.”

  “So much for a bartender at a sushi place. No wonder you guys seemed so in sync. I can’t believe it! How do you turn?” I asked.

  “You have to have a vampire drink from you, almost to the point of draining you, and then you drink from them right after. I know it seems simple. One of the early vampires was quite the scientist and he said that he believed the saliva mixed with the replacement of human blood caused the transformation. I fell asleep after he did it. I’ve heard the loss of blood makes you sleepy. Then I woke up, changed.”

  “That doesn’t sound complicated. You’d think it would be harder. Weren’t you scared?”

  “No, Nick was there. Whenever he’s around, I just feel right. Everything was heightened when I woke up, though. That freaked me out.” She smiled at me. “My vision was sharper. The hearing was what scared me the most. It felt like everything was on the loudest setting it could be at, but Nick helped me adjust. With him around, I feel calm and safe.” Funny, that’s how I felt with James last night. That faded fast in the morning light.

  I had so many questions forming, I figured I’d keep asking until she stopped me. “How long have you been a vampire? You still look like a college student.”