Samhain (Matilda Kavanagh Book 2)

by Shauna Granger

  I wasn’t sure if she was wearing any makeup, but if she wasn’t, she certainly didn’t need it. Her brown eyes were the shape of almonds, surrounded by a thick fringe of lashes, and there were flecks of gold that moved like liquid fire in her eyes. She had the most adorable pixie-like nose and a bow mouth that was just the right shade of pink for her skin tone. I hated her just a little bit. When I stepped back to let her pass, she flashed me a bright smile that pulled an answering smile from me.

  “Thank you,” she said in the most sincere tone I’d ever heard. You’d think I’d just saved her cat from a burning building.

  “Sure,” I croaked. I closed my eyes against the painful sound of my voice. I felt my embarrassment creep up my neck. When I got myself together again and opened my eyes, I stopped once more like I’d taken a fist to the gut. My mouth fell open at the sight of Fletcher getting out of his booth to greet the beautiful girl.

  He smiled at her, his eyes going soft and his whole being lighting up. He took her shoulders and looked into her face, her beautiful face, before pressing a kiss to either cheek. She smiled at Fletcher, and even at that distance, I could tell it was the best smile in her arsenal. She lifted up on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him as his arms went around her waist, crushing her to him.

  My stomach had lodged somewhere between my chest and throat. I took a few steps back until I bumped into a chair, making it squeal against the linoleum. I caught my balance on the table and hurried back to the door. I thought I heard my name over the din of the restaurant and the blood rushing in my ears, but I didn’t look back. I just wanted to get to that door and out of that tiny, crowded room.

  I hit the door hard, sending it flying open, and the bells attached to the handle jangled noisily. The damp air stabbed at my face like tiny knives, and my lungs felt as if they were full of broken glass, but it was still easier to breathe outside than it was inside The Bite.

  “Idiot, idiot, idiot,” I chanted at myself as I caught my breath. The words appeared in the air in tiny white puffs. I ran my fingers through my hair, pushing it out of my face. I felt tiny water droplets clinging to my unusually long lashes, and when I blinked, they clung to my cheeks like tear drops.

  “Mattie,” Fletcher said behind me.

  I felt the warm air of the restaurant wafting around me as he stood holding the door open. I could imagine the black smears under my eyes and my hair falling flat under the damp air. There was nothing I wanted more than keeping him from seeing me like that. I seriously thought about running and not looking back, just pretending I didn’t hear him. But I didn’t. I thought about digging out my cell phone and pretending as though I’d just gotten a phone call. But I didn’t. A dozen different ways to avoid turning to look at him went through my head, and I dismissed them all.

  “Hey, Fletcher,” I said, half turning toward him. I wiped my face, trying to get rid of the mascara marks. I needed to invest in some water-proof mascara.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why’d you run out like that? Are you okay?”

  “Oh, sure,” I said lightly, trying to smile. It felt more like a cringe. “Just realized I forgot something at home and was going to go get it.”

  “It looked like you were having a panic attack or something.” He let go of the door and came forward until he was standing just inches away from me.

  When he looked into my face, it wasn’t with that same beatific smile he’d given Miss Perfect. When he looked at me, there was a pinched and worried look to his eyes, and his lips were in a thin line. I looked away, tucking my hair behind my ears and wishing I’d gone to see Ronnie instead. Through the mist, I saw her sign glowing yellow in the distance.

  “Mattie?” Fletcher touched my chin, bending his fingers under my jaw and gently lifting my face to his.

  “Yeah?” I managed, glad I didn’t croak at him as I had at his date.

  “Did you come to see me?”

  “No.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “You don’t know that.” Every part of me screamed at me to step back, out of his reach, and to just leave before I embarrassed myself further. But I didn’t. I liked that he was standing so close to me and that his hand was still on my chin.

  “Actually, I do.” Finally his face lost that pinched and worried quality, and he smiled at me.

  “How?”

  He touched the side of his nose with his free hand. “The nose knows.”

  I smirked—I couldn’t help it. But when I did, he let go of my face and crossed his arms. If I had just stayed still, he would still be touching me.

  “So why did you run out like that?” he asked.

  It would be a bitch being around him if I couldn’t even tell him some face-saving white lies. I took a breath to steady my nerves. “I came to see you, but then I saw you had a date. I didn’t want to interrupt.” I couldn’t look at him while I spoke. I wanted to think that the dim light hid the color in my cheeks, but I knew it didn’t, especially not to his eyes.

  I wasn’t sure what I’d expected him to do or say, but I didn’t expect him to look over his shoulder at the girl waiting for him in the booth and laugh. He actually laughed, making the heat in my face race up to my hairline. I needed to go home more than anything else in the world.

  “You thought I was on a date?” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Mattie, that’s my sister.”

  I blinked at him. “What?”

  “I found my sister.” That warm smile spread over his lips again, and if he could have cried, he looked as though he would.

  “I thought she was dead?”

  “So did I.” He shrugged. “But I got to talking to your friend, the big guy with the braids, Kyle?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And he said he knew her, said she was a member of Jameson’s pack now.”

  “Oh my gods,” I whispered, leaning around Fletcher to look through the windows into the restaurant.

  “Right,” he said. “So I finally got a hold of her.”

  “Fletcher, I’m so sorry.” I put up my hands and tried to take a few steps away from him.

  “No, no.” He reached out to catch one of my hands to stop me. “This isn’t our reunion. We met a couple of days ago. We’re just catching up.”

  “Wait, I’ve seen you since you found her and you didn’t tell me?” I felt a like a Ping-Pong ball being sent this way and that.

  “You’ve had a lot going on lately.”

  “Right, but we’ve talked about other stuff,” I said, dancing around the subject of us.

  “I know,” he said with a one-shouldered shrug. He still hadn’t let go of my hand. “I just wanted to see her a couple of times, make sure there was something left of the sister I knew before I told anyone about it. You know, if things didn’t work out, I didn’t want the looks.”

  “The looks?”

  “Yeah, the pitiful, oh-poor-Fletch looks.”

  “Oh, yeah.” I nodded.

  “So you ran out of here thinking I was on a date?” he said, swinging the conversation around.

  I tried to pull my hand out of his, but he wouldn’t let me. He pulled me across the few feet that separated us. I was pressed against him, and he laid my hand on his chest.

  His hands went to my hips to hold me in place. “Why would it bother you if I was on a date?”

  “It wouldn’t,” I breathed.

  “It would only bother you,” he said, totally ignoring my protest, “if you came to see me to admit that you’d come to your senses. That you’ve come to confess your undying love for me.”

  “Shut up,” I said, pushing at his chest. “Full of yourself much?”

  “Maybe a little.” He was smiling at me, the pinched lines gone from his forehead. The power in his eyes came alive and glowed yellow. “Don’t go.”

  His voice slipped over me like a hand caressing the side of my neck. I shivered against him. “I don�
�t want to take you way from your sister. You haven’t seen her in so long.”

  “I don’t want to lose this chance,” he said. “What if I let you go and you change your mind again? Do you know what it does to a guy’s self-esteem when the girl he wants keeps rejecting him?”

  “I don’t think I’ll change my mind again,” I said.

  “Don’t go,” he said again. He stepped back, letting me go, and the chill of the night cut through my clothes and made me shiver for a totally different reason. “Don’t go.” He held up a finger before he turned and went back inside.

  I wrapped my arms around myself to keep the cold at bay. I tried not to, but my eyes kept darting to the window to watch Fletcher. He’d gone back to his sister and squatted in front of her to talk to her. He was probably being careful not to take a seat so it wouldn’t look as though he was staying. I saw her smile and nod before looking up to catch a glimpse of me. I looked away quickly, trying to be casual about turning my back to the wall of windows.

  I heard the tinkle of bells announce Fletcher’s return. He slipped his arm around my shoulders. We slipped into a comfortable silence as we walked through the drizzly night. With him at my side, his arm around me, the night didn’t seem so cold. We passed Ronnie’s shop, and through the window, I saw her flaming red hair and the shock of pink that told me Joey was inside as well. We passed the door to my apartment building without stopping.

  I wasn’t sure either of us knew where we were going, but eventually we crossed the road and stepped onto the grass of Summerwick Park. In the distance was a thick plume of white smoke. The bonfire was still smoldering.

  “How long will that burn?” Fletcher asked, breaking the silence.

  “I don’t know. Last year it burned for four days before dying out.”

  “You’d think the rain would’ve put it out.”

  “Just the top. It’s so big and dense that the inside will burn until it collapses. That is, unless there’s a real storm, not just this sad drizzle. If there’s a real storm, with some real rain, that might put it out.”

  We walked into the park. The city hadn’t wasted any time cleaning up after the horrors of Samhain. The only reminder was the abandoned Bonfire. We walked down the sloping hill behind the Great Bonfire. I pulled us to a stop when we had walked far enough that we could no longer see the black mound of the bonfire over the crest of the hill. I felt well hidden by the hill and the coming darkness.

  Fletcher sat on the damp ground and tugged on my hand to join him. The moisture cut through my jeans almost immediately, but I told myself not to worry about that. The constant drizzle was letting up. When I tilted my head to look at the sky, I saw a break in the clouds. Tiny stars were peeking through.

  Fletcher put his arm around my shoulders and guided me to lie back. I fit into the crook of his arm as we stared at the few stars we could see. I felt a true storm coming. By the end of the night, it would be raining full force, but right then, we had a moment of reprieve.

  Fletcher shifted next to me, rolling onto his side to face me. His features were lost in shadow, but I found his mouth easily with the tips of my fingers. I traced the edge of his lower lip and his jaw, before I crooked my fingers under his ear and drew him to me. As he lowered his mouth to mine, I slipped my hands under the collar of his jacket, pushing it back and off his shoulders. He obliged and blindly tossed it aside. His hand was in my hair, his fingers brushing it back from my face, curling into a fist, and holding tight while he kissed me. I turned into his body, hooking one leg over his hip as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

  Maybe it was the relief that I hadn’t waited too long to return Fletcher’s advances, maybe it was the healing smoke still rolling through the air, or maybe it was the cleansing rain, but I suddenly wanted to feel Fletcher’s body against mine. I wanted to feel alive and warm again. His kisses became urgent and hungry, stealing my breath and making my lips tingle. He pushed my jacket off before running his fingers through my hair.

  I gripped his shirt, fighting the urge to rip it off. His hands fell to my waist, finding the hem of my sweater before sliding under it and over my skin. His fingers left a fiery trail along my waist. He massaged the small of my back, pressing me into him. Fletcher wrapped his arms around me so tight, it was hard to breathe, but that wasn’t tight enough for me. His hips ground into mine, and I answered, shifting against him until he moaned into my mouth. His fangs nicked my lips, and he suckled at the drops of blood that beaded up.

  He rolled me onto my back and slipped between my legs as he moved from my mouth to my jaw, to the hollow beneath my ear. I opened my eyes to stare at the sky, watching the break in the clouds closing as the storm clouds rolled in. In the distance, thunder echoed, swallowing the sound I made when his fangs sank into my throat. The white hot pain was chased away by the wash of ecstasy that rolled through my body.

  It was too familiar, though it had been over a month since I’d last felt the bite of a vampire. It was too much. Owen’s face flashed in my mind, and a stitch formed in my chest. My throat swelled as I remembered watching him walk away from me a second time. It was all too immediate.

  Fletcher went still. I didn’t even feel him release my throat—I was so consumed in my memories. When he pulled away from me, I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see his face. I didn’t want him to see the tears in my eyes.

  “Too soon,” he whispered as though I had spoken my thoughts aloud. “I’m sorry.” He rolled away from me.

  When I opened my eyes again, I stared at the night sky covered in a blanket of clouds. The falling raindrops mingled with my tears, though I was able stanch them quickly. “I’m breaking a promise I made to myself.”

  “Let me guess,” Fletcher said with a deep breath. “No more vampires?”

  “How did you know?”

  We were talking without looking at each other.

  “I’ve heard it before.” He didn’t sound angry or hurt or anything. He was speaking in a monotone. “I know better. I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself.”

  “I shouldn’t have come to find you tonight.”

  “It’s better that we both know for sure,” he said, sounding so damn reasonable. “Maybe now we can move on and be friends.”

  “Will we?

  “Will we what?”

  “Be friends? After this?” I asked.

  “I hope so.”

  “I hope so too.”

  We stayed like that until our clothes were soaked and I was chilled to the bone. Fletcher offered to walk me home, but I wanted to be alone. I wanted to clear my head. I might’ve hurt Fletcher, but he seemed as though he would be okay, and something inside me unlocked. Maybe I was finally ready to deal with my heartache. Maybe I could work on moving on. I felt as if I’d been treading water for the last two years, and I was getting out of the damn water. I just hoped I didn’t lose a friend in the process.

  But maybe there was a chance that I would finally find my way back to me.

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you to everyone who has stuck through all the books with me. Thank you to all the readers who keep me in business. Thank you to all the authors who continue to inspire me. Thank you to Team Awesome who help me accomplish my word goals every day and make it possible for me to put out as many books as I do. Thank you to Cassie for being with me through every book and making them stronger. And thank you to Dennis for helping catch the tiny things that almost slipped through the cracks.

  Thank you to everyone.

  About the Author

  Shauna lives in Southern California with her husband and two dogs and she is still writing, fueled by coffee and plot bunnies. Having already started on the next, magical adventure, Shauna is working furiously on the third book in this series. Watch out for the third book, Yuletide, coming in December 2014! You can follow Shauna on her website, shaunagranger.com, for more information on her upcoming projects.

  Table of Contents

  ***

 
Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Chapter 1