Awakened (Auralight Codex: Dakota Shepherd Book 1)

by Shei Darksbane

  I blinked. “Seriously? You’d do that for me?”

  “I would much rather go with you than for you to have to go alone, ma chérie. At least I could introduce you to her and it would not be as difficult for you.” She kissed my other cheek softly.

  “That’s… I mean, thank you Amorie. That’s so kind of you.” I kissed her lips.

  Amorie smiled at my touched expression. “I like you little wolf. I want you to stay in one piece. So it is not entirely selfless.” She kissed my cheek a bit lower, right above my jaw and I shuddered. She groaned lightly in frustration. “I wish there were more time for now. But I must go. Make yourself at home while I am gone.” She kissed again and I gripped her arm tightly.

  “You keep that up and I’m going to protest your leaving, and I’m going to stop being so adult about it.”

  Amorie laughed and released me, stepping back and smiling down at me. “I am sorry Dakota.” She gave me a sly, sultry grin. “I want to stay as well, believe me.” My breath quickened at the look she was giving me, but she straightened up and tucked the look away. “Make yourself at home, as I said. There is some food in the kitchen, there is television, and…” she considered briefly. “Do you swim? There is a pool out back. If you like, you may borrow a swim suit from me.”

  I perked up a little. “That sounds nice. It’d make it easier to wait for you anyway. I like swimming.”

  Amorie seemed relieved by my response. “Let me find you a suit and you may do as you like then.” She went into what I presumed was a closet and came back with a little black bikini on a hanger. “Here you are.” I stared at the tiny swatches of fabric and tried my best to hide my nervousness. I imagined the bikini would have looked amazing on Amorie, but I didn’t feel I had quite the assets to fill it out. Amorie’s eyes glimmered as she smiled at me innocently, and somehow I got the feeling she hadn’t chosen the least revealing suit she’d had.

  “Thanks.” I took the bikini and smiled at her. “Go, and hurry back, okay? I’ll be waiting.”

  “I will not be gone very long. An hour, maybe two at most.” She gave me an apologetic frown. “I will bring you steak. You like them medium, no?”

  “That sounds good.” She smiled and kissed me quickly once more, then turned and hurried out the door, clearly escaping before we could procrastinate any longer. I stood alone in the grand bedroom and took in the furnishings. Amorie’s bed was huge and draped in a rich, velvety canopy with wispy, gauzy fabric hanging between the tied-back opaque drapes. A fluffy duvet, and half a dozen pillows covered the bed. The carpet was plush and dark, and the walls were painted black, accented by a silver chair rail, and a textured silvery gray lower half. I had to give it to Amorie; I liked her style.

  I considered my situation; I was hungry, but not so hungry I couldn’t wait for Amorie to return. I figured hanging out in her pool would be more fun than poking through her kitchen, so I stared at the bikini in my hand again and pondered the bits of cloth. At least no one would see me in it, except maybe Amorie when she returned. I supposed that would be all right. She seemed to like how I looked well enough.

  I stripped off my clothes and put the bikini on. It was tiny and I felt rather naked. I stepped in front of a full length mirror and turned as I looked myself over. Not terrible, I supposed, but I would have been more comfortable in something with more cloth. This one had a tiny patch in front and back on the bottom, and the top was a classic bikini style. My smaller bust didn’t fill the cups out fully, so the material felt like it was in danger of falling off. I reminded myself that I was alone, and that it would be okay, so I made my way out of Amorie’s room and headed for the pool.

  21

  Miralina

  I found my way to the back yard where a full sized pool languished amidst a gorgeous paua shell and charcoal slate tile. The pool had nifty underwater lights and the approach was dimly lit by the back porch light and little path runner lights. Motion lights on the corners of the house would have made it brighter, but they didn’t come on as I stepped out back. I figured they were on motion-sensors so I stayed to the center of the path to keep the nifty effect of the underwater lighting in the mostly-dark intact. All in all, it seemed like the perfect place for an evening dip.

  The air was still pretty warm from the day’s heat and the pool looked inviting. A pool house stood to one side of the pool so I raided it for fun stuff, and was not disappointed. I found a water hammock, towels, and ironically, sunglasses. I set a towel out on one of the loungers nearby, eased into the water, settled into the water hammock, and put the sunglasses on for no reason whatsoever. I lounged in the cool water and paddled about a bit with my hands and legs, laying comfortably at the surface. The water felt great. I hadn’t realized how tense some of my muscles had been until I was floating happily in the center of the pool, feeling weightless. I closed my eyes and drifted…

  The wolf inside of me surged to the surface and jolted me out of a bare doze. I blinked my eyes open, surprised and wondering what had caused the wolf to stir. As I glanced around, a dark shape appeared in the shallow end of the pool. I felt the hair rising on the back of my neck, and the wolf was on edge. I knew the shadowy figures that frequented my peripheral vision were most likely just hangovers from the transient amnesia of my past, but this was different.

  I was being hunted.

  I jerked the sunglasses off to get a better look, but there was nothing where the figure had stood a second before. I blinked and whipped my gaze around the pool, but no one was there. I tried to tell myself to relax, but the water rippled just a foot to my right and I started to panic. I threw myself out of the water hammock and swam for the shallow end. My swimming wasn’t that practiced, so it took me longer than my wolf liked. I settled my feet on the bottom of the pool and jerked my gaze around to check behind me but there was still nothing. I breathed shallowly, listening to the echoing of water and air against the pool walls. Nothing.

  I tried to tell myself it was nothing. I almost decided it had been a dream, that I’d dozed off just enough to have a vague nightmare and freak myself out. But my senses, and my wolf told me otherwise. There was something here. I carefully scanned the pool and strained to feel the presence I’d felt just a moment before. Still nothing, no auras, and nothing moved. I raked my eyes across the pool, from the right side where there was nothing, all the way across to the left—

  I almost jumped out of my skin as my eyes landed on a girl with long dark hair rising out of the water beside me. She leaned close as I inhaled a breath to scream. “Who are you?” she asked with a tone of mild curiosity.

  I held onto that scream for later and gave her a second look. She was pale, a little shorter than me, and pretty with an exotic darker undertone that looked like it didn’t belong with her pallid skin. I frowned as I realized she looked familiar. “I… I’m Dakota. Who are you?”

  “I’m Mira.” She slid closer to me and I backed an equal distance away. She paused and tilted her head. “What are you doing in my pool?”

  “What? This is Amorie’s pool…” I glanced up at the house and then checked to either side. There were no other houses nearby, so there was no way I had wandered into the wrong pool. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing in Amorie’s pool?” The wolf was still uneasy, and I was not much better.

  “I’m Mira.” She pronounced it again as if I were dense, saying it slowly and carefully. I noticed a faint accent but couldn’t remotely place it except to determine that it was definitely not American. “I live here.”

  I eyed her suspiciously. “You live… here? With Amorie?”

  Mira sighed loudly and frowned. “She didn’t tell you about me? Not at all?” She managed to pout and look miffed at the same time.

  “Uh… Sorry. No. I don’t think she did.” I was sure I had seen her somewhere before but it still wasn’t coming to me. Mira let the pout turn into a deep frown, and then she just looked sad for a few seconds, before suddenly turning her eyes on me again, this time
looking jealous. That’s when I realized who she was. “Oh! You were the girl…” I gestured ineffectually, trying to find my words. “The girl from the museum!” That was it.

  Mira drew herself up and frowned at me distinctly. “No. You were the girl from the museum. I was the girl with Amorie.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I mean, sorry. You were there with Amorie that night when she came to the museum for a tour.” She’d been walking with Amorie, holding her arm like an escort. I remembered her jealous expression when Amorie had complimented me and suddenly felt uncomfortable again. “So, Mira. Nice to meet you.” I hoped.

  “Hmph. She never even mentioned me?” She looked supremely annoyed, then that emotion suddenly washed from her face and she simply looked curious. “Can I bite you?”

  “What? No!” I back-peddled even further, bumping into the side of the pool. I realized now that the pallor of her skin made sense despite the undertones if she was a vampire.

  Mira drew closer, staring at me with her wide, dark eyes. “Why not?” She sounded innocent and curious and I was not buying either.

  “Because! I’m not okay with it.”

  “Why not?” She moved even closer.

  “Because! I don’t want you to drink my blood.” I sidestepped to avoid her closing on me.

  “But you are a werewolf, right? You can make more.” She shifted to the side and pursued me into the corner.

  “I don’t care! I don’t want to be bitten!” I leaned as far away from her as I could manage.

  “But you let Amorie bite you.” She said it almost whiningly.

  “Amorie’s my girlfriend!” I shouted without thinking.

  Mira drew back a little, looking shocked. She was quiet for several beats before she replied. “Oh.” I glanced at the empty space she’d left between me and the stairs and bolted for the safety of dry land. Mira didn’t move. At all. I darted up the stairs and grabbed my towel. Mira stared at the empty place where I’d been as if she hadn’t even tracked my movement. I doubted that was the case. She just stood there, and as I watched her, she seemed to finally deflate. She just drooped where she stood and sighed. I started to wonder if I’d hurt her feelings, but she suddenly cut her eyes to me and focused again. “Then why can’t I bite you?”

  I blinked at that. “Because I don’t want you to!”

  “But why not?” she sounded almost angry, and I suddenly noticed that the air around me felt electric and tingly. The wolf surged in me again and I bolted for the door. I ran inside and slammed the glass door shut. I didn’t look back to see if she had followed me. I just ran up the stairs to Amorie’s bedroom and closed and locked the door. I darted over to where I’d left my clothes in a pile on the floor and fumbled for my phone. I heard the door open and close downstairs and I felt like I was in a horror movie with the ruthless killer stalking me slowly as I struggled futilely to get away.

  I ran into the bathroom and locked the door behind me. I paced from one side of the room to the other, making sure there wasn’t a second door in, then walked over to the luxurious shower and turned the water on. If she broke into the bedroom, I didn’t want her to overhear me. I almost dropped my phone in my effort to tap Amorie’s icon on my contact list. I slid myself down against the wall next to the shower as the call connected. “I am almost finished, ma chérie—”

  “Amorie, help. A vampire is stalking me and she wants to drink my blood.” I could tell I was scared considering I didn’t even turn that “w” into a “v”.

  The line went so quiet I thought for an instant that the phone had died. Amorie’s voice came back to me very seriously. “Where are you?”

  “What? I’m in your house! I was in the pool and this creepy girl just appeared out of nowhere and—”

  “Oh.” She let out a long breath. “Dakota, it is all right. That is Miralina. I am… so very sorry, ma chérie. I should have warned you about her.”

  “So it’s okay?” I started trying to relax, but I was still pretty nervous.

  “Yes. Mira will not harm you. She is my friend. If anything, she is only trying to scare you.”

  I chewed at the inside of my lip. “Well she succeeded! But, she kept asking me to drink my blood even after I told her I didn’t want her to and she backed me into a corner and it was creepy and…” I stopped for a breath and Amorie slipped into my silence.

  “I am so sorry, Dakota. But I assure you that you are perfectly safe in my home. I will be home in…” she paused for just a moment, “Forty minutes. Until then, perhaps you could talk to her? It would be very sweet of you to keep her company for me. And I would like it if the two of you could be friends. She is very dear to me.”

  I frowned at the phone. I didn’t want to talk to the crazy girl downstairs. “I… I guess I’ll try.”

  “Thank you, ma chérie. You are so sweet.” That was good to hear at least.

  “But… what if she tries to bite me again?”

  “Put her on for a moment. I will take care of it.”

  “I… okay.” I sighed and stood up, reached into the shower and turned the water off. I hadn’t heard Amorie’s door open, so it seemed the tactic had been wasted anyway. I walked over to the door and opened it. Mira stood in the doorway. I yelped and stumbled back, almost dropping my phone. Amorie’s voice queried from the line, but I just straightened up and marched back over to the door. “Amorie.” I handed her the phone.

  Mira took the phone and held it up to her ear, keeping her eerily unblinking gaze on me. She listened for a moment. “Yes, mistress.” She handed the phone back to me. “I am… sorry.” She sounded hesitant.

  I nodded, trying to accept that; it didn’t remotely sound like a heartfelt apology. My wolf wasn’t so sure either. “It’s… it’s okay.” I glanced down at myself, still wet and bikini’d with a bunched up towel held to my chest, and my jeans dangling from my other hand. My shirt lay on the floor along with my underwear. “Just… give me a minute, okay?”

  Mira blinked once and drifted back from the door, disappearing from my view. I sighed and walked over to close the door. “I’ll be just in here.” She said suddenly, startling me once again. I pulled the door shut with a glare.

  I took a shower, dried off, and re-dressed myself. I was feeling a little less harried, but still didn’t like the idea of hanging out with Ms. Creepy for the next thirty minutes. But, I’d told Amorie I would. So I walked back into the bedroom.

  Mira was sitting on a little sofa staring at a large wall-mounted TV. I glanced at her then up at the TV which was off, then back to her. “So… hi.”

  “Hi.” She sounded subdued, almost sad.

  I perched on the arm of the sofa. “So, you’re Mira.”

  “Yes.” She dropped her gaze forlornly to her toes. She’d pulled her legs into the seat, and rested her chin on her knees.

  I decided there was no “almost” to it. She looked depressed. “I’m sorry if I got you in trouble with Amorie.”

  “No.”

  I frowned. She wasn’t seeming very talkative anymore. But maybe I could still pull this one out. “Do you want to watch a show with me?”

  She shrugged, was silent for several seconds, then pointedly drew in a breath for the purpose of sighing. “Maybe if it isn’t anything dumb.”

  “I’ve got my favorite show on a flash drive. It’s called Sherlock. It’s this great modernization of Sherlock Holmes with Benedict Cumerbacht and Martin Freeman, and it’s witty and really clever and… Well I love it. Do you want to give it a try?”

  Her eyes lifted very slightly as I described the show. I thought she looked interested. She shrugged slightly. “That… doesn’t sound terrible.”

  I dug a small flash drive out of my pocket and went over to the TV. It was one of the fancier new models that had a USB port on the side, so I plugged it in and turned the first episode on. I went back to the sofa and settled down next to Mira. The show began, and within a few minutes, her somber expression was replaced with a curious tilt of her he
ad. She smirked at a few funny moments, then settled her legs down more comfortably. I tried to make small talk, making comments about what I really loved as it occurred. Mira engaged only minimally but she seemed less sad, and I at least had done as I’d said I would. She didn’t seem so scary now.

  22

  Love Bites

  I heard the door open downstairs when Amorie returned. The episode wasn’t over, and Mira didn’t move. The bedroom door opened a moment later and the smell of hot steak filled the air. I smiled at Amorie as she walked into the room, her face flooded with apology. Mira glanced up at Amorie, then dropped her eyes, looking ashamed. She stood up. “I’ll go.” She started for the door.

  “Hey, Mira.” I called. She looked back at me. “Did you like the show?” She nodded absently. Her eyes were sad again. I walked over to the TV and took the flash drive, then walked over to her and held it out. “Here. You can borrow it.”

  Mira tilted her head slowly to the side and stared at the flash drive in my palm. “You don’t mind?”

  I smiled at her. “It’s okay. There’s nothing on it I don’t have a copy of at home. You can give it back to me later.”

  Mira blinked her eyes a few times in quick succession then closed her fingers around the drive. “Thank you.” She smiled at me faintly, then turned and left the room.

  Amorie was smiling at me deeply. She closed the door behind Mira and set the pair of takeout boxes in her hands on the little coffee table, then held her arms out to me. “Thank you so much, my sweet little wolf.”

  I walked into her embrace and squeezed her tightly. “I did my best.”

  “You did well. Mira is… difficult. I am so sorry again. I should have told you about her.” She kissed the top of my head.